Posts Tagged ‘Michigan State Spartans’

Here’s my ballot for this week’s CBS Sports BlogPoll Top 25 hosted by — as you might imagine — CBS Sports.

Week 6

Through 4 October 2009

After the games of this past weekend, my ballot seems to have settled down a bit near the top, but the back end continues to be a bit of a rollercoaster.  Most of these should be fairly obvious.  Either way, here’s my BlogPoll Top 25 ballot for week 6 of the 2009 season:

My Ballot for the Week

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida	–
2	Texas	–
3	Alabama	–
4	LSU	–
5	Boise State	–
6	Southern Cal	–
7	TCU	–
8	Ohio State	–
9	Penn State	2
10	Iowa	–
11	Virginia Tech	1
12	Mississippi	1
13	Miami (Florida)	6
14	Cincinnati	–
15	Notre Dame	2
16	Kansas	4
17	Oklahoma	8
18	Oklahoma State	3
19	Auburn	NR
20	Nebraska	2
21	Wisconsin	NR
22	Oregon	NR
23	Pittsburgh	1
24	Missouri	NR
25	Georgia	10
Last week’s ballot

Explanations after the jump…

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I will be the first to acknowledge that both the blogosphere and the internet in general are full of vitriol directed toward various teams.  Any team that has ever enjoyed any success whatsoever has something written about it which drips of the sort of steaming hatred that accompanies sports rivalries great and small.  Most of the time these flaming rants come from fans of teams that are either rivals (or wish they were rivals) of the object of the spewing hatred.

This post is a flaming rant.  It is not, however, aimed at a traditional rival of the Tennessee Volunteers.  Furthermore, while it amounts to little more than a creative rationalization on my part, I feel that I have earned my bitching license on this one since — in addition to being a graduate of the University of Tennessee — I am also a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

I despise the Tarheels Tarheads…

From 1998 until 2001, I attended “trade school” at UNC.  For the record, I got a wonderful education at the UNC School of Law, and have nothing but good things to say about the educational aspects of that institution.  There are a few reasons for this.  First, UNC School of Law is an excellent institution with a fine faculty.  Second, as is the case at most professional and graduate schools, most of the students at UNC School of Law did their undergraduate work elsewhere.

See, I said something nice about UNC…

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Well, I am—quite obviously—running behind.  I have yet to get my thoughts together on the BCS Championship Game—which President-elect Obama still thinks needs to be sacked in favor of a playoff—and the conclusion of the 2008-09 football season.

I’m going to blame it on the uncontrollable projectile vomiting that accompanied the realization that the Florida Gators had been crowned national champions…

I know, I know, I am supposed to pull for the SEC, and as a general rule I always do.  Had the Alabama Crimson Tide, Georgia Bulldogs, or any other member of the SEC won, then I would be overflowing with my congratulations to the team in representing the conference on the most visible stage in the country.  There’s only one problem with this general rule of mine, it has one exception:

I have never and will never pull for the Florida Gators in any sporting event.  No way, no how, no sir.

Without re-hashing what I have already said, I hate to lose to many of the SEC schools (most notably Alabama) but I don’t “hate” those schools.  With Florida it is different.  I realize this will label me as a sour-grapes sort of poor sport who blames Tennessee’s poor performance this year on every one but the Vols.  It is petty, it is juvenile, it is silly.

Frankly, I don’t care…

Furthermore, had the thousands of classless thugs folks that I had to deal with during my three trips to Gainesville for games shown a little more class, then this wouldn’t be the case.  Of course I doubt the Gators care what I think either.  Thus, I’ll congratulate the LSU Tigers for a nice win against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, the Georgia Bulldogs for their besting of the Michigan State Spartans, the Ole Miss Rebels for up-ending the Texas Tech Red Raiders, The Vanderbilt Commodores and Kentucky Wildcats for managing to win their bowl game when few gave them much of a chance.  To all of you, congratulations.  As for Alabama, well, thank you for representing the conference in the BCS, despite losing to a tough Utah Utes squad.  The Utes are a solid team and there is no shame in the loss.

Florida, however, can suck it…

Alrighty, I suppose that’s enough venom for the moment.  Then again, maybe not.

“You’d have to be out of your friggin’ mind not to want to play for the Gators,”

• Urban Meyer commenting after the Gators victory over the Oklahoma Sooners

• Via Go Vols Xtra: Meyer sees no end to Florida’s reign

Nice to see that Meyer isn’t smug about it all.

Fortunately, Lane Kiffin doesn’t seem to be the type of guy who really cares about impressions and opinions.  He spent his week giving the current members of Vols football squad the proverbial “Come to Jesus” experience as he has made it clear that he expects a lot from his players not just on the field, but in the classroom as well.  He drove this point home by showing up unannounced in a few classrooms around the Hill and by dismissing Darius Meyers and giving Brent Vinson one chance to straighten-up.  Other sources indicate that, in addition to these “visible” actions by the Blackjack General, there have been other disciplinary actions taken to shore-up various shortcomings by players.  Both Ramone Johnson and Demetrius Morely have also been mentioned as having been “encouraged” to find more focus.  I have a feeling that there will be more heard on this subject in the coming months leading up to the Orange and White game this spring.

All of this is fine by me.  Sometimes you have to do a little housekeeping when you are trying to make changes.

Speaking of changes, Mike Griffith posted a particularly interesting piece on the perceptions of various members of the national sports media on Kiffin’s selection as the new head coach at Tennessee.  The general consensus is that no one really knows how things will turn out.

I found the response of ESPN.com’s Gene Wojciechowski to be particularly insightful:

“I don’t know what to think. I know he’s hiring a great NFL staff – his dad from Tampa and Orgeron from the Saints. He’s going into one of the most impatient places there is. The whole thing is a chemistry experiment to me. It will be fascinating to see how it plays out. It’s one of the few hires where most people don’t have a feel for how it will work out. It’s one of the greatest calculated gambles I’ve seen in a while. If it works, Mike Hamilton looks like a genius. If it doesn’t, they fired a pretty good coach.”

• Via Go Vols Xtra: National Media sounds off on Kiffin hire

Personally, I find the reactions in Griffith’s piece refreshing for two reasons.  First, it is nice for once to hear the media talking-heads admit that they don’t know everything about everything—I guess they all forgot to pay the bill on their crystal balls due to the economic downturn.  Second, and most importantly, I like the fact that Kiffin represents a paradigm shift for Tennessee.  When given a choice between a hamburger or pizza, Smiling Mike appears to have chosen the Billy Barou (Nachos) with extra queso and hot sauce.

Thus far, when it comes to staff selections, Kiffin has been keeping up his end of the bargain.

As a result, the Vols are seeing a serious up-swing in their recruiting fortunes as National Signing Day approaches.  According to Scout.com’s Jeffrey Stewart*, it appears he has the right people out in the field knocking on doors—giving Tennessee a chance at a fabulous finish which seemed unlikely not long ago.  At present the Vols have 17 commitments, but the No. 4 wide receiver, No. 4 running back, No. 4 tight end and No. 2 offensive tackle in the nation are all making visits in the coming days.  At worst, it’s now looking like a top 20 class.  Basilio has a nice breakdown (courtesy of “X”) for those interested.

Oh, and despite the fact that Mike Hamilton’s little chemistry experiment is not a cheap one, UT announced that ticket prices will not be going up in Neyland Stadium this fall.

Note to self “Butts in the seats = Good”

Fulmer in the ACC?

Meanwhile, rumors are flying all over the place about the possibility of the Great Punkin being considered for the head coaching job at Boston College, after coach Jeff Jagodzinski was fired on Wednesday for interviewing with the New York Jets.  Fulmer has been a good friend of Boston College AD Gene DeFilippo from their time together as grad assistants on the Tennessee staff in the early 1970’s.  DeFilippo was instrumental in Fulmer’s decision to hire Dave Clawson prior to the 2008 season:

Ultimately, Fulmer settled on Clawson, who had interviewed the year before for the Boston College head coaching job. BC athletic director Gene DeFilippo was a graduate assistant at Tennessee in the early 1970s when Fulmer was getting his coaching start, and the two have continued to talk over the years.

DeFilippo’s endorsement of Clawson carried a lot of weight with Fulmer, who was even more intrigued after he met and talked football with Clawson. A dandy playcaller himself when he performed those duties under John Majors from 1989-92, Fulmer liked the idea of bringing some new blood into the program. And that’s not a knock against Cutcliffe, either.

• Via ESPN.com: Clawson, Volunteers planning to beef up running game

Many fans and media observers feel that Fulmer would be near the top of possible candidates outside of the existing Eagles staff members, especially considering the importance of loyalty in the mind of DeFilippo who has no problem following his instincts.  There has been no official word at present, but the possibility has begun to gain some traction in the press and the Blogosphere.  Whether anything comes of these rumors remains to be seen.

Oh, and the BasketVols lost to Gonzaga in overtime, snapping the Vols’ 37-game winning streak.  That pretty much sucked.

Up next, the Georgia Bulldogs, Saturday at noon—likely without Tyler Smith (sigh…).  As is my usual practice (and time permitting), I plan on jumping in the game open thread over at Rocky Top Talk—if you haven’t participated in one in the past, they are fun and you should give it a try.  Tell Joel I sent you.

I should post more on Bruce and the Barbarians (as well as the fact that Pat Summitt is only five games away from her 1,000th win), but—as I said from the outset—I’m still in catch-up mode.  We should be in full basketball mode here at the Gate by sometime next week.

Until then…

Go Vols, Beat the Bulldogs!

– Go Figure …

Image Courtesy of: UTSports.com

*Scout.com membership required to access article

Here’s my ballot for this week’s CBS Sports College Football BlogPoll hosted by—as you might imagine—CBS Sports.

Week 10

Through 01 November 2008

With the “power” teams making their claims with increasing volume, the BCS committee is already exploring the option of entering the witness protection program.  It’s looking like 2007 all over again.  Nonetheless, here is my preliminary BlogPoll Top 25 for this week.  Most of these should be fairly obvious.  Either way, here’s my ballot:

My Ballot for the Week

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	1
2	Texas Tech	4
3	Penn State	–
4	Oklahoma	–
5	Florida	3
6	Southern Cal	1
7	Texas	6
8	Missouri	2
9	Utah	–
10	Oklahoma State	3
11	TCU	1
12	Boise State	1
13	Ohio State	1
14	LSU	1
15	Ball State	1
16	Brigham Young	3
17	North Carolina	3
18	Georgia	11
19	Pittsburgh	5
20	California	6
	Georgia Tech	5
22	Michigan State	4
23	Northwestern	3
24	Minnesota	7
25	Maryland	–

Dropped Out: Oregon (#18), Florida State (#21), Tulsa (#22), South Florida (#23).

Explanations after the jump…

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Here’s my ballot for this week’s CBS Sports College Football BlogPoll hosted by—as you might imagine—CBS Sports.

Week 8

Through 18 October 2008

Well, apparently no one wants to be in the bottom half of my ballot, because almost all of the teams below No. 13 on my ballot from last week lost.  With one more weekend of the college football season behind us, there are a great many changes in my BlogPoll ballot for this week.  Most of these should be fairly obvious.  Either way, here’s my ballot:

My Ballot for the Week

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Texas	1
2	Alabama	1
3	Penn State	–
4	Oklahoma	–
5	Southern Cal	–
6	Texas Tech	–
7	Georgia	–
8	Florida	–
9	Ohio State	1
10	LSU	1
11	Utah	1
12	Oklahoma State	1
13	Boise State	3
14	TCU	12
15	Missouri	6
16	South Florida	10
17	Ball State	6
18	Pittsburgh	8
19	Boston College	7
20	Minnesota	4
	Georgia Tech	5
22	Kansas	8
23	Brigham Young	8
24	Oregon	1
25	Wake Forest	8

Dropped Out: North Carolina (#18), California (#19), Vanderbilt (#20), Michigan State (#21), Virginia Tech (#22).

Explanations after the jump…

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Last week offered some great in-conference matchups and a couple turned out to be more lopsided than many thought. The great conference games continue this week, as the races begin to take shape.

Indeed, the conference races will continue to take shape as the temperatures drop around the country (it was 86 in Knoxville yesterday) and leaves start falling everywhere. Yes, I’m avoiding mentioning Tennessee’s now meaningless season by discussing the weather…

Another larger storyline that’s been discussed already this week is the Big 12’s apparent attempt to claim itself as the best conference. While the league is pretty good at the top, I still think the SEC has better depth, even with the struggles of Tennessee and Auburn.

Anyways, here’s the games to watch, and hopefully this time I’ll do a better job picking them – I picked LSU, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, and they all lost…

SEC Games

Vanderbilt at Georgia (12:00, RayCom): So much for that little run. Vandy just missed out on a huge opportunity to get to 6 or more wins. There’s still chances with games against Kentucky, Tennessee and Duke, but beating Florida, Georgia and Wake Forest may be a tough order. Vandy’s offensive struggles were exposed last week against Mississippi State, and Georgia’s not the best team to face with an iffy offense…

The questions with Georgia: they left plenty of points to be gotten last week against the Vols, with two picks and kicking four field goals. They better not overlook Vandy, as trips to LSU and the showdown with Jacksonville come in the next two weeks.

Ole Miss at Alabama (3:30, CBS): Alabama comes off the bye looking to continue the momentum from hammering Georgia and edging Kentucky two weeks ago. Ole Miss has been better, yet horribly inconsistent, beating Florida on the road but falling to Vandy and South Carolina at home.

I don’t expect Ole Miss to win, but they should keep it close. I’m still expecting Alabama to lose a game, but it won’t be Saturday. The matchup to watch is the Tide’s offensive line against the Rebels’ defensive front. The only way Ole Miss can win is limiting the turnovers that hurt them in their two home SEC losses.

Arkansas at Kentucky (7:00, ESPNU): Give me some credit, last week I didn’t explicitly pick Arkansas to upset Auburn, but I did say the Hogs were gonna get somebody at some point this year and they did. Can they follow it up? Kentucky’s offense is still struggling, so Arkansas can certainly keep it close. This is a big game for UK’s bowl hopes, as they sit at four wins on the year.

This 63-yard TD run by Michael Smith led Arkansas to the upset over Auburn. Can they Hogs get UK this week?

Mississippi State at Tennessee (7:00, PPV): Ugh. Good thing this game is on pay-per-view…who wants to watch these offenses?

Uh oh...Mississippi State held Vanderbilt to 107 yards of total offense...

Obviously I do, because I’ll be there in the fourth row. I’m expecting an ugly game with points few and far between. Tennessee can’t really lose at home to Mississippi State, can they? State has played decently the past two games, and no doubt have some momentum coming into Knoxville. How does Tennessee show up with nothing but pride to play for? Is Phil Fulmer the next coach to be Croomed like Ron Zook and Mike Shula?

LSU at South Carolina (8:00, ESPN): Ouch. Didn’t see that coming. LSU got crushed by Florida, and now they travel over to Columbia to a Carolina offense that’s gained some confidence with SEC road wins in Oxford and Lexington. Whoever’s been playing QB for the Gamecocks – Chris Smelley and/or Stephen Garcia – have actually done pretty well.

LSU’s defense isn’t what it was last year – they’re 9th in the league in total defense. Carolina’s defense is going up against an inexperienced QB and an offense that got beat physically by Florida last week. How do they respond?

Honestly, I want to say Carolina will win. But this is historically one of those “almost” wins for the South Carolina program. “Almost” as in they “almost” win a huge home game over a better opponent. That said, I think LSU bounces back, setting up that showdown with Georgia next weekend.

Florida is off this week, but I want to give a little shout-out to Brandon Spikes. Now I hate the Gators and hope they fail at everything, but when something’s funny, it’s funny. Here’s Brandon Spikes’ attempt at a punt into the stands after a pick-six…

OTHER CONFERENCES

Some Mountain West love: big game tonight for unbeaten BYU, as they travel to TCU tonight. The unbeaten Cougars essentially have two tests between them and a BCS Bowl: tonight and the season finale at fellow unbeaten Utah. Keep an eye on this game…

The Weekly Duke Update:After a bye week, the 3-2 Blue Devils are back in action with a big game, at home against young Miami. Just 4.5-point dogs, Duke looks for the upset. This game is on ESPNU at 3:30, so if Alabama starts killing Ole Miss (and you actually have ESPNU), switch on over and see if the missed Coach Cut can lead Duke to the upset. The emptiness of Duke’s stadium won’t have any adverse effects on the Canes – they’re used to it…

Big XII

Kansas at Oklahoma (3:30, ABC): Oklahoma and Bob Stoops is going to be pissed off. Poor, poor Kansas. They avoided OU and Texas last year. Er, not this year. How Kansas stops OU I have no clue. Then again, the Sooner defense got worn down watching Texas go up-and-down the field on them in Dallas. Kansas keeps it close – for a half.

Missouri at Texas (8:00, ABC): So much for Missouri beating Oklahoma State by three TDs. The Tigers essentially gave the game away, and now face a make-or-break game at #1 Texas. I say make-or-break because Missouri’s schedule is pretty clear sailing after this game, and they obviously have to win to stay relevant in the title race.

Can Texas return to earth after beating their hated rival last week? This should be a pretty high-scoring game (duh, it’s the Big XII new Pac 10…), and entertaining. I think Texas wins the game in the fourth quarter.

Javon Ringer faces a tough Ohio State defense Saturday afternoon

Big Ten

Ohio State at Michigan State (3:30, ABC):
Yes, people, Michigan State is very much in the Big Ten race. Of course they have to beat Ohio State to stay there. The Spartans are led by HB Javon Ringer, but the Ohio State defense is tough up front.

Ohio State has been overly impressive on offense. They have actually been kinda bad. If Michigan State doesn’t give up a special teams or defensive TD to the Buckeyes, I like their chances to keep Ohio State’s offense in check. The winner would become the biggest challenger to the dominance Penn State has shown this year.

Michigan at Penn State (4:30, ESPN): I know, I know, Michigan sucks and Penn State is really good. Thought losing to Toledo is bad? The Wolverines better be ready to get blasted Saturday. Penn State is a legit team. Keep in mind two things: (1) Penn State hasn’t beaten Michigan since 1996 and (2) they are at Ohio State next weekend.

Outside of these games, there isn’t much else. We all know USC will win the Pac 10 and whoever wins the Big East doesn’t matter. As it is, enjoy this weekend…

Images Courtesy of: Dave Martin / AP (Daylife) • Rogelio V. Solis / AP (Daylife) • Nam Y. Huh / AP (Daylife)

Here’s my ballot for this week’s CBS Sports College Football BlogPoll which is now—surprise, surprise—hosted by CBS Sports.

Week 7

Through 12 October 2008

Man, oh man, what a weekend of craziness this was!  After all the shake-ups this weekend in the world of college football, there are major changes at the top in my BlogPoll ballot for this week.  Most of these should be fairly obvious.  Either way, here’s my ballot:

My Ballot for the Week

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	1
2	Texas	4
3	Penn State	2
4	Oklahoma	3
5	Southern Cal	2
6	Texas Tech	2
7	Georgia	2
8	Florida	3
9	Missouri	6
10	Ohio State	–
11	LSU	7
12	Utah	1
13	Oklahoma State	4
14	Kansas	1
15	Brigham Young	1
16	Boise State	–
17	Wake Forest	1
18	North Carolina	2
19	California	–
20	Vanderbilt	8
21	Michigan State	4
22	Virginia Tech	1
23	Ball State	3
24	Minnesota	2
25	Oregon	1

Dropped Out: Northwestern (#21), Auburn (#22), Wisconsin (#24).

Explanations after the jump…

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