Wednesday brunch buffet

Here are a few things to nibble on:

• Chris Brown’s got some good stuff from Nick Saban on pass defense that the coach passed along – are you ready for this? – on his radio call-in show.
• Shorter Dan Wetzel:  progress for the BCS will come when we replace one subjective group of human beings with another.
• You may be frustrated with Georgia’s defense, but it’s been quite good at one thing – manning up in the fourth quarter.
• On the other hand, it’s kinda sad to hear ESPN’s Pac-10 blogger refer to the Georgia defense as one that “would be below average in the Pac-10″ and not be able to argue too hard about it.
• CFN picks Georgia this Saturday, 24-20, in another nail biter.  I’ll take it.
• Thanks for burying Uncle Ron this weekend, ABC, so I can’t hear him.
• Talk about damning Al Groh with faint praise, this article mentions Groh’s killer 17-10 career record in October since 2002, “the year U.Va. began its memorable run of back-to-back Continental Tire Bowl championships”.  They’re dusting off his Hall of Fame plaque as you read that.

If you’re gonna talk the talk…

If you remember, Arkansas cornerback Ramon Broadway had a few words of warning for A.J. Green a couple of weeks ago.  Seven catches for 139 yards and two touchdowns (one of which was a gorgeous grab over Ramon himself) later, it’s fair to say that A.J. took those words to heart.

As did the Alabama offense (291 yards passing), for that matter.

So what’s the haps with Mr. Broadway now?  About what you might expect.

… In a sign that Arkansas might be planning to shake up its secondary, backup safety Elton Ford and cornerback Andru Stewart worked with the first-team defense during Tuesday’s practice. Stewart took snaps at junior Ramon Broadway’s cornerback spot, and Ford replaced sophomore Tramain Thomas at safety.

Broadway has gotten beat on several big plays over the past two games…

I guess he’ll need to do a “little bit more”.

2009 Mumme Poll: open for business.

After weeks of tweaking and testing, it looks like we’re ready to go at the new site for the Mumme Poll.  (If you want some background on the Mumme Poll, visit the tabbed page above the Brown/Dooley banner.)  We’ve replaced the rather clunky method of casting ballots via e-mail that was utilized last year with a much easier voting process.

It’s not just easier for you, it’s a blessing for me, too.  Because there is much less of an administrative burden this go ’round, there won’t be a cap on the number of participants.  Anybody out there who wants to be a Mumme Poll voter can do so.  Feel free to jump in.  I’m hoping for 120 voters, which matches the number of D-1 coaches eligible to vote (and which would also represent a rather ambitious quadrupling of the number of people casting Mumme Poll ballots at the end of last season).

To get you started, here’s a road map:

1. Registration. Go to the site.  The link is http://mummepoll.3sib.com/.  You’ll find instructions to register there and it shouldn’t take more than a minute or two to get set up.  You can register any time between now and 9:00 PM EST Monday.  The first important thing to be aware of is that if you don’t register in that time period, you won’t be able to participate, as we don’t add voters to the pool once things get underway.
2. Dry run ballot. You’ll see a tab at the site labeled ‘BALLOT’.  It’s just what you think it is, the portal where you go to cast your vote.  It’s closed right now, but will be opened after the games of week five are in the books.  Just like last year, the voting period runs from 9:00 AM EST on Sunday to 9:00 PM EST on Monday.  The results from this vote won’t be published, but it’s still very important that you participate in the dry run.  If you don’t cast a dry run ballot, you’ll be locked out from voting the rest of the way. I will post a reminder or two here about voting, but please keep that in mind if you want to be involved.
3. Ballot format. Just like last year, you still pick the twelve best teams in D-1 without designating an order to them.  And just like last year you still select the top five of those twelve (again, without order) to be used strictly as a tie breaker in the poll results.  Everything else is very different from last year.  Instead of typing up your teams and top five designations, you’ll find it’s all done through drop down menus that list all of the D-1 schools.  It’s much more difficult to screw up your ballot now, as you won’t be allowed to submit your vote if you haven’t selected twelve teams and the site won’t let you select the same school more than once.

That’s everything you need to get going, so head on over and get yourselves set up.  I’ll do at least one follow up post heading into the dry run vote, both as a reminder and also to let you know what else you can expect to see and do at the new site.  In any event, if you’ve got questions about this, drop ’em in the comments to this post and I’ll answer you.

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UPDATE: If you’re looking for more information about what we’ll have at the site, Tidefan’s post at 3SiB is a must read.

The root of all evil

In a post that may boast of having the longest header ever, Joe at Coaches Hot Seat Blog blames Tebow’s injury on… the BCS.

Kiffin watch: the loneliest boy in Knoxville.

Seriously, is there a sadder place to be than Jonathan Crompton’s backup?

… Only one team in the country has thrown more interceptions than UT’s eight, and all of them belong to Crompton. They’ve come from batted balls, bad decisions and a couple overthrows, but for now his job is safe and coach Lane Kiffin doesn’t have any plans to take it away.

The Vols aren’t going to split the workload either, which is as much a product of their youth at receiver as the belief that Crompton is their best option.

Al Groh channels his inner Orson Welles.

He gave himself the day off last Saturday, cracked open a beer, grabbed the remote, settled down on the couch, scratched himself in a couple of places and watched some football.

… Preparing for Saturday’s game against North Carolina, Groh watched the Tar Heels play Georgia Tech. He also watched Indiana-Michigan, Alabama-Arkansas, Texas-UTEP, Virginia Tech-Miami, Oregon State-Arizona, Purdue-Notre Dame and Houston-Texas Tech. He even caught an Ivy League game “for the fun of it.”

And after all these years of coaching (and presumably watching countless hours of game tape), he was suddenly blinded by this amazing insight:

“Certainly revealed that there’s probably far too many teams and players that are anointed way too early in the season and far too many teams and players that are condemned too early in the season to see the significant turnarounds that occur in so many games — that a season is to played out rather than to be seen in microcosm,” Groh said. “I realize that’s not the reality of the way things seem, but that’s the reality of the way things go.”

Too true.  Too, too, too, true.

Yes, a football season is meant to be savored.  It must be allowed to ripen in the fullness of time, so that another 5-7 year can be fully appreciated for itself.

Al Groh will judge no college football before its time.

Also, it probably needs to be allowed to breathe a little before consuming.

You can’t blame all the angst on turnovers.

I couldn’t see the end of this amazing play from my vantage point in the stands, but that’s no excuse for the officials who were in position to call it.

And exactly how does the replay official miss that?

Tuesday morning buffet

Not the biggest of selections, but still worth a look:

• Another complaint about the illogic of the Coaches Poll.  You know what we have to say about that here at GTP.
• Of course, you can argue that some of that is due to how unpredictable the early season has already proven to be.
• Strange factoid:  Georgia is the only SEC team LSU hasn’t defeated under coach Les Miles.
• We pondered the blatant personal foul rule after that questionable call against Reshad Jones in the OSU game, but it takes the GPOOE™ to catch Dennis Dodd’s interest.
• Tony Barnhart says the schedule will do in Boise State’s national title chances.  I agree that it should, but still think the screaming will be more intense than ever if two one-loss teams play in the BCS title game ahead of an undefeated BSU squad.
• Colorado isn’t big on anonymity.  (h/t The Wiz of Odds)
• So Charlie Weis tells us that “NFL people” swooned over Jimmy Clausen battling turf toe in the Fighting Irish’s epic win over Purdue (“Good to see a quarterback with some guts”).  Wonder what those unnamed sources thought about Baylor’s Robert Griffin playing most of the first half with a torn ACL that put him out for the rest of the season.

So, the last turnover didn’t matter.

In case you haven’t seen it, here’s a clip of A.J. Green’s game saving field goal block:

Nice Boss Bailey reference, by the way…

Echoing the past

There’s a perfect A.J. Green quote in David Hale’s game grades post today…

Then, of course, there’s A.J. Green. When asked after the game if he’s a regular contributor on special teams, his answer was perfect.

“Nah,” he said. “Just when we need it.”

… that reminds me of another perfect quote from a Georgia great:

Immediately Walker disarmed potential critics (read: the press) as easily as he evaded potential tacklers. Herschel, don’t you get tired carrying the football so many times? “No sir, the ball ain’t heavy.”

Which leads into this Hale tribute.

A.J. Green is a special player. I don’t mean that in a “Matthew Stafford was a special player” sort of way, when you look at a guy’s talents and think he’s capable of anything. Green is special in the way Herschel Walker was special — the type of player who simply changes the complexion of a game simply by being on the field. When that third-down pass went up on Georgia’s final drive, everyone in the stadium — including the Sun Devils — knew who was coming down with it. There’s an invaluable quality that Green brings. It’s the knowledge that, no matter what else is going on, Georgia has a chance to win because it will always, in every game, have the best player on the field. It’s an intangible bit of confidence (or concern if you’re the opposition) that cannot be accounted for but changes how the game is played. He’s one of a kind.

Well, more like two of a kind…