Greg_Gaston's Blog

Here we go....time for my fearless forecast for week one of the College Football Season....

(Odds as of Tuesday)

Ole Miss -8.5 over Memphis

Tennessee -7 over UCLA

Clemson -5 over Alabama

Mississippi State -8.5 over Louisiana Tech

North Carolina State +12 over South Carolina

Miami-Ohio -3.5 over Vanderbilt

Hawaii +35 over Florida

Did you see what Jamaica's Usain Bolt did in the men's 100 meters in Beijing? If you did not, go to your computer and fire up yout ube. The guy is 6'5" and runs like an antelope. He set a world record with a time of 9.69 seconds. And if the time doesn't knock your socks off, (which it should), than the fact that he didn't go hard to the finish line should blow you away.

The guy actually pulled up a bit. He could have possibly gone below 9.6. That is freakish! In 1964, at the Summer Games, Bob Hayes tied the World Record with a time of 10.0. That's the same Bob Hayes who went on to star for the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL. Over the course of the next four decades, the mark kept falling.....9.9, 9.8.......Former Tennessee Vols Track Star Justin Gatlin broke the record in May of 2006, throwing up a 9.76. Now it's Bolt with a 9.69.

The question is....How fast is it humanly possible to run? Well, the Human will is an amazing thing. Modern advancements in technology, nutrition, shoes, etc. all play a role, but the mind and body, and the way we treat them, are the biggest factors. There's the old saying that you can achieve anything you set your mind to, and In this case, it's accurate.

Borrowing a term from a limbo contest......how low can you go? I woud say the sky's the limit, or in this case, the ground.

After careful consideration, and taking everything that I know into account, here's my forecast for the upcoming SEC Football season.........

East

1) Florida  11-1

2) Georgia  10-2

3) Tennessee 8-4

4) South Carolina 7-5

5) Kentucky  4-8

6) Vanderbilt  2-10

 

West

1) Auburn 10-2*

2) LSU 10-2

T3) Alabama 7-5

T3) Ole Miss 7-5

5) Mississippi State 6-6

6) Arkansas 4-8

* Auburn wins tiebreaker from LSU with head to head victory

SEC Championship Game:        Florida 35      Auburn 17

I know Dave Bronczek and I consider him a friend. He is also one heck of a nice guy and a powerful man (President and CEO of FedEx). As most people are aware of he's a major contributor to the University of Memphis...aka...Big Booster. Yesterday's news that he contacted the mother of top tier recruit Abdul Gaddy of Tacoma Washington, was quite surprising to me. Gaddy is considering playing ball at Memphis, and his mother happens to be an employee of FedEx in Washington State .

There are quite a few elements to this story that need to be addressed....First off, I don't get why Dave needed to make the call? I don't believe for a second that Coach John Calipari asked him to call. Cal is a relentless recruiter who normally seals the deal himself. He does rely on his staff to work their tails off, but with his clout, why would he need anyone to make a call on his behalf? Now I'm not naive to the fact that there is plenty of shenanigans going on in the recruiting wars, but this one was an obvious violation, (although likley a secondary violation), so why do it?

This would be major if Oseye Gaddy, the mother of the point guard, was promised a better job in the company if she moved to Memphis ad her so played for the tigers, but that's not the case at all. This certainly was stupid because boosters know not to contact family members of perspective recruits. The problem is the perception of this story.....Why would a CEO of a Fortune 500 company call a lower level employee? Some people believe Memphis got VERY good too quickly, and there has to be something to it.

There is also the whole issue of how FoxSports.com's Jeff Goodman caught wind of the story and broke it nationally. There are many who feel Goodman has an agenda against Calipari. Look, I have no idea what the guy thinks about Memphis, but what he reported was accurate, that we must first acknowledge. Now who leaked the story? It could have been a team battling for Gaddy's services? Dan Wolken from the Commercial Appeal, the Tigers beat writer, says it may have been Arizona. Tigers Assistant Josh Pastner, a former Lute Olson assistant at Zona, has recruited Gaddy at both schools.

Bottom line is Oseye Gaddy likely didn't think anything of the call from Bronczek because she spoke to Goodman very openly about it, feeling he had not broke any rules. Do you really think she would have put the Boss of the Company she works for in a bad light? As I said earlier, Dave made a mistake, and likely it won't be too serious, but these are the games we see in Sports Recruiting.

Starting Tuesday night (July 29), there will be a story posted on this website about SEC Head Football Coaches. In this story I rank the coaches, from 12 to 1.

So without getting into detail, here is my order.......

12) Rich Brooks..............11) Bobby Johnson..........10) Bobby Petrino..........9) Sylvester Croom

8) Steve Spurrier...........7) Houston Nutt............6) Phil Fulmer.......5) Tommy Tuberville

4) Les Miles...............3) Nick Saban............2) Mark Richt.............1) Urban Meyer

This is not a ranking based on all-time credentials, but rather who would I want coaching my  team going ito this season.

Now I want to here from you. Give me your thoughts on my list, and comprise one of your own.

                      Greg

 

Fox 13 Sports was the only Memphis Television Station to send their own crew to Birmingham (Hoover) Alabama for SEC Media Days. Kristin Tallent, Photographer Tommy Adams and yours truly reported from the annual College Football Rite of Passage and here are a few of my observations......

-Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville continues to make things very easy on the media. He comes early and stays late, and makes sure everyone who wants to talk with him gets the opportunity.

-A certain few Alabama fans just won't let it go. Day two turned into 'Subpoena Gate" as Tennessee Coach Phil Fulmer was served while getting out of his vehicle.

-Houston Nutt can motivate a 13 year old Lab, ready for greener pastures, to run down a squirrel or retrieve a duck.

-Steve Spurrier is the best at poking fun at somebody while somehow not making it seem like he means it. "Bobby Petrino had about as much success coaching in the NFL than I did".

-Autozone Liberty Bowl Guru's Steve Ehrhart and Harold Graeter really make the rounds.

-Forrmer Alamaba Quarterback and now Birmingham Radio Personality Jay Barker has a sweet life. He led Bama to National Championship in the 90's and now he's married to lovely Country Star Sara Evans.

-Mississippi State Coach Sylvester Croom oozes with Class.

-Fans in Birmingham love their SEC Football. They show up in droves just to get a glimpse of their heroes.

-There's an Alabama Store in the Galleria adjacent to the Winfrey Hotel (Host of SEC Media Days), but there's an even larger Auburn store. The Iron Bowl is even being fought in retail form.

-Keep expanding Interstate 78 (Lamar Ave.) because the drive to B-Ham continues to get quicker, and that's a good thing!

                         Later,
                                   Greg