AJC > Sports > Blog > Archives > 2006 > September > 14
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Five prickly questions answered
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On a college football weekend like this, the best place to be is sitting on your couch with four televisions and a universal remote control. With seven games featuring two teams in the Top 25 plus the Bowden Bowl (Clemson vs. Florida State), there are a lot of questions that are going to be answered. Here are my Top 5.
1) Is Florida’s Percy Harvin all that? The early returns are that this kid is special and will give the Gators their best big play potential since the days of Ike Hilliard, Reidel Anthony, and Jacquez Green. Tennessee will be missing one of its starting defensive backs in Inky Johnson. Harvin has looked good against two very respectable defenses in Southern Miss and UCF. Now can he do it on a prime time stage?
2) Will Auburn’s John Vaughn be called upon to make a game-winning field goal against LSU? Last season Vaughn missed five kicks in Auburn’s 20-17 overtime loss to LSU. Vaughn got back to town and the outside of his apartment had been trashed. His response was to work harder and get better. Since that bad night in Baton Rouge he has made 10 of his 12 field goals. He got into shape, consulted with some kicking coaches, and has improved his range. He kicked a 55-yarder last week against Mississippi State. That’s the way an athlete -or any of us for that matter- should react to adversity.
3) Is Saturday’s game at Louisville the ultimate gut check for Miami? It says something about the state of Miami’s program that the Hurricanes are an underdog going into Louisville’s Papa John’s Stadium. The team that other teams once feared simply does not have that look of invincibility -some use the word swagger- that it once enjoyed. A Louisville player went public this week saying that Miami had lost its swagger, which is something an opponent would have never done in years past. Usually Miami responds when its manhood is challenged.
4) What’s going to happen at Clemson if the Tigers lose at Florida State? This was going to be Clemson’s year but now it looks like the dream of an ACC championship could be lost by mid-September. There are few college teams, if any, who have lost three key defensive starters by the second game. If things don’t go well in Tallahassee, where Clemson has never won under Tommy Bowden, can the Tiger coach hold things together for the rest of the season?
5) Can Southern Cal lay half a hundred on Nebraska? The Trojans were supposed to be in a rebuilding mode but they went to Arkansas on Sept. 2 and played a team that had been gearing up for them all summer. That final, in case you missed it, was Southern Cal 50, Arkansas 14. The Trojans took last week off to get well rested and will now entertain Nebraska. If this game is really competitive then it tells us that the Trojans are good, but mere mortals again. If Southern Cal wins big, they might start making their reservations for Glendale, Ariz., site of the BCS championship game.
