SEC Championship game and "Pac-10 Championship game" predictions

Wait a minute! There’s a Pac-10 Championship game?? No, not really, but USC play UCLA in one of the biggest games of the year, which effectively decides the Pac-10. Oh, and the other game’s a small southern rivalry pitting Georgia against LSU in the Dome in Atlanta. Should be quite a weekend, shouldn’t it?SEC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME—-GEORGIA VS LSU (Atlanta)

Because it’s the SEC, both sets of fans absolutely hate each other- not helped last year when Georgia torched LSU 45-16  in Athens.

Georgia has scored an average of 28.6 points a game, and know how to put up yards on the ground and through the air.

QB DJ Shockley and WR Leonard Pope are two of the best players in college football, let alone the SEC. Both will definitely play on Sundays. “The Shocker” (as he’s affectionately called by Bulldog fans) has thrown for nearly 2,200 yards with 19 TDs and only 5 Interceptions. He’s also rushed for 241 yards and 3 TD, and is as dangerous any NCAA running quarterback on third down. Leonard Pope, Shockley’s favorite target, has nearly 500 receiving yards with 3 TD, averaging 14.8 yards a reception. Ouch. RBs Thomas Brown and Danny Ware have run for over 1,000 yards in 21 combined games, and third-string runner Kregg Lumpkin isn’t bad either.

Defensively, Georgia don’t seem to be missing David Pollack, conceding under 14.6 points a game with a convincingly good rushing defense game. They are also good at picking off the ball- they’ve done it 14 times this season, after all.

LSU, however, are better than Georgia in every category. They are familiar with going to hostile environments and winning, beating Arizona State and Alabama on the road. If it hadn’t been for their second-half collapse against Tennessee, we would probably be talking about this team in Championship terms.

But at the moment, we’re talking about LSU’s vaunted defense, which lives on the oft-used slogan “Bend but don’t break”. They’ve given up an average of only 13.5 yards a game, and have given up less than 1,000 yards rushing all season. And that’s in the SEC, where good running backs are as common as good Pac-10 quarterbacks.

And they aren’t bad in the air, either. They average 29.9 points a game, with JaMarcus Russell, their big-boned quarterback, throwing for over 2,300 yards and 15 TDs. He’s also been picked off 8 times. He’s not the world’s best rusher, because he leaves it to Joseph Addai and Justin Vincent, who combined to rush for over 1,000 yards this year. His main receiver, Dwayne Bowe is one of the SEC’s top-10 receivers. And Georgia’s special teams better be good, because Skyler Green’s one of the most explosive punt returners in the nation.

In short, this should be a classic.

My prediction: Georgia 25, LSU 24

`PAC-10 CHAMPIONSHIP GAME’- UCLA VS USC (Los Angeles)

Er, there’s not a whole lot to say that hasn’t been said about these two teams. We all know how darned good USC’s Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush are, and we’re getting to know that Drew Olsen and Maurice Drew, before the debacle at Arizona, were Heisman candidates.

Like Bush, Drew can do anything, and he probably will. You can guarantee Bush will. Olsen and Leinart are both exceptional with their team trailing, and have both engineered their teams to unlikely fourth quarter victories.

So how about the defenses? In the Pac-10, defense is not exactly the watchword. But wait- USC has a pretty good defense, giving up only an average of 21.5 points a game. Heck, it isn’t Georgia or LSU, but it’s pretty good in a conference where every QB might well play in the NFL. If you can, throw on them- they’ve conceded over 2,500 yards in the air. They can stop the rush- conceding 1,200 yards- but apart from Drew and Bush, that’s more about the terrible rushing game that diseases the Pac-10 than how good USC’s rushing D is. Penn State it is not.

As for UCLA, they have one of the worst defenses in the conferences, conceding an average of 30.6 points a game. Reggie Bush will probably run riot on their shoddy rushing defense, who have conceded over 2,195 yards on the ground this season. 3-8 Arizona  conceded 100 less rushing yards than the Bruins did. However, passing on UCLA’s not as easy as it looks- they have the best pass defense in the conference. But this is the Pac-10- it’s not really saying that much.

We expect a great game- but don’t expect it to be short.

MY PREDICTION:  USC 45, UCLA 35