ESPN’s loss is New Mexico’s gain.

Five words for you, Coach Davie:  Craig James, running backs coach.

Mumme Poll, Week 11

Rank	Team	Votes (Top pick)
1	LSU	105 (98)
2	Oklahoma State	105 (6)
3	Oregon	104 (0)
4	Alabama	103 (1)
5	Oklahoma	103 (0)
6	Arkansas	101 (0)
7	Clemson	87 (0)
8	Stanford	82 (0)
9	Virginia Tech	62 (0)
10	Boise State	57 (0)
11	Georgia	54 (0)
12	Houston	43 (0)
13	Kansas State	10 (0)
14	South Carolina	9 (0)
14	Wisconsin	9 (0)
16	Michigan State	7 (0)
17	Nebraska	5 (0)
18	Florida State	2 (0)
19	Michigan	1 (0)
19	Missouri	1 (0)

COMMENTS

• Breakdown by conference:  SEC – 5; Big 12 – 4; Big Ten – 4; ACC – 3; Pac-12 – 2; MWC – 1; CUSA – 1.
• Georgia finds itself nipping at the heels of one team it lost to and three spots ahead of the other team it lost to.
• It looks like we’re down to a top six now.  And that’ll be weeded out with the results from OSU-Oklahoma and LSU-Arkansas.  Which is probably good news for Alabama and Oregon.

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All kinds of dumb

I’ve seen a lot of explanations for the rising tide of mediocrity at the lower levels of the SEC this season – injuries, poor quarterback play, the overwhelming strength of Alabama and LSU, etc. – but maybe it’s time to consider, well… intellectual firepower.

Example #1:  Faced with an inexplicable number of penalties being committed by his charges, Will Muschamp responds with a fashion statement.

… Muschamp said the Gators have been doing everything they can to alleviate the problem, including crowd noise and hard counts at practice. He has even resorted to texting the players and giving out “Hard Count” T-shirts to remind them of the importance of avoiding false starts and staying onside.

“We’re exhausting all measures,” Muschamp said. “We’re just trying to emphasize it a different way.”

If there’s a God in heaven, a Florida player will be caught selling one of those shirts to a booster for $1,000.

But poor ol’ Will looks like Albert Einstein in comparison to the Ole Miss brain trust, if this blogger is on to something (h/t Jarred).

… I should point out here that the only time a sign was held up on a passing play was when we had scripted a screen pass to a halfback. Aside from that, someone who looked like a student worker was holding up a sign on every running play with a few letters on it. Those letters would tell the offense (AND THE DEFENSE) who was getting the ball.

Here are the signs I noticed:

Brazz – Nick Brassell – This sign was used to show Brassell would go in motion though he never actually touched the ball.
B.B. – Brandon Bolden
E – Enrique Davis
T.S. – Tobias Singleton
J.S. – Jeff Scott
Speed – Speed option
Phillies logo – Bell formation triple option which always went to Brandon Bolden

I realize that to many of you this is unbelievable. It’s so insultingly simple that I must be lying, right? Well I’m not. I didn’t take pictures of the signs because that’s actually against SEC regulations – I think – so just trust me. I wish I were kidding when I say that we hold up the initials of the player who will receive the football on running plays.

As if LSU needs any extra help this week.

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UPDATE:  Derek Dooley makes a bid for a place at the table.

Not too shabby: Aaron Murray vs. FBS teams with winning records

Puffdawg insists this info will have “more ass” coming from GTP and since I’m a big fan of more ass, here you go.

You know I blame Bobo for that.

Should Joe T be getting more love?

You tell me.

… Richt made a difficult decision in replacing Dave Van Halanger, his longtime strength and conditioning coordinator. Joe Tereshinski, who had worked at Georgia for decades, overhauled the offseason program to put an emphasis on how the team did in the fourth quarter.

The results so far speak well. The Bulldogs are outscoring opponents 60-57 in the fourth quarter this season, and 14 of those points for the opponents were by New Mexico State against the walk-ons and third-stringers. Last year’s team was outscored 92-68 in the final quarter…

All I will say is that the fourth-quarter scoring drive against Auburn – all runs – was a thing of brutal beauty to watch.

Wednesday morning buffet

Hump day nourishment:

• This is Chantastic:  “Were they to finish with wins against Duke, Georgia and their bowl opponent, the Jackets would finish 10-3 and become just the fourth Tech team to win 10 games since 1956.”
• And, hey, Kentucky’s got something to play for against Georgia, too – either keeping the bowl streak alive or getting Joker Phillips a really nice dinner.
• Now he gets tough with his players.
• This sounds like something you might get if you crossed Colorado football with The Godfather.
• Andy Staples:  “If this were a true Power Ranking — as in who is playing the best right now — Georgia would be in the top 10.”
• Contrary to popular belief, there is a way for three SEC teams to play in BCS games.  It sure is convoluted, though.
• Matt Hayes isn’t worried about being banished to Seat 37F:  “Muschamp won’t publicly say it, but Meyer and the previous staff were obsessed with recruiting four- and five-star players instead of true, meat and potatoes evaluation. The Gators are loaded with guys who played in high school all-star games and announced where they were taking their talents—but have few true football players.”
• For conference games, Oregon’s student section is capped at less than one-fourth of the student body.  That makes for one tough ticket.
• Georgia shut down a fake Grantham Twitter account.

Hey, that was MY record!

This made me laugh out loud.

Mike Bobo said he heard from Matt Stafford after the Auburn game, complaining in jest about Georgia’s passing strategy. Aaron Murray passed for four touchdowns, along the way passing Matt Stafford on the single-season Georgia list, and tying Stafford on the career list.

“Stafford, he texted me after the game,” Bobo said, laughing. “He goes: ‘What’s up with throwing all these touchdowns?’ I told him, ‘You threw the ball a lot more, he’s just completing them for touchdowns.’ “

Admittedly, it wouldn’t be as funny if the team weren’t on an eight-game winning streak and leading the East right now.

One year later

Enjoy.

“It sounds like an attempt to avoid personal liability in having assets in his wife’s name.”

In poker terms, we call this a tell.

Joe Paterno transferred full ownership of his house to his wife, Sue, for $1 in July, less than four months before a sexual abuse scandal engulfed his Penn State football program and the university.

The county lists the fair market value of the property at nearly $600,000.

And if you think an 84-year old Paterno suddenly discovered the need to do some elaborate estate planning, I’ve still got that beachfront property in Hahira available.  Give me a call.