Hornsby Indicted, Kicked Off Team

And all I can say is good riddance to bad trash. It was a mistake to recruit to the guy in the first place. And save your canned "second chance" rhetoric. This guy was a despicable cancer who blew through multiple chances at Florida. Because he's tall and athletic, he was given yet another chance, which he predictably threw away.

Before you can say it, no, it's not a shame and no, it's not sad. It's pathetic. There's much positive going on in Oxford right now to involve a pariah like Hornsby. If the only thing he's interested in is fighting in McDonald's parking lots at 3AM or running up bills on a dead girl's credit card, then he has no business being in Oxford or any other college town.

And, please, don't let the door hit you on your way out of town... you'd probably try to steal the doorknob off it.

Friday Afternoon Delights

What's the best way to complain about the out-of-control media hype that a non-story is getting? Well, if you're Danny Belch of the Stanford Daily News, you write a story about it for the newspaper...

I could not believe the coverage this little incident — if we even want to call it that — was getting. In my mind it shouldn’t have gotten any.

Yep, no better way to make sure a "little incident" gets no media coverage than to write about it in the paper. Not a bit of irony there.

And why does it concern a Stanford student anyway? I agree with your assertion that it needs to go away, but it's become a non-issue around here now to everyone but Spurrier himself. I don't think the media "forced" Spurrier to change his vote. He's a disinterested shell of his former antagonistic self and most likely truly delegated his voting duties.

And, Danny, if I may call you Danny, a little fact checking wouldn't hurt along the way.

Then they can go find the person who voted for Brett Favre instead of Tom Brady for the 2008 NFL MVP. If you forgot, Brady broke the record by throwing 50 touchdowns during the regular season, and also led the Patriots to the only 16-0 NFL regular season. Pretty deserving, I would say. He received 49 out of the 50 possible MVP votes. So why did we not hunt down the person who voted for Favre? Maybe because that person had an opinion, and thought Favre’s outstanding 2008 season was MVP-worthy.

In 2008, Tom Brady completed 7/11 passes for 76 yards before suffering a season-ending injury. If anyone voted Brady MVP with those numbers, there probably should be an investigation. I believe you meant 2007, but seeing as how you included "2008" twice, I fear your research crew may be failing you.

* Two other articles about the 10 quarterbacks in the SEC not named Tebow or Snead here and here.

* Wally Hall likes the Rebels in the SEC West this year

* John Stroud is being inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame tonight

Auburn Game Preview at Track 'Em Tigers

Acid Reign at Track 'Em Tigers has a very in-depth preview of the Halloween showdown between the Rebels and the Tigers up. It breaks down position-by-position matchups. Most of it falls within reason, though I do strongly disagree with this assessment:

Auburn offensive line vs. Ole Miss defensive line: Auburn's offensive line handled the Ole Miss line pretty well, last fall. Unfortunately they were trying to block 8 or 9 guys, so the running game went nowhere. And it was a banged up Ole Miss line. Auburn has bulked up this year, but has little depth. Ole Miss returns veterans up front. Senior Ted Laurent anchors the middle, along with junior Lawron Scott., and the pair should get help from junior Jerald Powe. Senior Greg Hardy is an all-star at end, IF he plays. Senior Marcus Tillman and junior Kentrell Lockett are pretty good ends, too. Advantage: Even.

Even? There's not an offensive line in the conference that is "Even" with our DL. Particularly one that he even admits has "little depth".

Then there's the summary and prediction:(emphasis mine)

While Ole Miss appears on paper to have significant advantages, the game is at Auburn, and Auburn will be looking for a good showing after a tough trip to Baton Rouge.

Prediction: Ole Miss cannot solve the hobgoblin of Auburn's Malzhan offense. Both teams move the ball well, but mistakes on the road doom the Rebels. Auburn hangs on, 34-27.

Wait, what? Our defense is going to be worried about Auburn's offense? I'm fairly certain that Nutt, Nix, and staff aren't worried about being picked apart by Chris Todd and/or Kodi Burns. Sure Malzahn did well as OC at Arkansas and as HC at Tulsa, but consider the offensive talent he was working with in Fayetteville and the defenses he faced at Tulsa. I highly doubt Auburn scores 34 points in any SEC game this year, particularly not against the Rebel defense.

For the most part though, it's a good read with some useful insight.

Links for a rainy Thursday

* The Tuscaloosa News has a good read about Jevan Snead and his winding road to Oxofrd.

* Jamar Hornsby is likely to be indicted this week. I've said it before and I'll say it again, we need to cut all ties with Hornsby sooner rather than later. His recruitment and commitment have been nothing but embarassing train wrecks for the program and there is far too much at stake this season to jeopardize it on this assclown. He's blown through his full allotment of second chances. Set him free to play in the Mississippi Penal League.

* John Adams has an brief breakdown of how the schedules shake out for every SEC team.

Wednesday Afternoon Delights

* How big is the SEC's new TV deal with ESPN? Blair Kerkhoff sums it up nicely with this line:

Think about that. Vanderbilt will take home more network TV football money this season than Texas.

* The guys at Red and Black threw together a list of the most hateable coaches in the SEC. It's a fairly entertaining read, and it's hard to argue with the top 3. I can't say I agree with them all though.

First off, Spurrier is highly overrated at #4. Unless you're still harboring a grudge in Athens or Knxoville, Spurrier is a disinterested shell of his former self who strikes fear into no one.

Secondly, Mark Richt is overrated as well at #5. There's no way he's more hateable than Les Miles or Bobby Petrino, who may be the most underrated checking in at #7.

Our own Houston Dale Nutt checks in at #8 with this commentary:

Houston Nutt is, well ... on the edge of crazy. We don't particularly have a grudge, but he's coached at two different SEC schools, and, well, kind of orazy.

So, hey, somebody must hate him.

I wonder who could hate Houston?

* The Orlando Sentinel has a chart up tracking the revenue of every D1A football school from 2007-08. Although the totals include all sports, truthfully on football and basketball matter financially at the majority of the schools on the list. Considering this list covers Orgeron's last year, it's no surprise to see Ole Miss ranked so low and 11th in the SEC. I know most think EOr was fired when he "sensed a lull" in the 2007 Egg Bowl, but truthfully, he was fired when about 15,000 people showed up for the Northwestern State game that year.

Florida obviously topped the SEC, but I was surprised to see Auburn #2...

Because you really can't ever beat a dead horse enough

In what basically reads like a Southern Miss fan message board post, The Sun Herald editorial board proposes the novel concept that Ole Miss and Mississippi State should be ashamed of themselves for not subsidizing the Southern Miss football program. Even the headline - "It's what the people want" - shows the delusion has permeated the media. What "people" did they talk to? Southern Miss fans obviously. I know of very few Ole Miss or Mississippi State fans that want anything to do with the Southern Miss football program.

It's a lose-lose situation for either in-state SEC school. A win is a win over a CUSA school, a loss would be absolutely disastrous for recruiting and message board reading. With Nutt at the helm and the recent influx of talent to the Rebel program, I don't think a loss would be a realistic possibility, but the risk - however minimal - outweighs the benefits, which are basically non-existent.

Sure USM would look better than most or all of our 2009 OOC opponents, but this year is something of an aberration regarding scheduling. With upcoming games against BCS opponents as well as Tulane - which offers the best regional road trip - there's nothing appealing about such a series. Who wants to go spend a day in Hattiesburg?

I'm a big proponent of the baseball and current basketball series. One of the most exciting basketball games I've ever attended 113-107 2OT game in late 1995. The neutral site locations for the games certainly add some excitement to the series, but basketball and baseball are completely different animals than football, particularly in Mississippi.

Then there's this:

Gov. Haley Barbour and the Legislature should serve notice that Ole Miss, Southern and State will compete annually in major college sports. Because it is in the economic interest of taxpayers. Because it would be public policy that would bolster pride in the state’s athletic community.

Yep, that sounds about right. Mississippi has solved all its other problems and economic woes. It's time for federally-mandated football games. Bravo.

And, for your viewing pleasure, here's a completely uninformative blog entry from the SEC football mecca of Seattle. Ole Miss is listed as a possible team "from a BCS Conference who traditionally doesn't sit atop their conference (that could) have a great season and shake things up like Texas Tech did last year or like Kansas the year before."

Basic recap:
- Rebels have good QB with cool name
- Snead is getting unwarranted Heisman hype
- OMGWTFBBQ! Jevan Snead is white
- Picture of Jevan Snead and his whiteness
- Rundown of favorable schedule

Enjoy.

SEC Helmet Schedule Download

I finally stumbled across a correct SEC Helmet Schedule for the 2009 football season. I know a lot of you downloaded it from my old site the last couple of seasons, so here ya go. Click here to download it.


As I can't host files here on Blogger, I posted it for download on YouSendIt, a free filesharing service. If you click on it and it says the download limit has been reached, you can either leave a message in the comments and I'll repost it on YouSendIt or shoot me an email at thedeadguysec -at- gmail -dot- com and I'll just send it to you directly.

Isn't it ironic, don't ya think?

Warning: The following sentence may make your head explode from irony...

Shiny-headed blowhard Paul Finebaum calls out a columnist for writing a ridiculous column full of hyperbole. The Orlando Sentinel's Mike Bianchi wrote a column spawned from SEC Media Days with one-liners such as

You see, Alabama football, with its legions of fanatical fans and its horde of frenetic media, is scared.

Very scared.

and...

Meyer has the demeanor. He has the domination. He has everything the Bear had except the houndstooth hat.

and...

This is Alabama's worst nightmare.

The Bear has finally risen again.

But he's coaching at Florida under the alias of Urban Meyer.

I'll grant you that Bianchi's column in question is a ridiculous comparison to make given Meyer's brief (so far) tenure in the SEC, but Finebaum calling him out is laughable at best. The good news for Auburn fans though is that Finebaum's next column should be all about them. The defense of The Bear should appease the Alabama fans for a few days.

Winning the SEC West: Inside the Numbers

Let's get the obvious out of the way first: The hype leading up to the 2009 football season is something that Oxford hasn't seen in decades. For the first time in years, the Rebels will field an explosive offense with a stout defense and experienced special teams. There's legitimate talk of the Rebels making the program's first appearance in the SEC Championship game.

But what will it take to make it to Atlanta? Besides just winning more games than divisional opponents and a little bit of luck along the way, what do the Rebels need to do on the field to put themselves in that position?

Using the always awesome cfbstats.com, I took a look at the SEC Western Division winners from the last 5 years and some key metrics. See below for how the quintet compares in Offensive Yards Per Play, Defensive Yards Per Play, Run/Pass Ration, Turnover Margin, Offensive Third Down Conversion Rate, Defensive Third Down Conversion Rate, Offensive Points per Game, and Defensive Points Per Game.
So what do the numbers say? For one, turnover margin is not necessarily as important as many think it is... just look at LSU from 2007 (+20) and 2005 (-9). It also points to a reliance on a strong running game as each team had at least a 1.38/1 run/pass ratio. The 2004 Auburn Tigers had a 1.8/1 ratio. Not surprisingly, they also point to a strong defense that can get off the field in 3rd down situations. None of the last 5 winners has allowed 20ppg or more than 4.7 ypp.

Another interesting note is how comparable last year's Rebel team was to the previous winners. And, just for some sadistic fun, I threw up the numbers from the 0-8 team.
Yep, last year's team was much better. The question is, of course, can this year's Rebels maintain that explosiveness on both sides of the ball with the losses of Peria Jerry, Michael Oher, and Mike Wallace? Peria will certainly be missed, but with the depth the Rebels have stockpiled along the defensive front, that unit will be okay. Patching up the holes on the offensive line certainly present some issues, but talent is there and Mike Markuson is one of the best in the business. If a legitimate deep threat steps up to replace Mike Wallace, there's no reason to think that this year's offense won't be as good if not better than last year's.

Perhaps most telling in this comparison is the difference in the number of plays we ran on offense, and under a much healthier run/pass ratio. As bad as our QB situation was in Orgeron's entire tenure, we still threw the ball more times than we ran it in 2007, mostly because we were behind so big so early.

Nice Terrico White feature on espn.com

Andy Katz has a nice article on espn.com about Terrico White. It talks a bit about his experiences winning gold in New Zealand earlier this month as well prospects for next season... including the NBA. It's good to see the basketball team getting some good publicity.

As an aside, there was one comment in the article I wanted to touch on.

White said he has no idea how Kennedy is going to handle having White and (Chris) Warren back together, since they barely played next to one another last season.

I'm not worried about that at all. Both he and Chris are cut from the same mold - quiet assassins who go about their business stoically. The White/Huertas backcourt never gelled because David was just not that into playing within the system last year. He was thrust into a difficult situation with all the backcourt play around him dropping like flies with knee injuries, but instead of using it as a rallying point to be a team leader, he seemed to mope around and feel sorry for himself. By the time he was ready to play again, Terrico had emerged as the star of the team.

I've said it before, but David, despite being a senior, would've been the odd man out of the starting rotation had he returned for next season. I wish him the best in Puerto Rico, but I'm not worried about replacing him at all. Malcolm White is a much bigger loss for us. Reginald Buckner is going to be a star, but it would've been nice to have Malcolm in there to help ease his transition.

Anthony Dixon arrested

Anthony Dixon was arrested Saturday night for three of charges including driving under the influence after he allegedly refused to take sobriety tests. While there's no denying that Dixon getting busted for DUI is stupid, it's something that the majority of you reading this probably could have been busted for at some point at your time in (Insert College Town Here). But he's a senior leader on a team in transition and it's just a couple of weeks until practice starts up. Mullen and crew did not need this.

What I'm curious to see is how Mullen handles the situation. His predecessor wowed the media with "Be Good or Be Gone," but under Croom, the Bulldogs had arrest numbers that would make Urban Meyer blush, and not many of them were "gone". Mullen has made no such decree and is a Meyer protege, so it will interesting to see how this works itself out in the coming months. Will it be "handled internally?" Will he be suspended for Jackson State? What about Auburn?

As one of the few SEC-caliber players the Bulldogs have on the offensive side of the ball, I expect the punishment will be light. There's no way he misses Auburn and even missing the 2nd half of the JSU game would be a surprise to me. It's not like he was counterfeiting dollar bills, right?

"ESPN, I'll tell you, I don't have much to do with them anymore"

* Oh how the proud and mighty can change their mind... Tommy Tuberville will be an ESPN employee this season. Tuberville who once famously called out ESPN, claiming "most of their analysts are coaches who haven't won games," particluarly slobber machine Thenator Lou Holth, of whom he said "gets on there and talks about what a team has to do to win that game, and the guy couldn't beat anybody in our conference"

If you're an SEC fan these days and not a fan of ESPN, you're out of luck for the next decade and a half.

* The Press-Register is doing an interesting series on recruiting in the SEC, starting with a look at the amount of cash SEC schools have spent the last few years on football recruiting. Over the past three seasons, no school in the conference has spent nearly as much as Tennessee has:

1) Tennessee $1.15M
2) Auburn $705,125
3) LSU $662,773
4) Florida $599,818
5) Georgia $521,174
6) Ole Miss
10) Alabama $285,649
11) South Carolina $273,909

Vanderbilt, as a private institution, declined to submit their records. The article leaves out the numbers for Ole Miss, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Mississippi State, though it mentions the Rebels rank 6th. Given that EOr was the head coach for the majority of the time in question, it's not surprising that the Rebels were in the top half of the conference in total expenditures.

Then there's this piece that features the Kang quite prominently, as it covers cheating. State AD Greg Byrne has the typical msu excuse mastered:

The cultural environment for football, coupled with the instantaneous power of the Internet, is making allegations, character assassinations and innuendo an accepted behavior.

Yep, that's why msu ended up on probation... innuendo and character assassinations. What about Texas A&M and Pittsburgh?

* This summer has not been kind to Erin Andrews. Just weeks after setting up too many jokes to count by getting hit in the chin with a foul ball, someone apparently filmed her naked in her hotel room.

Personally, I don't quite get the obsession that many fanboys have with her. She's attractive and an SEC girl, sure, but she's no Melissa Stark. Regardless, it's a sad world when you can't walk around in your hotel room without fear of some perv hanging out with his cell phone camera rolling.

Dan Mullen thinks about Ole Miss... a lot

Dan Mullen spoke in Jackson for about 10 minutes last night and mentioned Ole Miss seven times, which would be funny if it weren't so sad. It's almost a Finebaumian approach to things - pandering to the lowest commmon denominator of fans and attempting to rile people up with childish name calling. I guess when you're dealing with as moribund a football program as the one in Starkville, your options are limited.

Two other paragraphs jumped out at me:

More than that, he promises an exciting style of offense, the spread, that he hopes will result in many more points scored than in the half-decade tenure of Sylvester Croom, his predecessor.

In approximately 10 minutes of remarks to fans, Mullen never spoke specifically about his 2009 team, members of which joined him in the autograph line earlier.

First off, scoring more points than the Walrus' teams shouldn't be too difficult. In five seasons, the Fraud never produced an offense ranked inside the top 100 in the nation. Even Orgeron managed to do that once in a shorter tenure. That offense is going to be an utter trainwreck this season though. Just think Auburn 2008 with less talent on the field and on the sideline.

Mullen must realize this, hence failing to mention - even once - the Bulldogs team that will take the field in seven weeks.

But hey, Brang 'em and Rang 'em, right?

Billy Gillispie thinks he's interesting

Former Kentucky basketball coach and current labor statistic Billy Gillispie has announced he's going to write a book about his coaching experiences.

From the article:

Gillispie and the author have been working on the book on and off for the past three years but now have formally agreed to see the book through to completion.

"I am just really excited about what we have done so far," Gillispie said. "And I look forward to continuing on this project. It has been a lot of fun so far, and I am sure it will be a lot of fun to complete. I have more time to do it now."

He's been a college head basketball coach for exactly 7 seasons - 2 at UTEP, 3 at TAMU, 2 at UK - sounds more like he's writing a leaflet than a book.

And he's been working on it for the past three years? Four years into his head coaching career, he feels he's interesting enough to write a book about his experiences? Instead of wasting his time writing a book no one but his mom will be interested in reading, he should spend a time reading a book or two on community relations. He was almost Orgeron-esque in his dealings with fans and media... standoffish despite being the biggest celebrity on campus.

No word if he's actually signed a contract to finish the book though...

Coaches Pre-Season All-SEC Team Announced

It was posted here on the official conference site and raises some interesting questions.

John Jerry and Greg Hardy both landed 1st team nods, Dexter McCluster and Jevan Snead earned 2nd team nods, and Shay Hodge, Marcus Tillman, and Joshua Shene wound up on the 3rd team. Not a bad showing for the Rebels.

One thing of note though... three player were unanimous first teamers: Eric Berry, Ciron Black, and Julio Jones. Not Tim Tebow though. While he's the obvious choice as first team QB, there was at least one dissenter along the way and my guess would be Mr. Kiffin. And, by the way, I know Julio is great and all, but how is he unanimous and AJ Green isn't? Green's numbers were better than Jones' last year.

Speaking of quarterbacks, it's a sad state of affairs when the 3rd team nod gets split between Stephen Garcia and Mike Hartline. Those two combined for 2498 yards with a 15/16 TD/INT ratio. I'd say that Mallett or Cox will end up 3rd team. I'd even take McElroy before either Garcia or Hartline.

I also think it's interesting that no Rebel RB made the list. I know that the depth Nutt has at his disposal hurts individual numbers, but gimme Brandon Bolden over any back in the league except for Charles Scott. Michael Smith will put up gaudy numbers as the featured back at Arkansas, but if I need 2 yards, I'll take Scott or Bolden over anyone else.

Last thoughts about finebaum's column

Cocknfire over at the always great Team Speed Kills linked back to my response to Finebaum's recent pot-stirring column and makes some of the points I wish I had made, but was too flabbergasted by the gall it took to pen such meaningless crap.

If you don't believe that Ole Miss is going to win the SEC West this year, that's one thing. There's plenty of people out there who believe the Rebels will not win it and offer legitimate reasons they won't. Then you have Finebaum who somehow pieces together 827 words of inflammatory muck without offering a single intelligent statement or snippet of research as to why the Rebels will fail this year. I'd be impressed by the sheer ineptitude if I weren't so bothered that his editor ran with the story.

As Cocknfire points out, most of (Finebaum's) shots are "playground-level taunts, but that's Finebaum's usual fare." It's the sort of inane banter expected on the free access areas of message boards, but not from a professional paid "journalist". He could have worked in "Ole Piss" and "webels" and not compromised the integrity of the column, as there was none left to lose by the fourth paragraph.

Dave Curtis is strange, likes understatements

The Sporting News' Matt Hayes and Dave Curtis squared off yesterday about a variety of college football topics, including the following question: I've got a pair of 50-yard-line, 2009 season tickets for any team in the country. Who are you taking?

Hayes responded with USC, apparently wanting to see which medicore Pac-10 team they Trojans will inexplicably choke against this year. Dave Curtis, though, went an entirely different route, mixing in the understatement of the year...

Curtis: Mississippi State. (Say what?) On the surface, spending seven Saturdays in Starkville sounds like a Siberian exile. But check out the teams coming to Scott Field this fall: Jackson State, LSU, Georgia Tech, Houston, Florida, Alabama and Ole Miss. That's a strong football buffet -- great defenses, a triple option offense and one of the nation's five best from outside the Big Six conferences. Here's the added bonus: I'm a sucker for watching a team build itself up from the basement to the penthouse. Mississippi State won't win a national championship, but Dan Mullen's bound to make this program a factor in the SEC West. Get on the bandwagon now, and enjoy watching this squad grow almost from scratch with a lineup of young players.

Really? First off, I was unaware that the bulldogs had a bandwagon. As bad as it crashed and burned to the ground last year, I think the bulldog bandwagon is a figment of Curtis' imagination. Sure, they've got their base of loyal fans and alumni, but that's hardly enough for a bandwagon. It's rarely enough to fill their stadium.

Secondly, I'll take Curtis' bet that Mullen makes state a "factor in the SEC West." They're mired deep in the cellar as it is... which school are they going to surpass? LSU and Alabama? Obviously not. Ole Miss? Given Nutt's track record against the bulldogs? No chance. Arkansas? Say what you will about Petrino, but he'll win some games while he's there. Auburn? Would seem to be the most likely given their offsesason shenanigans, but Chizik put a good staff together and seems to be recruiting fairly well. My guess is that Mullen finds what every other coach who goes to the land that fun forgot... you can't win there without cheating.

Fortunately, Matt Hayes got things right when he asked about his favorite college towns, listing Oxford, Athens, Boulder, and Pullman. While I've not been to the latter two, Oxford and Athens rank #1 and #2 in my book and there's not a close third.

Catching up with the pundits

I've been away for awhile, but I'm back.

* The more I read and hear Paul Finebaum, the more I wonder who the shiny-headed blowhard has nekkid pictures of. He's a pot-stirrer at best who rarely - if ever - writes anything non-inflammatory. The latest bandwagon he's jumped on is the anti-Rebel Bandwagon bandwagon.

This piece may be pointless and empty of any real substance, but at least it's clouded by ridiculous hyperbole, metaphors, and Caesarian references. I'm not even going to justify it by quoting it on this site. It's bad even by Finebaumian standards.

I will say one thing though. Mr. Finebaum, please allow me to speak for the Rebel Nation when I assure you that we don't need your pity. Whether or not the Rebels win the SEC West this year remains to be seen, but win or lose, I'll still be a Rebel and you'll still be a washed-up never-was that panders shamelessly to anyone that will actually read or listen to you, the overwhelming majority of which recognize you for the fraud you are. So please, spare me your faux-pity.

* Then there's Tommy Tuberville, whose opinion I actually do respect. He offers a pretty fair assessment of the the three-team race atop the SEC West, though he gives the edge to LSU. Personally, I think he's putting too much stock in Jordan Jefferson, but that's just me.

Tuberville's thoughts are after the good article about the Louisiana players on the Ole Miss roster.

* Wally Hall is typically as big a homer as Finebaum is pointlessly inflammatory, so I was surprised he listed Mallett behind Snead in his rundown of the SEC QBs. If the Hogs OL can gel and hold up, I can see Mallett flourishing in Petrino's offense. That's not the issue I have with this list. It's the ranking outisde the top 3 that leave me scratching my head.

Let me be the first to say that if there are 7 worse quarterbacks in the league than Tyson Lee, the SEC is in for a long, miserable season. He's a shoo-in for highest interception/attempts ratio in the conference. What exactly has Wally Hall seen from Lee that makes him think Lee can even be a serviceable QB in the SEC?

And ranking Joe Cox last? In this mediocre crop of SEC QBs, give me a fifth-year senior with UGA's OL with AJ Green lined up wide any day of the week over the majority of QBs ranked ahead of him. Cox would very well be 4th in the league in passing yards behind Tebow, Snead, and Mallett.

The same can also be said about Greg McElroy ranking 11th. Bama has some questions on the OL, but as long as Julio Jones is running around, McElroy will have one of the top bail-out options in the country.

As long as Garcia's antics are a thing of the past, I think, almost by default, that a Spurrier-coached QB (even a down-trodden, disinterested Spurrier) is going to be better than anyone Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Auburn, or mittippi tate run out there this year.

I'll grant you these lists are always subjective, but I can say unequivocably that Mr. Hall is dead wrong on many accounts in his list. I'm not sure what his criteria were, but if you're basing strictly on the productivity expected for the 2009 season, I think the list should be:
1) Tebow
2) Snead
3) Mallett
4) Cox
5) Garcia
6) Jefferson
7) McElroy
8) Burns
9) Hartline
10) Smith/Adams
11) Crompton
12) Tyson Lee/whoever replaces him when Mullen realizes he's not an SEC-caliber QB

Pom still on

It would be a drastic understatement to say that Drew Pomeranz was locked in against Guatemala as the rising junior lefty mowed down 17 batters in 6 IP. For those of you who struggle with math, that means that exactly 1 out in 6 IP was not a strikeout of some form.

I'll grant you that Guatemala isn't exactly a baseball powerhouse - they struckout 24 times for the game - but it's still an impressive number to throw out there. Good to see him pitching well.

Oh Devin, we hardly knew ye

In a blow to the tennis team, NCAA men's singles National Champion Devin Britton is going pro. Britton became the first freshman in NCAA history to claim the singels crown and is currently playing very at the Wimbledon Juniors, having advanced to the fourth round and still going.

Britton is one of the top American tennis prospects in the world. He was a key component of the Rebels' success this year on the courts and will be greatly missed. He's got a chance to make a big name for himself this week in London before heading to Croatia to serve as a practice partner for the U.S. Davis Cup team’s next match later this month.

Best of luck to you Devin.