The Rules

I've heard a lot of talk regarding the prudence of bringing back the black against the Tide this weekend. Some say it gives the Alabama faithful a false sense importance, pumps them up, and adds more pressure on the Dawgs than they should be asked to handle. I'm okay with it. The folks in charge followed the rules that should govern exactly when the stadium should go dark.

1. Don't do it opening week. There's enough build up already and the Dawgnation has way too much to think about with finding lost comrades and reinitiating old tailgating sites to their former glory. Concentrate on getting week 1 right, not adding extra flavor.

2. Don't do it for the SEC opener. Again, lets get into the season a little bit and save the razzle dazzle for the meat of the schedule. Good solid footing needs to be established and South Carolina is usually a game to suffer through rather than celebrate dominance.

3. Only do it for an SEC game. Big name non conference games have enough intrigue of their own. Whether its Colorado, Clemson or Arizona State, there's enough in the novelty of the match up without confusing the visitor for the way we generally do things Between the Hedges. Same goes for Georgia Tech. The yearly scrimmage with the North Avenue Trade School is a almost separate from the rest of the schedule. I actually tend to forget about until the day of the game, at which point my ego wants to make sure I still dominate like I'm playing basketball in the driveway with my little brother. No blackout necessary.

4. Only do it at home. Obviously part of the appeal is to see the view from the Goodyear Blimp with 95% of Sanford Stadium in cohesive 12th man formation. It would also be a little disrespectful to pull these kinds of shenanigans on an opponents home field. No bueno, keep it on our turf. Also, there's the appeal of letting the tailgaters revel in the moment in all its glory. Which takes me to...

5. Don't do it for a game that starts before 3:30. Give folks the time to hang out and enjoy it. Plus, a noon kickoff also means a hungover, sun staring straight down heatstroke waiting to happen. I'd like to avoid this.

6. Only do it when both teams are top 15. I'd actually be cool with the rule being top 10, which happens often enough in the SEC. It should be a big moment. Not Mississippi St.

7. Only do it once a year. I don't like it that we pulled it out twice last season. We go forever without doing it (the exception being Vince Dooley's last game as AD when just the fans wore black) and then do it twice in the same year? Space it out a little bit. Hawaii was fun enough without trying to add anything.

8. Don't do it in Jacksonville. Again, the World's Largest Cocktail Party has intrigue enough in and of itself without switching things up.

Its not that donning black is difficult, or a lucky charm, or decidedly intimidating to anyone walking through our doors. But it is fun. The stadium shots look awesome and it shows a solidarity amongst the fan base and the team. Its another way for the crowd tailgating on North Campus to show that they care about the game and the football team and not just about how many Bud Lights can be put down on a given Saturday afternoon. Nobody faulted the Miami Heat for whiting out their arena for their playoff games and I have zero desire to in any way make it a once in a while tradition like Notre Dame, the quintessential bankrupt old money still dressing in pearls and furs to keep up appearances.

I also realize that the rules pretty much limit the application to Tennessee, Auburn, LSU, or Alabama. That's okay, we don't have to do it every year and we'll be just fine without it. The stars lineup this weekend though and it should be fun to watch.

Off Into the Sunset

Precisely That has left us for that great paddock on the other side of the barn. After a campaign with us that included 5 wins, a second, and 2 thirds in 8 starts, including a 3rd place finish in the Barb's Dancer, she has been sold privately and will continue her career under the tutelage of Gary Contessa (I think) under the orange silks of Winning Move Stables.

Thanks for the memories Precisely That, your triumphs will forever adorn the walls of my home. Good luck and best wishes in the next chapter of your career.

Where's the Love?

I love polls, I really do. I like them so much I'm a participant in the slightly locally renowned Southern College Football Poll. Big time stuff going down over here.

What is inherently true about any poll where subjective judgment ranks the competitors rather than some sort of win/loss, points scored system is that someone is going to get screwed for no other reason than they had a bad previous year or people generally believe that its just their time to get screwed.

In the first couple of weeks, it is customary for wild Wall Street like changes to totally overhaul the preseason rankings. Case in point, UGA was the preseason #1, is a perfect 3-0, and is now ranked #3. The thought process being that we find out who is actually better than who rather than just take the preseason polls as truth and wait for a higher ranked team to lose. A genius system which should ultimately be proved and justified by the Hawaiin shirt wearing boys in Vegas. After all, you'll never get as honest an opinion of a team, biases and karmatic gestures aside, as you will with cash on the line.

Enter the Florida State Seminoles. Florida State finished last year 7-6 (4-4 in the ACC) and lost the Music City Bowl to Kentucky in what would be Andre Woodson's farewell performance. Nothing to write home about but not quite Duke either. So far this year they've vanquished two Southern Conference foes, Western Carolina and Chattanooga, in their first two games by a combined score of 115-7. For their less than overwhelming trouble they are 24th in the AP and 25th in the USA Today Poll. A cursory glance in the direction of the Southern College Football Poll will point out that the Criminoles haven't quite found their way into any of the 30 pollster's top 16, but then only 26 teams have. So now they face Wake Forest, 18 in the AP, 18 in the USA Today, and most importantly, 18 in the SCFP. Like their cross conference rivals, the Forest is 2-0 having disposed of Baylor and squeaked by Ole Miss. Should be easy, #18 vs. #24-unranked. Would every team who is favored this weekend please step forward? Not so fast, Wake Forest.

FSU by 4. Now I know the game is at home and this generally leads to a 3 point slide towards the boys sleeping in their own beds, seeing the girl from their management class in their own stands, and eating their momma's lasagna the night before the game. I say generally because I can't believe Vanderbilt gives as many as 3 points to be at home and I can't believe the Florida's and LSU's only give 3. I also know that the gamblers dont make the polls, but in some instances they should!

Next we have Ole Miss (2-1) vs. Vandy (3-0). Ole Miss doesn’t even check the polls and Vanderbilt is 26 in the AP and close to creeping in the top 25 for the first time since Ronald Reagan ran for re-election. So what’s the line? Ole Miss by 6.5. There is no reason in the world that an unranked (and by a longshot at that) team has any business of being favored by a touchdown over the #26 team in the nation. Good God, any BCS conference team that finds itself a touchdown dog to Ole Miss should be reevaluating the state of the program, not looking to burst into the national spotlight.

See also UNC favored by 1.5 over Virginia Tech. While this is more understandable as the game is in Chapel Hill, it still reeks of the fact that the money is the only entity that could conceive of the idea that UNC could be favored to beat Virginia Tech in a football game.

What I’d love to see is the emergence of a Vegas Poll. The idea being that those with only a financial interest in the games might be slightly more objective than the guy who watches the ESPN night game, catches highlights from around the nation, and roots on his alma mater. The Vegas Poll should take into account each team’s added point value for a home game and then prohibit any underdog from having a higher ranking than the favorite. For instance, the FSU and Ole Miss lines would be capped at whatever the home field advantage point value is. A sports book should have far more objectivity and honesty than a guy who grew up rooting for the Irish or believes that you haven't won a real road game unless it happened east of the Mississippi and south of the Mason-Dixon line. Maybe then some of these oddities would even out.

Beatrippi

This Saturday marks the debut of our new colt, Beatrippi, on the hallowed stretches of Delaware Park. There have probably been both faster two year olds and more ridiculously named horses to grace this green Earth, but I can't remember a finer combination of the two since Deputy Glitters made his unfortunate entrance in the sport. This I assume from morning works and my own judgment of what constitutes a silly name.

Beatrippi is a Florida bred son of Trippi, out of the Silver Buck mare, Be Silver. Like True Raise, he's trained by Tony Pecoraro and will run under The Posse's silks. It should be noted that a race or two after True Raise was claimed away from us he set a track record at Penn National for 5 1/2 furlongs on the dirt. Evidently we dabble in talent, though I wish he'd have run that way for us. Either way, I'm looking forward to the colt's future and hope the best for him.

Not So Fast, Julio

After what can only be described as the gambler's paradise of 2007, the fallout from week one of this year's college football season is relatively painless. And predictable. The teams that should have won pretty much did, the exception being Virginia Tech, and the teams that were going to lose pretty much did that too (You'll get 'em next year, Mississippi St!). The only real bone I have to pick is with the public response following the Clemson-Alabama debacle Saturday night in Hotlanta.

Leaving MSU out of the equation, the SEC pretty much rolled all weekend, leaving relative non SEC equals such Louisville, N.C. State, Miami (OH), and Memphis in their wake. I mean that relative to the teams they played, not the conference as a whole. Anywho, you'd think they were putting in a Sears down the street for all the glee of the Alabama faithful. In reality, you beat the most poorly coached, over hyped team in all of college football.

I couldn't even turn on ESPN this summer without being force fed garbage about this being Clemson's year and the sacrifices that stud running backs James Davis and C.J. Spiller were making to stay off of NFL and other colleges' rosters. Please duck and cover for what will surely be a biblical pouring out of wrath on an unsuspecting ACC schedule. Lightning and Thunder, Thunder and Lightning, somebody find a billboard to stick them on. Lets take a peak at Saturday's box score.

James Davis, 6 carries for 13 yeards.
C.J. Spiller, 2 carries for 7 yards.

8 carries. 8 carries. Backup UGA running back Richard Samuel and thrid string QB Logan Grey combined for 8 carries in Athens on Saturday. Noel Devine (WV) had 9 carries, as did his QB, and this was with Pat White throwing the ball 33 times. Thunder and lightning, the most explosive decoys in the history of the NCAA.

C.J. Spiller caught 2 passes for 27 yeards, James Davis caught 1 for 11 yards.

The N.C. State secondary caught one more pass than these two did combined on the way to being whipped 34-0.

Clemson's lone TD of the game came from a 96 yard C.J. Spiller kick off return, one of four kick off returns he made. He also had a punt return for 9 yards. This means the junior from Lake Butler, Florida touched the ball 9 times, 5 of which were on special teams. Of his two carries, one was for 8 yards and the other he got hit for a 1 yard loss. Then he snagged some gatorade and hit the whirlpool.

Animosity for this game aside, I'm not a Clemson fan. I dont have a problem with them per se, just never found a seat on the bandwagon. That being said I'd be the first to applaud Auburn-with-a-lake if they could find a way to finally run Tommy Bowden out of town. Then they could bring in a Tommy Tuberville type who found success utilizing a two running back system after he took over for Tommy Bowden's brother. Clemson could pull off what Cadillac and Ronnie Brown carried Auburn towards, but they're going to have to let James and C.J. touch the ball.

And Alabama, for the love of God put together a few games before you annouce that world domination is at your finger tips. This any-port-in-a-storm method of proclaiming greatness after a victory is a little tired. I mean, why even play out the schedule? Somebody give Alabama the national championship trophy, did ya see em beat Clemson? As did Auburn in the last game Clemson played, goofy elephants, just after they beat you.

For the record I'm not an Auburn fan either.

But I am a fan of college football, and was therefore annoyed when the Tide announced they were back after thumping an eventual SEC East winning Tennessee team last year. South Carolina has beaten every team in the East since Spurrier returned and the average fan from Knoxville, Gainesville, Lexington, Nashville, and Athens is sent to fits of giggling when someone suggests that the Gamecocks are back. (This is, of course, because they were never really here to begin with.)

Nobody even suggested that Georgia be allowed to tune up the guitars on the main stage until they could go down to Jacksonville and get it right once or twice. Nor should they have. So I say win the west, Alabama, stand atop Auburn and LSU and I'll clap for you. I'll even shake your hand when you're in line next to me at the package store waiting to purchase your Milwaukee's Best or when you're asking me for spare change. (I won't have any.) And good luck to you this year, because beating a rudderless Clemson ship with no one at the helm isn't going to do much for you when you head to Athens, Knoxville, and Baton Rouge this fall.

We three are already back.