5-at-10: Alabama support, Olympics splash, college football over/unders

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Gang, we're going to move quickly because we're neck deep in football tab stuff. Seiously quickly. And don't forget about Friday's mailbag.

From the "Talks too much" studio, here we go.

College football

photo Alabama quarterbacks AJ McCarron, left, and Phillip Ely look to throw during NCAA college football practice, Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2012, in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

There's no way not to discuss college football right now.

It's everywhere. Case in point, we're walking down the street outside our building, which is two blocks from the Community Kitchen, which means there are some colorful characters here - and those folks from the Community Kitchen are out there, too (thank you, thank you, we'll be here all week). One fellow comes strolling by talking to no one we can see, stops, turns and says, "You like Alabama this year?"

Now the 5-at-10 understands the passion of the SEC and its fans, and we do not under-sell any of it. We also appreciate the dicey nature of the above question and the situation.

That said, we love Alabama this year.

In fact, the over/unders - the number Vegas sets as the bar for the number of wins each team will get, and you can bet under that total or over it - for all the major college football teams were revised this week, and we think Alabama going over the 10.5 number of wins is a slam dunk.

Experienced quarterback, stable of running backs, underrated receivers and the nation's best offensive line. So the questions appear to be on defense, and if there's any college coach out there you want answering defensive questions, it's Nick Saban, right?

Buckle non-Alabama fans, it's going to be another long year.

Olympic splash down

photo In this screen capture, Germany's Stephan Feck has some trouble while competing in at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

In honor of Todd962's excellent question about which Olympic event would we fail most horribly in, here's a clip for all to enjoy.

It's of a German diver who has either a) Mis-stepped on the board; b) Been drinking on the lake with his buddies and asked someone to hold his beer before he did a "kickin' back-breaker;" c) Tried something completely different to impress the judges with his originality.

More Olympic thoughts:

- Who thinks that Cotton McKnight, the over-the-top play-by-play guy in Dodgeball is based on the yahoos who do the Olympic gymnastics. And does anyone else get a little creeped out by a 45-plus dude gushing about teenage girls?

- Tough break for Lolo Jones. If somehow she and Tim Tebow hooked up, it would be the most overhyped date since when? Not sure, but something tells us that couple who plays vampires the Twi-blah stuff would be so irritated.

- We're starting to get a little ticked off that China is still winning the medal count. C'mon guys and gals. U-S-A! U-S-A!

Minor major

We'll post the entries soon (and we have kept them in order and you're in Debo).

Here's something we've noticed though: In the last two Lee Westwood was a common pick. Granted you got five picks, but there were some Westwood believers.

Now there are more Furyk believers, and he has gagged away two huge wins this year.

We're starting to think Westwood is the Colin Montgomery of this generation. Can he still win a major? We're starting to doubt it, and we're a Westwood fan.

This and that

- Braves took one on the chin, losing 3-0 to Philadelphia. Mike Minor allowed three runs in the first, including a two-run homer by the slugger formerly known as Ryan Howard. We're starting to feel a little more comfortable when Minor pitches; at least we're not certain it's a loss now.

- Word out of Seattle is that T.O. ran a 4.45 40 in his tryout. At 38 years old. Wow. We're starting to think he'd be worth a mid-to-late round flyer in a fantasy league. A motivated T.O.? When was the last time we saw that?

- According to the AP, former East Ridge High School star and Chattanooga State standout Phillip Jurick has been suspended indefinitely by Oklahoma State after being arrested this weekend on possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

- Know what, that "paraphernalia" is an underrated word, and if we're the 'r' in "paraphernalia" we're pretty hacked off because everyone skips over us. Everyone.

- Sports writers like round numbers - 10 year, 25 year, even five years - because they make for entry points for looks back. Well, did you know that Tuesday was the five year anniversary of Barry Bonds hitting homer number 756, and there was barely a whisper about it?

Today's question

We think Alabama goes over the 10.5 win total as mentioned above.

What do you think? And what do you think about the following teams in regard to over or under the total? (Side note we set the UTC number, but we wanted to all the Mocs fans a chance to discuss, too)

Auburn over/under 7.5 wins?

Georgia over/under 9.5 wins?

Tennessee over/under 7 wins?

UTC over/under 6.5 wins?

Discuss.