It's so near to kickoff I can taste it! Our BlogBros at Addicted To Quack have done some excellent work breaking down the game from the Duck perspective, looking at the matchups for their offense and their defense. Poseur even made a payback trip to their podcast. Go take a visit before it turns to Gameday and all you want to do is tear them apart.
Speaking of Gameday, coverage will be similar to the way it was last year around these parts. You'll get a gameday morning gumbo with your TV schedules and viewing recommendations along with any late breaking news. This will also serve as an all-day open thread. One hour before kickoff the Gamethread will post, followed by Paul with some quick postgame reaction. As is often the case, your intrepid ATVS bloggers will be spread to the corners of the earth, with Billy and Poseur enjoying the day in a JerrahDome RV lot, myself braving the wall of water to join the Geaux Show/ Team KATT crewe in Ponchatoula, and Paul in a secret bunker somewhere in the Midwest. We had great participation last year and things generally never got out of hand. As most of us will be away from computers for a good portion of the day and certainly all of the game, we trust that you'll all remain your normal rambunctious selves. Just don't do anything stupid, because the banhammer will be wielded swiftly on Sunday morning if it has to be.
College Footbal began last night, and it was gloriously terrible for the most part. The Liberty Bowl field ran red with the blood of Memphis as Miss St. appears to have not lost a step from the end of last year with a 59-14 win, with nearly 650 yards of offense. (I hear you say "But it's Memphis." True, but putting up nearly 60 points and 600+ yards is what a good team is supposed to do against Memphis)
Meanwhile, Kentucky apparently decided that they are just going to skip directly to basketball season this year, with a 14-3 win over WKU that was much closer and embarrassing than that. As TSK notes, their 175 yds of total offense is probably the worst out of an SEC team since the infamous 3-2 Auburn-Miss St game a few years ago. Unless things change drastically and fast, you can go ahead and write that LSU-UK game down in a Jefferson Pilot time slot.
What may have been the most entertaining game to watch, if it was taped, was Northwestern St.'s opener at home against D-II Delta State. Down 17-0 at the half, NW St. switched QB's and sparked a late rally. It nearly wasn't enough as Delta St. ultimately killed themselves by failing to convert a 2 point try in the final seconds for the 24-23 Demon win.
There are a few great things that I love to read at the beginning of every football season. One is Uni Watch's annual breakdown of every uniform change in D-1A (USL gets compared to a D-II school) The others are the opening works by Spencer Hall, both of the serious and light-hearted varieties.
The Friends of the Program have quite possibly the most accurate prediction for the SEC that you'll ever read. They also have an inside look at a glorious LSU Gameroom that contains many valuable treasures...and a stripper pole.
Those of you who are firmly in the "Start Mettenberger NOW!" camp will be glad to know that Jarrett Lee has decided to take his talents to South Beach.
We failed to mention earlier that the 2012 LSU Baseball schedule is out....and quite frankly it's terrible out of conference. The usual LA teams are there, with the notable re-addition of Southern (though not in a home and home.) Notre Dame is Mainieri doing a friend a favor, and Air Force is interesting but not really competitive. Southern Miss is the Pontiff Classic opponent once again. The SEC slate has two surprises with the Miss St. series being the opening weekend of conference play and the final weekend being a road series at SCar (Tenn. rotates off from the East this year)
We also got news that Baseball and Softball are switching from Easton to Wilson/DeMarini for bats and equipment. Which is only really important because DeMarini's best bat brand right now is called Voodoo.
We learn via a post on the LSU Publications facebook page that sometime soon, live audio streaming of LSU radio broadcasts will be coming to the official mobile phone app. No details on pricing or availability yet.
Ever since the bombshell was truly dropped earlier this week in As The Aggie Turns, it's been pretty quiet on all fronts. A&M AD Bill Byrne, who's been silent since the beginning, put out a blog post detailing some of A&M's reasons for wanting to leave. The break in action has provided time for rampant speculation about who the 14th SEC team could be. While many in the conference are worried about a possible shift in divisions interfering with "traditional rivalries", TSK takes a step back and ask What exactly counts as "traditional" anyway?