Fourth and inches … (game week of Oct 31, 2009)

By Todd Erickson  |   Saturday, October 31, 2009  |  Comments( 0 )

College Football
Got something to say?

Sign Up and be the first to comment on this article!

What a circus it’s been this season in the SEC … some terrible officiating has been exposed, head coaches complaining and getting fined, and now Mike Slive imposing what amounts to a gag order on any further grumbling by the conference’s head coaches.

“On rare occasions over the last seven years there were several private reprimands and that took care of the matter,” Slive said in a telephone interview with AP sportswriter Ralph Russo. “On occasion there were public reprimands and that took care of it, but it became clear to me after last week that I was no longer interested in reprimands. We will go right to suspensions and fines.”

Slive has already fined Tennessee’s Lane Kiffin, Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen, and Bobby Petrino of Arkansas for registering public complaints about the officiating blunders.

Suspensions were announced last week for the SEC officiating crew that called penalties in the LSU-Georgia game on October 3 and the Arkansas-Florida game on October 17 that were not supported by video evidence. The SEC’s public announcement of the suspensions was a first for the conference.

Slive failed to provide plans for recourse by the conference’s coaches regarding future officiating mistakes.

Major props to the West Virginia Mountaineer football program and their fans for the classy way they paid tribute last weekend to slain Connecticut defensive back Jasper Howard.

I posted my midseason Offensive All-America picks last week. Here are my midseason All-America Defensive picks:

S: Taylor Mays, USC
S: Sean Berry, Tennessee
DB: Rahim Moore, UCLA
DB: Anthony Wright, Air Force
LB: Rolando McClain, Alabama
LB: Brandon Spikes, Florida
LB: Chris Galippo, USC
DL: Eric Norwood, South Carolina
DL: Terence Cody, Alabama
DL: Ndamukong Suh, Nebraska
DL: Jerry Hughes, Texas Christian

Heisman Trophy watch: Tim Tebow, Florida. Going undefeated and winning the SEC will help a lot, but he will probably need gaudier stats to overcome the emotional favorite, Texas’ Colt McCoy. Mark Ingram, Alabama, is in position to move up if he can get back on track with some solid 100 yards-plus games and some paydirt in his pocket. Notre Dame’s Jimmy Clausen is a solid contender, but the Irish will need to win out the rest of their schedule to help him bring the Heisman back to South Bend.

Conference Power Meter: 1. SEC. 2. Big XII. 3. Pac-10. 4. Big Ten 5. ACC 6. MWC. 7. Big East. 8. C-USA. 9. WAC. 10. Sun Belt.

Check out this little gem about college football history … On November 6, 1869, Rutgers defeated Princeton 6-4 in the first ever game of American football, played at New Brunswick, N.J. The game did not resemble what football is known as today, with each school using 25 men on a 120-yard field. (Courtesy of The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame).

This week’s crazy 8 picks…

No. 3 Texas at No. 13 Oklahoma State. If the Longhorns are going to lose during the regular season, this is the game. Do the Cowpokes need Dez Bryant to get the job done? I don’t think so.
Indiana at No. 7 Iowa. The Hawkeyes play on the road at Ohio State in two weeks. This looks to be the perfect type of trap game for an undefeated team looking ahead. The Hoosiers are better than you’d think. Home field advantage would seem to weigh heavily in Iowa’s favor but Indiana could really pull this off. They did last year. They can this year.
Georgia vs No. 1 Florida in Jacksonville. I’ve never understood why this game is played in Jacksonville every year. It’s essentially a home game for the Gators year in, year out. It must have something to do with the moolah the Bulldogs get for playing across the state line. Gators begin their march to the SEC title game in earnest with a win here.
Wyoming at No. 19 Utah. Wyoming had an extra week to prep for this game and they traditionally give the Utes fits anyway. Still, Utah won’t be visiting the loss column until they visit Fort Worth in two weeks.
No. 12 Penn State at Northwestern. I predicted Michigan would beat the Nittany Lions in the Big House last week and JoePa’s boys proved me wrong. I won’t pick against them this week, but the Wildcats are a feisty squad and they won’t roll over easily.
Washington State vs Notre Dame in San Antonio. If there ever was a no-brainer pick this week—heck, this year—this is it. The Irish will steamroll Wazzou in Tejas on Saturday night.
No. 4 USC at No. 10 Oregon. They say Pete Carroll has a tough time winning in Oregon. You have to figure he’ll get it right sooner or later. Later.
No. 21 South Carolina at Tennessee. Show me an SEC team that relishes playing the Volunteers right now, let alone in Knoxville. Tennessee takes this one.

Last week: 4-4 Season: 29-25
Got something to say?

Sign Up and be the first to comment on this article! (0)

About Todd Erickson

Todd Erickson is a member of the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) and pens the RealFootball365 Top 25 college football power rankings and "Fourth and inches..." weekly columns from August thru January. He is currently working on the second edition of Road to the Rose Bowl ...
read more
Article Tools Share!   |  RSS  |  Bleacher Report About Bleacher Report