Spencer Hall is my hero.

It’s a meme mash-up!

Yeah, but does he own a scooter?

Looks like Demetre Baker intends to stay away from alleys in Athens-Clarke County, Georgia:

… I was there and saw the downtown (in Athens) and it’s a little bit wild. But you don’t have to worry about that. I’m not that type of person. I usually stay indoors, try to keep small business and be careful with how I conduct myself. I don’t want any trouble because it’s easy to get into and hard to get out.

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Just because he wasn’t your first choice doesn’t mean he wasn’t his first choice.

I’m not sure what to make of this quote from Mark Richt at yesterday’s meeting of the Albany Chapter of the Georgia Bulldog Club:

… Georgia’s head coach also talked about the timing of Grantham’s hiring, which came after reported discussions with Alabama defensive coordinator and former Bulldog Kirby Smart — a native of Bainbrige — fell through. Richt said he nearly attempted to hire Grantham more than a month earlier than when Grantham accepted the position in January, but also said the Bulldogs might not have been fortunate enough to hire Grantham if he had offered the former Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator that soon.

“I’m not sure we would have gotten him then,” Richt said. “I’m not going to say why but circumstances changed.”

Does that mean Grantham had some initial misgivings about the job that were later cleared up?

The funny thing here is that many of us wondered how Grantham would feel about being the third or fourth choice for the job.  Maybe the question we should have asked then was how Foster and Chavis felt about being fall back options for Richt.

To be fair…

Today, Tony Barnhart asks the musical question “Where is it written that the BCS is SUPPOSED to be fair?” It’s a good response to Orrin Hatch’s socialism (sorry, couldn’t resist).

Here’s his money point:

But to say these conferences are the victims of “revenue discrimination” (I’ve got to write that one down for future use) is to presume they had a pre-existing claim to the BCS money pool that is somehow being denied.

That is a totally separate issue from whether dear ol’ Mid-Major U deserves to play for the national title.  We’ll have a much more sensible national playoff debate when more folks recognize that.  Not that I’m holding my breath – for a lot of people, the playoff debate is merely a cover for directing increased revenue distribution to places like San Diego State.

Is 2010 the new 2007?

Phil Steele’s projection of Oklahoma as the preseason number one team has certainly gotten its share of virtual tongues wagging.  Here’s something from Matt Hinton’s reflection on Steele’s pick that got me to thinking:

… There are precedent for such a rebound, too. Beginning with Oklahoma’s out-of-nowhere BCS championship run in 2000, three teams in the last decade – the 2000 Sooners, Ohio State in 2002 and LSU in 2003 – have rebounded from unranked, five-loss seasons to win the BCS championship, all with expectations of far more modest improvement. Two others, Washington in 2000 and Auburn in 2004, came off five-loss seasons to finish within very plausible striking distance of a BCS title shot, and Alabama surged from 7-6 in 2007 to within half a quarter of a BCS championship bid following a 12-0 regular season in 2008.

And when you consider the glaring flaws of the Crimson Tide as the consensus No. 1 going into this fall – again, nine new starters on defense; nine – 2010 seems to scream for an outside-the-box contender to emerge from the pack. Frankly, outside of the unanimous top three (‘Bama, Boise State and Ohio State), a healthy, rejuvenated Oklahoma makes about as much sense at No. 1 as anyone else.

Take a look at Steele’s top 10.  Or make up your own, if you prefer.  Is there any team on such a list that you feel as confident about winning this year’s MNC as, say,  Texas, Florida or Alabama did last season?  I mean, Matt’s right about the consensus top three:  ‘Bama is looking at huge changes on defense and questions about its special teams; Boise State may have a clearly defined path to the title game, but it’s still got to win those games against Virginia Tech and Oregon State first; and, yeah, it’s easy to see Ohio State playing in the title game, but winning it?

You can say the same thing about the SEC.  Steele has four teams from the conference ranked between 15 and 21 – Auburn, Arkansas, Georgia and South Carolina.  We’ve hashed around their flaws and upsides plenty.  But what if it turns out that everybody’s PH™ is semi-justified and all of those programs are much improved in 2010?  That would have the makings of one wild and crazy season.

To which I say:  bring it on.  2007 is my benchmark for college football entertainment (hell, LSU’s season by itself was a benchmark – a MNC with two triple-overtime losses isn’t something you see every day).  That year defined “wide open” all the way down to the very last weekend of the regular season.  Maybe things are shaping up to give us another year for the ages.  I won’t complain if they do, that’s for sure.  Besides, it beats listening to more speculative crap about Big Ten expansion.

Thursday morning buffet

There’s always something to put on your plate.

• From the nice-gig-if-you-can-get-it department:  Kansas AD Lew Perkins makes Mike Hamilton look like Jack Freakin’ Welch.
• In a related matter, Jason Whitlock hyperventilates.  “Goldman Sachs has nothing on the NCAA”?  Dude.
• The Florida Gators, a team in search of an affront.
• This isn’t exactly what Vanderbilt needs now.
• Patrick Garbin views the Dawgs through the lens of one of my favorite metrics, yards per point.
• In the second quarter of last season, the SEC had eight teams among the top 20 merchandise  sellers.
• Ivan Maisel takes a look at recruiting the Rust Belt in an era of economic decline.
• John Pennington defines Dennis Dodd’s “bubble”:  “A horrific year and some boosters would call for Richt’s head.” Gee, John, by that standard every coach in America is on the bubble, no?