The Weekend Ahead

Decent week for football.  The cooler weather has been nice, making it feel like fall or something like it.  I've had an exhausting week at work.  Between providing on-site services for a client, I also help run the company, and we've just extended offers out to 17 new people for an exciting (albeit frightening) new effort.  I hope to have some really good news to report on that in the not so distant future.  I've been acting as a buffer so my developers don't get drawn into things and taken away from their assignments.  One of these things is supporting a load test.  Christ on a cracker, this is one of the goofiest load tests I've seen.  Spent 12 hours yesterday saying "It's not my issue guys", "Guys, look at the logs, it's not my issue", "Guys, we run a servlet unrelated to my app, it has the same issue, it's not my issue", "Guys, there is something between point a and b that is causing the problem".  Well, it turns out that a firewall rule needed to be updated.  12 hours of pointing fingers and not listening, wrapped up by a 15 minute change.  I love IT.

Being as exhausted as I am, I am facing a dilemma.  Go to Columbia to see the Bama/USC game, or relax at home and try to recover.  Surprisingly, my girl is all gung ho about going, and I'm thinking it would be better to chill.  Granted, she's not working 60+ hours per week and having to deal with the sheer frustration I do.  I guess I'll figure that out today.  Sure, it would be nice to go, but the thought of investing 12 hours to watch a 3.5 hour game is making me cringe.

Alright, the woe is me rant is over.  Time for some football predictions.

Bama @ South Carolina - Bama needs to shut down Lattimore, pretty much like Auburn did, and let Garcia make the mistakes he'll make when he's pressured.  Garcia is good, but when he gets rattled, he's error prone.  Offensively, South Carolina couldn't stop Mark Ingram last year, and now, Ingram has Richardson to fill in for him, providing fresh legs on every snap. While South Carolina's rushing defense is pretty good, their passing defense is suspect.  I expect a balanced attack out of Bama.  With Julio possibly not at 100%, I expect the ball to be spread out more to Maze and Dial.  The big play is South Carolina's best hope against the Bama defense.  Bama's secondary has looked weak, and Spurrier would be a fool not to try to exploit some mismatches in that regard.  So, I expect South Carolina to come out early, hoping to put some points on the board with a big play.  Mark Barron should be a busy man in the secondary come gametime.  I hope Milliner can play well, but his performance against UF was terrible, and I fear, gave every team we play a blueprint on a best chance to beat Alabama.  I don't think it will matter much.  Bama will capitilize on time of possession, turnovers and physicality.  31-17, Bama.

Tennessee @ Georgia - Battle of the lost?  This one will be great, like watching Vandy against Kentucky a few years ago.  You just can't help but smile, knowing that one of these underachieving teams is going to come out with a W.  I shouldn't say this, but I'd like UT to win.  I think Dooley will be a good coach once they can get rid of the Fulmer and Kiffin recruits.  I like Mark Richt, but watching the Bulldogs this year has just made me embarrassed for them.  Their team is so undisciplined on both of the sides of the ball.   They look so poorly coached.

Arkansas @ Texas A&M - A&M has a decent record, but they haven't played anybody.  Arkansas will take this one, 12th man aside.

LSU @ Florida - Not sure what to make of this one.  LSU has been really quiet this year.  I suspect Miles has lost the team, and they're just going through the motions.  I'm going with Florida.

API @ Kentucky - I don't buy into Kentucky's confidence for this one.  Sure, they won last year, but Auburn all but handed them the game in a pretty Victoria's Secret bag with pink tissue paper.  While I'm not sold on Auburn's dominance, I think they have what it takes to line up against Kentucky's pourous defense and score a bunch.  Auburn will win and cover easily.

Mississippi State @ Houston - Strange year in the SEC, another team that I'm rooting for, wanting to see improve.  They're also a team that I think is a prototypical trap game for Alabama in November, so I don't want them getting too good.  I think Houston is a good matchup for State, and this should be a pretty good game to watch.  I'm going to pick Mississippi State here.

Other games of interest - Michigan State @ Michigan (Michigan), Oregon State @ Arizona (I don't for a second believe Arizona is a top 10 team, but I don't know how good Oregon State really is.  I'm going to pick Oregon State here), Florida State @ Miami (Miami), USC @ Stanford (Stanford), BC @ NC State (State), Clemson @ UNC (Clemson), UCLA @ Cal (UCLA), UVA @ GA Tech (Tech), Pittsburgh @ ND (Pitt).