Envy and jealousy, mancrush edition

tidefan turns on an inside fastball and crushes the sucker:

1. It’s way early, but who do you think will replace Tim Tebow as Gary Danielson’s man crush?

It’s possible with Mark Ingram winning the Heisman that he’ll take over as the object of Danielson’s stalking affection.That Ingram Sr. is currently in prison only increases the likelihood that it’s Ingy.  Still, breaking up is hard to do, so I’m betting John Brantley is Gary’s new piece.  Why?  Because he’ll give Danielson and Unca Verne the proper seque to discuss Tim Tebow.

Damn, that’s good.

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Oh, them.

I find it hard to believe that the NCAA hasn’t faced this problem yet (h/t Smart Football):

The N.F.L. is so intent on preventing teams from resting their starters in late-season games that it plans to schedule only division games in Week 17, Commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday.

And Week 16 could largely consist of division games. That may not stop teams that have secured their playoff position from resting their starters, but it may keep the games interesting for fans. [Emphasis added.]

B-b-b-b-b-b-but, playoffs!

Friday morning buffet

A few things to nibble on at the end of the working week:

• I notice that any time an academic suggests how to reform college athletics, it always involves the athletic guys’ salaries.
• Does it seem like Tim Tebow exercises better self-control than Urban Meyer?
• They’re actually folding a bowl game.
• Texas is rediscovering the joys of the I-formation.
• The Georgia Tech athletic department, the Georgia Legislature and tuition:  it ain’t a pretty picture.
• In the context of the Corch-blows-up story, the Tebow mechanics meme makes ESPN.  That can’t be good.
• Listen to the last minute of this clip and discover how Orrin Hatch, defender of mid-majors everywhere, takes political hackery to a new level.
• Warren Belin could tell you what he thinks about directional kicking, but then he’d have to kill you.

A well-respected man

Nice little exchange from Bruce Feldman’s chat yesterday:

Taylor (State College, PA)

Everyone keeps focusing on UGA’s new defensive coaches Grantham, Belin, and Lakatos and ask how they will preform next year. But how do you think the offensive coaches at Georgia will do this year? I feel like Willie Martinez took a lot of pressure off of Bobo and Searels, do you think they can preform or will UGA simply have to up its caliber of offensive coaches as well as defense?

Bruce

(1:21 PM)

Can their O-line possibly have worse luck with injuries. Searels has always been considered by SEC defensive coaches among the best OL guys out there. He didn’t forget how to coach.

Maddening Madness talk

It’s getting to the point where pundits and bloggers aren’t even bothering to try to make sense about the consequences of an extended tourney.  Here’s my man Joe at Coaches Hot Seat Blog:

Please, if you are going to celebrate the bowl system and the BCS we sure the Hell don’t want to hear any of you coaches telling your players that excellence and performance on the field is what counts, because then you would be a massive hypocrite.  Calling something that is real that isn’t real doesn’t make it right and when you are rewarded for mediocrity, with college football being the only sport that rewards such mediocrity in our country, is not right and the coaches know it is not right.

Now I follow a school that saw its basketball coach get a reprieve from his fate with a flukish SEC Tournament win that led to a berth in the NCAA tourney, only to get canned in the middle of the following season when that little stretch was revealed to be nothing more than a mirage, so Joe’s “only sport” reference falls on deaf ears here, but, really, how hard is it to notice that teams with losing records make appearances in the NCAA basketball postseason – which is for a national title, mind you – far more often than they do in college bowl games?

As a topper, there’s the unintentional comedy of Joe’s last comment on the subject.

… Yes, expanding the NCAA Tournament to 96 teams would raise more money but if more money is all that the NCAA is about then they might as well shut their doors and close the whole Damn operation down.

Meanwhile, here’s a brilliant observation from SI.com’s Michael Rosenberg (h/t Braves and Birds).  Extolling the awesomeness that is March Madness, Rosenberg writes, “The NCAA tournament is never overhyped because from November to March, most of the country doesn’t pay attention to college basketball.”

By that logic, what would make the tourney the perfect sporting event would be to dispense with the regular season entirely.  And best of all, nobody would miss it.

Derek the Gardener.

Tennessee is losing its best returning offensive lineman, who decided to leave the program.  That means the Vols will be starting five new offensive linemen this season.

Meanwhile, former über recruit Bryce Brown is at practice.  Not in practice, at practice.

… Tailback Bryce Brown, the former No. 1 high school prospect in the country whose status with the Vols remains in limbo, watched Thursday’s practice from the sideline.

Dooley said he didn’t see Brown, and he’s not aware of any new developments with the player’s situation. The two met hours before UT’s first spring practice last week, and Brown told the coach he might leave the program.

You’d think all of this uncertainty might be a cause for concern.  You might wax philosophical about it in a resigned sort of way, like Gerald Jones.

“Honestly, so much has happened since I’ve been here that nothing surprises me anymore,” wide receiver Gerald Jones said. “I don’t know what you could tell me at this point that would make me go, ‘Wow, that’s crazy.’ Probably nothing, honestly.”

But that’s because you lack the Zen-like inner peace of Derek Dooley.

“We’re planting grass, not pulling weeds,” Dooley said. “We’re building for the future. We’re putting seeds down. We’re going to have a great field soon, and I’m not going to concern myself with pulling weeds, because then nothing happens, and there’s no growth.”

That stuff may go over like gangbusters in the WAC.  I’m not sure how well it’s going to sell in the SEC, though.