SB Nation User Blog: Year2

The BCS is Killing This Season

Year2 — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:45:51 -0000

More photos » by Lynne Sladky - AP

Remember back at the beginning of the season? I know; September seems so far away now. Remember how chaotic is was, with a top five team losing every week? It was madness, madness I tell you!

And now, a little over a month later, folks are wondering if this season is headed for a boring ending. The Florida-Alabama-Texas trio is not likely to topple, after this weekend most conference races will be mere formalities, and we're left just trying to figure out the bowl slots.

On the one hand, this is exactly what we asked for in the preseason. Florida and Texas were far and away the two front runners, and the only thing that has changed is that Alabama has shoved its way into the picture. Either way, it's still Texas vs. the SEC champ. On the other, it's an abnormal year where a combination of upsets, scheduling, and good or bad luck have resulted in conference leaders being roughly set by the second week of November's games.

If there's one thing this year does prove though, it's that every week is certainly not a playoff. In fact, the BCS's structure is preventing 2009 from having a wildly entertaining finish.

Just imagine if we has a plus one set up. Now, you've got six teams vying for four spots. A non-BCS team would probably have a shot at a national title at last, between TCU and Boise State. That is assuming of course that the loser of the SEC championship game doesn't still get a spot in the Final Four. Would the voters really do that? What kind of firestorm would occur in that scenario? That's gold, Jerry. Gold!

The exclusionary nature of the BCS is brought to the forefront in a season like this, where the preseason storyline actually comes true. We're probably headed for another 2004 situation where the preordained teams (SEC champ and Texas) run the table and other undefeated champions of good conferences (Cincinnati, TCU) are prevented from playing for the national title simply because they stated the year farther down in the polls. I doubt the outcry will be as severe as when an SEC team got left out, since no one hollers quite as loudly as we do down here, but it will likely be more widespread if the reaction to Utah last year is any indication. Let's also not forget about Boise State either, as the Broncos look like they will have a perfect regular season for the third time in four years without getting a shot at playing for it all.

If anyone really thinks every week is a playoff, just look at Texas' schedule. Thanks in part to better teams pulling out on them, the Longhorns have four non-conference cupcakes. Their three Big 12 North opponents (Colorado, Kanas, Missouri) are a combined 4-11 in conference play. They have the cellar dwellars of the Big 12 South (Baylor, Texas A&M) as well. That leaves a total of three teams that you would expect to put up any sort of fight: Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma. Three decent opponents out of 12 does not make a playoff every week.

I don't mean to pick on the Longhorns, because it's not just them. Florida has three cupcakes plus the burned out husk of Florida State in its non-conference slate, and it's got the two worst teams of the SEC West along with Kentucky and Vandy on its SEC schedule. Alabama has three non-conference cupcakes, the worst of the SEC West, and none of the top two of the SEC East. Cincinnati has four terrible non-conference opponents, and the bottom four or five teams of the Big East are awful.

Even in the best case scenario (Alabama), none of the top teams have more than six games where the other team could be expected to give them a good game. That doesn't mean there won't be trap games here and there where a top team underwhelms (Florida versus Arkansas, Cincy versus Fresno State, Texas for much of its game with Colorado), but that doesn't make it a playoff every week. That adds one extra interesting game for each, and they're all still under Alabama's total of six.

Because these top teams only get challenged in at most half their games, just picking two teams at the end is not enough. It's a system whose rewards encourage situations like this year and that punishes teams for going out and scheduling like Georgia did. Maybe the Bulldogs weren't up to it as a team in this particular season, but if they could end up with just one loss after going down their gauntlet, then that would be far more impressive than playing three decent teams like Texas will have.

Yet, a 13-0 Texas team would be above that hypothetical 12-1 Georgia team in the pecking order because that's how the poll system works. So it goes in life with the BCS.

National News and Notes

Year2 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:02:56 -0000

More photos » by Mike Stone - AP

Rejoice! Finally, a sell out in Fort Worth.

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Because we're all playing for bowl positioning now, and that only goes so far.

Congrats to the Frogs.

You may recall a couple weeks ago that I pointed out that TCU, despite playing big time football, hasn't been drawing fans like a big time program. Well as a follow up to that, I'm pleased to report that the Horned Frogs have their first sell out in three years coming up in their showdown with Utah on Saturday. It still floors me that a program just outside the gigantic and football-crazy Dallas area can't find 44,000 people to show up to watch really good football, but I guess that's the nature of the beast in the mid-major ranks.

Mack Brown at least has a sense of humor.

Texas coach Mack Brown freely admits that he doesn't understand everything about how the BCS works, and he often has someone come in to explain things to him. When asked this week about if he was worried about falling to third in the BCS standings, he replied that someone told him that if the Longhorns keep winning they're in, and that's all he cared about. He also slipped in a little zinger too:

Brown was asked if the computer elements to the BCS standings don’t like his team as much as the human polls.

"I’ve called the computers. They haven’t called me back," Brown said. "I’ve invited them to our games. I don’t think any of them have shown up."

Nice. I wonder though if anyone has told him that it's the humans, not the algorithms, who have USC above Oregon.

The other choice is the Ghost of Christmas Past.

With Tommy West out at Memphis, speculation has arisen as to who will replace him there. If ESPN is to be believed, it could look a lot like Auburn's past in Graceland as Tommy Tuberville and Terry Bowden are the top two candidates. According to a website called FootballScoop.com (yeah, I haven't heard of it either), ~~former~~ current Auburn assistant Trooper Taylor is also on their list. Who knew Memphis scouted the Tigers of the Plains so closely? Also, it says look for Phil Fulmer's name to come up, but personally, I think Fulmer (and Tuberville for that matter) could get a much better job. (H/T CFT)

Apparently his copy of Phil Steele's season preview magazine just arrived.

Urban Meyer says he knows what is ailing the Florida offense. For one thing, it's a lack of big plays and defenses showing his team new looks. Beyond that though, he says it's a combination of transitioning to a new offensive coordinator, the losses of Percy Harvin and Louis Murphy at receiver, and the losses of last year's starting offensive tackles Phil Trautwein and Jason Watkins. Apparently, it only took him nine games to put that together.

It is telling though that Florida hasn't turned the ball over in the past two games and each one resulted in a 24 point margin of victory. I think a lot of people undervalued the role of turnovers in the Gators' struggles with teams earlier in the season.

Vultures.

Okay, so maybe not everyone is playing for bowl positioning. Tennessee is playing for recruiting positioning, of course. Did you know Charlie Weis is in trouble? And that Notre Dame has not just one, but two quarterback commits? Rocky Top Talk says watch for the UT coaches to swoop in on those guys should Weis be shown the door.

Half of the SEC Power Poll Ballot

Year2 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:39:39 -0000

1. Alabama

I don't have a compelling reason to move the Tide down from last week, but the margin is slimmer than ever.

2. Florida

They seem to be getting things in order, but without anyone to put up a really stiff fight before the SEC title game, there's little chance to prove it conclusively.

3. LSU

I was right in the off season: they're still a year away. But, you can't help but feel for them losing both Charles Scott and Jordan Jefferson during the Bama game. There's bad luck, and then there's bad luck.

4. Tennessee

Inertia keeps the Vols here for now, but it's worth noting that Auburn has a better overall record.

5. Auburn

There's no way I'm rewarding anyone for beating Furman, but at least the roller coaster is firmly on the upswing again.

6. Ole Miss

I guess?

7. Georgia

One of just five teams with a .500 or better SEC record.

8. South Carolina

The downward spiral is likely to continue this weekend, I'm afraid.

9. Arkansas

I know they just beat South Carolina, but that's only their second conference win and they were on the beneficial size of the Chicken Curse. Do it again, and we'll talk.

10. Mississippi State

If the Bulldogs can somehow find their way into a bowl, I'll be impressed.

11. Kentucky

I wonder if they've ever thought about putting a roof on Commonwealth Stadium and laying down some hardwood. It would make sense on some level, right?

12. Vanderbilt

I hear the city of Nashville does some nice holiday decorating. That's going to be rolled out soon, right?

Saturday Lessons: November 7

Year2 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:10:12 -0000

by Skip Martin - AP

A win's a win, right coach?

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Voters will be voters (read: idiots).

Pick a poll. Any poll. In it, today you'll find Iowa behind USC.

Iowa has one loss to 6-3 Northwestern. USC has two losses, one of them to 3-6 Washington. That alone would be enough to put the Hawkeyes ahead of the Trojans, but USC also has the evisceration at the hands of Oregon on its resume. I know it's popular to rag on Iowa for all the close wins, but in the end, they're all wins and the two schools have similar schedules played so far. There's no way to justify having USC above Iowa, and yet there's up to a four spot gap (AP poll) between the two. It's nonsense.

Alabama gets to face the tin hatters this week.

I don't think anyone really believes Jarrett Lee was going to lead any sort of dramatic comeback against Alabama's defense. It's also LSU's job to keep Bama from driving within field goal range. Even so, Patrick Peterson did get that interception late in the game because he had possession and a foot down. The second foot is irrelevant because this is not the NFL where you do need both feet in bounds.

If you guessed from the first two sentences that I don't think that blown call gave Alabama the game, you're right. Alabama was the better team and with a few less mistakes from Greg McElroy, the Tide would have been a larger margin of victory. It's no different than any other ref-fueled tempest in a teapot that we've seen this year in that way though. As a Florida fan, I'm just glad it's someone else's turn.

Florida hit the snooze button.

Mark Jones and Bob Davie incessantly talked about how low key it was in the Swamp on Saturday night, and that's exactly what the program needed. They beat Vandy by the same margin they beat Georgia by. There was no drama. There was no controversy. There was never a doubt of the outcome of the game. It's the perfect breather before embarking on the final road trip of the year to Columbia this weekend.

You could nitpick the offense, as it didn't get up to the buzzsaw gear again. That had more to do with Vandy's defense though, which put up a valiant fight. The Commodores also saw fit to pressure the quarterback in obvious passing downs, something that has worked fairly well for everyone who's tried it. We know who this Florida team is by now, and we saw exactly that: a pretty good but not dominant offense that sees no need to take chances thanks to a ferocious defense backing it up.

LSU now must avoid a letdown.

It's hard to beat a team as good as Alabama. It's even harder when you lose your starting running back and quarterback in the process. They fought the good fight on Saturday, but they're still about a year away from competing on the highest level. The danger now is if, with the division title out of reach, they start feeling bad for themselves. Louisiana Tech is no threat, but with both Houston Nutt and Arkansas still left on the slate, there's still potential for chaotic upsets. That's what those two have delivered off and on in recent years, and any more Tiger losses would put a damper on an otherwise good year.

The MWC is above the Big East for now.

With Iowa dropping off, there's one less undefeated team to look out for. We know the Florida-Texas-Alabama trio is pretty much unbreakable without a loss for one of them, so the interesting stuff comes after them. We can see in the Coaches' and Harris Polls that TCU is a pretty clear No. 4 over the No. 5 Cincinnati Bearcats, which both relates to how they've been playing and the level of respect their conferences are getting. TCU, with the exception of a close scrape with Air Force, has been blowing out its MWC competition whereas UC has had more tight games.

Given how Pittsburgh has climbed in the rankings and how UC is above TCU in the computers, I would think it unlikely that an undefeated Cincinnati would be behind an undefeated TCU in the final BCS rankings. However, it's just interesting to note that a non-Big Six team is the first in line at the table if the preseason script (SEC Champ versus Texas) somehow fails us. And people said there's no progress being made.

South Carolina's descent continued.

If you chalk the upcoming Florida game as a loss for the Gamecocks, they will end up 3-5 in the conference. After the hot start and given the general down-ish state of the SEC at the moment, that has to be a huge disappointment. They looked all right for the first half of the game, battling to a 10-10 halftime tie before unloading a 80 yard Stephen Garcia to Alshon Jeffery bomb to begin the second half. The floodgates opened from there though, with Arkansas pouring on 23 unanswered points to win the game. The Chicken Curse seems to be in full effect.

Arkansas finally broke through on a good defense.

Here's what kind of year it was for Arkansas before Saturday. Against Alabama, Ole Miss, and Florida, they averaged about 15 points per game; against everyone else, they averaged 48.6 points a game and never were held below 40. The Hogs were great at putting up points on lousy defenses, but they were silenced against the best ones.

South Carolina's defense isn't quite in the same league as Florida's or Alabama's, but it's not Georgia's defense either. This was an important sign that the Razorbacks can succeed against an upper-half-of-the-SEC defense, and it builds momentum for the rest of the stretch run. They've got two winnable games (Troy, Mississippi State) before going to Baton Rouge to try to pull off yet another improbable upset of LSU. If Jordan Jefferson is still gimpy and this breakthrough is a real sign of progress, that one could easily happen.

It's good to have homecoming.

Georgia's defense got to get a shutout and hold someone to 55 total yards. Kentucky got to give QB Morgan Newton some easy reps. Auburn got to pad its season stats. Jonathan Crompton got to know what it felt like to be Tim Tebow circa 2007, as he accounted for six touchdowns in one game. Ole Miss got to give Dexter McCluster a much-deserved break. Ain't November cupcakes great? Just wait 'til November 21, when both Florida and Alabama get down to snacking.

Other Half of the BlogPoll Draft Ballot

Year2 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:30:02 -0000

Top 25 here, comments after the jump.

Alabama
Florida
Texas
TCU
Cincinnati
Georgia Tech
Iowa
Boise State
Oregon
LSU
USC
Ohio State
Miami (FL)
Pittsburgh
Oklahoma State
Penn State
Arizona
Nebraska
Virginia Tech
Clemson
Boston College
Utah
Stanford
Auburn
Wisconsin

As always, I start with my stat rankings. They're printed below for your perusal.

I tried to do as little shuffling as possible. Florida's strength of schedule took a hit with Vandy and Bama's got a boost with LSU, so they swap places this week. They're still well ahead of Texas.

I moved Boise State up ahead of Oregon because I don't think I can have undefeated Boise behind a two loss Duck team. Maybe they could be behind a one loss Oregon, but not a two loss Oregon. I also moved Georgia Tech up and Virginia Tech down because of their records. Also, I dropped Ohio State a spot behind USC because of the head-to-head result. Arizona, Stanford, Oklahoma State, and Wisconsin came in with Central Michigan, Navy, Tennessee, and Oklahoma dropping out.

Please give me some feedback since I don't feel overly great about this one. The general answer for "why isn't _____ ranked higher?" though is "strength of schedule."

Rank	Team	SSOS	YPP Diff	PyWin Pct	Real Win Pct	Average
1	Alabama	20	7	6	1	7.00
2	Florida	29	8	3	1	8.40
3	Texas	59	6	2	1	13.80
4	Oregon	15	20	14	15	15.80
5	TCU	81	2	1	1	17.20
6	Cincinnati	69	11	9	1	18.20
7	Iowa	37	22	21	7	18.80
8	LSU	54	3	10	15	19.40
9	Virginia Tech	13	14	18	28	20.20
10	Boise St.	89	9	5	1	21.00
11	Ohio St.	70	4	4	14	21.20
12	Southern California	40	18	20	15	21.60
13	Miami (FL)	8	49	35	13	23.60
14	Georgia Tech	30	45	30	7	23.80
15	Pittsburgh	77	13	12	10	24.40
16	Nebraska	63	1	7	28	25.40
17	Clemson	12	21	23	36	25.60
18	Penn St.	86	5	8	15	25.80
19	Oklahoma	6	12	11	53	27.00
20	Boston College	16	23	40	36	30.20
21	Utah	118	19	13	7	32.80
22	Auburn	27	50	37	28	34.00
23	Central Mich.	93	15	24	21	34.80
24	Tennessee	35	30	15	48	35.20
25	Navy	67	28	29	26	35.20
26	Stanford	61	32	27	28	35.20
27	Wisconsin	18	77	41	21	35.60
28	Notre Dame	47	44	32	28	35.80
29	Arizona	41	62	26	25	35.80
30	Oklahoma St.	74	36	28	21	36.00

Urban Meyer Fined for Ref Comments

Year2 — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:36:40 -0000

More photos » by Butch Dill - ASSOCIATED PRESS

He's sorry he got fined.

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Urban Meyer got a $30,000 fine for criticizing officials after last week's Florida-Georgia game. Mike Slive issued a terse statement about which clause of the ethics code Meyer violated, and the coach responded with an apologetic form letter saying he's sorry and accepts the fine.

This is the first case of someone getting punishment under the SEC's new policy which allows the conference to fine or suspend on first offense of criticizing officials instead of having to go through a pair of reprimand letters first. The key word there is "fine or suspend," which some folks seemed to have missed given some of the comments I've seen throughout the week. First time offenders were never going to get held out of a game by Slive, who decided to go the symbolic fine route instead.

In fact, I'd be surprised if anyone gets a suspension until the third strike, in which case the reprimand letters simply will have been replaced by pocket change shakedowns for the conference's millionaire coaches. If you're wondering why the announcement took so long to come out, it's because Slive was out of the office traveling most of the week.

SEC Score Projections, Week 10

Year2 — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:07:12 -0000

After starting off 20-3 over the past few weeks, these score projections I do had a more modest 7-3 mark last week after missing on Ole Miss-Auburn, Mississippi State-Kentucky, and West Virginia-USF. They're now 27-6 on the season, and half the misses have come in Auburn games. I need to have a talk with Gene Chizik and Gus Malzahn about making their team not produce so much variance.

Anyway, here's this week's picks and here's an explanation of how these work. It was a chore finding decent games to pick, which doesn't bode well for finding them on TV tomorrow.

SOUTH CAROLINA at ARKANSAS

Absolute Projection: Arkansas 29 - South Carolina 23

Percentage Projection: Arkansas 27 - South Carolina 23

I am a bit skeptical of this one. For one thing, Arkansas' numbers are influenced by the 63 points they dropped on hapless Eastern Michigan (who just lost to Northern Illinois 50-6) last week. Even more than that, Arkansas is averaging just 14.6 points a game against the good defenses they've faced (Alabama, Florida, Ole Miss) while putting up 40+ on everyone else. South Carolina's defense is fairly good, so I'm not so sure the Hogs will get almost 30 in this one.

LSU at ALABAMA

Absolute Projection: Alabama 20 - LSU 10

Percentage Projection: Alabama 16 - LSU 11

This one on the other hand, I'm feeling a bit better about. Alabama has only torched one good defense all year (Virginia Tech on opening weekend), and against the good defenses they've faced in the last three games (Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee) they've averaged 18 a game. LSU, meanwhile, only managed 3 points against Florida's defense, the only one of Alabama's caliber they've faced so far. LSU's offense seems to have gotten better lately, so a few extra points on top of that sounds right.

VANDERBILT at FLORIDA

Absolute Projection: Florida 34 - Vanderbilt 0

Percentage Projection: Florida 35 - Vanderbilt 7

I don't hold out much hope for Vandy scoring too many points in this one, despite triumphant return of Mackenzi Adams. The Commodores only mustered 10 against Georgia for goodness' sake. The absolute projection sees Vandy getting just 0.38 points, with one of the two predictors for that signaling a -1.26. It could be ugly for Vandy as Florida appears to be hitting a stride.

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NON-SEC GAMES OF INTEREST

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OHIO STATE at PENN STATE

Absolute Projection: Ohio State 16 - Penn State 15

Percentage Projection: Penn State 13.37 - Ohio State 12.86

This looks to be a similar game to last year's contest, with the winner scoring somewhere in the teens. Penn State quietly has built one of the best defenses in the country, though playing a whole lot of nobodies helps with that. When the two disagree, the percentage wins (because that tends to win out in such cases, for some reason), so the Lions are the official pick here. I'll take it, because I think their defense will hassle Terrelle Pryor enough to take this one at home.

OREGON STATE at CAL

Absolute Projection: Cal 31 - OSU 29

Percentage Projection: Cal 32 - OSU 30

Cal is still clawing its way back up the polls after its back to back thrashings, but last week's close scrape with Arizona State doesn't inspire that much confidence. It looks like it'll be another close one this week as the Bears are projected to win by two, one way or another.

OKLAHOMA at NEBRASKA

Absolute Projection: Oklahoma 16 - Nebraska 15

Percentage Projection: Nebraska 15 - Oklahoma 13

This was once the marquee rivalry of the Big 8, but since the Big 12 doesn't have designated rivals like the SEC does, it has become relegated to being an only every so often affair. I am inclined to pick Oklahoma, but the numbers ever so slightly favor the home team in this one. I am a bit puzzled by Nebraska's recent collapse-like status because the Huskers have been one of the top teams in team efficiency. Then again, so has Oklahoma and they're both sitting on 5-3.

KANSAS at KANSAS STATE

Absolute Projection: Kansas 32 - KSU 26

Percentage Projection: Kansas 33 - KSU 26

If you took the Kansas State from the first half of this decade and matched it up with the Kansas from the second half of it, you'd have a darn good rivalry. As it stands today, we've got two teams whose resumes come straight from the nuthouse. If Kansas wins, the Jayhawks become bowl eligible despite not having a more impressive win to date than Duke. K-State is in the same boat despite losing to Louisiana-Lafayette. The Wildcats' run of lose-to-Texas Tech 66-14 then beat Texas A&M 62-14 in consecutive weeks is one of the stranger fortnights in recent memory.

DUKE at NORTH CAROLINA

Both Projections: Duke 20 - UNC 18

This is where you can insert your own jokes about basketball, March, and Dick Vitale. What's on the line though is Duke becoming bowl eligible for the first time since 1994 and keeping pace in the division where at 3-1, the Blue Devils are very much in the race for their first ACC title since Steve Spurrier roamed the sidelines. The Tar Heels also hit six wins with a victory, but thanks to having two I-AA wins on their slate so far, UNC has to get to seven total wins to secure a bowl.

FLORIDA STATE at CLEMSON

Absolute Projection: Clemson 36 - FSU 26

Percentage Projection: Clemson 37 - FSU 23

This is the game formerly known as the Bowden Bowl, but this year I have a feeling it'll be more about Mickey Andrews. Can his guys come up with a good performance for him after he announced his retirement? It is for that reason, and the fact that Clemson is an old Native American word for "disappointment," that I am afraid of this one not just being wrong, but very wrong.

Does the SEC Have Any Good Closers?

Year2 — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:25:03 -0000

The final month of the football season is the most important. As any cliched headline will tell you, it's when championships are won.

Often times, folks will quote guys' records in November and December as proof of coaching prowess (or a lack thereof). Other times coaches will be called "good closers" if they have nice marks down the stretch. So, I decided to look at the 10 SEC head coaches with more than a season of I-A experience to see if any qualify as a good closer.

I looked at only their records at I-A teams, so Houston Nutt's and Bobby Johnson's experience on the I-AA level aren't included. For convenience's sake, I'll be using the phrase "November record," but it includes regular season (i.e. not bowl or conference championship) games played in December as well. I wanted to see if there was a noticeable difference between these guys' November records and their overall records.

Here's the tale of the tape:

Coach	November Rec.	Pct.	Overall Rec.	Pct.	Difference
Gene Chizik	2-5	.285	5-19	.208	.077
Houston Nutt	33-16	.673	89-58	.605	.068
Bobby Petrino	15-3	.833	41-9	.820	.013
Urban Meyer	26-5	.839	83-17	.830	.009
Rich Brooks	36-42-1	.462	124-149-4	.455	.007
Nick Saban	30-14	.681	110-50-1	.686	-.005
Les Miles	21-10	.677	70-32	.686	-.009
Steve Spurrier	46-21-1	.676	169-62-2	.730	-.054
Mark Richt	22-8	.733	82-22	.788	-.055
Bobby Johnson	3-21	.125	27-56	.482	-.357

The overall records do not include any results from this season.

Amazingly, only two coaches had more than a 10 seven percentage point difference between their November records and their overall records. Even so, there are mitigating factors with them. Gene Chizik's two total years of experience screams "sample size issue," and Bobby Johnson's Novembers always include playing conference heavyweights Florida and Tennessee (not to mention Kentucky, who has been having consistently better records than Vandy has in recent years).

The only other coach who was at least five percentage points better than his overall record in November was Nutt. He was helped out by having Mississippi State and more often than not a non-conference tomato can in his Arkansas Novembers, and his 4-0 record at Ole Miss last year gave him a boost.

The only two coaches who were more than five percentage points worse (other than Johnson) were Steve Spurrier and Mark Richt. Spurrier was right on track with his overall record prior to arriving in Columbia, but his 6-9 November record at South Carolina has dragged it down. As for Richt, all of his Novembers have included Auburn (who's been a good team for most of Richt's tenure) and several have included Florida as well. Six of his eight losses came to the two of them. Scheduling is the culprit in his case.

In closing, the SEC doesn't really have any closers. Just about everyone's November records track very closely with their overall coaching records. Anyone who had a large difference had mitigating factors. I'd be willing to be that most coaches are like that.

As it turns out, the best coaches in November are the best coaches during the rest of the year too.

Welcome Back to September

Year2 — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:48:51 -0000

Over the past two weeks, only one team in all of I-A played a I-AA team: Clemson, who defeated Coastal Carolina last week. That is as it should be. If a school must schedule non-conference cruft for team building and money generating purposes, they should get it out of the way early in the season. Get your tune ups and fundraisers done in September so that late in the season we can have good games.

If only that was how schools actually operated.

Ever since the expansion to a 12 game season, teams have scheduled more I-AA teams (and bad I-A teams too) than ever, only occasionally taking the opportunity to use the twelfth game to set up a meaningful game. They also have begun scheduling cupcakes in November to get the functional equivalent of a second bye week late in the season due to the rigors of playing the extra game. Hence, we get weekends like this one where five SEC teams are playing clunkers: Georgia is playing Tennessee Tech, Kentucky has Eastern Kentucky, Auburn is hosting Furman, Tennessee is taking on Memphis, and Ole Miss is playing its second I-AA team this year in Northern Arizona.

It's not like all those who are playing conference games in two days are off the hook though. The only SEC teams that decline to schedule a scrimmage game from Halloween on are Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, and South Carolina. Alabama has UT-Chattanooga and Florida has FIU on the 21st. Arkansas had Eastern Michigan last week and Troy next week. LSU had Tulane and has Louisiana Tech on those same days.

The money required to compete in college football is skyrocketing, and nowhere is that more evident than in this conference with all the astronomical coaching salaries. Body bag games pay the bills. It would just be nice if everyone took out the trash by mid-October so we don't have weekends like this one down the stretch where half of the conference is playing a cash grab game.

Handling of Andrews Retirement is a Warning

Year2 — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:04:28 -0000

More photos » by Phil Coale - AP

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We would be remiss not to mention the retirement announcement of long time FSU defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews. He played defensive back for Alabama under Bear Bryant in the '60s, was an assistant coach at Florida in the early '80s, and many SEC teams had tilts with his defenses over his 25 years in Tallahassee. It's the end of an era at one of college football's prominent programs.

From this conference's standpoint, that's about all that needs to be said about Andrews the coach. However, the way Florida State has chosen to handle the situation is a warning to anyone who decides to go the coach in waiting route.

As we all know, former LSU offensive coordinator and current FSU OC Jimbo Fisher is in line to become the head coach when Bobby Bowden retires. Bowden will be around at least through next year, so as head coach, he is going to have the final say on who replaces Andrews as the defensive coordinator. Fisher will get to offer input, but if Bowden wants to promote his buddy Chuck Amato instead against Fisher's wishes, he gets to do it.

This is the sort of conundrum that should have been clarified when Fisher became the coach in waiting. Instead, FSU has the appearance of making things up as they go along. And, since they are not wanting to offend their legendary yet lame duck head coach, he gets to make the final call. The smart thing for Bowden to do would be to let Fisher make the call anyway, but given his decision making this decade (Jeff Bowden, etc), it's no guarantee. He may saddle Fisher with the wrong guy who the school would have to fire later.

The only SEC school with a head coach in waiting is Kentucky, with Joker Phillips set to take over for Rich Brooks. I don't know if there are any agreements there regarding the hiring and firing of assistants, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to make some. There may not end up being a War of Andrews Succession, but the fact that there could be one is a warning to anyone else planning on doing the coach in waiting thing. Dot every I and cross every T, or else there's potential for ugliness.