Anyone on VTTW who would judge Teo is a freakin' hypocrite.  Everyone here has at least one imaginary friend.  I won't name names, but...


 

To be clear, I meant that you haven't heard this from me particularly for "several years".  I have only been saying this since last June, when I was doing research on recruiting.  I was curious simply who had been in the top five the last five years, looked into it, and found that bammer had been no. 1 four out of five years.  This led to further curiousity as to how that stacked against other top programs.  I was shocked at the disparity.  

For instance, in his time at Florida, 6 years total, Urban Meyer won two NCs.  Guess how often he was no. 1?  Never!  Never made it.  In fact, in his entire tenure, Florida was only in the top 5 three times in five years, let alone no. 1.  So who has the better natural recruiting advantage, Florida or bammer?  Which seems like a funner place to go to school?

In fact, in the last 10 years, which is as far back as I could find the records, only Florida under Zook in 2003 had a no. 1 recruiting class of the entire SEC!  And the SEC has collectively the greatest recruting there is.

The only team that approached Saban's success was Carroll at USC.  He had three straight no. 1 classes at So Cal  from 2004-2006.  And those are the EXACT ones he got put on probation for.

This does not constitute proof, but it reminds me of what someone said about Lance Armstrong on CNBC just this morning.  "He was recovering from testicular cancer and won 7 Tour de France titles, and no one said 'Huh, what's going on here'.  But in retrospect it's blindingly obvious...."

So I respectfully submit, that bammer's recruiting success simply is unrealistically good.   I have every confidence that they are cheating, but who knows if the NCAA will nut up and crack them or not.

I don't think that's true about UF.  Corch Herban's last full class was called by many the greatest of all time.

It is definitely unlikely, but there are people at UT -- people who matter -- who are still in Pearl's corner 100%. Obviously it can never happen as long as Cheek is still there. But IMO Cheek's days are numbered. Even then it probably wouldn't matter, but sometimes folks can be awfully persuasive.

Even if UT were inclined to bring Pearl back, one thing that would work very much against them is the lies that Hamilton and Cheek told to win the PR battle two years ago. I'm not excusing what Pearl did; he broke the rules, lied about it, and he's paying the price for that now. But I still run into people who will say that Pearl cheated and lied, then got caught and tearfully apologized, and then broke the rules again . . . even though that's been thoroughly debunked. (To that end, I blame the local media -- specifically the News Sentinel, which should be a watchdog for UT and the athletics program. Even after Hubbs and a few others in the new media had reported that Pearl didn't actually break the rules after that Sept. 10 press conference, the KNS refused to touch it. Instead, it simply took the propaganda the AD was spoon-feeding and helped spread it.)

One thing I'm certain of: Pearl will coach again. That team will win. And that team will instantly become one of my favorite CBB teams. Even though it would be the equivalent of thumbing our nose at the NCAA in some respects, there are far worse things that could happen to UT basketball than bringing Pearl back.

History tells us that if Pearl had not come clean, and just stuck by his lie (as every other coach has done in similar situations), he'd still be at UT right now.  That's what really sucks.  In the criminal justice system, a guilty plea usually results in a reduced sentence.  In the NCAA's justice system, a guilty plea is an engraved invitation for them to lower the boom and make an example of you.

If UT was ever going to win it Rupp it was last night.  

We may never win there again.  

Cal will get them neutered by the NCAA sooner or later.  We'll get them then.

UK could very well miss the tourney this year.  Right now, their only decent win is by 3 points over Maryland on a neutral court, and that one is looking less impressive by the day (UM has lost consecutive games to Miami and FSU).  They won't get many chances for quality wins in the SEC- and I can't really see that team beating UF, Mizzou, or OM, even in Lexington.

It would break my heart to see them in the NIT.

Yep, must be at Rupp.

Golden is killing me.  One of the most maddeningly inconsistent players we've ever had.

At this point, the only question I care about is how long it is going to take us to improve ourselves to the point of being in a position to deny Alabama a shot at the national championship.

Word.  The hell with all this SEC love.  In fact, it pisses me off that the SEC is this good, and that we're NOT a part of it.  If someone had told me 15 years ago that the SEC would win 7 NCs in a row, and we wouldn't even have ONE of those, I would've been outraged.  And I wouldn't even have considered that we would be cellar-dwellars for most of that period.  I couldn't give two shizzles about bammer or aTm's chances next year- I just want to know what Tennessee has planned to improve OUR lot in life.

Hollywood versions and that much of the behavior, attitudes, tactics and gear were inaccurate....did you observe any of this? Also, I read the book, did anyone else read the book and if so will I be disappointed greatly with the movie?  

Well, I've never been an interrogator or a Navy SEAL, so I really can't comment with any knowledge on most of that.  But I am an AF vet, and one thing I did notice- the plane that Maya boarded to leave Afghanistan at the end of the movie was a C-130.  When have you EVER seen a C-130 in a movie?  For the past two decades, to the extent that airlifters are seen onscreen at all, it's always been a C-17 or a C-5.  The 130, despite being far and away the most ubiquitous bird in our inventory, just isn't "sexy" enough, I guess.  But they showed one here.  I thought that was a nice touch.

As for the rest, it all seemed pretty realistic to me, especially compared to some others.  Last week, I watched the first 20 minutes of "Seal Team Six", which covers a lot of the same subject matter.  It played like an Obama campaign commercial.  I turned it off because it was just too sensational and unbelievable, but I fully suspect that at the end, the POTUS suits up with the SEALS and personally delivers the killshot to OBL.  ZDT, OTOH, was very apolitical.  The interrogation and torture scenes are depicted as horrible and gruesome, but necessary- the CIA doesn't find OBL without them.  And in the later years when the politicians crack down on these tactics, the CIA's job becomes that much harder.  The raid itself is hyper-realistic, and really delivers that "you are there" feel.  There is no music, no slo-mo, no "matrix"-syle bullet-time, no special effects at all.  It's all business, and really conveys the ruthless efficiency with which our Special Forces do their job.  I thought it was awesome.

Yeah we liked it too, very intense. Jessica Chastain's performance was really great

I haven't seen ALL the Best Pic nominees, but I have seen Django, Les Mis, Argo, and Lincoln.  I liked ZDT better than any of them.

I wasn't expecting much, because I thought Kathryn Bigelow's last war drama (The Hurt Locker) was overrated.  But it was amazing.  Best movie I've seen in years.  Don't miss it.

Oh, and spoiler alert: we killed the bastard.

She's in the new show "The Following".

Oh, good!  I was planning on watching that anyway.

Or this: 

<a href="http://www.vroma.org/images/mcmanus_images/chariot_military.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.vroma.org/images/mcmanus_images/chariot_military.jpg</a>

Or this:

1962 T-Bird hardtop. Bought by me in 1973. No radio but had a swing-away sterering wheel. Looked something like this

Hmm.  I thought yours would've looked more like this.

Watched it last week.  It looks pretty good this season.  But I noticed that Natalie Zea is no longer on the show or in the credits.  This makes me sad.

Speaking of that equity: I was pretty pleased after the season was over, but in hindsight I'm wondering how good was it really? They played well in Maui against Memphis and Duke, then had an absolutely terrible stretch — Austin Peay is still etched in my mind — before faring better than expected against an SEC slate that we all must admit was pretty weak by SEC standards.

I'm undecided on Cuonzo. I'm really apathetic to basketball right now. The way our administration used the end to justify the means during the Bruce scandal absolutely soured me. I did attend a couple of games last year but I haven't been this year and don't plan to. I'm just not a huge fan of Cuonzo's style . . . though if he wins consistently I'll be okay with his style. 

There's no doubt that the SEC wasn't very good last year (and is probably even worse this year).  But we did see tangible improvement from one season to the next out of all of Bruce's holdovers, Stokes was even more than we hoped he would be, and Cuonzo's lightly regarded recruits appeared to play better than their star ratings.  Unfortunately, most of those gains appear to have been forfeited this year. 

I don't like what I'm seeing this year at all.  But as I've said before, I'll give Cuonzo as pass this season due to the loss of Maymon and the equity he built last year.  But I definitely want to see some results next season.

1974 Plymoth Duster............................Red with Black stripes

Ok, I don't remember seeing THAT many Dusters on the road back in the day.  Strange that three of us had one.  Of course, mine was 15 years old when I got it, so maybe they were more common in the 70s.

When the Falcons hit that FG just now, I jumped up and got my hand caught in the ceiling fan, which shouldn't even be running this time of year.

 

Falcons aren't getting any problems from the Seahawks,The Dirty Birds are leading 20-0 at Halftime

Well, thanks for THAT.

How does this ball game equate to Peyton losing to the crocs??? These idiots might take a page from Tebow's book and learn some class....just sayin

That's all they have.  Might as well inscribe "He never beat UF" on his bust in Canton.  But even if they do, you know what?  HE'LL STILL HAVE A BUST IN CANTON.  The only way their guy gets in is by purchasing a ticket.

Seriously. I just read the VS for kicks and grins and sat here laughing until I cried. If these guys had the ability to separate themselves from their emotions and step back and look at it, they would realize how hilarious they are.

Oh, and then you have the gall to go to the other board and make a smack post about their QB, one of the top 5 NFL QBs of all time, vs. your QB, who has been dumped by every team that has ever signed him. LOL!

I've posted this before, and I don't feel like going back and compiling the numbers again.  But by any measure you can think of- completions, yards, TDs, wins, QBR, postseason success, you name it- PM has accomplished more in the NFL than every QB who has ever played at UF, combined.  And there have been about a dozen of them. 

And yet still they yap it up over there.  I mean, seriously- there are special schools for people like that.

The Peyton envy by all the WATB gators is quite humorous.

The revisionist history and ridiculous suspension of logic going on over there makes me wonder if maybe Seth McFarlane was on to something in last week's Family Guy.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/vb9Zl1boJCY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/vb9Zl1boJCY</a>

Maybe I'm wrong, but this year feels different.

I hope you're right.  Seattle is the one team I didn't want to face.  They're by far the worst matchup for us.  But win this one and IMO it gets a bit easier, crazy as that sounds.