NCAA Football FanHouse

Miles Calls for Spike, Confirms Idiocy

Clay Travis — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:45:00 EST

On 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' 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 fourth-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, Miles is playing tic-tac-toe.

And he'd lose in that to many fifth-grade LSU fans.

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

Against Ole Miss, 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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Mailbag: KKK Arrives in Ole Miss

Clay Travis — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:30:00 EST

Filed under: Michigan, Mississippi, SEC, All That and a Bag of Mail

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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Starting 11: Archie Manning, Sire MVP

Clay Travis — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:00:00 EST

Filed under: Alabama, Boise State, Cincinnati, Florida, Mississippi, TCU

Midway through the Ole Miss-Tennessee game on Saturday, a highlight package of Archie Manning's playing days at Ole Miss came on the jumbotron. Ole Miss fans, up to that point cheering their biggest win of the season, went quiet. The man behind me muttered softy to himself, "Them were the days."

As Archie ran around on the field making play after play, it occurred to me, not for the first time, how amazing it is that he sired not one, but two, Super Bowl winning quarterbacks. By the time the cameras found his youngest son, Eli, in a suite, I was still attempting to contemplate how amazing the fact was. By Sunday, after Peyton Manning led his Colts to 21 points in the final 12 minutes of a victory over the Patriots, there could be no doubt: Archie Manning's sperm is one of the greatest national treasures in our country.

Right up there with Abraham Lincoln, the flag outside Fort McHenry that inspired Francis Scott Key to jot down "The Star Spangled Banner" and Dorothy's ruby red slippers. That's why I'm making a humble suggestion to the Smithsonian Museum of American History, Archie's sperm should be an exhibit. (Lets see you do that, exhibit on late 19th century wheat threshers.) Otherwise, the museum is worth nothing.

On to the Starting 11.

1. Is TCU's Gary Patterson the next Urban Meyer?

Granted, the comparison doesn't fit squarely since Patterson has been at TCU for eight years and Meyer was only at Bowling Green for two years and then Utah for two years before he arrived at Florida. But if you look at their last four seasons as a head coach, Patterson is presently 40-9 while Meyer went 39-8.

My point, someone is stealing Patterson away at the end of the season, the only question is who?

And here's where it gets interesting, I played coaching dominoes on the phone driving back from Oxford. I had each of the people I talked with assume that Charlie Weis is gone. Then I assumed that either Brian Kelly or Urban Meyer would take over at Notre Dame.

Kelly leaving Cincinnati really doesn't cause the entire coaching universe to scramble since it isn't an amazingly desirable job, but what would Florida do if Meyer left?

I formulated a couple of working hypotheses, A.) Given the Ron Zook failure, there is no way Florida takes someone who isn't already a head coach and B.) What head coaches are the most attractive out there regardless of conference affiliation?

Isn't the answer Gary Patterson? And if Meyer left, wouldn't there be a really good shot that Jeremy Foley would head back to the Mountain West conference and poach another rising coaching star?

I think so.

Anyway, coaching dominoes is great fun. I highly recommend it when you're on long drives by yourself.

2. Do you also feel cheated as a college football fan that teams like Stanford, Cincinnati -- even though I dogged them above -- Boise State and Georgia Tech don't get to throw their hats in the ring and compete for a championship at the end of the season.

First, how hot is Stanford on offense?

Jim Harbaugh going for two against Pete Carroll when he already had 48 points was one of the best things I've seen this season.

Can you imagine how sweet that was for Stanford fans? To kick the dirt in USC's face for a change.

So I miss seeing Stanford in a playoff, assuming they find a way to win the Pac-10, but I really miss Georgia Tech.

Can you imagine a team trying to gameplan against Tech in an eight or 16-team tournament. When you don't even know you are going to play them until less than a week before? How do you get ready for them without any previous preparation?

Also, how many points would it take to win, say, if Cincinnati and Georgia Tech played? Seriously, is there a more exciting game out there? Maybe Boise State against Stanford.

I'm drooling now.

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3. Would Cincinnati's defense hold up against Florida, Texas or Alabama?

They gave up 202 yards rushing to West Virginia. Granted that was on 46 carries, but still, the defense has shown some ominous cracks that don't befit a national title contender. At least not when you compare their defense with Texas, Alabama, Florida, or TCU.

Put it this way, does anyone think that Cincinnati would be less than a double-digit underdog on any neutral site game against Texas, Alabama or Florida?

Would Cincinnati even be favored in a neutral game against LSU or Ole Miss? (The oddsmakers love Ole Miss. Perhaps they've been bribed with excess BenJarvus Green-Ellis jerseys).

I don't think so.

And if we don't think that, and the market wouldn't think that in Las Vegas, isn't it ridiculous when we don't even allow the market to dictate the best match-up between the two best teams? Instead we rely on polls and a computer.

In other words, we're not even using the best market to determine the match-up, we're allowing a flawed and limited perception of teams to govern our selection.

4. Did anyone else see the kid celebrating Mississippi State's apparent kick return touchdown that came back?

I'm not sure why this clip is so addictive to me, but I watched it four times on DVR replay, and then voluntarily leapt up from my seat when my editor found it again on Youtube.

There's something about the curious arm pumping with the pom pom, the slightly askew cap, the chubby cheeks, and the head movement that all lends itself to greatness.

Of course, now I feel like there's a 90 percent chance that kid is going to grow up and start a blog called claytravissucks.com.

5. Michigan is still awful in year two.

Assuming he survives, which is a big assumption, is Rich Rodriguez going to fire defensive coordinator Greg Robinson? You'll recall that last offseason Robinson replaced Scott Shafer, who was hired by Syracuse. Last year Shafer's Michigan defense finished ranked 67th in the country.

Now Robinson has, wait for it, the 89th-ranked defense in the country.

Last year, Shafer's Michigan defense allowed 347 points, the most in school history. This year the Michigan defense has given up 309 points through 11 games. With Ohio State coming to town and Michigan's defensive woes against Big Ten schools, don't be surprised to see that record fall for the second year in a row.

Meanwhile in the ultimate irony, Shafer's Syracuse defense has been better than Michigan's.

Leaving us with this question, can we just acknowledge that nothing is going right at Michigan?

6. Kellen Moore rewarded my faith in his Heisman campaign.

Moore passed for five touchdowns and 299 yards. Through 10 games he leads the nation in passing efficiency, has the second lowest interception percentage of the nation's top 100 most efficient quarterbacks, and now has 32 touchdowns against just three interceptions.

When are people going to take notice of this performance in a year when the other top candidates keep dropping like flies.

You know what doesn't help?

The fact that Boise State's Heisman campaign is not ready for primetime. I e-mailed the powers-that-be at Boise State and asked him to send along whatever facts and figures they'd put together to buttress Moore's Heisman case and make sure I had those facts lined up in my endorsement.

Boise State didn't respond to me.

Seriously, what are they doing out there?

7. Let's talk some more about Archie's sperm.

How many men have successfully become fathers in America between the years 1969 and 1988 -- the age range of current starting quarterbacks in the NFL. Conservatively, 40 million. (Currently 4.3 million children are born every year).

How many quarterbacks have started a game in the NFL during this generation?

Maybe 500?

How many quarterbacks born during this generation have won a Super Bowl?

11!

And Archie Manning has fathered two of them!

Seriously, just think about the odds on this.

I'm going to do a full column on this at some point, but it's unfathomable that the same man has sired two of the greatest quarterbacks in football history.

We're talking about the toughest position in all of sports.

I want to actually run the odds on this happening. Put it this way, each of these kids, including me, had a .00000003 chance of winning a Super Bowl.

And Archie pulled it off twice.

What football fan out there woudln't want their smiling son or daughter posing alongside Archie's sperm?

8. If Boise State doesn't get a BCS bid and either Iowa, Penn State or Wisconsin does, which seems likely, aside from dooming the Big Ten schools to another lackluster season by requiring them all to play up in their bowl games, what does this signify?

That the BCS doesn't even play fair when they aren't excluding half of the teams from competing for a championship.

I've linked this before, but read the BCS selection procedures again just to demonstrate how lawyered up this thing is.

I've read easier legislative histories.

Honest question, after reviewing this, what percentage of college football fans could accurately apply the rules and get all five game match-ups set in an adequate manner according to the rules if you gave them the final BCS standings and an hour to complete the assignment.

Maybe 10 percent.

This would be a great test.

9. How many Georgia fans cringed when Todd Blackledge said it was up to Willie Martinez's defense to win the game for Georgia?

But, credit to Martinez, his team won, stopping a driving Auburn team to win the game.

In the process, every SEC fan should breathe a sigh of relief. Because as long as Martinez is at Georgia, their defense is going to be average at best.

I'm rooting for Martinez to survive the season, but I'm convinced that the epic beating that Georgia Tech is going to lay on Georgia in the final game of the season is going to seal his fate.

That is, assuming Georgia can beat Kentucky this weekend.

10. Unless it's an NFL contract, all bets are off when it comes to coaching openings.

One of the things that drives me the craziest is when a coach signs an extension and people trumpet that as clear evidence that he's not going anywhere else. Granted I'm playing coaching dominoes in my spare time, but the only contracts worth anything in football are NFL contracts.

Everything else, college head coaching, analyst contracts, assistant coaches, you name it and those contracts can be broken at will. Now there might be a buyout, but I'm sick of people trotting out the contract argument as if it's the gold standard of unbeatable arguments. If you're playing coaching dominoes and anyone mentions a recently signed contract extension, cite my expert legal opinion and tell them to find a new rationale.

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11. And, last of all, I need to vent some more about Hotty Toddy Man at Ole Miss. He's giving me nightmares.

There has to be a Youtube of this clip somewhere, but I couldn't find it.

Can someone help me out?

I want to share this travesty of football excess with the rest of the country.

I will not rest until Hotty Toddy Man is put out to pasture and whoever approved that video being filmed publicly apologizes to all of us.

All of the e-mails that I've gotten since writing about Hotty Toddy Man have agreed with my position. That's Ole Miss fans, Tennessee fans, and other fans who have been unfortunate enough to see him. That leaves me wondering this, who is the part of the fan base that is in favor of him?

The video puts me in mind of one of my wife's best descriptions of a Southern man who was overly friendly. "He's either really religious or gay, I get confused sometimes about that down here."

Starting 11: Archie Manning, Sire MVP originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Anatomy of a McCluster Bomb: A Day at Ole Miss

Clay Travis — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:59:00 EST

Filed under: Mississippi, Tennessee

OXFORD, Miss -- Saturday, I had the misfortune of watching Dexter McCluster run for 4 billion yards against Tennessee. At least that's what it felt like. In all actuality, McCluster merely slashed, dashed, and cavorted his way for 282 yards on 25 carries. In the process Dexter McCluster struck a blow for men named Dexter, made himself millions of dollars in the NFL, and left Tennessee's defense looking as if they weren't familiar with many advanced defensive techniques.

Such as tackling.

All of this took place on a glorious Saturday morning in Oxford, Miss., when, aside from the brutal 11 a.m. kickoff that left Ole Miss students in bed until halftime, it was hard to imagine wanting to be anywhere else. By shortly after 2 p.m., I wished I'd been anywhere else.

At least, that is, when I wasn't marveling over McCluster's utter domination of the Vols.

I've watched football games my entire life, and I've never seen a rushing performance in person that dominant.

Ever.

Let's be honest, it's not like Tennessee's defense is awful. They'd gone almost two years without giving up 30 points to anyone. Tennessee only allowed one touchdown against Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina, two to Florida, two to Auburn. Then came Dexter McCluster.

That squirrelly little back Dexter got four.

By himself.

Anyway, come along for the journey through 18 observations from the game. That's a nice tip of the beaver pelt cap to Ole Miss' Archie Manning.

1. Let's get this out of the way early. At the NFL Combine come February, McCluster is going to run in the 4.3s. And someone on the NFL Network is going to say, "Wow, I didn't know he was that fast."

That analyst should be slapped in the face with a wet rag that has recently been dipped in carbolic acid.

McCluster is that fast. He made Tennessee defenders look like they were forced to play on roller skates all afternoon.

2. In fact, for one game at least. McCluster looked an awful lot like Tennessee Titan Chris Johnson.

That's what I kept thinking as this game progressed, if McCluster was just a couple of inches taller he'd be Johnson's clone. And you'll recall that Chris Johnson ran a 4.24, the fastest time in NFL Combine history.

You'll know Johnson's 40 time if you've seen any Tennessee Titans game for the past two years. That fact is, via sheer ubiquity and repetition, the "Tim Tebow and Riley Cooper are roommates" of NFL football telecasts.

Am I the only person who kept picturing guys named Dexter pumping their fists everywhere as this game was going on?

I mean, really, if you think about it, if I'd told you that the two most explosive football players in the SEC were going to be named Percy and Dexter in back-to-back years, would you have ever believed me?

Thomas the Tank Engine's friends, maybe, but guys who made you involuntarily hold your breath every time they touched the ball?

I don't think so.

It's uncanny.

3. How was Tennessee surprised by McCluster running the ball out of the wildcat formation?

I don't believe he ever handed off. And if he did, shouldn't you encourage that since whoever he handed it off to wouldn't be moving at the speed of light?

Yet, all afternoon, Tennessee's defense looked like McCluster had brought alchemy to football: presto, he can make gold out of thin air and score touchdowns simply by taking a direct snap.

Basically, i don't get the defensive panic that comes from the Wildcat. Effectively, that's just the single wing that Jim Thorpe used to run.

Somebody explain to me why this is so earth-shattering. Granted, a talented player has the ball in his hands, but how is it tougher to defend than a quarterback being under center with the tailback lined up behind him? Because then the defense has to take account of a bevy of options, right? Put simply, the quarterback could pass or hand off to a speedy back.

McCluster never passed all afternoon.

He just ran.

After a direct snap.

Meanwhile Jevan Snead, the man Steve Spurrier's sports information director thought was the best quarterback in the league, is standing off to the side of the formation doing nothing.

Clearly, this works at times, but how does it work all afternoon? At some point wouldn't you just have to say, okay, if McCluster attempts a pass, they're going to score. And commit every single player to the line of scrimmage at the snap?

4. Ole Miss is still trying to get rid of their No. 6 BenJarvus Green-Ellis jerseys.

My friend, Memphis radio show host Chris Vernon, came to Oxford with me and bought a jersey for $20.

This is funny on so many levels. Among them:

A.) How many Ole Miss fans end up with this jersey for Christmas because someone's Mom hasn't recently checked a roster?

B.) Do you think someone got fired at the Ole Miss athletic department for ordering 20,000 extra Green-Ellis jerseys? I'm picturing the Ole Miss head of merchandise looking at the inventory list and thinking, "What in God's name are we doing with all of these things?"

In a few years, all these Green-Ellis Ole Miss jerseys are going to be showing up on fundraising commercials for impoverished African orphans.

C. Did they offer the overflow to Green-Ellis for a dollar each? For some reason I'm picturing Brent Schaeffer driving a 1989 Chevy Silverado with the back seat pulled out to fit extra boxes of his Ole Miss jerseys.

5. Why did Houston Nutt take the ball out of McCluster's hands at the end of the first half?

He went to Snead for three straight passes. One pass hit a UT defender in the helmet, one was dropped in the end zone, and the third was short-hopped to McCluster.

I was praying that Houston Nutt would go away from McCluster. Like, you know, he's done for an awful lot of big games this season.

For instance, how did Dexter only get the ball six times against Alabama?

6. How can Ole Miss ban the chanting of "The South Will Rise Again," but allow that Hotty Toddy guy on the JumboTron?

If you haven't ever been to Ole Miss, they have a man in a garish red and blue outfit that has Hotty Toddy written on the lapels. I'd say it's uncomfortable to watch this video, but that does a disservice to the word uncomfortable. It actually makes you feel like you have a tic in your hair and you can't find it. Or like when a person with an eyepatch lifts the eyepatch.

You can't un-see what you just saw.

Even now, just writing about this, makes me uncomfortable. Like every time they show Georgia's Joe Cox on the sideline with his helmet off.

I ask again, Ole Miss fans, how do you stand for this?

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7. Why did Eli and all his friends, including his brother, dress the same for the game?

Just because you're an NFL quarterback doesn't mean you can show up at the tailgate in matching outfits with other men. Somebody has to change clothes, right?

Definitely.

Now, credit where credit is due, Eli shopped in Square Books just before my book signing. (Which is also where I spotted the shirt, pictured right, not on Eli.) Of course, he didn't come to the signing, but he was shopping in one of the best bookstores in the South. That shows he has good judgment.

Even still, change clothes.

Unless, that is, you all wear BenJarvus Green-Ellis jerseys.

8. Things I found myself thinking in between McCluster first downs: Do you think Nu'Keese Richardson is watching from jail?

(FYI, after the game, I learned that Nu'Keese had been released from jail by gametime. Nonetheless, these are still questions worth pondering.)

And if he had been, would he have gotten to choose the television station? Or does the fact that he's a football player have no status in jail and did he have to sit and watch Judge Judy?

Also, does he get back the air pistol from the robbery?

No, because it's evidence, right?

But what happens if the charges got dropped, would he get it back?

Further, what are the odds that someone in the Knoxville police force who isn't a UT fan has mocked a UT fan, by using the air pistol as a prop?

100 percent.

9. Midway through the fourth quarter, Verno and I started debating whether the two of us could touch, not tackle, just touch, Dexter McCluster if he got the ball at the 10-yard line and we were both lined up to try and keep him from scoring.

I'm offering this challenge up as gold to the Ole Miss athletic department.

The man who made the Colonel Reb Is Crying song and me, trying to get a hand on McCluster with him starting at the 10-yard-line and the two of us between him and the goal line.

Just one hand.

This video could be golden.

10. The boots and dresses combination is everywhere now.

Thank God.

I feel about the boots and dresses combo at tailgates like old men feel about thongs. Basically, like I wish I'd been single when this was popular.

Seriously, old men's love affair with thongs is really underdiscussed. Probably because I'm the only person who will write about it. But I've had five conversations where men older than 50 have told me that when they were growing up women didn't wear thongs.

In the past three months.

That's a lot of conversations with old men about women's underwear.

You're cringing right now, but bring it up with an older man. I guarantee you he comes clean about how pissed he is that he missed the thong era.

11. If you doubt McCluster's speed, watch the 71-yard run. In particular the part of the play where he ran diagonally across the field and no one could catch him.

Let me repeat, he ran at a diagonal and everyone else was running straight ahead and they couldn't catch him.

"That's Tecmo Bo," Verno said, sitting next to me.

And he was right.

I halfway expected for McCluster to let people catch up to him and then start running in circles backwards to regain his speed before he passed them again.

12. You know how you can tell that your team got whipped? You find yourself searching for flags in the backfield after plays more than 10 times in a game.

On each of McCluster's four touchdown runs, I spent the final couple of seconds of the run, once I was sure he was going to score, looking for a penalty flag.

Is there anything more self-defeating than looking for a flag on the field after your team got gouged? The only other equivalent I can think of is when you have a really bad dream and you wake up, and then realize that you dreamed everything.

That's exactly what seeing the penalty flag lying on the field is like.

And I never got that feeling on Saturday.

Nope, it was real life and it was a nightmare.

13. If I was Ole Miss's chancellor, I'd solve, "the South will rise again" controversy, by saying, "Okay, we're not all that different no matter what color our skin is." Then I'd pivot to a new, common, enemy: "What if we burn Hotty Toddy man at midfield. We'll give every race a lit torch, and once we roast him, we'll all be purified."

I think this might work.

14. If you're Tennessee's Ed Orgeron, do you take a perverse bit of pleasure in this game?

After all, you brought in the recruits who dominated your new team. And even if you'd won, no one was going to give you any credit for the victory. It's kind of like getting dumped but then having your girlfriend end up marrying the President.

Yeah, you lost, but you used to sleep with the First Lady.

Anyway, it's a good thing that Coach O. didn't talk to the media this week. That would have been a huge distraction.

15. Did you know that Ole Miss is now barring Colonel Reb from entering the stadium?

Yep, last week for the first time ever, they refused him entrance to the student section.

This thing is going to turn into yet another battle.

A reader wrote me and asked whether there's any correlation between these battles and the upcoming release of the movie, The Blind Side. I'm not ready to go that far yet, but fighting this battle in conjunction with the movie release is kind of odd.

Almost like Ole Miss's chancellor is angling for the fawning New Yorker piece.

16. This is the most yards rushing that Tennessee has ever given up to anyone.

That's ever.

In his post-game, Lane Kiffin said something like, "That's a really good player."

Maybe.

But is he better than Herschel Walker, Bo Jackson, Shaun Alexander, Darren McFadden, and countless other backs that the Vol defense has lined up against in the SEC?

No.

Vandy never held any of those guys to 1.7 yards a carry.

It's always tough to lose, but it's ominous when you get routed because of one player. Especially when that one player doubles the number of rushing touchdowns he's had all season against your team.

17. And now it's time for post-game quotes from your team that make you wonder why you care so much. This is a new weekly feature, feel free to send in your nominations.

This week's winnner is Tennessee defensive end Chris Walker.

"It was a big challenge to cover him [McCluster]. We had to know where he was at all times and he lines up at wide receiver and he lines up at tailback, so it was really hard to adjust to that."

So he lines up at two places? And that's really hard?

Two!

Walker makes it sound like someone asked him to perform open heart surgery using a mouthpiece as a scalpel.

Instead of, you know, tackle someone who is going to be running with the football.

And, really, how many times did McCluster get the ball more than five yards from the line of scrimmage?

Ever?

18. Ole Miss fans like to brag that they may lose a game, but they've never lost a party.

By 2 p.m. Saturday, the party hadn't even started yet and they'd already won a game. Beneath the towering oaks of The Grove, the Hotty Toddy cheer, sans Hotty Toddy man, was rising high into the sky. And somewhere, all 28 people named Dexter in America, were smiling.

Meanwhile, I had to ride home with Chris Vernon.

"Clay," Verno said, "consider this, if you or I was Monte Kiffin's son, we'd be the head coach of Tennessee right now too."

You're damn right it was a long ride back to Nashville.

As I made the drive, my phone kept pinging with text messages. The best was this.

"McCluster F..."

Amen to that.

Anatomy of a McCluster Bomb: A Day at Ole Miss originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:59:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Fight Over a Song at Ole Miss

Clay Travis — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:29:00 EST

Filed under: Mississippi, SEC

When 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?

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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Twenty Years Ago, One Hit Changed Two Lives Forever

David Whitley — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Mississippi, Vanderbilt

Brad Gaines will do it again early Wednesday morning. He'll grab some Clorox and glass cleaner, toss them in the trunk of his Buick and head to a little cemetery 175 miles away.

His long, strange trip actually began 20 years ago today.

"I'll be doing it until I die," Gaines said.

He goes to visit a friend he never really knew. Then one crazy football play bound them forever. On a Homecoming afternoon, he collided with Chucky Mullins.

Gaines, a tailback for Vanderbilt, got up and headed back to the huddle. Mullins, a safety for Mississippi, never moved again.

His neck was shattered. He died less than two years later.

We read about such things, wince and move on. It's nobody's fault. It's just football.

Gaines knew that on Oct. 28, 1989. He knows it on Oct. 28, 2009.

It doesn't matter.

"I know it was part of the game," he said, "but it doesn't change the fact, you know ..."

He's tried to explain it a million times why he drives from Nashville to Russellville, Ala. three times a year. If it's the date of the accident or the date Mullins died or Christmas, Gaines has to make it to the grave that's marked simply:

Chucky, Man of Courage.

So what force drives Gaines? Why has he has skipped out early every Christmas or left home at midnight to get back for a morning meeting or barely beat the clock and found himself cleaning Mullins' grave by the light of the moon?

"There have been times I have had to hitchhike because I ran out of gas, had blown out tires, my car's broken down," Gaines said. "But I always make it."

Everybody from his wife to total strangers has worried and wondered. Perhaps the only person who could truly understand is Mullins.

"It's almost like it was fate," Gaines said.

He was a white kid from hoity-toity Vandy. His brothers had played in the NFL. He was a stud running back, the leading receiver in the SEC, a kid whose idea of hardship was getting turned down for a date.

"There have been times I have had to hitchhike because I ran out of gas, had blown out tires, my car's broken down. But I always make it." -- Brad Gaines Mullins was a skinny black kid from a nowhere town. His mother died when he was in sixth grade. He wasn't particularly fast or strong or talented, but Ole Miss coaches loved his attitude. Mullins would do anything to win.

So it wasn't surprising that he lowered his helmet and buried it in No. 44's back. Gaines had gone up to catch a pass. The force from behind knocked the ball loose before he hit the ground.

Gaines scrambled to recover it, but the refs called it an incomplete pass. He didn't even notice No. 38 wasn't moving. Before long, the number would literally mean everything to him.

Gaines couldn't sleep after the accident. He no longer cared about the sport he was raised to love. He didn't even play his senior season.

He did try to get to know the source of his pain. The first time they formally met, Gaines walked into the hospital room and tried not to visibly shake. Mullins was in a halo contraption with all sorts of tubes attached to his body.

A ventilator was rhythmically hissing at his bedside. Gaines shuffled near the bed, bent over and strained to make out what Mullins said.

"It wasn't your fault."

That was Chucky. His spirit never inspired people far beyond the South. Walter Payton visited him. So did Janet Jackson and George H. W. Bush.

More than $1 million was raised for his trust fund. Ole Miss built him a specially equipped house, and he was back in class the next year. Then a blood clot formed in his lung.

Gaines read about it and drove to the hospital in Memphis . Mullins was in a coma, but his friend got there in time to say goodbye. Then doctors removed the life-support system. Gaines went to the hospital roof and wept.

Ole Miss started the Chucky Mullins Courage Award, given each year to a senior defensive player. The winner used to wear No. 38 until the school retired it in 2006.

"You say 'Chucky,' and everybody knows what you mean," Gaines said.

You say Brad, and everybody wonders what that means.

"As I get older I've gotten even more emotional about it," he said. "I don't know, maybe raising my own kids and how fragile life can be."

He has four of them now, three girls ages one to 11, and a five-year-old boy. Gaines is a successful businessman but he still drives a 20-year-old Buick his kids hate.

"I wish your car would die," they tell him all the time.

If it does today, he'll just start hitchhiking. Gaines has lost count of the trips he's made to Russellville, but it's at least 60. None of his kids have ever gone with him. They just know their father has something he has to do.

"When I leave to go to the cemetery, they know why I'm going," Gaines said. "They see the importance of that, the importance of having love for your fellow man."

Mullins is buried next to his mother, who died when she was only 32. Gaines will pluck the weeds then clean the dirt and grime off the brown granite headstone.

Then he'll just sit and talk and pray.

It may seem odd that Gaines carries a picture of Mullins in his wallet. That his phone number still ends with the number 3800. That he just can't let go.

Why?

"He's a person I love," Gaines said, "and I miss."

It's as simple as that.

So what will Gaines' headstone read one day? Is he a Man of Guilt or Craziness or Courage or Compassion?

Whatever it is, Mullins would be proud to clean it.

Twenty Years Ago, One Hit Changed Two Lives Forever originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SEC Notebook: Polls Not Tide's Concern

Jim Henry — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:15:00 EST

Filed under: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, SEC

When it comes to debating rankings, Alabama head coach Nick Saban is a fuddy-duddy.

So there's no need to waste your time, even if the Crimson Tide leapfrogged SEC rival Florida into the top spot of this week's Associated Press poll. Of course, Alabama is also ranked second behind the Gators in the initial installment of the weekly BCS poll that will determine national title invites by early December.

Saban doesn't mean to be a killjoy -- or does he? -- but his game-at-a-time mantra is focused on Saturday's showdown against visiting Tennessee.

"If anybody asks me any questions about where we're ranked or what the poll is, what matters?" Saban asked. "Why does it matter? What's changed from this week to this Monday to last Monday? What's changed? We've got another game. This is the most important game of the year."

OK, agreed.

The Crimson Tide (7-0) is determined to finish October with a flourish. Off next Saturday, Alabama closes out a three-game homestand with a visit from LSU on November 7 before it positions itself for the regular-season's final stretch.

Of course, Alabama could have its hands full with the Vols (3-3) if not careful. But if the Crimson Tide is need of a hero, a shining star has risen from the Crimson Tide's backfield, and his name is Mark Ingram.

The sophomore has rushed for 905 yards and eight touchdowns for 129.29 yards per game average to rank fourth nationally and first in the SEC. Ingram's flashy -- he leads the nation with 30 rushes of 10 or more yards and also has chipped in eight receptions for 10 or more yards. And Ingram's tough -- he has gained 580 yards after first contact.

Best yet, Ingram is coming off his best performance of the season, rushing for 246 yards against South Carolina last week.

"He's a great competitor and a driven guy," Saban said.

"He works hard in practice every week. He plays fast all the time. He has a great competitive spirit and certainly will stay focused on the things that are going to help him continue to satisfy his goals."

Don't look for Alabama to change its goals, or its approach, according to the philosophical Saban.

"I'm very hopeful that we can stay on the positive side of it and be positive about our approach to what we are trying to accomplish and what we're trying to do and not get risk-aversive and start playing to keep from getting beat and a lot of negative motivation about what's going to happen if this happens and all that kind of stuff," Saban said.

"Not to avoid but to gain, is the way we'd like to approach it."

FINALLY, A STRONG FINISH?

South Carolina has been down this road before.

The Gamecocks are 5-2 and positioned nicely to make this coach Steve Spurrier's most successful season at South Carolina. The Gamecocks can continue their surge with a home victory over Vanderbilt on Saturday, a win that would give Spurrier 105 conference wins and tie him with Vince Dooley for third-most in SEC history.

Spurrier isn't one to relax, even if Vanderbilt has lost five straight conference games. Let's not forget the Commodores have beaten the Gamecocks the past two years.

"We're not a real dominant team," Spurrier said. "I think we're a real good team. We can play with almost anybody. We have to play a lot harder. We have to play with courage, effort and smarts."

That approach could help the Gamecocks avoid an unsettling trend of poor finishes. They lost their final three games last season, their final five in 2007 and, for the record, are 10-15 from the midway point of October under Spurrier.

"The pressure is on us to play the best we can every week," Spurrier said.

"We don't get too much in what happened last year or the year before. They outplayed us the last two years. They were better than we were. Give them credit. We'll try to play better this year and coach better, and see if we can come out on top against Vanderbilt."

ROAD TRIP

Save the postcards.

Florida hasn't enjoyed its past visits to Starkville, Miss.

The Gators travel to Mississippi State on Saturday seeking their first win at Davis Wade Stadium since 1985. They have dropped their last four games there, losing to the Bulldogs in 1986, 1992, 2000 and 2004. Second-ranked UF entered three of the games ranked, and two of the games are among the 12 conference defeats that Spurrier suffered as Florida's coach.

The showdown is also a reunion for Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen, a former assistant coach under UF's Urban Meyer since their days at Utah. Mullen last served as the Gators' offensive coordinator, helping quarterback Tim Tebow win the Heisman Trophy and UF a pair of national titles.

"We're coming in, planning to win the football game," Mullen said.

"You never go to play a game that you think you can't win. Our guys are focusing on winning the game this Saturday, and focusing on doing the things you have to do to win the football game. There's nothing quite like winning a football game. It isn't anything crazy we need to do to win, we just have to focus on the game plan at hand in order to come out victorious."

OFFENSIVE OUTBURST

LSU and Auburn tangle in a game where both teams need their offense to set the tone.

LSU, which was off last week, is 5-1 overall and 3-1 in the SEC. The Tigers are one of two SEC West teams -- the other is Alabama -- to control its own destiny in the division race.

They will need solid performances from quarterback Jordan Jefferson and running back Charles Scott. Jefferson has been inconsistent as a passer and Scott is in search of a breakout game. LSU figures to rely heavily on the run because Auburn is allowing 181.4 yards per game, 11th in the SEC and 99th nationally.

Auburn, meanwhile, is coming off its worst offensive performance of the season, managing just 315 yards in its 21-14 loss to Kentucky.

Auburn (5-2, 2-2), which opened the season with five consecutive wins, has scored a combined 37 points in its past two games; it scored at least 37 in each of its first four. The passing attack is struggling, too. Quarterback Chris Todd threw 11 touchdown passes in the first four games but just one in the past three.

"You can't pinpoint our struggles on one thing. I don't believe in that," Auburn coach Gene Chizik said.

"There are a lot of things that can go wrong. I still feel that we can fix some of the mistakes and get back on track. There's a lot of issues in there, and we really feel very strongly that we're going to get that rectified. But it has been off the last two weeks."

SEC Notebook: Polls Not Tide's Concern originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:15:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ole Miss No Match for Alabama

FanHouse Newswire — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:47:00 EST

Filed under: Alabama, Mississippi

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) -- No. 3 Alabama is positively old-fashioned.

Other teams may have their shiny new spread offenses and pass-first mentality. The Crimson Tide just keeps getting it done with special teams and defense.

Alabama picked off four Jevan Snead passes and scored twice after special teams miscues to smother No. 3 Mississippi 22-3 on Saturday.

"This was the most complete win we've had all year, in a difficult situation," Alabama coach Nick Saban said. "It's like climbing a mountain. The higher you go the more treacherous it gets."

Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt had won two of his last three and three of five against Top 5 teams, giving the Rebels hope they could re-enter the race for the Southeastern Conference Western Division with an upset. But the Rebels (3-2, 1-2 SEC) wasted a strong defensive performance with early offensive mistakes and never had the kind of consistency needed to rattle one of the nation's top defenses.

Alabama (6-0, 4-0) couldn't generate much offense against the Rebels defense, but didn't need it. Mark Ingram rushed for 172 yards and the game's only touchdown and Leigh Tiffin hit five short field goals, one shy of the school's single-game record.

The defense made it stand up, forcing Snead into the four interceptions, which matched a career high. The Crimson Tide's Cory Reamer also blocked a punt and recovered a fumble on a punt return.

Snead completed 11 of 34 passes for 140 yards, missing badly occasionally but also suffering from dropped balls. Twice Alabama defenders ripped the ball away from Ole Miss receivers who were bobbling it.

"We had a couple of new wrinkles for the game and I think he knew what we were doing," Alabama linebacker Cory Reamer said. "But our defensive line was in his face. And that's tough for any quarterback."

Saban said the Tide hit Snead on practically every pass attempt in the first half and it showed in Ole Miss' production. Alabama held the Rebels to 19 yards and one first down in the first half on the way to a 16-0 lead and allowed them past the 50 just four times overall.

The Rebels' offense was in complete disarray in the first 30 minutes and some of the school-record 62,657 fans booed the home team as it ran off the field. Snead completed just 2 of 12 passes for 14 yards with two interceptions and Alabama held the run-happy Rebels to 5 yards on the ground.

"That was as fine a defensive performance in the first half as I've been around," Saban said.

It would have been far worse had the Rebels defense not come up with big play after big play despite being on the field for more than 35 minutes.

They were especially good after turnovers. The Rebels forced a field goal with a goal-line stand after Reamer's blocked punt gave Alabama the ball at the 5. But with the Ole Miss offense holding the ball for just 8:57 in the first half, Alabama used 47 plays for 237 yards to tire out the Rebels.

That helped Ingram score untouched from 36 yards out on fourth-and-1 with 55 seconds left in the half to make it 16-0.

"The fourth-down play was a special play we have," Saban said. "It was an unbalanced overload. We did a great job blocking and sealing. Mark did a great job running."

The Alabama defense came up big again late in the third quarter after Reamer stripped Dexter McCluster on a punt return and recovered the fumble, giving the Tide the ball at the Ole Miss 40. Ingram picked up its third fourth-down conversion, then carried the ball to the 3 with a 24-yard run.

The Rebels, however, held the Tide to Tiffin's fourth field goal.

After Kareem Jackson returned an interception deep into Rebels territory in the fourth quarter, the Ole Miss defense forced a fumble. Ole Miss defensive backs also knocked two passes away from Julio Jones in the end zone.

"Our defense was outstanding all night," Nutt said. "They were just playing so hard. They put us in a position to win."

Alabama has now held four of six opponents under 88 yards in the first half.

With Auburn losing to Arkansas and LSU up against No. 1 Florida later Saturday, the Tide has a chance to take control of what appeared to be a very tight SEC West race.

The Rebels were ranked as high as No. 4, their highest ranking since 1970, but have looked bad on offense for much of the season. They could drop out of the poll this week.

The five turnovers against Alabama were more than half Ole Miss' season total of nine entering the game.

"It's just too hard a mountain to climb when you do that," Nutt said.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

Ole Miss No Match for Alabama originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:47:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Snead, Rebels Only Looking Forward

Jim Henry — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:22:00 EST

Filed under: Mississippi, Vanderbilt, SEC

Jevan Snead believes better days are ahead.

The junior quarterback doesn't need to read a newspaper or watch television to know what's being said about Ole Miss' disappointing performance last Thursday against South Carolina. Snead looked skittish in the pocket and didn't throw the ball with much confidence in a 16-10 defeat that proved the Rebels' No. 4 ranking nationally wasn't merited.

"It's one of those things where you have to take what you can from it," Snead said Monday.

"You watch the film and see what you did wrong and see what you can correct and then move on. It's tough not to be down, especially the couple of days right after the game. I feel like everyone is responding really well and everyone is doing what they need to do -- which is to continue to work as hard as they possibly can to not let that happen again."

Ole Miss, which tumbled to No. 21 in the rankings, looks to rebound Saturday at Vanderbilt.

Of course, all eyes will be on Snead and his offensive line that features three new starters from last season, including sophomore left tackle Bradley Sowell. Sowell has struggled in replacing first-round NFL draft choice Michael Oher, receiving the bulk of the criticism in the aftermath of the Rebels' defeat.

There are other pieces to the puzzle, however.

Snead, for one, still appears uncomfortable, and it showed in the pocket against the Gamecocks. He finished 7-of-21 for 107 yards and a touchdown and was sacked four times.

Overall, Snead ranks seventh in SEC passing efficiency and ranks 65th nationally, completing 35-of-71 passes (49.3 percent) for 491 yards, six touchdowns and two interceptions. Snead entered the season with a career completion percentage of 56.2 percent.

Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt said Snead must trust his offensive line, acknowledging that Snead might be anticipating pressure in the pocket after being pressured so often early on this season. Snead has been already sacked seven times.

"We don't want him to see ghosts, don't expect something to collapse or don't feel like you have to concentrate on what is below you," Nutt said.

"We want his eyes down field like he did last year. Just play the game like he is capable of playing. When he does that, we move the football when that happens."

Nutt said he doesn't expect to make any personnel changes up front in preparation for the Commodores, who beat Rice last Saturday but, like the Rebels, are desperate for an SEC win. Snead, meanwhile, stressed that he trusts his offensive line. He also is getting accustomed to new starters at fullback and tight end.

More importantly, Snead, who last season finished as strong as any quarterback in the country and entered this season under Heisman Trophy consideration, admitted he must have a better short-term memory.

"I know there are some times where I had pressure on the previous play and I let that affect the next play when maybe I didn't have as much pressure," Snead said.

"If something bad happens or if you get pressure on the previous play and something bad happens, you have to forget about it and execute on the next play. I definitely still trust (the offensive line). It wasn't all offensive line, by any means."

Nutt remains confident that Snead will regain his late-season form from a year ago.

"The best thing that Jevan has is he has a year under his belt," Nutt said.

"He has to trust. He has to trust his teammates, trust what we're doing and play the game that we're laying out for him. We're going to have a good, nice, simple plan, and he just has to execute it. He's done it before. We feel like we have the things that he can do. This guy, when we lay it out and rep it, he can handle it. There are some plays this year that he's made, but you have to be consistent. I have all the faith in the world in him."

Nutt also has faith that his team has learned from the pressure and notoriety that accompanied its first top-5 national ranking in nearly 40 years. The Gamecocks also snapped the Rebels' eight-game winning streak dating back to last season -- and extended their losing streak to six games in SEC openers.

"We didn't handle that one good," Nutt said.

"The thing about the top five is that it is really hard to tell a team that is in this position for the first time in over 40 years, to forget this and that. Every single day they see it. That's hard. It's hard to put that away and say it is blocking, tackling, executing, throwing to our guys and it's playing together. That is what's hard.

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In this Sept. 12, 2009, photo, Southern California running back Stafon Johnson runs for a touchdown against Ohio State during an NCAA college football game in Columbus, Ohio. Johnson had emergency throat surgery Monday, Sept. 28, after a weightlifting accident. The senior who scored the No. 7 Trojans' go-ahead touchdown against Ohio State was bench-pressing when the bar slipped from his right hand and fell onto his throat. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)

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In this Oct. 18, 2008, photo, UCLA quarterback Kevin Craft looks to pass as Stanford defensive end Pannel Egboh puts on pressure during an NCAA college football game in Pasadena, Calif. The Bruins won the game on a last-minute touchdown pass by Craft, who's back in the starting lineup as UCLA prepares to face Stanford on Saturday, Oct. 3. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

In this Oct. 25, 2008, photo, Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford drops back to pass during an NCAA college football game against Kansas State in Manhattan, Kan. Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops doesn't know whether Bradford will be ready for Saturday night's game at No. 17 Miami on Oct. 3, but said it won't be a game-time decision. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

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In this photo taken Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009, Penn State quarterback Daryll Clark (17) throws the ball away and was charges with intentional grounding as Iowa defenders Christian Ballard (46) and Jeremiha Hunter move in and clear Penn State offensive lineman Nerraw McCormack (72) out of the way during the second half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009, in State College, Pa. Iowa's defense handed the Nittany Lions their first loss for the second-straight season. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

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In this photo taken Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009, Penn State running back Evan Royster, left, is taken down by Iowa defenders Pat Angerer, center, and Karl Klug, right, during the first half of their NCAA football game in State College, Pa. Iowa's defense handed the Nittany Lions their first loss for the second-straight season. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

In this photo taken Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009, Penn State tight end Andrew Quarless is tackled by Iowa's Pat Angerer during the second half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009, in State College, Pa. Iowa's defense handed the Nittany Lions their first loss for the second-straight season. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

"Deep down inside, I probably knew that, that we weren't No. 4 or No. 5. But I'm not going to go say we're not No. 4 or No. 5 when (the media) tells me that we are. That is just the way it is. We have to do a better job. They were uncharted waters and I knew that. I can't control the media and I can't control where we are picked.

"If you notice, there are a lot of teams in the same shoes that we are in. You see it every Saturday and you are going to see it again (Saturday) This is the toughest conference in America. You've got to be ready to go. It is the team that plays the best during those three hours. The one that makes the fewest mistakes and takes care of the ball -- that is the team that is going to win."

Snead, Rebels Only Looking Forward originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:22:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Game South Carolina Silences Ole Miss

Ray Holloman — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 01:06:00 EST

Filed under: Mississippi, South Carolina, SEC

This is where Steve Spurrier would've stopped to take a team photo, or cracked a one-liner with the same brutal intent as Eric Norwood hunting Jevan Snead Thursday night, assuming the coach wasn't busy writing his name in the sky, challenging the opposing mascot to a duel, or something else larger than life but not larger than the Ol' Ball Coach.

In previous years, this is where Spurrier's head would've swollen so big it would've popped the visor right off his skull like a broken rubber band.

But, on Saturday night, in the wake of his biggest win at South Carolina, a 16-10 upset of No. 4 Ole Miss, there was as little trace of that Spurrier churlishness as there was Snead's Heisman hype.

In fact, he was darn near magnanimous.

"It was a wonderful victory for our team, our university and all Gamecocks," Spurrier said, a statement so polite you'd almost expect a bow tacked on the end.

Perhaps it was because he knows the weight of expectations that so gloomily sat on Houston Nutt's shoulders, or maybe the coach has developed a genteel streak in his golden years.

Or maybe he realized he hadn't done that much after all.

Sure, he'd beaten Ole Miss Thursday night. But beaten the No. 4 team? Maybe No. 4 in the SEC West.

"Who knows how good everybody is?" Spurrier asked. "The isn't the No. 1 or No. 2 team from last year. Ole Miss is a good team, but it's early in the year."

The Rebels were a case study in the sometimes frictionless rise through college football's rankings. They had beaten Florida last year -- in fact, Thursdays loss came just three days short of the one-year anniversary -- and beaten Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl in January. That Texas Tech played with the sort of enthusiasm you'd expect to see in a dentist's office, or that the big win over Florida was immediately parlayed into a loss against these same Gamecocks last season didn't much matter.

They had a quarterback with Heisman hype, a win last year that was so good Tim Tebow had to give a plaque-worthy speech and a character of a coach that could turn a church service into a pep rally. And so they had a No. 7 ranking to start the season.

Then they had to go and pick on someone almost their own size.

The Rebels lost the battle of the trenches both ways Thursday night, and were more docile than dominant on the lines. They missed their city block of a left tackle Michael Oher, not to mention the experience of Maurice Miller and Darryl Harris, who started 20 games between them at the guard spots last season. On the defensive line, you didn't need a program to know first-round draft pick Jeria Perry was no longer in these parts.

But no one seemed more out of place than Snead, who didn't just lose his Heisman buzz but, if the vote were held today, would have a hard time getting a place anywhere on the all-SEC squads.

Snead's connected on just 7-of-21 passes while spending more time with the Gamecock defensive line than most of the South Carolina coaching staff. Even Spurrier must've wondered who voted that guy first team All-SEC (It was Spurrier, of course. Until he pinned it on a member of his staff then petitioned to have the vote changed). Dexter McCluster, the Rebels all-purpose offensive weapon, who's at least partly made of a Superball, barely touched the ball until the fourth quarter, and when he did seemed to end up with his helmet where he spikes should've been.

No, the Rebels weren't No. 4 Thursday night, but then again they haven't even played Game No. 4.

"I'm glad it's gone so we can get back to working and win some ball games," Ole Miss left tackle Bradley Sowell said of the team's lofty ranking. "You can't really pay attention to that, anyway."

But you couldn't avoid paying attention to the statement South Carolina made, that elusive signature win of the Spurrier era that arrived as hard and fast as Norwood did on Snead's backside again and again.

On one play, South Carolina's star linebacker set the school's sack record with his 27th career tally, a rush on third-and-20 on Ole Miss' opening drive that brought down Snead for a five-yard loss. On the rest of the plays, he simply made the argument that he's the best defensive player in the SEC, with no apologies given to that ball vacuum in Tennessee's defensive backfield.

"That's a real man coming up that edge," Nutt said of Norwood, who finished with 10 tackles, two sacks and another two quarterback hurries. "You have to account for him. We knew that, but he still made it awfully tough on us. ... He's relentless."

Offensively Stephen Garcia again proved there's more to him than off-field troubles and getting shuffled in and out of games last season by Spurrier, a man who flips through his quarterbacks like most people flip through their iPod. Thursday night, he looked every bit the rock of a quarterback who could lead a just-good-enough offensive attack to pair with South Carolina's defense. When the Ole Miss rush found Garcia, he evaded it. When he needed to throw the ball away, he tossed it on the sidelines. When his team needed to keep the clock rolling on third down late in the third quarter, he lowered his head and went in against a pair of Gamecocks instead of taking the easy way out across the nearby sideline.

And Garcia took enough hits to pass for filet mignon in any Columbia chop house. But he kept playing.

Even the Ole Ball Coach appeared to rekindle a competitive fire that seemed to have dissipated into smoke signals foretelling his retirement. In the biggest win in his school's history dating back nearly three decades, the coach found something his team needed to work on

"We couldn't get a first down in the fourth quarter," he complained to ESPN's Erin Andrews after his offense floundered on three final quarter possessions.

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COLUMBIA, SC - SEPTEMBER 24: Quarterback Stephen Garcia #5 of the South Carolina Gamecocks celebrates after throwing a touchdown pass in the third quarter of their game against the Mississippi Rebels at Williams-Brice Stadium on September 24, 2009 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Stephen Garcia

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COLUMBIA, SC - SEPTEMBER 24: Kicker Spencer Lanning #34 of the South Carolina Gamecocks tackles Marshay Green #8 of the Mississippi Rebels saving a touchdown during their game at Williams-Brice Stadium on September 24, 2009 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Marshay Green;Spencer Lanning

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COLUMBIA, SC - SEPTEMBER 24: Running back Brandon Bolden #34 of the Mississippi Rebels rushes against the South Carolina Gamecocks in the second quarter of their game at Williams-Brice Stadium on September 24, 2009 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Brandon Bolden

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COLUMBIA, SC - SEPTEMBER 24: Defensive end Cliff Matthews #83 of the South Carolina Gamecocks sacks quarterback Jevan Snead #4 of the Mississippi Rebels during their game at Williams-Brice Stadium on September 24, 2009 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Jevan Snead;Cliff Matthews

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Mississippi running back Cordera Eason (25) meets South Carolina South Carolina free safety Chris Culliver during the first quarter at Williams Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina, Thursday, September 24, 2009. (Erik Campos/The State/MCT)

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Mississippi running back Cordera Eason(25) is upended by South Carolina strong safety Darian Stewart (24) in the first quarter at Williams Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina, Thursday, September 24, 2009. (Erik Campos/The State/MCT)

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South Carolina linebacker Eric Norwood (40) sacks Mississippi quarterback Jevan Snead (4) during the first quarter at Williams Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina, Thursday, September 24, 2009. (Erik Campos/The State/MCT)

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South Carolina's Akeem Auguste (3) defends as Mississippi's Shay Hodges can't catch a pass in the end zone during the first half of an NCAA college football game Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009, at Williams Brice Stadium in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)

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South Carolina quarterback Stephen Garcia (5) runs for a first down as Mississippi's Jerrell Powe (57) closes in during the first half of an NCAA college football game Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)

South Carolina's Tori Gurley (81) makes a catch for a first down as Mississippi's Marshay Green (8) tries to stop him during the first half of an NCAA college football game Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009, at Williams Brice Stadium in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)

Everything else had gone right. Punter Spencer Lanning made what turned out to be a game-saving tackle on a return by Marshay Green in the second quarter. A fake field goal attempt to Ole Miss ended with a tumble, not a touchdown. Ole Miss didn't find the end zone for three quarters.

And South Carolina had the biggest win of the Spurrier era, televised live on ESPN.

And yet, the coach played the role of gracious victor. Maybe that was his biggest mistake. On a night like this, a little crowing was in order.

Game South Carolina Silences Ole Miss originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Fri, 25 Sep 2009 01:06:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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South Carolina Upsets No. 4 Ole Miss

Brian Grummell — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:44:00 EST

Filed under: Mississippi, South Carolina, SEC

South Carolina had the honors of getting college football's fourth week off in high fashion, toppling preseason darling Mississippi 16-10 Thursday. Coming on the heels of Miami topping Georgia Tech last week, Thursday is fast becoming college football's version of Halloween, where underdogs dress up like contenders and make weird and wild things happen.

The win didn't come easy for South Carolina, however. Gamecock coach Steve Spurrier was the picture of agonized helplessness in the game's final period, alternating between shrugs, uncomfortable grins and palms-to-the-face while nursing a 16-3 lead. Relief finally came after his defense repelled Ole Miss' final charge at the Gamecocks' 41 yard line.

(Not to brag, but we told you so. Sort of. Ole Miss was ripe for an upset, with our only error being the assumption that they'd get through a few more weeks of play before reality set in. Apologies for that.)

Thursday's tumble falls very much at the feet of much-hyped quarterback Jevan Snead, whose Heisman Trophy chances are shot after this performance. Snead completed just 7 of 21 passes for 107 yards. He looked lost and nearly threw a handful of interceptions in a fashion eerily similar to USC's Aaron Corp against Washington last Saturday.

Snead spent the better part of the night simply surveying rather than executing, finding little and accomplishing less. He was rarely hurried, apparently finding time to sink the offense rather than make plays with his arm. Only the efforts of running back/wide receiver Dexter McCluster rescued the Rebels' offense from a potential shutout. McCluster rushed for 85 yards on 15 carries, perking up the slumping offense several times in the fourth quarter to little avail.

How one should interpret Ole Miss after this depends on what one thought of them before the season. The more skeptical among us received some confirmation, while those grooming Colonel Rebs' spectacular moustache must be confused. The reality is they weren't what popular perception said they were. The defense might have lived up to its reputation so far -- even with a hobbled Greg Hardy -- but the offense is flawed.

Snead's arm and pocket mobility is tremendous, but his receivers are undistinguished. Meanwhile, there's no bell cow in the backfield, forcing an over-reliance on the explosive but small McCluster, who is a superstar as a complementary player but merely above average as the centerpiece.

The signs were there last season, as the Rebels were mostly dominated in their stunning upset over Florida, with 86 of their 325 yards coming on a single broken-play touchdown pass in the fourth quarter. Snead was just 9 of 20 that afternoon, as the Rebels pounced on three Gator turnovers.

From there they clearly took off, but a hot team one season can't necessarily expect a carryover into the next. And so it is with the boys from Oxford, who lost to a team that was thought to be inferior. But the Rebels wound up showing they aren't necessarily all that superior themselves.

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Mississippi coach Houston Nutt leaves the field No. 4 Mississippi's 16-10 loss to South Carolina in an NCAA college football game Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)

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South Carolina's Moe Brown (9) celebrates with fans after South Carolina's 16-10 win over No. 4 Mississippi in an NCAA college football game Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)

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COLUMBIA, SC - SEPTEMBER 24: Jevan Snead #4 of the Ole Miss Rebels walks off the field against the South Carolina Gamecocks during their game at Williams-Brice Stadium on September 24, 2009 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Jevan Snead

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COLUMBIA, SC - SEPTEMBER 24: Fans of the South Carolina Gamecocks celebrate after a 16-10 victory over the Ole Miss Rebels after their game at Williams-Brice Stadium on September 24, 2009 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

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COLUMBIA, SC - SEPTEMBER 24: Stephen Garcia #5 of the South Carolina Gamecocks celebrates with teammate Darian Stewart #24 after a 16-10 vicotry over the Ole Miss Rebels during their game at Williams-Brice Stadium on September 24, 2009 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Stephen Garcia;Darian Stewart

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COLUMBIA, SC - SEPTEMBER 24: Stephen Garcia #5 of the South Carolina Gamecocks celebrates with fans after a 16-10 vicotry over the Ole Miss Rebels after their game at Williams-Brice Stadium on September 24, 2009 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Stephen Garcia

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COLUMBIA, SC - SEPTEMBER 24: Moe Brown #9 of the South Carolina Gamecocks celebrates with fans after a 16-10 victory over the Ole Miss Rebels after their game at Williams-Brice Stadium on September 24, 2009 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Moe Brown

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COLUMBIA, SC - SEPTEMBER 24: Chris Culliver #17 of the South Carolina Gamecocks celebrates with fans after a 16-10 victory over the Ole Miss Rebels after their game at Williams-Brice Stadium on September 24, 2009 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Chris Culliver

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Mississippi's Brandon Bolden (34) runs for an apparent touchdown, but the play was called back because of a holding penalty during the first quarter of an NCAA college football game against South Carolina on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009, at Williams Brice Stadium in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)

South Carolina Upsets No. 4 Ole Miss originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:44:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gosh Almighty, Is Ole Miss Really No. 4?

Clay Travis — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Mississippi, South Carolina

The biggest, best, and most intriguing game of the college football weekend is tonight -- Ole Miss at South Carolina. There are storylines aplenty, and we'll dive in to them all in a moment, but first, let's consider just how big of a game this is for Houston Nutt's Ole Miss, the stealthy No. 4 team in the country.

Let me repeat that, Ole Miss is now the No. 4 team in the country! You're shocked, right?

That's because the Rebels have only played twice, an opener on Sunday -- followed by the always frustrating second week bye -- and then last week against Southeast Louisiana. Chances are you didn't notice either game. So this game represents Ole Miss's debut on the national stage. Will it wilt or will it prove that Ole Miss can be known for something more than women in sundresses and the civil rights movement?

Meanwhile, on the other sideline, Steve Spurrier's Gamecocks have played three games, two of them incredibly difficult road games. They won against North Carolina State by four and lost against Georgia by four. Win this game, and at 3-1, the Gamecocks' season can still be a bright and shining success. Lose? Well, lose, and the Liberty Bowl looms. Memphis is lovely in early January. Or not. Yep, the stakes are high, my friends. And we wouldn't have it any other way.

South Carolina fans have been waiting for this game. Like their long-dead hero, the Swamp Fox Francis Marion, South Carolinians have been laying in wait in the misty swamps of the Palmetto State. They've ironed the blue flag with the palmetto tree, they've washed the white visors so they'll sparkle in the bright lights of Williams-Brice Stadium, been sending double-entendre laden e-mails about the Cocks all day, hauled the oysters to the back porch and left them there to be picked up in a mad dash to the fairground. Hell, many of them are already drinking in Five Points to prepare for this game, this exact moment in the season. The oysters all boil down to this.

Game-

Cocks.

Meanwhile, nervous Rebel fans are staring at the clock. Believe it or not, this is one of the two toughest road games they'll face all year -- the other is at Auburn -- and all season long they've been terrified of this Thursday night spectacle, the game when their team finally gets introduced to the nation. I've already written about the preseason trepidation, but now they're shutting down the Magnolia State, battening the proverbial hatches, opening the lower drawer of the desk and mixing the whiskey in early with the coke. This isn't a game to be enjoyed in the Grove; those will come later. This is a game to survive, a game to make the hatefest at home against Alabama in two weeks the most magical Saturday in Oxford since any day William Faulkner strolled into town.

Hotty

Toddy

We've been critical of them in the past, but thanks a ton to ESPN for Thursday night football. Even more importantly, thank God that decent games are set to be played on Thursday night. Now let's dive into some storylines worth paying attention to tonight.

1. If this is Steve Spurrier's final year, which I thought it was before the season began, this is his last chance for a truly seismic victory in his career?

OK, OK, he gets Florida in Columbia in November, but if you really think he's winning that game your visor is on too tight. This is it, the game when Spurrier can prove he's still got that magic. That at least for a night his 29-23 overall record at South Carolina, and 15-18 mark in conference, doesn't matter.

Is Steve Spurrier a legend slinking off the football stage, or can he, football's own prince of the forward pass, stage one last stirring victory in the age of spread formation-football?

At the end of the night, will Columbia party like it's 1999?

2. Is Ole Miss's Jevan Snead up to the hype?

Last year at this time Snead was most famous for being Colt McCoy's back-up. Now he's projected as a top-10 NFL draft pick by many scouts. Against Memphis he played an awful first half, but since that time he's improved. Of course, the competition has worsened as well.

Tonight, Rebel fans get their first look at the quarterback they hope will lead them to their first SEC Championship game since divisional play began and their first SEC title since 1963. Or to put that in a historical context, their first title since the year John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

Yeah, it's been a long time.

3. Remember that South Carolina won at Oxford last year.

Many incorrectly believe that after last season's victory over Florida, Ole Miss did not lose again. Wrong. The next week the Gamecocks rolled into town, withstood an early 14-3 deficit, and went on to win 31-24. For Rebels fans this was the first sign that Ole Miss couldn't withstand the hype -- the Rebels had been featured on Sports Illustrated after their Swamp victory.

So don't buy into the fact that these teams are impressed by rankings at all. South Carolina knows it can play with the Rebels; the Gamecocks proved it last year.

4. Ole Miss is only favored by three points.

If you ever needed a sign of how rugged and crazy Thursday night football can be, look no further than the line. If South Carolina wins, this game will be trumpeted as a huge upset. But it won't actually be one. These are two teams that are virtually even. The individual result might not suggest it, but if these two teams played 100 times, South Carolina would win at least 45 times.

South Carolina has won and lost by less than a touchdown already this season. I have a feeling that's going to happen again.

5. Stephen Garcia is still only a redshirt sophomore.

I know for every fan, especially South Carolina fans, it seems like he's been in school much longer. Partly that's because of the arrests, partly that's because Garcia's recruitment was such a public contest, but now that he's here, what is really capable of?

I don't think anyone knows, not even Steve Spurrier.

So far this season, Garcia's completion percentage is up about 10 points. Is he going to continue on this trajectory and make a vast leap forward or is he going to remain inconsistent? Tonight will go a long way towards answering this question.

6. Is Houston Nutt a top-tier coach in the SEC?

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In this photo taken on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2009, Texas defensive end Sergio Kindle, left, looks back at Texas Tech quarterback Taylor Potts, right, after sacking him for a 9-yard loss and a fumble during the fourth quarter of an NCAA college football game in Austin, Texas. The sack caused a fumble that set up Texas' last touchdown. Texas won 34-24. (AP Photo/Harry Cabluck)

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In this photo taken on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009, Nebraska kicker Alex Henery smiles during a news conference in Lincoln, Neb. Henery is a reliable kicker on the field and a reluctant celebrity off it. He kicked five field goals last week to account for all of Nebraska's scoring in the 16-15 loss at Virginia Tech, and holds a school-record 57-yarder in the game against Colorado last year.(AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

In this photo taken on Sept. 12, 2009, Nebraska kicker Alex Henery (90) kicks a field goal against Arkansas State, in an NCAA college football game in Lincoln, Neb. Henery is a reliable kicker on the field and a reluctant celebrity off it. He kicked five field goals last week to account for all of Nebraska's scoring in the 16-15 loss at Virginia Tech, and holds a school-record 57-yarder in the game against Colorado last year.(AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

In this photo taken on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2009, Texas wide receiver John Chiles is shown on the sideline during the fourth quarter of their 34-24 win in an NCAA college football game against Texas Tech in Austin, Texas. The plays designed last season to use quarterback Colt McCoy and then-backup John Chiles on the same play never really worked and they were scrapped. The No. 2 Longhorns have dusted off that "Q Package," renaming it the "Wild Horn," and used it with some success in their latest victory. Four plays averaged 11 yards, including a 34-yard run by Chiles in the first quarter against Texas Tech. (AP Photo/Harry Cabluck)

In this photo taken on Sept. 5, 2009, Mississippi State wide receiver Brandon McRae (6) breaks a tackle from Jackson State defensive back Jeremy Keys (8) during an NCAA college football game in Starkville, Miss. McRae, a senior, is considered the wily veteran in a receivers corps of mostly underclassmen, including a large number of freshmen players. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

In this photo taken on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009, Notre Dame wide receiver Michael Floyd, heads upfield after making a catch during NCAA college football game against Nevada in South Bend, Ind.. Floyd is out for the season after breaking his collarbone in a game against Michigan State last weekend. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

In this photo taken on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2009, Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen pulls off his chin strap after he injured his ankle during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Michigan State in South Bend, Ind. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

In this photo taken on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2009, Virginia Tech head defensive coach, Bud Foster, right, and defensive line coach Charley Wiles, left, appeal to the officials during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Nebraska at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Va. The numbers only lie a little bit, so when Virginia Tech defensive coordinator sees that his team is ranked 107th in the nation against the run, he's not inclined to mince words. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

University of Texas-San Antonio football coach Larry Coker poses with a team helmet in San Antonio, Texas, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009. The 61-year-old who led the Miami Hurricanes to their last national title in 2001 is building a program from scratch at Texas-San Antonio, a long way from the spotlight Coker spent decades trying to reach before an infamous on-field brawl in 2006 helped cost him his job. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

In this photo taken on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009, Louisville wide receiver Scott Long is unable to catch up to a pass from quarterback Justin Burke as Indiana State cornerback Donye McCleskey (2) tracks him during the first half of an NCAA college football game in Louisville, Ky Indiana State, the school best-known for producing NBA Hall of Famer Larry Bird, is back in the headlines with the longest losing streak in Division I football at 30 games (AP Photo/Ed Reinke)

In 10 years at Arkansas, Nutt went 42-38 in the SEC. In his first season at Ole Miss, he racked up five wins and three losses. So after 11 seasons of SEC football, Houston Dale Nutt is now 47-41 all-time.

This is not the record of an elite SEC coach. Putting that record somewhat into context against a coaching peer, in just 8 full seasons and a few games, Mark Richt already has 48 career SEC wins against just 18 losses.

If Nutt is going to establish himself as a legitimate force in the SEC, he has to win this game. Has to. Nutt also has to answer the criticism that he can only coach when people expect lesser results for his team. In the past his best years have all been unexpected. That has to change.

Now.

7. Will either of these teams contend in the SEC?

It's probably too early to call this a must-win game for Ole Miss. Certainly, if the Rebels lose this game they'll drop off the national stage and have to deal with being called overrated. But they can still bounce back in two weeks and beat Alabama in Oxford. Since the Rebels also get LSU at home, if they win both of those games, there's a very good chance they'll win the SEC West. That's no matter what they do tonight.

But if South Carolina loses this game to fall to 2-2 on the season, it will be eliminated from SEC East contention after only two games. Still worse, in one four-game stretch the Gamecocks have to travel to Alabama, to Tennessee, and to Arkansas. When they finish that run, they still have Florida and Clemson left to play in Columbia.

Bottom line, crack open the oysters and pour some sweet tea vodka, it's game time.

Gosh Almighty, Is Ole Miss Really No. 4? originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SEC Notebook: Ole Miss Is Ready for the Ol' Ball Coach

Jim Henry — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:09:00 EST

Filed under: Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, South Carolina, SEC

Many are skeptical of Mississippi's No. 4 ranking in the AP Top-25 poll because its wins so far have been against Memphis and Southeastern Louisiana. For trivia buffs, however, the Rebels last reached No. 4 in the rankings on Oct. 12, 1970.

Of course, the country will get a better idea about Ole Miss on Thursday night when it visits the Ol' Ball Coach and South Carolina in its SEC opener on national television.

The Gamecocks and Alabama were the last two teams to beat the Rebels, who are riding their longest win streak in nearly 37 years at eight straight games. (They also have the prestige of being the last team to have beaten defending national champion Florida).

Ole Miss has been counting down the days to this game against the Gamecocks.

"No question about it. You are ready to play a game like this," Rebels head coach Houston Nutt said. "It is going to be a great atmosphere. Our guys are looking forward to it. I know as coaches, we are. I think our players are even more so."

After struggling to a 3-4 start in 2008, Nutt's first year at Ole Miss, the Rebels finally got accustomed to each other and to Nutt's system. After losing to South Carolina 31-24 and Alabama 24-20, they reeled off six straight wins to finish the year, including an impressive Cotton Bowl victory over Texas Tech that got the buzz started about 2009.

The buzz has only increased.

Not only are the Rebels, who breezed through their first two games by a combined score of 97-20, shooting for a 3-0 start for the first time since 1989, they are seeking to snap a five-game skid in SEC openers.

"There is nothing like winning," Nutt said.

"The next game is always the biggest game of the year," Nutt added. "This is the biggest game of the year -- it is the next game and the first conference game. We've got to improve, and our guys know that. Our guys know that we are in for a real battle and everybody has to improve -- special teams, defense and offense. Any set of 11 that we send on the field have to be at their best -- starting with this game here."

For the Gamecocks, this is another chance for coach Steve Spurrier to record that breakthrough win that has been so elusive for him in Columbia, S.C. South Carolina is 1-31 all-time against Top-5 teams.

The Gamecocks' only win came in 1981 at No. 3 North Carolina, they have never beaten a Top-5 team at Williams-Brice Stadium, and, under Spurrier in five seasons, they are just 1-7 against Top-10 opponents and 5-13 against Top-25 foes.

"We're looking to try and pull it together on offense, defense and special teams," Spurrier said. "We haven't done it yet this season, and we hope to Thursday night."

OFFENSIVE IMPROVEMENTS
LSU coach Les Miles is searching for more production from its offense in Saturday's game against Mississippi State.

LSU is 12th out of 12 teams in the SEC and 90th nationally with 325.7 yards a game in total offense. The running game is also 10th in the SEC and 48th nationally with 163.7 yards a game. The Tigers did not get more than 100 yards rushing in a 31-3 win over Louisiana-Lafayette last Saturday until deep into the second half.

"I think we're looking for the best recipe in whatever we do, and I don't think we've hit it just yet," Miles said. "I can tell you that I think we are on things and making strides, but I don't know if we've hit our pace just yet, and we're working at it. I think we have good players, and it will be the offensive staff's task to get the ball in the hands of the play makers. I think we're doing that. We're doing it with a little difficulty, but we're doing it.

"The pace quickens as we go to Mississippi State. We have to get better on offense."

TAKING EVERY PRECAUTION
Florida head coach Urban Meyer has voiced his concerns this week about the flu bug hitting the Gators' football team.

All possible precautions are being taken. Florida spokesperson Steve McClain told reporters Sunday that players received a nasal spray vaccine over the weekend, not flu shots. Hand sanitizers are everywhere -- from meeting rooms to the cafeteria and one was even seen sitting on top of a cabinet during Monday's news conference.

Wide receiver David Nelson told the media there are hand-sanitizer bottles in everyone's locker, that players are constantly being told to wash their hands, take showers and drink fluids.

"We knew it was a problem," Nelson said. "There are Purell bottles probably in everybody's locker, everywhere you turn they're telling you to wash your hands, take a shower. We knew there was something going on and a few players were getting sick but we didn't know the extent of it."

ANOTHER OPINION ON TEBOW
Veteran Kentucky coach Rich Brooks has seen his share of great players. If you are wondering what he thinks about Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, well, here it is:

"Well, to me, he's just one of the all-time great college football players," Brooks said. "I think at quarterback, he's a hybrid. He's a single-wing, tailback quarterback. And there aren't many guys like that playing anymore, and that's why he's so unique right now. I mean, you just don't find that combination.

"Let's face it, he carried the ball what, 25 times last week against Tennessee? How many quarterbacks are doing that in the country? And he can throw it; he can kill you with his arm, he can kill you with his legs. He is extremely unique. There used to be players like that. I played with one, by the name of Terry Baker. He did not weigh 235 or 240 pounds, but he ran the ball and he threw the ball. He won the Heisman Trophy. Those kinds of players in today's football are very unique at that position."

ENOUGH -- AGAIN
For the second time in five months, SEC commissioner Mike Slive has ordered head coaches Urban Meyer of UF and Lane Kiffin of Tennessee to stop bickering at each other.

Slive admonished the coaches at the SEC Spring Meetings in May after Kiffin falsely accused Meyer of cheating in recruiting and numerous coaches needled each other on various recruiting topics. The pair has been at it again following last Saturday's UF-UT matchup in The Swamp.

Meyer said Sunday he didn't think Tennessee was "going after the win" and had "no urgency" in a 23-13 loss. Kiffin pointed out Monday that Meyer "feels he doesn't need to follow" Slive's warning before taking a jab at Meyer mentioning sick players after the game.

RAIN NOT A CONCERN
Storms have pounded Atlanta and surrounding areas, dropping 15 to 20 inches of rain over three days, causing nine deaths and an estimated $250 million in damage. But fans looking forward to Saturday's games won't have to worry about weather being an issue.

Athens, Ga., home of the University of Georgia Bulldogs, has not been damaged by the storms. The Bulldogs are set to host Arizona State Saturday.

STAYING IN JACKSONVILLE
The University of Georgia's Athletic Association Board of Directors voted to negotiate a six-year extension to keep the annual Florida-Georgia game in Jacksonville until 2016, the school announced Wednesday.

The current contract expires in 2010 and Georgia fans had pushed for the game to alternate between Jacksonville and Atlanta.

"An extraordinary amount of study has been done on the various options available and a great deal of input has been gathered," Georgia Athletic Director Damon Evans said in a release. "After all the fact-gathering and evaluation of those factors, I'm convinced that moving forward with discussions on extending the contract in Jacksonville is the appropriate way to go. I'm delighted the Board feels the same way."

SEC Notebook: Ole Miss Is Ready for the Ol' Ball Coach originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:09:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SEC Notebook: Joe Cox's Many Maladies

Jim Henry — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, SEC

Week 1 was the flu. Week 2 was shoulder soreness. OK, what's going on in Week 3?

The health of Georgia quarterback Joe Cox has been discussed, dissected and debated so much this young season that he could be a regular on General Hospital. Despite a jammed finger on his left non-throwing hand this week, Cox is in one piece -- and in good spirits. The rumors were so rampant last week that some believed Cox wouldn't start against South Carolina.

"It's definitely been interesting to see how crazy it can get just based off of what somebody says, but it hasn't been something that has been a distraction," said Cox, who injured his finger on an attempted tackle following an interception in the Bulldogs' win over South Carolina last Saturday.

"It's honestly something that we've all kind of laughed about."

While Georgia coach Mark Richt joked that Cox needed to wear an eye patch to meet with the media on Tuesday -- let's start another rumor -- Cox and the Bulldogs have been all business in their preparation for Saturday's SEC game at Arkansas. The Bulldogs have won the last five meetings against the Razorbacks, including all three in Fayetteville, Ark., and are on a five-game road SEC winning streak.

After losing its season-opener to Oklahoma State, Georgia rebounded with a dramatic 41-37 win at home over the Gamecocks. Arkansas was idle last week.

"It's like that old song," Richt said.

"You have to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative and don't mess with mister in between. That's what we are trying to do. We are trying to really look at the positive things and build off of them, eliminate the negative things and we'll be OK. We'll keep getting better if that happens."

One positive has been Georgia's production in the red zone. The Bulldogs are a perfect 6-for-6 inside their opponent's 20-yard line, scoring four touchdowns (one rushing, three passing) and connecting on a pair of field goals. Another has been the play from junior linebacker Rennie Curran, who leads the SEC with 23 tackles in two games.

And let's not forget Cox, who was slowed by a flu virus in the opening week -- he lost 10 pounds -- and last week Georgia revealed that nerve damage in Cox's right shoulder prevents him from throwing one day each week in practice. While the throwing schedule gives backup Logan Gray valuable time with the first-team offense, Cox finished with a career-high 201 yards passing and two touchdowns in the win over South Carolina.

"Everybody kind of understands that's the way it is," Richt said of Cox's throwing schedule.

"Nobody really gets too bent out of shape. It's always nice to get your second team guy a lot of work. A lot of coaches won't do that, but we've always done a pretty good job of letting our second team and our third team getting a little work, but it's even more so this year because of that situation. It's definitely helping Logan (Gray)."

Bluegrass Fever

Kentucky has held the upper hand in the state, beating rival Louisville the past two years for the Governor's Cup and winning three consecutive bowl games. Kentucky looks to make it three straight over the Cardinals on Saturday.

The Wildcats enter the home game on a streak of 15 consecutive non-conference wins. It's the second-longest non-conference win streak in the nation and the longest for UK since a 17-game non-conference win stretch from 1954-60. Since mid-season 2006, the Wildcats have won 21 of their last 33 games overall.

Kentucky coach Rich Brooks is well aware how a victory over Louisville makes life so much easier.

"Well, you have to live in a vacuum to not hear about it all year long in this state," Brooks said.

"Any football fan, you hear it on the talk radio, you see it on the message boards, just everywhere and you hear it when you're out in public. You get constantly reminded of what side of that equation you're on but like the last two years we've been fortunate enough to win the game - that really doesn't count - what counts is what happens this year. This Saturday is what is really going to count."

A Familiar Face

Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy will face off against his old high school Saturday in North Texas' Tom Dodge, who coached McElroy at Southlake Carroll High just outside Dallas.North Texas starting quarterback Riley Dodge -- the son of coach Tom Dodge and McElroy's backup in high school -- will miss the game with a separated shoulder, however. Dodge was injured in the third quarter of Saturday's double-overtime loss to Ohio.

"That is disappointing," McElroy said.

"Riley has had a little run of bad luck. I wish I could be playing against him, but they've got to do what's best for them and their season. If holding them out against us will allow them to be more successful down the road this year, then I totally understand why they're doing it."

A Popular Dude

Branden Smith, a freshman cornerback at Georgia, played every position while at Washington-Atlanta and committed to Georgia to play cornerback. Smith also ran the fifth-fastest 100 meters (10.64 seconds) in Georgia high school history. Naturally, his speed and athleticism made Smith an easy candidate to see time on offense.

The first time Smith touched the ball against South Carolina, on a kickoff return in the first quarter, Smith fumbled. The second time, he was gone -- untouched for a touchdown on a 61-yard reverse on offense. Smith was stunned to discover he was an instant hero on campus.

"It has been hard walking around campus and people asking for autographs and everything," Smith said. "But right now I am just trying to stay focused on schoolwork. It has been a little weird that no one before asked me for my autographs, but I had a good game Saturday and now they ask me for autographs. It felt a little good."

Quick Impressions

Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen wasn't a happy camper following his team's 49-24 defeat to Auburn. The Bulldogs allowed 598 yards of total offense, including 390 on the ground. Mississippi State travels to Vanderbilt on Saturday.

"Not winning is not acceptable. I don't like using the 'L-word,'" Mullen said. "That is not acceptable for us and, when you don't come out on top, that is extremely disappointing."

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Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno answers a question during his weekly news conference on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009 in State College, Pa. Penn State plays Temple at home on Saturday. (AP Photo/Pat Little)

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Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno gestures as he answers a question during his weekly news conference on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009 in State College, Pa. Penn State plays Temple at home on Saturday. (AP Photo/Pat Little)

Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy speaks during a news conference in Stillwater, Okla., Monday, Sept. 14, 2009. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Wisconsin head football coach Bret Bielema screams during the second half of an NCAA football game Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009, in Madison, Wis. It took two overtimes for a flu-ravaged Wisconsin team to defeat Fresno State. As the Badgers look toward Wofford this week, Bielema gives an update on how his team is handling the flu outbreak that affected 40 players last week. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

In this Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009, photo, Northwestern's Stefan Demos celebrates after kicking the game-winning 49-yard field goal against Eastern Michigan in the fourth quarter of an NCAA college football game in Evanston, Ill. Northwestern won 27-24. (AP Photo/David Banks)

In this Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009, photo Penn State linebacker Sean Lee, left, walks away after sacking Syracuse quarterback Greg Paulus, right, during the second half of their NCAA college football game in State College, Pa. Lee was so active against Syracuse, it seemed like the Penn State linebacker spent all day leveling opponents behind the line of scrimmage. Any lingering doubts about the health of his surgically-repaired right knee were erased in a dominating performance against the Orange. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

In this Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009, photo, Penn State linebacker Sean Lee (45) stands with assistant coach Tom Bradley on the sideline during the second half of their college football game against Syracuse in State College, Pa. Lee was so active against Syracuse, it seemed like the Penn State linebacker spent all day leveling opponents behind the line of scrimmage. Any lingering doubts about the health of his surgically-repaired right knee were erased in a dominating performance against the Orange. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Oregon State's Jacquizz Rodgers rushes for a key fourth quarter gain on the wiining drive of the Beavers 23-21 win over UNLV in an NCAA college football game on Saturday Sept. 12, 2009 in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Daniel Gluskoter)

COLUMBUS, OH - SEPTEMBER 12: Running back Stafon Johnson #13 of the USC Trojans celebrates in the end zone with teammate Jarvis Jones #10 after scoring a two yard touchdown in the fourth quarter over the Ohio State Buckeyes at Ohio Stadium on September 12, 2009 in Columbus, Ohio. USC won the game 18-15. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Stafon Johnson; Jarvis Jones

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COLUMBUS, OH - SEPTEMBER 12: Running back Stafon Johnson #13 of the USC Trojans celebrates in the end zone after scoring a two yard touchdown in the fourth quarter over the Ohio State Buckeyes at Ohio Stadium on September 12, 2009 in Columbus, Ohio. USC won the game 18-15. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Stafon Johnson

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Improvement must come quickly. Mississippi State is in the middle of a tough stretch. After Saturday's game in Nashville, the Bulldogs come home to host LSU, Georgia Tech and Houston, which just knocked off Oklahoma State.

"Last week, I was disappointed in our coaching staff as far as not putting our players in better positions to make plays," Mullen said. "There were a couple times we did do a good job and we made some plays and missed some plays, but we still have to be in better position to make plays when it comes to game time. We have a lot of things to still improve on."

Ol' Bully

Steve Spurrier, the Ol' Ball Coach, hasn't been able to elevate South Carolina's program to where he wants it -- yet. The Gamecocks lost an SEC heart-breaker at Georgia last Saturday, and they will be looking to rebound in their home-opener on Saturday against Florida Atlantic.

It shouldn't be a problem.

Spurrier is 36-0 against teams outside the six major BCS conferences. The Owls visited Columbia, S.C., in 2006, losing 45-6. The 39-point margin is the second biggest win for the Gamecocks under Spurrier.

Spurrier, the gracious host, pointed out that the Owls have been to bowl games the past two years, beating Memphis in 2007 and Central Michigan in 2008. But he didn't mention that Florida Atlantic opened its season with a 49-3 loss to Nebraska. And, case if you are wondering, Spurrier wasn't in the mood to talk about the Georgia game either.

"That game is history," he said.

"A lot of guys played well; a lot did not play very well. We're trying to get it behind us, that's all we can do now. We lost as a team. We were a play short. Wherever it was, it didn't work out. We're trying to correct a lot of mistakes we had in that game. We had a lot of mistakes in the first game. I still believe we have a pretty good team here. We're trying to put it all together."

By the Numbers ... Trent Richardson ran for 118 yards and two scores, leading the Crimson Tide to an easy 40-14 win over Florida International last Saturday. McElroy threw for 241 yards and a touchdown on 18-of-24 completions. ...Tim Tebow threw for 237 yards and tied a career high with four touchdown passes against Troy. The Gators also tied a school record with its 12th straight win. ... Georgia's kickoff return team set a record with 252 return yards. Brandon Boykin had four returns for 187 yards and a score. ... LSU outgained Vandy, 326-210, in total offense in its victory ... Anthony Dixon paced Mississippi State with 92 rushing yards and a touchdown on 20 carries, but he wasn't able to keep pace with the Auburn backs in defeat. ... Stephen Garcia went 31-for-53 with 313 yards, two scores and an interception and added 42 yards on 10 carries in South Carolina's defeat against Georgia.. ... Vanderbilt scored on a safety for the first time since 2004 in its game against LSU.

SEC Notebook: Joe Cox's Many Maladies originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SEC Predictions 2009: Florida's Dance of The Inevitable, Ole Miss' Stumble

Brian Grummell — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, SEC

We don't need to tell you what's coming, you saw it plenty with USC in 2005. Worse, we're not here to necessarily tell you to complain about it. Florida's awesome, deal with it. Enjoy it, even, at least as a college football fan. Everyone seemingly gets revved up for the David's of the sporting world but few things should leave us in more awe than a Goliath at peak brilliance.

Whether Florida can repeat the roll it went on to end last season is debatable, but our early guess is their performance in 2009 will be nearly insurmountable. As for the rest of the SEC, they're not too shabby, either, although we've got some brontosaurus femur sized bones to pick with some elements of the early consensus around programs like Ole Miss.

Our standings preview and records predictions after the jump.

SEC East

1) Florida (13-0 overall, 9-0 in the SEC) The Gators are obviously the most championship-ready team since the 2005 USC train that went undefeated through the regular season before falling to Texas in the Rose Bowl. Little else needs to be said. The schedule is manageable and the Gators can probably count on another trip to the SEC Championship Game and a victory over ... well, look below to see who rises atop the SEC West.

2) Georgia (9-3 overall, 5-3) We've got the Bulldogs losing to powerhouses LSU and Florida, but also a surprise road stumble at pesky Arkansas. With Matt Stafford and Knowshow Moreno the pressure's off and Georgia just seems to perform better in these scenarios. Every other word out of players' and coaches' mouths this year has been "team." We should be able to count on 2009 being a more focused, below-the-radar effort.

3) Kentucky (7-5 overall, 3-5) Somebody had to come out on top of the messy lower half of the SEC East and the Wildcats are it. They'll have the obvious losses to Florida, Alabama, Auburn and Georgia, plus drop one to South Carolina but get rescued by a surprise final-game victory at home against Tennessee.

4)Tennessee (7-5 overall, 3-5) Yeah, that loss to Kentucky will cost the Vols a solid third place SEC East showing for first-year coach Lane Kiffin. It should be an up and down season full of inconsistency and sometimes brilliance for a still-powerful program taking a new direction. The upshot is we have them beating UCLA in a national-interest game as well as upsetting preseason darling Mississippi. The receiver situation is scary and quarterback Jonathan Crompton has failed to impress in his four years but the lines will play fierce and there's that Eric Berry, the finest offensive player on defense in college football.

5) South Carolina (5-7 overall, 2-6) Well, at least they beat Kentucky and Vanderbilt. We like Stephen Garcia. A lot. But the last time he played he looked about as bad as a Steve Spurrier quarterback has played in wilting before Iowa in the Outback Bowl. He's had a long offseason to simmer about that performance and should return a new man but the rest of the offense is in shambles and the defense steps down a notch from solid units the last few years. Do the math.

6) Vanderbilt (4-8 overall, 1-7) In his seven seasons in Nashville coach Bobby Johnson has gone 0-8, 1-7, 1-7, 3-5, 1-7, 2-6 and 4-4 in conference play. This year is going to be another of those 1-7 efforts with a new quarterback taking over last year's 7-6 team. They should hustle for four wins in the first half of the season beating Western Carolina, Mississippi State, Rice and Army, but that final six is ugly with Georgia, South Carolina, Georgia Tech, Florida, Kentucky and Tennessee all lining up for battle.

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Louisville's Lincoln Carr, front, puts down a board to get ammo across without touching the yellow parts of the course during an Army leadership development exercise Sunday, Aug. 16, 2009, at Fort Knox, Ky. (AP Photo/Patti Longmire)

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Latest College Football Images

Louisville's Lincoln Carr, front, puts down a board to get ammo across without touching the yellow parts of the course during an Army leadership development exercise for the Louisville football team Sunday, Aug. 16, 2009, at Fort Knox, Ky. (AP Photo/Patti Longmire)

Louisville football players Victor Anderson, back, and Anthony Conner try to get the dummy across the obstacle during a leadership development course at Fort Knox, Ky., Sunday, Aug. 16, 2009. (AP Photo/Patti Longmire)

Louisville football players Daniel Brown, front, and Andrew Robinson try to get a dummy across an obstacle course called "Cate's Culvert" during a leadership development course Sunday, Aug. 16, 2009, at Fort Knox, Ky. (AP Photo/Patti Longmire)

Staff Sgt. Dennis Kovalchick, center, gives instructions to the Louisville football team before a relay race course Sunday, Aug. 16, 2009, at Fort Knox army base in Kentucky. Members of the Louisville football team took part in an Army leadership development course. (AP Photo/Patti Longmire)

Staff Sgt. Dennis Kovalchick, center, gives instructions to the Louisville football team before a relay race course Sunday, Aug. 16, 2009, at Ft. Knox Army Base in Kentucky. Members of the Louisville football team took part in an Army leadership development course. (AP Photo/Patti Longmire)

Staff Sgt. Dennis Kovalchick, center, gives instructions to the Louisville football team before a relay race course Sunday, Aug. 16, 2009, at Ft. Knox Army Base in Kentucky. (AP Photo/Patti Longmire)

Boston College quarterback David Shinskie, center, takes part in practice during NCAA college football media day, Friday, Aug. 14, 2009, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

In this Oct. 25, 2008 photo provided by the University of Miami, Miami Hurricanes football player Chris Hayes (49) hugs his mother Kathie after Miami's win over Wake Forest. Hayes, a walk-on college football player gets word that his father, without warning, has taken his own life. He leaves the team to be at his mother's side for the funeral, is summoned back for game day so he can suit up for the first time, gets lost on the way to the stadium, is sent onto the field for the final play and is carried off atop his teammates' shoulders. (AP Photo/University of Miami, JC Ridley)

Photo provided by University of Miami, shows Miami football player Chris Hayes (49) is carried off the field after the Hurricanes defeated Wake Forest Oct. 25, 2008 in Coral Gables, Fla. The low point in Hayes' life came on the previous Monday, when he got the phone call that his dad had committed suicide. The high point of this Miami walk-on's life came five days later when his team carried off the field. (AP Photo/University of Miami, JC Ridley)

SEC West

1) LSU (11-2 overall, 7-2 conference) The Tigers are back! They won't be as fierce as recent outfits as the defensive line takes it down a notch, but the Tigers will win more behind steady Jordan Jefferson. Two major fixes came about this offseason, with Mr. Pick Six Jarrett Lee losing out to Jefferson in the quarterback battle and coach Les Miles replacing the idiotic two-headed defensive coordinator setup of 2008 with the proven John Chavis who has run excellent SEC defenses at Tennessee for years. That won't be enough to beat Florida in the regular season or in the SEC championship game rematch, but its enough to fend off Alabama and other division foes.

2) Alabama (10-2 overall, 6-2 conference) The Crimson Tide will take a tiny step back this year as they break in a new quarterback. In time, he'll be more effective than the departed John Parker Wilson but the offense will grind until a rebuilt offensive line gets together and the 'Tide figure out who replaces Glen Coffee. The defense will be fierce, but so will Florida's, LSU's and Georgia's. We have Alabama losing to LSU and then dropping to rival Auburn in a final week shocker.

3) Auburn (8-4 overall, 5-3 conference) Where . Is . Ole . Miss ? Well, we'll get to them in a moment, or two. We're talking Auburn right now, patience please. Its not that we necessarily like the Gene Chizik hire but it came with a great offensive coordinator and a schedule in which the Tigers are constantly in a position to ruin others' seasons, something they're adept at. They'll be involved in a pair of SEC shockers this year, losing to woeful Mississippi State in week two but also felling powerful rival Alabama in the final week of the regular season. Oh they'll lose to West Virginia, LSU and Georgia as expected but the rest of the SEC slate is winnable including games against Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky and upstart Ole Miss.

4) Arkansas (8-4 overall, 4-4 conference) OK now we've gone and done it. Again, no Ole Miss. Hey don't blame us, blame the scheduling Gods. Like Auburn, the Razorbacks will play tremendous spoilers all year in the second effort with coach Bobby Petrino and dangerous, dangerous offense loaded with great backs and man-mountain quarterback Ryan Mallett. There won't be much defense here but the schedule sets up nicely. They'll drop the obvious games to Alabama, Auburn, Florida and LSU, but also pick off mighty Georgia at home in week two as well as Ole Miss in late October.

5) Ole Miss (7-5 overall, 3-5 conference) Here's how it will go down: The Rebels will open up 4-0 against the doughy soft slate of Memphis, Southeast Louisiana, South Carolina and Vanderbilt, but then cold hard reality will give way to disappointment. They'll lose at home to Alabama, rebound against UAB at homecoming the next week then stumble at home against sneaky-good Arkansas. That will have effectively ended their season given all the hype and they'll drop the Halloween road game to Auburn. They'll beat up on Northern Arizona the next week and then still crying in their Hotty Toddy's flop against surging Tennessee and powerhouse LSU before a get well road win against hapless Mississippi State. College football is such a psychological game and those two losses to Alabama and Arkansas will be more than enough to engineer a tailspin at a program not used to such great expectations.

6) Mississippi State (3-9 overall, 1-7 conference) Hey, they'll have beaten Auburn on the road so that's good right? Right?

SEC Predictions 2009: Florida's Dance of The Inevitable, Ole Miss' Stumble originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is a Feeling of Ole Miss-ery Already Creeping In for Rebel Faithful?

Clay Travis — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:45:00 EST

Filed under: Mississippi, SEC, Fans, General CFB Insanity

I know how you feel Ole Miss fans. I know what it's like to clutch a preseason magazine close to your chest and inhale the paper and ink slowly, get high off the football season anticipation. "Athlon has us No. 10 in the country!" you might say. It's a giddy feeling, enrapturing even. Like being told you can go home with any sorority girl of your choosing in the Grove. Hotty Toddy, Gosh Almighty, Ole Miss is a legitimate contender for the national title!

Except, and Rebel fans know exactly what I'm talking about, in the back of your mind you really can't believe your good fortune.

The Greg Hardy and Dexter McCluster car fire? You expected it. The Jamar Hornsby dismissal? You knew it was inevitable. Jevan Snead tripping and falling into an open culvert on campus, being rescued after a vigil on national television, and breaking his throwing arm in the process? Easy, easy, that hasn't happened. But if it did, you'd have expected it, right?

Dickens began A Tale Of Two Cities with these words, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ..." (You may not remember that because the Cliff Notes didn't begin that way) It takes a gaudy preseason ranking for a perennial doormat to make those words ring true for a sports fan.

Peril lurks around every date on the calendar. Remember when you were a kid and Christmas never seemed like it would get here. You wanted a Miss Elizabeth wrestling figure and a Dukes of Hazzard big wheel more than life itself and, yet, even as Christmas neared, you were terrified you might not get either. Each day heralded the sweet suspense of uncertainty. You'd toss down a calendar date and stare at the square, delicious anticipation -- we're going to win them all -- mixed with delirious dread -- State's going to take our egg!

Right now Ole Miss fans are 35 days from the start of the season and each day is a feather to the bottom of their feet, the tickle of temptation, the agony of being tortured with pleasure.

Why does it matter so much to the Rebels to be ranked so highly?

Consider: Ole Miss is the only SEC West team never to advance to Atlanta. Ole Miss has not won an SEC title since, wait for it, 1963. Since then? The best they could do was change the speed limit on campus to 18 miles an hour in honor of a signal caller who couldn't quite get them a championship. Guy by the name of Manning, Archie. You may know his sons.

Since 1970, they've been to just 15 bowl games. That's a little better than one every three years. They've never won more than 10 games in a season. Ever.

And now they're supposed to make the leap and win 10 in the regular season? I say 10 in the regular season because that's what it would take, 6-2, minimum in the SEC West. Yep, the Rebels are at a place where a 9-3 regular season is a disappointment.

These are truly the times that try a fan's soul.

Trust me, I know.

How?

Because back in 2005-2006 my alma mater, George Washington, was set for the greatest basketball season in the history of the program. Ultimately, the Colonials went 26-1 in the regular season, rose to No. 6 in the country. For anyone who has ever been to a GW basketball game, this should have been the height of fan ecstasy.

But it wasn't.

Why?

Because I wanted more. I was greedy. And in the process I couldn't enjoy a good season because I kept demanding a great one. Ole Miss fans are in a similar position as summer wanes and fall advances. That's why I can tell you the eight stages that encapsulate their fan state of mind.

1. The Calendar Stare

Raise your hand if you're an Ole Miss fan and you haven't debated the danger of opening on a Sunday in Memphis. Every single Rebel fan has their hand raised right now. At least those with computer access.

You've found yourself waking up in the middle of the night thinking, "By God, if Memphis beats us the first game of the season, I will burn down Graceland with a bottle of 151 and a Zippo."

And you're not even joking.

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University of Southern California head coach Pete Carroll speaks during a news conference at the Pac-10 football media day in Los Angeles, Thursday, July 30, 2009. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

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University of Southern California head coach Pete Carroll speaks during a news conference at the Pac-10 football media day in Los Angeles, Thursday, July 30, 2009. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

University of Southern California free safety Taylor Mays speaks during a news conference at the Pac-10 football media day in Los Angeles, Thursday, July 30, 2009. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Oregon State's head coach Mike Riley, speaks during a news conference at the Pac-10 football media day in Los Angeles, Thursday, July 30, 2009. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

University of Oregon corner back Walter Thurmond III, speaks during a news conference at the Pac-10 football media day in Los Angeles, Thursday, July 30, 2009. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

University of California tailback, Jahvid Best looks at media during a news conference at the Pac-10 football media day in Los Angeles, Thursday, July 30, 2009. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Oregon State tailback Keaton Kristick speaks during a news conference at the Pac-10 football media day in Los Angeles, Thursday, July 30, 2009.(AP Photo/Nick Ut)

University of Oregon head coach Chip Kelly speaks during a news conference at the Pac-10 football media day in Los Angeles, Thursday, July 30, 2009. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Arizona State outside linebacker, Mike Nixon speaks during a news conference at the Pac-10 football media day in Los Angeles, Thursday, July 30, 2009. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

University of California head coach Jeff Tedford speaks during a news conference at the Pac-10 football media day in Los Angeles, Thursday, July 30, 2009. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

University of Arizona head coach Mike Stoops, left, presents safety, Cam Nelson during a news conference at the Pac-10 football media day in Los Angeles, Thursday, July 30, 2009. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

2. The Hand-Shaking Schedule Review

When your team is supposed to be good, paradoxically, every team on the schedule looks like a football leviathan. I mean that, every single team. The stakes are too high in college football. Where once you felt comfortable skimming across the schedule and penciling in six or seven likely wins, now your hand shakes when you hold the pencil above the schedule.

Southeast Louisiana Sept. 19? Crap, that's off a bye week and sandwiched before a revenge game at South Carolina. Will the guys be ready?

At Vanderbilt? They beat us last year. And this year it's on the road.

3. Reflections on Failures From Yesteryear

Remember when Eli Manning got stepped on dropping back from center to effectively end the LSU game in 2003? That year, that magical year when if Ole Miss could have managed four more points they would have played Georgia in the SEC Championship Game, was so agonizingly close.

The poignancy of an almost victory somehow becomes even more poignant as a season of promise nears. It's almost as if you have to dose yourself with painful moments from your fan reality to quench the building optimism.

Yep, 2009 could be a perfect season, but it could also be the year when our quarterback gets tripped by his own lineman on fourth down.

Again.

4. The Rival Hate Surges

As your national profile increases, the hate for your provincial rivals, amazingly, soars to a new height. They hate you more for being uppity and you hate them more for making you play them when they have nothing to add to your lofty status.

I've already mentioned burning Graceland. But what if, God forbid, the Rebels roll into Starkville and just need one more win to advance to Atlanta for the first time. That's Starkville, where they still call escalators, magic stairs.

There they are, standing at the top of the magic stairs with their cowbells, the Mississippi State F'in Bulldogs.

It's one thing to lose to a rival when you're both awful or mediocre. But to lose when you're good and they're awful? When they have nothing to gain but ruining your perfect season? It doesn't get any worse in a rivalry, the asymmetry of disparate rivalry outcomes for Ole Miss: ruination on the one hand, mere survival on the other.

5. Expectations of Failure Conflict With Soaring Optimism

You're bipolar. One moment you're convinced that your team is destined for a 7-5 season. The next, that 11-1, or be still my fluttering heart, 12-0 is a very likely outcome. You vacillate between these extremes much to the amusement of casual fans or those that, blasphemy, don't really care that much at all.

In your heart of hearts, you're a brooding Quentin Compson staring over the bridge at the Cambridge fish below. Uncertain whether to jump or strike up a parade.

6. You Hate the Media

Either they're hyping your team or disrespecting your team. There's no middle ground. And don't be mistaken about this, the media has their own agenda. They're all agents working to screw up your players' heads. Get them all starry-eyed with optimism so that they can't focus a week at a time. And if they aren't doing that? Well, they're all about tearing y'all down, killing the confidence that came from a robust finish.

How else to explain the third place vote at SEC Media Days? Not even third in the SEC, third in the SEC West!

The nerve, those bastards.

7. Arguments Ensue With Your Wife Over Road Trips You Normally Wouldn't Take

Suddenly, you absolutely have to be in Columbia, S.C., Sept. 24. It doesn't matter that Sept. 24 is a Thursday night or that Columbia is over 550 miles away. In order to get there from Oxford and not miss three days of work, you have to pay $2,000 and make 15 different flight connections. Somehow you have a three-hour lay-over in Ames, Iowa.

Your job? It doesn't matter. Your family? They don't matter.

This is your team. And this is their year. They might never be this good again for the rest of your life.

Even if this is true, your wife won't believe you. (Although some wife's will, this is why the Grove is heaven on earth.)

8. You Can't Enjoy Any of It

In the Grove they like to say that they may have lost a football game, but they've never lost a party. An attitude like this explains why the first Tennessee game I planned this season was the UT-Ole Miss game Nov. 14th in Oxford.

I truly love Oxford: the people, the bookstores (Square Books is amazing), the food, the drinks, the women in sundresses. Life doesn't get much better.

But if you're an Ole Miss fan, all of this is, suddenly, secondary. Your team has to win and you don't care if the games have all the flavor of Sunday night fishing in Moldova. And damn all the people who have the nerve to grin and laugh and have a good time with a game coming up.

In the end, I'd say to calm down and enjoy the ride. But you'd just ignore me anyway.

After all, Ole Miss is thirty-five days from beginning their first march to Atlanta.

Or not.

Gosh Almighty, indeed.

Is a Feeling of Ole Miss-ery Already Creeping In for Rebel Faithful? originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:45:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Party On, Football Schools

Clay Travis — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Arizona State, Colorado, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Indiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Penn State, Tennessee, Texas, ACC, Big 10, Big East, Pac 10, Campus, Fans, General CFB Insanity

Penn State garnered top party school honors this year in the annual Princeton Review's ranking of top party schools. The top 20 schools are listed, and as I wistfully scanned the list and daydreamed about a time when all I had to worry about was whether the kegs would make it through the night or whether we'd have to scramble for more cases of Natty Light, I came to a startling conclusion: It's almost as if major college football and partying go together.

Shocking, no?

So in honor of college football's apparent impact on the most important ranking this side of the Harris Interactive Poll, let's run through the 20 party scenes -- including one college you've never heard of, ClayNation style.

1. Penn State

People have already started drinking in Happy Valley because they think it will make their arguments better as to why an undefeated Penn State team should get to play Texas over a one-loss Florida team.

2. Florida

I've had a lot of fun with Gator girls and their bingo wings. But the school knows how to party. Except on football Saturdays when the cops turn into fascists and will arrest you for having an open container on University Boulevard.

And if you get arrested you have to spend the night in jail. Talk about a kick in the ass. This is definitely going to happen to several SEC fans this fall. They're going to roll into Gainesville, get put in jail, and listen on the radio as their team loses by 50.

Come to think of it, I just hope this doesn't happen to me.

3. Ole Miss

Anyone who has ever been to Ole Miss is jealous that they aren't on Ole Miss's campus right now. Even at this exact moment when it's 438 degrees in the Delta and all the coeds have decided to spend the day drinking by the pool in their bikinis ... I can't go on.

I'm already plotting my trip to Oxford this November. This is something you have to do since there are only 14 hotel rooms in the entire Oxford area. So we're compromising by staying in a Tunica casino. Basically I'm trying to lump all my sinning into the same weekend.

How wild is it at Ole Miss? They have raves at the library.

4. Georgia

I've called Athens the Cleavage Capital of the South and suggested that the tagline for the city should be, simply, Athens: Where Boobs Are Fun.

I don't know how any football recruit in the country visits Athens on a weekend and ends up going to another school.

Honestly.

It's that much fun.

Now imagine if Bulldawg undergrads could drink for enjoyment instead of to dull the pain of another collapse by the Georgia defense under Willie Martinez.

5. Ohio University

Long overshadowed by their neighbors in Columbus, the Bobcats of Ohio toil in comparative oblivion in the MAC. Which explains why they party so hard.

If you drink enough you can almost convince yourself that you're a student at Ohio State.

6. West Virginia

The Deadwood of college campuses. Remember how Yoo fed all of Swearingen's victims to pigs? At West Virginia they do this if you can't finish an entire bottle of Maker's Mark before a football game.

WVU: "We put the riot in party."

7. Texas

Austin is purportedly the greatest city in America that doesn't lie on either coast. I don't know, I've never been. But I have seen the girls in those chaps and orange shorts on the sideline of games. Which does enough for me.

If Texas and Florida end up playing in the BCS title game this fall, doesn't this just seem unfair? How much better does any college kid's life at Florida or Texas deserve to be? It's warm all year round, your teams never lose, and both teams are going undefeated?

8. Wisconsin

True story, one of alcohol's many great powers is that it makes you feel less cold. That's important in a place like Madison, Wis.

Second true story, if your parents want to buy you a beer in a Wisconsin bar, you're allowed to consume it with them. Even if you're 11 or 12.

It's such a surprise that kids raised like that end up liking to party in college.

9. Florida State

Remember when the cameras panned to the crowd and landed on Jenn Sterger wearing a bikini in the student section? And even Brent Musberger, Brent Musberger!, couldn't avoid commenting on her. That's what life is like in Tallahassee. All those girls who don't have good enough test scores to get into UF anymore, yeah, they're here.

10. University of California-Santa Barbara

Have you ever been to Santa Barbara? You can't live in the city for less than a million dollars. It's probably the last place on earth where you need to dull the pain of college with alcohol. You live in paradise and you're in college. The people are so good looking in this town, and this is true, that when you apply for a job as a waiter, most restaurants ask if you have a head shot.

How much better can your life get?

Can I re-enroll and major in PE?

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Kansas State quarterback Carson Coffman is shown during Big 12 Media Day in Irving, Texas, Wednesday, July 29, 2009. (AP Photo/Donna McWilliam)

Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford talks to the press during the Big XII media day in Irving, Texas, on Tuesday, July 28, 2009. (Louis DeLuca/Dallas Morning News/MCT)

MCT

Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops signs his autograph on some commemorative footballs during the Big XII media day in Irving, Texas, on Tuesday, July 28, 2009. (Louis DeLuca/Dallas Morning News/MCT)

MCT

Baylor head coach Art Briles autographs a commemorative helmet during the Big XII media day in Irving, Texas, on Tuesday, July 28, 2009. (Louis DeLuca/Dallas Morning News/MCT)

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Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops talks with the reporters during the Big XII media day in Irving, Texas, on Tuesday, July 28, 2009. (Louis DeLuca/Dallas Morning News/MCT)

MCT

Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford is shown during Big 12 Media Day in Irving, Texas, Tuesday, July 28, 2009. (AP Photo/Donna McWilliam)

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops is shown during Big 12 Media Day in Irving, Texas, Tuesday, July 28, 2009. (AP Photo/Donna McWilliam)

Missouri football coach Gary Pinkel gestures as he speaks during Big 12 Media Day in Irving, Texas, Tuesday, July 28, 2009. (AP Photo/Donna McWilliam)

Kansas coach Mark Mangino gestures during Big 12 Media Day in Irving, Texas, Tuesday, July 28, 2009. (AP Photo/Donna McWilliam)

Oklahoma State University head football coach Mike Gundy answers questions from reporters during media day at the Dallas-Fort Worth Westin Hotel in Irving, Texas, Monday, July 27, 2009. (Brandon Wade/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/MCT)

MCT

11. Colorado

Boulder is kind of like utopia. Everyone is rich, everyone is nice, and everyone parties all the time. So what if their athletic teams always lose. Your life ends up pretty nice anyway.

Now if only LenDale White hadn't gotten away to USC ...

12. Iowa

Iowa is another state I don't know much about. I've never been. I get the impression that everyone drinks here because they wish they were somewhere else.

Also, they always have white wide receivers. Iowa seems to breed fast white boys. I don't know why.

On the positive side, the state's unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the nation. Maybe everyone's drinking to celebrate ... and to create more jobs for people who pick vomit out of things.

13. Union College

Old fraternity training teaches me that the first fraternities in America came from Union College. Our first school that doesn't have major athletic programs. Outside of UC-Santa-Barbara. Let's be honest, 95 percent of the drinking associated with this school is based on how much fun it is to attempt to pronounce Schenectady after six beers in an hour.

You try.

It's impossible.

14. Indiana

You'd drink if you had to put up with the Kelvin Sampson era as well. Point of demarcation here, this represents the first BCS-level basketball-first school to make the list.

Either that or Indiana football fans (don't those three words together make your skin crawl with discomfort to read?) are dulling the pain of the early fall by whiling away their time ignoring the team.

15. DePauw

Several of my friends went to DePauw which is not to be confused with DePaul in Chicago. DePauw is a tiny college in the middle of nowhere Indiana. What do they do for fun?

One of my best friends once walked into his fraternity house to see a fraternity brother who was involved in a sex act while watching ... wait for it ... Major League. It's unbefitting a family Web site like this to go into further detail, but let's just say that, like Pedro Ceranno in a fit of frustration with Jobu, he did it himself.

He, of course, blamed alcohol.

As well he should.

16. Tennessee

Tennessee leads the nation in the number of women who wake up in the morning and think, "Wait, I went home with him?"

Which means if you're looking at colleges and you're male, UT should be on your list.

17. Sewanee: The University of the South

My best man went to this school. About 1,200 kids go to college on top of a mountain surrounded by a 10,000-acre campus. Once I showed up to visit him and found him cutting strips of old dark brown shag carpeting in the front yard outside his dorm room.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Making clothes for the viking party," he said. "Everyone makes their own outfit and you have to wear it there to get inside."

Some girls made Viking bikinis.

Needless to say, the party was awesome beyond words.

18. North Dakota

I don't know a single thing about North Dakota that isn't Mount Rushmore related. And I just Googled Mount Rushmore and found out it's actually in South Dakota.

Who knew? Other than South Dakotans?

19. Tulane

Remember in the wake of hurricane Katrina when everyone worried that Tulane would vanish as a school that anyone wanted to attend?

Wrong.

They buckled down and did what they had to do, kept shutting down the school for Mardi Gras and battening down the hatches for drinking. Good for them.

20. Arizona State

The Daily Show referred to Arizona State as "the Harvard of date rape." That was unfair.

A football player who shall remain nameless informed me that they had to institute a no tanning rule on the quad near campus because there were too many car accidents from drivers ogling the women.

Party On, Football Schools originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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'Is Tim Tebow a Virgin?' and Other Burning Questions for SEC Media Days

Clay Travis — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Tennessee, SEC, Fans, General CFB Insanity

Wednesday, the annual circus known as the SEC Media Days kicks off in Birmingham, Ala. As college football has become a year-round sport, the three media days down in Birmingham have become the official launch date for SEC football fans, a time when our region's football obsession officially begins anew. Even if, you know, it never actually dies. Last season then-Tennessee coach Phil Fulmer arrived and was immediately served with a subpoena in a lawsuit brought by my favorite people on Earth: disassociated Alabama boosters. Getting disassociated from the Alabama football program is like being the only guy in a prison who no one will share a table with.

This season, 25 radio stations will be broadcasting live from inside the event, and over 800 members of the media have been credentialed. It's like Woodstock for people who use the word, goll-durn. And we'll be there for the ride. Goll-durn.
What will I be doing? Liveblogging away with y'all. You can minimize your screens at work and come hang out with us. Because, trust me, I know you don't really care about work when media days arrive. You're just pretending. No one will know. Your secret is safe with us. So is the fact that you don't really care about work when media days aren't going on either. That's why you've already spent 45 minutes this morning searching, "Erin Andrews video."

You pervert.

Here's a list of the 24 players that will be appearing to field questions along with the times that the teams will be appearing over the next three days. Note that Lane Kiffin was given the last time-slot on Friday. Is this to keep his comments from overshadowing everyone else's and in hopes that whatever he says floats into the weekend oblivion? I think so.

Below are 10 burning ClayNation questions that need to be asked in advance of media days. By the way, we need a phrase that's better than "burning questions." That sounds like something your doctor asks after a long weekend in Bangkok. So shoot me your ideas.

Here goes:

1. Is Tim Tebow a virgin?

I think everyone is afraid to ask, but wouldn't this be the ultimate testament to his religious faith? Even if you accept that your average Florida girl is carrying six-to-eight extra pounds of fat on her arms, how many women would Tebow have turned down carnal relations with over the past three years of college? Fortunately, I know.

3,468,946,253.

Yep, Tebow turned down your Mom!

And my mom.

And if he wasn't a virgin wouldn't this at least prove that Tim Tebow has violated a Bible verse? Something that, to be honest, there is no evidence of thus far. Put it this way, if Tebow got shot and we all thought he was dead, and then he came back to life, wouldn't you be convinced that Revelations was unspooling before your eyes? (And, if so, would you expect the disciples to be wearing jorts?)

2. Will Les Miles prove he's a bona fide long-term fit at LSU, or will this be the season when he demonstrates that a temperament consisting of equal parts insanity and supreme self-confidence doesn't work in the SEC?

Miles went 19-5 in the SEC his first three years with an SEC and national title. But then he went 3-5 last season, equaling the SEC losses that he put up in his first three seasons combined. As if that weren't enough, the LSU defense imploded, allowing over 50 points to Georgia and Florida and going 3-5 in the final eight games of the regular season.

The Tigers rebounded to smoke Georgia Tech in the bowl game, but was that indicative of what's to come or was the preceding eight weeks more representative of what LSU has become? We'll know soon.

Secondary question, how much less fearsome would Les Miles be if he went by his given name, Leslie? Is he even a head coach right now? I mean that honestly. Do you think someone gave him advice on this years ago? The name Leslie standing alone probably disqualifies him from coaching everywhere in the SEC except Vanderbilt.

3. Is the SEC still Southern?

I'm going to write on this later this week, but in an era when non-Southerners like Urban Meyer, Bobby Petrino, Lane Kiffin, Dan Mullen, and Nick Saban (although my editor says West Virginia is like Mississippi in the mountains) are five of the most recent seven hires in the SEC, what percentage of coaches would use the word fixin' or y'all and not sound like they were doing it to fit in? Like politicians who develop accents as soon as they leave Washington.

Everyone but Spurrier is my call.

In the ultimate kick in the groin to Southern regionalism, have we outsourced our coaching to the rest of the country?

4. Does Dan Mullen ever watch Mississippi State practice and think to himself, "Dear Lord, what have I done?"

I know that getting an offer to become a head coach is tough to pass up, but why would you leave Florida before this year? You have the potential to be associated with a three-time national championship winning team, lock down another SEC title, and further burnish your credentials as offensive coordinator by coaching Tebow for another year of offensive explosions.

Or you can take over the only SEC football team with an all-time losing record. And, oh by the way, the last SEC title the team has won? 1941.

Isn't this an easy decision? Or does Mullen worry that he's never going to get a head job because everyone will believe that Tebow's success carried Mullen's offense.

Regardless, I guess it could be worse, Mullen could have been ridiculously successful as a coordinator for 10 years and not gotten a head job because he was black and married a white woman. (See, Strong, Charlie)

5. Of John Chavis at LSU, Gus Malzahn at Auburn, and Monte Kiffin at Tennessee, which highly paid, highly touted coordinator hire will have the most early success?

There will be a ton of focus on Auburn's Gene Chizik, Tennessee's Lane Kiffin, and Mississippi State's Mullen, but arguably the three men hired as big-money and big-name coordinators will have more impact on the first-year results of their teams than the head coaches will. Now, down the road the head coaches have more influence, but in a one-year context I think a real argument can be made that coordinators have more impact. Put it this way, if Tommy Tuberville and Phil Fulmer don't hire Tony Franklin and Dave Clawson as offensive coordinators, are they both still coaching at their schools?

I think so.

Given that premise, who will be the most successful? Here's a vote for Chavis. While LSU loses three of their starters on their defensive line, they return the guys in the secondary who were so awful and the linebackers as well. They'll be improved. More importantly, Chavis will instill an attitude that doesn't allow consistent failure. I still think Auburn will be awful on offense even under Malzahn and I still think Tennessee will be good on defense. But LSU will go from awful to solid in the first year under Chavis.

6. How badly could Florida play and still win the league?

I said this last week, and I firmly believe it. Florida is better than the rest of the SEC by a greater margin than any team in the SEC in my lifetime. Florida, in 1996, the year they won the national championship, was dominant, but the second-tier teams were better. This year? Even if you buy Ole Miss as a top-10 team (which I don't), there isn't anyone else within hailing distance.

There hasn't been much attention paid to this issue, but it might be better for the SEC's league image if someone hangs a loss on Florida. Maybe. As it now stands, write this in: the Gators are going to be double-digit favorites in every game they play this season. Including the SEC championship game and Oct. 10 at LSU.

In fact, look at the Gators schedule, and tell me where the upset is coming.

Has any SEC school ever been favored for an entire season by double digits? I doubt it. In fact, there have only been two teams in the past decade to march through the SEC without a loss, Tennessee in 1998 and Auburn in 2004. Both of these teams came out of nowhere to go undefeated. This year, not so much.

Florida may lose a game in the league, but if they do, it will be a bad loss.

7. Who will be the third and fourth best quarterbacks in the SEC?

As noted last week, Kentucky's Mike Hartline and South Carolina's Stephen Garcia tied as the coach's picks for third-team quarterback. I think neither of these guys will actually end up being the third best quarterback in the league. Who are my picks instead?

First, Ryan Mallett at Arkansas. Why? Because Bobby Petrino managed to get Casey Dick to throw for almost 2,600 yards last season. (If you've ever seen Casey Dick throw, this will make more sense to you. Picture your four-year old daughter. Then imagine you just made her carry a block of granite for 10 city blocks. Then ask her to throw. Bingo: Casey Dick's arm strength.) Mallet will go for over 3,000 in a much-improved offense. Book it.

Second, Jonathan Crompton at Tennessee. Don't laugh. The Vols' new Tecmo Super Bowl offense -- four pass plays, four run plays -- may not be complicated, but it will be efficient. Crompton bore the brunt of the criticism for Tennessee's collapse last year, but in reality the entire offense stunk. Every player, no matter their position, was awful. Even with the putrid stench that was Tennessee's offense 2008, Crompton threw for 889 yards and four touchdowns in six starts. Those were better stats than Garcia. And Crompton will have more weapons on offense and a better returning offensive line than Garcia or Hartline.

8. According to the Golden Nugget casino, Florida is currently favored by 27 points over Tennessee for their game Sept. 19 in Gainesville. How much of this line is directly attributable to Lane Kiffin's comments?

Further, have a head coach's comments ever swung a line this much? And by this question, I mean comments that are entirely based on off-field issues and not a press conference where a head coach announces that he's suspending a star player, that someone is injured or that someone just molested a fowl (We haven't forgotten about you, South Carolina).

I don't think so.

Putting this line into context, it's the biggest underdog that Tennessee has been in over three decades. Maybe ever. Nice work, Lane.

9. Is Georgia defensive coordinator Willie Martinez the worst defensive coordinator in the league? And will Mark Richt be forced to make a change there after this season?

Last year Georgia's defense gave up 40 touchdowns. You might not have noticed if you live outside the state of Georgia because most of the attention was gobbled up by Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno on offense. Georgia scored an awful lot of points last season. But as good as their offense was, their defense was just as bad.

How bad?

Kentucky hung 38 on Georgia. Alabama put up 41. LSU nailed down 38. Florida snatched 49, and in the final hobnailed boot to the groin, Georgia Tech came into Sanford Stadium and scored 45 points. The latter was particularly painful, because it came after a bye week when the defense should have been able to prepare for Georgia Tech's offense.

Bulldog fans will hate me for saying it, but Georgia right now has an awful lot of similarities with Tennessee before the wheels came off in 2005. They've been winning close games under Richt for a long time. But what if they get a few bad bounces this coming year? The offense isn't there to rescue them. Change one play in the Kentucky, South Carolina, and Auburn games and the Bulldogs slide from 9-3 in the regular season to 6-6. That's with last year's offense.

Is Martinez the Randy Sanders of Georgia football? Richt's first fall guy?

We'll see.

10. Finally, we want your questions. We'll feature the best. Or at least I'm told by my fearless editor that this is possible. I have no idea how it will work. But it should be fun. Submit them in the comments section.

'Is Tim Tebow a Virgin?' and Other Burning Questions for SEC Media Days originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Check for Hanging Chads, Tim Tebow Somehow Not Unanimously All-SEC

Clay Travis — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:30:00 EST

Filed under: Florida, Mississippi, SEC

Today the SEC released the Coaches' Preseason Football Team. There were three unanimous selections: Tennessee safety Eric Berry, LSU offensive lineman Ciron Black, and Alabama wide receiver Julio Jones. Noticing something surprising? Yep, someone didn't vote for Florida quarterback Tim Tebow. And before you throw Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt under the bus, assuming he voted for his player, Jevan Snead, over Tebow, keep this in mind, coaches weren't allowed to vote for their own players. So presumably someone other than Nutt left Tebow off the first team.

Wow.

But that's not even the most surprising detail.

The SEC, home of the last three national champions, is as weak at starting quarterback as the league has ever been. Snead of Ole Miss was a second-teamer. But third team? How about a tie between South Carolina's Stephen Garcia and, wait for it, Kentucky's Mike Hartline, the same Mike Hartline who was replaced for the second half of the season by a punt-returning freshman wide receiver named Randall Cobb.

I'm heading down for SEC Media Days next week (check back then because we'll have some cool coverage), and I can't wait to see every coach squirm when they're asked whether they voted for Tebow as a first-team selection. Unless it was Lane Kiffin who did it. In which case Kiffin will lead off his opening remarks to the media by saying, "I just don't think Tebow's that good." Odds that someone other than Kiffin admits making that decision? Zero percent. It's one of many reasons these ballots should be public.

Otherwise, I just fundamentally refuse to believe that any SEC coach could have seen Tebow play over the past three years and not thought, "I would sacrifice my first three children for a chance to coach a team with him at quarterback."

Seriously.

And I'll even make this argument, if you put Tebow on Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Ole Miss, or South Carolina, they automatically become the team to beat in the SEC. Put him on Florida, already the most talented team in the conference, and the Gators have put more distance between themselves and the second best team in 2009 than any SEC team has in my life.

Notre Dame fans must be salivating.

In the meantime, any coach who didn't put Tebow on the first team should have their coaching credentials rescinded immediately. Unless, and this is the one caveat, they're such a braggart that they are publicly willing to admit to their voting decision. Perhaps under the misguided notion that this will somehow work to their team's advantage. I have no idea how that could possibly be the case, but nothing else has really worked against Tebow over the past few years either. Unless you're Tebow's kryptonite, Auburn. So maybe it was Gene Chizik.

But more interesting than the controversy at the top of the quarterback heap, is the dearth of proven signal-callers below Tebow and Snead. (By the way, if at least one SEC coach who didn't vote for Tebow also didn't vote for Snead, then I think we need to have them DNA tested to prove they aren't the biological father of Garcia or Hartline.)

As the SEC has become more competitive, the quarterback position has become more and more important in determining whether or not a team can compete for a championship. Gone are the days when SEC quarterbacks could simply be place-holders alongside great defenses. In fact, I'd like to throw out this idea, the SEC is more like the NFL than any other league in college football because just like in the NFL, success comes down to who lines up under center for your team. I think you can make an argument that this season's final standings will be in direct correlation to how the quarterback's end up ranking overall. And if you're a fan of SEC teams other than Florida or Ole Miss, the quarterback depth has to scare you.

Last year, Hartline (remember, as voted by the coaches to be tied for the third best quarterback in the SEC), completed 55 percent of his passes for 1,666 yards, nine touchdowns and eight interceptions. He was benched in favor of Cobb, who has now been returned to wide receiver full time. He did win six of the seven games he started. That's something, I suppose. But it's also telling that at the end of last season, Kentucky's punt returner stayed on the field to play quarterback. Have you ever seen that before? And then the SEC coaches selected the guy who the punt returner was starting over as the third best quarterback in the league. Can that really be true?

Per the SEC coaches Hartline is tied with Garcia. Really? This isn't a joke? When he saw this, Steve Spurrier must have thrown his visor. If anything, this award might as well go to Spurrier. It shows that other SEC coaches still believe he has the capability of melding a quarterback into a star, even if that hasn't happened in the last four years, during which time Spurrier's tallied up a 15-17 SEC record. So far, Garcia has distinguished himself better for his off-field keying of a professor's car than for his on-field play. Last year he threw for 832 yards, six touchdowns, and eight interceptions. He completed 53 percent of his passes and rebounded nicely from his football suspension that lasted, oh by the way, until 13 days before the season started.

And these two guys are in the top quartile of starting SEC signal callers? A guy who a punt-returner started in front of and another one who has been arrested three times since arriving on campus.

Who'd they beat out? LSU's Jordan Jefferson, Tennessee's Jonathan Crompton, Auburn's Kodi Burns, Vandy's Larry Smith, Arkansas's Ryan Mallett, Georgia's Joe Cox, Alabama's Greg McElroy, and Mississippi State's Tyson Lee. Look at that bunch. Doubtless some will play well. But has there ever been a less-proven group at the top of the SEC?

If I put four guys in front of you and asked you to pick out Larry Smith could you? Greg McElroy (assuming his Bama bangs weren't visible), Joe Cox? Don't these all kind of sound like made-up cable-repairmen names? Or an Irish dance troupe.

But who knows, maybe that lack of recognition is not an indictment after all.

Last year, if I'd asked you to point to Jevan Snead and surrounded him with three black guys of the same height you definitely wouldn't have picked the white guy. Now he's indisputably the second best quarterback in the league. Unless you're the coach who picked him above Tim Tebow. Then, he's the best around.

For the rest of us who aren't Ole Miss or Florida fans, it's going to be a long and crazy trip this fall. Because outside of Oxford and Gainesville, there's no one under center that fans can completely trust.

Check for Hanging Chads, Tim Tebow Somehow Not Unanimously All-SEC originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:30:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ole Miss Football Finally Up to Snead

Jim Henry — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Mississippi, SEC

Jevan Snead refuses to get caught up in the hype churning around the Ole Miss Rebels.

The late-season success by the Rebels in 2008 is still the talk of college football as summer approaches. They have gone from homely doormat to a sexy pick for the Top 10. Snead, a junior quarterback, also continues to attract national attention. He was recently named the 20th-best player in college football by The Sporting News and his name has started to appear on preseason Heisman Trophy watch lists.

"Honestly, I've heard people mention things but I don't really look at all those preseason magazines and try to put too much into all of that stuff," Snead told FanHouse.

"It's exciting that we are getting some national respect, but we still have to go out there and prove we are good and that we can play and we can win. Last year was extremely exciting, but it was just as important to have a great spring, which was big for us, and to roll that momentum into the summer and continue to work hard."

The Rebels certainly won't be able to tip-toe around the SEC this season.

With a 9-4 record and a 5-3 mark in the SEC last year, first-year coach Houston Nutt led one of the greatest turnarounds in school history. It marked the program's best improvement from one season (3-9 in 2007) to the next since Ole Miss coach John Vaught's debut in 1947.

The Rebels knocked off three top-20 opponents away from home, including defending national champion LSU in Death Valley and eventual national champ Florida in The Swamp, the Gators' only loss of the year. Better yet, Ole Miss won its final six games and beat No. 8 Texas Tech, 47-34, in the Cotton Bowl and earned a No. 14 final ranking -- the program's highest finish since Eli Manning's senior season of 2003, when the Rebels finished 13th in the Associated Press poll.

"We're in different, unchartered waters right now, that our guys haven't been in before," Nutt said.

"Where last year at this time the experts picked us last in the West (Division) or close to it. What we have to realize is the same experts have now picked us close to the top. So all that means nothing, and it's by hard work and by getting better."

Snead, meanwhile, has finally found a home in Oxford, Miss.

Snead had committed to the University of Florida out of Stephenville (Texas) High, where he was a Parade All-American as a senior in 2006. But the Gators had also received a commitment from a home-state quarterback named Tim Tebow, so Snead elected to remain in Texas and become a Longhorn. Snead played sparingly his freshman season behind Colt McCoy, who had established himself as the Texas starter. That sent Snead back on the road, and he landed at Ole Miss in 2007.

After sitting out the 2007 season under NCAA rules, Snead's first season with the Rebels in 2008 was a huge success. He finished second in the SEC in touchdown passes (26), third in passing average (212.5 yards per game) and pass efficiency (145.5) and fourth in total offense (217.1). Although it was an impressive first tour through the SEC, Snead saw plenty of holes in his game. He also improved his confidence on the field and command in the huddle during spring drills.

"I have so much to improve on that I really can't point out one thing," said Snead, who completed 184-of-327 passes for 2,762 yards in 2008.

"I guess the biggest thing is I need to do is make better decisions. My decision making led to some turnovers early in the season last year. As I got more games under my belt, it improved a little bit but you can always get better."

Nutt liked what he saw from Snead in spring drills.

"When you look at Jevan's first six games and then his last six, it's not even close," Nutt said.

"Jevan really matured as a quarterback and became much more knowledgeable. His reads got better, he was getting us out of bad plays, his accuracy improved and he just got more and more comfortable. He's been around the playbook for a year and he's just gotten better."

Snead said the Rebels have added some new wrinkles to an offensive scheme that will feature, to some extent, a rebuilt offensive line. Left tackle Michael Oher, a first-round draft selection of the Baltimore Ravens, and left guard Darryl Harris are gone. Sophomore Bradley Sowell and senior Reid Neely, a three-year letterman, are expected to step in as starters.

The Rebels are deep at running back, a strength that should help open the passing game for Snead. Dexter McCluster (655 rushing yards), Codera Eason (647), Brandon Bolden (542), who emerged as the starter out of spring, and Enrique Davis (244) give Ole Miss plenty of rush options. The Rebels are also plenty talented at receiver, but they will certainly miss Mike Wallace. Wallace caught seven touchdown passes last season as a senior and averaged 20.1 yards per catch to rank first among SEC receiving leaders.

"We can do so many different things and we have so many different packages," said Snead, whose favorite quarterback at a youth was Troy Aikman of the Dallas Cowboys. "Most of us have been around each other for a few years now and everyone knows each other. That's why it's important for us as a team this summer to work hard on the practice field and in the weight room to prepare for the start of practice (in August)."

While Snead says he's honored to be mentioned among the country's elite players, he wants to make sure the Rebels are not one-hit wonders. Ole Miss certainly has a manageable schedule with Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee and LSU at home.

"The way I look at it, I am just doing my job and doing everything I can to help us win," Snead said. "It's exciting that fans and the community are behind us and we realize this is a great opportunity. But, like I said, we need to go out there and prove that we can win."

Ole Miss Football Finally Up to Snead originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Sat, 13 Jun 2009 17:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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