ACE REPORTER: WEEK TWO OBSERVATIONS FROM AROUND THE SEC
Only two weeks into the season, the worst program in the SEC is 2-0, an elite team hasn’t won a game yet, four teams have quarterback concerns, and self-proclaimed mastermind [...]
View ArticleACE REPORTER: SEC NOTES; BROOKS WRONG TO SQUAWK ABOUT SIGN STEALING
First, let me say, I like Rich Brooks. I like talking to him. I like interviewing him. And I think, after a rough start, he’s done an outstanding job turning [...]
View ArticleACE REPORTER: FULMER HAS LOST HIS TOUCH AND OTHER SEC NOTES
If you’re a Tennessee fan, the numbers are numbing. In the Vols’ last 27 SEC games, they are 14-13. In their nine games against Top 10 opponents at Neyland Stadium [...]
View ArticleACE REPORTER: CBS’ DANIELSON SAYS BCS HAS HELPED SEC; OTHER NOTES
When CBS hired Gary Danielson three years ago to be its lead color analyst for SEC games, the former Big Ten quarterback said he sensed something about the conference. “The [...]
View ArticleACE REPORTER: SABAN IS GREAT AND OTHER SEC NOTES
Last month, I said Alabama coach Nick Saban was not yet a great coach. He had only two 10-win seasons in 12 years as a college coach. He won two [...]
View ArticleACE REPORTER: VANDY AND ROAD TEAMS… WINNING IN THE SEC
There were always two things you could count on in the SEC: Home teams winning and Vanderbilt losing.What’s the league coming to?SEC home teams are 3-8 thus far in league [...]
View ArticleACE REPORTER: THE BIG 12 PASSES THE SEC
Before this season, the question wasn’t: Which is the best football conference? The question was: Which is the second-best football conference? It was a given the SEC was No. 1....
View ArticleACE REPORTER: SEC NEWS, NOTES, AND WHAT’S WRONG WITH FLORIDA’S OFFENSE
The Trouble With Florida’s OffenseEven though Florida leads the SEC in scoring, the Gators’ offense has not been nearly as explosive as it was a year ago. Last season, coach [...]
View ArticleACE REPORTER: RESHUFFLING THE PRE-SEASON PICKS
We’re halfway through the season and the SEC – to no one’s surprise – has had its share of surprises. Did anyone really think Vanderbilt would start 5-0? Did you [...]
View ArticleACE REPORTER: THE MIGHTY MITES TAKE OVER
Dynamite comes in small packages. So do some of the most dynamic players in the SEC. In a game filled with giants, the little man – defined as 5-foot-9 or [...]
View ArticleACE REPORTER: THE SEC HAS THRIVED IN THE BCS ERA, BUT A PLUS-ONE IS STILL NEEDED
The Initial Bowl Championship Series standings were released Sunday. That’s about as thrilling as watching Mississippi State’s offense. I think back to what Alabama coach Nick...
View ArticleACE REPORTER: IT’S TOUGHER TO RUN IN THE SEC
Veterans of SEC warfare will tell you there are two staples to winning in this league: Defense and running the football. Defense is revered in the SEC. Running the ball [...]
View ArticleMrSEC’S WEEK NINE PREVIEW FROM THE ACE REPORTER
Here’s our Week Nine preview which, due to some scheduling problems, will have to be delivered in column form rather than the usual webcast form.Our apologies… and you can check [...]
View ArticleACE REPORTER: WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT…
Nine weeks into this season, who would have thought Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden would have eight more combined wins that Phillip Fulmer and Tommy Tuberville? Who would have thought [...]
View ArticleACE REPORTER: THRIVING AND STRUGGLING IN THE SEC
South Carolina’s Defense ThrivingStatistics often can be misleading. For example, Kentucky led the SEC in scoring defense until Florida got 63. Tennessee was averaging 221 rushing...
View ArticleACE REPORTER: RUMORS SWIRLING ABOUT FULMER’S STATUS
Rumors have swirled around Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer’s job situation like leaves whistling through a hurricane. Problem is: Most of the rumors aren’t true. No, Fulmer’s...
View ArticleACE REPORTER: FACE IT, IT’S A DOWN, DOWN YEAR IN THE SEC
The SEC has won the last two national championships in football. It is usually the best conference in the nation. It recently reached an agreement with CBS and ESPN to [...]
View ArticleACE REPORTER: FULMER WASN’T WILLING TO GO; PLAYERS REVOLT
The forced resignation of Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer sent shock waves throughout the college football world. “I hate it,” said former Ohio State coach John Cooper, who was forced out [...]
View ArticleACE REPORTER: THE TENNESSEE COACHING SEARCH
Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton is about to find out what Joe Dean, Vince Dooley, Jeremy Foley and Mal Moore discovered in previous years: It’s tough to hire the right [...]
View ArticleACE REPORTER: STATS POINT TO A GREAT SEC TITLE GAME
Never before has the SEC Championship game matchup been settled so soon. Alabama’s win over LSU clinched the West and Florida’s win over Vanderbilt clinched the East. If each team...
View ArticleACE REPORTER: FOUR TOUGH QUESTIONS (AND ANSWERS)
Who’s The Better Coach: Spurrier Or Meyer?When Florida hosts South Carolina this Saturday, the Gators will be positioning for a shot at a national championship. The Gamecocks will be positioning [...]
View ArticleACE REPORTER: VANDY BOWLS, FLORIDA ROLLS AND MORE
Crucial Penalty Doesn’t Cost VandyDuring the middle of the fourth quarter, Vanderbilt was nursing a 14-point lead at Kentucky when quarterback Chris Nickson ripped through the secondary for more than...
View ArticleACE REPORTER: ANOTHER REASON TO DISLIKE SABAN
Alabama’s Nick Saban has been called a dictator and a devil. Both are accurate. He has total control over his program and he’s a devil of a coach – and [...]
View ArticleACE REPORTER: UT LOOKS TO AVOID SLUMP, AS BITTERNESS GROWS
As Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton pursues a new football coach, the bitterness of Phillip Fulmer’s ouster continues to linger in several camps. Fulmer said it’s been like a...
View ArticleACE REPORTER: WHICH SEC JUNIORS WILL HEAD TO THE NFL?
Quarterback Tim Tebow has won a Heisman Trophy, run up gaudy numbers, set an NCAA record for touchdowns and elevated Florida to a top five team this season. The left-hander [...]
View ArticleACE REPORTER: PLAYING THE “WHAT IF” GAME
The sporting world is full of what ifs. What if LSU had hired Steve Spurrier instead of Mike Archer in 1987? What if Peyton Manning had signed with Ole Miss [...]
View ArticleACE REPORTER: SEC NOTES, NEWS, BLURBS AND BITS
LSU’s defensive coach situation could get interestingFormer Georgia coach Jim Donnan reported on an Atlanta radio station earlier this week that John Chavis has reached an agreement to be LSU’s [...]
View ArticleACE REPORTER: HOW TO FIRE A COACH 101
When is the best time to fire a football coach? What is the best way to fire a football coach? The answers to those questions aren’t simple. You could argue [...]
View ArticleACE REPORTER: AWARDS AND HONORS FROM MrSEC.COM
Florida coach Urban Meyer did an outstanding job with his football team. He turned the worst pass defense in the SEC into the league’s best. He tweaked the offense to [...]
View ArticleACE REPORTER: FOOTBALL AND BASKETBALL NOTES; TRIPLE-DOUBLES AN SEC RARITY
Triple doubles in the SEC are about as rare as perfect games in Major League Baseball. You just don’t see many of them. The SEC has 10 on record. We [...]
View ArticleAce Reporter: Better Coaches In Football Or Basketball?
Few would argue that the SEC is traditionally better in football than basketball.Even fewer would argue that the SEC traditionally has better football coaches than basketball coaches.Going into this...
View ArticleAce Reporter: Should Mullen Coach The Gators In Title Game?
Should an assistant coach who has taken a head coaching job with another school stay with his former team through the bowl game? Florida offensive coordinator Dan Mullen has decided [...]
View ArticleAce Reporter: Bowls Can Help SEC With Respect, But Matchups Don’t Look Good
At about midseason, I realized the SEC was down in football. My first hint was poor quarterback play. Eight teams started at least two quarterbacks, and three started three. Only [...]
View ArticleAce Reporter: RPI Unkind To The SEC
It’s too early to project how many SEC teams will make the NCAA Tournament field in men’s basketball.After all, a year ago at this time, you would have said Kentucky [...]
View ArticleAce Reporter: Tennessee’s Salary Pool, Spurrier and Meyer
Some news, notes and scuttlebutt on the Tennessee salary situation everyone is talking about, on the end of Steve Spurrier’s honeymoon at South Carolina, and on Urban Meyer’s views on [...]
View ArticleAce Reporter: The BCS Has Helped The SEC
In today’s column:How the SEC has benefited from the BCS…How SEC title game losers have fared in bowls (surprisingly well)…LSU’s weak basketball schedule tied to academics…Freshman basketball players...
View ArticleAce Reporter: New 3-Point Line Good For Some, Bad For Others
Before this season, SEC basketball coaches were split in their opinion on the impact moving the 3-point line back one foot would have on the game.The results thus far: Another [...]
View ArticleAce Reporter: ESPN’s Forde Talks SEC Basketball
In today’s column: ESPN’s Pat Forde changes his SEC favorite,More on Jodie Meeks’ 54,UK fans are paranoid,ESPN hates everybody,and Florida has replace Marreese Speight’s numbers, but not his...
View ArticleAce Reporter: Is Varnado The Best Shot-Blocker Ever?
Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings has seen enough of Mississippi State jumping-jack Jarvis Varnado to pay him a high compliment.“He’s probably the most prolific shot blocker in college basketball...
View ArticleAce Reporter: Meeks Better Now Than In High School
Georgia coach Dennis Felton coveted Jodie Meeks as a prospect.Meeks is from Norcross, Georgia, but he picked Kentucky over UGA.“We wanted him very, very, very badly,” Felton said. “I always [...]
View ArticleAce Reporter: UT Needs More In-Your-Face Defense
In the aftermath of a disappointing 18-point home loss to Kentucky, Tennessee assistant Jason Shay tried to make light of a tough situation.“I think if Jodie Meeks doesn’t play,” Shay [...]
View ArticleAce Reporter: Not Enough Good Freshmen Or Seniors In The SEC
In the latest RPI, the Southeastern Conference in men’s basketball is seventh – as in, you stink in hoops.Who would have thought that after Florida won back-to-back national championships that [...]
View ArticleAce Reporter: Rating The SEC’s Football Coaches
In the last two months, football coaches have hopped from one SEC school to another faster than a rabbit in a mine field. In fact, I can’t ever remember this [...]
View ArticleAce Reporter: Alabama Job Better Than Georgia’s… And More
Alabama coach Mark Gottfried was fired four-and-a-half years after taking the Crimson Tide to its one and only Elite Eight appearance.Georgia coach Dennis Felton was fired 20 games after he [...]
View ArticleAce Reporter: SEC More Unpredictable Than Ever
Last week, I thought Kentucky was the best team in the SEC.The Wildcats were 5-0 in league play, won at Tennessee by 18, had the best 1-2 punch in the [...]
View ArticleAce Reporter: Football OverAchievers… And UnderAchievers
In 25 years of covering college recruiting, I’ve seen and heard some intriguing things. I heard an attorney say he missed three days of work after his favorite team lost [...]
View ArticleAce Reporter: The SEC’s OverAchievers And UnderAchievers
(Not to be confused with the Little Lebowski Urban Achievers.)Even Darrin Horn is a bit surprised that South Carolina is off to such a solid start in SEC play.The Gamecocks [...]
View ArticleAce Reporter: The SEC’s Mid-Point Player Of The Year And More
Halfway through the SEC season, is there any doubt who the favorite is for Player of the Year?Tennessee’s Tyler Smith got the nod in preseason. And while he’s having a [...]
View ArticleAce Reporter: Basketball Notes And Georgia Avoids Further Embarrassment
The 1972 Miami Dolphins celebrate when the last unbeaten NFL team loses.I wonder what the 1953-54 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets basketball team does?They are the last team to go winless [...]
View ArticleAce Reporter: Basketball Replay And More Notes
In today’s column:1. Expanding instant replay in college basketball2. A much-needed rule change3. Keeping an out-of-the-race team motivated4. An SEC bias against MemphisMore instant replay for...
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