Logan Stewart, you're a cheap, cheating thug

James Franklin, more and more you and your whole outfit look like trash.

From The AJC:

“I’ve played football and been around football all my life,” said Robert Geathers Sr., who played in the NFL for 13 seasons has has two other sons playing professionally, “and if you watch it you see this kid speed up while everybody else is slowing down and he’s locked in on my son’s leg. If you look closely you can see the guy give a thumbs up to the sideline and the coach telling him ‘good job.’ I was, like, ‘Wow!’ I could be sitting here today telling you how my son’s surgery went.

The 2011 College Football TV Schedule

I don't know who runs www.lsu.net, but they always seem to have one of the most complete and user-friendly T.V. schedules of the college football season.

Just bear in mind, all those times are central.

By the way, what a shit hole of openers tonight. I guess South Carolina's too big a deal these days to start the season on a Thursday night.

The 2011 AP Top 25 in list form

Twelve years in the newspaper business and I can't for the life of me figure out why the Associated Press is so quick to move a story on their College Football Top 25's, but makes just a simple list hard to find.

1. Oklahoma (36 of 60 first place votes)
2. Alabama (17)
3. Oregon (4)
4. LSU (1)
5. Boise State (2)
6. FSU
7. Stanford
8. Texas A&M
9. Oklahoma State
10. Nebraska
11. Wisconsin
12. South Carolina
13. Virginia Tech
14. TCU
15. Arkansas
16. Notre Dame
17. Michigan State
18. Ohio State
19. Georgia
20. Mississippi State
21. Missouri
22. Florida
23. Auburn
24. West Virginia
25. Southern Cal

Seems like there are some reaches in there. But, then, what else to expect before the season starts?

Defensive shuffle: Looking for answers

Ogletree moving to inside linebacker, and some of the rest of what Defensive Coordinator Todd Grantham had to say Thursday, tells me a few things. Mostly it tells me to worry about safety.

Me: I'm pretty sure we're only excited because there's news. I'm still worried about a range of things here.

Joe: Oh, we're gonna worry. We're gonna worry until we're over confident.

Me: And then the losing starts.

Beginning of the end at NCAA HQ?

After 12 years in newspapers, I can tell you that this rule of thumb almost never lets you down: When people feel the need to respond to critics with a lengthy clarifying statement like this, someone's going down, and they're not named Cam Newton.

Usually it's the person who put out the statement, but surely NCAA President Mark Emmert, hired in April, is too new for the ax to fall on him. But people who get out-flanked by Cecil Newton shouldn't keep their jobs. And this line, seemingly from Kevin Lennon in the gray sidebar on Emmert's statement, has an air of defensiveness that seldom springs from or engenders job security:

While comparisons may be human nature, they should at least be made based on the facts.

Translation: It's not me, it's all of you. Good luck with that attitude.

As usual, The Senator asks the appropriate questions:

If Emmert thinks the amateurism rules need strengthening, whose fault is that?

... somehow, I’m supposed to believe that Cecil Newton is smart enough to game the system to confound two of the shrewder groups of people on the planet, but not smart enough to profit from it. Does that makes sense to anyone not named Mark Emmert or Mike Slive?

Could ESPN force a playoff?

I know it's past time to hate tech in this space, but The Senator broached an issue this morning that's worth considering.

He points to a blurb from Tim Tucker, which lays out the changes eight different teams had to make to accommodate our 2011 season opener with Boise State.

Apparently ESPN played a big role in making it all happen. Asks Blutarsky:

If the WWL really wanted a D-1 football playoff, how long do you think it would take for it to get its way?

Good question.

The SEC East: all is madness and regret

Shouldas, wouldas and couldas aside, is it at all reasonable to expect us to beat Kentucky, Florida and Auburn, and for South Carolina to lose two more SEC games?

I don't think so, either. But hope is a wonderful thing to have granted by Steve Spurrier's greed, even if it's just salt in your wounds.

(2-2 in the SEC) South Carolina's remaining schedule:

10/23/10 at Vanderbilt
10/30/10 vs. Tennessee
11/06/10 vs. Arkansas
11/13/10 at Florida
11/20/10 vs. Troy
11/27/10 at Clemson

Update: This, from a comment thread on Get The Picture, probably sums it up best:

devildawg, October 16, 2010 at 10:16 PM

It’s gonna happen!!!

AmpedDawg, October 16, 2010 at 10:37 PM

Not unless Cam Newton decides he needs another good deal on a laptop.

Agreed: Redding is full of it

Let me just agree with The Senator on this: Rogers Redding is ridiculous.

“We’re always going to allow that immediate, initial, spontaneous burst of emotion,” Redding said. “These are teenagers that are playing a game that is very emotional.

“It would be so technical and so over-officiating to have called anything like that at the very end of the game.”

You still owe A.J. Green an apology, Redding.

Coach Grantham, please fix the tackling

I look at football a little differently than most, which is to say that my unrealistic expectations are different than the unrealistic expectations of many college football fans.

For example, I don't want Mike Bobo to overhaul his play-calling / be fired. I want Orson Charles to make that difficult catch on the 3 yard line during our first drive of the day, then fall forward for a touchdown. The guy's a stud, and studs make those catches, or else they should be playing outside linebacker.

I can't be mad at Coach Richt for not opening up the playbook for Aaron Murray, because I've wanted him to take it easy with the kid for the last six months. That's a hard thing to change in the second quarter in Columbia, though it probably would have cost us fewer time outs than whatever silliness we burned three on during the first 8 minutes of the third quarter.

And as good as Murray looked yesterday, and as exciting as that is for the rest of this season and beyond, you can't say the he didn't have chances to bring us back in the 4th quarter Saturday, specifically during a pair of drives that quickly ended with 3-and-outs.

I can't be mad about Washaun's fumble, because it was a real good strip, and a tough football play that just happened to come at a soul-crushing moment. I can wonder whether running into a parked car and missing the warm-up game is the best preparation for an SEC schedule.

For that matter, perhaps AJ Green should re-examine his decision-making matrix.

But I digress, because all of this isn't particularly relevant for me. You see, I like defense. I like safeties that make wide receivers wet themselves and defensive linemen with the thousand-yard crazy stare. I like referring to an opposing quarterback's mistake as "Touchdown, Georgia."

I like mashing people on special teams, running over personal protectors to block punts and guys named Brandon or Branden cracking the sound barrier on their way to endzones.

I like focus and performance in general, and that was lacking.

I think the more reasonable among us will agree that South Carolina has a better football team than Georgia. We probably have more speed, but we looked small yesterday. And I think we tricked ourselves into thinking Coach Grantham had a way to run the 3-4 with our current personnel without too many growing pains.

That hasn't happened, and clearly depth is a concern, because we did not substitute as expected. And for some reason we still can't tackle, which is disturbing despite an overall sense of optimism about this team. Like a rat gnawing on your subconscious, whispering "Maybe you didn't cut out all the cancer. Maybe it's growing again."

There is still a long season to go, and we've all seen a South Carolina loss end up as a missed opportunity in an otherwise very good season, as opposed to the first missed step that causes you to fall down the stairs and end up in the cellar.

But, boy, the way we lost that game Saturday.

Sure, we cleaned up the penalties, committing only four for 25 yards. That is progress. There are other things to be excited about, especially as Aaron Murray matures and throws on the money, instead of one step off it.

But the special teams were mediocre, and not because of directional kicking. And the defense. Good grief, the defense. Next Sunday it may be time to wonder whether we have the horses we need, particularly in the front seven other than Justin Houston, though the safeties didn't exactly acquit themselves well in Columbia.

Or we could just learn to tackle. Really, I don't care about anything else until we do that.

New blog policy: Car chases in all commercials - a South Carolina preview

Anyone telling you they've got a prediction for this game is full of it.

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Some commercial the other night made me think: "We should put a car chase in all commercials." And if it's good for a commercial ...


Wasn't going to go with Bullitt. And then Steve McQueen "explained" it to me. Warning, though, the guy he's chasing doesn't even put his seat belt on til 3:14.
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Starnes: I have no idea if this is going to be the resurgence or the complete unraveling downfall. I mean, it could go either way the next three weeks. What if we lost two out of these next three games? Also, it wouldn't surprise me if we just come out and kick ass.

Me: I don't know that it has to be either of those yet. It could be in the middle. I think I'm more excited than worried.

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Is it possible I forgot how much I like College Football? Because it's been story-line packed so far. I would have preferred not to see AJ Green in the wake of the NCAA getting awesome at catching people for violations just after catching USC.

Makes you wonder: Who does the NCAA know in the south eastern United States? You know, some one who knows things about football programs in, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida.

But the NCAA/AJ situation did shut people up about Boise State for a while. Joe told me he heard Brent Musberger and Paul Finebaum, early in the week on satellite radio, debating whether Boise State could succeed with an SEC schedule.

"How do you think it went," Joe said.
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Does any one else want to hear Michael Adams, and some other people at the University of Georgia, take issue with the NCAA?
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Me: Is it me, or is it getting stupider out there this year?

Joe: I don't know. Do you think Boise State should play for the National Title?
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It's one thing to say there's a difference between sportsblogging and sportswriting. It's another to see elements of their evolution toward one thing.
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Me: The two teams seem pretty evenly matched. But the problem is that Louisiana Lafayette and Southern Miss, I just don't know how to account for them. They're like unknown values in an equation, and I hope it adds up to Georgia beat down.

Huff: That's some professional analysis.

Me: If our line blocks, I feel good. We have speed on defense. We'll miss a few things, but we'll make plays, too. And from there, we just can't beat ourselves, and the talent will take over.
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From the Senator, last Friday:

Easily the biggest surprise last night for me was seeing how much of the old swag Spurrier reclaimed. I’m not talking about his behavior. I’m talking about his playcalling. As vanilla as Johnson was, the OBC was anything but – tons of formations, a very nice reverse call, a little wildcat were all on display, along with the old staples. That’s the sign of a confident man who believes he’s got the weapons to play with again.

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Finally, there is this from the L.I. Athens Bureau, reporting from Columbia shortly after midnight:

Consensus: Noon games for two top 25 teams are lame.

Boise State v. Virginia Tech

I agree with all of this:

Yes, with all the lead changes, Boise State and Virginia Tech put on an entertaining show for us last night, but is there much doubt that Alabama would wipe the floor with either team?

The Broncos offense lived up to its billing last night, but I wasn’t very impressed with the defense, which basically turned out to be a fundamentally sound, less than elite-skilled bunch that gambled all night long. A competent offensive coordinator with a few good weapons would have picked them apart.

Fortunately for Boise State, Virginia Tech doesn’t have one.

Portraits in Awesome: Joe Namath

From Namath: A Biography, by Mark Kriegel:

Several men are alleged to have visited Bryant atop his tower: Governor Wallace, Dr. Frank Rose, the university president, Happy Campbell, the baseball coach; and a comedian from Mississippi in whom Bryant took great delight. But these sightings are difficult to confirm. More certain are the fact concerning Namath's arrival at the practice field. There is no shortage of witnesses, all of whom recount with awe the moment when Joe Namath became the first and only player to ascend.

"Everybody was just shocked," says Hicks, the manager. "Joe was up there thirty, forty minutes, and Coach Bryant talked the whole time. Joe said he could only understand one word: 'stud.' The whole time, 'stud' is the only word he could understand."

Tells the story of Namath's life through January of 2004.








Image: SI.


And, yes, I'm writing book reports now, mother.

The Orlando Sentinel sports department has near zero credibility

This is kind of part two of this train of thought. It was Mike Bianchi's column, arguing that Georgia is the most overrated program in college football history, that set me off. But that's not even close to the Orlando Sentinel's biggest blow against its own credibility.

The Orlando Sentinel is just trolling for hits. You know it. I know it. Stop clicking on their sports stories.

When Mike Bianchi writes "Without this fluke Lindsay Scott play, Georgia would be South Carolina," of course that's not true. The very exercise of asking "what if" about the past speaks to an outfit's intentions.

And where does Bianchi's argument that "Georgia fans have way too high an opinion of their program" take us? Is complacency a newly praised American virtue? Is know your place his actual advice?

"Oh, we're the 12th winningest program in college football history. Let's definitely not try to be No. 1."

That's loser logic, and I doubt Bianchi even buys it himself. Saying things you know people will hate has been a newspaper columnist trick for ages. The Internet just offers new proof that it works.

But it's the sign of a man that you should not trust. Take Andrew Breitbart, the unrepentant rumor monger who told purposeful lies of omission in the now well-known case of Shirley Sherrod.

"I realized I liked being hated more than I liked being liked," Breitbart has said.

What a dangerous attitude, particularly in writers not particularly concerned with the truth.

I see the same idea at work in the Orlando Sentinel sports department. Surely they don't believe their own college football poll. The one that ranks Army, Northwestern, Connecticut, Middle Tennessee and Idaho all at least 20 spots higher than Georgia?

Add that poll to Bianchi's click-hunting columns. Then look to the Sentinel's main sports page. As of this moment it features at least six promos for photo galleries of cheerleaders or dance teams. It's got two promos for lingerie football tryout photos, and those tryouts were held May 1.

The Sentinel's online sports strategy is apparent: Pander to the baser instincts and generate controversy, whether the facts support it or not. Angry readers and girls in their underwear mean hits.

This is a formula for short term success, no doubt about it. But, long term, it wipes out your credibility.

I think that day has come for the Orlando Sentinel. When it comes to college football, the paper no longer has any credibility for me. But, if I need a place to find famous mug shots or guess which celebrity these abs belong to, I'll know where to turn.

Note: Before publishing this I emailed Bianchi and the Sentinel's sports editor for comment. I haven't heard back. I'm emailing them a link to this post, and will publish a response if I receive one.

Old fashioned hate

There's lots to love in this post at About Them Dawgs! But a sentence like this:

Let me first add that in the 1893 game, the contest's umpire made several questionable calls against Georgia.

gets to the essence of rivalry.

The ACC is years ahead of its time

Provided that time is June, 2004.

From Tiger Illustrated ($$) last Thursday:

Clemson president James Barker is part of an ACC task force being formed to examine the issue of expansion and how it could affect the conference, Tigerillustrated.com has learned.

Conference expansion plan: Destroy Georgia tech

With the news that the SEC may not be sitting on the sidelines as College Football turns upside down, I have just one thing to add.

The conference's ultimate goal in expansion should be the demolition of Georgia tech's hopes and dreams, plus whatever else we can ruin for them. Anything we do toward those ends will be welcome.

Dude, the Falcons traded for Tony Gonzalez

Per The AJC. Gave up a second round pick for the 10-time Pro Bowler. That could be sweet.

I predict Stafford and Moreno will rock the draft. And that Thomas Dimitroff has another awesome draft and makes sure people know how to spell his name.

Bradley: Since the 2008 draft was completed, 2009 had been earmarked for defense.

And David Hale is in New Jersey with Knowshon, then he's heading to New York for the draft.

Signing Day, Bobby Knight and Steve Martin with a gun

I would like to publicly thank Lane Kiffin for taking any of the ire that Urban Meyer or Nick Saban might have stored for the University of Georgia and focusing it directly on the University of Tennessee instead.

Hiring a coach that got fired by the Oakland Raiders. How could that not work out?
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I saw yesterday that, of the 20 kids Purdue signed, 14 of them are from Florida.
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What Lane Kiffin said about Urban Meyer was a big deal. It was a big deal and Urban Meyer won't forget it. And it will be dealt with. It will be dealt with by Urban Meyer.
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There was moment yesterday when some tool bag anchor was kissing Gene Chizik's ass over Auburn's recruiting class when I wondered: "Should I actually worry about this guy?"

Surely not, right? Right?
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Speaking of Bobby Knight, I see that this moron is putting on the full court press to bring the once-great coach to Athens.

Look, I think it would be cool to have Coach Knight running the show for a little while, too. But, seriously, do you really think that's the best move here?

Please read this if you object:

Over their last three seasons both Felton and Knight each coached 86 games, and each left their jobs before the end of the season. Their records were:

45-41 for Felton
48-38 for The General

Knight won exactly three more games than DF, and they went to the same number of NCAA tournament games. Some upgrade that would be.

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This is hilarious. But you have to watch a 30 second commercial first. When did we get to a place where that was nearly unacceptable?

Do not attempt unless you are an NFL athlete

Possibly the most awesome football video in existence that does not involve Herschel Walker or Ben Watson.

SEC NFL declarations

DawgsOnline has simplified things, giving you a partial team-by-team list of early NFL defections, etc. in the conference.

It's from Friday, but was the first I'd seen it.