Steele’s adjusted starters

One thing I appreciate about Phil Steele’s blog is the way he uses it to update information in the magazine that’s become stale due to events after publication.  So in that light, here’s his chart of teams which have lost starters since May.  There are four SEC schools on the list:  Georgia, LSU, Mississippi and Tennessee.

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There’s a fine line between confidence and Kool-Aid drinking.

I hope these guys are on the right side of it.

Senior defensive end Cornelius Washington and some of his teammates are talking unabashedly about a national title.

“Like I told the guys, it just kind of seems like the stars are kind of aligning for us to be able to do a whole lot of great things this year,” Washington said. “We’ve got to put in the work and put in the effort, and I feel like we go out every day and do that.”

“Our goal is to get to Atlanta, to get to Miami and to win,” junior tight end Arthur Lynch said. “(Snapper) Ty Frix said it well the other night. Let’s forget Miami. If you win every single game and you’re in the SEC, you will be national champions.”

GATA, fellas.  Let’s see what you’ve got.

Mark Richt has lost control of the whole damned SEC.

Is it a program whose coaches take too many chances on talent at the expense of character in recruiting to try to keep up with their very successful rivals?

Is it a program whose players keep seeing their teammates get suspended and dismissed for their actions but, for some reason, don’t seem to get the message?

N0pe, that’s not Bradley or Schultz questioning Richt.  It’s Kevin Scarbinsky, reaming out Gene Chizik after Auburn’s starting center was arrested and charged with public intoxication.  (In Athens, they call that thuggery.)

Meanwhile, somebody in Knoxville had to take the fall for Da’Rick Rogers.  Luckily, there’s a $56,000 a year “Vol For Life” coordinator who was handy.  (One could argue that Rogers’ actions successfully brand him as a Vol for life, but I digress.)

Documents released by the school in response to an open records request from the News Sentinel suggest Dooley was unhappy with Lott’s leadership in the program, which was created in 2010 to help players in the areas of character education, life skills, career development and spiritual growth.

Part of the problem may be that it takes two to tango.

According to the notes from the June 28 meeting, Lott said Dooley hadn’t given him enough direction for the VFL program and that it was difficult to communicate with the coach.

I’m sure everything is fixed now.  At least until Mark Richt interferes again.

Nick Saban has a dream.

And I likes it.

“… we should have about 60 or 70 teams that are in the NCAA super-welterweight or whatever-you-want-to-call-it division and every game that you play, you have to play against one of those 60 or 70 teams,” Saban said Saturday in an appearance at SEC Beach Fest. “If you lose a game – and for sure, if you lose two – and somebody else goes undefeated, even if they haven’t played the quality of teams that you have, they’re going to get in the game and you’re not. And I’m not sure that’s fair.”

At the heart of Saban’s irritation about the inconsistency of scheduling in the Football Bowl Subdivision is his desire that in a newly expanded 14-team SEC, all schools would get to play each other at least once in the careers of each of their players.

“The fact that we only play eight conference games and we increased the size of the league by 15 percent, I don’t think it’s fair to the players,” he said. “I think every player that comes through in the SEC ought to have the opportunity to play against every other school in the SEC – east or west.

“So I’m for playing more SEC games. If we’re going to do that and make it fair in terms of this four-team national championship playoff, then everybody ought to have to have the same quality of schedule that some of us do.”

Wishful thinking, or a roadmap for Mike Slive if the TV money from expansion is not where he wants it?