You should be dancing, yeah.

If you can’t beat ’em… join ’em.

Winning ways

Phil Steele has the rankings of the top 21 teams in overall wins and top 15 schools in away from home winning percentage over the past five years posted at his site.

Georgia has a more than credible showing on both lists:  7th in wins and tied for third in away from home winning percentage.  LSU is the top SEC team on both lists.  Southern Cal is first overall on both lists – and check out that unbelievable winning percentage figure.

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Misty water-colored memories

Terence Moore, Saturday March 29, 2008:

No coaches have more distinctive personalities than those involved with college football. Take Georgia Tech, for instance, where Bobby Dodd was a battler, Bill Curry was a philosopher, Bobby Ross was a perfectionist, George O’Leary was a screamer and Chan Gailey was a — well, he was a what?

Terence Moore, Wednesday, May 2, 2007:

Chan Gailey is an unappreciated treasure at Georgia Tech for many reasons.

In the immortal words of Dan Quayle, “what a waste it is to lose one’s mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is.”

An SEC spring

A few tidbits for your reading pleasure:

• If I were UT’s Jonathan Crompton, I wouldn’t get too comfortable. It’s usually not a good sign for the QB when the coaches are raving about how well the secondary is playing. Or when the backups are putting up better numbers – and the freshman is being called the “most impressive”.
• If its spring game is any indication, Mississippi State’s offense doesn’t sound like it’s gotten any better: a 6-0 final score. In overtime. The leading rusher in the game had 15 yards.
• Urban Meyer talks about the “dope look”. After you read about it, admit it – it’s not what you thought, is it?
• Unlike the MSU game, there was plenty of offense at Auburn’s A-Day – 70+ passes and all of the offensive plays run (fired?) out of the shotgun. What may be lacking, though, is a bit of team chemistry. “3. Franklin was especially critical of the two quarterbacks’ sideline ‘leadership.’ Burns and Todd were apparently shirking their responsibility to signal in the formation when fourth-stringer DeRon Furr was in the game. Franklin was not pleased, and he volunteered his displeasure to reporters. ‘They weren’t being good team guys,’ he said.”

Getting that preseason Dawgy love

From today’s The State, five guys say why Georgia is #1 going into the ’08 season:

Five members of The Associated Press’ Top 25 college football voting panel tell us why they’re leaning toward putting Georgia No. 1 on their preseason ballots:

1. Stewart Mandel, SI.com. Of the teams that finished high last year, Georgia has by far the most key players coming back, with the possible exception of Ohio State. But there’s obviously reason for skepticism with the Buckeyes.

2. David Jones, Florida Today. Knowshon Moreno is just beginning to show how good he really is. He’s my preseason Heisman favorite over [Florida’s] Tim Tebow.

3. Jimmy Burch, Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram. In Matthew Stafford, the Bulldogs have a veteran quarterback with more skins on the wall at the college level than the guy who will start at Southern Cal, Mark Sanchez.

4. Tom Luicci, (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger. I’d go with Georgia because of the wealth of talent, particularly on offense, it has back. I’m not sure the national champion this year was even the best team in the SEC at the end of the season.

5. Joe Person, The (Columbia) State. Here’s hoping success doesn’t spoil Moreno. The way the Heisman candidate sprints back to the huddle after every carry is reminiscent of how Pete Rose ran out every ground ball. That kind of energy is infectious.

More SEC notes

More random SEC stuff, a week before the G-Day game:

• Bobby Petrino is opening up spring practice to the fans, because “I think that will help our players understand what kind of stage we’re on…” After last year, he really thinks his players don’t have a feel for what their fan base is like?
• Another “bullet dodged” story: remember when Georgia recruited this guy?
• So, CFN thinks that LSU, with Appy State, Troy, North Texas and Tulane as its OOC schedule (all at home, of course) has the toughest slate of games in the SEC West this season? Does that say more about the rest of the schedules in the West, or about CFN?
• And while we’re on the topic of schedules, did you see that every one of Tennessee’s SEC East opponents except for Vandy has a bye week before playing the Vols?
• Barf.

SEC! SEC! SEC!

Tony Barnhart throws out a little SEC love this morning with this post, in part noting that

… Reasonable (or unreasonable) people can disagree over whether of not the SEC is the strongest football conference in the country. But here is the rundown, by conference, of the 10 national champions since the BCS began in 1998:

SEC (4): Tennessee (1998); LSU (2003); Florida (2006); LSU (2007).

Big 12 (2): Oklahoma (2000); Texas (2005).

ACC (1): Florida State (1999).

Big East (1): Miami (2001).

Big Ten (1): Ohio State (2002).

Pac-10 (1): Southern Cal (2004).

The one fun fact that he doesn’t mention is that every school on that list went undefeated to earn its MNC – except for LSU (both times!) and Florida.

So maybe the BCS gives the SEC a little more respect than we give it credit for sometimes.

How does he think they got there in the first place?

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you:

… Cell phones and iPods are the biggest stumbling blocks to creating chemistry, he said, because they hinder the interaction between the players.

“Throw your iPod on, come in [to the locker room] bopping your head. Put on your equipment, go out to practice,” Meyer said. “Come in and throw on your iPod, punching your cell phone, text people and leave. How are you going to develop any chemistry on the team?

“You see it every day. Just go walk on campus. You see these white things stuck in peoples’ ears, and that means, ‘I don’t have to talk to you.’ “

(h/t EDSBS)

Cruel and unusual

At LSU, Ryan Perrilloux has been made to suffer the ultimate punishment:

“No, no, none of the support staff at this point,” said Miles, who has be [sic] in contact with Perrilloux. “There’s absolutely contact, and the contact is ongoing. It’s just that I’m not coaching him. And there’s things that I’m not going to do. But communicate, God yeah…”

You read that right. Les Miles isn’t coaching Ryan Perrilloux. Oh, the humanity!

After meeting with the press on this, Miles no doubt went back inside his office, carefully closed the door, walked to his desk, sat down and started laughing his ass off.

(h/t The Wizard of Odds)

Doin’ the o-line shuffle.

Well, here’s one thing to look for at G-Day:

Richt took issue with some of the offensive line play he has seen during the spring. Georgia returned three starters and the top backup from last season. But the line has not come together as quickly as Richt would like.

“There’s no question that the defense is ahead of the offense by a good margin,” Richt said. “Most of it’s happening up front. We’re not getting the QB-center exchange. We’re not able to provide a lot of space for runners and time for passers. I’m sure it’s frustrating for offensive skill people when you wonder what can be. But up front right now we’re probably a little further behind this year than we were a year ago. We’ve got a ways to go.”

Georgia lost center Fernando Velasco and tackle Chester Adams as outgoing seniors. Velasco took every meaningful snap last season. His projected replacement, Chris Davis, was a starter at guard last season and has not found a rhythm with the quarterbacks yet. A number of regulars are back, but not all are in the same position. Kiante Tripp, who was a defensive end last spring, is the projected starter in Adams’ old spot at right tackle. Vince Vance, Georgia’s top sub last season, is the projected starter in Davis’ old spot at left guard.

There’s still half of spring and all of fall practice to get things sorted out.  And Georgia has two winnable games to start the season, so there will be plenty of game time experience before traveling to Columbia.  With the job Coach Searels did last year, there’s no reason to panic, but I hope that Bobo is able to call a better game against the ‘Cocks this season without being handicapped by o-line concerns.

By the way, is it just me, or does the throwaway line at the end of the notebook –  Matthew Stafford wore a wrap on his non-throwing wrist but his passes did not lack zip – make as little sense as it looks?