Tennessee and UCLA have agreed to move their game around to accommodate the devil ESPN in nationally broadcasting the SEC Pac10 matchup on Labor Day evening. This is good or bad news depending on who you ask, but overall, should be cool because the game will be unopposed on the opening weekend for football in 2008 which is usually pretty exciting if I do say so myself.

The good?

• National Exposure – No other games will be on, not even NFL games (Monday Night Football starts the week after)
  • Which is good for recruiting
  • Which (with a win or at least a close game), is good for rankings with pollsters who don’t ever watch the games, even though they say they do
• Ability to open with a strong opponent
  • Which helps with offseason focus
  • Which is good for confidence (again with a win or at least a close game)
  • Which should be good for trying out the new plays against a quality defense to see if they, you know, work

But the bad?

• Time change – The boys had a difficult time last year with the 3 hour time difference, as they didn’t really start playing well until the end of the game, approx 3 hours later (they hadn’t set their watches back… yeah, that’s it)
• California girls – Even though the game last year was in Berkeley, home of the rare species of female armpit and leg hair monsters, apparently the change in “style” of the girls on the west coast distracted the boys just enough – Los Angeles’ selection of girls will no doubt exacerbate the problem
• Game is on Monday – This one is actually kind of a real reason because it will be difficult for fans to travel to a game on the west coast on Monday and be able to make it back to work on Tuesday – not that Tennessee fans who travel far work anyway (long in the tooth and all)

It should be an interesting game to say the least. Both teams will be coming in with completely new offensive systems and offensive coaches (Clawson and Chow), and UCLA even has a new head coach. Those things considered, the only team that really might have an advantage might be Norm Chow’s offense, as there’s tape on the Tennessee defense which should be largely unchanged from previous years. Of course, there’s not tape of both Eric Berry and Demetrius Morley in the same secondary, which will probably be pretty scary overall.

Clawson’s previous exploits at Richmond will likely not be what will be seen at UT this year, as he has the chance to have so many weapons at most of the skill positions, that he will probably have a few more interesting plays to work with than he did with the Spiders.  Of course, I’m no expert, or even knowledgeable in any way.  Alls I do know, is that I’ll be at the game, and will likely rock the bright orange Duck Head shorts purchased from the good folks at Goody’s.

Damn, is it football season yet?