What we think we know: Week 3

We'll defer to correspondent Tomlinson's account of The Agony and the Ecstasy and the Agony of Georgia's loss to Arkansas. Suffice to say Georgia people aren't happy. They won't be until Georgia beats someone of note. It's that critical mass of manic-depressives that makes the SEC so good. You're up, you're down. And if we look deep inside, we can always find cause to rejoice is a rival's suffering.

Back to the lessons of the week:

1. These reports of Florida's demise may not be greatly overstated. This doesn't look like a team. This looks like a bunch of players who don't like each other, which is how the Gators came out of fall practice. I heard a caller say this morning on FNZ that Florida needed a stronger class of recruits this year to be competitive again. How do you top the consensus No. 1 class Florida hauled in last February, with mutants?

Sometimes talent doesn't get it. "Eyes Wide Shut" had Cruise and Kidman and Kubrick, plus a whole lot of naked bodies and it still stunk. Likewise, the Gators, with all those five stars Meyered in mediocrity, don't look like they've fully come to grips that Tebow is not coming to save them.

2. Let the record show that the Alabama correspondent on this board correctly picked Vanderbilt's win at Oxford. That means the name of Rebs' head coach Houston Nutt will begin popping up around every job opening this side of a substitute teacher. The Rev starts floating these imaginary trial balloons when the fires start hitting the soles of his feet in his current job.

In a breaking news exclusive, The EXPATS have learned that Nutt's name has surfaced in early conversations about possible openings at Independence High. A school spokesman refuted the claim. First off, the spokesman said, they have a coach. If they didn't, they'd want one with a proven track record. Sorry Houston.

3. Bully for Auburn's comeback against Clemson in what may have been the second best game of the entire weekend (trailing the ridiculously fun final play between Michigan State and Notre Dame). But does that really make it a "God thing" as Coach Gene Chizik called it. Did God have money on the game? If so, we want to know his bookie, and how does he collect if, say, God takes Duke and the points?

4. The real season begins for Alabama. You heard it here first: Compared to the previous two years, the Tide defense is soft and slow, its line doesn't penetrate, its linebackers are slow to the edge, and its DBs take bad tackling angles and bust coverages. When's the last time a team led 42-13 at half and the head coach blasted his defense for "playing like crap"? Except, Mr. Personality used another word - on live radio.

Messrs. McElroy, Ingram, Richardson and Jones will likely exceed anything Ryan Mallet and Arkansas can put on the scoreboard. But if the defense doesn't improve, the players will be wearing tire burns to class next Monday.
MG