Let's me just be clear here on The Maven's High Holy Day, aka Rivalry Saturday: Anyone who claims the SEC is still the power conference to beat is still pretty strung out on the tryptophan from gorging on turkey. Let us count the ways:
1--Texas A&M QB Johnny Manziel, aka Johnny Football, exposed weaknesses on Bama's defense. Plus, explain why Bama plays more cupcakes (Jacksonville State), some toward the end of the season, than most major conference teams.
2--Auburn is terrible. Their offense (what little there is) resembles a Chinese firedrill. Look for Gene Chizik to possibly get the boot by next week.
3--ABC's Jesse Bradford, obviously in the tank for the SEC, claimed yesterday that Alabama and Georgia were the two best teams in the country. Georgia? They beat one quality opponent--Florida (though I think they may have a few things exposed today against FSU--while also beating Buffalo, Florida Atlantic, Missouri, Georgia Southern (another late game), cupcakes all. Georgia is not that strong and are ranked way higher than they should be. When they play a real opponent, then I'll listen. Until then, get back on your tractors and go home.
4--Proof that my opinions are not biased: LSU, my SEC team, has been ranked way too high all season. They have no QB and have hung on by their fingernails in most games. The Arkansas game should have been a clear win, not a nail-biter.
5--South Carolina, coached by Steve Spurrier, a family friend, has done decently this season but it will be hard to judge the season w/ the loss of Marcus Lattimore, a terrific athlete and honorable guy; I'm a fan despite his playing for the wrong team. This Clemson game will be interesting, to say the least, but I think my boys will hopefully expose their weaknesses on defense due to our uptempo offense.
6--Tennessee. "Rocky Top" my ass. Derek Dooley is a good coach and was great for Louisiana Tech but just not a good fit for UT. And I don't blame him entirely for their problems. When you have thugs like QB Tyler Bray mouthing off about being "paid to perform," the team has a major problem, one Dooley couldn't control which is the worst quality in a coach. Bray isn't a leader but a self-centered player who doesn't put the team's interests first, and this hurt UT. Four overtimes and Missouri still wins? A much-improved Vandy beats UT by 23? If the Vols don't beat Kentucky (talk about a cupcake in the SEC) today, they will go 0-8 for the first time--and it could happen. Dooley won't coach the game, Bray will be mulling over his NFL prospects. Maybe Bray could go be the new QB for the Cowboys since they don't have one at the moment...
For the past few years, all I've heard is how weak the Big 10 is (or is it Big 12 or Big 14? Hell, I can't keep the number of teams straight), how they are down. As players and coaches change this will happen. The ACC? Stronger in basketball obviously but it's still my conference. If players from UNC, Miami, and Florida State can stay out of trouble long enough...
But I argue the SEC is down now. Bama is still strong and will be hard to beat, I admit. Oregon is just as strong. Kansas State has a strong QB in Collin Klein, a Heisman hopefull (while we're at it, how about some Heisman love for Clemson QB Tahj Boyd? But I digress...). Notre Dame has just been damned lucky. As much as I abhor USC and especially that pansy Lane Kiffin, I hope USC beats the Irish to bust the BCS wide open. Notice in all the reallignment of conferences the SEC is largely untouched, save for the addition of Missouri and Texas A&M (which I'm sure Bama was pleased by)? I still say just have four major conferences and stop the idiotic, out-of-region reallignment. Maryland in the Big 10? I wouldn't allow them to touch my beloved conference on those Helen Keller-designed uniforms alone...
We'll see how the games shake out today and during the Championship games next weekend. The pundits will still find a way to argue an SEC team should be in the National Championship because they're in the tank. A film critic once said the worst film by Italian Filmmaker Federico Fellini is better than most films out there. Did this critic see Fellini's Satyricon?
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Lasting Impressions...
The October Surprise many media pundits said would occur did not appear as a political Molotov cocktail in the waning days of the election, but rather as a nasty bitch of a storm named Sandy.
The last week of any election cycle is always a calm before the storm in which there is not much more to say, and the media grasps for any sliver of a percentage point's difference between a myriad of polls.
However, many in the media wonder always what the lasting impression will be to the electorate at large before they head to the polls. Many believed it would be the monthly jobs report, released Friday, which showed the rate holding pretty much steady at 7.9%, still below the 8% threshold (as the media deems the threshold, anyway). Or perhaps a gaff by one of the candidates on the campaign trail would seal the deal.
It was neither of these elements. On Wednesday, President Obama and New Jersey Governer Chris Christie appeared on the ground on the Jersey shore to survey the damage, meet those who were affected by Sandy, and hold a press conference. Many on the right have thrown brickbats at both men claiming this was political posturing. This was genuine.
Whatever your political persuasion, this was a case of two men from polar opposite political spectrums reaching out to one another in a time of crisis. Lower Manhattan, Long Island, New Jersey, and many areas along the Eastern seaboard lay in ruins, without power, without food, and for many without homes. In some ways (and this is saying something coming from me, who barely dodged moving to New Orleans two months before Katrina and is still moved by it six years hence), this was worse than Katrina. And it's been amazing to me that for a major city and artery of this country that after Thursday, the media coverage of this event has been pretty scant--"those people," like it's not part of us. When I've taught essays about New Olreans and Katrina, the attitude arises that that region and the citizens asked for it in an odd way, because of geography, income, etc. Many would say that with 9/11 the calvery came out to help, but where is that contingent now in the very same region that so affected and still echoes in our consciousness throughout our country, a flashpoint if you will?
But I digress somewhat. Say what you will of Obama and Christie but they both reach out to people in a time of need. Obama, a cool, academic customer who is rather insulated by the system but is paradoxically more comfortable and laid back speaking to and meeting common people, so he was in his element on Wednesday when he met with many New Jersians. (And rememember back in July after the shootings in Aurora, CO, Obama reached out to many who had been wounded, primarily in private). So was Christie, more blohard at times but always one to speak his mind with passion (and I appreciate this, despite not being a member of his party), but always with the needs of the citizens of his state placed first. At least they both got off Marine One to reach out to people...
Where was Mitt Romney during all of this? In a town in Ohio (Ohio, Ohio, Ohio, baby!) at an orchestrated photo-op where he had cases of canned goods trucked in to set up an event to look like the citizen of Ohio were contributing food for those affected by Sandy. And this is emblematic of the Romney campaign: canned, forced compassion that is a bit out of step with reality. Why didn't he go to the East coast, his presumed home area (or is it Michigan, I can never keep it straight), and survey the damage or speak to citizens in need instead? A friend pointed out that he is not the President (yet) and not in a position to do this. I think if Romney had done this, it would have created perhaps the impression that many had hoped to see at some point on the campaign trail: a moment of honest compassion.
Sidebar: Where the hell is Vice-Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan? I've not seen him a week after the Republican Convention, when he made a joint appearance with Romney. Is Romney backing off of his choice? Notice that Ohio Senator Rob Portman has been connected at the hip of Romney for much of the time post-Convention? Methinks Mittens may have felt a twinge of regret here in not choosing him...
But the famous final scene (sorry, Bob Seger), I believe, will be of two men from opposite spectrums dispensing with the political and showing their honest, unguarded selves. This wasn't a political event in and of itself (though the aftermath of Sandy is nothing but political for Bloomberg and the boys, so let the games begin), but one where human need was placed above all. Will this joint appearance solve the very complex problems of a region never having seen a weather anomoly such as Sandy? Of course not. But it's a start, one that showed President Obama doing his job and looking presidential. This is what compassionate presidents do.
The last week of any election cycle is always a calm before the storm in which there is not much more to say, and the media grasps for any sliver of a percentage point's difference between a myriad of polls.
However, many in the media wonder always what the lasting impression will be to the electorate at large before they head to the polls. Many believed it would be the monthly jobs report, released Friday, which showed the rate holding pretty much steady at 7.9%, still below the 8% threshold (as the media deems the threshold, anyway). Or perhaps a gaff by one of the candidates on the campaign trail would seal the deal.
It was neither of these elements. On Wednesday, President Obama and New Jersey Governer Chris Christie appeared on the ground on the Jersey shore to survey the damage, meet those who were affected by Sandy, and hold a press conference. Many on the right have thrown brickbats at both men claiming this was political posturing. This was genuine.
Whatever your political persuasion, this was a case of two men from polar opposite political spectrums reaching out to one another in a time of crisis. Lower Manhattan, Long Island, New Jersey, and many areas along the Eastern seaboard lay in ruins, without power, without food, and for many without homes. In some ways (and this is saying something coming from me, who barely dodged moving to New Orleans two months before Katrina and is still moved by it six years hence), this was worse than Katrina. And it's been amazing to me that for a major city and artery of this country that after Thursday, the media coverage of this event has been pretty scant--"those people," like it's not part of us. When I've taught essays about New Olreans and Katrina, the attitude arises that that region and the citizens asked for it in an odd way, because of geography, income, etc. Many would say that with 9/11 the calvery came out to help, but where is that contingent now in the very same region that so affected and still echoes in our consciousness throughout our country, a flashpoint if you will?
But I digress somewhat. Say what you will of Obama and Christie but they both reach out to people in a time of need. Obama, a cool, academic customer who is rather insulated by the system but is paradoxically more comfortable and laid back speaking to and meeting common people, so he was in his element on Wednesday when he met with many New Jersians. (And rememember back in July after the shootings in Aurora, CO, Obama reached out to many who had been wounded, primarily in private). So was Christie, more blohard at times but always one to speak his mind with passion (and I appreciate this, despite not being a member of his party), but always with the needs of the citizens of his state placed first. At least they both got off Marine One to reach out to people...
Where was Mitt Romney during all of this? In a town in Ohio (Ohio, Ohio, Ohio, baby!) at an orchestrated photo-op where he had cases of canned goods trucked in to set up an event to look like the citizen of Ohio were contributing food for those affected by Sandy. And this is emblematic of the Romney campaign: canned, forced compassion that is a bit out of step with reality. Why didn't he go to the East coast, his presumed home area (or is it Michigan, I can never keep it straight), and survey the damage or speak to citizens in need instead? A friend pointed out that he is not the President (yet) and not in a position to do this. I think if Romney had done this, it would have created perhaps the impression that many had hoped to see at some point on the campaign trail: a moment of honest compassion.
Sidebar: Where the hell is Vice-Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan? I've not seen him a week after the Republican Convention, when he made a joint appearance with Romney. Is Romney backing off of his choice? Notice that Ohio Senator Rob Portman has been connected at the hip of Romney for much of the time post-Convention? Methinks Mittens may have felt a twinge of regret here in not choosing him...
But the famous final scene (sorry, Bob Seger), I believe, will be of two men from opposite spectrums dispensing with the political and showing their honest, unguarded selves. This wasn't a political event in and of itself (though the aftermath of Sandy is nothing but political for Bloomberg and the boys, so let the games begin), but one where human need was placed above all. Will this joint appearance solve the very complex problems of a region never having seen a weather anomoly such as Sandy? Of course not. But it's a start, one that showed President Obama doing his job and looking presidential. This is what compassionate presidents do.
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