Stylin’ on the Flats

A reader alerted me to this hot shirt [Ed. note:  link has been changed.],  no doubt soon to become a collector’s item, that you can buy from the Georgia Tech Bookstore:

At least those of us who graduated from Athens recognize the correct name of our school.  Maybe they figure if it says it twice, we’ll be more impressed.

If these were cheaper, I’d suggest Dawg fans buy ’em up to wear to the game at BDS this year.  Wouldn’t that be amusing to explain to the Tech fan sitting next to you…

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Do it again.

No doubt Gus Malzahn has a lot on his plate trying to rescue Auburn from the train wreck of 2012, but judging from this, there’s at least one piece of the puzzle that won’t overwhelm him.

Gus Malzahn needs to find a new starting quarterback, and if you think that sounds familiar, well, you would be right.

He’s doing it for the eighth straight season.

Auburn’s new head coach has had a different starting quarterback every year he’s been in the college game, and he’ll have another one when the Tigers open the season against Washington State on Aug. 31.

That’s pretty remarkable.  I give him the most credit for making a functional SEC quarterback out of a lame-armed Chris Todd.

That being said, just because he’s accustomed to the situation doesn’t guarantee success.  “Barrett is a great competitor, too,” is the coaching equivalent of “she’s got a nice personality”.  I’m sure Auburn fans are hoping that the mediocrity of Auburn’s 2011 offense was somehow more Chizik’s fault than Malzahn’s.  We shall see.

The cost of being a big fish in a small pond

I don’t know if you remember the last line from a post I referenced last week – “At this stage it doesn’t appear (with the possible exception of Boise State) that winning is viewed as anywhere near as important as money.” – but Brian Fremeau spells out what that means in the context of Boise State’s scheduling:

Schedule strength plays into the national championship conversation in several other ways beyond conference affiliation. On one end of the spectrum, there are teams that won’t play any top teams at all. According to our FEI projections, the Boise State Broncos will not face a top-40 opponent this fall and have an overall projected strength of schedule ranked No. 108. The Broncos are the third-most likely team to go undefeated this year according to the FEI projections, but their opportunity to be a BCS title contender is effectively nullified by the lack of a single strong opponent on the schedule.

Fremeau points out that there are other teams with high national profiles playing weak schedules, such as Louisville and Ohio State.  However, because those schools play in AQ conferences, there is a more likely possibility of them playing in the BCS title game, although their margin of error is slight.

BSU has left itself in something of a tight spot.  Granted, nobody’s expecting mid-major refugees like TCU and Utah to sport win totals approaching the Broncos’, but, then again, they’ll be cashing conference TV checks that BSU will envy.  And even a four-team playoff by itself won’t boost Boise State’s chances of playing for a national title.

That leaves BSU scrambling to add marquee games against those higher profile schools to boost its schedule strength, something which, to its credit, it’s trying to do.  The problem is that it’s got a lot of other seasons to fill up… or hope that one of its scheduled non-conference opponents gets better in a hurry.  And it’s made the job of scheduling for itself tougher by looking for home-and-home deals.  I suspect BSU is trying hard to keep itself on ESPN’s Rolodex for another neutral site season opener.  Unfortunately for the Broncos, so are many other schools.

Best spring game quarterback evah

Zach Mettenberger sure knows when to wow ’em.

Wringing hands and gnashing teeth over LSU’s sporadic passing attack last season abated somewhat with the February hiring of Cameron and a spring game when Mettenberger notched six completions of 15-plus yards.

All we’re waiting on to begin Mett’s road to greatness this season is for Stewart Mandel to weigh in with a couple of well-based anonymous sources.

This could change the Intertubes as we know them.

Now you can turn on your sarcasm meter.

French company Spotter has developed an analytics tool that claims to be able to identify sarcastic comments posted online.

It’s yours if you’re willing to pony up the £1,000 per month for the service.  No word on whether that figure was offered snarkily or not.  I guess you’ll have to rent Spotter to find out.

Look out, boys. There’s a new GPOOE™ in town.

I kinda, sorta knew Johnny Manziel was a big deal.  I didn’t realize he’s this big a deal, though.

By one measure — sheer numbers — Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel steps onto the podium Wednesday morning at SEC Media Days as the biggest celebrity college football has ever seen. Ever.

He has played one season, beaten one No. 1 Alabama, and won one Heisman Trophy. Yet you can make the case that no college player in the history of the game — not Red Grange, not Archie Griffin, not Tim Tebow, not anyone — has bathed in the heat of the American spotlight the way that Manziel has.

Maisel bases this on Tweeter followers, which I think is a little silly.  But it’s hard to argue that Johnny Football isn’t sucking most of the media’s oxygen out of the room these days.  I expect ESPN (PAWWWWWL!) will be falling all over itself with Manziel coverage at SEC Media Days.

But still, bigger than Tebow?  Anybody else feeling that?