Apparently there’s some nerd out there that’s going so far as to figuring out and comparing average housing price differences around the SEC.  According to this article (reg req’d) from the Knoxville News-Sentinel, claims that Knoxville wins the housing battle in the SEC.

When I first saw the title of the article, I assumed that it meant that Knoxville had higher home prices than anywhere (which seemed weird seeing as how everyone knows of the raging home prices in Starkville, MS), but as it turns out, the article states that Knoxville in fact has the lowest home prices of any city in the SEC East or West.

You know, that seems actually kind of bad.  I wouldn’t want to be spreading that news around (even though I’m doing just that) for fear that people would have images of people living in muddy shanty-towns all around the city.  I used to live there and I can tell you that this is definitely not the case.  The shanty-towns are not muddy.  Perhaps that explains why my rent for a 2 bedroom townhome in Knoxville cost approximately what it costs me to pay for my bathroom here in LA (that’s Los Angeles, not Louisiana).

That’s my old apartment, right there in sea foam green.  Fancy, huh?

I mean, seriously, one would imagine that the houses in say, Mississippi or Arkansas might be a tad more affordable than those in Knoxville, but I’m no expert.  Man, it’s a pretty freaking slow news week, seeing as how Tennessee’s next game won’t be for at least another month.  We could have a month’s worth of PSU vs. UT analysis, but you know, we don’t like to write about stuff that’s well, true.  Yep.

Man, that title… So freaking clever, I don’t know where I come up with these things.  Seriously, it’s like a gift you know?  It’s like I can’t control it (bonus points to anyone who can correctly identify the movie that line references).

Anyway, the BasketVols were able to overcome their two losses in the Garden and a second half rally by the Ragin’ Cajuns to defeat Louisiana-Lafayette with the help of Chris Lofton’s three point shooting.  Chris was able to “Lofton” into the bucket from three point range to put the game out of reach for the Cajuns.  Holy crap, that last sentence was awesome.  Okay, okay, I’ll stop.

Tennessee moved to 5-2 on the season, and will gear up for the annual barnburner that is the match against Murray State on the first of December.  Enjoy folks.

So, the coaching carousel has begun.  This season has already seen it’s fair share of casualties.  Among them, Jon Bunting, at UNC (I’d add links to the respective coaches being fired, but no one actually clicks on those, do they?), John L. Smith at Michigan State and more recently Larry Coker at Miami, and Mike Shula of Alabama (1 year removed from a 10-2 season btw), and very recently Coach Scelfo has been dismissed from the Tulane football team.
Of course, this starts the inevitable process of coaches shifting places, and undoubtedly, one of the coaches will get left out, and go work for espn.  Butch Davis has already accepted the job at UNC (because even HE couldn’t live up to the expectations he himself built up at the U), and speculation is that perhaps Steve Mariucci will be next in like for the Michigan State or Miami jobs.  There has been talk of Miami trying to woo Greg Shiano from Rutgers, but that seems less and less likely.

After the jump, we’ll take a look at some of the vacancies, and some of the people that could possibly fill them:

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Yes, it’s about that time, jon’s birthday.  His foray into his um, little later than mid twenties?  Anyway, jon would like a Wii, because it looks way cooler than the PS3.  Anyway, yeah, so, um, yeah, perhaps I should stop writing in the third person.  Happy birthday to me.

You know, I have been pretty critical of Urban Meyer over the last couple of years. I didn’t like that he was going to come in to the SEC with his snake oil, and sell it to the folks down in Gainesville along with everyone else in the SEC, claiming it would cure the disease left over by Ron Zook (a disease that looked like a cupboard stocked full of awesomeness). I didn’t like the fact that he bolted from school to school every two years, not having to prove himself in the recruiting department at all.

But over the last two years, something changed. I hated him for different reasons. I hated that he kept winning. I just couldn’t understand why his system, which was seemingly not going to be effective against the speed of SEC defenses, kept managing to pull out wins. I mean, at least when Spurrier was kicking everyone’s ass, you felt nice and used afterwards with numbers like 50000 passing yards put up against your defense.

As much as I hate different aspects of the guy, I have to respect him. He’s proven himself in the toughest division in the toughest conference in the country. He has compiled an 11-1 record in his second year (we’ll see how well they do with more of Urban’s players, and the pure “spread option attack”), and as much as I hate to say it, he’s now an SEC guy. He’s been in the SEC for two years, and although that’s not really long enough to create hatred say, between other coaches, he has been around long enough to be able to notch up wins against most of the other SEC coaches. It’s about familiarity and respect.
That being said, the team I hate but still respect, the Florida Gators, have been screwed. They’ve been penalized for winning the toughest division in the toughest conference in the nation. They’ve been penalized for winning 11 games and losing 1. They’ve been penalized for not running up the score against hapless opponents (sure, one might argue that they simply couldn’t run up the score, but still). Urban Meyer even went so far as to say that perhaps there should be a playoff because once style points come into the mix, sportsmanship goes out the window. I can agree with that. Hmm, all it takes is one coach to start the talk, and then hopefully more and more will follow suit. Perhaps there should be a 4 team playoff for the SEC Championship, that’d be pretty sweet, and set a good example for everyone else.

C’mon SEC, time to be a leader in something other than felony convictions.

Rivalry Weekend (damn you ESPN, and forcing me to use nicknames for weekends) brought some upsets, and some semblance of normalcy to a few teams who are ready for this season to be over. Let’s take a few quick shots:

LSU def. Arkansas

The Hogs’ chances of backing in to the national championship game were marginal at best, but after the loss to LSU, those chances are all but finished. They can still get to a BCS bowl by beating Florida and the Gator’s chances of sneaking in to the national championship game in the SEC Title Game in Atlanta. LSU, at this point, is hoping for a BCS at large bid (no doubt hoping that game would be against Boise High School Boise State), and could be able to make it to say, the Fiesta, where maybe they could literally sneak in to the National Championship game.

Texas A&M def. Texas

The Aggies were able to defeat Texas for the first time in 200 years in an oddly low-scoring game with Texas only scoring 7 points. Franchione, in the post-game interview, tried to fight back the tears, almost crying like a little girl. Soon afterwards, he was seen ditching the team, and moving to another state (if you’re a real football fan, especially an SEC fan, you’ll get the joke).

Hey, what’s that? Look over there!

More after the Jump…

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With the final fame of the regular season passed us, we’d like to revisit each girl of the week and pick a girl of the year. Voting will be completely by you, our readers, and voting is available at the end of this column. Voting can occur once per day from a given IP and votes will be accepted until 11:59:59 Saturday evening, and the results will be combined with those at the 8th Maxim. The winner will receive one free student footbal ticket for all of next season’s home games from their allotment provided they are still a student at UT. They will also receive an as of yet undetermined gift (probably along the lines of a gift certificate to somewhere – details to come). (edit from jon: just in case you didn’t catch the joke, we will NOT be giving away tickets or really anything else, because we’re poor).
We’d love to keep the girl of the week going, but to do so we will really need your help! If you know an attractive UT co-ed, alum, or fan, email us (admin@fulmersbelly.com) with her contact info. She won’t know who nominated her unless you specifically ask us to, so don’t be shy. Without nominations, we will not begin the girl of the week feature again at least until next season.

Without further ado, here are your nominations (click on the photo to go to to their original interview):

1. Amanda

2. Joanna

3. Christy

4. Michelle

5. Ginia

6. Brittany

7. Erika

8. Jina