wet Friday: Webb & some links

We're not talking basketball right now. Don't think I can. Nobody expected this team to be all that good, right? So we should just be proud they're playing their hardest and giving us a chance to win these games, despite the fact that we have virtually no depth, no reliable point guard and no reliable outside shooters.

Anyway, here's today's Webb, an avant guarde piece entitled "What Matters More." There is some language.



Doubt you'll hear that one in church anytime soon.

Anyway, some links to close out your week.
— First, the guys at RBR do their typically excellent job summarizing Signing Day.

Objectively speaking, if you were given the ability to design a recruiting class from top-to-bottom, exactly what would you want? Well, to begin with, you would want a lot of highly-talented players, and then to make matters better you would also want to fill all of your position needs. Moreover, you would like to have a class full of players that have generally displayed good character off the field and sound academic performance in the classroom. And with all of that established as an objective baseline, clearly our recruiting class fits that bill to a tee.

If it's scorecards you're into, Chris Low can offer you one to wrap up the 2010 class even further.
— As for the individual players, Gentry has an outstanding feature on DeMarcus Miliner and Philip Sims, two guys who may have a chance to play soon.
And then, of course, there's the bizarre saga of Keenan Allen, who came out of Signing Day looking like a) a head case and b) a potential NCAA risk. And frankly, we don't need either. Best of luck to him, obviously.
— On a national scale, Brian Cook — Sporting Blog contributor and MGoBlog proprietor, best known to 'Bama fans as the guy who tut-tutted Nick Saban for over-signing in 2008 — posted this list of Signing Day disappointments. At the top of the list is the Zooker, whose 2010 class was noticeably affected by the fact that Illinois kept him for no other reason than the economics of the situation. Doubt he's getting a contract extension anytime soon.

— The boys at Alabama Gameday recently sat down to discuss the flaws of a NCAA football playoff system.

A playoff could work in one scenario. The top 12 or 16 schools should break away from the pack and form a new league, play each other, crown a champion, and keep the money for themselves. Unfortunately, most people would never agree which elite programs in the nation would break away. There would likely only be one team from Alabama in that new super conference, for example. No one would be happy with that either when their teams were formally relegated to a second tier.

I think they're hair-splitting. But they do raise good points.
— In "holy [bleep], this is happening again?" news, Tommy Tuberville hired two of his former assistants —  both of whom were working at East Alabama high schools — to join him at Texas Tech (in administrative roles only). Here's my cousin Jamie's take on the situation, via text message:

"Dunn could have a job almost anywhere if he wanted to. Good coach. Ensminger? Well he has pictures of Tub & a 3-legged goat. Only logical explanation."

— Since I know baseball season will be here before we know it, here's the first of Chop Talk's season previews: Billy Wagner.
— Finally, two Super Bowl links: first, Joe Posnanski gives you a list of things to discuss today at the office regarding the Super Bowl; and, apropos of nothing, here are the starting lineups for this Sunday's Puppy Bowl. All day long, on Animal Planet.