The SEC East and the Alabama hangover

So, Barrett Sallee has a post up about potential snagging points in Georgia’s path to Atlanta.  As far as it goes, it’s not a crazy list.  But there are a couple of items on there that he, along with others, have raised that I question, at least a little bit.

First, there’s this.

Of all of the teams in the SEC East, Georgia got perhaps the worst draw of any team.

The Bulldogs draw Alabama out of the SEC West in addition to the traditional cross-division rivalry with Auburn. Those two teams were picked to finish first and second in the SEC West by the members of the media at media days, respectively, with the Tigers pegged as the overall conference champion.

‘Bama is ‘Bama.  I get that.  But when does Richt get credit for handling Auburn the way he has over the past few seasons?  Auburn’s got two wins in the modern “Mark Richt sux” era, neither of which was exactly dominating.  Meanwhile, Georgia can claim more than one rout in its set of victories over that period.  None of which is to dismiss Auburn’s chances, obviously.  But I think Georgia’s entitled to go into that game not wetting its pants.

But speaking of ‘Bama and pants wetting, read this and despair.

On top of that, the Bulldogs have to travel to Knoxville to play Tennessee—which was picked second in the SEC East—the week after facing the Crimson Tide in Athens. SEC teams are 10-13 the week after playing Nick Saban’s squad over the last four years, with three of those wins coming against out-of-conference competition.

Ooh, automatic trap game!

Not to say that the close way the Vols have played Georgia the last two season doesn’t make me nervous, but the Alabama hangover is a little overrated there.  Some of those 23 games were played by some pretty bad teams – it may be hard to believe now that every coach in the West is making bank, but just a few short years ago, Ole Miss and Arkansas stunk – and a bunch of those next week games came against ranked opponents.  I can’t say the Dawgs will be dominant this season, but I’m pretty confident they’ll win more games than they’ll lose.  And if Tennessee is a ranked opponent, it’s going to mean wins against Oklahoma, Florida and Arkansas before Georgia rolls into Knoxville.  We’ll see about that.

Besides, let’s not forget the Alabama hangover cuts both ways.  Tennessee has to play at Kentucky the week after its Alabama meeting, and I have it on good authority that the Wildcats won’t suck this season.

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“He felt strongly about ‘Dixie’…”

Interesting story told by Vince Dooley about how he navigated the football program out of the segregation era.

When it came to integration, college football didn’t lead the way – it couldn’t, Dooley said in a private interview after his speech. The pipeline had to be created, and that was the job of Georgia’s high schools.

“In these little towns, even though they were initially pretty prejudiced, if a guy goes out on a football field and performs – they respect that,” Dooley said. “That unfolded over a four- or five-year period, then it all blended in with the colleges. The colleges then were much better prepared for integration.”

College football couldn’t lead, but at least it could consolidate what others did to lead.

SEC, you just lost Montana.

Stewart Mandel: “So you’ll have to forgive us if we’re not exactly spilling tears over all the apparent slights that are keeping down the S-E-C, where the “E” apparently now stands for “Excuses.””

Getting buttah on defense

Fletcher Page ranks the Georgia position groups here.  Whatever you may think about his individual rankings (I’d move the special teams unit up some, and maybe drop QB a slot), what it should really tell you is something I’ve heard muttered for a while, namely, that the Dawgs still have a ways to go in having across the board SEC-level talent on defense.

One of these days, it’s going to dawn on us just how good a job Jeremy Pruitt did last season dropping the defensive scoring average over eight points a game from 2013 – in the spread, HUNH era, to boot.  Dude can coach a little.

“Some people never have enemies…”

Andy Staples makes the historical case for Steve Spurrier being a first-class dick.  Okay, a sensitive first-class dick.

Of course, we already knew that.

And Spurrier deserves every bit of crap he’ll get thrown his way for yesterday’s presser, if only for allowing Mark Bradley to play the “hey, what did I do?” card.

So, what happens after you offer a seventh grader?

The journey of David Sills, from 13-year old dazzler of Lane Kiffin (“Get the F out of here.”) to freshman quarterback at West Virginia.

The weird thing about the story is how many people involved along the way don’t want to comment about it now.

If you have to get married in the South this fall…

… at least here’s a primer on the best weekends to avoid.

“I knew the NCAA rules,” he said. “I just didn’t care for them.”

One of the South’s most notorious college football fans, Roy Adams (aka “TennStud”) has passed away.

A 1963 Tennessee graduate, Adams was a retired restaurant owner and real estate developer who parlayed his passion for college football — cultivated during his time in Knoxville as a student — into the legendary watch parties. His home contained more than 30 big-screen televisions, five television viewing rooms, multiple game rooms and a wet bar.

“Roy was loved by many, loathed by some,” said friend and fellow Vols fan Ryan Groves. “(He) loved college football and the Vols, and I’m sure he’ll be hosting watch parties this fall with all his old buddies in heaven.”

One man’s colorful is another man’s creepy, I guess.  My only knowledge of Adams comes from what I read of his message board posts and, of course, his infamous role in the Logan Young mess.  Strange guy.

“In the 1980s, when I was still practicing law, Roy had gotten caught up in an NCAA investigation,” Schledwitz said. “They were investigating him for providing illegal benefits to Tennessee football players. I wasn’t that good a lawyer, but I was good enough to know that the facts may not be on our side.

“I did a little research and, at the time, the regulations read that it was improper to give benefits to a kid at one school that were not offered to all other kids. So I put on a defense where I could prove that Roy provided benefits to athletes of all different schools. I had affidavits from kids from Ole Miss, Jackson State, Northwest Community College, Mississippi State and the University of Memphis. I had affidavits from everywhere. Roy helped student athletes throughout the Southeast. The NCAA closed the file.”

So that was Adams. Handing out money. Because what’s the point of wealth if you don’t spread it around?

“I bet there’s been at least 10 University of Memphis football players who lived at his house, or he bought cars for,” Schledwitz said. “Lord knows, they all got TVs.”

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Got jargon?

Trust me – you want to bookmark this.