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.

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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.