A few observations on tailgating in Athens:

–Athens happens to be a bit more eclectic and hipster-friendly than most college football tailgates period. Pop open a cooler and you will see foofy craft beers. Open an ear and you will hear something other than lite-country and pop-hop, like the fantastic Commodores/Ministry/Run DMC combo we heard across from us in Tent City. Unlike many SEC burgs, football seems to pull in the townie crew in Athens. They refuse to wear the red pants sure, but they still show out in their own way.

–Everything across the board in the Classic City seems to be at a B-plus or B across the board. The food, while not up to the Roman Orgy standards of Baton Rouge, is excellent across the board. The gear, while not on the mobile dining room standards of the Grove or Alabama, is nevertheless acceptably extravagant. (Quoth Paul Westerdawg: “If you can put it on wheels, we’ll do it.) While they don’t splash out on alcohol quite like Florida fans do (and note that this is the only thing Florida fans really go balls-out on, the booze, booze, booze,) the brands are mid to top range and poured with a shamelessly liberal touch, especially the brown stuff.

Like a well-managed NFL salary cap team, Athens’ tailgating necessities are all economically chosen to maximize potential enjoyment, making the scene the king of no single category but the master of the total array. Across the board Dawg fans are the most well-rounded tailgaters we’ve seen, quick with a bottle opener, adept with rapid satellite television array setup, and just menacing enough when you reveal your status as an opposing fan to be amusing.

–Scenery. We’re not just talking about the lascivious kind, either. It’s a beautiful campus with splendid weather, pleasant architecture, and proximity to bars. Trees surround the stadium. Attractive people of both genders are everywhere, so it’s not just the one-sided gawkfest every SEC lady has been through when visiting a place like Alabama. It’s a hair thing, mostly. Ladies can stand a lot of things, but bad hair will throw a woman on the hunt off the scent of even the most majestic mantelope. Like we say in the video: at least Athens offers a lot of different kinds of bad haircuts for one to choose from. As for the women, they are stunning. That is all we can say without sounding like a creepy old bastard any more than we already do.

PS. Check out the Alphabetical comments for the best Cincy/Chick-Fil-A logo illo EVAR.

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ALL CAPS EXCITEMENT IN ALL DIRECTIONS AT 9 PM EST!!! FUCK DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME!

Link to listen is here; link to chat is here. It is a balla convention with free admission, but you have to bring your own bottle. See you at 9:00 p.m. EST, Bravehearts.

The chat link is here. If the above doesn’t work, go here to listen. Now get to pouring, and we’ll talk at you at nine.

I didn’t get to watch the Miami-Virginia Tech game until after I already knew the outcome — I had been at another game at the same time, and was as surprised as anyone that Virginia Tech could score thirty-one, and even more than Miami managed a meager seven. But I can honestly say that I had more fun watching this game on replay, already knowing the outcome, than anything I’ve watched this year.

That might come as a surprise considering I just did an extensive breakdown of Miami’s (previously) vaunted pass offense, have family members who are diehard Canes fans, and still think Jacory Harris is one of the most entertaining players in the country. But you have to love what Bud Foster and Frank Beamer were able to do with Virginia Tech. The hype was all focused on Miami; the defense had looked atrocious such that Foster was putting news clippings and reprimands on players’ lockers; and Virginia Tech’s speed was basically exposed against Alabama, where the Tide managed to both run through and by the Hokies.

So what did they do? Play soft coverage and hope Harris made some mistakes? Revamp the offense to catch Miami’s speedy defense off guard? No. Foster and Beamer basically said fuck it, we’re going after Miami. That early fumble by Jacory Harris that set up the Hokies’ first touchdown? Well they did what I said they wouldn’t be able to: Foster dialed up a hide-the-children, all-out, man-to-man blitz with no free safety with the cornerback, Dorian Porch, coming off the short side of the field. (Miami was in a three receiver set with a tight-end backside. Foster put two guys to this backside: one played the tight-end in man coverage and the other, Porch, just blitzed, and of course Harris never saw him.)

And the blitzkrieg was on. Virginia Tech ran the ball well enough to convert good field position into points (and managed to dig themselves out of some bad field position after a muffed punt). A big pass from Tyrod Taylor and a blocked punt and the Hokies suddenly had a 21-0 lead, one that proved insurmountable.

VT’s players raved about Bud Foster’s defensive plan. What was it? Early in the game, as I said, Foster brought serious heat. All-out man-blitz type heat. I didn’t think VT could play man on Miami’s speedy receivers, but they barely had to because the well-timed blitzes were in Harris’s face before he could throw it. But Foster didn’t just bring these all-out blitzes.

Indeed, later in the game the strategy was actually much the opposite, as he went to a heavy dose of cover two: funnel the outside receivers inside to the safeties and force Harris to fit a tight through between defenders. This was something Harris was never really able to do. Now, a big reason for that was when Tech only rushed four Jason Worilds simply lifted up the man blocking him and threw him to the side and sacked Harris, as he did on a key third down early in the game.

Foster’s other tactic was to use the zone blitz, specifically some fire zones with five rushers and six pass defenders. He tended to do this on third and long, which put pressure on Harris and forced him to make a short throw where the Hokie pass defenders were in position to make a tackle. Again, throughout the game Harris never seemed to be in rhythm. In the first few games Miami OC Mark Whipple had done a nice job providing him with lots of pass protection and letting him take his time finding a receiver on a deep crossing route, corner route, or dig. Foster’s defense — and Bob Stoops’s Oklahoma defense — forces you to throw it quickly, and on rhythm. One-two-three-throw. Harris doesn’t seem to quite have this timing down, which is probably a function of how young he really is and how he will have to get better at all his reads and learn to make them quicker, during his drop, rather than relying on sitting in a perfectly constructed pocket and just waiting for a guy to break open.

After Virginia Tech established its big lead, Foster generally went with more coverage versus blitzes, though he went back to the man-to-man blitzes late. On the interception at the beginning of the fourth quarter, he called Virginia Tech’s old school “cover two robber,” which is literally a cover two — there are two deep zone defenders — but instead of using the safeties the cornerbacks drop, while the free safety plays a “robber” position. On the play Whipple had called the same double-move play that had worked against FSU: the receiver sprints upfield, begins like an out, and then angles inside the cornerback to the post. It works great against true single-safety defenses like Cover three, because the corner will play with outside leverage. Yet this time the corner, Rashad Carmichael, had sunk inside to play the deep half and Jacory Harris basically threw it right to him. I can only guess that Jacory thought he’d be playing with outside leverage.

Yet to some extent this beside the point. The plan for VT was very good. But in watching this game you couldn’t help but get the impression that one team was excited to play on that sloppy field, in driving rain, in that muck. They were excited to fly around and smash somebody, slide around a bit, and get up and do it again. And the other team? Well, for much of the game they looked like they didn’t want to get dirty. And if you play that way, in that weather, against a Frank Beamer team, it’ll be a long day. And it was.

Happy thoughts to him, especially since he may now tell people for the rest of his life that he survived a potentially life-threatening incident “because of his muscular frame.” Yeah, baby. The pack of wolves would have gotten me, and did in fact bite half my penis off, but they died from bloat due to the huge meal. Thank god for garden hose caddies.

EDSBS Live goes late night tonight at 10 p.m. for a special late night edition. Why late night? Because we’ll be in Roswell interviewing birth coaches in the SWATS slangin’ that snow like we was Frosty in a blizzard. Hate the game, not the hustle, playa. Talk to you then.

[UPDATE] Showtime! Listen here; chat here.

Peter and ourselves, after long hiatuses due to work, putting together Maple Street Guides, building our own stunt biplanes with nothing more than materials scrounged from old car parts and lego kits, and the responsibilities of being two of America’s most in-demand male escorts, have decided to resurrect EDSBS Live. The short-notice test drive will occur tonight at 9:00 p.m. EDT, will consist of Peter and Orson clearing their throats, talking over each other, and giggling uncontrollably. In other words: a usual show of EDSBS Live.

Future installments will settle back in for their usual spot at Tuesday, 9:00 p.m. The listening widget and link will be posted here as the final post of the day. Hit the liquor store, because cocktail hour returns with a vengeance tonight.

That there is the information for tonight’s episode of EDSBS Live, coming to you tonight for the first time from Swindle Manor, whose wireless capabilities are now so fearsome we can cook eggs without an open flame by simply standing with a freshly cracked morning fryer in a skillet set two feet from our router.

The four questions for the night (Back after a hiatus of only about a year or so:)

1. Your offseason proxy sport. The mistress to college football. Or, less complementarily, the piece on the side good for a Wednesday night beer run/slap ‘n tickle session of your sporting world.

2. Entertaining question for your team that will keep your brain occupied sufficiently for the next 2-3 months. For instance: we’ll spend the offseason wondering at the emergence of Omar Hunter at defensive tackle, and pray he doesn’t injure himself squatting whole dormitories during training sessions.

3. Book we need to all read (since we have time.) A cheap ploy to build a reading list, but we’ll take them where we can get them. Once we get be-Kindled, the eyeball buffet will commence.

4. One extremely premature prediction for 2009 (football-wise.) That Ole Miss wins the SEC West thanks to Jevan Snead and the year-two phenomenon. Also because we want a rematch, you Giggitards.

Talk to you tonight at 9 p.m. EST.

If you should need some reading in the meantime, let us recommend both Mottram’s fine survey of the media types at the Super Bowl–including luscious Latinas in tight pants, you bunda-whores–and this fine review of a book on Playboy’s evolving centerfolds featuring the phrase “biteable bottoms and breasts,” but in an intellectual way, yo.

(Holly, of course.)

On a totally unrelated note, here’s a public service announcement as required by no one:

The ten things to watch for are here. Peter will join us as his emotional stability allows.

Talk to you then.

…and then watch as we haphazardly employ the rules of the Holiday Bowl drinking game to disastrous effect. As commenters have pointed out, if we drink every time someone scores, we could be speaking with Dylan Thomas directly and personally by halftime. Either way nothing’s going gently into that good night with this game.

Hear you then.