If I had asked Santa Claus for one gift from the college football season, it probably would have been for the Hogs to go to Auburn and win. If I had picked one game to bet my house on that they would definitely lose this season, it wouldn’t have been against USC, Tennessee or LSU (all at home.) I would’ve said going to Auburn will be a definite loss.

I stand corrected.

Yahoo! Sports’ headline said it like this:

Needing an impressive win to satisfy its detractors, No. 2 Auburn fell flat on its face against Arkansas on Saturday.

Indeed. Arkansas went over to Auburn and beat down the Tigers (or Eagles, or whatever they’re calling themselves) without much difficulty by the score of 27-10. Number 2 Auburn. At their place. Not bad for a team that hasn’t looked impressive so far, needing quite a bit of luck at Vanderbilt and at home against Alabama to pull out narrow wins. But, Auburn didn’t look terribly impressive against LSU or South Carolina. Still, there was no real dream of winning that game on the road.

After they went up 10-0, I felt like they might stay in it for a while. After Auburn cut it to 10-7, I thought, “well, they’ve woken up.” But when they went up 17-7 in the 2nd quarter, I thought for the first time, “hey, they might actually pull this out.” Turns out, Auburn never really was in the game after that. Actually, Auburn never really appeared to be in the game at all. Arkansas continued to run, run, run, and scored 2 rushing touchdowns on a team that had not yet allowed even 1 thus far this season.

There were a lot of positives, I suppose. One we beat a good (although overrated) team, and we did it on the road. This was the best win Arkansas has had since they went to Texas and won a few years ago, and probably the best conference win since they beat Tennessee in Little Rock in 1999.

They are now in a position to win the West. They have a difficult road, still, in doing so, but they have a 2 game lead on LSU, and effectively a 2 game lead on Auburn as well. They should be 7-1 going to South Carolina, before having to play Tennessee and LSU in Arkansas. Not an easy road to winning the West, still, but they are in control and it’s their’s to lose.

This was the first time in a long time that they’ve beaten both Alabama and Auburn in the same season. I would have liked that when I lived in Huntsville (especially if they could also go on to beat Tennessee next month.) But, that’s why God invented email!

Some question Tuberville’s calling for a playoff earlier in the week, questioning what he (and therefore the team) were really focused on this week. Auburn definitely didn’t look like they came to play. Perhaps they expected an easy game and were already thinking about Florida coming to town next week. They’d better be thinking long and hard about Florida now, because from what I’ve seen so far, Florida may just do the same thing Arkansas did. I guess since Auburn is likely out of the BCS championship game race now, Tuberville is even more of a proponent of a playoff system.

So, an early Christmas present. Whether or not they win the West is still secondary to me, though. I want a win against Tennessee. If I’m not mistaken, the last game they played was the 6OT game in 2002, and I’d like to see them get that one back.

In other games, Florida looked pretty good against LSU, and I think they’re clearly the team to beat not only in the East, but in the whole conference. Georgia looked great for about a quarter and a half, then Tennesse just ran them over. Georgia hasn’t really looked good for the last few games, so I say the East is Florida’s to lose, considering their win over Tennesee. And, then there’s Alabama. Down 14-10 at the half, and only ahead 16-14 with about 4:00 to go in the game. Fine if you’re playing and SEC team, perhaps. But Duke??? Alabama scored twice late to stretch the final margin, but playing a Duke team that has now lost about 13 or 14 in a row, and playing them at home, you would hope for a better showing. Maybe they were looking ahead, too. I would hope so.

My concert review is still coming. My site was down most of yesterday and I’m trying to catch up. Review later today or tomorrow.