As a football prognosticator, I’d make a good doorstop. There isn’t much that I got right last week, so let’s start with my pick for the National Championship. Ole Miss will not win it. The Rebels dispatched that notion without debate in Gainesville’s swamp on Saturday evening.

Florida wrecked Ole Miss in every facet of the game, and this didn’t appear to be “just one of those nights.” In retrospect, there seem to be several possibilities that led to my return to Rebel reality.

• The Florida coaching staff found the weakness of the Rebel defense and exploited it all game long.
• The Ole Miss coaching staff suffered from a massive case of hubris.
• Florida has a much better football team than the Red & Blue.
• I, along with a lot of other folks, vastly overestimated the quality of the many 5 star recruits signed in the last couple of years.
• The Ole Miss coaches, players, and fans drank their own bathwater as it was being served up by their sports info folks.

My guess is that it was all of the above.

Moving on to the rest of my misled predictions, I’ll have to apologize to the Crimson Tide for my momentary loss of perspective. Nick Saban took Mark Ritch to a coaching clinic between the hedges. My only questions is, how in the hell did he manage to lose to Ole Miss.

My Bulldogs did not surprise the Texas A&M Aggies. Unlike the Ole Miss game, there is little doubt why we got beat. A&M has a better football team. There’s not much we could do about that. I did manage to get two games right. Clemson hung on to beat Notre Dame, and TCU humiliated Texas.

There were other games in which I had an interest but also had the good judgment not to try and predict the outcomes. Memphis moved to 5-0 with a close win over South Florida, and I may be wrong, but I think this is the first 5-0 start for the Blue Bengals in modern times.

Missouri returned to the winners circle with a hard fought victory over the ole ball coach’s hapless Gamecocks, while Vandy squeaked by Middle Tennessee State, Kentucky edged Eastern Kentucky, and Auburn beat San Jose State. Tennessee figured out a way to lose another close game, this time to Arkansas’s struggling Razorbacks.

Next week’s games are all pretty vanilla. There’s not a premier matchup, but there will still be lots of chances for ranked teams to muff it. In spite of my miserable performance this past week, I’m going to trudge on and make some picks.

LSU should handle South Carolina, but it won’t be a rout, and I’m going to stick with Ole Miss and take them over the Aggies of New Mexico State. I expect Mississippi State to beat Troy with ease, and for Georgia to bounce back and take Tennessee in a close ballgame.

Alabama will win at home against Arkansas, but again, I don’t look for a rout. Florida will travel to Columbia to play Mizzou and will find a resurgent set of Tigers waiting for them. Florida might have a letdown after whacking Ole Miss, and I’m picking the Tigers.

As I said, most of the games are routine and most should go to the favored team. Auburn has the week off prior to its Thursday night match up with Kentucky. As the season nears the halfway point, Ohio State continues to maintain a hold on #1, despite a ho-hum schedule and close calls. I expect someone to stop this farce before the season ends.