Tennessee football

• Clausen on Rettig and Scroggins. Casey Clausen thinks as much of Chase Rettig as any of the other elite QBs he's seen. So why does Rettig only hold offers from Boston College and Tennessee? A difficult junior season in which most of his receivers went down with injuries. His team was 1-9 in a running-based offense while the other Elites were putting up big QB numbers and winning.
  
  So what does Clausen think of Scroggins? "I like him. High rising senior. He's got a good arm. Good kid. Real bright kid. I think he's got a real bright future."
• Life is found in the one extra effort. Al Wilson, who's holding a football camp this Friday (Fulmer will make an appearance), knows the power of the follow up question:

  "What do you want to be when you grow up?" he asked a boy. "A football player," the boy grinned. "How are you going to get there?" challenged Wilson.

Tennessee basketball

• Bruce Pearl's raise wasn't quite as much as some thought it might be after the whole nightmare scenario earlier this year, but a 9.5% raise that averages out to $2.32M per year over the next six years ain't bad. There's great wisdom in maneuvering into a second- or third-best salary in any given group and being content with it.
  

SEC

• Calipari's Memphis, Calipari's Kentucky. A Sea of Blue compares last year's Memphis team under Calipari to last year's Kentucky team and concludes:

  So the question isn't, "Can Calipari teach these guys his offensive system in a timely fashion," rather it's, "Can Calipari get these guys to rebound and play defense with purpose?"

• Prove it. You know, one of the best things about blogs is that they have the space and notion to second-guess and then actually analyze throwaway comments from national media without the space or inclination to do so. Year2 at Team Speed Kills actually looks at the numbers to determine the accuracy of the common statement that Mark Richt does best when expectations are low. Consider the comment to be revised to this:

  If you want to boil it down to the most simplest, you get something like this: when Georgia has been picked to win the East, it has not done so; when it has not been picked to win the East, it has done so three of six times.

  That's some basis for the more general comment about Richt and expectations, I guess, but Year2 points out that it's really not that simple. Go read the whole thing.
• He's this close to Tebow. In a list of SEC quarterbacks, Jonathan Crompton is only one below Tim Tebow. Of course, it's EDSBS's list of SEC QBs you'd want in a bar fight, and Tebow and Crompton are Nos. 11 and 12, but hey.
• ESS-EEE-SEE. The Rivalry, Esq. takes on the question of whether SEC fans love football more than Big 10 fans. No real conclusions here, but an interesting read.

NCAA/Other

• Sporting News's Brian Cook served an FOI request on the entire country and uncovered a variety of amusing (and fictional) secondary violations.
• Team Speed Kills has a recap of Tuesday's BCS hearings on Capitol Hill.
• And the Valley Shook gives Jason Whitlock a good and proper Fisking for his recent column on Steve McNair.
• GVX has rolled out its new design and IT'S BLACK!