2006 Cocktail Party Preview

Michael Robinson’s look at the college weekend: It is called the “Worlds Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party,” and while the university presidents want to change the name to make it more politically correct, do you really think that will cut down on the alcohol consumption?

The bigger issue than the name of the game (Cocktail Party), is the quality of the game on the field.

Florida (6-1, 3-1 SEC) raced off to a 6-0 record to start the season, and fans were dreaming about another national championship to go along with their basketball team.

Then came the infamous Saturday night game at Auburn which saw the Gators turn a 17-11 halftime lead into a 27-17 loss. The most disappointing part of that game was not that they lost, it was how they lost.

Florida lost the turnover battle 3-1, and had a blocked punt and fumble returned for touchdowns. The Gators have not taken the field since that debacle two weeks ago, and have dropped to 9th in the AP poll. With national title hopes now a long-shot, they need to refocus on winning the SEC.

Georgia (6-2, 3-2 SEC) is not playing their best football heading into this game. The Bulldogs lost to Tennessee and Vanderbilt at home before rebounding somewhat with a three point home win over Mississippi State. This is the same Miss St. team that is 0-4 in the conference.

In this rivalry, if you want to call it that, Florida has won 14 of the last 16 meetings between the schools. That is incredible considering some of the really good teams Georgia has had over the years.

Things do not look much more promising this year, as Georgia is going with a freshman quarterback in Matthew Stafford against the 13th ranked defense in the country. The Georgia defense is ranked 12th in the nation, but most of those stats were accumulated in their first five games.

Georgia fans were shocked to see Tennessee hang 51 points on them, and giving up 24 to lowly Mississippi State might be even more embarrassing. Those displays have Florida quarterback, Chris Leak licking his chops as he tries to salvage what is left of his Heisman campaign.

Florida is favored by 13.5 points over Georgia in Jacksonville, a neutral site.

Another marquee game this weekend has Miami at Georgia Tech with both teams at 5-2 on the year. The Yellow Jackets are still stinging (no pun intended) from their 31-7 loss at Clemson. Now, they return home to face a Miami team whose demise has been greatly exaggerated. These two teams are in first and second place in the ACC Coastal conference, and Georgia Tech is favored by five points.

In the Big-10, there are no great match-ups this weekend, but the top three teams still have to keep on winning to keep their rankings. Ohio State is -27 at home against Minnesota, Michigan is -30 at home versus Northwestern, and Wisconsin is -21.5 against Indiana in the land of cheese.

Out west, USC comes off a bye-week and needs to show the nation that they are the same team that dominated Nebraska and Arkansas early on in the year. The Trojans (6-0) dropped to 3rd in the BCS Standings behind Ohio State and Michigan without losing a game, and they can not afford to drop any further than that. They are 10.5 point favorites at Oregon State (4-3).

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