Sixth time’s the charm.

All out:  Stephen Garcia is dismissed from South Carolina.

Really.

They mean it.

No looking back.

Not gonna happen.

It’s final.

They won’t be moved.

Uh-unh.

No matter what…

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UPDATE:  Quite the day for Spurdog.

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UPDATE #2:  Meet the backups.

… Behind Shaw, redshirt freshman Dylan Thompson has completed two passes for 17 yards and has carried the ball four times for 12 yards, and redshirt sophomore Andrew Clifford has completed two passes for 23 yards and a touchdown and has carried the ball one time for 6 yards this year. Last season, Clifford threw an interception in his first pass attempt and completed a 10-yard pass against Arkansas.

Redshirt junior Seth Strickland served as the team’s holder for all placekicks last year and appeared in all 14 games. At quarterback, he completed both of his pass attempts, one of which went for a touchdown.

Rogers Redding’s SEC legacy lives on.

The next time you hear an ESPN putz give a vapid salute to the officials and how they always try to get it right, remember this:

Fumble or no fumble? Two days after Georgia’s win against Tennessee, the Bulldogs remain unclear about the ruling on one of the game’s more controversial plays.

Tennessee running back Rajion Neal appeared to fumble in the first quarter and replay seemed to show Georgia’s Herrera grasping the ball under Neal’s legs at the Tennessee 41.

But while the officials stopped the game to review the call, their ruling was unclear, leaving most Bulldogs wondering whether their decision was that Neal was down or that the Tennessee back recovered the fumble — neither of which seemed correct after viewing the replay.

The only certainty was that Tennessee would retain possession.

“He just said [Neal] was down,” said Herrera, who had a hold on the ball and about half of Neal’s lower torso after the apparent fumble. “That’s all he said was he was down.”

How incompetent was this?  Richt has to ask Steve Shaw for an after-the-fact explanation because the crew at the game was either too ignorant or too uncertain to give a clear reason for the call.  Jeebus.

The jury is still out.

I get the point John Pennington makes in response to this quote from Greg McGarity –

“What everyone must do at a halfway point — it’s just like the halfway point of a project the halfway point of anything you do — it’s how you finish that really is the key thing that everyone has to focus on right now,” McGarity said. “Once you think you might have it figured out or you may rest on your laurels so to speak, that’s when you have problems. The message that we need to have and the message that everyone needs to have is that each week gets bigger and bigger. To get to certain levels, you have to work that much harder.”

… that the program would be better served by Georgia’s AD reserving comment until the season’s over.  I’m just not sure I agree with it.

For one thing, complacency has been Richt’s Achilles’ heel the last couple of seasons.  I’m not sure McGarity’s doing anything more there than stating a gentle reminder of the obvious.  (And perhaps that message is a public one because it’s intended to be directed more at Richt’s charges than the head coach.)

And as for this,

“Obviously you’re winning the games that really you need to win,” McGarity said. “At the same time, those teams have really struggled. I don’t know if there’s a (conference) win among them. You’ve got to keep things in perspective because there are some big tests coming up.”

… there’s a little more context to it.

McGarity didn’t want to diminish winning at Neyland Stadium “because everybody knows how tough it is to win there regardless of Tennessee’s program.”

Going forward, McGarity says this team “has very good leadership and I think that translates into doing the right things on and off the field.”

To me, McGarity sounds like he’s letting us know he’s in the same place most of the fan base is right now – hopefulness tempered by remembering what’s gone on over the previous two seasons.  Honestly, isn’t that where we want him?

Flinging poo in the Big 12

You get the feeling that Texas A&M is making sure than none of its soon-to-be former conference mates are going to miss the Aggies when they’re gone.

Coaching ’em up

Tell me you saw this coming after the Boise State game:

Inside linebackers: Mike Gilliard, who won the SEC defensive player of the week award on Monday, has been a revelation. Before the season began, it would have been laughable to predict the defense could thrive despite early injuries to Alec Ogletree and Christian Robinson. But after Ogletree broke his foot in the opener and Robinson missed two games with a foot injury, Gilliard and freshman Amarlo Herrera stepped in to help. (Safety Shawn Williams also moved down for a game.) Gilliard leads the team with 40 tackles, and in the 3-4 defense when an inside linebacker is the top tackler, that’s a good sign. (Last year, it was safety Bacarri Rambo). Grade: A+

To repeat something I wrote in a comment thread, Olividatti has proven to be a step up over Belin, who in my opinion did the best job of any position coach on the staff last season.  He’s been fabulous.

Richt expects Ogletree back in time for Florida.  That’ll create a formidable rotation at ILB of Gilliard, Herrera, Ogletree and Robinson.  It’s a long way from Richt’s complaint after the opener about losing the one player in Ogletree that Georgia could least afford to go out, that’s for sure.

Lamest message board excuse thread of the week

Vol fans blame woeful second half on Tennessee band’s halftime show.

I kid you not.

A million here and a million there…

and pretty soon you’re talking about real TV money.

… When it comes to money, the report makes clear that Missouri is hopeful for a much bigger payday in the SEC.

The report suggests Missouri could earn $17.16 million in Big 12 TV money in fiscal year 2012, compared to $19.25 million from an SEC deal.

It also envisions a far bigger “per member share potential” should a larger SEC – with millions of more eyeballs in Texas and the Midwest – renegotiate its top-tier TV rights — up to $12 million more per year.  [Emphasis added.]

Holy Mother of Crap – that’s over $30 million dollars a year per school.  Just for top-tier TV rights.

Anybody who thinks the conference intends to stay at thirteen for any appreciable length of time is delusional.

Gators and hoisted petards

For obvious reasons, this was my favorite play from last weekend.

The SEC would be a shabbier place without Les Miles in it.