Flame On!

GatorPilot over at Orange and Blue Hue unloads the first round of Georgia-Florida summer smack:

… Georgia should be more favorably listed in that elite group, but without a doubt Florida should field the better team this year. Don’t forget Georgia lost to South Carolina and Tennessee last year — both teams which Florida absolutely demolished. They also came within a whisker of losing to a mediocre Alabama team, beat Vandy by a last second field goal (20-17), avoided the best team in the SEC (LSU) and got a patsy in their bowl game, a team any SEC squad would have pounded. It’s also worth pointing out that they “edged” Troy 44-34, the same team Florida hung 59 points on.

I can hear the UGA fans now. “42-30, suckers!”

Well, yeah, there is that.

But I was thinking about Auburn first. You know, as in “Don’t forget [Florida] lost to [Auburn] last year — [a team] which [Georgia] absolutely demolished.”

Look, I believe it’s gonna be a war between these two. It’s just that I have a hard time conceding that the team which returns arguably what was the worse pass defense in the conference last year (a defense that didn’t face the best offense in the conference, by the way) is “without a doubt” superior this year.

OK, I take back the word “arguably”.

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UPDATE: Paul’s got some great bulletin board material here.

Phil Steele’s 2008 All-American Teams

… can be found here. Some quick observations:

• Georgia has three representatives – Moreno (1st), Atkins (3rd) and Owens (4th). That’s third most in the SEC, behind LSU (6) and Florida (5).
• Ohio State has five players on Steele’s first team. Southern Cal has four. That might turn out to be a pretty good game to watch, hunh.
• I’m a little surprised that Eric Berry’s name is missing.
• One player from ‘Bama, none from Auburn. You can almost smell the Finebaum column coming.
• The biggest shocker on his lists? Zero players from Texas. What’s happening with all of those touted recruiting classes, anyway?
• The second biggest shocker?  That any Notre Dame offensive lineman’s name appears.
• Parity watch: Total number of players listed – 112. Total number of players from non-BCS conferences listed – 6.

So, how’d that whole “savior of the program” thing work out?

From Garnet and Black Attack:

Probation is over! Hooray! What does this mean for fans as a practical matter? Not much. But it’s nice to have a clean name.

A letter from USC president Andrew Sorensen to the NCAA’s Indianapolis office, certifying the university is in compliance with NCAA rules, will end an unpleasant chapter in the Gamecocks’ history book that cost one athletics department official his job and increased to three the number of schools former USC coach Lou Holtz left on NCAA probation. …

USC senior associate athletics director Val Sheley, who runs the compliance office, said the probation ends when the NCAA ratifies Sorensen’s letter. After that, USC will have to steer clear of major infractions for two years to avoid being hit with harsher penalties as a repeat offender.

But Sheley does not expect that to be a problem, pointing out that USC has more than doubled its compliance staff in the three years since landing on probation.

Oh, and there’s no Lou Holtz, who needed four or five compliance officers just to keep him from committing a recruiting violation on the way to the restroom. [Emphasis added.]

Hmm… his hire seemed like such a good idea at the time.

By the way, as the linked article mentions, Holtz wasn’t named in any of the violations and did his best Sgt. Schulz impression regarding the whole affair.

Good times.

Mark Richt on the Shallow Cross

Lost in all the chatter about good deeds and player arrests, sometimes we forget that Mark Richt is a football coach who honed his skills as an elite, innovative offensive coordinator at Florida State.

Recently he appeared at a Southern Cal coaching clinic to discuss one of his signature play calls.  You can find all the details about it over at (where else?) USC Trojan Football Analysis.

One interesting comment from Richt about the Shallow Cross Series:

… Coach Richt replied that he used to think it was easy to make the play work. However in reality and with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight it was special players like Charlie Ward and Warrick Dunn that made it so effective in the past. Also he thought the best defense versus the play is a Cover 2 scheme which is now so common. This defensive alignment often makes the play essentially just a Hi / Low “Smash Route” type read to just half the field versus the flat defender. This adjustment can be accomplished either on the front side or back side with minor alterations to the play call. Still the Shallow Cross is a very effective play but not quite what it used to be in the past. Also Coach Richt conjectured that many defensive coordinators down South learned not to blitz the play (he wishes they would however) as that gave up many big gains and easy TD’s in the past.