College Football Gameday notes

I'm begrudgingly awake, watching ESPN as Corso, Herbie, and the rest of the gang of idiots blast their high pitched screams if irrationality my way. Because I've got nothing else to do until 2:30 PM CST (finger in the f'in air, y'all), here are my College Gameday notes:

• Gainesville is terrible. The only things worse than Gainesville: Miami fans. There are nothing but jort-wearing, goatee-having, northeaster transplants as far as the eye can see sitting behind the Home Depot stage.
• Corso just said the Mississippi State Bulldogs are "lousy." Well, I'm stunned. For once, I liked hearing something come out of Corso's mouth.
• They're about to do a segment which involves them having "miked" certain coaches "up" (how does one say this?) during practices. Guess who they've chosen along with Miami's Randy Shannon. That's right, Houston Dale Nutt. This shouldn't dissapoint.
• Notre Dame still sucks. They literally had the worst offense in D 1-A football last year yet Kirk Herbstreet is talking about them winning 9 games this season. What the hell? I don't have some hatred for Notre Dame, I really just cannot stand the unjustified media lovefest they've reaped over the last few, I dunno, decades.
• Follow up from 2 points ago: HDN did not upset. He gave the usual "nobody here has been to a bowl game, gotta finish, heartstrings" yadda yadda yadda talk and then he just broke out into a bunch of "Yahoo! There ya go! Git 'em GIT 'EM! YAHAA!" The Right Reverend Houston Dale Nutt, as Chris Fowler just referred to him, is getting good press this morning. This, of course, drives the few dozen folks in Arkansas who can afford cable up the damned wall.
• Erin Andrews is still hot.
• Lee and Kirk pick Wake over our Rebels. Fuck you both, assholes.*

Now, seriously, what are you doing reading this blog? There's football on the damned TV!

*Don't come up on here all like "oh but you guys made a favorable Wake prediction bla bla bla" crap. That was yesterday. This is today. To hell with you Wake Forest.

Women of the Opposition - Wake Forest

As part of our continuing coverage here at the Cup, we promised to bring you the occasionally biased coverage you deserve. Of course, you've certainly been coveraged out by now. But there's one feature that doesn't require you to think, to read, or even to get the jokes. Hence, Women of the Opposition.

As far as the women of Wake Forest go, I'd grade them somewhere above Vanderbilt, but below Alabama.

Enjoy the game, and let's all hope Riley Skinner stayed up too late last night socializing with the Women of the Opposition.

Wake Preview

For this week's game, I talked to a friend who is an undergrad at Wake Forest about their team. If I'm horribly inaccurate, I will not hesitate to blame it all on him.

QB Riley Skinner is good, but let's remember that Skinner's TD:INT ratio for his career is 24:18. It's not like the guy is all-world. Last season, he passed for 2200 yards, 12 TDs and 13 INTs. Skinner doesn't kill with big plays. He kills with his skill. Last season, Skinner completed 72% of his passes. That's unbelievable. I would expect Skinner to have very little trouble with our defense, though I'm sure we'll pick him off at least once.

HB Josh Adams rushed for fewer than three yards per carry against Baylor. Something tells me our defensive front is better than Baylor's. Adams had a decent season last season in the ACC (953 rushing yards), but I'm not concerned about him. Redshirt freshman Brandon Pendergrass is someone who has multiple Wake Forest fans excited, though he didn't play well in their game against Baylor, averaging 2.4 ypc. I think that, while Wake is probably going to torch us through the air, we'll be able to contain them on the ground.

At wide receiver, Wake has a bevy of options, but if their game against Baylor is any signal, TE Ben Wooster is the receiver to worry the most about. Wooster caught the ball six times for 90 yards. Luckily, I anticipate that our outside linebackers have sufficient coverage skills to keep Wooster to minimal gains. I still just worry a lot about our secondary. They were certainly better than adequate against Memphis, but I want to see them contain a passing game that isn't poorly built on bubble screens and a situation where they don't have a 24 point lead. Senior DJ Boldin caught seven balls against Baylor, but the Baylor defense held him to thirty three yards on those seven catches. Obviosuly, he can get open, but he doesn't appear to be a threat with the ball after the catch (though I didn't actually see the game).

Wake's offensive line had significant trouble against Baylor. If we had Hardy and Jerry, I would say that we would be able to put real pressure on Skinner and completely bottle thier running game, but without those two, I really worry. I was talking with Ghost of Jay Cutler, and we agreed that if there was ever a game when we needed Jerrell Powe to step up and be the player we hoped for, this is the time. I don't have extensive hopes for Powe's season, but if he could just help us win this one game, it would be worth it. This game is so important. We need this victory to gain momentum heading into vandy and Florida.

On the defensive side of the ball, I wasn't able to get a lot of information from my casual fan friend.

On the defensive line, Wake Forest isn't very big, but they do a good job crashing holes and tackling the ball carrier. They could give us trouble up the middle, but our tackles will certainly dominate their defensive ends. They did a good job against Memphis, and they will be riding a high from their dominant performance against Memphis.

At linebacker, Aaron Curry could give us some trouble in coverage, and his run-stuffing skills are excellent. Seriously, run away from the guy. I'm fine with not throwing the ball to Gerald Harris (who will be the primary player that Curry defends, apparently), but I don't want Mr. Glass Dexter McCluster to get hit by this guy. He didn't know anything else about their linebackers, but a quick visit to Wake's athletic site tells me that Hunter Haynes is another linebacker to be somewhat concerned with. He was second in tackles against Baylor and appears poised for a decent season after being named to the All-ACC freshman team last year.

At cornerback, obviously Alphonso Smith will be trouble for us. Still, he's only one corner. I would hope that we'll just avoid the receiver he covers and not give him chances to get a pick. Brandon Ghee on the other side does a good job wrapping up the ball carrier, but you have to wonder if he'll be able to take down Brandon Bolden. Still, his name is another to keep an ear out for. Out of high school, he reportedly ran a 4.34 (according to his bio on Wake's site). I think that Jevan is going to have to be picky for us to win this game. Wake takes advantage of too many turnovers. If we don't throw any picks, we've got a chance. If we do, we can put this one in the loss column.

Safety Chip Vaughn led the team in tackles last season. That's usually not a good sign, but Wake won nine games last year. I guess he's a playmaker who excels on run defense. I have no factual evidence to back that up.

In the end, while we match up relatively well against them, I'm just not sure that our hopes aren't too high for this team. Remember. We didn't win an SEC game last season.

Prediction: Wake by 7.

State of the Opposition - Week 2

The opposition is out to get us. Constant surveillance is required to keep accurate tabs on their where-abouts and goings-on. The British had MI-6 and James Bond. Nixon had G. Gordon Liddy. Lord Zed had the Green Ranger.

We have the internet.

September 4, 2008
Vanderbilt (Week 4; 2-0, 1-0) def. #24 South Carolina (Week 6; 1-1, 0-1) 24-17
In more ways than one, this is all very surreal. The the Ol' (consistently disappointing) Ball Team compulsively loses possession of the ball. Cocks quarterbacks have a combined six interceptions so far, and I feel validated ranking Vanderbilt above Tennessee in my SEC Power Poll ballot.

September 6, 2008
Memphis (Week 1; 0-1, 0-0) v. Rice (1-0, 1-0) 7:00 PM CST, Memphis, TN
In Week 1, Rice was a throttler against Southern Methodist. Memphis, obviously, was the throttled against Ole Miss. This being the extent of my knowledge, the Owls are the safe pick.

Samford (Week 3; 1-0) v. Faulkner (Who cares) 6:00 PM CST, Birmingham, AL
Faulkner is in its second season fielding a D-II football team. So, whatever you think will be the final score when Birmingham's bulldogs travel to Oxford, insert those numbers here in favor of Samford.

#5 Florida (Week 5; 1-0, 0-0) v. Miami (1-0, 0-0) 8:00 PM EST, Gainesville, FL
The Canes and Gators renew their oft-dormant rivalry under extraordinary circumstances, towit, Miami has blowed of late. But, patsy though Charleston Southern is, woefully terrible teams don't score 52 poits, as "The U" did last Saturday. Still ... Gainesville, Tebow, et cetera, et cetera. Florida.

#13 Alabama (Week 8; 1-0, 0-0) v. Tulane (0-0) 6:00 PM CST, Tuscaloosa, AL
Did you know that Alabama beat Clemson last weekend? Because hadn't seen that yet. In other news "34-10" beat out "Got Recruits" and a picture of Saban with the caption "Bear Cub" as the most tatooed phrase in the Heart of Dixie last week. Tulane, meanwhile, retains its title as the hurricane-wrecked team unable to engineer an inspriring post-storm season win quarter. Alabama.

Arkansas (Week 9; 1-0, 0-0) at UL-Monroe (Week 12, 0-1, 0-0) 6:00 PM CST, Little Rock, AR
Yes, that's right, Petrino's deception knows no bounds. This time he's somehow convinced UL-Monroe that they can be the home team in a neutral site game at Little Rock. The fans, the funk, the feelings about one's sister - there's nothing neutral about Little Rock. The Hogs recover from their disappointing debut and develop a devastating dig to deliver against Tide fans when Alabama visits in Week 4.

#9 Auburn (Week 10; 1-0, 0-0) v. Southern Miss (Never Ever, 1-0, 0-0) 11:30 PM CST, Auburn, AL
I'm going to regret this. I just know I'm going to regret this. Because in fraternity with Kyle King ... I hate Auburn. But Southern Miss has an offense. A real live, I was probably wrong about Damion Fletcher, less quarterback questions than the Plainsmen offense that hung half a hundred on hapless UL-Lafayette, including 427 yards on the ground. You know how Tommy Tubberville has a way of losing games he should win, well, I'm taking Golden Eagle over War Eagle.

LSU (Week 13; 1-0, 0-0) - On Vacation
*Steps on soapbox* In yet another case of the Big Ten getting more credit than it should, Appalachian State had enough credibility going into its date with the Tigers in Baton Rouge, that it actually seems like LSU's win over the 'Eers is being considered, somehow, meritorious. That's stupid. Please stop thinking that a win over an FCS team (no matter what they're defending) answers any questions about this team. *Steps off soapbox*

Mississippi State (Week 14; 0-1, 0-0) v. Southeastern Louisiana (1-0) 6:00 PM CST, Starkville, MS
The only question that games against FCS opponents might answer is whether a team can fire its over-paid, under-performing coach any time in the next five years. This former offensive coordinator is like football benadryl. I mean, the Bulldogs will win, but wouldn't it be neat if the SELA Lions, who practiced all week in glorious Oxford, MS, were to dig deeper with salt-rock shovels the open wounds of Bulldog Nation.

And for good measure:

Winston Commits to Arkansas, Blogger Rants on Recruiting Hype

Darius Winston, the most recent in a long string of recruiting cock teases (see: Kieland Williams, Joe McKnight, Frank Gore, et al), committed to the Arkansas Razorbacks today at noon.

Who else isn't surprised by this?

When I tell people that I quit giving a hell about recrootin' and they subsequently ask me why, I just point to these incidents. Honestly, they all follow a pretty straight-up forumla:

• 5 star, 4 star, or highly touted 3 star athlete
• Not from Mississippi
• Mentions the Rebels often but never in a glaringly positive light, until...
• They rant and rave about the Grove, IPF, etc
• "I really love/have a great relationship with/just got $100 from coach [coach's surname]"
• Yancy Porter and the like swear up and down the kid's a Rebel before saying "oh, well maybe" a day before he commits elsewhere

If you still get your hopes up over these kids or, even worse, hold it against them (as if you somehow know them) personally then you're persistently delusional and likely stupid. I can remember the Rivals board after Drew Allen committed to Oklahoma. I was dumbfounded. People were attacking the kid for committing to Oklahoma (one of college footballs best programs, ever) after talking highly of Oxford, Kent Austin, et al. Ok, so he likes the town and the coach, that's cool, whatever, but he's from San Antonio. We don't recruit San Antonio. We hardly recruit Texas. Yet somehow people acted as if this Allen character had placed a voodoo curse on our houses.

Everybody, tone down the recruiting babble for now. So we didn't get Winston. I personally thought we never had a shot in the first place but, remember, these are 17-and-18-year-olds who have no real clue as to what they're doing and oftentimes change their minds anyway. They're not deliberately stringing anybody along. Hell, they're confused, if anything! They've got a bunch of old white guys calling them constantly and even coming to their houses to promise them cars, money, sex, and glory an opportunity to earn a wonderful education while successfully playing a sport which they enjoy! So they may say some misleading stuff and like the things being promised to them by a myriad of different schools. Why is this such a problem?

Ok, sorry for getting carried away there. I needed to vent that out.

The Foghonr's-a-blaring in Nashville

If you missed last nights Vandy/USC game then you truly missed a Vandy game that was insanely interesting to watch. Since we play the 'Dores and the 'Cocks very soon, it was a good opportunity for us to scope out the opposition. Here are a few observations we made:

1. That damn foghorn... I swear. Even Chris Fowler thought it was stupid.

2. Neither Nickson or Smelley were at all impressive. Nickson proved that he is incredibly elusive and, given enough time, can make a spectacular throw or two. Smelley stank it up (HA!) and may ride the pine in favor of Garcia sooner rather than later.

3. South Carolina has an offensive line of underacheivers and Vanderbilt has a defensive line of overachievers.

4. Jared Cook, brother of the beefy wordsmith Jason Cook, will likely end up as an all-SEC tight end by the end of the season.

5. Vanderbilt plays hard. They're most definitely last in the conference as far as talent is concerned, but they're at or close to the top in terms of not letting their opponents push them around. You've really gotta admire and somewhat fear that in an opponent.

6. Obviously, special teams killed South Carolina. Why that upman was anywhere near the falling put is beyond me and the blocked field goal further proves points number 3 and 5. If South Carolina's special teams woes continue to haunt them in the upcoming weeks we should easily be able to capitalize on whatever mistakes they make.

7. How many interceptions are South Carolina quarterbacks going to throw? It's only the second week of the season and they've thrown, what, 6 or something by now? That's unhealthy.

All things considered, the upcoming matchups with the Commodores and Gamecocks are certainly winnable games. South Carolina makes a lot of mistakes and Vanderbilt easily capitalizes on opponents mistakes. If we are mistake free against Vandy, we win. If South Carolina makes typical South Carolina mistakes against us, we win. If neither are the case, well, we are.... Ole Miss.

The Local Voice #62

The Local Voice #62 is out now! Snag a copy if you're in Oxford, click the image for the full PDF, or, if you're only interested in what we've gotta say, read below.

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It’s like clockwork.

If you are the head football coach of a mediocre football program or worse, the best piece of advice we can extend is that you contact Houston Nutt immediately because the football gods seem to smile on those floundering gridiron programs that make the gutsy decision to play the eternally former powerhouse Rebels.

Take a look at Gary Pinkel, head coach at Missouri. One can picture Gary’s high school gym teacher admonishing a young Pinkel as he failed to complete the desired number of pushups quickly enough – “You’re a loser Pinkel; Pinkels have always been losers.”

He was not quite a loser in his first five seasons in Columbia, but he was close with a very pedestrian 29-29 record. Then he scheduled a home-and-home with Ole Miss, during the second year of which his Tigers went 12-2, came within a win of playing the national championship game, and won their first New Year’s Day bowl game since the Sixties.

Or take a look at Tommy West. While his record against the Rebels hasn’t been haute, Memphis’ football fortunes, generally, have improved since the Tigers and Rebels renewed their series in 2002 after a two year hiatus. During that span, Tiger High recruited the best player in the history of their program and went to bowl games in consecutive seasons for the first time.

Nobody, though, says overnight success story like Jim Grobe. Coach Grobe is in his seventh season as the head coach of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. Wake was one of those truly terrible programs that maintained its pride only by reminding itself that there were conference rivals like Duke who were perennially even more inept (and you can just keep your pot and kettle to yourself because our black asses won national championships that ain’t going away).

But the magic happened for Wake, and it happened when they put Ole Miss on their schedule. You might remember saying to yourself before the 2006 season (you know, the last time anyone without George W. Bush-sized delusions thought the whole Orgeron experiment was going to turn out well) that “My goodness, we’ve got something less than a murderer’s row of hapless teams on our schedule. I mean, hosting Wake Forest at home is a slam dunk, right?”

Well, it wasn’t.

As a matter of fact, we got treated to Parchman-style bathroom hospitality at the hands of the eventual ACC Champions. And this year, with practically every “legitimate” ACC team having embarrassed themselves in the opening weekend (except for Wake Forest, who treated Baylor as Baylor ought be treated), the Deacs look poised for another run at glory. And this for a team for whom “glory” used to mean keeping the Homecoming game respectable.

And, of course, the football gods (their name is Spurrier, proclaim their name to the masses) must still be at work. Because as the stars line up for Wake Forest in 2008, they host on Saturday the rabbit’s foot stuffed with four-leaf clovers of football scheduling – the “crazy in more ways than one” football firm of Nutt, Snead, and McCluster, PLLC.

So, we’re doomed (damned?) right? Not so fast. The pinko liberal hippies that have enough time between not working and not conforming to read a free newspaper that employs volunteer writes in some sort of journalistic circle jerk ought to know that there is no god. At least not one in football. I mean, if there was a football god, he would be a just and fair football god, and would have done something about LSU a long time ago.

But, clearly, there’s not. And that means we make our own destiny. So, put that magic wand in your stinkhole, imaginary football fairy godmother/wizard/deity thingy, because Ole Miss is tired of facilitating your Cinderella game. Dexter McCluster is the Richard Dawkins of football, and he’s setting his watch for midnight.

Who Is This Guy? Alphonso Smith

Alphonso Smith has an axe to grind.

The former quarterback of national high school football power Pahokee HS (Fla.), Smith was unnoticed by Florida State and Miami, so he ended up at Wake Forest, which, has only won twenty games and an ACC Championship in the last two years, thank you very much.

He was one of the guys Baylor fans were worried about heading into that game. And for good reason, Smith recorded his fifteenth career interception last Thursday night. You can only imagine what he wants to do to the SEC Newcomer of the Year starting his first road game. Smith is confident. In his first play of 2007, he picked off Matt Ryan and took the interception 21 yards for a Deacon touchdown.

Ominous.

Coach Houston Dale Nutt told OM Spirit on Monday that Smith is "one of the best cornders (sic, yeah, I know, big surprise right?) we'll see all year."

What's it all mean, Basil? Jevan never connected on the long-ball against Memphis, but he also did not underthrow it. Perhaps we are safe from being picked off deep. What we have to be careful for, however, is Brandon Bolden or Dexter McCluster making ill-advised short attempts when Smith is in the vicinity. If he's on the field, Bolden and McCluster need to look first to the other side.

Tomorrow (from me anyway): State of the Opposition, concrete picks included at no extra charge!

SEC Power Poll: Week 1 Results

The PowerPoll is up at Garnet and Black Attack. The results are below and commentary is at the aforementioned blog. Hell, we're even ahead of Tennessee! I wonder when the last time a majority of SEC fans' opinions would have us ranked higher than the Vols in week 1.

Trenton Marshall back on the market

Recently, Trenton Marshall told the coaches at Oklahoma State that he will be re-opening his recruitment.

If you remember, it was between us and Okie State for Marshall. I really hope we end up with him. If our class for next year is Marshall and Reggie Buckner, it will easily be the best rated class we've ever had. Apparently, some people think that Marshall is good enough to be one and done. I sure hope he is if he comes to Ole Miss.

Let's take a look at what our team would look like if Marshall signed with us. I have to add that someone would have to transfer out for this to be possible, but I won't guess at who that will be.

PG: Chris Warren (Jr.) / Will Bogan (So.)
SG: David Huertas (Sr.) / Terrico White (So.) / Trevor Gaskins (Jr.)
SF: Eniel Polynice (Sr.) / Trenton Marshall (Jr.) / Zach Graham (Jr.) / Reggie Buckner (Fr.)
PF: DeAundre Cranston (Sr.) / Terrance Henry (So.) / Murphy Holloway (So.)
C: Malcolm White (Jr.) / Kevin Cantinol (So.)

The only two players on that list that I'm not particularly excited about are Bogan and Cantinol, and those two certainly have the capability to be good. Look how deep that team would be. Sweet Sixteen, here we come.