Kevin Price: Great matchups don't always work out
There are games you look at and figure that one will be great.
No matter which one it is, it doesn't always work out the way you think it will.
Take last weekend's schedule of college football, in particular for the four major schools in Georgia and Alabama.
Before noon on Saturday, here is what the day looked like:
Middle Tennessee at Alabama -- Snooze.
Tulane at Georgia Tech -- Double snooze.
Georgia at Vanderbilt -- This should have been a snooze, but if you know that Georgia always plays to Vanderbilt's level, good or bad, then you knew that game would be closer than most thought.
Jacksonville State at Auburn -- This should have been the biggest dud of them all.
The first three played out pretty much as expected. But not the game at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Auburn was on the verge of suffering its worst loss ever. The Tigers had not lost to a non-Division I team since 1950. Jacksonville State was bidding to join Appalachian State as the only FCS teams to beat a top-10 FBS team.
That recap of last week is to make a point about this week's games. As good as today's schedule looks, and it looks tremendous, there is bound to be one or more of these games that will turn out to be a blowout.
Auburn at LSU -- Auburn has not looked good, but the Tigers are 2-0. It should surprise no one if Auburn goes into Baton Rouge and pulls off the upset. But the Tigers' QB, Jeremy Johnson, has had some real problems in the first two games. The number of throws into coverage makes you wonder if his eyesight is what it should be.
Georgia Tech at Notre Dame -- This might be the best game of the day. Sure, the Jackets have run up big numbers of two overmatched teams in Alcorn State and Tulane, but with Justin Thomas guiding that option attack, the Jackets look like they might just be the best team in the ACC.
South Carolina at Georgia -- The most ridiculous line of the week is the one for this game. Georgia by 16. I guess the oddsmakers don't know the hisotry of Georgia and Steve Spurrier, South Carolina's coach. Spurrier is still bitter that Georgia beat Spurrier's Florida Gators almost 50 years ago. Georgia has more talent than South Carolina, but Spurrier always has his team play over their head against the Dogs.
Ole Miss at Alabama -- Much like Georgia Tech, Ole Miss has put up some gaudy numbers against two weak opponents, 76 for UT-Martin and 73 against Fresno State. The Rebels won't be scoring 70-plus points against the Tide. But the Tide does have a number of injuries on defense. So this may well turn out to be a much higher scoring game than most think.
Kevin Price, kprice@ledger-enquirer.com. Follow Kevin on Twitter@lesports
This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 11:28 PM with the headline "Kevin Price: Great matchups don't always work out ."