Talking points: Sasquatch, Yeti, UFOs, and Mike Leach

by Joel Hollingsworth on Nov 18, 2008 7:43 AM EST in Rocky Top Talking Points

An ongoing debate: is the Tennessee head coaching job attractive or isn't it?
Hot dogs? I'm sorry. I don't know where you can find the hot dogs. Fulmer's Belly calculates that it will be 27 years before Tennessee sees the financial benefit of depriving its ushers of their free hot dog and drink.
It's your birthday, and I get a gift? Head over to Gate 21 to wish lawvol a happy birthaversary. His day, and I got the gift:
More basketball. The men's team plays UT-Martin this evening. The BruceBall Blog has the game preview.
Gerald Jones: mind-speaker. Jones and former high school teammate Tramain Swindall, who now plays for Texas Tech, apparently used their bye Saturdays to talk a little Mike Leach. Jones' take on what would happen if Leach ended up at Tennessee next season? Happy for him, suck for Tramain. Jones also pinpoints an area of distinction between quarterbacks Jonathan Crompton and Nick Stephens: "Crompton is a lot slower with his reads than Nick." Anyone want to venture a guess as to how many receptions Jones gets from Crompton in Nashville this weekend?
Drew Edwards has a nice summary of the salient points for and against each candidate for Tennessee's head coach.
Vanderbilt is now bowl-eligible, so there's no risk that they become so at Tennessee's expense. Of course, they can still beat the Vols and get to seven wins, which of course is their goal.
Sasquatch, Yeti, and UFOs. Eric Berry's been practicing at QB. I'll believe it when I see it.
The Tennessee-Kentucky game will be a 6:30 p.m. kickoff on ESPN2.
That makes four. Running back Dominique Allen has "switched" his commitment (don't you love recruiting terminology!) from Tennessee to LSU. Three others have "de-committed" from Tennessee: offensive lineman Antonio Foster, athlete (aren't they all?) D.J. Swearinger (oh, the irony of the name in a recruiting context!), and running back Jarvis Giles.
The Lady Vols lost 83-82 to Virginia last night.
Doc Saturday has kicked off his campaign to be Barack Obama's College Football Playoff Czar.
Brothers in farce. RBUAS, on rooting for Michigan this season:

It’s like trying to love a wife who lost her leg in a train accident, or got third degree burns on her face from a grease fire, and now she smokes cigarettes and drinks cheap whiskey from a sleeve of leftover paper cups you bought for some barbecue about a year back. This is not the same woman, and you know it’s not. You see things in her that you remember, things that used to make you happy. But now more than anything they make you sad, because you realize most of the time they don’t exist.

A bit much, maybe, but you understand the point, don't you Vol fans?
Excellent stuff from Smart Football, who "once had a long conversation with [Mike Leach] about applying the pythagorean theorem to calculate how long a QB's throw was," on Texas Tech and the overblowing of the "hot hand theory." See also this post about the Red Raiders' offense, which includes a quote that makes me giddy with possibilities:

Which gets back to the macro story about what Leach does. Leach and his offense are sui generis. As a result, a lot of coaches do not like Leach. Not on a personal level, but they are dismissive because he's so different. His success undermines their traditional approaches to the game. Too many football coaches are walking stereotypes right out of central casting; whereas sometimes the fact that Leach is head football coach for a major program seems like a Seinfeld plotline.

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Antoher relevant quote from Smart Football

It’s been well documented the love I have for Smart Football, but stop me if you can find examples of this situation:

“To carry the metaphor, you help yourself the most by preventing your opponent from ever knowing that if you lose twice in a row, you always shoot rock.”

by Chris Pendley on Nov 18, 2008 9:53 AM EST reply actions

Lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllloyd!

;-)

by David Hooper on Nov 18, 2008 10:31 AM EST up reply actions

UT Is an Attractive Job

We (Bama fans) went through the same yapping when we were looking for a coach a couple of years ago. The press was full of stories about how the fan base was irrational—usually defined as wanting to win games. Too much pressure for a coach, they said. It’s just not an attractive job. Bunk.

Why on earth would you want a coach who didn’t bleed with every loss, who didn’t think about football all the time, who didn’t want to win even more than you did? Why would you want a coach who wanted to take it easy? Why wouldn’t you want a coach who relishes the challenge of high expectations?

UT is an attractive job because of, not in spite of, the devoted fans. I hope you get a good coach, and that we still beat you every year. :-)

(And I still think you should look at Turner Gill.)

by Watchman on Nov 18, 2008 11:58 AM EST reply actions

Muschamp

Not sure if he was ever a top line candidate for y’all, but he’s off the market as of about 20 min ago. Texas stepped up big time and gave him a big raise and named him the coach in waiting.

by Tech92 on Nov 18, 2008 5:09 PM EST reply actions

just heard that, too

i can’t imagine Coach Brown stepping down anytime soon…unless… he wants to come back to his home state?!? can it be true? or did somone wack me in the head with an iron skillet, and my concussed brain is creating dellusional fantasy?

whoshotwhointhewhatnow?

by thetennesseethumper on Nov 18, 2008 6:32 PM EST reply actions

Yep, you’ve been whacked in the noggin. Brown intends to coach at Texas another 6-8 yrs. I will bet what’s left of my 401 that Muschamp doesn’t wait 6 yrs for a head coaching job.

by Tech92 on Nov 18, 2008 7:23 PM EST up reply actions

Not sure if this a ruse by an Austin station

The newest rumor concerning the UT coaching search involves Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach. A television station in Austin, Texas has been reported to have leaked the information that Leach has been offered the head coaching job at Tennessee. This information has not been confirmed at this time, but it would be interesting to see if Leach accepts the offer, if there is one, and when he would choose to announce if in fact he plans to head to East Tennessee. More information coming as more details surface. — WDEF News 12

by Tech92 on Nov 18, 2008 7:22 PM EST reply actions

Yeah, that made the rounds here too.

After about 93 degrees of separation, a rumor really begins to become worthless. If that is a ruse by a UTex news source, it’s a really shoddy one. I could just see the Tech locker room reading about a TV report that can’t be found, laughing, then resuming prep for Oklahoma. If anything, that ought to put them more at ease.

But thanks for keeping up. Leach is obviously the most intriguing name, and I’m sure he has your people on pins and needles right along with our people. Heck, it’s the best competition that Tennessee’s been in this year.

by David Hooper on Nov 18, 2008 7:33 PM EST up reply actions