These are your Bulldog stories for Tuesday:

MSU would like to be able to give some of the new SEC tv money to the academic side of the university… but it’s not a sure thing yet.

Rick Stansbury said yesterday that in terms of the NCAA’s inquiry into the amateur status of Renardo Sidney, he had “no understanding and no knowledge of the process.”  Yeah, right.

The coach did say that this year’s increased expectations will create better competition within his program.

Two Ole Miss notes today:

Of the four guards who suffered serious knee injuries last year, Andy Kennedy says, “two are getting close to being cleared, one is already cleared and the fourth is doing well in his rehab.”

So which school has the worst non-conference football schedule in America?  Matt Hayes of The Sporting News says Ole Miss (at Memphis, Southeastern Louisiana, UAB, and Northern Arizona) is the absolute, rock bottom worst. 

Mr. Hayes ranks Kentucky 10th, by the way.

A few Georgia notes for you this morning:

For the first time since 1997, Georgia didn’t finish in the Top 15 of the Sports Directors’ Cup (they ranked 18th).  This one day after a glowing article was written on Damon Evans excellent five-year start in Athens. 

So what did new UGA coach Mark Fox say on yesterday’s SEC teleconference?  Read the verbatims right here.

On the football front, this AJC blogger believes the Dawgs’ trips to Knoxville and Atlanta look more difficult than their season-opening trip to Top 15 Oklahoma State.

A Navy blogger takes a look at how poorly Georgia defended former Navy coach Paul Johnson’ option attack last year in their game against Georgia Tech.  Not flattering for D-coordinator Willie Martinez.

Here are your Gator bites for Tuesday:

Florida’s entire true freshman class is on campus, enrolled in school, and ready for offseason workouts.

Do you care who’ll be rooming with who?  Probably not, but here’s some news on that front.

This writer believes Florida’s game with Arkansas is looking more and more dangerous to Gator fans.

In basketball news, the Gator coaching staff would like to play more man defense and press more this season.

It looks like Florida’s last-ditch recruiting efforts have failed and they’ll head into the fall with very, very little depth at point guard.

Some idiot fan asked Billy Donovan the following over the weekend: “We all know the success that you had when you recruited Joakim Noah and Corey Brewer and the rest of that group… why can’t you do that again?”  Yeah, those kind of recruiting classes are pulled down by most folks every year.  What gives, Coach?

Florida finished #3 in the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup race.  (Once again Stanford won the top prize… thanks to the fact that Pac-10 schools play about 50 sports — cross-country ballroom dancing, whiffle hockey, synchronized sneezing, etc.)

Finally, did you see where former Gator Percy Harvin was sent home from the the NFL rookie symposium because he was once again sick?  Considering his injury history at Florida, the Vikings might have drafted a guy that needs to live in a plastic bubble, a la John Travolta.

These are today’s top Gamecock stories:

Top receiver signee Alshon Jeffery is expected to qualify to play for the Cocks this fall… which beats pumping gas for the rest of his life.  Or so they say.

Before Carolina basketball fans start asking, this writer says yes, Darrin Horn HAS signed his contract.

Carolina finished #39 in the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup standings last year.

A South Carolina associate AD who had a big hand in the school’s new seat-donation plan for football has resigned.

Finally, former USC coach Dave Odom was moved by a recent trip to Afghanistan in which he visited with US soldiers.

Here are your Tennessee nuggets for the day:

Commitments keep getting younger and younger.  Normally, we’d keep this on our Recruiting page (where Josh Ward has already written about it), but when a 13-YEAR-OLD commits, well, we think it’s newsworthy.  Of course, in Tennessee’s defense, Evan Berry is the little brother of current Vol Eric Berry and the son of former Vol James Berry.

Former UT great Al Wilson likes what he sees from Lane Kiffin, but that doesn’t mean he’s turning his back on Phillip Fulmer.

Bruce Pearl sounds upbeat about the fact that his team brings “everybody back from a team that had young guards.”

Content provided by And The Valley Shook.

Continuing with the team previews and breakdowns, today’s featured team is LSU. Learn about everyone and everything going into the 2009 season with in-depth breakdowns for every team coming throughout the next few weeks. Also check out today’s discussion … does it matter that the BCS is moving to ESPN?

Content provided by And The Valley Shook.

Back in August of 2008, I wrote a post entitled “5 Players We Can Ill-Afford to Lose to Injury“.  The title was self-explanatory.  I attempted to name off five players who were too important to the 2008 season for us to lose without significant costs.  Those players were, in order, Ciron Black, Colt David, Darry Beckwith, Ricky Jean-Francois, and Richard Dickson.

Alas, Darry Beckwith got hurt and missed time, seeming to not return to full strength for the rest of the season.  Ricky Jean-Francois ended up not being all that important despite being healthy.  Many of us overrated him.  Otherwise, it was a good list.

This year, I found the list of 5 essential players to be harder to compile.

1.  Ciron Black, LT.  Last year, we were mainly concerned about the fact that there was no backup plan to Ciron Black.  backup left tackle Jarvis Jones had been expelled from the team and it appeared that if Black went down we would have to go with an out-of-position guard or a true freshman.  Now we at least have a backup plan, as Greg Shaw did some nice things as a true freshman backup tackle last year, and we have a nice true freshman class of linemen as well.  The depth is there, but Ciron Black is the most experienced player on the team, having been a full-time starter and every-down player for the past 3 seasons.  He actually has a chance, if he stays healthy, to tie a record for most games started by a college player.  If LSU goes to the SEC Championship Game and then to a bowl, Black will share that record.  It will be a big luxury to have such an experienced player at left tackle.

2.  Brandon Lafell, WR.  I defended LSU’s depth at wide receiver last night, but the fact is that Brandon Lafell is the only proven high-level player at that position.  People seem to forget how productive Lafell was last year, and how productive the passing game in general was.  In a league where Julio Jones and A.J. Green got most of the press, Brandon Lafell led the league in receptions, was second (to Green) in receiving yards, and tied for the lead in touchdown catches.  He was a deserving 1st Team All-SEC player, and he is returning for a 5th season.  The most productive wideout other than Lafell returning is Terrance Toliver, whose 22 catches last season for 257 yards was probably a disappointment, but it’s not at all too late for Toliver to reach that vast potential.  It would be nice to let him do it while Lafell is getting double-covered though.

3.  Rahim Alem, DE.  Alem is an outstanding player, but here is where the picking gets tougher.  I really think the depth is there on defensive line that we will have good players there no matter what.  Alem is just such a good pass rusher and such an athletic guy that he adds a dimension to the defensive line that would be very difficult to replace, even if we could easily plug a competent guy in there after him.  I just don’t think we could plug in a dynamic penetrator and pass rusher like Alem.  If Alem were to get hurt, we would have to turn to unproven freshman Chancey Aghayere and Sam Montgomery in an attempt to find that spark.  

4.  Richard Dickson, TE.  I picked him last year, saying:

The big passing target is going to be an important outlet for our young quarterbacks all season long.  If they struggle to get the ball to the outside, Dickson will be there finding holes in the zone and giving them a big target to throw to. There is no receiving tight end to speak of behind him, and no receiver quite like him on the team, so he is going to be an essential part of the offense.

You could just cut and past the first two sentences of that entry here and it would still true.  We still have young quarterbacks.  We can still expect them to struggle at times.  Dickson was our #3 receiver in both catches and yards last season, and I would expect the same this season.  One difference is that I think we have better depth there now than we did last season, but like Ciron Black, Dickson has been a 3-year starter and it would be impossible to replace that experience.

5.  Chad Jones, S.  It gets harder and harder here.  Chad Jones looks like a star at this position, but we are really getting into areas where the depth is also outstanding.  If we were to lose Chad Jones, we could plug Danny McCray in there, and he would do very well as a regular safety, as opposed to nickel back where he has been used and where he struggles.  Or we could insert Karnell Hatcher, who I thought was outstanding as a freshman backup last year.  Or we could move Harry Coleman back to safety again.  Jones is great but there are options, and losing him would not be the end of the world.  The same could be said in varying degrees of Patrick Peterson, Drake Nevis, Charles Scott, Lyle Hitt, Joseph Barksdale, Perry Riley, and others who are sure to be important players on this team.  You have to choose someone, so you might as well choose the best left-handed pitcher on the football roster.

Of course, this list could change between now and September 5, 2009, as it is always possible for us to lose more players to injury and/or attrition, screwing up the depth at various positions.

Who are your five?

Content provided by Swamp Things – Gators Blog.

The Minnesota Vikings might want to keep Percy Harvin in one of those protective chambers everywhere he goes. Harvin added another chapter to his wild offseason yesterday when he was sent home from the NFL Rookie Symposium in Palm Beach Gardens because of illness.

Harvin notified the medical staff of not feeling well and was excused from the three-day symposium that teaches rookies how to adjust to life as a professional athlete. Based on Harvin's failed drug test before the NFL combine, Harvin could have benefited from the lessons of the symposium.

This is the second time Harvin has been sent home from an NFL activity. He missed the Vikings' initial minicamp in May when hospitalized in Atlanta for dehydration and vomiting. Harvin was rumored to be working out in Gainesville last week, in The Swamp.

Everyone gets the common flu, but it's about time Harvin stops letting little incidents affect his career. In other words, just stay out of the news.

Content provided by Swamp Things – Gators Blog.

We are down to the final three BCS national champions in our countdown to the team of the decade (so far) — 2001 Miami, 2004 USC and 2005 Texas. All three proved to be fantastic teams, and all three have been mentioned in national discussions about the greatest team of all-time.

This is a tough one, but the No. 3 spot goes to the 2004 USC Trojans (13-0).

The voters said: 2008 UF Gators, 20 percent (862 votes)

USC became the second team to go wire-to-wire as the No. 1 team in the AP poll, joining the 1999 FSU Seminoles. The Trojans won the 2003 AP poll in a split national championship with LSU, which won the BCS title.

The 2004 version was even better with Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart behind center and Reggie Bush in the backfield.

In the BCS national championship played in the Orange Bowl, four of the five 2004 Heisman finalists played – Leinart, Bush and Oklahoma QB Jason White (also the 2003 winner) and RB Adrian Peterson (2004 runner-up). USC dismantled the Sooners 55-19 as Leinart threw for an Orange Bowl record five touchdown passes.

A school-record six USC players were awarded first-team All-American honors: Leinart, Bush, DE Shaun Cody, LB Matt Grootegoed, DT Mike Patterson and LB Lofa Tatupu. Twenty-eight players on the 2004 roster became NFL draft picks, including seven first-rounders.

The championship season was not without controversy. Auburn also finished the season undefeated but was denied a chance to play for the national championship. USC and Oklahoma held the top two spots all season, while Auburn started the preseason poll at No. 17, making it impossible to unseat the Trojans and Sooners for a spot in the BCS title game.

The countdown so far:

No. 9: The 2007 LSU Tigers

No. 8: The 2003 LSU Tigers

No. 7: The 2006 Florida Gators

No. 6: The 2008 Florida Gators

No. 5: The 2000 Oklahoma Sooners

No. 4: The 2002 Ohio State Buckeyes

By the numbers (national rank):

Rushing offense: 33rd, 177.38 ypg

Passing offense: 13th, 271.69 ypg

Total offense: 12th, 49.087 ypg

Scoring offense: 6th, 38.15 ppg

Rushing defense: 1st, 79.38 ypg

Pass efficiency defense: 9th, 101.33 ypg

Total defense: 6th, 279.31 ypg

Scoring defense: 3rd, 13 ppg

Turnover margin: 1st, 1.46 pg

Key stars:

QB: Matt Leinart

RB: Reggie Bush, LenDale White

WR: Dwayne Jarrett

DL: Shaun Cody, Mike Patterson

LB: Matt Grootegoed, Lofa Tatupu, Frostee Rucker

DB: Jason Leach

Coach: Pete Carroll

_______________________________________________________________________________
Photo courtesy of USC athletic department