Check out my amazing ability to makes stuff up about SEC Football and the Tennessee Volunteers as a guest on Team Speed Kills NOW!

Podcast: Team Speed Kills NOW!: Midseason Reports

Special thanks to the guys over at Team Speed Kills for having me on, and for not hitting the kill switch in the middle of things.

– So it goes …

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Gate 21 Tags: Audio, Audio, College Football, News & Notes, Podcast, SEC East, SEC Football, SEC Power Poll, SEC Power Poll, SEC West, Site News, Site News, Team Speed Kills NOW, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Football

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Check out the Full Poll Results at

Team Speed Kills!

Week 6

Through 11 October 2009

Here’s my ballot for this week in the SEC Power Poll, along with a feeble attempt at explaining why I’m such a moron.  Not a whole lot of ways to separate between some of the teams this early on, but at least I thought up some excuses for my decisions.

Here they are, my darlins:

Rk.	Team	Comments
1.		The Alabama Crimson Tide is playing better than anyone in the country right now. Their defense is brutal, their offense effective. Now, if they could just figure out how to defend a kick return. Fortunately for Alabama, Tennessee is actually worse at this the Tide.
	Result: ALA 22 • MISS 3
2.		Florida Gators‘ coach Urban Meyer has proven that he will do anything to win — including risking St. Tim on a QB dive late in the game against LSU. Still, they are undefeated, that is until they likely meet Alabama in the SEC Championship game, where it’s anybody’s guess.
	Result: FLA 13 • LSU 3
3.		I was actually impressed with the LSU Tigers’ showing against Florida in some respects. Their defense — in classic bend but don’t break fashion — held the Gators to only 13 points. Their measly 162 yards and 23:30 time of possession, however, did them in. Still, they are better than many other SEC squads so, they stay put at number 3.
	Result: LSU 3 • FLA 13
4.		The South Carolina Gamecocks should have beaten Kentucky badly. Instead they simply kept from losing. Still, at 5-1, they are finding ways to win games. Props to Stephen Garcia for his herculean effort to drag the Cocks to victory.
	Result: SC 28 • KY 26
5.		The Arkansas Razorbacks are an offensive machine that is a thrill to watch. Defensively, however, they are weak and cannot rely upon simply outscoring their opponents. Still, great progress thus far, which Florida hopes to blunt … smartly
	Result: ARK 44 • AUB 23
6.		I cannot decide whether the The Tennessee Volunteers‘ win reflects a huge step forward or simply another bit of small progress paired with Georgia’s complete ineptitude. Either way, the victory over the Dawgs was huge for the program. It’s hard to believe that Jonathan Crompton — paragon of fail only weeks ago — is now the SEC offensive player of the week. Nice to see that the Blackjack General does know a lot more than the rest of us armchair geniuses
	Result: TN 45 • GA 19
7.		Defensively, the Ole Miss Rebels did everything they could to beat Alabama, but their offense continues to be wobbly at best. Apparently, the Wild-Reb offense had been in the White Lightning again.
	Result: MISS 3 • ALA 22
8.		Well, the party is over for Gene Chizik and the Auburn Tigers, courtesy of the Razorbacks. Auburn has a solid core, but needs to learn how to play defense — which no one (including the Vols) really require them to do previously. That whole tackling thing, that is important.
	Result: AUB 23 • ARK 44
9.		The Kentucky Wildcats were weaving through the season like a bourbon soaked drunk — in and out of competence and suck. Now, with quarterback Mike Hartline gone for the season, it’s looking like the it’s looking like the hangover will stay, and the Cats’ fans will have to start getting ready for basketball season.
	Result: KY 26 • SC 28
10.		I can honestly say that I have never seen a Georgia Bulldogs team with less spark than they showed in Knoxville. It’s looking like a long season for Dawgs with, Florida, Auburn, and Georgia Tech to come. I imagine the fire under Richt’s backside is for real now.
	Result: GA 19 • TN 45
11.		One of these days, the Mississippi State Bulldogs and Dan Mullen are going to manage to win one of these things. They keep putting up valiant efforts, but keep coming up short. While their record hardly reflects a departure from their legendary suck of 2008, they are a far better team and continue to improve..
	Result: MSU 24 • HOU 31
12.		The Vanderbilt Commodores losing to Army. Man, what to say? In the words of the Late General Anthony General McAuliffe (in response to a German demand for surrender during the Battle of the Bulge) “NUTS!“
	Result: VU 13 • Army 16

Yes, I know, rank incompetence on my part…

The Rest of the Power Poll

Now that you have wasted your time looking at my ballot, go check out what everybody else is saying over at Team Speed Kills, where the round-up will appear later this week.

Also—further confirming that the standards of the Power Poll have slipped—I will be joining in the “Team Speed Kills Now! ” podcast tonight at 9:00 ET to discuss the state of the SEC at mid-season.  I know you simply cannot wait to hear my brilliance unleashed.  I’ll be posting an embedded player and link to the podcast later today.

Onward and upward …

– So it goes…

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Gate 21 Tags: Alabama Crimson Tide, Arkansas Razorbacks, Auburn Tigers, Basketball, Blackjack General, Championship, College Football, Florida Gators, Football, Gate 21, Gene Chizik, Georgia Bulldogs, Incompetence, Jonathan Crompton, Kentucky Wildcats, Knoxville, LSU Tigers, MAC, Mississippi State Bulldogs, Ole Miss Rebels, Podcast, SEC, SEC East, SEC East, SEC Football, SEC Football, SEC Power Poll, SEC Power Poll, SEC West, SEC West, Site News, Site News, South Carolina Gamecocks, Tennessee Volunteers, Urban Meyer, Vanderbilt Commodores, Vols

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Here’s my ballot for this week’s CBS Sports BlogPoll Top 25 hosted by — as you might imagine — CBS Sports.

Week 7

Through 11 October 2009

Glory be!  Yes, I have succumbed to my inner instincts and have made a change at the very top of my ballot this week.  As for the rest of the changes in the world of college football represented in my BlogPoll Top 25 ballot for this week, hopefully most are fairly obvious.  Either way, here’s my ballot:

My Ballot for the Week

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	2
2	Florida	1
3	Texas	1
4	Southern Cal	2
5	Boise State	–
6	LSU	2
7	TCU	–
8	Ohio State	–
9	Penn State	–
10	Iowa	–
11	Virginia Tech	–
12	Miami (Florida)	1
13	Cincinnati	1
14	Kansas	2
15	Notre Dame	–
16	Oklahoma	1
17	Oklahoma State	1
18	Nebraska	2
19	South Carolina	NR
20	Mississippi	8
21	Oregon	1
22	Pittsburgh	1
23	Georgia Tech	NR
24	Houston	NR
25	Auburn	6
Last week’s ballot

<!–
NO CHANGE:

UNRANKED:

–>

Explanations after the jump…

Comments, Explanations, and Excuses

Here are the high-points of the week’s changes:

Here comes Alllll-aah-bammy!:

After watching the performance of the Alabama Crimson Tide (1) over the course of the season, I can simply no longer justify them not being at the top.  I know there are going to be some that believe that it is unfair for me to drop both the Florida Gators (2) and the Texas Longhorns (3) without their having lost a game, but the fact is that I believe that Alabama is the best in the country.  Sorry, guys, I gotta call them like I see ‘em.

Alabama has just been too consistent and absolutely embarrassed the Ole Miss Rebels (20) this past weekend.  The Crimson Tide defense is stifling and the offense is efficient.  In my opinion (which I realize means nothing), the Tide is the team to beat.

The SEC Cometh and Goeth:

Aside from the top of the heap, there was a good bit of change for the schools of the SEC this week.  In the wake of my Tennessee Volunteers (NR)  laying a 45-19 whuppin’ on the Georgia Bulldogs (NR), the Dawgs have exited my ballot—probably for good.  Georgia simply looked bad—very bad—against the Vols and likely have a long season ahead of them.

Both the Ole Miss Rebels (20) and the Auburn Tigers (25) saw a substantial drop this week as a result of their losses as well.  The Rebels looked completely hapless on offense against Alabama, and were routed soundly—22-3—in front of the home crowd in Oxford.  I honestly expected a little more from the Rebels, and thus they fall eight places.

One week after my Vols made the Auburn Tigers look spectacular, they were beaten handily by the Arkansas Razorbacks (NR) in a game which apparently featured no defense of any kind.  While Auburn has the ability to score points, until they figure out how to stop their opponent from doing the same, they will be vulnerable.  Still, I imagine that Auburn will still finish strong and will likely remain in my ballot as they head down the home stretch.

On the bright side, after scraping by against the Kentucky Wildcats (NR) on the shoulders of quarterback Stephen Garcia, at 5-1 (2-1 SEC) the South Carolina Gamecocks (19) make their debut in my ballot for the first time this week.  Next week, however, the Thunder Chickens face Alabama in Tuscaloosa, which will be an uphill battle for them no matter how well they play.

Stability in the Middle of the Field:

As for the rest of my ballot, there remains very little movement in the the middle of the pack from positions 7 through 15.  Some of this will change as these teams play one another later in the season, but for now, the lack of change above has led to little change below.

Parting Thoughts

Having taken the time to consider my feeble attempt at ranking the powers in college football, feel free to try and convince me that I am wrong — which is part of the way the BlogPoll is supposed to work.  I promise that I will consider all insults comments.

You can view the final results of this week’s poll over at CBS Sports later this week and check out an analysis of how the collective blogging brain-trust arrived at this week’s result. If you’re craving even more BlogPoll goodness, you can also check out how other bloggers voted and see how your team fared across the Blogosphere.

– So it goes…

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Gate 21 Tags: 2009, Alabama Crimson Tide, Arkansas Razorbacks, Auburn Tigers, BCS Championships, Big 10, Big XII, Blogosphere, BlogPoll, BlogPoll, CBS Sports, Championship, College Football, College Football, Complaints, Excuses, Florida Gators, Football, Gate 21, Georgia Bulldogs, Kentucky Wildcats, MAC, News & Notes, Oklahoma Sooners, Ole Miss Rebels, Oxford, Pac-10, Prognostication, SEC, South Carolina Gamecocks, Statistics, Stephen Garcia, Tennessee Volunteers, Texas Longhorns, Thunder Chickens, Top 25, Tuscaloosa, Vols

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A little something from the Vols drubbing of the Georgia Bulldogs today…courtesy of the Pride of the Southland Marching Band

– So it goes…

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Gate 21 Tags: College Football, Georgia Bulldogs, Media + Images, Pride of the Southland, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Football, Video, Video

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Posted in Realtime via Smartphone

On the heels of my last attempt at liveblogging, once again I will be posting comments throughout the today’s game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Georiga Bulldogs in real time via Twitter.  I imagine, as things progress, that I may trail off a bit and my battery will likely conk out at some point.  Furthermore, given the logjam on the cell towers at Neyland Stadium, things may not get through.  Either way, I will be (trying) to post my thoughts throughout the day in case any of you care.

Here’s the conversation (you may need to hit refresh to update):

Something isn’t working, but I will still be updating and posting on Twitter at the link below or in the widget at the bottom of this column.

Live from the Georgia Game

– So it goes …

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Gate 21 Tags: College Football, Gate 21, Georgia Bulldogs, Live From the Gate…, Liveblgging, Liveblogging, News & Notes, Neyland Stadium, On the Scene, On the Scene, SEC, SEC East, SEC Football, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Volunteers, Twitter

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It’s been a bumpy couple of weeks for the Tennessee Volunteers and their fans, on that there is little room for debate.

First, the Vols lost to Florida in a “moral victory” which amounts to losing gallantly.  The Vols then went on to beat a scrappy Ohio Bobcats team in less than runaway style, but as I said at the time: “a win is a win.”  Then, this past weekend, the men in orange were bested by the Auburn Tigers and Gus Malzahn’s semi-deranged (but highly effective) form of offense.  Finally, Lane Kiffin gave Brandon Warren his walking papers as a result of what Kiffin described as “conduct detrimental to our team.”

For my part, I have had little to offer on these issues due to my ridiculously overloaded schedule.  Trust me when I say that it was not for lack of desire or lack of observations that I have been so quiet.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective) I now have a little time to pontificate, so here we go…

Auburn and “Johnnie Cochran” Offense

Gus Malzahn is either a genius or a madman depending on whether you are a fan of the Tigers or are their opponent.  His offensive sets are as entropy-filled and outlandish as they are effective.  One of the keys to its function is to make an opposing defense deal with the constant distraction of the seemingly endless arsenal of quasi-trick plays that it includes.  This bevy of distractions vying for the attention of opposing defenses, reminds me of pretty much every argument ever made to a jury by Johnnie Cochran—focusing on the distraction rather than the fact.

Still, there is a lot of fact to Malzahn’s ability to mask his plays and to run unconventional sets regularly and successfully.  I personally cannot remember seeing a game which featured as many reverses and double-reverses as the Tennessee — Auburn contest.  I know that I have never seen a true pooch punt (seemingly taken right out of General Neyland’s own playbook from the 1930s) in person.  To Malzahn’s credit, he has taken a lackluster unit that barely produced anything other than narcolepsy in 2008 and transformed them into a machine which scores tons of points and gives defenses fits.

Going Down Swinging

All of that said, I was fairly happy with the way that the Full Monte’s defense schemes matched-up against Malzahn’s maniacal offense.  Sure, the defensive line could have performed a bit better and perhaps the secondary could have been a little more on top of things, but on the whole, the Tennessee defense played more than well enough to secure the win.  Furthermore, with the loss of Nick Reveiz the week before, there was bound to be a little bit of flux in the game as Savion Frazier assumed the task of setting the defensive backfield.  The effort was there.  Take, for instance, the tackle totals for Rico McCoy (16 tackles) and Eric Berry (14 tackles), and Savion Frazier (10 tackles) if you don’t believe me.

These things aside, the real problem for the Vols’ defense against Auburn was not anything related to the Vols’ defense.  On the contrary, it was the offense that led to the defense’s downfall.

The first half of the game Tennessee put on a clinic on how not to play quarterback and receiver.  With the exception of Montario Hardesty’s inspired running (into the teeth of a waiting defense), it was atrocious.  At the end of the first half, Auburn held a massive time of possession advantage of 19:31 to Tennessee’s 10:29.  As a result, the Vols’ defense spent most of the first half on the field chasing Auburn’s offense hither and yon.  By the end of the first half, the Tennessee offense’s ineptitude had completely tired out the typically rock-solid defense.

Everyone Wants the Headset

That brings us to the question that everyone keeps asking: why does the Blackjack General refuse to bench Crompton and give junior Nick Stephens a try?

During my liveblogging twitteriffic series of posts during the game, I asked this question, albeit indirectly.  I have since thought better of it.  The fact of the matter is that Jonathan Crompton is the quarterback that multiple offensive coaching staffs have determined is the best player to put on the field.  Thus, who am I to second-guess their decision.  While I won’t re-publish it here (due to the fact I am trying to stay positive with regard to the quarterback play) I must say that this post at VolNation did really drive home for me the reality that Tennessee is facing this season.  I trust our coaching staff and remain impressed with the progress they have made in this re-building campaign.  They know what they are doing, and more importantly, who they have in the stable.  Tennessee has strengths and weaknesses.  Strong players and not so strong players.   Either way, (with the exception of the highly talented freshmen) they are what this staff inherited and what they have to work with.

Like it or not, the players we have are the players we have and there is nothing that can be done about it at this point in time…

In the second half, however, Crompton actually performed quite well and seemed to find a rhythm.  What exactly it was that was causing a problem in the first half is anyone’s guess, but the difference in these two halves was like night and day.  In Crompton’s defense, the receivers were as bad—if not worse—than the quarterback play.  In particular, Quintin Hancock, Gerald Jones, and Denarius Moore all had drops while Brandon Warren failed to fall on a fumble which led to a change in possession.

Which brings us to the Brandon Warren situation…

Crime and Punishment, Tennessee Style

Brandon Warren

I will be the first to go on the record as saying that I am pleased (more like “thrilled” or “elated”) that we have a coach who is willing to discipline his players in a manner which respects not only the ends of the football program (i.e. “winning”) but also serves to honor the game, the University of Tennessee, its alumni, and the principles of respect that come with any hierarchy.

As I have said in the past, I have a very simple (some might say naive) perspective on how players should be disciplined:

… my thoughts are that there should only be three rules of increasing severity — built on the concept that a team lives and dies as a group — for any team, which should be enforced without exception:

Rule 1:  Never do anything that will embarrass yourself. — In this case I would lump things like not going to class, bad discipline in practices, being late to practices, and potentially recklessness in a game (such as unwarranted personal fouls), etc.  The penalty for infractions would be that the player is publicly reprimanded in very plain and unfiltered terms before his teammates, and the entire team runs or does some other unpleasant drill as a result of the infraction by one of its members.

Rule 2:  Never do anything that will embarrass your team. — This would include general bad behavior that falls under Rule 1, if it is repeated.  In other words, repeat offenses of a Rule 1 violation calls into question the cohesiveness of the team, and thus reflects on the team.  This would also include any “minor” entanglements with the local constabulary such as: drunk and disorderly, speeding, underage consumption, misdemeanor possession of marijuana, etc. — essentially anything which doesn’t involve fundamental dishonesty and/or risk to the physical well-being of others.  The penalty for infractions would be a mandatory one-game suspension, being reprimanded openly in front of teammates, all members of the player’s squad losing privileges, the entire team doing twice as many laps or drills as for a Rule 1 violation, and the team captains being required to do an even greater penance — along with the offender.  The offender would also be required to make some sort of public apology or public sign of remorse along with some goodwill public service (i.e. visiting the children’s ward at the hospital, raking leaves for the infirm, etc.).

Rule 3:  Never do anything that will embarrass your university, its staff, students, and alumni. — This would be the most serious violation.  This would include any real criminal behavior such as a felony.  The immediate response would be an investigation by the coaching staff.  If it appeared that the offender was not guilty of the charges, then the player would be suspended for the remainder of the season until cleared by law enforcement officials or the Courts, with the assumption that the player will be dismissed if not cleared.  During that time, the offender would essentially serve as the lowest-level trainer and would be given the worst jobs associated with a football team.  If the staff determined that the player was likely guilty, then the player would be immediately dismissed from the team, and a public statement issued explaining why.  Regardless of the guilt or innocence of the offender, the entire team would have a major privilege suspended for at least half of the season.  The members of the offender’s squad and the team captains would be treated as if each of them had violated Rule 1 by not taking adequate steps to prevent the offense or hold their teammate accountable.  Again, the whole team would also be required to perform additional drills.

The goal of this system would be to instill mutual responsibility among team members and to emphasize that when one falls short, all fall short.  I am responsible for my brother and my brother is responsible for me. No coaching staff can ever police or monitor players at all times — no matter how vigilant.  When properly channeled, peer pressure can be a beautiful thing, and is the sort of thing which goes with a player everywhere he goes.  This system is also meant to emphasize that, when you are in a position of honor (being a member of the team) then sometimes guilt by association is all that is required to warrant a penalty — it simply comes with the territory.

Lawvol on Rules: 2008 Big Orange Roundtable: Week 6 (Question 2)

Thus, I have no problem with the man in charge making the call that it’s time to, as Doc Holliday put it, “redefine the nature of our association” as a program with one of the players.

[>> See post to listen to audio <<]

I honestly hate it for Brandon Warren, he is obviously a talented player and one which could have fit into the Vols plan for the future nicely, but instead he chose a different course—one which is divergent from the path that this coaching staff has set.  It is a shame, considering that Warren—who was a 2006 Sporting News Freshman All-American while at Florida State, and had tallied a total of 17 catches for 139 yards and 2 touchdowns at Tennessee—was getting quality playing time under the Kiffin regime.  So much potential…

That said, when I heard that he had been involved in some sort of altercation with wide receivers coach Frank Wilson during the game, I was hoping that Kiffin took some action.  I was honestly pleased at Kiffin’s decision—resolute, uncompromising, firm, direct.  In an environment that seems to want to welcome Michael Vick back into the NFL with open arms and defend LeGarrette Blount in the wake of his punching of Boise State’s Byron Hout, I was—I must confess—actually a little shocked to see that there are still standards in the world of big-time athletics.

The sort of behavior that Warren exhibited has no place in the game, and I applaud Kiffin for taking action.

Players who are focused only on themselves, ignoring those around them and the order that must exist within the game, should not be tolerated.  That sort of behavior is a cancer for a team and a staff.  It erodes team morale—demonstrating that some players are more important that the team as a whole.  It breeds disrespect.  It degrades the quality of the unit.  It flies in the face of what makes college football great.  No player is bigger than the team.

What’s more, Kiffin’s actions not only serve as a strong warning to other misbehavior, but it also reinforces the position of his coaching staff.  Showing everyone that the man at the top will support those who are on his side, even if it is uncomfortable, even if it is not pleasant, even if it is not easy.

Though I wish Brandon Warren all the best in his future endeavours, and thank him for his contribution to Tennessee, I applaud Coach Kiffin for taking a stand.

The Silver Lining

After this litany of negativity, there is some good news to be had.

First, the Vols, though far from their end goal, continue to make progress toward returning to prominence.  The running game has been impressive on the back of Montario Hardesty, Bryce Brown, Marsalis Teague, and David Oku.  The attitude from this group has been exceptional and their performance has improved every single week.

Furthermore, who knows, maybe Oku or Teague may now find themselves filling the shoes that Warren left empty—earning more playing time as a result.

Another key to the Vols running success has been the yeoman’s work of fullback Kevin Cooper, who has helped pave the way for the running backs out of the backfield with the help of the Vols re-tooled (and infinitely more productive) offensive line.

A few other things to smile about: there were no interceptions against Auburn and no sacks.  At least the Vols know how to pass protect.

There are many more positives that I could point to, but the end conclusion is that Tennessee is a work in progress—and will continue to be so for the remainder of the season.  The Vols are not going to win a championship, but they are going to overcome, and improve.  The coaching staff has a plan and the dedication to see it through to completion.  The pieces are all there, they simply need time to fall into place.

Rebuilding is no fun, but sometimes it is necessary.  The bright side is that it will only get better into the future.  For now, the orange-clad faithful need to simply support this team, its players, and the coaches.  They are making strides.  More importantly, this team needs the support of the fanbase.

Before every game, the players tap the lucky sign reading “I will give my all for Tennessee today!”  We ask a lot of these players, all they ask for is that we support them for trying.

I for one intend to give this team my “all” as a fan, come what may…

– So it goes …

Image(s) Courtesy of:      UT Sports.com ||  Statement on Fair Use

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Gate 21 Tags: All-American, Auburn Tigers, Bad Behavior, Bad Behavior, Blackjack General, Boise State Broncos, Brandon Warren, Bryce Brown, Byron Hout, Championship, Coach Kiffin, College Football, Crime and Punishment, David Oku, Denarius Moore, Eric Berry, Features, Florida Gators, Florida State Seminoles, Football, Full Monte, Gate 21, Gerald Jones, Gus Malzahn, Johnnie Cochran, Jonathan Crompton, Kevin Cooper, Lane Kiffin, LeGarrette Blount, MAC, Marsalis Teague, Michael Vick, Montario Hardesty, Monte Kiffin, NFL, Nick Reveiz, Nick Stephens, No Pass Out Checks, Ohio Bobcats, Oregon Ducks, Quintin Hancock, Rico McCoy, Savion Frazier, SEC, SEC Football, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Volunteers, University of Tennessee, VolNation, Vols

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Here’s my ballot for this week’s CBS Sports BlogPoll Top 25 hosted by — as you might imagine — CBS Sports.

Week 6

Through 4 October 2009

After the games of this past weekend, my ballot seems to have settled down a bit near the top, but the back end continues to be a bit of a rollercoaster.  Most of these should be fairly obvious.  Either way, here’s my BlogPoll Top 25 ballot for week 6 of the 2009 season:

My Ballot for the Week

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida	–
2	Texas	–
3	Alabama	–
4	LSU	–
5	Boise State	–
6	Southern Cal	–
7	TCU	–
8	Ohio State	–
9	Penn State	2
10	Iowa	–
11	Virginia Tech	1
12	Mississippi	1
13	Miami (Florida)	6
14	Cincinnati	–
15	Notre Dame	2
16	Kansas	4
17	Oklahoma	8
18	Oklahoma State	3
19	Auburn	NR
20	Nebraska	2
21	Wisconsin	NR
22	Oregon	NR
23	Pittsburgh	1
24	Missouri	NR
25	Georgia	10
Last week’s ballot

Explanations after the jump…

Comments, Explanations, and Excuses

Here are the high-points of the week’s changes:

You Can Do Better Than That:

Both the Iowa Hawkeyes (10) and the Oklahoma Sooners (17) win the “You Can Do Better Than That” award this week for leaving me unimpressed with their performance, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (15) are an honorable mention on this one.  Iowa, after managing to up-end the Penn State Nittany Lions (9) a week ago, the Hawkeyes barely managed to beat Arkansas State (NR) this past week.  Thus, despite the win, Iowa stays put.

As for Oklahoma, well, they lost to the Miami Hurricanes (13) in a nailbiter, but with an overall record of 2-2, I simply cannot justify the Sooners being much higher, despite my belief that they are a solid team.

Tussle at the Top:

Again, the LSU Tigers (4) are in my top 5 more or less by default, though they beat the Georgia Bulldogs (25), their performance was less than awe inspiring.  This week, however, they take on the Florida Gators (1) in Baton Rouge for what is sure to be a slugfest on the bayou.  If LSU wins, then they are sure to move up, if not, then they likely drop like a stone.  Whether Tim Tebow suits up for the Gators will undoubtedly have a huge impact on this game.

Returners & First Timers:

Based upon their strong showing against my Tennessee Volunteers (NR), the Auburn Tigers (19) lead the way with the new faces in my ballot.  At 5-0, I figure the Tigers have earned a spot in the poll.  Whether they can keep it remains to be seen as they get set to face the Arkansas Razorbacks (NR), LSU Tigers (4) and Ole Miss Rebels (12) before the end of October.  For now, however, they’re in like Flynn.

Joining the Tigers are the Wisconsin Badgers (21), Oregon Ducks (22), and Missouri Tigers (24) all of whom have managed to compile strong records so far this season.

“Now Departing at Gate 21…“:

After only one week in my poll ballot, the Houston Cougars (NR) walk right back out the door after losing to the UTEP Miners (NR) in a game which apparently featured no defense whatsoever.  They are joined by UCLA (NR) who was bested by 4-1 Stanford (NR); the Michigan Wolverines (NR) who lost to intrastate rival Michigan State (NR) for the second year in a row; and the California Golden Bears (NR) who continued their lay-down-and-die routine against the USC Trojans (6)—allowing 62 unanswered points between scores over the last two games.

Parting Thoughts

Having taken the time to consider my feeble attempt at ranking the powers in college football, feel free to try and convince me that I am wrong — which is part of the way the BlogPoll is supposed to work.  I promise that I will consider all insults comments.

You can view the final results of this week’s poll over at CBS Sports later this week and check out an analysis of how the collective blogging brain-trust arrived at this week’s result. If you’re craving even more BlogPoll goodness, you can also check out how other bloggers voted and see how your team fared across the Blogosphere.

– So it goes…

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Gate 21 Tags: 2009, Arkansas Razorbacks, Arkansas State Red Wolves, Auburn Tigers, Blogosphere, BlogPoll, BlogPoll, California Golden Bears, CBS Sports, College Football, College Football, Florida Gators, Football, Gate 21, Georgia Bulldogs, Houston Cougars, Iowa Hawkeyes, LSU Tigers, Miami Hurricanes, Michigan State Spartans, Michigan Wolverines, Missouri Tigers, News & Notes, Oklahoma Sooners, Ole Miss Rebels, Oregon Ducks, Penn State Nittany Lions, SEC, Stanford Cardinal, Tennessee Volunteers, Tim Tebow, UCLA Bruins, USC Trojans, UTEP Miners, Wisconsin Badgers

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Posted in Realtime via Smartphone

Well, today I am going to try to add a few comments throughout the game on here as they occur via Twitter.  I imagine that, as things progress, I may trail off a bit.  Furthermore, this may not work at all.  One way or the other, I will be posting my thoughts — via Twitter — throughout the day and evening in case any of you care.

Here’s the conversation (you may need to hit refresh to update):

– So it goes

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Gate 21 Tags: Auburn Tigers, College Football, College Football, Live From the Gate…, Liveblogging, Liveblogging, On the Scene, SEC Football, SEC Football, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Volunteers, Twitter

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I may be a bit behind the curve on this one, but it looks like there is a really great football movie on its way in time for the holidays: “The Blind Side” which tells the story of former Ole Miss offensive tackle Michael Oher.  While you can never truly a judge the quality of a film by its trailer, this one looks pretty good.

Video: The Blind Side

via: Trailer Addict •  HT: Vol Nation

Also, if you look at about 2:05 seconds into the trailer, you might see someone you recognize…

– So it goes

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Gate 21 Tags: College Football, College Football, Michael Oher, Movies, Ole Miss Rebels, Phillip Fulmer, SEC Football, SEC Football, SEC West, SEC West, Trailers, Video, Video

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Check out the Full Poll Results at

Team Speed Kills!

Week 4

Through 27 September 2009

Here’s my ballot for this week in the SEC Power Poll, along with a feeble attempt at explaining why I’m such a moron. Hopefully most of these are fairly obvious.

Here they are, my darlins:

Rk.	Team	Change	Comments
1. (T)		—	The Florida Gators manhandled Kentucky this past weekend, but the Cats manhandled Tebow. The Gators are good, very good. They are, however, beatable. Without Tebow, they are very beatable.
	Result: UF 41 • UK 7
1. (T)		2	After seeing he Alabama Crimson Tide make short work of Arkansas, my gut is beginning to tell me that Alabama is the best team in the SEC. That’s why they are tied for first this week.
	Result: ALA 35 • ARK 7
3.		1	The LSU Tigers get the bump to number 3 this week for simply managing to not lose against Miss. St. I don’t think they are nearly as good as Florida or Alabama, but I do think they are the best of the rest.
	Result: LSU 30 • MSU 26
4.		2	The Georgia Bulldogs found their stride this past week against a solid Arizona State team. Maybe they have begun to figure out what the problem was and have started heading in the right direction. They rise shakily in my ballot.
	Result: GA 20 • AZ St.17
5.		2	The Auburn Tigers are not flashy and are not getting a lot of press, but they are disciplined and undefeated. I think that counts for something. I am not sure how well they will fare down the stretch, but for now I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
	Result: AUB 54 • Ball St. 30
6.		3	The Ole Miss Rebels laid a huge egg versus South Carolina last week and obviously are not quite as good as I originally thought. Still, I think they have a chance to remain very relevant in the SEC West.
	Result: MISS 10 • SC 16
7. (T)		4	The South Carolina Gamecocks have apparently righted the ship and look light years better against the Rebels this past week. They played with more “fire” than I’ve seen in a long time. They have a bye this week since SC State simply doesn’t count as an opponent.
	Result: SC 16 • MISS 10
7. (T)		3	Yes, I know they lost, but Dan Mullen has the Mississippi State Bulldogs looking tough. They had LSU beaten, and let it slip away. At this point, they are definitely my most improved team. I guess this means I have to get used to hearing cowbells again. They’ll be tested again this week by the bumblebees of Georgia Tech.
	Result: MSU 26 • LSU 30
9.		2	The Tennessee Volunteers struggled this week on defense against a scrappy Ohio team that refused to die. My gut tells me they were tired from the Florida game or looking ahead to Auburn. Either way, this week looks to be a milestone game for the Vols.
	Result: UT 34 • Ohio 23
10.		2	The Kentucky Wildcats got the hell pounded out of them by Florida and they responded by sending Tebow to the hospital. Kentucky looks like Kentucky usually looks: not good, not bad, and not at all happy that basketball season isn’t here yet.
	Result: KY 7 • FLA 41
11.		2	The Arkansas Razorbacks, took it in the chops from Alabama who did everything that Georgia didn’t do against the Hogs: namely play a little defense. It’s amazing how actually defending your end of the field will keep an opponent from scoring.
	Result: ARK 7 • ALA 35
12.		—	The Vanderbilt Commodores beat up on Rice and got a much needed win. The Owls, however, are 0-4, so I’m not so sure that means much. Either way, the Dores’ are going to have to pick it up this week lest they be smitten by the ticked-off Rebels in a nasty way.
	Result: VU 36 • Rice 17

The Rest of the Power Poll

Now that you have wasted your time looking at my ballot, go check out what everybody else is saying over at Team Speed Kills, where the round-up will appear later this week.

– So it goes…

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Gate 21 Tags: Alabama Crimson Tide, Arizona State Sun Devils, Arkansas Razorbacks, Auburn Tigers, Basketball, College Football, Florida Gators, Football, Gate 21, Georgia Bulldogs, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Kentucky Wildcats, LSU Tigers, Mississippi State Bulldogs, Ohio Bobcats, Ole Miss Rebels, SEC, SEC East, SEC East, SEC Football, SEC Football, SEC Power Poll, SEC Power Poll, SEC West, SEC West, South Carolina Gamecocks, South Carolina State Bulldogs, Tennessee Volunteers, Vanderbilt Commodores, Vols

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Over the last 72 hours or so, Lane Kiffin has made a number of statements about the Tennessee Volunteers’ performance against the Ohio Bobcats this past weekend, and about the general state of things for the Vols football team.  Each was unabashedly brash and straightforward—the style many have already come to expect from Kiffin, though most Vol fans are still just getting to know him as a coach.  For instance:

• During his post-game show he admitted that the Vols had probably underestimated the Bobcats and had looked past them a bit en route to this week’s game against the Auburn Tigers;
• He told the KNS that there were no excuses for poor play; and
• During the Lane Kiffin Show, he pointed to breakdowns and failures of the players and staff in reigning in Ohio.

These are but a few.

What you didn’t hear from Kiffin was “coachspeak” that is, the deflection of uncomfortable questions, a litany of pre-rehearsed (dare I say, “Palin-esqe”) lines, and endless praise for meaningless accomplishments.  In the political world that’s called “spin,” in the lawyering world it’s called “advocating,” and in the normal world it’s called “bullshit.”  None of this, was present in Kiffin’s comments.

I like that.

The reason I like that is that Kiffin seems more than willing to cut through the crap—that so regularly pours forth (no, not of the George Brett variety) from coaches far and wide—and just tells you what he actually believes.

Even more impressive to me personally is the fact that in every circumstance he has spoken not just to the problems but also to how he plans on addressing them.  Take this video for instance:

Video: Lane Kiffin Speaks about Practice

via: Inside Tennessee

I find this to be as unusual as it is refreshing.  While I will say that the Vols still have a ways to go before they are back on top—which I knew would be the case this season—I am pleased to say that the man at the top, the one I call the Blackjack General, does seem to actually know where he is going as he leads his troops and the nation of Big Orange Fans.

– So it goes…

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Gate 21 Tags: Auburn Tigers, Blackjack General, Bullshit, Coachspeak, College Football, Football, Honesty, Lane Kiffin, Lawyering, News & Notes, Ohio Bobcats, Politics, Sarah Palin, SEC Football, Spin, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Volunteers, Video, Vols

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Here’s my ballot for this week’s CBS Sports BlogPoll Top 25 hosted by — as you might imagine — CBS Sports.

Week 5

Through 26 September 2009

This was one screwed-up week for my ballot.  I suppose this is my proverbial “adjustment week” wherein I re-align everything now that I’ve had a chance to actually see how teams are going to play.  That said, some the weeks changes are the result of nothing other than the unexpected highs and lows for the teams across the country.  Lots of movement this week in my BlogPoll Top 25 ballot.  Most of these should be fairly obvious.  Either way, here’s my ballot:

My Ballot for the Week

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida	–
2	Texas	–
3	Alabama	1
4	LSU	3
5	Boise State	4
6	Southern Cal	5
7	TCU	5
8	Ohio State	5
9	Oklahoma	1
10	Iowa	4
11	Penn State	8
12	Virginia Tech	7
13	Mississippi	7
14	Cincinnati	9
15	Georgia	2
16	UCLA	–
17	Notre Dame	1
18	Houston	NR
19	Miami (Florida)	11
20	Kansas	–
21	Oklahoma State	–
22	Nebraska	–
23	California	18
24	Pittsburgh	9
25	Michigan	–
Last week’s ballot

<!–

–>

Explanations after the jump…

Comments, Explanations, and Excuses

Here are the high-points of the week’s changes:

Into the ground like a dart:

The 42-3 implosion experienced by the California Golden Bears (23) this weekend against the Oregon Ducks (NR) is the stuff of legend.  I personally cannot remember a team in my top 5 having ever been so obliterated by an unranked opponent.  As a result, Cal’s 18 position drop this week represents the single largest drop that I have ever had in my ballot over the last two years.  Some might say that this is wholly unfair—they lost a single game.  The fact of the matter is that they did not just lose a single game.  They were absolutely obliterated by an opponent that, while tough, never should have ridden over them like roadkill.

Think of it this way.  Cal received the opening kickoff and, with 14 minutes remaining on the clock in the first half score a 47 yard field goal.  From that point—the next 59 game minutes—Cal allowed 42 unanswered points.  Mind you this occurred despite the fact that Oregon lost three fumbles and had 120 yards in penalties.

Last week, I was singing the Golden Bears’ praises—talking about how they might have a real chance to win the Pac-10.  I was wrong…

None of this is to say that Cal is not a solid football team—because they are—it merely means that they proved that they do not belong anywhere close to the top 10.  Thus, while I do think that they are a top 25 team, they are definitely near the bottom of that list at present.

An Adjustment of Sorts:

Over the weekend I came to the conclusion that I had seriously under-ranked two teams: the Virginia Tech Hokies (12) and the Houston Cougars (18), thus I have corrected this by giving both substantial boosts this week.  Virginia Tech rises from number 19 last week, while Houston makes its first appearance in my ballot, rocketing from the depths of the unranked and passing seven teams along the way.  All I can say on each of these is that I think their rank in this week’s ballot better reflects their merits.  Given the fact that the early season ballots are based only on little more than guessing, these sorts of things do occur.  Thus, I wanted to fix them this week.

That Uncomfortable Feeling:

No, I am not talking about the feeling resulting from having a breakfast consisting of a half-gallon of chili and a quart of cheap gin…

There are number of teams in this week’s ballot that I don’t feel comfortable with.  Actually, there are a lot of them.  The problem is that I really cannot justify not ranking the following teams as I have: the LSU Tigers (4), the Boise State Broncos (5), the Georgia Bulldogs (15), the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (17), and the Miami Hurricanes (19).  My gut, tells me that Miami (and probably next door neighbor Houston as well) should probably be a little higher and that the rest should be lower.  I cannot, however justify making those changes at this point in time.  Thus, I guess I am simply hoping for the remaining games of the season to help sort these things out.  In the meantime, I feel uneasy about all of these teams’ current rankings.

“Now Departing at Gate 21…“:

As a result of the Florida State Seminoles’ (NR) upset at the hands of the South Florida Bulls (NR), FSU makes a hasty departure from my ballot this week.  Not much to say about that except that it is never a good idea to lose to an intra-state directional school when you are supposed to be a juggernaut.

Parting Thoughts

Having taken the time to consider my feeble attempt at ranking the powers in college football, feel free to try and convince me that I am wrong — which is part of the way the BlogPoll is supposed to work.  I promise that I will consider all insults comments.

You can view the final results of this week’s poll over at CBS Sports later this week and check out an analysis of how the collective blogging brain-trust arrived at this week’s result. If you’re craving even more BlogPoll goodness, you can also check out how other bloggers voted and see how your team fared across the Blogosphere.

There you have it…

– So it goes…

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Gate 21 Tags: Blogosphere, BlogPoll, BlogPoll, Boise State Broncos, California Golden Bears, CBS Sports, College Football, Florida State Seminoles, Football, Gate 21, Georgia Bulldogs, Houston Cougars, LSU Tigers, Miami Hurricanes, News & Notes, NFL, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Oregon Ducks, Pac-10, SEC, South Florida Bulls, Virginia Tech Hokies

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It wasn’t necessarily pretty, and it wasn’t necessarily easy, but the Tennessee Volunteers managed to defeat the Ohio Bobcats 34 to 23.  There were good things, less good things, and downright lousy things.  On the whole, however, this game marked the continuation of Tennessee’s long road of slow and steady progress back toward the top.

It was a win, and to each of the Vols and the coaching staff, I can only say one thing: mission accomplished (for this week, at least)…

The bad news is that Nick Reveiz is likely out for the rest of the season which will leave the Vols without a much needed leader and even thinner at linebacker.  That one may hurt for quite a while.

The defense did not exactly have its best night tonight, but that happens every now and then.  Quarterback Jonathan Crompton, however, seemed to feel a little more confident this week and — on the whole — looked pretty decent.  That said, the wide receivers did not give Crompton much help as they were unable to break the Ohio coverage schemes to get open.  Still, a decent night passing.

My gut tells me that — though no one on the team will admit it — there was probably a bit of an emotional and physical let down after the game against the Florida Gators last week which left the men in orange feeling a little deflated coming into today’s game.  It is really tough to maintain that level of intensity perpetually.  So long as it does not become oa habit, I’m pretty much okay with that happening occasionally.

The other area of concern that stuck out like a sore thumb tonight was the break down of special teams coverage.  While Daniel Lincoln notched a personal best nailing a 49-yard field goal, the kick coverage unit allowed a touchdown runback which simply never should have happened.

Still, it is a win.

Beats the hell out of a loss…

– So it goes …

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Gate 21 Tags: College Football, College Football, Daniel Lincoln, Florida Gators, Jonathan Crompton, Lane Kiffin, News & Notes, Nick Reveiz, Ohio Bobcats, Postgame, SEC Football, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Volunteers

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Check out the Full Poll Results at

Team Speed Kills!

Week 3

Through 20 September 2009

Here’s my ballot for this week in the SEC Power Poll, along with a feeble attempt at explaining why I’m such a moron. Not a whole lot of ways to separate between some of the teams this early on, but at least I thought up some excuses for my decisions.

Here they are, my darlins:

Rk.	Team	Change	Comments
1.		–	Well, the Florida Gators bested my Vols, and that has to count for something. Still, I expected a bit more from the vaunted Gators — especially since they were favored by more than 3 TDs and only won by 10. On the whole, the Gators looked vulnerable when it comes to their ability to adjust to changing defenses and against a clock-control offense. Still, I think they are the best in the SEC for now.
	Result: UF 23 • UT 13
2.		–	The Alabama Crimson Tide blasted North Texas back to cowpoke-land, not that I expected anything else. They’ll have a tougher test this week against Arkansas who has players who people have actually heard of and who clearly can put points on the board..
	Result: ALA 53 • N Texas 7
3.		1	The Right Reverend Houston Nutt’s Ole Miss Rebels remain an enigma — up, then down, up then down — sort of like Nutt’s cell phone bill back when he was “textin’” in Arkansas. Still, the Rebels they look strong and will likely make a run at the west..
	Result: Miss 52 • SE La. 23
4.		1	The LSU Tigers get a nod and No. 4 from me for having actually played someone in their non-conference schedule: namely, Washington. Louisiana-Lafayette, however, was like punching little girls in the face. MSU will be better than that this week.
	Result: LSU 45 • La. Lafayette 14
5.		2	The Auburn Tigers have actually played against some real opponents, already has one win in the SEC, and notched a nice win against a decent West Virginia Mountaineers team this week. This week they look to hone their skills against 0-3 Ball State. That could get ugly.
	Result: AUB 41 • WVU 30
6.		1	I don’t know which is more significant, scoring 52 vs. Arkansas or allowing 41. Memo to the Bulldogs: a little defense would be nice. The Georgia Bulldogs are a meltdown in the making, and I imagine that Richt is beginning to feel the heat. They’re my No 6 this week, but barely.
	Result: GA 52 • ARK 41
7.		1	Sure, the Tennessee Volunteers lost to Florida. Still, the Full Monte defense managed to completely foul up St. Timm-ahy’s rhythm to the point that he was no longer able to walk on water. Add to that a nice showing by the running backs, and the Vols look to be improving. Still, it would be nice to have some semblance of a passing game, but it is what it is. Nice steady progress by the Blackjack General.
	Result: UT 13 • UF 23
8.		–	A close win by the Kentucky Wildcats against Louisville. Now, can they win in the SEC? Playing teams who name their stadiums after take-out pizza doesn’t inspire confidence, and I’m reserving judgment on the Cats.
	Result: UK 31 • Papa John 27
9.		2	The Arkansas Razorbacks, played a tough game against the Bulldogs this weekend and, on the whole, looked tough offensively. Ryan Mallett clearly has talent, a cannon for an arm, and game between his ears. The ‘Backs defense, however, was pretty much non-existent. Still, I think the Razorbacks could surprise a lot of folks this season, most notably in managing to keep Petrino in the same coaching job for more than one season.
	Result: ARK 41 • GA 52
10.		2	The Mississippi State Bulldogs are a bit of a surprise this season due to their winning record and notable lack of suckification. LSU, however, will test them sorely, I fear — as in bent over … the hard way.
	Result: MSU 15 • VU 3
11.		1	The South Carolina Gamecocks do have a winning record, but are painful to watch. The only reason that SC isn’t last on my list is because Vandy is lousy. Does the Ole Ball Coach call it quits after this season? Stay tuned.
	Result: SC 38 • Fla. Atlantic3
12.		3	All I can say is: “Damn.” Expected more from the the Vanderbilt Commodores early in the season. And what is up with the ‘Dores always losing to Miss State? Someone please tell Bobby Johnson that you get more points if you carry the ball to that big colored box at the end of the field.
	Result: VU 3 • MSU 15

The Rest of the Power Poll

Now that you have wasted your time looking at my ballot, go check out what everybody else is saying over at Team Speed Kills.

– So it goes…

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Gate 21 Tags: Alabama Crimson Tide, Arkansas Razorbacks, Auburn Tigers, Ball State Cardinals, Blackjack General, Bobby Johnson, College Football, Features, Florida Gators, Football, Full Monte, Gate 21, Georgia Bulldogs, Houston Nutt, Kentucky Wildcats, Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin Cajuns, LSU Tigers, Mississippi State Bulldogs, North Texas Mean Green, Ole Miss Rebels, SEC, SEC East, SEC East, SEC Football, SEC Football, SEC Power Poll, SEC Power Poll, SEC Sports, SEC West, SEC West, South Carolina Gamecocks, Suckification, Tennessee Volunteers, Vanderbilt Commodores, Vols

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Here’s my ballot for this week’s CBS Sports BlogPoll Top 25 hosted by — as you might imagine — CBS Sports.

Week 4

Through 19 September 2009

First things first…

No, I have not abandoned the Gate.  No, I am not dead.  No, I have not defected and become a Florida Gators fan.  I have, however, had more on my plate the last few weeks than I really could possibly hope to keep up with.  Thus, I have had to make concessions here and there.  Regular posting on the Gate (as well as commenting across the web) has been one of those areas.  Between trials, funerals, and trips from one end of the State of North Carolina to the other, I have simply been trying to keep my head above water.  To both of you out there who regularly read the Gate, my apologies.  To those of you who accidentally stumbled upon Gate 21 while searching the web for a place from which you could purchase Viagra, well, you’re in the wrong place, but I’ll apologize nonetheless.

Moving right along…

There were a few surprises over the past week in the world of college football, some which I simply did not see coming and others which, while not expected can hardly be said to be earth shattering.  Bearing this in mind, here’s is my BlogPoll Top 25 ballot for the week.  Most of these should be fairly obvious.  Either way, here’s my preliminary ballot:

My Ballot for the Week

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida	–
2	Texas	1
3	Penn State	1
4	Alabama	1
5	California	2
6	Mississippi	–
7	LSU	2
8	Miami (Florida)	2
9	Boise State	1
10	Oklahoma	1
11	Southern Cal	9
12	TCU	–
13	Ohio State	2
14	Iowa	2
15	Pittsburgh	2
16	UCLA	3
17	Georgia	1
18	Notre Dame	2
19	Virginia Tech	4
20	Kansas	1
21	Oklahoma State	1
22	Nebraska	8
23	Cincinnati	1
24	Florida State	NR
25	Michigan	NR
Last week’s ballot

Explanations after the jump…

Comments, Explanations, and Excuses

Here are the high-points of the week’s changes:

Southern Cal and the Unranked Masses of the Pac-10:

I really cannot say that I am dumbfounded over the USC Trojans’ (11) loss to the Washington Huskies (NR), given the fact that the Trojans have had a bad habit of losing to unranked conference opponents since 2006, especially the week after a big “national” game, but I really have to say that I did not expect to see them lose to a team like the Huskies.  That said, Washington did give the LSU Tigers (7) all they could handle only a few weeks ago and appear to be a far different team than they were in 2008 when they just generally stunk it up for the entire season.  Whether this win for Washington signifies that they are for real, or simply reinforces the widely-held perception that USC has a bad habit of playing down to opponents remains to be seen.  Either way, Washington is now on my watch list for the coming weeks and, should they continue their winning ways they could make a debut in my poll ballot as early as next week.  USC on the other hand fell nine spots this week in my ballot for looking past an opponent that they clearly should have beaten.

State College (Pennsylvania) Creeps Up by Default:

The Penn State Nittany Lions (3) now find themselves in my Top 3.  I’ll be the first to say that I am a bit uncomfortable about this, but simply cannot justify the Alabama Crimson Tide (4) leapfrogging them … yet.  If Alabama holds true to form and continues to improve, I anticipate them moving up in the coming weeks.  Furthermore, a team that has impressed me thus far is the California Golden Bears (5), who earned a nice win on the road against the Minnesota Golden Gophers (NR) this past weekend—thereby spoiling the debut of Minnesota’s new palace of a stadium: TCF Bank Stadium.  After the loss by Southern California, the Bears look to be a real contender in the Pac-10, and have a real shot at bringing home a special season if they can hold on.

The Non-BCS Flop:

With both the BYU Cougars (NR) and the Utah Utes (NR) going down in flames this week, and the Boise State Broncos (9) barely escaping with their lives versus the Fresno State Bulldogs (NR), the first two of these non-BCS teams got booted from my ballot while the last dropped despite a win.  I am not trying to be arrogant or preach the “ESS-EEE-SEE” doctrine, but I simply do not believe that these teams have earned the right to be considered in the same breath with the major conferences on a regular basis.  Respect must be earned, and I was anything but impressed with the performances of these three mid-majors.

By the same token, I also still have not moved the North Carolina Tarheels (NR) into my ballot—despite their being ranked in some polls—because I still am not convinced that the smurfs from Chapel Hill are as good as many claim, despite being a member of the ACC.

See, I am a fair guy…

Parting Thoughts

Having taken the time to consider my feeble attempt at ranking the powers in college football, feel free to try and convince me that I am wrong — which is part of the way the BlogPoll is supposed to work.  I promise that I will consider all insults comments.

You can view the final results of this week’s poll over at CBS Sports later this week and check out an analysis of how the collective blogging brain-trust arrived at this week’s result. If you’re craving even more BlogPoll goodness, you can also check out how other bloggers voted and see how your team fared across the Blogosphere.

As a side note, given the fact that I have been so pressed to post anything of substance, I’ll go ahead and re-extend my offer to the masses of earlier this year.  If you think you’d like to write for the Gate, I am actively seeking more writers and would love to have another perspective to add here on the site.  If you are interested, simply email me.

Up later: Thoughts on the Tennessee vs. Florida Game and this week’s SEC Power Poll Ballot…

– So it goes…

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Gate 21 Tags: ACC, Alabama Crimson Tide, Blogosphere, BlogPoll, BlogPoll, Boise State Broncos, BYU Cougars, CBS Sports, College Football, College Football, Complaints, ESS-EEE-SEE, Excuses, Features, Florida Gators, Football, Fresno State Bulldogs, Gate 21, LSU Tigers, Minnesota Golden Gophers, NFL, North Carolina Tarheels, Pac-10, Penn State Nittany Lions, SEC, SEC Football, Smurfs, Southern Cal Trojans, USC Trojans, Utah Utes, Washington Huskies

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Due to trials, funerals, and numerous other obligations, this will probably be my only post this week.  I will, however, be back next weekend after the Florida Game to commiserate or celebrate (after the UCLA disaster, I’m afraid I know which it will be).

At any rate, here is my preliminary ballot for this week’s CBS Sports BlogPoll Top 25 for all to attack, without comment:

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida	–
2	Southern Cal	–
3	Texas	–
4	Penn State	–
5	Alabama	–
6	Mississippi	–
7	California	–
8	Boise State	3
9	LSU	3
10	Miami (Florida)	4
11	Oklahoma	2
12	TCU	3
13	Brigham Young	3
14	Nebraska	3
15	Ohio State	7
16	Iowa	4
17	Pittsburgh	1
18	Georgia	1
19	UCLA	3
20	Notre Dame	10
21	Kansas	2
22	Oklahoma State	13
23	Virginia Tech	1
24	Cincinnati	1
25	Utah	1
Last week’s ballot

Sorry to be so brief, but duty calls…

– So it goes …

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Gate 21 Tags: 2009, BCS Championships, Big 10, Big XII, Blogosphere, BlogPoll, BlogPoll, BYU Cougars, CBS Sports, Championship, College Football, College Football, Complaints, Eric Berry, Excuses, Jerks, MAC, News & Notes, Oklahoma Sooners, Ole Miss Rebels, Pac-10, Prognostication, SEC Football, Spam, Statistics, Top 25

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Check out the Full Poll Results at:

Team Speed Kills!

Week 1

Through 7 September 2009

Here’s my ballot for this week in the SEC Power Poll, along with an feeble attempt at explaining why I’m such a moron. Not a whole lot of ways to separate between some of the teams this early on, but at least I thought up some excuses for my decisions.

Here they are, my darlins:

What, you were expecting more?

The Rest of the Power Poll

Now that you have wasted your time looking at my ballot, go check out what everybody else is saying over at Team Speed Kills, where the round-up will appear later this week.

Onward and upward …

– So it goes…

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Gate 21 Tags: Alabama Crimson Tide, Arkansas Razorbacks, Auburn Tigers, Blackjack General, Charleston Southern Buccaneers, College Football, Florida Gators, Georgia Bulldogs, Kentucky Wildcats, Lane Kiffin, Les Miles, LSU Tigers, Mike Gundy, Mississippi State Bulldogs, NC State Wolfpack, Oklahoma State Cowboys, Ole Ball Coach, Ole Miss Rebels, SEC East, SEC Football, SEC Power Poll, SEC Power Poll, SEC West, South Carolina Gamecocks, Spanking, Sucking, Tennessee Volunteers, Vanderbilt Commodores, Virginia Tech Hokies, Washington Huskies, WCU Catamounts

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Here’s my ballot for this week’s CBS Sports BlogPoll Top 25 hosted by—as you might imagine—CBS Sports.

Week 2

Through 8 September 2009

After the past week in the world of college football, there have been a bunch of changes, mainly at the back end of my poll.  The other biggie is the Oklahoma Sooners who plummeted after losing to BYU.  In addition, the entire back end of my poll pretty much emptied out as a result of a ton of teams losing.  Thus, there are some new faces, and a few that have departed.

Unfortunately, I am starting a multi-week trial today and am already running behind in getting this posted.  Given my trial schedule, it is doubtful that I will get much of substance posted for the next week or so.  Be that as it may, most of my changes should be fairly obvious.   Either way, here’s my ballot:

My Ballot for the Week

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida	–
2	Southern Cal	1
3	Texas	1
4	Penn State	1
5	Alabama	2
6	Mississippi	–
7	California	1
8	Ohio State	1
9	Oklahoma State	4
10	Notre Dame	–
11	Boise State	3
12	LSU	–
13	Oklahoma	11
14	Miami (Florida)	5
15	TCU	–
16	Brigham Young	6
17	Nebraska	3
18	Pittsburgh	5
19	Georgia	8
20	Iowa	1
21	Clemson	3
22	UCLA	3
23	Kansas	3
24	Virginia Tech	8
25	Cincinnati	1

Alas, I simply don’t have time to post any real explanations aside from “this is what I think,” but such is life…

You can view the final results of this week’s poll over at CBS Sports later this week and check out an analysis of how the collective blogging brain-trust arrived at this week’s result.  If you’re craving even more BlogPoll goodness, you can also check out how other bloggers voted and see how your team fared across the Blogosphere.

Oh, yeah, and if I ever figure out who it is that keeps spamming the comments here at the Gate with random crap offering links to porn sites, Viagra shipped to your home, or moneymaking schemes, I’m going to find his address and tell Eric Berry that the jerk said something nasty about his mother…

– So it goes…

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Gate 21 Tags: 2009, BCS Championships, Big 10, Big XII, Blogosphere, BlogPoll, BlogPoll, BYU Cougars, CBS Sports, Championship, College Football, College Football, Complaints, Eric Berry, Excuses, Jerks, MAC, News & Notes, Oklahoma Sooners, Ole Miss Rebels, Pac-10, Prognostication, SEC Football, Spam, Statistics, Top 25

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It was Western Kentucky and lawvol did an excellent job with his version of this post (as in better than mine’s going to be), so I’ll keep this relatively brief.

Judging by the atmosphere on campus before the game and during the game in the student section, you would in no way have thought Tennessee’s opponent was possibly the worst Division I-A team in the country. I found this out on the long walk from my apartment down the Cumberland Avenue “Strip” and through the heart of campus on my way to the Vol Walk. I managed to get an up-close spot fort the spectacle, and I’ll have a video from it at the end of this.

The new JumboTron is awesome, especially when they take the ads off and make it full screen (click to enlarge)

As for the game, I’ll start with Jonathan Crompton. Sure, the tipped balls are worrisome and the first interception he threw – though not his fault, said Lane Kiffin – was the awful kind of pass he would have made last year. Other than that, he really didn’t have that many incompletions.

He looked confident. He looked poised. He managed the offense very well (I can only remember one substitution penalty and procedure penalty). He was 21-of-28 and threw five touchdowns for goodness sakes. Sure, it was mostly the short passing game.

But if your quarterback struggles with making multiple reads (as Crompton did in 2008), you don’t make him do that. You let him take the snap and throw it to a wideout against a corner playing off the line and let the playmaker get some yards in space. You throw the short hitch. You get Crompton rolling out with options short, medium and long. Heck, Crompton even slid when he had to scramble.

The receivers played well enough to make you forget the injuries. Luke Stocker caught two scores. Marsalis Teague led the way as a freshmen and is going to be a great player. Quintin Hancock deserves a shout-out.

But this day belonged to the offensive line. Crompton had time to throw and that only helps him. And the line opened enormous holes and got great push on just about every play, as was evidenced in the stats. Hopefully they stay healthy throughout the year, because watching them open lanes for Hardesty, Bryce, Oku and Poole (let’s not forget about Toney WIlliams, either) could be really fun to watch if they are able to keep it up.

The defense was swarming and Western Kentucky had no time to do anything – at all. I thought the linebackers played pretty well, but we’ll have to see how they go up against stronger, faster opponents in the future. Janzen Jackson was the first freshman to see the field defensively, and, like Teague, he’s going to be a great player. I thought Wes Brown also played very well: well as in fresh, considering everything we’d heard about him all preseason were the bad condition of both of his knees.

To conclude, anytime you dominate a team 63-7 and outgain them by the margin Tennessee did, you feel good about it. But if nothing else, it’s a game where you get some confidence, especially on offense where those guys are trying to make us all forget last year’s atrocities. It’s a chance for the freshmen and new players to get some game action, as every little bit of experience helps. Western Kentucky was the perfect opponent for Lane and Company to open up with.

My view from Section F (click to enlarge)

Looking ahead, I think this team could be pretty tough to beat in Neyland Stadium this year. If the crowd was like it was for Western Kentucky – and those of you who were there hopefully agree with me on this – how will it be when Auburn, Georgia and South Carolina come to visit?

Which leads me to my next bold statement: I see absolutely no way UCLA comes into Knoxville next week and beats Tennessee.

There, I said it. First off, anytime you travel across the country to play, you’re at a disadvantage. See LSU last night at Washington, Maryland getting rocked at Cal, our own Vols the past two seasons and Cal coming here in 2006. Kevin Prince is UCLA’s starting QB. He was 18-of-29 for 176 yards, and threw two picks against one touchdown. That was at home, against San Diego State.

Next week he’ll be dealing with the Tennessee defense. In Tennessee’s stadium. Against a group of players and coaches and fans that want to right the wrong of last year’s embarrassing loss. And do it emphatically in front of a national TV audience on ESPN.

Yes, yes, I know we all said the same exact thing last year. But if not for horribly inept coaching (throwing 41 passes Dave Clawson and letting Kevin Craft dink-and-dunk you down the field John Chavis), Tennessee wins that game. UCLA has certainly improved, but this time they get the dubious honor of making the long trip. We all already are aware (boom, alliteration!) of the importance of this game to the rest of the Vols’ season. Tennessee absolutely has to beat UCLA next Saturday.

As soon as the Vols had the first couple of touchdowns yesterday and settled into the complete domination they displayed, my thoughts were already on UCLA. Hence why I’ve spent the last half of this post talking about next Saturday.

Anyways, here’s the video I took of the Vol Walk from yesterday (please know it’s long and my camera steadiness was lacking…you try holding your arm up that high for that long):

Click here to view the embedded video.

– … to me.

Gate 21 Tags: Bryce Brown, College Football, College Sports, Dave Clawson, David Oku, Ed Orgeron, Janzen Jackson, John Chavis, Jonathan Crompton, Lane Kiffin, LSU Tigers, Luke Stocker, Marsalis Teague, Montario Hardesty, Monte Kiffin, Quintin Hancock, SEC East, SEC Football, SEC Sports, Tauren Poole, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Volunteers, The View From the Hill, UCLA Bruins, Video, Vol Walk, Wes Brown, Western Kentucky Hilltoppers

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Western Kentucky vs. Tennessee
Postgame

7 Toppers

1 2 3 4 Tot WKU 0 0 7 0 7 Tennessee 0 28 7 28 63 Final

63 Vols

Well, there are so very many positive things to say about this game that it is hard to really know where to start, thus, I’ll just start at the top, here are the stats for the game:

The stats speak loudly.  Tennessee racked up a whopping 710 total net yards.  Last season the Vols managed only 3,225 yards on the season, today they produced over 20% of last season’s total yards in a single game.  They scored more points than they have since the 2000 game against the Arkansas Razorbacks.  Even more surprising was the balance in the offensive yardage between the pass and the run.

Passing

I am hardly surprised that the Vols managed big numbers on the ground, but the passing game was a pleasant surprise—oh what a change from 2008.

In fact Jonathan Crompton pretty much had a career day while Nick Stephens also notched  some quality time:

On this point, I am really happy for Jonathan Crompton.  After all of the adversity he suffered through last year, it is so nice to see Crompton have a strong showing.  As I mentioned during the liveblog earlier, Crompton just looked like he felt much more comfortable and confident in the pocket.  He looked like he knew what he was supposed to do.  He looked like he understood the plan and he looked like a quarterback who was having fun.  In several of the shots from the SEC Network broadcast you could see him smiling in the huddle.  After a 2008 season in which he received death threats from Tennessee fans, I am so glad for this young man to see him go out and be able to perform the way (according to Clay Travis’ “On Rocky Top”) he had dreamed of since he was a child.

What a change a year can make…

Receivers

On the receiving end of Crompton’s passes were a bevy of Volunteers.  It was nice to see a lot of players getting a lot of touches.  Of particular note were Marsalis Teague, Quintin Hancock, and Nu’Keese Richardson who combined for 182 yard receiving, while tight end Luke Stocker added 23 yards and two touchdowns.  Nice to see that the Kiffin cadre of coaches realize that the big guy at the end of the line can catch the ball too.

Despite the worst fears of fans of the Vols, the men in orange look like they have finally shaken off the sour taste of offensive ineptitude that was so pervasive in 2008.  Again, a nice change.

Running Game

Of course the running game was hardly lacking.

Montario Hardesty led with a banner day of 160 yards—more than half of the 271 yards he had in all of 2008.  Freshman Bryce Brown also showed why he was the number one ranked recruit in the country with his 107 yards in his first game in an orange shirt. Meanwhile, Tauren Poole and David Oku added 58 and 47 yards respectively.

Of course all of this was made possible by the excellent zone blocking by the Vols’ offensive line which opened holes that even I could have run through.  Nice game by the big guys in the trenches

Defense

I expected the Tennessee defense to look tough and they did.  I was really stuck by how well they seemed to be able to adapt to both the pass and the run.  This was particularly apparent when, with about 4:50 to go in the second quarter Western Kentucky attempted a reverse.  The quarterback, showing a pass had a face full of orange as he made the pitch, but the backs were all over the reverse as they brought the carrier down for a loss.

I will be honest, I am still trying to learn what to look for in the Monte Kiffin’s “Tennessee Two” defense, but all I can say is that the Vol defenders have clearly taken to the Full Monte’s scheme.

Coaching

I did not try to keep track of the specific calls today, but for the first time in years I was thrilled to see that I did not always know what was coming next.  There was a great mixture of run, pass, pocket, roll-out, off-tackle, sweep, and over-the-middle.  Heck, we even got to see the direct snap (which I imagine UCLA will be looking at meaningfully this week).  I’ll probably have a better grasp on exactly what we did and when after I get a chance to watch the game again.  For now, however, all I can say is that the Vols looked very well coached—they were not flawless, but they knew what they were supposed to do.  This game was an excellent way to start the Lane Kiffin era as the Blackjack General was clearly in command of the field.

Yes, I think we may have made the right choice in terms of coaches.

Final Thoughts

Yes, this was only Western Kentucky.  Yes, we were supposed to win this game.  We were also supposed to win our games against the UCLA Bruins and the Wyoming Cowboys last year.  I know that the competition level is going increase exponentially in the coming weeks.  Still, at least Tennessee has shown that it has a solid grasp on fundamentals.  They have shown that they can play as a team.  They have shown that they have the ability to do great things.

Do we know how they will match up against the Florida Gators?  No.  But at least we know that they are ready to play.

After all, I’ll take a win over a loss any day of the week…

– So it goes…

Gate 21 Tags: 2008, 2009, Alex Johnson, Arkansas Razorbacks, Blackjack General, Brandon Warren, Bryce Brown, College Football, David Oku, Denarius Moore, Florida Gators, Full Monte, Gate 21, Jonathan Crompton, Kevin Cooper, Lane Kiffin, Luke Stocker, Marsalis Teague, Montario Hardesty, Monte Kiffin, News & Notes, Nick Stephens, No Pass Out Checks, No Pass Out Checks, Nu'keese Richardson, Phoenix, Postgame, Quintin Hancock, SEC, SEC Football, Tauren Poole, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Vols, Tennessee Volunteers, UCLA Bruins, University of Tennessee, Vols, Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, Zach Rogers

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Western Kentucky vs. Tennessee

0 Toppers

1 2 3 4 OT Final WKU 0 0 0 0 - 0 Tennessee 0 0 0 0 - 0

0 Vols

Pregame

For the first time ever (since I am stuck in Raleigh and can’t make it to the game) I am going to try a little live-blogging during the game.  I will also be in of the live game thread over at Rocky Top Talk.

The SEC Network just went on the air

After many long months, finally…

It’s Football Time in Tennessee!

More later…

Gate 21 Tags: College Football, College Football, Football, It's Football Time in Tennessee, Lane Kiffin, Liveblogging, Liveblogging, News & Notes, SEC, SEC Football, Tennessee, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Volunteers, University of Tennessee, Western Kentucky Hilltoppers

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Football season is officially upon us and last night we got a chance to get our first look at one of the Tennessee Volunteers’ upcoming opponents: the South Carolina Gamecocks.  If last night was any indication, South Carolina’s offense has a long way to go.  In their lackluster 7-3 win over the NC State Wolfpack, the Gamecocks looked fairly anemic when they had the ball and had it not been for their defense, they probably don’t win the game (considering their only touchdown came as a result of a recovered fumble in the red zone).  That is some good news for the Vols.  You can read plenty more on this game from the Thunder Chicken perspective over at Garnet and Black Attack.

Meanwhile, out in the hinterland, the Boise State Broncos managed to beat the Oregon Ducks 19-8 in a battle of fisticuffs on the Smurf Turf. Even more exciting than the game was Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount’s right hook to the jaw of Boise State defensive end Byron Hout after the game was over. CBS Sports is now reporting that Blount has been suspended for the remainder of the season by the University of Oregon.

Tisk, Tisk…

Here’s a little look at the fun that was had by Blount and Hout at the game.

Video: Smurf Punchin’

Oh yeah, and Utah beat Utah State 35-17 (if any of you cared).

Thus, we have but one day before the Vols get it going against the Western Kentucky Weird-Grimace-Looking-Walking-Amoeba-or-is-it-an-Eggplant-Guys (Hilltoppers) at Neyland Stadium.  After all these months of waiting, we finally get a chance to see Lane Kiffin’s Vols in action.  Let’s just hope no one punches anyone afterwards.

Ahh, college football, I’ve missed you…

– So it goes…

Gate 21 Tags: Bad Behavior, Bad Behavior, Blackjack General, Boise State Broncos, Byron Hout, CBS Sports, College Football, Fighting, Football, LaGarrette Blount, Lane Kiffin, MAC, NC State Wolfpack, News & Notes, Neyland Stadium, Oregon Ducks, SEC East, SEC Football, Smurf Turf, South Carolina Gamecocks, Suspension, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Vols, Tennessee Volunteers, Vols, Western Kentucky Hilltoppers

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2 Days, and Counting…

Video: Eric Berry: Relentless

HT: VolNation

This is by far the best Eric Berry highlight video I’ve seen (and there are at ton of them) and it is light years beyond the recently released Heisman promotional video which just simply defies explanation.  Anyway, this may be old for a lot of folks, but I figured it appropriate as we get ready for kickoff.  A little something to get the orange pumping in your veins.

Are you ready?

– So it goes

Gate 21 Tags: 2009, College Football, College Football, Eric Berry, Football, Highlights, MAC, Media + Images, SEC Football, Smackdown, Tennessee, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Volunteers, Video, Video, Vols

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3 Days, and Counting…

Video: This is Tennessee

HT: VolNation

An oldie, but a goodie…

– So it goes…

Gate 21 Tags: College Football, Football, Media + Images, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Volunteers, This is Tennessee, Video, Video, VolNation, Vols, YouTube

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Gate 21 is proud to host this week’s Roundtable!

It’s Time…

This week’s Big Orange Roundtable is hosted by … ummm … oh, yeah, it’s our week.  We here at the Gate are proud to host the 2009 kickoff edition of the Big Orange Roundtable as we all get ready to tee it up and kick it down for the 112th season of Tennessee Volunteers Football.

With that lovely prospect in mind, let’s get down to business:

Week 8

1) (From HSH)  We’ve talked through the past month or so about just about everything we could talk about regarding this Tennessee team: the quarterbacks, offensive line, freshman, Eric Berry, finding healthy wide receivers, freshman again, etc. So the simple question is this: what do you expect or what specifically are you looking for from the Vols against Western Kentucky this Saturday?

HSH: First things first, Western Kentucky is not going to be anything close to resembling a quality football team.  They were recently a power in 1-AA, but this is their first full year in 1-A, and have the potential to be one of the worst teams to come to Neyland Stadium in a while (yes, I’m including Wyoming).  They went just 2-10 last year (the wins were Eastern Kentucky and Murray State) and return just 12 starters from that team.

So if Tennessee hangs 60 points on the Hilltoppers, oh, well it was just Western Kentucky, right?  Not exactly.  I want to see Tennessee score lots of points Saturday afternoon.  I expect Lane Kiffin will want to pound the rock with the running backs.  I want to see a confident Jonathan Crompton that doesn’t make any mistakes and crisply runs the offense.

Defensively, I want to see which freshmen make an early impact in their first games, and how they handle playing for real.  On both sides, I want to see swagger—OK, it’s WKU, but we could be playing my high school’s team and I would still want to see our players have a wealth of confidence in themselves and their coaches that creates said swagger.

Lawvol: I expect and hope to see a few things.  First, I am not exactly expecting grandeur for this first game of the 2009 season, but what I am expecting to see is poise and purpose.  I am hoping that this team brings their attitude—one which was sorely missing last season—and refuses to play down to the level of their opponent which they should beat under almost any circumstance.

Let’s be honest, Western Kentucky went 2-10 last season which made even the Vols’ 5-7 campaign seem decent.  Prior to 2008, however, Western Kentucky had a streak of 12 straight winning seasons, and look to be on the upswing.  That said, The Vols have got to play with a little spark and bring their best game to their opponent—regardless of the quality of that opponent.  The Vols have to play their game and not let it be dictated to them by their opponent.

Most of all, I am looking to see a team that is glad to be on the field playing once more.  I hope that we begin to see the development of the new Kiffin system and hopefully get a huge relief when the quarterback play is surprisingly crisp and effective.  This is a confidence game which is only a good thing if you perform in a manner that inspires confidence

2) The last time I had to come up with questions for the Roundtable, you may remember our visit to the debate over the “Woo!” in Rocky Top.  Along those lines, I want to get the take on a similar topic: pompons, or shakers if you prefer that.

The basis of this comes from Clay Travis’ book, Dixieland Delight, which I read this summer and I suggest you look into as well. First, read what Clay says about pompons/shakers (Note that this is straight from the book).

Once you’ve done that, you’re on the spot: do you make use of said pompons/shakers at Tennessee games?

HSH: As a student, of course, we have the things basically thrown at us because they’re in our seats when we get to the game. I was more inclined to use them as a freshman three years ago, but now I don’t even think about using them.

Why? They’re annoying and they’re for the pretty sorority girls all dressed up. What’s wrong with a fist pump or high-fives with those around you when the Vols make a good play? Not only that, but they occasionally block even my view of the field (I’m not exactly a short guy, either) and I every now and then get hit by the person behind me using theirs.

I know I sound really uptight, but neither of those above things really bother me – they’re just reasons I’m anti-shakers. But much like the Rocky Top “Woo!” they aren’t going anywhere…

Lawvol: As a general rule I am not a shaker guy, at least not now.  When I was a student, I did on occasion raise a shaker or two into the air in jubilation, but I was never a huge fan of shakers as a means to display support for the team.  I have, however, put shakers to good use in other ways.  In 1997, while on a road trip to Florida, I did assemble a wig of nothing but shakers which looked particularly fetching with my blue eyes and was all the rage with the folks in Gainesville—that is until they pounded our faces into the pavement with their Jorts-clad backsides.  Needless to say, I decided the wig was a bad idea.

I have, however, discovered that a properly wielded shaker can make a wonderful implement of self-defense, nee’ “weapon.” First and foremost, a shaker is a wonderfully effective way to bash people over the head who annoy you in the stadium.  Shakers are not terribly menacing, per se, but when slung with force (and especially when wet) they can approximate the feeling one gets when being bashed over the head with a plate of spaghetti (sans the plate).  The beauty of this is that, having pummeled your foe you can simply play it off as if you were merely overcome by a fit of gleeful spirit at the Vols’ performance on the field, or the First Tennessee ad on the Jumbotron.

The pointy end of a shaker (i.e. “the handle”) can also serve as an effective means of poking people in the ribs.  This works particularly well when you obscure the handle behind your other arm and simply poke the end out into an the ribs of an unsuspecting bystander while standing in a throng of people clamoring to get out of the stadium after the game.  A true raconteur will do this so that, the object of the barb is a particularly burly fellow wearing orange who is … ill tempered with strong drink.  Immediately after doing that, you must turn quickly around and yell loudly at the Florida fan behind you to quit poking you.  Then repeat the jab on the burly orange fellow only harder, and watch the fur fly (preferably from a distance, but be sure and hang around to give a statement to the police).

Finally, shakers can actually be used to disperse a crowd quite quickly, especially if you have numerous shakers.  Simply find a cigarette lighter, and imagine yourself as one of the great medieval archers lighting your arrow and hurl the flaming shakers into the crowd.  This won’t win you many friends and though it might get you arrested, it is highly entertaining…**

3) Looking back over the last year and a half, it has been an absolute roller coaster ride for the Vols and their fans.  A lot of excitement has been building to this very moment as Tennessee gets set to take the field for the 2009 season.  How do you feel with kickoff only days away?  Are you excited?  Ready to to start kickin’ ass and taking names?  Unsure?  Worried?  Shaking like a little girl?  Incapable of speaking coherently due to complete and utter hysterical fear?

HSH: I would call myself quietly confident.  I know Tennessee’s going to come out and pound Western Kentucky Saturday afternoon and I’m looking more towards watching to see how all the new parts look in a game than anything else.

Now when those powder-blue-and-gold folks come calling next week, then it’s showtime.  Not only is UCLA quite possibly the game that determines the first half of our season, but I—and I’m not alone—haven’t forgotten the embarrassment they caused the Vol Nation last September. They were the beneficiaries of an epic Vol fail on ESPN on Labor Day and that must be avenged.

So to keep it short, I’m ready to get Saturday’s win over Western over with, so we can start really getting the juices flowing for when UCLA visits.  This Saturday will be a nice little greeting time and introduction time for everybody, but we’ll know much, much more about the Vols sometime around 8 p.m. September 4th.

Lawvol: I am hopefully optimistic, but realize that things could go poorly for the Vols this season.  Thus, I think I am taking the wait-and-see approach and am hoping that we will see a few fireworks this Saturday.  Mainly, I am just hoping that the Vols return to being a team once more and that the fans finally start cheering and quit booing like they did last season.  Thus, I am a little worried about the in-the-stands aspect of the game.

Either way, for this week, I am pretty pumped because Western Kentucky doesn’t have a whole lot of fire.  As for the Florida game … I’ll get back to you on that one.

4) Alright, we’ve come through all of the previews and prognostications thus far but one real question remains: in the minds of each of the Roundtablers how do you expect the Vols to fare against the competition on their schedule?  Which games do they win, which games do they lose, and why?

HSH: Here’s my picks for the season:

• Western Kentucky: WIN — Lane Kiffin’s not going to lose his first game, and Western Kentucky isn’t really that good at football right now.
• UCLA: WIN — Neither team was good last year, and I don’t know who’s improved more, but there is absolutely no way a Pac-10 team should come 3,000 miles cross-country and beat Tennessee in Neyland Stadium (see Cal 2006).
• Florida: LOSS — Look, we aren’t going to get beat 175-0, but we aren’t going to beat Florida. They are more talented, deeper, faster, it’s really hot in the afternoons in Gainesville, and they have Tim Tebow.
• Ohio: WIN — This game kind of scares me, but Tennessee’s not going to lose to Ohio.
• Auburn: WIN — Because Gene Chizik is the coach of the Tigers.  Also, right now, Chris Todd is their QB. Even if he was throwing to Andre and Calvin Johnson, he still would be no better a QB than what the Vols have.  Even simpler: Tennessee should have won last year, and they added a much better recruiting class.
• Georgia: LOSS — The Vols can win this game, but UGA’s two strengths are their lines, which isn’t exactly what we’re looking at right now.
• Alabama: LOSS — I would expect a low-scoring game, but Alabama’s the better team playing at home, so I’m not going out on a limb.
• Carolina: WIN — When the Gamecocks lose Thursday night, people will see the issues they have.  Unless Stephen Garcia blows up, I don’t expect much from Carolina.  They’ll be solid on defense, but they lost Kenny McKinley and Jared Cook and the offensive line has been iffy at best.
• Memphis: WIN — It’s only not happened once.
• Ole Miss: LOSS — Unless the Rebels tank amidst the preseason hype – as they are fully capable of doing – you can’t expect Tennessee to win in Oxford.
• Vanderbilt: WIN — 2005 was a fluke and a half.
• Kentucky: WIN — Tennessee always beats Kentucky.

Lawvol: I’m an idiot, but here’s what I think:

• Western Kentucky: WIN — Even last year we win this one.  Western Kentucky is just out-manned.  In fact, to keep from showing our looks to the likes of Florida and such, I think we should only start Eric Berry, and let him take on the entire Western Kentucky squad.  In that scenario, I’d say Western Kentucky 3, Eric Berry 42.
• UCLA: WIN — This one actually scares me a bit because the Bruins managed to beat us last year and they just plain sucked.  Still, it should be entertaining to see The Full Monte versus Norm Chow’s offense.  I think the last thing that the Blackjack General wants to do is lose to his old cross-town whipping boy from his days at USC.
• Florida: We have a chance — Yes, I realize this is not an answer to the question, but I think we might have a chance.  Why?  I think that the chutzpah that Kiffin has shown, paired with all the bulletin board material over the last year counts for something.  I think if there is anyway humanly possible for the Vols to string together an unlikely victory on heart alone, this is the one.  If the Vols win, it is a nail-biter.  If it follows the script that everyone thinks rationally should happen, Florida by 7.  If the Vols aren’t ready then the boys in orange (and their fans) get bent over the table and take it the hard way from the Jorts tribe.
• Ohio: WIN — Ohio almost beat the Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus last year until third quarter errors gave the game away.  Ohio will be trying to prove something and will com in hyped.  Thus, be careful in writing them off.  The Vols better forget about the Florida game really quickly (regardless of the outcome) and be ready for this one.
• Auburn: WIN — This one is intriguing, but I really think the Vols have an advantage here, albeit a small one.  I think this is one of those games where the Orange are glad to be playing in Neyland Stadium.  Close, but the Vols take it home.
• Georgia: WIN — I think that the loss of Stafford and Moreno leave Georgia with an anemic offense which our defense can handle.  Furthermore, with an effective running game (set behind a zone blocking scheme which will have had some time to gel) I think the Vols get it done in a barnburner that goes down to the wire.
• Alabama: LOSS — This game could go either way, but I think Nick Saban will have time to get his offense settled by this late in the season and the home field advantage is just too much for the Vols.  That said, if they win against Florida and have anything left in the tank Volunteers leave it on the field in Tuscaloosa and could pull out an unlikely win.
• Carolina: WIN — I think we return to what we have seen in years past from the Thunder Chickens as they awe the world with their average-ness once more.  I think one year after Spurrier pushed Smiling Mike to the point of firing the Great Punkin, The Ole Ball Coach announces his retirement the day after the Vols win.
• Memphis: WIN — There is no way that the Vols should lose this game.  Of course, there was no way the Vols should have lost in 1996 either.  Still, a betting man calls this one a win.
• Ole Miss: WIN — The Vols have Memphis the preceding week, while Ole Miss has Northern Arizona (I didn’t even know they had a team).  Thus, both should have a week to get healthy and buck-up.  If Ole Miss is leading in the West, then the Vols have their work cut out for them.  If not, then the Vols have a lot more to play for — respect.  This could easily go Ole Miss’ way, but I’m giving the Vols the nod (for now).
• Vanderbilt: WIN — Hmmm … Vandy actually looks to have a better squad than last year, but so do the Vols.  Tennessee by double digits.
• Kentucky: WIN — The complete lack of a defense by the Kentucky Wildcats helps balance out Tennessee’s weaknesses on offense.  The Orange stretch the streak on more year.

The Rest of the Roundtable:

Having wasted your time on our largely meaningless and insignificant thoughts for this week, go check out what the other roundtablers (who actually know what they are talking about) have to say (in no particular order):

• Rocky Top Talk
• 3rd Saturday in Blogtober
• YMSWWC
• MoonDog Sports
• Vol Junkies
• Pigskin Pathos
• Bleeding Orange
• Loser With Socks

If trial preparation doesn’t kill me, look for a round-up sometime late in the week…

– So it goes … and – … to me.

** Notice: Whatever you do, Do NOT try this.  It is a joke.  You know, a joke — a short story with a humorous climax.  Why aren’t you laughing?  And what’s with all the shakers and the blowtorch?  >>Return<<

Gate 21 Tags: 1996, 2009, Alabama Crimson Tide, Auburn Tigers, Big Orange Roundtable, Blackjack General, CBS Sports, Chris Todd, chutzpah, Clay Travis, College Football, Complete Bullshit, Danger, Dixieland Delight, Eric Berry, Fire, Florida Gators, Football, Full Monte, Gate 21, Gene Chizik, Georgia Bulldogs, Great Punkin, Jared Cook, Jonathan Crompton, Jorts, Kenny McKinley, Kentucky Wildcats, Kickin Ass, Knowson Moreno, Lane Kiffin, Links, Matthew Stafford, Memphis Tigers, Monte Kiffin, News & Notes, Neyland Stadium, Nick Saban, Northern Arizona, Ohio Bobcats, Ole Miss Rebels, Pac-10, Prognostication, SEC East, SEC Fans, SEC Football, SEC Sports, SEC West, Shakers, Smiling Mike, South Carolina Gamecocks, Stephen Garcia, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Volunteers, Tuscaloosa, UCLA Bruins, Vanderbilt Commodores, Vols, Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, Wyoming Cowboys

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Ladies and gentlemen, your 2009 Tennessee football depth chart for the season opener. Courtesy of the Chattanooga Times-Free Press. You can also see it on this interestingly-named site.

It’s just a depth chart, but it’s definitely something worth talking about. One thing, though, is clear: this staff wasn’t kidding with the whole competition mantra. Brandon Warren always seems to be hurt? Nu’keese Richardson gets to start as a freshman. Brent Vinson missing most of fall camp due to injury? He doesn’t start (though I assume he will when/if he’s healthy), and Antonio Anderson and Art Evans of all people get the nod. Montario Hardesty and Dan Williams, two seniors and two of the players we expect the most from in 2009? Listed as co-starters with a pair of impressive freshmen.

Like I said, it’s still just a depth chart. This of course doesn’t mean these guys that are listed as starters will necessarily play more snaps and start all 14 12-13 games this year. Nevertheless, it’s still interesting to see all the work these guys have put into camp and see who’s earned/not earned their share.

Just one more week people…

– … to me.

Gate 21 Tags: College Football, College Sports, Depth Chart, Lane Kiffin, SEC Football, SEC Sports, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Volunteers, The View From the Hill, Western Kentucky Hilltoppers

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After living through the unmitigated disaster that was the 2008 football season for the Tennessee Volunteers, I was not so sure I was prepared to take a stroll with Clay Travis down memory lane via his new book “On Rocky Top.”  The 2008 season was the most gut-wrenching experience of my sports-watching life, one which Travis himself likened to having your arm amputated without laudanum.  It was truly painful and not merely because the Vols lost seven games.  Losing comes with competition, I can handle losing.  Watching an entire program, an entire fanbase, an entire state devolve into a constant state of turmoil, however, was the part that made it an experience that I was more than ready to forget.  Even assuming that, after nine months of good vibrations—buoyed up by the hopes and energy of new Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin and his band of invincibles—I was prepared to join Travis’ on his retrospective journey through the 2008 season I wasn’t really sure I wanted to make that trip into the past.

I suppose, I was just ready to move on.

When first I saw that Clay Travis had written a book on the Vols 2008 football campaign, my reaction was that he picked one hell of a bad year to write about Tennessee.  I knew Clay was a fine writer, having read his work for CBS Sports.com, Fanhouse, and his book Dixieland Delight.  Still, I remember thinking to myself “Man, that really stinks for Clay—all that work to write a book about a 5-7 season.” After all, who wants to read about a team that loses, and loses a lot?

You do.

Clay Travis’ new book “On Rocky Top” is one of the best sports books I have ever read in a long time.

Obviously, “On Rocky Top” focuses on my beloved Vols, which makes me naturally predisposed to read it, I suppose.  It does not, however, make me predisposed to actually like the book.  In fact, to date, I do not believe I have ever managed to finish a book written exclusively about the Vols—which is a bit ironic coming from a person who publishes a sports blog dedicated to the team—yet, it is the truth.  In my experience most single team memoirs are either so objective that they read more like a surgical note from a neurologist, are so “rah-rah” that the writer is blinded by his or her passion for their team that they refuse to acknowledge reality, lack any semblance of an understanding of the English language, or are so mind-numbingly focused minutiae that reading them is like eating sawdust without butter.  Sometimes they are all of the above.

Then there is “On Rocky Top”…

Clay Travis does not try to draft the authoritative history of one of the worst football seasons ever for my alma mater, he does not attempt to give the clichéd insiders look at what goes on behind closed doors at Tennessee, he does not simply re-visit and re-hash the events of the 2008 football season for Tennessee.  No, in “On Rocky Top” Clay Travis describes every season for every fan of every college football program, and he does it beautifully.

Tennessee is but the lens through which Travis explores not only the comings and goings of life in a big-time college football program, but more importantly takes an honest look at sports and fandom from a perspective that is, at times, as poignant as it is personal.  He explores a side of the world of sports so often relegated to the back of our minds and that small voice of reason drowned by the noise of a screaming crowd in a raucous stadium.

Travis writes:

I want my team to win more that I want anything on earth right now—even though I know how irrational my desire is, how insignificant this game is in the grand scheme of life.  All of us, we fans, always say that we realize there are things more important than sports.  Yet, even still, why do we feel the need to make this claim if we don’t, at some times, doubt whether this actually true?

Deep down in all of our hearts, we’re all a bit ashamed, frightened even, by how much we care.

Most examinations of fandom tend to focus on the outward evidence of the passion that fills the heart of the fan.  There are a bevy of books that show the all encompassing mania that some fans exhibit: children named after players their parents never met, cars and houses bedecked in gaudy school colors, logos shaved onto heads and mascots tattooed on bodies, and so forth.  Travis avoids these trite expressions of what it means to be a fan—short for “fanatic”—and looks more at the bonds that hold disparate and far-flung groups of individuals with little or nothing in common together as a “family” of fans.  He takes a journey into his own experiences as a fan and as a writer granted access to the inner sanctum of college football.

In the process, Travis does, in fact, chronicle the exploits of the 2008 Vols, and chronicle them well.  Yet he does so through the eyes of a fan, rather than from the dispassionate roost of the pressbox.  In so doing, he explores the reality that fans judge players and coaches—people they’ve never met—by a set of rules that is irrational, erratic, and wholly unfair.  Travis takes you inside not only the Vols locker room but inside the lives of the players and coaches—humanizing them is ways that are uncommon in the world of “superstar” athletics and modern sports media.

In particular, he looks at the effects of fan anger and outrage on Tennessee center Josh McNeil, former Vol running back Arian Foster, quarterback Jonathan Crompton, and former coach Phillip Fulmer, among others.  Travis shows how morally unfair the actions of anonymous fans can be when launching faceless attacks.  Talking with Josh McNeil, Travis writes:

In the wake of games, fan anger now mixes with player frustration.  Junior center Josh McNeil confesses, “I listen to the radio shows on my way home too.  I listen to the fans.  Sometimes I want to call in and talk with them.. I want to say, ‘Oh, yeah, well, you think I suck? Well, why don’t you come tell me that to my face?  Here’s my address, come meet me here and we’ll talk about it.  Just you and me.’  I wouldn’t ever do it, but I want to.  Sometimes I want to real bad.

Travis’ concludes that oftentimes fans bask in the comfortable anonymity of the stands—noting that no one ever says anything negative to the team on the Vol Walk when they are face-to-face, saving those barbs for the internet and call-in shows.

Finally, Travis takes a long look at the end of the Phillip Fulmer era in a way that, again, lifts the objective veil and shows that the players and coaches involved are real people—human beings—and not merely pawns on a chessboard.  He chronicles the measured implosion of Fulmer’s final season, the back-room conversations leading to his ouster, and Fulmer’s own post-hoc perspectives on his firing.  Travis’ also details Mike Hamilton’s James Bond-esque “operation” to find the Vols new Head Coach Lane Kiffin.  An excerpt of this is available on FanHouse.

Travis book is a joy to read and beautifully covers the gamut of the sports-fan emotional spectrum.  His insights into college football and fans are sometimes laughably hilarious:

I don’t care how Tennessee wins. … If Jonathan Crompton gets under center, steps back from the line of scrimmage, removes his mouthpiece, and subsequently shoots Auburn defensive tackle Sen’Derrick Marks with a poison blow dart, I’m all for it.  Anything to win.

sometimes disturbing:

Arian Foster, seated on the bench, is approached by a UT fan. … The fan who is wearing orange from head to foot and appears to be in his thirties, dog-cusses Foster to his back. … Foster does not bat an eyelash, pretending not to notice the fan, and eventually a member of the Georgia security staff leads him away from the fence behind the bench.  It’s come to this—Georgia security guards protecting Tennessee players from their own fans.

and sometimes moving:

My dad came to my house and sat next to me on the couch where I was feeding my 5-month-old son a bottle. … Finally, he turned to me and said, “You know, I read an article in the newspaper the other day about a dad’s funeral.  The son said, ‘We never really talked unless it was about sports.’  That’s really sad, isn’t it?”

My dad put his hand on my shoulder.  I continued to feed Fox.  “Yes,” I said, “that really is.”

We were both silent for a long time.  While Fox drank his bottle my dad smiled at him and occasionally made faces.  Finally my dad spoke again.

“I’m not as optimistic about this year’s team as you are,” he said.

He reached out and grabbed Fox’s bare foot.  “One day we’re going to get this little guy to a game too,” he said.

It occurred to me then that fathers and sons talk about a lot more than sports when we’re talking about sports.  And maybe in the end that’s why most of us are sports fans.

Clay Travis paints a vivid picture of the game and team that I love and follow as a fan.  In a broader sense, without pretension he provides a wonderful image of, what I like to describe as the beautiful agony of college football.

In the end, Clay Travis’ “On Rocky Top” is a truly enjoyable book, one which fans of SEC and college football—and definitely all Tennessee fans—should definitely read.

Trust me, you will enjoy the ride.

– So it goes…

Image(s) Courtesy of:    Clay Nation

Gate 21 Tags: 2008, Arian Foster, Blackjack General, Blogging, Book Review, CBS Sports, Clay Travis, Coaching Changes, College Football, College Football, Fans, Football, Gate 21, Great Punkin, Jonathan Crompton, Josh McNeil, Lane Kiffin, Mike Hamilton, On Rocky Top, Perspectives, Phillip Fulmer, SEC, SEC Fans, SEC Fans, SEC Football, SEC Football, Sen'Derrick Marks, Shout Outs, Shoutin' Out, Sports Media, Sports Media, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Volunteers, University of Tennessee, Vols

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I was one in the fairly large crowd at today’s scrimmage, the final “preseason game” for the football Vols before the season opener against Western Kentucky in two weeks. I was at last week’s scrimmage and the practice the Thursday before that, but most of what I’ll hit on here will be about today. I only stayed for the first half, however, but I feel I saw enough…

First, Bryce Brown is a stud. It’s a real shame (and a load of BS) that he’s involved with this mess with the NCAA three years after-the-fact, but regardless he wowed the crowd today. He showed a scary-good combination of power and speed.

Three of his runs really stuck out to me. His first featured him getting stopped basically at the line of scrimmage, but he kept churning and moved the pile for a five-yard gain. Another carry he hit the hole full-speed and ended up with a 10-plus yard gain, breaking through to the second level of the defense. Finally, on his TD run, he tried to go up the middle, but bounced it back outside and had enough speed to get to the corner for six.

All of this on a bad hip. Who knows exactly how close to 100% he was, but if this was Brown at less than that, it’s exciting to think about.

Brown’s fellow freshman back David Oku also showed some ability, as he was effective in making one cut and getting through the hole. Add these two guys to Montario Hardesty and Tauren Poole, and these running backs could be a special group. Given the quarterback situation, I expect Lane Kiffin to run the ball quite a bit. Of course so will opposing defensive coordinators, so it will be interesting to see how the Vols handle stacked boxes.

Speaking of the quarterbacks, I still think Jonathan Crompton will be the guy. I know Kiffin said this week the race between Crompton and Nick Stephens was very close, but, based on the three times I’ve seen both guys play, Crompton’s been more consistent. Neither have been amazing, but Crompton has clearly been the better of the two. We’ll see if Lane thinks the same way later this week (he’s expected to name a starter by the middle of the week).

Gerald Jones played today, and had a couple of nice catches. Quintin Hancock caught a touchdown after catching a short pass and breaking a tackle. The Vols also ran this route a number of times: with one-on-one coverage on the outside, the receiver runs a go route up the sideline, and the QB throws it on a line to the wideouts back shoulder, catching the cornerback with his back turned to the play. They tried this play three or four times, completing one of them.

That looks to be the extent of the downfield passing game. Much of it was shorter stuff: rollouts with open guys in the flat and over the middle, quick slants, hooks, outs, etc. Expect the running backs to a big part of the passing game as well. Swing passes, for example. Also, Crompton scrambled and hit fullback Kevin Cooper for a long gain that setup a score (a pass down the field to the fullback? what is this?) I’m not saying Tennessee won’t ever go deep, but they haven’t all that much in the three times I’ve seen them.

Defensively, Brent Vinson didn’t play, but fellow cornerback Art Evans did. A number of freshman – linebackers Jerod Askew, Greg King, Nigel Mitchell-Thornton and Robert Nelson and defensive backs Janzen Jackson, Mike Edwards, Eric Gordon and Darren Myles – got work with the first and second teams. To me it’s always hard to really judge the defense in these scrimmages, because they are probably somewhat familiar with Tennessee’s offense having practiced against it for three weeks now.

They bounced back last week and pretty much dominated after getting basically shredded in the first practice, but today they weren’t as dominant. I don’t think it’s an area of concern – ie, if there’s something to worry about on this team, it isn’t the defense.

Wes Brown played a few series at defensive tackle, which was good to see. I didn’t see much from the guys behind Brown, Dan Williams and Montori Hughes – Marlon Walls, Rae Sykes and Victor Thomas. I’m not sure if that’s because they weren’t making any plays or because I just couldn’t tell.

A couple of other things: first, Lane wasn’t in the huddle today, as the first and second team offenses used signals, wristbands and play cards attached to their belts. The defense also had their plays on their belts as well, and the coaches on the sidelines were all wearing headsets, so I assume we had coaches in the press box. Secondly, on every third down, the intro to AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells” began to play. I have no idea why. Finally, both teams were on the sideline closest to the fans, and between each possession they had short breaks – probably to give the guys a quick breather, but also to simulate TV timeouts.

Either way, we’re just two short weeks (although they’ll be the longest two weeks of the offseason) from Football Time in Tennessee.

Oh, and more thing…

FREE BRYCE BROWN!

– … to me.

Gate 21 Tags: College Football, College Sports, Preseason, Scrimmage, SEC Football, SEC Sports, Tennessee Football, The View From the Hill

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This Week’s Roundtable is hosted by:

Rocky Top Talk

This week’s Big Orange Roundtable is hosted by Rocky Top Talk and serves up another installment of questions burning in the minds of the orange-clad denizens who follow the Tennessee Volunteers.

In the interest of full disclosure, HSH sent me his responses to this week’s questions earlier in the week.  In theory, I was then supposed assemble a post including my answers along with his.  In theory, this sounds simple … in theory.  Reality is quite a different matter.  I have been woefully unreliable in terms of my posting of late due to my “real life,” and more specifically, my “real job.”

Thus, as a result of me being completely backed-up in preparation for an upcoming trial (a/k/a “evidence manipulation conference”) I am yet again forced to punt—at least for the moment.  This is particularly annoying considering how great the questions are this week.  Thus, for now the only answers I have to offer are those from HSH—which is probably a good thing considering that he actually knows what he’s talking about.  I will try to add in my responses later, if possible.  Until then, however, here are HSH’s thoughts for the week:

Week 6

1) Which newcomer do you expect to play the most total snaps for the Vols this fall?

HSH: Well, by the looks of things, we know for sure it won’t be Bryce Brown, though he may be the best talent of the freshmen.

Though I have trouble remembering him actually being a freshman, it almost has to be Montori Hughes at defensive tackle, simply because of the lack of depth at defensive tackle and the sore, wobbly knees of senior end-turned-tackle Wes Brown.  With Brown’s knees, its almost more a question of when as opposed to if they’re going to take him out of action.  I have to take this moment to say his never-quit attitude and what he’s been saying about his situation has him rapidly climbing up my favorite 2009 Vols.

Back to Hughes, I said he doesn’t seem like a freshman because of three things: first, he’s obviously from the 2008 class out of Siegel High School in middle Tennessee, but didn’t qualify.  Secondly, he enrolled in January, so he was in for the spring, so it’s like he’s been at UT for longer than the other freshman.  Finally, it’s because he’s a very large man.  Either way, it’s clear he’s moved up to the third tackle spot, behind Williams and Brown and ahead of Victor Thomas, Rae Sykes and Marlon Walls.

But given the situation at defensive tackle behind Big Dan Williams, Hughes has to be the freshman who will see the most action.

As for the “true” freshman with the most impact, I’ll say receiver Marsalis Teague.  I went to last Thursday’s practice and last Saturday’s scrimmage, and Teague had some impressive plays.  I think Gerald Jones and Brandon Warren will be the top 2 wideouts, but Teague is my third (and Quintin Hancock fourth), given the injury to Denarius Moore.  Also, Teague seems like more a pure receiver than Nu’Keese Richardson in my opinion.

Lawvol: (Long thoughtful pause followed by a longer, yet less thoughtful, sucking sound…)

2) Assuming we all believe Gerald Jones is going to lead the team in receptions again this season, who will finish second?

HSH: I somewhat addressed Tennessee’s receivers in the previous question, and I’ll go with who I said was the second receiver there: Brandon Warren.  As I said, from last Thursday and last Saturday, my reaction to see #1 running routes and catching passes was one of amazement.  In other words, I was surprised how he was a “tight end” last year and how he caught maybe 10 passes last year.  He easily passes the eye test as a wide receiver.

One final thought: Jones led UT with 30 catches last year and Lucas Taylor led the Vols in yards.  Taylor caught 26 passes.  Who was third?  Arian Foster with 19.  Josh Briscoe and Austin Rogers were the next wide receivers, with both catching 14.  All that is to say again how ineffective the quarterbacks were last year.  Hopefully the second and third leading receivers this year have more catches—which you think has to happen, right?

Lawvol: Objection!  Leading, calls for speculation, and assumes facts not in evidence… (sorry, it’s just a habit)

3) If Tim Tebow and Eric Berry are the two best players in the SEC, who’s third?

HSH: Give me Brandon Spikes, Florida’s middle linebacker, who turned down a boatload of money from an NFL team to stay and try to win another national championship (vomit).

I’ve seen Terrance Cody and Rolando McClain, but I’ll take Spikes, the leader and best player on the league’s top defense.  Oh, and also this amusing celebration of a pick-six against LSU last year, and his best Eric Berry impression.

Honorable mention: Ole Miss QB Jevan Snead, Cody and McClain on the Alabama defense, Georgia LB Rennie Curran (SEC’s leading returner tackler), running back Charles Scott from LSU, the other 11 players on Florida’s defense and a trio of wide receivers: Julio Jones (Alabama), A.J. Green (UGA) and Brandon LaFell (LSU).

Lawvol: (Note the theme song to “the Smurfs” playing in the background…)

“The Smurfs” found at bee mp3 search engine

4) Generally speaking, which opposing SEC fanbase is your favorite to interact with? And which is your least favorite?

HSH: I’ll start with the least favorite, and that’s Georgia.  I went to Athens for the 51-33 beatdown as a college freshman in 2006 and I got treated worse there than I did in trips to more vaunted venues in Gainesville (2007) and Tuscaloosa (2005 and 2007).

I got incessantly and constantly barked at, which is fine but extremely annoying.  But even more so, my friends and I got cursed at because we had orange on.  They had no respect for me.  I had sorority girls looking great in red and black dresses dropping the F-bomb at me completely unprovoked.  The typical, expected stuff—”Tennessee sucks,” “Fulmer sucks,” “nothing sucks like a Big Orange,” the Gator Chomp, Roll Tide, War Eagle, Pig Sooie, etc., etc.—doesn’t bother me a bit.  But profanity?

I’m not saying I can’t handle it, but c’mon.  If I’m doing some chatting too, that’s one thing.  I don’t get belligerent at visitors in Knoxville unless they provoke me—and even then, I’m not yelling at them to “eff” their school or “eff” themselves.  Some common courtesy would be nice.

Though I have a higher disdain for Florida and Alabama because they’re our biggest rivals, Georgia will always be #3 on that list because of that trip to Athens.

As for the favorite, I would have to say Auburn, because as I’ve said repeatedly I have friends there and I can’t find any reason to really dislike them.  I haven’t been to Baton Rouge (or Columbia or Fayetteville – been everywhere else), but I haven’t had any issues with LSU fans when they’ve come to Knoxville and Atlanta.

But overall, I don’t know if I have a “favorite”—it’s more of a feeling of indifference than a preference one way or another.

Lawvol: This one I can actually answer, well, sort of.  I have pretty much addressed this in the past on more than one occasion.  I was probably clearest in my article “The State of Hate: Football Rivalries at Tennessee,” which continues to be true for me today.

The Rest of the Roundtable:

Having wasted your time on our largely meaningless and insignificant thoughts for this week, go check out what the other roundtablers (who actually know what they are talking about) have to say (in no particular order):

• Rocky Top Talk
• 3rd Saturday in Blogtober
• YMSWWC
• MoonDog Sports
• Vol Junkies
• Pigskin Pathos
• Bleeding Orange
• Loser With Socks

– So it goes … and – … to me.

Gate 21 Tags: A.J. Green, Alabama Crimson Tide, Arian Foster, Athens, Atlanta, Austin Rogers, Baton Rouge, Big Orange Roundtable, Brandon LaFell, Brandon Spikes, Brandon Warren, CBS Sports, Championship, Charles Scott, Chomp, College Football, Columbia, Dan Williams, Denarius Moore, Eric Berry, Evidence Manipulation, Excuses, F-Bomb, Fayetteville, Florida Gators, Football, Gainesville, Gate 21, Georgia Bulldogs, Gerald Jones, Jevan Snead, Josh Briscoe, Julio Jones, Knoxville, Lawyers, Links, LSU Tigers, Lucas Taylor, MAC, Marlon Walls, Marsalis Teague, Montori Hughes, NFL, Nu'keese Richardson, Ole Miss Rebels, Phillip Fulmer, Pig Sooie, Profanity, Quintin Hancock, Rae Sykes, Rennie Curran, Rolando McClain, SEC, SEC Football, Sucking, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Football, Tennessee Volunteers, Terrance Cody, Tim Tebow, Tuscaloosa, Victor Thomas, Vols, War Eagle, Wes Brown

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Here’s my ballot for this week’s CBS Sports BlogPoll Top 25 hosted by—as you might imagine—CBS Sports.

Preseason Prognostications

Through 20 August 2009

Well, it’s been almost nine months since last I posted a BlogPoll ballot, and let me tell you that it feels mighty good to be back in the saddle again.  This does not, however, mean that have suddenly gained any sense or am any more reliable.

As a general rule, I consider preseason ballots to be dubious at best.  They are based upon little more than rumor and innuendo.  There is little to no basis for selecting one team over the other.  Thus, as Hooper has pointed out, this is little more than a turkey shoot.  That said, here’s my preseason Top 25 for everyone to attack:

My Ballot for the Week

Rank	Team
1	Florida
2	Oklahoma
3	Southern Cal
4	Texas
5	Penn State
6	Ole Miss
7	Alabama
8	California
9	Ohio State
10	Notre Dame
11	Georgia
12	LSU
13	Oklahoma State
14	Boise State
15	TCU
16	Virginia Tech
17	Illinois
18	Rutgers
19	Miami (Florida)
20	Nebraska
	Iowa
22	Brigham Young
23	Pittsburgh
24	Clemson
25	UCLA

Explanations after the jump…

Comments, Explanations, and Excuses

So, how did I approached my preseason selections?  If nothing else, there is a slight method to my madness.  Here are the high-points:

General Principles:

First of all, I am not going to tell you that I can irrefutably defend the precise ranking of every team in my Top 25.  Given there are still wide-ranging differences of opinion as to the rankings in November, it stands to reason that there is even less certainty in August.  I have no fancy system of metrics which uses the slope of a line tangent to the parabolic curve (bet you didn’t think I even knew what a derivative was—Ha!) of the passes thrown by the quarterback to divine how that team will perform over the course of the season.  I do, however, have a spreadsheet in Excel with many exciting and stimulating colors which sometimes cause me to lose focus and think of the rainbow on the front of a box of Lucky Charms.

I digress…

There is a fair amount of “gut-factor” included in my rankings especially at this point in the season.  That is, I attempt to look at the various teams objectively in the first instance, but I still often have little more than instinct, a bit of pocket fuzz, and a note from my mother with which to defend my ultimate choices.  It’s not rocket science but it is also far from exact.  You have been warned.

You have to play somebody:

At this early stage, I do place a heavy emphasis on strength of schedule and on overall chances each team winning all of its games.  Given the fact that half of the teams in my Top 25 play one another over the course of the season, it is fair to assume that I did not find many teams that I felt were likely to accomplish this task.  Still, playing a quality schedule with some likelihood of actually winning most of the games on that schedule goes a long way with me in the preseason.  Thus, this poll is more relative in that each team is judged—to some extent—by the teams it plays and my half-cocked conclusions about how those contests will be decided.  In other words, any team needs help at this point in time…

…except for a select few.

The Juggernauts:

My top three selections—the Florida Gators (#1), Oklahoma Sooners (#2), and USC Trojans (#3)—are in a class all their own in my mind.  Some may doubt me on this, especially when it comes to Oklahoma.  I think it is altogether possible for each of these three teams to win all of their games and run the tables.  I know that this is not likely, but I do think it is possible.  The ordering of these teams is based upon the following key considerations, assumptions and delusions on my part:

1. I believe that Oklahoma will win over the Texas Longhorns (#4) due to Mack Brown’s epic struggle to pluck defeat from the jaws of victory in another exciting installment of the Red River Classic.  The Big XII is not the SEC, but the Big XII is a solid conference—this matters.
2. USC will mop up every single team they play with the exception of the California Golden Bears (#8), whom I predict they will barely beat.  USC has also shown a nasty habit of playing down to their opponents over the past three-to-five years and thus I think they are slightly more likely to lose a game than Florida or Oklahoma.
3. Florida defeated the the Pittsburgh Steelers in a preseason scrimmage last week** and is a 73 point favorite over their first opponent, Charleston Southern (yeah, I made up the part about the Steelers, but it is believable).

Struggling with those “outside the money”:

I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I struggled with ranking a number of teams.  In particular, I had a hard time with (and am still not completely satisfied with) the following:

• The Ole Miss Rebels (#6) and the Alabama Crimson Tide (#7) were a tough call for me.  Ole Miss comes in with an extremely experienced team.  Thanks in no small part to Ed Orgeron who recruited the lights out for Rebels while head coach, the Right Reverend Houston Nutt has an impressive stable of talent.  What’s more, the Rebels improved every week last year and managed to knock off the might Gators in an upset of prodigious importance.  Alabama, on the other hand, has a stellar defense but only five returners on offense which raises questions in my mind.  This, along with the fact that Ole Miss avoids playing Florida and Georgia, gives the Rebels the advantage.  Ultimately, these two teams will likely battle it out to determine the SEC West champion in Oxford in early October.
• I have questions about both the Penn State Nittany Lions (#5) and the Texas Longhorns (#4) which are essentially the same—namely, coaching.  Joe Paterno’s age is a factor, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.  Having played in the very first college football game ever played, in 1875,** Joe is on the older side of completely indeterminate and it has been obvious that he is not truly running the program fully, but rather is simply along for the ride.  That said, the White-out brigade has a fairly weak schedule and has a lot of defensive power, enough, I think, to overcome the Joe Pa factor.
  Mack Brown, on the other hand is not particularly old and—is really playing out a storyline which somewhat similar to that experienced by another team in orange around 2001 (I’ll give you a hint: it starts with a “T” ends with an “e” and has “ennesse” in the middle).  Mack Brown is a fabulous recruiter, but does “less with more” with almost amazing regularity.  In all honesty, I would say he is the 3rd or 4th best coach in the Big XII.  Thus, I am a little suspicious of the Longhorns chances of breakout success this year.  Still, Texas has a ton of talent and has the ability to win a lot of games, thus they are still in my Top 5.  I just personally feel that Oklahoma and Bob Stoops get the best of him this year.
• The California Golden Bears (#8) are not flashy, but they are good and they are efficient.  With top 10 offensive and defensive lines, the Bears look to own the line of scrimmage—which is always a huge advantage.  All of this said, their schedule is a bit on the weak side on the whole, but they do face the Trojans of USC early in the season.  While I am not willing to say that they win that game, they definitely have a chance.  If they do, then they should be able to coast home to win the PAC-10. I considered dropping them a few spots, but ultimately felt that there is a ton of potential for Cal, and decided they deserved to be in my Top 10.
• The Illinois Illini (#17) are another team I had real struggles with.  Last year the Illini finished at 5-7 and generally underperformed.  That said, they have a lot of great talent and proved in 2007—when they went to the Rose Bowl—that they can win.  I think they lose to Penn State at home and probably to the Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus, but aside from that they have the ability to win the rest if they can just find a bit of consistency.
• The LSU Tigers (#12) are really tough for me to assess at present.  LSU had a strong core unit in 2008, but simply gave up too many big plays and lacked consistency.  I continue to believe that the Tigers are an extremely tough team and have the ability to compete with any team in the country, the question remains, will they?  With games against Florida, Ole Miss, and Alabama, I don’t see them being a contender for the SEC West, but stranger things have happened.
  The Georgia Bulldogs (#11) are similarly difficult to size up.  Last year everyone in the world felt that Georgia would win the SEC and likely play for a BCS Championship.  Obviously, that did not happen.  This year their schedule is still tough, but not nearly as daunting as in 2008.  They also return their defensive core, but will be breaking in a new quarterback and will sorely miss phenom Knowshon Moreno.  I think the Dawgs have a chance at the SEC East, but they are going to have to find some consistency and prove that they can score.  Still, I like the Dawgs chances of mixing things up.

Parting Thoughts

Having taken the time to consider my feeble attempt at ranking the powers in college football, feel free to try and convince me that I am wrong — which is part of the way the BlogPoll is supposed to work.  I promise that I will consider all insults comments.