Hal Mumme had a baby and they named it the spread.

Maybe I’m a little late to the party here, but I think Barrett Sallee is ignoring some pertinent history when he writes,

For the spread to work in the SEC, it needs to be a run-first spread.  Florida finished No. 38 in rushing offense in 2006, and then followed it up with the nation’s No. 11 rushing offense in 2008.  In 2010, behind Cam Newton and Michael Dyer, Auburn hoisted the crystal football thanks to the nation’s sixth-ranked rushing offense.

I suspect Hal Mumme would disagree with that proposition.  And with good reason.

With a desire to utilize the entire field, a complete lack of inhibition and an assistant coach who would eventually become rather high-profile himself, Hal Mumme became perhaps the father of the spread offense. After winning big at the NAIA (Iowa Wesleyan) and Division II (Valdosta State) levels, Mumme got his shot at the big-time; he was brought to Kentucky, a program that was consistently outgunned in the mighty SEC (the Wildcats had won more than six games in a season just once in 19 years). The Wildcats immediately began setting offensive records and went to back-to-back bowl games in his second and third seasons. (Mumme also recruited the Jeremy Brown of college football, a quarterback once described by ESPN’s Sean Salisbury as “a biscuit short of three bills.”) Mumme couldn’t pull a complete turnaround in Lexington, but the aforementioned top assistant did pretty well, to say the least, running the offense they designed in Lubbock.

Just to give you an idea of what Mumme pulled off with his newfangled attack, compare Kentucky’s offensive stats from 1996, Bill Curry’s last season there, with the 1999 stats.  Notice a bit of an improvement there?  Kentucky’s 1999 yards per game average would have ranked the Wildcats fourth in last season’s SEC (and is about 115 ypg more than last year’s UK team averaged).

One more thing about that ’99 team of Mumme’s.  The quarterback that season was the immortal Dusty Bonner, who succeeded some guy named Tim Couch.  Couch, in his last season at UK, threw for 4,611 yards in 12 games.  That total would have led the SEC last season by more than 700 yards (and Arkansas played one more game).  That 1998 Kentucky team wound up playing in the Outback Bowl and Couch was a Heisman finalist.  How many other seasons can UK claim like that?  Maybe I’m missing something, but that strikes me as a pretty good indication that a pass-based spread attack could function just fine in the SEC.

Granted, none of Mumme’s Kentucky teams were world beaters, but that was because he never fashioned a decent defense in his time there.  That doesn’t mean his version of the spread didn’t tear the SEC a new one, though.

I have no idea how Kliff Kingsbury will fare this season.  But I’m not ready to write TAMU’s offense off before it hits the field.  At least not because Tony Franklin’s offense sucked at Auburn.

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Hines Ward stops by.

Welcome back, man.

Hines Ward jus walked thru the locker rm… Big Dawg!!!

— Jarvis Jones (@SacManJones_29) March 27, 2012

And if you need photographic evidence, Jarvis posted that, too.

Don’t be a stranger.

*****************************************************************************

UPDATE:  Hines at today’s practice.

Damn, forgot about her.

Our long national nightmare is over:  the final chapter in Pantygate has been closed.

Charges have been dropped against the woman who was with former University of Georgia Athletic Director Damon Evans when he was arrested for driving under the influence in northeast Atlanta nearly two years ago.

The Atlanta city solicitor’s office dismissed the disorderly conduct charge against Courtney Fuhrmann on Monday.

Fuhrmann was a passenger in Evans’ BMW the night of June 30, 2010, when he was pulled over on Roswell Road near Chastain Drive.

Georgia State Patrol Trooper M. Cabe wrote in his report on the traffic stop that Evans had a pair of red panties between his legs, and when asked about them, he told the trooper that Fuhrmann “took them off and I held them because I was trying to get her home.”

The only unanswered question is whether the undergarment in question was ever returned to Ms. Fuhrmann.

This stings.

From Paul Myerberg’s spring practice look at Georgia Tech comes this observation about how the Jackets need somebody to step up at nose tackle this season:

… If Barnes does play at an all-conference level — something he is capable of doing — keep an eye on the trickle-down effect. Barnes clogs up the middle of the line; that frees up linebackers Quayshawn Nealy and Jeremiah Attaochu to make plays on the second level.

The linebackers can move freely; the pass rush improves. The Jackets do a better job getting to the quarterback — get pressure like Georgia gets pressure, though that’s a painful comparison; the secondary, deep and experienced, forces turnovers in the passing game. It can happen, but it all starts with Barnes… [Emphasis added.]

The plus-one debate, in two quotes

Really, it all boils down to this:

“You should have to win something,” said Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson. “You should be a champion to get into this type of system.”

“When you get to [limiting it to] conference champions, you’re not necessarily dealing with the best teams,” said SEC commissioner Mike Slive. “You’re creating more of a tournament than playing for the national championship.”

The bottom line is the bottom line here.  Is it good for college football to limit the SEC to one entrant to the title game?  Thompson prefers to spread the wealth, baby.  My bet is that Slive is going to find himself significantly outnumbered on this.