By
Brian Harbach
The SEC Bachstory will be a weekly SEC recap of all the big events from the previous weekend. This will be posted every Monday morning so look for it every week. In order to eliminate all confusion, the Bach in Bachstory is pronounced like back (Back to the Future, The Empire Strikes Back, Back in Black), you get the picture.
The first week of practice is complete at most schools and with all the excitement of a new season on the horizon, the darkness of the injury bug has begun to creep up for some teams. Unhappy coaches, injured starters and destruction of hospital property is all part of this week’s SEC Bachstory. As usual the format is the same with one minor change; please feel free to send any comments and suggestions. Here we go…
The Weekend That Was
The pads were back and teams are getting the ball rolling on their pre-season preparations. Some teams scrimmaged, other teams just had their normal practices, but every fan now feels that the long wait for college football is over. Each passing day and weekend brings us closer to the Thursday night game when the South Carolina Gamecocks open up the SEC season. This was a great weekend for fans and it is even better now that it is over.
The Weekend That Wasn’t
If there is one thing that every fan worries about going into two a days it is the possibility of players getting seriously hurt. Through the first week of practice there have been two casualties with starting players, Aairon Savage of Auburn and Cornelius Ingram of Florida. Injuries are part of the game and it is more frustrating for a player who is a senior like Ingram who decided to turn down a chance at the NFL to come back for his senior year.
The positive that comes from this are the players who now have to play and pick up the slack for the lost starter. Auburn will look to Walter McFadden to fill the void that Savage left, but a number of true freshmen will be fighting him for playing time in the Tiger secondary. The Gators next man on the depth chart is sophomore Aaron Hernandez, a pretty talented kid coming out of high school who should get an opportunity to show the Gator nation what the future of the position will look like.
The Weekend That… What the Heck
Steve Spurrier ended one of the South Carolina Gamecocks practices early this week because players were laughing after Eric Norwood hit receiver Moe Brown in a drill. Spurrier felt his players needed to learn that they lose as a team and win as a team. There is not a sport out there that relies more on the team aspect than football and it sounds like South Carolina has some team issues. This is already a bad sign for a team that fell apart last year and has a long ways to go to before competing in the SEC East.
There have been fan and media rumors, nothing substantial, that Spurrier may be coaching his last season in Columbia even though he has denied it all summer long. This is not a good start to 2 a days for South Carolina, while it could be a motivational ploy to get his players to focus; it looks more like frustration. For a team that struggled last year and showed very little heart after players got hurt, this is not a good sign for the Gamecocks going into 2008.
The Weekend That Will Be
The AP Poll is scheduled to be released this weekend and while it has nothing to do with the actual national championship and BCS, it is an interesting view of the season. The nice thing about the AP poll is that voters are accountable even if the only reason is because we can see their votes. Each week the AP poll results are posted so that their bias’ can be seen and of course you can email every writer who does not share the opinion of the masses.
This is reason enough for writers not to put their email addresses at the end of columns, but as mentioned above, it does cause for some accountability. While coaches look to help themselves with their votes or their sports information directors look to help the coaches; the AP poll means nothing towards choosing a champion. Since it means nothing, we can think that there is no need to show a bias and maybe it is the best poll we have because it is meaningless.
It may mean something to that Georgia fan who will inevitably be upset when Kirk Herbstreit votes Ohio State ahead of UGA (you know its going to happen). Keep in mind it is before the season has started and Michigan was a top 5 team this time last year. Before you waste all your good emails on writers you hate, stop, think and save it for November.
Big Man on Campus (BMOC)
Mike Hartline, Kentucky
No position is more scrutinized and revered than a starting Quarterback; Mike Hartline is now the starting quarterback for the Kentucky Wildcats after Curtis Pulley was dismissed from the team early last week. Hartline was competing against Pulley for the starting job before Rich Brooks sent Pulley packing. Congrats to Mike Hartline, the new starting quarterback for your Kentucky Wildcats.
Player Now Doing Charlie Work (PNDCW)
As a note to those who do not know what “Charlie-Work” is, do yourself a favor and start watching It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (the episode called “Dennis and Dee go on Welfare” explains it perfectly).
This weeks PNDCW is Darius Dewberry from UGA. Dewberry was yet another Bulldog suspended for the first two games of the season when he was seen on a video tape breaking 4 potted plants and damaging a parking lot control arm at a local hospital. Dewberry was upset after another player was hurt during a fight in an Athens bar and took out his frustration on the parking lot. UGA has moved to their second hand in order to count the number of players suspended for the opener or kicked off the team. Hopefully this behavior will curtail once the season starts or it will not be the last time a Georgia player will be punished by doing Charlie Work.
Soon to be seen on Sundays
Michael Oher, Offensive Tackle (Ole Miss)
The most NFL ready player in the SEC right now is Ole Miss’ Michael Oher, a stud Left tackle with a 6’5’’, 320 LB frame. Oher thought about coming out early last year, but made the smart decision to come back for his senior year where he will be the focal point of a likely great running offense in Oxford. A likely All-American, Oher will have the opportunity to lead an offense that will run, run and run some more. He is without a doubt a top 5 player in the 2009 NFL draft and the most pro ready player in the SEC. You will see him on Sundays very soon.
4 Downs with the SEC
First Down – Lack of Quarterbacks in the SEC
Making a list of the top 5 quarterbacks in the SEC right now is a daunting task, there are two obvious players and after that there is nothing of substance. It was a serious consideration to put Ryan Mallett as the #3 ranked QB in the league because the rest of the starters are just not great.
There is a lot of young talent at the quarterback position and there are 4 quarterback battles going on around the league, but based on past years SEC QB talent the skill level is seriously down. The blame could be put on the spread offense which looks more for an athlete than a true pocket passer. The best QB in the league runs the spread and already people have raised questions about his ability to play QB in the NFL.
At the end of the season the tune may have changed on the SEC’s quarterbacks, young players like Jonathon Cromption, Kodi Burns, Stephen Garica and Jarrett Lee could be the future of the league, but right now the position is inconsistent to put it nicely.
Second Down – The Spread is the new West Coast
The West Coast offense seemed like the trendy choice in college football for a number of years, but now it has been replaced by the spread. Obviously Florida started the trend in the SEC by hiring Urban Meyer a couple years ago and now Auburn and Tennessee have moved in the same direction. According to new Auburn Offensive Coordinator Tony Franklin the spread is actually not an offense, it is a formation.
That makes a lot of sense when you think about West Virginia, Texas Tech and Oklahoma all running the Spread Offense and none of them looking the same. The spread formation allows playmakers to get into space to make plays more often because of how the defense is lined up. The success can be varied, but for big time programs with elite athletes it seems to work pretty well. Both Florida and Oklahoma have won conference championships with the spread and more teams seem to be adopting it to emulate those programs.
The spread will likely have the same amount of success that the West Coast did in college football and soon the West Coast will be as scarcely used as the option is now. It has become more and more difficult to find great quarterbacks at the college level and the spread allows a great athlete to touch the ball each play. The spread is here to stay in the SEC and we better get used to it.
Third Down – Closed Practices
Closed practices and scrimmages seem to be a common event in today’s college football. Paranoia and secrecy seem to rule the day with teams like Florida and Auburn closing some practices or scrimmages to the fans. Urban Meyer was seemingly unhappy with the distractions the open practices were causing for his players and closed them late last week.
Tommy Tuberville has always had open practices in the pre-season, but for this past Saturday’s scrimmage it was closed to the public. Auburn will go back to open practices this week, but the scrimmages will continue to be closed, it is still yet to be seen if Meyer will open up practice for the rest of two a days.
Fourth Down – Shout out to Rece Davis and Jesse Palmer
We can all argue the perceived bias that ESPN may or may not show to certain conferences and specific teams. As sad as this is, the 4 letter network cares more about ratings and viewers than it does about fair coverage. Game-Day is no longer about the best game of the week; it is about the best game in the best television market.
This is a challenge to Rece Davis and Jesse Palmer to represent your conference and start talking up the SEC when these long discussions about Ohio State and USC come up. Start challenging the “talent” about the weakness in other conferences and how teams may be overrated because of the league they are in.
Palmer has actually been pretty impressive as an analyst and it is encouraging that he may be the future of Game Day, but it is up to the SEC guys to make sure equal coverage is pushed and all teams are discussed. If ESPN gets rolling on the USC/Ohio State game like we all fear they might, the Brett Favre coverage could be put to shame.
Let me know what you think, E-mail
me Brian Harbach
The SEC Bachstory, August 3, 2008
Harbach's Top 5 SEC Offensive Players by Position, July 27, 2008
Harbach's Top 5 SEC Defensive Players by Position, July 27, 2008
Harbach's Top SEC Games, July 13, 2008
Championship Game Hurts SEC, July 6, 2008
Harbach's 2008 SEC Preview, June 30, 2008
Let's Get This Started, June 9, 2008
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