So it's moving day for the "Eye on the Tigers" blog archive.
A lot of you simply read the blog on the West End Zone board the day it's written and have no need to go to the blog archive.
For those of you who do visit the blog archive, some technological changes at blogger.com that I can't figure out have imposed a move to a new, more modern format. To visit the new archive, click here.
As with the old routine, new blogs will first be posted on the WEZ board for TI subscribers. A day or two later, they'll be moved to the blog archive where they'll be free.
Now, on to stuff you folks actually care about...
Auburn names Cam Newton its starting QB, and this Birmingham columnist says it's not exactly earth-shattering news.
Matt Hinton, A.K.A Dr. Saturday, takes a look at Newton and wonders whether he's phenom or fake.
Auburn's decision today to name Newton the official starter going into the summer was a no-brainer, and if he proves to possess even half a brain on the field – preferably the half that regulates responses to legal and social taboos on actions such as theft and destruction of property – he'll be one of the most feared weapons in the SEC.
Hinton also reflects on the ACC's decision to keep its title game in primetime.
Georgia Tech's 39-34 win over Clemson last December drew a meager 1.9 overnight rating, a huge drop from the 2.9 rating Virginia Tech's win over Boston College earned in 2008, and an even steeper decline from the Hokies' win over B.C. in '07, which garnered a respectable 4.1 – about what the SEC drew on average last year for regular season games on CBS.
As I pointed out in December, a 1.9 rating is roughly equivalent to what the lowest-rated major soap opera draws on an average day.
The baseball team got some positive vibes going with Sunday's doubleheader sweep of something called Florida Gulf Coast.
Game four -- yes, game four -- is this evening.
This is a few days old, but SEC coaches defend the rising salaries being paid their assistant coaches.
Four SEC defensive coordinators will make $700,000 or more this year -- Georgia's Todd Grantham ($750,000), Alabama's Kirby Smart ($750,000), LSU's John Chavis ($700,000) and South Carolina's Ellis Johnson ($700,000).
Smart and Chavis got raises of $390,000 and $250,000, respectively, after being pursued by Georgia, and Johnson got a $350,000 raise after being pursued by Tennessee.
"It's the market for coaches," Alabama coach Nick Saban said Thursday. "Kirby Smart had an opportunity to go someplace else [read: Georgia] at the same salary we gave him. It was our choice to match that salary rather than lose a heck of a coach."
Reading this, I couldn't help but wonder how Clemson is going to keep up if these numbers keep escalating. The Tigers' administration has done a good job of stepping to the plate over the last five years, when a number of assistants have been approached by major schools with lucrative offers.
Of late, Kevin Steele got a $200,000 raise after changing his mind and spurning alma mater Tennessee. His current pay, $575,000, is nowhere close to what Tennessee offered him when it made a second run at him a few days after he initially turned down the job.
When Terry Don Phillips talks about what Clemson pays coaches, he almost always talks about how competitive Clemson is compared to ACC schools. He seldom mentions the SEC, and probably for good reason: Because at this rate, it's going to be awfully hard for Clemson to be competitive with what a growing number of SEC schools are offering.
Speaking of Clemson's finances, D.J. Trahan doesn't seem optimistic that there will be sufficient commitment to the Tigers' women's golf team.
“I think it would be great to have strong men’s and women’s golf teams at Clemson, but let’s do it right. People have talked about that for a long time, just as long as they’re going to facilitate the expansion with what is needed over there for golf.
“This isn’t going to happen just because it’s golf and Clemson. It’s going to take some work and it’s going to take some commitment from the university. With the disappointment that they sort of decided not to try to build up swimming, now they want to try women’s golf. I just hope they’re willing to make the commitment, and that might be a little bit of a question right now.”
The sports editor of the L.A. Times says his industry failed miserably in its coverage of Pat Tillman's story.
Also in the Independent-Mail, Greg Wallace isn't optimistic that Clemson will find itself in a desirable position if all these expansion dominoes end up falling.
Gosh, so much negative news on the blog today. Looks like somebody has a case of the Mondays.
LW
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