3rd Saturday in Blogtober

David Oku gets Feel-Good Night going in style [Photo: GVX]

As the Derek Dooley era began at the University of Tennessee tonight, I was sitting in my bedroom with one ear on the phone fussing at the DirectTV dude because the game was blacked out on Pay-Per-View and one hand tickling the feet of my three-day-old son to keep him alert enough for breastfeeding.

The thing that has become most evident to me in my first three days as a Daddy is: If your wife is breastfeeding, it’s like Atlanta traffic — you have to plan your ENTIRE day and night around it.

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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.

Print columnists and columnist bloggers have written much about Alabama entering the 2010 season with a chance to post its:

• second-consecutive SEC Championship;
• second-consecutive National Championship;
• third-consecutive unblemished (undefeated AND untied) regular season; and
• second-consecutive unblemished (undefeated AND untied) full season.

Click Here to Continue Reading A RHYMING HISTORY

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

Talking to a buddy of mine last night, we were discussing the Justin Hunter situation at Tennessee and I made the following comment:

“Man, I know this is coming from a Tennessee fan, and it’s affecting us right now, but I promise if this was happening at Alabama or USC or anywhere, I’d want the NCAA Clearinghouse to pass down a ruling one way or another. This is ridiculous. These kids’ lives are being put at the mercy of a group of people who quite obviously don’t have case evaluation at the top of their list. This already hurt Bama with Alfy Hill, it’s hurting SC with Jesse Scroggins and even Ole Miss with Jeremiah Masoli. It’s game week for goodness sake! Get on the freakin’ ball.”

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This Is Part of a Series Exploring a Small Closet of Alabama Football History.  This Section Deals with Consecutive Unblemished (Undefeated AND Untied) Full Seasons.  We’ve Also Examined Consecutive SEC Championships, Consecutive National Championships, and Consecutive Undefeated Full Seasons.
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Much has been written about the Alabama entering the 2010 season with a chance to post its second-consecutive undefeated (and untied) full season.

By the numbers, here’s how ‘Bama has done in the past when attempting to achieve this titanic feat:

Alabama Attempting Its SECOND-CONSECUTIVE UNBLEMISHED* FULL SEASON**, Historically:

Click Here to Continue Reading ALABAMA’S CONSECUTIVE UNBLEMISHED FULL SEASONS

Will Baby Ghost whine as much as his daddy?

Sheesh. Talk about a hiatus. I just logged into 3rd Saturday in Blogtober, and the website actually asked me, “What the heck are you doing here? Long time, no see.”

I know it’s been a while since I’ve graced your presence with my omniscient knowledge on All Things College Football, and I’m sure you’ve missed me as much as I’ve missed you. Thankfully, there are a bunch of good writers/communicators on this blog who’ve been picking up my considerable slack. But I’ve actually got a pretty good excuse this time. You see, Mrs. Ghost is getting admitted to the hospital Tuesday night, and — if all goes according to plan — Jackson Howard Shepard will enter into this world sometime on Wednesday.

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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.

Alabama released it’s official depth chart and for the most part it’s exactly as you would expect, but a few names stand out.   A couple of comments about it:

• Check out DeQuan Menzie there, listed ahead of BJ Scott.  I would say his recovery has gone better than expected, considering we entered the summer believing he was lost for the season.
• Another surprise is at LB where Jerrell Harris is listed as the starter at WLB and Chavis Williams is listed at SLB.  There have been rumors lately that Williams had been really pushing Harris at SLB and Harris had been working inside a fair bit.  My assumption had been that Chris Jordan had locked down the Will and Harris was just working around because Saban emphasizes the ability to play multiple positions.  I’m curious as to whether this was a case of Williams beating Harris out, or just an effort to get the best four on the field.  Interestingly, Jordan isn’t even listed as second string at Will — a slot shared by Nico Johnson and true freshman CJ Mosley.
• Some of the other contentious battles appear to be settled.  DJ Fluker will start at RT.  Robert Lester won the safety spot opposite Mark Barron, though Will Lowery is listed as the backup at both positions.  Josh Chapman will get the start ahead of Kerry Murphy.  Julio Jones will be the punt returner.
• Something else to note is that this is the depth chart for San Jose State, not for the season.  There may very well be motivational purposes behind some of these decisions, especially at linebacker.  It’s hard to imagine Chris Jordan sliding from probably starter to off the three deep quite that quickly.

UPDATE: Outsidethelines at Roll Bama Roll has some similar takes on the roster, but this comment regarding CJ Moseley’s role on the depth chart stood out to me.

[It] likely means that Chris Jordan has been moved full-time to Mike, which is a nice move for him because that will effectively allow him on the field every time we move Hightower to the edge to use him as a pass rusher.