Easy come, easy go.

The Opelika Auburn News is reporting that Auburn offensive coordinator/DVD salesman Tony Franklin has been fired.

That keening sound you think you hear in the background is actually Al Borges laughing maniacally.

UPDATE/PASSING THOUGHT:  Does that make Franklin the first coach who’s been johnsoned?  If so, dibs on the verb, peeps.

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

UPDATE:  It’s always scary when great minds think alike.

Advertisement

Flat as the proverbial pancake?

Chip Towers purports to sense a lack of energy in the Georgia fan base for this Saturday’s Tennessee game.

And read this fascinating post by David Hale about leadership issues on the team.  He draws an interesting conclusion about it:

… Curran’s point — that players are too quick to let mistakes be corrected by the coaches — speaks volumes about the leadership on the team. True, there aren’t a lot of seniors on this Georgia team, at least among the key players, but that’s not an excuse.

I wonder if all the preseason talk about high expectations, etc., has trained Georgia’s players to downplay a lot of the team’s issues, and that is carrying over to the practice field.

Obviously we (the reporters) are not privy to everything going on at practice (we only see about 20 minutes of it) but in many of my interactions with Georgia’s top players, they are (at best) reserved. Certainly it’s possible (maybe likely) that their personality in the locker room is greatly different than it is with the media — but Lomax and Curran’s comments lead me to believe there just aren’t a lot of loud voices coming from the players on the practice field or film room. Both Curran and Lomax seem determined to change that.

There are some extended comments about this from Rennie Curran you can read here.

I’m obviously not privy to what’s going on in the locker room and on the practice field as Hale and Dehner are, so all I can do is speculate.  But I have this sense that we’re all still suffering from a bit of a hangover from the letdown that was the Alabama game.  It’s a bit worrisome right now.

The clock keeps ticking

There’s been no better place to keep up with the effect of the new clock rules on the college game this year than at The Wizard of Odds.  So here’s what we learn with this week’s post on the subject:

… Although 13 minutes have been shaved from the length of the average game,9.06 plays have been lost, according to data compiled by Marty Couvillion of cfbstats.com.

… Given the lack of protest from the rest of the coaching fraternity, there is a strong possibility that the 40/25 rules could be here to stay. That would swing open the doors for more commercialization and the likelihood that in two or three years the length of games will once again be pushing the 3:20 mark.

Take notice of what’s happening. Long commercial breaks often suck the energy out of the stadium. For fans sitting at home, commercials are now being inserted after kickoffs, following the NFL blueprint.

Depressing stuff.

What I’ve noticed so far is that the 40-second clock hasn’t impacted the game nearly as much as the new rule on out of bounds plays has.  That’s been palpable, and something I noticed as early as this year’s G-Day game.  The ‘Bama game brought home that it’s nearly impossible to mount a comeback from a severe first half deficit, which by definition makes the college game more boring.

Two or three years from now I’ll be curious to see if the new clock rules have any effect on the game’s popularity.

History repeating and mood swings

To be honest, this gets me down a little, because that UT 2004 debacle resonates with me in thinking about Saturday’s game.  Until very late in that game, Georgia was all thumbs on offense, and on defense, the secondary (particularly Thomas Davis) was repeatedly embarrassed on play action.

In 2004, Georgia was a huge favorite, but came in flat and got taken by an inferior team with an inexperienced QB who made just enough plays to win the game.

On the other hand…

Knowshon Moreno’s right elbow injury has had no impact on how he’s running the ball in practice, according to running backs coach Tony Ball said.

Ball called Monday and Tuesday’s practices for Moreno “probably the two best practices he’s had since his freshmen year.”

Asked in what way they stood out for Moreno, Ball said, “He was just fast.”

Damn, I like hearing that.

This morning’s UT-UGA question

Each team gets an important player back:  Britton Colquitt returns for Tennessee and Brannan Southerland is once again the starting fullback for Georgia.

Who has the bigger impact in Saturday’s game?