Nice job, North Carolina, at trying to hang with the big boys. In our lifetime we know two “‘Heels,” which is how’d we refer to anyone in periwinkle, that were halfway decent in the pigskin. That would be Natrone Means and Dre Bly. But it’s not like UNC could beat Alabama in the Gator Bowl or anything like that, which must have started all that Rick Fox love.
Regardless, UNC, y’all had a decent time in the ’90s as Florida State’s bridesmaid. That’s going to look beautiful to what’s coming, which is some mean-ass probation and hateful scholarship restrictions. We’d say we’re sorry, but we’ve hated UNC since moving to Winston-Salem in 1992 and, well, fuck you guys anyway.
Three sources close to an NCAA probe into the University of North Carolina football program told Yahoo! Sports that investigators are focusing on ties between assistant coach John Blake and prominent NFL agent Gary Wichard.
The sources said the NCAA’s inquiry into Blake has focused on his one-time position as vice president of football operations for Pro Tect Management – an agency founded and run by Wichard since 1979. Blake is now a defensive line coach for the Tar Heels, and oversees All-ACC tackle Marvin Austin, who is also facing NCAA scrutiny.
The sources said the NCAA is investigating trips Austin took to Florida, as well as his travel and training in California in the summer of 2009, when he worked out at Proactive Sports Performance with former Tar Heel and current Wichard client Kentwan Balmer.
The NCAA’s inquiry at North Carolina is one of multiple investigations underway at several institutions. The association’s enforcement staff has been in contact with at least nine Division I football programs since June, in what appears to be a more aggressive posture following major agent-related sanctions against the University of Southern California.
Who else is in trouble? Oh, that couldn’t be those toothless meth addicts from East Tennessee, could it?
The NCAA has broadened the scope of its investigation of the Tennessee football program beyond the appearances of recruiting hostesses at high school games, sources told ESPN.com on Friday.
Tennessee officials acknowledged last December that the NCAA was investigating the school’s use of female students as hostesses for football recruits, with some traveling to South Carolina and Georgia to attend prospects’ games. Since then, sources said investigators have looked into whether assistants under former coach Lane Kiffin had improper contacts with high school players at an all-star game and whether coaches improperly interacted on players’ Facebook pages.
A source close to the investigation said such actions could be considered secondary in nature “but if you look at it all together, [it] looks like there was not a sense of adhering to all the rules all of the time,” which could result in a “major violation” classification.
Tennessee has acknowledged it committed at least six secondary violations during Kiffin’s tumultuous tenure.
According to sources, the Vols’ football program is expecting a letter of inquiry from the NCAA before the start of the 2010 season.
Then there’s, you know, the people who always knew were fucking criminals. The University of Miami.
The University of Miami is being investigated by the NCAA for recruiting-related text messages by coaches in various sports — including football, women’s track and possibly baseball, three sources told The Miami Herald.
UM initiated the process by self-reporting the infractions to the NCAA.
Two UM athletic department sources said they believe the infractions are not considered severe.
Another source with knowledge of the investigation said it was launched in January.
Though individual text-messaging episodes would normally be categorized by the NCAA as secondary violations, collectively they could be considered a major violation, which is believed to be the case for the UM program.
See you in another 20 years, Vols, Canes and Heels. We never liked you assholes anyway.
For 12 years, the Southeastern Conference baseball tournament has been held at what we grew up calling the Hoover Met — Regions Park outside of Birmingham. But there’s only one year left on the contract between the stadium and the SEC, so the process has been opened up to see where the conference champion will be crowned in 2012. If you want to follow Carolina to the tourney in a couple years, it may be an even further drive than the five hours to Alabama.
Seven towns, including Hoover, are making a move, with the other six literally wanting the SEC to make the move. If the tourney leaves Hoover, the best venue may be Memphis. Yes, the only teams west of it are Arkansas and LSU. According to Google Maps, a drive from Columbia would take more than 10 hours and you’d still have to go through Birmingham. But the home stadium of the Memphis Redbirds (AAA, St. Louis Cardinals) has seating capacity of 14,320 and was called the best minor league park of 2009 by Baseball America. One of the standards the SEC is applying is that stadiums must, or must be able to, provide seating for at least 10,000. Regions Park holds 10,800.
The best situation as far as South Carolinians go is if the Atlanta suburb of Duluth lands the bid. It would be at Coolray Field (Gwinnett Braves, AAA, Atlanta Braves), which comes in right under the wire at 10,000 seats. But according to The Birmingham News, the SEC is having reservations about batting practice areas and hotel availability close to the venue. Considering that the SEC has all but up and moved its headquarters from Birmingham to Atlanta, Duluth is right there in the mix with Hoover and Memphis.
The other two sites are lacking and behind, to say the least. One is Montgomery, which would play host to the tournament at the home of the Montgomery Biscuits (AA, Tampa Bay Rays). The immediate problem is that Montgomery Riverwalk Stadium comes up 3,000 seats short, though the organization says it can bring in enough seating to make it work. Other places — Jackson, Miss. and Little Rock, face similar issues.
The only other place with a legitimate shot is Jacksonville, the eastern geographical problem counterpart to Memphis. Jacksonville had the ACC baseball tournament from 2005 to 2008 at the Baseball Grounds (Jacksonville Suns, AA, Florida Marlins), so it can play up the experience factor to compete with Hoover.
What’s noticeable is that not one South Carolina stadium was in the mix. Whether it’s the continuing NAACP boycott — which has only seemed to screw over college athletes and the people who want to watch the games — or something else, we seem to have missed out again. Sports can be, and usually is, an economic engine. Our business and political leaders need to get on the hump and do something about this.
Sure, most people have their team’s schedule written down, posted up and all that, you you need to keep up with what the competition’s doing, as well. Here’s your 2010 SEC football helmet schedule, which is always a fine thing to have on hand.
See you at the Tide-Gamecocks game at Williams-Brice. It’ll be the first time Alabama’s been in Columbia since the blowout in 2005. For a larger version of the sked, click below.
Oh, you wily SEC officials, giving us the two most intense coaches in the league to start and the two craziest motherfuckers at the end. Bookending, eh? The Galleria retailers and the local Chick-fil-A franchise offer you many thanks. Friday gave us LSU coach Les Miles, he of the hat and taffy and improper clock management, and Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt, regularly described as a revival tent preacher who’s crazier than a sack of weasels. Oh yeah — and Auburn and Tennessee had people there, too, but who really cares about a couple sub-par teams in orange?
To give a little perspective on the events of the week, Dennis Pillion of al.com caught up with Spencer Hall of Every Day Should Be Saturday and SB Nation.
| Spencer Hall and Dennis Pillion recount the top five moments |
In the lead-off spot Friday was Auburn, whose starting quarterback played for Dennis Franchione’s son at Blinn College, a juco we actually covered back in the day. The year we were there, the big news was that Blinn got the old lockers from Texas A&M (OOH!), and would have won the juco national title if the quarterback hadn’t been suspended for two games. So, yeah. Auburn wants to do a little better than the Outback Bowl this year but with a No. 3 finish in the West, the sportswriters don’t think the Tigers will do much better.
| Auburn head coach Gene Chizik |
| Auburn offensive tackle Lee Ziemba |
| Auburn defensive back Aairon Savage |
Why, hello, Tennessee. Karma is a sweet-ass bitch, isn’t it? Oh, you mountain ‘necks were laughing in your moonshine jugs when all hell was falling on Tuscaloosa in the early aughts. The Vols are now on their third skipper in as many years, hoping that a protégé of Nick Saban and scion of Vince Dooley could right the ship and try to compete for the division title again. Isn’t going to happen this year.
| Tennessee head coach Derek Dooley |
| Tennessee linebacker Nick Reveiz |
| Tennessee defensive end Chris Walker |
Enough with the orange already. Miles was third up, saying that his inability to properly use the clock in a late-game situation last season was a new one for him. While this seems suspicious to us, and when every football fan in the country is thinking, “What the fuck are they doing,” while watching LSU flub its way to a loss, Miles likely knew better and just blew it. But he says he’s changed. Good news!
| LSU head coach Les Miles |
| LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson |
| LSU linebacker Kelvin Sheppard |
Finishing off the week was the Right Reverend himself, the man with the GIGGITAHs that pay, Houston Nutt. He owned up, kind of, to what happened last season by saying that it’s hard to go from playing on Saturday to doing a Thursday night game on the road — that is, against Carolina last year. Nutt said you needed to have an internal Dr. Phil to handle those sorts of situations. Not sure if we want a coach to have any part of an internal Dr. Phil. Maybe an internal Charles Barkley: “That run contain is just turrrrrrrible.”
| Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt |
| Ole Miss defensive end Kentrell Lockett |
| Ole Miss defensive tackle Jerrell Powe |
Before Auburn kicked off the third and final day of SEC Media Days, the media got together and voted for the preseason SEC standings and who they thought would win it all. Predictability, FTW.
SEC Champion
Alabama
SEC East Champion
Florida
SEC West Champion
Alabama
SEC East
1. Florida, 1030 (153)
2. Georgia, 791 (15)
3. South Carolina, 790 (8)
4. Kentucky, 462
5. Tennessee, 450
6. Vanderbilt, 194 (1)
SEC West
1. Alabama, 1034 (157)
2. Arkansas, 726 (6)
3. Auburn, 691 (10)
4. LSU, 653 (1)
5. Mississippi State, 320
6. Ole Miss, 293 (3)
Hey, Carolina — the sportswriters think y’all just might be second in the East. That could mean a halfway decent bowl game to get beat in. Sure beats losing to Connecticut at Legion Field. Maybe the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Short trip. In other news, it looks bad for LSU and Ole Miss, particularly for Tiger head coach Les Miles. It took Phil Fulmer about 10 years to go from hero to goat. Miles is going to make the journey from raising the crystal football to being canned in record time if what’s listed above really happens. As far as the Right Reverend goes, Ole Miss fans can be a little more tolerant, though being the dark horse one preseason to bottom-dweller the next isn’t what they’d call progress.
We’ve got one thing to ask for, for our upcoming birthday (that is, beside tickets to the Alabama-South Carolina game this fall and a case of Ketel One). Famed sports painter Daniel Moore did it. It’s out and available, like a debutant. It’s “Maximum Block,” the artist’s depiction of Terrence Cody putting his massive paw in the air and blocking another of Tennessee kicker Daniel Lincoln‘s attempts, this time to win the game.
BIRMINGHAM — “Maximum Block,” the Daniel Moore painting that commemorates the game-saving play in the closest game of Alabama’s undefeated 2009 national championship season, was unveiled tonight during a reception at the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.
[...]
A steady stream of people stood in line to get free prints of the painting autographed by Moore, a Birmingham artist whose paintings have captured big moments in Alabama football history.
Ah, beating Tennessee at the last second. That never gets old. Or coronary-inducing.
I can has?
It’s understandable why no one would want to live in the capital of meth and moonshine that is East Tennessee, and the recent troubles with the Tennessee football program scared off any big-name hire that the Volunteers could bring in. So, the UT administration went to option No. 5 (or six, or seven), Louisiana Tech head coach Derek Dooley. Several times today, it went back-and-forth as to whether this was true, but late Friday, ESPN’s Joe Schad and Chris Low reported that it was all but a done deal.
Louisiana Tech spokesman Malcolm Butler says Dooley has resigned from his positions as coach and athletic director to join the Volunteers. A statement by the university was expected later Friday.
The son of former Georgia coach Vince Dooley, Derek Dooley went 17-20 in three seasons at Louisiana Tech.
The Volunteers hired him after a quick search to fill the vacancy created when Lane Kiffin abruptly resigned Tuesday night, bolting to Southern California after 14 months.
Huzzah! An almost Chizik-ian hire. Like Alabama after the Mike Price “It’s rolling, baby!” saga, Tennessee was in a pickle ahead of the beginning of the recruiting season and needed a coach, immediately. According to information passed on by Rivals/Yahoo! writer Tom Dienhart, a press conference is expected from Knoxville around 9 p.m. tonight.
What is there to say about Dooley? He’s a man, he’s 40! He’s also the son of legendary Georgia football coach Vince Dooley, and was an assistant under Nick Saban at LSU. But here’s some things you may not know. He earned a law degree from Georgia (after playing football and getting his undergrad at Virginia) and practiced with Nelson Mullins in Atlanta. The record with Tech, a middling WAC team, is anything but solid. In his three years there, he didn’t win a conference championship.
2007: 5-7 (4-4 WAC)
Key wins
None.
2008: 8-5 (5-3 WAC)
Key wins
Mississippi State, Fresno State, Northern Illinois (Independence Bowl)
2009: 4-8 (3-5 WAC)
Key wins
Hawai’i
The commentariat seems to believe that Dooley is a stand-up guy and will be able to do some things with the talent that is traditionally drawn to Tennessee. However, people said the same thing about Mike Shula, and he only had one winning season in four years at the Capstone.
It’s been a long time coming, but members of the Tennessee basketball team are in trouble for drugs and firearms charges. Several years ago, we were working in a restaurant when the UT men’s basketball team came in. After asking where to meet girls, one gentleman pulled us to the side and inquired as to where they could pick up some weed. It’s quite obvious that Bruce Pearl hasn’t been recruiting Mensa candidates to Knoxville.
These guys were hot-boxing it when the driver decided not to obey the speed limit. After being pulled over, the cop smelled weed from the car. It all went to shit from that point.
The four were riding in a car driven by [Cameron] Tatum that police stopped for speeding. Police smelled marijuana in the car.
[Tyler] Smith, voted the SEC’s preseason Player of the Year in November 2008, was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of a firearm with an altered serial number (which is a felony).
[Brian] Williams faces the same charges as well as possession of marijuana.
Tatum is charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and having an open container of alcohol.
[Melvin] Goins is charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of marijuana.
The funny thing is, two players have already been dismissed from the squad for participating in an armed robbery. Miami’s “Thug U” football team has nothing on these fools from East Tennessee.
One of the under reported stories every year in major college football is the amount of free crap football players get when they go to a bowl game. Some is useless. For instance, we got a free watch from the SEC and a free pin for covering the 2004 SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament. Frankly, the catered Georgia Dome food, free bags of Golden Flake and Dr. Pepper out the wazzou was better than what the conference gave sportswriters.
The following is what SEC teams will be getting this year.
Music City Bowl
Kentucky: RCA high-def camcorder, Fossil watch, Majestic fleece pullover, New Era cap, Ogio Metro laptop pack
Independence Bowl
Georgia: Sony gift suite, Timely Watch Co. watch, New Era cap, football
Chick-fil-A Bowl
Tennessee: $250 Best Buy gift card, Fossil watch, Russell Athletic knit cap, Russell Athletic travel bag, football, Chick-fil-A gift card
Outback Bowl
Auburn: Best Buy gift card, Pro-Swiss watch, Jostens ring, hat, Outback Steakhouse gift card
Capital One Bowl
LSU: Party at Best Buy ($420 limit), Timely Watch Co. watch
Sugar Bowl
Florida: Sony, Apple, Trek, Garmin and Weber gift suite, Timely Watch Co. watch, New Era cap, Ogio Politan laptop pack, Lane recliner
Papajohns.com Bowl
South Carolina: RCA high-def mini-camcorder, Oakley Surf Pack backpack
Cotton Bowl
Ole Miss: Unknown
Liberty Bowl
Arkansas: Westinghouse 19-inch LCD HDTV/computer monitor, Fossil watch, Nike training shoes/sport sandals/sunglasses, football
BCS National Championship Game
Alabama: Sony gift suite with Trek and Garmin, Fossil watch, New Era 59Fifty cap, Ogio Politan laptop pack
Tennessee had to wait until the walking Krispy Kreme machine left, but now the NCAA is finally looking at the Volunteers’ recruiting practices. Namely, using comely girls to show football players a good time. Even reportedly sending them to Byrnes High School to lure top recruit Marcus Lattimore. If you’ve driven from South Carolina to Knoxville, you know how white-knuckling scary those mountain roads are, so this was a serious effort.
The hostesses are considered representatives of the university, which would mean they could not recruit players off campus. Therefore, the visits may be considered violations of N.C.A.A. recruiting rules.
Two of Lattimore’s teammates, Brandon Willis and Corey Miller, have orally committed to Tennessee. Lattimore described the hostesses as “real pretty, real nice and just real cool.” He said he thought they had “a lot” of influence in Miller’s and Willis’s commitments to Tennessee.
Because of their influence on recruits, the recruiting hostesses have become popular with Tennessee fans. Bryce Brown, the country’s top running back recruit last year, who is a freshman at Tennessee, was pictured on a social networking site last year with a hostess. Other Tennessee hostesses have publicly conversed with prospects through Facebook and MySpace.
Some recruits say their influence is significant.
“You don’t want to go to a college where they ain’t pretty,” Lattimore said.
Other colleges started getting in trouble for this sort of thing a few years ago, and many ended the practice. USC‘s “Carolina Classics” was even the subject of a campus rumor in 2003, but nothing was substantiated. It should turn the stomach of coaches and administrators to effectively be putting hot pieces of ass out there to bring in the next stud defensive back, but nothing’s sacred in love and football.
We say, screw ‘em (the program, that is). Former coach Phil Fulmer sold out Alabama to the infractions committee in order to avert eyes from what he was doing, so it’s poetic justice that it appears the Vols could get nailed with major violations for this.
