Football, dogfighting, and brain damage : The New Yorker

Alabama’s Terrence Cody blocked a Tennessee field goal as time expired and in the wild celebration that followed the big guy took off his helmet. Gary Danielson, who covered the game for CBS, wondered if it should have been an unsportsmanlike violation because it happened while the ball was still live. Kiffin was convinced that it was and said publicly that the refs had missed it.

Well, the refs didn’t miss it. The way the rule is written, even if a penalty had been called (which it shouldn’t be in that situation), it would have been marked off on the next play and not the previous play. The ball belonged to Alabama after the blocked kick.

"That’s a case where the rule is pretty clear," said [SEC supervisor of football officials Rogers] Redding. "Even if there had been time left on the clock, the ball would have belonged to Alabama. And if a penalty had been called, it would still be Alabama’s ball after the penalty was enforced."

Tom Mattingly calls T. Kyle King a whiner who can't write in KNS

The two schools were in the same district, just about 40 miles apart. [Trooper] Taylor and [Willie Mack] Garza knew each other off the field as well. Garza would sometimes go to rodeos in Cuero. Taylor was a teenage bull rider.

Tennessee football: we’re back, baby! " Get The Picture

"I think in a lot of ways Phil Fulmer was guilty of one thing, and that was hanging around and being successful for a long period of time," Brando said on Thursday. "When you do that, you have a tendency of saying some of the same things in the preseason and during the season. And in my estimation, the thing Lane Kiffin, to this point, has done is energize the base, which right now in this economy is what big-time business and big-time college football is about.

"It’s sort of what Sarah Palin did for the Republican ticket. Maybe not get more votes, but energize the base of the Republican party. It doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily going to be successful, but if that’s what (Tennessee) wanted to do when they hired Kiffin, that’s what he was able to accomplish in the offseason. Now we’ll see how much staying power he has, and how successful he can be. He’s got a long way to go, in my view, to be as successful as Phil Fulmer."

JasonPye.com: Talking football with Dawg Sports

Even though it may cost Hardesty some carries, he's relieved that practice performances are paying off.

"I like it because there's competition all across the board," he said. "I've seen in the past where there were guys that probably could play that didn't get a chance."