Larry's Losers in the SEC – Week 11

Well folks, the vacation’s over and I’m back at the beach with Bacardi. We had our 24 hours to celebrate yet another perfect pigskin picking weekend and are now ready to get back to work and labor over this list losers.

Last week sort of sorted out the contenders from the pretenders in conference subdivision play and it looks like the boys from Bama and the Georgia growlers not only have the inside track to seal the deal in their divisions, but seem like a certainty to do so.

The Tide has a test against a scrappy and constantly improving Texas A&M, an over matched Western Carolina and the Worn Out Eagles from Awful, uh, I mean Auburn. Georgia has that same Auburn team, Georgia Southern and a worse than usual Georgia Tech team. So it looks like it’ll be the Tide vs the Bulldogs in Hotlanta with the winner maybe drawing a date for a BCS Championship showdown.

But that’s a few weeks down the road and now it’s time to list the losers for this week, so here we go….

Arkansas at South Carolina – This game starts the day’s contests with an 11:00am kickoff time (CST) and this game seemed like one that could shape the SEC race earlier in the year, but with two losses, the Gamecluckers are out of the picture and with five losses, the Hogs really have played like swine this season.

Arkansas has been playing better lately and the Cocks don’t have as much to crow about lately, so the Hogs are hoping to hurry up and hit a winner while the Carolina Cluckers may still be crying over spilled beer.

The South Carolina hen house may be without the services of head rooster Marcus Lattimore, but there’s still a lot big peckers in the pullet palace to inflict dramatic damage to the pigskin of these piggies and that’s what old Bacardi and I think will happen.

Larry’s loser – Arkansas

 

Louisiana – Lafayette at Florida – Next up is the Ragin’ Cajuns coming to the Swamp at 11:21 am (CST) and these boys feel like they should be just as at home in this swamp as any they have in Cajun country and they figure they can use that to their advantage and get ‘um some Gators just like they do back home.

But Will Muschamp ain’t about to let these outsiders come in and claim any trophies in his neck of the woods and he’s aiming to trap the trappers and mount some Cajun heads of the walls of the Gator athletic facilities.

And both the pigskin pickin’ pooch and I see that is just how it will all play out and the only question will be just how ugly it will get.

Larry’s loser – Louisiana – Lafayette

 

Missouri at Tennessee – Another one of those 11:21 am (CST) start times and this one will be an entertaining one to watch. Tennessee can score some points but can’t stop anybody and Missouri has trouble scoring points but does have a decent defense, so watching this one play out could be fun.

Missouri was thought to have been the one that could make a bowl this season as one of the two new invitees into the SEC, but now that just isn’t going to happen and all they have to play for is pride at this point.

On the other side of the field is Tennessee and Derrek Dooley needs a win worse than a fish needs water right now and this win, with the ever likely win over Kentucky, would get them to a bowl game and may just save his job.

That seems like incentive enough for Tennessee to triumph over the troubled Tigers and finally get some time to relax and see the bowl game coming at them.

Larry’s loser –  Missouri

 

Texas A&M at Alabama – This SEC showdown has its own time slot it doesn’t share with any other SEC team at 2:30 (CST) on CBS and the Aggies can use this game as a measuring stick to see just how far they’ve improved and they’ve improved a lot. Now they have many thinking they’re a top tier SEC team and if they finish the season with nine wins as expected now, they just may be.

But if they think they can catch the Crimson Capstoners cat napping, they’ve got another thing coming. After last week’s loud wake up call from a bunch of Bayou Bengals, they won’t possibly snooze until the off season now.

The interesting thing about this game will be to see if the Crimson Tide can  contain the Aggie offense, it could be a good practice game for the fast paced offense that they may face if they do indeed face Oregon later. The other interesting thing will be to see if the AJ McCarron air show takes off again and gets the scoreboard shining.

Larry’s loser – Texas A&M

 

Mississippi State at LSU – This is the prime time special at 6:00pm (CST) on ESPN and will be a goodie to watch. The Bulldogs stumbled last week as we predicted and they really need to get things going again and hope they catch a Tiger by the tail, still licking their wounds from the close loss last week to the Tide.

The Bulldogs have already qualified for post season play like the Tigers of LSU, but the pecking order in the SEC West is at stake and Les Miles wants to be sure that his Tigers keep the spot just behind the Crimson Tide.

Viewers will want to tune in to see if young Mr. Mettenberger has truly come of age like he showed against Alabama or if that was just a one game wonder. Bacardi and I suspect it’s not and that could be bad news for the Bulldogs.

Larry’s loser – Mississippi State

 

 Vandy at Ole Miss – Another 6:00pm (CST) game, this one on ESPN U pits two usual cellar dwellers against one another, but this year they aren’t fighting to stay out of the cellar, Auburn has secured that.

With both teams improving, a bowl game could be a great bet with a win in this one as it would mark the sixth win for one of these teams. Vanderbilt was thought to be a good team at the start of the season, but the turn around at Ole Miss came as a surprise to most, including old Bacardi and me.

This could be a close one, but look for Vandy to make it six wins after game time if it goes as the brain trust here at Larry’s losers think and the Commodores will sail away with a very big win.

Larry’s loser – Ole Miss

 

Georgia at Auburn – The last and least interesting game to watch this weekend will be the third 6:00pm game, this one on ESPN2. It’s going to be just another game that Auburn will lose in front of a home stadium that may have more Georgia than Auburn fans in attendance.

Mark Richt has these dogs in the driver’s seat for another appearance in the SEC Championship Game and he’s not about to let the worst team in the SEC West upset those plans. He is going to make this a long day for the Tigers and Auburn will play their part and stink up the place as usual this season.

This is a game where the terrible Tigers answer the question can it get any worse? Yes, it can, this loss should be laughable.

Larry’s loser – Auburn

 

And this is it this week from your two tabulating troubadours of truth. In the last three weeks, two of them proved to be 100% correct and the other just had one miss so the old predicting pug and I both feel that the hot streak can continue with this week’s list of losers.

So till next week, may your team wind up on the up side of the list of losers and you enjoy the coming week of SEC contests.