Tennessee Safety Janzen Jackson Dismissed from Team

It seems like the bad news keeps piling up for SEC teams this week.  Head Coach Derek Dooley announced today that he has dismissed safety Janzen Jackson.  Jackson was expected to play a big part as the leader in the defensive backfield this season.  Last year he lead the team with 5 interceptions and also accounted for 69 tackles.

This is disappointing news for all the Vol faithful.  Jackson recently had to re-enroll in school after taking the spring semester off to deal with personal issues.  Dooley did not explain the dismissal but there is word that a failed drug test was behind it.

-Jeff

SEC Key Games: September 15–LSU at Mississippi State

Miles hopes to ride the magic carpet again in 2011.

A couple of years ago, coming into Starkville on a Thursday night may have been a walk in the park for an LSU team of this caliber.  Since Dan Mullen donned the maroon and white colors of the Bulldogs, that opinion has been changed entirely.  LSU has one of the tougher early-season schedules in the SEC.  Opening up in Dallas against the defending Pac 10 champion and BCS runner-up Oregon Ducks can and will show the nation what we can expect out of the Tigers in the coming months.  However, the LSU team that shows up in Starkville on September 15^th will be even more important.  The Tigers return virtually every impact player on their team, with the exception of losing Patrick Peterson and Stevan Ridley to the NFL.  Les Miles will once again field one of the most athletically talented teams in the country, but just like every year, the question is whether or not they can perform to the high expectations that linger over Baton Rouge every summer leading up to opening kickoff.  Jordan Jefferson will once again be at the helm of an LSU offense that failed to have the “wow” factor last season, but managed to make just enough plays to win some of the bigger games on their schedule.  As a fan of SEC football, however, one cannot mention the LSU Tiger football team without having noted that Les Miles has been behind some of the worst play-calling decisions in the history of major college football.  As history has proved, the grass-chewing “Mad Hatter” has been on the better end of most of these decisions, but one can’t help but ponder every season that is THIS the season that the river of luck that runs through Baton Rouge will go dry.

Mullen hopes to keep opposing defenses confused.

The Bulldogs of Mississippi State will once again be enjoying the roll of underdog this season.  The element of surprise is something that has worked to their advantage over the past few seasons, including last year, as the Bulldogs defeated both Georgia and Florida, as well as a 52-14 thrashing of the Michigan Wolverines in the Gator Bowl.  Dan Mullen’s offense has been anything but flashy in Starkville.  However, he has shown that he wants to play hard-nosed, smash-mouth football instead of the run-around-you offense he constructed at Florida.  This style of football has worked well with the hand he was dealt at State, with Chris Relf taking firm control of the offense last season as a solid dual-threat quarterback.  Relf ended the season with 1,800 yards through the air, as well as 880 on the ground—and that was in spite of the fact that he was splitting time early in the season.  Relf will once again be joined in the backfield by Vick Ballard, who also ran for nearly 1,000 yards while splitting carries for most of the 2010 campaign.  One thing is for certain—if there is a mismatch on the field, you can bet that Dan Mullen will find it and attempt to take advantage of it all night.  The State defense looks to return to its 2010 form as well, however losing every starting linebacker could weaken the front seven, and lose some of the sting of last year’s vaunted pass rush.  Three of the four starters on the defensive line will be returning, and Mullen has some solid talent coming in that should keep the Bulldog front four fresh throughout the season, and some of the pressure off of the new linebacker corps.  They also return their entire secondary, which is not afraid to play a very physical man to man coverage on the outside.  The Bulldogs open up the year against a JV team in Memphis.  They will be coming off another very winnable game the previous weekend in Auburn against the defending BCS Champions*.

This is Mississippi State’s chance to shock the country on primetime national television.  You can believe that Davis Wade Stadium will be at capacity, and everyone in maroon will have a cow bell in hand.  Will the “Mad Hatter” need his late-game magic to come out of Starkville with a victory?  If you’re a fan of the LSU Tigers, you better hope not.

-Chris

Check out the other SEC Key Games:
September 10–South Carolina at Georgia

Georgia Gets the Pro Combat Treatment

These unis will be worn for the season opener against Boise State.  Love the silver lid.

-Jeff

4 LSU Players Sought for Questioning in Bar Fight

UPDATE:  Amidst reports that the 4 players could face arrest on Monday, they have lawyer-ed up and postponed the interview with police till a later date.

Starting QB Jordan Jefferson & 3 others sought for questioning after bar fight.

Apparently there was an ugly scene outside of a Baton Rouge bar called Shady’s early Friday morning.  Four people were taken to the hospital following an altercation allegedly involving several LSU football players (no Tigers were taken to the hospital).  On Monday police will interview starting QB Jordan Jefferson, OL Chris Davenport, DL Josh Johns and WR Jarvis Landry.  Sgt. Stone of BRPD emphasized that they were just wanting to get information from the players, and not wanting them to turn themselves in, and no arrests warrants have been filed.

Coach Les Miles was very displeased when he spoke to the media on Saturday about the incident.  He called the actions “unacceptable”, and apologized for the team.  He said that the entire team was present for the 10:30 curfew, but that a “relatively large group” was involved in going to the bar that night.  Coach Miles is punishing the team as a whole until the entire story is revealed, then individual punishments are likely.

Even if there are no legal repercussions from this event, suspensions seem likely.  That is bad news for Tiger fans as LSU opens the season against the #3 ranked Oregon Ducks, a tough test even with your entire team focused and available.  This is certainly going to make things even more interesting in the stacked SEC West.  We will update this story as news becomes available.

-Jeff

The SEC Through the Years: Birth to ’91

This is part two of three in a series about the history of the Southeastern Conference as a whole.  If you missed part one: Pre-SEC, you can read it here.

On December 9th, 1932 a beautiful thing happened.  The Southeastern Conference was born into this world.  It was birthed with 13 members when they left the Southern Conference for many reasons, including disagreements over freshman eligibility, as well as problems arising from having so many members (23).

The Founding 13 Universities

Clean Old-Fashioned Hate was once also an SEC match up.

We might have to retire the phrase “unlucky 13”.  As it seems to me, two great things in the world started out with 13 members, America and the SEC.  And if you do not like America or the SEC then you can get out!  The 13 founding institutions of the SEC were; the University of Alabama, Auburn University, the University of Georgia, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Florida, Louisiana State University, the University of Mississippi, Mississippi State University, the University of Kentucky, the University of the South (Sewanee), the University of Tennessee, Tulane University and Vanderbilt University.

Early SEC Defectors

I know hindsight is 20/20, but I think these schools might have acted differently if they had known what was in store for the SEC.

Unfortunately the 13 members were not together for long as University of the South was just a little out of their element.  After eight seasons in the SEC the University had yet to win an SEC game, and officially withdrew from the conference in 1940.  The Tigers athletics were deemphasized, and they are currently a non-scholarship Division-III school.

The Yellow Jackets of Georgia Tech abandoned the conference in 1964 to become a founding member of the Metro Conference.  The Metro Conference was a non-football conference so the Jackets remained an independent in football till they joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in all sports in 1978.  They remain a member of the ACC today in the Coastal Division.  Tech won 5 SEC titles.

In 1966, Tulane University joined Georgia Tech in the non-football Metro Conference.  Tulane remained in the Metro Conference and through its merger with the Great Midwest Conference to form Conference USA in 1995.  Tulane played as an independent in football from their departure of the SEC till 1996 when Conference USA began competition in football.  Tulane won 3 SEC titles.

The SEC remained a 10 team conference from the time of Tulane’s departure until the expansion of 1991.  The expansion revolutionized college football as we know it.  Check back next week for part three and the full explanation.

-Jeff

Like what you read here?  Check out some of our other posts.                         Players to watch in 2011:  Bama’s Courtney Upshaw; Vandy’s Chris Marve        Also, like us on facebook and/or follow us on twitter @SEC_Dweller for updates.