I don’t get the people who are treating LSU as a mortal lock against Florida. Though LSU has steamrolled the weaker teams on its schedule to this point, they looked very familiar against Auburn: no running game and no playmakers in the passing game. Florida’s offense has put up over 20 points against both Tennessee and Alabama – quality defenses. I’m not so sure that Florida wins. The biggest key will be their start. They will find it much tougher playing from behind against LSU. I think the Florida defense is getting overlooked. They have as much ability to shut down LSU as Auburn did, and the LSU offense hasn’t looked particularly effective in their last two games against better SEC competition (Georgia last year and Auburn this year).

It’s Friday, and I’m still trying to figure out the reasoning behind naming Tereshinski the starter. A few separate thoughts:

• He hasn’t faced game action in a month. He hasn’t faced SEC-quality pressure in nearly a year except for a single series against SC. There is more to being ready than having a pain-free ankle.
• Even if he knows the playbook better than anyone and can make perfect reads and checks, there is still the question of executing those reads and checks. The same delivery problems will still be there.
• I’ve seen it said dozens of times that Tereshinski "manages the game." What am I not seeing here? What, from his body of work, has been exceptional in the area of managing game situations?
• I also don’t buy the "loyalty" or "nepotism" reasons some have grasped at in an attempt to explain the move. There much be some solid football reasoning behind it. There must be something JT3 is expected to do or bring that gives us a better chance against Tennessee than one of the other quarterbacks. I’m just not seeing what it is.
• I’m really hoping he performs well because I want the Dawgs to win.

So a bunch of students want to organize and wear black to the game. Instead of "blackout", we’ll call it "wearing shirts of color". I’ll be happy if the students are just in the stadium before the Alma Mater. Aside from the utter Gamecockishness of it, I have to appeal to the superstitious nature of sports fans. Why on earth someone would wear a shirt that hasn’t had its good luck thoroughly vetted in prior games to a game of this magnitude is foreign to me. I believe the majority of "(color)outs" fail not because they’re cheesy or a sign of an inferior team putting all their eggs in one basket (OK, those work too) but because thousands of fans willingly leave proven good luck garments at home in order to participate.

Some students we’ve talked to this week with their finger on the pulse defend the plan as 1) a show of "unity" and 2) what’s wrong with students showing some excitement for the game? First, there’s not much more unity than the sea of red at most home games. Black is a move in the opposite direction from unity. Second, if students can’t be at a frenzy for a night nationally-televised SEC game between two top 15 programs without a fresh wardrobe, stay out of the ticket lottery next year and let some serious football fans get the student tickets.