More photos » by Bill Haber - AP

Browse more photos »

• In advance of the big SEC showdown between Alabama and LSU tomorrow, And the Valley Shook says it's time for LSU fans to get over Nick Saban and Roll Bama Roll is currying favor with the football gods by confessing an unnatural attraction to a certain Miley Cyrus song. More seriously, RBR notes that it's not only 'Bama's offense that is struggling a bit, it's the third down defense, and Team Speed Kills examines its preseason preview of the game to see how much of it holds this week.
• Black Shoe Diaries provides some essentially history on the Penn State-Ohio State rivalry.
• Ohio State blog We Will Always Have Tempe says that the Buckeyes must recapture some of their old road warrior mentality.

• Memphis coach Tommy West has made a stupid joke about a dog suggesting that Lane Kiffin is not all that smart. Tennessee players perhaps in danger of overlooking the Tigers are now focused.
• Lane Kiffin still won't confirm that reigning SEC freshman of the week Janzen Jackson is suspended for the Memphis game -- it's Kiffin's practice not to comment on such things until afterwards -- but Jackson watched practice from a distance on Thursday and Monte has said that either Prentiss Waggner or freshman Darren Myles, Jr. will start alongside Eric Berry, so there you go. Yay for deductive reasoning.
• We neglected to add the passive-aggressive little old lady to the Record of Wrongs this week.
• UT commitment Jacques Smith's status with Tennessee remains solid after reports indicated that he'd been suspended for the first game of high school playoffs for fighting with a teammate. His coach called DaCoachO as soon as it happened, and O told him that they knew Smith well enough that they weren't overly concerned with it.
•  It appears that there will only be two officials visitors this weekend: Ahmad Dixon and Marques Pair.
• Is this the week that Berry breaks the record? Time is running out.

More photos » by Wade Payne - AP

Browse more photos »

Football

• Eric Berry, who's one of 12 semifinalists for the Jim Thorpe Award and one of 15 semifinalists for the Chuck Bednarik Award, is not worried about breaking the interception return record because he's grading out higher this season than last (duplicate link).
• Memphis receivers Duke Calhoun and Carlos Singleton together are 13'1" tall.
• UT has succeeded on seven fourth down conversions in a row.

Continue reading this post »

More photos » by Phil Coale - AP

Browse more photos »

Football

• Tomahawk Nation honors Mickey Andrews, the "finest defensive coordinator of the modern era," who announced yesterday that he'd be retiring after the season.
• Penn State blog Black Shoe Diaries has a light-hearted, hate-themed look at this week's opponent, THE Ohio State University.
• Dawg Sports, on why believing a nice guy can finish first is important.
• And the Valley Shook offers tips on how to co-exist with a spouse who also happens to be a fan of a rival team.

Basketball

• Wake Forest blog Blogger So Dear not only previews the Deacons' upcoming season, but the entire ACC as well.
• Hammer and Rails previews Purdue's season.

More photos » by Wade Payne - AP

Powerful. Volatile.

Browse more photos »

Football

• True freshman wide receiver Nu'Keese Richardson is back and will play against Memphis Saturday. According to Kiffin, the issue with Richardson was overblown. Kiffin had a nice chat ($) with Richardson on Monday, and it sounds like Kiffin's handling whatever the non-situation is quite well, actually. There's a video of Kiffin's comments on Nuke below.
• Kiffin was not satisfied with the 31-13 palindrome of a win over South Carolina Saturday:

Continue reading this post »

More photos » by Stephen Morton - AP

Browse more photos »

• Alligator Army says that dirty play, like Brandon Spikes's eye-gouging of a Georgia Bulldog on Saturday, is just part of the game. A community member of Team Speed Kills says that line of thinking is no excuse. And Year2 at TSK finds video evidence that Georgia wasn't innocent during the game, either.
• Spencer Hall's weekly College Football Alphabetical is up. Be sure to read all the way to "Z."
  
• Roll Bama Roll examines Alabama's red zone woes and finds that the Tide hasn't completed a pass in the red zone in three games.
• Team Speeds Kills has its weekly lessons learned in the SEC post up.
• The Rivalry, Esq. says that, despite its recent struggles, the Big Ten is headed in the right direction.
• Black Heart Gold Pants tells Iowa fans that if they're going to fear something, fear the right thing (strong language warning).

More photos » by April L Brown - AP

Browse more photos »

Football

• Team Speed Kills calls the Florida-Georgia game the Psychology Bowl, where mind games matter, which might explain why Dawg Sports, while not confident, is optimistic.
• Corn Nation reminds fans why it's not a good idea to have a physical during football season.
• Well, so much for the expected game "full of indignities." Carolina March is enjoying the Tarheels' 20-17 win at Virginia Tech last night before the inevitable meme of the how it was more about the favorite losing than the underdog winning takes hold.

Basketball

• Tomahawk Nation takes a lot at the ACC's big men and wonders whether Florida State has the best front court in the conference.
  

More photos » by Dave Martin - AP

Alabama's finest, wondering if what Lane Kiffin said to Nick Saban is statutory violation of some sort.

Browse more photos »

• Lane Kiffin apparently didn't limit his "we'll win next year" to the Alabama post-game quotes to the media, he said it to Nick Saban during the post-game handshake. Reportedly.
• Bruceball opens the season tonight at 7:30 with an exhibition game at Thompson-Boling Arena against North Alabama. Yes, we'll have an open thread, as I think the game will be broadcast online. As we've noted here earlier this week, the Vols begin the season ranked 11th and 10th and are getting some good national publicity. Sporting News has a feature on them today noting Pearl's own belief that this is the most experienced team he's had at Tennessee. That experience translates into the players having figured out what they can and can't do. Point guard Bobby Maze for one, after a season of on-the-job training, now understands what Pearl expects from the point guard position ($) and will play a vital role in the return to Pearl's pressure defense. The team's also added a couple of new guys, including Kenny Hall, who Pearl's expecting to be a defensive havoc-wreaker around the basket ($). This should be an interesting and fun season for the basketball team and its fans.

Continue reading this post »