By Buddy Martin
SouthernPigskin.com

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I guess I cant blame coaches for dodging questions and spinning answers and declining to divulge the real stories behind their programs. Losing and not measuring up to expectations takes years off a coachs life.

Coaches, like politicians, have just gotten too good at giving non-answers to questions. They develop sudden amnesia. And theyre pretty good liars, too. Thats why I rarely interview them anymore 3 because I find most of them boring and unenlightening about 90 percent of the time.

Frankly, we can tell more about them by their body language.

Just take a look at their faces and bodies.

The heat has been turned at the halfway mark of the 2014 campaign.

You can see it on the face of Nick Saban, who blew a gasket at his weekly presser because Alabama fans and media didnt cotton to his teams narrow 14-13 win over Arkansas.

You can see it on the furrowed brow of Steve Spurrier, which speaks to his frustrations of a porous defense and a 3-3 record.

You can hear it in the voice of Jimbo Fisher, whose joy of a 22-game winning streak has been blunted by the all the questions about the misbehavior of quarterback Jameis Winston and the cloud of suspicion that hangs over him regarding questionable autograph practices.

You can see it in the strain on the face of Gus Malzahn, who looks like he hasnt slept for a week and still wears the pain of last years BCS title game loss to Florida State 3 not to mention his teams first quarter meltdown vs. Mississippi State.

You can even detect a slight hitch in the git-along of the otherwise placid Mark Richt, who took a blow to the gut with the suspension of Todd Gurley, but then bounced back to clobber Missouri with freshman Nick Chubb at tailback.

Of course, you could always see the pressure in the contortions of Will Muschamp. If anybody had a good reason to turn into a pretzel-face it would be the Florida coach, who is dealing with a quarterback suffering from major lapses in judgment and an apparent false charge of sexual misconduct against his emerging starter at quarterback, all the while remaining on the clock as Florida coach.

That same clock and pure logic tell us that Muschamp must beat Missouri Saturday to have any real chance of keeping his job, although its doubtful hed be fired midseason.

The problem is that Jeremy Foley doesnt have a good candidate for a replacement. And you can pretty much quash the rumors about Dan Mullen because I hear he has no interest in Florida.

Just a word on the behalf of all those tortured souls, however. There is such intense pressure to win in these high-profile jobs that Im surprised there arent more blown gaskets, trembling voices, furrowed brows and hitches in git-alongs. If not major nervous breakdowns, alcoholism and domestic violence (and Im not kidding about any of those later ones, either).

Yeah, I know, they get paid the big bucks for it.

Problem is their teams can never meet expectations, which are always bloated.

While Saban is feeling his players are underappreciated, its not exclusive to Alabama. Every fan base comes down with a bad case of delusionary dreaming once they taste the champagne of winning.

Losing and not measuring up to expectations takes years off a coachs life.

Thats why you see Hugh Freeze at Ole Miss and Dan Mullen at Mississippi State loving life these days. Both are unbeaten. Both are smiling a lot.

So I guess I cant blame coaches for dodging questions and spinning answers and declining to divulge the real stories behind their programs.

Losing and not measuring up to expectations takes years off a coachs life.

And maybe I need to watch them closer and pay less attention to what Ron Zook always called cThe Noise in the System.d Even if I do detest their coachspeak, amnesia and political spin-doctoring.

* * *

Top five September intersectional matchups I see on the 2015 SEC schedule just released:

1. Wisconsin vs. Alabama, Sept. 5

2. South Carolina vs. North Carolina, Sept. 3

3. Texas A&M vs. Arizona State, Sept. 5

4. Oklahoma-Tennessee, Sept. 12

5. Louisville-Auburn, Sept. 5

• Looking for a team that might sneak back in the playoff picture? While everybody focuses on the SEC West and Egg Bowl, consider Georgia, now ranked No. 10 after thumping SEC East division leader Missouri 34-0 and probably is about to get Todd Gurley back soon with fresh legs any day now. Meanwhile, after 143 yards rushing vs. the Tigers, freshman Chubb is primed for action and Hutson Mason has stepped up his production.
• We got to thinking the other day that as long as theyre building those bronze statues of so many coaches and players in college football today, why doesnt somebody in the SEC erect one to retiring commissioner Mike Slive, who built the billion-dollar money machine?
• If youre wondering why you havent heard more about some kind of payment or stipend for athletes so much anymore, its because the subject appears to have been killed in committee. Or has it?
• Heres what bothers me about the unevenness of economic conditions for athletes: One football player in the SEC lost his meal card for the training table and couldnt afford the $30 to replace it, so even though he was fed by the kitchen help, he was counted absent and subsequently disciplined for it. He had to borrow $30 from a teammate to be legal again.
• From reader Phil In Fort Myers, who wants a change of QBs at Florida: cIn all of NCAA football there are a handful of QB with a rating of 100 or lower, Driskel’s rating is 102, with 8 INT and 5 TD, so who are you going to start against Missouri? Why Driskel of course. In 4 possessions Harris has 4 scores 3 TD and a game winning FG. This is what I call the Rex Ryan school of picking my QB. Defensive coaches who dont have a clue about offense, especially the QB.d

Yes, Phil, but the Gators are playing them both.

• Players and coaches are not the only ones who had off weeks. The officials at Alabama-Arkansas and LSU-Florida had questionable 3 if not outright blown 3 calls in those games. And I still dont understand the leagues explanation for stopping the clock and putting time back on it in the Florida-LSU game.
• Wish list of candidates 3 other than Mullen — for Florida job if Will Muschamp gets fired (probably none hirable): Stanfords David Shaw, UCLAs Jim Mora and the NFLs Chip Kelly.
• RIP to Tommy Lewis, captain of the 1953 SEC Championship Alabama team who became famous for coming of the bench as the 12th man on the field and tackling Rices Dickie Moegle, who had eluded the Crimson Tides Bart Starr (they played both ways then) on his way to a 95-yard touchdown in the Cotton Bowl. Later, Lewis admitted he had been just ctoo full of Alabama.d