Week 9 SEC Rankings

I’m late getting this published but I’ve been busy. Not a lot has changed other than Tennessee slipping down a little. The Cats are still bringing up the rear but that can change this weekend.

1. LSU

2. Alabama

3. Arkansas

4. Auburn

5. South Carolina

6. Georgia

7. Florida

8. Vanderbilt

9. Mississippi State

10. Tennessee

11. Ole Miss

12. Kentucky

Week-9 Top-25

Here we go again with the BigBlueRules top-25 for week-9.   Again this week I have a tie for the first place position.  We will not have this problem next week

 1  Alabama

 2  LSU

 3  Oklahoma St

 4  Boise St.

 5  Stanford

 6  Arkansas

 7  South Carolina

 8  Oklahoma

 9  Oregon

10  Clemson

11  Nebraska

12  Michigan

13  Michigan

14  Houston

15  Virginia Tech

16  Penn St

17  Michigan St

18  Kansas St

19  Georgia

20  Wisconsin

21  West Va

22  Arizona St

23  So. Miss

24  Cincinnati

25  Texas

At least next week we will have a clear cut #1 team.  Both of the teams at the top are very good and looking forward to a great game,

Week-8 BigBluerules top 25

Things are beginning to shake out and form a pattern now, in two weeks we will have a #1 team that is #1. This week I have two teams at #1 and they play in 2 weeks
1 Alabama
1 LSU
3 Oklahoma St
4 Clemson
5 Stanford
6 Boise St.
7 Arkansas
8 Oregon
9 Kansas St
10 Michigan St
11 Oklahoma
12 Wisconsin
13 Nebraska
14 South Carolina
15 Virginia Tech
16 Texas A&M
17 Michigan
18 Houston
19 Texas Tech
20 Southern Cal
21 Penn St
22 Georgia
23 Arizona St
24 Cincinnati
25 Southern Miss

Things will really be settled in after November 5th when the 2 top teams square off, after both having the coming week off.

Picture This If You Can

You think Mitch Barnhart has problems with Joker not having a good season. His problems pale in comparison to Miss AD Pete Boone.

http://www.mrsec.com/2011/10/forward-rebels-calls-for-immediate-termination-of-ums-boone/

Generally laughter is the best medicine but in this case it doesn’t make me feel better. Are we seeing the future of college football in this story. One of my favorite Frank Zappa lines started with, “Picture this if you can”. Try picturing one of our favorite sports when both the right and the left get into as another battleground to draw attention to their views.

Don’t think for a minute that this Lee Habeeb is into it for anything other than self promotion. Well OK if you want to you got my permission. Me I’m gonna listen to some Frank and picture my football being pure as the driven snow.

Now!!!!!!!!

Picture this if you can
[Howard:] Oh . . .
[Mark:] Bead jobs!
[Howard:] Oh!
[Mark:] Knotted nylons!
[Howard:] Oh!
[Mark:] Bamboo canes!
[Howard:] Oh!
[Mark:] Three unreleased recordings of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young fighting in the dressing-room of the Fillmore East!

The horror of even thinking about this happening is just unbearable. Does anyone know if college bowling is in their view yet.

REVENGE

Kansas lost two more freshmen as Ben McLemore and Jamari Traylor have been declared partial qualifiers by the NCAA. Throw in freshman Braeden Anderson who was declared a partial qualifier earlier this year, and the Morris twins and Shelby along with several others who left the team, we can label this years game REVENGE for the stomping they gave us a few years ago.

Normally I wouldn’t kick a sleeping dog but that loss has rankled me for years. Talk about good advertising, I say we beat them by 30+, in the garden no less.

BigBlueRules Top 25 Week 7

1 Alabama
2 LSU
3 Oklahoma
4 Oklahoma St
5 Wisconsin
6 Clemson
7 Boise St
8 Stanford
9 Arkansas
10 Oregon
11 Kansas St
12 Va Tech
13 Nebraska
14 South Carolina
15 West Virginia
16 Michigan St
17 Michigan
18 Houston
19 Auburn
20 Texas A&M
21 Penn St
22 Georgia Tech
23 Ill
24 Washington
25 Texas

I still think things can change, but we all know the 2 best teams in the Nation are from the SEC West

What is it going to take!

If you follow my writings you know that I generally support Mitch Barnhart with his decisions. The man has a thankless and tough job. There is no way he can garner support from all the fans no matter how hard he tries. I feel he is trying to do what is right with his most recent show of support for beleaguered football coach Joker Phillips.

Mitch is having to live with the hiring of a “coach in waiting” as proposed by the most recent past coach Brooks, but reality is reality no matter how much we don’t want to admit it.

UK football is abysmal at best. Football has descended to the basement of football in America not to mention the SEC. I am just a writer and an untrained one at that, but I have eyes to see with and what I see is ugly to look at. I see an offensive line that is just that, offensive. They can’t seem to get together for even one good play let alone 4 of them. Why is that happening? That line was supposed to be pretty good according to the prognosticators (whom I didn’t believe), but it was forecast to be much better than they have showed. The question then is why is that so? Is it the players or the coaches, or could it be the system?

People say players play and coaches coach. In the forum section it has been posted that they don’t blame the players. I am sorry to say that I don’t completely agree with that. Now I am not laying all the blame on the players, but some of it has to be there. If the coaches are coaching well and have recruited well then the players have to perform to a certain level or have someone to take their place from within the system.

I could go down the list of positions that aren’t performing well and make all of us sick, but I won’t. The question and answers would be the same for all of them. It seems the only position that is doing OK is the kicking game.

Now back to Mitch and his decision to say what he did concerning Joker being the man. He had to say it for now, OK, yeah he did, yeah he did, but what about after this Saturday if they (gulp) lose? I hope they don’t lose, but they might. Who knows with this team what they might bring to the game Saturday, but even if they bring their “A” game that team will bring theirs. They smell blood and rightly so, because after all every team has smelled blood all year and why is that?!

Am I wrong to ask if the recruits (as a whole) are talented enough to play at the SEC level of football?

Secondly, am I wrong in suggesting the coaches aren’t making the right calls for the players to succeed. I surely think I am right in that regard, but more than that may I suggest they aren’t coaching the players up (as they say) as a team to be better than they can individually be. Good or dare I say great coaches do that. Not only can good or great coaches make the right calls, teach players how to make plays in a better more efficient way, but they make them burn with desire to be better. Let us face it not many players are Randall Cobb type players. Not many have a burning motor like him so the coaches have to instill that in them and this coaching staff is not doing that.

Now Joker has been here for a number of years and has had the reigns of recruiting, hiring staff, calling plays and motivating players. With his success rate in mind what rating should we give him for any or all of those areas. I mean, let us be reasonable and rate with our minds and not our hearts. Let us rate him by his success in development of 0 stars to 5 star recruits, wins against non-SEC teams, SEC teams. Does the success of the team make us look forward to the next game? Does the success of the recruiting department make us drool over the coming season? Does the excitement carry us through the summer and keep us tuned to the next talk show or searching websites for a new tidbit of exciting information?

I think the answer to that is no and Joker, Mitch, and the university President will have to answer for that sooner or later. I think Joker only has a few games (1 if they lose to J-ville State) to get the ship righted. If he doesn’t then what do they do? I mean who are they going to hire to replace Joker?

If the university doesn’t decide to put an emphasis on football it will eventually hurt all the programs. Basketball has been so successful it has been able to keep support a grow, but eventually it may need help. We aren’t always going to have a Calipari at the helm of basketball so UK desperately needs football to succeed. They need to pull out all stops to make sure it succeeds and that takes money. There is no reason football can’t succeed at UK and don’t give me the recruiting edges other schools have. UK just needs to put the money in the hand of a really good coach looking for a challenge or to put his stamp on a program.  They need to put their money on a man that can recruit the better players, make better play calls, motivate players and keep fans searching and listening.

Is there a man out there watching and listening for the call.  We know the fans are and have been for many, many years, but the real question is anyone in the administration listening?

Basketball is finally here!

I have been anxiously waiting for the basketball season to get under way since the final 4 ended the wrong way. I was certainly disappointed with the finish, but I was so happy those guys reached the final four.

They over-achieved (I know that term is usually a misnomer, but not this time) and reached a height that only the most ambitious prognosticator would have dared voice to anyone. However, that season is over and a new one begins.

I have posted about most of those players and how excited I am to see them take the floor. It is hard to pick a single player as your favorite player on this team at least it is for me. All of them seem to have a great personality and have accepted the team concept so how do we or should we pick a favorite player.

I mean how could we not pick Jones, Lamb, Miller or Davis as our favorite player. Gosh if one didn’t have Miller up there before the exhibition they should have now. I mean he was unconscious and seemed so relaxed. The same goes for Lamb. I believe he would be comfortable shooting from half court.

Jones drove faster than the wind and finished around the basket with authority (I know it was only an exhibition), but WOW he exploded and stuck it more than once. Just when I thought I had him pigeon-holed he stuck a long three. How are you going to defend that. It will be very difficult one on on one so double team him, right?! How can a team do that with speed burners that can shoot (or pass) at every position.

Anthony Davis has arms so long every loose ball is in range and he can run like a deer and jump like one as well. Not many players like him anywhere in basketball.

Teague will have so much fun getting the ball to those guys knowing that they can make him look good with every pass. Well if nothing else works for you just give it to Kidd-Gilchrist. That young man is only a freshman and freshman are not supposed to be able to do what he does and hold onto the ball in traffic much less finish the play.

I am so excited to watch him play. I will watch every game with anticipation for the unexpected from every one of those players, but when something goes awry with the play I know who will be in the mix for the ball.

He will do what he does and immediately sprint down the floor looking for a loose ball or to catch an unlucky opponent not paying close attention. He will do it without fanfare, but he will do it!

It is going to be a fun season and certainly makes it easier to be a catfan4life!

Are We That Bad

I started to write this yesterday and got distracted. Mississippi suspending 4 players reminded me about it today.

So far this football season hasn’t lived up to what many (ok most of us) expected it to be. Emotion and expectation or a few beers clouded our judgment, hell it fueled most of our judgment for this years football team.

There are some positives to look at. For instance here is the standings in our Your Busted Cup, which gives points for being kicked off a team and suspensions.

Ole Miss – 13
Miss St – 7
LSU – 7
Arkansas -6
S Carolina – 4
Alabama – 4
Tenn – 3
Florida – 3
Auburn – 2
Georgia – 2

When Georgia and Florida were the big dogs in the SEC they were fighting it out between themselves to win the Your Busted Cup. Between the two of them they had more arrests and more players allowed back on the team other than SC and the Steven Garcia saga. Now that the west is the best, they are leading by over a three to one margin this year.

Add in what coach Cal said today at the media days. “We had a 3.16 grade point average last semester and a 3.16 last summer…it apparently didn’t merit enough to write a story about it. We had the highest APR in the SEC…you all knew that right? You didn’t write about it”. It shows that we have something to be PROUD ABOUT besides winning.

There is more to Kentucky football than recruiting stupid, athletic kids who only get into school because they get lower standards than the average student. Kentucky players represent the best of the commonwealth and are proud to do it.

Is that going to make losing feel better now that we are doing this good, NO. Is it going to make Jokers coaching look better, NO. But it is going to show us that Kentucky has learned by all its black eyes, YES. Well at least all of us but the Cal haters.

Mike Hartline would have started in a bowl last year for anyone besides us and Vanderbilt. Does that makes us look better, YES. At least I think our fathers and grandfathers would say so.

Do I think we need to keep Joker another year NO, but I’m gonna root for the Cats next year knowing that we recruit kids who care about how they look.

Our on the field performance hasn’t been that good but our off the field performance has given us all something to be proud of.

Go Cats!!!!!!!!!!

Pimento Cheesburgers

1 1/2 cups (about 6 ounces) extra-sharp cheddar cheese, grated fine
1/3 cup drained jarred pimentos, chopped fine
2 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 1/2 pounds 85 percent lean ground beef (see note)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

NOTE: Stick with the 85 percent lean ground beef here, since leaner meat is likely to dry out. Allow the cooked cheeseburgers to rest a full 5 minutes (tented with foil) before eating them or the hot, cheesy center will spurt out.

MAKE PIMENTO CHEESE Mix cheddar cheese, pimentos, cream cheese, mustard, and cayenne in bowl until well combined. Drop four 2-tablespoon portions of pimento cheese mixture on plate and cover tightly in plastic wrap. Freeze until firm, at least 2 hours. Combine remaining pimento cheese with mayonnaise, cover with plastic, and refrigerate.

SHAPE PATTIES Combine beef, Worcestershire, salt, and pepper in large bowl and gently knead until well -combined. Divide meat into 4 equal -portions. Mold each portion of meat around 1 -portion of frozen cheese.

GRILL BURGERS Grill burgers, covered, over medium fire until well browned and cooked through, 6 to 8 -minutes per side.

TOP WITH CHEESE Distribute cheese-mayonnaise mixture evenly on top of burgers, cover, and cook until mixture is slightly melted, about 1 minute. Transfer to plate, tent with foil, and let rest 5 minutes. Serve.

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