Lots of items to sample this morning:
- I’m a sucker for stories like this. Geno Atkins, bless you and your mom. I’ll be cheering loudly for both of you at next year’s Senior Day.
- It looks like the glow is starting to wear off a bit for the Zooker. If you listen carefully, you can hear the faint cry of Gator fans everywhere saying, “we told you so.”
- By now, everyone’s heard about Muschamp being named heir apparent at Texas. Nine hundred large as an assistant living in Austin – who can blame him? But who knows if it works out, either? The bigger story seems to me that he’s off the dating scene this year for a number of head coaching opportunities at other schools. That’s the part that makes Texas look really smart right now.
- Speaking of head coaching searches, this may be the lamest thing Dennis Dodd has ever posted. And that’s saying a lot.
- Gotta hand it to Spurdog – he suffers the worst defeat of his career and he’s still got the instincts to mock another head coach: “I saw Charlie Weis on TV today. He’s happy as he can be Notre Dame has got their sixth win and they’re bowl eligible…” If anyone can figure out a way to be an asshole at his own funeral, it’ll be Steve Spurrier.
- Imagine a world with playoffs. (h/t The Wizard of Odds)
- Did you know that in the five year period from 2002 to 2007 Texas Tech spent more money on its football program than either Texas or Oklahoma did? Genius has its cost. You might want to keep that in mind, Tennessee fans.
- OK, monkeys really are flying out of my butt.
- Mark Richt had a lot to say this week when he went down to Macon. David Hale and Travis Fain have some good quotes worth reading.
- And David’s taken it on himself to do something that’s, given the emotional state of the Dawgnation right now, either brave or masochistic: he’s hosting a live chat tomorrow at 2 PM.
Get The Picture 
Can you believe Texas? Like is 900k and a promise to someday be head coach is going to keep Wille in Austin when every season somebody’s going to offer him 2-3-4 million.
He may like Austin right now, but he’s a ramblin man and Mack isn’t ready to quit anytime soon.
I say Muschamp doesn’t stay long enough to take over at Texas.
LikeLike
HVL,
I told my roommate (Clemson fan) the same thing yesterday. He was one of those that wanted Muschamp because, regardless of the fact that his defenses seem to give up chunks of points, he brings aggression and buzz.
My theory is exactly what The Good Senator stated above. All Texas wanted to do was take Muschamp off the table for 1 or 2 years. Have him train some assistants underneath him to figure out the scheme and mindset and then send him to greener pastures.
Mack Brown isn’t Bobby Bowden. He’ll be at Texas a LONG time and Muschamp isn’t Jimbo Fisher. This has “recruiting ploy” written all over it…much like Fulmer’s contract extension last year.
If Vegas offered odds on the over/under, I’d put the house on Muschamp being gone within 4 years.
LikeLike
Tennessee vs Vanderbilt ought to be the game of the week. Go ‘dores!
LikeLike
Meanwhile, in hate news:
“(Urban) Meyer’s daughter Nicki, a volleyball player at Buchholz High School in Gainesville, Fla., signed a letter of intent Monday to play for Georgia Tech.”
LikeLike
Typical Spurrier. Belittling another program to make himself feel better about his own short comings. Though the comment about Garcia is priceless. Could you ever imagine CMR saying that about one of his QB’s or any player for that matter?
LikeLike
Senator,
Do you realize it actually weakens your anti-playoff argument the way you slip it into unrelated posts?
It is really starting to remind me of Ivan Maisel’s 1+ year habit of ripping Mike Gundy for his (accurate) anti-media tirade in almost every one of his articles.
The overwhelming majority of fans, players, etc. want a playoff. It will happen eventually and we will finally have a champion truly decided on the field. We just have to endure this B(c)S system until then.
LikeLike
“Gotta hand it to Spurdog – he suffers the worst defeat of his career and he’s still got the instincts to mock another head coach: “I saw Charlie Weis on TV today. He’s happy as he can be Notre Dame has got their sixth win and they’re bowl eligible…” If anyone can figure out a way to be an asshole at his own funeral, it’ll be Steve Spurrier.”
This is a brilliant piece of writing. And so, so true.
LikeLike
Do you realize it actually weakens your anti-playoff argument the way you slip it into unrelated posts?
Muck, you do realize the whole point to my “buffet” posts is to put up a whole bunch of unrelated college football stuff that I don’t want to spend a lot of time on individually, right?
Look, my BCS/playoff blogging tends to be in reaction to something that’s happened, or been said. In this case, Obama’s comments have been the impetus. I’m sure there’ll be another round of comments about playoffs from me as we get into the postseason, because that’s the time of year that we see most of the truly stupid comments about playoffs emerge.
Honestly, if I reacted to every dumb thing I saw about college football playoffs, I could post something almost every day.
I respect your position on playoffs, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be silent about it. Sorry if that’s a problem.
LikeLike
I just read that anti-playoff article. That has to be one of the most worthless and absurd things I have ever read from an anti-playoff writer. Honestly, that guys painfully moronic screed adds to the pro-playoff argument due to its sheer desperate stupidity.
> “We had hoped that the student body
> would be riled up to watch us beat the
> No. 1 ranked team,” said Beaver coach
> Mike Riley, who by definition is always
> riled up, “but not so. As one of them
> told me, ‘Who cares? It’s just another
> Pac-10 game. All we have to do is win
> the conference.
Uhhhhhh. Oregon State is in the Pac-10. To win the conference, you need to win games against conference opponents. This stupid hypothetical doesn’t even make sense.
> Ohio State won the Big Ten after Penn
> State, who earlier in the season had
> defeated the Buckeyes, inexplicably
> lost to Iowa and Indiana.
Huh? What is the point of this fakery?
> “And as for the Bruins, we already had
> a two-game lead in the Pac-10 so I
> rested most of my starters.
So you mean doing well all year has an advantage that you can rest some starters? Wow, so terrible. Good thing it never happens in pro sports, because it would ruin them. Oh wait, it doesn’t ruin pro sports? It actually makes some of those otherwise overmatched games more interesting? Oh yeah. Forgot about that.
> “Students just don’t storm the field
> any more after games. I guess that’s
> because when knocking off Texas
> means about the same as taking down
> Iowa State in terms of conference
> standing, what’s the point?”
Is this guy for real? Head to head wins are always huge for winning a conference. This guy is a moron.
The UGA vs. GATech has zero conference relevance, and often has zero bowl game relevance for UGA. Does that diminish the game at all? Heck no.
> In another first round game, SEC
> champ Florida lost to Boise State in
> Boise. The Gators were the higher
> seed, but a previously scheduled
> Rascal Flatts concert at Ben Hill
> Griffith Stadium could not be moved.
Ridiculous. As if the Gators would have trouble scheduling a playoff game in the Swamp. Riiiiiiiiiiiighhhhhhhhhhht.
> “It’s pretty hard to study in your dorm > room when fans are burning cars in
> the alley,” admitted heretofore
> pre-med Caitlyn Summers. “So I fail
> organic chemistry. So what? I guess
> being a pharmacist would be cool. Or I
> could always hope to marry Quan
> Cosby.”
And yet March Madness doesn’t ruin mid terms. Sorry, but college already has distractions far more severe than a football game. There are people getting wasted, doing drugs, having sex with everything that moves, on a nightly basis. An extra game or two for 8 out of 120 schools is hardly adding a significant academic disruption.
> The national semifinals featured USC
> vs. Texas Tech and Boise State against
> Texas. Both games were played on
> New Year’s Day and drew so much
> interest that even the teams
> competing in the 17 other bowl games
> that weekend admitted to being
> captivated.
Wow. Another fail of an argument. So the fact that these playoff games would be ENORMOUSLY compelling is actually a bad thing now? The fact that people actually watch the GalleryFurnitureBowl at all goes to show that any bowl game, no matter when it is played, will get viewers.
> We’d already locked up conference.
> They hit like kittens. After all, what
> did they have to gain by beating us?
As Mike Ditka about the 49ers the year they missed the playoffs after a 10-6 season, and played the bears in the final game. Playing a team bound for the playoffs when you are done BECOMES your playoff.
> A playoff system. No more debates.
Exactly. A champion determined by playing football, not by a bunch of nerds who got stuffed in their lockers through high school and are getting their revenge as sports writers.
I can sum up this buffoon’s article in two words: EPIC FAIL.
LikeLike
One more thing: if John Walters was even sniffing a clue, how come the playoffs in every other sport are made out of awesome?
I’d like to hear some Auburn or Alabama fans tell me if they’d “rest their starters” for the Iron Bowl game this year if we were in a playoff system. The very idea is laughable.
LikeLike
Senator,
I have no problem with your stance, or you bringing up the issue when there is NEWS relevant to it (like the ESPN contract). But you’ve been slipping it into various unreleated posts a lot lately. It strikes me as a big excessive, like Ivan Maisel’s excessive jabs at Mike Gundy a year or more after his famous (and spot on) rant.
LikeLike
I’m not sure what you mean about unrelated posts, Muck. Are you simply saying that I’m devoting too much time to the subject?
The reason I ask is that I checked my archives and found that nine of the last ten posts of mine on the BCS/playoffs were stand alone posts. This one is the only one with a bunch of unrelated topics.
LikeLike
A few days ago, 3 out of 4 posts were playoff/BCS related. Since then we’ve had 2 or 3 more posts that were playoff/BCS related. I seem to recall it getting dredged up in a few comments as well. For me, it was starting to get into Ivan Maisel territory.
Now with that said… Its your blog. If you want the BCS/playoff issue to be a major or dominant feature of the blog, you are certainly free to do so. I personally enjoy when you write about OTHER topics, so for me it would be better if you resisted the urge to take pot shots at the playoff idea.
LikeLike
I’m glad you clarified in the comments that a link does not equal an endorsement of content, because I agree with Muckbeast on this point: Mr. Walters’ exercise of the imagination is so pathetic I’m tempted to believe it’s some sort of high-concept self-parody. I quit reading when he asserted that 9-3 Cincinnati getting an automatic berth was a specifically “playoff” issue — the last time I checked, they get an automatic bid as a conference champion under the BCS rules, too. I’m a playoff proponent, but still I think it’s sad that such a pathetic piece of obnoxious boiler plate gets national exposure while intelligent critiques like yours and Kyle’s go mostly unheeded.
Sorry; NBC Sports doesn’t allow comments so I had to vent somewhere.
LikeLike
I went back and checked. In the last 3 days, 6 of the last 12 posts are flagged BCS/playoffs. (For the Tennessee grads reading, that’s 50%).
The 3 out of 4 posts streak was: “Paving that road to hell, again”, “Adios, robots.”, and “John McCain doesn’t run the BCS.”
For me, that’s a bit much. 🙂
LikeLike
Not to be the “Spurrier in the room” Muck, but I’ve noticed your kitchen is a little dirty, your clothes need to be washed and and the dog needs to be let out.
Crap, I’m sorry. For some reason I got the idea from you that it was OK to tell others what to do in their own house.
My bad.
LikeLike
Seriously. I mean, telling the Senator he’s blogging too much about playoffs is like telling Dr. Saturday he’s doing too much statistical analysis. That’s always been “his” issue. Sure, he beats that drum a lot, but as long as he does it intelligently I’m content to listen.
LikeLike
GATA Kit!
LikeLike
I agree with HVL, I agree that Muschamp probably isn’t a math major, but how does $900K satisfy you when $3-4MM is likely to be offered? I don’t think Muschamp is mature enough to be a HC yet, much less at a significant program such as Auburn, Tennessee, or Clemson, but it seems pretty certain he will get that type of offer this year, or next. It just doesn’t add up to me….of course I didn’t really understand the lateral move last year from Auburn to Texas.
I do know that his wife loves life in Austin (from a close Muschamp family source), but that is a lot of cash to burn in a profession where you aren’t “hot” forever. And his recruiting ties in the Southeast will weaken over time making him less valuable. A strong effort can lure him would be my guess.
If he is content taking 2nd place money of 1/3 or 1/4 his potential, and watching Mack Brown age while playing 2nd fiddle, perhaps he isn’t that great a leader afterall. Or maybe HE knows he isn’t ready for primetime.
LikeLike
Kit, please re-read. I wrote:
> Now with that said… Its your blog. > If you want the BCS/playoff issue > to be a major or dominant feature > of the blog, you are certainly free
> to do so. I personally enjoy when
> you write about OTHER topics, so
> for me it would be better if you
> resisted the urge to take pot shots
> at the playoff idea.
One of the reasons blogs allow comments is so readers can express their reactions and preferences. I never told the Senator what he can or cannot write about. He can write about whatever he wants. But in my opinion, 3 out of 4 and 6 out of 12 posts about the playoff/BCS issue is a bit much.
LikeLike