Hey And The Valley Shook,

Today is the big day. We've switched your community over to the new SB Nation sports blog platform. My name is Trei, and I'm here to help you get adjusted to the new home we've built for you. If you have questions or trouble with the new system, post a comment in this thread and myself or one of the team (lovitt, sixfoot6 or odacrem) will try to point you in the right direction.

Before we begin, I want to let you know we still consider this a beta platform, so don't be surprised if you find a few bugs or if everything isn't exactly right yet. We hope you'll take the time to report any problems you encounter at bugreport@sbnation.com. We'll be continuing to make changes and improving things.

Please take a few minutes to read about what's new below. But if you just can't wait to jump in, here are some quick things to check out:

1. Sign up for your SB Nation network account and claim your old blog accounts
2. Once you're logged in, press your  Z  key in any thread with new comments
3. Explore your dashboard and setup your profile
4. Read the guide to the new FanPost editor
5. Install the FanShot bookmarklet and post videos to And The Valley Shook from YouTube or images from Flickr
6. Click the "Rec" button on posts and comments to help other people find the good stuff.
7. Customize display options on your Edit Settings page

What Has Changed

SB Nation Network Accounts - the Big Change

Readers across all of our blogs told us they wanted one account to use on every SB Nation blog. To make this work, we're requiring that everyone create a new SB Nation network account. In most cases you should be able to keep your old username, but a few of you may have to choose something new, since every other community in SB Nation will be going through this same transition. We tried to be as fair as possible in deciding who gets to keep which name, using a formula that takes into account length of membership and frequency of activity.

We want to make it as easy as possible for you to participate on all of our blogs, but we don't want to encourage everyone to start visiting rival team blogs and initiating flame wars. To maintain friendly communities we ask that you explicitly join each blog in order to participate. It's a two-click process, but it does means accepting each blog's community guidelines. Just as you join each blog individually, you can be banned on each blog individually.

You can claim old accounts from multiple SB Nation blogs, and your new username will be retroactively attached to all your old comments and diaries. So now you'll be able to access all your writings from your single profile page... like magic.

To get started, click here to claim your old blog accounts and create a new SB Nation network account.

FanPosts (the Section Formerly Known as Diaries)

We changed their name. Why? Because we took this major upgrade as an opportunity to leave behind some vocabulary that never made much sense for a sports blog. SB Nation is the network of, by and for fans, and these are the blog posts we make. So we call them FanPosts. When you're at a bar telling someone to check out your online sports opinions, you don't have to suggest they read your diary.

FanPosts are displayed differently on the homepage - we include your avatar to give more credit for the time you spend writing great posts. The new post editor has a WYSIWYG view that provides easy formatting. It also auto-saves drafts so you don't have to worry about losing your work when you compose a post within the web browser. And you can now associate teams, players and games with your posts: these tools promote your FanPosts on our new team, player and game pages - across the entire network.

The new system does not work like the old diary editor. For example, in HTML mode the new editor doesn't auto-create a new paragraph from two line breaks. But it does offer a whole array of new features. Look for the blinking help button on the right side of the FanPost editor for quick tips, and take a look at our full guide to writing FanPosts on the new platform.

IMPORTANT - if you write your posts in Microsoft Word or some other off-line editor, you will get the most reliable behavior if you cut & paste your post into the HTML view of the FanPost editor. And if you do that, remember to wrap <p></p> tags around each paragraph so your text doesn't run together.

Visual Redesign

This one is probably the most obvious change of all. Like other major websites working to improve readability for their audience, we've adopted a fixed-width layout optimized for the 1024 x 768 resolution used by the majority of And The Valley Shook and SB Nation network users. Use the switcher below the user menu if you prefer the wider layout designed for 1280 monitors. We've introduced a top navigation bar with quick links into old and new sections of the site. We also polished a few edges, made some things larger, others smaller and moved a few boxes here and there. More changes and adjustments to come.

Search

We've completely replaced the old search engine with a new one. We're excited to make it easier to find old posts and comments, but we've only taken our first pass on the tools we're offering. We're focused on making search even better than what you had before, so please know that we're aware search is missing key features and we're working on it.

What's New

Schedule, Scores, Stats and Roster

And The Valley Shook now has all the basic information about the LSU Tigers and hundreds of other teams. During games you'll see a regularly updated line score, and as the season progresses we'll track team stat totals and leaders. This is just our first step, so look for us to publish more detailed and archival stats in the future. The best part about all this sports data is that we've integrated it directly into the blog so. We now have special pages that aggregate all blog posts written about games, players and teams.

Recommending FanPosts

Some writing deserves more attention and more conversation. If you want to bump a FanPost up to the top and keep it there for awhile, just click the 'Rec' link under the body of the post. When a FanPost receives enough recommendations it will make the recommended list.

Auto-refreshing Comments

You no longer need to refresh the page to see new comments. If you're logged in, new comments will automatically appear on the page every few seconds. When you post a comment, the page will not refresh either. If you want to quickly cycle through all the new comments, you can press the C key on your keyboard. Unmark a new comment after you've read it with the X key. And use the Z key if you want to umark comments as you're cycling through them.

As you use these shortcuts to cycle through comments, press the R key to reply to the current comment. All these helpful keyboard shortcuts are listed at the top of each comments section for reference.

Recommending Comments

Now you can reward those folks who take the time to look up stats and make smart arguments in the comments. Next to each comment there is an 'actions' link that you can click to find the recommend and flag options.

Flagging Comments

To help the moderators on a site, we've built-in tools that let you flag comments that are spam, trolling or just plain inappropriate. Only moderators can see those flags.

FanShots

Many members of the community just want to post that one link, video, photo or quote, but don't need a full FanPost. We've got you covered: FanShots let you share YouTube videos, Flickr or PhotoBucket photos, quotes from articles, portions of chat transcripts, top 5 lists and simple links. If it's a video or image we'll put a thumbnail on the homepage when you post it.

For those of you who are experienced internet hunter-gatherers of LSU Tigers material, install the bookmarklet onto the links bar of your browser and share FanShots with the community from wherever on the web you find that killer quote or photo.

Archives

It's much easier to find that post about a certain deadline trade or prospect retro feature. You can browse by year and month.

Avatars

Upload an image so folks can see your custom avatar on your profile, your FanPosts, and all your comments.

Network Profiles

Now that we have unified SB Nation network accounts, your profile will be your central hub for all of your activity on any blogs where you are a member.

Network bar

The top bar stays with you on all SB Nation blogs. It's a quick way to login and logout. When you're logged in, you'll see your avatar and screen name which links to your profile. The icon to the right leads to your Dashboard area where you can edit your settings, profile, account details and any FanPosts or FanShots you've published. As we add more blogs to the new SB Nation network, the My Blogs menu will be a handy way to navigate between the blogs you've joined.

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There are plenty more small changes and additions we've made, so please take a careful look around and explore this new system. We appreciate your patience and hope you'll help us improve the new platform for this and all the other SB Nation blogs.

And in case you missed it, you'll want to start by claiming your old blog accounts and creating a new SB Nation network account.

Hello Tigers!

We need YOUR stories for our upcoming book coming in 2009!

n partnership with The Booksmith Group we are creating the Forever LSU memory book: a fun, oversized, high-end book crafted from the stories, traditions and folklore of the LSU alumni. Not only will the bulk of the book be your stories, but the book itself will be a unique tactile experience with inserts and memorabilia included. Your university. Your memories. Your LSU brought to life. The finished product is a must have for any Tiger's coffee table or office credenza.

Continue reading this post »

Okay, so last time around, I talked about Points Per Play (PPP) as the football version of Slugging %.  In baseball, OPS (On-Base + Slugging) is one of the most telling, easy, reliable stats around.  It's great because it's flexible.  There are two different ways to put together a strong OPS--either by getting on base a lot or by hitting for power--and the best hitters do both.  You find consistency and explosiveness in one measure.

So if PPP is equivalent to Slugging % (explosiveness), what's equivalent to On-Base % (consistency)?  Success Rate, that's what.

In its most basic form, Success Rate is simply the percentage of time in which a play is deemed `successful'.  It is a measure I culled from Football Outsiders and tweaked to fit my own purposes.  How is `success' determined?

Continue reading this post »

Ohio state sucked . Matt Flynn did awesome at QB that game and definetly deserved the Most valuble player award . Keelin Williams did not have very many carries but was a beast when he did get the ball !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LSU is national beast champions . There not as good as the 2003 championship team but still beast mode . It would be great to see another  championship team in 2008 . Then we would be four time national champs 1958 , 2003 , 2007 , and hopefully 2008 champs . 2 loses this season I can understand the Kentuky lose but not the Arkansas game . Our defense sucked that day .

Hey, this is The Boy from Rock M Nation.  Congrats on the title...was really hoping we'd get a chance at you guys in NO, but alas...

Anyway, I posted this over at Sunday Morning QB a couple days ago, but I figured I might as well post it on some other blogs too...let me know what you think.

OFFSEASON PROJECT!  Over at RMN, I've been playing with the `Beyond the Box Score' idea (calling it that as an ode to the wonderful SBN sabermetrics blog of the same name) as it applies to college football stats.

I've been cranking out play-by-plays for 2007 games as fast as possible--as I post for a Mizzou blog, I've focused on Big 12 teams, Mizzou opponents, and teams with fellow Heisman finalists--but this is a massive undertaking, and I need some volunteers to enter play-by-play for the games I have yet to enter from the 2007.  They take about 30-45 minutes each, and I'm figuring I'll need about 6-10 volunteers to finish this stuff in a timely enough fashion to do something about it before the 2008 season starts orbiting everybody's attention span, so...actually, how about I just show you why I'm doing this?

Continue reading this post »

Joel from Rocky Top Talk has once again done the hard work and put together his animated drive chart of the BCS Title game, so go on and relive last night's glory HERE

LSU ROCKS! We are at home with our own fans and New Orleans is the greatest city in the world tonight! I hope everyone is wearing LSU gear but if not you can still sport it after the game by going to www.tigerdistrict.com. There is nowhere to go but up. OSU will be going home soon and will know who the real champions are!

GO TIGERS!

Lee Corso had made the comment that Ohio State had the best offensive line in the nation.

I beg to differ, based on the stats:

http://www.cornnation.com/storyonly/2008/1/5/102416/2186

Obviously, Nebraskans will be watching this game with great interest. I'm sure all y'all will either thank us or hate us depending upon the outcome.

I heard about you on "Around The Oval" and really liked the "home and home" interviews. I've waded through too many forums where the only dialog is "we rock...you suck"...it's nice to hear some honest evaluation.
I, and many Buckeye fans like me, love college football at it's best. I thought I would give you guys my personal "humble" opinion.
I'll tell you right off who I like on LSU's team.  Couldn't you guess? I grew up with "3 yards and a cloud of dust" Woody...
Jacob Hester..that guy is a stud. I don't think we really have to worry about him reeling of a 40-yarder or anything, but who can't appreciate a blue-collar guy who never stops pumping his legs? Like that mohawk kid from WVU..whats his name?....oh yeah, Schmidt.
I've been hearing a lot from Mark May(ESPN..IDIOT) about how OSU isn't good at defending mobile quarterbacks, like Juice Williams. He seemed to compare Flynn to Williams or Dennis Dixon...I don't see the comparison.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but Matt seems to be a QB that only runs when necessary.
No, I don't buy any of that "sec speed" crap...I think that this game will be won in the trenches.
And if you're going to jump up and down and say "Florida kicked your as*es last year", go to sports illustrated's blogs and post there, there are idiots lined up 50 deep on that forum.
OSU has caught more flack from 1 loss than any team in the history of CFB. Different year, different players. And I assume that Les has made sure that the LSU players know that.
I think most Buckeye fans would disagree, but I hope Dorsey is really at 100%. What better way to show that we really deserve to be there than to compete against the best?(although we have a pretty good DE ourselves..If you don't know who that is, you will find out Monday)
I truly believe that the game will be decided by one factor...
Can the LSU defensive line stop OSU's running game???
There hasn't been anything that I've seen(and I've watched every LSU snap repeatedly on tape) that would suggest that LSU will score more than 21 points...and that's generous.
If for some reason this game turns into a shootout, ala Hawii-vs-TTech or some such nonsense, The Buckeyes are in trouble.
If Beanie Wells is able to get 5 or 6 yards on first down consistently, LSU is in BIG trouble.  If, on the other hand, OSU ends up in 3rd and 9 or 10, it will be a LONG night for the Buckeyes.
Anyway....
May it be a good, exciting game...
unlike Ga-vs-Ha
unlike USC-vs-Ill
May everyone play to the best of their abilities
May any injuries be minor
and of course,
May the Buckeyes prevail!!!!
thanks for letting me come by and visit :-)
I know this is pathetic but if Dorsey plays badly, maybe he won't go to the Dolphins, but will be around long enough that the Bengals can snag him..our defense has sucked for awhile..we could use a monster pass rusher :-)