Three cheers for Schembechler Hall, who is hosting the Blogpoll Spring Practice roundtable. My response:

1. It’s early, but thus far, which offseason change or changes in college football are you most excited about?

This would have to be the continued, exponential growth in the number, quality, and recognition of college football bloggers. Behind the Four Horsemen — EDSBS, mgoblog, Blue-Gray Sky, and Burnt Orange Nation — a growing deployment of footsoldier sports bloggers are storming the subscription walls of the mainstream sports media. Call it an Army of Rudys. (FN: What in the world is the plural of Rudy?)

The onslaught continues. Just look at what’s happened in the past several months. Yahoo Sports published an article based on BGS’ statistical analysis of coaches’ voting trends. Colin Cowherd of ESPN Radio squished it into the tread of his sneakers by first ripping off a parody of the Wonderlic Test then berating M Zone Blog, who wrote the thing, for complaining before finally coming around (meaning ESPN lawyers forcing him) and apologizing on air. (The day he gave credit, M Zone Blog received over 40,000 visits.) Our college football blogger brethren rushed to the defense of blogger Warren St. John whose best-selling book Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer has elevated him to the lofty status of Target-for-Frivolous-Lawsuits. College sports bloggers are banding together, grasping tattered copies of the Blog-ifesto in their hot little hands.

Whether the mainstream sports media subscription walls will come crumbling down, whether the challengers will end up banding together (under the banner of SB Nation?) to form another Jericho, or whether the whole thing will self-assemble into something heretofore unseen remains unclear. Whatever happens, a sea change is underway. It will only continue to swell this fall.

2. With spring practice underway, what are the three concerns about your team that are causing you the most anxiety? (USC fans can’t just list the departures of Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart, and LenDale White.)

Offense. Defense. Special Teams. Hey, we had a 5-6 season last year, what do you want?

Offense. It’s the Reanimation of Erik Ainge Project. Is there life after Death Valley? Nobody knows. Plus, our top three tailbacks — Arian Foster, Montario Hardesty, and LaMarcus Coker — are all hurt and will miss most of spring practice. Most of our o-line is gone. And the receivers, ugh. I watched part of the LSU game again the other day and literally cringed every time Bob Davie responded to one of our receivers dropping an easy catch by saying that this group of receivers is one of the most talented in the nation. What he meant was that they were tall, muscular, and fast. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get open or catch a football, which you would think would be an essential function of the job.

Defense. Jesse Mahelona, gone. Parys Haralson, gone. Jason Hall, gone. 3/4 of the defensive line, poof. Linebackers Kevin Simon, Omar Gaither, Jason Mitchell, gone, gone, gone. Jason Allen, gone. The rest of the secondary? Well, they did get some experience last year. That may help. A little.

Special Teams. Place kicker James Wilhoit is back, which is good. I guess. I can’t for the life of me recall any memory of him last year. Nothing since seeing him sprinting around Neyland Stadium yelling his head off after kicking the game winner against Florida. Two years ago. Last year, there was the issue of a bad ankle. Better now. Okay, good. And his holder will be back. Also good. New long-snapper, though. Potentially not good.

BUT, things are looking up. Manning Manufacturer David Cutcliffe is back, and thanks to last year’s season-long heartbreak, the players are listening to the new coach. They’re learning to practice. Fast break football, they’re calling it. A tongue-lashing awaits if you run to the next practice drill station but walk the last two steps. Make that two tongue lashings — one for each step. Receivers are being punished for dropping passes, and they must catch 100 balls before they can go home. Linemen are losing weight. Coach Fulmer, he of the pinched grin and hand-clapping after every mistake, is warming up to insulting his players on a regular basis. Things are looking dire, and that’s exactly why things are looking up.

3. Care to take a stab at a preseason top five?.

1. Definitely not Tennessee.
2. Still not Tennessee.
3. Nope.
4. Keep going.
5. Hmmm. Maybe Texas. Or Ohio State. Florida? LSU? Florida State? But not Tennessee.

And now I leave you with a Spring Practice Haiku:

Today is the first of the last six days of spring practice for the Tennessee Volunteer football team. They’ll practice today, this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and next Tuesday and Thursday before concluding the spring season with the Orange and White Game next Saturday, April 8, 2006.

A response to fellow BlogPoller Schembechlerhall.com’s roundtable coming soon.

Some excellent advice from Dawg Sports on the dangers of football fandom and syndicated t.v. shows.

Scout.com’s Randy Moore draws a parallel between Tennessee’s loss to the LSU Tigers back in January and Duke’s loss to them last night. Moore observed that LSU head coach John Brady used the same blueprint for each game: shut down the three-point specialist with 6′ 5″ defensive guru Garrett Temple. Tennessee’s Chris Lofton shot 1 of 7 against LSU for a whopping 2 points. Last night, LSU held Golden-Boy-Scoring-Machine J.J. Redick to 3 of 18 and a season low of 11 points.

Pretty impressive coaching and defensive execution.

West Virginia’s Kevin Pittsnogle should have played for Gonzaga.

Say it with me:

Gonzaga’s Pittsnogle shoots!

Gonzaga’s Pittsnogle scores!

Gonzaga’s Pittsnogle! Gonzaga’s Pittsnogle! Gonzaga’s Pittsnogle!

Double bummer.

Not just one, but both of my TiVos missed the Volunteer basketball game yesterday. The one set up to auto-record a Wishlist with the keywords TENNESSEE and BASKETBALL didn’t catch the game at all. A result of late-arriving program information, I’m guessing.

I manually set the other one to record the program that was identified as “NCAA Basketball — Tennessee v. Witchita State” and set it to record an hour and a half longer than programmed, which is what saved me from missing Lofton’s last second heroics against Winthrop.

I even made it through church and got all the way home without hearing the score or the result. Unfortunately, the second TiVo recorded almost three hours of programming information — brackets showing game times and channels. “The Tennessee-Witchita State game is on channel 700 and something.” Well, thank you. Do something about it. I had recorded almost three hours of the television mocking me that I was on the wrong channel.

No problem, I thought. I’ll go to NCAAsports.com and catch the archived game there. Blacked out. “This game is available on your local CBS affiliate.” No kidding. Thanks for the info.

Well, how about iTunes? They only have about 9 minutes of each game available, but it’s something. However, only Round 1 games were available last night.

So I just went ahead and looked at the score.

Oops. What happened? Don’t ask me and don’t ask my TiVos — they’ll just tell you what channel it was on.

Fortunately, TennVolChamp was back in the saddle after an extended absence, and just in time. If you missed the game, too, go check out his take. Sounds like we played well until the end. Sort of like the season?

So now we’re down to a week of moaning about the loss, though it really shouldn’t be that way. Unlike football season, basketball season almost invariably ends with a loss, and if it doesn’t, you’re either not in post-season play (bad) or you’re the national champion (good). There’s a lot of good middle ground there.

So after that, we have another week or two of spring football practice and the orange and white game and then the deep black hole of collegiate sports known as summer.

Time for college sports bloggers to tweak sites and rest up a bit before doing it all again next year.

ESPN.com has a nice feature on today’s matchup between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Witchita State Shockers. Excerpt:

This is the matchup Wichita State wanted. This is the No. 2 seed that the Shockers, like almost every other mid-major in this position, coveted.

Tennessee, an abused No. 2, has looked a bit fatigued. The Vols limped into the NCAA Tournament not playing like the SEC East champ but rather more like a team that had run out of gas, losing four of their final six games. Then, the Vols almost played right into the upset-minded bracketologists hands by nearly losing to 15-seed Winthrop on Thursday before Chris Lofton saved the postseason with a corner jumper with 0.4 seconds left.

Read the whole thing.

Witchita State’s official site is here.

It was a recipe for disaster. A sports conspiracy-theorist’s worst fear. The work of a diabolical mastermind bent on televising an upset of an over-seeded, over-confident team on a losing streak by an under-seeded, no-name school whose time had come.

Too bad Chris Lofton hadn’t read the script.

The game had turned into a defensive struggle, and the drama was building as planned. Senior and team leader C.J. Watson was sitting out extended minutes with four fouls. Coach Bruce Pearl’s spread motion offense wasn’t producing any open looks. Every time that Lofton, the team’s biggest scoring threat, tried to rub a defender off of a screen, he found himself sandwiched between two defenders instead.

With 5:00 minutes left to play and the score tied at 58, Watson finally re-entered the game. Tennessee hit a two, Winthrop hit a three. The teams traded missed opportunities, fouls, and turnovers.

With the game tied at 61 and 21 seconds remaining, Watson scambled around the perimeter awhile before stopping and popping at the top of the key. The shot was too strong, and the long rebound was grasped by six hands: Lofton’s and those of two opponents. Nobody really won this battle, but Lofton at least succeeded in pushing the ball away from the crowd, and Bradshaw ran down and secured the loose ball. Pearl called time out with 2.9 seconds left and possession of the ball.

Pearl made up a play on the spot and diagrammed it for the players. Wingate would later admit some serious confusion. “I didn’t know what was going on,” he said after the game. “Coach Pearl drew up three different diagrams and told me to go some place.” Controlled chaos without the control.

Anyway, Bradshaw positioned himself courtside to inbound the ball. Wingate decided to stand at the near post. Lofton stood at the far post, Patterson was at the top of the key, and Watson was at mid-court. The whistle blew, and all of the players moved at once.

Lofton darted to the free throw line to set a pick for Patterson, who used Lofton to scrape off his defender and headed toward the basket on the far side of the court. For a split second, Patterson was open for a lob next to the basket, but Bradshaw did not see him until Patterson’s defender caught up with him.

Meanwhile, Wingate slid toward the perimeter to set a screen for Lofton, who was continuing around the arc, his man absolutely glued to him and holding him the whole time. Lofton gained the slightest amount of separation from Wingate’s screen and raced toward the corner, looking over his right shoulder for the pass from Bradshaw. Bradshaw tossed the ball to Lofton, who awkwardly twisted and squared up to the basket in two steps. The second foot planted, he executed an amazing, high-arcing fade-away jumper over the outstretched arm of his defender.

Patterson thought it was long. Wingate thought it was short.

Lofton knew it was in.

Vols win, 63-61.

Coach Pearl began his post-game interview by ticking off a few of the more memorable finishes to games in this magical season: Lofton’s steal-and-heave to Bradshaw for a layup against Florida the first time, Bradshaw’s sweet steal-and-spin move to beat Florida the second time, and Lofton’s awkward twisting fade-away jumper with .4 seconds left for the first post-season win in what seems like forever.

Oh, and don’t forget these guys:

• Andre Patterson had a double double;
• Major Wingate will not have to be fed to his snakes after all, as he had one of the best games of his career, going five for eight from the field and five of six on free throws while blocking three shots. Plus, he played solid defense against Winthrop’s Craig Bradshaw, who was a handful all game.
• Jordan Howell, who played heavy and important minutes while C.J. Watson was on the bench with foul trouble.

Bob Kesling’s call of Chris Lofton’s game-winning shot.

Coach Pearl’s post-game interview, from UTSports.com.

Take a look at the picture of the shot just before Lofton lets it fly. Does it look like it has any chance of going in? Winthrop’s Torrell Martin, who defended Lofton on the play, didn’t think so. “It’s a one-in-a-million shot,” he said after the game. “It looked like the ball curved in.”

Well, today’s the day. Opening riff of the Big Dance.

The Tennessee Volunteers take on the Winthrop Eagles at 2:40 p.m. EST. Will it be the beginning of the reversal of fortunes, or will it be another double reverse?

For anyone interested, I’ve opened up the comments (meaning they’ll go live as soon as you leave them instead of being held for moderation) so you can discuss the game as it happens here. I’ll be working diligently at my desk, trusting my TiVo and avoiding the news as best I can until I can watch this evening. But feel free to congregate here for free.

By the way, placement firm Challenger, Gray, & Christmas estimates that March Madness will cost employers somewhere around $1.5 billion dollars in lost productivity this year. Wow.

ESPN’s Pat Forde breaks down each team’s best and worst case scenarios. Here’s Tennessee’s:

Best case: Pearl Ball again wreaks March havoc, as the rejuvenated Volunteers charge into a regional final matchup with UConn. It ends there, with Pearl wearing an orange seersucker suit and a straw hat on the sidelines, but nobody envisioned Tennessee getting this far before the season began.

Worst case: Pearl Ball continues its late-season stall, as the inexperienced Vols are taken down by tournament-tested, underseeded Winthrop in the first round. Big Orange fans go back to forgetting they have a men’s basketball team and return to obsessing about who’s playing quarterback.

Read the whole thing. It’s great.