SOD’s sense of hue-mah

You may remember that unfortunate tweet young Master Bray popped out after his team lost another game to a ranked opponent.  At least Bray had enough sense to pull it and apologize.  His coach thinks he may have overreacted – all that was called for was a little judicious editing.

Dooley on Bray's tweet: "It could have been a good tweet if he had left out the first part. It had a little humor to it."

— Evan Woodbery (@TheSaintsBeat) October 15, 2012

The second part?  That would be the egging part.  After all, that was so funny when it happened!

The amazing thing is that there are some people who still think SOD is bound for Athens someday.  That may be true, but it’ll only be to visit his parents for Thanksgiving.

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This is what drives me crazy.

Mark Richt, on the offensive game plan for South Carolina:

“We did a couple things differently in the [South Carolina] game because of the edge pass rushers. Really they have three good pass rushers there at South Carolina. You want to help your tackles out, so we did things a little differently there in pass protection, too, whether it was having a back helping or a tight end helping. We may have spent too much time and scheme on that, where we should have just done what we have been doing all year long and realize they may win one once or twice, but we were also going to win our share too. And just running the ball between the tackles — we probably should have stayed with that a little more than we did. But they made the plays early in the game and got the lead, and we probably just didn’t stick with that inside run game as much as we should.”  [Emphasis added.]

You come into the game ranked highly in every team offensive statistic that matters.  For the first time in the program’s history, a Georgia team scored more than 40 points in five straight games.  Clearly, something is working on offense, and at a high level, too.  Yet, because you freak out over whether your green offensive line can handle blocking South Carolina’s excellent defensive ends, you decide to rip up what’s been working and try something else.

If you don’t trust the coaches and players who’ve been making the calls and the plays all along, why should they trust themselves?

The Bobby Petrino sweepstakes

Admittedly, no SEC athletic director in his right mind is ready to come out publicly and say he’d consider hiring Petrino, because nobody wants to have to answer to this kind of thinking – yet:

My answer was that hopefully neither school will hire him. Hopefully no one anywhere will hire the former Arkansas football coach who somehow forgot he was a married father long enough to have an affair with an athletic department employee, promoted her to a job she may or may not have been qualified to have, then lied about all of it to his athletic director.

Any university that would hire Petrino should disallow any pretense that ethics, character and decency are a part of its mission statement.

Just come right out and say, “Our motto is ‘The End Justifies the Means.’ We’re changing our athletic nickname to Pigs, Snakes or Cockroaches — at least until the ACLU or Humane Society charge that’s an affront to pigs, snakes and cockroaches — and we’re trying to hire John Edwards or Arnold Schwarzenegger as our school president.”

But I’d be willing to bet a substantial amount of money that Petrino’s name has been breached behind closed doors.  And more than once.  Which doors?  Well, speaking of betting money, check out these three lines that greeted me this morning:

• Alabama at Tennessee +20.5
• Georgia at Kentucky +28.5
• Auburn at Vanderbilt -7.5 (!)

When’s the last time Auburn was an underdog to Vandy?

To add insult to injury, I doubt I’d pick any of the ‘dogs to cover.  Those are lost seasons and you’ve got to figure there’s enough restlessness in the respective fan bases to encourage at least one AD to hold his nose and proclaim that he’s convinced Bobby Petrino is a changed man.  Of course, there are two ways you can go from there – you can hold stealth negotiations and announce the hire as a fait accompli, or you can let word get out that you’re seriously considering the possibility of hiring the man.  I’m hoping for the latter, if only to smoke out all the desperate actors.

The only thing more embarrassing than hiring Petrino would be to get in a bidding war for his services and lose out to another conference school.

As for the buyout money that Wiedmer frets over, I wouldn’t be too concerned.  Never underestimate the size of frustrated alums’/supporters’ checkbooks.  And this is what SEC TV money’s for, anyway.

Fabris Invitational Week 7 results and standings

It was a tiebreaker kind of week.

Standings for Week 7
Rank	Selection	Adj Scores	Picks Edit	W-L	Pts	Tie Breaker TX – OK 21 – 63	Tie Breaker Winner
1	ciscodawg69’s picks			8-2	8	37-41	(*)
1	RaleighwoodDawg’s picks			8-2	8	24-35
1	dawgs3220’s picks			8-2	8	21-26
1	Dorsey Hill’s picks			8-2	8	27-33
1	Dilemma’s picks			8-2	8	20-24
1	econodawg’s picks			8-2	8	17-27
1	Bulldawg165’s picks			8-2	8	21-17
1	Igotnothintosay’s picks			8-2	8	31-24
1	camdendawg’s picks			8-2	8	34-24
1	DawgRocker hates the spread			8-2	8	38-24

Congrats to ciscodawg69 for pulling out the win.
Meanwhile, the overall race tightened just slightly.

Overall Standings Through Week 7
Rank	Selection	W-L	Pts	Tie Breaker Winner
1	UGA-DAWG-in-TN’s picks	43-27	43
2	DawgRocker hates the spread	42-28	42
3	4boysbrew’s picks	41-29	41
3	WFHIT?’s picks	41-29	41
3	SilverBritches’s picks	41-29	41

I kicked in another stellar 6-4 showing.  At this rate, I figure if the season lasted about 25 weeks, I’d have a shot at winning.  Be afraid, those of you at the top.  Be very, very afraid.

My SEC Power Poll ballot, Week 7

Just when you thought you might be getting a handle on the natural order of things in this year’s model of the SEC, they go and throw you a few change ups:  LSU beats South Carolina at its own game, TAMU needs fifty-nine points to get past a WAC team in a game that wasn’t settled until the last minute and Auburn generously lets Ole Miss end a 16-game conference losing streak.

But some things never change.

1. Alabama.  Even Nick Saban has time to vote his team #1 this week.
2. Florida.  Jeff Driskel averaged 3.9 yards per passing attempt and 16.1 yards per rushing attempt against Vanderbilt.  I’m skeptical that’s a recipe for long-term success, but I doubt the Gators care right now.
3. LSU.  Back to their winning formula:  little to no production at quarterback and killer effort everywhere else.
4. South Carolina.  Marcus Lattimore, 13 rushes?  After last year’s loss to Auburn, you’d think the OBC would know better.
5. Georgia.  No bye-week bounce for the Dawgs.
6. Mississippi State.  MSU continues to take what an easy schedule gives.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
7. Texas A & M.  If you measure progress by letting a 23-point halftime lead barely hold up instead of blowing it completely, then I guess you can say the Aggies are improving.
8. Arkansas.  Two straight conference wins and bowlmentum.  All John L. lacks for a great week is a favorable ruling in bankruptcy court.
9. Ole Miss.  You know, this is a fun team to watch.  But, Lord, are they small on defense.
10. Vanderbilt.  “We did not adjust well to the quarterback running game,” Vanderbilt coach James Franklin said.  Master of understatement, that one is.
11. Tennessee.  There are four SEC teams without a conference win.  The Vols are one of those.  I guess by ranking them here, that makes them the king of the conference dipshits.
12. Missouri.  Yeah, they’ve had tough sledding on the injury front, but that doesn’t explain the total manhandling they got at the hands of Alabama.
13. Auburn.  It’s going to take a minor miracle for the Tigers to become bowl eligible.  The looming question is who’s going to pay for that.
14. Kentucky.  The SEC doesn’t have a mercy rule, but it turns out God does.  Who knew?