It does have “Dog” in the title.

This is a non-football post, but sometimes I think it’s important to remind my readers about the sacredness of the rule of law in this country.

Thus, we should all rejoice to learn this (h/t The Agitator):

The phrase “bow wow wow, yippie yo, yippie yea” belongs exclusively to funk legend George Clinton, a panel of federal judges ruled this week.

Just another way America keeps the terrorists from winning, friends.

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Next time, don’t throw it to the fat kid.

If you want to understand what Gus Malzahn was trying to do on that abortion of a pass play to Lee Ziemba, here’s a terrific breakdown at Red Cup Rebellion.

Basically, the only person the trickeration worked on was Chris Todd.

“It makes you want to put some option in, doesn’t it?”

That Mark Richt – what a card.  Here I am thinking that maybe he’s done a little Internet digging at some place like cfbstats.com, because of this quote:

Georgia’s tailbacks have totaled more than 130 yards rushing in each of the past four games, and Kentucky ranks 11th in the SEC and 98th nationally in rushing defense, but Richt said the game plan for success on the ground against the Wildcats isn’t quite so simple.

“There are some statistics of them maybe having some people running the ball against them relatively well, but most people that have hurt them running the ball have hurt them with the option game,” Richt said. “The more traditional zone, power, sprint draw, the things that we do the most, they’ve been much more tougher and physical against those types of runs.”

Like I said, I was impressed.  Until I went to cfbstats.com myself and took a look at Kentucky’s game-by-game run defense stats.  Yeah, the Floridas and Mississippi States did well.  But the teams that UK shut down weren’t controlled so much because of the type of running game they employed, but because they’re generally shitty offenses.  Miami of Ohio, Louisville, Louisiana-Monroe, Eastern Kentucky and Vanderbilt aren’t likely to strike fear in a defensive coordinator’s heart.

Meanwhile, there’s this stat line:

10/03/09

Alabama

L 20-38

42

204

4.86

2

It doesn’t look like that traditional offense had much trouble running the ball, did it?

If the offensive line and running game for Georgia are on the upswing, the Dawgs should be able to run the ball this Saturday, scheme or no.

Now how Martinez is going to deal with this guy, on the other hand…

“Deserve has nothing to do with it.”

David Hale had this to say at his blog yesterday:

The Senator has done a great job over the last two years of convincing me I should want to support the BCS, but it’s crap like this that makes it really tough. This stinks of the same B.S. that put Kansas in a BCS game over Missouri two years ago.

For starters, let me say that I’m flattered – somewhat surprised, even – that I’ve had any influence on someone’s thinking about the BCS.  And that I’m not surprised by David’s frustration over Penn State’s resurrection in the BCS.  (And if David thinks that’s bad, this is probably worse.)

But here’s the thing.  It’s not so much that I’m pro-BCS as it is that I truly believe that the people pushing hardest for a change to the D-1 football postseason aren’t being thoughtful or honest (hi, Senator Hatch!) about the impact that such a restructuring would have on the sport.  My personal feeling is that the end result would be less emotionally satisfying to follow.

You can argue all you want that it’s all about fairness.  The reality is that it’s at least as much about money and power as it is about competition.  And as much lip service as is directed towards what the fan wants, in the end, whatever comes about won’t be in response to our preferences as it will to the dictates of the conferences, the bowls and the networks.

But don’t take my word for it.  Go over to The National Championship Issue and read Ed Gunther’s post on the subject.  Here’s the money (pun intended) graf:

That’s been the big question for a while, and there’s two ways to look at it, both of them fair. There are those who want the bond between competition and money to be strong, the type of people who like to say that undefeated teams from the non-BCS conferences “deserve” to be in a BCS bowl game. But what exactly do they deserve? To play a better opponent, or to earn a bigger payday? There’s a biiiiiig difference between the two. Maybe it’s the cynic in me, but I’d guess that most of the people who take this view would much rather have the money than fair competition. If you offered them one or the other, either a shot at the national championship or the $18,000,000 that just playing in the game would bring, I’d bet most of them would go for the money. Is is fair that non-BCS teams don’t have a shot at the title? No, decidedly not – nobody is going to argue that. But the real question is if it’s fair that they don’t get a bigger share of the BCS money? That’s a trickier one, isn’t it? People are always going to justify why they should get more money, but the group of people on the other side who want the bond between competition and money to remain weak have a pretty good argument too: since the BCS teams are the ones who bring the majority of the money in, so what’s “fair” is that they keep the majority of it.

You can’t have it both ways, folks, no matter how well-intentioned you may be.  No doubt it’s an easy call if you’re a Boise State or a TCU fan.  Or Orrin Hatch.  But if, like me, you support a Big Six program, how much cash flow do you want to see your school/conference sacrifice on the altar of fair competition?  Because as much as the mid-majors complain about wanting their fair shot to play, they want their shot to be paid like the big boys just as much.  And keep in mind the risk over time is that the bleeding gets worse, as the tournament expands – they all do, don’t kid yourselves – and the regular season (particularly an SEC or a Big Ten one) becomes less valuable as a result.

I’m a firm believer that the best thing D-1 football could do would be to shrink itself down to eight ten-team conferences and run a playoff comprised solely of conference champs; however, the odds on that happening are slim.  In the absence of that, I can live with what we’ve got.  It’s far from perfect, but I fear that it beats what’s at the end of the fairness road.

Wednesday morning buffet

Lots of Georgia-flavored tidbits for you to sample today:

• These have got to be Auburn kids, right?  I’d hate to think the typical Georgia undergrad is that slow on the uptake, even when impaired.
• It doesn’t look like Bobby Petrino is winning many friends in the SEC officiating department.
• Here’s your first big media sighting of a Georgia-beats-Georgia Tech prediction.
• It can be dangerous listening to Buck Belue in rush hour traffic.  Yesterday, he mentioned the “rumor” that this clown could be in the mix if Richt decides to replace Martinez.
• On the other hand, Loran thinks it’s all sweetness and light for Georgia, based on three quarters against Auburn.
• David Ching is more cautious in praising one specific area of improvement.  You knew Searels would get it right sooner or later, didn’t you?
• The speculation has already begun on where Junior’s dismissed players will land.   I think Richardson to Florida is a pipe dream (although it would be Corch Meyers’ greatest gift to bloggers evah), but if Houston Nutt would take a flyer on Jamar Hornsby…
• Speaking of Corch, “After the Tennessee game, I quit going on the Internet,” he said. “I haven’t pushed the ‘on’ button on my computer.” Yeah, sometimes it’s good to take a break from those porn sites.
• I guess that means that Meyer isn’t aware that the Notre Dame job may be coming open soon.
• And as bizarre logic goes, this is teh awesome:  “I like booing the home team, simply because it’s all fans have to hold the team accountable… You are why Sanford stadium has always been an easy environment for visiting teams to play in. Georgia fans have never shown much passion in Sanford stadium and I guess they never will…” Got that?  If we’d boo our team more frequently, it would make for a bigger home field advantage.   Oy.

Kiffin watch: lost in time

Evidently Junior’s master plan doesn’t involve owning a calendar.

At least Layla knows what to get her man for Christmas now.

*********************************************************************

UPDATE: The Laner’s chosen a Clintonesque, weasel words defense.

Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin emphasized Wednesday morning that defensive back Nyshier Oliver was not arrested in his first public comments since news broke Tuesday afternoon that the freshman was cited for theft by shoplifting hours before the team played Memphis on Nov. 7.

…

When asked last Thursday about the arrests of three other players in an alleged attempted armed robbery, Kiffin said, “We made it 11 months and 11 days without any incidents.”

In other words, it depends upon what the meaning of the word “incidents” is.