Mumme Poll bleg

Things are rounding into shape at the new site.  Tidefan has done yeoman’s work in putting it together.  However, we’ve run into a small sticking point, in that neither of us is particularly skilled in Web graphics design (actually in my case, you can delete the words “particularly” and “graphics”).

So we are asking for some assistance in the spit and polish department.  If anyone out there has some skill in graphics and would be willing to contribute some of his/her time to us, we’d be most grateful.  Keep in mind that this is a labor of love, so the only compensation we can offer for this is immortality – a credit at the new site for your contribution.

If you have any interest in pitching in, please e-mail me at mbroch@gmail.com and I’ll put you in touch with Tidefan.  Thanks in advance.

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Monday morning buffet

Rise and shine, friends, and grab a plate.

• Another Gamecock starting defensive lineman is arrested at a nightclub.  Does anyone even bat an eye over this kind of news anymore?
• It may not matter how good or bad Tennessee’s returning quarterbacks are, if the Vols don’t have any receivers to throw the ball to.  Jones’ injury is a big loss.
• (And, not to wish ill on any other school, but if you’re a Georgia fan, it has to be a relief to see those kinds of news stories emanating from places other than Athens.)
• To abuse an old cliché, if you’re playing three quarterbacks, that usually means you don’t have one quarterback.
• Rex Robinson understands why Tech fans have been putting on airs lately.
• The more I think about it, the best reason to name Chris Todd as your starting quarterback is to give Tyrik Rollison time to grow into the job.
• Maybe this is damning with faint praise, but the improvement Houston Nutt got out of Orgeron’s players is pretty staggering:

Take a look at the massive statistical improvement Ole Miss made on offense from the regular season of 2007 to the regular season of 2008: from 9th in the SEC in total offense to 3rd; from 12th in scoring offense to 4th; from 11th in rush offense to 3rd; and from 8th in third-down conversions to 3rd. The strides taken by the defense were even more impressive: from 12th in total defense to 5th; from 11th in scoring defense to 4th; from 11th in rush defense to 2nd; from 10th in sacks to 1st; and from 11th in opponents third-down conversions to 3rd.

How much of a game changer will Bill Young be?

Bill Young, Oklahoma State’s new defensive coordinator, has an excellent reputation.  I think it’s fair to say that he’s one of the major reasons many people expect the Cowboys to live up to the promise of T. Boone’s expenditures this season.  What I’m curious about is how realistic it is to expect a sea change in OSU’s defense this season – or at least in a few days from now in the opener against Georgia’s offense.

One thing we can look at in evaluating Young’s track record is how things went in the beginning at his last stop which, conveniently enough, occurred last year.

During his one year as defensive coordinator at Miami, Young’s defense ranked 28th nationally in 2008, yielding a little over 317 yards per game.  That’s a modest improvement over the ‘Canes 2007 results, when they ranked 33rd nationally, giving up almost 346 ypg.

On the surface, that’s not bad, but two grains of salt should be tossed into the mix for consideration.  First, don’t forget about the new clock rules that went into effect last season.  As a result of shortening the game, defensive numbers tended to improve as a general rule last season.  (Southern Cal finished second both in 2007 and 2008, but gave up 50 yards less per game last season.)

Second, the offenses in the ACC the last two seasons have been wretched, to put it politely.  Here are the national rankings of Miami’s cohorts in the conference in total offense last year:  50, 51, 68, 87, 88, 92, 94, 101, 102, 103 and 105.  That works out to an average ranking of 85.  Their average ranking in 2007 was the same.  (By comparison, the Big XII had four offenses in the top ten last year.)

Now, if you’re OSU, your mileage may vary with this data, of course.  First of all, you’re digging out of a much deeper hole, stat-wise, than Miami was:

Oklahoma State finished 9-4 last season, losing to Oregon in the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl, and was ranked No. 16 in the final Associated Press poll. But the Cowboys struggled defensively.

They finished 93rd among 119 teams in total defense, allowing 405.54 yards per game, and 76th in scoring defense at 28.1 points per game.

But you’re going to be doing it against much better offenses on average.  And I doubt that Young has the athletic talent available to him this year that he did last year, although what he’s got to work with in 2009 is more seasoned than that green bunch he had in Miami.  So I’m not sure how much there is to hang your hat on in a week or so.

None of which is to suggest that Young isn’t good at what he does, or that he won’t have the OSU defense playing at a higher level eventually.  But maybe it’s a little bit of a stretch to expect the Cowboys to step on the field in the opener looking totally transformed on that side of the ball from a year ago.

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UPDATE: This comes from a beat reporter, not an Okie State coach, so take it in that context, but still…

… Georgia is going to run the ball right at OSU. They aren’t going to come out in a spread offense and count on Cox to lead them to a win. The Cowboys’ defense is largely designed to handle Big 12 spread offenses with speed, not prodding the 300-plus pound behemoths that Georgia calls an offensive line. So even if the Pokes struggle stopping the Bulldogs’ run, they could still be successful against Big 12 offenses.

Yeah, Georgia runs out of the I-formation, but if these guys really think team speed is an issue for the Dawg offense, they’re in for a surprise.

Business is business.

Brian McCormick at The Business of College Football points us to this sad story highlighting one very significant fact about the Mountain West Conference:  it isn’t much of a draw for the rest of the country.

… CBS C has pretty much finalized its fall football schedule, and there are 43 games on it. Which, of course, means that there’s the potential for 86 teams to appear on the cable/satellite network.

Of those 86 spots, 12 will be filled by MWC teams. That’s 14 percent. And that isn’t a lot.

The Mountain West is not, of course, the only college football entity that has a contract with CBS C. The channel also has ties to Conference USA, Army and Navy. (The two service academies do not belong to a football conference.)

So, how does the MWC stack up against Army/Navy and C-USA on CBS C?

Between them, Army and Navy will be seen more often than the nine teams in the MWC. [Emphasis added.] Navy will make seven appearances and Army will make six — 13 games/15 percent of the total.

So, again, it’s one thing to say that Utah deserves a shot at a BCS title when it runs the table.  It’s something else entirely when a conference that can’t outdraw the service academies as a TV attraction argues that it deserves the same kind of money year in and year out that the Pac-10 gets.