Kentucky Wildcats Mid-Day Quickies: New Normal Edition

Brandon Larrabee at Team Speed Kills has a very good piece up discussing how the SEC is undergoing a fundamental change, mostly because the lower-tier teams are recruiting better, hiring better coaches and making more investments in football.

Suddenly,with a few teams getting just a little bit better, even a team that’s no worse than 50-50 odds to win each of its games sees a pretty dramatic drop in its chance to go undefeated. (And if you want to know at why it’s so hard to go undefeated in college football, there’s your answer.) Lower the number conference wins need to win the division by one or two, and you make it easier for other teams to get into the mix.

Read the whole thing.

Tweet of the Morning

Happy Birthday to my grandpa!!! One of the best to ever do it! http://t.co/zmRz0rosCp

— Patrick Towles (@patty_ice14) October 23, 2014

That’s former pitching great and long-time U.S. congressman and senator Jim Bunning, of course.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• If Kentucky beats Mississippi State, SB Nation thinks it knows why. Here’s just a taste:

  Overall, Kentucky’s pass rush has been only decent. The Wildcats rank 46th in Adj. Sack Rate, but that’s mostly because they are passive on standard downs – in must-pass situations, Kentucky pins its ears back. The Wildcats are 120th in standard-downs sack rate but fifth in passing-downs sack rate. There is no particular standout here, but ends Alvin Dupree (three sacks) and Za’Darius Smith (2.5) and all-or-nothing tackle Cory Johnson (2.5 sacks among just 3.5 tackles) lead the way on second- or third-and-long.

• Bud Elliott of SB Nation thinks Kentucky can keep the game with Mississippi State close. I hope he’s right.

• In case you missed it, Kentucky landed a big recruit last night.

• A grand jury will hear the rape charge against Kentucky defensive end Lloyd Tubman.

• Best case/worst case predictions for Mississippi State at Kentucky. I notice none of them have MSU losing the game. You mean there is no scenario whatever in which Kentucky wins this one? I wonder if LSU thought that back in 2007.

• SEC Nation is coming to Lexington this weekend.

• Bud Dupree a quarter-finalist for Lott IMPACT trophy. Congratulations.

Kentucky basketball

• Kentucky picked by coaches to win the SEC in basketball. No surprise there.

  I think Florida, Arkansas, LSU and Georgia will all be competitive and most likely will make the tournament as well.

  Aaron Harrison was selected preseason player of the year.

• Coach Cal to pay full in-state tuition for two students at the Blue-White game.

• Video of Calipari’s comments at SEC Media Days.

• SEC conference preview by CBS Sports.

• Platoon system not "communism," according to Calipari. Well, that’s good to know.

Other Kentucky sports

• Men’s soccer team is now in the top 25, as high as #19.

Links posts

• John Clay’s Big Blue Links

• John Clay’s SEC Links

College football

• Help Corn Nation discover what fans are looking for in a national champion.

• In August of last year, there was some scuttlebutt that a losing season in 2013 would put Dan Mullen on the hot seat. I guess that sentiment is pretty much dead, buried, and rotted away by now. Hat tip: Justin Rowland (@RowlandRivals)

College basketball

• Stewart Mandel says the NCAA must severely penalize North Carolina. Consider:

  So today, Emmert and the NCAA face a defining moment. What are they going to do about North Carolina? How do you appropriately reprimand a university whose employees spent 18 years making a mockery of higher education? Who put the competitive needs of athletics above the academic development of students? Who made "the most serious academic fraud violations in 20 years" — Haskins’ 18 cheating basketball players — seem like child’s play when compared with the unfathomable scope of UNC’s "shadow curriculum."

  Ouch. That’s going to leave a mark, and it’s pretty persuasive. Read the whole thing.

Other sports news

• Look who Petra and I met last night at dinner:

  

  
  
  Yep, that’s Will Purdue, formerly of the Vanderbilt Commodores and Chicago Bulls. He also played for San Antonio and Portland. He’s going to be an analyst for the SEC Network along with Tony Delk, Barry Booker, Darrin Horn and others. I recognized him right away.

  He’s a very nice man and very, very tall. You don’t really know tall until you’ve stood beside a 7‘1" guy. I know we’ll all be looking forward to his analysis for the SEC Network this season.

• Eric Bledsoe demonstrates the concept of "momentum" to Jared Cunningham:

  Hat tip: Deadspin

Other news

• Good must defeat evil (or just the other guy). Vote for SB Nation over at AdWee’s site here.

• Nokia thinks they don’t need phones anymore. I remember when they were the #1 manufacturer in the world of mobile telephones.

• A 1976 Apple 1 computer sells for $905,000. I wonder if my Commodore 64 will fetch that kind of cash?