:: on dan mullen coaching in the national championship

mississippi state's newly hired head football coach, dan mullen, will be a busy man in the month of december and the early part of january. and i'm not just talking about the business that accompanies the christmas holidays and the advent of the new year. mullen has agreed to return to gainesville to help prepare his old team, the florida gators, win the bcs national championship game. that's on top of the work he's already been doing in the week or so that he's been at state (he's been racking up the cell phone minutes with recruits like crazy, as well as trying to assemble a staff). fortunately, the week brings the "dead period" in college football where coaches are not allowed to recruit and when most coaches who would be considered for staff positions would be focusing on bowl games of thier own.

this has actually caused some debate around the nation. some say that this situation is unfair to florida because thier offensive coordinator can't fully devote his time and concentration to helping florida win a championship. some say this situation is unfair to mississippi state because our new head coach cannot "strike while the iron is hot" so to speak, and drive in (and possibly improve upon) what was already looking like a pretty good recruiting class. others say this is a good thing for state because it gives mullen's hiring credibility and gives state fans a reason to brag, especcially the morning after mullen hoists the crystal ball over his head. it might even give state an edge in the recruiting department.

this exact discussion was had on one of my favorite sports shows, around the horn, today. i found myself going against my very nature and agreeing with bill plaschke over woody paige. here is the discussion...

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what are your thoughts on the issue?

more to come...

:: on the new mississippi state logos

one of the many changes being made a mississippi state is the creation of a somewhat different school logo. for as long as i've been at state we've had a myriad of different logos for different activities and organizations. the baseball team had their logo, the football team and basketball team had the same m-state banner logo, a lot of people (including me) are still attached to the interlocking msu logo that the football team used to have (the copyright is owned by nike, who isn't manufacturing our uniforms anymore), there was the walking- or more accurately described as "strutting"- bully, and there was the university seal. athletic director greg byrne commissioned the creation of a new logo, which looks pretty darn similar to the m-state banner logo, and along with it some cool new "spirit logos" like the ones bellow...
i'm pretty excited to see how we use these logos. i like the new depiction of bully, it gives him more of a bite. i also think it's awesome that we've incorporated the cowbell into a logo, especially since the sec banned those things at football games a few years back...

more to come...

:: the third day of christmas

the gift given on the third day of christmas, according to the song, is a trio of french hens. i've always wondered what made french hens more grandiose than the ordinary hen. do french hens have superiority over all hens? are french hens used because the french are generally perceived as lovers and this carries over to their poultry? does the person receiving the gift really care what nationality the hens are? and more importantly, where is the person receiving these gifts putting all the birds? we've already got turtle doves, now hens. and we're not even getting to the calling birds or the geese who are a' laying...

in any event, i give you ::

three french hens