We’ve got one thing to ask for, for our upcoming birthday (that is, beside tickets to the Alabama-South Carolina game this fall and a case of Ketel One). Famed sports painter Daniel Moore did it. It’s out and available, like a debutant. It’s “Maximum Block,” the artist’s depiction of Terrence Cody putting his massive paw in the air and blocking another of Tennessee kicker Daniel Lincoln’s attempts, this time to win the game.
BIRMINGHAM — “Maximum Block,” the Daniel Moore painting that commemorates the game-saving play in the closest game of Alabama’s undefeated 2009 national championship season, was unveiled tonight during a reception at the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.
[...]
A steady stream of people stood in line to get free prints of the painting autographed by Moore, a Birmingham artist whose paintings have captured big moments in Alabama football history.
Ah, beating Tennessee at the last second. That never gets old. Or coronary-inducing.
I can has?
It’s understandable why no one would want to live in the capital of meth and moonshine that is East Tennessee, and the recent troubles with the Tennessee football program scared off any big-name hire that the Volunteers could bring in. So, the UT administration went to option No. 5 (or six, or seven), Louisiana Tech head coach Derek Dooley. Several times today, it went back-and-forth as to whether this was true, but late Friday, ESPN’s Joe Schad and Chris Low reported that it was all but a done deal.
Louisiana Tech spokesman Malcolm Butler says Dooley has resigned from his positions as coach and athletic director to join the Volunteers. A statement by the university was expected later Friday.
The son of former Georgia coach Vince Dooley, Derek Dooley went 17-20 in three seasons at Louisiana Tech.
The Volunteers hired him after a quick search to fill the vacancy created when Lane Kiffin abruptly resigned Tuesday night, bolting to Southern California after 14 months.
Huzzah! An almost Chizik-ian hire. Like Alabama after the Mike Price “It’s rolling, baby!” saga, Tennessee was in a pickle ahead of the beginning of the recruiting season and needed a coach, immediately. According to information passed on by Rivals/Yahoo! writer Tom Dienhart, a press conference is expected from Knoxville around 9 p.m. tonight.
What is there to say about Dooley? He’s a man, he’s 40! He’s also the son of legendary Georgia football coach Vince Dooley, and was an assistant under Nick Saban at LSU. But here’s some things you may not know. He earned a law degree from Georgia (after playing football and getting his undergrad at Virginia) and practiced with Nelson Mullins in Atlanta. The record with Tech, a middling WAC team, is anything but solid. In his three years there, he didn’t win a conference championship.
2007: 5-7 (4-4 WAC)
Key wins
None.
2008: 8-5 (5-3 WAC)
Key wins
Mississippi State, Fresno State, Northern Illinois (Independence Bowl)
2009: 4-8 (3-5 WAC)
Key wins
Hawai’i
The commentariat seems to believe that Dooley is a stand-up guy and will be able to do some things with the talent that is traditionally drawn to Tennessee. However, people said the same thing about Mike Shula, and he only had one winning season in four years at the Capstone.
It’s been a long time coming, but members of the Tennessee basketball team are in trouble for drugs and firearms charges. Several years ago, we were working in a restaurant when the UT men’s basketball team came in. After asking where to meet girls, one gentleman pulled us to the side and inquired as to where they could pick up some weed. It’s quite obvious that Bruce Pearl hasn’t been recruiting Mensa candidates to Knoxville.
These guys were hot-boxing it when the driver decided not to obey the speed limit. After being pulled over, the cop smelled weed from the car. It all went to shit from that point.
The four were riding in a car driven by [Cameron] Tatum that police stopped for speeding. Police smelled marijuana in the car.
[Tyler] Smith, voted the SEC’s preseason Player of the Year in November 2008, was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of a firearm with an altered serial number (which is a felony).
[Brian] Williams faces the same charges as well as possession of marijuana.
Tatum is charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and having an open container of alcohol.
[Melvin] Goins is charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of marijuana.
The funny thing is, two players have already been dismissed from the squad for participating in an armed robbery. Miami’s “Thug U” football team has nothing on these fools from East Tennessee.
One of the under reported stories every year in major college football is the amount of free crap football players get when they go to a bowl game. Some is useless. For instance, we got a free watch from the SEC and a free pin for covering the 2004 SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament. Frankly, the catered Georgia Dome food, free bags of Golden Flake and Dr. Pepper out the wazzou was better than what the conference gave sportswriters.
The following is what SEC teams will be getting this year.
Music City Bowl
Kentucky: RCA high-def camcorder, Fossil watch, Majestic fleece pullover, New Era cap, Ogio Metro laptop pack
Independence Bowl
Georgia: Sony gift suite, Timely Watch Co. watch, New Era cap, football
Chick-fil-A Bowl
Tennessee: $250 Best Buy gift card, Fossil watch, Russell Athletic knit cap, Russell Athletic travel bag, football, Chick-fil-A gift card
Outback Bowl
Auburn: Best Buy gift card, Pro-Swiss watch, Jostens ring, hat, Outback Steakhouse gift card
Capital One Bowl
LSU: Party at Best Buy ($420 limit), Timely Watch Co. watch
Sugar Bowl
Florida: Sony, Apple, Trek, Garmin and Weber gift suite, Timely Watch Co. watch, New Era cap, Ogio Politan laptop pack, Lane recliner
Papajohns.com Bowl
South Carolina: RCA high-def mini-camcorder, Oakley Surf Pack backpack
Cotton Bowl
Ole Miss: Unknown
Liberty Bowl
Arkansas: Westinghouse 19-inch LCD HDTV/computer monitor, Fossil watch, Nike training shoes/sport sandals/sunglasses, football
BCS National Championship Game
Alabama: Sony gift suite with Trek and Garmin, Fossil watch, New Era 59Fifty cap, Ogio Politan laptop pack
Tennessee had to wait until the walking Krispy Kreme machine left, but now the NCAA is finally looking at the Volunteers’ recruiting practices. Namely, using comely girls to show football players a good time. Even reportedly sending them to Byrnes High School to lure top recruit Marcus Lattimore. If you’ve driven from South Carolina to Knoxville, you know how white-knuckling scary those mountain roads are, so this was a serious effort.
The hostesses are considered representatives of the university, which would mean they could not recruit players off campus. Therefore, the visits may be considered violations of N.C.A.A. recruiting rules.
Two of Lattimore’s teammates, Brandon Willis and Corey Miller, have orally committed to Tennessee. Lattimore described the hostesses as “real pretty, real nice and just real cool.” He said he thought they had “a lot” of influence in Miller’s and Willis’s commitments to Tennessee.
Because of their influence on recruits, the recruiting hostesses have become popular with Tennessee fans. Bryce Brown, the country’s top running back recruit last year, who is a freshman at Tennessee, was pictured on a social networking site last year with a hostess. Other Tennessee hostesses have publicly conversed with prospects through Facebook and MySpace.
Some recruits say their influence is significant.
“You don’t want to go to a college where they ain’t pretty,” Lattimore said.
Other colleges started getting in trouble for this sort of thing a few years ago, and many ended the practice. USC’s “Carolina Classics” was even the subject of a campus rumor in 2003, but nothing was substantiated. It should turn the stomach of coaches and administrators to effectively be putting hot pieces of ass out there to bring in the next stud defensive back, but nothing’s sacred in love and football.
We say, screw ‘em (the program, that is). Former coach Phil Fulmer sold out Alabama to the infractions committee in order to avert eyes from what he was doing, so it’s poetic justice that it appears the Vols could get nailed with major violations for this.
There are 34 bowl games this year, and we’re picking every damn one of them (probably with 60-70 percent success). You can follow the progress or join up and do battle with us through ESPN College Bowl Mania. We’re in “The League” and “The War Against Tebow.” TWAT (jokes!) is the brainchild of decamped S.C. blogger and good time Johnny, Micah Snead, so go there. But beware — Snead’s dad is a total ringer and will probably take the title by 20 points.
Dec. 19, 4:30 p.m., ESPN
Fresno State v. Wyoming
Dec. 19, 8 p.m., ESPN
Central Florida v. Rutgers
Dec. 20, 8:30 a.m., ESPN
Southern Miss v. Middle Tennessee State
Dec. 22, 8 p.m., ESPN
No. 18 Oregon State v. No. 14 BYU
Dec. 23, 8 p.m., ESPN
No. 23 Utah v. California
Dec. 24, 8 p.m., ESPN
Nevada v. Southern Methodist
Dec. 26, 1 p.m., ESPN
Marshall v. Ohio
Dec. 26, 4:30 p.m., ESPN
No. 17 Pitt v. North Carolina
Dec. 26, 8 p.m., ESPN
Boston College v. No. 24 Southern Cal
Dec. 27, 8:30 p.m., ESPN
Kentucky v. Clemson
Dec. 28, 5 p.m., ESPN2
Texas A&M v. Georgia
Dec. 29, 4:30 p.m., ESPN
UCLA v. Temple
Dec. 29, 8 p.m., ESPN
No. 15 Miami v. No. 25 Wisconsin
Dec. 30, 4:30 p.m., ESPN
Bowling Green v. Idaho
Dec. 30, 8 p.m., ESPN
No. 20 Arizona v. No. 22 Nebraska
Dec. 31, Noon, ESPN
Houston v. Air Force
Dec. 31, 2 p.m., CBS
Oklahoma v. No. 21 Stanford
Dec. 31, 3:30 p.m., ESPN
Navy v. Missouri
Dec. 31, 6 p.m., NFL Network
Minnesota v. Iowa State
Dec. 31, 7:30 p.m., ESPN
No. 11 Virginia Tech v. Tennessee
Jan. 1, 11 a.m., ESPN
Northwestern v. Auburn
Jan. 1, 1 p.m., CBS
No. 16 West Virginia v. Florida State
Jan. 1, 1 p.m., ESPN
No. 13 Penn State v. No. 12 LSU
Jan. 1, 4:30 p.m., ABC
No. 8 Ohio State v. No. 7 Oregon
Jan. 1, 8:30 p.m., Fox
No. 5 Florida v. No. 3 Cincinnati
Jan. 2, Noon, ESPN2
South Florida v. Northern Illinois
Jan. 2, 2 p.m., ESPN
South Carolina v. Connecticut
Jan. 2, 2 p.m., Fox
No. 19 Oklahoma State v. Ole Miss
Jan. 2, 5:30 p.m., ESPN
Arkansas v. East Carolina
Jan. 2, 9 p.m., ESPN
Michigan State v. Texas Tech
Jan. 4, 8 p.m., Fox
No. 6 Boise State v. No. 4 TCU
Jan. 5, 8 p.m., Fox
No. 10 Iowa v. No. 9 Georgia Tech
Jan. 6, 7 p.m., Fox
No. 25 Central Michigan v. Troy
Jan. 7, 8 p.m., ABC
No. 2 Texas v. No. 1 Alabama
Here we go. With the conference championship games over, and only Army-Navy left on Dec. 12, bowl bids are going out hot and heavy. There are some things that were expected, some surprises and — oh man — Clemson totally got jobbed.
BCS National Championship Game
No. 1 Alabama v. No. 2 Texas
Sugar Bowl
No. 5 Florida v. No. 3 Cincinnati
Capital One Bowl
No. 12 LSU v. No. 13 Penn State
Cotton Bowl
Ole Miss v. No. 19 Oklahoma State
Outback Bowl
Auburn v. Northwestern
Chick-fil-A Bowl
Tennessee v. No. 11 Virginia Tech
Music City Bowl
Kentucky v. Clemson
Liberty Bowl
Arkansas v. East Carolina
Independence Bowl
Georgia v. Texas A&M
Papajohns.com Bowl
South Carolina v. Connecticut
Definitely some interesting matchups — Georgia and Texas A&M are a couple big name teams for a small bowl, so that should be good. In other bowls, the Gator Bowl gave a big, wet, sloppy kiss to Bobby Bowden by inviting Florida State and West Virginia. Travesty. Though it was technically OK, Miami and Boston College were higher up in the selection order in the ACC. Southern Cal, the over-hyped 8-4 team, is going to play the Eagles in the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco.
Ooh! There are other BCS games?
Fiesta Bowl
No. 6 Boise State v. No. 4 TCU
Rose Bowl
No. 7 Oregon v. No. 8 Ohio State
Orange Bowl
No. 9 Georgia Tech v. No. 10 Iowa
It won’t all become final until after the SEC Championship Game on Saturday, but with Florida and Alabama locking down the BCS National Championship Game and the Sugar Bowl, everything else is good to go. There’s a glut of teams choking the middle of the standings in the conference, so it was really a crapshoot as to who went where.
Carolina might have upset Clemson to post its seventh win, but that doesn’t appear to have changed much in the bowl perspective from two weeks ago. And why’s that? The upper-level bowls wanted to take another date to the dance.
Guess which team comes out smelling like a rose? That’s right, your favorite and mine, the cheap-trick, dirty-playing team from the worst place in the lower half of Alabama not named Montgomery. Auburn got the invite to the Outback Bowl, which means the Tigers get to have fun in the seedier areas of Ybor City while trying to figure out how to beat Wisconsin. Of course, the joke’s on the Aubies, with the godawful early start of 11 a.m.
LSU, with the third-best record, got its expected trip to Orlando for the Capital One Bowl. Depending on which team is picked for an at-large bid in a BCS bowl, LSU will play either Penn State or Iowa.
The first part of the dam to break was the news given to ESPN that Ole Miss is going to the Cotton Bowl for the second straight year. What’s different for the Rebels this time, and their batshit crazy head coach, is the game will be played at Cowboys Stadium instead of the aging monument to football at the Texas state fairgrounds. Just imagine Houston Nutt, on the biggest high-definition screen anywhere, looking over JerryWorld like a Southern-fried Big Brother. Word is that Ole Miss will be facing Oklahoma State.
Hm. Who do we dislike more? It all comes down to fan bases — mountain rednecks from East Tennessee versus the biggest group of bandwagon fans in college football. You know it — it’s Tennessee v. Virginia Tech in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Imagine the weird thoughts going through Tech. It began the season in the Georgia Dome against an SEC team, and it will end the season that way. Of course, Tennessee isn’t Alabama, so we’d imagine the Hokies would be favored.
Carolina fans were crossing fingers and praying hard for the Gamecocks to get the invitation to the Music City Bowl (what a bunch of Gaylords). But — a-ha! — foiled again by Kentucky. The gentlemen who run the bowl want to bring the Wildcats to Nashville, so that’s how it goes. It’s expected that either North Carolina or Miami will be the ACC representative in the game.
Ooh, not looking good. Next up, the Liberty Bowl, which shocked no one by taking Arkansas. It takes, ah, only a walk over the bridge to get from the Natural State to Memphis, so Razorback fans will be filling the stadium. If Houston beats East Carolina in the Conference-USA Championship Game, the bowl will be a throwback to the old Southwest Conference days.
Shreveport goes to Georgia, a quite unfortunate end to the season for the Bulldogs. Let’s face it — no team wants to go to the Independence Bowl. The only reason we saw Carolina play Missouri there a few years ago was because it was on the way to Dallas, where Alabama was taking on Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl. Oh, Gamecocks. That means y’all are in…
…the Papajohns.com Bowl. Yessir, that’s my antiquated monument to Southern football! Welcome back to Birmingham, Carolina. We missed you. It’s been 30 years since you last played at Legion Field, losing to Missouri in the Hall of Fame Classic. If you recall, there used to be an upper deck over the west stands. Structural integrity can be a fickle mistress, and it was taken down several years ago. So, enjoy playing a mediocre Big East team in the cold, try not to get shot in one of the worst neighborhoods in town and for Heaven’s sake, make a trip to Milo’s. You’ll thanks us later for that last one.
This past week was considered a boring one at the outset, but a few games created new story lines and teams that will be slotted into the SEC bowl tie-ins got a little of a shake. With Tennessee’s win, the conference now has 10 bowl eligible teams, and barring a strange turn, will be sending each of them to a bowl. Sorry, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt — your sub-.500 status locks in your teams as teh suxx0rs.
BCS National Championship Game
Alabama or Florida v. Texas
Sugar Bowl
Alabama or Florida v. Cincinnati
Capital One Bowl
Ole Miss v. Penn State
Outback Bowl
Tennessee v. Wisconsin
Cotton Bowl
LSU v. Nebraska
Chick-fil-A Bowl
Georgia v. Virginia Tech
Music City Bowl
Kentucky v. Miami
Liberty Bowl
Arkansas v. Houston
Independence Bowl
Auburn v. At-large
Papajohns.com Bowl
South Carolina v. South Florida
There are some others who are thinking that Carolina won’t be slotted in the last spot, with Georgia or Tennessee taking that place. It really is just conjecture, though. To a degree, records and tiebreakers don’t matter past the top teams. Bowl committees have their rules as a mishmash of one guy gets first choice of a team from the SEC West, or East, and if then, &c. You need a flowchart to follow that, alone. Then there’s considerations as far as geographics, ticket sales and TV ratings.
Also, you may have noticed “Auburn v. At-large.” Unless Kansas can upset Missouri, The Big XII will not have enough teams to fill its entire bowl slate, and the Independence Bowl brings up the rear. Under any other circumstance, a team would be available, but Kansas State, which has closed out the season at 6-6, doesn’t have enough qualifying wins to make it. Last season, neither the Big XII nor the SEC had enough teams, and Louisiana Tech played Northern Illinois in Shreveport.
That means a team with enough wins from one of the non-BCS conferences that is eligible will be taken. Right now, the Sun Belt is the first available alternate conference. Here’s some fun for Tiger fans — the two teams most likely to go are UL-U-Pick’em, that is UL-Lafayette and UL-Monroe. Imagine that, going to play a bowl game against a team you usually schedule as an early-season patsy. Believe it, Auburn fans. It’s in the cards.
Believe it or not, South Carolina is the fourth-happiest state in the South. According to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, the Palmetto State is the only trails Virginia, Texas and Georgia in being the happiest state in Dixie. Of all the states in America, Virginia rocks No. 15, Texas shows up at No. 21, Georgia ranks No. 23, while South Carolina comes in at No. 26.
Happiest States in the South
15. Virginia
21. Texas
23. Georgia
26. South Carolina
30. Florida
33. Alabama
34. North Carolina
40. Louisiana
42. Tennessee
46. Arkansas
48. Mississippi
49. Kentucky
50. West Virginia
