Scott Pioli made a name for himself in the NFL – first as V.P of player personnel for the New England Patriots and then as general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs.  While at New England, the Patriots did battle with Nick Saban’s Miami Dolphins.  Now Pioli is defending a former NFL rival and current Alabama coach.

Speaking to Mike Florio, Pioli was asked about his reaction to former Dolphins assistant Tim Davis calling Saban “the devil.”

“I’ve got to be honest, I was terribly disappointed. You know, I know Nick Saban, I’ve worked with Nick Saban for a number of years back in Cleveland.  First of all, I didn’t like it for Nick.  I know Nick is a tremendous coach and he’s a tough worker and he’s a tough boss but I know a lot of people who are tough bosses.

“I’ll say this about Nick, though:  I think he’s tough but he’s fair. He doesn’t ask anything of people that he hasn’t done himself or that he won’t do himself.”

Davis not only worked with Saban at Miami but also took a job under Saban at Alabama and that really got Pioli fired up.

“[Davis] spends a year out of football, can’t get a job, Nick creates a position at the University of Alabama to help a guy who’s been unemployed he shows his loyalty to the guy, brings him in, creates a position, pays him. This guy made the choice to come work for Nick and now a couple years later, he’s bashing a guy who really helped him… I just don’t understand the mentality of people who are given opportunities, they seize the opportunity, they get paid, and then some time in the future they start to air dirty laundry or their hard feelings toward someone. I just don’t understand why people can’t keep their mouths shut and move on.  So, to me, it’s one of these trends in sports that I see, that I just, truly disappoint me.”

And round and round we go.  We’ll see if this latest salvo sets off any more reactions or draws a comment or apology from Davis, who is now Florida’s offensive line coach.  Saban last week called the comments “terribly disappointing.”

If you’re a fan of the blues then you have to know the names Robert Johnson and Elmore James.  And if you know the names Johnson and James, you likely also know the song “Dust My Broom.”

Johnson — the legendary bluesman who supposedly sold his soul to the devil at a Mississippi crossroads in exchange for guitar lessons — wrote and performed the original version of the song in 1936.  Fifteen years later in 1951, James released an updated version featuring his electric slide guitar and some re-worked lyrics.

Blues aficionados often debate which of the two versions is best.  According to the MrSEC iPod, it’s James’ electrified track.

“No, I don’t want no woman want every downtown man she meets.”

Over the weekend it was learned that Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy was blocking quarterback Wes Lunt from transferring to Southern Miss, Central Michigan, Pac-12 schools, SEC schools, any schools whose names end in R or start with Q, etc.

Yesterday, we wrote that it was time for the NCAA to create a uniform transfer policy that — for the most part — would take the power from coaches’ hands in such situations.

Now, a day later, there’s yet another such situation.  This time Vanderbilt hoops coach Kevin Stallings is reportedly blocking sophomore-to-be Sheldon Jeter from transferring to Pittsburgh.  Jeter is a native of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.  Over the weekend, Stallings had said: “Sheldon has indicated that he’d like to play closer to home and we wish him the best.”

Not sure about your take, but Pittsburgh would indeed seem closer to Beaver Falls than Nashville.

According to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, however, Stallings — for an unknown reason — has decided to place a black-and-gold roadblock between Jeter and Pitt.  One would guess that Stallings feels someone in the Steel City has tampered with his ex-player.

If Jeter still wants to attend Pitt, he can transfer there and pay tuition for his first year or he can appeal Stallings’ decision to the Vandy athletic department (though it’s doubtful the Commodore brass with take the ex-player’s side over the current coach’s).

The irony here is that Vanderbilt was one of the schools OSU’s Gundy scratched from Lunt’s list of options.  Round and round we go.

Offense or defense?

Running or passing?

We wanted to know which statistics provided a more accurate gauge of overall success during the 2012 SEC football season.  When talking about the SEC, defense is usually the first word out of the mouth of any coach, fan or pundit.  Should it be?

From looking at six key (yet simple) statistics, the answer is yes.

Yesterday, we found that passing defense (opponents’ yards-per-pass-attempt) was more closely related to SEC wins and losses than passing offense (yards-per-pass-attempt).

This morning, we found that rushing defense (opponents’ yards-per-carry) was more closely tied to SEC wins and losses than rushing offense (yards-per-carry).

Now, we’ll compare the yards-per-play numbers of each school on offense and on defense (opponents’ yards-per-play).  Which statistic do you think served as a more accurate predictor of gridiron success?

2012 SEC Total Offense / Yards-Per-Play

The top three teams in this category all finished with six of more SEC wins.  Also, the two SEC squads that went winless in 2012 ranked at the bottom of this chart.  Obviously, offensive ability matters.

It just doesn’t matter as much as team’s defensive ability.  Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Florida and LSU all ranked in the bottom half of the SEC in yards-per-play on offense yet those four teams went a combined 24-8 in league play last year.  Meanwhile, Tennessee, MSU, Arkansas and Ole Miss all finished in the top half of the league in this measure while compiling a combined record of 10-22.

If our previous conclusions hold water, teams’ overall defensive rankings (opponents’ yards-per-play) should be the most telling of the six statistics we’ve broken down.

2012 SEC Total Defense / Opponents’ Yards-Per-Play

How’s that for lining up correctly?

The seven SEC squads with winning league marks in 2012 all ranked in the top half of the conference in yards-per-play allowed.  Those teams totaled a combined record of 44-12.  The seven squads with SEC winning percentages of .500 or lower all ranked in the bottom seven of the league in this category.  Those teams finished the year 12-44.

To take things even further, the top four teams in this category (Florida, Alabama, South Carolina and LSU) went 26-6 in the SEC in 2012.  The six teams that ranked in the middle (Vanderbilt, Georgia, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Missouri and MSU) went 27-21 combined.  And the four teams that the bottom of the table?  Kentucky, Arkansas, Auburn and Tennessee finished a combined 3-29 on the season.

We wanted to know if defense really did trump offense in the Southeastern Conference last year.  The numbers say it did.  Whether it’s rushing defense, passing defense, or total defense, SEC wins and losses are still most often determined by strength on defense, not on offense.

Maybe we should call this one a “Who Said It?” instead of a “They Said It.”

Over the weekend, Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald included an interesting blurb from an unnamed ex-Miami assistant coach as part of a catch-all blog post.  Miami, of course, is under NCAA fire thanks to the accusations of former booster — and current prison inmate — Nevin Shapiro.

According to Jackson:

“One former UM coach accused of wrongdoings complained privately that what the ex-UM coaches allegedly did paled in comparison to unreported violations committed in the SEC.”

That’s it.  End of blurb.

While it’s short, you can be sure Mike Slive isn’t happy to read it.  Slive worked hard to improve the image of the Southeastern Conference upon his arrival and for a while his efforts seemed to be working.  But then came a textbook scandal at Alabama, John Calipari brought his reputation to Kentucky (whether his reputation is deserved or not), Lane Kiffin and Bruce Pearl drew NCAA attention at Tennessee, and Auburn, well, pick a scandal.

So the SEC’s reputation is once again that of a shady league.  Winning seven consecutive BCS crowns has also led jealous folks from other region to conclude that school’s Down South must be cheating.

But in this case, who is the coach who made the above claim to Jackson.  If the person is current Missouri hoops coach Frank Haith that would be a story.  But I think we can all agree is probably not Haith.

Did the coach making the claim have any evidence of wrongdoing in the SEC?  Had he himself coached in the league and seen illegal activities firsthand?

Until we know who was talking to Jackson — and it’s likely we never will — it’s impossible to take such a claim seriously.  From here it sounds like the same ol’ types of cries we often hear from schools’ supporters whenever the NCAA comes snooping around their favorite campus: “But other schools do a lot worse than what we’ve done!”

Yeah, yeah.  Tell it to the judge.

SEC Football

1. LSU coach Les Miles will go Destin next week with a message on banning permanent opposite division rivals.  “The most important thing the conference has to do is pick a champion in a fair, straightforward way.”

2. Former Arkansas quarterback Brandon Mitchell will play his final season at North Carolina State. ”Bottom line is I want to win, and I want to win now.”

3. Alabama receiver Danny Woodson, Jr. transferring to South Alabama.  Former four-star recruit was suspended for violation of team rules during the spring.

4. Why is former Oklahoma State quarterback Wes Lunt being restricted from transferring to certain schools, including Tennessee and Vanderbilt? One reason –  ”The belief that at least some coaches at some interested schools improperly contacted Lunt.” MrSEC weighed in on transfer limits Monday.

5. Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel can complete a pass blindfolded.  Here’s the video proof and a picture.

6. Why wide receiver Malcolm Mitchell is one of Georgia’s 10 most important players this year. Ten breakout candidates in the SEC this fall.

7. A look at freshman Evan Engram and the tight end position at Ole Miss.  Rebels don’t return a scholarship player to the roster from the tight end spot.

8. LSU defensive coordinator John Chavis on a defense that lost seven starters. “We’re not afraid to play freshmen. We’ll do everything we can to get our best 11 on the field.”

9. In Auburn’s new defensive alignment, only two linebackers will be on the field.  They will have to cover a lot of ground.

10. Tennessee sports publicist Gus Manning on coach Butch Jones: “I’ve been here for 11 football coaches. Butch Jones is the best public-relations man of all of them.”

11. Remember that Alabama BCS trophy that was accidentally shattered?  Broken trophy fetched $105,000 at an auction.

12. Rimington Trophy watch list includes nine SEC centers.

13. Do you realize college football kicks off in exactly 100 days from now? Here’s an SEC checklist.

14. ESPN’s Ted Miller on why so many predictions about college football this fall will be completely wrong.

SEC/College News

15. Florida wins the SEC All-Sports Trophy for the 23rd time.  

16. Georgia A.D. Greg McGarity has made four head coaching moves in the athletic program since he was hired.  Latest move was firing the baseball coach.

17. Towson A.D. Michael Waddell joining the athletic department at Arkansas.

18. Jon Solomon on the Ed O’Bannon lawsuit: “Collegiate Licensing Company had licensing agreements with more than 80 former college athletes from 1995 to 2010.”

19. Stewart Mandel projects how the bowls will lineup for college football’s major conferences in future years.

20. Mountain West Commissioner doesn’t think college football playoffs will stay at four teams.

21. Dan Mullen and Urban Meyer - Parrotheads?

22. Interview with former Alabama and Texas A&M coach Dennis Franchione: “We had a lot of great memories of Alabama and the fans and that program. I wish it could have been under different circumstances.”

SEC Basketball

23. Former Baylor player Deuce Bello transferring to Missouri.  Will have two years of eligibility after sitting out this next season. Sixth Division I transfer to join MU’s program since Frank Haith arrived two years ago.

24. Staff moves announced Monday at Alabama include Antoine Pettway promoted to assistant coach. Team also getting new strength and conditioning coach.

25. Former Tennessee center Yemi Makanjuola enrolls at UNC Wilmington.

Extras

26. How Pac-12 schools divvied up the cash.

27. Former Memphis forward Tarik Black will play his senior year at Kansas.

28. ESPN reportedly laying off hundreds of people.

29. The 20 types of unhappy sports fans.  I think I’ve done about 14 of these.

In this day and age, all it takes is one dimwit, loser, scumbag with no manners, no shame and no brain to make an entire fanbase look bad.  Twitter makes everything, oh, so easy.

Before diving into this one, let me make a few things clear:

First, I don’t understand people who use Twitter to curse left and right.  I was raised in such a way that I wouldn’t want the whole world to see me tossing F-bombs around left and right.

Second, I don’t get fans who feel that part of the “fun” of sports involves insulting other people.  Likewise, I’ve never understood why some fans are jerks to visiting fans.  I’ve never understood why fans attack rival fans in parking lots.  As a Patriots fans, I was once angered to see fellow New England fans tossing snow (and ice) balls at Jets fans during a snow game I attended in Foxboro.  I’m unable to comprehend how that attitude is created, where it comes from.  What, some people can’t watch a game without trying to hurt someone else — typically whom they don’t know — either with words or fists (or hurled objects)?  What does that say about those folks’ upbringing?

Third, I sure as hell don’t understand fans who take to social media to send nasty comments and messages to athletes or coaches.  If given the chance to spew such garbage in a face-to-face manner, the cowards on Twitter would more likely wet their pants than verbally abuse a coach or player.

And all that brings us to a recent Twitter exchange between a Tennessee fan and a Vanderbilt assistant football coach.  The Vol fan — someone named Julian Bucio — tweeted to Commodore O-line coach Herb Hand the following (edited) message:

“@CoachHand dude I think your wife is f****** someone while you coach your pathetic football team #Slut”

Now that’s class.  That’s someone I’d want to hire to work for my business.  That’s someone I’d want dating my sister, daughter or friend.

Wisely, Hand took the matter to the next level and guaranteed that the over-the-top tweet from a UT fan was seen by people far and wide.  Hand retweeted the message to Volunteers head coach Butch Jones.  Brilliant.  And he included this message:

“Here is what one of your fans sent me on Twitter today about Deb.  Just thought you’d like to know.  If any of our fans were to say something like this about Barb, please let me know so I can personally whip their ass.”

Boom.  Outta the park.

Why?

Hand has taken one rube’s tweet, turned it around, and made it a positive recruiting tool for Vanderbilt.  Now, will anyone be swayed to sign with VU over UT — or vice versa — because of a few tweets?  One would hope not (though coaches sure as heck try to use Twitter to recruit, don’t they).  But every program has an image.  Small things help to build up or tear down that image.  And for one day at least, UT’s image has been slightly tarnished by one of its own fans.

Who comes across with more class?  Hand or the fan?  Naturally, then, it looks like the Vol fanbase is made up of juvenile punks while VU’s coaching staff features men willing to try and hush such nonsense in his own ranks.  We live in a world where everything is oversimplified — e.g.: Twitter = 140 characters — so if Harvey Updyke poisons a tree, Alabama fans are all viewed as being nuts.  If a Tennessee fan says nasty things about a coach’s wife, all Tennessee fans will be viewed as classless.

Jones hasn’t yet responded to Hand’s tweet, but Bucio responded by mocking the coach for responding to him.  (Personally, this is a favorite cowardly out of mine.  Someone writes something insulting to me, I insult them back, and then I’m called thin-skinned for not taking a goofball’s insult like I should.  So the obnoxious person holds the upper hand while the public figure has his hands tied?  I think not.)

Bucio also claimed via Twitter that Vandy fans have tweeted him “physical threats,” as if anyone cares.  Dumb fans tweet dumb things to other dumb fans all the time.  A few dumb fans also tweet ugly, dumb things to coaches and players.  But rarely is a coach wise enough — or calm enough — to simply expose the initial tweeter as a no-class buffoon as Hand did by re-tweeting Bucio’s message straight to Tennessee’s head coach.

Read the rest of this entry »

Offense or defense?

Running or passing?

We wanted to know which statistics provided a more accurate gauge of overall success during the 2012 SEC football season.  When talking about the SEC, defense is usually the first word out of the mouth of any coach, fan or pundit.  Should it be?

In an effort to find out, we took six key (but simple) statistics from last season and compared them to the win/loss records of each of the 14 SEC schools..  We used only stats from conference games (SEC versus SEC) and we’ve compared only last season’s conference records.  Last year’s SEC title game was not included in our study.

In this piece, we’ll look at the defensive side of the ball.  Below you will find last year’s SEC teams ranked according to their opponents’ yards-per-carry average:

2012 SEC Rushing Defense / Opponents’ Yards-Per-Carry

Observations

*  Just as pass defense meant a little bit more than pass offense, rushing defense means a bit more in SEC play than rushing offense.  Teams that held their opponents to under four yards per rush attempt totaled 44 wins against just 20 losses in SEC play last year.  Teams that allowed more than four yards per carry finished a combined 12-36 in the league.

*  Again, there were some exceptions to the rule, but there were fewer of them.  Arkansas and Ole Miss stand out among the teams near the top of the chart, but those two squads led the league in giveaways last season, undermining their ability to stop their foes’ ground games.  Vanderbilt was lone winning team ranked in the bottom six of this category, but four of their five league wins came against other teams that allowed more than four yards per carry.

*  Simply put, running the ball effectively helps, but stopping opposing teams from running effectively is much more important when it comes to winning football games in the SEC.

*  To compare these numbers to SEC squads’ rushing ability last season, click here to find our breakdown of teams’ in the offensive yards-per-carry category.  Also, check out our pass game comparisons by clicking here to see yards-per-attempt data and by clicking here to see opponents’ yards-per-attempt data.

Offense or defense?

Running or passing?

We wanted to know which statistics provided a more accurate gauge of overall success during the 2012 SEC football season.  When talking about the SEC, defense is usually the first word out of the mouth of any coach, fan or pundit.  Should it be?

In an effort to find out, we took six key (but simple) statistics from last season and compared them to the win/loss records of each of the 14 SEC schools.  We used only stats from conference games (SEC versus SEC) and we’ve compared only last season’s conference records.  Last year’s SEC title game was not included in our study.

In this piece, we’ll focus on the offensive side of the ball.  Below you will find last year’s SEC teams ranked according to their yards-per-carry average:

2012 SEC Rushing Offense / Yards-Per-Carry

Observations:

*  Four of the top five teams in the yards-per-carry category — Alabama, Texas A&M, Georgia and Florida — finished with six or more SEC wins last season.  But Tennessee ranked fourth in this statistic and still managed just one league win in 2012.

*  Tennessee was hardly the only team that was “out of place” record-wise when it came to this stat.  Arkansas (2-6) and Kentucky (0-8) ran the ball more effectively than LSU (6-2) and South Carolina (6-2).  The Gamecocks also ranked behind Mississippi State (4-4) and Missouri (2-6).  Vanderbilt finished with a winning record in the conference yet the Commodores averaged more yards per carry than only Ole Miss and Auburn.

*  Long-time football fans will tell you that you have to play good defense and run the football to win ballgames in the SEC.  But running the ball effectively — and we’ve seen this hold true in recent seasons — isn’t as important as it used to be.  Yes it’s darn helpful to be able to wear down a defense with a punishing ground game.  It’s a plus to be able to grind out the last few minutes of clock when leading, too.  But there is not longer a clear correlation between yards-per-carry and wins.

*  Some might be wondering if straight rushing yards would be a better indicator of league success and the answer is yes.  In terms of overall rushing yards per game in SEC contests last year, every team with a winning league record (Alabama, Texas A&M, Georgia, Florida, LSU, Vanderbilt and South Carolina) finished in the top eight of the conference in total rushing yards.  Only Tennessee snuck into the top eight with a losing record.  But those seven schools with winning SEC marks also ranked among the top eight in rushing attempts in SEC games.  That was to be expected.  Teams with leads try to milk clock by running the football (as noted above).  So it can be said that winning teams run the ball more often — possibly/probably because they’re playing with late-game leads — but it can’t be said that winning teams the ball more effectively (yards-per-carry average).

*  To see the importance of rushing defense, click here for a breakdown of opponents’ yards-per-carry averages.  We have also broken down some numbers for passing offense and defense from last year’s SEC action.  For those results, click here for yards-per-attempt and click here for opponents’ yards-per-attempt.

New Alabama athletic director Bill Battle will be attending his first SEC meetings in Destin next week.  When it comes to potential discussion topics, Battle is already excited by one — the SEC Network:

“The potential there is great.  It’s premature to really know or to think about how much it really is, or to have a feel for what it is.  I know the goals are aggressive.  ESPN and the Southeastern Conference form a formidable partnership so the expectations and the goals are high and aggressive, but we’re 16 months out.  We’re a long way from launch, but it’s pretty exciting to think about…

They are working with each individual institution on their production, and they said, ‘If you produce it, we’ll air it.”  So that’s an interesting concept.  They are pretty bullish on what they think they might be able to do in the 11-state SEC footprint, and they believe there’s a market outside of the footprint.”

“Aggressive.”  “Pretty bullish.”

Those words seem to back up what we wrote earlier this month when AT&T U-verse was announced as the SEC Network’s lone cable or satellite partner at roll-out — it’s going to be an expensive channel for providers.  That or ESPN and the SEC are indeed trying to force their channel onto providers’ basic tier of channels within the SEC footprint.  Or both… it’s expensive and they want it on the basic tier.

Either way, with the words “aggressive” and “pretty bullish” being kicked around, it’s likely the fight to get the SEC Network carried by the big providers — Comcast, Time Warner, DirecTV, etc — will be a rough one.

Be prepared.

Now here’s a good way to kick off the morning.  Thanks, MrSEC.com iPod.

Love the guitars in this one… and a Peter Criss drum solo to boot.  The lyrics?  Uh, deep as usual for a Kiss song.

“She thought she knew me, but she didn’t know that I was sad and wanted her to go.”

For the past year, members of the ACC have been living on edge.  It’s been the conference voted “Most Likely To Be Raided By Other Leagues.”  Money issues have been at the heart of the problem.  As in: The ACC and its schools don’t make as much money as the other four major conferences.

Before shocking the world with an out-of-left-field grant of rights deal a few weeks ago, ACC commissioner John Swofford had to make a near perfect sales pitch to league members like Florida State.  He did and all the conference’s schools signed on the dotted line.

Immediately, ACC fans (and some of us in the media) jumped to an awfully big conclusion — that the league would soon push forward a new ACC Network with ESPN.  ESPN had already stepped in to offer a bit more cash to the conference long-term in order to fend off further conference realignment, but an additional network was seen as the league’s best chance to close the financial gap on rival conferences.

However, The SportsBusiness Journal reports today that the ACC has not bought back the media rights it’s already sold off to Raycom and Fox Sports Net.  Those rights agreements run through 2027 and unless the ACC buys them back and turns them over to ESPN, there will be no new ACC Network.

This isn’t an oversight by the ACC, mind you.  Everyone involved had to know that without those rights, no channel would be possible.  Also, ESPN agreed to discuss the possibility of creating a network.  It did not agree to actually launch such a network.

For that reason, the topic of a network was not a hot one at last week’s ACC meetings.

If no new network launches, ESPN has agreed to kick in enough money to get ACC schools into the $20 million range annually.  At MrSEC.com, we’ve reported since last December that industry and SEC sources have told us that schools in Mike Slive’s conference could be making $30-35 million annually within a year or two of the launch of an SEC Network.

That network is already a done deal, thanks to a long-term agreement with ESPN.  And before reaching that agreement, the SEC bought back all of its media rights — television and digital — in order to turn them over to ESPN for use with the network.

While the ACC’s membership is clearly in favor of sticking together — they wouldn’t have signed a binding grant of rights deal otherwise — the main problem for the league has a growing cash gap.  Without an ACC Network, that will continue to be an issue for the schools in Swofford’s league moving forward.

Does this re-open Pandora’s Box when it comes to conference realignment?  No.  But it will probably give a lot of people reason enough to start writing about expansion again.  We’re heading into the blah days of summer after all.