Huck’s Fearless Forecast
Darrell Huckaby is a syndicated columnist and author of six books including two about Georgia football. Read Huck’s Wit and Wisdom every Wednesday and Sunday. Subscribe at https://dhuck.substack.com/.
Hello football fans. The long wait is over. We have cheated death for another off-season and will be ready when the Dawgs tee it up Saturday in what is being billed as the hottest game ever to be played in Sanford Stadium. Maybe. Maybe not. We will see. But before the Tennessee State whatever-they-ares (just kidding—they be the Tigers) become our latest Opening Day sacrificial lambs, just for fun (because gambling is still illegal in the Peach State) let’s pick a few games.
Not quite ready for Prime Time at Historic Grant Field at Bobby Dodd Stadium on The Flats near the projects across the expressway from the Varsity. It pains me to write this. I would rather admit I enjoyed a tofu casserole. But Thursday night, Deion Sanders will arrive with sunglasses, swagger, television cameras and enough prime-time glitter to illuminate Peachtree Street. Unfortunately, somebody forgot to tell the Buffaloes they have to play football, too. Tech will run the ball, control the clock and generally make Colorado wish Coach Prime had scheduled another commercial shoot instead. It will hurt me deeply to see the Jackets win. But not enough to pick Colorado.
Georgia Tech 31--Colorado 17
East Carolina at Roll Tide. The East Carolina Pirates are sailing into Tuscaloosa Saturday, apparently under the impression that Bryant-Denny Stadium is some sort of friendly port of call. It is not. The Pirates will arrive with swords drawn, flags flying and visions of an upset dancing in their heads. Then somebody will yell “Roll Tide,” the band will start playing, and Alabama will commence doing what Alabama generally does to visiting teams. Give East Carolina credit. They’ll fight. Pirates are supposed to fight. But there is a substantial difference between raiding merchant ships off the Carolina coast and spending Saturday afternoon surrounded by 100,000 Alabama people who consider anything less than a national championship a personal insult. Tuscaloosa is a long way from the ocean.
Alabama 42--East Carolina 17
Tigers at Tigers. Clemson travels down to Baton Rouge Saturday night to play LSU in Death Valley, which ought to be confusing enough. Both teams are Tigers. Both wear purple. Both call their stadium Death Valley. Somewhere Saturday night, a drunk fellow is going to spend three quarters pulling for the wrong team. The big story, though, is Lane Kiffin, making his LSU debut and apparently operating under the theory that if college recruiting gets difficult, you just start calling NFL players. College football used to involve recruiting high school boys. Now Lane is apparently scouting the NFL waiver wire. Dabo Swinney, meanwhile, still seems determined to build Clemson the old-fashioned way, which nowadays is roughly equivalent to entering the Daytona 500 in a Buick Roadmaster. The real difference Saturday night will be the setting. Tiger Stadium after dark is loud, hot, humid and populated by 100,000 Cajuns who have spent all afternoon cooking things most Americans would call bait. Clemson will hang around. Dabo will holler. Lane will smirk. The lawyers may even have somebody warming up. But when the smoke clears, the wrong Tigers will be headed back to South Carolina.
LSU 27--Clemson 18
Auburn vs Baylor in Mercedez Benz. Auburn could make this easy, of course, but Auburn doesn’t do easy. The Tigers will play just well enough to get everybody’s hopes up, just poorly enough to make grown men holler things at the television they wouldn’t say in Sunday school, and then somehow find a way to win it at the end. Baylor will make them sweat. Auburn will make them pray.
Auburn 24--Baylor 21
Hottie Toddy vs U of L in Music City. Ole Miss is headed to Nashville, which is appropriate because by the time this one is over, Louisville is liable to be singing somebody-done-somebody-wrong songs all the way back to Kentucky. The Rebels will be led by their sixth-year quarterback, Trinidad Chambliss, who has apparently been playing college football since Minnie Pearl was still saying, “How-dee!” at the Grand Ole Opry. Nashville is the Country Music Capital of the World, so expect plenty of picking and grinning. Ole Miss will do the picking—apart of the Cardinals’ secondary—and Rebel fans will do the grinning.
Mississippi 31--Louisville 20
Tennessee State on Dooley Field. Georgia opens the season Saturday against Tennessee State Between the Hedges, and I’m afraid this one has all the suspense of a Baptist preacher asking whether anybody wants the last piece of fried chicken. Tennessee State will arrive full of enthusiasm, optimism and young men whose mothers have told them all week that they can do anything if they just believe in themselves. That is generally excellent advice. It won’t apply Saturday. By halftime the Redcoats will have played “Glory” enough times to qualify for overtime pay, Uga will be resting on a bag of ice, and the student section will be as empty as the first fifth of Jack Daniels opened Saturday morning. The second half will mostly be an opportunity for Georgia fans to learn the names of players they didn't know were on the team. Welcome back to football, Bulldog Nation.
Georgia 56--Tennessee State 0
Look for me Saturday. I’ll be the good-looking guy in the red shirt—drenched in sweat.
Darrell Huckaby