SEC PowerPoll Week 6 Ballot

This ballot looks an awful lot different from our week 1 ballot. You can never predict this wacky game, and that is especially true in our conference of conferences. As always, feel free to comment, criticize, opine, and/or politicize.

Rank	Team	Change	Comments
1	LSU	+1	Quietly, el Sombrero has the best offense in the Southeastern Conference.
2	Alabama	-1	The Tide looked beatable for the first time this season against the 'Cats.
3	Georgia	---	Georgia is in the need of some statement-making this weekend against the hapless Vols.
4	Florida	---	Hey, Timmy, remember how no one was gonna work harder than you the rest of the season? You promised through your tears. I guess your tear-stained false hope only counts during the fourth quarter. Sarah Jessica Parker Wilson didn't need the fourth quarter to embarrass Arkansas; why did you?
5	Vanderbilt	+1	Well damn... With the worst offense in the conference and the 2nd to worst defense, how in the hell is this happening?
6	Auburn	-1	Has Tuberville lost control on the plains? While other teams are attempting to answer the questions that plague them, Auburn seems to be turning in their scantron without even taking the time to bubble the "C."
7	Kentucky	+1	They wouldn't beat Auburn, but they would beat South Carolina. That's why they're where they are on our ballot.
8	South Carolina	+1	Is Chris Smelley good, or did Steve Spurrier know Nix's D better than he did?
9	Ole Miss	-2	So that's why they don't like Tyrone Nix in South Carolina. While it is a HDN mainstay which drives the Hogs crazy, this team truly does need to stop beating itself.
10	Tennessee	---	Tennessee is a hop, skip, and a jump away from being the worst team in the conference. Wrap your brain around that one for a second.
11	Mississippi State	---	Retains the honor of neighboring the 'Hogs until they give us the pleasure of watching Fulmer get Croomed.
12	Arkansas	---	Arkansas' season has gotten so bad that public libraries around the Southeast are blocking their athletic website for containing lewd and offensive content.

Tuesday Question: Coming In Under the Wire Edition

Generally, we are the "authors" of "content" around here - "here" being a blog and not a message board. Recognize, we do, that you've come here not to contribute, but to consume. Nevertheless, there is the sporadic occasion where, either for our benefit or for to exercise the thinkifiers of the masses, we ask you a question. Today's question is

...

Which SEC team will be seriously questioned after Week 7?

While 2007 may have been the wild one for the rest of college football (and it was no doubt pretty note-worthy down here in God's Country), at the mid-point, the SEC season thus far has proven to be full of peaks and valleys for various teams. In Week 1, Alabama went from SEC Western Division Dark Horse to National Title Contender. In Week 2, we learned that either South Carolina really blew or Vanderbilt was doing something wholly unexpected (see: Week 6 for clarification). Week 4 tested Bengal Tiger mettle for the first time, while Week 5 humbled national powers, raised briefly the fleeting hopes of the underdog, and left the rest of us waiting in line at the RTRestroom wanting to take a Saban. Finally, in Week 6 the Rebels learned that the air ain't so nice up here on our high horse, the Gamecocks learned that the Sith have yet to perish from the universe, the Plainsmen learned what it feels like to the Johnson (and we hear it's even worse than a good Crooming), and the Commodores learned how good it feels to beat Tuberville.

Even now I can almost remember the taste of Butterfingers.

Whose season will be either catapulted to further glory or seemingly extinguished this weekend? Will it be the undefeated dreams of the Bayou Bengals or hard-working Tim Tebow? Can the Georgia Bulldogs restore faith or will Phil die (of congestive heart failure) another day?

What say you?

Too Many Apologies

I will not apologize.

Football is fun. Blogging is fun. So are girls and money. This football blog has never won me any of either. So unless Ghost becomes a rich, but generous, purveyor of concubines I will not sit idly by while he apologizes for me.

Why? Because while you might not hear from me every day, you needy little girls, when you do hear from me, I'm right. Did you happen across The Local Voice last week? Who reminded you that our last win over a Top 5 team was followed up by a loss? This guy. I'm not drinking the Kool-Aid. I don't have time.

I don't want to hear any gibberish about let-downs. Those are for apologizers like Ghost. And, I think we can all agree, he is a giant pansy. Our best player cannot hold on to the ball. We laid 324 big pass yards at the altar of an offense that couldn't pick its way through Wofford - not because we were on an emotional let-down, but because, when it comes to the secondary, we are who we thought we were. No apologies necessary, Marshay. Some of us saw this coming.

Yeah, I didn't get that Florida photo journal to you. And it's a shame, too. These sidewalking, mullet-having, orange-painted-butt-ed evolutionary rejects are the funniest thing you'll never see.

Of course, I'm not totally heartless. Eat this up, you selfish information consumers. I expect no compensation. My reward is in Heaven.

Our apologies

2 things:

1.) I've been pretty grouchy as of late. I was awfully profane in a few of those comment threads. While we don't discourage profanity, I certainly pushed the limit. I don't wanna seem like an excuse maker, so I won't make any. I'll tone it down a bit.

2.) We've been slacking here as of late. Among my new job, Ivory Tower 'n' JUCO's booklearnin', and Whiskey Wednesday's CWAB problems, we've not been able to dedicate the time we would like to the Cup. We're gonna pick it up soon. We promise.

Post Game: South Carolina

Well. Here we are again, Rebel fans. Sunday has come and gone, and the post game report is well overdue. There will generally be two reasons for this: 1.) incredible, party-inducing upset. 2.) ridiculous, hope-killing loss. Football is a funny game. With 85 scholarship players, 22 guys on the field all at once, there are just too many variables to predict it. Sometimes you go on the road and beat the #4 team in the country, sometimes you get embarrassed at home by a quarterback who previously couldn't find his own ass with both hands and a mirror.

If there is any silver lining to this dark cloud of a game, here it is: I was on the field, and you weren't. I figured that it'd be a unique experience, and I'd have a good time. I was wrong: I had the most unbelievably kickass time maybe ever, until we lost. Even then, I had a far easier time getting out of the stadium than you did. You can bet your ass that I'll be back on the field at the next available opportunity. If you ever have the opportunity to start a sports blog, feign legitimacy, and gain inside access to sporting events, I'd highly recommend it. Pictures from on the field will be posted in the near future, but I've still got 75 or so pictures to sort through and edit. They're a little bit too far away due to the limitations of my lens, and we'll have that problem fixed in the future.

As far as the actual game goes...

1. I can't believe that Smelley passed for 327, even against this secondary. Cassius Vaughn was certainly the goat of the day. Pressure was good early on, but really absent later. It seemed like Spurrier really picked us apart out there, rather than South Carolina's average receivers or Smelley's average arm.

2. Turnovers. It seems like these aren't really careless turnovers we keep having, but caused by guys trying to make something happen. Its got to be hard to balance the intensity you need to hit the hole, to run the crisp route and bring it in, to scramble out of the pocket, with the smarts to just tuck it in and go down. Still, Nutt's got to find ways to get guys to protect the possession.

3. I understand why McCluster is the quarterback in the Wild Rebel, but I really want to see Boldin take more snaps back there. Breaux and Devin Thomas have both proved decent playing out wide in that formation as well, I'd like to see more of them.

4. Boldin is still pretty badass. Let Eason be a 3rd down back or whatever. Let Boldin tote it 20 times a game.

5. I think that we were overall caught off-guard by how well USC's offense played, and how mediocre their defense was at times. I think we were expected a tight defensive game, and it didn't end up that way.

6. Replay blows. It has improved the accuracy of the calls only slightly, and takes too much time. This, along with media time outs for a game that was only on friggin' pay-per-view, made for a slow, agonizing game.

7. Still waiting for Mike Wallace to have a breakout game, and to see more of Andrew Harris and Markeith Summers. Those guys are all ballers, but they haven't produced much on the field.


8. To the State Trooper on the sideline who cussed and yelled at the Field Judge along with the rest of the Ole Miss crowd: props to you. I hate cops, but that guy's OK.

So that's all I've got, really. Analysis from field level is a little more difficult. The closeness of it all is awesome, but you lose some perspective. I can't be sure what to expect out of this Rebel team for the rest of this season, but here is my early prediction: we upset either Bama or LSU, and then lose the following game (Arkansas or MSU). We beat ULM, and the difference between a 6 and 7 win season comes down to Auburn. I can't pick Ole Miss right now in that game, but it should be really close. We go bowling, but with the rotten taste in your mouth that comes with spending the holiday in Shreveport. Bye week coming up, everyone, enjoy next Saturday. Ole Miss can't lose. Hotty Toddy, and goodnight.

South Carolina Preview

In December, we’ll look back on this weekend as the true defining moment of our season. While certainly magnificently fantastical, the Florida game is only really indicative of our potential under certain circumstances and not necessarily our accomplishments. Simply put, if we beat the Gamecocks, we're relevant in the SEC for the first time in half a decade. If we lose, the Florida game was a fluke.

South Carolina’s quarterback situation has been a revolving door so far this season. Slated as the starter until Thursday, Stephen Garcia appeared to be a legitimate QB. He was highly rated coming out of high school, has great mobility, and likes gettin’ blasted out of his mind and driving around Columbia. Granted, his decision making probably isn't good enough to really win a game, but he has enough physical ability to turn on and take the game into his own hands. However, despite the Garcia praise and promotion, Spurrier suddenly named Chris Smelley as the starter against our Rebels. Smelley has been a decent QB who doesn't throw games away, but if the ball is in his hands to try to win the game, the defensive line will be thrilled. I suspect Smelley will have a so-so day, throwing for somewhere near 200 yds, 1 TD, and 2 INTs.

Speaking of interceptions, South Carolina Quarterbacks lead the conference with a whopping 11. Our secondary isn’t anywhere close to the best in the conference, but it would be a disappointment if they don’t take a ball or two away from the Gamecock offense. South Carolina's running game has been underperforming all season. Mike Davis has played relatively well considering the porous line in front of him, but he struggled heavily against Georgia, carrying the ball 12 times for 22 yards. Unless South Carolina gets Kenny McKinley back in full health, we're going to be stacking the box giving Davis trouble moving the ball all day. The Gamecocks' offensive woes don't stop at runningback. With no real go-to wide receiver, Steve Spurrier has turned to TE Jared Cook to carry the bulk of the receiving efforts. While Cook has done an exceptional job thusfar, more consistent play has to come from a receiver to give this team big play capabilities. Of course, that could come this weekend if Kenny McKinley hits the field. McKinley was an excellent receiver last season and, at full strength, would be a legitimate threat to put up big numbers against the Rebel secondary. If he's unable to go by gametime, look for Smelley to be unsuccessful passing the ball. The Gamecock offensive line is terrible. How terrible, you ask? Well, how’s leading the conference in sacks allowed for terrible? Greg Hardy should have another career day thrashing and gnashing his blockers into oblivion and Powe, Laurent, Jerry, and Tillman should all expect to draw doubleteams. Hopefully this will be able to open up the Rebel blitz which, as Timmy Tebow can tell you, was fairly successful last week. I know his last name really is Smelley, but if you bump into him somewhere in Oxford this weekend and pick up a powerful stench from the encounter, take note that what you smelled was actually the shit in his britches forced out of his bowels by the thought of Greg Hardy earning another SI cover appearance.

Ok, so far it seems like the Rebels are guaranteed a victory on Saturday. Questionable quarterbacks, underperforming runningbacks, an injured wideout, and a cheesecloth OL all work in our favor. But here’s the catch: The Gamecock defense is the best defense in DI football.

No, that’s not a joke and no, we’re not using any sort of hyperbole. Their defense is, literally, the statistically best defense in football.

Ellis Johnson, the reason for Mississippi State’s bowl eligibility and The Walrus’ contract extension last season, is now coaching a dominant 4-2-5 (that sounds oxymoronic, doesn’t it?) in Columbia. There is a catch, though: they're 8th in the conference in run D. Their pass defense is obviously what's keeping them in there (an obvious conference best thus far) but, considering the only legitimate passing threat they've faced is Matthew Stafford, this isn't a terribly surprising revelation.

Johnson has a defensive line that has been described as ameoba-like. As the teams who have played the Gamecocks will attest, this is not a commentary on their size. Rather, it describes the flexibility Johnson likes to bring to the line. Clifton Matthews and Jordin Robertson see most snaps at end, but, like a faithless woman, they do not stay true to either the right or left sides. Matthews (6-4, 250), a sophomore, has excited Gamecocks, leading among defensive linemen in tackles with 18, including 2 behind the line. In the interior, Ladi Ajiboye (ghetto-pronounced "That's your boy") received the preseason hype (and has not performed poorly), but Nathan Pepper (6-1, 292) has been the man "making all that skrilla" with 17 total tackles and 4 for a loss.

Eric Norwood, the leader apparent of the linebacker corp has disappointed, though. The junior made 19.5 tackles for a loss in 2007 (a Gamecock record). Even so, this is still a monstrous linebacker corp between Norwood (23 total tackles), Senior Jasper Brinkley (16 total), and Marvin Sapp (21 totals), the starters are making some stops.

South Carolina obviously brings a team mentality to their defensive scheme. This, the best defense in the country, has only one tackler in the SEC's top 25 - defensive back (strong safety) Emanuel Cook. I'm not sure how illusory that rating is, though. While their opponents are only getting 100 yards in the air per game, their are four teams in the conference who are forcing a higher incompletion percentages (LSU, Kentucky, Mississippi State, and Auburn). These teams (Kentucky excepted) obviously have stellar defenses, and so does South Carolina, but Jevan Snead in a pretty pedestrian day managed a 45% completion rate against the second-best pass defense in the SEC last weekend. So, I don't think they are as invulnerable here as Gamecocks might think.

Note well the real-life cynicism you'll get from the Cup, and then remember what kind of offenses South Carolina has played. They started out the season against NC STate, which is averaging 16.6 points per game. Then, travelled to Vanderbilt, which boasts the worst offense in the SEC. They hosted Georgia, whose quarterback clearly is not going first in the NFL draft, and have eaten cupcakes the last two weeks. They ain't faced Tebow. Hell, they ain't even faced Riley Skinner.

The final analysis is that the Evil Empire 2.0 will either be playing for its football life, or it will have already given up. With the quarterback inconsistency unsolved, the lack of leadership on a statistically solid defense, and a resume that couldn't get you a temp job at Dunder-Mifflin, we've decided to be bold.

Rebs by 10.

Hotty Toddy.

SEC Power Poll: Week 5

It's up over at Garnet and Black Attack. Check it out to see what the rest of the SEC Blogosphere thinks about this still young season.

At the beginning of the season, anyone who believed Vanderbilt would be considered the 5th best team in the conference while Tennessee would be 10th (and last in the East) would have likely been considered a heretic and burnt at the stake.

New Poll

The most recent poll has concluded. For those of you with shorter memories, this poll inquired as to how many sacks our defensive line would have by the Florida game. The winner was three which, beleive it or not, was nearly dead-on.

Our D-Lin had two-and-a-half sacks before Saturday... That's it. Only two-and-a-half sacks in four games. After the Florida game they had a total of five. The difference maker was, without any doubt, Greg "I'm on the cover of SI, what did you do this week?" Hardy.

Those are some nice Heisman hopes you've got there, Timmy.

This new poll will run until the picture of Ole Miss' post season hopefully becomes much, much clearer (let's, for simplicity's sake, say 4 weeks). This question is as follows:

Ole Miss' postseason will most-likely involve which bowl game?

Now get your ass (cursor?) over there and vote! Of course, as some of you may have guessed, the next few weeks of this blog will see a fair deal of hog slop so ignore the inevitable fact that "Ole Miss won't bowl" will be the poll's "winner."

South Carolina Questions

The folks at Garnet and Black Attack sent us a few questions to answer about Ole Miss. They'll have our responses up soon. We responded with some questions for them to answer. Here are their responses.

1. Talk a little bit about the play of Jared Cook. We've got his brother as a starting fullback and think the world of him. Jared's numbers aren't bad for a TE no one was talking about before the season started. What has been the difference in his play so far?

Well, we've always known that Jared is capable of a lot. He's a big guy who can run and has soft hands. He had over 400 yards receiving last year, which isn't bad for a TE, especially considering that Kenny McKinley was the go-to guy all of last season.

The spike in his numbers this year is partially to McKinley's injury. When Kenny went down, Jared become our best option and, because we still haven't found a wideout we can count on like Kenny, Jared remains a go-to guy.

2. How is it that Steve Spurrier can't seem to get a decent offense together? Are there injuries we don't know about? Give us your reasoning for your offensive woes.

Well, I can tell you that you're not the only one who's surprised that Spurrier can't get the offense together. We certainly weren't expecting for the Gamecocks to be known for good defenses and putrid offenses under Spurrier.

The only significant injury is to Kenny McKinley, our star wideout. Not having Kenny hurts us, as we've been unable to find an equally competent go-to receiver and our vertical game is suffering for it.

However, we we also have other, more serious problems. You can have all the wide receivers in the world and it won't do you any good if you can't get them the ball. I'd say our problems are two-fold. First of all, we don't have a running game. The blame, I think, lies with our line, which does OK pass blocking but can't open up a hole for a tailback to save their lives. Our tailbacks are decent but none of them are good enough to make things happen without good blocking. Because we don't have a running game, opposing defenses have chosen to sit back and play the pass, limiting our options down field. Spurrier is known for his passing attack, but his offense requires some proficiency on the ground to keep defenses honest.

Our other problem, of course, has been the QB situation. Tommy Beecher was an unmitigated disaster. With all due respect to Tommy, who I wish all the best, I'm still scratching my head as to why he started against NC State. Chris Smelley is a little better and has his moments, but he doesn't have a great arm and tends to make ill-advised decisions when no one is open. We're now going with Stephen Garcia, who I'm sure you've heard of. Garcia brings some definite advantages: he has a big arm, and he can also scramble when the pocket breaks down, which should help us against Ole Miss if your defense wins the battle in the trenches. The problem with Garcia is that he's young and doesn't know much of the play book, so we're kind of limited as to what we can do with him in there. That said, I'm hoping he can at least take our offense to a slightly higher level.

3. Who is the best player on your team that no one is talking about? What's so good about him?

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Chris Culliver. Chris is a sophomore safety and has played well on defense, although he's still developing in that area.

Chris also returns kickoffs for us, and this is where I think he could really affect the outcome of the game on Saturday. He's had some solid returns so far this year and I'm just waiting for him to take one to the house. I told Kyle at Dawg Sports the same thing before we played Georgia, and Chris held up his end of the bargain by having a few solid returns that gave us good field position. Unfortunately, our offense didn't do much to capitalize.

4. What has been Ellis Johnson's impact in coaching your defense? We're glad he's gone from Mississippi State. We're waiting for the floodgates to open on y'all like they did last season after your uncanny defensive play for the first half of the season.

Speaking of Mississippi State, we played them the past two years and I wish we could play them again this year instead of you guys. Maybe they could cure our offense.

The main improvement we've seen under Coach Johnson is our better run defense. Johnson seems to have instilled better tackling fundamentals in our guys. Johnson also installed a 4-2-5 scheme to combat the growing number of spread offenses in the SEC. The virtue of this scheme is that the extra safety provides backup in run support. Hopefully this element will cure what ailed us last year against Houston Nutt's Hogs. At the same time, a larger defensive backfield gives us a solid pass defense. It also allows us to use CB blitzes from time to time, as the extra safety can pick up the receiver the blitzing CB leaves open. We've had some success with this play so far.

The formation does have some weaknesses, though. Having one less LB makes us a little vulnerable for medium gains on the edges. I expect Snead and McCluster to try to hurt us in this way.

The drop in our defense's effectiveness late last year had more to do with injuries than anything else. We have a handful of solid NFL prospects on our first string, but a lot of those guys got hurt last year. So far this year we've been lucky in regards to injuries, and we'll have to remain so to succeed, because as we learned last year, we don't have a lot of depth.

5. What is your prediction on the outcome of the game on Saturday? How do you think it will go down?

I don't really want to make a prediction because I don't want to jinx us and at the same time don't like to pick against us. I expect it will be a tight game that's decided by turnovers. Both of these teams are capable of playing at a high level when they're not making mistakes, but both have proven themselves capable of shooting themselves in the foot from time to time. Moreover, while I think you guys have an explosive offense, I think we're capable of shutting you down if we continue to play like we've been playing. That means that the only way you're going to score a lot of points is if you manage to force a few turnovers and get the short field.
At the same time, our offensive line is going to have to play a lot better to keep your defensive front out of our backfield.

P.S.We got a field pass for South Carolina. Share in our jubilation.

His Truth Is Marching On

Most have you have probably seen this video already, but for those of you who have not here is the best highlight video of our win over the Gators. It is one of those rare videos that does not subject you to the musical "talents" of Nickelback or Welcome to the Jungle. Enjoy.