I got nothin', or almost nothin'

So I sat down a little while ago to bang out a post for this afternoon about the changed landscape in the SEC West after Signing Day ... or maybe a Works post if I could find enough good stuff ... or a Sweet Home Hello of Samford, which I've been meaning to do for a while ... or something.

But it's Friday afternoon and every effort I've made to bear down and focus and produce something worthwhile has failed. Oh well. So here's a few scattered thoughts and then I'm out for the weekend:

1. Good for Tony Franklin, and good for Middle Tennessee State. Obviously Franklin was the wring hire at the wrong time for Auburn last season, and it'll be hard to really ever respect his play-calling expertise after he dialed up that "wideout throw on the end around" trick play on 3rd-and-forever against the Vols.

But here's some crazy spit-ballin' for ya: let's say Malzahn has two insanely productive years and leaves to be a head coach somewhere. Meanwhile, Franklin has two insanely productive years at MTSU. Wouldn't this possibly leave Auburn in the market for a successful coordinator well-versed in an up-tempo spread scheme, and wouldn't by that point Franklin again be the most qualified and available candidate who would fit that description? I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'. (For the record, it'll never, ever happen, and I think we all know that. But while we're getting ridiculously ahead of ourselves, I think Taylor will deserve his shot at the OC's chair if AU's offense blows up and Malzahn is hired away.)

2. Not agreeing or disagreeing, but I thought this was a really interesting analysis from Michael at Braves and Birds:

Saban's offenses are going to need to be a little better in order for Alabama to truly achieve parity with Florida. We know that Meyer's offenses and Saban's defenses will be top shelf, so it's quite possible that SEC titles in the near future will come down to whether Meyer's weak suit is better than Saban's. As long as Meyer has Charlie Strong and a pile of defensive talent, his defenses will be almost as good as his offenses. Saban is assembling excellent talent on offense, but if he is going to continue to go the conventional running/play-action route with game manager quarterbacks, he is going to be half a step behind Florida.

I think Michael maybe sells short the fact that Florida's defense was atrocious as recently as 2007 and that Georgia had a phenomenal offense this year without being a whole lot more complicated than Alabama was, but it makes you think ... and wonder if Jim McElwain should watch his back if this assessment looks any more accurate at the end of 2009.

3. Certain reports to the contrary, I think it's relatively safe to say that Deangelo Benton got dumped by Les Miles because of Rueben Randle's hissy fit. First, we've got we've got Miles's "hard, fast decision" statement about it, and second, that timeline of a) Benton reportedly commits b) Randle pitches a fit c) Benton instead commits to Auburn d) Randle commits to LSU just looks a little too neat to me to believe it didn't break down that way.

My question is this: Miles either totally caved to a demand by a high school kid, or the public perception is overwhelmingly that he totally caved to a demand by a high school kid. Is that really the precedent you want your head coach to be setting? I know that can't help but come across as post-Signing Day sour grapes, but you have to admit there's a distinctly Mike Dubosian whiff to it.

4. Every now and again Tubby gets mentioned as a future DC candidate--that apparently isn't happening. A nice reader also e-mailed me to say that Tubby said on-air at some point that he'd be looking for a job in ... the Pac-10? The guess here is that long-term, Tubby winds up being what we've all kind of assumed he'd be ... just too damn good at TV to do anything else.

5. And lastly, I give you this:



You're welcome. Some hoops content likely over the weekend, the last words on the recruiting season hit Monday. Enjoy your weekend.