SINCE WE LAST SPOKE 8-7-14

HIDE THE KIDS (and my wallet) IT’S BEANO from RENO TIME
If I’m going to make a complete fool of myself –which I have a penchant to do on more than an occasion- let me do it in a manner that will take months to discern that fact I have done so. I can also hope that being caught up in the drama that is CFB season you will totally forget just how little I knew three months before.

Ah the heck with it, here is what I screwed up in projecting the Vols 2103 season:

TENNESSEE 34 MISSOURI 17-Gary Pinkel will not accompany the Tigers to K-Town in 2014 (Actual Outcome; Missouri 31 Tennessee 3-Pinkel is gainfully employed and well-compensated)

TENNESSEE 27 AUBURN 17-Battle of new coaches goes to Butch Jones (Actual Outcome Auburn 55 Tenn 23; Malzahn was not out-witted)

Here’s one I’m glad I whiffed on:

S CAROLINA 30 TENNESSEE 20-Could this be Spurrier’s last trip to K-Town? (Actual Outcome Tenn 23 S Car 21; I’m afraid Spurrier wouldn’t miss the trip in 2015 for any amount of money)

Predicted 2013 Finish: 7-6 with an Independence Bowl win over Ga Tech

Actual 2013 Finish: 5-7; tying an all-time dubious distinction with the first four-year losing record skid for the Vols since 1903-06. Tennessee has NEVER had 5 consecutive losing seasons in program history

Without further ado here are this season’s “visions”

2014 TENNESSEE SEASON PREDICTION

TENNESSEE 31 UTAH ST 20-Gary Anderson is long gone; Chuckie Keeton is coming off ACL surgery and the Aggies return the fewest starters in CFB (8; 3-Off, 5-Def)

TENNESSEE 23 ARKANSAS ST 20-Vols escape disaster in sandwich game prior to heading to Norman

OKLAHOMA 41 TENNESSEE 27- Tennessee proves more competitive than in recent big-time intersectional matchups

GEORGIA 27 TENNESSEE 17-Dawgs on high-alert after last season’s nail-biter

TENNESSEE 24 FLORIDA 20- F-I-N-A-L-L-Y the nonsense ends and sadly for all intents and purposes so does the Muschamp “tenure”.

TENNESSEE 64 UTC 10-Vols still celebrating a victory over Florida but it doesn’t matter

OLE MISS 30 TENNESSEE 24- Hugh Freeze’ one year head-start too much to overcome

ALABAMA 29 TENNESSEE 13-Florida’s streak ends but Bama’s continues

S CAROLINA 30 TENNESSEE 20-Old Ball Coach doesn’t trip over the Big Orange on his way to Atlanta this time

TENNESSEE 34 KENTUCKY 17-Vols finish 1-1 on the season versus the Stoops boys

TENNESSEE 37 MISSOURI 26-No way newcomer Mizzou beats us three in a row; NO WAY!

TENNESSEE 26 VANDY 13-I want to live to be a ripe-old-age but don’t want to witness another Vandy winning streak vs the Vols

DUCK COMMANDER INDEPENDENCE BOWL SHERVEPORT, LA DECEMBER 27th

TENNESSEE 34 MIAMI FL 24-Why not end another surprising season with a victory over the Canes in Louisiana?

FINAL RECORD 8-5 Overall; 4-4 Conference; 4-2 in SEC East

BLOGGER’S NOTE: Figured I would give that whole Independence Bowl victory thing another shot.

BLOGGER’S WARNING: My heart almost always overrides my brain when predicting the Vols’ season. A good formula for a more accurate projection is Beano-1 meaning 6-6 is a more likely result. Let’s hope Beano-2 is not the correct answer!

So let’s move onto the 2014 SEC SEASON PREDICTIONS but before we look ahead let’s take a peek back at last season’s blog outtakes:

Here are a couple of dandy 2013 prognostications by yours truly:

TEAM ALL SEC LOSSES
MISSOURI 4-8 0-8 ENTIRE SEC SCHEDULE
Actual Results: Missouri finished 12-2 losing only to South Carolina and in the SECCG to uh….. my second gaffe team……

AUBURN 6-6 2-6 LSU; A&M; ARK; TN; GA; ALA

Actual Results: Auburn won the SEC Championship, finished 12-2, losing only at LSU and by a whisker in the National Championship game to FSU

Keep those two gems in mind as you peruse this season’s

2014 SEC PREDICTIONS

EAST ALL SEC LOSSES
S CAROLINA 11-1; 7-1 @Aub
GEORGIA 10-2; 6-2 @S Car, @ Mizzou
TENNESSEE 7-5; 4-4 @Okla, @Ga, @Miss, Bama, @S Car
FLORIDA 7-5; 4-4 @Ala, @ TN, GA, S Car, @FSU
MISSOURI 7-5; 4-4 UCF, @ S Car, @Fla, @A&M, @TN
KENTUCKY 4-8; 1-7 @Fla, SC, @LSU, @MS, @Mizz, Ga, @ TN, Lou
VANDY 4-8; 0-8 Entire SEC Schedule

WEST ALL SEC LOSSES
ALABAMA 11-1; 7-1 @LSU
MISS STATE 10-2; 6-2 @LSU @Ala
AUBURN 8-4; 5-3 @K-St, @Miss St, @Ga, @ Ala
LSU 9-3; 5-3 @Aub, @ Fla, @ A&M
TEXAS A&M 9-3; 4-4 @ S Car, @Miss St, @Ala, @Aub
OLE MISS 7-5; 3-5 Ala, @ A&M, @LSU, Aub, Miss St
ARKANSAS 3-9; 0-8 @Texas Tech and Entire SEC Schedule

SEC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
S CAROLINA 27 ALABAMA 23

SEC PREDICTIONS MOST LIKELY TO MAKE ME SMILE:
-Like the early season Gator-Vol matchups of the 90s South Carolina will win the East with a September 13th victory over Georgia

-Though talented and well-coached a difficult road schedule and a reversal of 2013 favorable bounces will be Auburn’s undoing in 2014

SEC PREDICTIONS MOST LIKELY TO MAKE ME BLUSH:
-Mississippi State second in the West? Are you out of your flippin mind? Dak Prescott and Auburn and Texas A&M coming to Starkville made me do it.

-Tennessee finishing in the upper-division will require something that hasn’t happened since 2004; beating the Florida Gators. I believe the time has come.

SEC BOWL GAME PREDICTIONS: Just one more glance at the crystal ball should do it for the 2014 pre-season. Let’s look at my fearless SEC Bowl matchup predictions:

DUCK COMMANDER INDEPENDENCE BOWL (Shreveport 12-27) Tennessee vs Miami

AUTOZONE LIBERTY BOWL (Memphis 12-29) Missouri vs Iowa State

ADVOCARE TEXAS BOWL (Houston 12-29) Ole Miss vs TCU

MUSIC CITY BOWL (Nashville 12-30) Florida vs Nebraska

BELK BOWL (Charlotte 12-30) Texas A&M vs Virginia Tech

CHIC-FIL-A (Atlanta 12-31) Auburn vs North Carolina

CAPITAL ONE (Orlando 1-1) Georgia vs Michigan State

OUTBACK (Tampa 1-1) Mississippi St vs Northwestern

COTTON BOWL (Arlington 1-1) Alabama vs Baylor

TAXSLAYER BOWL (Jacksonville 1-2) LSU vs Clemson

SUGAR BOWL (New Orleans 1-1) South Carolina vs Florida State

BONUS BOWL PREDICTION:

ROSE BOWL (Pasadena 1-1) Oklahoma vs Ohio State

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME (Arlington 1-12) Florida State vs Oklahoma

PLAY THE BEST? I (like Tony) SAY YAAAS! In an interesting piece at espn.com by Brett McMurphy coaches from the 5 CFB power conferences were polled to see if they favored playing schedules made up exclusively of Power-5 opponents. The results were 46% (30 coaches) in favor 35% (23) opposed and 18.5% (12) undecided. Here is how SEC coaches voted on the issue

YES: Alabama's Nick Saban, Florida's Will Muschamp, Kentucky's Mark Stoops, LSU's Les Miles, Mississippi State's Dan Mullen, Ole Miss' Hugh Freeze, Tennessee's Butch Jones

NO: Arkansas' Bret Bielema, Georgia's Mark Richt, Missouri's Gary Pinkel, South Carolina's Steve Spurrier, Vanderbilt's Derek Mason

Undecided: Auburn's Gus Malzahn, Texas A&M's Kevin Sumlin

I was encouraged by the fact that a majority of coaches nationally and in the SEC favor bulking up the schedules. It would put everyone on a more level playing field in terms of CFB Playoff contention by reducing the inequities of current scheduling practices and simplify the evaluation process facing the CFB Playoff Selection Committee members each season. More importantly for guys like me who view the game from a fan’s perspective only it eliminates the wasted time and money Saturday opponents that SEC teams regularly pad the schedule with such these beauties that I’m sure will thrill CFB fans throughout the south this fall:

Alabama vs Fla Atlantic; Arkansas vs Nichols State; Auburn vs Samford; Florida vs Eastern Kentucky; Georgia AND Vandy vs Charleston Southern; Kentucky AND Mississippi St. vs UT-Martin; LSU vs Sam Houston St.; Ole Miss vs Presbyterian; South Carolina vs Furman; Tennessee vs UTC; Texas A&M vs Lamar

Talk about felonious; the ADs who scheduled those games should be convicted of multiple crimes including aggravated assault and grand theft. Pa-thetic

Just a couple more observations on the poll:

I was surprised that Steve Spurrier was among those opposed to the exclusive scheduling. He’s such a competitor, a critic of inequitable scheduling, a big-stage performer and a guy that has never been a head coach at the FCS level I would have thought he would be leading the charge for schedule reform.

What doesn’t surprise me? That Brett Bielema is opposed. He –with his Wisconsin background- is apparently against anything that would rob him and his team of the opportunity to absolutely bore the hell out of everyone involved.

Here is the link:

S-K-I-N in the GAME: In this instance S-K-I-N stands for “Swift Kick in Nuts”. The section will be dedicated to uncovering painful events suffered by fans or in some cases pointing out anyone associated with the sports world that deserves to be ruptured.

This transcends the sports world and is far more serious than this segment was intended to be but with special pieces on Jim Kelly leading up to this year’s NFL Hall of Fame induction ceremonies and the news of Pete Van Wieren’s passing nothing deserves a Swift Kick In the Nuts like cancer.

My Brother Ron would have turned 67 on August 2nd had he not been taken from us over two years ago by that indiscriminant serial killer. Not a day passes that I don’t think of, or miss him and it becomes even more intense during college football season which he dearly loved. Put the steel boots on folks and let’s keep doing everything we can to give cancer the S-K-I-N it truly deserves.

IN A PERFECT WORLD: The top 2 position players and top 3 pitchers I drafted for fantasy baseball wouldn’t all have red crosses or “DL” listed beside their names turning my playoff run into a free-fall.






















-

---