Today's Morning Tailgate is a bit more stat-heavy than others this week have been. I really like how it turned out.
If Ballard is comparable in usage to James, quarterback Chris Relf is similar to Darron Thomas as well. He produces both through the air and on the ground, but Mullen and staff don't trust Relf quite as much as Chip Kelly and company trust Thomas. They attempt to protect Relf as much as possible, throwing quite a bit on standard downs but keeping things on the ground and close to the vest on passing downs. As a result, you see a pretty good passing line -- 397 yards, 7.4 per pass, 61% completion rate, 3 TD, 1 INT in two games -- that probably gives a misleading view of the passing game's actual quality. Relf will get his numbers, but they won't necessarily come against good defenses. In this sense, Mississippi State's is sort of a Dinosaur Jr. offense: good at what they're good at (be it running the ball or unleashing killer J Mascis guitar solos), but pretty limited elsewhere (passing when they have to pass, writing intelligible lyrics). They can go from gorgeous to iffy in a heartbeat, but when they're good, they're phenomenal.
From my LSU-Mississippi State preview at the mothership.Two things: 1) This comes from the new Denver Broncos Media Room available at their official website. 2) I would have posted this five minutes ago, but I passed out at the thought of major colleges doing this at their own athletic sites. Lordy. Please make this happen, World.
Talking Florida up on Thursday, knocking Tim Tebow down on Saturday...
Just made this for tomorrow's Florida profile. So, uh, trendy on my part. I should have squirrelized it too.
Excellent piece about what was perhaps Alabama's single best team. Gotta love the lengthy Sugar Bowl highlights at the end.
IT'S HERE. Football Outsiders Almanac 2011 can now be downloaded if you purchased it: Go to MY FO DOWNLOADS on footballoutsiders.com.
Via Twitter. Go to Football Outsiders to either purchase your copy or download what you've already purchased!I have an attention phobia sometimes, but instead of pushing this aside and making some reflexive "Guess they ran out of people to write about" comment, I'll just say thanks to Vox Magazine for choosing to write such a flattering profile about me. It is very much appreciated, and my mother is about to go store to store, snatching up very copy in Columbia.