Clint Stoerner, just like everyone else, has an opinion.

He’s a former SEC quarterback (whose biggest claim to fame is this) who’s evidently been hired by the SEC Network, which I guess is supposed to mean that we’re expected to take utterances like this as being delivered with particular gravitas.

In a conversation about former USC quarterback Ricky Town transferring into the program, Finebaum asked Stoerner what his thoughts were on the Hogs this season, the pro-style offense and if the program is a Cinderella team to watch. You can also watch the video here.

“The pro-style offense — there’s not a lot of them around in the country, and Bret Bielema chooses to remain in that style of offense and believes he can do it at the University of Arkansas. They have become, in my opinion, hands down, the best pro-style running game in the country.”

I don’t know what it is about going on Finebaum and saying stupid shit, but can you even say Arkansas has the best pro-style running game in the conference, hands down?  Not according to the stats.

Then again, I’ve never fumbled in the arena, so what do I know?

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Just chalk it up to another down year in the SEC.

Welp, what a fine season this is shaping up to be.

Ohio St 1st team to be unanimous AP preseason No. 1. Others that came close: http://t.co/VF0zAGFthO pic.twitter.com/8m3AKwNcyS

— AP Top 25 (@AP_Top25) August 23, 2015

Alabama plays NINE teams in the preseason Top 27. Ohio State plays just ONE

— Pick Six Previews (@PickSixPreviews) August 23, 2015

No wonder Corch has a shit eating grin on his face.

(Although a man can hope, can’t he?)

Down and out

Dave Bartoo’s 2015 injury log might be something useful to bookmark (especially if you’re following Tennessee football).

Maybe it’s just that Mark Richt is spoiled.

About his quarterback situation, I mean.

Here’s a guy who hasn’t been forced to make a hard decision at the position in almost a decade, either because there was an obvious candidate to start, or because there was no quality depth at the position.  If you look at his present quandary in that light, this frustrated quote makes some sense:

“I think guys are having their moments and then both ways,” he said of the quarterbacks. “I wouldn’t say any of them have been horrible by any means but we want consistent decision-making, wise decisions, accurate passing and reacting to adversity in a positive way. There’s been a lot of really great things that have happened for all of them. There’s been some things that we were like, `That will get us beat son.’ It’s just been enough of both that I haven’t seen a clear frontrunner yet.”

Over the past four seasons, Murray and Mason may not have been without their flaws, but at least they knew what was expected from them and they knew how to respond.  As to that, this current bunch is in uncharted territory – all of ’em.  And that makes it not so familiar territory for their head coach to traverse with them.

Schottenheimer and Spurrier: what goes around, comes around.

Here’s a really nice piece from Matt Zemek about the incestuous nature of coaching in the SEC, seen primarily through the prism of Georgia’s offensive coordinator and his head coach at Florida.

I just hope we’re not referring to him as “Agent Schottenheimer” after the South Carolina game.

He said, he said.

My first reaction to the whole Art Briles – Chris Peterson dust up about what the former was told about Sam Ukwuachu in the process of Baylor deciding to admit him was the Briles had made a mistake dragging Peterson into the mess.  But the more I think about it, the more I think it may be a rather clever attempt at deflection.  Instead of focusing on what happened once Ukwuachu arrived in Waco, everyone is parsing the words of the two coaches.

Even so, when you get down to what everyone knew, it’s still not so great for Baylor as this Texas Monthly follow up summarizes in its conclusion:

While we don’t know exactly what was said between Briles and Petersen, there is evidence that Petersen knew the extent of Ukwuachu’s actions in May 2013 and that he took it seriously enough at the time to immediately dismiss Ukwuachu from the team. We also know that the discipline enforced by Petersen wasn’t a question asked by Baylor on the form distributed to media on Friday evening. There are a number of questions remaining, but the nature of Sam Ukwuachu’s final days at Boise State—and who knew the details—is not among them.

In other words, Peterson may have chosen his words carefully, while Briles and Baylor were equally careful in choosing not to read between the lines.  I expect there’s more to come on that front, and it probably won’t be pretty.

As Nick Chubb goes…

The only interest I have in the Heisman Trophy is that it’s an indication of which teams enjoyed a successful season. Nobody on a 5-7 team will be tripping to New York.

So with that in mind, you may find this Dave Bartoo piece on Heisman winner trends of interest.

Group I
This is your top 10 talent ranked teams minus Florida, with a new head coach, and Notre Dame, due to inconsistent play.  With 10 of the last 13 winners coming from top 10 talent ranked teams, this is your best ‘odds’ group. Nick Chubb of Georgia, Kyle Allen of Texas A&M, Ezekiel Elliott and J.T. Barrett of Ohio State, and Cody Kessler of USC are my favorites from this group.

Like I said, if that’s the group that makes it to the next awards ceremony, we’re likely to be a bunch of happy campers about the place Georgia is in by then.

“These are just educational institutions who have decided to go into a business.”

The AP does a shit’s getting real story about the numerous fronts the NCAA finds itself engaged in battling over amateurism. Nothing should come as much of a surprise to you, as we’ve discussed most of it, but I do find this sentence tucked into the piece a bit startling:

With some exceptions for the greater good, U.S. law generally bans companies from striking deals that curtail competition — in a word, cartels.

When the AP starts tossing the “c” word around like that… well, it may be time to coax a comment out of Stacey Osburn in response.

Death, taxes and…

… surging Georgia Tech confidence after a rare win over the Dawgs.

Season ticket sales are up 12% over last year.  It’s Tech’s best showing since, yep, you guessed it.

It is the highest total since 2009, following coach Paul Johnson’s first season, when the total was 35,209 for 55,000-seat Bobby Dodd Stadium.

They’ve even sold a game out before the start of the season.  Nice.

Also nice is astute analysis such as you can find at From The Rumble Seat, where we are assured that if the Dawgs can improve their “abomination” of a rushing defense (never mind that GT’s defense gave up close to a yard more per rush last season), they’ll “definitely have a chance” to beat Tech.  That’s good, ’cause I was getting worried that Richt would have no chance to extend his undefeated record in Atlanta.

He’ll be here all season, folks. Try the veal.

Honestly, given the constant pressure in coaches’ lives to enjoy any semblance of normality, I’m surprised we don’t hear more of this kind of stuff generally.