Art Sandusky

Another year, another +/- #15 preseason ranking for Tennessee. I like that though. Expectations are there, but not massive like a USC or Texas, perennial preseason Top Five teams. All I want is an SEC title. Nine years is an eternity in Big Orange country. EDIT: After looking over last season's results in detail, I'm going to go ahead and say that the Vols take the SEC East. The loss of Erik Ainge early in the LSU game was massive, because Tennessee couldn't run last year to save their lives. When we remember that power football is at least the majority of our playing style this year, losing Erik Ainge, MVP of the Knoxville healthcare system, won't be such a huge deal. As an added bonus, he'll be a senior this year and among the top ten quarterbacks in the country. A very real blend of making short yards and downfield bombs make Tennessee scary. On defense, we're gravy in the right circumstances, only pretty good in the worst. The days of nasty Volunteer D-lines are gone, but they're good enough for SEC work. The secondary is young, but has potential and the returning senior lead tackler as one of the starting corners. The good stuff is in the linebacking corps. If everyone stays healthy, we might go to a 3-4 just to put that versatility to work. There's three year experience in at least one starting player in each phase. Yes, the East. I'm convinced. I won't say the whole conference until after a few games have actually been played and the West just beats each other up.

17-20 going into this season?!?! Yikes. I'mma fix that.

This is great. I want to beat the fuck out of Mecca. Week 10, Agent.

http://forums.thesmartmarks.com/index.php?...t&p=2480841 (whistles innocently)

Yup, another exciting year of ACC football! Nothin' but love.

They'd be white if they were visiting. The only way they'd get the home jersey is if they ever go to the Humanitaraian/mpc.com/whatever the fuck Bowl. Just saying. It's silly to dismiss a school based on their home turf.

Iowa State to the Big Ten, Boise to the Big XII. No one could possibly disapprove of that.

I'd rather see new schools in major conferences than one switching over to another. Grab the best MAC school for the Big Ten or something, let a new institution into the club and spread the wealth of those massive TV contracts. Let's say Iowa State or Missouri is moved over to the Big Ten, there's no sense of promotion or freshness about it, not to mention they were already receiving some decent bank as a member of the Big XII.

A few of the preseason rags have South Carolina at least 2nd in the SEC East. Florida's 1st on the regular, and of the two remaining contenders, Georgia is 3rd more often than not. This means Tennessee is 4th an absurd number of times. Spurrier marks, I swear. I expect the West to provide a more exciting season, because I can't predict them at all. Auburn, LSU, Arkansas, and Alabama are all going to scrap and produce a weak (meaning two losses in this conference) division winner. I'll go ahead and pick Auburn, because they lost fewer super key guys going into this season. LSU and Arkansas are a pick'em to me, and it'll take at least one season for Nick Saban's influence in Alabama to show up. As for the East, one of their four contenders is going to just stomp the shit out of everyone and dominate on the way to the conference title game. It feels like time for one of those plodding unstoppable Georgia seasons. Florida will lose to both Georgia and Tennessee. South Carolina remains the Paris Hilton of the SEC by way of doing absolutely nothing but attracting press anyway. As far as the national game, the SEC won't produce a BCS Championship participant, unless another team goes bonkers and undefeated out of nowhere like Alabama in 2005 and Arkansas in 2006 and manages to hold that momentum all season. The country is ready to move on beyond the whole SEC NUMBAH WON argument now that it's been confirmed. We'll get a title game with teams from conferences I can't care about, like the Big Ten and Big XII. I'd mark for a Louisville/West Virginia/Rutgers appearance in the national title game.

Okay, make it The ConEd Blackout Bowl.

I'll be a college football thread-exclusive poster, but yeah. Did I mention how I'm going to walk all over everyone this year? If I didn't, I'm going to walk all over everyone this year.

The new bowl name for the lowliest of postseason contests will be the Mercedes-Benz Hoity Toity Toilet Bowl.

I can't really add anything that people haven't already said, but I really, really hope that this ends up with the best possible timeline of events, that being Benoit avenging his child. I honestly will have trouble watching a Benoit match if it turns out this is all his doing. Sadly, it appears to be so. The suicide note will probably answer most, if not all, of our questions whenever its content is released. All I know myself is that this news continues to sock me in the gut with each new bit of information. The best for the surviving members of the Benoit family, especially his other children who must now live with this cloud over them. Our loss as wrestling fans even in light of the man's love for the business is absolutely squadush compared to theirs regardless of the circumstances. Back to only reading this place.

The end is nigh. I'm outta here, for all intensive purposes. Moving means TSM retirement for me. You know, internet retirement, where I pop up unexpectedly. Downhome being made a moderator had nothing to do with this. Okay, maybe it's 40% of the decision. I could make an effort to not disappear, but would you feel rushed to dwell in the garden of Dr. Phil?

I don't mean that, I mean how are you doing? I care about my internet people.

Oh yeah, I'm still sitting here for a minute, so I'm not gone yet. How's everyone doing?

But I know Downhome draws, so I used him to get people to check out my retirement thread. I'm a jealous beast.

B@RTOK is my official successor.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/05/13/fa...k.ap/index.html

When Orton's fucked up more times (and in more costly ways) than RVD and is still allowed to hover around the main event, then yes, we can blame Vince.

SUPPORT THE TROOPS!

That's quite enough of that.

I could name myself First Name Last Name, it'd take just as much thought.

You'd also live in the same country as Vanhalen. The blessings queue keeps piling up.

No, it was meant to zing Czech. Thanks for ruining it.