Whiskey Wednesday never delivered on his statement that he would do a column called "Around the SEC East" to go along with mine of the SEC West, so I have enlisted Brian Walker's Elbow to do the other half.
The purpose of these things is to keep Rebel fans up to speed about things going on at other schools. It's hard for me to be a rabid fan of our school and still keep up with players at other schools in the conference. So here's the meat of it.
ALABAMA
Sophomore defensive end Marcell Dareus is going nuts so far this year with 3.5 sacks through three games. None of those sacks came against North Texas either, so it's not as if he just got three sacks against the worst team they have played. The 280 pound defensive end moves inside on some obvious passing downs and helps provide a lot of pressure to the quarterback. He's the real deal.
ARKANSAS
Through two games, Michael Smith has run the ball twelve times. Yeah. The first-team all-SEC back a year ago has twelve carries. USC transfer Broderick Green (averaging 2.2 yards per carry) has one more attempt than Smith (8.5 ypc). The Razorbacks are performing very well on offense, but I'm just not sure that their defense is going to be able to help them win shootouts. I wonder if ball control with still a good bit of passing might work better for them. Arkansas and Alabama face off this Saturday at 3:30.
AUBURN
Mario Fannin is turning into the all-purpose player that many fans in the Plains thought he would be last year. Through three games, Fannin has ten carries for 79 yards and ten catches for 167 yards. Super Mario isn't Dexter McCluster, but it's important to have a versatile player like him in offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn's offense, and Fannin appears to be that. Auburn will play Ball State this weekend.
LSU
Through three games, Jordan Jefferson is averaging 158 yards per game passing. That's not exactly what we were told that we would see all off-season. It's alright though, because first-team all-SEC halfback Charles Scott is... averaging 54 yards a game and moving to fullback. Seriously, times are tough for the LSU offense, but the defense has been playing very well. I'm not sure how long that will be able to continue, and we might see a repeat of last season's offensive woes for the Tigers.
STATE
Spread the fun? What if there's not enough fun to go around? The spread offense attack of MSU has produced 127 yards passing per game. Exciting. The Bulldogs play host to the Tigers this Saturday evening.