The Sports Desk is pleased to note that the teams within the Three-Hour Drive did well yesterday, at least those at the top of the order.  It was a little rougher in the lower half of the group.

Most importantly, the Number-Three-ranked Georgia Bulldogs pulled off a convincing win over their SEC neighbors, the No. 24-ranked Gamecocks of the University of South Carolina ("the real USC"). Georgia played a little tentatively at first, leading South Carolina by "only" 10 points at the half, but both the Bulldog offense and defense rose to the occasion in the second half and put the 'Cocks away, 41-17.

We'll be the first to admit we have a bit of an attitude toward South Carolina.  According to Google maps, Columbia, SC is a 3-hour, 9-minute drive from here, so we could easily have included them in the Three-Hour Drive if we had wanted too - it could be argued that we drive just a little bit faster than Google maps anticipates, or we could just move the epicenter of the Three-Hour Drive a mere nine minutes east of the house.  But screw those guys.  I don't want them in our group.  Screw Steve Spurrier and Lou Holtz and all the other superstar coaches who over the years tried to make South Carolina into an SEC contender. Columbia, South Carolina is and always will be the graveyard of coaches, or at least of their reputations, and until some coach at "the real USC" comes up with a winning strategy beyond "Well, first we have to beat Georgia," the team will continue to languish in the basement of the SEC.  Besides, the Gamecock's goofy logo looks like Chick-Fil-A. 

  
 Let's see, what else happened yesterday?

• No. 1-ranked Alabama completely demolished Arkansas State, 57-7, to the surprise of absolutely no one anywhere.  

• No. 2-ranked Clemson had their hands full at College Station, but managed to hold off the SEC's Texas A&M, 28-26.  A failed Aggie two-point conversion in the closing minute would have put the game into overtime, and although a win's still a win, the unimpressive Tiger performance may be enough for Georgia to slip past them in the polls and take the No. 2 spot.

• No. 7 Auburn absolutely destroyed Alabama State 63-9.  

• Unranked Tennessee managed to win their first game of the season, annihilating East Tennessee State 59-3 and moving up to 1-1.

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the order, things were a bit rougher.

• Georgia Tech lost to the South Florida Bulls in a wild, 49-38 game in Tampa (yes, that's 87 total points), and slipped down to 1-1.

• Georgia State was clobbered by NC State 41-7 in Raleigh, where, the Music Desk insists on adding, the bands Ought,  Grouper, Still Corners, Gang Gang Dance, Speedy Ortiz, Liz Phair, the Detroit proto-metal/punk stalwarts The MC5 (now calling themselves The MC50 these fifty years later), and Deakin of Animal Collective were all performing as part of the annual Hopscotch Festival. Looking over the lineup, the Music Desk wonders how this one got past our radar - we attended Hopscotch in 2014 but haven't been back, although this year's lineup looked stellar (those were just the Saturday performers at the three-day festival, those who played while the Wolfpack were tearing the Yellow Jackets apart in Raleigh). At least the Panther fans had some good music with which to console themselves after the loss. 

So, even with one-loss records for three of the seven 3-Hour Drive teams, no team in the group currently has a losing record, and four of the seven highest-ranked teams in the nation are close-by enough that we could drive there in less time than it would take to watch The Godfather (one of today's NY Times crossword clues was "One of the Corleones in The Godfather").

The answer is "Fredo," but don't tell anyone you heard it here.