SEC Game of Interest (Week 5)

Although I'm neither particularly surprised nor impressed with the largest victory of the Mark Richt era, I have to admit that it cheered me up a bit. While I'm still a bit worried about Tennessee's talented receivers taking our secondary to task this weekend, I'm hoping that we won't require the services of any other nihilistic guest pickers any time soon, particularly because that guy also went 1-1 against the spread. This column is now 4-6 on the season in SEC picks, and things don't appear to be getting any easier. What is easy is deciding which game is this week's SEC Game of Interest: Missouri at No. 13 South Carolina (-5.5).

The pick: South Carolina -5.5

Why you should care: We need South Carolina to suffer another conference loss, and we play Mizzou in two weeks. Blatant homerism aside, even GameDay knows this game is a big deal.

Rationale: Last week Mizzou lost to a B1G team, and it wasn't even one of the decent ones. The Tigers haven't looked particularly impressive in their wins either. South Carolina may have struggled against Vanderbilt last weekend, but (a) they managed to win (unlike Missouri) and (b) they were due for a letdown after a big victory against us with this in-conference game looming on the horizon. I expect we'll see South Carolina finally start to look like the team that everyone expected them to be in the preseason.

Bonus pick: Texas A&M -9 hosting Arkansas. Bert still hasn't proven that his Hogs can beat a good team, and Texas A&M is going to put up some points in a hurry. They'll force Arkansas out of their run-first-run-last-ok-just-run-all-the-time comfort zone.