Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Remember the scene in The Godfather when Michael Corleone tells Vito, “We’ll get there, Pop. We’ll get there.” Only they never really get there because [SPOILER ALERT] Vito dies right after that and Michael only sinks deeper into the Mafia culture. Razorback football reminds me of that scene. Unless “getting there” refers to basketball season, in which case, count us in.

The quasi-good news for Razorback fans is that this is the first really huge weekend of the year. Interesting games fill the lineup all day Saturday. Whether you bet or not, it should be lots of fun. We went 6-2 last week, our best week of the year so far, pushing the season total to 21-18. Here are this week’s winners:

Arkansas (+8.5) @ Auburn: What’s that you say? Quan Bray is suspended? Well Arkansas doesn’t have a secondary anyway and Tank Wright is hurt. So they’re square. John L. Smith says Bobby Petrino is more likely to end up at Auburn than Kentucky next year, something that must please non-fired Auburn coach Gene Chizik to no end, then he says Auburn started able quarterback Kiehl Frazier too early. Smith has just been making all kinds of friends down on The Plains.

When looking at this game on paper, it makes sense to think Arkansas has a decent shot to win. However, there isn’t an exit ramp on the downward spiral. I’ve said I’m going to pick against the Razorbacks for the rest of the season until they prove I shouldn’t, so I’m rolling with Auburn this week.

LSU (-2.5) @ Florida: This feels like the first big game at the Swamp in a long time. LSU seems to be slowly slipping back into “Les Miles is going to do something crazy if we just wait long enough” mode. A combination of Tyrann Mathieu getting kicked off the team, some key injuries, and quarterback Zach Mettenberger not turning into the superstar the Tigers were hoping for has resulted in a narrow, two-point win against Auburn and a weird 38-22 victory over Towson, wherever that is. Do you feel it coming? I do. And I think it’s going to be a bad-crazy for LSU and not good-crazy. Florida’s been on the upswing. I like Florida here.

Vanderbilt (+7) @ Missouri: Arkansas is such a huge disappointment that no one is paying attention to Missouri’s unfortunate first year in the SEC. The Tigers have been blown out in both conference games and the low point was being an underdog against Central Florida last week. The Tigers did “upset” UCF, thanks in part to an 80-yard touchdown pass to Dorial Green-Beckham, who is suspended for this week’s game along with a few other players after getting arrested mid-week for drug possession.

On the flip side, Vanderbilt was a very sexy team in August and James Franklin was one of the hottest names on the list of coaches who could be in the market for a bigger job next season. Then the Commodores lost at home to South Carolina, then lost at Northwestern, then were destroyed at Georgia, and all of a sudden Vandy is in a familiar position at 1-3 and no one is talking about them. But they are coming off a bye week, and Missouri seems sort of lost at the moment, so I’ll take Vandy and the points.

Georgia (+1) @ South Carolina: Trying to pick this game is maddening. There’s nothing more fearful to a handicapper than thinking the game could come down to the bounce of a ball. I’ve gone back and forth here. I was leaning toward Georgia, then leading receiver Michael Bennett was hurt for the year with a knee injury. Also factoring in the Gamecocks’ superior defense, it makes sense to pick South Carolina. It also makes sense to pick Georgia and their superior offense, but the Roulette wheel is landing on Carolina this time.

West Virginia (+7) @ Texas: Remember when Oklahoma State was the bang-bang offense of the Big 12? And did you see how Texas just barely pulled out a victory in Stillwater last week in one of the more entertaining games of the year so far? If they play like that against the Mountaineers, West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith could put up some more crazy numbers like he did against Baylor last week. And they want to give West Virginia seven free points? I’ll take that.

Need a little more? Here are some more lines I like: Texas Tech +(5) over Oklahoma, Clemson (-10) over Georgia Tech, TCU (-7) over Iowa State.

As always, put your picks in a comment below and, remember, wins and losses can be vacated, but your picks will live forever.

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Doc Harper is the editor of ArkansasExpats.com and is a regular contributor to ArkansasSports360.com. You can email him at heydocharper@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @doc_harper.