NCAA Football georgia Bulldogs

The SEC coaches meetings rolled into Destin, Fla., this week, and Lane Kiffin washed ashore.

You know Kiffin, the man who brought a Molotov cocktail to the SEC tea party, the guy who coaches like tickets have to be sold for the latest WWE event. You halfway expect for him to enter press conferences wearing orange tights, grab the mike, scream invectives at his rivals, then spike the microphone, kiss his biceps, and leave without taking questions. Kiffin coaches college football like Vince McMahon helms the WWE, it's all about creating a buzz.

In the fall of 2004, I moved to the United States Virgin Islands to practice law. Within a month, I'd embarked upon a pudding strike to protest the lack of availability of the NFL Sunday Ticket. (DirecTV didn't service the island at all and it was impossible to watch my Tennessee Titans play at any sports bar. Or any other team play for that matter that wasn't on regular broadcast networks.) So I decided the only responsible solution to that dilemma was to embark upon a pudding strike.

Yep, I only ate pudding.

With the recent passing of Doc "Mr. Inside" Blanchard, FanHouse takes a stab at naming the five greatest living Heisman Trophy winners

In a game that spans many eras, any task like this is exceedingly difficult and fraught with contradiction. With all the nostalgia built into the Heisman Trophy and the game of college football, we're buying into it with a less clinical, more emotional effort at ranking players. There's a bias towards the modern, towards a player being associated with the trophy and towards those that most captured peoples' imaginations.

Every Monday during college football's endless offseason, The FanHouse Walk will put last week's stories to bed and deliver the essentials to bridge that agonizing space between now and September.

Was He Even Alive Then? -- Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin dove back to the pre-disco era in describing his football team after a recent scrimmage. "I feel like we're in the '60s right now with our offense. We've got to run the ball and throw play-action right now. That's about all we can do. It's pretty scary right now."

Mercifully football has moved beyond '60s era mundanity, but Tennessee fans might welcome '60s results as the Vols snagged two SEC championships over the decade.

Just over a month past college football's official signing day one of the last major uncommitted college football recruits, Florida tight end Orson Charles has signed with Georgia among a host of suitors. The Tampa Plant High School product -- same school as collegiate superstar turned NFL flameout Mike Williams -- picked the Bulldogs over USC and Tennessee after having also visited Florida and Florida State.

He's also the answer to a trivia question. You might remember him as the person who accidentally destroyed Florida's 2006 BCS Championship crystal football on a recruiting visit. Fortunately it was insured and eventually replaced. Unfortunately for Florida guilt over his goof wasn't enough to secure his services.

Tennessee receiver Marlon Brown has done the unthinkable in spurning the home state Volunteers to play for Mark Richt and the University of Georgia Bulldogs. The six-foot-five receiver was widely regarded among the nation's best, with an excellent combination of speed, hands and leaping ability.

His offer sheet included nearly every top national program before he narrowed things down to Florida, Ohio State, Tennessee and eventual pick Georgia. Asked by ESPNU to explain his decision, Brown cited Georgia's ability to get young receivers up to speed. The 'Dawgs clearly have a solid record of that lately, as A.J. Green was among the SEC's best receivers as a true freshman last year.

Why put off till tomorrow what you can do today? The first major signing day announcement will take place about five hours before the clock turns even over to Feb. 4. Five-star cornerback Greg Reid out of Valdosta, Ga., a guy whose stock has soared in recent weeks, will pick his future school at around 7 PM ET.

Love him or hate him, Reid is nothing short of greatness on the football field. He is considered the rarest of prospects, someone who has the potential to improve a college team's football fortunes from the very moment he arrives on campus.

Georgia quarterback Matt Stafford and running back Knowshon Moreno have scheduled a news conference for this afternoon, and both will announce they're leaving school early for the NFL draft.

Mark Schlabach of ESPN.com reports that Moreno is definitely leaning toward entering the draft, while Stafford has had a harder time making up his mind. But as a prospect viewed by many observers as a franchise quarterback, it's hard to see Stafford returning for another year.

There has been speculation that the Detroit Lions will select Stafford with the first pick in the draft, but being sentenced to a term in the place that Matt Millen's wife calls football prison apparently won't dissuade him from turning pro. Moreno is likely a mid-first-round pick.

For Georgia, the announcement will represent a big loss. But even though Stafford has one more year of college eligibility and Moreno has two more years of eligibility, it's a loss that everyone saw coming. These two are ready to play on Sundays.

My colleague Mark Hasty penned a piece yesterday calling for a split national title in college football. It's a fun idea; it seeks to give credit to all the teams we believe deserve it (last week it was Alabama and Texas, this week it's just Utah).

Now, MH does have a point -- there is considerable distress in the world of NCAA football when it comes to picking who should be the best/last/triumphant team standing come January 6. This is typically a huge issue every year.

And, in fact, it's an issue for the very reason that Mark pointed out -- we (media, fans, coaches, everyone) always tend to be stone cold wrong about a few particular conferences and/or teams. Hawaii was a perfect example last year; many people actually thought they were good enough to beat Georgia. Whoops. Same thing with, apparently, Alabama -- although I'm still not willing to concede that they aren't an upper tier team, Utah just got the reverse treatment.

But here's the thing: as long as the current setup for college football stands, this will always be an issue. There are several problems. First of all, preseason polls are a total and utter disaster. The need to rank teams as soon as a season ends begs and pleads for us to cave in and actually foster misconceptions about particular programs. See: the Big Ten, every freaking year.

Misconstruing the talent level of a particular program leads to the second issue; it's nearly impossible for a team like Utah -- with their conference, schedule and the inherent bias -- to actually rise high enough in the BCS standings to get a shot at winning a national title.

Turkey Legs to Go is FanHouse's complete travel guide for all of the 2008-2009 college bowl games. Here, we cover the Capitol One Bowl (Orlando, Florida), which pits Georgia against Michigan State.

Overview / Matchup: The Georgia Bulldogs' season, which began with national title aspirations, ends somewhat disappointingly in Orlando following a final week loss to rival Georgia Tech. Michigan State capped off a fairly surprising and successful season in a similar fashion, getting whipped by Big 10 opponent Penn State in the last week of the season, leaving both of these teams hungry to prove something in the postseason.

Hotels: Assuming most football fanatics would rather stay away from the sprawling Disney and Universal theme-parks, we've selected restaurants and hotels with good proximity to the stadium. However, if you decide to double up on your bowl-game weekend and pay a visit to the parks, there are myriad hotels and restaurants in the Lake Buena Vista area. That being said, the Grand Bohemian Orlando is the best bet for luxury accommodation downtown. If you can't afford downtown and you don't want Disney, the next best thing is close to the airport... with that in mind we recommend the Hyatt Regency Orlando Intl Airports. For the best proximity to the stadium (and the cheapest rates) stay at the Vacation Lodge downtown.