First and foremost, I nominate that the terms MSM and Main Stream Media be forever stricken from the English language along with 'ilk' and 'meme'.  Now, onto business.

I nominate Bruce Feldman.  Sure, he's not a blogger in the usual sense, but ESPN labels him as such and he posts every other day or two in rather short bits.  But he is the best college football writer out there today, and that includes everyone.  He writes for the behemoth that is ESPN but he clearly has his own voice.  He is amazingly independent and has great football knowledge.  On top of all of that he knows recruiting better than anyone not associated with a recruiting service.  

So vote Feldman in 08 and buy Meat Market if you have the chance.  It is wonderful.

I'll start by saying that no self-respecting Georgia fan should ever be disappointed in a trip to the Sugar Bowl.  Could things have broken better for us?  Obviously yes, but we still get a trip to New Orleans with a chance to make our first statement of 2008.  

Now, on to my point, and that is language.  Specifically, I'm wondering if Frank Luntz has taken a job in the national sports media.  Here are the primary examples.

"Georgia didn't even win it's own division!"  Now, you could present the same fact by stating that Georgia didn't win it's conference or it's division, but adding the even as a modifier heightens the impact.  In fact, it makes it seem like a prerequisite or at least something that's never happened before.  Neither statement is true.

Next, "UGA is a 'hot' team" or "UGA and USC are the 'hottest' teams out there right now".  Now, in many years, the term 'best' may have been used instead of 'hot'.  In fact, WesterDawg currently has a Herbstreit video up on his blog where he made precisely that argument last year in regard to Michigan.  

The 'hot' fad is everywhere this year, and it accomplishes two primary things.  First, it implies that the team may be playing over it's head and is simply riding a streak.  

Secondly, it dismisses the idea that teams should be ranked according to how they are playing today entirely.  Now, I will not contest that there are valid arguments for resume ranking, but ranking according to who you believe is the best team out there (particularly when the choices are primarily multiple loss teams) is a perfectly valid way of filling out a poll.  

If all we needed to do was analyze schedule strength, then what's the point of having voters at all?  At least we should give the job to people who know how to crunch numbers--it seems foolish to even use coaches if they aren't voting based, at least in part, on who's playing the best football today.  

What better way to derail a team's chances at the title game than to (1) imply that their major failing is a prerequisite to play in the title game and (2) to dismiss their greatest asset by classifying it in terms associated with streaky team who may be riding luck or simply just playing over it's head?

I love the bowl system, I just really, really hate the narrative.

So who's done the best coaching jobs in the SEC this year?  Certainly there have been some solid performances and there have been some poor ones.  I'll throw out my rankings here.  I hope I get some comments on this one.

12.  The Orgeron.  No wins in conference.  I know they have put some scares into people and I still think they were jobbed against Bama, but no wins is no wins.
11.  The Sabanator.  The loss to La-Monroe was bad, but it's the course that this team has taken that is most worrisome.  If the talent on this team is so bad, then why did that take LSU to the wire?  If they have no character, then how do you explain second half comebacks against Arky and the Dawgs?  

Simply put, these guys have had enough of Saban's act.  They're quitting on him and that's HIS fault, no matter how much blame he wants to heep on his boys.  He's gotta cut this "I did this", "I told them so", and "I tried to prepare them" crap out.  Creating a huge media persona for yourself may bring attention to your team and help recruiting, but you've got to back it up, coach.

This is a guy that's averaged 4 losses in his career--and that's before this season.  His national championship season was the only year that he lost fewer than 3 games at LSU, and let's not forget that the title game was against an Oklahoma team that was coming off a 35-7 spanking at the hands of Kansas State.

10.  Nutt.  It was tough splitting Saban and Nutt, but at least Nutt's boys play for him.  Sure, the injury to Monk hurt, but when you've got McFadden AND Felix Jones there's no excuse for three wins in conference.  

Fayettnam is the setting of the worst soap opera in America, and Nutt created the whole thing himself.

9.  Spurrier.  They started off like gangbusters and he managed to come into Athens and possibly cost the Dawgs a national championship, but the wheels fell off when it mattered the most.  Yes, he ran into one of the great buzzsaws in SEC history when McFadden ran wild on them, but the Chickens haven't really looked good against anyone this year.  

Maybe Stevie did a great job of making games ugly and winning with lesser talent like he did in the Classic City, but I'm slotting him here because of his team's collapse.  4 losses heading into Clemson is never a good thing.

8.  Bobby Johnson.  I like Coach Johnson a lot and I wish I could rank him higher than this, but the fact is that Vandy has a losing record.  The Dores have been close against the Dawgs and Vols, but a poorly timed fumble and a kick off an upright prevented Johnson from being much higher on this list.

The most underrated thing about Johnson's job at Vandy is the significant increase in talent he's brought in.  Chris Williams, Goff, and Bennett are all top of the line SEC football players.

7.  Tubbs.  TT started out the season horribly.  In hindsight, the USF loss looks worse while the Miss State loss doesn't look so bad, but neither was good for the program.  In Tubby's defense, he's been hamstrung by a shellshocked QB all season and managed to beat UF in the Swamp which is always impressive.  He's also dealt with the Lester situation all season long--but that's just demonstrated his program's ability to sweep a cheating scandal under the rug.  

It'll be interesting to see how the Tigers bounce back from the UGA loss this weekend.  There's a lot of pressure on them this weekend.  For once, there's more fear of an embarrassing loss in the Iron Bowl than there is reward of extending the streak.

6.  Urban Meyer.  How a team this talented managed to lose 3 games so far on the year is amazing.  They blow out the little guys, but they've gotten punched in the mouth by rugged teams and they haven't responded well.  They look unbeatable at times.  Why don't they look that way against teams that aren't intimidated by their athletes?
5.  Fullmer.  I know all about the embarrassing losses, but the fact of the matter is that this man has his team in control of the SEC East race.  That's about the only good thing I have to say about this guy.  I grudgingly give him a nod on this list.
4.  Rich Brooks.  He DOES have time for this BS.  The Cats have faded a bit down the stretch, but they have joined the ranks of the middle of the road SEC team.  Congratulations, UK, you are now not only capable of losing to 10 of the 12 conference teams, but you can also knock off the #1 team in the country.  Welcome to the roller coaster.  

Brooks has done a wonderful job of changing the attitude at UK, and he's done it with a lot of Georgia boys.  The Air Raid days are gone.  I saw a pretty hard-nosed team on Saturday and I expect them to beat UT#2 by two scores.

3.  Les Miles.  Much like Fullmer, I grudgingly give this man his due.  I think they've underachieved terribly, but they have beaten a lot of good teams thusfar with a huge bullseye on their backs.  Still, LSU fans will be glad to see him bolt for UM.  Those 'gutsy' calls that have paid off for the Hat thusfar will turn into boneheaded mistakes when his teams don't have overwhelming talent.
2.  Mark Richt.  I don't need to tell anyone on here about the job that the Reverend has done.  I'll just point out something I think has gotten short shrift.  That is the development of these young guys all over the team.  You can have your emotional ploys, I'll take Richt's masterful sprinkling in of Curran, Boling, Dent, Figgins, Knowshon, et al into the starting lineup.  Sure, many of you think he should've had them in there from day one, but we've seen this team steadily grow without showing many signs that they're a young team at all.

Masterful job, and let's not forget to laud Martinez, Eason and Jancek for their work with the young guys.  Searels has rightfully gotten his praise, but our young secondary and linebackers have come along very nicely and we've been catching the ball consistently while making big plays in the passing game.  

1.  Sly Croom.  Getting Croomed doesn't have the same cache it once did, does it?  This is a guy who's been doing it right in StarkVegas and it's paying off.  Like UK and Vandy have done with their coaches, Miss State hasn't listened to the message board idiots and has let a good football coach do his job and it's paid off.  

When this guy gets an SEC level QB, he'll be real trouble.  Imagine where Bama would be right now if they had picked this guy over Shula a few years ago.

Just an incredibly solid football coach.  One of the great stories of the year.

For anyone who hasn't heard, here is a link to the story.

http://www.dothaneagle.com/gulfcoasteast/dea/local_news.apx.-content-articles-DEA-2007-11-20-0020.ht ml

Short version is that an apparently drunk driver hit his family's van killing his wife and 4 of his 5 children.  It is difficult to imagine a more horrible scenario.

May all of our prayers go out to all connected to this tragedy.  

It's time to set our sights on a new foe.  Woodson's Wildcats can light up the scoreboard, as these stats demonstrate.

http://secsports.com/new/sports/fbc/07stats/uk.htm

We all remember what last year felt like up in Lexington.  Remember the goalposts going down?  Remember the knot on Stafford's forehead after the game?

This team isn't going to be intimidated by Sanford and we've got to come out with the same intensity that we had against UF and Auburn to beat them.  It's the next step in the maturation process for the Dawgs.  It's easy to fall asleep in these JP/LF games--but good teams don't.

Hunker Down

With all of the uniform madness this week, I thought I'd point out a cool touch Stafford added to his uniform against the Gates.

He went with white laces on his black football shoes, very traditional of him.  I'm linking a pic of him in them below.  Didn't notice it during the game at all.  

http://st24.startlogic.com/~thedawgp/2007/uf/2007102722.jpg

Note the new ESPN Power 16.  It features 4 SEC teams, which is not unusual for our league.  What is unusual is that 2 of the 4 are Kentucky and South Carolina.

This has always been the hallmark of this conference, depth.  Even with Tennessee and Auburn looking significantly down from their usual form, and with UGA and Bama looking good but not great thusfar--this conference can boast 1/4 of the consensus top 16 in the country.

That's what makes this conference such a meatgrinder.

With all the excitement that the Oklahoma State game brought to Athens this past weekend, and with all of the excitement that similar games brought to other college towns across the country, I have a modest proposal for the SEC.

Reduce our league schedule from 8 to 7 games.

It's a radical idea, I know, but hear me out on this one.

We already have a conference championship game, so the league doesn't have the traditional problem associated with short conference schedules--conference championship ties.

Freeing teams from the 8th league game would allow each team in the conference to schedule another quality OOC opponent each year.  

7 and even 6 game SEC slates used to be common in our league--of course it was a 10 or 11 team league at the time, but the increase in size is offset by the conference championship.  So it is clear that reducing leage games is a return to our roots more than a radical change of course.

I know this would make trips to T-Town and Red Stick less common, but it would also mean fewer trips to Starkvegas and Fayetnam.  I, for one, would be willing to trade fewer trips to LSU for a trip to Lincoln, College Station, or State College.

Critics may argue that this would simply open the door for more Kent States--but that runs against the trend in the SEC.  Sure, SCU's still scheduling patsies, but UGA, Bama, Auburn, UT#2, and even the Mississippi schools have shown the balls to schedule quality teams from outside the SEC.

I think it's a worthy plan.  What do you think about it?