Rebels cruising for Bama bruising; A&M will edge Auburn; LSU to

(RNN) - We finally have football drama three weeks into the season.

The SEC West is the epicenter of cathartic scenarios Saturday: tales of revenge, coach-firing ramifications and Les Miles, who's sure to say something funny.

Including No. 1 Alabama, the nation's top three teams play people good enough to beat them.

America’s sweetheart Florida State travels to 754-yards-per-game averaging Louisville (not a typo). No. 3 Ohio State can turn the early promise of No. 14 Oklahoma into despair. Conversely, the Sooner could consign the lofty Buckeye to a postseason defense of last year's Fiesta Bowl victory.

No. 12 Michigan State could transform No.18 Notre Dame's season into a failure to thrive before the leaves turn. The Irish already lost their opener to Texas, 50-47.

Alabama at Ole Miss, 3:30 p.m. ET, CBS

The run-up to this game exhibits telltale portents of an imminent Alabama massacre.

Nick Saban was courteous and soft-spoken to the media in his weekly news conference, which usually means somebody’s going to get it. He talked about what a failure the offense has been in gaining 470 yards per game and averaging 45 points.  

He did everything but wring his hands and ask for advice on what to do about Ole Miss’ hurry-hurry offense and quarterback Chad Kelly.

Translation: Alabama will rain down blistering obliteration like that volcano in Italy did to the Romans back in olden days. He added that he never used revenge as a motivational tool, but it's the sort of thing that could happen on its own.

Alabama is just better than Ole Miss. Of course, they were better the past two years, when they lost. This year is different.They are the volcano, Ole Miss is Pompeii.

The only way the tattered Land Shark defense can stop Alabama’s offense is to get in front of them in a grocery store checkout line then pull out a shoebox full of coupons.

Two weeks ago, Ole Miss unraveled while Florida State gained 580 yards and scored 45 points - 32 in the second half – to erase a 22-point lead and turn Rebel joy to sorrow.

Kelly looked great the first half, awful the second and gave up four turnovers against Florida State.

Florida State is good, but not better than Alabama. Ole Miss has some critical injuries heading into Saturday, particularly in the offensive line.

Alabama’s defense is malicious on an ordinary day. This is no ordinary day.

Mississippi State at No. 20 LSU, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN2

Les Miles can keep the pink slip in the AD's desk by beating Mississippi State.

The good news is Leonard Fournette is back from an ankle injury. There's no word on whether he's 100 percent, but he could gain about 100 in a wheelchair. True story: Vegas did not even drop a line on the game until the news got out that Leonard was going to play. Moments after news broke he was good to go, the Bayou Boys became 16-point favorites.

It takes $300,000 to move a Vegas line a half-a-point, which means Leonard is worth $96 million. Sounds about right.

The Tigers are going to wear throwback gold uniforms, much like the ones they wore back in the 1940s. Coincidentally, LSU runs the same offense it did in the 1940s.

I kid, I kid.

No. 17 Texas A&M at Auburn, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN

Coach Gus Malzahn cut himself a little slack with a pretty loss to Clemson and an ugly win over some people known as the Red Wolves.

Auburn is tough at home. The defense has looked surprisingly good the past two weeks. Sean White has settled in at quarterback, and the baby faced kid looks good with the new beard, which makes him look older than 12.

Sean will be assailed by the Johnny Football of defense.

Mutant defensive end Myles Garrett makes mush out of tackles, quarterbacks and game plans. Visual aid: watch him take the manhood of UCLA’s left tackle then crash into uber-QB Josh Rosen like an offense-destroying missile.

There’s not much to do to stop him – if he doesn’t beat your double-team, one of the other creatures on the Aggie defensive line will get you.

Senior transfer QB Trevor Knight has brought stability to the offense, and helped produce a 2-0 record that has taken some heat off coach Kevin Sumlin, who was tied with Malzahan in the SEC-coach-on-the-hot-seat contest, just behind LSU's Les Miles.

However, if Auburn lives up to its 3.5-point home favorite billing, Sumlin will be right back in the soup. 

The other ones:

Vanderbilt at Georgia Tech: The Smart Boy Bowl. This one would be more interesting if both teams took the SAT then posted their scores online. Ohio at Tennessee: Ohio flies up and down the field, but the Vols should be able to outscore them. "Should," I say. Sorry, Vol sympathizers, I just keep waiting for the wheels to come off, you know? Georgia at Missouri, 7:30 p.m. ET on SECN: Georgia looked good against North Carolina, bad against Nicholls State. Mizzou looked bad against West Virginia, then scored 61 against Eastern Michigan, which was good to see because the offense was horrific last year. Georgia will probably win, but not if they are as sloppy as last week. Arkansas hosts Texas State, and should win, but with the Hogs you never know - thought they have looked pretty sporty so far. South Carolina hosts East Carolina, which is a really good ball team, All the good cheer of the season-opening win over Vandy is about gone, and things could get ugly early in Columbia. Florida plays North Texas and Kentucky plays New Mexico State and that’s all there is to say about that.

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