For once, it really IS the media’s fault.

I am absolutely flabbergasted by something Gregg Doyel reports (h/t Boys of Old Florida).

… I just found out why college football is plagued by a preseason coaches poll, a poll that sets the tone for the entire season and is probably going to lead — four months later — to Boise State riding its Holiday Bowl resume into the national championship game.

What did I find out? I found out that it’s the media’s fault.

More to the point, it’s USA Today’s fault.

The coaches wanted to eliminate the preseason poll last year. USA Today, which operates the poll, talked them out of it.

This is not a guess. This is a fact. I just hung up with USA Today deputy managing editor Jim Welch, who relayed that story to me. Last year the American Football Coaches Association commissioned the Gallup World Poll to study its poll and to make recommendations for improving it. One of those recommendations, Welch said, was to do away with the preseason poll — and to not release its first poll until a month into the season.

“The coaches seemed to agree with that,” Welch said.

So why didn’t it happen?

“We don’t view that as a good idea,” Welch said.

Holy Mother of Crap.  For what is probably the first time in the history of the Coaches Poll, they were actually going to do the right thing… and then bowed to a media agenda.  (Doyel notes that the AP feels the same way about its preseason poll.)

Here’s the thing that really rankles:  how many of these same assholes who “want to plan pages around it”, as the AP sports editor refers to the agenda, bitch and moan in their pages about how unfair the polls are in deciding who makes the BCS?

I guess as long as they’ve got something to write about, they’re happy.

The myth of a seamless transition

For those of you who disagree with my assessment that Georgia’s defense was likely to struggle early because of the scheme change and were profoundly disappointed in the way the defense performed in Columbia, some of Mark Richt’s comments from today’s presser might be enlightening.

… Nose tackle DeAngelo Tyson, who played every snap at South Carolina, did so even after getting treatment during the game for a knee sprain. He also admitted he got tired.

The reason Justin Anderson and Kwame Geathers, two bigger nose tackles, didn’t play was because South Carolina was in a three-receiver set almost the entire game, and in Georgia’s nickel package, Tyson is the nose.

But Richt said they were working on changing their personnel package, so the bigger nose tackles will be in there.

Richt also said the defensive line has to “drop anchor” a bit more. There were too big a seam for the linebackers to try and make plays…

This is a work in progress, folks.  Grantham is going to be feeling his way around personnel issues for at least the first third of the season.

One thing I like about what Richt has said after the loss is that there’s not just room for improvement, but that he and the staff expect it.  That’s a definite step up from the “in the arena” talk we got after last year’s Tennessee debacle.  This week, we’ll see where it leads.  As Richt says, Arkansas is a big game – not simply in terms of wins and losses, but also in demonstrating that attitudes and expectations are changing for the better.

Justice in Knoxville

It’s no surprise that Da’Rick Rogers walks out of court, but you’ve got to love this note:

… Defense attorney Don Bosch says by performing the community service, Rogers isn’t admitting guilt. Instead, he wants to prevent teammates who witnessed his July 9 arrest from having to testify at a hearing.

How convenient for everyone.

Class move

Georgia has elected to broadcast the Idaho State game on WSB TV instead of going the pay-per-view route.

“This free-of-charge broadcast is a way to give back to our fans throughout the state,” Georgia athletics director Greg McGarity said in a statement. “We believe making the game available on WSB TV and its coverage area is a way to show our appreciation to Bulldogs around our state.”

Well played, sir.

Next time, try a better scam.

Maybe Chris Hawkins should have signed A.J. to a one-day professional basketball contract with a $1000 signing bonus.

Best of all, he could have framed that, too.

If Chris Rainey’s calling, pick up the phone.

Otherwise, he gets kinda upset.

Christopher Rainey, 22, of Lakeland, a wide receiver for the Gators, was charged with aggravated stalking of a woman he has been dating on and off for about three years.

Gainesville Police said the incident began when the woman fell asleep and missed a call from Rainey.

Officer Jesse Bostick said Rainey went to the woman’s home and she talked to him for about 10 minutes, then told him to leave. According to Bostick, Rainey sent a text to the woman that said “Time to die.” The woman called police after receiving the text.

I’m so looking forward to the next Red and Black editorial about how Urban Meyer keeps his players’ behavior under control.

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UPDATE: Events like this are what God created Twitter for.

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UPDATE #2: You mess with Chris Rainey, you mess with Gator Nation.

The alleged victim appeared in court as well, and indicated that she was not afraid of Rainey and her intention was not to have him arrested.  Instead, she’s concerned over the media coverage the arrest has garnered.

“People all over the country have been calling my cell phone,” the woman said. “I’m not afraid of him. I’m more afraid of all the repercussions.”

By the time they get done with this in Gainesville, she’ll be the one facing charges.

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UPDATE #3: I guess this means Steve Addazio isn’t taking Rainey’s calls, either.

The best laid marketing plans

Here’s a logo deal that might be something Greg McGarity would like to revisit, at least before Victoria’s Secret gets Damon Evans to do an embarrassing promotional video (he’s got experience).

(h/t Darren Rovell)

Lessons learned (maybe)

A few random, three-days-after notes and observations –

Year2 had this to say about Georgia’s offensive game plan:

2. Should Georgia have gone to the pass earlier?

Well, hindsight is 20/20. It certainly looks that way now. But hold on for a sec.

The film of South Carolina’s opener indicated that Georgia should have use the run to set up the pass (exactly as Richt did) even before you get to the fact that the quarterback was a freshman going without his best receiver. Plus, Ealey did well on the first sustained Bulldog drive as I described above.

Giving Murray some more leash to toss it around was a great halftime adjustment, though given how things looked I wouldn’t be surprised if Richt decided before the game to make that change at that time. No one had seen Murray play in a real college football game yet. The Georgia staff made the right call this week, but they shouldn’t wait so long to air it out with Murray in the future.

It shouldn’t have come as any big surprise to us that Richt was going to be conservative with his inexperienced quarterback going into his first SEC contest.  Although I can’t help but wonder how many of the Georgia fans who were ready to anoint Mettenberger as the starter after the G-Day game were complaining about Bobo not calling Murray’s number enough on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Bacarri Rambo is upset about his play.

“I was loafing a lot,” the sophomore said. “I’ve just gotta do better, because I’ve got a lot of guys looking at me as a leader. I’ve gotta fix myself with that.”

Rambo didn’t stop there.

“From now on I’m going all-out,” Rambo said. “I’ve gotta give it all I got. I feel like I was holding something back. I left a lot of what I had in the locker room instead of taking it out there with me.”

Emerson notes that Rambo wanted to get that off his chest, so it sounds like he really was bothered by his effort.  The attitude’s a good place to start, of course, but that’s all it is until he takes it on the field for a whole game.

More importantly, the coaches found attitudes lacking as well.  And it sounds like we may be looking at some accountability and consequences:

… A caller on coach Mark Richt’s call-in show Monday night asked Richt about players being “timid” and “afraid to hit.”

“There were a couple of times where you’re right, I think timid is a very kind description of what happened,” Richt said. “There were a couple of times when we turned it down quite frankly.”

Gamble said defensive coordinator Todd Grantham told “all the younger guys in the two-deep that there’s still spots open (to replace) guys who are messing up.”

Richt said there indeed will be competition for positions this week and there will likely be more physical practices with the scout team.

“Just to work hard on the fundamentals of stepping on a guy’s toes and putting your face on him and wrapping up,” Richt said. “There’s going to be no diving on the ground at a guy, no going low on a guy. When I mean low, I’m talking about just diving at the knees and ankles and that kind of thing.”

I thought the disappointments we saw on the field the previous two seasons were more the fault of the coaches than the players.  It’s too early to be making any final judgments about this season, but I’m inclined to say that so far I’m not willing to draw the same conclusion.  The Arkansas game will tell us a lot about where this team is headed this year.

Kumbaya, my friends

I’ve had to ban another commenter.  I’m not happy about it.

I get that a number of you are bitterly disappointed over Georgia’s worst loss in the history of the program since Mark Richt has been in Athens since VanGorder left since the last time the Dawgs played for the SEC title since that last BCS bowl win since Joe Cox graduated.  Seriously, I get the frustration and don’t have a problem in the world with your expressions of negativity, even if I don’t totally agree with them.

However, your feelings don’t give you carte blanche to fling poo all over the walls here.  Two things will get you canned by me:  spamming the same comment (particularly when you drag it into comment threads about completely different subjects) and sockpuppetry (if you’re that insecure about your opinion, perhaps you shouldn’t voice it in the first place).

There are a couple of you who are skirting pretty close to the edge, so take this as your final warning.  I like to think I’m pretty tolerant, but life’s too short for some crap.

Sorry for the rant.  I now return you to the angst of the 2010 season, already in progress…

If you make demands on Phil Fulmer, the terrorists win.

Remember a few years ago, when everyone got on Kellen Winslow, Jr. for his soldier tirade?  It seems to me that this comment from Tennessee’s former head coach travels in the same territory:

“… My last few years, if you talked about only winning nine, it was an act of terror, and now they’re pushing and hoping to win six to get into a bowl game.”

Now we know why his coaching fell off in the last three seasons – he was worried that Mike Hamilton was going to go all Bin Laden on him.  That last two-year contract extension must have scared the hell out of Fulmer.

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UPDATE: John Pennington writes that Fulmer is angling for Mike Hamilton’s job.

The irony there is so thick, you could cut it with a knife.