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This is a week where everyone — well, most everyone — can take a step back and catch their breath. With the exception of Ole Miss and Missouri, everyone else has a nice “tune-up” game before rivalry week.
As a player, it was always a nice break from the gauntlet of the schedule. It really takes a toll on you physically and mentally. But just because the team you play is a lower-division team, you better come prepared to play your best and not sleep-walk through it.
We see time and time again that a team from the lower divisions will come in and upset someone. As a player, we had to realize that those kids bust their ass just as hard and they are also on scholarship. Hell, I had some of my friends from high school talented enough for big-time programs go to smaller schools. There’s a lot of different reasons why these kids didn’t go to major Division I programs, but they definitely had ability.
But execute and take care of business and the game should be over at halftime. I remember playing against Troy in 2010. They had a pretty good record and had some very talented guys. That whole week of practice was just like a normal week though. I remember how serious we all took it because we had a really special season going at that point and didn’t want to lay another egg like we did against Kentucky earlier in the year. We came out and absolutely crushed Troy. All the starters were out after halftime and we got to cheer on our backups and the young guys.
That’s what these teams this weekend are trying to do. With the exception of Ole Miss, Arkansas, Tennessee and Missouri, every SEC team has a game that it can use to get its confidence on track, get healthy and take a breath.
They have to take the proper preparations and treat it like a normal conference game. It’s a week of practice that they really need to hone in on their skills and have fun.
Ole Miss has Arkansas and Tennessee host Missouri. Both of those games are pretty important to all those programs. Arkansas has a taste of SEC blood after thrashing LSU last week, and Missouri needs to win to stay in the lead of the SEC East.
There may be better weeks of college football during the year, but this is one of most important as a player.
The Man. The Myth. The Legend.
