Is there something wrong with the word “state?” It seems as if a lot of schools have dropped the word. Middle Tennessee State is now Middle Tennessee. So are they MSU? Troy State is now just Troy. And everyone knows that state was dropped at Memphis long, long ago. But I will respect them and call them by their new names. This reminds of how upset I get when I hear someone refer to the Tigers as “Memphis State.” I’ll ask this question for those of you who feel the need to keep saying “Memphis State,” do you still call your female friends by their maiden names? Or have you accepted the name change?

The more I think about three headed monster that is the Memphis quarterback situation the more I like it. Hankins, Hudgens and Malouf are all different types of QB’s. Martin is a tactician, Will is gunslinger and Matt will beat a defense with his legs. That makes a DC’s job of defensive game planning very difficult. Personally, I’d like to see Matt a little more and let him toss it around some.

The senseless murder of Taylor Bradford angered me again when they _______ (insert your own adjective here) murderers were arrested yesterday. I would love to see three things happen in the case that will never happen but I can dream they can. First, I wish they would turn each one loose in his frat house and the football team’s locker room. If they managed to survive that then a public hanging would be the right thing to do. Yes, I know this won’t happen so don’t go nuts will ya. But if we developed some extreme punishments we might see less crime.

I hate the middle of the week while waiting on the weekend to get here. It goes soooooooooo slow. But that’s the beauty of football. You have time to think about what you’ll do for your tailgate. You have time to get psyched up for the game. So when it happens you’re sitting right on ready.

The Tigers defense will benefit the most from the near 11 days off. They will get their legs back and have had time to prepare more. We forget that they are still learning some adjustments in the defense from last year. I guess that’s the part of this year’s Tigers folks do forget is that there are a lot of new coaches who must learn the players and vice versa. Sometimes that slows the learning curve.

So will all the “experts” back pedal after the get bowl eligible?

I have to ask this question because I’m both baffled and upset about the new digs for the basketball coaches. Why aren’t we trying to put more money into the football program? The fact of the matter is that football can be the cash cow that basketball is now. We have room for improved attendance in football whereas basketball can only go up a little bit if at all. You’ve got to invest in the program to build it. You have to show fans, supporters, coaches and even players that the school is committed to make it first rate. This is not a chicken or the egg situation. You must invest to get dividends. You can’t expect things to get better if you’re not taking the necessary steps to get better.

Finally, a note about something totally not related to the Tigers or sports. I really like the new Kid Rock CD. It will be a great CD to listen to while rolling down the highway to road games. See I did manage to tie the Tigers into it after all.