SB Nation - B.J. Coleman

Talking points: you go fight some mo!

Joel — Mon, 11 May 2009 11:56:35 -0000

Tennessee football

The Number of the Day is 11. Somebody must have sent out a memo or something because every major online news outlet has a story on the fact that 11 players have left the program since Lane Kiffin took over. The last four out were Tyler Maples, Ahmad Paige, B.J. Coleman, and Darris Sawtelle. John Adams says not to fret, because the team didn't really lose all that much and because it's a relatively minor negative side effect of a bigger positive: Lane Kiffin's brutal candor with his players. Also, 11 Vol football players will be working on a master's degree this fall. Good for them. Good for the five more who will be finishing a second undergraduate degree, too.
No hard feelings. Former Vol linebacker and GA Kevin Simon, who worked for the new Kiffin regime for about seven weeks before ultimately being let go and then taking a position as a scout for the Dallas Cowboys, has nothing but good things to say about Kiffin. He thinks Tennessee shouldn't lose more than three or four games. This year. Really.
Former Vol Mark Jones has signed as a free agent with the Tennessee Titans and is looking forward to an opportunity to replace Chris Carr as the Titans' return man. Who else besides me misses that dude?
An under-the-radar innovation. One of Tennessee's new GAs -- read, not- or under-paid football coach -- is Mitch Browning, who has 27 years' experience. Browning decided that the opportunity to work essentially for free under Monte Kiffin was better than any other opportunity out there for a guy with great experience, and it's a great way for Lane Kiffin to add more experience to the coaching roster than any other program in the country.
Twenty questions. Tom Mattingly recounts some of the more interesting questions he's been asked about Tennessee football over the years.

Tennessee basketball

Dane Bradshaw and Clint Dowdle are having a basketball camp June 29-July 3 at Farragut Middle School. Follow the link for more information.

SEC

Mark Richt has suspended two players for multiple games. Junior tight end Bruce Figgins loses six games and sophomore defensive end Justin Houston loses two games, reportedly for violating Georgia's substance abuse policy.

NCAA

Tomahawk Nation does some heavy lifting in looking at FSU's rushing defense the way it should be viewed: without accounting for sacks.
Rick Pitino is apparently not interested in the Sacramento Kings job after all.
And a little something to get you started this Monday morning (chest bump to Gate 21 for the find):

Talking points: Ed Orgeron ups the ante in recruiting tactics

Joel — Fri, 01 May 2009 11:42:13 -0000

Tennessee football

B.J. Coleman visited UT-Chattanooga earlier this week but is still weighing his options before deciding where to transfer.
Arian Foster, Anthony Parker, and Ramon Foster have all made cfn.com's list of the top 30 players not drafted ($).
The Vols are hoping that the offensive line can mitigate any potential disadvantage at QB this season, like the line did in 2004 with three different QBs when they made both Gerald Riggs and Cedric Houston 1,000-yard rushers.
Why in the world would Ed Orgeron choose to play himself in the upcoming movie version of Michael Lewis's Blind Side? Why, recruiting, of course:

The reason I did it, really, is it's an opportunity for recruiting. It's going to help us in recruiting to see one of our coaches in a movie that goes all over the nation. It's going to help. That's the big reason I did it.

HT: Holly. Side note: I initially mis-typed "Blind Side" as "Bling Side," which is a different movie. Hmm. Who would that be about?

Tennessee basketball

It's looking more and more like Tyler Smith will return to the Vols for another season. Most are projecting him as a second-round pick, and Smith said that there's a "very high chance" of him returning if that remains the case.
The Vols had one of those postseason annual banquets where everybody gets an award. No video yet of Bruce Pearl rapping, though, so it sounds much more tame than the Volscars.

NCAA

Team Speed Kills' Year 2 has an excellent brief history of America's postseason.

Sprints // 04.29.09

cocknfire — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 05:27:03 -0000

More photos » by Ed Andrieski - AP

Nothing to see here. I know because a couple of other bloggers said so.

Browse more photos »

NCAA nears goal of making world's dumbest decision. A coach wants to attend the graduation of a commitment, exactly the kind of academic focus of which the NCAA speaks so highly. So what happens when the coach thinks about applying for a waiver so he can attend and stay within the rules?

Why, the NCAA indicates the request will likely be turned down, of course.

Granted, this isn't quite as bad as it first looked -- after all, Chris Burnette did miss being valedictorian, the original terms of Richt's promise. And a mere 5.12 GPA for a student whose made all As his entire academic career is clearly not worth waiving the rules if he's not officially, valedictorian, right?

Sadly, the sarcasm is all that comes to me. When it comes to mindless NCAA decisions, I ran out of outrage a long time ago.

The Mayor gets contrary about the NFL Draft. Everyone's wordiest Georgia blogger rebuts the argument that the NFL Draft doesn't show the SEC's greatness because it's not that great on a per capita basis.

It's really worth reading the whole post, but I'll pull out one and a half paragraphs to illustrate my problem with the Mayor's generally strong argument, which is based on the idea that colleges in the same conference generally draw from the same pool of recruits.

If Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee all keep scholarships available in the hope of snagging the same upper-echelon recruit, two of those schools are going to be disappointed when the kid dons the wrong cap on signing day. The two extra scholarships that leaves aren't going to be expended on equally upper-echelon recruits in the same recruiting cycle; they're either going to go to lower-tier players who are still available, or they're going to be held onto for next year's recruiting class.

Either way, they're not affecting the total number of top-shelf recruits entering a particular conference's member institutions in a given year. Absent early defections (which tend to even out over time), we're still talking about the same number of highly-touted athletes entering the N.F.L. draft from the ranks of a given league. On the individual level, recruiting always is a zero-sum game, but, at the highest level, this is especially so; one team's getting a five-star holdout on signing day means the other teams pursuing the same kid aren't getting any five-star holdouts on that signing day with that scholarship.

First off, I'm not sure I would have spent this much time dissecting points made by two bloggers whom I respect, but who both spend an inordinate amount of time trying knock down any notion that the SEC is the nation's best conference. (And one of whom takes a gratuitous slap at Southern intellect in his post.) "Nobody talks so constantly about God as those who insist that there is no God," Heywood Broun once said, and the same seems to be true of SEC superiority. But I digress.

The real problems I see with the Mayor's argument are:

(1) The scholarship of a lost five-star recruit isn't necessarily "going to lower-tier players who are still available." It might very well still end up going to a talented player, particularly if a five-star recruit commits early in the process or if a school (as some do) over-recruits. coughcoughOleMisscoughcough
(2) Even if the team does turn to a lower-tier player, it is not a given that this player is not going to turn into an NFL-caliber player. The odds are longer, no doubt; but not impossible.
(3) It is built heavily on the idea that colleges recruit regionally. But that's not always the case. Florida or LSU or Georgia is just as likely to be competing for the best players with Oklahoma or Southern Cal or Michigan as they are to be competing with Alabama or Tennessee or Auburn -- and perhaps more likely to be going up against the national titans as they are to be fighting Kentucky or Vanderbilt or Mississippi State.
(4) Even if we accept the idea that all schools recruit regionally, neither side of the argument is accounting for the fact that some regions are more populous and/or richer in four- and five-star talent than others.

I'm not saying the Mayor is wrong -- his argument seems at worst to take into account something that mgoblog and Dr. Saturday don't, and at best takes a bit of air out of their arguments.

But I've said before that I regard the NFL Draft as a decidedly bad way of measuring conference strength, whether per capita or in total. I see no reason to change that view -- whether it benefits the SEC or not.

Boy Wonder: Daddy is Superman; Coleman should have stayed. Monte Kiffin is still pretty tough for someone who's 97 years old.

[Lane] Kiffin said his father -- UT defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin -- underwent back surgery a few days ago and was back at work Monday despite being told by doctors to take a week off.

Pay attention, Tennessee defenders: Dogging it during practice because you have a "shoulder stinger" ain't going to cut it.

Perhaps more germane for our purposes, Boy Wonder commented on the B.J. Coleman controversy, such as it is.

Later in the evening, speaking to a sold-out crowd, Kiffin added: "We wanted (Coleman) to stay. He really had a slow spring at the beginning and had come around the last couple of weeks."

Are we sure that's Coleman that Boy Wonder is talking about? Because it really could have been any other Tennessee quarterback, if you lop off the "had come around the last couple of weeks" part.

When an Auburn fans accuses you of 'a misinformed cheap shot at Georgia fans,' you're probably wrong. And yet Terence Moore manages to draw that reaction from The Joe Cribbs Car Wash in response to his final column.

Yes, I know the last part of that sentence is a crushing blow to many of you. But he left a special, mind-boggling gift for you at the end of his last missive.

In football, the Bulldogs had a national championship in 1980, and the Yellow Jackets managed one 10 years later. Neither has come close since then.

Wha? Um, Terence? After the 1981 season, Georgia was ranked 5th in the UPI poll, 6th in AP. In 1982, postseason No. 4 was actually No. 1 before a 27-23 Sugar Bowl loss to eventual champion Penn State. The Dawgs ended the season No. 4 in 1983. There was a lull after that, but in 2002 they ended up No. 3 in both the AP and USA Today/ESPN polls. They were No. 2 in AP and No. 3 in USA Today after the 2007 season -- and many fans think (wrongly, but not without basis) that they robbed of the right to play for the crystal football that year.

So, yes, they have come close since then. Many, many times.

Anything I say here will get me in trouble. So let me just introduce, without further ado, TeeBows. (Borderline NSFW) That would be Tim Tebow-inspired ...

Panties?

Ladies, they're just $6 a pair. So what are you waiting for? (HT: Dr. Saturday)

Basketball moves. Mississippi State's Jarvis Varnado is headed for the NBA -- maybe. He's not hiring an agent. Meanwhile, Florida's Alex Tyus is untransferring.

It's tennis. Apparently, Mississippians take their college tennis very seriously. You have no idea how seriously until you consider the reaction of Ole Miss athletics director Pete Boone to the perceived snub of the Rebels in the seeding for the NCAA tennis tournament.

"There's no words that can express the boneheadedness of this decision. It's truly beyond comprehension. The NCAA wants to cut down on travel, and I understand that, but to do this to the No. 2 team in the country doesn't make any sense whatsoever. I'm sure the decision-makers got in some room and started dealing with theory and then convinced themselves that this made sense when it reality it makes absolutely no common sense. We're certainly going to be on the phone in the morning with the NCAA trying to find out what the hell happened."

Our friends at the Red Cup Rebellion have decided to declare war via e-mail and phone. Yikes. Does McEnroe even get that angry over tennis?

Wind Sprints. Jevan Snead will be your No. 1 NFL draft pick. Next year. After, you know, the season is actually played and everything ... The Kickin' Colquitts, now likely to play against each other ... Georgia seeks a "neutral game" in the Georgia Dome. Because everyone will fall for that one ... Steve Spurrier "starting to agree with" NFL types on the importance of a quarterback. Now?!?

Talking points: Monte Kiffin slacks off and Bruce Pearl stalks Layla Kiffin

Joel — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:27:49 -0000

More photos » by Gail Burton - AP

7 months ago: In this Tuesday, April 7, 2009 photo, football draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. pauses while taping at the ESPN Zone, in Baltimore. Saturday marks the 25th anniversary of Kiper's 1984 debut on ESPN's draft coverage, and while his demeanor and hair haven't changed all that much, his popularity certainly has. (AP Photo/Gail Burton)

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Tennessee football

Tennessee's post-spring depth chart has two or more players "bracketed" (no decision) first-team at nine of 22 positions ($).
Mel Kiper says Eric Berry is the top prospect for next year's NFL Draft. Drew Edwards is skeptical, noting the NFL's general undervaluing of the safety position.
Monte Kiffin took an entire afternoon off to recover from offseason back surgery he'd been putting off for years. Slacker.
Kiffin told a group of fans in Franklin that he wanted B.J. Coleman to stay. "He really had a slow spring at the beginning and had come around the last couple of weeks."
Lane Kiffin has "run off" more players in his transition period than did Michigan's Rich Rodriguez in his.Yeah, southern speed, etc., etc., etc., harhar.

Tennessee basketball

Bruce Pearl told that same group of fans in Franklin that he was "trying to date [Lane Kiffin's] wife" but that it "[wasn't] working out too good."

NCAA

Bring on the Cats responds to a Tulsa World journalist's suggestion that the Big 12 be radically restructured.
Track 'Em Tigers lists fives things that should make a comeback in college football, including the Three-Hour Game:

Darwinists have predicted that the current CFB will have evolved into six and a half hours by 2085. We can put a man on the moon, but can't get one hour of football with requisite commercials in thrice that interval? Three hours was long enough for Gilligan and the crew to get stranded on an uncharted desert isle. Why can't we get it done? I devote less time to sleep a lot of nights than I do to the average televised Auburn game.

Lane Kiffin Has Played This Game Before: The Oakland Raiders 2007 QB Controversy

Will — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 04:43:58 -0000

More photos » by Carlos Osorio - AP

Daunte Culpepper, now with the Detroit Lions, was involved in a quarterback controversy in Oakland during Lane Kiffin's tenure.

Browse more photos »

As opinions continue to fly over BJ Coleman's decision to transfer and what the future of the program looks like with Jonathan Crompton at the helm, it's helpful to remember that while Lane Kiffin may not have much experience as a head coach, this is not his first quarterback controversy.

At the start of his brief stint in Oakland with the Raiders, Kiffin inherited a situation that included number one overall pick JaMarcus Russell and his holdout, the proven veteran recovering from injury in Daunte Culpepper, and a relative unknown in Josh McCown. Russell's holdout carried into the opening week of the 2007 season, leaving Kiffin and the Raiders with Culpepper and McCown to begin the season.

Fans, of course, wanted to see Culpepper because they actually knew who he was, and were picturing his mammoth seasons in Minnesota coming to life again in Oakland, even though Daunte had never shown anything with the Raiders.

But Kiffin elected to go with McCown in the 2007 opener. This was met right away with booing and chants for Daunte from the Raider faithful, in Kiffin's first game. How did Lane respond?

"Fans have the right to their opinions," Kiffin said. "After (McCown's) third touchdown in a row they weren't chanting for Daunte anymore."

Interesting.

It's clear that Kiffin isn't making decisions with fan perception in mind. No matter which side of the Crompton/Coleman debate you fell on, I think it's clear that Kiffin isn't afraid to make unpopular choices. McCown went 30 of 40 for 313 yards, 2 TDs and 2 INTs in that opener.

But it's also clear that Kiffin isn't blind and unafraid to change his mind: in Week 2 of the 2007 season, McCown went 8 of 16 for 73 yards, 1 TD and 3 INTs. The following week, a banged up McCown was pulled for Culpepper. When the two finished with similar stats, Culpepper got the start in Week 4. And back and forth we would go from there.

In the 16 regular season games of 2007, Culpepper led the team in passing seven times, McCown seven times, and JaMarcus Russell twice in the last two weeks of the season. The Raiders went 4-12, and their quarterbacks had some great days (Culpepper's 344 yards against his old team at Minnesota) and some downright lousy ones (four times the Raiders failed to pass for more than 100 yards). But I don't think Kiffin left any options on the table.

From the beginning at Tennessee, I think Kiffin has been handling the quarterback situation as it works best for the program. I have to believe Jonathan Crompton is the presumed starter on September 5 because he truly is the best option. But based on Kiffin's track record, don't think that Crompton's job is safe all year just for recruiting's sake. And don't think that fan pressure will make Kiffin play Nick Stephens more. This guy is going to do what he wants to do...and in the case of quarterback controversies, it's one of the few places where we can say he's seen this all before.

B.J. Coleman Quits Team; No Longer A Tennessee Volunteer

Hooper — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:19:37 -0000

More photos » by Wade Payne - AP

Get ready, Vols fans. Love him or hate him, he's the man. (AP Photo/Wade Payne)

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Click Here For Audio From The Times Free Press

The speculation is now over. B.J. Coleman has decided to pursue playing time elsewhere rather than risk being a backup and losing another year of college playing time. With the Coaching Chimera obviously intent on bringing in their own hand-picked player, the recent addition of Rozier to fill in the 2-year gap, and the extensive time Crompton had with the first-team players during the spring practices, Coleman must have read the handwriting on the wall and figured that Kiffin did not see him as a substantial part of the offense.

It's going to be very easy to get bent out of shape on this one. For the Crompton haters out there, this must surely come as the worst news of the Kiffin era. At this point, we have to assume that Crompton is the starter until somebody else takes it from him, and we're not sure that the staff is very interested in finding that person within the current options: Stephens has a chance to prove himself when his wrist is 100%, but Rozier surely won't have enough of a chance to prove he knows the offense and beat out Crompton within the span of fall practice. While I didn't really expect the announcement to come in this form, it really does sound like I was right when I suggested that you prepare for Crompton to be the man.

Brace yourselves for this, also: get ready for the unbelievable storm of fury and outrage that will come from people who hate Crompton. I'm not begrudging the opinion; everybody has one and mine tends to be based on being nonconfrontational about things, so I'm hardly one to complain. But Crompton is our guy now, and there's really nothing to be gained by dwelling in the hate. If you think that Crompton doesn't learn well enough for the game, at least you know that Kiffin's offense is not nearly as cerebral as Clawson's was; the biggest criticism laid against Crompton has to be mitigated at least somewhat by that fact.

One last word about the matter (for now): This will undoubedtly make UT an extremely tempting location for a QB in next year's class. The gap between Stephens and the '10 guy will be filled only by Rozier, a baseball convert who was never highly rated in the first place. So long as we're not bringing in a clone of Jimmy Clausen, that should bode well.

I'll have more to say later once I get my thoughts and analysis complete. There's a lot to consider.

Talking points: Lookout, Mountain! Orgeron to recruit Chattanooga

Joel — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:28:51 -0000

Tennessee football

Because Lane Kiffin refused to do it . . . Drew Edwards has the projected depth chart for the offense line with a complete breakdown as well.
Kiffin to name a starting QB. Maybe. Kiffin and the rest of the offensive coaches will spend the next several days evaluating tape of the QBs in hopes of maybeperhapspossibly naming a starter:
We're going to still break it down, the whole spring, go back and take all their throws and put them together by concept and everything. At that point, maybe we'll be able to put something together. We may not, just go into fall. We'll figure it out.
Look out, Mountain! Kiffin has assigned recruiting the Chattanooga area to Ed Orgeron.

Tennessee basketball

Bruce Pearl said yesterday that he expects Tyler Smith to declare for the NBA draft without hiring an agent, which means he can work out with some teams and gauge his draft stock without blowing up the bridge that would allow him to return to Tennessee.

SEC

Year2 at Team Speed Kills has more excellent analysis of QB throwing motions and release times.

NCAA

John Calipari has been named the Men's College Basketball Coach of the Year by the Tennessee Sports Writers Association for the second year in a row. Fortunately, that will be his last.
Is Rick Pitino the victim of attempted extortion?

Practice? Awesome. Orange and White Game? Deliciously bland.

Joel — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 11:45:55 -0000

First this, because it's awesome:

Now for bland.

Tennessee fans had been told all week that the Orange and White Game was going to be "just like a real game," except without live punt returns and with a wacky scoring system designed to reward the defense for success that usually goes unmeasured in real games.

Um, not exactly. Not unless Lane Kiffin's going to be permitted in the huddle and the officials throw flags for blitzes. I was much more concerned about Kiffin's huddle-presence than was hooper, who rightly guessed that it was only because they hadn't installed hand signals yet. If Kiffin was only there to tell the QB the play and then get out of the way, then okay. But it appeared that he was also coaching while he was in there, including instructing players where to line up.

I really like the instant feedback aspect of this. Rather than waiting to see the video and having a meeting with the players, telling them right then and right there what was good, what was bad, and why is a great thing. But it's certainly not like a game. Hopefully, the hand-holding will be the first thing that goes in the fall.

On the other hand, Kiffin appeared to be highly-focused on maintaining the element of surprise. He said he only showed about 20% of the offense and didn't allow the defense to use Eric Berry or to really show anything other than a basic front. So they might be further along with their hand signals than they're letting on, and they just didn't want video of them this early.

So yeah, it was a lot like vanilla with vanilla swirl with no fixin's in a kiddie cup, but it sure did taste better ($) than that fancy stuff we had last year, huh? Jonathan Crompton played mostly against the 1st team defense and went 14-27 for 143 yards, a 16-yard TD, and one interception, which Kiffin says was not his fault ($). B.J. Coleman played mostly against the second team defense but went 13-22 for 160 yards, three TDs (one of which was called back due to a delay of game penalty), and no turnovers. The best receivers of the day were Quintin Hancock and Brandon Warren. Hancock caught eight passes for 96 yards and a TD, and Warren caught four passes for 50 yards and two TDs.

But the best news of all is that the running game looked great. Montario Hardesty, Tauren Poole, and Toney Williams together rushed for 201 yards on 42 carries for a 4.8 yard average.

There were a lot of positives (and some negatives) to take away from the Orange and White Game, but contrary to what we thought we were going to see, it wasn't really just like a game, so we can't be too quick to conclude much of anything from it.

Return to La-La Land: Fulmer Goes Back to Tennessee, and Other Spring Game Action

cocknfire — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 09:16:21 -0000

More photos » by Wade Payne - AP

Tennessee fans applaud their last sane head coach.

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He must have felt a bit like Alice stepping through the looking glass, but Phil Fulmer returned to Tennessee on Saturday -- which means he bested Johnny Majors by something approaching 17 years.

Speaking of Majors -- Fulmer did, which raised some eyebrows among those familiar with the long-simmering suspicions between the two.

"I hope I have followed the lead of Doug Dickey and John Majors, my mentors, and honored the spirit of Tennessee football,'' said Fulmer, the fifth former UT coach and 44th overall recipient of the annual [Robert R. Neyland A]ward given by the Knoxville Quarterback Club in conjunction with the East Tennessee Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame. ...

Some were surprised Fulmer paid tribute to Majors on two occasions during his acceptance speech.

"Ultimately, it's about the Tennessee family,'' said Fulmer, whose history with Majors has been well-documented. "I'm a branch of that tree and we're all interconnected.

"We all learned from each other and from the General.''

For those of you unfamiliar with the Majors-Fulmer bit: Majors hired Fulmer as an assistant, then watched as Fulmer took over when Majors was canned by Tennessee. Then, as speculation grew about Fulmer's status last season, Majors was dispensing helpful quotes, like calling his decision to hire Fulmer "one of the main mistakes I made in my coaching career" after saying "John Chavis has saved [Fulmer's] job for 10 years."

Okay, maybe Tennessee football went through the looking glass long before Boy Wonder was hired.

Ah, Boy Wonder -- he does understand that only the players are allowed on the field during the regular season, right?

"I'm sure me being out there in the huddle helped our offense," Kiffin said following Saturday's Orange and White Game, which the offense won 41-23. ...

"I saw Gerald coming and I felt like he overran it a little bit so I stayed in bounds and stepped back," [QB B.J.] Coleman said. "By that time Quintin had gotten himself in a free spot in the endzone. I felt like it was very important to put it where only he could catch the ball."

In fairness, that does represent progress for the Vols signal-callers. But one does wonder if the score might have changed if Grandaddy Google had been allowed to coach the defense as closely as Boy Wonder worked with the offense. Gramps Google was apparently busy "cavort[ing] like a sophomore on spring break," which brings all sort of mental images I'd rather forget.

hooper gives high marks to the offense line, the running backs and Ed Orgeron's voice, but sees the quarterback play as inconsistent and the second-string defensive line as a big drop off from the starters.

A thought: Tennessee's defense was really the only thing that kept last year's debacle from turning into a disaster. So is it good or bad that the offense beat them in the Spring Game?

And a side note: LOGOS AND COLORS, IN THE NEWPAPER!!! YIPEE!!!!! Kiffin admits an infraction, but don't call it a recruiting violation.

Tennessee denied Friday that it had self-reported a secondary violation to the NCAA concerning contact between football coach Lane Kiffin and South Carolina signee Alshon Jeffery after national signing day on Feb. 4. ...

However, Tennessee director of public relations Tiffany Carpenter, after consulting UT's compliance department Friday, said the contact "is not an NCAA violation," but rather what she called a "national letter of intent infraction."

Who cares about semantics? Who cares that he's breaking the rules?!? He's in the paper -- can't you see, people? That's all that's important!!! The recruits will flock to Tennessee's rule-breaking program like moths to a flame!!! ReTuRn To GlOrY!!!

FLORIDA: THE NEXT GOLDEN CHILD

John Brantley: The man, the myth, the legend. Another quarterback that Florida fans imagine will make the Gators "superb to all the teams in the conferences that we play."

Greaaaaaaaaaat.

The Gators backup - a talent 75 percent of the teams around the country wouldn't mind having as a starter right now - threw for 265 yards with three touchdown passes and two rushing scores in the Orange team's 31-21 win over the Blue team in front of an announced crowd of 65,000 at The Swamp.

After concluding his low-key interview, Tebow said into the microphone "Here's John Brantley," mimicking Ed McMahon introducing Johnny Carson. ...

Tebow knows his 6-foot-3, 220-pound successor won't barrel over defensive linemen like the Heisman Trophy winner does, but Brantley showcased an adequate scrambling style Saturday with 23 yards.

The performance was enough for [Urban] Meyer to call Brantley "like Alex Smith" in his spread attack.

For the uninitiated: All Alex Smith did was lead Utah to an undefeated season and its first BCS bowl win back in 2004.

In any case, Tebow was limited, a ton of starters didn't take the field and Brantley played for both teams in the second half, so take whatever you want to from the results. But it's obvious that Florida is impressed enough with Brantley that you can probably make a mint by reserving floridathreepeat2010.com, if you're so inclined.

How long before ESPN predicts Florida-Southern Cal as the national title game for 2010, 2011, 2012, etc.? The threat of that kind of complacency has Urban Meyer threatening to run a training camp that sounds almost like shades of Junction Boys. The Golden Tebow, of course, is all for it.

ALABAMA: 'WE CAN BE AN OUTSTANDING TEAM'

Nick Saban apparently has time for this football team, telling his players that this version of Alabama "can be an outstanding team." Whether outstanding teams can beat Utah is still an open question, but we'll see, or at least see if they can repeat a 12-0 regular season.

The headline for Alabama is that the QB competition appears to be all but over: Barring a summer upset, Greg McElroy will be your starter in 2009. He was the front-runner to begin with, but had a good day (sans the two interceptions) in front of what could be termed a disappointing crowd. Only in Alabama can 84,050 fans watching a meaningless scrimmage even be arguably a disappointing crowd.

My observation from watching some of the game on ESPN: Percy Harvin + Crimson = Marquis Maze. You will know his name by the end of the season, and probably fairly early in the fall.

Would that I could have seen Tyrone Prothro back on the football field. This is the one thing for which I, as a non-Alabama fan, can never forgive Mike Shula. Now, Alabama fans have a lot more to hold against him, but that's all that's on my ledger.

ARKANSAS: THE STARTER WILL BE ... PROBABLY THE SAME GUY, ACTUALLY

The spring game might have just muddied the QB situation at Arkansas, though if the Gypsy Coach of the South is saying a starter will be named later this week, one has to imagine Mallett is still the man for the job.

That's not to say that things can't change in the fall, though, and Tyler Wilson at least seems intent on making things interesting.

"I don't think there's any pressure at all," Petrino said. "I kind of know what we're going to do there. I think they both got good opportunities. I think they both can play the position. That's a major plus for us as a football team. We need that. They both have a great relationship and I'm looking forward to getting to the summer and letting them work there." [EMPHASIS C&F's]

Again, sounds like Mallett is your guy. But by a slightly smaller margin than he held Friday.

MISSISSIPPI STATE: ATTENDANCE EQUALS THE A-DAY FLAG FOOTBALL GAME

A massive, record-breaking audience for Mississippi State's spring game. Brace yourselves. Drum roll please ...

31,606.

Really? Nick Saban scoffs at your pitiful spring game attendance.

Actual game? Well, the offense is better -- but when you consider the soul-crushing enterprise that was Sylvester Croom's offense, this is all relative.

But the play-by-play proved secondary on a night that saw so many show up at Scott Field - and saw so many points, at least in relation to previous spring games, scored.

Mullen admitted to being a little nervous before the game when he saw the crowd and wondered if his players could actually score points. (Last year's spring game, you'll recall, ended in a scoreless tie in regulation.)

So, yeah, even if it was "a game dominated by field goals" in the first half, that's improvement.

OLE MISS: AN EVEN SMALLER RECORD ... BUT THEY HAVE SNEAD

It's easier to handle a smaller record crowd -- 28,357 -- when you have an experienced quarterback and, you know, hope. (In fairness to the state of Mississippi, though, no one cared about spring game attendance until Alabama turned out 92,000 in Nick Saban's first year. It's worth asking whether this is a measure of the enthusiasm of other team's fan bases or an indictment of the mental health system in the state of Alabama, but I digress.)

It was one of many good throws for Snead, who completed 11-of-15 passes for 254 yards as the Blue team beat the Red team 55-28 in front of a record announced crowd of 28,357. ...

Snead's dominance was just one part of a very good day for the offense. Eight touchdowns were scored by seven different players. ...

The Red team, which consisted of mostly reserves, received seven points after each quarter to try and keep the game competitive, but never actually scored a touchdown.

You know who they need? John Brantley.

AUBURN: HOORAY! WE BEAT THE SCRUBS!

Auburn's offense had a great day. Fantastic. Won big. Scored TDs -- which Tony Franklin viewed as exotic things best enjoyed in moderation.

Um, beat writer?

When Auburn's first-team offensive linemen looked up from their stance, they looked into eyes of players who rarely stepped inside the white lines of Jordan-Hare Stadium last season. The wide receivers matched up against a couple underclassmen and darted through a linebacking unit and secondary littered with walk-ons.

Ah, well. That's makes things a bit different. So what was the take-away?

Kodi Burns and [Neil] Caudle each looked like All-SEC quarterbacks running the first team. With the second-team, both had their weaknesses exposed.

Caudle finished with the better stat line - 11-for-16, 161 yards, two touchdowns - but Burns had better production around him when he ran the group in the first half.

So somewhere between "All-SEC" and "weak." See, Auburn fans? There's hope. I guess.

LSU: THE STARTER IS JORDAN JEFFERSON. SHH. IT'S A SECRET

Looks like you can go ahead and call LSU's QB competition -- if there ever was one -- for Jordan Jefferson, who looked very good in the spring game after looking very good at the end of last season.

No pressure, Jordan. You just have to revive the Bayou Bengal dynasty after a 7-5 season. So, you know, relax.

In any case, Les Miles is hearing none of this "Jefferson will start" nonsense.

"Yeah -- I don't make too much of that, " Miles said, when asked if Jefferson was now the acknowledged starter. "Fall competition is more important than the spring. Fall is a different breed of cat."

All LSU fans hope is that 2009 will be "a different breed of cat" than 2008.

Bootlegging Is Big In Tennessee: Notes From The Orange And White Game

Hooper — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 22:23:43 -0000

More photos » by Wade Payne - AP

8 months ago: Tennessee wide receiver Brandon Warren, top, catches the ball as he is defended by Cory Eichholtz (15) and Prentiss Waggner (23) during the first half of the spring Orange and White game Saturday, April 18, 2009, in Knoxville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Wade Payne)

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I'm back from the Orange and White game (sort of - I'm actually in the library typing this). Here's a quick rundown of some of the things we saw at the practice/scrimmage/game/thing.

Pregame

The Vol Walk was pretty cool. Joel was in terrific shape to get a lot of great pictures, so I'm sure you'll see them at some point.

During the warmups, the team was run similar to practice conditions, including the horn to signal the end of a drill and the running between drills. The progression made a lot of sense, starting with gentle warmup and stretching routines, then finishing with 11-on-11 drills.

The presentation of the Neyland award went very well. Fulmer was actually given two standing ovations - once when the crowd first saw him and once when the award was actually presented. Other than a couple of very close-in snarky comments, I heard no boos or any other negative vibes from the crowd. In other words, the presentation was not a fiasco, and the media-driven fears turned out to be much ado about nothing. We can move on.

The Orange and White Game

The game itself was a lot of fun to watch. As any spring game goes, it wasn't exciting from a pure football perspective, but it was a great opportunity to connect the practice reports to the play on the field and get a perspect on the team. The oddest thing was watching Lane Kiffin: he spent the entire game on the field, first huddling with the offense then watching from behind the quarterback and running backs. The view was great, I'm sure, but it took a bit to get used to seeing.

Here are a few of the things I took from the game.

Quarterback Play

We'll start with the big question first. When you look at the stats, you'll notice that Crompton threw the only interception. That is not to say that Crompton was the only one who deserved to be intercepted; all three quarterbacks threw a few ill-advised passes and had inconsistent days. If I were to quantify the problems though, I'd fault Crompton for holding the ball too long, Stephens for floating passes, and Coleman for being inaccurate.

Because of the Kiffin-in-the-huddle routine, you really couldn't get any perception on the on-field leadership abilities of the three quarterbacks. One of the most common compliments in Crompton's favor has been his command presence, but that could not be differentiated between the three today. C'est la vie.

The quarterbacks played better in the first half than the second half. If you watch the replay on Sunday, you'll see that reflected in the scoreboard as the defense nearly brought the game back to a tie.

Offensive Line

I love the zone blocking. The grain of salt is this: they have more work to do to be truly proficient at it. That said, the linemen really explode off the snap well and opened up some terrific holes for the running backs. The cutback lanes were available, just as they were drawn up. They did well with zone blocking for short yardage plays as well, and the one goal-line play that really got blown apart by the defense didn't appear to be a zone scheme in the most proper sense of the term.

On the replays, though, you could see the offensive linemen carry defenders laterally past the play when the defender over-committed, and you could see them seal off a defender who took too aggressive of an angle. They are really taking to the system, and I think they can go a long way with it. As I said before, there's work to be done, but there was enough there to see where things are headed, and I like it.

The other beauty of the zone blocking was that it was hard to tell if the line was blocking for a run or blocking for play action passing. Not having linemen head downfield with their first step helped mask the play. This also I like.

Defensive Line

The first-string line is indeed much better against the first string O-line than the second strin line is against the seconds string O-line. Linemen were in the offensive backfield all day long, especially on pass plays. The line was hampered, however, by an early injury to the right leg of Ben Martin. He was helped to the sideline in the first quarter, where he was treated for a while before being taken to the locker room, never to return. Montori Hughes appeared to tweak something at one point, though he continued playing.

The biggest D-line weakness was their tendency to bite on play action. Perhaps it was a sign of respect for the running game, but the linemen tended to chase the runner on a play action fake far more frequently than they chose to chase the quarterback. This made for a lot of space in front of the quarterback for decision-making, which was a very good thing.

Brandon Warren

I think the guy had more receptions (and certainly more touchdowns) in the Orange and White game than he had all season last year. His two touchdowns were pretty and he made some very difficult catches. He's a handful as a wide receiver and, if he keeps on progressing through the offseason, he'll be a terrific addition.

Eddie Gran has to be the most pleased position coach

You are going to love the running game in the fall. The running backs run hard, make decisive cuts, and almost always fall forward when they get tackled. If you remember how Gran's Auburn running backs used to run over people (Williams, Brown, etc.), that's the kind of thing you can look forward to seeing. I'm not saying that our guys are going to be as talked-about as the Auburn guys were, but they're going to make life very unpleasant for defenders. Toney Williams had an absolutely terrific day; the kid has really picked up the system and plays with a lot of intensity and effort. Hardesty and Poole had really nice days as well, but Toney deserves a little publicity as he's so often left out of the discussion because of the hype around David Oku and Bryce Brown.

I think having 5 high-end running backs will work well for the program. They can run hard and lay licks on tacklers without worrying about being overextended throughout a season. A healthy rotation will give all five ample opportunity to shine while giving defenses a lot to be concerned about.

BOOTLEGGING: Back in Tennessee

Kiffin ran the bootleg on play action. A lot. No, a lot. I don't know if the defensive tendency to bite on the play action was more a fault of the defensive read or if it was due to a good job on the fake by the offense, but it worked very well. Lane went away from the bootleg play action plays somewhat in the second haf, but the first half is absolutely packed with them.

Odds and Ends

Ed Orgeron really is that loud. We were halfway up the lower bowl, and we could really hear him out there. We couldn't understand a word of it, but it was still impressive.
Very few penalty flags. I can only remember two: one that was declined on the interception play, and one that nullified a touchdown. The defense had zero penalties throughout the day.
NFL advertising for the program. Well, technically not advertising for or from the NFL, but they do use it in the JumboTron spots. One in particular noted Kiffin's time at USC and with the Oakland Raiders. (By the way, it's really weird to see a UT promo begin with highlights of the Trojans.)
Gang tackling. People were really flying to the ball. I think you'll love watching the defense against Western Kentucky in the fall.
51,488. That was the announced attendance, though I have no clue how they counted it. I walked through by showing my student ID, and Joel didn't even have to show his ticket. But that qualifies for second-highest ever at Neyland, second only to the 1986 attempt at the Guinness Book of World Records.