Annals in how the mighty have fallen, part XXXVIII

Tomorrow’s game in Knoxville marks the first time since 1990 that both participants aren’t ranked.

But…

“This is still the game,” wide receiver Gerald Jones said. “This is still the game of the year for us and for Florida, regardless of what they say. It’s always going to be this great tradition between the two schools.”

That’s probably news to some fans.  Tennessee and Florida have faced each other a grand total of 37 times in this series.

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Hot, hot, hot: ASU-Georgia

Thanks to our friends at the AJ-C, we know two things about tomorrow’s game:  the temperature is going to be hot and Arizona State is hot (in the angry sense, not the winning streak sense).  Motivated, too, according to Mr. Towers’ latest warning:

… And the Bulldogs definitely need to be fired up. They need to be supremely motivated. They need to play great. They’ll need to in order to handle the competition and they’ll need to to do what they need to do, which is to play impressively.

Arizona State has had this game circled every since it was scheduled years ago. I’m telling you the whole Valley out here is buzzing about the game. Yes, the Sun Devils lost to UNLV, but that was primarily because it was looking ahead to Saturday’s matchup with the Dogs. The fans really want to see their team take down a Top 3 team.

Maybe I’m missing something, but how are these story lines any different from last week’s?  Except for the fact that South Carolina was looking to take down a Top 2 team, they’re not.

Yeah, I know the Dawgs have Rudy to worry about, but what about the other side of the ball?  I think Chris Fowler’s on to something when he writes that

… I expect that Matthew Stafford, Knowshon Moreno and Georgia will feel liberated when they find themselves in Tempe to face Arizona State on Saturday (ABC, 8 p.m. ET). South Carolina always plays lights-out defense against the Dawgs. ASU is not as nasty on that side as Cocky’s crew.

And when SEC defenses tee off on nonconference offenses, the results have not been pretty. Ask the Canes. Or Clemson. Or Louisville. Or NC State.

I think the psychology of this game is getting way overblown.  One thing about ASU under Erickson so far is that the Sun Devils have not shown up well against top competition.  Does that mean that this is the first time they’ve gotten angry?

Those darn Internets

The Wiz reports that Sarah Palin isn’t the only one who’s been victimized by cyber hacking lately.

This one’s a lot funnier, though.

Three quotes

First, from David Hale’s blog, Mark Richt reminds (without excusing) us about one reason as to why the defensive ends have started slowly.

“When you miss a lot of work, it’s tough to be in midseason form. Lomax missed a lot. Dobbs missed a lot. We were grabbing Corvey Irvin and Brandon Wood just to practice.”

That’s a fair point.  You just hope things catch up pretty soon.

From the same post, Stafford had an interesting point about Pac-10 football.

“I think their style of play is a little bit different. They don’t press man as much. They’re not as in your face like a lot of players are in the SEC, grabbing and holding on to guys. It’s more trying to run with them and make plays on the ball. It’s just a different style.”

Is that a plus or minus?  I guess we’ll find out tomorrow night.

Finally, Stafford’s ASU counterpart, Rudy Carpenter, decides to go all gruff and tough guy on us with a little bulletin board material.

Arizona State QB Rudy Carpenter is a fun guy to interview because he doesn’t just spit back rote answers. And if he doesn’t like a question, he’s incapable of hiding his annoyance.

For example: Rudy, looking at film of No. 3 Georgia, which visits Sun Devil Stadium Saturday, did anything stand out, did they look different than other Pac-10 teams — faster or bigger or stronger?

“They looked like guys,” Carpenter said. “They looked like guys in uniforms.”

Good pickup.  Let’s hope he’s at least that annoyed after the game.

A couple of housekeeping notes

It’s traditional on the blogosphere to note milestones, so I thought I’d mention that sometime overnight Get The Picture enjoyed its one millionth page view according to WordPress.  Color me pleased and amazed all at the same time.  Muchas gracias to everyone of you who’ve clicked here.  Oh yeah, please don’t stop.

Also, the trial run for the Mumme Poll will take place after next week’s games.  And while that exercise won’t count, you will be asked to establish the e-mail address from which you’ll cast your votes for the rest of the season, so make sure you’ll have your ducks in a row for that when the time comes.

Star power

Admittedly, it’s not really a fair fight, but this is still impressive:

It’s unusual for a college football game — or any programming, for that matter — to beat an NFL game in the television ratings. But the Bulldogs beat the Falcons on Atlanta TV last weekend.

Saturday’s Georgia-South Carolina game on CBS posted a 16.0 rating in the metro Atlanta TV market, meaning about 370,000 households tuned in on average.

Sunday’s Falcons-Tampa Bay game on Fox drew a 15.7 rating in metro Atlanta, or about 363,000 households.

I don’t think you’ll see any Falcons stories like this one or this one, either.