Monday Afternoon Hodge Podge

As we move into the interminably long dead zone for college football fans, news tidbits from the team can be few and far between. However, today we have a bounty of three quality links to report. Enjoy, and savor them!

* Chris Bahn weighs in with an excellent recap of which players gained ground and which ones fell back during spring practice. While we were heartened to see Expat fave Dennis Johnson on the list of people who improved their position, we were even more disheartened to see Joe Adams on the list of people who slipped (with the word "transfer" thrown casually around, too! Don't do that to us, Chris!).

* Bahn also reports (again) that the defense is better than you think, despite allowing multiple long TDs during the Red-White game. Granted, he would know better than I, but I'm remaining extremely skeptical until the team proves otherwise on the field this fall. And I'm definitely not convinced when Catholic High's Jake Bequette talks about going up against a powerful offense...getting burned by the 3rd and 4th-string QB's isn't the same as going up against Ryan Mallett, no matter how many good receivers we have.

* The hypewatch continues: ESPN's Chris Low has placed the Hogs 3rd in his post-spring practice SEC power rankings (behind you-know-who and you-also-know-who). I guess he's drinking the "better on defense" Kool-Aid, too. I'd love to be proven wrong here!