So within the past few days Oklahoma State has had to deal with a couple of personnel issues.
Senior starting defensive back Perrish Cox was arrested last week for driving with a suspended license. He won’t miss the opener (“We handle all of those things internally,” said coach Mike Gundy), but that’s not unusual for a simple moving violation. It’s not like he was caught with drugs or anything.
Now starting tight end Jamal Mosley has left the team. Mosely is the same player who was arrested for marijuana possession over the summer and also wasn’t suspended. Now Gundy doesn’t have a choice – it’s on to plan B at tight end.
Does Mosely’s departure really matter? He only tallied five receptions last year, but he was expected to step in for NFL-bound Brandon Pettigrew. It’s worth noting that in Oklahoma State’s 2007 game in Athens, the most productive OSU receiver was the tight end. Does it matter that the position now turns to a player who recorded a single reception (for four yards) to replace an NFL-quality tight end? Much (or nearly all) of the buildup to this game talks about Georgia’s challenge in defending Dez Bryant, but as good of a receiver as Bryant is, he’s still not going to be the target on every pass attempt. Chris Brown, in his overview of the OSU offense, cautioned that “with Big 12 defenses focused on Bryant, it will be up to the run game — and the other receivers, and the playcallers — to find ways to succeed without lobbing it up to No. 1.” Just five days before the opener those OSU playcallers are dealing with a shakeup at a position that they’ve leaned on for a good bit of production over the past couple of years.
I swear I’m knocking on a wooden bookshelf as I type this, but I have to chuckle a little bit when I read dramatic headlines like 6 key Dogs miss practice and discussions about an “epidemic of strained and pulled hamstrings.”
Last night we found out that starting center Ben Jones got a scare with an ankle injury. X-rays were negative, and it’s just a sprain. Jones wasn’t the only starting Georgia lineman battled injury – tackle Clint Boling had a few nervous days over the weekend before finding out that his wrist injury was also a sprain. Boling’s already back at practice.
Not to tempt fate, but the way things went last year Jones’ and Boling’s x-rays and MRIs would have come back with a break or a tear if this were 2008. So far the most serious injury suffered during camp seems to be a three-week knee injury to safety Quintin Banks. I don’t mean to make light of hamstring pulls and sprains – which can linger into the season and become chronic problems – but the news on the inevitable preseason injuries has been pretty damn kind to the Dawgs so far. Just the fact that we have more than one or two healthy defensive ends with which to practice is a big improvement.
When you consider Arkansas losing starting cornerback Isaac Madison for the year or Texas losing four tight ends to season-ending injuries or even Georgia’s own situation a year ago, it could be a whole lot worse. I got that same sick feeling we went through time after time last year when I first heard about Boling and Jones, and news of their favorable results brought a big sigh of relief.
I’m holding my breath for the next two weeks just like the rest of us, but I’m not going to lose any sleep over some hamstring pulls and a few sprains. If things can somehow keep up this way, we’ll see a lot of these green jerseys start to disappear the week before the season.
The 1980 national championship game was on ESPN Classic the other day. Someone on the message boards remarked how it seemed as if Georgia got all the breaks that day. No one was complaining, but it was true that most of the balls bounced Georgia’s way en route to the win over Notre Dame. The Dawgs were outgained and completed but a single pass, but good defense and a couple of opportunistic scores made the difference. “We’ve been a team of good fortune,” said Vince Dooley leading up to the Sugar Bowl, and that good fortune continued to the end.
Mark Richt’s standing after eight seasons has been a favorite topic this offseason. His accomplishments speak for themselves, but what’s ahead? Is that elusive national title still to come? Is he, as some have suggested, closer to the hot seat than we might admit? Some of the discussion I’ve seen chalks the talk about the lack of a national title up as a matter of luck and circumstance. Georgia’s had seasons under Richt just as good as those of teams that have gone on to play for the title, but the timing was just wrong.
Luck and circumstance can definitely play a role in a national title. Dooley tipped his cap to good fortune in 1980. We all remember Clint Stoerner’s fumble that contributed to Tennessee’s 1998 title. Florida plays in the 2007 Sugar Bowl and not for the national title without a huge upset of USC by UCLA. And of course there’s the avalanche of events at the end of the 2007 that allowed LSU to lose its regular season finale and still win the national title with two losses.
It’s one thing to grant the frequent role of luck and fortune in a championship season, but I hope that doesn’t lead us to just shrug off the pursuit of a national title as a whimsical spin of the wheel of fortune. In many cases this decade, the Dawgs have had the opportunity to make their own luck. Sometimes they have, and sometimes they haven’t. While the Dawgs haven’t had the best of luck getting to the national title game, they’ve still had plenty of breaks go their way during the Mark Richt era.
2002
Why Georgia was unlucky: The one-loss season remains the best result from a Mark Richt team, and it’s true that several teams have made it to the BCS Championship with similar or worse records. But in 2002 Miami and Ohio State made it through the regular season unscathed, and Georgia had to “settle” for its first BCS bowl and first trip back to the Sugar Bowl in nearly two decades.
Why Georgia should consider themselves lucky: Really, this should be plenty:
Without that single play, Georgia doesn’t even win the SEC East. Much of the 2002 season went that way. We remember 13-1, the long-awaited SEC title, and how close Georgia came to a perfect season, but how close was Georgia to a much more ordinary season?
You can start with the very first game. Clemson, kicking against the wind, came up just short on a game-tying field goal. A week later, South Carolina fumbled just yards away from a winning touchdown. Then it was on to Alabama where a late Crimson Tide interception put Georgia behind and required a last-chance drive culminating with Billy Bennett’s heroics. Even the win over Tennessee, hardly something you’d credit to luck, was closer than many of us remember. The Dawgs raced out to a lead but had to hold on as the Vols took all of the momentum in the 4th quarter. Richt rolled the dice and pitched to Tony Milton on a late 4th down gamble to seal the win.
Auburn and even South Carolina fans might have felt as if the Dawgs had plenty of luck in 2002. Even though they came up short against Florida, what was remarkable about the season was how many times the Dawgs came out on top in close games. Credit Richt, Greene, a cultural change, or whatever you like – after losing those kinds of close games to South Carolina, Auburn, and BC in 2001, many more went Georgia’s way in 2002 than didn’t.
2003
Why Georgia was unlucky: The Dawgs had a really good shot at knocking off eventual national champion LSU in Baton Rouge. A Georgia win would’ve put the Bulldogs down the same path that LSU took to the national title. It also would’ve put Ole Miss in position to win the SEC West and give the Bulldogs a more manageable opponent in the SEC Championship game. Though Georgia outgained LSU 411-285 and passed for 314 yards, three Georgia turnovers and three uncharacteristic missed field goals from Billy Bennett kept Georgia out of the endzone until Tyson Browning’s dramatic late game-tying touchdown on a 93-yard screen pass. A poor kickoff and a busted coverage gave LSU the opening to win a close 17-10 game.
Why Georgia should consider themselves lucky: It’s hard to consider good fortune in a three-loss season, but just getting to the Georgia Dome was a small stroke of luck in 2003. The Bulldogs finished deadlocked in the SEC East standings with Tennessee and Florida. With all other tiebreakers unable to settle the issue, Georgia’s higher BCS ranking earned them the trip to Atlanta. The quirk of that BCS-related tiebreaker made season-ending nonconference games with Georgia Tech and Florida State mean as much for Georgia and Florida as any conference game. Only after Georgia beat Tech and Florida narrowly lost to FSU did the Dawgs emerge as the SEC East’s representative to the conference championship game.
2005
Why Georgia was unlucky: Even with Darren McFadden’s flashes of brilliance and 190 yards, Georgia’s midseason game against Arkansas seemed destined to be a boring midseason win for the #4 Bulldogs. A second quarter knee injury to quarterback D.J. Shockley made the game one of the pivotal points in the season. The Dawgs held on to beat Arkansas, but they’d drop their next two games and fall out of the national title picture.
Why Georgia should consider themselves lucky: Even with the injury to Shockley and a shocking end to the Auburn game that resulted in a home loss, the Dawgs won the SEC East and rebounded to win the conference title. They still needed help to win the division, and that help came from a very bitter foe. Georgia’s loss to Auburn on the heels of the earlier loss to Florida would have given the division to the Gators. It took Steve Spurrier’s Gamecocks to knock off Urban Meyer’s first Florida team and hand the Gators their third conference loss. The Dawgs made the most of their chance to win another SEC title, but they had to back in to the opportunity.
Even if Georgia had finished 2005 undefeated, the odds were slim to none that they’d vault past either Southern Cal or Texas for a shot at the national title. The eventual result – a conference title and a BCS bowl bid – was about as good as it was going to get.
2007
Why Georgia was unlucky: Few teams in the nation finished the 2007 as well as Georgia. The Dawgs plowed through rivals Florida, Auburn, and Georgia Tech before providing Hawaii with a brutal reality check. The Dawgs rose so high that the remarkable chain of events during the final weeks of the regular season had Georgia in position to play for the national title if the final poll remained consistent. The pollsters insted vaulted SEC champions LSU ahead of Georgia and into the BCS Championship. It was a pipe dream for a two-loss team that hadn’t won its conference to play for the national title, but 2007 wasn’t your typical season.
Why Georgia should consider themselves lucky: A season that finished so strong nearly fell apart before it got going. On the heels of a shocking blowout loss at Tennessee, it was all Georgia could do to stay in the game at Vanderbilt and avoid a consecutive loss to the Commodores. Vandy built a 17-7 lead and held on for much of the game, but the Bulldogs drew even with just over 6 minutes remaining. Vanderbilt responded with an impressive drive, and for the second year in a row Georgia didn’t seem to have an answer as Vanderbilt drove for the game-winning score. The Bulldogs forced a season-saving fumble on their own 7 yard line and put together a drive for their own before Brandon Coutu won the game with a field goal at the final whistle.
Think about that point in the 2007 season had Georgia dropped to 4-3 with a loss to Vanderbilt and Florida still to come. Put it in the context on the heels of a 4-loss 2006 season. It’s simplistic to point to a fumble as the turning point which brought the team from the brink of a meltdown to a national title contender in less than two months, but that’s the way the breaks go in this game, isn’t it?
The SEC has revised their ticket policy. You can read the entire policy if you like, but it boils down to these points:
No Bearer may produce or disseminate in any form a “real-time” description or transmission of the Event (i) for commercial or business use, or (ii) in any manner that constitutes, or is intended to provide or is promoted or marketed as, a substitute for radio, television or video coverage of such Event. Personal messages and updates of scores or other brief descriptions of the competition throughout the Event are acceptable. If the SEC deems that a Bearer is producing a commercial or real-time description of the Event, the SEC reserves the right to pursue all available remedies against the Bearer.
Absent the prior written permission of the Southeastern Conference, game action videos of the Event may not be taken by Bearer. Photos of the Event may be taken by Bearer and distributed solely for personal use (and such photographs shall not be licensed, used, or sold commercially, or used for any commercial or business purpose).
So if you’re not planning on setting up your own personal TV, radio, or picture studio from inside the stadium, you’ll be fine. I haven’t seen the media policy, so I wonder if credentialed photographers have the same restriction about selling their photos.
An interesting aside:
A Ticket may not be used for advertising, promotion (including contests or sweepstakes), or other trade or commercial purposes without the express written consent of the SEC or its member institution.
If I had a pair of tickets to the SEC Championship and wanted to raffle them off to raise money for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, I’d be in violation of the policy without getting the blessing of the SEC.
First, Chuck Dowdle, retiring from WSB-TV in Atlanta, will be handling the postgame locker room interviews. The locker room was previously the domain of Loran Smith, but Loran’s not going anywhere; he’ll still be on the sideline and present the pregame show. Personally I miss most of the locker room show walking back to tailgate, but it might be interesting to see if those who listen notice a different style to the softball (and quirky) questions coaches and players usually get after a game.
SEC Network
It’s a bit of old news, but the affiliate list for the regional ESPN-produced SEC “network” continues to grow. The partnership was officially unveiled at SEC Media Days last week, but we’ve been following many of the details for a while now. One update is that the early games will kickoff at 12:21 p.m. ET with coverage starting at noon.
As expected, there will be a Macon affiliate added to bring the total of Georgia markets served to six:
Albany: WALB
Atlanta: WPCH (Peachtree TV)
Augusta: WRDW; My 12
Columbus: WXTX; WTVM, WLGA
Macon: WGXA
Savannah: WTGS
You can see the current nationwide list of affiliates for the “SEC Network” here. The impressive breadth of the network will reach as far as Phoenix, Chicago, and New York – at least for football games. Since this “network” is a confederacy of independent stations, the advice to “check local listings” will still have to apply, especially when it comes to programming beyond football. I would hope that those stations that aren’t specifically listed as football-only would have to carry the entire package, but you never know.
SEC Digital Network
Down the road the conference will be adding an SEC Digital Network which looks to be a Hulu.com for the SEC fan – video archives, highlights, replays, press conferences, and news. It’s just vapor for now but could easily be a winner if it lives up to its billing. Will I eventually be able do things like watch the 1976 Georgia-Alabama game?
Comcast adds ESPNU
We knew it was coming, but I turned on my TV last night to finally find ESPNU added to the Comcast lineup (ch. 298 in Gwinnett). No HD yet, but hopefully that will be added by the season. It’s already happening in other areas of the country. Even the JP games were in HD, and no one wants to take that step backwards. Within the next week, Comcast subscribers should also gain access to the ESPN360 web site and the online content there.
With a trio of weapons like Zac Robinson, Dez Bryant, and Kendall Hunter (not to mention probable All-American tackle Russell Okung clearing the way), you’re going to be hearing an awful lot about the Oklahoma State offense leading up to the season opener. Dismiss the buildup in “HAHA 35-14 2007 WE’VE HEARD THAT BEFORE” style if you like, but at the very least the experienced playmakers on the OSU offense are going to leave the much less experienced Georgia offense with very little room for error.
Put it this way: the Cowboy offense averaged 29 points in their losses last year and never scored fewer than 20 points. If the Georgia defense can’t hold them well below that average, the pressure will be on Joe Cox and the Georgia offense to be both efficient and productive out of the gate in Cox’s first start since 2006.
The Georgia Sports Blog started it off with a look at the matchups in the trenches when OSU has the ball. It’s a formidable line, especially at tackle, but he noted that Georgia should have the advantage in the interior. Chris Brown added to the discussion yesterday with a look at the Cowboy scheme and what plays are most effective. He observes that, despite the spread and the notoriety of a high-profile QB and WR, they are still very much a run-first team and led the Big 12 in rushing with over 3,000 yards in 2007 (and 2008).
Does pwd’s confidence in Georgia’s ability to stop the run hold up against a productive running game? If you put any stock in the 2007 game it does. Georgia held OSU to 70 rushing yards (99 yards total by the running backs). That’s not a shutdown on the Ron Dayne or Javon Ringer level, but it was a quality result against a team that would prove to be productive on the ground.
As pwd points out, that same job is easier said than done this time against a pair of senior offensive tackles, one of whom is a sure first-round NFL pick next year. The positive news is that a healthy Rod Battle has done it before against Oklahoma State. He and Marcus Howard were relentless in 2007 and helped lead the Georgia defense to record five sacks. Battle is back and healthy, but Howard of course is long gone, and Justin Houston won’t be available.
All of this leads me to think that the biggest challenge facing the Georgia defensive ends might be as much containment as it is pure pass rush. Even if Owens and Atkins are effective up the middle, Oklahoma State will test Georgia’s ends, linebackers, and secondary with the speed option and zone read. We’ll find out quickly whether Georgia’s tackling woes could be cured during the offseason.
Containment is just as important against the pass – with a mobile quarterback like Robinson, it’s going to be tough to affect him just from a push by the tackles. There are few things more demoralizing for a defense than watching a quarterback scramble out of a sure sack only to run for a first down or buy extra time to find his receiver.
Brown notes that “The Cowboys’ best pass play last year was often ‘Just throw it up to Dez'” and stresses the need for OSU to find a bit more diversity in the passing game. We saw this in action two years ago. Georgia did a fair job keeping Adarius Bowman from breaking out in 2007 (4 catches, 65 yards, 1 TD). OSU’s leading receiver that day was actually TE Brandon Pettigrew (7 catches, 85 yards). No other player caught more than one pass. This year, though, Pettigrew is gone, and expected TE replacement Jamal Mosely was arrested during the summer and might be suspended. For the Cowboys to find much diversity in the passing game, they’re going to have to turn to some receivers who put up fewer than 20 catches last season.
Yes, Steve Spurrier (or, more accurately, the South Carolina ballot) was the one who made the unforgivable omission and didn’t include Tim Tebow as their first-team quarterback. It’s really pretty sad to watch this play out with a mealy-mouthed apology and actually attempting to correct the “mistake”.
Pat Forde has a good point…when we talk about credibility and the coaches’ poll, we’re usually talking about the secret ballot stuff and transparency. But even if the ballots are public, does it matter that they’re really being filled out by an SID or the director of operations or anyone but the head coach whose name is on the ballot?
Anyway, hopefully Tebow will issue absolution and we can move on with our lives. But before we do…Tebow (or anyone else) wasn’t a unanimous choice by the media either. Just as bad, one media ballot named Ole Miss their choice for SEC champion instead of Florida. We look forward to the investigation.
And by the way…why was Julio Jones a unanimous pick by the coaches and not A.J. Green? Huh? HUH?
I’m kind of looking forward to Friday afternoon after every SEC coach has denied voting Tim Tebow anything but Supreme Lord and Master. Anyone want to lay odds on a reporter calling for the ballots to be published?
“I don’t think it’s possible to pick, nor do I think philosophically there ought to be a preseason poll, period,” BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall said. “There shouldn’t be a preseason conference poll nor a preseason national poll. Maybe after game six, then possibly there would be enough information to make a determination. The rest of it is just speculation, things to talk about that don’t matter much until we know something.
Given the way we decide our champion, it should be no surprise that college football fans obsess over polls. The body of the previous season is barely cold before the media start lining the teams up for the next season. Why? Well, yes, lists and rankings are easy pieces to bang out, but fans eat it up. We line up to buy our Steele, Athlon, and Lindy. We know they’re guesses, but who cares? Even if you delay official polls, nothing at all is going to derail the fans’ appetite for polls or the industry that feeds it. There will just be two fewer polls in a sea of dozens.
Mendenhall and others so set against preseason polls should try this exercise: halfway through the season, sit down and jot down your rankings. (No peeking!) See how much they differ from the rest of the polls which have had six weeks to adjust. My guess is that the two sets of rankings will be almost indistinguishable.
The AP poll after week 6 of the 2008 season had a top 5 of Oklahoma, Alabama, Missouri, LSU, and Texas. Eventual national champion Florida wasn’t even in the top 10. What is it about delaying the poll a few weeks that’s supposed to give us a better read on the season versus the preseason polls? At least the preseason AP poll had both national championship participants in its top 5.
SEC Media Days get underway this week, and the coaches will take time from counting TV money long enough to meet the press before we get into the serious business of preseason camp. The headlines across the conference are familiar enough to anyone who’s been around during the offseason, but hopefully there will be a few new good ones to come out of the week.
To get ready (and maybe save you some time later in the week), here are the obvious story lines for each program in convenient Twitter-sized bites:
Alabama: Avoiding a drop-off. Schedule sets up. Defense is stout – 1992 stout? Julio is a star – can McElroy deliver, and is losing Andre Smith that big?
Arkansas: Holy schedule. Is Mallett really the next big deal? Michael Smith healthy = a must. Offense seems primed; can they stop anyone?
Auburn: Bigger impact: Chizik or Malzahn? What can be made out of Kodi Burns and the offense? Seven defensive starters back, but only one Auburn a preseason all-SEC?
Georgia: Replace Stafford and Moreno? Is Cox up to the job? Leadership, injuries, offensive line, defensive ends. AJ Green and who else?
Florida: ZOMG TEBOW – unanimous? Forget the spread option – the entire defense is back. If they can stay hungry and protect TT, what can stop them?
Kentucky: Hartline meh. Trevard Lindley, Micah Johnson yay. Veteran OL. How to make the most of Randall Cobb? Success = another minor bowl.
LSU: Hey, remember us? QB play could make or break the season. Can Chavis bring back the defense? Reloading on the DL. B-R showdown with Florida.
Mississippi: Huge expectations. Snead is the real deal, but can anyone protect him like Oher? DL looks decent, but after that…
Mississippi State: How quickly can Mullen change culture? Not much expected right away, but maybe they can score occasionally now. Uh, oh: Anthony Dixon FAIL?
South Carolina: Putting all hope in Garcia. Spurrier in twilight, or does he still have it? Norwood’s 34th season. Replacing McKinley and the Cooks.
Tennessee: Kiffin & Co. How far can they ride Berry? If only Berry could QB and throw to himself. Welcome absence of subpoenas.
Vanderbilt: How do they follow up a bowl win? QB position unsettled – shocker. 9 starters back on a good defense, but D.J. Moore tough to replace.
That’s the good news. The bad news? That means that over a third of the 37 signees aren’t on campus. Included in those yet to report are highly-regarded signees Bobby Massie and Jamar Hornsby. In the case of Massie and others, academics are at issue. Hornsby has some additional problems you might have heard about.
On the Georgia front, the only 2009 signee not working out on campus is Kwame Geathers, and he’s expected to join the team Real Soon Now™ which has been SOP for the arrival of pretty much every member of the Geathers family over the past few years.
Everyone is all over the announcments of the ESPN/ABC crews for the 2009 season, and the names range from the celebrities (Musburger and Herbstreit) to the familiar (Dave Neal) to the cringeworthy (Matt Millen) to the unknown (Carter Blackburn?).
Georgia fans will recognize two of the names brought on as part of the deal to enhance ESPN’s SEC coverage. Former Bulldog starts Matt Stinchcomb and David Pollack will join the team: Stinchcomb as studio host for the syndicated SEC games, and both Pollack and Stinchcomb as studio hosts for ESPNU games. Both will also be a part of the SEC Weekly show on ESPNU alongside host Cara Capuano.
When Stinchcomb was part of the G-Day broadcast you got the impression that it was kind of an audition, and he came across well. The powers-that-be in Bristol must have agreed. Pollack similarly has built experience on local Atlanta sports radio and seems at ease behind the microphone.
Of all the moves (oy, Andre Ware), I’m glad to see Nessler join the top ESPN crew. It’s not that Mike “Britney Spears” Patrick was BCS on Fax bad, but ESPN has spread him so thin across so many sports that he never really seemed (to me) as someone who could be the face (or voice) of primetime college football. Now of course Nessler isn’t a football-only guy and is as well-known for his basketball work as anything else, but he does have a strong football background and local ties – longtime Falcon fans will remember him as the play-by-play guy in the 1980s.
And of course, you can’t have an early afternoon SEC game without a Dave. Amen to that and Osmose commercials.
ESPN Regional Affiliates
It was announced last month that Peachtree TV would carry the noon ESPN Regional game of the week (can we just keep calling it the JP game to keep things straight?). But that was only for Atlanta. As with JP/Raycom/Lincoln Financial, the ESPN Regional games will be shown on a network of local stations throughout the southeast. Since the Peachtree TV announcement, other affiliates have been announced. This is still a work-in-progress (I don’t see a Macon affiliate, for example), but here’s a partial list:
The Palmetto State is home to some of the nation’s more rabid football fans. Clemson is the ACC’s closest analogue to an SEC school, and South Carolina fans are known for being loyal even through lean years. But with an unemployment rate over 12%, South Carolina has been impacted by the recession more than all but a couple of states. Naturally the economy has taken its toll on demand for the luxury of watching and supporting college football.
Clemson’s season ticket sales are down 12%, and the school expects lower revenue not just from ticket sales but also corporate sponsorships and individual contributions. “As a result, Clemson projects it could fall between $1 million and $2 million short of projected revenue for next year’s budget.” It’s somewhat of a cruel twist of fate that Clemson’s success in growing its fan base is causing it pain now. “Clemson figures to be among the hardest hit in the ACC because it is believed to possess among the largest pools of season-ticket holders.”
At South Carolina, the bad economy comes hand-in-hand with the poorly-timed introduction of a seat licensing plan (similar to Georgia’s Hartman Fund). Though the program has raised over $6 million for the program, the fallout over the plan is speculated to be behind the resignation of Bryan Risner, a “central figure” in the licensing plan. The plan has caused attrition in the Gamecock Club and has had an impact on ticket sales.
Demand seems to be holding up not only for Georgia but also Georgia Tech, but it’s certainly not a time for any program to rest on its laurels.
“Impermissible snacks” have been in the news this week thanks to the University of South Carolina’s report of secondary NCAA violations. Snack food is serious business, and even the NCAA realizes that there are some things you wouldn’t serve a starving dog, let alone a prime student-athlete.
We’re all about NCAA compliance here, so we realize that just what is and isn’t a permissible snack might be unclear. The NCAA rulebooks actually spend a good six pages on the subject, and the Pac-10’s controversial proposal to remove sushi from the list caused no small amount of debate at last year’s rules committee meeting. So that we’re in the clear, here is just a sampling of the impermissible snacks to avoid at your tailgates this fall:
Fritos. I know they’re popular, easy to find, and can even team up with chili. But there’s still this fact: no one smells good after eating Fritos. They smell like pets’ feet.
Shrimp cocktail. Shrimp is great in a low country boil or a gumbo, but few things are less appetizing than shrimp cocktail that’s sat out on the tailgating table in the hot sun for more than a minute or two.
Salami. See Fritos. Cold cuts are great and convinient to have at a tailgate – just not the ones that you’ll smell like for the rest of the day.
Cauliflower. Many fruits and veggies are fine – celery and carrots can be easily dipped and go well with wings and other finger food. But there’s just no place for cauliflower. It’s not visually appealing, it’s awkward to hold, and most of us have deep and unpleasant memories from being forcefed cauliflower as a child. Why risk bringing up your guests’ repressed traumatic childhoods over a vegetable?
Beef jerky. Jerky is fine if you’re finding your inner Bear Grylls in the woods for a week, but at a tailgate you really should have fresher and tastier sources of meat. That’s what the grill is for, after all. Besides – with the current Slim Jim shortage gripping the country, it would be irresponsible to waste our nation’s scarce jerky reserves in a setting where there are better ways to eat animals.
Smartfood popcorn. A tough call here – I love the stuff. But there’s no way of avoiding the finger-licking-good residue that builds up after you realize you’ve been eating the stuff constantly for the past half hour and have gone through a good 3/4 of a bag. Ordinarily this is no problem, but most tailgates don’t lend themselves to easily removing the powdery cheesy slurry that forms on the fingers after a good handful or 47 of the stuff. If you tailgate at an RV or right near a public washroom, consider yourself lucky.
Bad salsa. Salsa is too easy to make yourself to serve the bad stuff. You might as well break out the Fritos rather than serve chips with the bottled sludge that’s basically warm chunks of tomato + hot sauce.
Rice cakes. Even if you’re going to pile 3 pounds of pulled pork on top of them, this is no time to be serving rice cakes.
Most flavored chips. Salt-vinegar-jalepeno-mango chips might be the greatest thing you’ve ever tasted, but tailgating is as much about community as anything else. Have stuff that most everyone might like.
Add yours in the comments. We’ll get Damon Evans to sponsor legislation to put ’em on the list next year.
When offseason talk invariably turns to strong and weak schedules, we’re almost always talking about the nonconference part of it. The conference schedule gets treated like a monolithic block that’s more or less the same for each team in the conference. The presumed strength of the conference serves as a proxy for the strength of the rest of a team’s schedule.
But with the exception of the Pac-10 and their round-robin nine-game conference schedules, the road through a single conference can look very different depending on the division and the luck of the rotation.
Take Arkansas for instance. After a gimme against Missouri State, the Razorbacks will run this gauntlet:
Sept. 19: Georgia
Sept. 26: at Alabama
Oct. 3: at Texas A&M
Oct. 10: Auburn
Oct. 17: at Florida
Oct. 24: at Ole Miss
The “easiest” game of the bunch looks to be a nonconference road game in College Station. Regardless, they’ll start the SEC slate by hosting a top 15 Georgia team and then must travel to play three preseason top 10 teams. They’ll start the season 1-0, but delivering on the hype surrounding Ryan Mallet and finishing 7-5 or better might require them to come out of that stretch at no worse than 3-4. A season-ending road trip to LSU is still out there, and the Tigers will remember last year’s meltdown.
LSU is the only other SEC West team that will face both Florida and Georgia this year. If the Tigers manage to regain the top position in the West, they’ll have more than earned it.
Ole Miss is a preseason top 10, and their SEC schedule lends itself to a promising year. Though they’ll have to face strong Alabama and LSU teams from the SEC West, they’ll host both of those games. The Rebels’ schedule doesn’t include Georgia or Florida from the East; they’ll play South Carolina, Vandy, and Tennessee instead.
Kentucky, though not a contender, might still find some success thanks to the schedule. They’ll face Alabama and Florida within the first four games of the season but will face only one more preseason top 25 team the entire rest of the season (Georgia). Though Alabama will have a tough opener against Virginia Tech, their only ranked SEC opponents will be fellow SEC West contenders Ole Miss and LSU. The Tide’s tougher SEC East games (Tennessee and South Carolina) will be in Tuscaloosa.
No one is calling Georgia’s overall schedule easy (especially the September part of it), but the Dawgs also get a bit of a break by avoiding SEC West favorites Alabama and Ole Miss. They’ll still have to play LSU, but they’ll get the Tigers in Athens. The Dawgs also get a bye week before playing Florida; last year they went into the WLOCP right off a trip to Baton Rouge. It’s still no picnic, but the SEC schedule looks slightly less difficult for Georgia than it did a year ago.
Lopsided conference scheduling isn’t just an SEC thing. Nebraska is the presumed favorite in the Big 12 North, and they’ll only face one of the top three teams from the Big 12 South (Oklahoma). Their top competition in the North, Kansas (Oklahoma and Texas) and Colorado (Texas and Oklahoma State), each have to play two of the three Big 12 South favorites.
Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, FSU, and Clemson are the preseason top four in the ACC, and only one of those four teams (Georgia Tech) will play the other three. Virginia Tech won’t face Clemson or FSU, but they’ll make up for it with a nonconference schedule that includes Alabama, Nebraska, and East Carolina.
Nothing like a nice distraction-free week before the game
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