Our guy ain’t too bad, either.

For all the talk about Dez Bryant (deservedly so), take a look at this comparison between his career stats and those of A. J. Green.

Bryant’s got a year’s experience on A. J., but Green gets to go against the shakier defense next weekend.  It should make for an interesting contrast at the end of the day.

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And some post-hot seat talk…

Phil Fulmer reflects on one very special part of his legacy:

Q.

Obviously, your successor, Lane Kiffin, has been in the news. You know those players. What do you see for this season and what they can accomplish?

A.

I love Tennessee and I love those players very much. If you’re going to be brash, you better be willing to back it up. You know, I’m hopeful that they can. We kind of screwed it up last year, honestly. We should have won eight or nine. Eight at least. They’re going to have to get great quarterback play or a lot better quarterback play…

Yeah, Lane Kiffin thanks you very much for that quarterback play, Coach.

More hot seat talk

I’m not sure if it’s possible for a head coach to be on a hot seat after only one season, but I’ve got to admit that Rich Rodriguez is giving it his best shot.

The University of Michigan football team consistently has violated NCAA rules governing off-season workouts, in-season demands on players and mandatory summer activities under coach Rich Rodriguez, numerous players told the Free Press.

I don’t know how big a deal this is, to tell you the truth (Chris Brown does a nice job breaking that down, if you’re interested), and Rodriguez denies the charges, but at a minimum, Michigan is going to have to deal with an internal look at this which may in turn lead to an NCAA investigation and Rodriguez continues to deal with players who have issues with his coaching style.  Neither of which sounds like a particularly good thing, especially when you’re coming off of a 3-9 season.

Plus, if it turns out that NCAA guidelines were violated, it’ll be hard to characterize Rich Rod as anything other than a blatant liar (unless he’s got some serious plausible deniability built into whatever went on, in which case he’ll merely make himself and the school look foolish).

Bottom line – it’s hard to argue with this:

A final thought: Going into this year, I thought the people who claimed that Rich Rodriguez was already on the hotseat in just his second year at UM were crazy. Now, I am not so sure. He better win some games.

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UPDATE: More on that player friction concern here.

Beano goes there.

If you check around the 13:40 mark on ESPNU’s College Football podcast from August 26, you’ll be treated to Beano Cook’s reasoning as to why Mark Richt will be on the hot seat after this season.

To his credit, Maisel knocks that down with one quick point, but still…