frivolity

Josh Pate had the correct response on the "Super Bowl" comment. lol.

"It took Tennessee fans a couple of years and some really bad quarterback play after Dobbs to begrudgingly come around on him." Very, very untrue.

It’s JUST the Swamp… Geez. It’s not like we’re playing a game in Columbia, SC or anything.

I like this approach and the reasoning, but the cynic in me thinks that Saban wants to avoid talented players hitting the transfer portal when they see it in writing they're not on the 2-deep.

Speed up games? How about less commercials instead of less football?

Will the PAC-4 still get an automatic bid?

My guess is the school that offered was Plainview HS, in Alabama.

Just make sure that if the name of a conference includes a number, then that number has to match the actual number of teams that are in the conference? If you could just do that -- that would be greaat.

Hear that, Missouri? Colorado is going back to the Big-12. Hint, hint.

It's like Patrick Mahomes. Is he the 2nd best QB of all time? Too soon. Maybe he will be, but to quote Nick Saban: “I think we have to sort of let this develop. Let the cake bake.”

StLG - I'd say the VP would agree with you there... There is great significance of the passage of time!

All Florida has to do is just simply follow Tennessee's blueprint for rebuilding a program up to where they can be considered contenders. By my count, it only took 17 years.

"If [Joe Milton] plays phenomenal, they’ll be great. If he plays average, they’ll be average. If he plays bad, they’ll be bad." It's great to have expert opinions like this. What would we do without experts?

"According to the report, Brian Niedermeyer . . . paid student athletes to host Nolen. One of these players later revealed he spent the money on Marijuana and cigars for himself and others." Come on, man... You need to hold yourself to higher standard of proof before you throw Walter Nolen under the bus like this.

Fair point, RWS - very well stated.

Even though we lost some WR talent to the NFL draft, I am totally not worried. It's all about the QB delivering the ball.

I wonder how many of the 200+ violations were "free parking code" violations.

It depends on the definition of "current." This stuff all happened "in the past" but also as recently as two and a half years ago, which is when Jeremy Pruitt was fired and his entire staff was shown the door (including Kevin Steele who was hired right before Pruitt was fired, and served all of 9 days as interim coach before Heupel was hired and Steele was subsequently dismissed). Anyways, Darnell Washington, who was drafted by the Steelers this past draft, received this money while he was still a Junior in high school, during his recruiting process. All this stuff happened under the Pruitt regime. The NCAA doesn't generally punish the actual recruits for taking money (which makes good sense to me -- in many cases these recruits are considered "minors" at the time of their recruitment). They punish the school with probation/scholly loss/vacated wins, etc. Additionally, taking money from one school - in this case Tennessee - wouldn't make a player ineligible to play for a different school (i.e., Georgia). According to SI (w ww.si.com/college/tennessee/recruiting/tennessee-paid-darnell-washington), "Tennessee provided benefits of roughly $1,713 to Washington and his family, much of which came from plane flights, lodging, meals, and apparel." Who else got paid? Very difficult to say, because the NCAA investigative documents referred to Washington as "prospective student-athlete 9" and "prospect 4". The Knoxville News uncovered Washington's identity by comparing the NCAA documents with online sites that track recruiting visits as well as "a source with direct knowledge of the situation." (w ww.knoxnews.com/story/sports/college/university-of-tennessee/football/2023/07/14/darnell-washington-tennessee-football-recruitment-georgia-ncaa-violations-jeremy-pruitt-niedermeyer/70415376007/) I really hope people don't "out" all of the people who TOOK the money, like Washington -- Washington was just a High School Junior at the time, and he should be blameless for taking a $750 gift in the parking lot of his Las Vegas Desert Pines High School by a former member of Pruitt's coaching staff.

I never really understood all the Danielson hate -- even including what seemed to be a weekly article on this site consisting of a selection of tweets highlighting what he said. I do give him credit for changing a stupid penalty, however: Back in the early days of the targeting rule, flags for targeting were reviewed by replay and if the replay booth determined that the hit should NOT result in a player ejection, the refs would STILL mark off a 15-yard penalty. Danielson repeated pointed out how stupid this was on his national broadcast until the rule was changed the following season.

I understand where you are coming from, but that's not how it works with respect to Missouri's W-L records for the 2019/2020 seasons. Vacating is not the same as forfeiting. The 8-5 record became 0-5 rather than 0-13.

Looks good! Y'all gonna surprise some people this year!

Well that's not how it actually works. Our "wins" under Pruitt for the 2019 & 2020 seasons are vacated. NOT forfeited - which means our wins don't become losses and your losses don't become wins. It's like a no contest in boxing or MMA. Instead of an 8-5 record in 2019, our record is officially 0-5. Not 0-13 - we just don't get credit for the wins gained by using players Pruitt paid, such as Henry To'oto'o.

I'm glad that's over! Waiting for this result reminded me of my younger self waiting on the results of a pregnancy test. Not mentioned in this article is that Tennessee cleaned house. Every member of the staff that worked under Pruitt was let go. That includes fan favorite Tee Martin. That includes Kevin Steele, who was hired by Pruitt the very week Pruitt got fired. That means Kevin Steele had to go, as anything that touched Pruitt's orbit had to be removed. Mild exception to this was Phil Fulmer, who was "allowed" to retire. Emails coming out seem to paint him as oblivious to what Pruitt was doing. He should really avoid giving his opinion on any of this.

Eh, maybe Georgia wins the Eastern division of the SEC this year, but mark my words: I can guaran-dämn-tee you that Georgia absolutely WILL NOT win the SEC-East in 2024!

You can say that again!

Two points regarding Alabama being "favored against three out of the four teams that got in the playoffs?” I agree with Nick Saban on his rhetorical question: "why aren't we in the playoffs?" IF the committee is trying to put the best four teams in, then I'm-sorry-not-sorry but TCU didn't belong. My counter-point is that just because Team-A is "favored" over Team-B, it does NOT mean that Team-A is *better* than Team-B. The line moves in order to entice equal money on both sides of the betting equation.

Todd Graves can really hold his liquor!

I don't think that's a good comparison. Billy Napier seems like a man of high character. He would not be able to sell anywhere near the number of used cars that Butch Jones could sell.

To respond to GaGa's comment on QBs being basically someone else's throwaways... I mean, that's harsh. Sometimes when a player changes teams he changes his situation and plays great! Hendon Hooker comes to mind, but so does Baker Mayfield, Nick Foles, Joe Burrow, Kyler Murray, Jake Coker, Jalen Hurts, Nick Marshall, and Jacoby Brissett. Probably more, so have a little Mertzy for transfer QBs.

"If the SEC moves to a 9-game schedule, Alabama’s 3 permanent opponents would be Auburn, Tennessee and LSU." Is that statement a sure thing? Or speculation?