Rocky Top Talking Points: Shaky liftoff edition

Back in the cockpit, trying to remember how to turn this thing on. Complicated by the fact that I'm moving from Central time to Eastern.

• Florida bits. Should we be surprised that The Abomination regenerated a new head shortly after losing it? I guess not, but still. John Adams observes that Billy Donovan is two-years' more decisive than Nick Saban. Oh, and on a tangentially related note, Joakim Noah doesn't like bloggers.
  
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• Back is in. The Vol Basketball 2006-07 DVD We're Back is out. Here's a bit from the press release:
  In addition to the [2006-07 recap], the video is loaded with tons of bonus features including:

        * The special ceremony honoring Bernard King
        * Special features from the "Bruce Pearl TV Show"
        * In-depth interview with senior Dane Bradshaw
        * Bruce Pearl body paint at the Lady Vols-Duke game and Pat Summitt singing Rocky Top
        * Priceless interview as John Ward interviews Bernard King
        * Behind the scenes at the 2007 NCAA Tournament

  
  Last year's was great, so I guess I'll be making my annual trek to JCPenney sometime this week.
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• Quickly now. Andy takes a quick look at some early SEC non-conference games, including Tennessee-Cal.
  
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• Crumbs available now. Single-game football tickets go on sale today. Your choices? Southern Miss, Arkansas State, Louisiana-Lafayette, and Vanderbilt. Woot. Forty bucks a pop, except for Southern Miss because . . . well, because it's first, I guess. An extra ten gets you that first "It's football time in Tennessee," which now that I write it is probably worth it.
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• Dropped. Josh McNeil's public intoxication charge has been dismissed. Still quiet on the Fulmer Cup front.
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• Newsflash. Coach Phillip Fulmer is reading your blog. Well, maybe not, but he knows that things are different than they used to be:
  There's all kinds of different challenges coming at you. Probably more now because of the amount of coverage. The ability to communicate through the Internet and blogs and the talk shows and everything that's out there, it's a tremendous amount of difference in the last five or six years.
  
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• What?  No more Lady Vols v. UConn? Wow. Isn't that a bit like wiping the Third Saturday in October off the calendar? Yeah, I know that it's a non-conference game, but still.
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We have liftoff. Or something resembling liftoff.