Thursday Links (10/16)

Congrats to my hometown Philadelphia Phillies, who earned their first trip to the World Series in 15 years last night. Cole Hamels is just sick, and it's hard not to love Shane Victorino, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. Being from the Philly area, I know all too well how frustrated of a sports city it is, but winning that series has to be more fulfilling than a Pat's whiz-wit.

I've got an inordinate amount of writing to do today, but here's a hanful of links for your reading pleasure...

-- I have a story about Georgia's failure to grab interceptions this year despite playing against some pass-heavy offenses. Oh, and since I didn't have time to post links yesterday, I'll pass along my story about Georgia's dynamic duo in the passing game.

-- The state's top football recruit will be visiting Athens, according to the AJC's Michael Carvell.

-- Chip Towers details Knowshon's "struggles" in the SEC and asks just how good Matthew Stafford has been this season.

-- Georgia Tech's head coach is giving the Bulldogs some bulletin board material already.

-- ESPN's Chris Low says Georgia still has a real shot at doing big things.

-- ESPN.com has a chat with Georgia recruit Aaron Murray.

-- Paul Dehner of the Albany Herald has a nice story on a very happy anniversary for Darryl Gamble.

-- David Ching writes about Brannan Southerland's brother's mixed emotions this week.

-- The Tennessean writes that, once again, Vandy's march toward win No. 6 won't be an easy one.

-- Two sings things aren't going well at Michigan: First, Rich Rodriguez's agent felt he had to deny the coach's interest in the Clemson job, and next, the Michigan AD found it necessary to offer the dreaded verbal endorsement of Rodriguez following the Wolverines' loss to Toledo. Oh, and then there's THIS, which adds fuel to the fire for sites like THIS.

-- I guess this is probably what most people were thinking, but to hear someone who would know actually say JoePa won't step down at Penn State because he's afraid of the fate that befell Bear Bryant, that's something else altogether

-- Former Tennessee Volunteer Chris Mims was found dead Wednesday at the age of 38. Certainly this is sad news, but check out the last sentence of his obit on Yahoo! News. When my time comes, I hope they have something that good to remember me by.

-- And let's end with something on those Phillies: Matt Stairs probably isn't a media darling often, so he can be forgiven for giving a bad quote. But his first quote in this story -- that's pretty bad.