Just because he’s dashing out the door doesn’t mean he’s in a hurry.

SOD wants everyone to know that simply because he’s pushed himself to the front of the queue trolling for Penn State players as quickly as any coach in the country, it shouldn’t be taken as a sign that he’s, um, actually in need of more talent at UT.  Because on that front, things are just awesome in Knoxville, thank you very much.

“No. 1, I feel good about the players we’ve signed,” he said. “We’re not desperate.”

I can only imagine his sales pitch to Penn State sophomores and juniors:  Come to Tennessee, fellas.  If things don’t work out for us this season, at least you’ll have a chance to play for your fourth head coach in three years!

************************************************************************************

UPDATE:  In fairness, SOD may have had to move quickly to the front of the line to avoid being run over by this guy.  Although it’s not like anybody’s going to Kansas in the hopes of playing in a BCS game, anyway.

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“You’re always on the hot seat in this profession.”

Shorter SOD:  When people criticize my track record, I just remember the mean things folks used to say about my daddy and console myself by thinking of how much more money I make than he did.

Collector’s item

A bargain at $4.99.  I just hope they’re not too hard to scrape off your bumper next year, if necessary.

“Middle class” Tennessee

In the midst of this fairly brutal takedown of UT, John Adams notes this about the Vols’ likely 2013 road schedule:

… Although the 2013 SEC schedule hasn’t yet been set, you can assume it will include traditional West rival Alabama. You also can assume divisional opponents will continue to rotate venues on a yearly basis.

That means the Vols would be playing at Florida, Alabama and Missouri within the conference. They also will have a non-conference road game against Oregon, the week before they go to The Swamp.

Ouch.  Even if SOD squeaks by with seven or eight wins this year, it’s hard to see how things get rosier after that.

What happens in Athens stays in Athens.

Considering what SOD had to say in defense of signing Deion Bonner…

“He kept a great attitude and a great outlook, and I saw someone who made a bad mistake and appears willing to learn from it and to let it make him a better person. So we were willing to take a chance on Deion. Part of character is not saying ‘I only want perfect people.’ We’re all flawed and we all make mistakes. The question is: Do you have the character to learn from it and get it right?”

… I can’t wait to hear what he has to say about this situation.

It was nice while it lasted.

When I talk about college football steadily evolving from a fan-oriented game to a TV broadcast-oriented game, this is the kind of stuff to which I refer.

Money rules, tailgates drool, so to speak.

“He means well, but if he wouldn’t have had the last name Dooley, he wouldn’t have been hired.”

Whatever SOD thinks helps make Tennessee recruiting successful, it ain’t the support of loyal fans.

Wednesday morning buffet

Here’s your hump day nosh.

• And The Valley Shook’s Billy takes a crack at the “SEC – Year of the Quarterback” almost-meme.
• Rogers Redding is disturbed.
• North Carolina grads, I feel your pain.  But, if true, your school deserves to fry over it.
• Preemptive war, ESPN-style.
• Craig James thinks Mike Leach is evil.  But at least there aren’t any dead hooker rumors haunting the Pirate.
• I’m sort of surprised Cornelius Washington didn’t rate a mention on this list.
• SOD claims he needed a defensive coordinator who’s on the same page with him.  But check out the quote about Wilcox in Matt Hayes’ SEC coaches rankings.
• Will a four-team playoff mean extra championship chances for the SEC?

Conference expansion and a half-assed defense of Les Miles

While showering this morning, it occurred to me that there’s another possible explanation that explains Les Miles’ sudden embrace of Steve Spurrier’s division record über alles proposal.  Miles isn’t being gutless so much as calculating.  He’s playing some version of three-dimensional chess against the SEC office.

Don’t scoff.  Here’s the math as he sees it.  LSU has Florida as a permanent cross-division opponent.  Even if you don’t believe Will Muschamp is the second coming of Steve Spurrier, the Gators recruit too well over time ever to be any less than a tough out.  Now, Auburn has Georgia and TAMU winds up with South Carolina.  But that SOB Saban has an enfeebled Tennessee that’s in the midst of a rebuilding program that seems to have gone on for half a decade now (and if SOD gets canned after this season probably has another five years to go).  And the rest of Miles’ division gets the Jugdish, Mohammet and Lonny of the East.

That wasn’t so great when you played three cross-division opponents, but it was tolerable because things rotated often enough to spread the burdens and benefits.  But what was unlikely under the old scenario – and, remember, it’s not as if what Spurrier has sour grapes about has been a routine occurrence – becomes a much greater possibility under a two-crosser arrangement.  Going forward, the best hand Miles can hope to be dealt is Florida and an easy team.  That’s the worst case for several of his divisional rivals.  And on the flip side, years like this, when LSU plays Florida and South Carolina, will never be a possibility for some.

That’s what sticks in Les Miles’ craw right now.  So what can he do to fight city hall?  Given that he doesn’t want a nine-game conference schedule, which would at least restore the old cross-divisional equilibrium, he’s only got one other choice:  kill the permanent cross-divisional opponent requirement.  And the way he’s figured to do that is to build support for a proposal that anybody outside of Columbia, South Carolina thinks is pretty silly.  But it’s leverage.  From there, the deal is pretty obvious:  the coaches back off on Spurrier’s proposal and the conference gives up the permanent cross-divisional game.  Who doesn’t love a fair compromise?

Honestly, I have no idea if this is what’s going on inside ol’ Lester’s head.  (Does anybody besides Miles know what’s going on inside there?)  But if you see more coaches jumping on board with Miles and Spurrier as Destin approaches, you might want to keep this in mind.

And if it happens that I’m right about this, remind yourselves that this is what we get because Mike Slive can’t competently negotiate a TV contract.

Who are Georgia’s rivals?

This is a topic I delved into in the blog’s early days.  It’s been more than five years now, and I think the subject is worth exploring again… lots of water under the bridge since then.

But let me start by going back to that post for a couple of things.  First, this is my list of the features that define a rivalry:

• History. Two things factor in here. How often have the teams faced each other? And, over time, how competitive has the series been?
• Scheduling. How often do the teams play each other at present?
• The Stakes. In terms of winning championships, how often do the games between the teams assume importance?
• Geography. This one is pretty obvious.
• Miscellaneous Factors. Mergz lists South Carolina as a rival. That can only be for one reason – Steve Spurrier. (It helped that Spurrier beat Florida in his first crack, which is something USC had never accomplished previously.) I expect LSU-Alabama to attain a similar level of intensity because of Saban.

I think they still stand.  Based on those, here’s the (alphabetized) list of Georgia’s rivals I came up with back then:

• Auburn, by virtue of almost every factor I’ve listed above;
• Florida, again, for all of the above;
• Georgia Tech also reflects all of the above (true, there are no conference stakes anymore, but being an end of season game, there are potential BCS stakes in most years);
• South Carolina may not seem deserving from a historical perspective, as Georgia has dominated the series. But it’s been intense since I’ve been following it, starting in 1980 (Rogers vs. Walker!). And Spurrier’s presence certainly adds some spice. Also, Georgia hasn’t won the SEC East in any season that it didn’t beat USC.
• Tennessee is a rivalry born out of divisional realignment. It wasn’t a historically significant series, as the teams didn’t play that often. Since 1992, though, in most years, Georgia, Florida and UT have to dance the dance with each other to decide which school makes it to the SECCG. Fulmer’s recruiting tactics (and success, unfortunately) and Donnan’s hiring away of Garner have contributed heat, as well.

So what’s changed in five years?  First, the “you can’t win the SEC East without beating South Carolina” rule is dead.  But, if anything, I’d say the series has intensified over the past two or three seasons because the ‘Cocks appear to have taken a step up to legitimate division contender status.  Tennessee, however, may have lost some of its flavor as a rival under SOD.  Partly that’s because the Vols haven’t been in contention for a division title in a while; partly it’s because Dooley doesn’t seem to raise our ire in the way that his two predecessors did.

But all in all, the list continues to work, I think.  The other three still qualify and no doubt will continue to do so until Buzz Bissinger gets his wish and college football gets banned.  As for new additions, the Dawgs don’t have another opponent outside of the SEC they play often enough to qualify and there really isn’t another team in the East ready to step up (although James Franklin would probably like to argue about that with me).

Seems like a good spot for a reader poll.

‘Splain yourself in the comments.