I am tanned pale, rested slightly less sleep-deprived than normal, and ready contractually obligated to provide this week’s Southeastern Conference prognostications. Following a Saturday on which my bold prediction of a Vanderbilt victory over Auburn vaulted me to a 4-1 record in last week’s S.E.C. picks, I now stand at 37-7 in league-wide forecasts overall, but don’t let my recent run of success fool you: I stink at this, and there’s only so long my luck can hold out, so, whatever you do . . . Don’t Bet On It!

All of this week’s conference contests will be played on Saturday, October 11, because, hey, what do we look like, the Big East? Here are the outings that could use a good picking:

Arkansas at Auburn: Shortly before bolting Oxford for the so-called Loveliest Village, Tommy Tuberville famously said that he would only leave Ole Miss in a pine box. Tubs subsequently went hunting in the Natural State and, evidently, bagged a job offer to coach the Razorbacks while sitting in a duck blind. How is it that he will be the second-smarmiest disloyal careerist in Jordan-Hare Stadium this weekend? I’m guessing that Coach Tuberville hasn’t yet forgotten a certain clandestine meeting in the Bluegrass State that cost the president and athletic director of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute their jobs, which ought to give the Plainsmen a little extra motivation to rout the Hogs. Smarter people than me don’t know what Auburn’s offense is, but I’m pretty sure the worst team in the S.E.C. is due for another drubbing.

An inbred toothless hillbilly exhorting his helpless captive to "squeal like a pig"? Nope, no analogy to the Auburn-Arkansas game there!

Vanderbilt at Mississippi State: In order to save time, could Sylvester Croom go ahead and pass the S.E.C. coach of the year trophy off to Bobby Johnson during the postgame handshake? No fan base outside of Nashville will be rooting for the Commodores harder than the denizens of Bulldog Nation, as we want an undefeated and highly ranked Vandy squad rolling into Athens one week hence. I’m nervous, though. It’s not because Coach Johnson’s club ranks behind Coach Croom’s squad in passing offense, pass defense, total offense, total defense, first downs gained, and first downs allowed, although all of those things are true. It’s not even because the 2008 edition of Vanderbilt appears eerily similar to the 2007 edition of Mississippi State, although it does. It’s because I remember the 2005 season, in which Coach Johnson’s Commies leapt out to a 4-0 start, had bowl eligibility squarely in their sights, and lost to Middle Tennessee at home as a two-touchdown favorite. I think the ‘Dores are going to get caught looking ahead to a road game against one set of Bulldogs and are going to forget about taking care of business against the set of Bulldogs they happen to be playing this weekend. I like Vanderbilt, but I’m going with Mississippi State.

South Carolina at Kentucky: This is an intriguing matchup, and not just for the guys standing on the sidelines in polyester blazers scouting the game for the Music City Bowl selection committee. The Gamecocks have gotten their passing attack going---the Palmetto State Poultry lead the S.E.C. with ten touchdowns through the air---while the Bluegrass State Felines certainly have confirmed (for the first time in living memory) that, yes, there is a "D" in "Wildcat": U.K. stands atop the conference in scoring defense (7.8 points per game allowed) and the ‘Cats have surrendered a league-low two touchdown passes this season. We’ll see how much Kentucky’s defensive numbers have been inflated---or, I guess, deflated---by suspect competition when the Wildcats host the team that boasts the S.E.C.’s best third-down conversion percentage. My guess is that the ’Cocks will emerge victorious from the Commonwealth following a close contest.

If the Wildcats lose, Rich Brooks plans to give his team’s spirits a much-needed boost by taking his players out for Kentucky Fried Chicken to take their mind off of the game. This tactic will be of limited effectiveness.

Louisiana State at Florida: Rumor has it that Les Miles will be leaving his punter in Baton Rouge and going for it on every dadgum fourth down, baby! On paper, this looks like a clash of elite teams who routinely square off for harrowing showdowns, but looks sometimes are deceiving. Since falling to the Gators in 2006, the Fighting Tigers have put together a 23-2 ledger, whereas Florida has dropped five of its last 14 decisions, including---you can look it up---four of the last nine outings the Saurians have played within the borders of the Sunshine State. The Bayou Bengals are coming off of an open date and L.S.U. has taken three of the last four series meetings, while Urban Meyer’s club has struggled to get untracked, as the Gators failed to score in the first quarter against desiccated Hawaii, led defenseless Miami (Florida) by a 9-3 margin after three quarters, were outgained by a downtrodden Tennessee team while benefiting from Volunteer miscues, lost to mediocre Mississippi, and were up 17-7 against awful Arkansas with twelve minutes remaining in the game. The Tigers are going to romp in the Swamp.

For whatever they might be worth, those are this week’s S.E.C. predictions, in which you should place no stock whatsoever. Remember . . . I’m awful at this, so you rely upon my prognosticating skills at your own considerable peril. Succinctly stated, the governing principle is simple: Don’t Bet On It!

Coming Soon: National Games of Interest.

Go ‘Dawgs!

All right, now that the BlogPoll is being published by CBS Sports, the network that broadcasts Southeastern Conference football games with Verne Lundquist in the booth, it’s time to get serious.

After I cast my weekly ballot, I took the time to look at my fellow BlogPollsters’ votes and shop my ballot around among a couple or three other voters in search of constructive feedback. Mostly, I just want to be a conscientious BlogPoll voter; also, if it’s all the same to everyone else, I’d rather not be ripped into on a weekly basis over my failure to share the commonly-held view of which also-ran is really the No. 23 team in the country in early October. Life is too short.

I may be badgered into reconsidering my voting patterns, but I will stand firm against Brian Cook’s shoddy taste in women!

Accordingly, after examining the consensus among my fellow webloggers and considering my own rationale for ordering the teams as I did, I decided that, when ranking Oklahoma State and Brigham Young 21st and 22nd, respectively, I placed too great an emphasis upon the overly fine distinction between beating a 3-2 team and beating a 2-3 team while underrating the significance of the Cowboys’ and the Cougars’ undefeated records and margins of victory.

Since I found I could not credibly maintain the basis for deviating so substantially from the poll as a whole, I tweaked my ballot as follows:

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	--
2	Oklahoma	--
3	Missouri	3
4	Penn State	1
5	Texas	8
6	Vanderbilt	5
7	Boise State	8
8	LSU	4
9	Utah	5
10	Texas Tech	11
11	Southern Cal	3
12	Virginia Tech	5
13	Ohio State	5
14	Oklahoma State	11
15	Brigham Young	9
16	California	1
17	Georgia	1
18	Georgia Tech	8
19	Florida	--
20	Wake Forest	11
21	Northwestern	5
22	Michigan State	4
23	Pittsburgh	3
24	South Florida	19
25	North Carolina	1

Dropped Out: Wisconsin (#10), Maryland (#14), Oregon (#20), Connecticut (#22), Auburn (#23).

Although no one urged me to make such a move, my review of the ballots of my coevals persuaded me that there was not sufficient justification for leaving as large a gap as I had between Utah and B.Y.U., or for ranking such once-beaten clubs as, say, Florida and Wake Forest ahead of undefeated Oklahoma State and Brigham Young squads when none of them had what would qualify as a marquee win.

Although the consensus seemed to be that the Cougars deserved a higher ranking than the Cowboys, I could not see my way clear to accepting the conventional wisdom upon that point, as their resumes seemed strikingly similar, viz.:

• Oklahoma State and B.Y.U. both sport 5-0 records, but all of the Pokes’ wins were by more than two touchdowns, whereas the Cougs claimed one of their victories by the slimmest of margins. (More about that win anon.)



• I treated Brigham Young’s 24-point victory over Division I-AA Northern Iowa as the functional equivalent of O.S.U.’s 44-point victory over Division I-AA Missouri State, although, given the 20-point difference in the margins, any edge would have to be awarded to Oklahoma State.



• Brigham Young’s victory over U.C.L.A. (2-3) came against an opponent very much analogous to Texas A&M (2-3). Although the Cougars annihilated the Bruins by a 59-0 final margin, the Cowboys undeniably were dominant over the Aggies, as well, holding a 35-7 lead two-thirds of the way through the game and matching Texas A&M score for score during the final 20 minutes of the contest to maintain a four-touchdown advantage. As with the size of the two teams’ respective victories over Division I-AA competition, the differing margins mask the fact that both the Cowboys and Cougars were dominant. B.Y.U. gets an edge for the thoroughness of the Cougs’ dismantling of U.C.L.A., but Oklahoma State deserves considerable credit for whacking the Aggies, too. Edge to the Cougars, but not by a lot; I don’t deduct points from Mike Gundy for building depth in the fourth quarter.



• Brigham Young’s 44-point victory over Wyoming (2-4) was more impressive than O.S.U.’s 19-point victory over Houston (2-3). Although the Cougars---the Houston Cougars, that is---likely are a better team than the Cowboys---the Wyoming Cowboys, that is---B.Y.U. gets a bonus point for this one. At this stage, Brigham Young has the advantage over O.S.U., but both have performed impressively.



• Here is where the Cowboys start to pick up steam. Oklahoma State’s 31-point victory over Troy (2-2) counts for considerably more than B.Y.U.’s 20-point victory over Utah State (1-4). This gives O.S.U. one slight advantage (Missouri State/Northern Iowa) and one significant advantage (Troy/Utah State) to offset the games in which B.Y.U. held one slight advantage (U.C.L.A./Texas A&M) and one significant advantage (Wyoming/Houston). Even if you give the Cougars the overall edge for the totality of their decimation of the Bruins, the final comparison clearly will carry enough weight (a la Florida in the 2000 election) to swing the balance in either team’s favor.



• Accordingly, it comes down to the fact that the Pokes went on the road and beat Washington State (1-5) by 26 points, whereas the Cougars went on the road and beat Washington (0-5) by a single point on a controversial penalty call. Clearly, this bumps Oklahoma State out in front, even though the closeness of their respective resumes has them ranked one right after the other.

Also, O.S.U. is 2-0 against teams nicknamed "Cougars," and, if I didn’t rank the Cowboys ahead of B.Y.U., Mike Gundy would yell at me, which is what I was trying to avoid by revising my ballot in the first place.

At the end of the day, therefore, my BlogPoll brethren persuaded me that I had undervalued Brigham Young’s resume, but, because I am not convinced that B.Y.U. has a better argument than Oklahoma State, my solution was to move both teams up an equal number of spots and leave the rest of my ballot alone. As a well respected fellow resume ranker recently put it, where Brigham Young is concerned, "the incorrigible skeptic in me is resisting the hype."

I stand by my ranking of Vanderbilt ahead of Louisiana State, as I believe any honest resume ranker is obligated to do.

Please remember that the deadline for submitting final ballots is 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, so I remain open to compelling arguments for further revisions.

Go ‘Dawgs!

I have already posted my BlogPoll ballot for this week, but that only provides an overview of what I consider to be the top 25 teams in Division I-A and does not offer a breakdown of all twelve S.E.C. programs and where they stand relative to one another. For that, you need . . .

1. Alabama: Granted, the Crimson Tide nearly got upended by Kentucky at home, but this is a decent Wildcat team and ‘Bama found a way to win despite coming down off of the biggest victory by the Red Elephants in the last 15 years. Even if I deducted points from the Tide’s score for the close call against U.K., Alabama had enough of an edge to retain the first-place ranking on my ballot.

2. Vanderbilt: On the biggest of stages, playing at home at night with "College GameDay" on campus, taking on a Western Division opponent from the Yellowhammer State in the largest test yet of what previously had been an undefeated season, the Commodores closed the deal . . . which is more than I can say for some other teams I could name. Embrace the Vandemonium!

Here’s to snooty private schools and robber barons! What better way to celebrate the Wall Street bailout?

3. Louisiana State: It’s not that I doubt the Bayou Bengals’ ability to rocket to the top, but, for crying out loud, play someone already! What’re you, a Big 12 team?

4. Georgia: The Bulldogs still are one of the elite teams in the league. Thank goodness we get the ‘Dores between the hedges.

5. Florida: To the Gators’ credit, they didn’t try to assemble a slate made up of patsies, but, with Arkansas, Miami (Florida), and upcoming season-ender Florida State all tanking, U.F. must contend with the simple reality that all four of the Saurians’ victims boast 2-3 records. The one 3-3 team the Gators faced beat the Orange and Blue in Gainesville. What happens when Urban Meyer’s club starts playing teams that are above .500?

6. Kentucky: The ‘Cats acquitted themselves as well in Tuscaloosa as might have been expected. Vanderbilt’s success so far has overshadowed the fact that Rich Brooks has turned this program around and placed U.K. in a position of perennial respectability on the gridiron. The difference, of course, is that Coach Brooks won’t be hired to replace Tommy Bowden at Clemson at the end of the regular season.

Bobby Johnson . . . bound for a bowl game, a truckload of cash, and a house overlooking Lake Hartwell!

7. South Carolina: Put away the "big, powerful team" jokes, Bulldog Nation; the Gamecocks finally registered that elusive S.E.C. win, and it was a pretty big one for the Palmetto State Poultry, who went on the road and bagged an upset in Oxford. It was a solid performance by a team that now looks like a bowl contender again, but, anytime your team considers beating Ole Miss an upset, there are unresolved issues remaining.

8. Mississippi: The Rebels were on a roll after registering a big upset in the Swamp, but the Big Chickens brought them back down to earth a bit. Nevertheless, Houston Nutt has Ole Miss headed in the right direction. The Rebs are talented, but they need to work on their consistency.

9. Auburn: There is no longer any shame in losing to Vanderbilt. There is, however, considerable shame in the inability to score above the mid-teens in a conference game. I continue to live in mortal terror that the Plainsmen are going to get it clicking halfway through the first quarter of their game against the ‘Dawgs. I hate Auburn.

10. Tennessee: You could throw the league’s bottom three teams in a sack and pull them out at random without being wrong. I can’t so much justify why the Volunteers made the top ten, but I sure can justify why the next two teams didn’t.

Relax, Phil; it could be worse. I mean, it couldn’t be much worse, but there are differences in degrees of awfulness.

11. Mississippi State: How bad has it gotten in Starkville? The Western Division Bulldogs are looking wistfully towards Auburn in admiration of the Tigers’ offense . . . and the urbane sophistication of the so-called Loveliest Village. M.S.U., the "sick man" of the S.E.C., has a fever, and, no, it can’t be cured by more cowbell.

12. Arkansas: The Razorbacks are so bad, they might as well be Washington, minus a scenic campus, respectable academic standards, and a coach with integrity. If Arkansas’s Hog mascot was literal rather than symbolic, it would be time to serve bacon for breakfast and be done with it.

That is how the various S.E.C. squads stack up against one another, at least from my vantage point. Please feel free to share your thoughts upon my ordering of the teams in the comments below.

Go ‘Dawgs!

Thanks to yesterday’s much-needed open date, I had a relaxing weekend, so I am rested and ready to cast this week’s BlogPoll ballot. Once again, I started from scratch and arranged my ballot according to the principles of resume ranking. (I believe I made that clear last week, but I wanted to say so forthrightly because I believe I may have confused some people who don’t bother to read what I write.)

For the uninitiated, resume ranking is based on what each team has accomplished to date---whether they won or lost, and how, and where, and to whom---not on how I anticipate the teams will end up in January or on which teams I think would beat which other teams on a neutral field next Saturday. While I welcome constructive criticisms of my top 25, it is no objection to my ranking of Vanderbilt ahead of Louisiana State to say, "The Bayou Bengals would beat the Commodores senseless." That probably is true, but it certainly is irrelevant; I am going strictly by what the ‘Dores and the Tigers have accomplished so far, not by what result a purely hypothetical matchup might produce.

With those criteria borne in mind, I welcome your feedback with respect to the following:

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	--
2	Oklahoma	--
3	Missouri	3
4	Penn State	1
5	Texas	8
6	Vanderbilt	5
7	Boise State	8
8	LSU	4
9	Utah	5
10	Texas Tech	11
11	Southern Cal	3
12	Virginia Tech	5
13	Ohio State	5
14	California	3
15	Georgia	1
16	Georgia Tech	10
17	Florida	2
18	Wake Forest	9
19	Northwestern	7
20	Michigan State	6
21	Oklahoma State	4
22	Brigham Young	2
23	Pittsburgh	3
24	South Florida	19
25	North Carolina	1

Dropped Out: Wisconsin (#10), Maryland (#14), Oregon (#20), Connecticut (#22), Auburn (#23).

The battle for the top spot was a close contest between Alabama (6-0) and Oklahoma (5-0), but the Crimson Tide narrowly edged out the Sooners for the following reasons:

• All six of Alabama’s wins came against Division I-A opposition. One of Oklahoma’s five wins was over Division I-AA Chattanooga.



• O.U.’s two best wins came at home against Texas Christian (5-1) and Cincinnati (4-1), both of whom were on the cusp of making my top 25. The Tide’s two best wins came against Georgia (4-1) on the road and against Kentucky (4-1) at home. ‘Bama also has a neutral site win over Clemson (3-2). Despite the closeness of the Red Elephants’ victory over the Wildcats, Nick Saban’s squad has the better set of quality wins.



• Alabama’s worst wins really aren’t that bad in comparison to Oklahoma’s. Only two of the Crimson Tide’s six victims have losing records, one of which was an Arkansas squad ‘Bama beat handily on the road. Half of the Sooners’ Division I-A wins were over squads with losing records, including woeful Washington (0-5).

The third spot went to Missouri (5-0). Although the Tigers have yet to record what truly qualifies as a quality victory (at least in terms of the caliber of the opposition), three of Mizzou’s four Division I-A wins were over teams with winning records and none were by narrow margins. A neutral site triumph over Illinois (3-2) and a dominating road win over Nebraska (3-2) proved that the Tigers have not missed a step offensively and that their defense is better than expected. Gary Pinkel’s club is No. 3 with a bullet.

Penn State (6-0) narrowly edged Texas (5-0) for the fourth spot not because the Nittany Lions have an additional victory---P.S.U.’s season opening win over Division I-AA Coastal Carolina essentially counts for zilch---but because, even though both squads consistently have been dominant, Joe Paterno’s team has beaten a marginally better class of competition than Mack Brown’s squad. It is debatable whether the Longhorns’ best win, at Colorado (3-2), is better than the Lions’ best win, over Illinois (3-2) at home; however, Penn State’s home win over Oregon State (2-3) counts for more than Texas’s home win over Arkansas (2-3) and P.S.U.’s third-best win, at Purdue (2-3), certainly carries more weight than U.T.’s third-best win, at U.T.E.P. (2-3). Even the Nittany Lions’ worst Division I-A win, at Syracuse (1-4), was superior to the Longhorns’ least valuable victory, over Florida Atlantic (1-4) at home.

You know, I know, and the American people know that the Commies’ success is unsustainable, but Vanderbilt (5-0) has survived close scrapes against a pair of 4-2 clubs in Auburn and South Carolina, in addition to going on the road to defeat an Ole Miss squad that sits at 3-3 and defeated Florida in Gainesville. That gives the ‘Dores a better record of achievement than Boise State (4-0), inasmuch as the Broncos’ narrow win at Oregon (4-2) has lost a little of its luster and the rest of B.S.U.’s resume consists of wins over Bowling Green (2-3), Louisiana Tech (2-2), and Division I-AA Idaho State.

While I certainly believe that L.S.U. (4-0) will finish with a better poll position than eighth, the Bayou Bengals haven’t proven much in the first six weeks of the season. Louisiana State, like Vanderbilt, claims as its marquee win a closely-contested victory over Auburn. Arguably, the Fighting Tigers deserve more credit for their triumph over the Plainsmen, as it came on the road and by a larger margin, although Vandy has a case that its win over the War Eagle was the more impressive, since the ‘Dores did a better job of shutting Auburn down defensively. The rest of the resume compiled by Les Miles’s team is worthless, though: L.S.U. has beaten Mississippi State (1-4), North Texas (0-5), and Division I-AA Appalachian State.

Utah (6-0) checks in at No. 9, as the Utes have gotten about as far as squeakers at Michigan (2-3), at Air Force (3-2), and over Oregon State can take them. Utah very nearly was beaten out by Texas Tech (5-0) on the strength of the Red Raiders’ solid road victories over a pair of 3-2 teams (Nevada and Kansas State), but the presence of two Division I-AA clubs (Eastern Washington and Massachusetts) on Texas Tech’s slate slowed the Raiders’ rise.

The teams ranked eleventh through 18th all sport ledgers besmirched by a lone loss, and, among these, pride of place is given to Southern California (3-1). The Trojans’ only loss was by a close margin on the road, although the Beavers’ losing record prohibits U.S.C. from claiming credit for a quality loss. Nevertheless, Pete Carroll’s club possesses a pair of valuable pelts as a result of the lopsided victories claimed by the Men of Troy over Ohio State (5-1) and Oregon.

Like Southern California, Virginia Tech (5-1) boasts a record marred by a loss which, while occurring by a slim margin away from home, appears increasingly shameful now that East Carolina stands at 3-2. However, the Hokies claimed close victories in three games over legitimate opponents in Georgia Tech (4-1), North Carolina (4-1), and Nebraska, two of whom V.P.I. defeated on the road.

The Buckeyes lost badly to a quality opponent in U.S.C. but offset that setback with respectable wins over Minnesota (5-1) and Wisconsin (3-2). California (4-1) still loses points for being beaten by Maryland (4-2), but the Golden Bears’ victory over Michigan State (5-1) gets better with age, so Jeff Tedford’s crew got the nod over the ‘Dawgs. Cal’s and Georgia’s respective wins over Arizona State (2-3) effectively cancel each other out and the Bears’ win over the Spartans presently possesses more value than the Bulldogs’ win over the Gamecocks.

A quasi-quality win at Boston College (4-1) and a quality loss at Virginia Tech earned the Yellow Jackets a No. 16 ranking ahead of the Gators, who almost certainly are better than their poll position but who have done nothing to prove it except losing at home to Mississippi and beating four teams with 2-3 records: Hawaii, Miami (Florida), Tennessee, and Arkansas.

Wake Forest (3-1) narrowly beat at home the selfsame Ole Miss team that narrowly beat Florida on the road, but the Demon Deacons have what is now a slightly shinier win over Florida State (4-1) in Tallahassee. That would have been enough to elevate Wake over the Saurians, had it not been for the fact that the Deacs also lost at home to a Navy club with a highly inflated record.

An undefeated ledger enabled Northwestern (5-0) to nab the No. 19 ranking ahead of Michigan State (5-1), but the Spartans get credit for a quality loss after falling in a close contest on the road against Cal. The margin separating the two Big Ten teams is razor-thin, however, since the Wildcats’ close win at Duke (3-2) has been devalued and M.S.U.’s victory over Notre Dame (4-1) is acquiring a bit more luster.

Lurking just outside the top 20 are a pair of 5-0 clubs in Oklahoma State and Brigham Young. The Cowboys moved in front of the Cougars on the (for lack of a better word) strength of a win over Troy (2-2), since the Trojans are the only Division I-A team either O.S.U. or B.Y.U. has beaten that does not have a losing record. The rest of the two squads’ respective ledgers are approximately equivalent---Oklahoma State beat Texas A&M (2-3), Houston (2-3), and Division I-AA Missouri State; Brigham Young beat U.C.L.A. (2-3), Wyoming (2-4), and Division I-AA Northern Iowa---but the Cowboys get a smidgen more credit for going on the road and winning handily over one-win Washington State than the Cougars get for going on the road and winning narrowly over winless Washington.

That’s twice now that I’ve had to mention how bad the Huskies are. Really, is there any reason not to go ahead and pull the plug on this failed experiment?

The usual tiebreaker of head-to-head competition enabled Pitt (4-1) to inch ahead of South Florida (5-1), although the Panthers continue to suffer for having lost at home to a Bowling Green club with a losing record and the Bulls continue to benefit from a close win over Kansas (4-1). The Tar Heels grabbed the last spot in the top 25 by virtue of a quality loss to the Hokies and a victory of marginal worth over Connecticut (5-1).

Serious looks were given to five other teams, all of whom came up short due to a complete dearth of victories over Division I-A opponents with winning records, but Cincinnati, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, and Texas Christian all received serious consideration. I did not give consideration to any twice-beaten teams because I believe it is too early in the season to rank a two-loss squad.

On Wednesday, I watched Boise State battle Louisiana Tech. On Thursday, I watched Pitt tangle with South Florida. On Friday, I watched Cincinnati square off with Marshall. On Saturday, I watched parts of the Iowa-Michigan State, Penn State-Purdue, and Arkansas-Florida games before taking in more or less all of the Florida State-Miami (Florida) and Auburn-Vanderbilt games. I closed out the evening by flipping back and forth between the Ohio State-Wisconsin and Missouri-Nebraska tilts.

Please bear in mind that this is a preliminary ballot. Although I failed to heed some sensible reader suggestions during last week’s bloodletting, I appreciated the helpful comments and I have until Wednesday morning to modify my top 25. Civil differences of opinion from folks who behave as though their mothers taught them manners always are welcome, your constructive criticisms are invited in the comments below, and, like Dr. Frasier Crane, I’m listening.

Go ‘Dawgs!

By now, you probably have read several reviews, and maybe even an interview, about Rob Suggs’s Top Dawg: Mark Richt and the Revival of Georgia Football (Thomas Nelson 2008). I recently was given the opportunity to read Suggs’s latest work and I wanted to add a few words of praise for the book, which you may purchase by clicking the cover image above.

Suggs begins by telling two tales simultaneously, charting the courses of a quarter-century in the lives of Mark Richt and the Georgia football program. The two initially followed parallel paths, moving first downward, then upward, commencing in the 1980s, before ultimately intersecting for the betterment of both.

Much of the story is familiar to all of us in Bulldog Nation; we have learned about Mark Richt’s background over the years, and, of course, most of us lived through the 20-year title drought between the 1982 and 2002 Southeastern Conference championships. However, Suggs gathers those data together in a single place for the first time and weaves a fluid narrative which shows the struggles of the young quarterback and the faltering football power as they each grappled with the false sense that the glory years were behind them.

Among the interesting nuggets Suggs drops into his story is this intriguing detail: two weeks before Vince Dooley stepped down as Georgia’s head coach in 1988, Bulldog defensive coordinator Bill Lewis was placed in charge of the East Carolina program. At the suggestion of future Georgia offensive coordinator Wayne McDuffie, Coach Lewis hired Mark Richt to be the Pirates’ offensive coordinator.

Of course, the search for Coach Dooley’s successor led to the consideration of George Haffner and the hiring of Ray Goff. Had Bill Lewis still been on the staff, it is not unlikely that the man who succeeded Erk Russell as Georgia’s defensive coordinator would have been offered the opportunity to fill Vince Dooley’s shoes, as well. If Coach Lewis had been named the head coach at Georgia rather than at East Carolina in 1989, might Coach Richt have been an assistant on the Bulldog staff more than a decade before making his eventual move to the Classic City?

Suggs tracks Coach Richt’s career through his tenure in Tallahassee while taking the reader through the frustrations of the Ray Goff and Jim Donnan years before bringing the two tales together. From there, the denizens of Bulldog Nation get to enjoy reliving the first seven seasons of the Mark Richt era.

Top Dawg takes the same approach as such sports books as Ben Brown’s Saint Bobby and the Barbarians, merging events on the field with background details, some of which are commonly known but explored in unusual depth and some of which we are learning for the first time. We are taken through the search process through which Coach Richt was hired, as well as his own efforts to assemble a staff of capable assistants.

Suggs’s short volume covers more than 20 years in a little over 200 pages, so there are times when the reader wishes for additional material, but Suggs provides a lively overview of Coach Richt’s tenure at Georgia. He paints a vivid portrait of what the famous mat drills were like, and how they helped not only to mold championship teams, but to remove the last vestiges of doubt from the athletic director’s mind that he had hired the right man. Writes Suggs:

[Richt] was so quiet, so polite in all those press conferences. He was a churchgoing man who prayed about every decision. You could imagine him as a Sunday school teacher, but could he be the guy to beat Phil Fulmer or Steve Spurrier? Dooley had wondered about that when he was considering Richt for the job, and he had put the question to Bowden: "Is Mark Richt tough enough?"

Bowden had said, "You just don’t know."

During the winter drills, Dooley stopped in and had a look. Later, during spring practice, he watched Richt crawl all over Fred Gibson, who looked as if his mind were somewhere else. Richt gave it to Gibson pretty good before exiling him to the locker room. Dooley later told writer Terence Moore that he wanted to sprint out onto the field and hug Richt at that moment.

Top Dawg is full of such gems and Georgia fans will enjoy reviewing a virtual highlight film of the last seven seasons while gaining a deeper appreciation both for how far the Bulldog football program has come and for the head coach who took the ‘Dawgs that distance.

Because Mark Richt’s story is one of religious redemption, our head coach’s Christian faith is a major theme of the book. The steadying influence of Coach Richt’s belief system recurs throughout Top Dawg, as well it should. I particularly enjoyed Suggs’s brief description of team chaplain Kevin "Chappy" Hynes, whom I had the privilege of interviewing last year, whose exuberant personality comes through even on the printed page.

Rob Suggs has put together an enjoyable account of Mark Richt’s and the Georgia Bulldogs’ separate journeys through the wilderness and their travel together out of the desert and into the promised land. If you haven’t yet taken the time to pick it up, do yourself a favor; whether for yourself or for that special Bulldog fan on your Christmas list, get a copy of Top Dawg and enjoy reliving the course that has gotten us this far and will take us even farther beyond, both in this life and in the next.

Go ‘Dawgs!

In addition to casting the weekly ballots that help us to win friends and influence people, those of us who vote in the BlogPoll periodically are asked to participate in roundtable discussions about college football. The current conversation centers around questions posed over at the Big Red Network in an effort to find order in the midst of chaos. Asks Brandon Vogel:

Of the four presumed national title contenders to go down this past week—USC, Florida, Georgia, Wisconsin—which team has the best chance to get back in the race by the end of the year?

Leaving aside the fact that I believe including the Badgers among the contenders was a bit of a stretch even before Wiscy’s loss last weekend, the answer unquestionably is Southern California. Let’s face it, the Trojans get the benefit of the doubt from the national news media---like Florida State in the 1990s, they face double elimination while the rest of the field may be ousted after a lone loss---and the case for U.S.C. is helped by the fact that the Men of Troy lost on the road, while the Bulldogs and the Gators lost at home.

Most importantly, it appears from the early returns that the Pac-10 is having a down year. Ultimately, it may not play out that way, of course, but it’s hard to look at Southern California’s schedule and find another team that should challenge the Trojans (although, inevitably, one or more of them will), whereas it’s hard to look at Georgia’s and Florida’s remaining slates without cringing. The once-beaten teams will have to run the table at this point, and U.S.C. is the better bet to win ‘em all.

But what does this mean for Ohio State? Are they back in?

On paper, I suppose you’d have to say the Buckeyes are back in the hunt, although the O.S.U. faithful ought to be rooting pretty hard for Oklahoma if they want to make it to a third straight national title tilt.

Why the Sooners? Well, for one thing, they’re No. 1, and I’m sure Ohio State would like to be the hunter rather than the hunted for a change. Really, though, any Big 12 champion will do for the Buckeyes’ purposes; what’s imperative for O.S.U. is that neither U.S.C. nor the S.E.C. champion make it to Miami. After the high-profile drubbings absorbed by the Bucks against Florida two years ago, L.S.U. last year, and U.S.C. earlier this season, no one wants to see Jim Tressel’s club back in the ring with the Trojans or a Southeastern Conference squad. Given the choice between, say, Ohio State and a once-beaten Big 12 champion to play a once-beaten Southern California team or S.E.C. champion, the voters will opt for the selection that doesn’t make a nation of viewers collectively roll its eyes and mutter, "Here we go again!"

Did the week that was open the door for any of the undefeateds out of some of the non-BCS conferences like the Mountain West or the Big East? (Yup, that’s a cheap shot. Thanks, Virginia Tech for not allowing me to make it about the ACC.)

That depends on what you mean by "open the door." If you’re asking whether it opened the door for a mid-major to make it into a B.C.S. bowl game (or, in the likely event that a non-B.C.S. conference squad was going to get into a major bowl game already, whether it opened the door for a second such team to make the cut), it undoubtedly did. If you’re asking whether Boise State, Brigham Young, or Utah has a shot at the national championship game, I seriously doubt it.

If you’re the Mountain West Conference commissioner, you have to be kicking yourself over the fact that the Cougars and the Utes don’t begin the season by playing each other (like Colorado and Colorado State do) rather than end the season by playing each other, as the loser of that contest might have gone 11-1 after suffering a Labor Day weekend setback and made some real noise.

As it is, though, none of the mid-major contenders appears to have adequate "oomph" to make it as far as Miami. The Broncos are bolstered by their win at Oregon, but, with Hawaii having crashed back to earth in a big way, the W.A.C. (which featured three teams with winning records as of the close of business on Thursday evening) lacks sufficient schedule strength, even assuming (not at all safely) that Fresno State remains ranked heading into the November 28 showdown.

No offense, Broncos, but, if you want to be taken more seriously by the rest of the country, try playing football on a green field like everyone else.

The Mountain West is more impressive than the W.A.C.---heck, it’s more impressive than the A.C.C.---but B.Y.U. got an unfortunate draw out of the Pac-10, inasmuch as every indication is that U.C.L.A. and Washington are two of the three or four worst teams in the league. At a time when Baylor, Duke, Northwestern, and Vanderbilt all are showing varying degrees of promise, the simultaneous decline of multiple prominent Pac-10 programs works to the detriment of the mid-major teams that play them.

Any cachet that accompanies a win over the Bruins or the Huskies is historical rather than actual at this point. When the toughness of a non-B.C.S. conference team’s slate is at issue, an undefeated mid-major does little to bolster its case by beating---even, in the case of the Cougars’ win over U.C.L.A. in Provo, beating badly---a Pac-10 team that isn’t even going to a bowl game.

Of the three, Utah has the best shot, but the Utes need Michigan and Oregon State to finish the season with respectable records. Currently, the Wolverines stand at .500 and the Beavers are the best 2-3 team in America, but the Mountain West squad needs the teams from Ann Arbor and Corvallis to win as much as possible.

O.S. did its part by registering a nationally-televised upset of U.S.C., but the season needs to see another of those patented Mike Riley slow starts followed by a dramatic turnaround. The Maize and Blue at least need to have as good a season as they had in 2005, which doesn’t seem like a stretch, but it very well may be. If Michigan and Oregon State don’t win at least eight regular-season games apiece, the Utes could be bound for their second Fiesta Bowl in the last five seasons, but, even with the carnage in the top ten, they won’t improve upon that.

Of course, you never know when a small-market representative from the western half of the country is going to be called up to the big time. . . .

While we’re on the subject of the Wolverines, by the way, this is neither here nor there, but it is gratifying, nonetheless. A Michigan fan recently wrote:

It frustrates me to no end that we signed to play ND for another 20 plus years when teams like OSU and Georgia are playing great intersectional matchups.

Thank you, Damon Evans. The decision to go play Arizona State already is starting to have an impact, even though some folks who saw the Bulldogs’ methodical dismantling of the Sun Devils inexplicably came away with the impression that "Georgia struggled with Arizona State." We Georgians are subject to some bizarrely harsh judgments from Big Ten country, for some reason.

Please feel free to share your thoughts on the foregoing questions in the comments below.

Go ‘Dawgs!

Losing stinks. There’s just no getting around that fact. However, not all losses are created equal; some losses, in fact, ultimately turn out to be worth it, as they produce positive long-term consequences.

For instance, the Bulldogs’ loss to Georgia Tech in 2000 was a good loss, because it got Jim Donnan fired and Mark Richt hired. Likewise, Georgia’s 2007 loss to Tennessee proved, in the end, to be beneficial to the program.

In the hope that Black Saturday may have similarly salutary side effects, I hereby present a list which, while it is by no means exhaustive, nevertheless serves as a reminder of . . .

Georgia 27, Florida 10 (November 5, 1966): Let’s get this one out of the way first. Senior quarterback Steve Spurrier was well on his way to winning the Heisman Trophy and the Gators only needed a win in Jacksonville to ensure themselves of at least a share of the first conference championship in school history. Instead, a Bulldog D led by tackles George Patton and Bill Stanfill contained the future Evil Genius, whose alma mater would not win its first official S.E.C. title until Spurrier was the head ball coach. Once Darth Visor took over the helm of the Florida program, he took his revenge on the ‘Dawgs for that indignity every chance he got, winning eleven of twelve Cocktail Parties between 1990 and 2001.

Eventually, Steve Superior decided he had beaten Georgia enough, at which point he became the head coach at South Carolina.

Ohio State 50, Michigan 14 (November 23, 1968): The Buckeyes’ "Super Sophomores" capped off an unbeaten regular season en route to a national title with a thorough throttling of the hated Wolverines. After his team scored the touchdown that made it 50-14, Woody Hayes called for a two-point conversion. The attempt failed, and, when he was asked afterwards why he had gone for it, the O.S.U. coach replied, "Because they wouldn’t let me go for three." The result marked the end of the line for U.M.’s Bump Elliott, who was replaced by one of Woody’s former assistants, Bo Schembechler. The following fall, the Buckeyes arrived in Ann Arbor sporting a 22-game winning streak and a No. 1 ranking. Ohio State had not trailed in any game of that 1969 campaign, but the Wolverines remembered the previous year’s drubbing---the members of the Michigan scout team all had worn the number 50 during the previous week’s practices---and the Maize and Blue earned their first Rose Bowl bid since 1964 with a 24-12 upset. The Wolverine victory not only launched the Schembechler era (which would not truly end until Lloyd Carr’s retirement) and avenged the previous year’s loss, but also demonstrated that turnabout was fair play: the 1950 contest between the two rivals had featured 45 punts in a gusty snowstorm. That game had been won by Michigan on a pair of blocked punts, resulting in the firing of Ohio State’s Wes Fesler and the hiring of Hayes to replace him.

Tennessee 24, Alabama 0 (October 17, 1970): These were tough times for the Tide, relatively speaking. Bear Bryant’s program had gone 60-5-1 between 1961 and 1966, but there were signs of decline as ‘Bama posted records of 8-2-1 in 1967, 8-3 in 1968, and 6-5 in 1969. The 1970 season began with an embarrassing three-touchdown loss to Southern California in Birmingham and the Red Elephants stood at 3-3 following a shutout setback suffered at the hands of Bill Battle’s first Volunteer team in Knoxville. The loss to the Sugar Bowl-bound Big Orange, in which the Vols picked off eight passes, marked the Crimson Tide’s fourth straight loss to U.T.; the third installment of that streak had caused the Bear to declare that he "wanted to puke." His disgust led Bryant to consider accepting an offer to coach the Miami Dolphins, but he opted instead to spend his summer in Austin being taught the Wishbone by Darrell Royal. Alabama proceeded to post double-digit win totals in nine of the next ten seasons.

Georgia Tech 12, Georgia 0 (December 3, 1927): The Bulldogs arrived at historic Grant Field as the nation’s top team. At 9-0, the Red and Black needed only a win over the Yellow Jackets to receive a Rose Bowl bid. The Ramblin’ Wreck upset the visitors from the Classic City on a muddy field, spoiling Georgia’s season. Because the lack of an adequate facility in Athens necessitated that the ‘Dawgs annually face the Golden Tornado in Atlanta, University of Georgia president Steadman Vincent Sanford used his outrage over the loss as the impetus for a fundraising campaign. Less than two years later---on the eve of the Great Depression that likely would have delayed construction by a decade or more---Sanford Stadium was dedicated.

Auburn 40, Alabama 0 (November 30, 1957): Evidently, shutting out the Tide is a good way to build up bad karma. It worked out badly for Tennessee in 1970, but it really worked out badly for the Plainsmen 13 years earlier, although you couldn’t have told the A.U. faithful that at the time. Shug Jordan’s Tigers arrived in Birmingham with an undefeated record and the Iron Bowl would be their only bowl, because recruiting violations prevented Auburn from being eligible for postseason play. (I know; it’s shocking, isn’t it?) While the victory over ‘Bama guaranteed the Plainsmen the A.P. national championship, the loss to Auburn proved to be the final nail in the coffin for J.B. Whitworth, whose 4-24-2 three-year run was brought to a merciful end. To find a new coach, Alabama officials looked to College Station, where Texas A&M had been led to Southwest Conference prominence by a ‘Bama alum named Paul Bryant. In retrospect, it was a good hire.

Losing is bad, but some losses are mitigated by the changes for the better they produce. Here’s hoping last Saturday’s setback between the hedges turns out to be one of the ones with positive consequences.

Go ‘Dawgs!

This isn’t really front page material, but, nevertheless, MaconDawg and I want to thank everyone who helped make September the best month of site traffic ever at Dawg Sports.

While we’re not pulling down Georgia Sports Blog numbers by any stretch of the imagination, we’re still pretty proud of this:

Through the end of August, our best month ever here was November 2007, when we received 66,180 visits and 101,998 page views in a single calendar month. Both of those marks were eclipsed in September 2008, which saw 77,872 visits and 123,183 page views.

Our thanks go out to all of you who stop by from time to time, particularly to those of you who make Dawg Sports a part of your regular routine, and most especially to those of you who take the time to participate in the community here through your comments and postings. It is our intention that this site be not a lecture hall, but a forum for conversation, and we are grateful to the many fine readers who take their turn at the microphone.

Thanks.

Go ‘Dawgs!

First, the Big Ten got the cleverly-named Big Ten Network. Then (in open defiance of the reasonable question posed by the S.E.C.’s mother: "If the Big Ten jumped off of the Empire State Building . . . ?") the S.E.C. had to get its own network.

It’s called ESPN. The Southeastern Conference merely floated the possibility of setting up its own network and the Worldwide Leader fell all over itself in its rush to back up a dump truck full of bajillion-dollar bills. (Whose face appears on the bajillion-dollar bill, you may ask? Roy Kramer’s. If investment banks could manage their money as well as the S.E.C., there’d be talk about Wall Street bailing out Washington, D.C.)

It was a brilliant stratagem by Mike Slive, who never had any intention of going to the trouble of cranking up an S.E.C. network; he just needed to make the boys in Bristol worried that he would. It’s pretty much the same thing Ronald Reagan did to get the Russians back to the table by threatening to shoot down I.C.B.M.s with lasers in space. Of course, it wasn’t going to happen. Are you kidding me? Lasers in space? But, hey, the threat that he might got their attention.

In any event, the Big Ten got its own SB Nation weblog, The Rivalry, Esq. Naturally, this caused the network’s stable of S.E.C. bloggers to band together, vow that this affront would not stand unchallenged, and begin chanting, "S-E-C! S-E-C! S-E-C!"

The result? Why, the Southeastern Conference’s brand-new SB Nation weblog, of course.

What’s it called? What else? Welcome Team Speed Kills. If you click on that link, you may notice that the page loads a little faster than that plodding old Big Ten blog.

You’re sitting there at your computer chanting, "S-E-C! S-E-C! S-E-C!" right now, aren’t you? Yeah, me, too.

Also, as long as I’m updating you on the latest developments here at SB Nation, I probably ought to bring it to your attention that there’s a new way to look at FanPosts.

Go ‘Dawgs!