Feeling the heat around the SEC

Wow. The heat is really on here in the South, and the football teams must be melting like wax on a day like today. But here inside the homestead of BotSEC, we are cool, comfortable, and checking out the latest from around the conference blogs and news sites.

• The Auburner discusses football in terms of geopolitics. Interesting concept ...
  
  
• Jumbo Shrimp at Eight in the Box discloses his recipe for ... wait for it ... Atomic Buffalo Turds! Well, it certainly looks better than it sounds ...
  
  
• John Clay at Sidelines says it isn't just the weather that's hot. So is Coach Rich Brooks' temper. Sylvester Crooms' is as well, according to Kyle Veazey.
  
  
• Ole Miss's Brent Schaeffer is a quarterback no more.
  
  
• VolNation covers the loss of LaMarcus Coker. Doug Coffin at The Power T also has thoughts.
  
  
• Bobby O'Shea at the Vanderbilt Sports Line takes a long, hard look at Vanderbilt's defense and special teams. This almost qualifies as a scouting report.
  
  
• Patrickdonohue at Loser with Socks ranks the SEC Quarterbacks.
  
  
• Paul Westerdawg at the Georgia Sports Blog thinks he has figured out how Georgia knew Virginia Tech's plays.
  
  
• Year 2 continues with Part 3 of his analysis of Florida's schedule. Be sure to read Part 1 and Part 2 if you haven't already.
  
  
• The Heisman Pundit and Outside the Sidelines are having a rousing debate about ... what else? ... the Heisman Trophy. We noted OTS's post yesterday. Today, HP responds and OTS responds to his response. Who's on third? I don't know.
  
  
• GeauxTigers at And The Valley Shook takes issue with Glenn Guilbeau's ranking of Les Miles. Not just that, he claims Guilbeau is seriously condescending to the LSU faithful.

Last but not least, I'd like to thank Roll 'Bama Roll, Joe Cribbs Car Wash, Saurian Sagacity (especially for the review), and Dawg Sports for linking me this week.

Wednesday Early Bird Edition

It's always nice to have something to read with your coffee, so join me in a quick perusal around the SEC blogosphere:

• Georgia Bulldog Blog has an update on the Richt-Beamer dustup.
  
  
• Senator Blutarsky of Get the Picture gives us this weirdness. Watch out for coffee through the nose when viewing these.
  
  
• Flounder at Leftover Hot Dog has more on the Spurrier vs. UNC admissions debate. Maybe it is Spurrier who needs to rethink his process, after all, rather than UNC.
  
  
• Jai Eugene at Loser with Socks skewers LeMarcus Coker, Urban Meyer, Louisville. Don't piss this guy off (pun sort of intended). Joel at Rocky Top Talk has much more on the Coker situation. I almost missed this post by Orson Swindle at EDSBS.
  
  
  
• Outside the Sidelines reminds us (and especially me) about the rules regarding kickoffs. A few days ago, I suggested many teams might consider kicking the ball out of bounds on the kickoff, and having the ball placed at the 35 yard line to avoid a dangerous kickoff return team like UK. But even though this is normally the penalty that teams accept, they have options, and he quotes the rulebook:
  

  "A kickoff from Team A’s 30-yard line goes out of bounds untouched by Team B, and no other foul (or violation) occurs. RULING: Team B may accept a five-yard penalty from the previous spot with Team A kicking from the 25-yard line, or Team B may put the ball in play at Team B’s 35-yard line at the inbounds spot or at the inbounds spot where the ball went out of bounds. Team B may put the ball in play following a penalty at the dead ball spot."

  Read the whole thing. He's right, this change is M-A-S-S-I-V-E.
  
  
• Jerry Hinnen of Joe Cribbs Car Wash has a massive post covering Auburn, the Worldwide Leader, shoes, and more!
  
  
• Bobo at World Class Glass looks askance at the Jarrell Powe situation.
  

In The Heat of the Tuesday Night: Best of the late-night SEC

I'm a little late going to bed, so I thought I would, I don't know, make a blog post. What the heck, it's August!

• The Alabama Basketball Blog gives us some basketball scheduling info, and a picture of Hawai'i in honor of the Maui Invitational. He even spells the name of the state correctly! I lived there during a hitch in the Navy, so every time I see Hawai'i mentioned, it makes me want to go back. Bad.
  
  
• Kyle King of Dawg Sports, a blogger whom I truly respect, has this detailed and interesting post rejecting the "plus one" idea. As I said, I deeply respect Kyle and his entirely conservative view of college football, but we do part ways on this idea. I actually see the "plus one" as an opportunity to rejoin the days when the Rose Bowl was between the Pac-10 and Big 10 (or is it 11?) champ, and restore some historical sanity to the BCS. Kyle makes a compelling argument, though.
  
  
• I admit it -- I love basketball. VolNation has a basketball post. Ergo, it gets linked. Call it cognitive dissonance.
  
  Anyway, hatvol at VolNation makes a very interesting and poignant comment about a move afoot among the ACC coaches to declare Skip Prosser's verbally committed recruits off limits, even though NCAA rules permit recruiting them. Skip Prosser's death was a tragedy, and he was a great coach. It is very thoughtful of the ACC coaches considering such a move to contemplate honoring him in this way. But I think it is a bad idea.
  
  To be sure, trying to convince recruits who have already "given their word" to change their mind and break it has a certain inherently ethics-challenged component to it. Do we really want our young men and women breaking their verbal commitments as their first official act in entering college?
  
  Still, if the ACC coaches declare a moratorium, what's to stop non-league coaches from swooping down and picking them up? In my opinion, that is unilateral disarmament that, while laudable in its good intentions, places an unfortunate burden on the ACC. Obviously, one would hope that non-league coaches would honor such a request, but it is by no means binding. And if one of the young men does happen to change their mind on their own initiative, the coach of the school he decides to go to will be under constant suspicion and perhaps even taint of "wrongdoing".
  
  Bottom line -- as laudable as I think this idea is, I think it is fraught with potential unintended consequences. Best that we bury our honored dead, and not change the way we go about life, for good or ill, lest we be forced to live with unforeseen and undesirable outcomes.
  

Best of the SEC Blogs: Hot Tuesday in the South

It is hotter than the hinges of Hell here in Kentucky, so I assume it is equally steamy throughout most of the South. So I'm hoping to find some really cool posts around the SEC blogs to distract us from all this sweaty heat.

So here we go:

• Bobby O'Shea at Vanderbilt Sports Line takes Ryan Ferguson of AOL Fanhouse to task over Ryan's inclusion of Earl Bennett, Vandy's most touted wideout, as #1 on his list of Most Overrated players of 2007:
  

  I think it's safe to say that Ryan Ferguson's "analysis" on AOL Sports' FanHouse that His Name is is the most overrated player in the SEC isn't going to earn him any accolades from VSL. It's not that this guy is wrong, it's that he's so wrong. Feel free to clog Ryan's blog with comments about how wrong he is.
  
  

• Greg Ellis says Sylvester Croom has taken the Bulldogs indoors, and not because of the heat.
  
  
• College Football Resource has his weekly post up, and it is full of goodness as usual. Today's post covers USC, Auburn, Florida, Hawai'i, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia Tech .... Need I continue? Read the whole thing.
  
  
• Football Capital of the South is taking a break from blogging to deal with life issues.
  
  
• The Georgia bloggers are a little miffed at Frank Beamer, coach of archrival Georgia Virginia Tech. Seems that Beamer recently suggested the Dawgs scouted his practices a little too closely last year. Georgia Bulldog Blog has coverage, as does Georgia Sports Blog.
  
  
• Loser with Socks' Jai Eugene takes a colorful (and somewhat off-color) shot at West Virgina's schedule, and the Big East in general. Fun, funny read, unless you are a Big East or Mountaineer fan ...
  
  
• Ryan Ferguson of Fanhouse (he counts as an SEC blogger because he is also over at Orange and Blue Hue) has this preview of Florida for 2007. Despite his optimism, there is some pain there for Gator fans, I think.
  
  
• Outside the Sidelines says that the Heisman is a team award, and backs it up. Does this bode ill for Darren McFadden?
  
  
• Joel at Rocky Top Talk looks at the "dawn of full contact" at Tennessee today, but wonders if anyone will actually get hit due to the team speed.
  
  
• Nico at Roll 'Bama Roll asks "Which teams labor in futility". Naturally, he provides a few suggestions.
  
  
• I'm a Realist at The Cover Two has some "Thumbs up, Thumbs down" for today.
  
  
• The Hog Blogger thinks the Razorbacks have a long way to go, and he gives reasons.
  
  
• The Tide Druid says there are five people who brought down Mike Shula, and ranks them in order of importance.
  

That's all for now.

Notes on the SEC blogosphere

Warning: If you are a consumer of blogs, but otherwise don't care about them, this will bore you a bit. This post is directed more at bloggers themselves, so to those of you who find such minutiae boring, I promise to offer more meat and potatoes later.

Since I have been writing this blog (i.e. almost a whole month now), it has been interesting to me to observe the relative strength of each SEC school's blogospheres. I suppose, as a Kentucky fan, I had certain expectations -- UK has a rather notorious online presence of which I am often proud, but which almost as often leaves me chagrined. Having been steeped in the UK world for years, I was concerned about how I would react to covering other schools on an equal-time basis.

However, looking around at other SEC school fan blogs, I have been impressed and pleased with the strength, quality and production of a good many of them. Of course, this is football season, and if you live in the south where football is king, it is not unreasonable to expect a lot of passion, and passion leads to good writing. It will be instructive to see how the quality and depth of the commentary changes as the year grows older and basketball comes to the fore.

For my part, I am always looking for more blogs to add to my feed reader. I consume at least 200 blog posts per day in an effort to locate what I consider to be the most interesting commentary about SEC schools out there. I try to be fair as far as linking schools about the same number of times, but I am finding that to be more and more difficult -- some schools simply have way more people writing about them, and therefore, the odds of finding an interesting/insightful/compelling post among the more prolific teams is obviously greater.

With all that said, I am still "finding my groove" when it comes to these compilations, so if some of my choices seem arbitrary or biased, I can only say that I do the best I can to be fair. As a Kentucky fan, you can probably expect me to overcompensate and link fewer worthy UK blog posts, because I don't want this blog to be about UK first and everyone else second. So if you are aware of a post you think I have overlooked, please bring it to my attention. The old saying is, "If you don't toot your own horn, who will?" My experience is that very few blog authors count shyness among their defining characteristics.

As I say, it is my intention to be fair, but trust me, our biases and preferences have a way of manifesting themselves, unless of course, we happen to be MSM'ers, who are apparently anointed with the badge of "impartial journalist" by the spirit of Edward R. Murrow himself. At least, according to them. Myself, I'd rather just say, "Hey guys and gals; UK fan here, trying to be objective." Your mileage may vary.

Anyway, I have enjoyed this little blogging adventure so far. I hope I can keep up the pace, especially now that football season is about to burst upon us. There will soon be actual games, and I expect, controversy. I can hardly wait.

Monday: Best of the SEC Blogs

Once again, we scour the Internet to find the best blogs of the day among those following the SEC teams so you don't have to.

The big story of the day is Steve Spurrier's threat to leave South Carolina if the school doesn't moderate its admissions policy. Spurrier had two recruits denied admission to USC even though the qualified under NCAA academic guidelines. MSM coverage can be found at GreenvilleOnline.com. Hat tip: Sports By Brooks.

Cock -n- Fire has a thoughtful take on this. A contrary point of view can be found The Wishbone.

Some other outstanding posts of today:

• The Hog Blogger looks at Darren McFadden's effect on practice
  
  
• Vanderbilt Sports Line has an in-depth look at the Commodores football team
  
  
• Poseur at Geaux Tuscaloosa has part two of his offensive line descriptive statistics.
  
  
• Fulmer's Belly begins ranking the SEC East quarterbacks from worst to best.
  
  
• Outside the Sidelines answers yet another aspect of recruiting: "Do more 4 and 5 star recruits lead to more success?"
  

Best of the SEC Blogs, Late Sunday Edition

As football season really begins to ramp up, so do the SEC football rivalries. As we all well know, these rivalries are by no means confined to the gridiron -- blog pundits also get into very entertaining dustups, and it is therefore fitting that we turn first to perhaps the oldest and most intense rivalry in the SEC, Georgia and Auburn.

Kyle King of Dawg Sports made this post a few days ago, gloating a bit over the fact that Auburn University was among the 40 schools either subpoenaed or contacted by the New York Attorney General over alleged kickbacks from a company called University Financial Services.

Well, Jerry Hinnen at Joe Cribs Car Wash has noted Kyle's comments, and takes him to task quite convincingly. Kyle, in a post today, responds to Jerry's response respectfully but with his own set of valid points. All in all, excellent rivalry rejoinder of the highest quality, and a credit to both bloggers both for their wit and aplomb.

Some other excellence from the SEC blogs today:

• Leftover Hot Dog has a tale of some very committed South Carolina fans.
  
  
• Terry McCormick describes his trip to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
  
  
• Outside the Sidelines must type 10,000 words per minute. Today, he has 24 questions for the SEC East, and 24 questions for the SEC West.
  
  
• Parrish Alford wonders what to do with Brent Schaeffer.
  
  
• Saurian Sagacity has a fascinating plan for this football season. SEC bloggers, this is one hell of an idea.
  
  
• The Tide Druid has some thoughts on the recent coach's poll. So does Swamp Ball.