Monday morning buffet

Jump right in and get your week started.

• Vince Dooley plays 20 questions with Gus Malzahn about how the 10-second rule might affect his offense.
• About Mark Richt’s trip to Houston as part of the UGA Day schedule, Mark Slonaker, head of the Bulldog Club, said the decision to go was made in part because of the SEC’s new reach into Texas.
• CFN dumps all over the genius and Georgia Tech football.
• Quarterback guru George Whitfield Jr. has expressed interest in working with Nick Marshall this summer, but Malzahn will not allow it.
• I really should know better than to read a Bleacher Report piece on discipline at Georgia.
• Former Milton basketball coach:  “What my players have told me in the past is they aren’t going to Georgia because they perceive it to be considered second-class to football.”
• Tennessee returns just six combined career starts on the offensive line after entering the 2013 season with 123 career combined starts.

“Plays like a blind dog in a meat market”

Evidently, Dee Ford polished his smack talking skills under the watchful eye of Brian VanGorder.

At least he got something out of that season.

Monday morning buffet

Clearing the decks… dig in.

• “We felt like our tight end position was really a little scary with the depth there,” coach Mark Richt said.
• To me, the most interesting aspect of the Michael Sam coming out story is whether the NFL will be able to deal with Sam’s sexual orientation as maturely as Missouri did.
• Rodney Garner complains of overcoming negative recruiting in his success in getting Dontavius Russell to flip from Georgia to Auburn.
• Good story from the Chattanooga paper on how their college football careers played out for 50 area recruits.  (h/t Scorpio Jones, III)
• Bill Connelly has his first S&P+ projections for 2014.  Georgia is eighth.
• I’m not sure Bret Bielema understands how recruiting rankings work.  Either that, or he’s convinced he’s really, really good at finding diamonds in the rough.
• Chalk up another head coach who sees the role technology plays in recruiting these days.  Mark Stoops:  “I think it’s easier in some ways because of all the social media that you have,” he said.
• Junior, a look back.

It’s not exactly Dewey defeats Truman…

… but it’s still pretty amusing.

Five-star linebacker Rashaan Evans — by far the most-watched recruit for both Auburn and Alabama fans on Signing Day — stunned many in his hometown of Auburn by choosing the Crimson Tide. A huge win for Nick Saban and a big blow for the Tigers (who had been considered the favorite until recently), Evans is the No. 15 overall player in the Top 247.

How big a surprise was Evans’ decision? This appeared on Auburn’s site — complete with highlight video — as the state held its breath for Evans’ announcement:

Oops.

Somewhere out in some trailer park, Harvey Updyke silently pumps his fist.

Tommy Tuberville’s wet dream

Auburn is contemplating claiming a national title for its 2004 team.

***************************************************************************

UPDATE:  Bruce Feldman has a point.

What next? Does Utah also get to claim a national title in 2004 since the Utes won a BCS Bowl in a blowout, were undefeated that year and didn’t have players who went on HBO RealSports and said they received extra benefits as some Tiger players from that team later did?

Corch couldn’t have said that any better himself.

Whatever works.

If you were a little surprised by how good Auburn’s defense looked for much of the national title game against a very good FSU offense, there could be an explanation.  Dameyune Craig, who was on Fisher’s staff last season, may have stolen signs and relayed them to Ellis Johnson.

It's not Jameis Winston. It's Kelvin Benjamin. He shouts over an argument between Winston and Fisher. "Dameyune calling all the plays."—
TomahawkNation.com (@TomahawkNation) January 09, 2014

If you’re skeptical about it, consider what happened afterwards.

@CawnCawn @TomahawkNation from the point you indicate that they discovered the play stealing, Jameis goes 14 for 18 with 2 TDs.—
Dale Doback (@TheHoppahh) January 09, 2014

Maybe it was the jitters.

Tuesday morning buffet

Clearing the decks, filling the chafing dishes…

• Is Brendan Langley looking at a chance for some redemption in the bowl game?
• At least 12 bowl games have peddled deep-discount seats on Groupon, LivingSocial or Goldstar in recent years.
• “Ball and McClendon managed, and so did Georgia’s offense.”
• Breaking down Auburn’s rushing attack.
• ESPN does a Gator Bowl roundtable with its Georgia and Nebraska bloggers.  It doesn’t sound like they have much more of a grasp on what’s gonna happen than we do.
• How come nobody told me Nick Marshall has a football playing cousin named Quez Mahoganey?
• So did Corch want to hire Chad Morris or not?
• For Mike Bobo, “Interviewing elsewhere could lead to another boost in salary, if not taking over a program of his own.”  Either way, it sounds like Greg McGarity will probably have to raise the budget for the coaching staff.
• Of course they did.

Toomer’s Corner goes west.

You can take the Plainsman out of the Plains, but you can’t take the Plains out of the Plainsman… or something like that.

@AUFAMILY Please do not attempt to roll the palm trees. PPD will take action if necessary.—
Rose Bowl Stadium (@RoseBowlStadium) December 30, 2013

Which reminds me – anybody seen Harvey Updyke lately?

“My defense is they lost to Georgia and Alabama.”

Lucky ducks:  Auburn, Vegas and the luck factor.

Hey, don’t take my word for it.

Of course, Auburn didn’t actually lose to those teams — you’ve surely seen the all-time great clips by now with Auburn radio man Rod Bramblett yelling over them, but here’s Georgia and Alabama if not — but White marks them as defeats for the power rating calculations because of the extraordinary fortunate involved.

“The bowls are based on wins and losses, but they weren’t supposed to win [those games],” White said. “Two unbelievable plays catapulted them.”

The point, as White or Fuhrman or Avello or anyone in Vegas would note, is not to knock Auburn. It’s just their jobs to discover the true talent level of teams so they can predict future performance as accurately as possible, and that process requires cutting the narrative layers that harden on top of each magnificent victory.

“In the end, winning is the name of the game, but beating Georgia took the hand of God, and beating Alabama also took some luck,” Fuhrman told me. “It makes for a good story.”

Again, I have a hard time remembering the last time anybody outside the fan base talked about a Georgia season like that.  Your mileage may vary, of course.

Saturday morning buffet

A few things to nosh on while you wait for today’s slate of games:

• In the end, it didn’t take too much to entice Chris Petersen away from Boise State – just make him the highest paid coach in the Pac-12 and he’s yours.
• Gus Malzahn makes bank, too.  He ought to send Josh Harvey-Clemons a royalty check.
• Meet the man behind the theme song to SEC on CBS.
• Brian Cook lays down the law at mgoblog (“…if the people who write for this site hate you we will ban you.“) And you think I’m a meanie.
• Stay classy, Gator fans.
• Stuart Mandel suggests there’s something to Jay Jacobs’ BCS lobbying.
• Maryland to ACC:  it’s not us, it’s you.
• The other day I made a little fun of athletic spending outpacing academic spending in Alabama.  But at least they’re spending money on academics, which is more than you can say for Georgia.
• On smarm and snark.