It's that time again! Make your predictions now on the following questions: 1) Who's going to represent the SEC in this season's shamoff? 2) Which SEC teams will show promise early on and then return to traditional form, not winning the West and ending up in somebody's postseason bowl instead of winning a shamoff natty? Who's gonna be this season's Ole Miss/Mississippi State? 3) How many weeks before the conference's individual fanbases bandwagon for the eventual West champion and shamoff participant? 4) Will Jim McElwain or Butch Jones make the East anything to write home about? Steve Spurrier says he's tired of carrying the whole division.
Former LSU head coach Bill Arnsparger, 1926-2015. His 1986 Tigers are responsible for one of LSU's five SEC titles since the conference desegregated. Rest In Peace.
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap30...dback-affected-alabamas-prep-for-playoff-game Nick Saban is better than this, I think, but he allowed his emotions to get the best of him. No shame in losing to a better team with a better coach and recruiter, and one that had a few of its own draft picks on the roster. Bama was prepared just fine. That's what Nick Saban does better than a lot of coaches. They just hadn't run into anything like Ohio State during the reg season.
I was there for that one. On Mondays when "Date tickets" would go on sale, and students would line up starting at 4:00 a.m or earlier to purchase supplemetal tickets* at $15 each (limit two, IIRC) so friends and/or family could sit with them in the student section (which was free for students, and which until that year extended out to the 35 yard line rather than just being behind the end zone like it is now). Arnsparger get to work a little after six, and sometimes spend time working the crowd. Just saying hi, thanks, etc. they'd had some rough years before he got there, so he was really appreciated. Everyone was sorry to see him go, but he got things going in a better direction. *The tickets were never scalped. No sir. Now, I might have had my two tix clipped together with a paper clip, and at times I would be offered a lot of money for that paper clip, and if so, why, I might be so surprised that I would forget to take the tickets after selling the paperclip for $75 (my lowest: my record was $150 for a Notre Dame game in '86. Got $120 for a 'Bama game that ended in a tie).
Wow! I used to play jazz with an older guy who saw Billy Cannon's run v. Ole Miss. He was an LSU student at the time.
Closest I can get to Billy Cannon: his son played baseball (as well as football) at Texas A. & M., and he played in a summer collegiate baseball league on the team representing my home town. Alas for him, that was the year his Dad ran into business problems that led to dubious activities that led to his arrest. Billy Jr. got heckled at road games (and even at one of the home games I saw). And in Peoria and Quincy, people threw Monopoly money at him in the on deck circle.
Damn, that's harsh. I just wiki'd hm. Shamefully (considering his AFL career), I really never knew he was that famous.
In for LSU. I have no expectations, Steele said they're going to run a lot of 3-4 sets and I assume Ed Eaux will birth us with another gifted pass rusher. I can only hope at this point. I'm actually interested too in seeing if The Vols are forreal this season. Mizzou and Jawja always enter the fray in the East.
Props for saying that. More props at season's end if you stay in for LSU and LSU alone. Tennessee isn't going to do anything long this year. I give 'em another season before they can contend for the East. Mizzou won't be the runner-up again this season- I don't know why, just a hunch. Look for Georgia to win the East and lose in the Dome in December. I pick Auburn to win the West and therefore the conference, if they can stop Derrick Henry.
Yea I picked Auburn to win the West too. The West will go through the Plains this season. I actually like Georgia's chance in the dome, as long as they can get their defense together. Chubbs is going to be one of the best backs in the nation if not the best back in the nation next season, and thats with Sony Michel with him! Probably the best RB duo in college football entering the season, but as we all know, Richt loves to choke in that Dome. I think this season's Ole Miss/Miss St, will be Arkansas. They enter ranked #25 in the preseason polls and bring back a plethora of seniors like Miss last season. Expect them to fizzle out by the time fall rolls by.
Chubb's a bad man, but you forgot about Zeke Elliott. He and Derrick Henry will take their teams further, IMO. What Chubb CAN do is be a higher draft pick. Richt doesn't choke. He's at Georgia- his teams simply lose to better opposition. Georgia doesn't have any great tradition at all. They've won the SEC exactly twice since Herschel left in 1983, maybe six, seven times prior to that. Nothing special. And they won the 2002 East with some really, REALLY dodgy playcalling against Auburn (AT Auburn, no less- it was really bad) on two consecutive fourth and longs. They were miles better in the title game than West champ Arkansas, but they shouldn't have been there to begin with. Should have been Florida or Tennessee, can't remember what the tiebreaker would have been there. Arkansas won't finish in the top 25. Bret Bielema is no Bobby Petrino. Petrino is untrustworthy, but he's a hell of a coach.
I just looked at the East schedules. For some reason I didn't do that before my last post here. Georgia (the best/least bad team in the East, IMO) plays both Bama and Auburn this season, while South Carolina, Florida and Mizzou don't. If one of those three can separate itself from the other two and then upset Georgia, they could win the East and possibly be undefeated.
South Carolina don't stand out as contenders. Probably middle of the pack, but they do get LSU at home iirc. Florida need another year to be back or two, they also get LSU, but I think in Death Valley. Mizzou probably the most likely to contend of the three, they always seem to be in the hunt out east.
South Carolina shouldn't have any more problems with LSU than LSU will have with them. Home, away, a pick 'em IMO. You said yourself you didn't have any expectations for the Bayou Bengals. I may be wrong about them, as I said earlier. Sometimes I think you get to a title game a couple times and lose, you don't make it back for a while. That's what I was thinking. Arkansas won the West the last time the East as a division was anything to write home about (2005).
I only say SC will have problems with LSU, because they usually fold when they play Da Tigahs, at least recently they have. Plus LSU at least reloads, idk what SC have without Mike Davis lol. But ultimately you're right, 50/50 game, LSU could very much fold in Columbus. I don't blame you. Mizzou has taken advantage of a weak East. They always seem to retool their explosive D-Line year after year and manage to minimize losses to the draft each off season, which pretty much keeps them as contenders out East. I really wanna see what Tenn has to offer. They can only ride the "we're young" excuse for so long lol.
http://espn.go.com/college-football...ca-releases-75th-anniversary-all-america-team OJ is, at least, second team here, despite playing only two season at USC. These folks can't keep their emotions from spilling over into their real-world decisions.
Goddammit, Sark, if you're an alcoholic, say so and go seek treatment at a place that deals with alcohol abuse. If you're NOT an alcoholic, don't step to the mic and say you're seeking treatment for anything. You just lost all the big dumb fast mofos whose parents don't know college head coaches are essentially CEOs and still think it's a problem if you drink. Reason #7,895,103,426 why cfb is a sham.
Sark said some crazy shit about some of his opponents at some official USC event a couple days ago. Was allegedly slurring his words at the time. I miss Ed Orgeron already. He wouldn't have done THIS. ********ing USC was sooooo set on getting a polished guy instead of the gruff Cajun. Well, the gruff Cajun is laughing now. This team was probably a season or two from winning the Pac-12 (no, not this year, despite the outside hype). Major setback.
Sooo, Sarks leaving? USC is still too green.. I givem a year before they fight for a play-off spot. I really like how they've dominated recruiting on the West Coast again,, Osa, Gustin, Mama, Juju, etc. Why did Towns leave btw?
Not yet. It may come to that. I agree. I said when the hype started up that Oregon would repeat and maybe USC would challenge in 2016. Towns couldn't hang (claimed he wanted to be in a pro-set, but he knew what USC was when he signed on). Dropped to third on the depth chart.
Any news as to where he's transferring to? Are Oregon favs in the West?? I assume maybe Arizona State can creep up or something.
I think I heard Arkansas. Wherever it is, he's already there. No West here- Pac-12 divisions are called North and South. Both Arizona schools are in the South. Oregon's in the North with Stanford.
RIP The South, thats going to be a dogfight again. North seems to always be Oregon vs Stanford.. Maybe Utah have something to say. BYU to the Pac-12 plz. lol
Utah's in the South. Think of it like this: USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford. That's California. Then two each from Oregon, Arizona and Washington, plus Utah and Colorado. http://pac-12.com/football/standings I don't know anything about BYU joining, but they have as much tradition as the current Big XII top tier (Baylor and TCU). Texas and OU should have gotten on board while there was still time.