Capstone’s SEC Bowl Predictions

It’s that time of year again.  Get excited because it’s bowl season.  Next to the Third Saturday in October, the month long bowl extravaganza is the best time of the year.  While I will not go into my bowl predictions for the entire NCAA, I will however venture into what the SEC Bowl Season might look like.  First of all, the SEC Championship is this weekend and with rumors a flyin’, I believe that the Vols will beat LSU.  I know, call me crazy.  Apparently both Les Miles and Bo Pellini have told their current team that this will be there last game to coach, as both of them will be moving on to other coaching vacancies.  Pellini to the Huskers of Corn and of course Miles to Meechigan.  Overall, the SEC has 10 bowl eligible teams.  Grade school math will conclude that that is too many teams for the amount of bowl ties the SEC has.  So who is in?  Who is out?  Obviously teams such as Georgia, LSU, Tennessee, Florida, Arkansas, Mississippi St., Auburn, and Kentucky have a guaranteed spot but there are still two teams bowl eligible; Alabama and South Carolina, both with 6-6 records.  

It will be very interesting to see what happens, especially with two SEC teams getting a chance to play in BCS games, i.e. the winner of the SEC Championship and most likely #4 Georgia.  If this does happen, then the SEC will not fulfill their 8 bowl ties and either Alabama or South Carolina would likely fill that spot.  So let the debating begin.  Who deserves it?  In my opinion neither do.  Even though I’m a die-hard Alabama fan, I’m realistic.  Losing 4 straight games, including a home game to the Warhawks of Lousiana-Monroe to even your record at only 6-6 really doesn’t cut it for me.  However, with that being said, I would be delighted to go to a bowl for recruiting, for our seniors (well the few that deserve it), and for our fans. 

When comparing the wins and losses of both Alabama and South Carolina there are several differences.  First of all, South Carolina has lost 5 straight games.  However, the Gamecocks have won at Georgia, and home games against Mississippi St. and Kentucky.  Two of these teams, the Tide lost to this season.  Looking at Alabama’s results from this season, we beat Vanderbilt, Tennessee, and Arkansas.  All three of those teams beat South Carolina.  So it is very tough to tell at this point which team would get the nod.  Who knows, with some conferences not being able to fill all of their bowl ties, both Alabama and South Carolina could get bids. 

Anyway, here is what I think the SEC bowl schedule will look like:

Autozone Liberty Bowl:

Alabama vs. Tulsa

Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl

Kentucky vs. Florida St.

PetroSun Independence Bowl

Mississippi St. vs. Colorado

Chick-fil-A Bowl

Auburn vs. Boston College

AT&T Cotton Bowl

Arkansas vs. Kansas

Outback Bowl

LSU vs. Wisconsin

Capital One Bowl

Florida vs. Illinois

Rose Bowl

Georgia vs. USC (Trojans, that is)

AllState Sugar Bowl

Tennessee vs. Hawaii

 

An Embarrassment

For anybody who’s ever been involved in communications, this Cecil Hurt situation is a slap in the face. A few on here know my absolute disdain for the talented but tainted Cecil Hurt. And there’s no way (or shouldn’t be any way) that anybody should defend him for this, like him or not.

Take away his alleged (on my part) homerism, and take this for what it is. This is a disgrace to a journalism profession that doesn’t need another black eye.

It is the absolute most important thing in journalism to be honest, unbiased and refusing to do anything that would compromise your integrity to your readership. I simply don’t know what to say about this other than Hurt should be ashamed. The editor says he will be disciplined. People have been fired for less. In his position and in the position of Ray Keller, there was no way that there ever should have been any financial assistance granted to him by a known booster for the sole purpose that he may one day (and now is) having to write stories about Keller.

Does Hurt deserve to lose his job? I don’t really think so simply because it seemed to be an honest mistake. But there does need to be some disciplinary action, and this is an embarrassment to the profession. I’m sure Bama fans will disagree, and I don’t care. This is terribly wrong for a reporter/editor/Bama beat writer. Terribly wrong.

Kelly McBride, a journalism ethics expert at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., said that on the scale of ethical behavior, Hurt’s failure to notify his editors was “pretty big.”

“There’s really no way to explain it away and dismiss it except for the fact that it was for such a small loan, which raises the question of why he would enter into a conflict of interest for such a small amount of money,” McBride said. “He absolutely should’ve run it by someone at the paper before he even entered into the arrangement.

“It doesn’t matter if this all came down before Keller became a part of the story. He was still a source … and with that arrangement [Hurt] became financially beholden to a source.”

Orange-Colored Glasses

As the Tennessee Vols embark on their fifth SEC Championship game appearance in the past 11 years, pretty much nobody in the country is giving us a chance to win.

It’s understandable. After all, will the Vols be the world-beaters that they were against Georgia and Arkansas or the world-class busts that they were against Alabama. Will they be the Ventricular Vols that they were against South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Kentucky or will they be Terrible Tennessee like they were in Gainesville?

Meanwhile, LSU has infinitely more talent, a better resume, slim national championship hopes and an offense with a pulse (therefore being an offense that can give the Vols fits).

Not only that, but the Bayou Bengals likely will be playing Ryan Perrilloux instead of the banged-up Matt Flynn, and the last time UT played LSU in a conference championship, Mobile Matt Mauck beat the Vols with his legs (and UT’s turnovers).

But these Vols just seem to play their best when everybody doubts them. They come up big in clutch situations, and they seem to be relatively comfortable as an underdog on a national stage. Capstone said earlier this week, they reminded him of the 1999 Alabama team, and that’s a pretty fair summation, I think.

However, I’m pretty amazed that UT is where it is with the defense it has. In my humble opinion, this is the worst defense that has ever made it to Atlanta. But they are resilient, and they’re not bad because they’re bad. They’re bad because they’re inexperienced and young, young, young. There’s nothing that should keep this team (with Berry/Vinson/Willingham/Morley/Johnson/Gaines/Faison returning next year) from being amazing in the future. I wouldn’t trade our future secondary for anybody’s in the league.

I’m going to pick UT because I’m senile. I have to because A.) I’m going to the game, B.) I am the world’s largest homer, C.) They are gargantuan underdogs and D.) The emotional see-saw is heavily in our favor.

LSU is just the type of team who can completely, overwhelmingly and whole-heartedly outclass you with its immense talent. It can pound you into submission and leave scorch-marks on you with its athletes. But both of those things together has happened exactly once this year (the massacre of an overrated Virginia Tech team).

Saban’s New Commitment

Today, the University of Alabama got a commitment from 4-star defensive tackle Terrence Cody from Perkinston Gulf Coast CC in Mississippi. At 6-5, 395 his 40 time is irrelevant. What matters is how long it would take to get around a guy that size.

Coaches are not permitted to comment on commitments until they sign their letter of intent on December 19th of this year (JUCO transfers only), but Saban was seen cackling madly, and drawing up plans for a 1-3-7 defense.

Here’s Cody’s official pic for Rivals.com.

And here he is preparing for game day:

Applewhite Contacted for Houston HC Job

A couple days ago in the roundtable, I said that even in a crazy season like this, it was still not very credible to believe that Applewhite might be tagged as the head coach for SMU. Instead, the Houston Cougars are now expressing interest.

No, no. AppleWHITE, not AppleGATE….you’re right. I don’t care either.

I wish him luck if he gets the job. I wouldn’t blame him for taking it. He might be named for a Tide player, but he’s worshipped in Texas.

So if he does take it, who does Saban tag as his replacement? He might go for Fisher again, though if he isn’t a head coach by mid-January, I will bet it’s because he believes strongly that he was brought to FSU to replace Bowden when he retires. That would make sense, except that Fisher wasn’t the first person offered the OC position at FSU (see Chris Hatcher, who opted to be a head coach at FCS Georgia Southern). My guess is that he gives Joe Pendry the title, and then brings in an up-and-coming QB coach who can recruit. As for who that would be, I just don’t know. Even though Applewhite doesn’t have the UH job yet, let the speculation begin.

The Mighty Just Keep Falling

Simeon Castille was found guilty being a reasonable doubt for disorderly conduct. Just an FYI. No agenda here. Simply reporting the facts. That’s what I’m all about: Facts.

Castille story.

It’s not a big deal other than all the “this kid did nothing” crap that was spewed here by Bama fans early in the season. Innocent until proven guilty. Sucks for Simeon, who I’m certain is a very good kid knowing the family from whence he came. He just needs to make better decisions in the future.

TSIB Top 25

The end of the regular season for all the conferences is nigh, and it looks like West-Freakin’-Virginia is going to play in the BCS title game. Couches all over Morgantown are quivering as you read this. Mizzu, our #1 team this week, still has to get by Oklahoma. LSU got D-Mac-ed and bounced from the title game. And I agree with Herbstreit, USC and Georgia are playing the best football right now. Here are the individual ballots.

Top 25

1.  Missouri (7)   0.991
2.  West Virginia (2)   0.964
3.  Georgia    0.884
4.  Ohio State     0.862
5.  LSU     0.840
6.  Kansas     0.818
7.  USC     0.756
8.  Virginia Tech     0.733
9.  Oklahoma     0.707
10. Florida     0.640
11. Boston College     0.591
12. Arizona State     0.538
13. Tennessee     0.502
14. Illinois     0.476
15. Hawaii     0.449
16. Clemson     0.404
17. Cincinnati     0.307
18. Tie: Texas, Wisconsin    0.293
20. Arkansas    0.218
21. Virginia    0.204
22. Auburn    0.164
23. Oregon    0.138
24. Texas Tech     0.084
25. Boise State     0.058
Others receiving votes: Miss State, South Florida, BYU

Lathers will be a Vol … maybe

This kid sounds about as wishy-washy as possible at this early stage, but the three-star Louisiana linebacker prospect has committed to Tennessee. He’s been thought to be a UT lean for a while now.

He’s “99.9 percent” sure he’s coming to Tennessee, but he wants to visit Ole Miss and Alabama (though the Tide haven’t offered). Eh, who knows. But a commitment’s a commitment at this point.

From everything I hear, this kid’s a Rico McCoy clone with one less star. (But what do they mean, anyway? Right? Right?) We’ve got the market cornered on three stars.

Still, a very good looking prospect who needs to spend some quality time in the weightroom.

It’s Time for Media Accountability

Sit down for this, because I’m about to knock your socks off. Nick Saban–sweet, innocent Nick Saban–said something contraversial the other day. He referred to 9/11 and Pearl Harbor as catastrophes. He also referred to alcoholism as hitting rock bottom. He then said that sometimes it takes hitting the bottom to wake up and realize what you must do. We can all agree with that. But then–and here’s the truly offensive part–he tried to apply that lesson to something that doesn’t involve death. Shameful.  Football is just a game for most of us, but it’s his life.  You can say it is because he’s obsessed and myopic, or you can recognize that football puts a roof over his family’s head, food on the table, and allows his kids to attend nice schools and for him to provide for his loved ones the same life most of us would choose if we could.  Football is a game to us, but it is everything to a football coach, so forgive him if he muddles the degrees a little.

Repeatedly and from different sources I have read that Saban should have used different examples. Fair enough. Had he said that the loss to UL-Monroe was a catastrophe without using imagery then no one would have said anything. Heck, even one of our contributors here referred to the UT-UK game just this past weekend as “life and death.” There’s no outrage of course, because he wasn’t specific. Nor should there be. Hyperbole is the nature of the English language, specifically the American contribution to it. Should Saban have consulted the list of acceptable historical events that may be referenced? Yes. Is he a monster for not doing so? No.

I was honestly willing to move on from this until Boomtown Madman of this blog showed me this article by John Feinstein. This is a complete and utter injustice. I’m almost wary that Feinstein might be such a genius that I’m missing out on this being a parody of what others have been saying. Showing surprise that the university president isn’t threatening to fire Saban for this? Get some freaking perspective, John. This is everything Saban’s comments weren’t: willfully malicious, wreckless, and embracing an arrogance you only find in sportswriters trying to sign their next book deal. Worse than all that however, is that he is guilty of far worse than what Saban did. He’s taking Saban’s words out of context, sensationalizing them, and then using a small incident to a far greater degree so as to exploit the victims of 9/11 and Pearl Harbor for his own benefit. Anyone else notice there hasn’t been an outcry from a single person with any rightful claim to heartache from those tragedies? No swiftboat campaigns. No veterans organizations demanding retraction. None of that.  Only hypocrites like Feinstein who are using this as a means to throw another dart at a man they want to hate but can’t find quite a good enough reason to do so. For crying out loud, Don Shula didn’t even comment on this and Saban can’t even take a dump without that man criticizing it’s color and consistency.

Feinstein isn’t reporting on a story, and he isn’t just giving an opinion. He is trying to tell people how to respond to something that any sane person would acknowledge was innocent, regardless of whether they think it was appropriate or not. How else can you explain someone who refers to Nick Saban as “one of the worst people in all of sports” but then lists only one reason why and summarily dismisses that reason himself.

I guess I just don’t understand it. I don’t have a problem with people thinking it’s inappropriate for using these references. Rational minds acknowledge he meant no disrespect or malice. At worst it was a mistake, and a fairly minor one at that.

Far from a mistake, though, Feinstein’s comments–and those of countless other journalists–were pre-meditated and in that respect they should be held accountable. They won’t be, of course, because in this country there is no higher court than the media. But in real life what they are doing is far worse. If what Saban did is plug too many Christmas tree lights into the socket, then Feinstein smelled smoke, bought gasoline, and dumped it all over the house. One started a fire, the other is an arsonist. Oops. Am I getting too close to unacceptable? Can I expect folks from Chicago to rain demands of resignation upon my head now?  Of course not.  With the current media climate, the only people who will complain will be those who’ve never been to Chicago, but maybe ordered a slice of stuffed pizza at Sbarro because their cousin told them it’s “like Chicago-style.”

Youtubage: Referees gone wild!

Just some interesting referee moments.  Some old.  Some new.  Enjoy!

Last weekend’s Maryland vs. NC State Game

An old game, don’t know when, but funny.

Ed Hochuli at his best.

The Capstone King

The Iron-Oxide Bowl

OK, I’ve taken a few days to let the loss of six straight to Auburn and four-in-a-row to end the season sink in. It hasn’t helped. I’m still pissed. But moreso about losing to Louisiana-Monroe, still. It was inexcusable. After that loss I pointed my interest towards the future and recruiting. (Too bad we don’t have basketball to look forward to) I had almost resigned the fact that Alabama was going to lose the Iron Bowl. But I still watched, cheered, and threw non-breakable objects around the room.

The game was pretty much over by halftime. The score was only 10-7, but what little life was left in the Alabama offense was sucked out when DJ turned a TD catch into an interception right before the half, killing any opportunity to at least tie the game off of McClain’s interception. And opportunities like that don’t come very often, so you must capitalize. I wish I was talking about getting a turnover on your opponent’s side of the field. But I’m not. I’m speaking of a JPW pass that’s right on target.

Et Tu’, DJ? 

And for what Alabama lacked in penalty yards during the year, they made up for it in timeliness Saturday. The running into the kicker penalty kept Bama from getting the ball on Auburn’s side of the field and ended up being a 50-or-so yard miscue. Then the third-and-long roughing the passer, which was somewhat borderline, was a four point swing.

Overall, that was just an ugly game, by both teams. It wasn’t marred by turnovers or penalties, it was just two very average teams going at it. And no rivalry moniker was going to change that. It’s a good thing they played after Thanksgiving or I wouldn’t have had the appetite to gourge myself. What makes it hard to take is that the talent disparity between the two was as small as it’s been in years. That was probably the worst collection of QB ‘talent’ to ever play in an Iron Bowl. Auburn still had the best player on the field (Blackmon is scary. Someone with his size and speed shouldn’t be able to hit like that.), but I think with the talent coming in next year, that it will push the scales towards the Tide’s favor. But, it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog…….

I just feel for our UT friends here, because since we’re gonna have to hear from the TigEagPlainsmen for another year, we may have to take our frustrations out on you. 41-17. Auburn fans, enjoy your victory over a team that got beat by UL-Monroe, and remember, we still have more rings than you have fingers.

Volstothewall’s Live Blog of an Instant Classic

12:05-I arrive at the Ghost’s house. His house is a great place to watch a football because of his beautiful big screen HDTV, but last time I was here was the Alabama incident, so if we start losing like that again I will most definitely go home.

12:28- Almost game time. Just like every game this month, this one is the biggest game all year. Looks cold out there, which is good because we’re going to need all the help we can get to stop Woodson.

12:32- Touchdown!! First play of the game. Great call by Cutcliffe. Maybe this is going to be easier than I thought. Arian Foster continues to amaze me. He’s almost always pound for pound the strongest guy on the field, and he can also crank it up a notch when he has to in the open field.

12:40- We’ve come out hot. We’re even making plays on defense. Woodson looks very average so far.

12:41- Looks like Fulmer got himself a new jacket, looks sharp out there. Ghost said he’d like to have one just like it, size and all.

12:48- Went for it on fourth down, but didn’t make it. I like the aggressive play call, but Ainge checked down too quick to Arian Foster, and missed a wide open receiver down-field.  I like that we have a smart quarterback, but in situations like that sometimes I wish he would try to make something happen. Could have been a huge play, oh well.

12:55- Elix Wilson sacks Woodson to put them out of field goal range. Great play. Wilson looks really good. He earned some playing time by showing out in the Arkansas game, and we’re starting to see that game wasn’t a fluke. Love the blitzing strategy by Chavis. I hope he sticks with it.

12:59-  Sixty yard completion to Brad Cottam down the sideline. Sucks he hasn’t got to play more for the Vols because he’s been injured so much. I wish the NCAA would have gave him that medical redshirt, that’s a lot of speed for a man that size. In my opinion, he looks like an NFL tight end.

1:10- Wow, Chris Brown just nearly made a circus like catch. Bad throw by Ainge, but an amazing effort by Brown. Worst throw of the day by Ainge, and could have still been caught.

1:15- Eric Berry just dropped an interception, but nevertheless a great play. He’s still amazing. If they let freshmen on the all-conference team he might make it.

1:16- Daniel Lincoln comes up short on a 48 yard field goal. That would have been nice. Oh well, can’t really be mad at the guy he’s one of the best kickers in the country and he’s only a freshman. If it wasn’t cold and windy he probably would have made that one.

1:30-Touchdown Kentucky. That was way too easy. Defensive backs looked young and inexperienced on that drive. We can’t let them hang with us because eventually they are going to get on a roll.