NCAA Football FanHouse http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com NCAA Football FanHouse http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/media/feedlogo.gif NCAA Football FanHouse http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/Miles Calls for Spike, Confirms Idiocyhttp://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/22/miles-calls-for-spike-play-confirms-idiocy/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/22/miles-calls-for-spike-play-confirms-idiocy/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/22/miles-calls-for-spike-play-confirms-idiocy/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Les MilesOn Saturday, LSU's Jordan Jefferson made the inexplicable decision to spike the football with only one second remaining in the game. Spiking the football ended the game and negated two miraculous Milacles: first, Les Miles' Tigers recovered an onside kick and then they completed a 46-yard Hail Mary. In his postgame news conference Miles claimed that he didn't know who had instructed Jefferson to spike the football. "I do not know who told him to clock [spike] it," Miles said.

Except, you guessed it, Miles himself was displaying his uncanny acumen by calling for the ball to be spiked with one second remaining on the clock. That's something that you can clearly see on this video after the jump. And yet another reason why LSU fans are still staring morosely at the waters on the bayou, shaking their heads, drinking Jax beers, and cursing the day that Les Miles didn't leave for Michigan.



Earlier this season we put together a list of Les Miles' ten most improbable success stories. We branded these Milacles. In his first three years at LSU, Miles went 34-6, won a national championship, racked up an impressive 19-5 regular season record in the SEC, and won games in such an improbable fashion that you came to believe that the laws of football physics didn't apply to him. After he won a national championship despite two losses to inferior teams, I wrote a column calling him the biggest idiot to ever win a national title in college football.

Some LSU fans took offense to the characterization. I stood by my opinion. I love Les Miles, I hope he coaches at LSU for two more decades. If only so I can get texts like this soon after I sit down at the Tennessee-Vandy game. "Les Miles, you won't believe it!"

Believe what?

There is almost nothing Miles could do on a football field that would surprise me. From coaching without pants -- Miles: "I believed that my knees needed a brisk air to further legitimize our offensive prowess" -- to Miles going for two when an extra point would win the game. The totality of the football universe is truly at play when the Mad Hatter hits the sideline.

Slowly, though, word spread around Neyland Stadium from one fan to another about the end of the Ole Miss-LSU game. Everyone began shaking their head in tandem. "LSU spiked the football with one second left," a portly man behind me told his seatmate.

"That's Les Miles," the other man retorted.

Indeed, Miles has been a wild card on the sideline since he famously attempted to call timeout after LSU intercepted Tennessee in the fourth quarter of his first game as Tiger coach. Sadly, for Miles, the clock stops on the change of possession. Fortunately for him, no one saw him in that game attempting to call a timeout. Unfortunately for him, no one on the LSU sideline saw fit to call timeout with the clock running and fourth down looming against Ole Miss.

Last season the bloom appeared to be off Miles' fleur-de-lis. He and the Tigers lost as many SEC games in 2008 as they'd lost in his first three seasons combined. Cajun hearts collectively skipped a beat. But Miles, with typical self-confidence, brushed off doubters and asserted that 2009 would bring a return to championship-level football.

He was wrong.

What's worse, the harebrained schemes that served Miles so well early in his tenure, such as passing into the end zone with one second left on the clock against Auburn, are beginning to backfire. Cue the Ole Miss game, a new chapter in idiocy.

Last weekend, New England's Bill Belichick came in for an awful lot of criticism for his fourth down call against the Indianapolis Colts. But at least Belichick realized the significance of his gamble. Miles has never been that self-aware about the perils he's narrowly avoided in his years at LSU. Some coaches steadfastly analyze risk and reward before making a steely-eyed gamble. Miles doesn't even realize the stakes when he takes his risks.

Amazingly, that's worked for him. Primarily, one supposes, because his talent level has been vastly superior to his opponents. No longer. Now LSU fans, staring down the barrel of an 8-4 season that would follow an 8-5 season, are beginning to fear the worst.

As well they should.

Let's break down Miles's errors at the end of the game in numerical format:

1. First, Miles allows seventeen seconds to run off the clock after a loss of yardage on a third down completion.

This has to go down in the annals of coaching as one of the dumbest mistakes any of us have ever witnessed. Can you imagine what being an LSU fan was like as those precious seconds ticked away? How about an Ole Miss fan, suddenly daring to dream that your most hated out-of-state rival might allow the clock to die before he even attempted another play?

Whatever you do, don't buy the fact that someone for LSU called the timeout and the officials didn't notice it.

In these situations the officials are always watching the sideline for the barest signal of a timeout to be made. They're expecting it.

All of us were.

If you're the head coach you have to run halfway to midfield frantically making the T signal at the very moment your player goes down in a heap on the field.

Anything less is pure idiocy.

That's for a coach on any level. But especially for a man making almost $4 million a year.

2. After the 17 seconds tick off, there are only nine seconds remaining and you're facing a 4th and 26.

You've already made one error but now coaching, more than anything else, becomes an exercise in decision-making. You have to answer the following question first:

How many plays can you possibly run in nine seconds if you have to gain at least 26 yards on the play to convert the first down?

Two, at best, right?

And that's potentially pushing it. Because you know that the play is going to take a while to develop if your receivers have to run that far down the field to gain the first down.

But you need to be prepared for that opportunity.

So if you convert that play you have to get your field goal team ready, right?

3. And if you don't want to run your field goal team on, you absolutely, positively, have to call two plays during that timeout, right?

Because maybe you decide that running the field goal team isn't your call.

You know that, at minimum, you have to move the ball to the Ole Miss 22 to convert the first down. So why not go ahead and call a second play that sends every receiver into the end zone assuming that you're going to be in the neighborhood of 20 yards from the goal line?

Sure, it's not ideal to make that play call in advance given that you don't know exactly what yard line you'll be on. But shouldn't you go ahead and set that up?

Again, that's if you've rejected the field goal ploy.

During that timeout you could gather the entire team around and make a play call for fourth down and the ensuing play call. Maybe even pull Jefferson aside and instruct him that he can only ground the ball if there are at least two seconds left on the clock.

Even though that's something that should have been drilled into his head already.

4. Also, at this point, keep in mind that the clock stops on a first down to move the chains.

This is one of the most glaring aspects of this situation. It's not like the clock was ticking down. It was completely stopped!

So, unlike the NFL, where running a team on the field with this amount of time remaining isn't an option, you actually have plenty of time to run a field goal unit onto the field if they're properly lined up should the pass be completed.

Which is what should have happened, ultimately, after the completion. The field goal team running onto the field is the correct decision.

But I would still have given Miles a passing grade if LSU had been prepared to do anything at all after the completion.

5. What I'm getting at is this: you don't even have a lot of decisions to be made here; if you're fortunate enough to complete the pass then that success can't disorganize you.

The situation that would ensue after the completion is completely predictable.

You, me, anyone with a moderately intelligent sense of football can completely forecast all of the possibilities that could ensue in the final nine seconds of the game.

6. The pass is complete and gains 46! Les Miles, evidently unable to convey the situation to his quarterback, calls for the spike play with one second left.

7. Only, unlike college basketball, there is no tenths of a second on the college football clock. It's impossible to snap the ball with one second left and spike it without the game ending.

Now, as you saw from the above linked video, Les Miles is arguing he has no idea how Jordan Jefferson, his sophomore quarterback, chose to spike the football.

Except we all know the answer, Les Miles instructed him to spike the football.

Why?

Because while the rest of the SEC coaches are playing chess, Les Miles is playing tic-tac-toe.

And he'd lose in that to many 5th grade LSU fans.

Ultimately this game against Ole Miss is the perfect flipside to the Auburn game in 2007. As the clock ticked away in that contest, Les Miles had no clue how to formulate a strategy and luck was on his side.



Against Ole Miss, Les Miles had no idea how to formulate a strategy and fortune didn't favor him.

Maybe the Milacles are finally dead.

C'est la vie in Baton Rouge.

Miles Calls for Spike, Confirms Idiocy originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:45:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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]]>jordan jeffersonles milesClay TravisSun, 22 Nov 2009 21:45:00 EST Mailbag: KKK Arrives in Ole Misshttp://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/21/all-that-and-a-bag-of-mail-kkk-arrives-in-ole-miss-edition/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/21/all-that-and-a-bag-of-mail-kkk-arrives-in-ole-miss-edition/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/21/all-that-and-a-bag-of-mail-kkk-arrives-in-ole-miss-edition/#commentsFiled under: , , ,


Last week I wrote about the controversy over The South Will Rise Again chant at Ole Miss. In that piece I noted that Ole Miss was the only SEC school that couldn't escape the South's past. Now a new controversy is here, the Klu Klux Klan is protesting for this week's game against LSU. Seriously.

Faulkner memorably said, "The past is never dead. It's not even past."

And when it comes to Ole Miss that's certainly the case.

Proving that killing a wasp with a shotgun is tough business, the KKK has now stepped in to defend student's rights to chant, "The South Will Rise Again." The KKK issued this statement: "We aren't coming there to cause problems or cause trouble, Trouble has already been caused by a handful at Ole Miss, including the black student body president, who wants to shape Ole Miss into yet another liberal sodomite college."

Once the KKK takes your side, you've lost. Justifiably so. But so has anyone else on any side of the issue. Especially, by the way, putting this whole thing in a football context, Ole Miss's recruiting.

You think any other SEC school might mention that Ole Miss is a great place to go to school if you want the KKK to march on the day you play your biggest out-of-state rival of the year?

Anyone else think this would be a great time for Dave Chappelle to come out of retirement and bring back his black klan member character?

Our beaver pelt trader of the week is Bill Belichick for taking the risk on fourth down.

Astute readers of the mailbag will note that I didn't get the mailbag up last Friday because of the UT arrests combined with an early book signing in Oxford. So we missed the tally of the picks from two weeks ago.

I went 3-2-1 and Audrey, my family's French exchange student, went 2-3-1.

That ran our total's for the season to 23-22-3 for me and 18-26-4 for Audrey.

Now, our picks weren't public in the mailbag last week--although I tweeted them -- but here they were.

My picks are in bold:

UT @ Ole Miss -6

Stanford @ USC -10.5

Iowa @ Ohio State -17

Florida -17.5 @ South Carolina

Notre Dame @ Pittsburgh -7

Auburn @ Georgia -4.5

So I went, as usual 3-3. Meanwhile here were Audrey's picks along with her rationales:

Ole Miss
Stanford for smart people
Iowa
South carolina for Jordan
Pitt for brad
Auburn for my hair color

She went 4-2, picking up a game on me.

Our records as we enter the homestretch:

Clay: 26-25-3

Audrey 22-28-4


Here are my picks for this week:

California @ Stanford -8

Kentucky @ Georgia -9

Ohio State -12 @ Michigan

Oklahoma -6.5 @ Texas Tech

LSU @ Mississippi -4

Vanderbilt @ Tennessee -17

And here are Audrey's along with her rationales:

California hotel

Kentucky kiki

Michigan fleur

Oklahoma voila

LSU tutu

Tennessee pipi

On to All That and a Bag of Mail.

Chaz writes:

I have heard, from a source within the school, that Ole Miss is test marketing the "Hotty Toddy Man" as Colonel Reb's potential replacement (not kidding). I thought you might find this interesting/disturbing. Everyone that I encountered in the student section thought he was a joke too. I can't imagine coupling the outrage from disposing of Colonel Reb with the possibly greater outrage of choosing this guy as the new mascot. Colonel Reb would really be crying then.

I cannot imagine a greater travesty on Earth than replacing Colonel Reb with Hotty Toddy Man. It's like when Bo and Luke Duke were replaced by those guys who weren't Bo and Luke Duke during a contract dispute on the Dukes of Hazzard.

Only worse.

Actually, here's a greater travesty, playing your biggest rival on the season with a chance to lock down a likely 9-3 regular season record, and having the KKK show up to protest.

Andrew D. writes:

Clay,

There's a lot of chatter about whether Rich Rodriguez should be fired this season, but I haven't heard or read anybody discussing the prospect of firing him "for cause." I haven't looked at his employment contract, but I imagine that if UM can fire him for cause, then it won't be liable for his buyout. If such a clause exists, then the athletic department could potentially fire him for his recent off-the-field incidents, like their time-keeping problem. This seems like a cheap way to get rid of Rich now because if they wait a year to fire him then they may not be able to use the "for cause" justification (unless, of course, he creates even more distractions in the coming year, which is very possible).

In any case, I think that this is an interesting angle to the story that I haven't seen discussed anywhere.

Ding, ding, ding, Andrew D. gives me a premise for a column next week.

That's actually a really fascinating question, one of many reasons why I'm glad that lawyers and lawyers-to-be are such frequent readers and e-mailers.

Now, this would clearly be a contractual dispute if they used this rationale because I don't think it's clear that this is a for cause violation, but much like Billy Gillispie's issue with Kentucky, it's very likely that there would be enough of a dispute that Michigan would get off the hook for, at minimum, half of the buyout.

Now if Michigan was really convinced that something untoward took place, they could play hardball and take this all the way through the courts. But that would open up the program to discovery and who knows what other violations Rich Rod might know about. Or what other violations Michigan might know about that could end up public and lead to violations. (Note: I'm not singling out Michigan here, just pointing out that any program under intense scrutiny with the coach and administration at loggerheads often has a substantial amount of skeletons in the closet.)

But the key point for takeaway here is that Michigan would lose their for cause claim if they kept him on and overlooked this incident. If they fired him after a sub-par third season, a year from now, Rich Rod would get his buyout.

Very good email.

J. P. writes:

I think we are about to see a trend, spurred on by the McCoy-Shipley and Tebow-Cooper housing situations. College coaches requiring their starting quarterbacks to live with their favorite receiver. Is it only a white thing? Do Mack Brown and Urban Meyer do this because of an emphasis on saving the endangered species - white receivers? I am not sure, but put me down for crashing on the McCoy-Shipley couch if I had to pick. I'd put up with Shipley playing his guitar over Tebow watching "8 minute surgery" videos.

Are you making light of the amazing fact that Tim Tebow and Riley Cooper live together and that Colt McCoy and Jordan Shipley live together?

Don't you realize how astounding it is that two football players choose to live together?

I'm channeling Verne Lundquist for the first two sentences.

Speaking of which, I think Fox should bring in Verne to call the Texas-Florida game just so he can sprinkle the roommate information for us during the game. Would his head explode with two quarterback/wide receiver roommate combinations in the same game?

It's entirely possible.

Ben F. writes:

Wait, Toby Gerhart is white?

This e-mail is funnier because right now a bunch of people reading this are realizing it for the first time.

Yep, Stanford has a white tailback who is leading BCS schools in rushing.

What's next, a black President?

Shannon D. writes:

Great column today (on SEC ratings). ... I've been thinking the same thing all season ... more evidence in favor of your argument, ABC is all but abandoning the 3:30 kick-off. The primetime game was supposed to be reserved for special games. Unusually good games. Now it's become "any decent game that we don't want clobbered by the CBS game." They are leaving NOTHING in that 3:30 slot. Every meaningful Texas game (save OU, anchored to the 12:00 slot, see previous Clay Travis column) has been shoved into that 8:00 EST start spot (Okla. St., Mizzou). Same with Ohio St. The Ohio St. -- Iowa game is the only decent game ABC has left in the 3:30 spot this year.

Think about UGA -- Ga Tech. They have moved that game at night, 8PM. Has that game EVER been played at night? It's crazy.

Love the column, love the books...

I should have played up the night game angle even more. Because if you put any game in primetime on broadcast television it should beat a game that is on in the afternoon.

Generally speaking anyway.

But the other five conferences haven't been able to do that.

Just another reason why the number of viewers stat is so important in the college football universe. Even if no one else is talking about it yet.

Mailbag: KKK Arrives in Ole Miss originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:30:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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]]>Clay TravisSat, 21 Nov 2009 12:30:00 EST Uga VII Dies: William Henry Harrison of Georgia Bulldog Mascotshttp://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/20/uga-vii-dies-william-henry-harrison-of-georgia-bulldog-mascots/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/20/uga-vii-dies-william-henry-harrison-of-georgia-bulldog-mascots/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/20/uga-vii-dies-william-henry-harrison-of-georgia-bulldog-mascots/#commentsFiled under: ,


Uga VII, not surprisingly, the son of Uga VI, succumbed to an unexpected heart illness Thursday. The Bulldog mascot, in just his second year prowling the sideline, was only four years old. Presumably, he is survived by many other dogs given that Georgia uses lineal descendants to anoint the next mascot. The mascot-less Georgia team will play on Saturday against Kentucky without their English bulldog on the sideline. In a show of support, the entire team will lick their balls at halftime.

The conclave will soon convene to nominate the next Pope/Bulldog. Wait for white smoke to enshroud the city of Athens. An early betting line on favorites was scrapped after oddsmakers realized that every dog that might replace Uga already looks exactly like Uga and no one would realize he'd actually changed. Head coach Mark Richt, seriously distraught over the dog's death, channeled every reality show television show when someone is voted off, telling the Atlanta Journal Constitution. "You never think something like that could happen that quickly but it certainly did, " Georgia coach Mark Richt said. "It's sad we won't have him on the sideline anymore."

Back on August 30, 2008, no one could have foreseen this calamity. On that bright late-summer afternoon, Uga VII debuted as mascot, at a robust 56 1/2 pounds. He was the biggest bulldog mascot ... ever. And perhaps, in those halcyon days when everyone rubbed his belly and grinned, was sewn the seed of Uga VII's demise. Like many of the grown men and women who barked furiously in his face, he had difficulty turning away from a full plate of food.

Now comes the funeral.

Uga VII, with a Ray Goffian lifetime record of just 16-7, will be interred in the stadium mausoleum alongside his forebears. In the end, Uga VII is the William Henry Harrison of Bulldogs, catching the equivalent of pneumonia as he delivered his valedictory bark.

But all is not lost, his final game was a 31-24 victory over Auburn in the South's oldest rivalry. And his passing, while untimely, is not without benefits.

UGA VIITo wit, 10 good things about Uga VII's passing.

1. He will not have to be on the sideline for the Georgia Tech game.

2. Defensive coordinator Willie Martinez', "It's not me, it's the mascot," explanation for why his defense stinks will no longer fly.

3. A new dog will get to stare down the plunging necklines of the amply endowed Bulldog women when they pose for photos alongside him -- making men everywhere jealous.

4. Internet site traffic for the Atlanta-Journal Constitution will soar once sicko Georgia fans log on for retrospective photo gallery of Uga VII's reign.

5. A new dog gets to stud while looking at pictures of Herschel Walker.

6. The black collar with silver studs that Uga VII wore around his neck can go to someone who really needs it ... Quincy Carter.

7. Tony Barnhart's new book, "Uga VII: A Dog, a People, a Tradition," will climb the Georgia bestseller lists when a special memorial edition is released replete with Barnhart's own brand of hair dye.

8. He will no longer have to travel to the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party and be urinated upon by Florida fans.

9. Richt's contract ceases thanks to crafty lawyering. Quoth the contract: "In the event Uga VIII or any number hereinafter attached to an English bulldog on the sideline prowling as mascot (henceforth"Uga"), shall die, then this contract shall become void."

10. The two girls one pup viral video is going to be gold.

Clay Travis is the author of three books. His latest, "On Rocky Top: A Front Row Seat to The End of an Era" chronicles the 2008 Tennessee football season and is on sale now.

Uga VII Dies: William Henry Harrison of Georgia Bulldog Mascots originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:10:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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]]>Clay TravisFri, 20 Nov 2009 11:10:00 EST SEC Is Nation's Football Conferencehttp://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/19/tebow-effect-cbss-sec-beating-abcs-football-coverage-in-ratin/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/19/tebow-effect-cbss-sec-beating-abcs-football-coverage-in-ratin/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/19/tebow-effect-cbss-sec-beating-abcs-football-coverage-in-ratin/#commentsFiled under: ,



CBS carries the SEC Game of the Week into living rooms across the nation every weekend. CBS' deal is the only national broadcast of any collegiate conference. (Independent Notre Dame, of course, has an eight-game deal with NBC.) ABC also carries football games on network television. But the ABC games, featuring Big Ten, ACC, Big 12, Pac-10, and Big East teams are carried regionally. That means ABC carries teams split geographically, which would theoretically lead to higher overall ratings. That's been the case every year.

Until now.

For the first time since CBS added the SEC in 1996, the SEC games are outdrawing their regional counterparts on ABC. This season's SEC ratings are up 29 percent over comparable ratings last season. Given that CBS still has Alabama-Auburn and what will probably be the highest rated game of the season prior to the BCS bowls, Florida-Alabama in the SEC championship game, CBS and the SEC are likely to triumph over ABC for the season.

Should the SEC thank Tim Tebow? Maybe so. But even without Tebow, does this represent a fascinating turn in the ratings game? I think so. Read on for seven reasons why this is incredibly significant.

The SEC's ascension in television ratings has slid under the radar this fall. That makes sense with all the attention being directed to the controversies on the field, but in the sporting arena, this year represents a seismic tipping point, the year the SEC went national while the rest of the country kept fighting over their Balkanized football-watching regions.

In fact, I'll even coin a phrase for it, ManifeSECt Destiny.

Most of the implications from the SEC beating regional broadcasts of the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, and Pac-10 games of the week haven't yet been written or talked about. In fact, go ahead and consider this your first primer on why the SEC's national rankings represent such an important move in collegiate athletics.

1. As I predicted when this contract was signed, the SEC is becoming the de facto No. 2 brand in football behind the NFL.

No matter where you are across the country, you can flip on your television and watch the top SEC game of the week on CBS. Need to watch the lower tier games because you've gotten hooked on the SEC's storylines thanks to the gobs of national coverage? Then you can find them on ESPN's network of stations.

I've written this before, but it bears repeating, it's easier to watch your favorite SEC team on television if you live out-of-market than it is if you live out-of-market in the NFL.

Winning nationwide in football is just the first step. What's coming next? The SEC tide is going to be lifted in every sport, particularly those with a major television presence. For now though, there is only one football brand in America more valuable than the SEC, the NFL.

2. Whither the Tebow Effect?

Skeptics might point to the return of Saint Tebow as the reason for a one-year bump in the ratings. I think that argument is flawed. The trend lines are moving in the SEC's favor no matter who is lined up under center for Florida. That's because each year of the national television contract becomes more of an engine driving viewership. Year after year of increased coverage feeds on itself. There's so much money at stake, ratings have to grow.

Having said that, clearly a big draw for the SEC this year has been Tim Tebow's national prominence as the fourth-year quarterback of a very successful defending national champion. That's why Florida has been the top draw all season long when it comes to television ratings. It also helps that the state of Florida, as the fourth biggest in the nation with over 18 million people, is the biggest in the SEC footprint by a substantial margin. Georgia, the second biggest state by population, is barely half as large.

So, for ratings purposes, if CBS had to pick one team that they wanted to dominate, Florida would be the selection. But how much of this influx in ratings is a function of the Tebow effect? It's hard to be certain on a yearly basis. That's why the conference has a back-up plan.

3. Selling coaches.

No conference in America sells their coaches as celebrities better than the SEC.

Quick, who are the coaches of Alabama, Florida, and Tennessee?

You'd have to be living under a sports rock not to know that, right?

Now, quick, who are the coaches of the Houston Texans, the Seattle Seahawks and the Atlanta Falcons?

I used to think the cult of the coach idea was absurd, now I think it's pretty shrewd. The SEC has positioned their coaches to be celebrities because the players come and go every few years. But the coach stays in the program. Unlike the NFL where coaches vanish beneath the star wattage of a major player, the coaches in the SEC are the constellations. And while coaches may not be there forever, they last much longer than any one particular player.

Which means, even if you're a fan who isn't that well-versed on the players for a particular year, you feel like you understand the vibe of the program because you have an opinion of the man in charge.

That also means that SEC Commissioner Mike Slive's move to cut down on the sniping between coaches might be counterproductive. Ironically enough, coaches taking shots at one another is one of the best ways to strengthen the SEC brand.

And, not coincidentally, the SEC ratings.

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4. ESPN/ABC's awkward position benefits the SEC tremendously.

CBS's best SEC game competes against ESPN/ABC's regional coverage of games. Yet ESPN/ABC has its own major television deal with the SEC to promote the conference. Talk about hamstrung. ESPN/ABC finds itself in the unique position of building up interest in the SEC to help draw viewers for their coverage of the SEC. Meanwhile, in providing that coverage, they're simultaneously stripping away viewers from their own featured content on ABC.

That 29 percent yearly increase is also a nice bump for CBS that's indicative, I believe, of the increased attention that ESPN/ABC has been paying to the SEC's big stories. For instance, the ESPN-fueled drama between Lane Kiffin and Urban Meyer led to a, wait for it, 60 percent increase in viewers for Tennessee-Florida in 2009 over 2008's rating.

Getting ABC/ESPN on board for the majority of the games was an incredibly shrewd move by the SEC. Their biggest foe in primetime telecasts is also, paradoxically, their greatest ally.

5. The networks want to build SEC stars.

With CBS Sports College Television and ESPN's focus on recruiting and high school games across their network platforms, football recruits are increasingly becoming celebrities before they ever reach a campus.

Why?

Because in college football these networks can book at least three years worth of attention from these players. The earlier these networks can make football recruits stars, therefore, the more interest the sporting public has for them, and the greater the resulting ratings.

See, with basketball, recruits become stars but they vanish off the collegiate stage in a hurry. For ESPN that's no big deal, they can carry someone like Carmelo Anthony from high school, to college for one-year at Syracuse and then on to the NBA and make money off of him for the entire career path. Because they carry games at all three levels.

So one-and-done players in college really don't hurt them.

But with college football players, thanks to the collective bargaining agreement you get three years of play guaranteed. So if you're one of these networks you're incentivized to make these guys stars as quickly as you possibly can.

Guess which players are going to be given star-billing the most?

The ones whose games are featured most frequently on the network.

Which leads to...

6. A self-perpetuating cycle of dominance thanks to recruiting.

Let me put it to you this way, Georgia is currently ranked No. 9 in recruiting in the country per Rivals. Pretty awesome, right?

Not exactly.

See, the Bulldogs are presently sixth in the SEC.

Let me repeat that, sixth.

They trail Alabama, LSU, Florida, Tennessee and Auburn who are all ranked higher than ninth in the country.

Now recruiting isn't a fail-safe business, but if one-half of a conference is consistently bringing in the most highly touted prospects in the nation it stands to reason that many of those recruits are going to become stars. Individual year rankings may fluctuate, of course but I think the 2010 recruiting ratings are indicative of a trend that isn't going to fluctuate -- good players follow the media attention.

And the media attention is all going to be focused on SEC football.

7. This year a cherry-picked slate of the best regional games from the Big 12, ACC, Big East, Big Ten, and Pac-10 is losing to the best game from the SEC.

Even with, often, better timeslots thanks to the fact that ABC carries primetime games much more often than CBS is permitted to do.

That should be your primary takeaway from this story. One football conference's best game is beating the other five BCS conferences' best games even when those best games are placed in the region where that conference is located.

By itself.

That's huge.

Put simply.

That's ManifeSECt Destiny.

Clay Travis is the author of three books. His latest, "On Rocky Top: A Front Row Seat to The End of an Era" chronicles the 2008 Tennessee football season and is on sale now.

SEC Is Nation's Football Conference originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:40:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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]]>Clay TravisThu, 19 Nov 2009 19:40:00 EST Bama's Greg McElroy Silences Criticshttp://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/17/bamas-greg-mcelroy-silences-critics/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/17/bamas-greg-mcelroy-silences-critics/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/17/bamas-greg-mcelroy-silences-critics/#commentsFiled under: ,

Greg McElroyOkay, Greg McElroy admits he overreacted and his feelings were hurt.

It was two Saturdays ago, following Alabama's dramatic victory over LSU, when McElroy vented that people, including teammates, had lost faith in him as the Crimson Tide's starting quarterback. Two days later, McElroy apologized if his postgame comments offended anyone and he further explained that getting mad was not the way to getting better.

McElroy was certainly better in Alabama's 31-3 victory over Mississippi State last Saturday, silencing critics with a solid performance he intends to build on as the undefeated Crimson Tide (10-0, 7-0 SEC) continues its march towards the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta.



"I think that our best football -- you know the day you play your best football should be the last game of every year," said McElroy, who completed 13-of-18 passes for 192 yards and two long touchdowns against the Bulldogs.

The Tide, in the mix for a national championship, accumulated 444 yards of total offense and played turnover-free football.

Alabama faces Tennessee-Chattanooga in its final home game and final non-conference game of the season on Saturday. The Crimson Tide ends the regular season at Auburn in The Iron Bowl before it tangles with top-ranked Florida on Dec. 5 in the SEC Championship for the second consecutive year.

"I think we're continually improving," McElroy continued Monday during his weekly news conference with the media.

"I think everybody is trying to improve personally, individually and obviously collectively we're trying to accomplish all of our goals. Our best football is out there. When we come back and look at the film on Mondays there are things that we did wrong.

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"That's natural and you're never going play a perfect game, but there are things that we're trying to iron out before the season ends, and things that we need to try to improve on this week."

At least on the surface, McElroy's relaxed and confident tone is proof he's trying to learn how to handle the expectations and heat in his first season as Alabama's starting quarterback.

After playing his best game in a month in the Tide's division-clinching victory over LSU, McElroy, a redshirt junior, bared his bruised soul and said, "I've had to deal with a lot of animosity and a lot of hatred." He later explained that he also felt his teammates had questioned his performances.

McElroy's comments caught his teammates off guard, who quickly rallied behind him and said their confidence in him had never wavered. Head coach Nick Saban said he also talked to McElroy and reminded him to "believe in yourself and ignore the negative."

McElroy is not familiar with failure.

He has not lost a game as a starting quarterback dating back to high school, a span of 26 starts that included leading his team to a Texas state title.

McElroy has also made A's in all but one class in college. He's thoughtful, polite, quick with a smile and always gives a detailed answer.

McElroy now also better understands he must answer with results, not words.

That was accomplished against Mississippi State, where he threw two long touchdown passes to Julio Jones (48 yards) and Darius Hanks (45 yards).

Mix that in with Heisman Trophy front runner Mark Ingram's 149 rushing yards, including a 70-yard touchdown burst and Alabama seems to have found the big plays that it missed earlier this season.

During a four-game stretch against Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee, for example, McElroy had just two completions longer than 20 yards and failed to throw a touchdown pass in three consecutive games.

The Tide's longest rush in that four-game span was 54 yards.

"Greg did a nice job in the [Mississippi State] game," Saban said.

"His pass efficiency rating was really high in the game, in terms of his execution. We probably didn't throw the ball quite as much as what we'd planned on going into the game. When we did throw it, we executed and made a couple of explosive plays doing it, three or four times.

"We were very pleased with his performance and the way he managed the game."

Bama's Greg McElroy Silences Critics originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:04:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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]]>Greg McElroyGregMcelroyJim HenryTue, 17 Nov 2009 12:04:00 EST For Kentucky Football, Survive and Thrivehttp://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/17/through-it-all-kentucky-football-thriving/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/17/through-it-all-kentucky-football-thriving/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/17/through-it-all-kentucky-football-thriving/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Kentucky WildcatsWhile No. 1 Florida and No. 2 Alabama each play glorified scrimmages on Saturday and continue their march to the SEC Championship game next month, one of the more intriguing conference match-ups features Kentucky at Georgia. Yes, Kentucky. Football.

The Wildcats have done an impressive job of persevering this season.

They will be searching for their first victory in Athens, Ga., since 1977 and can improve their bowl berth in the final two games of the regular season. Kentucky has also won its last two road games for the first time since 2002 and has won four of its last five overall.


Head coach Rich Brooks frequently talks to his team about doing things that have never been done at Kentucky, or haven't been done in a long time.

The Wildcats (6-4 overall, 3-3 SEC) haven't disappointed -- Saturday's win over Vanderbilt marked the first time since 1953-56 that UK has won at least six games in four consecutive seasons -- despite contending with an array of injuries.

But let's not get too excited. Setting expectations, reaching expectations and exceeding expectations are three different agendas.

Kentucky fans, who have not seen their football program finish in the Top 25 since it was the top 20 in 1984, have applauded the first two. They want more, and have the opportunity to inch closer to that goal with a win over the Bulldogs. Kentucky last beat Georgia in 2006 but has dropped 11 of the past 12 in the series.
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"We all know that the fans have a different expectation level now, and that's a good thing," Brooks said Monday.

"Sometimes they express it in very negative ways, but by and large, I think the expectation level of this football program has changed dramatically, and I would like to think that that's a really good thing.

"I hope our players are willing to work like they worked in the last 30 minutes of the Vanderbilt game all week this week, and during the Georgia game so you can have an impact, if you will, so we can climb up the SEC East ladder a little bit higher."

Kentucky might be enjoying even a better season without injuries.

Quarterback Mike Hartline will undergo knee surgery Tuesday and will not be available until a projected bowl game. Cornerback Trevard Lindley, projected as a high-round NFL draft pick, missed four games with an ankle injury. Tailback Derrick Locke and wide receiver Randall Cobb, the team's top play makers, each missed a game and have been banged up much of the year.

Regardless, work remains against Georgia and in the regular-season finale at home versus Tennessee.

"It feels good to know you're bowl eligible but you can't get complacent," senior offensive guard Christian Johnson said.

"If you look in the SEC there are a few six-win teams. If we didn't win another game, six wins possibly couldn't get us into a bowl game. We really need to win another one. Not just for the bowl game, but a seven- or eight-win season would be huge for Kentucky, it's my last year and it would be huge to go out on that note."

Brooks said becoming bowl eligible for a fourth straight season is a tribute to the senior class. The Wildcats have certainly hit some historical milestones this season:

o. Kentucky's 42-0 win vs. Miami (Ohio) was the Wildcats' first shutout in 13 years.

o. Kentucky's 31-27 win over Louisville was the third-consecutive triumph over the Wildcats'in-state rivals, the first time that has been accomplished since the Governor's Cup rivalry was renewed in 1994.

o. UK defeated Auburn for the first time in 43 years. It also marked UK's first win at Auburn since 1961.

o. UK had no penalties and no turnovers in the win at Auburn, the first time in school history that had been accomplished, dating back to single-game statistics available since 1946.

o. Kentucky's win over Eastern Kentucky was UK's 18th consecutive non-conference victory, which is a new school record. The previous record was 17 straight wins from 1954-60.

On the flip side, there was the team's disappointing homecoming defeat to Mississippi State, which, at 4-6, is the lone team among Kentucky's blemishes that has a losing record.

While Brooks was delighted with the Wildcats' ability to run the ball for more than 300 against Vandy, he knows Kentucky must throw the ball to have any chance for an upset victory over Georgia.

Freshman Morgan Newton will stay at quarterback with occasional doses of Cobb in the Wildcat formation. Newton has started the last five games, completing 58.9 percent of his passes (43 of 73) for 402 yards and two touchdowns with three interceptions while rushing for 86 yards and two scores.

"I think I said after the Auburn game we have to throw the ball better moving forward," Brooks said.

"And since then we haven't, but we have won three out of the last four. We threw it better against Eastern [Kentucky] obviously, but in my mind this game, if we don't throw the ball well, we are going to struggle to win it. We have to open it up a little bit, take some shots. We have to keep people backed off a little bit, but we will see how it goes."

It has gone well for the senior class. But it can be better, too.

"It feels good, this is one of the reasons we all came to Kentucky," Johnson said.

"We're still a program on the rise; we're not where we need to be but the fact that we've done something that Kentucky hasn't done with the possibility of winning four bowl games, I believe you leave a certain legacy. I want to be able to say I played in four bowl games and I won four bowl games."


For Kentucky Football, Survive and Thrive originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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]]>Rich BrooksRichBrooksJim HenryTue, 17 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST Memo to BCS Bashers: Stop Whininghttp://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/16/memo-to-bcs-bashers-stop-whining/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/16/memo-to-bcs-bashers-stop-whining/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/16/memo-to-bcs-bashers-stop-whining/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , , , , ,

Jordan Shipley, Jeffrey Demps, Julio Jones
It's that silly time of year again. There are so many significant teams among the big boys of college football, but there are just two slots on Jan. 7 in Pasadena, Calif., for that title game of the Bowl Championship Series. So the voice of the older Jim Mora is screaming in my subconscious.

Playoffs, playoffs?

We don't need playoffs in this situation.

We need everybody to take a deep breath, count slowly to 10 and stop their knee-jerk talk of a playoff system. The decade-old way of deciding a national champion through the BCS rankings is mostly just fine.

Take this week, for instance. Where's the problem? There isn't one, because the combination of the human polls and the cold computers has it right. The defensive monsters from Florida and Alabama clearly are No. 1 and No. 2, followed by a Texas bunch with a defense that also clobbers people.

That trio is from power conferences, and with apologies to the prolific whiners from the Mountain West and Western Athletic conferences, teams from power conferences deserve a nudge over the rest.

Anyway, Florida and Alabama will meet in the SEC championship game, which means one of them will drop in the rankings behind Texas .

That is, if Texas wins the Big 12 championship game. If Texas doesn't, then one of those other undefeated teams (Texas Christian, Cincinnati and Boise State) will slide into the title picture. Or it could open the way for a one-loss team such as Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh or even the loser of the SEC championship game.


Whatever happens, the system is there. The system is working. The system is controversial, but the system provides less drama than what would occur with a playoff system, which will never happen anyway.

There are just too many questions involved with a playoff system, but its supporters either ignore those questions or shrug them away.

For instance: How many teams will be in this playoff system? The answer is, nobody knows. Many want a "plus one" thing, where two of the four BCS games (Rose, Sugar, Orange and Fiesta) would host semifinal games, and then the winners would play in another BCS game. Others want 16 teams in a playoff. Some want 32.

Texas Tech coach Mike Leach wants 64.

As for those other questions, pull up a chair and rest a while. If you can provide more than a surface answer to three or more of the following, then you should immediately leave Planet Earth to design the next solar system.

Where would these playoff games take place, and would they be at the same locations every year, and who would decide the locations?

What entity would choose the playoff teams, and how will such a system be less subjective than what we have now?

With colleges everywhere crying broke, where would they find the extra cash they would need for travel, lodging, food, equipment, utilities -- along with all of those other expenses that nobody wants to discuss that would surface?

Where are those colleges going to find the extra cash to pay for those bonuses that their already heavily compensated coaches would surely command for reaching and winning playoff games?

Oh, and with all that extra cash going to football programs for these playoffs, and with all that revenue created through television rights and jacked-up ticket prices, how would schools satisfy their Title IX obligations since women sports surely would seek a mighty part of the pie?

What would this do to the bowl system, especially since (1) the overwhelming number of the 34 bowls won't have a shot at hosting a playoff game and (2) advertisers (as in TV) won't be as interested in those other bowls?

How many fans could afford to travel with their team across the country at the spur of the moment, which would be the case more often than not?

How many fans could keep traveling if their team keeps winning?

How many folks would the NCAA need to hire to investigate all of the cheating scandals that would surface involving those pressured to do shady things to reach the playoffs to keep from getting whacked?

What kind of toll would all of these extra practices and meetings (see, it's not just one little, old playoff game that its supporters keep suggesting) take on your average student-athlete physically, mentally and academically?

Why not just leave the BCS alone?

Why not, indeed? After all, this eternal grumbling over who really is No. 1 has been so detrimental to college football at its highest level that, entering this season, attendance rose every season for the previous 14 years.

Consider, too, that along the facade of the club level at Folsom Stadium, where the Colorado Buffaloes play their home games, you'll find these words: 1990 National Champions. That's funny, because around Georgia Tech, spanning from Bobby Dodd Stadium to a billboard that is visible for those traveling through Atlanta down I-75, you see claims that the Yellow Jackets won it all that season. And they did. Georgia Tech was named the United Press International champion, and Colorado was declared the nation's best by the Associated Press.

Since nobody can prove otherwise, you have two different fan bases in college football who can claim for eternity that their team was the king of 1990.

There also is that endless griping around Auburn over its undefeated 2004 team that won the SEC but didn't make the BCS championship game. Never mind that Auburn disqualified itself from serious consideration by playing the likes of Louisiana-Monroe, The Citadel and Louisiana Tech.

Auburn fans still think their Tigers would have won it all that season over Oklahoma or USC. They still think they were robbed.

The same goes for Penn State fans who remember 1969, when a giddy Richard Nixon attended Texas' victory over Arkansas during the regular season and crowned the Longhorns national champions in their locker room. Texas later won its bowl game to finish undefeated, but so did Penn State. It's just that Penn State wasn't anointed by the president.

The point is, a playoff system would have exposed those Auburn, Penn State and other such teams as frauds, but now we'll never know.

Which is a good thing. Which is why everybody has another reason to keep breathing deeply regarding the BCS.

Terence Moore is a national columnist and commentator for FanHouse. He is a frequent panelist on "Rome Is Burning," an ESPN show hosted by Jim Rome, that is seen Monday through Friday at 4:30 PM ET. Moore spent more than three decades working for major newspapers, including 26 years as an award-winning sports columnist for the San Francisco Examiner and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He resides in Atlanta.

Memo to BCS Bashers: Stop Whining originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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]]>Terence MooreMon, 16 Nov 2009 16:00:00 EST Corey Zickefoose, Tennessee Football 'Victim,' Wants Leniency for Playershttp://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/13/corey-zickefoose-tennessee-football-victim-wants-leniency-fo/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/13/corey-zickefoose-tennessee-football-victim-wants-leniency-fo/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/13/corey-zickefoose-tennessee-football-victim-wants-leniency-fo/#commentsFiled under: ,

Twenty-year-old Corey Zickefoose was the victim of an alleged crime Thursday when three Tennessee football players were arrested on charges of armed robbery. Nu'Keese Richardson, Janzen Jackson and Michael Edwards allegedly held up Zickefoose with an air gun in what was later described as a "prank."

Intentions aside (as they do pave the road to hell), one would think Zickefoose would be in full-on lawyer mode, lining up a civil suit and pressing criminal charges. Or at least really angry. But no -- unbelievably, he's asking the university for leniency instead.
"I think they should still be able to play football, regardless," he said. "Tennessee is my place. It's my football team."

"Even after they put a gun in your face, you say let them play football?" 6 News asked.

"Yeah, it's Tennessee. That's the way it is sometimes," Zickefoose said.
Personally speaking, I went to high school in Tennessee, and while I won't claim to know more about the state than Zickefoose, I can't say I'm surprised at all. (And others agree.) This happened already once this year in SEC country with an Alabama man and his daughter (she was assaulted by Crimson Tide players and the father blamed ... her) and the fact that Zickefoose is willing to put football over his own personal safety is actually pretty indicative of how many people in that part of the country feel.

I'm not saying that I agree with this mindset in the slightest -- or that Vols coach Lane Kiffin will either. Some sort of suspension coming from the school would seem to be almost guaranteed. But the fact that the victim doesn't want them punished certainly can't hurt the players' cases.

Corey Zickefoose, Tennessee Football 'Victim,' Wants Leniency for Players originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:21:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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]]>Will BrinsonFri, 13 Nov 2009 12:21:00 EST SEC Notebook: South's Oldest Rivalryhttp://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/13/sec-notebook-souths-oldest-rivalry/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/13/sec-notebook-souths-oldest-rivalry/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/13/sec-notebook-souths-oldest-rivalry/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , ,

Georgia vs. Auburn.

It doesn't get any better, or older, than this for these two schools. Known as the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry, the series began in 1892 and is the seventh-most played in the country. The mutual disdain has been passed down through the generations, and the 113th meeting Saturday isn't expected to be any different.

"Everybody has their team," Georgia coach Mark Richt said.

"When I go to the Bulldog Clubs, they will say, 'Coach no matter what happens, you have to get this one.' You would think it's just one or two teams, but it's about five of them that they all feel like you've just got to have. It is a big deal and I think our fans will get jacked up for it."

Georgia (5-4) better be jacked up as well, or it may get Uga-ly in Athens, Ga.

The Tigers (7-3) rank 10th in the nation in rushing offense (230 yards per game) and are tied for 11th in scoring offense (35 points per game). Auburn is on pace to set a school record for total offense. The Tigers have had 24 scoring drives this season that have taken less than two minutes, and 21 of those ended with touchdowns.

"You have to get a good, strong plan and get the guys as many reps as you can because they are into creating chaos for you," Richt said. "That's what they want to do; they want to create confusion and bloody your nose in the meantime."

Recent history is on the Bulldogs' side.

Georgia has won three straight in the series for the first time since 1982. The last time the Bulldogs won four in a row was in 1948.Georgia is hoping to exploit the Tigers' defense, which ranks last in the SEC in scoring defense (26.6 points per game).


The Bulldogs gained some needed confidence in their 38-0 win over Tennessee Tech last Saturday. They limited Tech to just 55 yards of offense and posted their first shutout since 2006.

Senior Joe Cox connected on his first 10 passes and finished with 140 yards passing with two touchdowns. Sophomore wide receiver A.J. Green leads the SEC in receptions per game (5.5) and receiving yards per game (91.5).

"He will be a huge challenge for our secondary, which should be fun for them," Auburn coach Gene Chizik said. "He is not the only one, but he is one of those receivers that are going to make you go to work all night."

BIG PLAY ALERT

It might be nit-picky, but top-ranked Florida continues to search for big plays.

In seven SEC games this season, the Gators have produced only two plays of 50 yards or longer -- a 77-yard touchdown pass from Tim Tebow to receiver Deonte Thompson against Arkansas, and a 64-yard pass from Tebow to tight end Aaron Hernandez late in the game against Vanderbilt. UF's three other 50-plus yard plays came against out-manned Charleston Southern.

Last season, the Gators had 10 plays of 50 yards or longer, five coming against SEC opponents.

UF offensive coordinator Steve Addazio defended his unit following practice earlier this week.

"We define big plays as 20 or more yards," he said.

"There are a lot of big plays happening. The same number at this point in time, we're about right where we were, there is really negligible difference, but you're feeling is like we're not having as many big plays.

"Here's what we're doing a good job of, this is what it is: We're moving the ball much more consistently than we ever did. The appearance was we had more big-play strikes a year ago. A big play is defined as 20 yards or more, that's considered explosive, we have the same amount of explosives as we did a year ago at this point in time."

Running to Daylight

Saturday's Alabama-Mississippi State game features the SEC's two most productive running backs.

Alabama's Mark Ingram, right, considered by many as the leading contender for the Heisman Trophy, leads the league in rushing at 127.6 yards per game; Mississippi State's Anthony Dixon is second at 125.1 ypg.

It might be the one chance for Dixon and the Bulldogs to grab the attention away from Ingram and the Crimson Tide (9-0, 6-0), winners of the SEC West.

"It's going to be fun," Dixon said.

"I guess this is what we dreamed about when we were kids. He's in the Heisman race and all props to him. I'm pretty sure he's been over there working hard. I've been over here working hard. Both of us are making the dream come true, and it's just going to be a showcase Saturday. We'll show again what we can do. I'm just excited, pumped up and ready to go."

Mississippi State has won two of the last three against Alabama, which is coming off an emotional home victory over LSU.

Ever-philosophical Tide coach Nick Saban isn't worried about a letdown from his players.

"I think what I talk about all the time is what you try and emphasize to the players," Saban said.

"Take care of your business and your business will take care of you. Focus on what you do and it's about what you do and prepare yourself in practice and the way you need to be the best player that you can be. Do your job for your team and that's going to give us the best chance to be successful."

Spurrier in Charge

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier is moving back into the lead role again of calling plays. Just in time for top-ranked Florida, where the Ol' Ball Coach crafted his reputation as the best play caller in the business.

Business needs to get better in a hurry for the Gamecocks.

The only scoring from South Carolina (6-4) against an Arkansas defense last week that was allowing 27 points per game came on a 23-yard field goal on the first drive of the game, and a Stephen Garcia 1-yard rushing touchdown in the second quarterback and an 80-yard scoring pass from Garcia to receiver Alshon Jeffery to start the third quarter.

UF's defense, directed by former Gamecock defensive coordinator Charlie Strong, is ranked first in scoring defense at 10.1 points per game and second nationally behind Texas in total defense at 232.4 yards per game.

"I call most of the plays and I may be the principle play caller now with suggestions from the other coaches," said Spurrier, who also indicated earlier this week he intends to return to South Carolina next season.

"That's about how we've been doing it."

SEC Notebook: South's Oldest Rivalry originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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]]>a.j. greenanthony dixonjoe coxmark ingramtim tebowJim HenryFri, 13 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST The Fight Over a Song at Ole Misshttp://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/12/the-fight-over-a-song-at-ole-miss/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/12/the-fight-over-a-song-at-ole-miss/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/12/the-fight-over-a-song-at-ole-miss/#commentsFiled under: ,

Dan JonesWhen Ole Miss hosts Tennessee Saturday, the school's band will not play "From Dixie WIth Love," a song that features an incongruous pairing of "Dixie" with the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Why? Because some students and alumni chant, "The South will rise again," at the end of the song.

For Ole Miss' first-year chancellor, Dan Jones (pictured, right), this chant is unacceptable behavior.

"Here at the University of Mississippi, there must be no doubt that this is a warm and welcoming place for all," Dan Jones wrote Tuesday in a letter to the university community. "We cannot even appear to support those outside our community who advocate a revival of racial segregation. We cannot fail to respond."

So Jones has responded.

And so, "From Dixie With Love" has gone the way of Colonel Reb, the original song Dixie, and the Confederate battle flag, excised from Vaught-Hemingway stadium as offensive relics of a bygone era.

But in his response, Jones has opened another series of debates. What are the obligations of a generation born two or three decades after James Meredith integrated Ole Miss' campus with regard to racial sensitivity? And, in taking this stand to combat an offensive phrase, are Jones and members of his generation fighting the ghosts of their youth more than they're fighting a present-day ill? Are Jones and his ilk the true heirs to the Lost Cause mythology for fighting against an evil that doesn't actually exist?

Unlike Dixie, or Colonel Reb, or the Confederate battle flag, the "South will rise again" addition to the song is a recent incarnation, originated, by most guesses, in the past five years or so.

Let's add a few years of leeway there and say that the chant began in the neighborhood of the year 2000, the dawn of the 21st Century.

So the chant itself, though the phrase has long since existed, is not connected to a time before the university's integration and is not an embodiment of past values. If it were a vestige of years past that had existed for decades, this would be a much simpler argument. Traditions of racial intolerance should be left in the past. But if, as it would appear, the chant is of a more recent vintage at football games, how do we assess the relative offensiveness of the language when standing alone the language is not inflammatory?

The Watergate investigations became framed by the single question, "What did the President know and when did he know it?" The question that emerges from the "The South will rise again" imbroglio is: Who is chanting it and why?
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After all, isn't it the intent behind the phrase more than the words that matter? While men and women of generations past might hear this language and think of a monolithic and ethnically divided South rising again, "a revival of segregation" in the chancellor's words, why can't the young Ole Miss students be advocating a particular form of regional pride? "The South will rise again," is hardly a universal phrase of racism like an ethnic slur, something students are chanting, knowingly espousing an idea of a racially divided South.

After all, think about this: Today's Ole Miss freshmen were born in 1991.

1991!

The vast majority of these students, then, have grown up in an era where they can't even remember the O.J. Simpson trial, much less Meredith and the race riots that preceded his enrollment at Ole Miss. Systematic segregation is as remote to them as a world without air conditioning. And if it is, in fact, a chant that evokes regional pride for students, as I believe is likely, what, I would ask, in the student's mind, distinguishes a chant like this from one that is universally beloved, "SEC, SEC, SEC?"

Does any thinking person really believe that modern day college students watching and rooting their hearts out for a team that is majority African-American are actually, simultaneously, rooting for a return to the era of plantations and slavery? It's laughable beyond belief.

If, in fact, some fans are doing this, aren't they likely to be such a clueless and antiquated minority that engaging them in a battle of ideas is self-defeating, relying on the false assumption that all ideas are worthy of debate?

In waging this battle, is Ole Miss allowing the defenders of the Old South to win by engaging a ludicrous idea and considering it worthy of debate? For instance, if a few Ole Miss students decided to form a club that argued against man landing on the moon, would the university really feel compelled to debate them? Ultimately, there is probably nothing anyone at Ole Miss could have done to draw more attention to the chant, than attempt to ban it.

In fact, in a bit of counterintuitive spin, the chancellor would probably have been more successful in eradicating the chant if he'd actually requested that the entire student body do it. And then attempted to lead them in it himself. Because there is nothing less cool on a college campus than doing what an old white man suggests.



All of that, of course, doesn't even consider how stupid the chant itself is. And that's probably my primary issue with the chant, not that it's offensive, just that it's stupid.

Breaking down the language of the chant, as I wager most students have not, what magical and halcyon "again" do you want to return to? The "again" of a pre-Civil War South? When a few rich plantation owners lived lives of luxury while poor whites and enslaved blacks lifted them to their exalted stature? All while breaking their backs in menial and difficult labors beneath a harsh and unrelenting sun?

Why would anyone in their right mind ever yearn for a return to those days?

Or is it an "again" that exalts the South's rise from the ashes after the Civil War? And if it is, in fact, that, hasn't the South already risen? And, more accurately, not "again" as the chant would suggest, but for the very first time. Put it this way, has there ever been another day or era when the South was more ascendant than the present? And if that's the intent of the chant, to represent Southern pride, wouldn't, "The South has risen," be more accurate?

Of course, there's a bigger issue at play too. To what extent are modern generations of Southerners, people like me who only attended integrated schools, held hostage by the conditions that predated our birth? Is it our responsibility to be schooled in the specific racial insults of years past so that we don't inadvertently make that mistake again? Do young whites and blacks need to hear old stereotypes, maybe for the first time in their lives, solely to be aware that the terms are offensive, should they ever happen upon them in their modern lives, a sort of social inoculation? Are we, as the chancellor would suggest, beholden to link arms with those of older generations and fight the ills that existed in their lives even if they don't exist in our own?

I think that's an awfully difficult question.

Meanwhile isn't it every bit as troubling that the head of a university would cancel the playing of a song because he doesn't like the way some members of his student body, those chanting "The South will rise again," react to that song? Doesn't this sound like something that would have happened oh, I don't know, in a Mississippi of 1957? In a 21st century of open discourse, does stifling that conversation when you disagree with the statements of others really defeat the same American values that you're seeking to protect?

And here's one final question, why has every other university in the SEC moved past these racial issues so seamlessly -- cite me another SEC school with these controversies in the past decade -- while Ole Miss, despite having made bundles of progress, still seems stifled in bygone battles from eras long ago?

While the rest of the SEC seems focused on winning championships, Ole Miss hasn't hoisted an SEC trophy in football or basketball since 1963.

Is it so coincidental, then, that Ole Miss is still fighting battles from way back in 1963?

Maybe.

But I don't think so.

The Fight Over a Song at Ole Miss originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:29:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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]]>Clay TravisThu, 12 Nov 2009 20:29:00 EST Three Tennessee Players Arrested, Charged With Attempted Armed Robberyhttp://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/12/three-tennessee-players-arrested-charged-with-attempted-armed-r/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/12/three-tennessee-players-arrested-charged-with-attempted-armed-r/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/12/three-tennessee-players-arrested-charged-with-attempted-armed-r/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Nu'Keese RichardsonLess than a day after Lane Kiffin bragged that no football players had been arrested in 11 months at Tennessee, that record came tumbling down. In a big way.

According to police at 1:43AM Thursday, three freshmen on Tennessee's football team, safety Janzen Jackson, wide receiver Nu'Keese Richardson, and defensive back Mike Edwards, were arrested and charged with attempted arm robbery. The trio allegedly attempted to rob three men parked in a 1998 Hyundai Elantra at a Pilot gas station on Knoxville's Cumberland Avenue.

One of the football players reportedly brandished an air pistol while wearing a black hoodie and demanded money. Another football player wearing a black hoodie opened the other door. The three men said they had no money, at which point the football players fled in a 2010 Toyota Prius driven by a woman, 22-year-old Marie Montmarquet.

Police later pulled over the Prius near the Gibbs Hall dormitory, uncovered two black hoodies, an air pistol, and led the men back to the Pilot gas station where they were identified by their would-be victims. Immediately the Internets exploded. Here was a story that offered the improbable combination of crime vehicle -- 2010 Toyota Prius, location -- the Vols' attempted robbery was in the parking lot of the gas station, Pilot, that is owned by UT's most prominent booster, an air pistol and two of the most famous recruits from the 2009 football season.

Let's dive in.

I've decided to itemize some observations, a Starting 11 for the arrest, from me, Twitter and others via e-mail about this incident. Why? Because in the modern era, when no one is injured by the stupidity of others, public shaming is the weapon of choice. It's amazing how rapidly the reactions poured in from the moment I woke up this morning and turned on the iPhone.

First came the reports of the arrest and well, then came the jokes.

1. Janzen Jackson is starting at safety for the Vols as a true freshman. He's been dominant. A few weeks ago I wrote that he might kill someone on the field before his career is done. If we remove three words from the previous sentence, that still might be true.

How much money did Jackson cost himself? He's going to be a first-round draft pick if he just keeps from getting arrested for a felony for the next two years. Leading to this imagined conversation.

Kiffin: "Janzen, in two years you'll get $18 million guaranteed."

Janzen: "But I really needed $18 now, Coach."

2. How to attempt a robbery and get caught. This should be a seminar taught by Pahokee grads at Tennessee:

a. Wear UT football gear

b. Commit robbery just off campus for which you are wearing gear

c. Rob the most highly trafficked gas station parking lot in Knoxville

d. In one of the only 2010 Toyota Priuses on campus

e. Select as victim, someone driving a 1998 Elantra

f. Use an air-pellet gun

g. Stay in car after failed robbery

h. Keep all objects used in robbery in car

I. Plead not guilty and have your lawyer condemn judgment, "Before all the facts are out."

3. Best email of the morning, from a South Carolina fan, "We pump the gas and then you rob us?!"

4. I've been calling Nu'Keese Richardson, who Kiffin memorably stole from Urban Meyer and Florida, Helen of Troy. As in, he's the apostrophe that loosed a thousand ships. But now that analogy is strained.

This is like Helen of Troy going up to Hector and stealing his loincloth just as he prepared to fight Achilles.

I know, someone else read The Iliad, right?

Right?

Moving right along.

5. Tweet via my buddy Spencer Hall over at EDSBS.com, "Got my team gear on/So you know this be us/ get the cash game right/ take off in the prius"

Yep, that's a new Lil' Wayne lyric.

6. Kiffin's penalty checklist:

Positive: no excess carbon emissions

Negative: attempted armed robbery

7. Will M. tweeted: "This kinda gives new meaning to 'Nu'Keese on the Block.' huh?"

To which I responded, "Yes, Joey McIntyre has more street cred than Nuke does."

8. Andy D. did tweet one shining light: "Remember when boosters just gave players money?"

No kidding.

And, of course, there's a booster connection, Jim Haslam, UT's most prominent athletics booster, owns the Pilot gas station where the attempted robbery occurred.

9. My friend Junaid, a UT grad who managed not to attempt a robbery through four years of undergrad, emailed the following:

"I think we should buy that Pilot gas station and the Rocky Top Market and tear them down. All our guys get arrested there."

It's true. That area on Cumblerand Avenue is like the Bermuda Triangle for UT athletes, go there frequently enough and you vanish from Knoxville without a trace.

See: Banks, James.

10. It only takes one Nu'Keese mistake to ruin the name for the rest of us.

And robbing someone while wearing UT gear is more than enough.

Second best email: "Who robs a college student? 'We got some zigzags, an expired food handlers card, a visa cash card with $17.48 on it, and a Subway card needing one last sticker.'"

Third best email, "Who would have ever believed that a guy named Nu'Keese wouldn't always walk the straight and narrow."

11. No truth to the rumor that Kiffin wanted black jerseys so the players could more effectively rob at night.

Again, there's no truth to it, none.

...

Remember back when I said I hated Twitter in the summer? I've done a complete 180. I absolutely love it now. Follow me here. From the you can't even make this stuff up, one of the attempted robbers, Mike Edwards, has his own Twitter feed. His handle? @RealGeniusMike

Satire, thy only foe is truth.

And air-pellet guns.

Three Tennessee Players Arrested, Charged With Attempted Armed Robbery originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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]]>Clay TravisThu, 12 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST Analog SEC Just Like Your Grandpahttp://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/10/lack-of-high-definition-tvs-gives-clarity-to-sec-replay-gaffes/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/10/lack-of-high-definition-tvs-gives-clarity-to-sec-replay-gaffes/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/10/lack-of-high-definition-tvs-gives-clarity-to-sec-replay-gaffes/#commentsFiled under: ,


High definition television has revolutionized the sports viewing experience. What it hasn't revolutionized is the SEC's ability to use high definition to help with instant replay review. That's because the televisions in the instant replay booth at SEC stadiums aren't in HD.

Yep, every time I think an SEC officiating error is going to surprise me, I get reminded that satirizing SEC officiating is really a hard business. Why? Because the satire writes itself. You, me, and millions of other people who watch games at home have a better view of controversial plays than the guys in the instant replay booth.

And the only thing worse than that is that the director of SEC officiating, Rogers Redding, doesn't think it would make much of a difference to have HD television. In fact, he wouldn't oppose making the change, but he won't fight for it either.

"The way I view [officiating] is, if this isn't broke, let's not fix it," he told the Birmingham News. "I don't see any sort of emergency, oh my God, we've got to fix some­thing here."

Sigh.

Yep, when it comes to HD, the SEC is just like your parents.

At least if your parents are anything like mine. My dad and mom come over to help with my son on a regular basis. Sometimes, when my son takes an afternoon nap or when my wife and I head out for a movie, I return to find my dad and mom watching my HD television on the non-HD stations. Often, with my dad, he'll be watching a sporting event that is playing in glorious HD. Only he's watching it on the standard station.

I'll walk in, take the remote and say, "Dad, remember, that if the entire flat screen television isn't full of image, you aren't in HD." I guarantee I've said this to him 500 times. He'll wave his hand in a dismissive fashion. "I can't tell the difference anyway," he'll say. Inevitably, I will flip to the actual sporting event in HD, it explodes on the screen, a million times better, the picture crisper, as vivid as real life. More vivid, even.

"You can't see the difference between these?" I'll ask.

"No," he'll say, sheepishly.

I've basically given up with him.

Now when we come home and turn on the television after they've been over, my wife will say, "Why is it on this channel?"

Like she's come home and turned on Cinemax's excellent "Sexo Urbano: Lima." (Note: this rarely happens because usually I change the channel back to the Sprout network.)

The way I view [officiating] is, if this isn't broke, let's not fix it.
- Rogers Redding, SEC director of officials Now, the SEC feels the same way. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, their sterling officiating couldn't possibly be helped by HD feeds of the game. That's despite plenty of evidence to the contrary. In fact, when you watch the replays in HD, and then think what they might look like in standard definition, you can actually see why a call might not be made. Because, quite frankly, the official can't even see the play.

Currently, and this is no joke, you and I are better equipped to decide controversial plays from our living rooms than the SEC officials are from the replay booths in the stadium. This would be funny if your team wasn't getting screwed by the failure of the most competitive football conference in America to jump on the high definition "trend." And, of course, by "trend" I mean something that every SEC sports fan under 40 with a scintilla of disposable income -- and many without that -- already have had themselves for over half a decade.

In the meantime, SEC officiating has been slammed for the errors associated with having antediluvian equipment in their stadiums. Nick Saban, a man who has benefited from the errors made in favor of Alabama this season, even thinks we've been too harsh on the officials.

"If I was an official, and I was making what I made officiating because I love the game and I love doing it," Saban said, "and I was getting criticized by the media -- including our announcers on TV -- like these guys are getting criticized, I'd step back and say, 'I think I'll go to the lake this weekend. You can have this.' That's what I'd do."

It's nice of Nick Saban to come to the aid of all the men who have been messing up in his favor. That makes sense. Hell, I'd probably defend people who made errors in my favor too. For instance if banks kept doubling my paycheck every week I might say: "If I was a banker, and I was making what I made banking because I love the bank, and I love banking, and I was criticized by the banking media, I'd step back and say, 'I think I'll go to the lake this weekend. You can have this bank.' That's what I'd do."'

Because then you know what might happen if I said this? The bank might keep giving me more money.
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But aside from Saban's self-serving defense, I don't think officials or instant replay officials should bear the brunt of this criticism. If they're not smart enough to stomp their feet and demand the best equipment, the league office should be. Yep, the mighty SEC that spent the offseason so worried about whether or not people were going to be tweeting or live-blogging from inside their stadiums, hasn't even bothered to make sure that they've given their officials the best equipment to make the correct calls.

Calls that, oh by the way, get magnified a thousand fold under the new multi-billion dollar television contract they've signed with CBS and ESPN -- both HD broadcasters. What's another reason, aside from increased media attention that these calls get magnified? Because such a fine line often separates winners from losers in conference play.

That's the real story here, officiating is under the microscope because the difference between teams these days is microscopic. If every game in the conference was decided by three touchdowns, a few missed calls here and there wouldn't be as significant.

But when many of the most high-profile games are coming down to a single play, failure of this magnitude is unacceptable. The difference between having HD in a booth and not having HD in a booth truly can decide the outcome of games, perhaps even champions. How in the world has this been allowed to continue?

I asked the SEC offices what it would cost to implement HD feeds for instant replay in every SEC stadium. They didn't get back to me. Convenient. But I'll give you the answer, an awful lot less than missing a big call costs in public perception. Tens of millions less than that, in fact.

All of us watching in HD saw LSU's Patrick Peterson intercept Alabama's Greg McElroy in the fourth quarter of the Tide's eventual 24-15 victory. In regular definition who knows what it looked like? I don't, and you don't either. But you know who does? The SEC's instant replay official.

In the meantime, my dad doesn't see what the big deal is about HD for games. "What is the HD button again?" he asks, channeling the SEC corporate offices.

I'll reiterate my offer to commissioner Mike Slive that I made on Saturday, consider my HD television to be at your disposal, give me a ring if you need help with a call. After all, I and millions of other SEC fans will have a better view of the play than your instant replay officials.

Analog SEC Just Like Your Grandpa originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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]]>Clay TravisTue, 10 Nov 2009 19:00:00 EST Starting 11: Counting to Five in Alabamahttp://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/10/starting-11-counting-to-five-in-alabama/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/10/starting-11-counting-to-five-in-alabama/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/10/starting-11-counting-to-five-in-alabama/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , ,

Alabama fan As the fourth quarter of CBS's coverage of Alabama-LSU went to commercial break, the cameras caught something extraordinary, an Alabama fan giving the cliched and overused four finger slogan. Okay, nothing extraordinary about that, but, this is when a bit of the Southern Gothic came into your living room, the man only had four fingers, he was missing a pinkie! So he gave the four finger sign utilizing his thumb.

My jaw literally dropped. Judging by everyone's reaction on Twitter, I wasn't the only one. The most shocking thing, of course, is that the fan gave up the pinkie to Nick Saban, wielding a machete, as part of the pregame speech. Good to see they got the bleeding stopped.

But, of course, this moment of four-finger jubilation wasn't the only thing that caught my attention. We've got Alabama, LSU, Notre Dame, Oregon, Cincinnati, and a groom who made it rain at this wedding reception and caused a 40-person brawl. Plus, we learn that 5 yards in Alabama math actually means 5.5 yards.

Dive in and enjoy.

1. What the heck is up with the Pac-10 results?

I'm not quibbling with the talent of Pac-10 teams. In fact, and I'll take grief for this, I actually like Pac-10 fans the most in college football, behind only the SEC. Partly that's because the West Coast is my second favorite region, so I like being out there, but it's also because the games are entertaining, the fans are pretty fun, have the second-best senses of humor in football, and there are plenty of lovely women around

Yet, does any conference in America have more shocking results? Particularly in light of the scores of the shocking games?

I'm not astounded that Stanford beat Oregon. Coming off a bye week with a good coach and a home game, the ingredients for an upset were all there, but still, Stanford hangs 51 on Oregon?

Stanford had only scored 40 once this season, against San Jose State back in September. Meanwhile, Oregon has only given up 58 points total in their last five games.

So what happens when the two teams meet? Stanford scores 51 en route to the upset.

Of course it does. That's Pac-10 football.

Again, the upset doesn't surprise me, but in most conferences in America the upset score would have been something like 20-17.

In the Pac-10, all bets are off.

2. NBC's coverage of Notre Dame football is atrocious.

My favorite part of Saturday's loss to Navy -- and there were several parts -- was when NBC labeled Jimmy Clausen "the toughest player in America."

Really? You don't think that might be a slight exaggeration? Perhaps connected to NBC's television contract with Notre Dame? Bigger question, can a quarterback ever be the toughest player on a team? I don't think so.

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But every time I watch an NBC broadcast of Notre Dame football, I'm reminded why Tom Hammond and Pat Haden are the worst announcing team in college football. It's not just the Notre Dame homerism, they're genuinely awful at explaining the game, discussing strategy, all of it. At some point, I should just do an article chronicling their ineptitude.

Anyway, I've never heard a team praised so much while only putting up seven points against a service academy. Listening to the Notre Dame-Navy game was like attending a kindergarten graduation ceremony with the woman whose son got held back for a year. And she's heaping praise on her son for the accomplishment: "I can't believe my baby did it!"

Really? Did you think he was going to be in kindergarten for the rest of his life? At some point they have to promote you. (Aside: Is kindergarten not one of the trickiest words to spell? Doesn't it seem like the first three letters should be K-I-D? I misspell this word every time I type it. I'm always ticked that I have to look it up, and then I always think, why am I using the word kindergarten again? Kind of like when I didn't write the word misspell for three years because I was terrified of the irony of misspelling the word misspell).

As for Charlie Weis, I think his era was summed up by this stat, white fullback Vince Murray carried the ball 14 times for 158 yards against his team. That's an average of over 11 yards a carry.

Think about that.

A fullback, who started the year in a battle for the second string spot at a position whose primary job is to bang into things. Who, in two previous seasons had only seen action against titans Duke and Ball State. Whose online biography has no stats but lauds him for playing with "great toughness."

He rushed for 158 yards.

All the talent that Weis has brought to Notre Dame and they can't stop Navy's white fullback, who by the way played a hell of a game, on the dive play? Putting those stats into context, that average per carry was almost twice what the next worst team has allowed him -- Rice gave up 6.5 yards a carry.

If I was a student at Notre Dame, I might make my own anti-Weis shirt. "Notre Dame: White Fullbacks Own Us."

3. Officiating errors when made via replay review are unforgivable.

I've already volunteered myself for the position of instant replay reviewer. I think I'm every bit as qualified as the people the SEC employs now. But what I really want to happen, is someone to pay the price when they blow a call on instant replay review. Because that, my friends, is inexcusable.

The Patrick Peterson interception happened really fast in the LSU-Alabama game. The fact that two officials who were standing in the position to make the call both blew it is, while sad, somewhat excusable. That's why we have video replay, right? But when a guy sitting in a booth in front of the television blows the call too, there's no point to having replay at all.

Zero.

So here's a suggestion: If a blown call happens in a game and instant replay review doesn't change it, then the booth official is suspended for life and has to spend an entire afternoon in the stocks on the campus where he made the error.

I want to be the lawyer who drafts this contract.

4. Speaking of unforgivable, how about CBS trotting out the film of all eight of Jarrett Lee's interceptions returned for touchdowns?

Why is that unforgivable?

Because Lee wasn't even the starting quarterback. That means CBS had that clip on file just in case Jordan Jefferson, LSU's starter, was injured.

Think about that for a minute.

They'd already decided to throw Jarrett Lee under the bus on the off chance that he played against Alabama.

Having said that, how unbelievable is it that Lee had eight interceptions returned for touchdowns. Especially when you look at his picks all together. It's not like he's throwing passes that get tipped away at the line of scrimmage and returned for touchdowns. All of his passes are traveling down the field. And almost all of them are 40 or more yard returns.

It really is one of the most amazing statistical abnormalities out there.

Now, does that mean that Jarrett Lee should be subjected to this every time he plays a game?

I don't think so.

Even more importantly, should LSU fans be subjected to this?

Definitely not.

5. Someone explain to me how LSU was penalized 5.5 yards for running into the kicker in the fourth quarter.

Dan Wetzel at Yahoo Sports tweeted it in real time, and now here's the actual evidence.

After the error on spotting, Alabama then converted this fourth-down play. Which was, you guessed it, shortly followed by the interception that wasn't. Then Bama kicked a field goal to go up nine points.

I'd include this photo when Les Miles inevitably tees off on the officials.

Personally, I'm hoping Miles brings in an overhead projector and puts this picture on the screen behind him. I would pay a thousand dollars of the fine myself to see Miles do this. Especially if he pulled out an old school marker and noted the ball placement.

Seriously though, isn't it incomprehensible that this could happen?

6. Jonathan Crompton is Lazarus.

Since I called for his benching, Jonathan Crompton has turned into Jesus Montana. This is why Memphis should contact me about their new opening at head coach, I know football. (If you need further evidence of this fact, I am dominating my family's former French exchange student in our weekly picks challenge in the mailbag.)

Saturday, Crompton passed for 331 yards with five touchdowns through the air and one on the ground. That's all in less than 33 minutes of football -- Kiffin pulled him after the first drive of the second half. Crompton would have gone for over 500 yards and eight or nine touchdowns if he'd played the whole game.

And while he threw the ball with precision, the most impressive part of Saturday, I thought, was Crompton's quarterback sneak for a touchdown at the end of the first half. With a running clock and one timeout left, Crompton came to the line, faked like he was going to spike the football, and then got under center and dove into the end zone for the score.

It was an incredibly smart play.

Why?

If he'd actually grounded the ball, there would have only been around six seconds left in the half. It would be second and goal and UT would have one timeout left. Time for one definite play, maybe two if you were very lucky with the clock. Instead Crompton took his shot at getting into the end zone with a running clock. If he's stopped, no big deal, call the timeout and you still get another play where run or pass is the option. The point is, the quarterback sneak there doesn't take much longer than spiking the football and it gives you a chance to score.

It was a really, really smart play.

Crompton now has 21 touchdown passes against 10 interceptions, and in the past five games he's got 14 touchdowns and only two picks. Time for a bold pronouncement that can never be justified, proven or disproven: If Crompton was coming back next season the Vols would win the SEC East.

7. What are the rules for wearing a coaches' polo if you aren't actually in the town where the game is played?

I'll tell you: You can't go coaches' polo unless you're at the game.

Period.

For the unaware, the coaches' polo has taken the SEC fashion world by storm. You know the shirts the coaches wear on the sideline? That's the coaches' polo, these things are insanely popular down South. I've never seen that many other fans wear them out, but in the SEC they're gold bullion. Basically, if you're over 35 and graduated from college, the coaches polo is your fashion security blanket, the male equivalent of women's heels at an SEC game. You can't go wrong with the CP.

Except when you can.

You look like an idiot when you wear your coach's polo out to the bar and you didn't actually go to the game. The CP is strictly gameday wear in the town of the game. Otherwise, keep them in the closet.



8. Why is no one taking shots at Cincinnati for giving up 45 points to UConn?

I'll tell you, because for much of the media, Cincinnati is like a hot chick on a beach in Venezuela, you know she exists but she's so remote you don't pay any attention to her actual physical characteristics. A large part of me is convinced that the only Bearcat game anyone has actually seen was the game against South Florida.

For instance, I couldn't watch the Cincinnati game in Nashville.

Why?

Because we got the Nebraska-Oklahoma game on regional coverage. That's despite being about 280 miles from Cincinnati. I have no idea who made this programming decision, and I'm not even sure what the rationale could possibly be. I guarantee you that more people in my city were interested in watching Cincinnati. It's a closer school, that game has more relevance for SEC fans, and ... yep, we got Oklahoma-Nebraska.

Which means we missed 711 yards of offense from Cincinnati and a 555-yard offensive performance from Zach Collaros, the Bearcats former backup quarterback.

Want another wacky stat? Prior to giving up 45 to the Huskies the most points the Bearcats had allowed all season was 20 to Fresno State.

But, you guessed it, no one really paid attention.

9. Michigan lost at home to Purdue 38-36.

My wife's family was in this weekend so we watched this game on the Big Ten Network. How disappointing is this loss if you're Michigan? The worst part is that the nation isn't even paying attention to you anymore because you've become an afterthought. At least when Notre Dame lost to Navy, a much better team than Purdue, people reacted.

Michigan losing to Purdue?

No one even reacts anymore.

George Bernard Shaw once said that the worst sin towards a fellow man is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them. Presumably he had just flipped through a Michigan football game for a Home Shopping Network special at the time.

That's how far off the radar Michigan has fallen.

In his second season at Ohio State, Jim Tressel won a national championship. In his second season at Michigan, Rich Rodriguez is not going to a bowl game. Again.

My wife, a Michigan alum, came downstairs after getting our son down for his nap, looked at the television, saw the Boilermakers celebrating, and said, "Purdue! We're still Michigan."

Isn't it time for all Michigan fans to have this collective reaction and kick Rich Rod to the curb? I understand that installing the spread offense takes time, but what about the defense? You've given up 30 to every Big Ten team except Michigan State, a game you lost anyway.

Nothing is working. And Rich Rod ain't the right fit.

10. Tampa groom makes it rain at his own wedding and causes a 40-person brawl.

Pacman JonesHis 74-year-old grandmother gets beaten down in the process.

What city?

Tampa, of course.

I think I speak for everyone when I say that this wedding is destined for great things.

Pacman Jones, at least, was touched by the gesture.

11. The SEC needs a Mark Cuban type to tee off on officiating until something changes.

That person needs to be independent from the league office yet have a stake in the outcome. And he needs to be willing to keep writing checks when he's fined by the league. Remember how everyone called Cuban a whiner and then he was ultimately vindicated in many of his criticisms about the officiating? Someone else is going to be right in the long run if they hold the SEC's feet to the fire on this thing.

I'm not sure who that person is since athletic directors and coaches are beholden to the commissioner and there are no owners in the SEC, but someone has to make an issue of this.

It's to the point where, before he opened his mouth and gave the result on the interception review, I actually thought, "They're not going to change the call."

In other words, I think I'm a pretty reasonable fan and the errors are mounting to such a degree that they're interfering with my enjoyment of the on-field product.

That has to change.

Now.

Starting 11: Counting to Five in Alabama originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:30:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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]]>Clay TravisTue, 10 Nov 2009 10:30:00 EST Dear Mr. Slive: I Should Be a Replay Refhttp://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/07/dear-mike-slive-i-should-be-a-replay-ref/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/07/dear-mike-slive-i-should-be-a-replay-ref/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/07/dear-mike-slive-i-should-be-a-replay-ref/#commentsFiled under: , ,



Dear Commissioner Mike Slive,

I know this has been a rough month for you. What with everyone suggesting that the SEC officials want to see Florida and Alabama in the SEC championship game no matter what the actual game results might be. Furthermore, I know that generally speaking the SEC's issue has been with judgment calls, celebration penalties on A.J. Green, personal fouls on some Arkansas defensive players -- it's okay, no one knows anyone's name that plays for Arkansas other than Ryan Mallet, it will be our secret -- missed calls in favor of Florida against Mississippi State, allowing Terrence Cody, the largest man on earth who still resembles a girl, to play without his helmet on. But this latest move, ignoring a clear interception by LSU's Patrick Peterson, has me steaming mad. What's the point of instant replay if you're going to use it and still get the play wrong?

That's why I'm making you an offer, I will work as instant replay reviewer for any televised SEC game.

For free.

Do you understand what a deal you're getting here, Commissioner Slive? I will work for the SEC for absolutely free. And I won't miss any calls.

Zero.

You know why? Two reasons, first, I don't care who wins the games (I'll gallantly recuse myself from University of Tennessee games) and, second, because I can watch television replays and tell whether or not people intercept passes. For instance, unlike your replay officials, I watched today's Alabama-LSU game. And when Patrick Peterson intercepted Greg McElroy with just under 6 minutes to play in the game, I said, "Wow, that's a hell of an interception."

You know how I knew?

Because like the rest of America, I saw Peterson catch the football and get not one, but two feet in bounds. That's one more foot in bounds than you actually need, Mr. Slive. Yet, somehow the man you pay to sit in a booth and watch the replay didn't see this. He must have been blind ... or drunk. Perhaps he was both, so drunk he'd become blind. That's okay, I've been to Galette's before in Tuscaloosa and gotten that drunk. Although, to be fair, that's always been after a game.

(Right, a FanHouse artist's concept of how SEC replays are currently performed.)

And here's my promise to you Commissioner Slive, I won't even drink during the games when I'm working as your replay official. I'll be stone cold sober. I won't even pause the television and look closely at the cheerleaders on the sideline. Do you know how hard it is not to do that?

And I won't pause my DVR and spend ten minutes thinking about how awesome it was the CBS camera caught a 'Bama fan with four fingers doing the fourth quarter sign as they went to commercial break.

Nope, I'm completely committed to the game.

I won't even spend any time thinking about the press conference I would stage if I were Les Miles. I'd load stacks of hundred dollar bills until I had 300 stacks, or $30,000 in all, into a black garbage bag and carry it into my press conference. Then, before I even said anything, I'd turn up the garbage bag and dump all the cash out onto the table in front of the reporters.

I'd let it all spill around on the ground and then I'd walk to the microphone and say this:

"Mike Slive can come pick up this money when he gets a chance. Because that official who blew that call in the replay booth doesn't deserve to ever work another game. We're not talking about a blown judgment call, or a decision made in the heat of the game when everyone is moving a million miles an hour. We're talking about a fat man sitting in front of a television and making a dispassionate decision based on what he sees.

"And he blew it.

"Big time.

"I'd sooner have Clay Travis making the decisions from his house in Nashville."

Amen, Les.

And, just think Mike, you'll get me for free.

How much worse can I really be?

By the way, just between us, could you please explain to me why the guy who does instant replay review actually needs to be in the stadium? Shouldn't he be in a special replay truck with 48 television screens? Or in a NASA-like center somewhere in a bunker beneath the ground in an undisclosed location? With a bank of television screens so large in front of him that the astronauts would be jealous?

Otherwise, doesn't it defeat the purpose? I mean, just to have one dorky guy sitting in a booth squinting at one television? Can't you do more with the multi-billion dollar contract? Shouldn't America demand that you do more?

Anyway, that may be too many questions. And I didn't write this letter to make your life more difficult Commissioner Slive. You and I, we should be buddies. We're both lawyers. I tan better than you do. (Seriously, do you ever go outside?) But other than that we're like two peas in a pod, you and me, Mike.

Except, you know, for the rooting for Alabama and Florida to be in the championship game part.

But I've gotten off topic. Instead of continuing about how much alike we are -- you like William Faulkner, Chik-fil-A sandwiches, the Robotech cartoon, and thongs on shapely rears too, don't you, Mike -- why don't you allow me to list my assets?
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Yep, consider this my resume for SEC replay official status:

1. I have a color television.

And it's bought and paid for.

100 percent mine.

Judging by your guy at Bama's decision today, he doesn't have a color television. Otherwise he would have seen the clean distinction between a foot coming down in the green grass and a foot coming down in the white out-of-bounds area.

2. I have an HD television.

Again, if your guy had HD he would have seen the dirt popping up from not one, but two different feet in bounds.

3. I have the Internets in my house.

Of course, the Internets are brought to me by Comcast so at any moment they might stop working. Even still, I could theoretically watch the game online as well.

Why does that matter?

I could get to within a millimeter of the screen and zoom it up to perfect definition. That way I could confirm what I saw with my bare eyes: LSU intercepted that pass.

4. I've never taken money or bet on a game I was calling.

Did that one hit too close to the striped vest?

Good.

5. I have a law degree from Vanderbilt and am licensed to practice law in the Southland.

This means I'm an SEC grad whose judgment an impartial governing body has vouched for. Can you say the same about your officials?

Didn't think so.

It's a no brainer, Mike. Just shoot me an email and I'll be ready to go by next week.

Because as my five assets listed above illustrate, I'm much more qualified than most of the people working in the replay booth.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Sincerely,

Clay Travis

Clay Travis is the author of three books. His latest, "On Rocky Top: A Front Row Seat to The End of an Era" chronicles the 2008 Tennessee football season and is on sale now.

Dear Mr. Slive: I Should Be a Replay Ref originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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]]>Clay TravisSat, 07 Nov 2009 22:00:00 EST Urban Meyer Fined $30,000 for Criticizing SEC Officiatinghttp://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/06/urban-meyer-fined-30-000-for-criticizing-sec-officiating/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/06/urban-meyer-fined-30-000-for-criticizing-sec-officiating/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/06/urban-meyer-fined-30-000-for-criticizing-sec-officiating/#commentsFiled under: ,

Urban MeyerOn Friday, SEC Commissioner Mike Slive fined Urban Meyer $30,000 for criticizing the officials in the wake of the Georgia-Florida game. When questioned by the media about a non-call on a late hit against Tim Tebow, Meyer responded, "That should have been a penalty, in my opinion. Obviously, it should have been. You've got to protect quarterbacks. That's the whole purpose. It's right in front of the referee."

In announcing the penalty, Commissioner Slive stated as follows: "Coach Meyer has violated the Southeastern Conference code of ethics. SEC bylaw 10.5.4 clearly states that the coaches, players and support personnel shall refrain from public criticism of officials. The league's athletics directors and presidents and chancellors have made it clear that negative public comments on officiating are not acceptable."

Urban Meyer issued his own response: "As I stated last week, I have great respect for Commissioner Mike Slive and the Southeastern Conference and I respect this decision. There was no intent to criticize an official after being asked about a situation that occurred last Saturday and I apologize for my remarks."

Meyer's fine will be used to fund SEC postgraduate scholarships.

The fine comes in the wake of a recent change to SEC bylaws that ended all reprimand letters--Arkansas's Bobby Petrino, Tennessee's Lane Kiffin, and Mississippi State's Dan Mullen all received them for criticizing officials in the past few weeks -- and instituted a new policy of fines and suspensions.

While the fines are designed to represent a new, more stringent policy when it comes to commenting on officiating, they also raise their own questions. First among them, are fines, a penalty used by the NFL for decades, likely to curb coaching criticism of officiating? Particularly when SEC coaches make so much money as it is?

While $30,000 is a substantial sum to your average American, does it really put a dint in Meyer's wallet? Particularly when the donation is also tax deductible? In fact, this fine, even without the tax deduction, represents less than 1 percent of Meyer's overall salary this season. For an average American making, say $40,000, a year, that would be a hit of $300.

Isn't that a small price to pay for a coach being able to speak his mind?

Regardless, Slive had to act in the wake of announcing the new penalties. Slive's fine represents a new front in the SEC's attempt to reign in coaching commentary in the wake of several highly publicized officiating scandals. Whether it will be any more effective than the previous policy remains to be seen.

So long as the SEC office continues to suspend and berate officials while limiting the coaches' ability to do the same, consider this one vote for -- not likely.

Urban Meyer Fined $30,000 for Criticizing SEC Officiating originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:24:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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]]>urban meyerUrbanMeyerClay TravisFri, 06 Nov 2009 13:24:00 EST Slive & Gold: The Root of SEC's Troubleshttp://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/05/slive-and-gold-the-root-of-secs-troubles/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/05/slive-and-gold-the-root-of-secs-troubles/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/05/slive-and-gold-the-root-of-secs-troubles/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Mike SliveLast week Mike Slive, the Montgomery Burns of the SEC, threatened Lane Kiffin with a suspension and rewrote the SEC policy when it comes to commenting on officiating. All season, Slive has been besieged by officiating errors, coaches sniping at one another, and the continuing onslaught of media coverage having a brand new television contract and two top-ranked teams has brought.

Now, Slive (pictured right) is backed into a corner. Just a few days after Slive announced his new policy on officiating, Urban Meyer teed off on officiating once more, taking a shot at the non-call on a late hit that Georgia delivered to Florida quarterback Tim Tebow.

"That should have been a penalty, in my opinion," Meyer said, "Obviously, it should have been. You've got to protect quarterbacks. That's the whole purpose. It's right in front of the referee."

And then, not to be outdone, Lane Kiffin took a swipe at Meyer's comments on officiating. "Urban Meyer? Criticized the officials, wow, that will be interesting," Kiffin said, "We'll see." Not content with a sarcastic aside, Kiffin also commented on the Brandon Spikes situation: "Yeah, I saw it on replay, it was pretty bad ... Obviously he'll discipline his team. Or not."

In 2009, the SEC has been the new king of controversy and virtually every action Commissioner Slive has undertaken has, instead of quelling the uproar, actually increased the feeding frenzy. Of course the ultimate irony of all of the attention being focused on the SEC is this, much of it is self-inflicted, brought on by the increased prominence of SEC football on both ESPN and CBS.

Once those companies ponied up billions to televise the athletic events, minor conflicts suddenly turned into nuclear war, the Bay of Pigs meets SEC football.

The SEC is behind the curve on responding to and preventing stories from spinning out of their control. Why? Because they've got a product with national appeal that is still run like a mom-and-pop store.
 Don't believe me? I've been writing for over a year about how the increase in television fees was going to lead to stories that would have otherwise been regional in nature, becoming national. And we've already seen that happen this year, it's the primary reason Kiffin became such a lightning rod, because ESPN needed him to sell their product. And it's worked, SEC football ratings are up across the board, highlighted by a 60 percent spike in UT-Florida ratings after the Kiffin-Meyer tiff.

Controversy increases interest. Conflict, even manufactured conflict, sells. In fact, I'd even argue that controversies over bad officiating probably, paradoxically, lead to more viewers for games. Why? People want to see for themselves just how bad the officiating really is. And once the impression that the officiating is bad exists, it becomes the default assumption the next time a questionable judgment is made.

But this increased media attention has also caught the league and Slive flatfooted. I think the SEC, where regional writers still spend the majority of the time covering individual teams, has been surprised by how quickly statements by coaches have become national news. Same with the officiating controversies. In fact, anyone who has been a fan of SEC football for a decade or more, knows that this season's comments and controversies are no more extraordinary than any in the past 20 or 30 years.

Maybe even less so.

There have always been bad calls that have cost teams games, there have always been coaches looking to gig opponents -- it's what made Steve Spurrier a media darling -- and there have always have been extremely competitive games that magnify the importance of officiating calls. What there hasn't been is a national onslaught of attention surrounding these controversies. It used to be that if Spurrier said something bad about Tennessee or Georgia, it led the local paper, maybe the local news, in the offended jurisdiction and after a day it blew over.

News could only trickle down from the top back then, and if it did trickle down it came to an end quickly on a regional basis. Now? Now, news comes from both directions. It can boil up via fan outrage on blogs, message boards and YouTube, where eventually the national media pick up on the controversies and turn them into stories. Meanwhile, the national media can now take a single sentence and turn it into a blizzard of publicity. Those words have always been there, but in the past the money didn't justify the attention.

In the latter days of the 19th century, the term yellow journalism took flight. Ultimately, it led to William Randolph Hearst helping to start the Spanish-American War, "You furnish the pictures, and I'll furnish the war," he's supposed to have remarked.

Urban Meyer

Now SportsCenter furnishes the sports war.

That's a seismic change in the attention being paid to the league. And one the SEC still hasn't caught up to.

I knew we'd reached the tipping point in breathless SEC coverage when ESPN led a telecast with a story about Kiffin firing the strength coach at Tennessee. Really, the strength coach? A man many hardcore Vol fans couldn't even name is being covered by national news?

And the SEC hasn't helped themselves in surfing the onslaught; Slive's every move has added fuel to the fire rather than quelling the blaze.

Don't believe me, let's take a look at some of the hamhanded decisions made by the league just this year.

First, Slive made a big show of reading coaches the riot act after offseason controversies. The idea was that this public haranguing would kill all negative commentary. You can all see how well that worked. Instead of actually changing anything, the story of the fiery talk led newscasts and reinforced the previous statements made by coaches.

Next, the league attempted to restrict media coverage of athletic events with a new media policy that provoked outrage. The idea behind controlling rights was financial, seizing control of video, images, and content would, the league reasoned, make those products more valuable while also allowing them to control more of the stories that ensued. That's why the league also sought to restrict blogger access, as if any of the bloggers driving news coverage actually needed to be present at events to influence public perception. Nevertheless, the league buckled and rescinded many of the restrictions after complaints from long-time media partners.

Finally, once the season commenced, Slive and crew overreacted to bad officiating on judgment calls by throwing part-time officiating crews under the bus and suspending them. This decision opened the floodgates for coaches to comment on officiating mistakes, something that had previously been swept under the league rug. In rapid succession, Bobby Petrino, Lane Kiffin, and Dan Mullen were reprimanded by letter for publicly ripping officiating. Then, not to be outdone, Slive revised the existing rules for coaches to comment on officiating mid-season and threatened coaches with suspensions or, be still my trembling heart, fines should they fail to follow the newly prescribed rules.

What do all of these issues show? The SEC is behind the curve on responding to and preventing stories from spinning out of their control. Why? Because they've got a product with national appeal that is still run like a mom-and-pop store. After all the time they spent courting television partners, they failed to realize how those partners would cover the product they paid so dearly for. A league where everyone loves one another isn't great television. A league where everyone hates one another?

That's compelling television.

Slive, to his credit, is smart, and has done a great deal to clean up the league's image, but what he hasn't done is anticipate new and old media's ability to create national stories out of sentences that would have been, at best, regional dust-ups just 10 years ago. Partly, that's the result of the explosion of the Internet as a news cycle driver, but, mostly, it's a reflection of a hard and fast rule in today's media: if you pay a lot of money to cover a product, all of a sudden that product becomes more newsworthy than it ever has before.

Enter ESPN.

Enter the controversies.

Enter the belated responses.

And now, after a season of futile and belated responses, Slive doesn't have any options left. Will he become the first commissioner in league history to suspend a coach for commenting on, wait for the outrage, a football game? Can he? Does he have the political power to make that move and be backed by everyone? Especially if the coaches are making comments that most SEC fans agree with?

I don't know.

What I do know is that such a move would be unprecedented and draw more negative attention than anything that it helped to solve. But if Slive doesn't act, hasn't he rendered himself impotent, turned himself into the teacher who threatens real punishment but can never deliver that punishment? The SEC Commissioner with no clothes? Paging Montgomery Burns.

Sooner or later making false threats leads to less power than making no threats at all. But, Slive probably knows that. The question is, do the coaches?

And the bigger and more ominous question for Slive and the league he leads is this: in signing that multi-billion dollar television contract did the SEC ultimately bequeath the power of their product to corporations that have different interests than the league? If they did, and I think that's entirely likely, ultimately no matter what Slive does to penalize coaches, he's never going to regain control of the league narrative again.

That's already been sold.
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Slive & Gold: The Root of SEC's Troubles originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:10:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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]]>mike sliveClay TravisThu, 05 Nov 2009 15:10:00 EST LSU's Marucci Has Eye on Tigers, Serieshttp://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/04/lsus-marucci-has-eye-on-tigers-series/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/04/lsus-marucci-has-eye-on-tigers-series/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/04/lsus-marucci-has-eye-on-tigers-series/#commentsFiled under: ,

Chase Utley with Marucci BatJack Marucci's focus this week has been the health of his LSU Tigers as they prepare for Saturday's SEC showdown at third-ranked Alabama. But Marucci can't help but sneak a peek at the World Series between the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies.

Especially after Marucci prior to the start of the Series received a message from Philadelphia's Chase Utley that indicated he wanted a special bat to swing against New York reliever Mariano Rivera.

"It's the same wood but a different style, a little thicker and shorter," Marucci told FanHouse Wednesday.

In his 14th year as director of athletic training at LSU, Marucci also makes wooden bats that some of the best players in professional baseball are primarily swinging, including Utley.

In fact, 17 players from the Yankees and Phillies are customers of the Marucci Bat Company in Baton Rouge, La. That list includes Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard and Pedro Feliz of the Phillies and Johnny Damon, Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano of the Yankees.

The group ordered 82 Marucci bats for the Series.

Utley, of course, has smacked five home runs in the Series to tie Reggie Jackson's record set in 1977 with the Yankees.

And Damon is 8-for-21 for a .381 average. New York leads the best-of-seven series 3-2 and looks to win its 27th championship Wednesday night at home.

Marucci plans to watch the game after he finishes in LSU's training room.

The Tigers have devoted plenty of their attention this week to the Crimson Tide's No. 2 rushing defense and No. 4 total defense in the country. Alabama can win the SEC West and earn a berth into the SEC Championship against top-ranked Florida with a victory.

"You can see the passion in the kids' eyes and you really feel they are prepared," Marucci said. "It's exciting to see everything coming together."

Marucci feels the same excitement when watching the Series.

Mark Teixeira with Marucci batWhat began as a labor of love seven years ago in his backyard shed, six feet by nine feet, has turned into a fledgling business headquartered in a warehouse district in Baton Rouge.

Nearly 30 companies are licensed by MLB to sell bats.

Hillerich & Bradsby, which makes the Louisville Slugger brand, has put bats in the hands of players since 1884, leads the hit parade with more than 60-percent of the market. Marucci has sold 8,000 bats to professional baseball players (minor league and big league) this year and 20,000 overall, one-third more than in 2008.

A Marucci bat, from start to finish, can take up to 24 hours to make.

Marucci has avoided selling his wooden bats through large, chain retailers, instead relying on recommendations from players.

Also, the Marucci Bat company will soon launch a brand of aluminum bats under their label, featuring the Albin anti-vibration device. It will be the only bat of its kind on the market, according to Marucci.

That label means Marucci is committed to his craft.

It's no different each day when he puts on his LSU shirt.

"You feel like you are watching your own kids and you want them all to do well," Marucci said.

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LSU's Marucci Has Eye on Tigers, Series originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:48:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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]]>chase utleyjack maruccijohnny damonmark teixeirapedro felizrobinson canoryan howardJim HenryWed, 04 Nov 2009 13:48:00 EST Tide Still Searching For Big Playshttp://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/04/tide-still-searching-for-big-plays/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/04/tide-still-searching-for-big-plays/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/04/tide-still-searching-for-big-plays/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Alabama's offense has mellowed over the past three games.

The Crimson Tide has registered only a pair of rushing touchdowns in victories over Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee. Ten trips into the red zone have resulted in eight field goals. The passing game hasn't featured many deep throws, and Alabama's Wildcat offense, which started as a gimmick, has become more relevant.

Third-ranked Alabama realizes it will need a better all-around effort on Saturday to beat No. 9 LSU, the only remaining ranked team on the Crimson Tide's schedule. The Crimson Tide can clinch the SEC West title with a win and would then meet No. 1 Florida on Dec. 5 in the SEC title game.

"We haven't scored points at the same sort of rate that we did earlier in the season," Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said.

"We've been focusing on improving and making more explosive plays in the passing game as well as executing a little better and getting a little better consistency in performance all the way around. I think sometimes in the red zone we haven't finished drives like we need to."

Alabama will certainly need to finish drives if it wants to earn its first home win over LSU since 1999.

One key to that success will be sophomore running back Mark Ingram, who ranks first in the SEC and fifth nationally with 125.5 rushing yards a game.

Ingram leads the Crimson Tide with 11 touchdowns (eight rushing, three receiving). The bruising Ingram, a 5-foot-10, 215-pound sophomore, also has been one tough hombre in traffic. Of his 1,190 yards this season (1,004 rushing, 186 receiving), Ingram has gained 645 yards after contact (54 percent of his total yards).

Ingram believes it's those nitty-gritty yards that will make the difference against the Tigers.

Since giving up 23 points and 478 total yards against Washington in the season-opener, LSU held its last seven opponents to an average of 266.6 yards and 10.6 points.

"In a game like this, you go out on the field and whoever plays the hardest and whoever does the little things right the most consistently throughout the game, that's who will win the game," Ingram said.

"You can't really focus on 'We've got to make this big play' or 'We've got to do this or got to do that.' We have to focus on the game plan, perfect it and execute it. Whoever does the little things right the most consistently wins the game."

Ingram, of course, started to merit legitimate Heisman Trophy consideration for his career-best game in Alabama's victory over South Carolina on Oct. 17. With the Gamecocks slowing the Tide's passing game and rattling quarterback Greg McElroy, Ingram lined up in the Wildcat and put the game away.

Ingram carried the ball on all six plays of a 68-yard drive. The first five plays were in the Wildcat when Ingram received the direct snap from center. On the final play, Ingram took a handoff from McElroy and scored on a 4-yard run that gave Alabama a 20-6 victory.

Ingram finished with 246 yards on 24 carries.

Ingram is especially determined not to repeat last year's midseason dip when he had one rushing yard against Tennessee and six rushing yards on five carries at LSU.

"I think I hit the wall halfway through the season at this point (a year ago)," said Ingram, who rushed for 728 yards on 143 carries with a team-best 12 touchdowns last season. "I had a few injuries and I was a little frustrated with how I was performing. I hit the wall and I can't let that happen again."

Ingram and teammates also believe a Crimson Tide offense that has sputtered recently feels in sync and will be ready for LSU. Senior offensive lineman Mike Johnson credits opposing defenses or causing some of Alabama's frustration over its lack of explosiveness.

Receiver Julio Jones, for example, has just one touchdown and is averaging 32.7 receiving yards per game, well below his career average of 54.9.

Alabama is coming off a bye week, but barely escaped against Tennessee, blocking two field goal attempts to preserve a 12-10 victory.

"One of the goals we had coming into the year was to have more explosive plays, especially in the passing game," Johnson said.

"That really wasn't one of our strengths last year. I think we did a good job of starting off on that note and we've kind of got to get back to that. We had a lot of explosive plays and play-action down the field early in the year, and we've got to get back to that.

"On the same note, guys have done a good job. We've faced better defenses. There is a lot to be said about SEC defenses that can come in and stop the pass and we've played some good safeties and good defenses the past two weeks and they did a good job of kind of throwing some things at us."

Look for LSU's defense to be just as prepared. In its last three SEC games, LSU combined to limit Georgia, Florida and Auburn to a total of 36 points

"They are big and fast, strong and physical," Ingram said.

"The scheme they play, they do it really well. They are coached up really well. They all do their assignments. They all get to the ball and they make it really hard for offenses to have success."

Tide Still Searching For Big Plays originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:21:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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]]>Mark IngramMarkIngramNick SabanNickSabanJim HenryWed, 04 Nov 2009 10:21:00 EST Outside, the Life of the 'Cocktail Party'http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/02/outside-the-life-of-the-cocktail-party/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/02/outside-the-life-of-the-cocktail-party/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/02/outside-the-life-of-the-cocktail-party/#commentsFiled under: , ,

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- By the end of the first quarter Saturday, outside the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party in Jacksonville, a drunken mass of humanity sprawls in baking parking lots and beneath cool shade trees, the largest collection of people in America who cannot walk in straight lines. By now, the ratio of men to women has shifted, perhaps for the only time all day, to something approaching equal numbers. Women wearing bikini tops and tight dresses warble on flip flops or bare feet, men, Florida fans mostly, have discarded their shirts and stand bare-chested in the bright sunshine propositioning women as they pass.

"We still got beer left," a group of shirtless Florida fans, Cocktail party Romeos, call to a group of bedraggled Georgia girls, Capulets in red heels.

"We're looking for liquor," says one of the girls, moving past.

A scalper stands off to the right of the passing couples, four tickets held tightly in his right hand, jaw clenched.

"Game's going to be close boys, don't you want to go inside?" he asks, squinting his dark brown eyes to avoid the sun's rays. It's Halloween in Jacksonville, and all the world outside the Cocktail Party is a stage.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of football fans descend on Jacksonville for the Georgia-Florida football game. Some of them, a small minority, actually see a football game. The remainder, a teeming mass of humanity, remains outside the stadium and occasionally squints up at the looming structure as the crowd roars inside. Idly they may wonder whether Georgia or Florida has the better end of the game. Most likely, they don't react at all to what happens in the game.

Because they're too drunk.

This is their story.

















Getting There

Since 1915, Georgia and Florida have played a football game. For virtually every year since 1933, the teams have played this game at a neutral site, Jacksonville, Fla. This is the most popular social event in Jacksonville. There is no second most popular social event in Jacksonville.

The term World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party was coined in the 1950s after a sportswriter witnessed a fan offering a drink to a uniformed officer. In 2006, SEC Commissioner Mike Slive wrote a letter to CBS requesting that they no longer use the phrase World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.

"We would appreciate any initiatives you might take to avoid using the cocktail party reference. This is a great college football game, which highlights a traditional rivalry full of the passion of football in the Southeast. Our hope is to keep the focus on the game."

In so hoping, Slive has failed.

For 16 of the past 19 seasons, Florida has emerged victorious. Prior to this, Georgia won. At least according to the record books. No one really knows because those victories seem so far in the past now, grainy, archival footage of Bulldog greats dominating games that Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy checked the score of. Now, well, Florida wins.

That doesn't mean Georgia fans fail to travel to the game. They still come, tens of thousands of them, wearing their bright red and black Georgia polos and barking haphazardly into their fraternity brothers as they wait to board flights. Like the one I'm on, leaving from Nashville en route to Jacksonville. My flight is equal parts Georgia and Florida fans, middle-aged white middle managers in their uniform of choice, coaches' polo, tightly tucked into jeans or khaki pants, BlackBerry carrying case buckled on the belt loop. Accompanied by well-coiffed middle-aged women with astoundingly pert breasts and hair that, also amazingly, has not faded one bit.

As soon as we board our Southwest flight -- my friend Tardio has accompanied me -- these men spring into action to aid an attractive damsel in distress. It seems a woman can't fit her bag into the overhead compartment. Fifteen men attempt to aid her. Including a male Southwest flight attendant.

It is clear to all that the bag does not fit into the compartment.

But no one is willing to acknowledge failure.

After a five-minute struggle, the flight attendant places his hand on the young woman's bare shoulder, "Don't worry, we'll find a place for your bag," he says.

"Just once, I want to know what it's like to be a hot chick," Tardio says.

My friend Tardio has come to chronicle the Cocktail Party with me. And by "chronicle the Cocktail Party," I mean, drink. But that's in the future. Currently, Tardio, a medical malpractice defense attorney in the city of Nashville, is convinced his carry-on bag contains the greatest Halloween costume on Earth.

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He has purchased a pair of blue doctor's scrubs. All his costume requires is a name-tag, which we will have to purchase in Jacksonville because the two of us arrived at the airport 38 minutes before our flight was scheduled to depart.

As we arrived at our gate 23 minutes prior to boarding, Tardio looked down at his phone. "We still had 10 minutes," he says.

He plans to write just one word on the name-tag that he will wear on right lapel of his scrubs: William.

On Thursday night, he conveyed his plan to me. "Get it?" he asked.

"No," I said.

"I'm Health Care Bill," he says.

Health Care Bill is currently reading the latest US Weekly magazine, purchased as we waited to board. "Sienna Miller is looking old," he says, scrutinizing her photo.

"No, she isn't," I say, "she's like 26."

"Really?" the man who will be Health Care Bill asks. "She looks older."

Welcome to Jacksonville

On Friday night, the cabs of Jacksonville descend on the city. And by city, I mean 400-mile radius of north Florida. Because, you see, no one is ever where they want to be in the city of Jacksonville. Also, it's nearly impossible, given that Jacksonville is the largest metropolitan city in America in terms of geographic size, to leave the city of Jacksonville no matter how far you drive. Or, for that matter, to actually leave Jacksonville's airport.

Jacksonville's airport, a monument to the color gray, eschews several archaic design traits such as functionality and economy of space. There are approximately 14 departing gates, all roughly a mile apart. Occasionally, as we make our way out of the facility, we see people, lost highwaymen en route to the holy city of Mecca perhaps, splayed out on the gray floors taking a nap or eating a meal. When you exit the airport you pass a row of offices. As if, in designing the airport, someone thought, you know what will make people love our city more? If they see the hard-working bureaucrats of the airport instead of reaching the baggage claim in less than four miles.

Moving on Up

Health Care Bill and I snag a cab. In Health Care Bill's bag he's actually carrying two pairs of scrubs, one blue and the other navy. That's because on Thursday night, he convinced me to participate in his costume plan.

"You can be Health Care Reform," he says, "but we'll make you a name-tag that says R.E. Form."

Our cab ride to the Courtyard by Marriott off Butler Boulevard in South Jacksonville costs $60. At this hotel, we are 5.8 miles from the stadium. Amazingly, Tardio and I stayed at the hotel next door to this one, the Red Roof Inn, for the 2007 Cocktail Party. The only thing I remember about that hotel is that they sold condoms from the vending machine.

Tardio surveys the half-acre of parking lot between the two motels. "You've really moved up in the world in the last two years," he says.

Checked into the the hotel, Tardio insists that we call a cab to take us to Walgreen's so he can buy some name tags and I can buy my costume necessities.

In lieu of Health Care Reform, I put out a suggestion for costumes in Friday's column. Immediately, I received an email from Blake P. who wrote, "Clay - you definitely can't go wrong with Alan (and baby Carlos) from The Hangover. Easy with some aviators, a cheap baby holder and baby doll from a dollar store with aviators. Plus, you didn't have to shave your beard, so you got that going for you."

In the 10 minutes before we left for the airport, I walked two blocks to the Family Dollar store in my neighborhood in north Nashville in search of said baby. I pushed open the dollar store door, covered in white metal bars, and scoured the dirty aisles, my foot occasionally pushing trash up under the product stands, for five minutes. There were many babies for sale, but given that I live in a majority black neighborhood, the baby dolls were all black.

Every single one.

I found myself faced with an unexpected ethical dilemma.

Could I really walk to the ladies, older black women, working the cash register and ask if they had any white babies in the back? Perhaps placed up on a shelf somewhere in storage? Maybe mis-delivered when the white baby dolls were destined for the suburbs?

Essentially, was it racist to ask for a white baby in a dollar store filled with black baby dolls?

Could I preface my request by remarking that I voted for Obama, liked Angelina Jolie? Anything?

The baby is white in the movie, that's what makes the name Carlos funny. What were the odds that elderly black women had seen and enjoyed The Hangover. Could I really capture the requisite level of verisimilitude with a black baby?

What's more, how does Family Dollar, a national chain, ensure that only babies of only one race are delivered to their inner city stores? Do they have a key-code for truck delivery that ensures only black baby dolls are delivered to my store? Am I, a white man, actually being discriminated against? Shouldn't the babies be diverse everywhere, a rainbow of smiling, plastic dolls?

I call an audible and flee, sans baby, without asking a question.

Decisions, Decisions

On our cab ride to Walgreen's we debate whether we should wear our costumes on Friday, tonight, or Saturday. It's a difficult decision because Saturday is Halloween, but we'll have to wear them to the game. "I'm sure that lots of people will be in costumes tonight," I say. "I don't think many people will dress up for the game."

Tardio has the opposite opinion, but if I argue my side long enough, I know that eventually he will agree.

Draft Tebow T-shirt
After procuring a white baby, a Draft Tebow shirt in Jacksonville Jaguars colors -- more on this later -- name-tags, a case of Coors Light, and aviator sunglasses for a baby doll, Tardio insists we go to the liquor store so he can buy a bottle of Maker's Mark for the game.

We return to the hotel, prepare our costumes, and walk to the only restaurant nearby, Applebee's. The Applebee's is selling jello shots on the patio, and inside the restaurant is packed with revelers rooting for Georgia or Florida.

"Let's sit at the bar?" Tardio asks.

"I'm not sitting at the Applebee's bar," I say. "And besides, it's packed."

It's true, there are no seats at the Applebee's bar.

It is 7:45 on Friday evening.

We drink beers out of yard glasses and eat spinach and artichoke dip.

"Can you imagine getting a DUI leaving Applebee's?" I ask.

"Can you imagine leaving Applebee's sober?" asks Tardio.

Beach-Bound

Back at the hotel, we get dressed. I've brought my family's brown Baby Bjorn under strict instructions from my wife not to lose it. I buckle the baby carrier, insert my white baby, affix the aviator glasses onto the baby, while Tardio dons his scrubs.

"Do you think I should write William on my nametag or Bill? asks Tardio.

"I don't think people are going to get either," I say.

Tardio scrunches his face. "F---," he says, "you've got me worried now. Is my costume going to bomb?"

"Yes," I say, "I think so."

"F--- me," says Tardio.

We compromise on "Bill." The quotation marks, we surmise, add the requisite symbolism necessary to make it apparent that Tardio's name is not actually Bill, rather, the name is a part of the costume.

Health Care Bill has no pockets in the scrubs so he has me carry his credit card, cash, two Titans vs. Jags tickets, and his license. Later, after I drop them on the floor, Tardio admits that he didn't mean to give me the tickets to carry as well.

Once more we hop into a cab, only this time it's actually a shuttle service driven by a man named Meza. This time we're destined for the Jacksonville beaches. After another $40 fare, we arrive at Brix, which is a bar made of bricks and pronounced like bricks except spelled with an X.

We stand outside, awkwardly peering into the bar.

"I knew it, no one is in a costume," says Health Care Bill.

Tardio is correct. We decide to go for a walk, fake white baby in sunglasses swaying in front of me, and find the bar with the people with costumes inside.

Thirty minutes later, having traversed the entirely of Jacksonville Beach, we have not seen a single costume.

"It's almost like," Tardio says, "the city forbids them."

The only costumes we see is for a group of happy costumed people who are climbing the stairs to what appears to be a loft party. We contemplate following them. Instead we get in line for Brix, I show Tardio's license for him, "Bill's not my real name," he says to no reaction from the bouncer, walk outside to the patio, and sit in the darkness.

We begin to drink.

Health Care Bill regularly surveys the crowd looking for someone, anyone in a costume. "I was worried about looking like unfun losers if we didn't have costumes," he says, "now we just look like losers."

We begin to argue over who has to go get the next beers from the bar, and reveal our costumes in the light of day.

I have to.

The bartender, a youngish woman with dark hair and mean expression stares at me. "I don't get it," she says.

"Did you see the movie Hangover?" I ask. "I'm....

"I get it," she says, unsmiling.

Someone dressed as David Robinson from Navy shows up. He fist pounds me, ignoring Health Care Bill in the process. Then other costumes, mercifully, begin to arrive.

We make our way inside. By midnight the costumed people are beginning to take over. We're moving into the mainstream. At least those of us who are in costumes.

Most people believe that Health Care Bill is, in fact, a doctor who has not had time to change after work. We test his costume on others, tell them it's three words long and that Bill is the last word.

No one guesses it.

What's more, "Doctor Blue Bill," is the best guess. Primarily because, "Doctor Bill," the primary guess, has only two words.

Three bars later and enough beers and shots to sink two less shameless men, we end up in the street looking for a cab. I call Meza, the man who drove us in his shuttle service earlier.

He's too busy to get us.

Mercifully, we find another cab. As we climb in, I call my wife, at two in the morning back home in Nashville, and leave a long message for her that consists of Health Care Bill jokes. She has no idea what is going on.

A few minutes into the cab ride, I begin to get text messages with things like this written, "Hey, good night, U are cute, lol."

It's from a Jacksonville area code. Health Care Bill swears he didn't give my number to anyone.

At 3 a.m., as the most recent text arrives, it suddenly hits me, our car service man, Meza, has me confused with someone else and is sending flirtatious e-mails to me on accident.

"I think it's on purpose," says Health Care Bill angrily ripping off his nametag.

"At least you didn't go with William," I say.

For a while I stand fiddling with the Baby Bjorn, attempting to undo it. But I can't seem to get the strap undone. So I climb into bed still wearing the baby carrying device. I take out Carlos, now absent sunglasses because they were stolen by a Florida sorority girl, and toss him across the room.

He bounces softly off the wall. Health Care Bill is already snoring.

It's gameday in Jacksonville.

The Hangover

At 11 in the morning, Spencer Hall, from the Web site EDSBS.com, calls. I tell him I"m still in bed wearing a baby carrier.

"Get up, bitch," he says, "I went to bed at four and got up at seven. And I slept outside."

Spencer is like this.

I could have called him and said, "I feel awful, I just had 14 quaaludes, a roofie, and a bottle of Jack, and Spencer would say, "I just had 28 quaaludes, four roofies, and two bottles of Jack."

He is already tailgating.

I put on my gameday attire, a Draft Tebow 2010 shirt, purchased last night. I do this for three reasons: A.) I believe this is the only way Jacksonville will keep a pro football franchise. B.) I'm interested in how people will react to the shirt and C.) I've never actually worn an NCAA violation that could be purchased for $12.99 at a local Walgreen's.

We procure another cab. Because we're gentlemen, we pick up two other people, Florida fans, to share our cab ride. Also, because it's cheaper. We explain that they will have to wait on us in the Applebee's parking lot because Tardio left his credit card there last night.

"'I just had a girl from Georgia in the cab,' he says. "She was wasted. I offered her a bottle of water and she said, 'Water? Why would I fill up my f---ing stomach with water?'"
"I know there is going to be $4,000 in Oreo shooters charged on this thing," he says.

This cab driver is better than last night's. Primarily because he is not sending me flirtatious texts.

"I just had a girl from Georgia in the cab," he says. "She was wasted. I offered her a bottle of water and she said, 'Water? Why would I fill up my f---ing stomach with water?'"

The girlfriend of the Florida fan is an Oregon student. She has blonde hair, fair skin and is concerned that the Oregon-USC game may not be on local television here. Her boyfriend has other concerns. "We need to get you some sunscreen because I want to touch you later and I don't want you sunburned," he says.

Our cab driver drops us off on Bay Boulevard and we commence to take in the tailgate sites. Immediately, my t-shirt draws compliments from Florida fans.

Georgia fans? Not so much.

"He's a f------ fullback," screams one man in my direction. This will be repeated approximately 14 times. In all, virtually every Florida fan approves of the shirt.

In every direction around the stadium, people are tailgating in the bright sunshine. It's a perfect day, cloudless, blue sky with bright sunshine bouncing off of the St. John's River, music blaring in every direction. Cornhole bean bags bounce along the well-worn grass, flip cup and beer pong spills drip off old tables. Everywhere you look, alcohol flows like the river that divides Jacksonville.

Fans are clad in Georgia and Florida gear but they're also dressed in the colors of other, non-playing teams. As we walk, I see every SEC school represented. Many people at the Cocktail Party have come with no indication of actually going inside the stadium, or, it would appear, with any real care for the fact that a football game is taking place at all.

As kickoff nears, a portion of the tailgating crew peels off and heads for the stadium.

But only a portion.

Many more, tens of thousands, stay behind. We make our way to a family zone tailgate alongside the stadium. Above us, towering in the sky, the Georgia and Florida sections of the stadium meet in the end zone. A few fans, wearing their team colors, stand up on the back row of last row of the stadium. We can watch these men cheer and divine what is taking place on the field. The Florida fans are cheering. Back down on the ground, a large tent housing the Heisman Trophy provides a modicum of shade and here fallen tailgating soldiers of both sexes lay passed out in the shade.

A man, bedraggled and shirtless approaches us, "Are they not serving beer in here?" he asks.

"I don't know," I say.

"F----------k," he says, turning the u into a long, drawn out wail. "Why do they even have the game if they don't have beer?"

Now joined by my friend Chad, a Georgia fan, we stand amid a huge surging crowd, relatively young in age, much younger than the actual crowd in the stadium, baking in front of a projection screen showing the game. Another shirtless man stumbles past. Earlier his back was painted with a number 2 and Demps written above it, but now, in the heat, he's sweated away the paint so that all that remains is a trace outline of the body paint.

Florida has already scored by the time we arrive, a Tebow touchdown pass to Riley Cooper. Not to be outdone, we see a second Tebow-to-Coooper touchdown pass, and Verne Lundquist shares his favorite SEC anecdote. Did you know the two men are roommates?

Georgia, wearing their black helmets and black pants, has failed to provide an early challenge to the Gators.
Tardio pulls his bottle of Maker's Mark out and mixes it with a bottle of Pepsi. Five minutes later, we're surrounded by police officers, "You get two choices," say the officers, "dump it or leave."

Tardio dumps it.

With Georgia trailing 14-3, we leave en route to a rumored party thrown by a Florida Coastal Law Professor. The pass word is, "We're not with the party."

As we walk across the parking lot, we pass a man in a white Chevy Tahoe SUV, he's slumped in the front seat of the car blasting, "Forever Young" as loud as his radio will allow.

Now, in the parking lot, the smell of alcohol, dirt, and filth, sweat, and sunshine baking on asphalt melds together into a potent and pungent smell. Like a flood after the waters have receded. Everywhere are beer cans, discarded bottles, shattered glass, and now, the tailgating zombies are out, stumbling from one place to another, the wasteland of football Saturdays.

A girl, sitting on a curb, shoeless, dress haphazardly gathered around her mid-thigh stares up at us, shielding her face with her hand, "Do you have beer?" she asks.

"We're going for some," we say.

"Okay," she says, standing and falling into line behind us like she has just arrived on a deserted island and heard we knew where water is. Soon, two of her friends have also joined up, a collective search and rescue party with a blood alcohol level that would allow surgery without anesthesia.

I stop near a single port-o-potty marked, "Private."

"Did you bring your own port-o-potty?" I ask some tailgaters.

"Yes," they say, "we do it right."

They've also brought a chef, a man named Robert. Robert tells me that he brought 60 pounds of chicken, 50 pounds of filet steaks, 20 pounds of crawdads, 10 pounds of andouille sausage, 50 pounds of potatoes, and 30 pounds of corn-on-the-cob for the tailgate.

Inside the stadium roars, Bulldog side, as tight end Aron White snags a Joe Cox touchdown pass to slice the lead to 14-10. Later, White will give my favorite quote of the game, "We came inside and saw those uniforms, and we were pretty excited by them," White said. "But as they say, the uniforms, they don't score the points."

I'm so sick of all the people who give the uniforms credit for scoring.

"With more beers, we make our way to Church Street. ... It's like a third-world country here. ... If I wanted to buy a rooster and a 34-year-old woman from Romania, I'm confident I could buy both at the same hat stand."
With more beers, we make our way to Church Street, on the west side of the stadium. It's like a third world country here, dirtier even than the other areas we've been thus far. Old brick factories crumble, every building with more than one story seems to be falling into itself, a sports bar with a dirt floor leads into a dark room where I expect to see goats munching trash underfoot. The road is dusty, everything seems to be for sale. If I wanted to buy a rooster and a 34-year-old woman from Romania, I'm confident I could buy both at the same hat stand.

I don't see any guns, but I believe that every person within 10 feet of me has three concealed weapons. The heat is making my head swim. Stumbling people are everywhere, a few men lay passed out in the dry grass, open-mouthed, staring at the sky above them, shirts slightly raised above their bellies like bloated Civil War soldiers. Suddenly from nowhere, a dirt alley, a tin-roofed shack, a dirty-haired scalper with deep sunburns materializes trying to sell us tickets.

"Georgia is making a game of it this year, don't you boys want to see the second half?"

"How much?" I ask, because I want to know how much he wants for the tickets and also because I'm scared not to reply to him.

"Twenty bucks," he says.

I wave my hand in his direction. "Nah," I say.

"How much will you give me?" he asks.

Inside the bar, Herschel Walker is on the television screen, a Zaxby's commercial. A couple of Bulldog fans cheer, remembering better days. Their voices carry out into the hot street, my beer tastes like water. Water, with helium inside.

My lips are dry.

I spit into the street.

Someone is throwing up in a trash can. No one gives him a second glance.

"How about it?" asks the scalper.

A girl walks past then, she's wearing a bikini top and tight shorts 16, maybe, but already looks 42. ""The game?" she snorts, rolling her dark eyes, "you can't drink at the game."

Health Care Bill is beside me now. "Where's the game?" he asks, meaning, I think where can we watch the game.

It's Halloween in Jacksonville, a carnival of excess, a game within a game within a game. This makes sense to me when I write it down in my notebook.

Now?

I'm not so sure.

"Everywhere," I say. "Or nowhere."

Health Care Bill nods. "God," he says, "my costume was awful."

Outside, the Life of the 'Cocktail Party' originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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]]>Clay TravisMon, 02 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST Urban Meyer to Address Fightin' Gatorshttp://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/01/meyer-to-address-fightin-gators/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/01/meyer-to-address-fightin-gators/http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/11/01/meyer-to-address-fightin-gators/#commentsFiled under: , ,

All is good with top-ranked Florida. Scout's honor, according to head coach Urban Meyer.

Meyer denied on Sunday that his Fightin' Gators -- specifically seniors Tim Tebow and Brandon Spikes -- were involved in a "skirmish" following UF's (pardon the pun) hard-fought victory at Mississippi State two weeks ago. Spikes admitted to the media following the Gators' 41-17 win over the Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday that the "skirmish" was more like two brothers venting at each other.

Meyer, however, did stress that he planned to talk with Spikes after news that a video surfaced on YouTube late Saturday night that showed Spikes appearing to gouge at the eyes of Georgia's Washaun Ealy after making a tackle.

"I'll talk with him today," Meyer said during his Sunday teleconference with the media. "He's a very emotional player. If that's the case, I'll have a very serious talk with him."

UF, which clinched the SEC East title with the win over the Bulldogs in Jacksonville, Fla., and secured a spot in the conference championship game when Tennessee beat South Carolina later Saturday night, is at home Saturday against Vanderbilt.

Spikes, who has been slowed by a groin injury the past few weeks but returned an interception for a touchdown against Georgia, told FanHouse and other media members following the game that he had not been playing to his potential.

"I had a lot of people saying I haven't been producing -- I haven't been doing this, haven't been doing that," Spikes said.

"Everything I take as a motivation. I did start off kind of slow but we are coming down towards the end of the season and this is where good teams step up. I just feel like I have to do something to help the team out and be productive."

Tebow also admitted that it was a difficult time for the Gators, saying there "was a lot of turmoil this past week." As far as a "skirmish" between Tebow and Spikes following the Mississippi State game, Meyer said no way.

"It wasn't Tim," Meyer said.

"Skirmish? I'm not sure. Did someone say that? There was no skirmish. There were some words said. It was much more than Tim. It was more, 'I can play better.' Mike Pouncey, with the offensive line, stood up and said, 'That one was on me.' It was all positive. It was all good stuff. We have to be careful that we don't put words in players' mouths.

"I'm going to have our people really watch that this week. That was absolutely incorrect. It was a bunch of guys taking fault for not playing well. A head coach came up and said he shouldn't have called that play from the 4-yard line. It was all positive."

Meyer also questioned media reports that he says twisted how the Gators are handling their business inside the locker room. UF, which has extended the nation's longest winning streak to 18 games, found itself in a struggle in the fourth quarter in consecutive victories over Arkansas and Mississippi State.

Even Meyer admitted to frustration, impatience and pressing to be perfect after the Mississippi State game. The Bulldogs are coached by former UF offensive coordinator Dan Mullen. Meyer said he wanted to make sure his players rallied around each other and ignored outside distractions.

Meyer explained that he addressed that situation following the game but it hasn't been described accurately.

"There was no altercation or finger-pointing speech," said Meyer, whose team made easy work of Georgia and won for the 17th time in the past 20 meetings in the series.

"I'm not sure where you're gathering your information. There was no finger-pointing speech whatsoever. There was a very positive speech about staying focused and facing a great team. There was no finger-pointing speech after the Mississippi State game. That was a very passionate locker room about how we can play better. I'm not sure where you're gathering your information, but those are two very incorrect statements."
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Meyer simply relied on his oft-repeated theme, saying the Gators needed to remain focused if they wanted to achieve their goals. UF is looking for its first undefeated season in school history and a second consecutive national championship.

"At some point during February, you do reflect upon points during the season. Not now," Meyer said.

"Once again, our focus is on Vanderbilt. One thing you admire about this team if you look across the country. ... I don't know Texas. I know their coach very well. They're doing a good job of just focusing and playing.

"Cincinnati, I don't know them, but I get home and I flip (the television) on. There are teams that have the ability to stay focused. There's a reason that our kickoff unit, our punt unit is the best it's ever been at Florida. That's because of the attention to great detail and great focus on what we had to win that game. If we maintain that, we have a chance to win the next game. If we don't, we won't."

Urban Meyer to Address Fightin' Gators originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:50:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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]]>brandon spikesgatorsgeorgia bulldogsMike Pounceytim tebowUrban MeyerJim HenrySun, 01 Nov 2009 19:50:00 EST