What got into Florida? After the Ole Miss upset, it looked like the Gators were about to head into the toughest part of their schedule: at Arkansas, LSU, Kentucky, vs. Georgia, at Vanderbilt and South Carolina. All they did was beat those six teams by a combined score of 299-63. That's an average of 49.8 ppg for the Gators and 10.5 for their opponents against the class of the SEC (sans Alabama) and a few other good teams. It's not surprising, in retrospect, that Florida defeated all those teams; what's surprising is that the Gators obliterated all those teams.
Where is Tim Tebow in the Heism@n rankings? And before you answer, consider this: Regional voting is a huge deal in Heism@n balloting. Graham Harrell, Michael Crabtree, Colt McCoy and Sam Bradford could split the Big XII vote, and no other area of the country has any obvious candidates. (Sure, there are dark horses like Javon Ringer, but no obvious ones.) If Florida keeps mowing down everyone in sight, could Tebow benefit from a fractured Big XII vote and get enough from the rest of the country to win it?
How many wins does Vanderbilt have at the end of the year? They have six now, will host Tennessee on Saturday and go to Wake Forest on Nov. 29. Throw in a bowl, and the Commodores have an outside shot at ringing up nine wins for the first time in 93 years. How close will they get?
Is LSU a good football team? Sure, they've beat some good football teams, including South Carolina and ... and ... and no one else, really. So what do we make of a team that needed 30 points in the fourth quarter to edge out a Sun Belt team? This is not really a small matter; LSU seems destined for the Cotton Bowl, where they'll face a quality Big XII team and could threaten the SEC's honor.
Rank these teams: Kentucky, LSU, South Carolina, Vanderbilt. This is the middle tier of the SEC, below Alabama, Florida and Georgia. So how do they shake out?