5-at-10: Friday mailbag with starting quarterbacks shell game, The fight, Fab 4 picks plan, Rushmores and Fan mail

Tennessee quarterbacks Jarrett Guarantano (2) and Sheriron Jones (13) drop back during practice. Finding a replacement for starter Josh Dobbs is a top offseason priority for the Vols, and developing leadership among that group is crucial, coach Butch Jones believes.
Tennessee quarterbacks Jarrett Guarantano (2) and Sheriron Jones (13) drop back during practice. Finding a replacement for starter Josh Dobbs is a top offseason priority for the Vols, and developing leadership among that group is crucial, coach Butch Jones believes.

From Hangtime14

For the mailbag, I heard you make the point on Press Row that UT not naming a starter is a good move because it makes GT prepare for 2 different style of QB. But how much sense does it make that the shark lover at Florida says that all 3 of his guys could face Michigan? Is there a point of diminishing returns?

Hangtime14 -

There likely is a point of diminishing return, and while it may be splitting hairs, there is a difference potentially between the scenarios based on quantity.

Now each case may be wide open because none of the quarterbacks in Knoxville or Gainesville has grabbed the job. That could be possible. But for there to be three guys twisting and turning wit the Gators, it seems more likely for that to be the case there.

We will see very early - one dude plays and rolls - if Butch was being coy and keeping his cards close to the vest about the starter. Again, each place may not really know who the starter is going to be.

One other thing that may be happening in Florida is if the Notre Dame transfer is the guy, there's a ton of tape of him out there. Sharks McElwain could be keeping that quiet too.

Also, with a hyped-up freshman, keeping the pressure off Felipe Franks or keeping his struggles quiet also could be a motivator, too. If there's not a clear-cut front-runner (and even if there is) there are benefits going into the opener for a lot of reasons to keep it quiet.

Now going into week two signals more toward the old football coach's saying of If you think you have two quarterbacks you don't have one good starting quarterback.

From Mike

Are you going to watch Mcgregor-Mayweather?

Who you like?

Mike -

Not planning on watching it to tell you the truth.

We're intrigued by it, but we believe it will be a rather one-sided fight in which Mayweather dodges a lot of punches and exploits McGregor's lack of boxing technique..

We are going to watch UTC on ESPN. (We like the Mocs to win by a TD as long as everyone is healthy.) Then we'll watch Stanford play in Australia.
As for the fight, one, here's betting those cats don't even enter the ring before midnight and b) there's a real chance that it's over very quickly.

We'll say Mayweather inside of five rounds.

photo New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) calls a play during the first half of an NFL football preseason game against the Houston Texans Saturday, Aug. 19, 2017, in Houston. (AP Photo/Eric Christian Smith)

From Steve

Jay, I read your A2 column all the time. Love it.

I know you are no longer in sports at the TFP but are you still going to do your picks this football season? If not in the paper, will they be online?

Sure could use those extra tips. (For entertainment purposes only of course.)

Steve -

Yes, we are planning on doing our picks again. They will hit the interwebs on Thursday morning. We will discuss them in the 5 o'clock hour on Press Row and they will be in Friday's TFP, inside the Blitz section.

We will share the betting principles then.

Of course there are a few familiar ones that regulars around these parts will recall. Lines that look too good to be true always are. Trains almost always crash.

Stupid Clemson. (Which comes from the first year we did the picks and hit almost 65 percent against the spread while going something like 0-7 in games involving Clemson.) Only things that are truly due are postage and library books.

There are a few others - when it doubt, back the better quarterback; take Alabama to cover in SEC games and against top-10 foes; take the points when they play money games at home - and we're always tweaking.

But we'll stick to our guns. We've been doing the 5-at-10 since October 2010 and have made picks since the college football season of 2011.

We crushed the NFL picks we did after the end of the college regular season last year. We are a smidge shy of 60 percent all-time on college games against the number; last year's NFL picks were better than 70 percent against the spread.

So we may entertain that this year too. We'll see.

Rushmores

This week's Rushmores were tough friends. Agree or disagree with the following (and personal bias leaned in on some, especially a couple of the acting biopic choices).

Rushmore of potato chips: Plain Lays is a no-brainer. Then we'll go Sour Cream and Onion chips, Fritos and we'll finish with the Dorito. (Loved the suggestions, and know that Pringles made a hard charge.)

Rushmore of acting performances in biographical films: Gibson as William Wallace; Ben Kingsley as Gandhi; Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler; George C. Scott as Patton. (And yes, this one is really hard.)

Rushmore of movies from Stephen King's writings: Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me, The Shining, and Misery, narrowly edging out the criminally underrated Running Man. (Side note: Stephen King announced this week that he is blocking Donald Trump form seeing his movies after the President blocked Stephen King on Twitter. So there's that.)

Rushmore of movies starring singers:

On this day, Aug. 25, Billy Ray Cyrus is 56 on this day.

Sean Connery is 87 and Tim Burton is 59 today. Regis Philbin is 86 and Tom Skerritt is 84 today. Rollie Fingers is 71 today. Anne Archer turns 70 today.

Althea Gibson would have been 90 today. Cornelius Bennett is 52 and we can all agree that Biscuit is a great, Great, GREAT nickname.

Neil Armstrong died on this day in 2012. Side question: In 200 years, won't Neil Armstrong be on the short list of people who are still remembered?

Fringe fan mail

All the things going on in this country and our town and you write about a dog that died a month ago? What a waste of my time.

AND

Your insertion (Insert Donald Trump joke here.) is offensive. It made everything following just blather. President Trump was elected President by middle America voters. Joke about President Trump; you are joking about middle Americans.

Good talk.

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