Checking out the AP All-SEC teams

Here’s the complete list, via Emerson:

First team
Offense
QB: Cam Newton, Auburn
RB: Marcus Lattmiore, South Carolina
RB: Knile Davis, Arkansas
WR: Alshon Jeffery, South Carolina
WR: Julio Jones, Alabama
TE: D.J. Williams, Arkansas
OL: Lee Ziemba, Auburn
OL: Derek Sherrod, Mississippi State
OL: Barrett Jones, Alabama
OL: DeMarcus Love, Arkansas
C: Ryan Pugh, Auburn
K: Josh Jasper, LSU

Defense
DE: Devin Taylor, South Carolina
DT: Nick Fairley, Auburn
DT: Drake Nevis, LSU
LB-DE: Justin Houston, Georgia
LB: Kelvin Sheppard, LSU
LB: Chris White, Mississippi State
LB: Danny Trevathan, Kentucky
CB: Patrick Peterson, LSU
CB: Janoris Jenkins, Florida
S: Ahmad Black, Florida
S: Mark Barron, Alabama
P: Chas Henry, Florida

Second team
Offense
WR: Randall Cobb, Kentucky
WR: A.J. Green, Georgia
L: Byron Isom, Auburn
L: Larry Warford, Kentucky
L: Joseph Barksdale, LSU
L: Clint Boling, Georgia
L: James Carpenter, Alabama
L: Bradley Sowell, Mississippi
C: Mike Pouncey, Florida
TE: Brandon Barden, Vanderbilt
QB: Ryan Mallett, Arkansas
RB: Stevan Ridley, LSU
RB: Mark Ingram, Alabama
K: Blair Walsh, Georgia
All-purpose: Patrick Peterson, LSU

Defense
T: Marcell Dareus, Alabama
T: Malik Jackson, Tennessee
E: Jake Bequette, Arkansas
E: Antoine Carter, Auburn
LB: Josh Bynes, Auburn
LB: Akeem Dent, Georgia
LB: Don’t’a Hightower, Alabama
CB: Morris Claiborne, LSU
CB: Stephon Gilmore, South Carolina
CB: Casey Hayward, Vanderbilt
CB: Prentiss Waggner, Tennessee
S: Robert Lester, Alabama
S: Tramain Thomas, Arkansas
P: Tyler Campbell, Mississippi

Honorable mentions
RB Vick Ballard, Mississippi State; RB Brandon Bolden, Mississippi, QB Greg McElroy, Alabama; RB Tauren Poole, Tennessee; C William Vlachos, Alabama; LB Jonathan Cornell, Mississippi; S Zac Etheridge, Auburn.

And a few thoughts about that:

• A.J. Green. Obviously, if you’re a Georgia fan, his second-team finish is what catches your eye there.  I can see both sides of the argument to some extent.  Green only played in eight games, not enough to qualify to appear in the official SEC stats.  And being fair, there are a lot of very good receivers in the conference this year who did play in more games.  On the other hand, his numbers match up very well against the elite:  his receptions per game rank third (tied with Jeffrery), his yards per game rank second (behind Jeffery and ahead of Jones) and his touchdowns tie for first (despite playing in four or five games less than the others).  There’s also the matter how how dramatically Georgia’s scoring increased after Green was inserted back into the lineup.  But the clincher for me was how much opposing defenses altered their schemes and coverages to account for his presence on the field.  I never saw another receiver affect SEC defenses in that way this season.  I would have voted him first team with Jeffery.
• Receivers. On a related note, no other receivers in the league got honorable mention?  I’m kind of surprised that Darvin Adams or one of the Arkansas wide outs didn’t get a few votes somewhere.
• Aaron Murray. No way I’m suggesting that there’s something wrong with the first or second-team picks, but if Greg McElroy made HM, Murray was just as deserving, especially considering that he was without his best receiver for the first four games of the year.
• Nice job coaching them up. Florida had no first teamers on offense and no second teamers on defense.  What happened with all those top recruits, Corch?
• The center position. Speaking of which, Mike Pouncey on the second team?  I was under the impression that being able to snap the ball to the quarterback on a consistent basis was important.  Is the conference that lacking in decent center play?
• Sentimental picks. I’d have gone with Jasper at kicker just because of the play against Florida.  And Chris White’s certainly earned a special place in my heart.
• Injustices. Casey Hayward and Janoris Jenkins should exchange places.  Mississippi State finished the year second in rushing and fourth in sacks allowed; some lineman in addition to Sherrod (who had a fantastic year) should have at least gotten a nod at honorable mention.  Cornell should have placed ahead of Bynes and Hightower.

Your thoughts?

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UPDATE: Coaches’ picks are here.

One positive over the AP’s is that Pouncey is nowhere to be seen.  On the other hand, Gilmore as a first-teamer is a bit of a stretch.  He may have been the most inconsistent big name DB I saw this year.

And if Dareus is a first-teamer, so is A.J.  (Of course, I guess three of the voters didn’t see him play in person.  Sigh.)

You gotta like the Orson Charles love, though.

More proof that America is a great country.

With Cam Newton and LaMichael James making the short list for this year’s Heisman Trophy, perhaps it’s time to reexamine the issue of how a player emerging from an alley is a sign of a program that’s out of control.

Bet you didn’t see this one coming.

Bill Connelly takes a look at how teams rank at running up the score.  Georgia’s place on his list might surprise you.

I do not think those words mean what you think they mean.

Dan Wetzel hates the BCS.  I mean, hates the BCS.  He’s been pushing a 16-team playoff in his book about hating the BCS and he’s unveiled the field that would exist under his version of a D-1 postseason.

Me – I kinda said bugger that after I saw 6-6 Florida International was granted a shot at winning a national title, but Dan explains how that’s a feature:

… While no one would argue that the Sun Belt champ is one of the top 16 teams in the country, its presence is paramount to maintaining the integrity and relevancy of the regular season. Teams that put together exceptional season deserve to be rewarded. If you just take the top eight or 16 teams and match them up on a neutral field then there is no advantage to being No. 1 rather than No. 16.

The way to reward the best teams is two-fold. First is providing home-field advantage to the higher-seeded team until the title game (more on this later).

The second is by giving an easier first-round opponent – in this case No. 1 seed Auburn would play No. 16 Florida International. Earning a top two or three seed most years would present a school a de facto bye into the second round.  FIU isn’t in the tournament to win the title – they won’t – but to make the regular season matter more. [Emphasis added.]

I have an idea.  Why don’t we let the #1 team in the country play Akron (currently #209 in Sagarin’s rankings, the lowest rated team in D-1) in the first round of a tourney?  That would really make the regular season matter, wouldn’t it?

FIU started out the season playing four BCS-conference schools.  It lost to all four, including a horrid Rutgers team which it faced at home.  I have news for Wetzel – any playoff format that has room for a team which boasts as its best win a 17-point victory over Troy is making a joke out of the regular season.  Setting up a 12-team format that gives Auburn an actual bye makes more friggin’ sense than that.

Back to the drawing board, son.

And while I’m on the subject of stupid pundit vocabulary tricks and the BCS, I can’t let this pearl of wisdom from Pete Fiutak slide by:

No, the BCS didn’t “work.” To be more accurate, the BCS wasn’t necessary. For it to “work,” it would’ve actually had to do something useful.

My sister thinks Auburn is the shade of Nice ‘n Easy she used five tries ago in a yet another failed attempt to look 25, and even she could’ve figured out that the two unbeaten BCS teams should play for the national title. You don’t need a cockamamie BCS system, some bizarre computer formulas (which, by the way, had a few major inconsistencies), and a bunch of money-grubbing bowl executives to figure out that there’s no real argument against the Ducks vs. the Tigers in the BCS Championship.

No, the BCS “works” when there are several worthy teams to choose from and two have to be plucked from the lot…

Twenty years ago, Oregon would have played in the Rose Bowl.  Auburn would have appeared in the Sugar Bowl.  And Fiutak would be bitching about how the system failed miserably in producing a national title game.  Maybe I’m missing something here, but to me, this year’s title game would fall under the definition of “works”.

I get that the BCS has its flaws.  Is it too much to ask of its critics that they not insult our intelligence when they complain about it?

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UPDATE: Michael Elkon schools Wetzel on what “relevancy of the regular season” means.

… Right now, the regular season matters because one loss is often fatal (ask the three Big Ten co-champions about that) and two losses are almost invariably fatal.  If you replace the existing system with a 16-team playoff, then teams are no longer playing for survival every week.  Instead, they are playing for homefield advantage, which anyone with skin in the game will tell you is worth about a field goal, and the right to play marginally easier opponents as the playoffs progress…