Talking Points: XOS PlayAction Quarterback Simulator edition

• Tennessee is once again on the cutting edge, utilizing technology in preparing its football players for Saturdays. This year, Tennessee will be the exclusive trial school to use a "Madden-based simulator" that "allows coaches to transfer X's and O's for weekly opponents into a 3D playable simulator for quarterbacks to study." The "game," called the XOS PlayAction Quarterback Simulator, allows quarterbacks to "play and replay the plays for an upcoming opponent from their dorms, rather than just on the field." Hat tip to Loser with Socks.
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• So far, we have 11 players for the Rocky Top Talk College Pick 'Em game. If you haven't signed up yet, what are you waiting for?
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• CFBStats examines the numbers to see if this year's new kickoff rule will in fact lead to more returns, longer returns, and more returns for touchdowns. His conclusion? Don't expect the rule to have a huge impact on the game unless "coaches [ ] so concerned about the rule [ ] implement changes in strategy and personnel on return teams starting with the first game, before the real effects are determined."
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• SMQ is on a roll, penning the Underlying Literary Themes in the SEC yesterday and Mid-Major Monday: The Young and Hopeless, a look at the other mid-major teams, on Monday. The latter includes a candidate for the line of the year:
  These teams are like the famous heroine's rats, transformed into coachmen, escorting their improbably glamorous peer to the grand ball in a makeshift carriage of bad angles, missed blocks, dropped passes and rock bottom coordination.
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• SB Nation Cal blog The Band is Out on the Field finds an interesting bit buried in an SI.com column: Cal plans to pass out 50,000 mini-megaphones before the Tennessee game. Perhaps now they can make it as loud as the video game.
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Update [2007-8-22 7:48:5 by Joel]: Oh, and I see in the queue that CfaJ has the revised BlogPoll ballot ready to go, so be on the lookout for that.