GoVolsXtra’s Dave Hooker displays his split personality and tells us both why the Tennessee Volunteer football team will right the ship in 2006 and why they won’t. And speaking of Dave, he returns to radio, filling the 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon slot on The Sports Animal. Good news, as he brings a bit more fun to the Knoxville airwaves.

John Pennington has some fun of his own and picks the out of conference match-ups he’d most like to see. I’m with John on the Ohio State home-and-home to share our “running through the T” one season and witness their “dotting of the i” the next. UT’s don’t-shoot-me-I’m-not-a-deer orange versus the other UT’s burnt orange would also be . . . orangey.

The season previews are coming in multiples now. College Football News publishes its preview of the Florida Gators, and Inside Tennessee’s Randy Moore draws on the past to predict the future, writing that Spurrier’s Gamecocks could very well hit the hat trick it barely missed last year and beat Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee. Moore also points out that when UT and California meet on September 2, UT will run basically the same offense it failed with last year, while California will run a different offense it won with last year. One of us is making a mistake. Maybe both.

Still having intermittent problems with the blog, both on my side and on my host’s side. Sneaking this in before the window of opportunity closes again.

1. Texas

2. Southern Cal

3. Penn State

4. West Virginia

5. Ohio State

6. Georgia

7. Louisiana State

8. TCU

9. Virginia Tech

10. Alabama

11. Oregon

12. UCLA

13. Notre Dame

14. Wisconsin

15. Auburn

16. Florida

17. Boston College

18. Miami

19. Texas Tech

20. Louisville

21. Florida State

22. Clemson

23. Oklahoma

24. Nebraska

25. California

As the bowl games draw near, here’s a list of BCS team blogs to help you keep up with the teams that are, you know, still playing football. Salty language warning for some of these.

Rose Bowl

USC Trojans

• Trojan Wire
• Heisman Pundit
• SC Football
• Inside USC
• Tribute to Troy
• Student Body Right
• Boi from Troy

Texas Longhorns

• Burnt Orange Nation
• Bevo Beat

Orange Bowl

Penn State

• 50-Yard Lion
• Nittany Blog
• Bleed Blue ‘n’ White

Florida State

Does anyone in Tallahassee blog?

Fiesta Bowl

Notre Dame

• Blue-Gray Sky
• Kanka Sports
• Kelly Green
• The Irish Brogue

Ohio State

• Buckeye Commentary
• Around the Oval
• Buckeye Sports Blitz
• Walking to the Shoe

Sugar Bowl

Georgia

• Georgia Sports Blog
• I’m a Realist
• Dawg News
• The Junkyard Blawg

West Virginia

• WV Law Dog Blog

1. Texas: UT gets nod over USC only because of USC’s would-be loss to Notre Dame
2. USC: Basically neck and neck with the Longhorns
3. Notre Dame: Two bad calls on final two plays cost them victory over USC
4. Georgia: SEC champ
5. LSU: SEC runner-up
6. Florida: Lost three games, but beat both SEC champ and ACC champ
7. Penn State: Only one loss, but docked for not having to play a championship game
8. Ohio State: Only losses to Texas and Penn State
9. Florida State: Yeah, four losses, but still champ of tough ACC conference
10. Virginia Tech: ACC runner-up
11. Georgia Tech: Four losses, but beat both Auburn and Miami
12. Auburn: Stumbled out of the gate and lost to SEC runner-up LSU, but beat SEC champ Georgia
13. Miami: Throttled ACC runner-up Virginia Tech
14. Alabama: Only losses to SEC runner-up LSU and number 12 Auburn
15. Oregon: Only one loss, but docked for relatively weak conference
16. West Virginia: Received a BCS berth while never cracking the top ten
17. Michigan: Beat Big 10 champ Penn State, but lost four games
18. UCLA
19. Clemson: Beat ACC champ FSU, but who didn’t?
20. South Carolina: Wins over Florida and Tennessee not as impressive in hindsight
21. TCU
22. Northwestern
23. Iowa
24. Iowa State
25. Louisville

Entering the home stretch:

The Trojans and the Longhorns remain Nos. 1 and 2, and Penn State, LSU, Virginia Tech, and Ohio State all move up one spot due to Miami falling from No. 3 to No. 9 after losing to Georgia Tech. Oregon jumped from No. 10 to No. 7 after clobbering Oregon State, and the Fighting Irish improved by one position. Auburn rounds out the top ten.

The Tennessee Volunteers round out the top 117, and some players are behaving badly.

Games remaining that either will or could impact the Race:

• Texas at Texas A&M, November 25, 2005 (12:00, ABC)
• UCLA (12) at USC (1), December 3, 2005 (4:30, ABC)

• Week Eleven
• Week Ten
• Week Nine
• Week Eight
• Week Seven
• Week Six
• Week Five
• Week Four
• Week Three
• Week Two
• Week One
• Preseason

Okay, so the season has lost some appeal. But there is the Tennessee-Vanderbilt game today, and a 22-year winning streak and a 16-year bowl game streak is on the line. And it’s Senior Day, so that’s a good reason to watch.

But usually at this time of the season, Vol fans are not only watching their team, they’re watching other teams and games that might impact where Tennessee goes bowling.

No such luck today, but there are still good college football games to watch:

• Ohio State at Michigan. 1:00 p.m., ABC. College Football News’ take on the game:
  

  As it’s supposed to be in a Midwestern-karma kind of way, this game could, again, be for a share for the Big Ten title. With a Penn State loss, the winner of this game picks up a share of the title. Ah, the more things change, the more they stay the same. The one key not mentioned is how QB Chad Henne handles the heat and the Ohio State defense. The Buckeyes will miss Donte Whitner at safety, but it won’t be enough to knock out the Buckeyes. Michigan has played well lately, but Ohio State is catching their stride on offense. And, that’s scary with a capital S-C-A-R-Y. It hasn’t happened lately on the road in this rivalry, but the Buckeyes will party like it’s 2001. Ohio State – 29 vs. Michigan – 26

  Get the fans’ perspective from Michigan blogger mgoblog and Ohio State blogger Around the Oval.

• Alabama at Auburn. 3:30 p.m., CBS. College Football News’ take:
  

  Could you make an argument for Auburn as the best team in the SEC? They ‘booted’ every opportunity imaginable at Baton Rouge, but arguably outplayed LSU on their turf. They manhandled a dysfunctional South Carolina team (at the time that is). They beat Georgia and outplayed them for the most part in every facet of the game. But, all that being said, it’s all moot if they don’t keep that level of intensity against Alabama. Not intensity from a “get-ready-to-play-your-rival intensity”, but a focus on offense that has helped get them to this point. This is the perfect position for Alabama – underdog, no one giving them a chance, seeking revenge for last year’s tough loss at home. However, Bama may have run out of juice after the crushing loss to LSU. War Eagle, one more time. Auburn – 21 vs. Alabama – 17

John Pennington has examined teams’ perceived recruiting successes in the past few years and compared them with those teams’ current rankings.

Here are Pennington’s top ten recruiters over the last five years and their current BCS rank:

1. Southern Cal: #2 in BCS
2. Michigan: #25 in BCS
3. LSU: #8 in BCS
4. Oklahoma: NR in BCS
5. Florida State: #10 in BCS
6. Miami: #7 in BCS
7. Tennessee: NR in BCS
8. Texas: #1 in BCS
9. Florida: #19 in BCS
10. Ohio State: #13 in BCS

Pennington’s info is much more exhaustive than the above list. His data brings to light several interesting facts. On one hand, the current top two BCS teams — Southern Cal and Texas — have excelled in recruiting, so that would suggest that there is a positive correlation between recruiting success and winning games.

On the other hand, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Tennessee have recruited well, and have been terrible disappointments so far this season. Plus, some of the other data shows the vast disparity between the current success of teams that have enjoyed about equal recruiting success.

My take is that we fans too often fall victim to the old necessary-sufficient fallacy. In order to win regularly, a school must have a certain level of success in luring top players to the team, but simply having good players is not enough. There are just too many other factors that come into play.

Pete Fiutak’s Cavalcade of Whimsy this week includes this great bit:

The Yosemite Sam Award that goes to the man who was able to yell the loudest and get the angriest without cursing goes to Michigan State head coach John L. Smith. His halftime rant to/at ABC’s Jack Arute about the blocked field goal that went for an Ohio State touchdown would’ve been the most memorable moment of the season if it didn’t fall on the same day as that USC - Notre Dame thing. Only Kennedy and Khrushchev during the Cuban missile crisis had their fingers closer to the button than the ABC censor did last Saturday.

Hear it for yourself:

John Pennington’s random thoughts for the day:

• Is there a happy medium between a Johnny Majors-esque live-in-fear-for-your-job mentality with respect to assistant coaches and the Fulmer-ish we-are-all-a-family approach?
• Ohio State fans handle disappointment better than Tennessee fans.

OSU is a mirror of UT in almost EVERY way this season. But their fans packed the stadium and were IN the game from start to finish. Even when Michigan State was capitalizing on OSU special teams fumbles… the fans would immediately re-charge their batteries and begin screaming again with the ensuing kickoff.

That’s what Neyland Stadium USED to be. Personally, I think Vol fans grew spoiled during the Manning Era (and the immediate aftermath) and now they look at the game as they would a film or an opera. “Entertain me!” Sure that’s a fair assessment.

But Vol fans used to look at the games as THEIR chance to get involved. They seemed to believe that they were as important a part of a Vol victory as the team was. And that’s a far cry from, “Entertain me!”

• An outsider’s perspective on Neyland Stadium:

“The most uncomfortable stadium in America.” The seats are too small from side-to-side and there’s very little room front-to-back, either (according to [Pennington’s friend]). If you’re not driving your knees into someone’s back, then somebody else has theirs in yours.

• Volunteer bowl projections look disappointing.
• You know any Kentucky football coach has his work cut out for him when the local media has pre-game coverage of a basketball practice during football season.
• Calls to replace Randy Sanders with Trooper Taylor because Trooper offers a lot of excitement is like “choosing a doctor because he’s got good hair.”
• Gerald Riggs is “Cedric Houston Part 2.” Good, but not great.
• The guy who created firerandysanders.com (intentionally not a link) deserves the same treatment. Go read Pennington’s suggestions here.
• Tennessee might have been able to beat Alabama last week, but now that the Crimson Tide has had their wake-up call, it’s much more difficult to call.

Pennington, as always, is full of insight. Today’s blog is lengthy, but worth the read.

Something really struck me while I was writing this post.

WARNING! PREPARE YOURSELF FOR SHOCKING NEWS:

The Tennessee Volunteers are not dead yet. Okay, so maybe they’re mostly dead, but as Miracle Max said in The Princess Bride, “There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive.”

But before I get to that, here are the top ten horses after Week Six:

Okay, so here’s what happened this past weekend. Ohio State, who lost to Penn State, and Tennessee dropped out of the top ten, and Miami consequently moved up two spots to No. 6. California dropped out after losing to UCLA, and Alabama consequently moved up behind Miami. LSU found itself back in the hunt at No. 8, and newcomers Notre Dame and Penn State entered the race at Nos. 9 and 10 respectively.

Tennessee tumbled all the way to No. 18 after losing to the Georgia Bulldogs.

Not to say the drop is unjustified at all, but really, look at their schedule:

• Lost at Florida when the Gators were ranked No. 7.
• Won at LSU when the Tigers were ranked No. 4.
• Lost against Georgia when the Bulldogs were ranked No. 4.
• Scheduled to play Alabama (currently No. 7) next and Notre Dame (currently No. 9) later.

If (and yes, it’s a big if) the Volunteers can win against Alabama and Notre Dame, they will have won three of five games against top ten opponents. Is that really the end of the world as we know it? What if Notre Dame can upset USC this weekend at South Bend? (Okay, okay, I know. If they beat USC, we haven’t got a chance against them, but dream with me, won’t you?)

Yes, Tennessee’s two losses will have been against SEC East opponents Florida and Georgia and will have cost them any shot at an SEC or even an SEC East title. And because of that, they have no chance at the Rose Bowl. But they should still be able to get back into the top ten with quality wins against the Crimson Tide and the Irish.

Of course, with the way the Vols have been playing, predicting any win is a risky proposition, but the point remains:

The Volunteers are only mostly dead.

• Week Five
• Week Four
• Week Three
• Week Two
• Week One
• Preseason