Posts Tagged ‘SEC Football’

For those of you who are regular readers around here, you have doubtless noticed that it’s been pretty quiet around here at Gate 21 lately.  The phrase “brisk as the tomb” comes to mind.  Part of that owes to the ebbs and flows of life in the 21st century, part from my laziness, and part from the fact that changes are afoot here at Gate 21, well at least in a manner of speaking.

All I can tell you at the moment is:

1. No, I am not dead;
2. No, I have not given up on the Vols in the wake of Lane Kiffin’s departure; and
3. Once again, there are about to be a bunch of changes here at the Gate—big changes—which I hope will be for the best.

At present, all I can tell you is that things are afoot and that I should have a big announcement later in the week or early next week.  Until then, it’s going to be a bit quiet around here.

For now, however, here is a little YouTubification of the Vols Winter workouts, courtesy of UTSports.com.

Video: Tennessee Football Winter Workouts: Day 1

HT / via: UTSports.com

In the meantime, thanks for understanding…

– So it goes …

Check out the Full Poll Results at Team Speed Kills!

Final Season Ballot

Well, it’s been a long season and all the games are in the books.  This season, I have been less than dutiful in managing to write anything about the comings and goings of college football, which is highly disappointing for me.  Of late I’ve taken a few weeks off to try and recharge myself both as a person and as a blogger—more on that later.  Either way, since all that really matters in the world of college football is where you end the season, here’s my final ballot the SEC Football Power Poll, serving as a cap to the the 2009 season.

Here they are, my darlins:

Rk.	Team	Comments
1.		The last chapter in this book was nothing but ugly, but the 13 wins before that were pretty stellar.  A well earned championship the Alabama Crimson Tide.
2.		The Florida Gators finished strong against Cincinnati—bidding Tim Tebow a fond farewell, and possibly Urban Meyer. Next year, however, looks awfully uncertain, not bad, just really “sketchy.“
3.		Up and down, up and down.  The Ole Miss Rebels 2009 season was the roller coaster from hell, but it was fun, and was worth the ticket. In 2010, the Rebels have holes to fill and maybe the expectations will be a little more reasonable.
4.		What a difference between 2008 and 2009.  The LSU Tigers looked like a top-rate, second-rate program at times, especially on offense. I have a feeling there will be some changes in the off-season.
5.		Considering where the Auburn Tigers were this time last year, I call this one a success. Hats off to Gene Chizik for managing to return a winning record and to avoid being lynched by the Tigers’ fans.
6.(t)		The Tennessee Volunteers improved steadily throughout the season until injuries began exposing just how empty the cupboard was when Lane Kiffin took over. Call me crazy, but I think the Vols overachieved this season.  Next year, however, will be much more important; setting the stage for years to come.
6.(t)		The Georgia Bulldogs finished with a win, which is probably a good thing for Mark Richt. The question remains, however, just how much can they reasonably improve by 2010?  I fear not enough to keep the crazies at bay.
8.		While there were some real bright spots here and there in 2009 for the Arkansas Razorbacks, on the whole I am not so sure that things will be much better next season for the Hogs, until they figure out who they want to be offensively and start playing just a little bit of defense. Still, they were much better in 2009 than in 2008.
9.		Once again, the South Carolina Gamecocks suffered their late-season slide. Still, they beat kissing-cousin Clemson before imploding against Connecticut. So, how many more seasons does the Ole Ball Coach hang around?  I’m thinking not that many.
10.		While the Kentucky Wildcats lost to Clemson in the Music City Bowl, considering where the Cats were when Rich Brooks took over, I call four bowls in a row big time improvement. As for the future, well, it’s not like Joker Phillips hasn’t already been there and done that.
11.		Dan Mullen’s Mississippi State Bulldogs were light-years better than they were under Sly Croom in 2008.  They just could never catch a break when they needed one. Next year, however, that should start to change.
12.		As for the Vanderbilt Commodores, well … umm … the field looked nice this year.

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 Team Speed Kills, where the 2009 Football Power Poll round-up is there for all to see.

Now, on to basketball season…

– So it goes…

2009 SEC Power Poll

All-SEC Team: Defensive Backs

Check out the Complete All-SEC Team at Team Speed Kills!

Well, due to a complete lack of judgment on the part of the SEC Power Poll brain-trust, Gate 21 has been selected to announce the Power Poll All-SEC Team selections at defensive back.   The following positions for the 2009 All-SEC team have already been announced:

• Alligator Army:  Quarterback
• Roll Bama Roll: Running Backs
• Hey Jenny Slater: Wide Receivers
• Team Speed Kills: Tight End

The rest of the positions are being announced today and tomorrow across the blogosphere.  In case you miss one, be sure to check in for the most up-to-date announcements over at Team Speed Kills.

The envelope, please…

The 2009 SEC Power Poll All-SEC Selections at Defensive Back are (in order of votes received): Eric Berry (Tennessee), Joe Haden (Florida), Javier Arenas (Alabama) and Mark Barron (Alabama). The reasons behind these should be obvious, but in case they aren’t here’s why these fine athletes are the cream of the crop:

Read the rest of this entry »

Get more information on the SEC Power Poll at Team Speed Kills!

2009 All-SEC Football Selections

Well, I have been really lousy job lately at posting.  This has been due to a variety of things, none of which are of any importance to those of you out there in web-land who actually take the time to read the drivel that I produce.  Be that as it may, the brain-trust of the SEC Power Poll have joined together to, yet again, collectively select an All-SEC Football team for 2009.  Here is my ballot in all of its radiant glory:

Read the rest of this entry »

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

Week 15

Through 6 December 2009

Ahhh, 2009 college football regular season, we barely knew ye.  Yes friend and neighbors, here we are at the end of the regular season.  Thus, here is my final ballot for the 2009 regular season, the last ballot until after the completion of bowl season.  While I am sure some will disagree with some of my rankings, they are what they are: little more than my subjective assessment on the powers of college football.  Most of these should be fairly obvious.  Either way, here is is:

My Ballot for the Week

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	–
2	Cincinnati	3
3	Texas	–
4	TCU	–
5	Ohio State	1
6	Boise State	1
7	Penn State	1
8	Oregon	1
9	Brigham Young	1
10	Virginia Tech	1
11	Georgia Tech	4
12	LSU	–
13	Florida	11
14	Miami (Florida)	3
15	Wisconsin	4
16	Oklahoma State	4
17	Nebraska	4
18	Iowa	3
19	Stanford	4
20	Utah	4
21	Pittsburgh	5
22	Central Michigan	NR
23	West Virginia	NR
24	Houston	6
25	East Carolina	NR
Last week’s ballot

Explanations after the jump…

Read the rest of this entry »

Image by Tennessee Journalist via Flickr

On the back of Jonathan Crompton’s 220 passing yards and Montario Hardesty’s 179 yards on the ground, Lane Kiffin’s Tennessee Volunteers defeated the Kentucky Wildcats 30-24 in overtime and improved to 7-5 on the season and earned a 2nd place finish in the SEC East behind the Florida Gators.

More importantly in the minds of some, the Vols extended “the streak” to 25 years since yearly opponent Kentucky last beat the Vols.

To put that in perspective, the last time that Wildcats beat the Vols, I was 8 years old…

The Vols all-time record against the Wildcats in football?  An impressive 73-23-9 in 105 meetings.

Read the rest of this entry »

Some of Slive's Henchmen at Work

Well, it looks like there are a few teeth to Mike Slive’s new edict that coaches refrain from criticizing the SEC’s finest.  What’s more, and somewhat to my surprise, it appears that the new policy even applies to Urban Meyer.  The basis for these conclusions?  Mike Slive’s decision to fine Florida Gators coach Urban Meyer $30,000 for criticizing the officiating during the Gators’ game against the Georgia Bulldogs, which was announced via an official release earlier today.

I am sure that Jeremy Foley will be lodging a strongly worded protest shortly, demanding that Lane Kiffin apologize for not being fined before Meyer…

So this raises a question: can you get fined for criticizing the fine you got tacked with for criticizing the officials?  I wonder if we will find out?  That could be highly entertaining.

At any rate, I guess we now know that Mike Slive actually meant what he said when he declared himself the High Inquisitor of the SEC.  Of course, no one expects the Spanish Inquisition…

Read the rest of this entry »