Adams: Vols find there's more to Louisiana than LSU

The name doesn't matter. It could be Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana-Lafayette or — in this evening's case — Louisiana Tech.

In 1992, the Vols beat Louisiana-Lafayette 38-3. A year later, they beat Louisiana Tech 50-0. In 2000, they beat Louisiana-Monroe 70-3.

Notice a trend.

UT Vs. Louisiana Tech: No pick.

Sure, I could fatten up my picks percentage by predicting an outrageously one-sided victory for Tennessee. But as you can see by my percentages below, I'm not that desperate.

Moreover, I don't want to be a part of some embarrassingly lopsided score.

You know how coaches love bulletin-board material. If I pick UT to beat Louisiana Tech as decisively as it did 11 years ago, some devious coach will use it to motivate his players, most of whom are either looking back on Florida or looking ahead to Auburn.

"Look what this idiot wrote," the coach will say. "He thinks you're only 50 points better than Louisiana Tech."

The players will then get all worked up and attack Tech as though it's responsible for sending them to the Peach Bowl the last two years.

If the Vols want to beat Louisiana Tech that bad, they can have at it. But I won't be a part of it.

Arkansas 24, Alabama 17: Question: Is it too late to schedule a game with Hawaii?

With its team on NCAA probation and ineligible for bowls, the 'Bama brain trust shrewdly scheduled late-season games with Hawaii the last two years. It might need another one, now that quarterback Brodie Croyle is out for the season with a knee injury.

I know what you're thinking: "But Alabama only needs to win three more games to have the necessary six victories to be bowl eligible."

Kentucky is one. Mississippi State is two.

When you find a third one, get back to me.

LSU 27, Mississippi State 6: The Tigers missed a wonderful opportunity when they failed to schedule Louisiana Tech as a non-conference opponent Oct. 16.

They play the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Saturday and the Georgia Bulldogs next Saturday. Louisiana Tech could have given them an SEC-record three consecutive games against Bulldog opponents.

From the looks of its offense, LSU won't be setting any other records, either.

Florida 45, Kentucky 23: After studying the Tennessee-Florida videotape, Kentucky will attempt to shove Florida receivers at every opportunity in hopes of baiting them into a series of 15-yard personal foul penalties.

Unfortunately for the Wildcats, they won't get that close to Florida's receivers.

South Carolina 30, Troy 24: Gamecocks coach Lou Holtz will have Troy sounding like USC's Men of Troy by kickoff. He will tell them how Troy won at Marshall one week and knocked off nationally ranked Missouri the next week.

He will forget to mention that Troy also lost to New Mexico State, which lost its first two games by a 104-27 margin.

Navy 27, Vanderbilt 23: Help! For three seconds, I actually considered picking Vanderbilt to beat the unbeaten Midshipmen.

I'm OK now.

Navy's slogan for 2004 is "We wanna beat Ivy League wannabes." Its schedule includes Duke, Vanderbilt, Rice and Tulane.

Ole Miss 30, Wyoming 23: Bush-bashing Democrats are cleverly using this game to hammer the Republicans on our failing economy. If the economy were better, wouldn't Ole Miss have paid Wyoming to move the game to Memphis?

Auburn 34, The Citadel 7: With UT on deck, Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville should play it safe with running backs Carnell Williams and Ronnie Brown.

Don't just limit their carries. Don't even let them on the field.

They can get enough yards for two games when they play Louisiana Tech on Oct. 9.

Top 25: Southern Cal 41, Stanford 14; Texas 48, Rice 20; West Virginia 55, James Madison 16; Florida State 38, Clemson 23; Virginia 45, Syracuse 29; Utah 38, Air Force 17; Purdue 44, Illinois 23; Michigan 27, Iowa 20; Minnesota 45, Northwestern 29; Wisconsin 23, Penn State 17; Arizona State 30, Oregon State 27; Maryland 41, Duke 20; Louisville 44, North Carolina 28.

Record: 59-8 (.881) overall, 37-30 (.552) against the spread.

John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knews.com.