So, tell the truth, if you could put one knock on the SEC and it's football dominance since the inception of the BCS, what would it be? Is there one flaw that is so glaring that it's easy to see? Sure there is. The SEC is too good for it's own good. Now, what does that mean? Katie Sharp says that it means Alabama's odds of repeating as National Champs are not good. In fact, the only team that has ever done it since the inception of the BCS is, wait for it, Alabama. Well, now, isn't that interesting. (USC did it, but that win was later taken away by the NCAA)
Last year at this time, Outkick The Coverage was claiming that the SEC was not really that good. So which is it? Since the 1992 season, when the idea of the BCS was in it's infancy, the SEC has won the BCS 11 times. That's 11 of 20. When the SEC gets into the National Championship game? We win. Simply put, until someone better comes along, the BCS belongs to the SEC. Since the BCS National Championship game came into being, 1 conference has owned it. 1. The SEC. To paraphrase the Porsche Automobile Co. "SEC — There Is No Substitute."
OK, the boys at CBSSports.com decided to play a little game. They all decided to be collegiate GM's. They held themselves a little fantasy draft in which Gary Parrish is trying to win the hearts and minds of the Big Blue Nation. Larry Vaught has a plethora of links that are too good to miss, including the news that Jalen Whitlow has been taking practice reps in an attempt to get ready by game time on Thursday night. What does Neal Brown have to say?
Can a Kentucky team decimated by injury less than 2 weeks ago come back and put up a fight and possibly steal a game from the Mississippi State Cowbells? They just might, but any win in the SEC this year is a good win for anyone. Nerlens Noel may be available to watch the entire UK season as the doctors and specialists feel like playing him this year is going to be out of the question.
By the way, the Kentucky Men's Basketball program is not the only one having their cake and eating it too this week. Today is the UK Women's Media Day, and Matthew Mitchell will paint a pretty good picture. Even with the huge number of players on this year's squad, Coach Cal says there is nowhere to hide on this team. A well-written but naive look at collegiate athletes from the perspective of the Kentucky Kernel is found here. The opposing and still a bit naive retort is found here. Someone show these two young people what they wrote in 20 years and see how their outlook and opinions have changed.
While I am not much of an excitable fan of the Series' participants this week, I am however a big fan of the man who hung up his managerial hat yesterday. Jim Leyland was a class act, a worthy opponent at times, and one very smart baseball guy. Enjoy the retirement, Jim.
The second of two icons in the history of the now Tennessee Titans passed away yesterday. Bud Adams was one of the two men standing at the mic when the announcement was made that an upstart rival league would be playing professional football in 1960. And on that day the AFL was born. Adams and his coach Bum Phillips were mavericks. They loved the game, and they loved to be involved with it. They were Texas from the word go. They are not alone, however, as 2013 has seen the world of sports lose some of it's greatest persons and personalities. Go all the way through the list. Some of those names will hit home. And for some of us, hit home hard.
Grambling football players have returned to their team after meeting with former head coach Doug Williams. The young men collectively, to a man, refused to board a team bus to play Jacksonville State in protest of locker room conditions, uniforms that were not being washed, and an overall lack of respect and funding to the athletic department and football specifically. The firing of Head Coach Doug Williams was the last straw for the players.
Today, the Cincinnati Reds will announce the hiring of Bryan Price, their former pitching coach, as their new manager. I do hope that the Reds new brain-trust knows what they are doing. Price has overseen one of the most remarkable improvements in a staff of pitchers over the last four years I have ever witnessed. If he can bring that kind of improvement to the whole team, they are going to be a really good club.
For the "Tweet of The Day" we have one of Coach Cal's favorite people:
Greatness is not just something you dream about, but what wakes you up in the morning
— Brad Calipari (@The_bcal25) October 22, 2013
Is that a compliment to his Dad, or a philosophy???