A View from Big Ben: South Carolina Prediction

[London Vol]

LET’S HOPE USC LOSE TWICE TODAY

Season: Marino 7 London Vol 2

Overview

Tonight, we enter the final stretch of the regular season with the first of the two road trips against the 6-4 South Carolina. With the playoffs still firmly in touching distance it is important to win tonight and probably win well against USC. But by a strange quirk of fate, we also need the other USC (University of Southern California) to lose as they are one (the other being the unbeaten TCU) of our two main obstacles to the “promised land” of the playoffs.

In pre-season I was worried about tonight’s game as South Carolina unexpectedly overachieved last season, and with the addition of Rattler (a previous Heisman favourite) they looked like they might be a dangerous team this year. But their winning record this season has not been matched by the performance of the team and Tennessee have gone the other way. For this reason, the result is probably not in doubt, but what is in play, is the margin of victory.

Last week’s result and performance (particularly in the last quarter) was very important. It allowed the previous week’s game at Georgia to be seen more as “stage fright” rather than a correction to how good the Vols are this season. One cautionary note, Williams Brice is another SEC stadium that can be raucous particularly for a 7.00pm ET kick off, so it is vitally important that we make a fast start like we did at LSU. When the opposite happened at Georgia, their fans got up ‘a head of steam’ and with the aid of 7 seven pre snap penalties, the stage was set for a far more difficult evening.

Marino’s Prediction
I was most interested to see how Tennessee would bounce back in the game against Missouri and I was most impressed. So, I am confident that we will march on briskly towards a playoff berth against South Carolina and then next week against Vanderbilt (did they really beat Kentucky last week?). My prediction this week is a win 52-14.

London Vols’ Prediction
Almost every week this season I have been more cautious than you, so it’s time to believe more in what is happening before our very eyes, my prediction is 55-10.



GO VOLS

 

[VolBricks]

My prediction is "Pain" for the chickens.
Without their best RB and with no better than Rattler has played so far this season it looks grim for the cocks.

Vols - 59 (could easily be 66-72 if Milton comes in firing on all cylinders in mop up duty).
Chickens - 12 (4-FG)

 

[hillsborovol]

We want USC to lose, but we probably don't need them to lose. At the end of the year, USC will not have even played against a team ranked that is still ranked in the top 10 (maybe not even one ranked in the top 15), and they lost one of those games.

If USC wins their remaining games, UCLA will have at least 3 losses and ND will have at least 4 losses. ND should drop out of the top 25, and UCLA will be likely be top 25, but barely.

In their championship game, USC might play the winner of the Oregon and Utah game. If USC wins that game, both Oregon and Utah would have 3 losses and one or both will be outside of the top 15. BTW, Oregon got blown out 49 to 3 by UGA, and Utah lost to Florida earlier this year... a Florida team that has a losing record in the SEC.

So, if Tennessee wins out, our only loss would be against #1 UGA at their home field. And we would have 2 wins against highly ranked Bama and against LSU in Baton Rouge.

 

[EZE]

My prediction is "Pain" for the chickens.
Without their best RB and with no better than Rattler has played so far this season it looks grim for the cocks.

Vols - 59 (could easily be 66-72 if Milton comes in firing on all cylinders in mop up duty).
Chickens - 12 (4-FG)

 

[HuntlandVolinColo]

View attachment 515873

There's gonna be some freshly chocked chickens tonight!