With the two giants from the west division being idle Saturday, the attention was turned to the eastern half of the conference. The day started with South Carolina handling business against Mississippi State.
A pretty good effort from the Bulldogs kept them in the game early behind Sophomore QB, Dak Prescott, who ran the read-option well, scoring 2 TDs. Prescott, however, was quite far from being the expert passer, as he threw 3 INTs. Connor Shaw had another successful outing at home throwing for 4 TDs en route to a 34-16 Gamecock win.
I took several messages away from this game. The first being that Mississippi State fans should actually be pretty excited about this Dak Prescott guy. He has a lot of developing to do as a passer, but he runs the read-option scheme particularly well. Dan Mullen has seen success coaching quarterbacks that do that, and I think you may have heard of one. His last name was Tebow.
Connor Shaw just sort of non-chalantly threw 4 TDs Saturday. He didn't really get any recognition for it because he completed only six other passes that weren't touchdowns. The offense didn't turn the ball over once which was good, but they were only one for eleven on third down conversions.
Luckily, the defense forced five turnovers and showed real growth on Saturday. It seems as though the young linebacker corps for South Carolina has progressed a little more, as they were all over the place Saturday. Victor Hampton made a highlight play late in the game, where he just sort of took the ball away from receiver, Robert Johnson.
The next featured game on the list was the game I dubbed, "SEC East Elimination Game," between Florida and Georgia.
Georgia really looks like a different team with Todd Gurley in the mix, and it is virtually night and day when he is not playing. Georgia ended up staying alive, despite a late run by the Gators, to win the "Injury Bowl." Georgia's win kept them very much alive in the SEC East.
Auburn and Arkansas finally played each other Saturday after the drama between their head coaches. More drama was created with the fake injury issue that caused Bret Bielema to erupt at the officials. Tre Mason guided the Tigers in an easy win, and now all of a sudden, Auburn is in the talks of getting into a BCS game. The tigers have a big game in Week #12 against the Georgia Bulldogs at Jordan-Hare after they travel to Knoxville this week.
Missouri proved that they aren't going to just give the East up, and they are still very much in control after taking care of business against a Tennessee team that had to start a Freshman QB on the road. The road to Atlanta is still very tough for them with looming opponents from the West remaining to round out their schedule.
Kentucky against Alabama State was pretty much irrelevant besides the fact that Kentucky didn't allow Alabama State to stick around like Tennessee did earlier in the year.
Johnny Manziel provided us with a fireworks display at the end of the night, while he accounted for 6 TDs in the Aggies romping of in-state foe UTEP.
This week all eyes will be on the West as Alabama hosts LSU. This will be the first ranked opponent the Tide have faced since shutting out then-#21 Ole Miss at Tuscaloosa in Week #5.
Be sure to give me a follow on twitter @griffaldo .
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