Bobbie (or Robbie, we’ll need a ruling from the judges) Caldwell seems to have won SEC Media Days. Which may be the last thing he wins all year. That being said, I hope he guides Vandy to the type of perpetual 7-5 records and every third year bowl appearances that could keep him around for decades.

Snakes hiding in the watermelon fields. I assume it’s the rodents who come in to snack on the melons that draw them in, but the biggest black rat snake I ever saw was living fat and happy in a Crisp County watermelon patch.

By all accounts, Coach Caldwell won SEC Media Days, and it’s impossible not to like (and root for) a guy like that. He comes across as legitimately a good guy and genuinely homespun, and his heartfelt mention of the late Rajaan Bennett attests to his sincerity. I certainly don’t want to take one line and use it as the basis for ripping on a first-class fellow like that.

However, I have family in that area, and I know how seriously they take their status as the watermelon capital of the world. I took four Cordele watermelons (two of them “yellow meat” melons) to Florida, where they were a big hit with my wife’s family. I’d just back Cordele in a watermelon throwdown with Pageland . . . and, if I were Rodney Garner, I’d darned sure use this line on any Cordele-area recruits Vanderbilt was also pursuing.

…. those GREAT pool room hot dawgs in Cordele!