Welcome to the SEC, pal.

These are the people who are entrusted with our national security.

TMZ Sports has confirmed … the FBI has requested a meeting with a key figure in the Cam Newton college football recruiting controversy to find out if, “young men are being shopped to colleges.”

For real?  This is just now dawning on the Feebs?

Maybe they could set up tip lines on fan message boards.  Good grief.

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Don’t worry, Cam, Finebaum’s got your back.

Paul’s dramatically promising to cast his Heisman vote for Newton.  After all,

… This is a Heisman trophy ballot. Others [sic] past winners, such as Billy Cannon, did time. Johnny Rodgers was convicted of a felony before the balloting and still won. O. J. Simpson beat a double murder rap and is in jail for something else…

If there ever were a trial, he’d make a stellar character witness.

(h/t From The Bleachers)

The Wing-T with Gusto

If you’re looking for some insight into what Gus Malzahn does with some of his run schemes on offense, you need to get on over to Brophy’s site and check out these three posts:

• Hand sweep
• Counter
• Power

From the third of those, here’s a good summary of his philosophy:

… Malzahn’s offense is premised on a 2-back run and play-action team that will keep constant pressure on a defense and defensive coaches by;

1. Running the offense at a 2 minute pace the entire game (physically and mentally wear them down)
2. Balanced attack
3. Heavy misdirection in the run and passing game
4. Stretch the field vertically and horizontally
5. Throw the book at defenses with specials, fire alarms, and various personnel packages. Plan to go into each game with 7-8 trick plays
6. Present the option in 3 different ways (zone read, speed option, power g option)

Lots of good stuff there.  Make sure you check it out.

Second thoughts on Auburn

Jerry Hinnen has a pretty fair take on Saturday’s game in this summary:

… Against Auburn’s secondary, A.J. Green–the best receiver in college football, for my money–could win this game all by his lonesome. Their offensive line has finally started to come together. Their defense is no longer coached by Willie Martinez. And on the intangibles side, anyone who dismisses either Georgia’s track record in J-Hare or the fact that they’ve won four straight in this series should, well, be a hell of a lot less dismissive.

But Auburn is the better team. And if they play like it, they will have the opportunity to play for an SEC championship, and they will remain one of four or five teams with a realistic chance of playing for a national championship…

He may overstate Georgia’s attributes a wee bit there in order not to offend the god of hubris, but he has a solid point about the intangibles.  Georgia won’t go into the Auburn game with the wet-the-bed mentality that plagues it against Florida.  There’s a track record of success against the Tigers which everyone in the program can point to.  Of course, that can all be quickly undone with another minus-3 showing in turnover margin.  But if they don’t play sloppy, there’s no reason these Dawgs can’t make a game of it on the Plains.

Defensive coordinator watch, Week 10

As a couple of commenters noted, I haven’t posted a comparison of how Todd Grantham stacks up against the three men that broke Mark Bradley’s heart by (reportedly) turning down the Georgia defensive coordinator’s job –  Smart, Chavis and Foster – in a while.  So because you guys asked, here goes (stats via the NCAA):

TOTAL DEFENSE

• LSU, 6th
• Georgia, 15th
• Alabama, 17th
• Virginia Tech, 46th

SCORING DEFENSE

• Alabama, 5th
• LSU, 7th
• Georgia, 23rd
• Virginia Tech, 28th

A more than credible result for the new kid on the block.  Grantham is still showing up his former mentor at Virginia Tech quite well.

Of course, we’ll see what he’s got after this week.  Chavis is the one who looks most impressive here, as Grantham and Smart have yet to take on Malzahn and Newton.

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UPDATE: The head coach had hoped for a shorter learning curve this season.

“I was hoping it wouldn’t. But I guess it’s pretty natural for that to happen,” Richt said. There’s always a learning curve. When something’s brand new, it takes awhile. We’ve had some very good outings defensively. I think we’ll get a whole lot better as the season rolls on, and going into next season we’ll be a whole lot better.”

Tuesday morning buffet

Haven’t laid out the goodies for y’all in a while, so here goes:

• Thanks for reminding us, Seth.
• At least Joe Posnanski managed to work in a Larry Munson reference in his fine piece about the game that cost Dan Hawkins his job.
• The real message I get from this is that John Brantley’s round peg is a poor fit for Urban Meyer’s offense’s square hole, but nobody wants to come out and admit that.
• Georgia Tech has now dropped Auburn from its future schedule.
• Interestingly, in all-time SEC passing yardage by freshmen, three of the top five are Bulldogs.
• Buck Belue shares a good story about Eddie “Meat Cleaver” Weaver.
• I don’t know if this is a reflection on the kind of year it’s been in Athens, but Demarcus Dobbs defends himself against Carl Johnson’s accusation that Florida’s hurry-up offense wore Dobbs out by referring to his “rap sheet”.  Better choice of words next time, dude.

“He knew that he was facing a bad outcome.”

Two immediate conclusions I drew after reading the Cam Newton-academic-cheating-at-Florida story:

• I take back my skepticism about the Gator program having a hand in the Newton rumor-mongering.  There’s no way this story surfaces without somebody working for Meyer getting it out… which means that, well, I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about that.  I don’t have a dog in this hunt, but that’s a bullshit move on Florida’s part.  This is a different deal from the pay allegations in that there’s nothing on the academic front that suggests Newton’s eligibility is in question.  This is all about blackening a kid’s reputation.  Shameful.
• Cecil Newton’s a piece of work, isn’t he?  “I wasn’t there,” the elder Newton said. “I cannot confirm or deny. At a time like this, I’m taking a defensive posture.” The odds of Cam Newton returning for his senior season at Auburn have dropped precipitously.  If you’re an Auburn fan, you’d better hope that’s the worst of it.

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UPDATE: Corch:  I did not have sexual relations leak confidential academic records with that woman to the media.

Mumme Poll, Week 10

Rank	Team	Votes (Top pick)
1	Oregon	73 (40)
2	Auburn	73 (24)
3	TCU	71 (7)
4	Stanford	69 (0)
4	LSU	69 (0)
6	Boise State	67 (2)
7	Wisconsin	66 (0)
8	Nebraska	59 (0)
9	Ohio State	48 (0)
10	Oklahoma State	41 (0)
11	Michigan State	29 (0)
12	Alabama	25 (0)
13	Arkansas	16 (0)
14	Iowa	9 (0)
15	Utah	4 (0)
16	Arizona	3 (0)
17	Virginia Tech	2 (0)
17	Oklahoma	2 (0)
17	Nevada	2 (0)
20	Mississippi State	1 (0)
20	Missouri	1 (0)

COMMENTS

• I don’t have them as my best team in the country, but I’m a little surprised to see Boise State at #6, behind two one-loss teams.
• Speaking of which, LSU, which beat another one-loss team, now at #4?  Wow.
• Still pretty weird to see a top twenty list without a single Florida team on it.
• Breakdown by conference:  SEC – 5; Big Ten – 4; Big 12 – 4; Pac-10 – 3; Mountain West – 2; WAC – 2; ACC – 1.  Oh, yeah:  Big East – 0.

Hatless

I’m not saying which approach is right or wrong here, but this exchange sure sums up a difference in coaching styles:

… The daring gambles of LSU’s Les Miles had one fan wanting Richt to take more risks.

“You watched the `Mad Hatter’ this weekend,” Richt said. “It fired you up.”

LSU ran a reverse for 23 yards on a 4^th-and-1 in its upset of Alabama.

“It was exciting,” the caller said. “I think it would give a spark to the guys and it would give them confidence.”

“When they don’t work out, you feel like if I didn’t do that, we might could have won this game without doing that,” Richt said. “You can hurt your team as much as you can help it, but there are times when you do need to take the risk.”