South Carolina-Ole Miss at 7:30 p.m. ET / 6:30 p.m. CT. We'll have a preview up early this afternoon and a Game Thread open at 7 p.m. ET for commenting, at which at least I will be around. Of course, I might have to wait until I'm done throwing a shoe through the television to type a comment or two depending on how the game goes ...
Stay classy, Knoxville. I'm sure this is all part of The Plan.
Mississippi State and Southern Miss expected to announce football series today
And some in Starkville aren't happy.
Opponents criticize it by saying MSU simply has nothing to gain with a victory. State plays in the Southeastern Conference, which is one of major college football's six power conferences and regarded on a higher level than USM's league, Conference USA.
This is different from Jackson State -- how? I mean, aside from the fact that someone might actually be mildly impressed if you defeated Southern Miss.
Joe Cox sheds light on the Oklahoma State loss
No one ever accused him of being an orator.
"It just doesn’t even feel like it happened," Cox said. "It’s just so weird that that game – it’s almost like it just flew by and we were all kind of like, what was that? Now looking back, it really disappoints you knowing that you can play a lot better and what could have happened if you’d have played like that against them."
"That," I believe, was a football game. Though some might object to calling it that.
It's so unfair
Willie Martinez on how he's being judged by entirely the wrong measurement for a defensive coordinator.
There’s some things that we did well that are obviously overlooked because of all the points that are put up.
Well, yes. That'll do it.
Actually, Hale and his readers put together some interesting stats about how the defense has performed in different situations. Whether that's comforting or not depends on how you regard the consensus opinion that it's not the defense's fault that the rest of the team can't do its job properly.
Where are all the special Florida plays?
Robbie Andreu wonders why Tebow-under-center and Haden-as-Wildcat never happened.
Origins of the infamous Wildcat
An interesting look at how the scheme came together.
Records don't count
There are several things wrong with this statement from Les Miles on voting in the coaches' poll, but for the life of me I can't see why voting on a team's record -- singled out as a faux pas -- is the worst part of it. What precisely are they supposed to vote on -- personal hygiene?
"I can't tell you who the best teams in the country are, because frankly I don't get to see them every week," he said. "I don't know who's hot and who's not. I could no more rank ..."
"I vote. I know that. I know I vote. I know I vote. And I'm excited to vote. I do a great job," he said with his voice rising and his audience laughing.
"But I have to be very honest, I vote based on record and things that are not significant," he said. "I vote on what appears to be the best and most logical choice. That's all. But when you get to the back end of the season, you will be more pointed, and your rankings will certainly make a difference. And so I have no idea what the seventh ranked team in the country's supposed to play like."
This is why people hate the BCS. (HT: Blutarsky)
SEC looking good against other conferences
I've always been a bit dubious about these sorts of rankings, but Tru does an exceptional job of it. The SEC's only losses in interconference play come against the Big XII (Georgia-Oklahoma State) and the Pac-10 (Tennessee-UCLA).