The first of many

A. J. Green’s first touchdown catch:

Yeah, nice pushoff, but the d-back wasn’t exactly playing hands off, either.

Horse out of the barn moments in coaching

Sometimes, you really wonder how these guys make the money they make.

• BLACKSBURG, Va. — Virginia Tech quarterback Tyrod Taylor won’t redshirt as originally planned, and will share quarterback duties with Sean Glennon, Hokies coach Frank Beamer announced Tuesday.
• CLEMSON, S.C. — Clemson coach Tommy Bowden took the plunge Monday, calling colleague Nick Saban after his Alabama club knocked the ninth-ranked Tigers out of the top 25 with a 34-10 loss this past Saturday.

No word on Fulmer calling Cutcliffe, but don’t you figure he’s already hit his speed dial button?

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A quick look at game times

From the Wizard of Odds:

… the average game in the 2007 season lasted 3:23:04. That’s up from 3:21:17 in 2005 and 3:07:24 in 2006, when the controversial 3-2-5e rule not only dramatically cut the length of games, but the number of plays.

The ever ready cfbstats.com has the game times up for all the games played in the SEC except for Kentucky’s and Tennessee’s, so I thought I’d take a look at the impact of the new rules on them.  Here’s the list:

• Alabama – 3:23
• Arkansas – 3:03
• Auburn – 3:09
• Florida – 3:10
• Georgia – 3:13
• LSU – 3:09
• Mississippi – 2:56
• MSU – 3:33
• South Carolina – 3:14
• Vanderbilt – 3:27

Seven out of the ten fell below last year’s average (how ’bout that Mississippi time!), but some of that may be attributable to blow outs.  Nationally, the Illinois-Missouri slugfest ran 3:39 and Michigan-Utah went 3:33, so some of the games with more give and take took more time, as you might expect.  Then again, East Carolina upset Virginia Tech in a mere 3:03 and Tulsa and UAB managed to score 67 points in three hours flat.

The real test will come with the first SEC game CBS broadcasts, but overall, I get the sense that there is some shortening of the game times going on here.  Which should warm the cockles of every TV executive’s heart…

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UPDATE: Tom Dienhart doesn’t hear any complaints from the coaches he talks to about the new rules.

He who lives by the missed field goal…

Regression to the mean comes back to bite Phil Fulmer & Co. in the ass last night.

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UPDATE: Westerdawg shares my remorse. With links.

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UPDATE #2: Barnhart has some words of comfort for Vol Nation:

… A 2-4 start will make things pretty restless on old Rocky Top, especially with Fulmer’s new contract in place. But I believe, and I’ve written this before, that Fulmer got the new deal just in case something like this happened. It takes the issue of his job security off the table.

That’s good to know.