Smattering of links and such for your Friday afternoon as we await the start of Auburn’s first Regional since 2003 …
— Speaking of, good news for tonight’s tilt with Jax State: the Gamecocks have suspended their top home run hitter after an extraordinarily ill-timed undisclosed violation of team rules. Still no firm word on Mummey and Fletcher. There could be weather trouble this afternoon but we’re staying optimistic. No TV, but apparently the live stream of the game will be free.
If, you know, you aren’t living in the middle of a federal Indian reservation and still stuck on DSL. Sigh.
— Track’Em has acquired a signed copy of this year’s Phil Steele mag with the man himself wishing the best for Shon Coleman and the Tigers. It’s being auctioned off in the comments with proceeds going towards the St. Jude Children’s hospital fund established in Coleman’s honor. Pretty cool, no?
— And hey, speaking of Steele, and speaking of cool, Steele’s new “experience” formula (1/5th returning lettermen, yards, tackles, OL starts) calls Auburn the 14th-most experienced team in the nation … and, according to Steele, “the highest among BCS teams.” Iowa St. actually ranks No. 10, but maybe Steele’s already ahead of the curve when it comes to this expansion brouhaha?
Anyway, I’m not sure this is Steele’s most telling metric–South Carolina and Mississippi St. finished at the bottom of the SEC in it a year ago, both in the bottom 10 teams in the country, and both ended up having perfectly fine seasons by their standards–but it’s better than the opposite.
— Jay G. Tate’s got himself a World Cup blog. Sweet. Maybe every Auburn blogger is a closet soccer fan? No, I guess not.
— Nick Saban’s suggestion for changing the Saban Rule is to completely do away with it and loosen the rule before the Saban Rule on top of that. I’m stunned there weren’t any takers on this one.
— Rivals has ranked the SEC’s basketball recruiting classes, and Auburn’s boundary-smashing first group under Tony Barbee skyrocketed all the way to … eighth. It’s still one hell of an effort given the handicaps, but it’s obvious how much work still needs to be done.
— Judging by its ratings, I’m assuming next to none of you watched the second season of NBC’s de facto Office spin-off Parks and Recreation, which is a shame, because it was dynamite all year. Hopefully there’s at least one person out there who did, though, because if there is, that person will find this totally awesome (if you are not that person, don’t bother):
— I’ll check in over the weekend as events from Plainsman Park warrant, I guess. See you soon.
Boom! Taliban robes!
(I thought it was doing well — I think Ron Swanson just got nominated for a bunch of stuff. We should start a blog: AubreyPlaza’sSmile.com)
It’s doing extraordinarily well critically, but ratings are totally in the tank. It’s been reassigned as a midseason replacement for next year.
This season cemented Parks and Rec as the best of NBC’s great thursday night lineup of shows.
Yeah, Parks was better than Office this season. But Office was a little down. Parks really found their stride in their 2nd season, once they stopped worrying about turning that pit into a park. It also helped transforming Andy from jerky boyfriend in season 1to lovable loser in season 2.
Love Parks and Rec. I agree it was better than The Office this season. Community also has moments, but isn’t as good as Parks.
I agree with all Parks and Rec related comments above. Great show! Ron and Tom keep my week filled with quotes. The owner of The Snakehole has promise too. “What it do, nephew?”
I guess I was wrong about no one watching.
Like everyone else, I agree Parks&Rec was far and away the best show on NBC’s Thursday night lineup this year. 30 Rock really dropped off the pace this season and if I can totally forgive the Office for slipping a bit–six seasons is a long, long time for a show like this–it definitely did slip a bit. Community I’ve heard lots of good things about, but the two times I sampled it for a few minutes I wasn’t impressed. Maybe I caught it on the wrong nights.
What’s interesting about Parks is that its first season really was a mess. I don’t know what kind of smart juice they started drinking during the break, but damn, I need to get me some of that.
AUAlum, my personal favorite is Jean-Ralphio:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/120709/parks-and-recreation-jean-ralphio
I gave it a chance and really got into Parks & Rec this year. That said, those of y’all saying it was better than The Office need to put down the crack pipe and take a step back. Seriously? I’ve been watching the office since it was Ricky Gervais on the BBC. This was the best season since season 3. The last couple seasons had been pretty weak, but I really thought the writing this year was exceptional. It’s the most uncomfortably funny show on television.
Though The Office has been declining over the past few years, it’s still way better than Parks and Rec, which is nothing but a bunch of overacting. The plot and characters are too cartoonish.
Joe, really? I’ll admit they can be over the top at times, but they’ve got nothing of either Michael or Dwight. And characters like April, Mark, and Ann strike me as kind of the opposite of cartoonish.