Surfing Through the SEC Football Schedules

The Gainesville Sun’s Robbie Andreu put out his preliminary projections for the SEC, and it got me thinking. I am not ready to put out my projections yet, mainly because there are too many good teams in the conference just to throw an order together right now. Projecting the SEC finish will take a lot of research.

I did end up looking at each school’s schedule, mainly focusing on the non-conference games. If you haven’t yet done that, you’ll be glad to know that the SEC schedules this year are less cupcake-y than past years.

For the record, I am fine with schools raiding the bakery for fundraiser games a couple times a year, but I do expect BCS schools to play at least one BCS opponent. I also think playing I-AA teams is inexcusable except for the very best I-AA teams, like Appalachian State, which are better than the Utah States and FIUs of I-A anyway.

Here’s a rundown of the SEC non-conference schedules, in alphabetical order:

ALABAMA

BCS Opponent: @ Clemson (Aug. 30)

Cupcakes: Tulane (Sept. 6), Western Kentucky (Sept. 13), Arkansas State (Nov. 1)

ARKANSAS

BCS Opponent: @ Texas (Sept. 13)

Respectable Non-BCS: Tulsa (Nov 1)

Cupcake: Louisiana-Monroe (Sept. 6)

I-AA: Western Illinois (Aug. 30)

AUBURN

BCS Opponent: @ West Virginia (Oct. 23)

Respectable Non-BCS: Southern Miss (Sept. 6)

Cupcake: Louisiana-Monroe (Aug. 30)

I-AA: Tennessee-Martin (Nov. 8 )

FLORIDA

BCS Opponents: Miami (Sept. 6), @ FSU (Nov. 29)

Respectable Non-BCS: Hawaii (Aug. 30)

I-AA: The Citadel (Nov. 22)

GEORGIA

BCS Opponents: @ Arizona State (Sept. 20), Georgia Tech (Nov. 29)

Respectable Non-BCS: Central Michigan (Sept. 6)

I-AA: Georgia Southern (Aug. 30)

KENTUCKY

BCS Opponent: Louisville (Aug. 31)

Cupcakes: Middle Tennessee (Sept. 13), Western Kentucky (Sept. 27)

I-AA: Norfolk State (Sept. 6)

LSU

Respectable Non-BCS: Troy (Sept. 6)

Respectable I-AA: Appalachian State (Aug. 30)

Cupcakes: North Texas (Sept. 13), Tulane (Nov. 1)

OLE MISS

BCS Opponent: @ Wake Forest (Sept. 6)

Cupcakes: Memphis (Aug. 30), Louisiana-Monroe (Nov. 15)

I-AA: Samford (Sept. 13)

MISSISSIPPI STATE

BCS Opponent: @ Georgia Tech (Sept. 20)

Cupcakes: Louisiana Tech (Aug. 30), Middle Tennessee (Oct. 25)

I-AA: Southeastern Louisiana (Sept. 6)

SOUTH CAROLINA

BCS Opponents: NC State (Aug. 28), @ Clemson (Nov. 29)

Cupcake: UAB (Sept. 27)

I-AA: Wofford (Sept. 20)

TENNESSEE

BCS Opponent: @ UCLA (Sept. 1)

Cupcakes: UAB (Sept. 13), Northern Illinois (Oct. 4), Wyoming (Nov. 8 )

VANDERBILT

BCS Opponents: Duke (Oct. 25), @ Wake Forest (Nov. 29)

Cupcakes: Miami University (Aug. 28), Rice (Sept. 13)

* * *

Only LSU doesn’t have a BCS opponent. Alabama, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt do not have I-AA opponents. LSU should not lose anything for playing Appalachian State, though, especially because Mountaineer fans have already begun predicting a victory on Charlotte sports talk radio.

LSU’s slate is the only one I’d call “shameful” in the bunch, though I am not happy about all of the non-App State I-AA teams you see listed. However, until the NCAA reverses the rule and stops allowing wins over I-AA teams to count towards bowl eligibility, those games are sadly inevitable.

Did the BCS Get it Right?

Now that LSU has defeated Ohio State for the BCS title, did the system set up the right championship game? I’ll do a quick rundown of the 1-loss and major conference 2-loss teams then make my case. After all, everything’s clearer with 20-20 hindsight. Teams are listed in alphabetical order, and the “Best Wins” category lists wins over .500 or better teams from major conferences (and Hawaii, if applicable, since the Warriors made a BCS game and had only one loss).

1 Loss Teams

Hawaii Warriors

Best Wins: Boise State, Fresno State

Loss: Georgia, 41-10

No wins over a major conference foe besides the Pac 10’s doormat, Washington. I feared for Colt Brennan’s life in the Sugar Bowl. No way, no how. I’m calling this one right now.

Kansas Jayhawks

Best Wins: Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech

Loss: Missouri, 36-28

While losing only once (and only by 8 points) is impressive. However, beating a perpetually suspect Virginia Tech team and a 7-6 Oklahoma State team is not, so Kansas is not helping itself much with the schedule.

2 Loss Teams

Georgia Bulldogs

Best Wins: Auburn, Florida, Georgia Tech, Hawaii, Kentucky, Oklahoma State

Losses: South Carolina, 16-12; Tennessee 35-14

The team was lost a listless until injuries forced Mark Richt to play Knowshown Moreno as a feature back. Uninspired play also forced Richt to pick a new motivational gimmick each week starting with the Florida game, all of which worked. This team was playing some of the best football in the country at the end of the year, but you must consider the season as a whole.

LSU Tigers

Best Wins: Auburn, Florida, Mississippi State, Ohio State, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia Tech

Losses: Kentucky, 43-37 (3OT); Arkansas, 50-48 (3OT)

It’s hard to accept a national champion who had two losses and gave up 50 points in a game during the season. Still, no one had a better array of wins, and as LSU fans will be quick to point out, the Tigers were undefeated in regulation and won the system everyone agreed upon.

Missouri Tigers

Best Wins: Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech

Losses: Oklahoma, 41-31; Oklahoma, 38-17

Missouri only lost to one team all year, except that it did so on two separate occasions. The Tigers did have wins over BCS participant Illinois and Arkansas, a team that beat LSU.

Ohio State Buckeyes

Best Wins: Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Purdue, Wisconsin

Losses: Illinois, 28-21; LSU, 38-24

Ohio State had the #1 rated defense in the regular season and was one of the most consistent teams all year. It did however play in the Big Ten, which dropped a stink bomb in bowl season and looks awful now. Plus, Illinois was thrashed by USC and the final score of the LSU game was closer than it should have been.

USC Trojans

Best Wins: Arizona State, Illinois, Oregon State

Losses: Stanford, 24-23; Oregon, 24-17

The Arizona State and Illinois wins were certainly impressive. However, it took until November 3 for the Trojans to beat a team that would finish above .500 for the year. The Stanford loss was unimaginably bad, and though USC had it’s backup QB playing the game, so did the Cardinal. Oregon with a healthy Dennis Dixon was probably the best team all year, and USC lost by just a touchdown.

West Virginia

Best Wins: Cincinnati, Mississippi State, Oklahoma, Rutgers, UConn

Losses: USF, 21-13; Pittsburgh, 13-9

The Fiesta Bowl win was a huge statement, the Miss State win was nearly as big as LSU’s, and the UConn win was overwhelming. Unfortunately for the Mountaineers, the Pitt loss was nearly as bad as USC’s loss to Stanford, and the team couldn’t get anything going against USF. In its defense, WVU lost Pat White for large stretched during the two losses.

As a side note, Pitt’s 13-9 win over WVU that sent LSU to the championship game was the same score as the UCLA win over USC last year that sent Florida to the championship game.

Conclusion

Who are the top two teams?

Hawaii is eliminated, period.

Kansas had just two wins over teams that finished above .500 for the year. You’re a nice story, Jayhawks, but you’re also eliminated.

USC, you only had 3 wins over above-.500 teams, and you still lost to Stanford. Total body of work counts, so you’re eliminated.

Ohio State had only 5 wins over winning teams, but it also played a pillow-soft non conference schedule and the Big Ten was deplorable this year.

West Virginia had also 5 wins over winning teams, but it was the weakest set of wins out of the teams with 5. WVU, you’re eliminated.

We’re now down to Georgia, LSU, and Missouri. LSU does belong in the top two because it had seven wins over .500 or above opponents and wins over two other BCS conference champions (ACC, Big Ten). Between Missouri and Georgia, the Bulldogs had more wins over teams .500 or better and beat a team (UK) that beat LSU. But, Missouri’s losses were better and the Tigers played just as well as UGA did in each’s bowl game.

For the moment, I have to pick the team with more quality wins, so I go with Georgia. That leaves an LSU/Georgia game. It might make people from the Midwest or West unhappy, but honestly those two deserved it more.

So no, the BCS didn’t get it right.

Yakety Gators

What’s more fun than watching Florida destroy Tennessee? Watching Florida destroy Tennessee on double speed with Yakety Sax!

Tennessee Wrapup

If there’s one thing that’s clear from this weekend, it’s that Urban Meyer is not planning on doing any more campaigning for BCS prizes. He’s going for style points with abandon, and is not having any more NFL-type victories where just winning is the only concern. When it comes down to it, the years have conditioned people who evaluate college football to look at margin of victory whether they like to admit it or not, and a 59-20 victory will carry more weight with pollsters than a 35-20 win will, and therein lies the problem - it’s all about impressing pollsters. But that’s another issue entirely.

That was probably the second-most complete performance by a Florida team since Urban got here, next to the BCS Championship Game against Ohio State. The defense played surprisingly well, so much so that it surprised Urban himself. To hold Tennessee to just 37 yards was incredible, and something I would not have believed if you tried to tell me that before the game. Clint McMillan and Javier Estopinan finally got some push up the middle, which definitely helped. The Gators also got some timely turnovers, something that was a hallmark of last year’s team. You really have to hand it to the Gators’ defensive coaching staff for getting the guys ready and keeping them focused throughout the game. These guys will be scary good next year.

The offense that we saw is what everyone has been waiting for ever since Florida fans started watching 2004 Utah highlights wanting to see what their new coach was going to do on offense. Tim Tebow played beyond his years, with his only big mistake (the interception) apparently being because Riley Cooper didn’t run the proper route. It was nice to see that the Meyer spread option can work against n SEC defense.

Then again, some might argue that Tennessee doesn’t have a real SEC offense this year, and for the most part those people would be right. The Vols’ defense just isn’t where it has been in years past. Some of Tebow’s throws would have been intercepted or at least knocked down against a top-flight defense. The first down pass to Kestahn Moore when Moore was coming back and made a diving catch comes to mind. After a fourth of the season, Tennessee is 90th in rushing defense, 95th in passing defense, and 102nd in total defense. Part of that is from playing Cal and Florida, the owners of two of the best offenses in the country, and UT will climb in the rankings after playing Arkansas State, Georgia, and Mississippi State in the next three games. Still, Tennessee’s defense is startlingly vulnerable.

The receivers definitely stepped up in the absence of Andre Caldwell, with Percy Harvin having probably his best game as a Gator and Cornelius Ingram coming up huge as well. It was nice to see Tebow throwing in Riley Cooper’s direction again, after Cooper had only one ball thrown his way against Troy. I guess the idea was that they wanted to make Tennessee think that the deep balls against WKU were only thrown because it was WKU and that against better competition the Gators wouldn’t loft it deep. Eschewing the long ball for short slants and bubble screens was one of the (many) things that turned a lot of Gator fans against the Zook regime, and it was a bone of contention last year up until the team won the SEC title. Even though Tebow threw the ball just 19 times, Florida fans left the game buzzing more about the passing game than the rushing game that had 46 carries.

Mark Schlabach has already proclaimed 2007 Florida as better than the title team from last year. I wouldn’t go that far quite yet, based on how dominant the defense was last year. Certainly the offense is worlds more efficient, the defense still could use some work. Plus, we haven’t even seen them on the road yet. This weekend at Ole Miss won’t provide much of a test, but at least it’s outside the state. The games at Kentucky and at LSU will provide much better tests.

No matter, Florida passed its first test in a big way, and anytime you beat Tennessee by margins not see since Herschel Walker was patrolling the SEC, it’s a good weekend. Go Gators!

59-20

Life is good. Go Gators!

Gators Pregame: Tennessee

Pregame Jaws

Florida is 23-4 in the third game of the season since 1980. The losses were at Tennessee in 1998, at Mississippi State in 1992, at Syracuse in 1991, and to Alabama in 1986. So, in general Florida does not lose the third game of the year if it’s at home.

Florida and Tennessee began playing each other the third game of the season in 1993, at which point UF went on a 5 game winning streak. Florida again won in 1999 and 2000. In 2001, the Tennessee had been scheduled for the third game, but was postponed to the end of the season due to 9/11. In 2002 and 2003, Florida did not play Tennessee until the fourth game because those were the trial years of the 12-game schedule, and Florida added Miami to the usual two “exhibition” games at the beginning before conference play. In 2004, Tennessee was again scheduled to be third but it was actually played as the second game due to a Hurricane Francis postponing the Middle Tennessee State game. Tennessee returned to the third spot on the schedule in 2005.

Urban Meyer Fanfare

Urban Meyer has never lost the third game of a season, going a perfect 6-0. At Bowling Green, he defeated Temple 42-23 and Kansas 39-16 in 2001 and 2002. At Utah, he defeated California 31-24 and Utah State 48-6 in 2003 and 2004. At Florida, he has defeated Tennessee twice, by scores of 16-7 in 2005 and 21-20 in 2006.

Orange and Blue

Or in the case of this weekend, just blue. Urban Meyer has requested all Florida fans wear blue to drown out the Tennessee orange. It should create a cool orange and blue effect in the stands, and it will only add to the atmosphere of the Swamp. Urban said it will be for recruiting purposes, and I think he’ll get the impressive atmosphere he wants.

Men of Florida

Tim Tebow and again Brandon Spikes and Dustin Doe were the real Men of Florida last week. Tebow put up over 300 yards of total offense himself, and is running the offense at very high efficiency. Spikes lead the defense with 9 tackles and a sack if memory serves me correctly, and Doe had 9 tackles, one for a loss, and a fumble recovery. Those three men will be the most important players on the field for Florida because the offense must score a lot since Tennessee will, and the linebackers will need to step up in run coverage because the defensive line is getting no push this year.

Chimes/Alma Mater

For details in this category, see the prior post called The Florida-Tennessee Relationship.

Boys March

The boys of old Florida should be doing a lot of marching up and down the field. Percy Harvin is the healthiest he’s been this year, Cornelius Ingram is catching everything thrown at him and always getting yards after contact, Kestahn Moore has shown some flashes of being a feature back, Riley Cooper will be going deep, and Tim Tebow is the straw that stirs the drink. Fans of Neanderthal offense or Big Ten offense (is there a difference?) should avert their eyes and watch Notre Dame – Michigan on ABC instead.

Gators Spell Out

G: Gaines, Antonio

Antonio Gaines, one of Tennessee’s starting cornerbacks, is out for the season now with a torn ACL. That’s a blow to the already shaky Volunteers’ pass defense.

A: Andre Caldwell

Yes, Florida lost Andre Caldwell for the game, but Florida has more offensive weapons than Tennessee has pass defenders, and the Vols are already 86^th against the pass this year. Still, the loss of his senior leadership on the field could hurt. Don’t worry, though, he’ll be very involved on the sideline.

T: Tennessee Fans

Tennessee fans are coming to town this weekend, and it’s not going to be pleasant. While there are some perfectly reasonable Vols out there, they are not the ones that you notice. You notice more the jerks that drive laps through campus blaring “Rocky Top” out their windows shouting “Go Vols!” at 8:15 in the morning (which I personally witnessed in 2003). Wear sunglasses at all times to avoid scarring from Tennessee orange.

O: Offense

The Florida offense has a chance to put up a lot of numbers in a legendary performance this Saturday. Or, it can sputter like it did in the third quarter against Troy as a young unit seizes up in its first true test against a conference rival. Which will happen? I am leaning towards the former, but the latter is definitely not out of the question.

R: Rush Defense

Florida’s rushing defense will have a severe test this week, facing Arian Foster, Montario Hardesty, and the now-healthy LaMarcus Coker. Phil Fulmer said that he is going to try to run the ball, as he always does, and if the Gator defensive line can’t get any more push up the middle than it has gotten in the last two games, Tennessee could control the game if it can get its running game working well.

S: Shootout

Everyone is saying it, and it will probably be true: this game will be a shootout. It definitely is a shootout on paper, but I have a feeling that this is a case when the conventional wisdom is so overwhelming that it can’t possibly come true. Then again, there’s not much either defense has done that inspires confidence.

Suwannee

Brandon James flowed right through the Troy special teams coverage live a river last week, but he tweaked his ankle in the process. Florida really need him to be healthy to help in the field position battle because Jarred Fayson has been awful as a return man and Chris Rainey won’t see the field as long as he keeps fumbling.

Tunnels

Tennessee is coming in confident in the way its offense matches up against Florida’s defense, and Phil Fulmer needs to make a statement that he can beat Urban Meyer. Florida is coming in looking to prove itself against real top competition and show that it deserves its top ten ranking. Also, there is still an element out there looking to see if Urban Meyer’s “real” spread option offense can work in the SEC since we still haven’t seen it against SEC competition yet. All in all, it should be one of the best games in the series we’ve seen yet.

The Florida-Tennessee Relationship

Florida and Tennessee have more in common than you might think. People have been going back and forth between the two and making big impacts for a while now. The most famous is probably Steve Spurrier, who grew up in Tennessee, but I’ll get back to him later. The most complicated ties are probably that of Bob Woodruff and Doug Dickey.

Bob Woodruff attended the University of Tennessee and played under General Robert Neyland, of Neyland Stadium fame. After a brief stop at Baylor, Woodruff became the head coach at the University of Florida for the entire decade of the 1950s. After finishing coaching, he returned to the University of Tennessee to become Men’s Athletic Director from 1963 to 1985. He was replaced in 1960 by Ray Graves, another Tennessee-born, UT-educated coach who also played under Neyland. Graves, incidentally, would stay at Florida and become athletic director for UF.

While the athletic director at Tennessee, Woodruff hired Doug Dickey as head coach. Dickey was born in South Dakota but grew up in Gainesville. He attended UF and played quarterback from 1951 to 1953 under Woodruff. He was the Vols’ head coach from 1964 to 1969, and many say he rejuvenated the program. After a rough first season, his teams never won fewer than 8 games, and he twice won the SEC Championship and twice won SEC Coach of the Year. He also started the traditions of having a T on the helmets, having the band making a T on the field for the team to run out through during pregame, and painting the endzones in that stupid checkerboard pattern. He was hired to coach UF in 1970 where coached until 1978, but he didn’t have the same success and would later return to Tennessee. He served as AD at UT from 1986 to 2002 where he enjoyed great success.

Now, I mentioned Gen. Neyland previously, and one of his famous things aside from his coaching record is setting forth his 7 Football Maxims. They are, as follows:

1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
2. Play for and make the breaks and when one comes your way - SCORE.
3. If at first the game - or the breaks - go against you, don’t let up… put on more steam.
4. Protect our kickers, our QB, our lead and our ball game.
5. Ball, oskie, cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle… for this is the WINNING EDGE.
6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.
7. Carry the fight to our opponent and keep it there for 60 minutes.

A plain language translation of them is as follows:

1. Minimize turnovers and penalties
2. When the other team makes a mistake, attack
3. Don’t give up
4. Block well and don’t give up leads
5. Be aggressive on defense (I don’t know what ball as a verb and oskie mean, but the rest seem to point this way)
6. Block kicks
7. Be the aggressor

Now, all of these point to playing smart and being aggressive. Sound like anyone to you? I don’t know if Steve Spurrier had heard of these maxims, though I would think it’d be likely since he played football while growing up in Tennessee and considering Neyland’s stature in the state. I think it could be possible that some of his coaching philosophy stems from this list, especially #2. Spurrier was famous for going for a touchdown pass immediately after turnovers. Of course, he probably put his own spin on some of them, such as with shortening #3 to just “Don’t let up… put on more steam” in all situations.

All in all, Florida and Tennessee have a lot of ties. There have been a lot more relationships involving players too, with the Leak brothers each being at one of the schools and Lee Humphrey leaving Maryville, Tennessee to come to UF being more recent examples. Of course, Tennessee fans naturally hate Florida fans and vice versa, so it’s yet more proof that familiarity does indeed breed contempt.

Troy Wrapup

There’s no real point to talking about the first half because we all saw it, and there’s nothing I can add to what has already been said. Yesterday, I said I would talk about three things, so here we go.

First Half Offense versus Second Half Offense

The first half offense was nearly flawless, and it was helped out by lots of incomplete passes stopping the clock and allowing for more plays. The third quarter was the real problem, because it picked back up in the fourth quarter. Problem number 1 was the defense not stopping Troy anymore, but that’s for later. The entire offensive sequence in the third quarter is as follows:

1. Andre Caldwell catches crossing route, fumbles, and is injured: turnover
2. Kestahn Moore draw up middle: 1 yard
3. Moore triple option handoff up middle: 2 yards
4. Percy Harvin dropped pass thrown behind him by Tim Tebow: no gain
5. Punt
6. Tebow option run up middle: loss of 3 yards
7. Cornelius Ingram very short crossing route: 4 yards
8. Tebow sacked on double linebacker blitz from one back set, missed blocking assignment by either Drew Miller or Moore: 10 yard loss
9. Punt
10. Louis Murphy bubble screen: 7 yards
11. Moore draw up the middle: 4 yards (first down)
12. Jarred Fayson blindsided and injured thanks to poorly timed triple option pitch from Tebow and missed block by Riley Cooper: no gain
13. Incomplete pass on Tebow scramble thanks to pocket breakdown from blitz, missed block by Maurkice Pouncey, and Tebow not recognizing blitz coming: no gain
14. Tebow sacked despite Troy rushing only 3 because all receivers are covered and Tebow slides up in the pocket farther forward than Miller is blocking: loss of 2
15. Punt

That’s 12 whole offensive plays. Not to sound like Bobby Bowden or anything, but blocking was the biggest issue. The offensive line had a terrible third quarter after dominating Troy in the first half. Riley Cooper missing a block didn’t help either, and Tim Tebow forgetting where in the pocket he was led to a sack despite only three rushers and the guy getting the sack being double teamed. That’s the play that gets me the most of all of this.

Another problem was unimaginative play calling. The coaches, probably not wanting to run up a gaudy score, took their foot off the gas and began running mostly inside rushing plays. I understand that winning 70-something to 20-something is considered bad form by a lot of people, but you can’t try to flip switches with such a young team. Maybe last year’s team could have handled it with all of its senior leadership, but not this year. I don’t think the defense will keep too many scores close enough to worry about this, but we saw the coaches turn back the offensive intensity in the BCS title game last year. If another team has a bad first half and the Gator offense runs up a big lead, they had better not pull this crap in the second half because every team on the schedule, except for maybe Ole Miss and FAU, can come back against our defense.

Why the Defense Fared Poorly in the Second Half

First and foremost, the UF defense fared worse in the second half because Troy started playing a lot better. QB Omar Haugabrook stopped missing as many receivers and began running effectively. The Trojans’ play calling was also less predictable.

Another issue is that a lot of the defense backups went in. The easiest way to tell that the backups are going in is the presence of true freshman Carlos Dunlap. He is gigantic, and he’s a defensive lineman wearing #8 so he really sticks out. He has perhaps the most physical ability of anyone on the team, but he came in with what the coaches described as the worst fundamentals because he has poor coaching in high school. Plus, with as big, fast, and strong he is he didn’t need fundamentals against average high school offensive linemen. Anyway, if you see him that means the starters are being rotated out more aggressively.

That is exactly what happened. A lot of guys who were in high school last year were lining up in blue jerseys, and that lead to a lot of missed tackles, mistakes, and penalties. The starters were fine in the first half, but when the guys who needed experience went in, they showed why they need it. As long as the Gators defense stays healthy, it should be able to at least contain most opponents well enough for the offense to give them a shot to win.

Why Florida isn’t in as Big of Trouble as Many Think vs. Tennessee

Tennessee had a hangover half against Southern Miss before waking up and pulling away. That doesn’t take away the fact that Tennessee’s defense looked really bad against Cal. It committed a number of sins, like missing tackles, taking bad angles, and being slower than the guys their trying to cover. The Vols will have the same problem this weekend, so there’s no guarantee that they will keep Florida under 30 or 40 points.

Losing Bubba Caldwell hurts, but that just means Riley Cooper steps in the same place and we don’t miss a beat. Plus, Tennessee’s starting CB Antonio Gaines is now out for the year, so that’s going to be a bigger loss for the Vols than Caldwell for the Gators. Brandon James will be ready to go, and the backups on defense shouldn’t see too much action since the game will be close the whole way. There’s no reason to believe that Florida is in any bigger trouble in this game than Tennessee is.

Interim Saturday Wrapup

Wow. What a day it has been, and the prime time games are just getting going.

Michigan’s Lloyd Carr is definitely on the hot seat now. Forget his struggles in bowls and against Ohio State - the ignominy of losing to a I-AA school at home while ranked #5 is much, much worse. Michigan has the most talent in the Big Ten by most accounts, and losing to Appalachian State, no matter how many I-AA championships it has, it completely unacceptable.

Georgia Tech hammered Notre Dame. This is significant because A) it was in South Bend, and B) Chan Gailey is a very conservative coach and it was still 33-3. Notre Dame is in serious, serious trouble.

Washington State put up a valiant effort for a half against Wisconsin. Bill Doba might survive the year after all.

Georgia is looking better so far than I thought it would, and Kansas State is hanging in there with Auburn more than I was expecting. Cal got an early cheap touchdown against Tennessee, but the Vols came back with an Erik Ainge touchdown pass to tie it. This one might end up a shootout.

I am reserving my thoughts on the Florida game for a dedicated post about it, but suffice it to say the game felt familiar, and I think Urabn is going to be frustrated with his running game again.

By the way, my ESPN.com College Pick ‘Em Picks, which I will post each week after they have been locked in, were as follows:

• UCLA over Stanford (10 points)
• Wisconsin over Washington State (9)
• Miami (FL) over Marshall (
• Missouri over Illinois (7)
• BYU over Arizona (6)
• Auburn over Kansas State (5)
• Georgia Tech over Notre Dame (4)
• Georgia over Oklahoma State (3)
• Colorado over Colorado State (2)
• Tennessee over Cal (1)

LaMarcus Coker Reinstated

And just like that, LaMarcus Coker has been reinstated by Tennessee. I remarked that the phrasing left room open for him to return to the team quickly, and though he will miss the Cal game he will be back for all games after that. It shows that Phil Fulmer was serious about the issue that got Coker suspended since Coker won’t be traveling to Berkeley, but hopefully this is a sign that the guy is getting his life back on track.

Incidentally, I still think Tennessee wins at Cal.