Bleary-eyed and cranky, I looked around and realized that Joel's still recuperating from his adventurous week. So, without much more than a testy grunt, here are the talking points for the day.
- Robert Ayers, Draft Hero: The good news just doesn't stop for Robert Ayers. In his early years, his troubles and middling performance had him pegged as a potential flame out. Thanks to some soul-searching, some reorganizing of priorities, and the wonderful counsel of Inky Johnson (so glad he's a grad assistant, by the way), Ayers turned his life and his playing career around. Now, the NFL scouts are doing a double-take over him. My favorite part of the story is his ownership of Andre Smith in the Alabama game. At least something good came out of that for UT.
- Chalk one up for the Baby Vols. They still don't get their locker room back, but at least it was a game played with effort. It wasn't the prettiest affair - especially in the first half - but the Lady Vols wore down the Lady Bulldogs of Mississippi State and actually looked something like the Lady Vols in the process. If you get a few minutes, listen through the postgame interview with Pat Summitt. In particular, note that one of the Ladies owned up to not playing enough to the team concept and swore to fly right. (I'll leave it up to you to figure out which one. Bravo for her.) The message is getting across, and they're growing. If they stay on this new tack, there's no limit for them.
- Blame Kiffin for Petersen's departure?!? Here's a writeup from the Bleacher Report if you really have nothing better to do. Let this be a lesson, kiddos, of why word count does not necessarily correlate to quality. It's an unfortunately long read from a guy who wants to fill up a bunch of space against Kiffin (hey, at least he's up front about that). And yes, he does blame Kiffin for the resignation of Petersen.
- Why not? The U.S. outside of Tom Lemming has forgotten about them. Notre Dame appears to be marketing themselves to Japan. I guess you have to get the buyout money from somewhere...
Grumble away...