SB Nation User Blog: cocknfire

Bowl Preview: SDCCU Poinsettia Bowl

cocknfire — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:49:19 -0000

More photos » by Colin E. Braley - AP

If it's a game against mid-tier Mountain West Conference, it must have been a Utah win.

San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN
No. 25 Utah vs. California

The bowl with the longest name in the postseason returns with worse teams but at least one more marquee name this year. Last year was the showdown between undefeated Boise State and one-loss TCU. Both of these teams had trouble winning against most of the better teams on their schedule but won enough games to get here.

WHY YOU CARE / Because both teams tend to play well in postseason games and have bowl winning streaks coming into this one. They're pretty evenly matched teams, which gives you as good an indication as we can have that the game should be good. Then again, bowl games are odd things.

UTAH (9-3) / Ranked because there are no better choices in the minds of many voters. The Utes lost to every good team they played (Oregon, TCU, BYU) and defeated only two decent teams (Air Force, Wyoming). Utah also defeated Colorado State by a touchdown. I say that as an insult to the Utes; every other team in the Mountain West also won against Colorado State, who went 3-9 this year.

CAL (8-4) / If this were not 2009, the Golden Bears would be the most confusing team in the NCAA. They won three games to begin the season -- including two against teams from BCS leagues -- before getting waxed by Oregon and Southern Cal. They won three more games -- then lost to Oregon State by 17. Then they defeated Arizona and Stanford -- only to get shellacked by Washington. Washington!

WHO WILL WIN / UTAH, because they have a slightly better defense, and we all know the old cliche: Defense wins San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl championships.

Sprints Recaps Bowlnanza and Misses the Sugar Bowl // 12.23.09

cocknfire — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:07:52 -0000

More photos » by Evan Vucci - AP

Joe Barton is sad that he might miss the BCS.

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Team Speed Kills Now. Then. Bowlnanza, for those of you who might have missed it.

We were joined by several of our guests, though our Texas A&M and Penn State bloggers were unfortunately unable to take part. (For very good reasons in both cases.) Still plenty of good stuff on the Citi BCS National Championship Game and the Music City Bowl, Game Formerly Known as the Peach Bowl, Outback Bowl and Papajohns.com Bowl.

It's not like they really wanted to see it anyway
Florida fans in Tampa and Orlando might miss the Sugar Bowl because of a battle between Fox and Time Warner. Given ticket sales to the actual game, you have to wonder if they'll even notice.

Charles Scott won't play in Capital One Bowl
Miles:

"I think he realizes it's a very positive situation for him, based on the fact that the injury is going to heal 100 percent very comfortably. If he had just a couple more weeks I'm certain he'd probably play in this game."

Scott is expected be a high draft pick in April. (HT: And The Valley Shook)

Javier Arenas' life is more interesting than yours will ever be
The Alabama cornerback was asked what Nick Saban meant by saying he wanted the Crimson Tide to avoid "clutter."

"You drive down the road and you're thinking about a chick and you hit a dog on the road, that's clutter," he said.

Of course.

But then you already knew that
Vanderbilt makes Dr. Saturday's list of "The 10 lamest teams of 2009."

At least they have youth as an excuse: The top two rushers and the leading receiver were all freshmen, and quarterback Larry Smith was only a sophomore.

So there's hope. When it comes to Vanderbilt, isn't there always?

Look what you've done, Doc!
But has the pressure of that 2-10 season finally turned Bobby Johnson to the dark side? He committed -- gasp! -- a secondary violation. Surely, this is the beginning of Vanderbilt becoming a rogue program, handing out Escalades to recruits. (Actually, most of their recruits would probably prefer a Kindle.) The recruit in question is James Rogers, brother of Aaron; James Rogers did sign with the Commodores.

'Some things need to get fixed'
Brian Kelly's summation of what he needs to do at Notre Dame.

Glad they're taking it with a level head
Having won the program's 2,000th game, Kentucky players and Coach Cal are now talking about going undefeated this season. Kentucky basketball: Making Alabama football fans look rational since 1903.

Happy Holidays
This is the last edition of Sprints this week; it's taking a few days off to mark Christmas. There will still be content on the blog, just not the daily news.

Team Speed Kills Now. Shortly.

cocknfire — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 06:30:40 -0000

Smart bloggers covering Texas, Clemson, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech, Northwestern, Penn State and Connecticut join us to discuss seven of the ten bowls the SEC will be involved in. Join us at 8 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. CT.

Las Vegas Bowl Preview: Mormons in Vegas! Get It?

cocknfire — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:55:50 -0000

More photos » by Paul Connors - AP

Mike Riley reacts to news that his team is going to Vegas for the postseason.

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MAACO Las Vegas Bowl, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN
No. 17 Oregon State vs. No. 15 BYU

We finally get to games now that people want to watch on their own merit instead of watching because college football is almost over. BYU is in the Las Vegas Bowl again, but we've been spared most of the "Mormons playing football in Vegas" jokes that in retrospect weren't really all that funny when we first made them years ago.

WHY YOU CARE / Good college football is back. We don't need the surprise of overtime or the excuse of "well, it's football" to enjoy this game. But if you need another reason: The Pac-10 might end up losing a bowl, and that's always a plus for SEC fans.

OREGON STATE (8-4) / Muddled to a 4-3 start before going on a four-game winning streak and needing only a win against Oregon to go to the Rose Bowl. For the second year in a row, they lost. This time, the defeat in the Civil War sent the hated Ducks to Pasadena and sent the Beavers to Vegas. They did win against Cal and Stanford before we knew that Stanford was a good team.

BYU (10-2) / Remember when BYU defeated Oklahoma and was supposed to have a chance to play for the national title? Yeah. Remember when they got waxed by Florida State at home in the most confusing 54-28 win in football history? The other loss was to TCU -- by 31. They did win against Utah by three in overtime.

WHO WILL WIN / OREGON STATE, because BYU is too inconsistent to count on and they must be bored with Las Vegas -- if that's possible.

SEC Power Poll: All-SEC Team

cocknfire — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:05:03 -0000

The All-SEC Team from the SEC Power Poll has already started to take shape.

Quarterback: Tim Tebow (Alligator Army)
Running Backs: Mark Ingram, Dexter McCluster (Roll Bama Roll)
Wide Receivers: A.J. Green, Shay Hodge (Hey Jenny Slater)
Defensive Line: Terrence Cody, Antonio Coleman, Carlos Dunlap, Justin Houston / Cliff Matthews (War Blog Eagle)
Linebackers: Rolando McClain, Eric Norwood, Rennie Curran (Leftover Hot Dog)
Defensive Backs: Eric Berry, Joe Haden, Javier Arenas, Mark Barron (Gate 21)

We'll update this post throughout the day as selections become available.

SEC 2000-10: The Best Team -- 2008 Florida Gators

cocknfire — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 06:47:30 -0000

More photos » by Kate Humphrey - AP

Catch me if you can. Only one of Florida's opponents could.

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In maybe the best episode of Sports Night ever -- The Six Southern Gentlemen of Tennessee -- the crew of the fictional SportsCenter is trying to come up with the Play of the Year when Jeremy raises the possibility -- this was in 1998 -- of Mark McGwire hitting 70 home runs.

KIM: It's a little obvious.

JEREMY: Our goal isn't to be cunning, is it?

Too often, when trying to choose the best of a year or decade or century, those doing the selection try to be insightful by choosing a name that no one is expecting. This is in part because the people doing these things tend to come from creative fields and want to be creative with their choice. (If you doubt the premise, just pick up most recent editions of Time's Person of the Year, though they made a defensible selection this time.)

Our goal with SEC 2000-10 is not to be cunning. That is why, as of this particular moment, the Best Team of the Decade is the 2008 Florida Gators.

That time qualifier is important. Obviously, an undefeated Alabama that defeats Texas in the national title game would be a strong contender for the award. But we are faced with the unenviable task of trying to do this before the decade ends, so we have to go with the information we have right now.

And while 2004 Auburn has a strong case to make, it's pretty clear that the Gators are a step above. True, Auburn went undefeated in its best season, and Florida lost a game. But once it lost by one point to a team that would end up ranked No. 14 in the nation, Florida decided to get revenge by obliterating nearly every other team in the conference.

TUESDAY: What a Decade It's Been; Mike Price's Trip to Pensacola

WEDNESDAY: The Zook Experiment; Georgia Hires Mark Richt

THURSDAY: The Best Game; Auburn's Rise and Fall; Rivalry of the Decade

FRIDAY: The Worst Game; The Rise of the Nicktator; The Promise

MONDAY: Exit Phil Fulmer; The Best Player

The 2008 Gators led the SEC in scoring offense (43.6 ppg), scoring defense (12.9 ppg), rushing offense (231.1 ypg), passing efficiency (170.7), passing efficiency defense (96.7), total offense (445.1 ypg), first downs (306), third-down conversions (51.6 percent), punting (43.4 ypp), field goals (92.3 percent) and red zone defense (69.2 percent).

Some other accomplishments:

Allowed five touchdowns in the first half. All season long.
Scored more points than any team in SEC history -- 611 -- though in fairness that isn't the per-game record.
Were the first team in 105 years to defeat eight consecutive opponents by four touchdowns or more.
Defeated the No. 5, No. 6, No. 13 and No. 21 teams in the final AP poll by 10, 11, 39 and 30 points, respectively.
Defeated then-No. 1 teams in two consecutive games.

Save Ole Miss, Florida defeated every team it faced in the regular season by at least 23 points. Florida faced several highly regarded defenses during its stretch run -- and destroyed each and every one of them. A 49-10 waxing of Georgia was the worst loss of Mark Richt's career at archnemesis Georgia (and was capped off by Urban Meyer calling all three second-half timeouts at the end of the game); a 56-6 shellacking of South Carolina marked the largest defeat in Steve Spurrier's career anywhere.

And we could go on and on. It's easy to see why people got sick of hearing about Florida during the 2008 season; there was so much to say, and restraint has never been ESPN's strong suit. But just getting tired of talking about something doesn't make it any less impressive and isn't a reason to disqualify a team from a recognition it deserves.

Florida in 2008 was the best SEC team of the decade. There's nothing creative or cunning about saying that. There doesn't have to be.

Sprints Is Leading Bowlnanza and Keeping Bama's Game Plan // 12.22.09

cocknfire — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:54:15 -0000

More photos » by Harry Cabluck - AP

Will BOOM Muschamp is hurt by Nick Saban's indifference. The Coachbot does not compute emotions well.

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Team Speed Kills Now Bowlnanza. Tonight at 8 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. CT. We start at a special time so we can have two hours to gather intelligence on your team's bowl opponent. Unless you're a Florida, Ole Miss or Arkansas fan. (There's a paucity of East Carolina blogs out there. I know; I was also surprised.) We'll have Peter Bean from Burnt Orange Nation to discuss the CBCSNCG (Alabama-Texas); FigureFour from Shakin the Southland to talk Music City Bowl (Kentucky-Clemson); Coach Beergut from I Am The 12th Man to consider the ~~Weedeater~~ Independence Bowl (Georgia-Texas A&M); Furrer4Heisman from Gobbler Country talking the Game Formerly Known as the Peach Bowl (Tennessee-Virginia Tech); Rodger from Sippin' On Purple to discuss the Outback Bowl (Auburn-Northwestern); Chris from Black Shoe Diaries to weigh the Capital One Bowl (LSU-Penn State); and Kevin from The UConn Blog to debate the Papajohns.com Bowl (South Carolina-Connecticut).

You can take part at the show page (join in the debate through the message board there) or here on the site through the player below, which will be posted again shortly before the program.

BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: ALABAMA VS. TEXAS

If that were a concern, the Coachbot would have eliminated them by now
Nick Saban answers the inevitable question about former assistants Will Muschamp and Major Applewhite, and I like the response.

Are you going to trick yourself or trick them? We do what we do and always do self-scout and know what our tendencies are and what the other team thinks about us and what we need to do to balance that.

Why outthink yourself after getting to the national championship game with your current system?

Tide QB might cross the pond
But Greg McElroy will only apply for the Rhodes Scholarship after it won't keep him from a year of football.

Capitalist bourgeois pigs
Texas players will take their stipend and travel to the game separately, thank you.

OTHER NEWS

Brandon James out
And that would be forever. The return specialist will miss his final potential game in a Gators uniform because of a stress fracture.

Florida RB not going anywhere
Reports of Chris Rainey's NFL debut were premature. He says he'll remain in Gainesville for "at least another year."

Points!!!
That's what the Mayor sees when he compares Arkansas' games against Georgia and Texas A&M.

Someone finally paid attention to him
It surprised me as I looked through the numbers for my Heisman post how little attention of any kind had gone to Von Miller of Texas A&M. Georgia has noticed.

He's telling his landlord to 'hold the rope'
Dennis Franchione is a candidate at UNLV.

Hiccups for Auburn
Perhaps not the best term. In any case, a pair of Tigeagles were arrested for DUI this month. Stay thirsty, my friends. Otherwise, you might be suspended for the bowl game.

Kentucky reaches milestone in rather odd sport
The 'Cats are the first team to win 2,000 games of this "basketball" they play.

Dominique Archie lost to surgery
The season-ending procedure severely hurts South Carolina's NCAA tournament hopes.

Another competitive year in baseball
If the experts are correct, that is. LSU is ranked No. 2 in Collegiate Baseball's preseason poll, with six other teams in the Top 40 (No. 9 Florida, No. 22 Ole Miss, No. 23 Arkansas, No. 28 South Carolina, No. 31 Georgia and No. 32 Vanderbilt). Should be fun.

SEC Power Poll: All-SEC Tight End Aaron Hernandez

cocknfire — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:50:07 -0000

More photos » by John Raoux - AP

Your SEC Power Poll All-SEC Tight End.

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To see all the All-SEC selections named today, go here.

Aaron Hernandez is easily the SEC Power Poll's All-SEC selection at tight end.

It wasn't quite unanimous -- one of our voters didn't cast a ballot for the position and Luke Stocker and Colin Peek each got a vote -- but Hernandez won handily with nine of 11 voters choosing the junior for the team.

Which shouldn't surprise. In a receiving corps that was disappointing for the Gators, Hernandez was easily Tim Tebow's favorite target, catching 59 passes. That was 15 more than the next nearest receiver, Riley Cooper, and 35 more than anyone outside of Cooper. Hernandez's 739 yards receiving were 41 fewer than Cooper and almost 500 more than anyone else on the team. He amounted for more than a quarter of the team's receiving yardage. He also scored four touchdowns, good for second on the team. All this from a position where short routes are the name of the game -- if the tight end isn't also tasked with blocking on a play.

How important could Hernandez be? Consider what might have happened at LSU had he not caught six passes for 70 yards, or against Arkansas if Hernandez weren't there to snag seven receptions for 92 yards.

Not that Stocker or Peek are bad. Stocker had 27 catches for 370 yards and 5 TDs; Peek had 26 receptions for 313 yards and 3 TDs. That those two players got the other votes puts Hernandez's numbers in perspective.

SEC 2000-10: Exit Phil Fulmer (2005-08)

cocknfire — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 08:42:36 -0000

More photos » by Wade Payne - AP

Phillip Fulmer waves farewell after his last game as the head coach at Tennessee.

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Perhaps the truest sign of greatness is that it's surprising when the fall finally comes. No one can stay on top forever, something that Phil Fulmer painfully learned near the end of the decade as the Tennessee coach watched the empire he built in Knoxville fall apart.

At the beginning of the 2000s, things did not look bad for a coach that won despite opponents' jokes about his size and less than despotic disciplinary methods. After all, just two years earlier, he had won a national title. In 2001, he would win his third SEC East championship in five years -- though a loss in the SEC Championship Game to LSU would cost the Vols their opportunity for a second title during Fulmer's tenure.

He would never come close again. In fact, that season's No. 4 postseason ranking was the last time Tennessee appeared in the AP Top 10.

It's easy but in some ways true to point to 2008, and lingering unhappiness over the 2005 losing season, as the end of Fulmer's time in Knoxville. After all, any coach who has two losing seasons in four years isn't going to keep his job at one of the league's premiere universities. Even Fulmer's 142-39 record outside of those two seasons couldn't protect him, and many Tennessee fans would argue that it shouldn't have.

But the truth is that as far back as 2004, the Vols were playing like a .500 team in the SEC -- which is great if you're the coach of Kentucky or South Carolina or Mississippi State. Not so much at Tennessee.

Again, calculating pythagorean wins is basically a matter of figuring out how many games you should have won based on the points you scored and the points your opponents scored. Over Fulmer's last five seasons, the Vols overperformed in all the good seasons except one -- 2006, when offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe returned after the 2005 disappointment -- and underperformed a bit in the subpar years. (The half-win difference in 2005 and the 0.3 SEC difference in 2008 aren't really statistically significant.) Also note: Those of you who thought the Vols were incredibly fortunate to make the 2007 SEC Championship Game are correct; Tennessee won almost two more league games than it should have that year. (The victories against South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Kentucky are all good candidates.)

But fans will ignore whether they should be winning games as long as they are. It's win the team begins losing games that a coach finds himself a target -- and the fans still don't care whether you should be losing those games or not. And 2008 fits the bill of too much losing, even for a coach as accomplished as Fulmer.

TUESDAY: What a Decade It's Been; Mike Price's Trip to Pensacola

WEDNESDAY: The Zook Experiment; Georgia Hires Mark Richt

THURSDAY: The Best Game; Auburn's Rise and Fall; Rivalry of the Decade

FRIDAY: The Worst Game; The Rise of the Nicktator; The Promise

In a nod to all those accomplishments, the AP voters did Fulmer no favors by voting his team No. 18 in the preseason standings. There was no reason to believe that the Vols were going to win the national title; even the most stat-allergic football fan could sense that there was some luck involved in the SEC East championship in 2007, and Florida and Georgia were both seen as national players. There was only room for so many elite teams in one division. But Tennessee had won 10 or more games in four of the eight seasons in the 2000s to that point and had won fewer than eight just once -- the 2005 season.

Meanwhile, Fulmer was bringing in the much-hyped Clawfense (copyright Dave Clawson) to replace Cutcliffe's system when the latter moved to Duke. Clawson was a two-team FCS coach of the year and a two-time conference champion at Richmond. What could possibly go wrong?

Quite a lot, actually. Tennessee began the season with a 27-24 overtime loss at UCLA despite Kevin Craft's valiant attempt to help Fulmer's job security by throwing four interceptions in the first half. Tennessee easily won the next game, 35-3, before losing 30-6 to Florida. All of that could be more or less explained away, though the UCLA began to look worse as the Bruins lost 59-0 to BYU, among other higlights.

Then things got strange. In a game that would have won the worst game of the year hands down had it not been for the 3-2 debacle, Auburn defeated the Vols 14-12 on a botched handoff at Tennessee's goal line. The Vols defeated Northern Illinois by four, lost to Georgia and shellacked Mississippi State despite gaining just 275 yards. It was about at this point that Clawfense became a sarcastic term of derision and Tennessee fans began to wonder what would happen in the last few games of the season.

Tennessee, after all, was 3-4. Three more defeats would mean no bowl game; even a 6-6 season wasn't likely to save Fulmer's job. He needed to win out, or at least win four of the remaining five games, to have a good chance to see 2009 in orange. Getting waxed in consecutive games by Alabama and South Carolina removed any chance of that and gave Steve Spurrier new material.

"The Tennessee band was there last night, weren't they?" Spurrier said Sunday afternoon in his weekly conference call with reporters. "I'm used to hearing 'Rocky Top.' ... Maybe they only play that when they score. Usually when you play Tennessee, you hear that 'Rocky Top' so often it's ringing in your brain."

Fulmer "resigned" the next day. His players rallied to defend his reputation by losing to Wyoming in their next game and ensuring that there would be no bowl for the Vols that year. (Ironically, Tennessee figured out after that defeat that running a service academy offense was their best chance at winning; the Vols defeated Vanderbilt and Kentucky to end the season.)

No one wants or believes that Fulmer will be remembered for the 5-7 season. He won league and national titles and made Tennessee one of the two pre-eminent teams in the SEC during the late 1990s and the early 2000s. But with practically every other team in the East getting better (save Florida), it's possible that the man referred to with a kind of admiring derision as "the Great Pumpkin" never had a chance. Georgia was becoming the best team in the East by 2002; Florida would follow after Urban Meyer took over in Gainesville. South Carolina, Kentucky and Vanderbilt were all improving. Something had to give, and in the end it was Tennessee.

No, Fulmer wasn't blameless in the chain of events that preceded his exit, but he did enough to ensure that he will be remembered for more than that. And after a few weeks of listening to his successor, it's likely that many of those who took some schadenfreude at the end of Fulmer's tenure would love to have him back.

Sprints Wants the Money that the NCAA Owes It for All Its Bowl Work // 12.21.09

cocknfire — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 08:22:31 -0000

More photos » by John Amis - AP

After all the confetti and free hats, who needs a bowl travel stipend?

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A busy couple of days. First, today marks the beginning of the roll-out of the SEC Power Poll All-SEC Team. The results will be unveiled across several of our sites. We'll have an entry or two here and will provide you with a guide to the results as they're unveiled elsewhere.

Second, we have a good Team Speed Kills Now coming up for you on Tuesday. A two-hour edition -- which, yes, would make it twice as long as normal -- with several smart bloggers from the teams that will be opposing league members in the bowls. More on that tomorrow.

BCS NATIONAL TITLE GAME: ALABAMA VS. TEXAS

Maybe they're not all socialists
A lot of the commentary around the decision of the Tide to travel as a team to Pasadena has painted the Bama players as doing so out of a team mindset. It's also a scheduling issue.

But the late date of this year's game presented a problem in that most teams break for the holidays and then meet at the bowl site. Alabama could not do that unless it arrived very early for the BCS title game.

Not that there's not some indications that it was a team-centric decision as well. But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves here. And the school is still trying to get them the money.

At least they'll all be there
The Tide avoids "academic casualties."

Kareem Jackson files NFL paperwork
The Tide CB is asking for his prospects to be evaluated.

Dunlap could have gotten a heck of a plea deal in Texas
D.J. Monroe, a kick returner for Texas, will play in the CBCSNCG after he plead guilt to "obstruction of a passageway," which sounds like it's several steps down from DWI. Drunk driving = chance to play for the national championship. Yes, that's a good message to send to college students.

I hope he went to Jared's
Nick Saban forgets his anniversary. This will only increase his stature among Alabama fans.

This is going to end with something burned to the ground
We hope a peaceful settlement could be reached, because I think we all know that it's going to get violent if Tide fans can't watch their team in the national title game.

We'll wait
After blogs found a site that was already selling merchandize for Alabama's 13th national title -- no, they mean the one this year; they haven't claimed another one -- the site now encourages Alabama fans to "Come back after the game."

They could always solve it by claiming another championship
The controversial end to the 1973 Cotton Bowl between Alabama and Texas.

SUGAR BOWL: FLORIDA VS. CINCINNATI

Dunlap playing sets a double standard at Florida?
Alligator Army is afraid of what the decision to allow Carlos Dunlap to play says about Florida -- not the team; the university.

I do not fault Meyer for ending the suspension, since his job is to get kids on the field not worry about an alcohol policy. ... If [UF President Bernie] Machen's influence ended the suspension, and does not extend to students caught in the same situation, Machen has created a problem for the University. Unless Machen now changes the alcohol policy at Florida, he has set a clear line between athletes and students.

Which is a more thoughtful analysis than about 99 percent of the blogosphere and the media have provided on this one.

Not that we shouldn't be asking ourselves this question
Goodman:

If Dunlap had taken his foot of the brake while sleeping at the traffic light (the car was in drive), drifted into the intersection and killed a few people, would he still be allowed to play?

Well I would hope not -- that sounds like enough for even Lou Holtz to suspend him for more than a game. But the purpose of the question -- to think about the thin line between what Dunlap did and something more consequential -- points to the problem with DUI. Had Dunlap been kicked off the team for this, some Florida fans and others would have said it was too strong a punishment for a youthful mistake. DUI is not just a youthful mistake; it is a potentially fatal mistake that shows little respect for human life. There are consequences for the rest of us, and it seems like there ought to be for athletes as well.

How long before they start a two-for-one special?
Florida is having trouble unloading its Sugar Bowl tickets. I'll repeat that: An SEC team is going to the Sugar Bowl and having trouble selling its tickets.

Cincinnati loses second head coach
The interim leader for the Sugar Bowl will leave for Buffalo after that.

OTHER NEWS

He's headed to the NFL
Eric Berry isn't saying anything now, but Lane Kiffin's announcement of an announcement is about all you need to know.

"I talked to Eric again this morning," Kiffin said. "We were going to have an announcement today, but after talking to him, we've just decided to wait until after the bowl game."

Only one reason to do it that way, particularly with Kiffin mentioning that Berry wants to "focus on winning this game."

Rich Brooks doesn't say "no" on retirement question
In fact, he doesn't even come close in an interview with the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Q: There's been a lot of speculation about your future. Will the Music City Bowl be your last game as the head coach of Kentucky?

A: I'll address that when the time is right.

Brooks does talk quite a bit about the future of the program in the story. But he doesn't exactly give the question the resounding "No" some Kentucky fans might like.

What's wrong with midnight baseball?
The SEC tries to tweak its tournament schedule to make sure those of us who watch aren't up too late.

A pitch clock also is part of the would-be solutions
Again, nothing that should cause too much heartburn. There's really no reason to take more than 20 seconds between pitches.