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/.

We are almost done with September and—finally—a worthy opponent is scheduled to roll into Sanford Stadium and test the Dawgs offensive prowess, if nothing else. Football season. There is no better time of year in the South. The mornings begin to have a bit of a nip in the air, and the week has a flow to it. Two o’clock on Sunday you get the AP Poll. 5 o’clock and the Las Vegas lines are set. Monday you get SEC Shorts, Tuesday Matt Mitchell’s SEC Roll Call, Wednesday you get what work done you need to get done for the week and Thursday you start stocking up on groceries for the Saturday tailgate. And now it’s good ol’ Friday, so What the Huck! Let’s pick a few games. Last week—4-3 against the spread and straight up.

Rambling Wrecked at Once Proud West Coast Brainiac School. It hasn’t been all that long ago that Stanford University had a proud football tradition. Ernie Nevers. John Elway. Andrew Luck. You know. Good players. Now they have fallen on hard times and this year they’ve been battered by Miami and Duke. They won’t get battered this week, but they won’t win either. It pains me to say it, but the North Avenue Nerds get their second win in a row.
Georgia Tech 27 Cardinal 17

UT at UT. As if there weren’t a big enough circus on Rocky Top this week, President Trump has decided that he has to be in Obknoxville to add to the confusion. With a noon kick the Volunteer fans will need to be lined up by 10 to get through the added layer of security and I don’t know how they are going to smuggle those mustard missiles into the stadium with the Secret Service manning the gates. But I know that by the fourth quarter there will be plenty of inebriated Tennessee fans ready to start the OVER-RATED chants, and I’m thinking they will get to do it. Upset alert.
Vowels 24 Horns Down 21

We Beat Lane at The Swamp. Mississippi’s emotions were sky high last week as they prepared to welcome Lame Kiffin back to the Grove and they gave him the butt whipping they hoped to give him, although things got a little dicey near the end. With their All-Everything QB who is almost ready to collect Social Security, they will be a test for any defense. But if their star running back, Kewan Lacy, doesn’t play—and the boys in the dessert don’t think he will—the Gators will become much more formidable. It is hard to be sky high for two weeks in a row. Hard, but not impossible. Jon Sumrall is good but is he that good. I’m thinking, not yet.
Rebels 34 Water Lizards 31

LSU at Texas A&M. In the old days this would be an elimination game for one of these teams, but with 12 teams getting playoff berths, the straits aren’t quite as dire as they might be. But one team will leave Kyle Field on a two-game losing streak and no margin for error. I think that team will be the Aggies.
Tigers 31 A&M 21

Carolina Roosters at Roll Tide. I know it is only week four, but Shane Beamer is facing a season on the brink and Bryant—Denny Stadium is not a good place to go and get well. Alabama will, eventually, play two halves of good football, but even if that doesn’t happen this week, they still have too many good football players to lose to South Carolina at home.
Bama 37 Cocks 21

Vanderbilt at Loveliest Village. Hard to believe, but once the conference schedule starts, half the teams in the SEC lose every week. Last week was Auburn’s turn and it should have been Vandy’s, except for the Music City Miracle revisited. Jordan-Hare Stadium is not a good place for a true freshman in his first road start and this week the Nashville Navy will be sailing into choppy waters, and they will sink too low to be saved by a last-minute lifeline.
Auburn 31 Vanderbilt 17

Boomer Sooner Between the Hedges. This game scares me. Oklahoma’s defense is wicked good and Brent Venerable will be blitzing from directions we didn’t even realize existed before Saturday. Their offense couldn’t be as bad as it has looked. Could it? A turnover here and another there could turn this one into a real dog fight—and the law of averages is bound to catch up with King Kirby sooner or later. Don’t let the 14-point line lull you into sleeping on Oklahoma. This one will be a four-quarter game. Come early, come loud, and come prepared to stay ‘til the end. My pick is shaky this week, but Dawgs on top.
Georgia 21 Oklahoma 17

Look for me Saturday. I’ll be the good-looking old man in the red shirt—even though the diagram says my section of the stadium is wearing black.

Darrell Huckaby