Team Speed Kills Then. Our radio show featured a discussion with 3SiB about the Third Fourth Saturday in October and exactly how many championships Alabama has. Also: A look at an intriguing weekend of games and an opportunity to hear my Steve Spurrier imitation. The podcast version is in the player below.
PREMATURE SECCG HYPE
The game grows more apocalyptic by the week
Goodman points out the possible added meaning that a Tebow-Ingram Heism@n race could bring to the SEC Championship Game.
Florida is ranked No.1 in the Bowl Championship Series standings and Alabama is ranked No.2. If both teams survive their regular-season schedules, then Florida and Alabama will meet in Atlanta for the SEC championship game. The match up would likely be a de facto national championship semifinal and could also determine the Heisman Trophy.
But all that might not matter if the two split the votes from the region and Colt McCoy wins despite having done nothing so far this year that really justifies it. Can we just go ahead and call it the MVP Award if that happens?
No rematch
Dr. Saturday makes some good points in railing against an SEC title game rematch in the BCS championship match up -- which I also don't support -- but goes overboard on some things.
For example, his observation that "current polls all say Boise State's best win (over Oregon) is better than Alabama's best (Virginia Tech)" ignores the fact that Alabama has played more ranked teams than Boise State and that practically every non-Virginia Tech team on Alabama's schedule could compare equally or even favorably to practically every non-Oregon team played by Boise State. (Or that Alabama has defeated some FBS teams by a wider margin than the Broncos' 18-point win against UC Davis.)
I agree that an undefeated Iowa or Cincinnati ought to go over, say, a one-loss Florida -- and that an undefeated Boise or TCU should get consideration, though I think TCU would be far more deserving than Boise. But let's have some intellectual honest about it. If you're going to play the resume game, look at the whole thing.
OTHER NEWS
The 87th last word on the personal foul penalty
The Florida player involved in the play didn't see it.
"I didn't think that was a penalty," Gilbert said. "It was just two guys going hard. I was trying to make a play, pick up some blocks down field. I don't remember (him saying) anything."
Good on Gilbert's part to tell the truth. Not that it was really that hard given that no one except the official who actually watched the play believed the call was legit.
Yeah, his competitive spirit is so totally shot
Spurrier found the secret to Alabama's win over his team: Tape.
"Their holder on extra points and field goals had a little piece of white tape. … And he put (the tape) down and that was their spot," Spurrier said. "And the guy kicked it, and occasionally he’d go way over there and grab it (after the kick). I’d never seen that before. So I think we’ve gotta call the head of officials to see if that’s legal."
Actually, if Spurrier's right, it's probably illegal. But the Head Ball Coach better be careful or the Coachbot will hunt him down and use his laser-beam eyes to fry the Gamecocks' leader. Remember: The two teams meet next year in Columbia.
Gamecocks need more courageness to defeat Vanderbilt
Forgive Steve Spurrier for showing his inner W -- any coach who had watched his team lose twice in a row to Vanderbilt (including once when they were ranked No. 6 in the nation) would also be at a loss for words that actually exist.
"We don't get into too much what happened last year or the year before. They outplayed us the last two years. That's why they've beaten us. Simple as that," Spurrier said. "They've outplayed us, outcoached us, outhit us, outcourageness us, whatever you want to call it."
So, is "outcourageness" a verb or should we add poor grammar to the list of mistakes the Head Ball Coach made?
Kiffin and UT ink contract
No word on what the incentives are for inflammatory statements about rivals.
Vanderbilt's secret weapon
Pride will save the Commodores, says Bobby Johnson.
Making sure you don't have two losses to Lousiana-Monroe: Priceless
Alabama has spent $175,000 on its legal team for Textbookgate.
Some people either don't watch the games or don't care what happens
I like the Mumme Poll run by the Senator, but what does it say about the persistence of preseason expectations that five people think Oklahoma is one of the Top 12 teams in the country?