Happy Friday to you.  Here are your links and headlines from around the conference on yet another slow July news day:

This one’s for the Bama fans out there… a quick look back at the Tide quarterbacks who’ve worn the number 12.

Three Alabama football signees are in good academic standing in junior college and could enroll at UA by next spring.

Anthony Grant has added Purdue to this year’s home basketball schedule.

Kevin Scarbinsky of The Birmingham News wonders if schools should take legacy into account when it comes to recruiting (ie: the kid’s dad played at the school).

Auburn receiver Tim Hawthorne has a broken bone in his right foot that will keep him out of action for at least a month.

The media got a peek inside Auburn’s new $85 million basketball arena yesterday.

The best news is that the project is under budget and ahead of schedule.  (This story also featured a video clip of the arena.)

So is he or isn’t he?  This report from The Northwest Arkansas Morning News says John Pelphrey has suspended guard Stefan Welsh due to an academic issue.

Pelphrey and the Arkansas athletic department won’t confirm reports of the suspension, but they will say he’s still on the team.  (Look, I like Pelphrey and would like to see him get a real chance to turn around the mess he inherited… but it’s starting to feel like things are coming off the rails in Fayetteville.)

Multimillionaire Bobby Petrino donated $100,000 to the private fund-raising arm of UA’s athletic department.

Speaking of football, here’s a profile of incoming freshman Ryan Calendar.  The kid’s a Fox with a capital F.  Check out the story… you’ll see what I mean.

Razorback athletic director Jeff Long has received a contract extension.

The folks at Tiger Weekly believe it’s time for LSU fans to pledge their support to Les Miles.  Sounds nice… but if he has a disappointing year and loses to Nick Saban, he’ll be in hot, hot water.

I was under the impression David Brandt of The Jackson Clarion-Ledger was ranking the most important players for Ole Miss’ football team this fall… turns out he’s ranking the most important “people.”  That’s why D-line coach Terry Price is on the list today.  At #17.  I don’t think Mr. Brandt will be getting many scoops from Coach Price this fall.  He ranked him two slots higher than the Rebels’ kickers.

Here’s more coverage (from Idaho?) of Lane Kiffin receiving a commitment from a 13-year-old… nevermind the fact that the player’s father says it never happened.  (Yes, I’m defending Kiffin on this one.  Shouldn’t facts at least be somewhat taken into account before a column is written about the incident?  Especially when the column also takes Kiffin to task for not getting his facts straight when he accused Urban Meyer of cheating.  Which, by the way, I did not defend because THAT was move was somewhere between stupid and classless.)

Georgia linebacker Marcus Washington is back from a knee injury and ready to “get back out there and make a difference.”

Social networking sites can be dangerous ground for college athletes… and they’ve already changed the recruiting landscape.

Florida cornerback Joe Haden ranks #11 on The Gainesville Sun’s list of the 25 best players in the SEC.

Pat Dooley, also of The Sun, has put out his annual rankings of the SEC’s football programs.  You can click here to read the reasons behind his picks, but here’s how he sees them stacking up:

1.  Florida
2.  Alabama
3.  LSU
4.  Georgia
5.  Tennessee
6.  Ole Miss
7.  Arkansas
8.  Kentucky
9.  Auburn (Tiger fans aren’t going to like that one.)
10.  South Carolina  (Ditto Gamecock fans.)
11.  Mississippi State
12.  Vanderbilt

This writer puts Al Horford at the top of his “best all-time Gator basketball players” list.

SEC Commissioner Mike Slive sits atop The Orlando Sentinel’s countdown of the SEC’s 10 most powerful people.

Here’s the full list… and it’s built to create arguments.

This one makes our homepage, not the recruiting page: someone is telling a five-star recruit that Urban Meyer will be gone from Florida after this season.  That’s weak.  And desperate.

ESPN’s new SEC regional football package (which replaces Raycom) will keep Dave Neal in the booth, add Andre Ware as his sidekick and Cara Capuano as the sideline reporter.  Rob Stone and former Georgia players Matt Stinchcomb and David Pollack will be involved in studio duties.  And yeah, we know what you’re wondering.

Alright, so who should finish second to Herschel Walker on Georgia’s list of all-time greatest football players?

UGA fans have to be sweating the fact that — just like last year — injuries are already starting to pop up in Athens.

Folks keep on talking about new Dawg quarterback Joe Cox’s leadership skills.

Darius Miller scored five points and grabbed three rebounds in Team USA’s latest win at the FIBA Under-19 World Championships.

Kentucky has started a billboard campaign in which the road-side signs actually transmit UK’s fight song into the radios of passing cars.  This is a pretty cool use of technology to promote the Cats’ football program. 

Former Wildcat defensive end Jeremy Jarmon — shafted by the NCAA — drew scouts from 18 different NFL teams to his workout in Lexington yesterday.

Seth Emerson of The State brings you five reasons Carolina will be better this fall… then five reasons why they might not be.

All the fuss over Carolina reporting 14 secondary violations the other day was brought about by the fact that USC is one of the few SEC schools to actually release those details on a regular basis… without prompting from the media.

Quarterback coach David Reaves left South Carolina for Tennessee because he wanted to work with family.

Former Vol basketballer Phillip Jurick has landed at Chattanooga State.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 10th, 2009 at 10:43 am and is filed under Alabama, Homepage . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.