This is how you measure improvement with Pac-12 officiating.

At least the conference acknowledges the possibility that officiating mistakes are something to be concerned about, which is a helluva lot more than you heard in the days of the immortal Verle Sorgen.

Progress of a sorts, although small comfort to Wisconsin.

Monday morning buffet

A few odds and ends for your sampling pleasure…

• Four SEC teams, including two with a loss, in the top ten in the polls.
• In a rational world, news like this would mean there would be something in it for Johnny Manziel.
• Of course, we’re not in a rational world.
• Will we see Georgia’s reserves play this week?
• Louisville’s schedule is an abomination.  I’m just glad we don’t have a four-team playoff this season, because the Cardinals would stand a decent chance of falling into that.
• Now we know what ESPN will be beating the drums for.  Resistance is probably futile.
• The gif that keeps on giving.  (The best part is that Spurrier told Holly Rowe at halftime that he’d quit tossing his visor.)
• Rennie Curran’s new project is worth your attention.

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Can anybody play defense in this league?

For some reason, I don't feel so bad about Georgia's defense.

— Senator Blutarsky (@MummePoll) September 14, 2013

Alabama’s defense gave up 628 yards on Saturday.  Let that roll around in your brain for a minute.  But not too long.  Texas A&M allowed an Alabama offense that only mustered 206 yards against Virginia Tech to gain 568 yards on the road.  Georgia’s gained almost 1100 yards against two teams ranked in the top twelve – and yielded over 900 yards in those two games.  Vanderbilt, which finished ahead of Georgia last season in total defense and scoring defense, surrendered more points and yardage against South Carolina than the Dawgs did the week before.  Oregon piled up 658 yards of offense on Tennessee.  In three quarters.

So is defense in the SEC becoming a quaint notion?  Not exactly.  I think Rece Davis is on to something when he writes,

Everybody’s wondering where the defense is in the SEC after high-scoring games between Georgia and South Carolina and Alabama and Texas A&M (1,200 yards of offense). You can have good defense, but sometimes good and veteran quarterback play will trump that. That’s what the SEC has with the ultimate winner in AJ McCarron, maybe the most dynamic player of this generation in Johnny Manziel, Aaron Murray, Connor Shaw … all kinds of talent at that position. And that’s why you’re seeing higher-scoring games in the SEC.

I don’t think the athletes on defense have changed. The expertise at quarterback is the biggest thing that’s changed for me, and that’s a big deal moving forward.

Three of the top eight quarterbacks in the country in passer rating play in the SEC.  Four more are in the top thirty.

In other words, it’s probably a little too early to panic, at least if your team has a good quarterback.

Charlie Weis is so bad…

that he’s moved the usually low-key Bruce Feldman to sarcasm.

With Saturday’s 23-14 loss to Rice, Charlie Weis has now lost 16 games in a row against FBS opponents. In half of those losses, Mr. Schematic Advantage has been held to 17 points or less.

Sadly, that won’t stop Weis from getting another coaching job after he moves on from Kansas.  Because there’s always one more dumb AD than you think there is.

The General Assembly tackles a serious problem.

Georgia’s got a new lobbying law that will cut off lobbyists from giving Georgia’s politicians free college football tickets, starting next year.  That should give the towering intellects in our General Assembly enough time to figure out how to game the new system.  I have no doubt they’ll come up with something, as some are already hard at work on the matter.

There are unresolved questions. Shafer, R-Duluth, said he wants advice from Statehouse lawyers on whether employees of Georgia’s higher education system are legally considered lobbyists. If they are not lobbyists, they would not be subject to the spending rules.

GATA, Mr. Shafer.

Would you buy a used program from this man?

Mack Brown’s supposed to be a good salesman, but judging from this comment, I’d say he’s losing his touch:

Brown also made this plea to obviously angry Texas fans: “Keep coming. … Forget the coaches, come for the kids.”

I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t exactly make me want to whip my wallet out.

Fabris Invitational results, Week 3

Congrats to Trbodawg, who turned in the first perfect week of the season.

STANDINGS for WEEK 3

Rank	Selection Name	Standings Adjustment	W-L	Pts	Tie Breaker Game 49-42
1	Trbodawg	Adj	10-0	10	31-28
2	Senator Blutarsky	Adj	9-1	9	34-28**
2	Nondescript white fair catch guy > CPADawgs picks	Adj	9-1	9	27-24
2	Sundiata	Adj	9-1	9	30-33
2	NFL and/or College Football Pickem. Teams are set	Adj	9-1	9	24-31

I knew I shouldn’t have listened to the “Texas has its back against the wall and will show up” talk.
After three weeks, Trbodawg leads the seasonal pack, too.

SEASON STANDINGS through Week 3

Rank	Selection Name	W-L	Pts
1	Trbodawg	25-5	25
2	section Z alum	23-7	23
2	SouthBamaDawg	23-7	23
2	TomReagan	23-7	23
2	Baddawg	23-7	23
2	ChunkyA	23-7	23

Hope you’re making some real money on this, Tdawg.

Sear your retinas.

Gawd, this is hideous to behold:

Photo by Associated Press /Chattanooga Times Free Press

The game wasn’t any prettier than the color coordination.

My SEC Power Poll ballot, Week 3

We finally had a weekend with several conference games, so it’s getting a little easier to determine a pecking order.  Still plenty of questions, though.

1. Alabama.  So now we know:  Nick Saban is better at coaching than Johnny Manziel is at quarterbacking.  But not by much.
2. LSU.  The Tigers’ game against Kent State went the way that you, I and Les Miles thought it would.
3. Georgia.  The first bye-week bounce of 2013.
4. Texas A&M.  TAMU is now last in the SEC in total defense and scoring defense.  That’s a problem.
5. South Carolina.  The fourth-quarter scenario – the ‘Cocks get a goal line stop in a two-score game with a little more than eight minutes to go – was an eerie flip of what happened against Georgia the week before.  So do we say Georgia is to South Carolina as South Carolina is to Vandy?
6. Ole Miss.  I’m not sure Saturday’s game was as much a signature win for Hugh Freeze as it was a signature loss for Mack Brown.
7. Florida.  You’ve got to play offense to win in today’s SEC.
8. Vanderbilt.  Brutal, brutal pick thrown by Carta-Samuels to set up the moral victory.
9. Auburn.  It may not have been the most impressive, but a conference win’s a conference win, especially when there hadn’t been one on the Plains in over a year.
10. Missouri.  Another bye-week bounce.
11. Arkansas.  Rutgers this week, and then Bret Bielema gets his welcome to the SEC:  four straight ranked conference opponents.
12. Tennessee.  They’ll always have that 7-0 lead in Eugene.
13. Mississippi State.  The Bulldogs would probably squeak by Tennessee at home, but, man, what an unimpressive looking team.
14. Kentucky.  Did just enough in the loss to make sure it gets held against Louisville in the national title race.