Title up for grabs in wild SEC West race

BOB HOLT
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

FAYETTEVILLE -- Deuces are wild in the SEC West.
After a Saturday that saw Tennessee beat Alabama and LSU beat Mississippi State, all six West teams have two losses.
Arkansas is last in the West at 1-2, but just one game behind first-place Alabama, Auburn and LSU, which are all 3-2. Ole Miss and Mississippi State are 2-2.
"We've got a new life," Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville said. "I guess everybody on the Western side of the conference does.
"It's all up for grabs."
Arkansas Coach Houston Nutt couldn't contain his enthusiasm after Sunday's practice, clapping his hands together and telling reporters the Razorbacks were back in the West race before anyone could even ask him about it.
"Anything can happen if we take care of our business," Nutt said. "This race is wide open."
Mississippi State looked like the best team in the West after beating Auburn and Florida in consecutive weeks to hand both teams their first loss, but LSU ran over the Bulldogs at Tiger Stadium to win 45-38 in overtime.
The losses by Alabama and Mississippi State weren't a surprise, Nutt said.
"I really expected it to happen, because it's such a wacky, wild, wild season," Nutt said. "There's not one team that's just so dominant ... It is a mind game every time you go out there for those two hours and 45 minutes."
The Razorbacks feel as though they have new life despite being pounded in their last two SEC games, by Georgia (38-7) and South Carolina (27-7).
"It's like we've got a clean slate now with everybody having two losses," Arkansas junior nose guard Curt Davis said. "It's a crazy thing, but three losses and you could still go to Atlanta."
Atlanta is the site for the SEC Championship Game.
No SEC team, East or West, has won a division title with more than two losses since the conference expanded into divisions in 1992, but the West winner may make history this season with so many key intra-division games remaining.
Arkansas appears to have the toughest schedule with three road games -- at Auburn, Tennessee and Mississippi State -- while no other West team has more than two left and Auburn has just one.
Nutt wants his team focusing on the positive of being in the thick of the West race despite a 1-2 start.
"Right now you take anything positive that you can," Nutt said. "We're not sitting here 7-0 or 6-1 like we'd all like to be, but all of a sudden 4-2 looks pretty good."
In the wild SEC West, even 1-2 doesn't look so bad.

This article was published on Monday, October 23, 2000

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