Congress to have UFO Hearings next week. Should be interesting week.

The Fan Upstate had a segment recently where they talked about 63-17 being one of the most embarrassing nights ever for chicken fans. I threw together a quick recap of each half along with Todd Ellis' actual TD calls from that night. Quite the interesting cast of characters involved in that game as we look back 20 years later.

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2-time defending national champion Georgia picked to win SEC in preseason media poll​

By: Nick Bromberg - Yahoo! Sports

Georgia is the overwhelming favorite to win the SEC in 2023.

The back-to-back national champion Bulldogs received 181 of 291 votes to win the SEC in the league’s annual preseason media poll released Friday. Alabama got the second-most votes to win the conference at 62 while LSU got 31. No other team received more than five votes.

As you can imagine, Georgia was also the consensus pick to win the SEC East. The Bulldogs received 265 first-place votes; Tennessee got 14. The Volunteers were picked to finish second in the division ahead of South Carolina and Florida.

It was much closer in the West. Alabama got 165 votes and LSU got 117 to win the division. Texas A&M was picked to finish third in the West by a slight margin over Ole Miss. The Rebels were the only team in the West that did not receive a first-place vote.

Georgia beat LSU in the 2022 SEC title game after losing to Alabama in the 2021 title game. The last SEC title game that didn't feature either Georgia or Alabama came in 2013 when Auburn beat Missouri.

There are always outlier votes in the SEC media poll, and this year you don’t have to look any further at the people who decided to back Vanderbilt. The Commodores are picked to finish last in the East but got eight votes to win the division. Five of those eight also picked Vanderbilt to win the SEC.

Vandy has not posted a winning season since James Franklin’s final season in 2013 and won five games from 2019-21 before going 5-7 in 2022. The Commodores have never played in the SEC title game, yet got as many votes to win the conference as Tennessee did and as many votes to win the league as Arkansas, Auburn and Texas A&M did combined.

Ole Miss, Florida and Missouri were the only three schools in the league to not receive votes to win their division or win the conference.

2023 SEC preseason poll​

East

1. Georgia (265 first-place votes)

2. Tennessee (14)

3. South Carolina (3)

4. Kentucky (1)

5. Florida

6. Missouri

7. Vanderbilt (8)

West

1. Alabama (165)

2. LSU (117)

3. Texas A&M (1)

4. Ole Miss

5. Arkansas (3)

6. Auburn (4)

7. Mississippi State (1)

How is it?

Why would he ever pay it?

I'm sure there's a contractual obligation that would require it, but it's not mentioned in any article I can find.

delete

Gonna get me one as soon as I see them. Love it!

I've never worn a mask or respirator while doing yardwork but I've always been slightly irritated after cutting the grass this time of year due to the grass pollen, but its never been anything I cant shake the next day. I recently had a full blown allergy attack after a mow so I'm trying to take this more seriously now. Its mostly lung and eye related allergies rather than nasal/sinus but all of it is out of whack now.

Does anyone have any recommendations on which masks to buy (preferably from Amazon) that works well for you? Or any suggestions in general non mask related?

I really appreciate it.

I shared my testimony on the board! I felt compelled to go a step further! I don't know if I should have posted this in that thread or not!
I was thinking about how God has used music and songs that have touched me over the years! Songs and words that speak to me personally! A song that tells His story in my life!

I remember my pastor singing this song, not long after I was saved! The words hit me so deep as I listen to them for the first time!

This guy does a great job on it. His testimony while doing the song really hits home also! I know exactly where he is coming from. I can remember those days of darkness! Bound by depression, sorrow, alcohol and drugs! Feeling hopeless and helpless, as my life was spiraling out of control. Then I seen Jesus, that lilly in my valley! 21 years old, young and sin sick as a man could be, He reached down and gave me hope!

I am curious of those that believe in Christ. What gospel song or songs seem to touch you and make you say, that tells exactly the words my soul has experienced? I would love to hear some gospel songs that have touched you and have become your testimony song!
Please share with me. Give a testimony along with it if you'd like to. God bless!

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During practice?

Greer teams all got started in District1 at Anderson tonight.
Who’s the team to beat in the state in 12U this year?
The Blythewood 10U team beat us in the state championship game last year, and won the World Series, but all of those boys are 11 now.
Anyone got youngin’s playing?

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Tony Bennett, masterful stylist of American musical standards, dies at 96​

By: Charles Gans - Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Tony Bennett, the eminent and timeless stylist whose devotion to classic American songs and knack for creating new standards such as “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” graced a decadeslong career that brought him admirers from Frank Sinatra to Lady Gaga, died Friday. He was 96, just two weeks short of his birthday.

Publicist Sylvia Weiner confirmed Bennett’s death to The Associated Press, saying he died in his hometown of New York. There was no specific cause, but Bennett had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016.

The last of the great saloon singers of the mid-20th century, Bennett often said his lifelong ambition was to create “a hit catalog rather than hit records.” He released more than 70 albums, bringing him 19 competitive Grammys — all but two after he reached his 60s — and enjoyed deep and lasting affection from fans and fellow artists.

Bennett didn’t tell his own story when performing; he let the music speak instead — the Gershwins and Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern. Unlike his friend and mentor Sinatra, he would interpret a song rather than embody it. If his singing and public life lacked the high drama of Sinatra’s, Bennett appealed with an easy, courtly manner and an uncommonly rich and durable voice — “A tenor who sings like a baritone,” he called himself — that made him a master of caressing a ballad or brightening an up-tempo number.

“I enjoy entertaining the audience, making them forget their problems,” he told The Associated Press in 2006. “I think people ... are touched if they hear something that’s sincere and honest and maybe has a little sense of humor. ... I just like to make people feel good when I perform.”

Bennett was praised often by his peers, but never more meaningfully than by what Sinatra said in a 1965 Life magazine interview: “For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business. He excites me when I watch him. He moves me. He’s the singer who gets across what the composer has in mind, and probably a little more.”

He not only survived the rise of rock music but endured so long and so well that he gained new fans and collaborators, some young enough to be his grandchildren. In 2014, at age 88, Bennett broke his own record as the oldest living performer with a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart for “Cheek to Cheek,” his duets project with Lady Gaga. Three years earlier, he topped the charts with “Duets II,” featuring such contemporary stars as Gaga, Carrie Underwood and Amy Winehouse, in her last studio recording. His rapport with Winehouse was captured in the Oscar-nominated documentary “Amy,” which showed Bennett patiently encouraging the insecure young singer through a performance of “Body and Soul.”

His final album, the 2021 release “Love for Sale,” featured duets with Lady Gaga on the title track, “Night and Day” and other Porter songs.

For Bennett, one of the few performers to move easily between pop and jazz, such collaborations were part of his crusade to expose new audiences to what he called the Great American Songbook.

“No country has given the world such great music,” Bennett said in a 2015 interview with Downbeat Magazine. “Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern. Those songs will never die.”

Ironically, his most famous contribution came through two unknowns, George Cory and Douglass Cross, who in the early ’60s provided Bennett with his signature song at a time his career was in a lull. They gave Bennett’s musical director, pianist Ralph Sharon, some sheet music that he stuck in a dresser drawer and forgot about until he was packing for a tour that included a stop in San Francisco.

“Ralph saw some sheet music in his shirt drawer ... and on top of the pile was a song called ‘I Left My Heart In San Francisco.’ Ralph thought it would be good material for San Francisco,” Bennett said. “We were rehearsing and the bartender in the club in Little Rock, Arkansas, said, ‘If you record that song, I’m going to be the first to buy it.’”

Released in 1962 as the B-side of the single “Once Upon a Time,” the reflective ballad became a grassroots phenomenon staying on the charts for more than two years and earning Bennett his first two Grammys, including record of the year.

By his early 40s, he was seemingly out of fashion. But after turning 60, an age when even the most popular artists often settle for just pleasing their older fans, Bennett and his son and manager, Danny, found creative ways to market the singer to the MTV Generation. He made guest appearances on “Late Night with David Letterman” and became a celebrity guest artist on “The Simpsons.” He wore a black T-shirt and sunglasses as a presenter with the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the 1993 MTV Music Video Awards, and his own video of “Steppin’ Out With My Baby” from his Grammy-winning Fred Astaire tribute album ended up on MTV’s hip “Buzz Bin.”

That led to an offer in 1994 to do an episode of “MTV Unplugged” with special guests Elvis Costello and k.d. lang. The evening’s performance resulted in the album, “Tony Bennett: MTV Unplugged,” which won two Grammys, including album of the year.

Bennett would win Grammys for his tributes to female vocalists (“Here’s to the Ladies”), Billie Holiday (“Tony Bennett on Holiday”), and Duke Ellington (“Bennett Sings Ellington — Hot & Cool”). He also won Grammys for his collaborations with other singers: “Playin’ With My Friends — Bennett Sings the Blues,” and his Louis Armstrong tribute, “A Wonderful World” with lang, the first full album he had ever recorded with another singer. He celebrated his 80th birthday with “Duets: An American Classic,” featuring Barbra Streisand, Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder among others.

“They’re all giants in the industry, and all of a sudden they’re saying to me ‘You’re the master,’” Bennett told the AP in 2006.

Long associated with San Francisco, Bennett would note that his true home was Astoria, the working-class community in the New York City borough of Queens, where he grew up during the Great Depression. The singer chose his old neighborhood as the site for the “Fame”-style public high school, the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, that he and his third wife, Susan Crow Benedetto, a former teacher, helped found in 2001.

The school is not far from the birthplace of the man who was once Anthony Dominick Benedetto. His father was an Italian immigrant who inspired his love of singing, but he died when Anthony was 10. Bennett credited his mother, Anna, with teaching him a valuable lesson as he watched her working at home, supporting her three children as a seamstress doing piecework after his father died.

“We were very impoverished,” Bennett said in a 2016 AP interview. “I saw her working and every once in a while she’d take a dress and throw it over her shoulder and she’d say, ‘Don’t have me work on a bad dress. I’ll only work on good dresses.’”

He studied commercial art in high school, but had to drop out to help support his family. The teenager got a job as a copy boy for the AP, performed as a singing waiter and competed in amateur shows. A combat infantryman during World War II, he served as a librarian for the Armed Forces Network after the war and sang with an army big band in occupied Germany. His earliest recording is a 1946 air check from Armed Forces Radio of the blues “St. James Infirmary.”

Bennett took advantage of the GI Bill to attend the American Theater Wing, which later became The Actors Studio. His acting lessons helped him develop his phrasing and learn how to tell a story. He learned the more intimate Bel Canto vocal technique which helped him sustain and extend the expressive range of his voice. And he took to heart the advice of his vocal coach, Miriam Spier.

“She said please don’t imitate other singers because you’ll just be one of the chorus whoever you imitate whether it’s Bing Crosby or Frank Sinatra and won’t develop an original sound,” Bennett recalled in the 2006 AP interview. “She said imitate musicians that you like, find out how they phrase. I was particularly influenced by the jazz musicians like (pianist) Art Tatum and (saxophonists) Lester Young and Stan Getz.”

In 1947, Bennett made his first recording, the Gershwins’ standard “Fascinatin’ Rhythm” for a small label under the stage name Joe Bari. The following year he gained notice when he finished behind Rosemary Clooney on the radio show “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts.” Bennett’s big break came in 1949 when singer Pearl Bailey invited him to join her revue at a Greenwich Village club. Bob Hope dropped by one night and was so impressed that he offered the young singer a spot opening his shows at the famed Paramount Theater, where teens had swooned for Sinatra. But the comedian didn’t care for his stage name and thought his real name was too long for the marquee.

“He thought for a moment, then he said, ‘We’ll call you Tony Bennett,’” the singer wrote in his autobiography, “The Good Life,” published in 1998.

In 1950, Mitch Miller, the head of Columbia Records’ pop singles division, signed Bennett and released the single, “The Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” a semi-hit. Bennett was on the verge of being dropped from the label in 1951 when he had his first No. 1 on the pop charts with “Because of You.” More hits followed, including “Rags to Riches,” “Blue Velvet,” and Hank Williams’ “Cold, Cold Heart,” the first country song to become an international pop hit.

Bennett found himself frequently clashing with Miller, who pushed him to sing Sinatra-style ballads and gimmicky novelty songs. But Bennett took advantage of the young LP album format, starting in 1955 with “Cloud 7,” featuring a small jazz combo led by guitarist Chuck Wayne. Bennett reached out to the jazz audience with such innovative albums as the 1957 “The Beat of My Heart,” an album of standards that paired him with such jazz percussion masters as Chico Hamilton, and Art Blakey. He also became the first white male singer to record with the Count Basie Orchestra, releasing two albums in 1958. Sinatra would later do the same.

Definitely the offspring of a TI member... Please come meet your child at the rocket.

Maybe the highlight of Tuesday's gathering with the coaches was getting a chance to give James Davis a big hug and spend some time catching up.

This is not a complaint at all, but in the old days you were able to develop relationships with the guys because you were around them more often.

And as a lot of you know, James was a lot of fun to cover because he spoke his mind and seemed to always say interesting things.

Back in 2018 I had James on my podcast, and today I got a kick out of going back and reading the introduction to that episode:

James Davis, the Thunder to C.J. Spiller's Lightning, joins The Dubcast to reminisce about his time at Clemson. Davis, who lives in his hometown of Atlanta, says Dabo Swinney has been urging him to return to the Upstate to join the football staff and finish his degree.

Well, Dabo kept urging him ... and kept urging him ... and kept urging him to come back and finish out his degree.

James told me that this past spring he was back in Clemson and Dabo pulled him aside and basically said: "DUDE. Now's the time. Do it."

So that's what finally brought him back.

He's living in C.J. Spiller's basement at the moment on Lake Keowee. But he's planning on moving back into an apartment at the same apartment complex he occupied when he played.

Really cool stuff. He's pumped to work with Spiller, and be back at the program he helped transform into what it is today.

Here's that interview from back in 2018

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Part eight of the MWP Podcast Clemson Preview Series is out now!

Joining me for this episode is Kelly Quinlan, Publisher of Jackets Online!

Kelly gives a behind-the-scenes look at his relationship with Brent Key, who took over as GT's head coach after a 1-3 start from Geoff Collins.

How did Key adapt to becoming the face of the program?

What is it like to form new relationships with the media as you adjust to life as a head coach?

Quinlan also breaks down where GT lies within the powers of the ACC and gives his take on Clemson!

Nm

So it’s hump day. We will do a pretty boring poll today to get us over the hump. The two most interesting polls so far are coming the next two days. But todays poll is what major chain restaurant do you enjoy the most. We can’t eat a 5 star meal everyday sometimes you have to be trashy and check out your classic chain restaurants.

Three Questions Still Facing South Carolina After SEC Media Days​

By: Alan Cole - Southcarolina.rivals.com

NASHVILLE — Shane Beamer covered a lot of ground during his third appearance at SEC Media Days.

He discussed everything from his program’s recruiting to his long-term connections with Mississippi State and Oklahoma, and the three players along with him — quarterback Spencer Rattler, defensive tackle Tonka Hemingway and punter Kai Kroeger — had plenty to say as well.

But now just over two weeks away from the start of fall camp and 44 days away from the season opener against North Carolina in Charlotte, the Gamecocks still have key questions to answer as they attempt to improve their win total for the third consecutive season. Here are three quandaries for South Carolina fans to ponder coming out of Nashville.

1. What happens at left tackle?​

The low point of South Carolina’s offseason occurred in the spring game when starting left tackle Jaylen Nichols departed in the first quarter with an injury. Shortly after the game, Beamer confirmed his fifth-year senior will not be ready for the start of the season, and per the media guide will miss “at least part, if not the whole season."

So where does that leave the Gamecocks in terms of protecting Rattler’s blind side? Jakai Moore is the most logical candidate to fill the void as the only other member of the roster who has played left tackle at South Carolina, making 12 of his 19 career starts at the position.

But the depth after him is scarce. Yale transfer Nick Gargiulo played at all five positions at the Ivy League level but was not a full-time left tackle. Tyshawn Wannamaker and Cason Henry have both played right tackle with the Gamecocks, but never ventured over to the left side.

Somehow or another South Carolina will have to patch up the left side of the offensive line, and Beamer knows it.

"One big thing that we've done is work guys in multiple positions throughout spring practice as well and have some position flexibility at center, guard and tackle,” he said. “Certainly that's a concern as we start the season, but we've got guys that have some experience. We've got some guys who certainly are comfortable at the tackle position."

2. Which freshmen will play?​

One of the most eye-popping moments of Beamer’s relatively tame half an hour on the main stage came when he dropped in a comment about the youth of his team and what it means for his depth chart.

“We expect to play true freshmen at every single position this upcoming season,” he said. So we have to continue to grow up and get better in a hurry.”

What does that mean? The simplest answer is Nyckoles Harbor, the highest-rated recruit of the Beamer era who committed to South Carolina on National Signing Day. The incoming wide receiver and track star offers game-breaking speed and a chance to immediately impact the passing game.

Could Dontavius Braswell get involved in the running game? South Carolina’s thin running back room is currently spearheaded by jack-of-all-trades Dakereon Joyner and JuJu McDowell, but will need depth carries from somewhere. Where could freshmen offensive linemen help plug some holes?

And defensively, linebacker Pup Howard was the first member of the recruiting class to reach campus when he joined the team for bowl practices last December. Snaps will be up for grabs at linebacker after Brad Johnson and Sherrod Greene’s departures, and Howard is a strong candidate to soak up reps.

Immediate freshman contributions feel like a given after Nick Emmanwori's breakout start to 2022, and they likely will need to be for South Carolina to survive a gauntlet September schedule.

3. Can Spencer Rattler make the jump?​

Rattler exuded a quiet, steady confidence all afternoon in Nashville. The looks, feels and sounds of a seasoned media pro, a former blue chip recruit who has been in so many of these situations. Rattler fielded big picture questions from the conference and national media, parsing his status within the SEC signal-calling pecking order and looking ahead to his potential 2024 NFL Draft status.
But can he be better?

He flashed his brilliance in moments last year, most notably the thunderous six-touchdown performance against Tennessee in the home finale. But he was also alarmingly inconsistent, failing to break past 200 passing yards in seven games and tossing at least one interception in eight. This team's offensive identity will unquestionably be built around throwing the football with Rattler, returning No. 1 wide receiver Antwane Wells Jr., transfer tight end Trey Knox and a collection of talented weapons, but Rattler will have to make another leap for those building blocks to amount to anything.

"What I see on film is just sometimes me trying to do too much," he said. "Trusting my arm too much. Just trust the play, trust the offense, just protect the ball. That's what it comes down to."

3 U.S. Senators release bipartisan draft of federal NIL legislation for college sports​

Ross Dellenger
Senior College Football reporter
Thu, Jul 20, 2023 at 6:59 AM EDT·5 min read


Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) look on during a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
Three U.S. Senators, a Republican and two Democrats, have released a bipartisan discussion draft of federal legislation that would standardize Name, Image and Likeness nationally while providing college athletes medical protections.
A surprising trio of Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) are partnering together to create The College Athletes Protection & Compensation Act. Booker and Blumenthal, left-leaning lawmakers from the Northeast and two of the loudest critics of NCAA leaders, are joining forces with a Kansas conservative.


It’s a somewhat stunning alliance that has been cloaked in secrecy over the last several months. Such a bipartisan partnership could signal positive movement in the NCAA’s pursuit of a federal bill to regulate Name, Image and Likeness (NIL), a two-year-old concept in which schools are using differing state laws to compensate players, most of them through booster-led collective groups.
In a statement sent to Yahoo Sports, Blumenthal described the draft as a “milestone step forward” for college athletes. “They need a level playing field with guarantees of economic opportunities, educational outcomes, and essential health care,” he said.
In key wins for college leaders, the College Athletes Protection & Compensation Act sets a national NIL policy, preempts most if not all state NIL laws, creates an NIL database for transparency and even grants the NCAA authority to create rules to enforce provisions in the Act while affording the association a degree of legal protection.
Athletes, meanwhile, would follow fairly permissive NIL rules. They would receive lifetime scholarships and long-term medical coverage through both their schools as well as an established medical trust. The Act does not address athlete employment, a festering issue which college leaders and some athletes are fighting against, both in an ongoing court case in Pennsylvania as well as a potential ruling from the National Labor Relations Board.


The discussion draft of the Act is only a draft and has not yet been introduced in Congress. The timing of a final draft and bill is not clear, but the next few weeks are a critical time for the introduction of legislation before lawmakers leave for their annual summer break in August.
While the College Athletes Protection & Compensation Act draft is more moderate and balanced than others that have been introduced, the legislation has a steep hill to climb for passage, especially with the looming presidential election cycle — a time when Congress activity often slows to a crawl.
The Act is likely the first in what may be a flurry of bills or drafts emerging over the next several weeks as lawmakers, at the urging of college leaders, attempt to beat the clock. Sens. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) are collaborating on a bill. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) have each shown an interest in the topic as well. In the House of Representatives, Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) is working to finalize a drafted NIL bill.
Since the NCAA and college leaders began urging Congress to pass federal legislation in 2020, more than a dozen bills have been proposed and eight Congressional hearings have unfolded. Not one piece of legislation has even advanced to the initial step in the process, which is a bill receiving debate among a full committee in either the Senate or House of Representatives.


The draft of the Act is a melding of two pieces of previously introduced legislation — a bill Moran introduced in 2021 and the College Athletes Bill of Rights, which Booker and Blumenthal partnered in.
“It is no secret that college athletics have grown into an increasingly profitable, billion-dollar industry,” Moran said. “However the rules surrounding athlete compensation have not been modernized.”
In a way to modernize them, the Act establishes the College Athletics Corporation to serve as an NIL clearinghouse in charge of administering the bill, creating specific policy and regulating and certifying NIL agents. The CAC will have a 15-member board of directors, one-third of which must be current athletes or those who played in the previous 10 years. The CAC will have subpoena power.
As for specific NIL policy, the Act …


- permits schools to restrict an athlete from entering a deal that is contrary to the school’s code of conduct for moral reasons.
- prohibits compensation to be used for inducements with recruits and retention of current players.
- prohibits schools from representing athletes in NIL ventures or influencing an athlete’s choice of a representative.
- allows schools to prohibit athletes from engaging in NIL ventures that are concurrent with college athletic events or competition.
Athletes must report their NIL contracts to school within seven days of entering them, and recruits must disclose all current and expired NIL contracts to schools before enrollment. NIL contracts will not be subject to open-records laws at the federal and state level, according to the Act. However, the legislation does require schools to submit an annual report of their NIL deals — average and total value of NIL contracts — that will be used for a national public database.

In a non-NIL provision, the Act permits underclassmen to enter a professional draft and then retain their eligibility if they (1) return to school within seven days of the draft ending and (2) don’t receive compensation from a sports league, team or agent.
As for medical care, the Act requires schools making $20 million in athletic revenue to cover athlete medical expenses for at least two years after their final competition. Schools making at least $50 million will have to cover expenses for a four-year period following play. A medical trust fund will cover long-term injuries not covered by schools. Schools making at least $50 million in revenue must contribute annually to the fund.
“Being a college athlete was one of the greatest gifts of my life — it opened doors of opportunity and offered lessons I carry with me to this day,” said Booker, a former tight end at Stanford. “But it also opened my eyes to some deep, systemic injustices in the system — a system that, to this day, continues to put profits over athletes. This bipartisan proposal represents a major step forward

Jaylen Heyward, a safety and 79th ranked player. Are we legitimately pursuing or is he just listing Clemson?

@Paul Strelow thoughts on the rivals update from the Texas site ?