Category: College Football

I was so pissed yesterday with the whole Kirby Smart situation that I was wondering just what good the interwebs were for my blood pressure and overall mental state. And my beloved college football, my religion as a member of the Church of Uga, was riding in a very close second for things I was going to give up for a few weeks. And then Lane Kiffen, Uga bless his heart, gives me reason to smile and something he never had: perspective.

I got a text from my buddy at 2112: “Lane Kiffin just took the SC job.” My first reaction was simply, “What??????? I though Mariucci was taking it.” Then, remembering my dance with the devil just yesterday, I reminded him, “Don’t believe it until the presser. Like we did with Kirby.” And I went back to what I was doing. Then I got done and fired up the evil, demon interwebs and found this as breaking news on Yahoo. And the message boards, they were a burnin’.

So it turns out that, really, honestly, Kiffykins is headed back to where it started. ESPN reported it, so I tended to believe it (more than say, Rivals and footballcoachscoop.com and Pollack’s Twitter feed). And then came this (h/t: BusterSports.com). Wait, did he just zing Fulmer on his way OUT THE DOOR with that “leaving here 14 months later with a lot better team than we were 14 months ago” comment? Wow, first you took the man’s job and now you’re saying that in 14 whole months you made that much improvement? Dude, you went 7-6 and got it handed to you in the Chick-Fil-A bowl.

I’ve just got to wonder if it had something to do with the NCAA sanctions. Not the minor violations he’s managed to rack up at UT, along with the hostesses that he “didn’t have knowledge of” and one of his prize recruits just pleading guilty to attempted robbery. No, what I’m saying is that in 14 months at UT that wasn’t good enough for Lane “Sanction Express” Kiffin. He needs a school with a foundation and tradition in that particular area.

Oh, just so nobody’s worried about the Kiffykins Crew, Daddy and Orgeron are packing up to. And like the hotel guest that takes a towel or two, they’re going to try to sneak a few amenities out in their luggage. Like all 8 recruits that enrolled early and are were set to start classes tomorrow. Well, that’s ballsy for sure. I’m not sure if that’s smart considering this happened (NSFW pics in the link). But that’s all water under the dam, right? Right??

Well Vol Nation, even though we (for the most part) cordially detest each other I’m not here to rub it in. I didn’t get any real grief from you guys on the Kirby thing, except for that one goober, so I’m going to give you insight into this Dawg fanatic’s mind. I’m going to tell you how to scare the Silver Britches off of the collective Bulldawg Nation: Hire the right guy this time. I’m not being flippant. Last year’s shellacking aside, I was never really worried about UT as long as Lane and his reanimated DC Daddy were at the helm. Your program was being run by an entire pack of blind squirrels. At least you didn’t have to wait 3 years for the problem to get rectified (ahem).

I know a lot of names are already being thrown around for the vacancy and that time is SO of the essence, what with National Signing Day right around the bend. Your need has finally taken over the spotlight in the SEC, so I thank you.

• I know a lot of folks want Muschamp, but I think it’s a pipe dream – his gig is too sweet down at the other UT.
• I’ve heard Mike Leach – WTF-ever. Yeah, the only thing to counter the drama and crazy you just had is with MORE crazy….
• Gruden – not likely. He’s got ties to the program, but those were a long time ago. He’s an NFL guy now. Your chances of getting him are about as good as us getting our now-NFL guy, Van Gorder.
• Patterson – DECENT chance, but the timetable is too short for you. He might like to come to a AQ school, though. If you weren’t concerned with trying to keep or replace those 8 guys following Pied-Orgeron’s flute it might be worth a shot.
• Calhoun from Air Force – I believe he was a finalist when you hired the last guy. I think the time table works against you again. And he wouldn’t scare me much.

Here’s an idea that would scare me to death: Look to your tree and get a guy who’s come home several times. A guy with SEC ties and a successful track record as a HC in the conference. A guy who coached up your golden calf and his brother. He’s a head coach in the basketball conference (ACC) right now. Some guy named Cutcliffe.

Look, the man can coach. Period. He took a pretty rank Ole Miss squad and did some pretty good things. In 6 seasons, he had 5 winning seasons and never had a losing record until his last. He was 4-1 in bowl games (counting his first when he took over when TTubbs ran to Auburn), including a Cotton Bowl win in 2003 when he tied for a share of the West with eventual BCS champs LSU. And it’s not like he left that team in shambles – Houston Nutt brought his heavy run offense to the table and took them to the Cotton Bowl the following year.

His next, and current, HC gig took him to Durham. They’re not awful. In his first year Duke won the same number of games as they did in the last 4 years COMBINED. They improved another win last year, against a pretty tough schedule. I’d bet that he takes them to a bowl in the upcoming season. The man can flat out coach. Oh, don’t forget about the last SEC guy that took Duke from the crapper, whipped them into respectability, then came back to the SEC. Here’s a hint –

So maybe Cutcliffe isn’t the second coming of Darth Visor. Maybe we have that already in Meyer and Saban. Maybe I’m pulling your collective Rocky Top chains. Maybe I just wanted an excuse to post a pic of Erin Andrews (that would be a good guess if I actually NEEDED an excuse). All I’m saying is that Cutcliffe would make UT, in my silly little mind, relevant in the SEC East discussion.

All I’ve been reading lately is speculation about what the off-season holds for Georgia’s football program and what Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno are going to do. First, I think it’s premature to start talking about this – there’s still a bowl game to play and a Javon Ringer to embarrass One Scheme Willie on New Year’s Day (Sadly, it doesn’t look like I’ll be making the trip this year – damned economy). Second, I really don’t think we’ll be spared another season of OSW roaming the sidelines. Third, it’s all speculation at this point as to what MS and KM are going to do. I doubt they even know yet. Fourth, we’re not going to discuss recruits because I doubt you’re going to see any impact freshmen coming on the field next season. But that being said, I’ll run my suck about it anyway….

First, I can’t believe that we got a bid to the Capital One Bowl. That can only be attributed to Bama playing a good enough SEC Championship to receive a bid to the Sugar. A blowout by either team there and we’re playing in the Cotton or some other third-tier junk bowl. Send Bama a Thank You card, Dawgs. I haven’t broken down the Spartans yet, but I do know this – I’m terrified of what Javon Ringer might do to the defense that (didn’t) show up against Bama, UF and Tech. I’m not going to make another promise that I’ll break and tell you I’m going to give you a bowl breakdown before game time. I’ll try, but that’s all I have to say about that for now.

I think that Coach will have his way and get to keep Martinez for another season. But I believe there will be mass conditions attached. Like learning to anticipate and make adjustments. And not heading the biggest embarrassment to call itself a Georgia defense EVER. I’ve heard a lot of people say that they shouldn’t can him, but demote him and keep him as secondary coach or something. That’s like the commanding general firing a battalion commander but keeping him as the battalion’s executive officer. He’d have absolutely no respect from anyone, least of all the fans. Having said that, try – as hard as possible – to arrange for this guy to get a head coaching job somewhere. Preferably someone on our schedule….. It’s unconscionable for us to have the top rusher and passer in the conference and lose 3 shootouts like that. Let’s just all hold our breath, cross our fingers and hope for the best. And if anyone knows someone who’s a big booster at a school looking for a new head coach, put in a good word for Willie.

Now, the hot question is whether Stafford and Moreno are coming back. First, I’ve heard that Moreno is very serious about his education and because of that he’ll be returning. If that’s the case, great – we’ll have him for at least one more year. But think about it – how many players have gone out early for the draft and finished their degree later? There’s a lot of money riding on this. There is talk of a rookie salary cap, like in the NBA, coming to an NFL near you next year. Would he (can he) pass on that kind of money? Me, being poor and all, says that 10 mil is as good as 40 mil. But there’s another saying that, “a million here, a million there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”

Same thing goes for Stafford. The guy is looking at top 5, maybe even number 1 money. He doesn’t want to be the next Matt Leinart (he lost at least 5 spots in the draft by staying in another year). But Stafford has one neither a Heisman nor a NC ring, as Leinart had when he made his decision to stay. And I think he’ll wait to see what some of these other guys are going to do. The Junior Class of college QBs is strong right now, but how many of them will be around next year? How many will he compete with not only on Saturdays, but on Draft Day? He’ll be a late entry, if at all, I think.

I’d like to think that these two fine young men will look at each other and say, “You know, let’s come back behind an experienced, healthy O line and run amok next year. Let’s finish what we started.” That’d be swell, gents. But, I also don’t worry too much if one or either of them go. If I had to choose one to lose, it’d be Knowshon. Yes, I said Knowshon. Samuel will be great if he can hold on to the ball and think a little more. That comes with experience. King will be great if he can get a killer instinct and not think so much. That can be taught. And there’s a host of great backs waiting in the wings to become the NEXT Knowshon.

Matt Stafford has a set of tools in his bag that you can’t teach. As great of a backup as I think Joe Cox is, he just isn’t physically able to make some of the throws and plays that Stafford can. David Greene won more games than any QB in college, even the great Peyton Manning. Who’s got the MVP, Super Bowl ring, and ginormous contract? The guy who’s a physical freak of nature at QB, that’s who. (hint: he wore Orange in college) Besides that, Mike Bobo has shown his love for the pass and the offense has shown great proficiency throwing the ball this season. Even without MoMass, AJ and company will strike terror into the hearts of SEC defenses next year. Add a stud like Stafford delivering the laser beams and you can use the pass to set up the run.

But seriously guys, nobody could really blame you for going pro and chasing the dollars. But you’d be Dooley-esque if you stayed and won a championship next year. Hell, you’d both be solid Heisman contenders and winning that would make you both Herschel-esque (whether you win it or not).

The recruits coming in are really not that important to me. Why? Because we (hopefully) won’t have that many holes to fill next year. Maybe that can be the start of a trend – reloading with RS Sophomores and Juniors rather than starting 4 Freshmen on the O line every 4 years. You can blame the first one on Donnan, this year falls squarely on the current staff. And I just don’t see an AJ or Rennie Curran (i.e., an impact Freshman) coming in this year. The prizes of the class are both QBs and Logan Gray is still a great talent waiting in the wings. Both of those boys will probably redshirt if Stafford comes back. And that’s good, because I’m tired of relying on Freshmen to win championships. The first time it worked, we got lucky and had enough Seniors to overcome them (Coach’s first SEC Championship). This year, it was painfully obvious that talent couldn’t overcome experience AND talent on the other side of the ball.

So, that’s the initial take of a few things I had to get off of my brain. I will do my best to get you guys my breakdown and predictions of the C1 bowl BEFORE kickoff, but again I make no promises. You wouldn’t believe the shit I’m doing at work, especially in a down economy. Maybe I’ll have time to BMWC about that later, too.

WTF WordPress? Actually, it’s probably the server. I already typed this stuff in and it puked the post. Anyway, I wasn’t gonna bother with anything today because I’m laid up on the couch with a dose of the crud, along with Whit and the Heathen. But this is turning out to be one hell of a game so I’m going to pick this up midway through the second quarter and do my best.

First, let me eat the well-deserved crow. I wasn’t as bad as some, but I still talked smack about the Gators. I thought, especially after that LSU game, that’d we’d be winning that elusive second Cocktail game in a row. I was wrong. So very wrong. Any Gator fans that feel the need to flame, try to keep it civil as possible please, but I’ll accept it all graciously. The entire Bulldog Nation are yours to abuse for a week. Enjoy it.

Now, let’s break this down. The Interweb has been awash with Bulldog apologists, blaming everything from Penn Wagers and his crew to Global Warming for the loss. I’m big enough to admit that the Gators opened the whole truck of whoop ass on us Saturday. And that they’ll play Bama for the SEC title. And that we should have been ready for this after last year. But, in an effort to stop the self-loathing for all the fans out there I’m going to break this thing down (and probably renew a rant I never should have abandoned).

4 things happened Saturday: Lady Luck gave us the ol’ Rochambeau, the officials blew some Bush-league calls, them damn Gators played a superb game, and we left our heart back in Athens. Much as I wish it could be blamed on the first 3, the last one was what really did us in.

First about the officials – yes, they blew some atrocious calls. But the worst ones weren’t seen by most. The hands to the face call that nullified the interception should have been a holding call to begin with. On Stafford’s first INT, while you could have called interference or holding, it didn’t really matter since the defender actually kept AJ CLOSER to the poorly under-thrown pass. The offensive interference call that wasn’t – did it really matter at that point? I think we already started warming up the bus by then. But the ones that really killed me were questionably late hits on Stafford that weren’t called, and the blatant holds on UF’s O line that were let go. I know that holding is part of the game, but DAMN! The challenge that everybody KNEW was good, but that replays couldn’t PROVE was right by letter of the law, but I believe it changed the spirit of replay for some time to come.

Surely the staff has finally managed to edit the tape that they send (every week) to the SEC office to about an hour. Will we get a few more favorable calls against UK and Auburn? Probably. As long as Penn Wagers’ crew isn’t on the field. Say what you want, but those guys get their revenge too. And I grew up thinking that he ran a pretty tight crew, but that has changed in the past few years. However, at the end of the day, you can’t blame the officials.

The Gators played a superb offensive game, taking every advantage we gave them and exploiting it for 49 points. Granted, we gave them a short field most of the time (which is why we outgained them by an order of magnitude or so), but that’s what good teams do. And it doesn’t help that we never, not one time, showed any testicular fortitude and tried to take the momentum away. I still say that their defense is suspect. They outmatched us up front (just like Bama did) and were able to stop the run and let us beat ourselves the rest of the way. 7 days out of 7, I’ll take LSU’s secondary over UF’s. We didn’t kill ourselves in Baton Rouge. We committed Hiri Kiri in Jacksonville. read this entry »

Okay guys, this is going to be a new thing I’m trying with the Live Blog portion. If it works for me and nobody tells me it sucks too bad, I’ll keep it going. Give me your feedback and we’ll see what happens.