By Matt Smith
SouthernPigskin.com

Follow us at Twitter.com/SouthernPigskin.  Become a fan at the SouthernPigskin.com Facebook Page

Can the state of Mississippi follow up last weekend’s memorable performance with another good showing this Saturday?

Saturday

(13) Georgia (-3) at (23) Missouri, 12 p.m. ET (CBS); Carter Blackburn and Aaron Taylor

Louisiana-Monroe at Kentucky (-21.5), 12 p.m. ET (SEC Network); Dave Neal and Andre Ware

(2) Auburn (-3) at (3) Mississippi State, 3:30 p.m. ET (CBS); Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson

Chattanooga at Tennessee (-26), 4 p.m. ET (SEC Network); Tom Hart and Matt Stinchcomb

(7) Alabama (-9) at Arkansas, 6 p.m. ET (ESPN); Joe Tessitore and Brock Huard

Charleston Southern at Vanderbilt (-25), 7:30 p.m. ET (FSN); Bob Rathbun and Tim Couch

LSU (-1.5) at Florida, 7:30 p.m. ET (SEC Network); Brent Musburger and Jesse Palmer

(3) Ole Miss at (14) Texas A&M (-2), 9 p.m. ET (ESPN); Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit

Bye: South Carolina

Matchups to Watch

1. Auburn RB Cameron Artis-Payne vs. Mississippi State LB Benardrick McKinney

For those who still covet old-school, smash-mouth football, keep an eye on McKinney, a 65d 249-pound giant on the second level of the Bulldogs defense. Auburn has had more balance offensively this year, thanks to a pair of freakish receivers, but the Tigers still want to run it with Artis-Payne and quarterback Nick Marshall. Repeated collisions between running backs and middle linebackers are much less commonplace in modern-day passing offenses, but we should see plenty Saturday in Starkville. When McKinney hits you, it hurts.

2. Alabama C Bradley Bozeman vs. Arkansas DT Darius Philon and Taiwon Johnson

Not only did the Crimson Tide lose the game to Ole Miss, they also lost three key contributors for at least a portion of the season. One is second-year starting center Ryan Kelly, who will miss a few weeks with a sprained knee. That means Bozeman will make his first career start on the road at night against a pair of underrated defensive tackles in Philon and Johnson. Mental mistakes and communication breakdowns are key ingredients in the Razorbacks’ upset recipe, as they hope to snap a 14-game SEC losing streak.

3. Ole Miss WR Laquon Treadwell vs. Texas A&M CB Deshazor Everett

Treadwell displayed his physical prowess against Alabama with a touchdown reception in which he broke away from a tackle attempt to get the Rebels back in the game. Everett will be looking to rebound after the entire Texas A&M defense was overwhelmed in all phases by Dak Prescott and Mississippi State, but he draws perhaps the toughest assignment of any Aggies defender. Despite being ranked No. 3, Ole Miss still cant run with any consistency. That means Bo Wallace will be looking to his favorite target early and often in the Rebels’ first true road game of the season.

Quotable

cHow do you respond to a loss? Everybody has to ask themselves the question from the coaches right on down, starting with me; who’s making this team better? I’m talking about how you affect other people, how you help other people play better, how you help other people get better, how we get more players involved in being able to play winning football regardless of whether we play out in the parking lot, on the road, in Bryant-Denny Stadium, it really doesn’t matter.d 3 Alabama head coach Nick Saban on the fallout from the loss at Ole Miss

“I think they’ll continue to be hungry and want to compete. That’s really not a big worry of mine because of the schedule we face. There are really good teams in this conference that can beat you at any given moment. We’ve got to play a very good football game to win every game that’s left on our schedule in this deal. They’ll be fine in that regard.d 3 Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze on a possible letdown effect against Texas A&M after defeating Alabama

cIt’s really exciting for the state of Mississippi right now with the success that both universities are having. We end up as coaches locked away sometimes so you don’t get to see that excitement that’s all around. I know with people around the state, there’s a lot of pride with everybody around the state of Mississippi and what we’re able to accomplish on the football field. That’s fantastic that we can be a part of that. That is really exciting.d 3 Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen on the success of the two Magnolia State SEC programs

History Lesson

The travels of the Vaught-Hemingway Stadium goalposts after Ole Miss defeated Alabama last Saturday became a national story. They were dragged from campus to the Oxford square and later ended up at someones residence.

But how did tearing down goalposts become an accepted celebratory activity?

Like many college football firsts, the tradition began in the Ivy League, when the academic superpowers were once the standard for gridiron success.

Now seen as bookworms who prefer finance to football and physics to partying, the Ivy League students of the 1920s were a rowdier bunch. Mark Bernstein explains in his book, cThe Ivy League Origins of an American Obsessiond, that a Yale victory at Harvard during the 820s launched the first goalpost dismantling.

The Elis carried the goalposts through the streets of Cambridge before delivering them to the Yale Club of Boston and turned into flagpoles.

With Harvard and its fans seeking revenge when they came to the Yale Bowl a year later, school officials at Yale surrounded the goalposts with concrete in hopes of preventing the Crimson backers from returning the favor.

It didnt work.

As Bernstein describes, a female Yale fan even climbed the goalposts in hopes that the cgentlemend from Harvard wouldnt attempt to bring the posts down with a young lady on top of the posts.

It also didnt work.

Despite its claims as cThe Harvard of the Southd, Ole Miss has little in common with the two schools that combined to bestow 12 degrees on U.S. presidents.

When it comes to goalpost parades, however, Ole Miss fits right in with the Ivy League.

Trivia Time (answers below)

1. What two SEC teams defeated Alabama the last time it lost consecutive SEC games?

2. What two players finished ahead of Ole Miss Eli Manning in 2003 Heisman Trophy voting?

3. In what year did LSU last start 0-3 in SEC play?

Predictions:

Missouri 34, Georgia 24

The Tigers are coming off a bye week and playing at home. The Bulldogs are on the road and without arguably their three best running backs, including Todd Gurley. Add on to that the Georgias struggles in important road games in recent years, and Missouri will take command of the SEC East race with its second straight win over the 8Dawgs.

Kentucky 38, Louisiana-Monroe 10

After two straight SEC wins on the heels of 17 consecutive losses, the Wildcats get a nice lay-up against the struggling Warhawks. This isnt the same Louisiana-Monroe team that upset Arkansas in 2012 and took Auburn and Baylor to the wire, which will be evident early and often Saturday in Lexington.

Mississippi State 34, Auburn 31

The Bulldogs are built much like Kansas State, which blundered away an upset of the Tigers last month. Only Mississippi State is much more athletic than the Wildcats. Dak Prescott and the Bulldogs will ride their wave of momentum to a third-straight win over a top-10 opponent in the weekends biggest game.

Tennessee 49, Chattanooga 10

The schedule finally eases up for Tennessee after a brutal start to the season (shhh, dont tell them Ole Miss and Alabama are up next). We wont learn much from this game between schools separated by only an hour and half, but it will raise the spirits in Knoxville for one week at least.

Alabama 31, Arkansas 19

Alabama hasnt lost consecutive regular-season games since November 2007. Arkansas will make things interesting for a while Saturday night in the foothills of the Ozarks, but the Crimson Tide will show their resolve and rebound from last weeks loss to Ole Miss.

Vanderbilt 28, Charleston Southern 24

The Buccaneers are a decent FCS team which runs the always-pesky triple-option, so Vanderbilt will have its work cut out if it hopes to win its second game of the season. The narrow win wont build up much goodwill for head coach Derek Mason, but the Commodores cant be concerned with style points after a 1-5 start.

Florida 17, LSU 12

This game wont be easy on the eyes, as neither offense really has any idea what its doing yet despite the season about to reach its midpoint. Floridas running game has been better than LSUs, and the defense has been more trustworthy. The Gators survive at home in a predictably ugly game.

Ole Miss 27, Texas A&M 20

While the Rebels will have to stay grounded despite hearing how wonderful they are for the past week, one of the best medicines for avoiding a letdown is a great defense. Ole Miss will do just enough to escape a boisterous Kyle Field and certify itself as a legitimate contender for both the SEC title and the College Football Playoff.

Three Non-SEC Predictions:

1. Oregons visit to UCLA Saturday afternoon could have been a battle of top-5 teams, but the contagious upset bug got both the Ducks and Bruins last weekend. One of these two preseason playoff contenders will be all but eliminated by sunset Saturday night. Despite playing at home, that team will be UCLA.

2. Its to the point in the season where, if Georgia Tech still hasnt lost, you know Georgia Tech is about to lose. With a week off to prepare for the triple option, Duke will go into Atlanta and hand the Yellow Jackets their first loss to get right back in the ACC Coastal race.

3. The Texas-Oklahoma game at the Cotton Bowl has been rebranded The Red River Showdown this season, but it will be anything but between the fledgling Longhorns and the now-steaming Sooners after a loss to TCU. It wont be 63-14 in 2000 bad, or 65-13 in 2003 bad, but Texas fans will be headed outside to the Fletchers Corny Dog stand by the middle of the third quarter.

Trivia Answers:

1. Mississippi State and Auburn (2007)

2. Oklahoma QB Jason White (winner) and Pittsburgh WR Larry Fitzgerald (runner-up)

3. 1999