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That game is at Auburn. I look forward to seeing Auburn winning and going right back to #2. The SEC is just that darn good. That's going to be a good game. I would be highly surprised if Auburn plays as bad as they did last week against Arkansas and think they will come out fired up at home. Ultimately I think Florida is going to win, but it's going to be a good game. If Auburn hopes to win, which I think they very well can, Kenny Irons is going to have to decide to actually start playing. Outside of the Washington State game, he's been awful. That's their number 1 problem this year. He shows up, Auburn wins, otherwise Florida wins.

That game is at Auburn. I look forward to seeing Auburn winning and going right back to #2. The SEC is just that darn good. If Florida loses (please, I'm begging), and an SEC team moves to #2 it better as heck be Tennessee. We are far more proven than any other SEC team. Which seems strange to say after last season, feels good to say it though. :)

Maybe, but both teams had a similar cast of characters last season and Notre Dame routed the Vol.s Tennessee finished with a 5-7 record last season. They're 5-1 so far this year. Actually we were 5-6. :D

Maybe, but both teams had a similar cast of characters last season and Notre Dame routed the Vol.s Tennessee really is basically a different team this season. Sure many of the players are the same, but almost none are playing anything like what they did last year. Erik Ainge (QB) looked absolutely lost last year, this year he's a few games from being a legit Heisman contender. The wide receivers, led by Robert Meachem and Jayson Swain (the top receiving duo in the nation by yardage before Sat.), couldn't catch a pass if it was handed to them last year, this year the top three look like first round picks. I don't think you put Tennessee ahead of undefeateds like Michigan and I'm not sure we beat ND simply because our defense lacks the depth to defend that offense well, but we are a top 5-10 caliber team right now. And much, much better than last year.

Newton looked significantly better as the half went on. Auburn's defense really looked weak out there, not sure how much is them overlooking USC and how much is the [expletive] getting better. Kenny Irons looking pretty good against an iffy defense, I want to see him do big things against big teams consistently.

Spurrier's offense is terrible. I love it so much. I am having issues rooting for either team as I'm not sold on Auburn being number two, but I absolutely despise any team Spurrier coaches. Also, I think Herring's pick was a little iffy.

I'm actually a little concerned about this game. Memphis normally plays UT tough, though they haven't won since '96. I think it'll be close until the fourth, and then we pull away a little. Hankins and that passing game worry me a bit, though.

That same section of the GOP is probably the same section that hated every fiber of the Clintons, so who knows. Who would be the lesser of two evils to them? Personally, I think the Dems will fall all over themselves to nominate Hillary just sure that she'll bring back the Clinton Glory Days of the '90s. I don't think she has a shot in the generals though because she doesn't have the same speaking ability her husband has. She's not nearly as convincing as Bill and thus will have difficulty convincing enough Americans that she cares. Ultimately, I'm afraid if she runs, the media will spin it that anybody that votes against her is anti-woman in power and not simply against Hillary's views. Hopefully not, but the newsmedia hasn't inspired much hope in me lately. Edit: I went with McCain in the poll even though I am 100% against him ever getting elected. I'm afraid he's the biggest name, though, and if he can get past the primaries (which is going to be very difficult) he's likely to get elected.

You laugh because you're not a fan, show some respect to us poor souls. :) This may be an ugly game with Culpepper still trying to remember how to play and the Titans just sucking. At least we've got an extra sixth round pick after trading Billy Volek to the Chargers. Titans 0, Dolphins 2 Collins and Culpepper combine for 4 fumbles and 6 picks

The SEC has played Cal, Michigan, USC, Louisville, Mizzou, and Hawaii, with games against West Virginia, Colorado, Florida State, Fresno State, and Georgia Tech later in the season. Really, there is very little difference. Now, how many of those SEC teams are playing Auburn? Then we'll look at the records of those games and we'll see as the season progresses. I don't like the SOS because that again helps the SEC. Their teams are ranked high to begin with and have to fail while BE teams like Louisville have to prove they belong and are behind the whole time. Why, Auburn plays LSU and beats them. LSU has one loss now and wins out in the SEC and is a game behind Auburn making their win look even that much better. Both teams, yet again, have beat no one out of conference just like WV. If WV beats Loiusville do they get the same respect and hop above Auburn? No they won't if both are undefeated even if Louisville is undefeated when they play WV. The system won't allow that to happen and it's the same stuff Penn State had to put up with with all their undefeated teams. I'll believe the SEC is better when either Auburn beats WV, middle of the pack SEC team beats a top Conference teams or the middle or bottom/middle teams in the SEC beat up on most of another conferences middle/bottom. Then the SEC will prove they are the top conference. yes, this goes for all conferences not just the SEC but the SEC seems to get cart blanche from the get go and as I said earlier has to be proven to be bad. Then set the same standards for the Big East. I agree. I give USC credit for the Nebraska win. Louisville credit for a win over Miami. Tenn over Cal and thus Floriday over Tenn. But, we have to wait and see how Nebraska, Miami and Cal do over the course of the season. The problem I have Raisin is the problem of hopping over a team even though the team behind in the rankings is better. I want a playoff and let them prove it on the field and not with gool ole boys votes. To be techincal, Tennessee was expected by many to be middle of the road SEC, third in the east and thus eighth overall because LSU and Auburn are expected to be better. I disagree with this as I don't think there's much of any difference between UT, Fla, or UGA except UT's depth issues. But after a 5-6 season, it's hard to argue. Really, this debate comes down to how proven each conference is. The Big East has a jumble of decent to good teams that have never really done much. Granted WVU beat UGA in the bowl game, but UGA played awful for over a half. Over the long term, though, none of the Big East has proven anything. The SEC gets the benefit of the doubt because it's been very good and produced great teams year in and year out. Now there is probably no dominant SEC team this year, but there could be eight very good teams that'll just beat up on each other, thus they may all end with three to four losses. Finally, LSU does play UT and Fla this year and Auburn plays Fla and UGA so according to you, they will have the ability to prove themselves. Of course, I hope LSU doesn't prove themselves against the Vols. :)

I'm pretty neutral on this, I don't like or dislike ND that much. Ultimately, toning things down in the second half is a show of respect by both teams. If it's a big enough blowout, which last night was, both teams should have focused on running out the clock with their backups in. Weis should have pulled his starters and played his backups, as should have JoePa. It's difficult to argue two teams being on a similar level (not a major vs mid-major or I-AA) and one pulls their starters and the other doesn't. I don't like that Weis went for some fourth downs in the fourth quarter, but PSU isn't completely blameless in all this. For example, in 2002 Georgia was absolutely destroying Tennessee by the third quarter and both teams pulled their starters and let the backups play out the game. If one teams lets up, the other should too.

Just under 2 hours until the Kerry Collins debut in Tennessee! :cry:

Not to offend, but I think Vandy's a little better than those three. They fought with Michigan last week and nearly beat Bama today. Chris Nickson looks pretty solid, I think he's gonna be good. They'll be in that 3-5 win territory like UK, Ole Miss., and Miss St. 3-5 is the ceiling for UK, Ole Miss, and Miss St., though. Vandy is more likely to hit 4-5 and, with a couple realisitic upsets, could reach 6 and a bowl. UK with their schedule has a good chance to get more wins than Vandy. UK's easiest games Texas State Ole Miss Central Michigan UL-Monroe Vandy Miss St. Vandy's easiest games Arkansas Tennessee St Temple Ole Miss Duke UK Both I-AA games should be wins, Temple a pushover and Duke lost to Richmond. UK has only a couple sure wins in there (and one of those were today). I do base a lot of my opinion on the fact that Kentucky has had no real QB thus far, didn't see the game today but neither Woodson nor Pulley really stand out. If one steps up, I like UK a lot more. Likewise with Vandy, if Nickson isn't as good as he's looked, I'll think less of Vandy.

Not to offend, but I think Vandy's a little better than those three. They fought with Michigan last week and nearly beat Bama today. Chris Nickson looks pretty solid, I think he's gonna be good. They'll be in that 3-5 win territory like UK, Ole Miss., and Miss St. 3-5 is the ceiling for UK, Ole Miss, and Miss St., though. Vandy is more likely to hit 4-5 and, with a couple realisitic upsets, could reach 6 and a bowl.

Not to offend, but I think Vandy's a little better than those three. They fought with Michigan last week and nearly beat Bama today. Chris Nickson looks pretty solid, I think he's gonna be good.

Wow. :shock: Ohio St. kills Texas, I love it. A lot of questions answered about OSU's young d. I don't see any way they don't go to the National Championship game at this point with the Big Ten apparently well down.

Bring on them Crocodiles next week! After we lost Justin Harrell, Arian Foster, and Inky Johnson we may struggle to field a team. Ainge looked great and Jayson Swain and Robert Meachem both had around 100 yards receiving. I'll take this squeaker if we can get Florida next week.

I only live about an hour to an hour and a half south of the Smokies' stadium so it'd be awesome if the Cubs' AA moved to Knoxville. The reasons given in the News Sentinel make good sense too.

Trust me, I hate preseason polls. They are normally atrosciously wrong, as they were with Tennessee, so why do it? I happen to believe that had USC and Oklahoma not been ranked preaseason 1 and 2 (or at least so extremely high) from the start, that Auburn deservingly would have played in the national championship game.

Who's whining? I am pretty sure everyone one here thinks the ND deserved to drop and did not look like a #2 team last week. Disclaimer: I am not a Notre Dame fan, I am a Tennessee fan To be honest, and I know I'm gonna get jumped for this, I don't think ND should have dropped at all. Sure, I wasn't impressed with how they played, but who deserved to move up? USC beat an inferior Arkansas team that will likely be a bottom feeder SEC team this year and it took them until the mid-third quarter to break the game open (it was 16-7 at halftime). Auburn beat one of the worst I-A teams in the nation, Washington St., and it took them until the second half to pull away. Georgia Tech is far superior to both those teams, their defense is one of the better in the nation and Calvin Johnson will play in the NFL. The rest of the GT offense isn't special but the defense is. I think ND should have stayed where they were as should have Auburn and USC, none were overly impressive but all won.

It's not that Collins will lead us that well, it's that Vince isn't ready to start yet. There's a whole lot he's got left to learn and you don't want to run him out there to much before he's ready. I expect he'll get some playing time after some of the real good teams have blown us out by halftime and may be starting by midseason or later.

He was also good enough to throw 29 interceptions last year. If he repeats that performance and still can account for 5 wins, he really is more than human. Despite losing Walker, I don't think he will. Ahman Green should be back this year, all year, plus they also lost half the o-line to injuries I believe. If the team stays healthy, the Pack will improve as will Favre.

I'm calling it right now, the loser of Titans/Jets will have the first pick in the draft. And I think the Jets will taste defeat at the hands of Kerry Collins. 8) You might be right, but I watched Tennessee beat the Packers by 14 a couple days ago. It really should have been a 30 point win, too. VY overthrew 3 easy TD's, the Titans missed a FG, missed an easy chip-shot FG attempt at the end of the half becausew Kerry Collins screwed up clock management, and fumbled inside the ten. All those things mean the Titans suck, but to do that and win by 14 (even though it's preseason) what does that say about GB? Favre only threw 1 pass (for 89 yards), and both GB corners were out, but a sad display nonetheless. The top 5 picks will probably include the Jets, Titans, Texans, Bills, and either the Packers or Lions. Excellent point, and I agree with your top 5, but I think both the Jets and Titans are worse than the Pack simply because GB still has Favre. Yes, I know he's old and likely washed up, but he still is good enough to find a way to pull out 5 wins or so, more than I think the Titans and Jets will get. When it comes down to it though, all these teams suck pretty bad. I hate to say it but this is East Coast Bias all the way here. Both Bay Area teams have good shots of getting a top 5 pick in the draft. The Niners have a better shot than the Raiders but I wouldn't discount Aaron Brooks helping the Raiders get a top 5 pick. I actually have a strong feeling that there will be a few tiebreak situations needed to sort out the draft picks. None of the Raiders, 49ers, Titans, Pack, Jets, Texans, Lions, etc. are any good but there are slight differences between their respective suckiness. The Titans, I believe, are still the youngest team in the NFL and barring incredble surprises should play that way. The Jets could go from 1st to near 10th depending on what their QBs do, if Pennington's healthy, if Clemens can play, etc. Texans may be the best of the group but they just lost Domanick Davis for the season. Lions could be solid if Martz's offense works with Kitna throwing to Roy and Mike Williams. I personally think Aaron Brooks will be ok throwing to Moss and Porter and the Raiders might win as many as 5-6 games. The 49ers will be as good as Alex Smith. If he improves, they'll improve, it not, they may have the first pick. And the Packers are a decent team and have just enough around Favre that if they stay healthy, which they weren't last year, they could be ok. The Bills are a wild card in that Losman is still somewhat unknown, as is Jauron and Levy's impact on the team. This is my early prediction for the draft: Jets 3-13 Titans 3-13 49ers 4-12 Raiders 4-12 Packers 5-11 Bills 5-11 Lions 6-10 Texans 7-9 After looking at each team's schedule, this is the conclusion I've come to. This is not in cement since many of these teams have questions that have yet to be answered.

If we pay Juan Pierre 12 million next year, I, I...I dont know what I'll do. But it'd be especially cool if we sign Juan Pierre for 12 million, then lose Aram, to be replaced with Rich Aurillia. Juan Izturis Lee Aurillia Jones Barrett Murton Cedeno 300 runs scored in '07. Catch the excitement. If we lose ARam we are done for, no matter what. So, we might as well overpay for ARam right? At least we'll be getting good production from a player in his prime? Man, I love the offseason, but next year looks so damn bleak. Hendry better have some trades in between the fat. Hendry has def laid an egg on this one, but we all knew this was expected with that fool. I think it's to the point where we might not have no choice but to slightly overpay. WHo knows what ARam and his agent are thinking. One way or another I don't see how we would make the playoffs next year. I disagree, we certainly shouldn't be favorites, but I think we could put together a contending ballclub. As I've mentioned earlier in this thread, add Andruw and Durham, play Murton in LF, and get a platoon guy in RF for Jacque, and our offense is much improved. Durham Murton Lee Andruw Aramis Jones Barrett Izturis Add Fredi Gonzalez or Joe Girardi at manager, and maybe a semi cheap veteran starter and we're a pretty solid team. Not favorites for the playoffs and certainly not where we should be, but we can build a contender by next season. That's a great lineup. But it is dependent on so many things happening in the right way. I pray it goes that way. But what if a) Ramirez walks b) Cedeno is our 2B c) Jones was signed to play everyday d) Sweet Lou is on our bench Stranger things have happened. It is all a matter of which Jim shows up. Independent Jim or ManagerBish Jim. Independent Jim, the Jim that dumped Hundley, got us Lofton, Ramirez, Lee and Nomar. Or if we get Neifi! Macias, Enr!que, DJackson, THubbs, Jim. a) Ramirez walks, we rebuild. Simple as that. b) I really doubt it. Cedeno is likely going to assume the Neifi role or be traded. I doubt Hendry likes him enough to forgive this gosh awful season that easily. c) Still with that lineup, a platoon is not necessary just helpful. Simply moving Jones down the lineup against lefties would help. d) That could prove to be a problem if Sweet Lou is really like Dusty, but I suspect Hendry really likes Fredi, considering he was on Hendry's list when we got Baker. So yes, there are quite a few ifs, but it's not out of the realm of possibilites that we field a solid team next year. I doubt my ideal lineup is exact but I wouldn't be surprised to see Hendry pursue something similar. Okay, you calmed me down pretty good. I hope Hendry gets a manager sans ego. No Chevy commercials or nothing. Just someone who does their job, like Francona in Boston (before the title). I really think a Baker is to blame for many of the acquisitions. I know, I know, that means Rick Morrissey thinks I'm a racist. But otherwise, it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Honestly, I think Baker played a large role in Hendry going for guys like Neifi, no platoon for Jacque, etc. Don't get me wrong, Hendry's no saint and he's certainly not innocent in all this, but I'm interested to see what happens this offseason with Baker gone. I'm still willing to give Hendry another chance.

If we pay Juan Pierre 12 million next year, I, I...I dont know what I'll do. But it'd be especially cool if we sign Juan Pierre for 12 million, then lose Aram, to be replaced with Rich Aurillia. Juan Izturis Lee Aurillia Jones Barrett Murton Cedeno 300 runs scored in '07. Catch the excitement. If we lose ARam we are done for, no matter what. So, we might as well overpay for ARam right? At least we'll be getting good production from a player in his prime? Man, I love the offseason, but next year looks so damn bleak. Hendry better have some trades in between the fat. Hendry has def laid an egg on this one, but we all knew this was expected with that fool. I think it's to the point where we might not have no choice but to slightly overpay. WHo knows what ARam and his agent are thinking. One way or another I don't see how we would make the playoffs next year. I disagree, we certainly shouldn't be favorites, but I think we could put together a contending ballclub. As I've mentioned earlier in this thread, add Andruw and Durham, play Murton in LF, and get a platoon guy in RF for Jacque, and our offense is much improved. Durham Murton Lee Andruw Aramis Jones Barrett Izturis Add Fredi Gonzalez or Joe Girardi at manager, and maybe a semi cheap veteran starter and we're a pretty solid team. Not favorites for the playoffs and certainly not where we should be, but we can build a contender by next season. I like that lineup but I don't have faith in Hendry he could pull off a trade for Andruw. If Andruw's available, we've got one of the better chances if Hendry tries. He's got a good relationship with Schuerholz and is trying to model us after the Braves. Also, if we hire Fredi Gonzalez, Andruw might want to play for him if he's traded. Let's just say hypothetically speaking we can get those players, I think our offense would be good but we still have to worry about our SP. If Rich Hill can stay this good and of course we have Z then meants we have 2 pitchers at best we can count on, and that is if Hill can stay this good. The pitching would be a question but I think we'd have more than two. I like what Hill's shown the past few starts, and I think he'll be solid for us next year. Also Marshall has been pretty good this year and should improve next year. I'd be ok with this rotation: Z veteran P Prior Marshall Hill The veteran could be Zito, etc if we have the money, or Mulder or a second tier kind of guy. If Prior's not healthy or ineffective, Guzman and Mateo have been decent this year or we could try for another FA if we have the money. I will agree though, the starting pitching would be a bit of a weakness.