Corch gets off the pot.

Big news from Columbus:

Scout’s Bill Greene is reporting Urban Meyer and Ohio State have reached a deal.

Me, I’m just wondering if Urban and Richt hold on and manage to face off again in 2020 and 2021, will Corch have been able to let go of the Celebration by then?  And if he can’t, will the Buckeye players care that he’s still worked up about it?

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Whither Uga?

As we wait to see Russ’ replacement, here’s a lengthy New York Times piece (h/t Jim Galloway) on whether the bulldog breed should be modified to make it healthier.  You know who is front and center in the story:

In the first half of Georgia’s football game against South Carolina in 2009, Uga VII, who had been dozing on a bag of ice in his air-conditioned sideline doghouse, was cajoled onto the field to pose for pictures with some cheerleaders and Gov. Sonny Perdue. Uga (pronounced UGH-uh) wore his trademark red Georgia jersey and spiked red leather collar, and he looked bored as an ESPN cameraman shoved a camera in his wrinkly, smooshed bulldog face.

And here’s something I’ll bet you didn’t know.

The food also boasts “highly digestible proteins,” because bulldogs are the most relentless farters in the canine world.

GATA, indeed.

My belated congratulations to the 1992 and 2007 teams

Check out this plaque in Georgia’s team meeting room.  Notice anything interesting about it?

There’s a fine line between truth and sarcasm.

Just like on the Intertubes, sometimes it’s difficult to tell the difference between the two when Paul Johnson’s mouth is engaged:

Georgia Tech is a 6-point underdog to Georgia and has lost nine of its last 10 to the Bulldogs. After practice Monday, Tech coach Paul Johnson sarcastically played the woe-is-us card.

“They’ve got a heck of a team,” Johnson said. “Won nine in a row, SEC East champs. Hopefully we can stay with them.”

Johnson interrupted a question about his players not needing much motivation this week by saying they are “probably scared.”

And why would that be?

Said Johnson, “We haven’t beaten them in a long time.”

Of course, we shouldn’t discount the possibility that he’s being both honest and sarcastic at the same time.  The man’s a genius, you know.

“Nobody knew about it. That’s the way we handled it.”

If you’re looking for the roots of why Penn State’s athletic administration behaved the way it’s alleged to have done in the Sandusky matter, this lengthy Wall Street Journal article will help shed some light.

For example,

… Dr. Triponey also wrote that Mr. Paterno believed that the school’s code of conduct should not apply to any incidents that take place off campus—that those should be handled by police—and they shouldn’t be allowed to affect anyone’s status as a student.

“Coach Paterno would rather we NOT inform the public when a football player is found responsible for committing a serious violation of the law and/or our student code,” she wrote, “despite any moral or legal obligation to do so.”

Dr. Triponey ended her note by asking Mr. Curley and Mr. Spanier if these were accurate impressions of Mr. Paterno’s views—and whether they shared them.

Mr. Curley’s response, also reviewed by the Journal, was sent three days later and was copied to Mr. Spanier. “I think your summary is accurate,” it said.

Cover up as enshrined school policy.  No wonder Triponey resigned her position.

Check out the big brain on Buzz.

You know, once you get past the classlessness, the hypocrisy about drug usage, academics and player ineligibility, as well as the sad attempt to relive the highlights of the series (it doesn’t take long)… there’s still a lot to mock about the Georgia Tech fan base.

One of my favorite pastimes is to watch some of them fire up the ol’ laptops and put those engineering degrees to work by searching for statistical proof that theirs is the superior team.  It never gets old, because it never makes too much sense.

Like this dramatic message board announcement:  “MYTH: UGA’s schedule is sooo much tougher than ours” that peters out with this conclusion:

So looking back at the totals, you have four games that are even, four with a slight Tech advantage, and two with a slight UGA advantage … and then the Boise game.  Other than the Boise game, you could argue that Tech’s schedule was as tough (if not slightly tougher) than Georgia’s…

Sure, you could argue that.  You could also argue that if the Spanish didn’t have guns and smallpox, the Aztecs would have kicked their asses back to Europe.

And then there’s this astute comparison of the two defenses (as a general rule of thumb, Tech message board threads which contain “On paper” in the header are usually comedy gold, Jerry):

… Besides, we are about as good as they are there in terms of talent and execution. Lard will only get you so far. And both Ds are just what everyone expected: average. They’re better against the run, we’re better against the pass.

Well, hell, that had me worried a little bit.  I was sort of under the impression that Georgia’s defense had been pretty stout this season.  Could I be seeing that through red and black colored glasses?

Nah.  Average?  Georgia ranks 4th nationally in total defense; Tech is currently 43rd.  (Hey, that’s only off by a three, no big deal.)  Tech isn’t better against the pass, although they’re not bad.  Give him credit though – Georgia is better against the run, so he got one out of three right.  You can make a good living playing baseball doing that.

Back to the drawing board, fellas.  Keep ’em coming.

(Brackets) Taste great! Less filling!

Judging from the number and intensity of the comments, yesterday’s post about Dan Shanoff’s observations on last weekend’s craziness struck a nerve or a chord, depending upon your point of view.  So here’s some fresh bait to fuel the feeding frenzy:

• I got several e-mails about this piece at the Wall Street Journal.  It makes for a good counterpart to the “if World War II were decided like the BCS” exercise I saw repeatedly last year.
• Dan Wetzel thinks Jim Delany is a puss for not pushing for a football playoff.  Yeah, that’s it, Dan.
• To answer Jeff Schultz’ question, no.  But I’d likely have a different answer if Georgia had qualified for a berth in a 16-team NCAA playoff.
• And if this isn’t the quintessential “you’re a moron for thinking a playoff would water down the regular season” line of thought, I don’t know what is:

… The argument against a playoff is that it would lessen the importance of games such as Iowa State’s 37-31 double OT upset over Oklahoma State, which was two victories away from playing for the BCS title before stumbling in Ames.

Maybe it would, but wouldn’t that be more than made up by the fact that additional teams would be alive in the national championship chase as the season winds down?

   Just say “I like brackets”.  In the end, it’ll make both of us happier.

Bring it on.

Now that Urban Meyer has run off to play Hamlet with the Ohio State job, he’s left a huge, huge void in the SEC over which head coach is easiest to take offense over something silly.

James Franklin in his first season is worth keeping an eye on, though.  He’s proving that nature abhors a vacuum, as his response to Tennessee’s locker room celebration after their win indicates.

Seriously, could you be more of a “it’s going to be a big deal” pompous douchebag than that?  (Although I give him props for the well-played “Some people act like they won the Super Bowl and they beat a team that the two previous years had won four games total” crack.)

Next year’s game should be plenty of fun, especially when you toss in the on-field extracurricular activities.

My Week Twelve Mumme Poll ballot

Gah.  I spent an hour on this.  And like Mike Bobo on his game plan for Kentucky, I ain’t apologizing for anything.

Here ’tis:

• Alabama
• Arkansas
• Boise State
• Kansas State
• LSU*
• Michigan
• Oklahoma
• Oklahoma State
• Oregon
• Stanford

COMMENTS

• There were a lot of teams I considered this week, but two I didn’t were Virginia Tech and Houston.
• Just missing the cut were Georgia, South Carolina, Southern Cal and Wisconsin.  YMMV, of course.  (In fact, I’d be surprised if it didn’t.)
• The reason it took me an hour to put the ballot together was because of fretting over the last four slots instead of the usual one or two.  I don’t want to think about how much time it would have taken me to construct a top 25 in order.  I doubt Nick Saban has time for that shit.

More on Munson

— If you haven’t heard, for a memorial service the school is planning “a small ceremony”… at Sanford Stadium.

— Buck Belue’s first glimpse of Larry was certainly memorable.

“He was a legendary guy even when I was a kid,” said Belue, quarterback of Georgia’s 1980 national championship team. “I remember it was 1970 or ‘71 and my grandmother, ‘Mama Sarah,’ lived in White Columns right there on the corner of Baxter and Milledge [in Athens]. They were having the homecoming parade and I’ll never forget when Munson came by.

“He was in the back of a convertible. He had a cigar in one hand, a Budweiser in the other and cheerleaders sitting on either side of him. I asked my Dad, ‘Who’s that?’ Right then, two women streakers ran by right in front of him. That was my first recollection of Munson, that homecoming parade.”

— And don’t miss Joe Posnanski’s moving tribute here.

— This, too.