Need something to get over the World Cup elimination blues? The buffet’s here for you.
- CFN says this season will be a success for Tennessee if the Vols have a winning record. Sad, but true.
- Clemson is paying its coaches SEC-type money.
- Sonny Vaccaro takes a victory lap.
- Here’s a nice postscript to the Tyrone Prothro student debt story.
- Math? Nobody said there’d be math.
- Porn for the Sports and Grits guys: How TCU’s defense works. (No Dick Bumpas reference, though.)
- The NCAA decides to take another pass at the North Carolina academic scandal.
Get The Picture 
Don’t know if it’s intentional, but the GT stats primer is self inflicted, mocking parody on the geekiness of NATS (as is hinted with your clever tease, (“Math? Nobody said there’d be math.” )
I made a hard copy of it.. I’ll keep it by my bed to read whenever I have trouble getting to sleep. Actually, I wasted paper and ink…just the first three or four sentences would suffice
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JMP® on the software needed to analyze the regression output from the lm package in r.
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My favorite part of the article: ‘I would love some feedback from anyone who has still read this far’…… snooze
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The article about the TCU defense is excellent. Hope our system is as simple and effective. Hey Senator, I get CBS pop ups on the NC and Prothro articles that prevent me from reading them. Any suggestions?
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Getting a lot of similar complaints about the CBS site. Don’t really have a solution.
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You can go to cbssports.com to read the articles directly.
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You can also use Google Chrome with the Ad-block add-in activated and you’ll go right to the story without a problem.
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That’s what I use. Chrome has the best AdBlock extension out there.
~~~
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me too
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There is a beautiful simplicity to the system, and one I’ve always agreed with CC would be very easily filled with the athletes produced in Georgia high schools across all of it’s positions.
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Excellent article about a fascinating defensive system.
I think, at this point and where we’ll likely be most of the year, ours probably is as simple, maybe even moreso.
There is a good bit of similarity, actually. Our defense will be structured from back-to-front, instead of the old front-to-back that Grantham used. That means our secondary will be somewhat independent, as TCU’s is, in the way they respond to Pruitt’s calls.
I don’t think Pruitt breaks the secondary into two different units, and you can see, by the diagrams, how it’s probably quicker and easier for TCU’s secondary to get the call and get set, if it only has to go to your side of the field. Though we should be plenty quick enough in our reaction time. Whether there’s an overall advantage to having a fractured secondary, however, is hard to say. IDK, but have my doubts.
We won’t consist of fractured units that function independently, but from what I can tell, will share the qualities of simplification, the ability to fully function with the same base 4-2-5 personnel when necessary, as well as the emphasis on speed and athleticism – none of which we could do last year – with TCU’s system.
So those are encouraging things, seeing how it’s worked so well for them against the pace teams of the Big 12.
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”Armed with bad law and facts, even the greatest collection of lawyers and economists can’t ultimately change the outcome.”
I don’t know, man…we sure are putting a lot of alcohol in our gas tanks, much to the joy of the corn producers.
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Got this ad on the UNC article. I love the internet.
http://requestinfo.onlinemba.unc.edu/
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There is a beautiful simplicity to the system in which “MBA@UNC brings the top-ranked UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School’s MBA degree to students around the world through an innovative, highly collaborative online format. Keep your job, attend classes from anywhere and earn a world-renowned MBA degree.”
Disclaimer: No student-athletes were harmed during the making of this ad
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FWIW, I believe it’s just a matter of time for Tennessee. From what I can tell, Jones has them on the right track and they are recruiting better than we are. Just hope they don’t get us this year.
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Ivey, I agree that UT is a sleeping giant, but the Urnge Nation is going to lose its patience with Jones before he gets things turned around. If Alabama beats them like a rented mule the next 2 years, Butch will be on the street or on a very hot seat.
The UTK job is not what it once was. Bama, UGA, UF, and USCe are on the schedule every year (they have to start beating Vandy regularly again before they can think about their big 4). Tennessee has never been a talent rich state other than around Memphis, which is so far from Knoxvegas it’s practically another state.
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You might be right. But somehow, I don’t think so. I suspect the VolNation knows it must be patient, that nobody can bring them back quickly. That they realize how far down the toilet they’ve fallen.
Jones has done enough to show me they can compete. Our game last year was sufficient evidence for me. He can coach. When the talent catches up, they’re gonna be in every game they play. IDK how long that will take, but several more top 5 classes should do it.
IMO, it’s a good thing we just re-structured our recruiting, replaced Grantham with Pruitt, and are tackling the culture problem. Because I really do think we were headed into the toilet.
Which would have played right into Tennessee’s hands.
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Well stated but eventually, they have to start winning. Take the game with us last year. We were on our way to wearing them out in Knoxville until Keith Marshall’s injury on what I still say was a dirty play. Then, JSW and Bennett get hurt because their playing surface is a joke. They were reeling at that point. They block a punt for a TD and then get a first down after one of the strangest “playing while Georgia” penalties I’ve ever seen on a punt. They’re back in the game. They had a chance to pull an upset of monumental proportions but couldn’t get it done because they couldn’t defend at the end of regulation. Yes, they fumbled in OT, but I didn’t see anything that indicated that we wouldn’t have been able to match them in OT.
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You’re right ee. Most people focus on the OT and the Pig Howard fumble but it never should have been that close. Bad calls from biased refs and ST breakdowns reared their heads once again to keep UT in the game.
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Butch proved he could win with Brian Kelly’s players and win somewhat with SOD’s players. Now can he win with his players and some of our ex-coaches? Who knows? But I believe there are darker clouds on the horizon than the isolated thunderstorms of Butch, Willie and Jancek.
So I can and will say this since our leading conspiracy expert, The Mayor, is otherwise preoccupado with the wings of justice for the Aaron Hernandez Calendar today:
As we are being slowly infiltrated by Midwesterners (Nick, das Hat, Big Game Bob’s relative and now Butch who’s probably related to somebody) it makes me think The B1G Anschluß by Delany of our beloved league is coming. After all, SOD did crack wise that the Germans were coming
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I left out Mr. Pink who we annexed a couple of seasons ago. He was a roomie with Nick (a couple of wild and crazy guys) when they played at Kent State located somewhere in the Midwest..
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I am not periocuapp….preappisaci…preoccaisiado….otherwise tied up….with justice for Aaron Hernandez to the point that I cannot comment on UT, my favorite team to hate. Tennessee has no natural talent base. That team has existed only because of raiding surrounding states and that is because UT was historically a big time power and some other states’ flagship teams were not so much. That and there were too many good players in Alabama and Georgia for the in-state schools to sign them all. So UT got good (sometimes great) players because those kids didn’t want to stay in-state. South Carolina has passed UT and I don’t see many in-state SC kids leaving for UT anymore. I think UGA has also messed up the pipeline from Atlanta to KnoxVegas. Same for Ole Miss and the Mississippi/Memphis kids. UT’s #5 signing class was built on raw numbers, not so much on quality players they got away from Georgia, Auburn, Bama, etc. Also, I have not seen anything from Butch Jones that says he can turn around a losing program. To the contrary, all his success came from following a true turn-around artist, Brian Kelly. I’ll believe it when I see it with ole Butch. I’ve looked at the Vols’ schedule and I only see 5 wins this season. To have a winning season UT is going to have to beat somebody they are not supposed to beat and then win a bowl game. I just don’t see that happening. Butch is going to be on the hottest seat this side of Gainesville come season’s end and will be gone after 2015, IMHO.
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“Butch is going to be on the hottest seat this side of Gainesville come season’s end and will be gone after 2015, IMHO.”
If and only if they give Butch a multi-year extension after the 2014 season because that’s The Tennessee Way
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^THIS> Soon to be in the dollar bin at Dollar General/ Nashvegas.
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=butch+please+t+shirts&qs=IM&form=QBIR&pq=butch+please&sc=8-12&sp=2&sk=IM1#view=detail&id=FCE68B9A02DE41AD521E98F4C00F9DB9CE408496&selectedIndex=1
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Tennessee won’t compete for an SEC title with the defensive staff and quarterbacks they have now.
Until they are replaced, the Vols’ upside is limited.
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Those could be killer things. Both of them. I think Jones will eventually get a QB. Jancek is another thing … if he can’t get it done, there might not be time or a change.
~~~
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Clemson is paying its coaches SEC-type money.
‘Bout damn time. Clemson has been paying its players SEC-type money for decades.
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