Sideline Warning

By now everyone has seen this photo:

The phases of thought when viewing this picture are these:

1. What the hell is that thing? (It’s a helmet decal flying off)
2. No way. That’s totally photoshopped. (No, it’s from the AP. Honest.)
3. Then either:
   • [For Alabama fans:] OMG! That’s so awesome!
   • [Everyone else:] That’s just a fluke, besides, <Snarky comment about Alabama>

Let’s think about this critically for a second. First, anyone who’s ever picked up a helmet with decals on it knows: those things do not just fall off. They do not fly off. They don’t happen to come off by accident. They must be forcibly removed from the helmet. They’re designed to endure a lot of wear.

Because of that, we know, that it wasn’t that Johnson hit Walker so hard that the number just flew off. We can also tell that because, if he had hit Walker that hard, Walker would be on the ground and unconscious, instead of standing upright still needing to be tackled.

So what does it mean? As best I can tell, the play was a “near miss” that stripped the number off… but consider this: how fast do you have to be going that brushing by someone is going to rub the number off? The answer: pretty damn fast.

That’s the intensity that makes this picture so awesome.

Memo to the Auburn Tigers: last season is over. We’re two weeks into a new one.

This whole “fear the thumb” thing? Yeah, it was clever (a little) last year. Apparently, though, neither K-State nor South Florida got the memo. They did not fear the thumb. There was nothing on the other sideline to be afraid of, really.

K-State lost a heart-breaker in week one, but South Florida beat Auburn in basically every phase of the game. USF is no cupcake, but for all of the jaw-flapping that Auburn fans have been doing in the off-season, that game should’ve been a win — one on par with Alabama’s win over Vandy.

If the Tide team that played Vandy this weekend squared off against the Tigers team that faced USF, Alabama would win by four touchdowns.

It’s still early though, Auburn, you have some time to redeem yourself. Good luck.

Buried at the end of an article in the Clarion Ledger from earlier this week, about how Tulane is an unknown quantity for the Dogs, is an interesting snippet:

A new policy will keep quarterbacks off-limits from media interviews starting on Tuesdays of game weeks. Other players are available for interviews until Wednesday.

Croom said he instituted the policy because he wanted his quarterbacks to be able to better focus on the game plans.

To help them better focus on game plans, coach, or because you’re afraid of what someone like Michael Henig might get asked after a performance like last week’s?

Whatever you might think about the App State / Michigan game, you cannot argue that this video is not exactly what college football is all about:

Yep. Football’s back, folks.