Talking points: back in the saddle edition

by Joel Hollingsworth on May 12, 2008 7:59 AM EDT in Rocky Top Talking Points

Photo by Jan Tik.

Tennessee center Josh McNeil, despite missing spring practice due to recovering from a knee surgery, has been named to the preseason watch list for the 2008 Rimington Trophy, awarded to the nation's best center.
Jonathan Crompton, rehabbing his right throwing elbow after surgery, has been released to "begin throwing light objects."
Message board rumor alert: Brandon Warren has apparently made his grades at Pellissippi and is hoping to enroll in classes at Tennessee on June 2. I believe there are still some hoops to jump through after that to gain eligibility to play, at least if he wants to play this year.
Florida coach Urban Meyer has kicked Jamar Hornsby off the team after he'd been caught using the credit card of a Florida student that had died in a motorcycle accident with Florida walk-on Michael Guilford back in October. Orson, in awarding Fulmer Cup points to his own team, absolutely nails the despicability of Hornsby's actions:

Ah, thanks life. You never force us to make things up, instead just giving us real and improbably terrible things. Hornsby is charged with credit card theft and fraudulent use of a credit card, which we imagine are both felonies. That’s three points times two for each felony charge plus the bonus point for using a dead girl’s credit card the day after she died and with one bonus point for it being a Florida Gator and therefore homer-shameful to us personally, and we take that to eight points for Florida, putting them on the big board in a fashion so tacky no amount of exponents can cover it.
Oh, and you there, we’ll say it for you "WAAAAAAHHHH you’re giving Florida points because you want to win." Mr. Astoundinglystupidworth, if using a dead girl’s credit card the day after she died only gets two bonus points we should consider ourselves lucky for only getting eight points. Redux: you don’t want to win this thing. It’s not good. Perhaps that’s a point worth repeating from time to time: it’s not good to win the Fulmer Cup. It’s not good to win the Fulmer Cup. By the way, it’s not good to win the Fulmer Cup. For further reference, see: "Fulmer Cup: not good," or the Wikipedia entry "Fulmer Cup: Bad."

Read the whole thing. The girl's parents are trying to mourn the loss of their daughter and are getting monthly reminders, with interest and fees, from CitiBank.
The Papa takes another baby step into the future by getting himself one of those fancy new Saban-Loophole video conferencing thingamajigs.
The Blue Workhorse, not a fan of Bruce Pearl, nevertheless applauds Pearl for his recent decisions to keep Chris Lofton's secret and to kick Duke Crews and Ramar Smith off the team.
Speaking of Chris Lofton, the recent news of how he handled his cancer this year is gaining him fans from all over the place.
Tennessee basketball = Ferrari. Everybody else = Range Rover.
From around the blogosphere: Gate 21 has a really interesting piece on a battle between sports blogs and the teams they cover. . . . God, Google, and a bottle of aspirin (among other things) recently saved the life of Fanblogs' Kevin Donahue. Go read that. Kevin, glad to hear you're all right, and thanks for posting that.(Hat tip: Orson.). . . Brian, in debunking some anti-playoff arguments, had this gem:

I watch college football because in the stands 80 to 100 thousand people live and die on every play, because I hate Miami, Notre Dame, Ohio State, USC, and most of the SEC, because it is a brief three-month burst of bands and silly songs and real, honest-to-God traditions and stadiums named after states or dead men and punch-you-in-the-eye rivalries in a sea of sports chintz. You can add a playoff and Ohio State-Michigan happens once a year and so too Texas-Oklahoma and Oregon-Oregon State and Georgia-Florida and Army-Navy.

The reason so many of us watch so much college football is that, as mentioned, there is hardly any of it and it is all great.

Tweet Comment 2 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

Goal Line Blitz

For those that missed it the first time. This site is a football simulation game where you creat and develop your own player. Very fun! I've seen a couple other Vols show up (Big Al Wilson for one) It's free.

http://goallineblitz.com/game/signup.pl?ref=3421823

by VolBrian on May 12, 2008 9:22 AM EDT reply actions

We really need...

...to get on top of this Branden Warren situation. Somebody has got to know something definitive about what's going on with this kid. Is he some kind of UT secret or something? It's not like everybody doesn't know he's coming. And after what I saw of him at FSU, he better not get converted to a DE. He's got waaayyy too much TE talent to be wasted. I think we need to use the TEs more anyway. But we should know something definitely by now, dontcha think?

I've got something for you young man. Oh! It's Thaa Claawww!! Oh, you're afraid of The Claw...

by XRayVol on May 12, 2008 3:34 PM EDT reply actions