O God. Alabama fans on their lunch break today probably didn’t want to see the story come over the wire, the one that basically says, “Your star junior running back and Heisman Trophy winner basically lost a knee yesterday in practice and had arthroscopic surgery this morning.” OK, maybe it’s not quite that bad. The only guarantee is that Trent Richardson is the starter for the San Jose State game. But with Penn State coming to town in Week Two, having that two-headed monster in the backfield would be nice. The Tide beat writers say not likely.
Richard Scrushy‘s illegal acts to the contrary, having HealthSouth and Dr. James Andrews located 45 minutes up the road in Birmingham isn’t a bad asset to have, so it’s possible Ingram could be ready to go in a couple weeks.
“It was a situation where everyone involved thought it would be better to take care of now, so he would not have any issues with it later in the season,” Saban said.
Ingram, a junior, hurt his knee late in practice on Monday. Saban said this morning’s minor surgery was successful and performed by Dr. Lyle Cain and Dr. James Andrews.
The normal recovery for a knee scope is a few weeks.
Here’s a bit of trivia — Andrews also operates a sports medicine clinic in Gulf Breeze, Fla., across the bay from Richardson’s hometown of Pensacola. Anyway….
Third stringer Eddie Lacy is an unknown quantity for most people not allowed at Alabama’s practice fields, so we will have to see how he fits into Richardson’s old role. But maybe Ingram could sit out Week One and Week Three (Duke) but be ready when the meat of the season really starts. As it is, Richardson has received so much preseason love coming off his spectacular freshman year, on the Madden scale many people would put him as an overall 97 to Ingram’s 94. So maybe waiting for Ingram to return until Week Four may not be as big of a deal as a former Tide team losing Shaun Alexander or (and this did happen) Siran Stacy.
Spencer Hall, who like the rest of us witnessed Richardson breaking out last year, had jokes.
Got hooked on those illegal parlay cards in college? Bill Simmons‘ musings on gambling turned you into a prop-bet degenerate? Well, time’s winding down to the kickoff of the college football season, so it’s time to get those bets in. We’re taking ours from Betus.com, and there’s some interesting lines.
SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE, WEEK ONE
Southern Miss at South Carolina (-14)
Our pick: We’ve all seen these Carolina opening games, and they’re usually horrible. Add that to the fact Southern Miss has a long history of playing SEC teams tough, or outright upsetting them. The USC offense will probably be pretty bad out of the gate, so we’ll go with the Golden Eagles.
Miami (OH) at Florida (-35)
Our pick: It’s not Charleston Southern, and big spreads are tricky, but we think the Gators will cover.
Northwestern at Vanderbilt (+5.5)
Our pick: Vandy’s Vandy, and with the late coaching turnover, we’ve got Northwestern in this one.
Memphis at Mississippi State (-21)
Our pick: Holy smokes. A year after going 2-10 and 1-7 in conference play, and Memphis is eligible for the woodshed. We’ll go with MSU to cover.
Kentucky at Louisville (+3)
Our pick: Mediocre teams usually win or lose depending on turnovers and mistakes. There will probably be a lot of both in this game, but Randall Cobb makes the difference for Kentucky.
San Jose State at Alabama (-38.5)
Our pick: The Spartans are up there with Miami (OH) as being very bad teams from mid-major conferences. Alabama’s offense should be even better. Spotting SJSU 10, the Tide has to score almost 50 points. Screw it — we’re taking Bama to cover.
UL-Lafayette at Georgia (-28)
Our pick: UL-LAF is probably going to get more than 40 hung on it, so the Dawgs will likely cover.
Arkansas State at Auburn (-31)
Our pick: Auburn’s supposed to be significantly improved over last year, and ASU is a little too far removed from its upset of Texas A&M in 2008. The Tigers will score enough to make it happen.
If you’re scoring at home, that’s seven teams to cover, one to not. They don’t have LSU-North Carolina on the list, but the general idea is pick ‘em to the Tigers as a 3.5 point favorite. It really shouldn’t be that hard for LSU to win by at least seven. That would be eight to cover, which is definitely living dangerously in Week One.
We’re shocked — shocked! — that Carolina football players received discounted rates and/or didn’t pay for their rooms at all. The news of this situation has led USC coach Steve Spurrier to say the players in question will be suspended. We’re thinking that the NCAA will want a tougher penalty.
Some South Carolina football players owed the Whitney Hotel several thousand dollars after receiving reduced room rates during extended stays at the hotel that have come under NCAA scrutiny, a source close to the situation told The State on Wednesday.
Multiple sources said some players had been living at the Whitney since the spring while paying a rate of $450 per month. But officials determined players should have been paying about $1,200 a month, and players were told by school officials to pay the difference to the hotel.
For at least two players who had not made any payments, the resolution meant they owed the hotel close to $5,000, according to one of the sources.
The Chicken Curse strikes again.
The Chicken Curse is getting started early this season, which is hysterical to casual Carolina fans like ourselves. Any other time in recent memory, it would be a star running back or wide receiver firing up the stickiest of the icky about half a dozen times, to the point where the athletic department has to say, “Dude, you’re getting blazed out too much. You’re off the team.” And it’s not as wonderfully epic as getting blitzed, breaking into a house, stripping and rushing the cops in your birthday suit. Or slinging cocaine. Just, O lord, the 7-5 season of making sure you don’t see playing time.
In the crosshairs of an NCAA investigation since July, South Carolina tight end Weslye Saunders has now been suspended indefinitely for a violation of team rules.
The issue, two sources told The Post and Courier on Monday night, is that Saunders lied to coaches about why he was late for Saturday morning’s practice at Williams-Brice Stadium.
Saunders, a senior, missed multiple team meetings Saturday morning, the sources said. He appeared at the stadium sometime before the team’s scheduled scrimmage, which began a little after 10 a.m.
Later, when coaches asked Saunders why he was tardy, Saunders told them it was because he was talking with NCAA officials. A quick check with the school’s compliance office showed that Saunders wasn’t telling the truth.
Whether Saunders will be kicked off the team or just not get on the field until the Georgia game is likely tied to coach Steve Spurrier’s desire to make it to the SEC Championship Game versus ethics and the like. We’re sticking with the former, unless the Head Ball Coach just gets pissed and boots Saunders for causing him problems. Right now, though, with a playmaker at tight end in trouble and the quarterback position a mess, Carolina is going to have to get its shit together in short order. Southern Miss may not be Florida, but the Golden Eagles do not fuck around.
Carolina coach Steve Spurrier can’t help himself and his penchant for playing around with the quarterback position like a general with so many green army men on a table. It started early this year and hasn’t stopped, his slagging on presumed starting quarterback Stephen Garcia. Everyone handicapping the Gamecocks this year say that Garcia has to have a great year for USC to move up to…No. 2 in the SEC East. And already he’s going to be pulled.
After the Thursday scrimmage, Spurrier gave the green light that backup (?) Connor Shaw would see time in the season opener against Southern Miss, no matter what happens.
For the second consecutive scrimmage, the challenger outplayed the incumbent. And in the only vote that matters, Spurrier left the door wide open that Shaw, a true freshman and son of a football coach, could be the opening-game starter Sept. 2 when Southern Miss visits Columbia.
The fact that Shaw took the first snaps under center Thursday only added to the intrigue.
“Definitely Connor’s going to play in the first game,” Spurrier said. “Right now we’re planning on both of them playing and go from there. Statistically, he’s been the best quarterback on the team in every scrimmage. So that’s where we are with that.”
We don’t know much about Shaw’s potential while playing against SEC opponents, but we’ve watched Garcia. We’ve seen Garcia. We have Garcia to thank for a particularly nice errant throw to open the game in Tuscaloosa last season. And for those reasons, why not start Shaw? Everyone knows how Garcia’s done in game situations, and he’s getting beat in practice. Maybe it’s time to start Shaw and see what he does.
Southern Miss can and has jumped up on an otherwise superior opponent and given them the what-for. But if the rest of the team is decent enough, put in the new guy and the worst that can happen is another 10-6 opening week slapfight.
In other news, the Head Ball Coach has had enough of the NCAA sniffing around the Whitney and told the players there to pack up, move out, and for God’s sake, pay their bills. We find it hard to believe college students could afford to live — live — at the Whitney, and find it highly suspect when it’s a group of athletes. Free rent, discounted rent, or rent facilitated by others can each cause some serious problems for the Carolina football program.
Spurrier would not say specifically whether players had gone a period of time without paying rent.
“I can’t go into all that,” Spurrier said. “They’re going to pay their bills and move out is what we have suggested for them to do.”
Tight end Weslye Saunders, who is being investigated by the NCAA for possible illegal activity with an agent, is one of the players who were staying at the Whitney. Offensive lineman Jarriel King and defensive tackle Travian Robertson also had rooms there.
Defensive backs C.C. Whitlock and Akeem Auguste were seen leaving Williams-Brice Stadium on Thursday before their teammates.
When assistant head coach for defense Ellis Johnson was asked about Auguste’s early exit, Johnson said USC “had some guys, two or three starters, who had to leave early to go get out of the hotel.”
This one could be a slow burn, if anything does come down from the NCAA. We don’t expect any significant ruling for findings of fact this year.
This is news to us, but Bear Bryant and the Alabama football program was investigated by the FBI for civil rights offenses for about two years, ending in 1971. Even J. Edgar Hoover was in on the act. The investigation was brought about by a complaint by a black student organization at Alabama and prominent attorney U.W. Clemon, who became Alabama’s first black federal judge. The situation came down to the lack of scholarships given to black football players. While the program did eventually extend scholarships in the early ’70s, the team had walk-ons before that.
We, the defense, will agree with the prosecution’s stipulation that the Tide failed to properly give scholarships or adequately integrate the team in the ’60s.
But oh, there’s more.
During the deposition, Bryant said his staff had been scouting black players as early as 1966. Yet he recalled telling a black high school coach that it was “a little too soon’” to have a black player at Alabama and implied that the state’s racial climate was a problem.
[...]
Taylor Watson, curator of a University of Alabama museum named for Bryant and dedicated to ‘Bama football, said archives including Bryant’s personal files don’t mention any reference to the FBI or indicate the coach had any interaction with the agency.
He also noted that a black player had been signed and others walked on prior to the loss to USC, even though none had played in a varsity game for Bryant.
“The idea that the Southern Cal game meant they could integrate at Alabama is the greatest myth in college sports,” Watson said.
We’ve read a lot about Bryant from people who should know, including the man’s own autobiography, published before his final national championship. The coach, and many of his black players attest to this, didn’t care about who someone was or where they were from or their color, but whether they would give their all on the field. In his book, Bryant mentions several times his friendship with Bobby Kennedy, who as attorney general was despised with a passion — and among some, a murderous passion — by the white power structure in Alabama and their foot soldiers in the Klan and other such groups.
At the same time, from everything we’ve seen, Bryant’s position on racial equality for most of his coaching days in Tuscaloosa was not too different than most other moderate-to-liberal Southern whites of his time. He agreed with the goals, but advocated caution, hence the quote in the deposition. In hindsight, and even at the time, some people have said that Bryant should have taken advantage of his position in the state and told George Wallace to fuck off and done what he wanted with his football team. However, it’s pretty clear tat Bryant never saw himself as that big, hero worship notwithstanding.
But the idea that Bryant actively made sure that black players didn’t get scholarships at Alabama because of some racial bias is simply absurd.
Bessemer, Alabama. A place you’re not likely to go to, unless you’re dragged by family to The Bright Star, a locally-famous restaurant. It’s an industrial suburb of an area in which the specific industry it was built to service began to skip town about 30 years ago. How do you make national news running for mayor of this fine city? Do a poor Photoshop job of placing the candidate in a picture with the state’s most recognizable (living) football coach and place it on campaign material.
“Coach Saban has not been contacted for a political endorsement of any kind,” Associate Athletics Director Jeff Purinton wrote in an e-mail response to questions from The Birmingham News.
Davidson, when contacted about the campaign ad and photo on Tuesday afternoon, at first said the image of her and Saban together was real and taken about three weeks ago. However, when presented later with a 2007 photo of Saban and his wife that appears to be the base photo onto which Davidson’s image was added, the candidate acknowledged that her image was digitally added to the 2007 photo.
“They said we could do it this way,” Davidson said.
It doesn’t take Joe Friday to begin to punch holes in the councilwoman’s story. First she says it was real. Then admits it’s not, but they were given permission. Then the campaign manager says his dad is tight with Alabama coach Nick Saban and got the OK on the golf course. After several hours of talks, internal investigation and the final result of ham-handed crisis management, the campaign manager said, yeah, he lied about everything.
The man who has been managing Bessemer Councilwoman Dorothy Davidson’s campaign for mayor this afternoon said he tricked Davidson into believing she had an endorsement from University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban.
Kevin Morris, 35, said he is responsible for the campaign flier that features a digitally altered picture of Davidson and Saban and touts an endorsement by the coach.
Morris said he told Davidson the photo of the coach and his wife, Terry, was actually of Saban and his mother. He said he told Davidson that Saban had OK’d the altering of the photograph.
How this guy thought he could get away with this ruse is simply incredible. Everything, everything Saban does in Alabama is news. Did he think he could pass out a few flyers in Bessemer and it wouldn’t at least make it to Birmingham, when reporters surprised by the coach stepping into politics would start investigating?
Since appearing to take a ridiculous amount of control over the Oregon sports programs — and doing some rather heinous things with the uniforms — Nike has been trying to spread its uni schizophrenia to the other universities in its stable. Last season featured the most egregious move, full helmet-to-shoes makeovers. The athletic wear behemoth made LSU look like Washington, did a predictably horrific job with Florida State and apparently the designers dropped acid before drawing up TCU’s outfits.
Even teams that have maintained traditional uniforms, Ohio State and Texas, were drawn into the mix. This year, horror of horrors, Nike has sunk its claws into Alabama.
The Nike Pro Combat uniform, with a newly engineered fabric that players favor for its light weight and moisture-wicking properties, debuted last season among a group of schools that did not include Alabama. But the different fabric type itself will be the primary change in Alabama’s 2010 version.
“Alabama officials were and are deeply committed to maintaining the look of the uniform,” said the source.
The appearance of the Nike Pro Combat Alabama uniform will remain largely unchanged, with a slight stylistic variation within the traditional look, and the color scheme will remain the same, according to the source.
Other schools contracted to wear the Pro Combat uniform this fall include West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh, Florida, Miami, Ohio State, Boise State, Texas Christian and Oregon State.
It’s good to hear that the people in power are trying to keep a lid on Nike from playing fast-and-loose with a uniform that has only had minor changes over the past 50 years. But, we’re antsy. The new end zone design, debuted at the 2009 spring game, is still taking some getting used to. Same with the previous design, which was brought in after the logo redesign. Maybe with the Nike boys and girls able to go wild with teams like Boise State, Oregon State and TCU, they’ll lay off on fiddling too much with the style.
You may remember former Alabama running back Glen Coffee running over the Clemson defense two years ago. Or Auburn at the end of the season, before it all went pear-shaped in the final two games of the year. Given the chance to leave early, he did, and appeared to be doing a decent job as the backup to San Francisco 49ers starter Frank Gore. But the man’s had it with the gridiron and is headed back to Tuscaloosa to complete his degree and then reassess his plans for the future.
“A lot of people aren’t going to understand and realize because they don’t have the wisdom to understand,” Coffee said. “Their eyes aren’t open like mine are open. True happiness is glorifying God and glorifying Christ. That’s what true happiness is. … And for me, that wasn’t the NFL. That wasn’t where I needed to be.”
A religious calling — or non-calling, as the situation may be — aside, it looks a little flaky. Evidently, there was a lot going on behind the scenes that no one knew about, or, since he was second-string behind one of the best backs in the league, no one was looking for. The reporters who were closer to Coffee when he was a star player seem to think, though, that it really is coming down do his faith.
People in Alabama also understood something about Coffee that people in San Francisco may have missed. He’d found religion in college.
In a December, 2008, article in Sharing the Victory – a Fellowship of Christian Athletes publication – Coffee wrote about growing up outside the church, about getting to Alabama and having some initial success but still feeling empty.
“Like nothing I did would amount to anything,” he wrote. “I never felt true joy. It was like, ‘Is this all the world has to offer?’”
He found something more and became a Christian. Didn’t stop him from playing football. Didn’t stop him from leading Alabama in rushing as a junior and becoming a third-round draft choice of the 49ers.
Good luck to him. It’s no use to stretch out time in the NFL chasing the dollar and giving up your body to harsh punishment when your heart isn’t in it.
Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath has been upping his Internet profile as of late, what with Facebook and Twitter and his new site, BroadwayJoe.tv. And naturally, we were only aware of this because of Wolfe père‘s Facebook activity — got to get your news about aging football greats from somewhere. One of the things Namath’s doing is posting videos with his pearls of wisdom regarding the New York Jets and Alabama. It just goes to show that when a player gets to that point in his life where he’s a fan (that is, a fan with an absurd amount of access), he’s got the same analysis we all have.
For instance, his discussion of the Tide’s chances this year comes down to:
1. The new starters on defense need to step up.
2. The players’ mindset needs to be right.
3. The offensive line needs to be solid.
You got it, Joe.
