weekend links: webb and more

Because I'm attempting to sell a co-worker of mine — not to mention the rest of you — on the music of Derek Webb, I'm going to start posting various Webb-related things here in a shameless effort to make you people see things more like I do. To start, here's one of Webb's best: "Somewhere North."



While I was in college, Webb and Bebo Norman were basically the poet laureates of our lives as single Christian folk. Of course, as soon as we graduated they both got married. But the music's still awesome.

Here's my column for this week, while we're still on the subject of shameless self-promotion. Fun as always.

And with that, on to other things catching my eye on a Friday ...
— Like me, the guys at RBR are geeks for history. Today's post about the '66 Michigan St.-Notre Dame game — stupidly labeled "The Greatest Game of All-Time" by myopic analysts like Beano Cook — was outstanding.
— Thoughts on the NFL Draft: coach Saban "gave a positive report" regarding Andre Smith; Glen Coffee's stock may be rising; and Rashad Johnson answers 5 Burning Questions. And since I'm an Opelika guy, I enjoyed this feature about the injury-plauged Tez Doolittle.
— Mr. SEC wonders if another down year is looming for the conference, mainly because of uncertainty at QB.
— Regardless of whether the BCS is good for college football, it's certainly losing the PR battle, as Ivan Maisel says. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the chief difficulty with the BCS vs. the old bowl system/a full-fledged playoff is that it's a lukewarm solution. In the old bowl system, maybe the best teams weren't always playing one another, but there was intrigue on Jan. 1 about what would happen (e.g., the '65 season, when #1 UCLA, #2 Arkansas and #3 Nebraska all lost, allowing #4 Alabama to steal the #1 spot by winning its bowl game). And in a playoff, maybe those old traditions would be lost, but at least you'd wind up with the best teams playing each other for the crown.
Not in the BCS. It effectively rendered every game meaningless except the MNC game, and it can't even get that one right. That's just the way it is.
— In more somber news, coach Gene Stallings is back in Tuscaloosa this weekend with a heavy heart. It's the first time he's been back since John Mark shuffled loose this mortal coil. There is a ceremony scheduled for this weekend to rename a street in his honor, which is fantastic.
— Finally, it's a big weekend in SEC baseball. Here's the rundown, courtesy of TCBB.