Bishop Media Sports Network
The Crystal Ball Of The SEC
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Labor Day weekend is upon us and that means the greatest game of all, College Football kicks off.
I love many sports, but college football is just special. In this part of the world, you have SEC football; which is the best brand in college athletics.
Others try and duplicate it, but they simply come up short.
Oklahoma and Texas are moving over probably next season instead of 2025. Some critics say conference expansion is bad using excuses like geography, and any other reason they can find.
We live in a generation of participation trophies as it relates to sports, and quite frankly the SEC has an ‘iron sharpens iron’ kind of mentality and that keeps them ahead of the rest in the college football world.
Here are my 2021 SEC Predictions:
Most Overrated Team: Texas A&M: The 2021 hype train has the Aggies picked by some to knock of Alabama to win the West.
I don’t think defensively A&M is there yet, and will Jimbo Fisher open up the offense to the Alabama and LSU levels of the past two seasons?
I don’t think the Aggies have those types of weapons and will come up short in the West. What happens if they lose at home to Alabama? Well, they are and I think they end up losing to Ole Miss and possibly LSU.
Most Underrated Team: Ole Miss: Ole Miss may end up having the best offense in the conference. So, when you line up against this team you better be prepared to score a lot of points.
Everyone harps on the Ole Miss defense, but I ask the question they can’t be worse than they were last year, right? I expect improvement out of the unit in 2021. This team could sneak up into the double-digit win category.
SEC West:
Alabama: Until someone knocks them off, they are the pick here.
Nick Saban is the best head coach in the history of the conference and he has the national championships to prove it in the playoff era of college football.
Ole Miss: This team is dangerous. Sleep on them if you want to.
Texas A&M: I’m just not buying the hype. This team is too conservative on offense, and do they have enough defense to be championship elite? The answer is no.
LSU: Coach O it is starting to slip away. Fix it in 2021 or your seat is going to get very hot.
Auburn: New coaching staff that wants to go from a spread offense to more of a pro type offense. Going to take some time Aubbies.
Arkansas: I love how the Hogs are building this roster, but you are in the best division of the best conference in college football.
Mississippi State: Not a terrible team, but you have six bowl teams ahead of you.
SEC East:
Georgia: This is an elite football program that gets the underachiever label by folks who don’t hold everyone to the same standard they judge UGA by.
Could it be they know UGA is about to knock the National Title door down in the near future and what that may mean? Cue the 1980 jokes haters.
Florida: Gators will be good, but a different kind of good. One that starts with better defensive play. Florida lost 6,600 yards and 79 TDs to the NFL draft from last year.
Missouri: A much improved Tiger squad could challenge for 2nd in the East.
Kentucky: Nope, I’m not buying what you are selling Cats. Your offense is like watching paint dry.
Tennessee: Vols are building back the roster. It is going to take a couple of years.
South Carolina: The Gamecocks are starting a Graduate Assistant at QB. Ouch!
Vanderbilt: We love the Dores during baseball season, but they are an instant win during the fall.
SEC Title game will be Alabama against Georgia.
Brunswick High Pirates Coach’s Show w Sean Pender September 1
Frederica Academy Knights Coach’s Show w Brandon Derrick September 1
Camden County Wildcats Coach’s Show w Jeff Herron September 1
Bounce House Crazy!
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Lying Season is over! College football is in full swing this weekend and all the preseason reviews and prognostications can be thrown in the trash. To steal a line from Hank Williams Jr., “ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?”
As I browse the games this week around the State of Florida, three games stick out with Playoff indications. The first features the number 1 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide taking on the number 14th ranked Miami Hurricanes in Atlanta. Can D’Eric King handle the Bama defense? No, Alabama 49 Miami 24
The second game is Sunday night, Notre Dame travels to Tallahassee to take on FSU. This game is tough to predict with so many unknowns. The Irish are rebuilding on offense and the Noles have a lot of new faces on defense. Notre Dame 27 FSU 24
The feature game in the State of Florida is on Thursday night as Boise State travels to Orlando to take on UCF. Why does this game have major playoff ramifications? For both teams, whoever loses is out week 1. The Playoff committee will give many teams a pass for losing one game but “Non-Power 5” teams do not have that luxury.
Both teams have new head coaches, Boise’s Andy Avalos and UCF’s Gus Malzahn. Both teams are in the running for the Group of Five’s bid on a New Year’s Six bowl game, with an outside chance to sneak into the big show, the College Football Playoffs.
The winner of the season opener in the Bounce House will keep themselves right in the conversation, but the loser will see themselves out.
It’s been a while since Boise State played in a full stadium. The Bounce house is very unique. As soon as you hear KernKraft 400’s “Zombie Nation”, the fans start jumping, and the metal bleachers wiggle and sway the stadium with every impact. Not a typical college football Saturday by any means, especially to first timers.
The Broncos are led by junior quarterback Hank Bachmeier, who threw for 1,150 yards and six touchdowns in five games last season. Boise State will likely run a West Coast style offense and will try to get the ball in the hands of senior receiver CT Thomas. Thomas had 20 catches for 347 yards and two touchdowns last season.
On defense, Boise State’s linebacker Riley Whimpey set the tone for the Broncos. Whimpey has led the Broncos in tackles the last two years, finishing with 61 last season and 83 in 2019. He joined this season with Brock Wilson, a transfer from the Wolfpack at North Carolina State.
Boise State has been to Florida in recent years, they even came home victorious; In 2019, the Broncos upended the Florida State Seminoles 36-31. This team is no stranger to winning on the road.
The Gus Bus has parked, and now it is time to see what Coach Malzahn has in store for the 2021 UCF Knights.
The Knights return quarterback Dillon Gabriel, a junior who has passed for 7,223 and 61 touchdowns over the past two seasons. In both seasons, he’s passed for over 3,000 yards, becoming the third quarterback in school history to do it twice. The other two were NFL quarterbacks Daunte Culpepper and Blake Bortles.
UCF will feature wide receivers Jaylon Robinson, Ryan O’Keefe, Jordan Johnson, Brandon Johnson and Mokiao-Atimalala. This is one of the most talented and fastest receiver units in college football. It has earned them the nickname UCFast.
UCF’s defense was (honestly) hot garbage last season. Luckily, for Orlando, Travis Williams has been brought in to turn things around. With the key additions of Big Kat Bryant, Bryson Armstrong, Ricky Barber in addition to the return of Kalia Davis, look for the Knights to cause disruption on defense.
The crowd, weather, a new coach, and traveling across the country are all factors to the downfall of the Broncos. Most importantly, UCF is a more talented team on both sides of the ball and in this contest, UCF has the best player on the field.
Final: UCF 38 Boise State 20.
Running Wild
By: Jason Bishop
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Camden County Wildcats improved to 2-0 on the young 2021 season Friday night downing the Glynn Red Terrors 46-21, in a game that was not as close as the score indicates.
In fact, Camden was up on the Red Terrors 31-0 early in the 4th quarter and had dominated the game. At no point were the Red Terrors actually in the game.
The Wildcat Wing-T busted big play after big play against a confused Glynn Academy defense that had no answers for the Wing-T all night long. Camden accumulated 550 total yards Friday night in the win, 476 of that was on the ground.
Camden had 11 different running backs run the ball in total against the Red Terrors. The main damage coming from Jake Lindsey, who rushed 141 yards and 2 touchdowns. Deonte Cole rushed for 87 yards and had a 74-yard touchdown reception, Jamie Felix rushed for 99 yards with a TD and KK Albertie added 44 yards on the ground.
Quarterback Gray Loden only attempted 3 passes and completed the long TD pass to Cole for his second passing TD of the season.
The Red Terrors did score 21 points in the 4th quarter to make the score look respectable.
Tyler Devlin started the game at QB for Glynn but did not finish. Colton Seay Came in late in the game and did provide a spark for the Red Terror offense against a Camden defense that was basically playing a prevent formation the entire 4th quarter.
The Red Terrors did put up 282 total yards of offense most of that from the legs of RB John Moody. Glynn rushed for 228 on the night and 140 of that did come in the 4th quarter.
The Wildcats will return home next week to Chris Gilman Stadium to take on Beacon Hill out of Virginia. Beacon Hill lost their season opener last week 66-0 to Choctaw out of Oklahoma.
Knight Run
By: Jeff Doke
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
To put it mildly, the 2021 season opener for the Frederica Knights was a mixed bag.
On the plus side, the Knights were victorious, defeating their longtime rivals, the Valwood Valiants to the tune of 27-6.
On the downside, the already short-staffed team suffered a significant injury with starting quarterback Thomas Veal breaking his non-throwing arm.
The game started with a long drive from the visiting Valiants. Their opening drive covered 46 yards, notched three first downs, and ate almost half of the quarter off the clock.
The Knights defense bent but didn’t break, and the drive ended on the first of several bad snaps going over the head of the Valwood quarterback.
WR/DB Bryce “Ice” Reilly, who gave the Frederica faithful a present playing on his birthday, made his presence known early & often on the opening drive with his first three tackles of the night. He would at least double that total by the end of the game, as well as tacking on a fumble recovery, an interception, and a touchdown reception. Happy birthday, indeed!
Momentum was difficult to establish early, with the two squads swapping 3 & out drives and a 2 & out from Frederica ending on an interception.
Valwood got on the board first with a 40-yard drive, culminating with a 3-yard QB sneak on the third play of the second quarter.
After that, it became the Jordan Triplett show.
After a solid 13 yd kick return from freshman Hayes Carter, Triplett broke off his first big run of the night, scampering 33 yards to set up a 23-yard touchdown pass four plays later on 4th down from Veal to Triplett, putting the Knights in the lead for good, 7-6
By the end of the half, “The River” Jordan had put up 88 yards on the ground, and Veal had thrown a TD and an INT. Sophomore DL Hamp Thompson evened the turnovers at one apiece with a strip sack in the final moments of the 2nd Quarter.
The first drive after the half saw the return of the “Cherokee & Apache” wildcat formations and a steady stream of Jordan Triplett runs. The 12-play drive would burn more than half of the quarter, Triplett would add another 40 yards to his total, and Veal tossed his second TD of the night, this time to Bryce Reilly.
The next two Valwood drives in the 3rd would end in fumbles, recovered by Reilly and Veal respectively.
To start the 4th, Valwood was stringing together their first extended drive since the 1st. An interception by Reilly and stacked penalties for unnecessary roughness & unsportsmanlike conduct ended that and set the Knights up at the Valwood 35-yard line.
Two runs from Veal and five from Triplett led to the final score of the night, a nimble 4-yard run thru traffic from #4.
Unofficially, Jordan Triplett had 176 yards on the ground with two TD runs and one TD reception for 23 yards.
Before the injury late in the 4th, Thomas Veal had thrown for two TDs on a mere 35 yards, and had added a fumble recovery on defense.
The injury to his non-throwing arm will be further assessed, but initial speculation is that it will cost the senior 6 weeks of recovery time. That, more than anything is the big takeaway from the night.
With Coach Derrick’s squad coming into the game with only 21 players dressed, the loss of Veal will be noticeable and how Coach Derrick and his staff adapt will be a challenge to say the least.
Albeit a challenge they have overcome before.
Hurricane Force
By: Jeff Doke
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Miami Hurricanes are never short on swagger. Could this be the year they back it up on the field?
Miami cruised thru most of their 2020 schedule (save for the lopsided mid-season loss at Clemson) before the wheels fell off at the end.
Their regular season finale was an embarrassing 36-point loss in a shootout to North Carolina, and a 3-point loss to Oklahoma State in their bowl game. That left the Hurricanes with an 8-3 record on the season.
In the months since, Miami has been one of the more successful programs in the transfer portal, adding DE Deandre Johnson from Tennessee and CB Tyrique Stevenson from Georgia on defense, as well as quite possibly the best name currently in college football on offense in WR Charleston Rambo from Oklahoma.
In addition to the transfers, Head Coach Manny Diaz has also managed to keep several upperclassmen from testing the waters in the NFL, most notably QB D’Eriq King.
The signal caller had already announced his intention to stay for a final year in college before he tore his ACL in the 2021 Cheez-It Bowl loss to Oklahoma State.
A Herculean rehab effort in the months between have landed King back among the ranks of the healthy, and back in the starting QB slot for the upcoming season.
He won’t have the luxury of easing into the season, though. The ‘Canes start off their 2021 campaign against the vaunted Alabama Crimson Tide.
The Miami faithful, however, are cautiously hopeful going into the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game against the defending National Champions, with many actually predicting an upset victory over the Tide. Their quarterback has a lot to do with that.
With the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA due to Covid, the sixth year senior King will arguably have an advantage over first year starter Bryce Young.
In addition to King, the ‘Canes also have a slew of returning talent on offense – RB Cam’Ron Harris, WRs Mike Harley and the previously mentioned Rambo, TE Will Mallory, and linemen Jarrid Williams, Navaughn Donaldson, and Center Corey Gaynor.
The Defensive side of the ball also seems to have reloaded effectively as well, with fourth year DBs Bubba Bolden and Gurvan Hall and CB DJ Ivey leading the way.
DTs Nesta Jade Silvera and Jon Ford are fourth year players as well, as are DEs Zach McCloud and Deandre Johnson.
In short, game experience is not something the 2021 Miami squad will be short on. Whether that experience will be enough to dethrone the champs in the season opener is yet to be seen, but should be entertaining at least.
After the season opener, the Hurricanes schedule looks to be manageable, thanks to the lack of quality competition in most of the rest of the ACC. Right now, the only games that the Hurricanes aren’t favored to win are North Carolina & Florida State.
The Tarheels will be a tough opponent again, and it would take a lot of things to go right for Miami to avenge their 62-26 loss.
Florida State, on the other hand, always seems to play down to their competition, especially against in-state rivals. If I had to pick an upset to go their way this year, the ‘Noles game would be the one.
While I would be giddy if Miami could knock off Bama in the season opener, I just don’t see it happening. My prediction for “The U” is to wrap up the regular season with a 10-2 record with losses to Alabama and North Carolina, and an upset victory against Florida State.
Whether this slight improvement over a less than impressive slate of opponents would be enough to put them in the National Championship discussion is doubtful. Starting the season 1-0 would go a long way towards improving those chances.
Jason Bishop Show w Kipp Branch August 28
Blazing
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Valdosta State University Blazers are ready to get back into action in 2021.
The Covid-19 Pandemic caused the Blazers 2020 season to be suspended. The last football VSU played was an upset loss to West Florida at home in the Division II playoffs that ended a school record 25 game winning streak.
Gary Goff enters his third year at the helm of the Blazers with a 10-1 record. The Blazers are picked 2nd in the preseason Gulf South Coaches Poll, and picked 6th nationally in The American Football Coaches Association preseason poll.
VSU returns great talent across the board as they have 8 preseason first team all-conference selections.
Headlining the preseason all-conference team for the Blazers are 2019 first team all-conference running backs Jamar Thompkins and Seth McGill, along with wide outs Brian Saunds and Lio’undre Gallimore. Saunds also was named to the preseason all-conference team as a return specialist.
Blazer standout offensive tackle Ralph Singleton also earned a spot on the preseason team as he earned second team all-conference honors in 2019.
Defensively, the Blazers had selections at all three levels with Ja’Davien Williams earning a spot up front, while Nick Moss was selected as a linebacker and 2019 second team all-conference selection Cory Roberts earned a spot in the secondary on the preseason team.
VSU will be attempting to win their third straight Gulf South Conference football title this fall.
Gulf South Conference Preseason Coaches’ Poll:
West Florida
Valdosta State
Delta State
West Alabama
West Georgia
Mississippi College
North Greenville
Shorter
Schedule/My Predictions:
Sep 4 vs. Savannah State: The Tigers will be looking for answers early in this one, but none will reveal themselves. Everyone with a Blazer uniform on plays. Blazers start 1-0 with a 52-7 win.
Sep 11 @ Virginia Union: Long road trip for the Blazers, but they shake off a first quarter hangover and end up pulling away for a 34-14 win to go to 2-0 on the season.
Sep 18 vs. Albany State: The Rams travel to Bazemore-Hyder and get a rude welcome. Blazers go to 3-0 on the season with a 38-17 win.
Oct 2 vs. Shorter: Shorter is not a very good football team, and they get blown out on the road 49-3. VSU goes to 4-0 on the season.
Oct 9 vs, Delta State: The Statesmen give the Blazers a test on the road, but come up short in a good contest 31-24. Blazers are 5-0 and ranked #2 in the nation.
Oct 16 @ West Alabama: Trips to Livingston, Alabama are never easy. Blazers pull one out against a very good Tiger team 27-23. VSU is 6-0 on the season.
Oct 23 @ Mississippi College: Back-to-back long conference road trips are never easy. MC is down and VSU whips the Choctaws 42-17. Blazers go to 7-0 on the season.
Oct 30 vs. West Georgia: Rivalry game at home. Wolves get hammered by the Blazers 49-20. Blazers are 8-0 on the season.
Nov 6 vs. North Greenville: Homecoming week where folks like me show up and reminisce about our days at old Valdosta State College from the 1980’s while the Blazers rip the Crusaders just like the Delta Chi’s did the Kappa Alpha Order in anything considered athletic back in the day. VSU wins 42-0. VSU is 9-0 on the season.
Nov 13 @ West Florida: The Argos are preseason #1 in the county and defending national champions. This could be the Division II game of the century.
The Argos ended a 25 game Blazer winning streak in 2019. VSU has been looking forward to this game for two years and will go on the road and get it done in Pensacola with a hard fought 31-28 win, and win their third straight GSC title.
Valdosta State will enter the playoffs as the #1 seed and will be a strong pick to win another National Title for Winnersville, USA also known as Valdosta, Georgia.
