South Carolina at Missouri Highlights SEC Slate
Can the Mizzou defense stop the Gamecocks?
The South Carolina Gamecocks visit the other Columbia…Missouri…to take on the SEC East leading Missouri Tigers in SEC action this week. Show of hands, who had Mizzou leading the East by two games going into this one when the season started? Nobody? Of course not. Missouri had two wins in their SEC debut season a year ago. Those were over the Tennessee Volunteers and the Kentucky Wildcats. Who would have seen back to back wins over the Georgia Bulldogs and Florida Gators coming?
Who would have seen South Carolina dropping a huge one to the Volunteers leading up to this game? No one. But that’s been the SEC season so far. There have been a mountain of key injuries, including both of these two teams’ starting quarterbacks in Conner Shaw of the Gamecocks and James Franklin of the Tigers. These have contributed to turning the SEC standings on its ear this season. Mizzou has seemingly come from nowhere to a top five ranking and an unbeaten 7-0 record. If they can knock off the Cocks on Saturday, the East is in their back pocket and they can start to game plan for the Alabama Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship Game. They would still have a regualr season finale with Johnny Manziel and the Texas A&M Aggies to deal with, but their spot in Atlanta will be all but assured before then.
Alabama has to deal with a suddenly not too awful Tennessee team this weekend. Yes it is the third Saturday in October and that can only mean Alabama and Tennessee are about to get it on. This time the game is at Tuscaloosa which means Tennessee has no shot, right? Probably not. But we didn’t think they had much of a shot against the Gamecocks either. Bama comes into the game ranked #1 and look to be well on their way to a fourth National Title in five seasons and third in a row. Tennessee looks like they might be shaking out of a five year slump. A win over Alabama sure would announce to the world that Tennessee is back.
Another rather intriguing game is the one between the Vanderbilt Commodores and the Aggies at Kyle Field. The Dores are another team going to battle with a back up quarterback, although like Mizzou’s Maty Mauk, who engineered a rather easy win over the Gators last week, Vandy’s back up QB Patton Robinette delivered a thrilling comeback win over Georgia. Manziel comes into this game a little beat up on his throwing shoulder and little bit bruised on his ego after suffering a loss last week to the Auburn Tigers at home. That one looked like Manziel would pull out another miracle at the end but Johnny Football could not get those final few yards to win the game at the end.
Betonline has the odds for this week’s games:
South Carolina at Missouri– The Gamecocks are +2.5 +100 and the Tigers are -2.5 -120 ATS. Moneyline is South Carolina +123 and Missouri -143. Over/Under is 53. We like South Carolina to bounce back this week. Missouri is in uncharted waters. They may wake up this week and realize it. Take South Carolina +123 and the over -110.
Tennessee at Alabama– Tennessee is +28 -110 and Alabama -28 -110 ATS. Over/Under is 51. This makes us wonder what the line would have been had this game been two weeks ago. We like UT to beat the spread. Take Tennessee +28 and the under -110.
Vanderbilt at Texas A&M– Vandy is +17 -110 and the Aggies are -17 -110 ATS. Moneyline is Vandy +645 and A&M -825. Over/Under is 68.5. We are not so sure this game is as lopsided as all that. We like Vanderbilt +17 and the over -115.
