Going to be short here. I'm playing hurt this week, as my sinuses have decided to attack my head. It's gotten so bad, I'm on the verge of trying some Drank for the first time. Not that I need any more cold meds. Hell, there's at least a 50-50 chance this is all a NyQuil-fueled hallucination. But Cosgrove, the green raccoon that started talking to me around 3 a.m. last night assures me I'm typing on the computer right now, and I've never known a raccoon to lie.
So here's a quick round up of a few memes to potentially watch for on Saturday.
What to watch for on Saturday
Kneel Before Zod
Say what you want about "Precious" Derek Dooley (which would be a fantastic late 80s WCW wrestler name, by the way), the guy clearly has a plan in mind for how he wants to run his program and is sticking to it. Earlier this week, he said his team was going to learn how to tackle if he had to run live tackling drills all week AND punt the ball to Patrick Peterson.
Nevermind Gerald Jones' ridiculous comments.
Sexy Rexy
God love a quarterback with more arm than brains, and their patron saint, the Sex Cannon himself, Mr. Rex Grossman. Matt Simms has been relatively serviceable for Tennessee this year (which is damn sure better than LSU's quarterbacks can say), but his weakness is that he's got a tendency to say "fuck it, I can make that throw" - which has resulted in interceptions. And Tennessee is a team that can't afford turnovers. All three of Simms' interceptions have come on third down. The Oreo of Explosion need to take advantage of these opportunities when they present themselves.
Also, Cosgrove just reminded me to note that the Vols will likely attempt to use senior tight end Luke Stocker against the Tiger linebackers. He's a big target, and Stefoin Francois and Ryan Baker have struggled in zone coverage at times.
COOKIEEEEE
Tennessee is worst in the SEC in sacks allowed and second-to-worst in tackles-for-loss allowed. Drake Nevis and friends should be in for a good day.
Do NOT Expect
The Magic Stick
That is to say, if you're expecting some sort of magic fix for the Tiger offense, you'll be let down. The important thing is to watch for improvement -- even if it's just at the level of the Miss. State game. As awesome as it sounds, I'm betting the "Thundercat" package that got some play on the Matt Moscona show in Baton Rouge this week was just some gamesmanship from Les Miles.
I'm not sure I have the faith in Crowton to come up with such an obvious weapon, and with Peterson's cramping issues it's important to note that giving him more of a workload might impact his work on defense. And that's where he's most important to this team.