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Gromit

Hooper

Apr 23, 2008 Nov 10, 2009 642 12669

hooper grew up in the state of Wyoming and received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Wyoming in 2001. After a short, land-locked tour of duty with the Navy as a nuclear power instructor, he then moved to Knoxville, Tennessee to attend graduate school in nuclear engineering at the University of Tennessee. Already an avid football fan, taking classes in a building in the shadow of Neyland Stadium suited him very well, and he followed UT sports as a way to preserve his sanity during his studies.

In a fit of boredom during the fall of 2007, hooper made the unfortunate mistake of marrying his career to his hobby by producing a statistical analysis showing that Tennessee could expect a victory over Arkansas so long as Darren McFadden was kept below 150 total yards of offense. Armed with far too many pretty graphs, the argument was featured on the blog Rocky Top Talk, and a monster was born. Delirious with the thrill of writing to a nonscientific crowd, he continued to sham ordinary posts with incomprehensible mathematical analysis until Joel Hollingsworth surrendered and gave him a permanent position on Rocky Top Talk. Someday he will actually finish a PhD in nuclear engineering; until then, he will continue to haunt the blogosphere with his secret desire to convert the world to monospaced, sans serif fonts.

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JaWuan James is all Volunteer!

Bring me more players!!!

Bring me more players!!!

 

Offensive line, hey-O!  This evening, JaWuan James made the call to UT recruiting headquarters that resulted in shouts heard across Knoxville:  he was officially a Tennessee Volunteers commit.  The former Alabama Crimson Tide commit is a Scout 4-star / Rivals 4-star offensive tackle who stands 6'-6" and weighs roughly 300 lbs.  He comes from North Gwinnett, Georgia, which is just a little bit north of Atlanta.  He had been suspected of being a Volunteer lean for quite some time, though Georgia appeared to be the other option on the table.

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RTT BlogPoll Computer Rankings: Week 10 Final Ballot

After thinking the rankings through, here is this week's final BlogPoll ballot with the human overrides in place.  Houston comes up, and Ohio State and Penn State sink.  Iowa didn't slide, and I'll explain why in the following section.  And I'm sure I've made everybody just a little disappointed, which probably means that game theory is happy.

RankTeamDelta
1 Florida
2 Texas
3 TCU
4 Alabama
5 Boise State 1
6 Cincinnati 1
7 Georgia Tech 3
8 Iowa 3
9 Arizona 6
10 Oregon 2
11 Pittsburgh 2
12 Southern Cal
13 Miami (Florida) 6
14 Ohio State 2
15 Penn State 6
16 Houston
17 Brigham Young 1
18 Virginia Tech 1
19 LSU 8
20 Utah 6
21 Oregon State
22 Wisconsin
23 Nebraska
24 Oklahoma State
25 West Virginia 4
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Oklahoma (#20), Notre Dame (#25).

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SEC Power Poll: Rocky Top Talk Ballot

Powerpoll2009logo_medium

  1. Florida Gators
  2. Alabama Crimson Tide
  3. LSU Tigers
  4. Tennessee Volunteers
  5. Auburn Tigers
  6. Mississippi Rebels
  7. Georgia Bulldogs
  8. South Carolina Gamecocks
  9. Arkansas Razorbacks
  10. Kentucky Wildcats
  11. Mississippi St. Bulldogs
  12. Vanderbilt Commodores

Explanations after the jump, as well as the computer numbers that defined the rankings.  (And yes, there are already human overrides in effect based on previous trends.)

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I also want to invite all UT students to our scrimmage tomorrow at the arena. We'll go 4-6 and have some cool prizes. But don't skip class!

1 day ago Gromit_tiny Hooper 0 comments 0 recs

Tennessee Lady Vols Preview: The Juniors

Tennessee women's college basketball coach Pat Summitt will field one of the youngest teams in the NCAA this year, with zero seniors and three juniors. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

More photos » by Darron Cummings - AP

Tennessee women's college basketball coach Pat Summitt will field one of the youngest teams in the NCAA this year, with zero seniors and three juniors. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

The second Tennessee Lady Vols exhibition game is tonight at 7 PM EST against Delta State, and the schedule begins in earnest on Sunday as the Ladies host Baylor in what will be a huge game right out of the gate.  So as the real season approaches, let's take a look through the roster and see what Pat Summitt will have at her disposal.  (Aside:  the game tonight will be available via free online video; you can access it at the link above.  Dan Fleser has some interesting history on Delta State in his GVX article as well.)

One notable difference with this team should be an increased intensity on the court - particularly on the defensive end.  Last year's squad was notorious for playing below their potential and allowing other teams to outwork them.  Comprised of a bunch of young players who had spent their lives out-talenting their pre-college competition, the Lady Vols had some hard lessons to learn about hustle and commitment.  As a result, the Lady Vols still do not have their traditional locker room in TBA until such time as Summitt believes they have earned the right to inhabit the same space as Candace Parker's and Chamique Holdsclaw's used socks.

This post will double as the live thread for the exhibition game tonight.  Last game, the team played full-court press for much of the night to devastating effect.  However, they struggled at times in the transition game, with fast break passes often sailing out of control.  Look for more high-tempo play as Pat Summitt sees how far this team can be pushed.

JUNIORS

Without any seniors on this team, the look at the roster first begins with the juniors.  Out of 13 total players, only three are upperclassmen, and these three should be the core of the leadership for the Lady Vols as they look to erase the memories of last season's grand fizzle.  Unlike most years, there is no group of seniors who see the season as their last opportunity, so leadership will have to come from raw competitiveness and determination.  This is where the juniors must step forward.

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Not that this wasn't already in the works. But 2009 has been a bit of a dark year for Memphis Athletics, no?

1 day ago Gromit_tiny Hooper 15 comments 0 recs

To the Tennessee Volunteers, Ole Miss is UCLA Redux

(AP Photo/Wade Payne)

by Wade Payne - AP

(AP Photo/Wade Payne)

Emotions around Rocky Top are burning brightly after the Tennessee Volunteers drilled the Memphis Tigers 56-28 in Neyland Stadium (in a game that was nowhere near as close as the score would indicate).  After rolling up a 49-7 lead with 12 minutes left in the third quarter, the Vols began pulling starters for injury insurance and for backup experience, giving Memphis nearly a full half of 'garbage time' scores.  (And were it not for a pass interference call on what was otherwise a failed 3rd down attempt by Memphis in the first half, that score could very well have been 49-0.)

Over the last few weeks, we've seen the Vols put together a string of very nice games, starting in the fourth quarter against the Auburn Tigers when Jonathan Crompton and the wide receivers finally got on the same page.  Since that point, the passing game has been very effective, and even put the Vols in position to try to beat the Alabama Crimson Tide on their own turf.  Against the Georgia Bulldogs, Crompton earned the national player of the week award in a game that may ultimately prove to be the final nail in Willie Martinez's Athenian coffin.  Against both the South Carolina Gamecocks and Memphis Tigers, Crompton threw zero interceptions and a flurry of early touchdown strikes to put the game out of reach.

But despite all the (very valid) reasons for exuberance on The Hill, Tennessee would be very wise to learn a lesson from the beginning of the season - that maintaining improvement is as difficult as gaining improvement.

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RTT BlogPoll Computer Rankings: Week 10 Draft

Here are the raw computer rankings for week 10.  This is, as always, a draft for the RTT BlogPoll Ballot.  Explanations and the full computer data follow after the jump.  Human intervention will be applied based solely on feedback.  I have my thoughts, but I'm hesitant to apply any changes without verification.  This late in the season, it's pretty well certain I won't change a number without support.

RankTeamDelta
1 Florida
2 Texas
3 TCU
4 Alabama
5 Boise State 1
6 Cincinnati 1
7 Ohio State 9
8 Penn State 1
9 Georgia Tech 1
10 Iowa 5
11 Arizona 4
12 Oregon 4
13 Pittsburgh
14 Southern Cal 2
15 Miami (Florida) 4
16 Brigham Young 2
17 Virginia Tech
18 LSU 7
19 Utah 5
20 Oregon State
21 Wisconsin 1
22 Nebraska 1
23 Oklahoma State 1
24 West Virginia 3
25 Oklahoma 5
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Notre Dame (#25).

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Your Braynography for the week. Why the fireworks? Because Kingsburg is undefeated and has at least a share of their league's championship. (Note that Bray can scramble and stiff-arm. And the throws. Oh, wow, the throws. On fourth and 12, even.) Go to YouTube to see the HD if you want; it's pretty good quality.

2 days ago Gromit_tiny Hooper 2 comments 0 recs