Monday Morning Look Back

So, it has been a while since I last posted. Since last Wednesday afternoon, I have traveled to New Jersey and back (unfortunately, not for the Louisville - Rutgers game), logged a long run on Saturday morning (currently I'm training for the Austin Marathon), watched my Tigers get humiliated, only to end the weekend with an awful stomach virus. Anyhow, on to my thoughts....

• I knew Auburn had some issues, but I never would have expected the ass pounding that the Tigers received from UGA.
  
• Has a quarterback ever had a worse SEC game than Brandon Cox strung together against UGA? Brandon Cox made Brent Schaeffer look like Heisman material.
• I'm dumbfounded as to what's wrong with Auburn's offense - Is it the o-line? They struggle mightily to pass block. Is it the quarterback? Defenses just don't respect the Auburn passing game. Cox also looks very gimpy. Is it the receivers? Auburn has a non-existent downfield passing attack. Is it the running game? Auburn has too much talent for the running game to be problematic. Clearly, I think it's a mixture of the o-line, quarterback, and receiver play, just not sure as to which is the biggest Achilles hill.
• While Auburn's offense was horrendous, the defense wasn't any better. I understand that the offense did not leave the defense in the best of situations, but they still should not have been torched like they were.
• Enough bashing of Auburn, UGA played an excellent game. Matthew Stafford finally stepped up and showed what kind of qb he is capable of being. Kregg Lumpkin found UGA's running game which had been struggling as well over the past month.
• What's with Tommy Tuberville's Auburn teams struggling to win 10 games? 9 wins is his teams' magic number.
• So do I look like an idiot with my preseason prediction on Arkansas's season?
• Arkansas just might be the nation's best team right now. I know they would love a chance for redemption with the USC Trojans.
• Arkansas will be a preseason top 5 team entering next year with all of their offensive weapons returning.
• Darren McFadden is easily the nation's top running back.
• Marcus Monk is every bit as good as Mario Manningham and Calvin Johnson.
• I'm just not sold on Florida as a top-5 team. I realize that they have an impressive 9-1 record, but they just don't look that good.
• South Carolina just doesn't have the talent to beat the big boys.
• Nobody is talking about this game, but I can't wait until the LSU-Arkansas game. LSU is clearly one of the nation's best teams and Arkansas is the hottest team in the country right now.
• Credit to Mike Shula this week for opening up the Alabama playbook. Although they lost to an extremely good LSU team on the road, I think Bama played its best ball of the year this past Saturday.
• Did anyone know that Dwayne Bowe had lasik surgery in the off-season? I'm amazed at how announcers latch onto a topic at the beginning of the year and just never let it go.
• Congrats to Kentucky for becoming bowl eligible for the first time since 1999 - the Hal Mumme days.
• Amazingly, Vanderbilt blew another 4th quarter lead.
• Even more amazing, Texas A&M suffered another 1 point loss.
• If Louisville was national title material, then I believe Rutgers should be in line to play the Ohio State - Michigan winner.
  
• Was anyone else pulling for San Jose State to knock off Boise State? I really don't want to see Boise in a BCS game.

Looking ahead, I'm not happy about the Iron Bowl and the Michigan-Ohio State game being on at the same time. It's sad that absolutely nobody outside of the state of Alabama has any interest in the Iron Bowl this year. As an Auburn fan, I'm torn between which game to have on the big screen and which game should be relegated to the 21 incher. Again, sorry for missing a few days and for the late post from today, but I have been feeling like death recently. Look for a heavy emphasis on the Iron Bowl as far as material this week, though nobody on a national scale cares about the game. It's still really important to me and clearly the SEC's biggest game this week.