Some Things Never Change (and an update on SEC Champ Game Tix)

As you probably know, the market for tickets to the SEC Championship Game has remained strongly in favor of the seller. I remember writing something for the 2012 game and what prices did, thinking they were falling early in the week, so I looked through the ole GSB archives to find, yes, they were falling earlier in the week.

Little did I know I would find the gift that keeps on giving:

Never change, Tennessee. Never change.

By the way, the get in price is down around $400 as of this morning, with lowers in the upper $600's.
With only about 20% of the traffic on ticket broker sites coming from Alabama, there is a good chance tomorrow's crowd will be leaning towards Georgia.

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The Florida Misery Files

is that bad RT @ZachAbolverdi: #Gators AD Jeremy Foley during in the closing moments of last night's game. pic.twitter.com/DRJmD7pfcH
— Will Muschamp (@Will_Muschamp) October 19, 2014

Meanwhile, in Gainesville: pic.twitter.com/AeGaqQII9c
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) October 19, 2014 

Florida came out to "Rock The Night" by Europe because I guess they've just plugged Muschamp's Zune in
— Spencer Hall (@edsbs) October 19, 2014

Days after giving Muschamp my vote of confidence the #Gators lay an egg like that? Unacceptable. #UGA shut out #Mizzou, #Indiana beat them
— Mike Farrell (@rivalsmike) October 19, 2014

If they don't #FireMuschamp I'm going to rethink my decision to apply to #UF for grad school. I think the UF alumni suicide rate went up.
— Erika Marie (@ErikaMarie) October 19, 2014

And the change in mindset going into a bye week before Georgia-Florida is stunning:

If Muschamp keeps his job this week, he then has two weeks to get the Gators ready to face Georgia.
The Bulldogs routed Missouri on the road 34-0 last weekend. The Tigers led the Gators 42-0 at one point Saturday night.
In other words, another ugly loss likely awaits Muschamp, who is 0-3 against Georgia and 3-10 in his last 13 games overall.

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Will Muschamp has issues

Not to bury the lede or anything, but...

DAMN, PAT DOOLEY: http://t.co/ZTHiDc94Fl pic.twitter.com/Cty0rto7Dl
— Spencer Hall (@edsbs) October 19, 2014

The piece is an ode from someone tired of reporting on a team that invents new ways to go backwards. When you start pointing out the good that Brent Pease and Charlie Weis did, you know it has gotten bad. The fun part is that Dooley has been one of the more level headed when it comes to Florida.

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About last night...

South Carolina endured a very swift and far fall from pre-season SEC East favorite at the hands of Texas A&M. What does that mean for Georgia? Well, we are 1/2 game up on them, for one. Look for Spurrier to renew his call for division games to matter more, I guess. Though he's got bigger issues than the division race right now.

Or Texas A&M is going to win the west by 22 games. Mike Slive is looking like a genius going after the Aggies, because no one but Longhorn fans remembers when they were a perennially underachieving Big12 team.

And then there is Vanderbilt. Damn. James Franklin really was a genius. Losing by 30 at home to Temple?

Of course, there is plenty of football left to be played, but Missouri, Tennessee, Florida, and Georgia (and hell, Kentucky) has to feel pretty good right now about what happened in Nashville and Columbia last night.

Schadenfreude tweet of the day:

#SEC Fun with Spurrier Meme's... #Gigged pic.twitter.com/pjFnVyBR0V
— GATA Dawgs (@BassinDawg) August 29, 2014

GATA, y'all.
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South Carolina Scnudengruben

Glorious

pic.twitter.com/8K9PVoNBFg
— nick pants (@nick_pants) August 29, 2014

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I love a good Stingtalk grouphug session

Blutarsky sent me down this rabbit hole. The best part is how they look for digs at UGA with all they do. Well, that and how their players that mess up are probably just 'under the stresses' of Tech, whereas UGA players are subjected to the bad influences of Athens:

Would be an interesting case study if we could ever see what they could've done had they come here. Would they still become criminals or were they thrust into an environment that adversely impacted them? Ah well, see you at Louisville I guess.
Wonder where those town folks are now that both he and Deloach are likely flaming out of Athens?

Also, the weed smoking justifiers are out in numbers:

Smoking weed is something that goes on at every college campus and with many student athletes. It's not evil. I know for a fact that in the 90's GT used to better prepare their "at-risk" kids and looked the other way during testing. The only ones who failed were practically trying to get caught.

Let's not forget that our beloved Calvin Johnson had a weed smoking incident in college.

Oh, and Paul Johnson is a great guy for looking after the interests of the good kids:

 Quote:

Originally Posted by wesleyd21  Paul Johnson is doing the right thing by graduating the good kids and kicking off the "bad" ones. Let's see how many people give a crap when he only wins 5 games this year.

We all should care. It's one of the reasons why I choose to be a fan of this program. The fact that he and the staff have pride in their program and honor the kids who are responsible and disciplined should be a point of pride for everyone pulling for this team.

Grow a pair.

The high horse is never quite as high as you think.
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60 minutes of hope

The best part of today's game was Tech thinking they'd finally gotten another win for almost 60 minutes. For almost 60 minutes they had something they haven't had in five years: Hope.

Glorious, joyful hope. After all, they had a 20 point lead in the first half. They had a 10 point lead in the fourth quarter. They had the ball with over 4 minutes to play with a chance to drive and play for a win.

Hope.

Hope is a fleeting thing. It is ephemeral. Like the first glimpse of a stunningly beautiful mountain. Especially when you play for overtime. It becomes fleeting.

We gave them hope. Far more hope than they've had in five years. And we snatched it away with the backup quarterback.

Delicious.
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This is what despair looks like

We, as a fan base, are the McDonalds of bitching. We are consistent in what we complain about. Our complaints are accessible. Yes, we sometime introduce new themes, sometimes of the seasonal variety. They don't really define us as a fan base, but even others recognize our contribution to bitching in various ways. People appreciate UGA fans because they can count on us to be good at what we do, but continually serve shitty bitching up. They expect that and by God we don't disappoint.

However, if you want to see a professional bitcher at his craft? Look no further than Spencer Hall at EDSBS:

The gameday experience is middling, and attendance (like everywhere) is sagging. Media coverage is dismal, thanks to the program's brilliant decision to just make their own news that no one reads, and at worst openly mocks for being the swamp cabbage Pravda of Alachua County. The hype videos are flat, the branding's a mess, and even our font belongs on the side of a malt liquor bottle. (Like, not even a classic like Mickey's, or a reasonably class malt liquor choice like Steel Reserve, but like, the really awful, end-stage alcoholism shit. The kind they find on bodies, not around them.)  Alumni are miserable, and dreaded going to watch this team when they were actually winning, much less now that the depth chart's collapsed and reduced us to being the Pitt of the SEC.

And that is just one of twelve, each one an equal masterpiece of malaise and sardonic self flagellation. If Georgia's fans are McDonalds in their pervasive and ubiquitous bitching. Spencer Hall is Grant Achatz at Alinea, deconstructing bitching and literally creating art with the words and how they are put together.

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Cock fight

I missed it, but did hear about it. Now, thanks to SBNation, here is the altercation between South Carolina defensive coaches.

Just glorious.

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Back where they belong

After three years of hearing non-sense about ownage, it was good to hear South Carolina fans back to their hysterical selves. After the game, I actually had a guy try to bring up last year and how this year wasn't *really* a good win because of all the bad calls the refs made. That was after I thanked him for coming to Athens and telling him to have a safe trip home (seriously). This history of Wake Forrest and the ego of...who? Oklahoma State? Texas A&M circa 2000?

Even the blog/media sites were in on the fun yesterday.

From Gamecock Central (South Carolina's Rivals site):

Coaching: I thought the gameplan on offense was good. That is about the only good thing I can say here. They still need to get the tight ends more involved. I can understand why Steve Spurrier called the play on fourth-and-goal late in the game because the option had worked the whole game but I don't agree with it. I didn't agree at all with the gameplan on defense. I think the cornerbacks should have been more physical and the defensive ends should have been playing more outside the offensive line. The defensive staff needs to bounce back next week. Grade: D-

For the record, they didn't give out an defensive score higher than on defense.

From Garnet and Black Attack (which is the most reasonable of all South Carolina blogs):

• The entire defense. Something is definitely off with the South Carolina defense and the staff needs to figure it out ASAP. Coming into the season this unit was supposed to be one of the best, and while I was able to explain away the issues with the UNC game, it is awfully hard to forgive what happened in Athens.
• Young line backers. Pretty self explanatory. The guys fought hard, but were often out of position and gave Gurley and Co. tons of running room. Getting gashed sucks, and those guys have to step it up if we're going to be highly successful.

Well, you could say the Georgia's offense had something to do with those two...

I suppose Georgia's offense isn't really that good after all.

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National media gets into the act:
-Sour finish at Georgia has Gamecocks sounding finished (Dan Wolken, USA Today)

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This is Delicious: Spurrier's Pain

You can practically smell his frustration through your monitor.

PWD

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Tennessee Schadenfreude: Non-Dooley/Kiffin edition

Trae Golden leaving UT's basketball program was only a minor shock. After all, players leave programs fairly regularly in hoops, especially when there are allegations of academic issues. Academic progress is an issue that you must face in programs, even at Georgia.

But the story just got juicy. Apparently the head of the student judiciary resigned instead of cooperating with the UT investigation got fired for not cooperating with an investigation. And there are allegations of 'improper relationships' with student-athletes. So, was Golden being kept eligible through the Student Judiciary while he played? How about others?

The only bad news (for Georgia's perspective) is that since UGA beat Tennessee twice this year in hoops [INSERT YOUR OWN JUST LIKE FOOTBALL JOKE HERE], we don't end up with a vacated loss from this season. The good news, beyond the possibility of yet another academic/program control issue in Knoxville, is the Internets haz comment threads and message boards. Like this one at Out Kick the Coverage. Delicious.

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Florida now home of moped crime

And with that, Thespis has left the building

Sources tell me Dunker was arrested for stealing a moped on campus. Trying to confirm that with UPD.
— Robbie Andreu (@RobbieAndreu) January 16, 2013

Apparently, he was riding on a moped that had been reported stolen. Dunker will get out of it, but damn it is funny for a day.

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Well, THAT was awesome: A quick photo essay

Coach Muschamp walks on the field to see where his team is
(Image: SBN)

Coach Strong, whom I am very glad Florida, Auburn and Tennessee didn't hire
(Image: SBN)

I really wanted to post butthurt Florida fans here, but sadly no fans showed up:

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Tee Martin turns down offer to return to Tennessee

(Image: Eleven Warriors)

When Tee decided to go back to LA to 'think about' the offer to return to Knoxville, you had to think this was the inevitable ending, right? We can debate how much this decision means about the state of the Tennessee program, but there is no way Butch Jones was going to out recruit Lane Kiffin on this one.

And he didn't have that pesky NCAA to hinder him.

Now, does Martin's decision to stay at Southern Cal mean Tennessee isn't the program it once was? Probably will be seen that way. However, let's just call this what it is: Lane Kiffin is a better recruiter than Butch Jones. Lane Kiffin has a long memory and will likely find some way to take a swipe at UT about this as well. Kiffin could fire Tee Martin next week, but he wasn't going to lose a coach to Butch Jones at Tennessee.

Vols, bitch!

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This little bit of drama has been brought to you by Mike Hamilton.

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Home Page on Jimmy Sexton's Website*

*probably

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Tennessee Bowl T-Shirt

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Black Sunday

So far:

Gene Chizik has been told that he is out at Auburn as the Tigers head coach a source just told me.
— Bruce Feldman (@BFeldmanCBS) November 25, 2012

Also,

Tom O'Brien out as North Carolina State's coach wp.me/p14QTT-QaC
— CollegeFootballTalk (@CFTalk) November 25, 2012

Add in John L. Smith, approximately four minutes after the LSU loss, Dooley at Tennessee, Phillips at Kentucky, and Tedford at Cal. I'd guess Edsil at Maryland has another year, but I can't think of anyone else that would be a definitely fire thing.

Jimmy Sexton is about to get paid.

Who is next up for those jobs?
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Dooley Fired

Official MT @vol_football: Derek Dooley will not return as head coach of Vols; Jim Chaney to coach vs. Kentucky bit.ly/T9TPY5
— Marc Weiszer (@marcweiszer) November 18, 2012

Film at 11.

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Auburn: A Case Study in Fail

Nevah laid a glove on me.

Two years removed from a national championship, Auburn in in trouble. Not the kind of trouble they were in during that year. No. There is dissension. Dissension on campus. Dissension in the locker room. Dissension in the President's office. Dissension among the alumni.

The latest news of that dissension is the hiring of a private security firm to enforce weeknight curfews on players, even those living off campus. Game eve curfews are a normal thing. Unless you are Stephen Garcia. Mere things like rules can't hold a playa like SGar down. A weeknight curfew? Damn. I'm pretty sure those guys are called consultants in Tuscaloosa.

I'm not here to judge their issues. I'm here to enjoy them. Here's hoping the NCAA has just hired Charles Robinson to go snooping around in Auburn.

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