Posts Tagged ‘Alabama Crimson Tide’

Somewhere, in front of a chalkboard—his hands coated with chalk dust—Lane Kiffin is smiling…

For the past several months Tennessee fans and the general sports-watching public have heard a near endless discussion about the various secondary infractions which have occurred since Lane Kiffin (a/k/a “the Blackjack General”) took the reins as the head football coach for the Tennessee Volunteers.  Needless to say, some have taken every available opportunity to criticize the University of Tennessee, The UT Athletic Department, Smiling Mike Hamilton, and the Blackjack General himself.  Some of it has amounted to little more than sniping and smack-talk, while others have been decidedly more direct.

Rightly or wrongly, Tennessee has self-reported (or is in the process of investigating with with an eye toward reporting) six secondary violations of NCAA Rules, the most recent coming—as HSH reported just the other day—as a result of the Blackjack General’s recent appearance on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines,” where he discussed, imagine that, secondary infractions with ESPN’s Bob Ley.

A “secondary violation” is defined in the NCAA Manual as follows:

A secondary violation is a violation that is isolated or inadvertent in nature, provides or is intended to provide only a minimal recruiting, competitive or other advantage and does not include any significant recruiting inducement or extra benefit.  Multiple secondary violations by a member institution may collectively be considered as a major violation.

•  2008-09 NCAA Division 1 Manual § 19.02.2.1 (emphasis added)

To put this in layman’s terms, secondary violations are the functional equivalent of talking in the NCAA’s rather large and particularly boring class.  Or, perhaps, in Lane Kiffin’s case, they amount to showing-off for all the girls (or in this case, recruits) in the back of class to impress them and passing notes reading:

I like you.  A Lot.

Do you like me?

Check One:  ___Yes  ___No  ___Maybe

— Lane

While this sort of thing—in both Mrs. Elliott’s 6th Period English Class and in the world of NCAA compliance—are annoying, they are largely harmless.  While it is true (again, with both Mrs. Elliott and the NCAA) that enough of these sorts of minor errors along the way can land you in the proverbial Principal’s office, as long as you say you are sorry after each instance (and UT has self-reported all such violations) and space the occurrences out by a day or two, usually there is little punishment to be meted out, aside from being made a spectacle in front of your peers…

… or by having to stay after class and write on the blackboard.

Kiffin at the Chalkboard

Hence, while Lane Kiffin and the UT Athletic Department are probably getting a little tired of having to deal with the issue of secondary violations, they have been merely a bump in the road thus far.

The Alabama Crimson Tide, on the other hand, is now facing a decidedly more serious situation…

Read the rest of this entry »

Well, I spent most all of my day involved in a matter before the appellate courts here in my home state, thus I haven’t really had a chance to put anything of substance together for today.

My client—a fan of the Arkansas Razorbacks and an alum of the University of Arkansas—however, passed a little something along to me which, though short, seems more than worth passing along.  So, here you go:

How are maggots and the Alabama Crimson Tide similar?

They both can live off a dead Bear for twenty years…

Heh!  But judging from this most recent photo, looks like both Alabama and the maggots may be looking for a little more food soon.

The "Bear" in all his glory...

Yep, the Bear is looking a bit picked over…

– So it goes…

Image(s) Courtesy of:  SoonerFans.com

Last year, during the off-season, I began a series on the Great Games played by the Tennessee Volunteers football team over the many years as seen through my eyes.  As I am wont to do, I seem to have lost my focus and have not exactly done a capital job of keep that series going.  Imagine that.

Since the off-season is once again upon us—paired with the fact that I have been coming up pretty spare in terms of ideas lately—I’ve decided it is time to once again take a walk down memory lane and re-live some of the greatest games in Tennessee history.  For those of you who missed the 2008 installments of this series, here are the ones I’ve covered thus far:

The “Great Games” Series:

• Ole Miss 1991
• Florida 1992
• Alabama 1995
• 1996 Citrus Bowl
• Florida 1998
• Lawvol’s All-time Top-10 Games

In addition to my list, Will, one of the sages over at RTT has been counting down the top-50 games of the Phillip Fulmer era in grand style.  Predictably, some of his favorites are on my list as well.  Trust me, his list is worth a look (and is far better researched, far more thoughtful, far better written, and … well … just far better than my little foray into the ghosts of games past).  Since I don’t want to be accused of stealing his thunder, I will be citing to his accounts of his favorite games liberally.

In fairness, it might be best to just skip this article altogether and just go read his work.  Lord knows I would but for the fact that I have to write it…

22 November 1997

vs.

(5) Tennessee 59 •    Kentucky 31

Commonwealth Stadium  •  Lexington, Kentucky

Some folks might think I am crazy for including the 22 November 1997 contest between Tennessee and the Kentucky Wildcats on my list of great games.  I can understand why they might question my thoughts on this (or my sanity).  This game was anything but a flawless game for the Vols and was hardly the Tennessee defense’s finest hour.  In fact, the game as a whole was pretty darn sloppy, as was the weather.  Still, for reasons which I will attempt to explain (a feat I will likely fail utterly to accomplish), this game still ranks as one of the great games in Tennessee football history.  The short answer as to why can be summed up in two words:

Peyton Manning

I make no bones about it.  I am a huge fan of the guy  who wore No. 16 for the Vols from 1994 to 1998.  As many have pointed out, both Andy Kelly (1989-91) and Heath Shuler (1991-93) could—in their own right—claim to be the greatest Vol quarterback in the history of the program during the time they wore an orange shirt.  Then, starting only a few snaps into the 1994 game against the UCLA Bruins in the Rose Bowl, everyone in Orange Nation began the process of forgetting everything they ever knew about quarterbacks at Tennessee, as true freshman Peyton Manning took the reins from senior Jerry Colquitt, who quite tragically (and downright depressingly) suffered a career-ending injury in the first series of his first start at quarterback.

The rest, as they say, is history…

Read the rest of this entry »

Apparently, Auburn Tigers‘ head coach Gene Chizik really wants to impress recruits and eat away at some of the Alabama Crimson Tide’s supply of in-state players.

How, you ask?

By driving around Alabama in a stretch Hummer Limo.

So what’s next?  An 18-wheeler with the coaching staff’s pictures painted on the side?  Coaches arriving at a school on customized Harleys, like a motorcycle gang?  Helicopters?

Prospectin' and Profilin' -- Auburn style

Get ready. The circus could be coming to your high school very soon…

• via: Hot Corner: Auburn could trigger limo race – X’s and Uh-oh’s  |  al.com

In the words of Basilio, “interesting…”

Well, there hasn’t been much going on in Big Orange Country of late, thus I have been painfully slow at posting…

There have been a few items of interest, mainly Robert Ayres being drafted at No. 18 by the Denver Broncos, along with Ramon Foster, Josh Briscoe, Lucas Taylor, Arian Foster, Britton Colquitt, and DeAngelo Willingham who were all picked up in free agency.  A dutiful blogger would have something insightful to say about all of this, but I have not been particularly dutiful of late and Hooper has already said pretty much everything worth saying over at RockyTopTalk.  Thus, I’ll just ride his coattails for the moment (sigh…).

On another front, apparently the powers that be in World soccer have decided that Neyland Stadium is worthy of hosting World Cup (Soccer) competition, and everyone’s favorite stadium has made the cut in the most recent round of machinations pertaining to site selection for the United States’ bid to host the 2018 / 2022 World Cup.  While I am hardly the world’s biggest soccer fan (despite spending an inordinate amount of time watching 9-year-olds compete in it), it was nice to note that Neyland Stadium qualified, while Bryant-Denny Stadium (Alabama Crimson Tide), Tiger Stadium (LSU Tigers), Jordan-Hare Stadium (Auburn Tigers), and  Beaver Stadium (Penn State Nittany Lions), among others did not.  I guess that new jumbotron was just too good a thing to turn down.

Heh…

Finally, as a resident of the RDU area of North Carolina, my “other” team is fighting for a chance to advance toward claiming Lord Stanley’s Cup.  Yes, that is hockey for those of you who do not realize it.  No, I wasn’t born in Canada.  Yes, I grew up in the South.  Yes, you should really consider giving the NHL a try—hockey is pretty cool (especially when there is no football).  For both of you out there who care, you can read all there is to be known about my othe team, the Carolina Hurricanes, over at Canes Country, which is part of the SBN family of blogs, (i.e. a lot better than this joint).

In the meantime, I will continue to work diligently to find ways to waste time on meaningless things and thus avoid wasting time writing meaningless articles…

– So it goes…

Image(s) Courtesy of:   Carolina Hurricanes ||  Statement on Fair Use

Well, after failing to get my Oklahoma State preview up in time for the game, and given the quick end to the BasketVols‘ run in the NCAA Tournament, I really haven’t had a lot to offer these past few days.  Of course, when you set the bar very low—which has always been the policy of Gate 21—it takes extra effort to fail in grand style.  I guess I am running behind in my running behind…

In the meantime, here’s a little something that is worth giving a look.  I’m a bit behind in getting this up, but this is pretty funny if you ask me (which I realize you didn’t).

Here is a pretty hilarious look at the various coaches of the SEC in a way that I don’t think I have ever seen before.  As always, this comes courtesy of VolzRChamps and BlazerChronicles.com, with a Tennessee All-Sports Update.

The Blazer Chronicles: A “Quotetastic” Look at the SEC

That Bobby Johnson quote is simply priceless…

– So it goes …

Video Courtesy of: VolzRChamps / You Tube • Blazer Chronicles

Yes, I know that the logo above might not match what this post is about, but it’s the same gist as the posts from the fall I did each week: a preview of the upcoming weekend. It just happens to be this weekend’s SEC Tournament down in Tampa.

First, two things: one, this thing should NEVER be played in Tampa again. It’s like the ACC playing it’s tournament in Boston (for Boston College) or the Big East playing their’s in Milwaukee (for Marquette). These things are supposed to be played in central locations – Atlanta, Nashville, even Birmingham or Memphis (the SEC Tourney in Memphis would be better than the C-USA Tourney).

Second, don’t even think for a second I’m going to predict who will win this tournament, because neither I nor anybody else has a single clue. Partly because there’s no dominant team and the SEC this year was more or less a bunch of good mediocre teams beating each other up. I might as well put the 12 logos – er, take out Georgia and Arkansas – close my eyes and throw a dart and pick whoever said dart lands on.

Instead, I’ll go through why each team can win it all and why each team can’t win it all. Here’s your bracket and if you want to use the SEC playoffs as a warm-up for your office pool, here’s where you wanna go.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check out the Full Poll Results at Garnet and Black Attack!

Week 8

Through 26 February 2009

Well, I’m running behind as usual, but moving purposefully.  The teams of the SEC (with the exception of LSU, Georgia, and Arkansas who have pretty much landed where they will stay) are engaged in a slugfest to determine who gets the leftovers.  Bearing this in mind here’s my ballot for this week’s SEC Basketball Power Poll.  As always, you can see the final poll results which will be posted over at Garnet and Black Attack Thursday-ish.

Anyway, here’s my ballot for this first week in the SEC Basketball Power Poll, along with a feeble attempt at explaining why I’m such a moron.

In all its radiant glory:

So there you have it, my thoughts on the state of SEC Basketball for this week.

The Rest of the Power Poll

Now that you have wasted your time looking at my ballot, go check out what everybody else is saying over at Garnet and Black Attack, where the final poll results will be posted later tonight or early tomorrow.

– So it Goes …

This headline is just too good to pass up:

“Lane Kiffin sets fire to Alabama scoreboard.  Probably.”

Hmm... isn't this getting a little out of hand?

No?  Maybe?  Well, probably.  After all, these days he’s pretty much the culprit behind everything from recruiting violations to the crappy picture quality on Raycom basketball games…

• via: The Godfrey Show

Well, it looks like Kiff has everyone’s attention…

Image Courtesy of: al.com / Alabama Beat Blog

In case you hadn’t seen Lane Kiffin’s comments at a recruiting celebration/function thingy in Knoxville this morning…

“Just so you know, when a recruit’s on another campus, you can’t call a recruit on another campus. I love the fact that Urban had to cheat, and still didn’t get him (Vol signee Nu’Keese Richardson). Great job man!”

If Lane was making a checklist of teams in the league to really piss off, he’s got the biggest rivals covered: he got the Chickens all riled up by taking David Reaves and jabbing back at Steve Spurrier’s insinuation that Kiffin hadn’t taken the NCAA required recruiting test.

Next was Alabama, as Kiffin took Lance Thompson and hired him out from under Nick Saban. He then had a number of Crimson Tide purchases commits take official visits to Knoxville. And finally, at today’s same event, he said Saban should thank Thompson for basically signing a large part of their mythical Rivals.com National Championship.

He even got under LSU’s skin just for kicks, and I for one don’t even really hate the Tigers. Janzen Jackson’s joining the Vols provided me a great way to start my Thursday, and it’s safe to say LSU fans probably don’t like us much.

And finally, the Gators. How to make Urban mad: (1) Joke about singing Rocky Top all night long after beating them in Gainesville next year at your opening presser. (2) Take two of their long-time commits, one of which following a weekend-before-signing-day official visit. (3) Take jabs at their coach, and straight-up call him a cheater.

Uhhhh…

If you’re a Vol and don’t like this, you’re crazy. Why? OK, yes, we’re probably going to get killed at Florida next year – they are where we want to be. But this is yet another aspect of this new regime: no more playing nice. Not anymore will a Tennessee just take a jab. Nope, we’re starting stuff now, people.

A favorite form of procrastination of mine is perusing the recruiting board on Rivals, affectionately called the “main board”. Kiffin and Tennessee are getting lit up something fierce right now by hordes of Gates, Bammers, occasional Carolina and LSU fans, and even non-SEC school types. And you know what? I’m enjoying it. Sure, we’re taking our shots now and all, and playing at Florida and at Alabama is going to be rough next year (can’t be as rough as ‘07 though, right?), but…

You’re next, Georgia…

– … to me.