Mic Check this week

Mic Check was based on the article below.

Who the Vols should hire...

I believe Phil Fulmer is a great football coach who is a victim of his own success. I think he is judged against his own record, when he was winning 85% of his games. I think that is totally unrealistic and I think the Tennessee job is, at best, the 4th best job in the conference. But none of that matters. I may think the fan base is stupid, but I cannot deny that they have turned on him. It appears inevitable that Fulmer will be gone at the end of the year.

So we move on to who to hire if you are Tennessee. Most of the names that have come up regarding the job are hilarious to me. If you replace one of the most successful coaches ever in a conference where it is very hard to win, you better think long and hard about who that is.

Who could you hire that would leave their current job?
Who is a great coach at a place where the UT job would be an upgrade?
Who is a guy that has competed against and defeated teams in the conference?
Who is a guy with recruiting ties in the South?
Who is a guy that nobody could ever say is a worse coach than Fulmer?
Who is a guy that you would feel comfortable coaching against Saban, Meyer, and Richt?

In my opinion, you have to go get somebody proven to be better than Fulmer if you are gonna fire him. That list is very short in terms of record.

The perfect choice for the Vols is the man that will stand across the field from them in their next game... Darth Visor himself.... back up the Brinks and get Steve Spurrier. He is so competitive and realizes that it is freaking impossible to win big at South Carolina.
There is your huge name that makes sense. If he failed for some reason, nobody could ever say it was a bad hire.
Hey, and he is a Tennessee native.

That is what I would do. Steve Spurrier. I don't buy for a second that he has lost the fire or the desire to be great, I think he is at a tough place to win.

Grizzlies Roundtable w/ 3 Shades of Blue

3 Shades of Blue put together a Grizzlies roundtable about the upcoming season at the end of last week. I was part of the roundtable, along with Geoff Calkins, Chris Herrington, and Eli Savoie. The discussion covered just about every topic you can imagine regarding the team this year.
Here it is (podcast form)...
Grizzlies roundtable discussion (3 Shades of Blue)

I will never trust Joe Lee Dunn again...

3-2 on the philanthropy picks this week. The season record is now 32-15 (68%). Ole Miss gave up a late TD to Arkansas and I still cannot believe that Idaho won a game, those were our two losses. Thanks for holding the Idaho potatoes to 271 yds rushing Joe Lee Dunn. I should have known better than to trust that dude. New Mexico State should shut down their program. I am serious. Got Georgia, Minny, and Troy... but 3-2 is totally unacceptable.

Philanthropy (The Picks)

Philanthropy record for the season (documented) 29-13 (69%)

Troy -24 over North Texas (116th ranked d in the nation for N Texas, bad news. N. Texas is absolute trash. 2-12 ats vs. winning team. Troy is 14-5 ats in last 19. Rice beat N Texas 77-20.

Ole Miss -6 over Arkansas (Revenge game for Houston. Ole Miss is 7-2 ats in last 9. 3-0 ats on the road. Arkansas 2-5 ats in last 7. Ole Miss kills them this weekend.)

Minnesota +1 over Purdue (Minn is 11-2 ats vs. teams with a winning record. Purdue 2-6-1 ats in last 9 games. Minnesota QB Adam Weber is the deal. Minn--sssttttraiiiight up!)

Georgia +1.5 over LSU (LSU is a phony. Georgia is 6-2 ats vs. teams with winning record. LSU has played 1 good team this year, they lost by 30. LSU 2-6-1 ats in last 9 at home. Georgia-- stttrrraight up!)

N Mex. St. -13 over Idaho (This is the insult of all insults. Idaho is the worst team in the history of western civilization. They cannot cover anything under 30. The spread in all of their games should be 3td's and then go from there. This is insane. N Mx St by at least 20)

Mic Check (TV bit) from this week

Mic Check: Return of Houston Nutt

Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace (The Audio)

Wallace was on for the weekly segment live from Orlando today. We talked about how the team has looked so far, the roster, etc. Have you ever wondered who the Grizzlies would have taken if they would have gotten the #1 pick? Wallace told us. Check it.

It finally happened...

We took our first losing week on the Philanthropy picks this week as I just watched Air Force get stopped at the 2 yd line and kick a field goal when a TD would have covered it for us. Heartbreak. Ole Miss we got, and we got Kansas, but Miss. St. threw two pick 6's in a row to blow that game open for UT, and I have no idea about Wake. So we ended 2-3 on the day, moving the season record to 29-13 (69%) . Unacceptable. The rest of the season is free. Muhahahahahaha.

Surprise guest Kelly Pavlik

Weekly regular Bert Sugar was on the show from Atlantic City on Friday. While we were talking he gave the phone to none other than Kelly Pavlik. Here is what happened if you missed it...

Philanthropy (The Picks)

Philanthropy season record stands at 27-10 for the season (every pick documented every week on cvernon.com). That is 73% this season. You roll with Vinnie Verno or you don't roll.

Here are the picks for this weekend...

Ole Miss +13 over Alabama (Alabama has punked out teams that have weak interior play. This will not be the case with the Rebels. Ole Miss gives Bama all they want.)

Miss St +7.5 over Tennessee (Holy crap, UT is over a TD favorite in a game. Insulting. I won't be surprised if the Bullies take them down and it gets Phil fired. Miss. St is 3rd in the nation against the pass, and UT thinks they are a passing team. The 104th ranked offense should not be giving over a TD to anyone)

Wake -1.5 over Maryland (The last time we saw Maryland they were getting crushed by Virginia 31-0. I think Wake is gonna win the ACC. Their defense is great. They are 5-1 ats on the road, 8-2 ats against winning teams, 10-3 ats in last 13 games, Maryland has 92nd ranked D in the nation and 96th ranked D against the pass. Is this enough to convince you?)

Air Force -4.5 over UNLV (This seems to be like an absolute mortal lock. You know I love Air Force and I still have no idea how they get no respect on these lines. The last 2 weeks we have seen UNLV get beat by 2td's by Colorado St, and lose by 3td's to Nevada. They cannot stop the run. In fact, they are 110th in the nation against it. Bad, bad news when you face the 5th ranked running team in the nation. Air Force is a covering machine. I hope they never get respect, they make us rich)

Kansas +20 over Oklahoma (20? what the heck is going on here? 20? Kansas is again one of our favorite teams to roll with as Mangino is a covering machine. Kansas is 6-1 ats on the road in last 7, 20-6 ats in their last 26 games, and let me remind you that they are 17-2 in their last 19 games overall. Now I get 3 tds? Crazy. I'll take it.)

Dan Wetzel gets down with Thursday underdogs, mentions show

Dan Wetzel was here yesterday for CUSA Media day because Yahoo is doing a Hard Knocks type show about the Tigers for their website. He told me that he was going to be flying out of Memphis to get to the TCU/BYU game and then I told him what was going to happen in the game. Ha! Anyway, Wetzel wrote his article about the concept today with some great research included.
He wrote...
"My friend Chris Vernon gave me the Thursday night home dog one. Vernon hosts a radio show in Memphis – which is not located in Nevada and, as a result, is a place where no gambling occurs. If he happens to buy a new HD television set anytime soon, it’s solely because of the big ratings his show gets.
However, upon hearing I was covering the game he said he felt bad for BYU for purely journalistic reasons. The Cougars were a heck of a story that unfortunately had to end because TCU was a home underdog and all of that."

Here is the whole article... BYU buried by Thursday trouble
Big thanks to Dan for mentioning the show.

Robert Vaden in studio, Chris Wallace (The Audio)

Robert Vaden from UAB was chosen as the pre-season CUSA player of the year. He joined us in studio to talk about everything. Going through the NBA draft process, Mike Davis, playing at Indiana, catching fire against Kentucky last year, Memphis, this past weekend, etc. Vaden is a really good guy with a good head on his shoulders. The audio is loaded.

Our weekly segment with Chris Wallace is also loaded in the player.
Jason Witten from the Cowboys is scheduled to join us on the show tomorrow.

ECU coach Skip Holtz (the audio)

Skip Holtz was on the show on Tuesday to talk about their season so far, dealing with injuries, the landscape of college football in the Carolina's, the Memphis game this weekend, etc.

One thing I love about NBA pre-season games...

is getting to see players that I never knew existed. Such was the case with Josh Davis, who was playing for the Indiana Pacers the other night. I had never heard of this guy in my life.

Josh Davis is a living, walking, breathing, NBA playing, avatar. I could not believe my eyes. I could not even decide if this was really a human that I was watching on the court. Here is the visual evidence (and the picture does not do this man justice)...

Josh Davis = The Avatar

Terry Bowden and Romo (The Audio), philanthropy

The Philanthropy record moved to 27-10 (73%) on the year (all documented on cvernon.com). 3-2 this past weekend. I am clearly totally unreal at picking games against the spread. I might be the best of all-time.
It is not a matter of if we win, it is only of how many out of the five games we get. Still no losing weekends this year.

College football analyst Terry Bowden was on the show today and talked about his brother getting fired this morning, Auburn and Tennessee situations, spread offense, etc. He is always money. Bowden is loaded, as is our weekly segment with Bill Romanowski.

I had to go to St. Louis...

for a family emergency, so I will not be doing the show today. I already had the Philanthropy Picks ready to post so here they are...

Season record 24-8 (75%) documented

Air Force -10 over San Diego (SDSU gave up 383 yds rushing last week, and 569 to Air Force on the ground last year. SDSU is 118 in nation against the rush. Bad news)

Ball St. -15.5 over Western Kentucky (I know a good ride when I see it. They will kill this team just like they have killed everyone else they have played this year)

Northern Illinois -11 over Miami (OH) (Miami OH is 1-7 ats in last 8, NIU is 7-0 ats, Miami just lost by 18 at home to Temple!)

Arizona -6 over Stanford (Zona is a great ats team, away team is 7-1 ats in the series. More importantly, Stanford made Jimmy Claussen look like the greatest QB ever)

Utah -23 over Wyoming (Wyoming cannot cover a number. Also, Utah is 6th against the rush and Wyoming is one of the worst passing teams in the nation. If that were not enough- Wyoming's coach flipped off Utah after the Utes drilled them 50-0 last year).

Have a great weekend. I hope to be back Monday.

Georgia coach Mark Richt (The Audio), show tomorrow on location

Mark Richt was on the show today to talk about offenses in college football, Matt Stafford, having to do two call-in shows after a loss (ha), penalty problems, the UT game this weekend, etc. I always like having him on the show, he is always good. The audio is loaded below.

The show tomorrow will be live at Ubee's on the Highland Strip. We will be there from 3-6pm before the Memphis/ Louisville game. We will give away tickets to the game if you don't have any. Come by and get some drinks and some food before you head to the Liberty Bowl.

Houston Nutt on the show

Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt joined us on the show today, and he watches Mic Check. unreal. We talked to Houston about the season so far, the Florida win, the South Carolina loss, Jevan Snead, what is wrong with Greg Hardy, etc. Audio is loaded-- and it works now.

Dan Hawkins, Bill Romanowski (the audio), added guest

We are now scheduled to have Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt on the show tomorrow. Mark Richt will be on Thursday, Jason Whitten scheduled for Friday.

The weekly bit with Romo is loaded. Dan Hawkins is loaded, and he was a gem as expected. He is seriously one of my favorite guests because he is such a different kind of guy.
remember- we are at Moe's Southwest Grill in Cordova Thursday, Ubee's on Highland Strip on Friday (before Memphis/Louisville game).