The final 14 players for the Pan-Am basketball team were announced recently which means that many other hopefuls were cut. Among those, all SEC players except for Vanderbilt’s Shad… Something Shan Foster were cut. Chris Lofton, one of the hopefuls for the team was also cut. You can read about it here.

Of course, Chris is no stranger to people not believing in him, and playing with a chip on his shoulder. That being said, this might be bad news for the other SEC teams this coming season, as he has yet another reason to feel disrespected and that he needs to prove himself worthy. This is good news for the BasketVols who return just about everyone on the team (minus Dane Bradshaw) including a few highly touted recruits.

I really didn’t care less about the Pan American games, nor have I ever, nor will I most likely ever in the future, but knowing that Lofton was out there, I was at least going to see if I could catch a couple of games on Telemundo or wherever they were going to broadcast it, but it looks like Telemundo doesn’t want my business. Aw well, to you I say: aurevoir! (get it? cuz it’s a spanish channel, and that’s not spanish! I kill me).

It’s mid-July, roughly 6 weeks from the kickoff of college football season, and for some (well, you, if you’re here reading this) it can’t come soon enough.

While we’re waiting, we got an email from one of our readers, (not sure if I should use her name, but it begins with an S and ends in tephanie), inquiring about a Mastercard commercial during the ‘98 football season. Copy of the email below.

I was wondering if y’all ever saw the Mastercard commercial from the 1998 football season. It was something like “chain link fence, $ per foot, regulation college football goalposts, $, 2 CBS cameras, $. The look on this man’s face, (go to video of Spurrier throwing his visor), priceless. If you know of a way I could get ahold of it, please let me know. Thanx!

I did a very quick Youtube and Google search, but didn’t turn up anything.  Also, I really don’t remember seeing this commercial, but it sounds golden.

If you know where Stephanie could find this video (a link will be posted here as well), leave a comment or email to admin@fulmersbelly.com.

Do it for Stephanie.  She’s hot (we did the research, ugly chicks don’t read this page), she likes college football, she says “y’all” in an email, and she obviously likes to laugh at Spurrier.  She’s a catch, guys (or ladies??).  Find the video.

You are in for a treat. We here at fb.com are proud to introduce a sentence that has never been uttered in the history of man. Along with the history behind the man of whom the sentence is about along with the ramifications of what the sentence could mean, it is ground-shaking.

Steve Spurrier, is cautiously optimistic about the upcoming season for his Gamecocks.

I know, incredible. Not only because he’s talking about the Gamecocks, but because it’s coming from the man who routinely made punchlines out of his opponents on his way to backing up what he said by thoroughly throttling everyone on his schedule. Of course, the situations have changed a bit, but if Spurrier can even pull out half of what he was able to do in his previous administration (the Redskins, for this discussion, don’t count).

Of course, he is cautiously optimistic at the golf course, but still, optimism is optimism. We’ll have to wait for the season to play out before we’ll know whether or not this is the year for the Gamecocks to win the SEC East, or whether this is the year that Kentucky beats Tennessee for the first time since the Reagan Administration. It’ll be a fun season if nothing else… Is it football season yet? Damn, I’m tired of being respectful of other teams.

Mark Schlabach of ESPN, has posted his thoughts on the best game he’d ever seen. It was the 2001 game against Georgia, Mark Richt’s first season, where the Bulldogs pulled off an improbable victory against Tennessee for the first time in Knoxville since Lou Holtz was born the dinosaurs roamed the earth, also starting a trend in which Georgia was able to beat Tennessee for four years in a row.
Tennessee fans will remember this game as the “why you don’t squib kick at the end of a game” game when the decision was made to squib it back to Georgia after a late touchdown by Travis Stephens which many thought at the time (myself included), locked up the win. Now, don’t get me wrong, the game itself was exciting, as I was there, and pretty excited until the squib kick. Within minutes, I, and the other 107,000+ people at the game, were shocked when Georgia was able to score, winning the game at the last instant.

This brings up an interesting question however, as to what led to the squib kick. Obviously, the most probable explanation being that Coach Fulmer wanted Georgia to have a rough time fielding the ball, wasting as much time as possible due to the lack of a possible fair catch. Another explanation would have been that the kick was actually shanked on accident, causing it to only travel to around the 45 yard line. Sure, that seems improbable, but how many times have you gone to the golf course after many practice swings at the driving range only to shank your first ball off the tee, causing it to go completely sideways onto the green of the hole next to you? Okay, so perhaps you’ve never done that, but I’ve done it at least 500 times. This has now become the “jon likes to play ahead one hole” rule.

The only thing that could have been worse than the accidental shank, would have been a deliberate squib called by the coaching staff, and well, of course the coaching staff will never admit to their own faults, as they should not. This would be analogous to a police officer pulling you over for something that you didn’t actually do, and then letting you go, upon realization that you didn’t actually run the red light on the left turn out of the Hilton hotel parking lot in Orlando… Bastards.

Well, it’s worth a read, but be prepared to not be super excited about re-reading the accounts of the game unless you’re an evil Georgia fan. In which case, enjoy it, but know that the sheer act of enjoying the recounting means you’re a bad person, and you hate puppies. Why do you hate puppies Georgia?

Georgia Fans Hate Us…

The University of Kentucky and the University of Tennessee have an interesting relationship. No other team has beaten the University of Kentucky in basketball more than Tennessee has throughout history, and UK and UT used to have a traditional border-rivalry game that was marked by a beer barrel. The two schools rest on the eastern sides of their respective states, and the two schools are separated by a 2.5 hour (1.5 if you’re Don racing between the two) drive.

Kentucky has traditionally played Tennessee very close in football without actually being able to get over the hump over the past 2 decades or so, and Tennessee, until recently, has had the same frustrating problem with Kentucky in basketball.

Kentucky and Tennessee, 69ing since the Puritans

I’ll be the first to admit though, that when Kentucky became bowl eligible, and played and won in the Music City bowl, I was happy for them. Not because they’re a rival, and you want your own team to look good because you beat them, and they beat someone else, but because Kentucky is like your brother who is perhaps not as successful as you in matters of money, but more successful than you in other things, like getting the ladies. You want him to do well because he’s your brother, but not that well, because well, you sort of hate his guts.

I have a rule that when it comes to OOC games, I almost always root for the SEC school, partly due to my superiority complex regarding the SEC, but also because it’s sort of like a big family where rivalries exist, but they’re still blood. The SEC shares a common bond of knowing they’re the best football conference, whilst simultaneously having a hard time wondering why everyone else in the country doesn’t believe the same thing.

Our friends over at A Sea Of Blue have posted a two part series about Kentucky’s rise in football over the past few years, as well as having a positive outlook with regards to the upcoming season. Part One here, and Part Two here. It’s a good read, and also coming from a blog that is mainly focused on basketball, gives an interesting perspective from someone who was used to the mediocrity of the past, but cautiously optimistic about the future.

The SEC has become a top-heavy conference now more than it has ever been, with the only problem being that due to the fact that there is such parity in the league, is that it makes it increasingly difficult for a team to emerge scatheless. Yes, scatheless. Would you prefer, without scathe? Fine, a team to emerge unscathed. But scatheless is better, trust me.

We’ll see this season how the perennial underdogs of the SEC fare in a conference where not only are they getting better, but the good teams are also getting better. Vanderbilt, South Carolina, and Kentucky are all poised for runs this year if all their cards fall into place, as they all have very good and stable coaching staffs in place and a steady stream of good recruits coming in to try to help their respective programs get over the hump. It’ll be a fun season to watch… As long as UT still beats all of them.

So, it is upon us, the Fourth of July.  Independence Day.  ID4.  The day of the fire…works.  The day that America declared it’s independence against the tyrannical rule of British… Taxes.  What better way to celebrate America’s Birthday than a nice rendition of everyone’s favorite song?

Happy Birthday America… and Happy Birthday… um, people who have birthdays today.

Apparently Les Miles and I agree on at least one thing. The idea that teams like USC (the fake one, out here in LA) have an easier route to go as far as being able to play in a National Title game than a team facing anything even approaching an SEC schedule. Here is a bit of the text lifted from CFB Report’s awesomely “fark-ish” post about it. Stay tuned till the end of the quote box to see a pock shot at the Big XICMXICALI XII:

I can tell you this, that they have a much easier road to travel,” Miles said of the Trojans. “They’re going to play real knockdown drag-outs with UCLA and Washington, Cal-Berkeley, Stanford – some real juggernauts – and they’re going to end up, it would be my guess, in some position so if they win a game or two, that they’ll end up in the title [game]. I would like that path for us. I think the SEC provides much stiffer competition.” And Miles didn’t stop there. “The Big 12 is a conference that might have two really pretty good teams, maybe four,” said Miles, who coached in the Big 12 while at Oklahoma State. “I think the Pac-10 may have one or two really good ones. The ACC certainly, arguably, has some quality teams. I don’t think there’s any conference out there that has as many quality teams as ours.”

Nice. I mean, even the coach himself is representing that probably his own former team wasn’t one of the serious contenders in the Big XII, which takes guts. But he does realize that he’s in a good situation with a good team over at the Bayou, and well, is turning into an SEC-elitist, which I have no problem with, being one myself.