Matt Hinton nails it: Nathan Peterman’s passer rating against Florida was an almost unheard of 3.8 and he wasn’t made the starter for that game out of necessity. No, somebody actually thought it was a good idea.
So a 3.8 is not even worth snapping the ball for. If Peterman had replaced his dozen pass attempts on Saturday with a dozen kneel-downs, at least the Volunteers would have been able to punt; instead, he committed three turnovers that led to Florida points before halftime. The worst part? Unlike virtually every other quarterback listed here, Peterman was not thrust into the lineup by injury or attrition: Coaches actually thought he gave Tennessee a better chance to win than the starter through the first three games, Justin Worley, and refused to concede otherwise until the damage was done.
The Vols have an easy mark in their next game, but October is a brutal month, with Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama filling the slate. That means Jones will need three wins in November for his team to become bowl eligible. And while it’s a kinder month, it’s still an all-SEC month, with Kentucky looking like the only gimme from here.
UT fans may be left with nothing to hang their hats on when the regular season ends except hoping for a good recruiting class.
After a one year absence, the Mumme Poll, the biggest fan-driven college football poll (okay, probably the only fan-driven college football poll) out there, is indeed back. I owe a great deal of appreciation to Tidefan for his effort in reviving the patient.
Those of you who participated before, nothing has changed. The site is still at the same place. Tidefan tells me that your old registrations have been saved. For those of you readers here of a more recent vintage, you can get the background on the MP and how approval voting works here.
The format is unchanged. There are four simple rules to follow to take part.
Registration. To cast a ballot, you’ll need to register at the Mumme Poll site. Registration each season is limited to the week leading up to and through the games of week five.
Voting period. In most weeks, balloting takes place at any time between 9:00 A.M. on the Sunday after the games and 9:00 P.M. on the following Monday. On those rare weeks when a Sunday game is played, the voting is pushed back 24 hours.
Ballot format. A ballot must contain votes for ten schools and a top team selected from those schools (used as a tiebreaker only).
The one commandment.Don’t try to game the system. Don’t subvert the vote by submitting a ballot with your favorite school and the nine worst teams in D-1, for example. The ballots are monitored and if something questionable comes up, a voter will be given a chance to explain. If we’re convinced there’s a deliberate effort to muck things up, we’ll toss the ballot and the voter.
As has always been the case, the Week Five vote will be a trial run to make sure everybody – including us – knows what they’re doing. So if you mess up, it’s not the end of the world. Things begin in earnest after Week Six.
A few housekeeping notes to bring to your attention:
Things will be a little more stripped down going forward than they were. For one thing, we just don’t have the time to spend heavily monitoring every little thing that goes on. For another, I think we’ve already proved our point that the Coaches Poll would be improved by using approval voting, so we’ll settle for having fun. Since you’re no longer playing the role of control group, don’t worry if you miss a ballot or two. As long as you are registered, you can vote.
I hate to have to bring this up, but it would be appreciated if you wouldn’t behave like a horse’s ass. It’s just a fan poll. Please don’t feel the need to troll by making up a ridiculous ballot to disrupt things. It won’t work, as we’ll toss your ballot and ban you from voting again. And don’t bother whining about the First Amendment if that happens – yes, people have – because we’re not from the government and we’re not here to help you.
That’s not to say that if you’re some sort of geek/nerd with an evaluation system you’ve worked out and want to use, you can’t let your freak flag fly. Just explain your rationale to us in the comment section of your ballot and we’ll leave in peace.
Please use that comment section for that purpose only, to explain something about your vote. If you want to share your ballot with others, do that here. I’ll post my MP ballot every Monday morning and the weekly rankings every Tuesday at GTP. Use the comment sections to both for discussion.
Enough with the rules. Go sign up/make sure you’re registered. Tell your friends. The more, the merrier.
“We’ve been really covering kicks extremely well all year long and then you get one like that, you might think it’s broken, but it’s really not broken. We’ve just got to go back to doing what we’ve been doing all year long and that’s placing the ball where we want it and getting guys down there covering and being in the right spots and making the play when they get there.”
After you stop banging your head against the wall, I’ve got a silver lining you can console yourself with: check out the other SEC team that’s given up a long kickoff return this season.
Last weekend gave us a little meaningful sample size for evaluation, not that my ballot changed that radically from Week 3. But I have to admit the SEC is impressing me less than it did before the season started.
Alabama. Yes, I know the Tide is 13th in the conference in total offense and 9th in total defense. What’s your point?
LSU. The team took a vote and gave Jeremy Hill a pass on his next brush with the law.
Georgia. You know, this is a pretty decent bunch when it manages to stay out of its own way.
Texas A & M. Can a squad that’s last in total defense win the SEC?
South Carolina. Why are the Gamecocks traveling to Central Florida for a game?
Ole Miss. Shit’s about to get real, Rebel Black Bears.
Florida. Before you get too excited, Gators, you beat a Tennessee team that was annihilated the week before by Oregon.
Missouri. Third straight win, 628 yards against a Big Ten opponent that had averaged 50 points per game. The Tigers should be 4-0 in September before facing SEC competition. They may be 4-4 by the end of October.
Vanderbilt. Really, you had to wear UMass down to pull away in the fourth quarter, Vanderbilt?
Auburn. I’d like to push Auburn higher, but that defense gives me pause for thought.
Mississippi State. Signs of life in pounding Troy. Hey, you gotta start somewhere.
Arkansas. Brandon Allen was injured, which is why I’m giving the Hogs the benefit of the doubt and not ranking them lower.
Tennessee. Glass half-empty or half-full time, Vols: You knock Driskel out of the game and still lose by two touchdowns. Or, you turn the ball over six times in the Swamp and only lose by two touchdowns!
Kentucky. Florida, South Carolina and Alabama for the next three weeks. This is not going to end well.
“And Georgia fans, don’t be turds. Enjoy this. Soak it up. It’s awesome. If you don’t win this year, it’s still not a failure. It’s a heck of a run. Back-to-back in the Playoff era hasn’t been done. So, to ask for a third I feel like it’s gluttonous. I feel like it’s not OK. But we’ll be in the mix.”-- David Pollack, On3.com, 5/9/23
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