Let’s do the quotage from SEC Gridiron Live on Fox Sports South and associated affiliates from earlier in the week.
SEC GRIDIRON LIVE: WEEK FOURThey Said It:Tim Couch on Alabama’s offense“When I look at Alabama the thing they have is balance. Everyone knows about Ingram and Richardson and that running game, but Greg McElroy is throwing the ball, completing 72 percent of his passes. He’s number one in the FBS in pass efficiency. You just can’t take one thing away from this offense – they’re so balanced.”Randy Cross on Alabama’s defense“We started the season with questions. They gave up 150 yards rushing to Duke last week. Duke. So you know Coach Smart and Coach Saban have got their undivided attention coming into this game against Arkansas. This is a defense that last year, with guys like Javier Arenas and Rolando McClain, was blitzing and had all kinds of wild schemes. They frustrated the heck out of Mallett. And if I’m Mallett and I’m Bobby Petrino, I’m studying the heck out of that tape because they’re going to see a lot of the same things.”Tim Couch on Ryan Mallett“Last year he struggled on the road, completing only 40 percent of his passes and going 0-4. This year, he had a big win at Georgia last week, a Heisman-type moment leading them down the field on the game-winning drive. He’s really matured. This game is at home against Alabama. If he wins this one, he can run for governor of the state of Arkansas.”Randy Cross on Florida’s offense“It hasn’t just been the usual shotgun, snap, spread, read offense. They’ve had a little bit of option, they’ve even thrown a little bit of “I” formation down in the red zone. And this is all last week; this is all in one game. Then later in the game they get back in the red zone going the other way and they break out the spread. I think it’s fantastic. Looking at the defensive side, they’re going with the five-technique. Urban Meyer talks about that – get five guys with their hand on the ground, two of them might be linebackers, but they’re built to come get the quarterback. And they’re built this year and this week to come after the University of Kentucky.”Tim Couch on Kentucky tailback Derrick Locke“When you talk about Kentucky, Derrick Locke is a guy who’s been making a ton of plays for them. They have something they call stretch and puncture. They want to get the defense moving side to side, and Derrick Locke, a great cutback runner, will plant his foot and get north and south. And when he does then it’s off to the races. He’s one of the fastest guys in the SEC.”Is Mississippi State’s two-quarterback system the right thing to do?Tim Couch – “I don’t like the two-quarterback system. As a quarterback, I couldn’t stand if they took me out of the game for whatever reason. I think it disrupts the timing, the rhythm of the offense. It changes the way the ball comes out with timing to the wide receivers on the outside. It just changes up too much.”Who’s your quarterback – Alabama’s Greg McElroy, Arkansas’ Ryan Mallet or Auburn’s Cam Newton?Tim Couch – “I like all these guys but if I had one game to win I’d take Mallet. I think he’s the most talented quarterback in the country. He’s got a huge arm and I think his upside is just unbelievable. He’s probably going to be the No.1 pick in the NFL draft, so I would take Ryan Mallett.”Randy Cross – “I like McElroy. All he does is win and I mean all the time. If you’re talking about one game, I don’t care how many yards he’s going to throw for, McElroy’s going to win a game.”Who would you not take to play quarterback for your team?Randy Cross – “I’m going to say John Brantley from Florida. I know that won’t be really popular in some parts of the SEC, but he really hasn’t performed. I don’t know if I overestimated what he could do, overestimated the offense or overestimated his weapons, but he’s the ninth-ranked quarterback in the conference.”Tim Couch – “I’m going to say Jordan Jefferson because Patrick Peterson, the defensive back, has nine fewer all purpose yards than Jordan Jefferson has total yards as a quarterback. When your DB is out-gaining your quarterback, that’s a small problem.”Randy Cross on South Carolina’s defense“South Carolina’s red zone defense has been unbelievable. They’ve given up zero touchdowns in the red zone. Eleven times opponents have gotten down there and they’re second in the conference in sacks with 11. This is a defense that’s really not come out of nowhere, but everyone was talking about Garcia on the other side.”Tim Couch on Auburn“The thing about Auburn is they can beat you so many different ways. They just win. They can beat you in a shoot-out like they did in Week 1, they can win it with their defense like they did in Week 2, and they can also do it by comeback victory as we saw against Clemson last week.”Jason W. Mizzell on Alabama @ Arkansas: I believe from observing both squads in their first games that Arkansas is very one-dimensional and Bama has the run and pass game. Sure, the defenses will determine the winner in this one.Matt Powell on Kentucky @ Florida – They say games aren’t won on paper. I think a lot of the time some UK teams got “big eyed” when seeing those blue and orange jerseys and read into the papers. I’m not saying UK will win but this team seems to have a different swagger about them where intimidation won’t be a factor. The game will be decided on the field Saturday.Chris Bright on South Carolina @ Auburn – This one is easy. You have the Gamecocks’ #1 SEC rush defense that will bottle up Auburn’s running game making the Tigers one dimensional and the Gamecocks are too good in the secondary to be exploited. Plus with the return of Shaq Wilson the Gamecocks have their defensive QB back on the field. Andre Ellington torched the Auburn run defense for 140 last week. Marcus Lattimore has another good game and the Gamecocks win rather easily 24-10.Brett Miolen on Georgia @ Mississippi State – Georgia wins. UGA has way too much on the line for them to lose this one. It will be gut-check time and Aaron Murray will get it done.SEC Gridiron LIVE airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET throughout the college football season to more than 22 million cable and satellite households on the FSN regional networks throughout the SEC territory – FOX Sports South, Sun Sports, FOX Sports Houston and FOX Sports Southwest. SEC Gridiron LIVE is hosted by Charles Davis with analysts Randy Cross and Tim Couch and social media host Kristina Akra.All season long, SEC fans can stay in touch with the SEC Gridiron LIVE team throughout the week at SECGridironLIVE.com and through the show’s Facebook and Twitter pages.
Even more college football releases are coming up. Keep your feeds updated.
