As a busy week nears its conclusion, I find myself with even more on my plate than usual, so I'm going ahead and getting this posted tonight, but I'll have to make this quick and we have a lot to cover, so hang on tight, because, cup of coffee or no cup of coffee, here we go:
- Burnt Orange Nation has taken the time to debunk certain criticisms of Mack Brown's coaching credentials . . . credentials, by the way, which include winning 56 games and a national title over the course of the last five years, annually hauling in top-ranked recruiting classes, reviving a once-proud program that had won more than eight games in a season just once in the seven years prior to his arrival (and just twice in the 14 autumns preceding his hiring), and becoming just the third head coach since 1984 to win Rose Bowls in back-to-back seasons. Yeah, the poor guy can't coach a lick, can he?
- Burnt Orange Nation has also reported the news that Chris Simms is a father. Fortunately, it's a girl, so we won't have to worry about the kid turning out to be another absurdly overrated college quarterback. For his part, consistent disappointment Chris (whose father, Phil, took a shot at his loser son by bragging of his daughter-in-law that "at least there's one tough person in the family") named his daughter Sienna Rose, which I'm pretty sure is the color of Susan's and my new couch.
If Chris Simms turns out to be a lousy father, too, can his wife bring in Major Applewhite off the bench?
- Paul Westerdawg has been on fire today, reporting that the Bulldogs' grey pants have been scrapped in favor of the traditional silver britches and that Miami and Oklahoma will meet on the gridiron in 2007 and 2009. Meanwhile, the hole in Georgia's 2007 schedule remains unfilled and the pickings are getting slim. For his part, Dawgnoxious rates the S.E.C. stadiums.
- Doug has tried his best to defend soccer, citing a line that I flat ain't buying: "Nil-nil is the score of life. This may be where the difficulty lies for Americans, who still look for Eden out there on the ballfield." If that argument strikes you as persuasive, I would refer you to P.J. O'Rourke's Eat the Rich (which demonstrates that nothing-nothing is not, in fact, the score of life) and to George Will's Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball (which demonstrates that pursuing an acceptable rate of failure is, in fact, the goal of America's national pastime, in which a fellow who fails to get a hit in six of every ten at-bats over the course of a season has earned himself a place in Cooperstown as a great hitter).
Different Men at Work.
- The Illegitimate Offspring have been busy lately, introducing Sean Jones Wednesdays and providing creepy pictures of a National Socialist feline. No, I'm not kidding.
- Kanu has seen Starship play live, which raises a question. If John Mellencamp (formerly John Cougar Mellencamp, formerly John Cougar) became the lead singer of Starship (formerly Jefferson Starship, formerly Jefferson Airplane) and played a halftime show at an Auburn football game, how many different combinations of band names, lead singer names, and mascots would it be possible to make from the three of them?
"What does Kanu need with a Starship?"
- If you're going to be in Athens on July 15, Countdown to Kickoff will take place at the practice fields beginning at 3:00 p.m. If you're going to be in Washington, D.C., on July 8, there will be a White House tour for University of Georgia alumni. The contact person for the White House tour is George Koklanaris, whose name I know I should know, but I can't quite remember from where, so, if you know how I know George, leave me a comment and let me know . . . please. It's going to bug me if you don't.
- Every Day Should Be Saturday is engaging in wild speculation about coaches on the hot seat while reporting on the University of North Dakota's efforts to attack the N.C.A.A.'s asinine Indian mascot ban.
- It's a conspiracy. Sunday Morning Quarterback has released the 43rd in his series of absurdly premature or reasonably anticipatory assessments of all 119 Division I-A college football teams, yet, despite having previewed four Big Ten teams (Iowa, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Purdue) and four S.E.C. teams (Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi State, and Tennessee), he has yet to cover either Georgia or Michigan, the two teams boasting the blogosphere's heaviest concentration of boosters. Heck, the guys at Burnt Orange Nation are counting the days until S.M.Q. gets to Texas, yet he only got to his first Big 12 team this week! It's all a scam just to keep us reading! I'm onto you, S.M.Q.! I won't be fooled! But, um, if you could get to my team soon . . . please?
I'm not entirely convinced S.M.Q. is ever going to tell us who killed Laura Palmer!
- The Lawgiver has brought us the laughter- or nausea-inducing news that the Nike-Oregon Axis of Fashion Disaster is up to no good again. Don't say Brian and I didn't warn you that these images are even scarier than the Hitler kitty pictures.
- Paragon SC reads Dawg Sports on his cell phone. I'm just old enough not to know what to do with that datum . . . but at least I'm not as big a fuddy-duddy as JoePa.
I got me one of them there iPods. That makes me cool, right?
- Block U has designs on getting Utah an invitation to join the Pac-10. Under my radical realignment proposal, the Utes would have remained in the Mountain West but been joined there by the likes of Arizona, Arizona State, and Colorado, while the Pac-10 would have gone back to being the Pacific Coast Conference and added Fresno State, Nevada, San Diego State, San Jose State, and U.N.L.V. . . . but that may just be me.
- Here's what I love about Nestor at Bruins Nation: when he gets his teeth into you, he doesn't let go.
Bruins Nation goes after cheaters with the singleminded tenacity of a loyal dog. In a related item, here's a picture of Uga going after an Auburn player.
If you don't consider yourself well-informed after all that, well, I bid you go in peace.
Go 'Dawgs!