This is how you win at trolling.

I was told SEC coaches were notified about 10 minutes ago they are not allowed to be guest speakers at Michigan's Exposure U camp.

— Tom VanHaaren (@TomVH) April 27, 2015

Last tweet, SEC coaches were notified by the SEC they aren't able to attend Michigan's camp

— Tom VanHaaren (@TomVH) April 27, 2015

Honestly, I’m amazed the SEC felt it needed to respond to Harbaugh here.  Snarky comment from Jim Delany in three… two… one…

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“My goal is to be a freak of nature.”

Georgia couldn’t promote Todd Gurley for the Heisman, but this is a nice sendoff for the NFL Draft:

I enjoyed that.

#Pruitt

David Hale packs a lot into these 140 characters.

Interesting tidbit: No defense saw bigger yd/comp decline from 13-14 than #FSU. Only 2 P5 teams had bigger improvement than #UGA. #Pruitt

— David Hale (@DavidHaleESPN) April 27, 2015

Imagine what Pruitt might accomplish with a year’s experience in his system and a talent improvement in the secondary.

Updated conference odds

Hot off the press at 5Dimes:

Alabama +300

Auburn +425

Georgia +475

Ole Miss +525

Tennessee +900

LSU +1050

Arkansas +1200

Missouri +1400

Texas A&M +1600

Mississippi State +1600

South Carolina +2600

Florida +2600

Kentucky +8000

Vanderbilt +15000

Some of that’s a reflection of divisional strength.  But the betting public sure seems to be enamored with Auburn bouncing back this year.  Boom!

What makes 2015 a successful year for the Georgia Bulldogs?

The final round of blogger discussion wraps up at College Football Zealots with this.

I won’t say there’s a complete consensus on opinion there, but there’s a lot of “Atlanta, or bust” sentiment expressed.  And I think that’s right.

Thanks to Kevin for giving us an outlet.

“When you look back on it now, we had a lot of self-inflicted wounds.”

Tony Barnhart is taking his annual schmoozing tour of the SEC.  First stop, Alabama, where he asks what the hell happened against Ohio State.

“We had a good team but we also had a lot of new guys who had never been in that situation before and they relaxed,” said  Kelly. “I felt a change when we got to New Orleans.”

Senior corner back Cyrus Jones was more blunt in his assessment.

“We lost our focus. We had a letdown,” said Jones, an All-SEC performer in 2014. “We underrated the capabilities of our opponent. That’s not who we are.”

Taking an opponent too lightly?  I thought only Mark Richt-coached teams were guilty of that.

“Well, why is that a bad thing?”

Wisconsin football team chef Sean Sommers slices sirloin in the Student Athlete Dining Hall. (Photo: Mary Langenfeld for USA TODAY Sports)

Feeding student-athletes, the next frontier in competition.

Eleven schools with major-conference football programs that submitted financial totals to USA TODAY Sports budgeted an average increase of nearly $600,000 for the new legislation, with numbers ranging from Nebraska, Wisconsin and USC on the higher end to Utah, Colorado and Oregon State on the lower end — the Buffaloes and Beavers have allotted an increase of $175,000 and $215,000 for the measure, respectively.

“That’s real money, and I understand that, but I’m all in favor of it,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said. “They were going to spend that money anyway. It wasn’t like they were taking that and $700,000 and sending it to the chemistry department. They were going to spend it on the locker room, or they were going to spend it on the video system.

“Spend it on kids. So they’re spending it to give kids better nutrition.”

You’ve come a long way from bagel spreads, baby.  This is Willie Williams‘ wet dream.

Post-spring: grounds for optimism

Spring practice has sprung.  We’ve been through the downers – uncertainty at center and quarterback, beef on the defensive line, punter (!) and lack of depth at receiver – but what about the upside from the spring?  What have you seen that gives you some confidence in the team’s prospects?

Here are a few positives I saw:

• Linebackers.  Seriously, has there ever been a greater accumulation of talent at the position under Richt?  The outside slots were never much of a worry once Floyd and Jenkins announced their returns, but it looks like Amaechi adds even more depth to an already loaded outside linebackers corps.  Coming into the spring, inside linebacking was a real concern, because there Georgia did lose a good deal of experience.  But Ganus looks like a contributor.  Patrick appears to be a future gem at the position.  Now if they can just find somebody who can cover a little (Roquan Smith, perhaps?), it’s scary to think what they’ll have.
• Tight ends.  Whatever the opposite of a perfect storm is, that may be what Georgia has at tight end – depth (assuming Rome stays healthy), need (assuming the depth problem at receiver doesn’t get fixed) and a coordinator who has a reputation for heavily involving the position in his offense.  Call it a perfect calm, if it comes together.
• Secondary depth.  One thing I kept reminding myself about while watching the G-Day game is how much more Pruitt has to work with in the secondary this season than he did in 2014.  The two early enrollees from Mississippi made their share of mistakes, but both look like they’re SEC-caliber players.  I don’t think you’re going to see a lot of walk-ons make the two-deep, in other words.
• Running back.  This one almost goes without saying, but, still, A.J. Turman adds another piece to what should be a bedrock for the Dawgs this season.  The only thing that makes me nervous here is that while Chubb has been a horse, the next three guys behind him (Marshall, Michel and Turman) have all been through injuries serious enough to sideline each of them for long stretches.  If everyone stays healthy, though, expect more fun fourth quarters when rested Georgia running backs pound the crap out of tired opposing defenses.
• Quarterback.  Hear me out.  No, I didn’t see an unquestioned starter emerge at the position.  But I saw enough to think there’s at least one of the three who can lead an SEC offense from wire to wire.  It won’t be a repeat of 2006.

Okay, that’s enough from me.  What did you guys take away on the plus side from this spring?