Holy Gamecock, Batman! We just ran over a Visor!

Of course, by Batman, I refer to Darren McFadden, the Heisman favorite at the beginning of the year who ran into some kind of roadblock along the way called 0-3 in the SEC. Felix Jones plays the part of Robin, his trusty sidekick.

I suppose we all knew it would happen, but Darth Visor and his Cocktroopers were on the receiving end of the archetype, the very definition of "running roughshod" over a defense.

South Carolina has been exposed against the run several times this year, giving up 290 yards to LSU over the ground, and 150+ and 170+ to Kentucky and Tennessee. But surrendering 541 rushing yards to a team is, quite simply, gobsmacking. Batman and Robin ran amok to the tune of 323 and 163 yards respectively. Felix Jones had a mind-blowing 13+ yard average on 12 attempts!

As you can imagine, the South Carolina bloggers are ... less than pleased, especially since this loss is their third in a row. But I have to admit, I was well and truly shocked when I read this post from Garnet and Black Attack:

It won't be easy for me to write what I'm about to write.

But the time has come.

I have rarely, if ever, used this space (or Cock & Fire) to call for someone's dismissal. I pride myself on that. For the most part, I don't find it particularly constructive, and I think it can divide fan bases if it's done too often.

But I can't stay quiet any longer.

The continued employment of the South Carolina defensive staff needs to be seriously re-evaluated.

Coming from Brandon, this constitutes an out-and-out mutiny. Notice that he is not directing his ire at the legendary OBC, but at the defensive staff (and rightfully so, in my view). When a team is running wild like that, you might be better off to take your chances with single coverage and hope Casey Dick throws some bad balls, which he is certainly wont to do. G&BA notes some other occasions when the current regime's run defense has ... ahem ... sucked out loud.

Flounder at Leftover Hot Dog is also aghast, and laments the inevitable, unwelcome shuffle to the land of the unranked:

Geez.....Going into the game USC knew they had to stop McFadden and the run....well I guess that memo was not given to the team b/c Arkansas ran the ball with ease. So say hello 3 game losing streak and goodbye Top 25.

The best laid plans of mice and visors often go awry. The Cool Chicken compares Lou Holtz and Spurrier in their third year, and the OBC doesn't come out sitting pretty. He wonders if USC is on the right track, and for my money, I don't blame him. Back to the drawing board.

From the Arkansas side, Razorback Expats is at a loss for superlatives. The Hawg Blawg is equally amazed, pointing out that both McFadden and Jones have now crossed the 1000 yard mark for the year - with three games left. The Hog Blogger is also left searching for adjectives:

What’s there to even say about that? Unreal? Other-worldly? In a video game? Any doubt that Darren McFadden wasn’t by far the best player in college football is most certainly removed now, and all of a sudden, he’s right back in the thick of the Heisman race.

As Tom Cruise said in Minority Report "There is ... no question." That's right, HB. No question at all.

Week 10 in review -- Part 1

Yesterday we saw the best of SEC teams and the worst of them. It was a kind of watershed weekend in the season where some teams who were looking defeated rose up powerfully, and others who had been dominant seemed to waver.

Of course, the big game was the LSU/Alabama game, which was as utterly schizophrenic and with as many twists and turns as any Hollywood movie writer could ever concoct. LSU looked totally dominant in most of the first half, then went on an insane penalty binge which saw Alabama completely take over the momentum and actually take the lead at the half.

The third quarter was a hard-fought push with both teams scoring on long drives. But the 4th quarter belonged to LSU, as it has almost every single time this season against every determined foe. Once again, Les Miles was fearless in his calls, even while his players were flawed in their execution, and arguably, their sportsmanship, racking up an otherworldly 130 yards in penalties, many on personal foul penalties that included roughing the passer, intentional facemasking, and and angry lineman ripping off his helmet after being called for an illegal shift.

Still, anyone who isn't impressed with a team who overcame an astonishing number of penalties and 3 interceptions to win in quite possibly the most hostile environment in the SEC is either dead, or an Ohio State fan. Of course, Dan Wetzel has been impressed with LSU all season, but really gets the significance of this win:

LSU is 8-1, back in the top two in the BCS, and incredibly dangerous. If it gets a title chance, then this is the most fearsome team in the country because if it can ever play minus the mistakes it is virtually unbeatable.

People who have watched the SEC have known this all year, just as many of us doubted that any team, even powerful LSU, could manage to go through an SEC as tough as this years' unscathed. Maybe we wouldn't have picked Kentucky to undo their perfect season, but frankly, there just isn't a lot separating most of the SEC teams this year. The middle of the league is very crowded, and very competitive.

The Alabama bloggers, understandably, have little to say after a tough loss. The Tide Druid offers a bit of humor to assuage the injured pride of the Alabama faithful.

Understandably, the LSU faithful are jubilant. New Orleans Love lists five reasons why LSU came away the victor, including this one sure to arouse a bit of ire in the Saban supporters:

5. NICK SABAN WAS OUTCOACHED: Les has got Balls of steel. And can we coach better than Saban? Well, he beat him. Why? Because Saban played a straight game. Saban saw in the first half that his team was not physical enough for the Tigers, not mano-o-mano, but he didn't go into his bag of tricks. Les, on the other hand, reached down into his bag and had quarterback Matt Flynn catch a nifty pass from the receiver Doucet. Even late in the game, knowing he didn't have a running game, he did no counters, no misdirections. It cost him. Big time. He got outcoached.

Richard Pittman of Geaux Tuscaloosa echoes my comments earlier in this post:

I don't want to get too caught up in criticism. Fact is, we went on the road in the SEC to a very hostile environment and we came away with a win. In a year like this, any SEC game you win should be satisfying. Heck, any SEC win should be satisfying, even if it's not on the road. This is a season in which Ole Miss took Florida AND Alabama to the wire, and they haven't actually won a conference game.

Obviously, I agree.

It's Saturday, and time for the big one!

LSU at Alabama. The biggest game of the year so far in the SEC. It has serious repercussions for both teams. Alabama loses, and their chances for winning the SEC west become much smaller. LSU loses, and they probably lose whatever chance they still have of playing for the "national championship".

Newspaper Hack at Journalism is for Rockstars looks at some of the smack-talk going on in the LSU section of the Internet. I liked this one:

“When it comes to Bama Football, this is how I feel about them: I would raze their cities to the ground, sell their women and children into slavery, sow their fields with salt, remove them from the history books and bring death to their program for all time. Other than that, they’re ok by me.”(1$ to Panzer from tigerbait.com) — Benji313

Pretty funny. The Tide Druid fully "gets" the magnitude of this game, both schedule-wise and emotionally because of the Nick Saban issue. He also offerers several reasons why Alabama wins and loses the game. OutsideTheSidelines at Roll 'Bama Roll takes a detailed look at the game from almost every angle.

On the LSU side, Richard Pittman admits to being caught up in the game hype than the actual contest, but corrects that in this entry:

Of course, games in the SEC are often won on the lines, and I think we have a fairly significant advantage here, especially when we're on defense. The Bama offensive line played its best game last week without two of its starters, but frankly Tennessee's defense is not as good as usual this year, and they were unable to exploit the problems on the Bama offensive line (or the Bama energy and emotion for that matter). If those guys continue to be out, I think we'll be able to exploit their absence a little more.

This is what I believe as well. LSU has a stronger line on both sides of the football than Alabama, and they have had time to rest and recover for this football game. When you have two rested teams coming into a game, the team with the stronger lines almost always gets the win.

Purple Reign at And The Valley Shook looks at several pundits' predictions for this game, and the overwhelming consensus is that LSU wins this game. Finally, New Orleans Love tells us why this game matters:

The refs may have to get in between the coaches in this one.

LSU may go for it on 4-and-8 at their 40 in this one.

It's that intense.

Saturday's game is LSU vs. Alabama, but everyone knows it's even more about Nick Saban and Les Miles. No matter what the coaches say, it's Nicklaus vs. Lester. The LSU faithful will hate Les if he loses to Alabama, especially with the LSU West crown at stake (even though bettors well know 'Bama will lose to Auburn) Alas, it is what it is.

This game matters for all kinds of reasons, not the least of which is that LSU losing to Alabama would do more to drive Les Miles into the waiting arms of Michigan than anything else. He may very well go anyway, but the crap he'll have to listen to if he loses this one will make that decision a lot easier.

For Saban's part, he pretty much gets a pass on this game unless LSU embarrasses Alabama in their house. That would get the Bama fans clacking their tongues and wringing their hands, but it won't generate much "Far Nick" sympathy -- they paid too much for him to run him off his first season.

Overall the pressure is far higher on Miles than Saban, and it will be interesting to see how this washes out. I am watching both coaches tell everybody right now that this game isn't about them. Don't you believe it.

Week 10: Big Games

The way I see it, there are three big games this week that could have a serious impact on how the SEC turns out: Vanderbilt at Florida, South Carolina at Arkansas, and of course, LSU at Alabama. Now, let's have a look at how the SEC bloggers see these games.

The Vanderbilt Tailgate has hope for the visit to the Swamp, and lists five things that Vandy has to do to be successful. According to my records, Vanderbilt has not won a game against Florida at Florida since before Kennedy was president.

Vanderbilt Sports Line and Saurian Sagacity are doing the blogswap thing. From Saurian Sagacity's post at VSL:

Vandy is a team the Gators should beat. But one thing is for sure, if Vandy wins on Saturday they will have proven that they do indeed belong in the league and that the South Carolina game wasn’t a fluke. I hate to see it, but we are starting to see some parity in the SEC, with teams like Mississippi State and Vandy that can no longer be taken for granted. Vandy, is trying to prove that it belongs with the adults and I for one am hoping the Gators can send the Commodores back to kids table.

It truly is frightening (and a revelation to the Great Powers of the SEC) that this league is more competitive this year than perhaps any time it its history. We are used to seeing Florida, Georgia, Auburn, Alabama, LSU and Tennessee run roughshod over the lower half of the league except every three or four years when one of the lower half rises up to smite the mighty. Will this be that kind of year, or is this a trend for the future?

For their part, VSL puts this post on the Saurian Sagacity blog. VSL predicts that the game will come down to special teams and turnovers:

Like last year, I predict this game will come down to two factors: special teams and turnovers. Vandy special teams have improved significantly over last year, but the kickoff and punt defenses still rank at the bottom of Division 1-A. That doesn't bode well with Brandon James taking back punts for Florida. Both teams have quality kick returners and I think DJ Moore is due to take one to the house.

If this prediction turns out to be true, the Gators will be in trouble, because it will likely mean that the Commodores have a shot at them. I'm not ready to believe in that, especially in the Swamp, but the Gators have lost one game there this year to a good defensive club.

Garnet and Black Attack has a blogswap with Razorback Expats, an Arkansas blog. Instead of swapping posts, this is just a Q&A session from both sides. I found this an interesting question from G&BA, and answer:

What are your feelings about Arkansas being in the SEC?

Actually, they're kind of mixed. I'm sure the accounting books would emphatically validate the move to the SEC. Still, there's something about being in the conference that leaves me a little cold. We've been in the SEC for 15 years, and you can't really point to any program as Arkansas' true rival. I miss how fired up I used to get for games against Texas and Texas A&M. Part of me thinks the Razorbacks would be a better fit in the Big 12, where several of their former SWC foes now reside. But that's emotion talking. Whether that would be as good financially for Arkansas, I have not the slightest idea.

It's kind of funny that Arkansas has no football rival in this league, or hasn't been able to generate one. I would've thought that LSU or Tennessee would have been a natural rivalry, but both those schools have long-established football rivalries within this league, and as we know, rivalries take many years to develop and some event has to occur to create some genuine enmity between fan bases. As far as I know, that hasn't happened with Arkansas yet.

But remember, Arkansas does have a basketball rival in the SEC -- Kentucky. That one has not been too bitter lately, as Kentucky has owned the basketball Hogs for several years. But with former UK player John Pelphrey now at the helm of the Razorbacks, we could see the old days of the early 1990's renewed.

For their part, Razorback Expats had this question, with the answer from Garnet and Black Attack:

9. You’re made czar of college football for one day: Do you put South Carolina in the SEC or the ACC?

I was born and raised in Alabama and started off as an Auburn fan. It wasn’t until I moved to South Carolina and then went to college there that I became a Gamecock — so I’ve only been familiar with the team as part of the SEC, and always loved it being that way. If it were my choice, my team would remain in the best conference in the country.

There were some fans, back when the ACC was expanding, who wanted to return. So some older fans would probably make a different choice than I would.

Its interesting that both of these schools were imports into the SEC from other conferences, and many people still remember those days, although frankly, I had mostly forgotten them. Neither South Carolina nor Arkansas have any natural football rival in the conference, nor have they been able to really develop one since expansion. You would think that Spurrier's presence would have fostered a USC-Florida rivalry, but I guess until USC starts beating Florida with a bit more regularity, that won't have a chance to grow, either.

I'll look at the LSU at Alabama game in a separate post.

Debunking the myths of the myth debunkers

It seems like every day, one guy or the other out there in the MSM (that's "Mainstream media for all you Penn State fans out there ) wants to debunk the theory that the SEC has the best football conference in the land. 99.9% of the time, they are self-debunking. This one today is no exception, but I thought I would make an example of it just for kicks.

Comes now a certain Michael Cunningham, ostensibly a sportswriter from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He, like so many before him, thinks that he can fashion some kind of argument supporting the idea that the SEC is really no better than anyone else. So here is his attempt at building a case:

Let's limit it to the SEC's six most successful programs: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU and Tennessee. That keeps the likes of Mississippi State and Vanderbilt from dragging down the SEC's good name.

Yeah, why not? Never mind that the bottom feeders in the SEC have beaten some of the top teams. Let's pretend they collectively don't exist. It won't matter.

And let's not just look at this season but the past six, from 2002 to now. The sample is robust enough to account for down years, probation and Mike Shula.

Fair enough. Who cares? I'm going to skip a couple of irrelevant points, you can read the article at the link above and determine if I was wrong to omit them, and why. Moving on to his coup de grâce:

Even the SEC can't avoid tough bowl games, and it has done pretty well there with a 16-10 record since the 2002 postseason. That includes a 12-8 record in bowl games against ranked opponents and national championships from Florida and LSU.

Those titles tended to mask the sometimes-middling success of the SEC as a whole. That 12-8 record against ranked postseason opponents is good but not the domination expected from a league so casually deemed clearly better than the rest.

So here is the case he is making -- that a good but not overwhelming SEC record over ranked teams in bowls means that the SEC is really not much if any better than any other conference. He also makes the point that Kentucky beat LSU, MSU beat Kentucky, and West Virgina whipped up on MSU. So that just goes to reinforce his assertion that LSU really isn't all that.

Well. Rather than go into a long point-by-point rebuttal, I'm just going to make one, and it falls at the feet of the very first paragraph I quoted above. Five of the six SEC teams he cites have at least one national championship since 1980, and all of them have recently won SEC championships. Of the other conferences, only the Big 12 and ACC come close with 4, and not one of the other conferences can point to as many teams that have won their respective conference championships recently as the SEC can.

My point is that none of the other conferences have six teams in them that belong in the same zip code with the six SEC teams he uses for comparison. To adjust for conference size, is there even one who has a 50% representation of teams that tough? The answer is -- not even close. Even the Big Twelve, arguably the SEC's nearest competitor, doesn't. The ACC? Please. One of their counting members in my analysis (Miami) wasn't even a member when they won their last championship.

In other words, his argument is hoist on the very petard he hopes to hang the SEC on. I don't even have to make the case that the bottom half of the SEC is tougher than the bottom half of any other conference in the nation. As an appeals court would say, I don't even need to reach that argument, because his case fails on the first one.

The Dwed Piwate Spuwier is coming for you soul!

Steve Spurrier. The Evil Genius. The Visor, the Ol' Ball Coach. The guy that has more nicknames than Apollo Creed.

I've got one more for him -- Ol' Rockhead.

Today, Spurrier decides he's gonna one-up Mark Richt over the celebration after Georgia's first touchdown this Saturday at the Cocktail Party. Obviously a poster child for "I'm talking and I can't shut up," Ol' Rockhead decided he had to get his licks in on this Richt debacle:

"I think if (Florida coach) Urban Meyer had known they were going to do it, send out one of his third team guys and get in a wrestling match with the guys, get a fight started, so all those guys on the field leave the bench in a fight," Spurrier suggested.

"I think that's what we'd do. If the other team ever does that, get one of your down the line guys that's not going to play to get out there and start wrestling with the guys. Now you've got a fight and they're all out the next week."

What a great idea -- jump right down there in the muck with Richt by sending in thugs to hurt their team. Man, what a sense of fair play Ol' Rockhead has. He missed his true calling, but then again, they don't need Ball Coaches in MMA.

Well. I think Franz Beard should write another letter to Mike Silve and demand some action against the Ol' Ball Sack Coach -- hell, the guy is basically advocating the very response Franz feared -- in fact, he's saying he would incite the violence himself.

Sounds to me like Spurrier needs to apologize for something. Hey, Alligator Army has some ideas. Let's let Spurrier apologize for the New Coke, God I hated that crap. Or maybe he can apologize for Ed Orgeron's English -- somebody needs to. Every time I look at Orgeron, I think of Farmer Fran in The Waterboy.

[UPDATE] Welcome all Get the Picture readers, and thanks to the good Senator for the linkage.

Mark Richt is Satan, and other fables

What a fun day this is going to be. There is so much great stuff out there, you would think some of these people just discovered that football was something worth writing about.

Where to begin... How about Loser with Socks, one of my all time favorites. Jai Eugene (no, not the LSU cornerback of the same name) gets on board the "Ohio State is a cardboard cut-out #1" train and basically reasserts the very same point I made here, only much better and with an actual sense of humor, the absence of which is a known congenital defect of mine. Here is his apocalyptic scenario:

I honestly think a any combination of ACC/Big 10/Big East national championship game could be the cataclysmic event that gets us a playoff. The SEC would go berserk (as it should) about their 1-loss team being out of it, the media would keep jocking USC (like always) because they beat Cal (like always, except that one time that Cal is still living off of from 6 years ago) and every other team and conference in college football would go berserk over the mere suggestion that two one-loss teams could play for the national championship ahead of two unbeatens.

I swear, I have started to pray for this. I truly have. I know it is sick, depraved, perverted, disrespectful of women and minorities and just generally loathsome, but I can't help it. Somebody SAAAAAVVVVEEEE meeee!

But wait ... there's more! That's right, Orson Swindle must also have a say, lest EDSBS be forgotten and consigned to history -- OK, that's hyperbole, but this isn't:

Ohio State fans have achieved the impossible. Despite craving the taste of teargas from birth, allegedly beating up handicapped people, and entering each game with the homicidal zeal of an ultra-nationalist Spartak supporter armed with a Camelbak full of cut rate vodka distilled from radioactive Ukrainian produce, you have become an object of sympathy.

Not really sure what Orson's talking about here? You'll get it once you see the video. Just wow.

Moving right along, it seems that at least some Alabama fans have ... err ... a not so fuzzy feeling about the impending game with LSU. I can understand that -- they are a formidable team and, on paper at least, outclass the Crimson Tide. It also seems that LSU has owned the Tide over the last 10 years, and that can't make a proud 'Bama fan happy:

The Tide is a dismal 3-7 versus the Tigers over the last ten years. The numbers are what they are. Alabama has been handled roughly by its rivals since Gene Stallings refused to pull out the shotgun with five wide. The last decade has seen Alabama go 3-7 versus Tennessee, 3-7 versus LSU, and 3-7 versus Auburn. How's that for symmetry, but as we are reminded almost daily, you can't live in yester year, and the past doesn't block and tackle. The last decade is not the now. Live in the now, man.

Well, if the Tide were able to pull off the upset against LSU, it would send shock waves throughout all of college football -- not just because of the SEC repercussions, but because of the previously discussed BCS. I can't wait for this game, and I am a Kentucky fan.

The Heisman Pundit examines the data, and concludes that the SEC has not only the best defenses, but also some of the best offenses. And he says it, right there on his website. Of course, some of his Pac-10 readers ... uhh ... don't really agree.

Finally, the one that really got me laughing, and this guy was serious. A guy named Franz Beard, who is apparently managing editor for the Gator Country website, sent a letter to Mike Silve, the commissioner of the SEC, complaining about Georgia's behavior and in particular the behavior of Mark Richt on Saturday at the Cocktail Party.

Mr. Beard claims to be concerned about the message Silve's lack of punitive action against Richt might send, and supports his concerns thus:

I know what I saw with my binoculars from the press box and I do not accept Coach Richt’s explanation. There was nothing spontaneous about this demonstration. It was pre-planned and all you had to do was watch the way Coach Richt and his assistants reacted.

I believe we are extremely fortunate that a brawl did not break out. I’ve been at Florida-Georgia games since 1962 and I know the hair-trigger emotions both on the field and in the stands. One ill-timed remark, one bump of a Georgia player into a Florida player and we could have very easily had an on the field incident that would have made Miami-Florida International look like something you see on Sesame Street. It is only by God’s grace and the restraint of the Florida coaches, who prevented the UF team from charging the field by their quick, positive response, that there was no incident on the field.

Oh, my paws and whiskers, Mr. Franz Beard. You mean to tell me that the sight of a team rushing to the end zone to celebrate was so provocative that we should fear the other team rushing from their benches to brawl with them? Never mind that FIU and Florida are only 9 miles apart and the in-person smack talk had been going on for months. Never mind that Georgia and Florida, while rivals, have no history of this sort of violent behavior, unlike at least one of the two participants in the aforementioned brawl.

Mr. Beard, if Florida or Georgia has reached the level where they must resort to violence whenever the other team performs an unacceptable celebration, we should stop this sport right now. "Death penalty" for the whole SEC for maybe 5 years so we can all cool off and figure out the difference between right and wrong. Players and coaches hopefully learned from the lesson of FIU-Miami, and now you are telling the SEC commish that that isn't so?

Not only that, but you, from your seat high above the field, somehow magically perceived with your mind-reading binoculars that Mark Richt, a man known for anything but nefarious behavior, and his coaching staff were wickedly devising a scheme to drag the game into the muck? And it "could not have happend" without his "prior approval and planning"?

Dude, get a clue. These are games we play here, not gladiatorial contests. Lighten up. Live a little. Richt says he was sorry, and put it in writing. Accept the apology and move on like the rest of us, you freaking curmudgeon.