A little of this, a little of that…
- The SEC is still reviewing and tweaking its media policy.
- In the conference’s defense, you can get a taste of some of what it’s struggling over in this story about two dudes with a blog being given ACC media credentials and causing problems for the school they’re fans of.
- There’s no new ground broken, but here’s a nice Joe Cox story.
- Joe may work out, but for now he takes a back seat to Florida’s John Brantley, “who many believe is the third best quarterback in the SEC right now”. I hereby dub Brantley the Greatest Backup Quarterback Of Our Era (GBQOOE™).
- Your morning snark: the good news is that the Dawgs have returned to their old ways of fundamental tackling work in preseason practice. The bad news is that Reshad Jones has been out for the last three weeks.
- The Pac-10 has introduced a rule for the NCAA to vote on that would end the practice of schools housing football teams in hotel rooms the night before home games, ostensibly because it would “help integrate athletes more fully with the student body”. Riiiight. The real reason – it would save the average school about $40K in expense each year.
- The screwiest Georgia prediction I’ve seen in print yet – Georgia won’t live up to the hype (what hype?) because of its schedule, and it’ll finish 7-5 but still “deserve to stay in the rankings”. Oy.
- After reading (and puzzling over) this Tommy Tuberville comment, I’m beginning to comprehend why Auburn’s offense went in the toilet last season.
“You try to build an offense away from the defense,” he said. “When everybody was running the ball, everybody was big and physical. Then everybody started spreading it out and … you’ve got defensive backs who are linebackers. The option will start coming back.”
Get The Picture 
Spencer Tillman (sp. ?) said the same thing a week or two ago on some preview show. I thought the same thing “What hype/expectations”? Just about every prognosticator has us finishing around 9-4 (with a bowl win) and 3rd or even 4th in the conference. I just don’t get where the “Won’t live up to the hype” stuff is coming from this year.
If I’m understanding Tubbs comment right he does make a good point. The more teams start to counter the spread with “smaller”, faster defensive players other teams will revert back to smash mouth football.
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I think that point is true to an extent. But I’m not sure that’s the point he was trying to make. “The option will start coming back”?
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I think the option isn’t the best attack to go against speedy and smaller players; the best way to attack a smaller defense is with a power attack more like say Alabama or Yale.
The reason I mention Yale, last year when Tuberville went on mission to Iraq, coach Siedlecki explained how smaller defenses encouraged his I-formation attack to run more. (Ivan Maisel did a great job covering this discussion between troops and coaches.)
It was a fascinating discussion about how fads create a cyclical nature in sports–even Weis had something interesting to say. A new offense arises to attack big, strong defenses and so defenses respond; this begets offenses moving to a power attack to offset the new speed of the defense. And so on.
I believe Tuberville’s comments are a reflection of what many coaches are saying, but this wasn’t the best way to say it.
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I think we should take this Georgia prediction seriously above all others. After all, someone writing for a news outfit out of Opelika is clearly one of the brightest minds of our generation.
He should go on a date with the guy from Dalton. They deserve each other.
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“I hereby dub Brantley the Greatest Backup Quarterback Of Our Era (GBQOOE™).”
Hahaha THIS is why I read this blog every morning!
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Spencer Tillman’s a dope.
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It’s hard to argue against your point. Well played sir.
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RE: Pac-10 Hotel Rooms
Don’t they realize they’re [probably, I don’t know Pac-10 rules] not obligated to stay in hotel rooms the night before home games?
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A Salute to The SEC Athletic Directors’ Contract Negotiators R Us Hall of Fame:
“In addition to his resume and his desire to coach again, he is represented by the best agent in the game — a point that Tuberville emphasized from the podium with a raised right fist when Jimmy Sexton’s name was mentioned.”
Power to The Jimmy –
‘Official word: Tuberville resigned, $6 million buyout to be paid in full’
http://blog.al.com/auburnbeat/2008/12/official_word_tuberville_resig.html
This proud HOF moment is memorialized with replica pens used to sign the bailout, the shredded remains of the base contract, digitized copies bailout checks and a photo of Jimmy and Tommy
while hard at work at the negotiating table
http://www.gwoltal.myfastmail.com/files/Wild
Additionally, placed with the items is an Oscar Meyer weiner specifically donated by Jeremy Foley to honor the Auburn Athletic Department for its excellent fiscal policies that only go to help The SEC be The Best at whatever it is it does.
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The Tuberville comment was pure gold!!!
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I would argue we have been hyping this season in a reverse-psychology-kind of way. In the absence of all the wooing over the University of Tebow gators I would say we have gotten a fair share of hype. I can’t count how many times I’ve read how well Mark Richt’s teams have done when they fly under the radar. I find myself subconsciously expecting a realistic run at the SEC title because of this. If we finish with the same ranking and/or record as last year will we really be satisfied? I think many of us have the same expectations as last year but we’re just trying to be a bit quieter about it so we don’t look foolish when we call out the media for not voting us high enough in the polls. But 7-5 just seems a wee bit silly.
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