3rd Saturday in Blogtober

1) What is the most important thing we learned about the 2010 Alabama Crimson Tide in the wake of the San Jose State game?

We learned that special teams are going to be just fine.  Will it be on par with last season?  Perhaps not.  We still don’t know what our return game is going to look like since SJSU avoided kicking to anyone, but if there is a drop off, it won’t be much.  Cade Foster looked every bit as qualified as his recruiting reports said he would be (and the kid can lay a lick…check out the pipes on that freshman).  Cody Mandell may have shanked one trying to place it out of bounds, but that’s not exactly something we’re not familiar with.  The other two punts were booming kicks over fifty yards and that is new territory.   Coverage also seemed improved, but its not even the standard “it’s just SJSU” caveat.  I have no idea what to expect from the Spartans’ return game to judge it by.

More…

Awesome turn out last week folks!  We had 35 picks, and we hope for a similar turnout this week.  We’ll pick 10 games again, and like last week

Have your picks in by Thursday at 5 CDT

• Oregon at Tennessee
• Penn State at Alabama
• Awbarn at Mississippi State
• Georgia at South Carolina
• South Florida at Florida
• LSU at Vandy
• Florida State at Oklahoma
• Miami at Ohio State
• Michigan at Notre Dame
• BYU at Air Force

More…

Opening Day is always a special one, especially in Knoxville.  This one was especially exciting for me, as this is the first year my family has had season tickets.  That teamed with a new coach, and a renovated Neyland Stadium, it’s needless to say that I had lead foot syndrome all the way from my Huntsville, AL home to Knoxville.

My brother and I had decided that our first stop would be Litton’s Burgers in Fountain City.  Our dad hadn’t been to this local favorite (and featured on Todd Blackledge’s Taste of the Town,” and being a huge cheeseburger lover, Litton’s did not disappoint him.  I went for their classic 1/3 lb Litton’s Burger with thick cut bacon, smoked cheddar, fresh jalapenos, onion, maters, and lettuce, all piled up on a fresh baked burger roll.  Matched with an order of fresh cut fries, diet Coke, and finished off with their famous Red Velvet Cup Cake.

More…

Julio Jones is 1 catch away from tying Lamond Russell for 5th place on the All-Time Career Receptions List at the University of Alabama. Jones, who now has 107 catches for 1,613 yards, needs just 11 catches to nudge past Keith Brown and move into 4th place All-Time. The junior will need another 250 yards to move into the top 5 in All-Time Receiving Yards.

On Saturday Trent Richardson rushed for 66 yards, hauled in 3 passes for 46 yards, and added 34 more on a kickoff return. With the addition of that 146 all-purpose yards, the true sophomore has cracked the 1,000 all-purpose yardage mark for his young career. Richardson has 817 rushing yards on 155 attempts, 172 receiving yards on 19 receptions, and 54 yards on 2 kickoff returns, giving him 1,043 all-purpose yards.

Alabama charged into the 2010 season by flattening the San Jose State Spartans 48-3, but the road gets a little bumpier this week when #19 Penn State visits Bryant-Denny Stadium.  With the warm-up out of the way, the season begins on Saturday.  The Nittany Lions spent Saturday much like the Tide, kicking a tomato can around State College.  Penn State diced up Youngstown State in a 44-14 win, highlighted by the play of true freshman starting quarterback Rod Bolden, who completed 20 of 29 pass attempts for 239 yards and 2 touchdowns.

All wasn’t ginger ale and co-eds in tight sweaters for the Lions, an anemic rushing game in the early going and an 80 yard touchdown pass on a wide receiver screen by Youngstown State should give State fans a little pause heading into the game this weekend. Here is a link to the box score of PSU and YSU for those who like that sort of thing.  Of note in the box score, the Nittany Lions rushed for 132 yards on 29 carries and Youngstown State was 21 0f 25 passing the football for 189 yards – 80 of those yards coming on the Penguins first quarter touchdown pass.

More…

It’s been a pretty consistent narrative for several years now: BCS teams need to do a better job of scheduling tough out of conference opponents, and as fans, I think we all want to see that. I for one am more excited about Alabama’s matchup with Penn State this weekend than I was the game with San Jose State last weekend. Boise State has certainly been vocal about it’s desire to be in those games and a couple of times the result has been entertaining.

More…

Montario Hardesty’s tough luck just won’t end.

Hardesty, who appeared to be set for a solid rookie season with the Cleveland Browns, tore his ACL last night and will miss the entire season.

Hardesty battled multiple injuries as a Vol before finally staying healthy for all of last year. Through those four years where he was hardly healthy and playing behind Arian Foster (who’s the No. 1 back for the Houston Texans now, haters), he had a little more than 1,000 yards.

Last year behind a line that included a pair of 260-pound former walk-ons? 1,345 yards. In addition to what he did on the field, he was also somebody that was really hard not to like off the field.

Best wishes to Montario in his rehab, and hopefully he this won’t completely derail his promising NFL career.

Last year, Steve Medlin: Archduke of Pick’emdom, had a real fancy program set up for 3SIB Pick ‘Em.  Well we are downgrading due to laziness on my part convenience this year.  Each week I will post ten games including SEC Games of interest, and round out with major national match ups.  We will pick straight up.  Please post your winning teams in the comment section.  I will have the new pick ‘em posted early each week, and will stagger the response time according to the Thursday night game. 

This week Picks are due by THURSDAY 5 PM CDT. 

Pick away…

• Tennessee-Martin at Tennessee
• San Jose State at Alabama
• Southern Miss at South Carolina
• Miami (OH) at Florida
• Kentucky at Louisville
• UNC vs LSU
• Northwestern at Vandy
• Memphis at Miss State
• Boise State at Virginia Tech
• Pittsburgh at Utah

Wow, this really looks awesome…can’t wait to have that place rocking the next two weekends.  Insert lame Medlin and Bama < UT comments…

HT: VQ poster UTK9

The Vols officially released their opening day Depth Chart today.  A few points of interest:

• True Freshman Rule the Line:  The Vols O-Line currently have five freshmen in the 2 Deep.  Mammoth Ja’Wuan James is starting at Right Tackle, and is backed by Daniel Hood.  Marques Pair, James Stone, and Zach Fulton are 2nd String at LT, LG and RG respectively.  This amount of freshman on the 2 Deep is somewhat frightening, but I’m trying to stay focused on the future.
• Gerald Williams Moves to DT: In a somewhat surprising move, Gerald Williams has slid to Defensive Tackle, and will start along side the bipolar talent Montori Hughes.  This off-season Williams finally embraced the reality that he’s not going to play linebacker and beefed up.  At this point Williams is our best option, and is an upgrade from the other potatoes. 
• Eric Gordon and Marsalis Teague are CB Co-Starters:  Teague moved D-Back out of necessity and not convenience this off season, and immediately has impressed.  Gordon will start in most packages, and Teague will get a lot of looks during the Nickel. 
• Palardy Out Kicked:  (While swallowing lump in throat) Daniel Lincoln beat out Mike Palardy for the starting kicking duties.  Tonight there will be visions of Terrancy Cody’s Man Tits bouncing in my head.
• Da’Rick not in 2 Deep:  Don’t take this as a knock on Da’Rick, but a credit to how well Zach Rogers and Justin Hunter have excelled during camp.  Wide Receiver U is in good hands for years to come.  Now, if we can just get the ball in their hands.