Talking points: Lane Kiffin and Urban Meyer separated at SEC Media Days

by Joel Hollingsworth on May 7, 2009 7:48 AM EDT in Rocky Top Talking Points

Tennessee football

B.J. Coleman will in fact play for UT-Chattanooga next season. Best of luck to Coleman.
The schedule for SEC Media Days in late July starts slow on Wednesday with Bobby Petrino, Bobby Johnson, Dan Mullen, and Rich Brooks, and then kicks into high gear Thursday with Nick Saban, Mark Richt, Urban Meyer, and Houston Nutt. Friday features Gene Chizik, Steve Spurrier, Les Miles, and Lane Kiffin. So yeah, Meyer and Kiffin won't be in the same room on the same day. Perhaps we can avoid subpoenas this year, hmm?
At least one website thinks that Rico McCoy is a first-round draft pick ($) next year.
Inside Tennessee notes that although Tennessee has a few areas of probable weakness, running back isn't one of them ($).
Marlon Walls -- who blew right past defensive end from linebacker to defensive tackle -- is marshaling the troops ($), keeping in close contact with Nu'Keese Richardson, Greg King, David Oku, and a bunch of the other highly touted recruits in this year's class.
Who knew? Robert Neyland was a janitor who fought in the Civil War!
DE Chris Walker made Bruce Feldman's list of 10 breakout players from spring practice at No. 9.

Tennessee basketball

Bruce Pearl is not happy about losing a scholarship due to the APR rules, which he thinks is well-intended but ill-applied. If Tyler Smith returns, someone will have to go. The most-probable loss would be Phillip Jurick.

NCAA

Over the Pylon has compiled a list of the most statistically-balanced teams of 2008. The list only goes to 25, but I'm guessing Tennessee would have been 1,000th. Or so.
Team Speed Kills has its No. 7 in the Top 10 SEC-Big 10 games of the last decade -- the 2000 Outback Bowl between Georgia and Purdue.
Crimson and Cream Machine has a list of the Big 12's most embarrassing non-conference games of 2009.
Maize n Brew wonders how much is too much when it comes to college football recruiting.

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Comments

You gotta keep 'em separated.

Throughout my life, my folks have always been dog people. Big dogs, medium dogs, little dogs — but mostly big dogs.

They have one massive Husky/Shepherd mix, about 100 pounds and just under waist height on a grown man. They also have a much smaller retriever mix of some kind; she’s a golden orange color (really!)

Last year the shepherd designated the retriever the omega of the pack (there are 4 dogs.) Anytime the retriever comes close the shepherd immediately bullies her to the ground and forces her to submit. Things have gotten a little uglier recently as we found the shepherd’s grip on the retriever’s neck to be a little stronger than a playful hold. There’s been no injury — yet — but the trend is clear.

So now the dogs are kept separate at all times. This prevents a brutal attack from taking place.

The SEC Media Days people know what they are doing.

Orange and Blue Hue: The World through GATOR-colored Glasses -- http://www.orangeandbluehue.com

by Gatorpilot on May 7, 2009 8:56 AM EDT reply actions

Your opinion is noted and respected.

by David Hooper on May 7, 2009 11:42 AM EDT up reply actions

OTP listed UT as #46 in the statistically-balanced thing.

That’s probably an artifact of their decision to equally weight everything. Like they say:

We set each ranking equal in weight to all the other rankings for each team. Thus, “Total Offense” means as much as “Net Punting”.

It really looks like “statistically balanced” had something to do with success, though. Washington was #119. They were a very balanced team, but it was all horrible. So maybe it was a weighted average thing, where UT’s defense was providing serious buoyancy. But that’s not “balance”, per se.

…Great. Now it’ll take me 30 minutes to stop twitching over their use of statistics.

by David Hooper on May 7, 2009 11:41 AM EDT reply actions

I don't understand...

Why did Coleman transfer to UT-Chattanooga? I know he’s from there, but the desire to play this year should never outweigh the desire to play for a team that has a chance to compete for something worthwhile. I mean, there are plenty of D! schools who could use a QB.

by Juco All-American on May 7, 2009 4:16 PM EDT reply actions

His Dad played at Chattanooga, and was a teammate of the current Head Coach.

And he wants to play. And he will play right away. And has 3 seasons of eligibility left.

Official MCM Hater!

by gramsey712 on May 7, 2009 4:21 PM EDT up reply actions

You'd have to ask him.

That sounds dismissive, but we all have different motivations in life. Losing a year of eligibility means losing 12ish games of football. Currently, he’s looking at a maximum of 36ish games in his college career. If he simply wants to play as much as possible and isn’t as concerned about the level of play, then going for 36ish rather than 24ish makes sense. If he’s instead more interested in getting the highest quality at risk or at cost of quantity, then staying D-1 might make more sense.

Of course, it also matters which programs were interested in him. It’s possible that none of the options on the table were any better than UT-C from a quality standpoint, much less a quantity standpoint.

(That’s the best I can give you. It’s not much, but it’s what I know.)

by David Hooper on May 7, 2009 4:22 PM EDT up reply actions

Evidently..

he’s not a D1 QB. I hate to beat a dead horse, but if you can’t supplant Jonathan Crompton, you’re not very good.

by wvvol on May 9, 2009 1:04 PM EDT up reply actions

For what it's worth

Coleman is on the radio in Chattanooga for the next 40 minutes and he so far has had nothing but good things to say about Coach Kiffin and Coach Chaney.

You can listen at WGOW.com, FM side if it so moves you.

Official MCM Hater!

by gramsey712 on May 7, 2009 4:25 PM EDT reply actions