CNNSI’s Stewart Mandel trots out his regular mailbag feature again. In his piece, he chronicles the disappearing act done by several young promising players. It is a must read for at least this classic line:

Tennessee QB Erik Ainge: Why did he wait until his sophomore year to start making freshman mistakes? Admittedly, Philip Fulmer’s constant yo-yoing of his quarterbacks probably hasn’t helped the kid’s confidence, but that interception Ainge lobbed out of his own end zone on Monday night looked like something straight out of a Chris Rix instructional video.

Here’s an idea. What if we have coaches who understand the game AND actually have time to watch other teams play rank the top 25. Well, we’ll get to see how that grand experiment works thanks to the Master Coaches Survey, which is premiering this week. The poll will consist of a veritable who’s who of coaching greats including Bo Schembechler, John Robinson, LaVell Edwards, Hayden Fry, Frank Kush, Dick MacPherson and John Cooper. Bama fans are still trying to figure out how the Bear can participate, but the science isn’t there yet.

Never fear, Tide fans. He’ll get the Bear on the ballot.

Hubert Mizell’s retirement from the St. Pete Times was a tragedy. It’s great to see him doing part-time stuff for Gatorsports, particularly this piece about the slippery but eminently likeable Urban Meyer.

Defensive end Jeremy Mincey proved to be a lively quote in Florida’s press conference on Monday. Actually, he proved to be several lively quotes, especially when asked about Alabama’s defensive talent.

To wit:

Mincey: “I would say Tennessee has more talent than Alabama, both sides of the ball. Alabama has a good defense, but I’d still say Tennessee has more talent.”

Mincey: “Tennessee’s (offensive line) was big and athletic and we came out and played them pretty good. We were a couple of mistakes from beating the crap out of (Tennessee). We were a couple of missed assignments from beating them pretty bad. The funny thing is we’re going to get better and better.”

Mincey: “Our defense, if we come out with the right state of mind, playing hard, we should come out with a good victory. I can’t say how (good). The way our defense has played the last four weeks, anything is possible. It could be a blowout or just a regular victory.”

Writers sometimes do a favor for young, reckless recruits by editing their somewhat rash remarks. According to EDSBS sources, this happened in this instance, as Mincey actually went further in his Bama-bashing than was reported. An unexpurgated transcript of the above remarks is reproduced below:
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We’re busy handing out names for our firstborn like candy lately–first Stranko goes and nabs us a ticket to the Bama game–handssah shakaiing ffromggm eexxcitementtt–and then Brent goes and finds this site, one not only devoted to the wonder of the masculine hair-based organic lip cover but to a specific kind of mustache: the Asian Mustache. There as devoted to a proper taxonomy of mustaches as we are (troubling to find out there’s others as obsessed as we are. Then again, as college football fans, why are we surprised at any obsession?)

Courtesy of their brilliant, disturbing site: The 7-10 Split.

Jia you, pengyou!

The bad news continues for playoff proponents as the bowls continue unabated to succeed. On that score, this week, the Fort Worth Bowl extended its agreement with Conference USA for four years through the 2009 season. That game will match up teams from Conference USA and the Mountain West Conference.

For those with more tropical vacations planned, the Hawaii Bowl signed a four-year extension with Conference USA and the Western Athletic Conference. Under the deal, however, next years game can include a bowl-eligible 6th place team from the mightly Pac 10.

When in Hawaii, do you really want to spend time watching the 6th place Pac 10 team take on a member of the WAC???

Eric Olsen, a 6 foot 5, 300 pound offensive lineman, has chosen to bang heads on behalf of Notre Dame next season. He’s ranked among the top 25 of available lineman and continues Weis trend of quality early commitments.

We’re better than the Harris Poll… but that’s not saying much. On to the Blog Poll… after a brief dancing interlude by Jean-Claude

We here at EDSBS can’t get enough of that faux hip sway followed by the clap.

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From the network that added Nick Lachey to Gameday and ESPN Hollywood to the nightly lineup comes another new innovation designed to keep the bottom line healthy. ESPN Cellphones are on their way. If watching too much sports at home hasn’t already ruined your marriage/relationships, then you definitely need this new gadget.

After a collapse like last night, we knew we could expect alot of farking and snarking about the coaching job of Les Miles. The internet has not disappointed.

(HT to Virtual Swamp).

Also, if you want to see an old press conference which might remind Gator fans of the Zooker, click here.
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