NWADG College Football

39 NWA COLLEGE FOOTBALL PREVIEW | 9.20.2020 Arkansas & Missouri Railroad Train Rides Springdale to Van Buren - layover for lunch and shopping Springdale to Winslow Visit: amtrainrides.com or call 479-725-4017 today for reservations. For your safety A&M is following all CDC guidelines 1411 Apple Blossom Avenue Lowell ozarkpatternconcrete.com GO TEAM! Bulldogs 38-10 in Athens, Ga. That lopsided loss was a blow Mark Richt couldn't overcome. He resigned under pressure as Georgia's coach after the season despite a 9-3 record and was replaced by Smart. ALABAMA AT TENNESSEE, OCT. 24 For the fourth consecutive game Tide Coach Nick Saban will face a head coach — Jeremy Pruitt in this case — who was an assistant for him. The previous three weeks he will have gone against Texas A&M's Jimbo Fisher, Ole Miss' Lane Kiffin and Georgia's Kirby Smart. Pruitt came to Tennessee for the 2018 season after being Alabama's defensive coordinator. The Vols have lost 13 in a row to the Tide, but there are signs Tennessee is closing the gap. Pruitt has put together some impressive signing classes, and Tennessee rallied to finish 8-5 last season after starting 0-2 with losses at home to Georgia State and BYU. Tennessee last beat the Tide 16-13 in 2006 – the season before Saban was hired as Alabama's coach. LSU AT AUBURN, OCT. 31 The battle of the Tigers will come on the 61st anniversary of Billy Cannon's 89-yard punt return on Halloween Night in 1959 that carried LSU to a 7-3 victory over Ole Miss. Don't be surprised if Auburn and LSU come up with their own Halloween classic. The last four meetings have been decided by a combined 13 points, including three consecutive victories by LSU. Auburn's last victory, 18-13 on Sept. 24, 2016, in Jordan-Hare Stadium, turned out to be Les Miles' final game as LSU's coach. Ed Orgeron, the former Arkansas graduate assistant strength coach, replaced Miles as interim coach and has held onto the job. The Tigers are 40-9 under Orgeron, including a 15-0 record last season when they won the national championship. FLORIDA VS. GEORGIA, NOV. 7 The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party will be considerably smaller this season with social distancing, but at least the tradition of the Gators and Bulldogs playing in Jacksonville, Fla., continues. Georgia Coach Kirby Smart is 3-1 in the series, with three consecutive victories that have been instrumental in the Bulldogs winning three consecutive SEC East titles. Dan Mullen is 21-5 as Florida's coach, but 0-2 against the Bulldogs. For Florida to win its first SEC East title since 2016, the Gators likely need to end Georgia's winning streak in the series. ALABAMA AT LSU, NOV. 14 LSU ended an eight-game losing streak against Alabama last season when the Tigers won a 46-41 shootout in Tuscaloosa, Ala. That victory helped carry the Tigers to their first national championship since 2007. If LSU is to make another run at the title, the Tigers likely need to beat Alabama. LSU hasn't beaten Alabama in back-to-back seasons since 2010 and 2011. But the 2011 regular-season victory, 9-6 in overtime at Tuscaloosa for No. 1 LSU over the No. 2 Tide, was bittersweet for the Tigers because Alabama came back to beat them 21-0 in the national title game in the Sugar Bowl. TENNESSEE AT AUBURN, NOV. 21 Although both were charter members of the SEC when the conference was formed in 1933, the Vols and Tigers haven't played each other a lot. This will be their 54th matchup – and 11th since 1992 – and it was added to the schedule when the SEC decided to play 10 games against all conference members. Two of the last 10 matchups came in the SEC Championship Game, where Tennessee won in 1997 and Auburn in 2004. The teams last played in 2018 when Tennessee won 30-24 at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Tennessee and Auburn played every season from 1956-91, but those annual games ended when the SEC expanded to 12 teams and split into divisions. AUBURN AT ALABAMA, NOV. 28 Alabama Coach Nick Saban has a winning record against Auburn's Gus Malzahn in the Iron Bowl, but not by much. Saban's Tide are 4-3 against Auburn since Malzahn – the former Arkansas high school coach, Razorbacks offensive coordinator and Arkansas State coach – took over at Auburn in 2013. The Tigers beat Alabama 48-45 last season to knock the Tide out of the College Football Playoff for the first time in six years. Saban has a 157-20 record at Alabama against teams other than Malzahn's Tigers. FLORIDA AT TENNESSEE, DEC. 5 Since the SEC expanded to 12 teams and two divisions in 1992, East rivals Florida and Tennessee always have met in September, except in 2001 when their game was delayed until December because of terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11 of that year. In this upside-down coronavirus season, the Gators and Vols are scheduled to meet in the finale. It's possible that by the time this game is played, the SEC East already will have been won by Georgia or Florida. Maybe even Tennessee. But there's also a good chance this game will have championship implications for the Gators or Vols — and maybe both — as so often was the case in their early-season matchups of the past. AP Photo/ Sue Ogrocki LSU head coach Ed Orgeron cheers during the first half of a NCAA College Football Playoff national championship game against Clemson Monday, Jan. 13, 2020, in New Orleans.

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