Tuesday, November 07, 2006

A Few Good Reads For Your Tuesday Afternoon/Evening

As a Tuesday tradition, I've included several columns from writers around the south. So take a break from watching election returns, and read a few of these.

With Mississippi State and Sylvester Croom getting the SEC-winless monkey off its back, I figured they would be a good place to start. In Sunday's Jackson Clarion-Ledger, columnist Rick Cleveland writes a wonderful perspective piece on the Bulldogs' win - Call it a miracle, if not for Bulldogs, surely for Croom. Cleveland also wonders whether or not the Bulldogs will be able to build upon this win.

Cecil Hurt, Alabama beat writer for the Tuscaloosa News, writes 2006 season summed up in 60 minutes of disappointment. Cecil is very down on Mike Shula these days and appears quite frustrated in Alabama's lack of improvement throughout the year. He hits the nail on the head when he writes "The solutions, if there are to be any, haven’t changed. It starts with the head coach looking into the mirror, then extending the same scrutiny to every other member of his staff. The problems still seem to be primarily on the offensive side of the ball, which is not to exempt the defense from its fair share of the ample Saturday blame. But (and this is the only statistic I will cite in this column, since it essentially says it all) – Alabama has not scored an offensive touchdown against Mississippi State in over two years, in more than 125 minutes of football."

Sticking with the Turds, Randy Kennedy, columnist for the Mobile Press-Register, writes that the Crimson Tide is among SEC's worst teams. I think Mr. Kennedy is right on with his assessment of the Turds - The difference between Alabama, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt and Kentucky is basically non-existent on any given Saturday. All of those teams are capable of playing an occasional close game against one of the SEC big boys, but they're seldom able to close the deal." He goes on to write that major changes need to occur to Alabama's offensive staff.

Nate Allen, writer for the Northwest Arkansas Times gives his readers a different side of Arkansas's Darren McFadden that many people did not know about. Seems to be a good guy on top of one hell of a running back.

Mark Bradley, Atlanta Journal Constitution columnist, writes about Georgia's fall from grace. As they say, hindsight is 20-20, but Mr. Bradley does a good job of taking a look at the writing on the wall from the previous years to a struggling season this year.

Glenn Guilbeau with Gannett News Services writes about LSU's plane flight home from Knoxville. In my opinion, this article solidifies the fact that Les Miles is a freaking dork and apparently it's rubbing off on his team now. I'm not quite sure why, but I can totally picture Les saying "OK guys, you can wear your sweats home."

Chris Low, a staff writer for The Tennessean, writes about the suspensions of the Tennessee trio involved in a fight at GoodFellas, which according to Coach Fulmer, is now off-limits to his team. I find the suspensions rather amusing in that the only starter out of the three is suspended just for a half while the other two players are suspended for a game and 2 games. Fulmer's strict disciplinarian-self comes out again. Not quite sure who is more lenient, Fulmer or Shula?

Rick Scoppe with The Greenville News writes about Steve Spurrier's frustrations and on his comments about returning to face his former team in The Swamp. I think Spurrier's response about returning to The Swamp is classic. He can be so blunt and come across as such a jerk, so opposing fans can hate him, but if he is your coach, you have to love the man.

Finally, Henry Matuszak with the Commercial Dispatch out of Columbus, MS (Still trying to figure out how I guy with that last name ends up in Columbus), writes that the Rebels set goal to win out this season. I hate to break it to Shrek and the Ole Miss staff, but they should set some more realistic goals.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home