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SEC School Anthem Showdown

Everyone's looking for their two minutes of fame on the internet and college football fans are no exception. At first there were highlights, then compilations to music, and now it seems fans are going out of their way to (usually) humiliate themselves in front of millions (read: thousands). I've scoured the tubes in search of the best and worst SEC school anthems. Some you may be familiar with, and some you'll soon wish you weren't.

I've taken all I could find, rated, and ranked them from top to bottom. I rated each video on five distinct categories by asking myself these questions:
Visual - The video itself. Was is well made? Funny? Or was is just a single photo throughout?
Lyrics - How well are they put together? Is it the same thing for 4 minutes straight?
Music - Does it sound professional or like someone used a midi player in Windows 95? Does it evolve or repeat the same two bars over and over?
Embarrassment - How embarrassed should a fan of this school be due to this video?
Team Pride - Are the artists taking pride in their school and athletic department?

We'll open with the top five.

...more

by Streyeder -- August 25, 2009 3:36 PM

Comments: 2 | Views: 1871

Chris Todd decision means Chizik intends to win

Auburn head coach Gene Chizik has been around the game long enough to know the stakes. He knows that his hiring was not popular among Auburn fans. He understands that the key to Auburn's future success lies in recruiting. He recognizes that in order to quell the fan unease and to help build recruiting momentum, his first Auburn team has to, at the very least, show improvement.

When Chizik announced last week that Chris Todd had earned the role as Auburn's starting quarterback he had to know that the decision would have detractors.

Knowing that and also being aware of the urgency of getting off to a positive start, the decision to start Todd is a bold move. It’s also a risky one.

If Todd comes in, plays well and leads the Tigers to a strong start, you’ve got the feel-good story of the year in the SEC and a ton of positive press.

If, on the other hand, Todd performs as poorly as he did last season and the Tiger offense sputters, Chizik’s decision-making ability will be called into question. If Todd flounders, it could unleash a trainwreck that would make last season’s debacle look like a ...more

by kstrick9 -- August 21, 2009 10:57 AM

Comments: 1 | Views: 560

Digital Bo gets his own shoe line

How good do you have to be in order for a 20-year-old digital rendition of you to get its own shoe line?

Bo knows.

As part of an homage to former Auburn Heisman Trophy winner Bo Jackson, Nike is set to release a series of Jackson-inspired shoes including updates to his highly popular cross-training series that debuted in the late '80s.

In what might be a first, Nike is also releasing a line of shoes that pays tribute to a digital version of Jackson, the unstoppable Tecmo Bo.

Jackson, who played four seasons with the NFL's Oakland Raiders (while simultaneously playing major league baseball for the Kansas City Royals) became video gaming legend with his character in the top selling Tecmo Bowl and Tecmo Super Bowl titles for Nintendo.

Tecmo Bo was featured in only two of four possible running plays for the Raiders in Tecmo Super Bowl. The other two running plays on the Raider menu went to Marcus Allen.

The digital Bo was virtually unstoppable. It is possibly the most dominant character to ever grace a sports video game.

Watch Tecmo Bo cover 99 yards ...more

by kstrick9 -- August 21, 2009 10:48 AM

Comments: 0 | Views: 770

SEC AND ESPN: Making Waves Throughout the NCAA

It's no secret that the SEC has inked a deal with ESPN & CBS over the next 15 years that will put the SEC at the forefront of media exposure in the college sports market across the nation. The landmark deal with the two media outlets will add $3.05 BILLION to the coffers of the SEC schools. That's $17 million/year for each and every SEC school. Think about it, a member school could go winless every year and still pull down the equivalent of winning the BCS Championship Game for the next decade and a half.

You Know the Numbers

$2.25 billion over 15 years with ESPN.
$825 million over 15 years with CBS.
$17 million to each school starting in 2009.
Comcast will add ESPNU to its base package to join ESPN/ESPN2.
5,500 SEC sporting events will be on CBS, ESPN, ESPN on ABC, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN Regional Television, ESPN360.com, ESPN Mobile TV, ESPN ...more

by Streyeder -- August 7, 2009 8:43 AM

Comments: 3 | Views: 1887

Power-O

The “Power” is a staple running play in most playbooks that employ gap blocking schemes. It’s a tried and true downhill running play that’s been around in football for a very long time. It can be run from a variety of backfield sets, including the spread formation. It’s most traditional look is out of the I formation (the diagram provided), but by tweaking timing and footwork, and using motion to get backs in the right place to make the blocks, it’s effective from many sets. This is the “innovative” side of the “spread offense”. You can line up in 4 wide look, and create a defensive personnel grouping and alignment favorable for running by showing an offensive personnel set and formation that takes defenders out of the box and gives you numbers favorable to run. Or you can use a 2 back shotgun spread set employing one as a traditional fullback, or an H-Back/Tight End type. The variety of personnel groupings and pre-snap looks is what takes this play to the next level for spread teams versus the traditional I formation.

The power blocking is simple, and ...more

by JR4AU -- August 3, 2009 12:38 PM

Comments: 0 | Views: 1066

Mythical Playoffs (Round 3) '96 Florida vs '04 Auburn

* Click the links in the stories for a bit of video nostalgia (they aren't ads, we promise).
Game Fourteen: 1996 Florida Gators (12-1) vs 2004 Auburn Tigers (13-0)

Tournament to Date:
'96 Florida:
Defeated 1999 Alabama 33-20
Defeated 1995 Florida 34-30
(Players of the Game: Danny Weurffel, Chris Doering)

'04 Auburn:
Defeated 2007 LSU 24-20
Defeated 08 Florida 24-21
(Players of the Game: Jason Campbell, Carnell Williams)

Argument for '96 Florida:
This Gator offense is hitting on all cylinders. They ...more

by SECFans -- July 26, 2009 8:47 PM

Comments: 2 | Views: 718

SEC Media Days: Day 3

Oh boy, the final day of SEC Media Days has come and gone. Here's a bit of what went down today with the final four coaches taking the stand.

Gene Chizik -- Auburn

Welcome back Tubbs, as we've got yet another young Auburn squad. Chizik explained fall practice will be lighter thanks to depth issues and his want to start a 'fresh' team. He also spoke a bit on the pressures of coaching and being low-key, but really there wasn't much of note coming out of his mouth. The highlight was defending having only 12 verbals, and not many of the highly touted sort. Now, outside of the podium we did find out that Chizik has hired a new agent, Russ Campbell, a change from the notorious Jimmy Sexton.

Steve Spurrier -- South Carolina

Ok, Spurrier didn't read his SEC ballot and his assistant voted for Jevan Snead. WHO CARES. This was the most annoying part of SECMD, grilling every single coach to find the one that voted against Tebow. Spurrier has since "corrected" his vote, so Tebow is now the unanimous first team QB. ...more

by Streyeder -- July 24, 2009 9:10 PM

Comments: 0 | Views: 283

SEC Media Days: Day 1

Ahhh, you know the best time of year is right round the corner when the coaches of the greatest schools in the nation descend upon Birmingham, AL. The SEC Media Days is the yearly event that fills the papers with juicy tidbits and stories that attempt to discern how the upcoming season will play out. Here, and for the rest of Media Days, I'll be providing a nice summary of the juicy bits that flow out of Birmingham for all of you to see.

Mike Slive -- SEC Commissioner

According to Slive, the SEC is in a "Golden Age". We won 5 national titles and had 6 runners-up in the past year. We were able to fill our football stadiums to an average of 97% capacity and averaged 30k+ at the spring games! In the Summer Olympics we brought home 51 medals with 159 current athletes competing. As Slive said, "If the SEC was a nation, it would have finished fourth in the world in medal count."

Of course, there was the inevitable talk about secondary violations and the such. Basically taking one from Smokey the Bear's book, he reiterated that only the SEC can prevent the SEC ...more

by Streyeder -- July 23, 2009 9:53 AM

Comments: 0 | Views: 509

Mythical Playoffs (Round 2) 04 Auburn vs 08 Florida

* Click the links in the stories for a bit of video nostalgia (they aren't ads, we promise).
Game Twelve: 2004 Auburn Tigers (13-0) vs 2008 Florida Gators (13-1)

Tournament to Date:
04 Auburn:
Defeated 1994 Florida 27-13
(Players of the Game: Carnell Williams, Jason Williams)

08 Florida:
Defeated 2002 Georgia 31-28
(Players of the Game: Major Wright, Percy Harvin)

Argument for Auburn:
What does it take to stop the 08 UF offense? Speed and physicality. This defense had both. Quentin Groves and Stanley McClover were flat out burners off the edge. They were also big enough to handle Tebow one on one. Auburn doesn't want a high scoring affair, and considering their domination of SEC foes in 04, they may be a little uneasy if this one is close late in the game. Campbell is accurate ...more

by SECFans -- July 5, 2009 8:31 PM

Comments: 0 | Views: 977

Mythical Playoffs Series 04 Auburn vs 94 Florida

Game Five: 2004 Auburn Tigers (13-0) vs 1994 Florida Gators (10-2-1)

Tale of the tape:
'04 Auburn Tigers:
Points Per Game: 32
Points Allowed Per Game: 11
Avg. Margin of Victory: 21
Key wins: #16 LSU, #13 Tennessee (Twice), #7 Georgia, #10 Virginia Tech
Losses: None

'94 Florida Gators:
Points Per Game: 41
Points Allowed Per Game: 18
Avg. Margin of Victory: 32
Key wins: #4 Alabama, #22 Tennessee
Losses: #9 Auburn, #4 Florida St

Argument for Auburn:
In a word, balance. The offense could score, the defense could hit. Like the '98 Vols, both sides of the ball were just loaded with NFL talent. The offense was led by Jason Campbell at QB who had an outstanding Senior year. Tailbacks Caddillac Williams and Ronnie Brown shared rushing duties, with Williams going over 1,200 yards ...more

by SECFans -- June 24, 2009 10:36 PM

Comments: 0 | Views: 1154

Mythical Former SEC Champion Playoffs

Mythical playoffs are all the rage these days. Everyone loves speculating over 8 or 16 team end-of-year playoffs to determine the NCAA football champion. At SECFans.com, we like playoffs too. What better way to fill the downtime of the off-season than to speculate over a dream backyard brawl of former SEC Championship game winners? That's right, over the next few days we are going to see what could happen if these SEC champs went toe-to-toe.

Here's some details. We seeded from #1-4, giving preference to final record, ranking, and strength of schedule. The 4 undefeated champions naturally got the four available #1 seeds. Next, we seeded the #4's. Before the #4's were seeded, however, we had to bring the field down to 16 (there have been 17 SEC winners of SEC Championship games). Sorry LSU fans, the '01 squad just didn’t make the cut. There have been multiple 3 loss SEC Champions since 1992, and one had to go. Unfortunately for '01 LSU, their strength of schedule ranking was 23rd that year. '99 Alabama and '00 Florida both had the #1 ranked SOS in their respective ...more

by SECFans -- June 23, 2009 7:25 PM

Comments: 4 | Views: 3076

A Rejoinder to my Kool-Aid Drinking Buddy, BamaGrad

In reading Bamagrad03's article, "Chizik Is Well-Intentioned, Headed For The Wrong Result", I the word "ironic" came to mind. Because in the midst of calling Auburn fans out on blind homerism, he utterly misses his own blinders. No, not the ones he admitted to regarding Shula. The ones that not only limit how you view your own team, but how you also view your archrival. And that's where he's wrong. Here's why:

While I agree that fans are almost always going to give their guy the benefit of the doubt, I think there's more to it than you're allowing for and I think you're just plain wrong on a couple of things.

1. I think the support Chizik has now was not an instantaneous thing but has come as the result of what he's done in his short time at the ...more

by TitanTiger -- June 1, 2009 9:41 PM

Comments: 3 | Views: 250

An Auburn Fan's Thoughts on Chizik

I cannot imagine the words that Jay Jacobs could string together that would convince an intelligent, rational thinking Auburn fan that hiring a coach with a 5-19 record as a head coach is a good move. I guess I can imagine some of the things he might try to pass off as sound reasons. In the end, it was just a very poor public relations move.

On December 15, 2008 I made a call to Jay Jacobs’ office. I suspect phones all over the athletic complex were ringing off the hook that morning, along with some in the president's office, a couple at Colonial Bank down the road in Montgomery, and maybe even Yella Fella's. I, to my displeasure, was made aware in short order that nobody in ...more

by JR4AU -- May 28, 2009 4:51 PM

Comments: 0 | Views: 338

Chizik Is Well Intentioned, Headed for Wrong Result

Ask anyone who spent time in Aimes, Iowa the last couple years and they'll tell you: "Thank God Auburn took Chizik off our hands." So why are Auburn fans overjoyed to have this guy leading the charge? It's simple. Fans are always going to go out of their way to give their guy the benefit of the doubt.

I was guilty. I drank the Mike Shula kool-aid. He was a likeable guy, and even his opponents wanted to see him do well. I spun until I could spin no longer. Unfortunately for Auburn fans, they're in the same boat. Certainly, Tiger fans are drawing on Gene's history as a top notch defensive co-ordinator. Funny how AU fans were quick to give Tommy Tuberville all the credit in those days. The constant defenders of CTT's honor, they'd fight to the death to keep his name out of the "CEO coach" realm. But now? Now they'll tell you it was all Chizik. Because Tommy is long gone.

Ask an Auburn fan, and they'll be quick to laud his efforts as a defensive guru at both Auburn and Texas. They'll talk about how any coach inheriting the mess Gene encountered in Aimes would be destined for failure. What they don't ...more

by Bamagrad03 -- May 26, 2009 11:05 PM

Comments: 4 | Views: 422

An Inside Look at Gus Malzahn's Offense

A small dose of X's and O's.

The "Smash" is a standard passing "concept". Almost every playbook will include some version of it. I recently bought Gus Malzahn's book, THE HURRY-UP, NO HUDDLE: AN OFFENSIVE PHILOSOPHY, and it's the first passing concept he covers in the book. Remember Malzahn's offense isn't about gimmicky plays. His plays are the same stuff most everybody else is doing. It's his tempo that is the "revolutionary" part. I'll discuss the tempo in a later blog.

When you hear "smash route" it really refers to a route combination. The wide receiver will run a hitch route at 5-6 yards. The Tight End or slot receiver to that same side will run a 12 yard corner route. That is he will go vertical for 12 yards then break at about a 45 degree angle to the sideline. Some may refer to this as a "Flag Route". This route combination is a designed "Cover 2 beater" but works against other coverages as well. The idea is to vertically stretch the outer third of the field with a High/Low concept. This is a standard tactic and can be accomplished with many route combinations. The Smash is just one. Here are some example ...more

by JR4AU -- May 26, 2009 2:55 PM

Comments: 2 | Views: 1734

Auburn's Offensive Line Depth Issues

Is eight enough? Let's see.

I've been discussing Auburn's offensive line depth issues lately with some people. Many are convinced there is no way we can go through a season with "eight offensive linemen that can play". Some have even suggested we're woefully short by a wide margin, and that most SEC teams have 12-15 linemen ready to play or start now.

Let's first address Auburn's starting five. I don't guess you can totally discount the 2008 performance on the offensive line, but you have to account for the internal strife that was happening. LT Lee Ziemba was a Freshman All SEC selection in 2007. I don't think he suddenly lost the talent we saw as a raw freshman. Ditto Ryan Pugh. Left Tackle and Center are key positions, and both have 2 varsity letters. Then there's Senior right tackle Andrew McCain. He was a tight end coming out of high school that "outgrew the position." He's never started a game on the offensive line, but has three varsity letters. Finally there are ...more

by JR4AU -- May 23, 2009 11:59 AM

Comments: 5 | Views: 325