Is there a name anywhere so identified with a position and a school or team in all of football as Colquitt, punting and Tennessee?
(more)

Tennessee incoming freshman Kenny Hall takes the floor each time with a chip on his shoulder. “I know my opponents look at me and think they’ll push me around,” said Hall, who at 6-foot-8 weighs only 215 pounds. “But you’re gonna have to really overpower me if you want to do that.” Hall, who enrolled in UT in June for the first term of summer school, averaged 15.7 points per game playing in the Pilot Rocky Top League, hitting shots at a .535 clip.
(more)

Tommy Tuberville in orange? Call it artistic license. To give “The Blind Side” an authentic feel, filmmakers got six coaches to play their 2005 selves.

(more)

It’s been interesting to watch the fall-out this week from Evan Berry’s “commitment to Tennessee.”

Surely you know the basics by now:

Berry tells Rivals.com that he wants to go to Tennessee.  He says he wants to play for Monte Kiffin.

Berry is the younger brother of current Vol star Eric Berry and the son of former Vol James Berry.

Berry is also just 13 years old.

The issue that’s been reported but apparently hasn’t registered with writers?  Berry’s father says his son DID NOT commit.  And UT, supposedly, hasn’t offered a scholarship to the wee one yet.

Or to his twin brother Elliott who currently likes LSU, according to his brother.

Tommy Hicks of The Mobile Press-Register is the latest to write on the subject and he makes it clear that the recruiting of 13-year-olds is ridiculous.  And it is.  No argument from me.

But what no one seems to be saying is who’s to blame for these types of stories:

Fans and websites like Rivals, that’s who.

A 13-year-old’s commitment can’t be taken seriously so it’s not the fault of the kid.  He was simply asked a question and provided an answer.

At 13 I probably would have said that I planned to open a lemonade stand on the moon.

This is also not the fault of UT (unless they told Rivals.com to call the young man or DID offer him a scholarship in a serious manner).

Nope, the fault lies with Rivals.  Why are they talking to a 13-year-old in the first place?

Because people like you and me actually seem to care what a 13-year-old says. 

So, yes, the blame goes back to the recruiting-mad fans who beg sites like Rivals and Scout for information on any player from the embryonic stage to puberty.  And then the blame goes on to the sites for being silly enough to give us what we want.

I could get a lot more traffic by including porn and video clips of executions on this site, but I’d just as soon not head down those roads.  Just because somebody wants to know what an 8-year-old is thinking, it doesn’t mean you have to interview him.

There’s one other way to stop this nonsense, of course: mamas and papas, don’t let your adolescent children talk to reporters.  That’d probably put a halt to this silliness pretty quick.

Chris Low, Pat Forde and Ivan Maisel have all gotten involved in some SEC football coverage since yesterday and we’ve got the links for you right here.

First, Mr. Forde looks at America’s hottest rivalries for 2009 and ranks the Tennessee-Florida, Florida-Georgia, LSU-Alabama, and Ole Miss-Arkansas games among them.

He also believes that Lane Kiffin’s “brashness — that’s a more charitable word than ‘obnoxiousness’” will add some spice to the Tennessee-Alabama and Tennessee-South Carolina games as well.

Mr. Low and Mr. Maisel take it from there and discuss this year’s two biggest rivalry games in the SEC in a short video clip.

Then Mr. Low chimes in on Tim Tebow… who he believes will have his game “refined” this year, not “reinvented.”

And finally, in ESPN’s view, Vandy fans should be hopeful because of Bobby Johnson’s coaching and the team’s experience, but they should once again be worried about a punchless offense.

Two quick notes from Knoxville this morning:

New secondary coach Willie Mack Garza says it will take his DBs time to jell “because they haven’t been out there at the same time because of injuries and stuff.”

UT center Wayne Chism helped lead his team to the championship of Knoxville’s Rocky Top summer basketball league.

Here are a few other news items, columns and blogs that involve SEC teams today:

Ray Melick of The Birmingham News writes that if Congress keeps poking at the BCS with a stick, college football presidents could vote to dump the system altogether and just go back to the old everybody-to-a-different-bowl scenario.  (Wouldn’t happen… the BCS brings way too much money to the big conferences for them to just walk away from it.)

Jon Solomon of The Birmingham News writes that either Florida or LSU can lay claim to the title of “SEC athletic program of the decade.”

Alabama nose tackle Terrence Cody ranks #19 on The Gainesville Sun’s list of the SEC’s best players.

Here’s yet another write-up on why the SEC’s basketball coaches believe their league will improve this season.

Pat Dye and Billy Brewer were among three former football coaches (whose teams landed on probation) who talked to The Sporting News about whether or not the NCAA has given Alabama and Florida State light sentences.



Over at SI.com, Stewart Mandel’s mailbag contains the following opinions:

* Florida is “probably better suited to repeat” as national champions than the Matt Leinart/Reggie Bush/Dwayne Jarrett USC Trojans.

* Jevan Snead could be a Heisman darkhorse.

* Gene Chizik and Lane Kiffin have actually benefited from the fact the media has covered their secondary violations.



And at ESPN.com, Chris Low has ranked the SEC’s stadiums from 1 to 12 with his three favorites being:

1.  LSU
2.  Alabama
3.  Tennessee

Here are your Tennessee notes for Thursday:

Tennessee has unveiled a new donation policy that will require donors to specific academic programs to also give money to a new “Tennessee Fund” if they want to right to buy season tickets to UT athletics.  In other words, donors can give to the “Tennessee Fund,” but they can no longer control how that money is used.  Well, at least it’s not the “Human Fund.”



New UT strength coach Aaron Ausmus is big on speed and the ability to change directions quickly.

Bruce Pearl is off to Tel Aviv to coach the US team in the Maccabiah Games.  Think of it as the Jewish Olympics.

No UT football or basketball players made the SEC’s spring academic honor roll.

Finally, we usually don’t cover the arrests of former SEC athletes (that would require another fulltime website), but when your name is “Cooter,” well, you can expect a mention.  Former UT backup quarterback and graduate assistant Jim Bob Cooter has been arrested for breaking into a woman’s home, stripping down to his underwear and climbing into bed with her.  Really.

With Bruce Pearl’s new contract extension announced yesterday, Kevin Brockway of The Gainesville Sun decided to dive right into the fact that SEC coaches aren’t exactly feeling the same economic pinch as their schools and fans.

You can click right here to see how coaches like Billy Donovan and Bruce Pearl justify their big dollar deals.



But just for the sake of raw data, here are the current SEC’s coaches’ average annual salaries:

1.  John Calipari, Kentucky, $3.9 million
2.  Billy Donovan, Florida, $3.5 million
3.  Bruce Pearl, Tennessee, $2.4 million
4.  Anthony Grant, Alabama, $1.8 million
5.  Mark Fox, Georgia, $1.3 million
6.  Trent Johnson, LSU, $1.2 million
7.  Rick Stansbury, Miss. State, $1.2 million
8.  Kevin Stallings, Vanderbilt, $981,000
9.  Darrin Horn, South Carolina, $800,000
10.  Andy Kennedy, Ole Miss, $800,000
11.  John Pelphrey, Arkansas, $795,000
12.  Jeff Lebo, Auburn, $750,000



And just for kicks, taking last year’s wins and this year’s salaries, we provide you with an idea of what each coach makes per victory (minus Calipari, Grant and Fox, of course):

Billy Donovan, Florida, $140,000.000
Bruce Pearl, Tennessee, $114,285.71
John Pelphrey, Arkansas, $56,785.71
Rick Stansbury, Miss. State, $52,173.91
Kevin Stallings, Vanderbilt, $51,631.57
Andy Kennedy, Ole Miss, $50,000.00
Trent Johnson, LSU, $44,444.44
Darrin Horn, South Carolina, $38,095.23
Jeff Lebo, Auburn, $31,250.00

Wanted to bring you a few other news items and opinion pieces from across the conference in one big post… so here goes:

The US Senate will hold a hearing next week to look into antitrust issues regarding the Bowl Championship Series.  (Which is a colossal waste of time and taxpayer money and these buffoons should take it right in the ballot box because of it.)

And that means you, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch.  Hatch has actually penned a piece for Sports Illustrated on the topic.

Harry King of The Northwest Arkansas Morning News believes — like everyone else in the South — that the SEC will be much stronger in basketball next season.

Chris Low of ESPN.com thinks that Tennessee fans should be hopeful because of the number of playmakers Monte Kiffin has on defense… but they should be concerned about scoring points.



Seth Emerson of The State in Columbia has put together his own ranking of the SEC’s projected signal-callers.  You can read his explanations right here, but his list is as follows:

1.  Tim Tebow, Florida
2.  Jevan Snead, Ole Miss
3.  Jordan Jefferson, LSU
4.  Joe Cox, Georgia
5.  Ryan Mallet, Arkansas
6.  Greg McElroy, Arkansas
7.  Stephen Garcia, South Carolina
8.  Jonathan Crompton, Tennessee
9.  Mike Hartline, Kentucky
10.  Tyson Lee, Mississippi State
11.  Kodi Burns, Auburn
12.  Larry Smith, Vanderbilt



Ole Miss offensive lineman John Jerry comes in at #20 in The Gainesville Sun’s countdown of the SEC’s best players.

And finally, Edward Aschoff of The Sun has broken down ESPNU’s “150 Watch List” for 2010 football recruits and found that Florida’s six commitments from the list are equal with SEC rivals Georgia and LSU.

Here are a couple of nuggets from Knoxville today:

A large rock that has become a part of Tennessee’s football tradition is being moved to a new spot after 40 years.  (You know it’s July when the moving of a rock makes headlines.)

Rumors are swirling that Tennessee will trot out a black football jersey this year… even though athletic director Mike Hamilton tells our friend Jimmy Hyams that it ain’t happening.

Paul Gattis of The Huntsville Times believes John Calipari is the SEC’s first “rock star” hire in basketball since Rick Pitino entered the league.  Not surprisingly, it was flagship program Kentucky that made both of those moves.

As Mr. Gattis correctly points out, SEC basketball coaches are usually “an old alumn or a young up-and-comer.”  Pitino was an exception.  So is Calipari.

“SEC basketball could be headed into unchartered waters with Calipari at the helm.  And with the new ESPN tv contract, the spotlight on the stage is awaiting.”

And, oh yeah, just to keep UK fans grounded, Mr. Gattis also adds this observation: “The Wildcats are giong to win and win big — presumably, given Calipari’s track record, a step ahead of the NCAA posse.”

Three former college quarterbacks have lawsuits on the table claiming that the NCAA has illegally used their likenesses in EA Sports’ NCAA Football video game franchise.

As you probably know if you play this (or any other college games), while the digital players have the same build, skin color, and skill sets of their real human counterparts, they due not have a name attached to the back of their jerseys.

Florida’s quarterback, for example, might be a bulky, white kid with the ability to pass accurately and run like a fullback, but his jersey would read only “QB #15.”  It’s not a far leap to figure out that that little guy is the digital version of Tim Tebow.

Here’s the issue at stake for the NCAA: currently, the organization makes big bucks from EA Sports for the use school names, colors, stadiums and player likenesses… but if any of the players’ lawsuits are successful, the NCAA and EA Sports might have to cut the players in for a piece of the action.

Which, let’s be honest, is exactly what should happen.  That said, there’s no feasible way to actually pay thousands of college athletes, so don’t expect the NCAA to start cutting checks anytime soon.

There are, however, other possible compromises.  Jon Solomon of The Birmingham News provides an excellent overview of the litigation facing the NCAA and the video game maker, as well as those aforementioned payment options.

Well this one’s sure to ruffle some feathers. 

Chuck Carlton of The Dallas Morning News asserts that the Big 12 (or Big XII if you’re pretentious) appears on the verge of surpassing the SEC as the nation’s best football conference.

Tom Osborne, Nebraska’s athletic director and legendary ex-coach agrees.  “We could be there. … (it’s) going to be comparable this year.”

And that’s the issue.  The Big 12 is fighting to achieve equality on a one-year basis.

Last season, personally, I believe the Big 12 DID surpass the SEC in overall strength.  The SEC suffered a down year due to inexperienced quarterbacks while the folks in the Midwest were loaded with talented signal-callers.

Yet in the end, the SEC champ still beat the Big 12 champ for the national championship.



That said, Mr. Carlton believes the Big 12 has three things going in its favor:

1)  Oklahoma, Texas and Oklahoma State are all potential Top 10 teams.

2)  Four of the top five vote-getters for last year’s Heisman Trophy came from the Big 12 and two of those players are back (Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy).

3)  Seven Big 12 players were selected in the NFL’s first round in April.

So is that last point an argument for the Big 12 this season… or overall?  It appears to have more to do with an overall viewpoint than anything that’s going to take place this season.

Not to mention the fact that the SEC once again led all conferences in the total number of players drafted.  Which has been the case since roughly the War of 1812.



In a given year, the SEC might not be at the top of the college football world.  But if you look over the course of, say, 10 years, you can bet the SEC would be on top in about eight of those seasons.

Of course there’s one very solid, very clear point that supports the “SEC is better” argument: tv dollars.

I’m guessing the folks in the Big 12 would love to have CBS and ESPN offering them a billion dollars.  For Big XII fans I was going to use the Roman numeral for billion, but there isn’t one… and I don’t feel like typing the letter M one million times.

So, I’m sorry Big 12ers, but the SEC is the closest thing to the NFL outside of the actual pro game.  Other conferences might have a great year from time to time, but year-in and year-out, the SEC is clearly the nation’s best league.

To write anything else is simply an attempt to fill a slow news day in late June.

Remember when the rumors were swirling that Bruce Pearl was listening to an offer from Memphis representatives to replace John Calipari? 

Remember how Pearl basically disappeared for several hours and even athletic director Mike Hamilton said that he couldn’t reach him?

And remember how after several hours of discussions, it was announced well after business hours that Pearl would be staying at Tennessee?

Well, the contract that the coach is about to sign day was the product of all that intrigue.

Pearl’s salary will increase (to about $1.9 million this year), his buy-out will increase (a biggie for a coach who paid close attention to the dismissal of Phillip Fulmer), and the pool of money for his assistants will rise as well.

Yesterday’s basketball teleconference spurred several b’ball preview stories from Southeastern writers this morning, so we’ll start with those:

Alex Abrams of The Northwest Arkansas Morning News takes a look at John Calipari’s 90-day plan and how he’s set the tone for his new program at Kentucky.

Doug Segrest of The Birmingham News writes that Calipari has his coaching rivals abuzz.

Mike Organ of The Tennessean (who probably got kidded a lot in high school) writes that all of those players who turned down the NBA will help turn around the SEC this winter.

Seth Emerson of The State provides a catch-all notes column that covers the good relationship between UK’s incoming point guards, the Cats’ legal battle with Billy Gillispie, the wait in Starkville for news on Renardo Sidney and John Riek, and Trent Johnson’s take on the man who replaced him at Nevada — new Georgia coach Mark Fox.

Mr. Emerson also writes that the return of 44 of the SEC’s 60 starters from last year should make a big difference for the league this season.

Here’s another story covering the conference’s maturation.

The league’s basketball coaches may make a lot of money, but they’re quick to point out just how little job security they have.  (Chicken-or-the-egg, gentlemen, chicken-or-the-egg.)

The SEC’s coaches would like to see the NBA’s one-and-done rule changed.



Turning from basketball, I’m not sure how I missed Paul Gattis’ excellent Sunday blog that combined the preseason rankings from Athlon, Lindy’s, The Sporting News and Phil Steele.  (The national rankings are listed in parentheses.)

SEC East
1.  Florida (1)
2.  Georgia (14)
3.  Tennessee
4.  South Carolina
5.  Vanderbilt
6.  Kentucky

SEC West
1.  Ole Miss (5)
2.  Alabama (8)
3.  LSU (11)
4.  Arkansas
5.  Auburn
6.  Mississippi State



The Gainesville Sun ranks Ole Miss’ “Mr. Everyhing” Dexter McCluster as the SEC’s 21st best player going into the 2009 season.

ESPN.com’s Chris Low writes that Carolina fans should be hopeful because of Ellis Johnson and his defense, yet worried about youth and inexperience everywhere else.



And finally, ESPN.com’s Mark Schlabach chimes in on the movie version of Michael Lewis’ best-selling book “The Blind Side,” which focuses on former Ole Miss left tackle Michael Oher.

Specifically, Mr. Schlabach reports on some of the acting skills of Nick Saban, Lou Holtz, Houston Nutt, Tommy Tuberville, Phillip Fulmer and Ed Orgeron.  An interesting read.

Here are your Tennessee nuggets for the day:

Commitments keep getting younger and younger.  Normally, we’d keep this on our Recruiting page (where Josh Ward has already written about it), but when a 13-YEAR-OLD commits, well, we think it’s newsworthy.  Of course, in Tennessee’s defense, Evan Berry is the little brother of current Vol Eric Berry and the son of former Vol James Berry.

Former UT great Al Wilson likes what he sees from Lane Kiffin, but that doesn’t mean he’s turning his back on Phillip Fulmer.

Bruce Pearl sounds upbeat about the fact that his team brings “everybody back from a team that had young guards.”

Some news, nuggets and notes from across the SEC today:

Chris Low of ESPN.com believes Ole Miss fans should be happy about quarterback Jevan Snead, but worried about how the Rebels handle the pre-season hype.

Bobby Petrino, Houston Nutt, Rich Brooks and Auburn assistant Trooper Taylor have opened up in recent appearances on a Knoxville radio show.

Tommy Hicks of The Mobile Press-Register believes predicting the SEC East race is easy… the SEC West?  Not so much.

When you think college basketball recruiting you probably think of the word “dirty.”  And when you think about dirty college basketball recruiting you probably think of three letters: A-A-U.

Tommy Tuberville and Phillip Fulmer both say that they want to coach again, but this fall you’ll probably find them on the Quarterback Club speaking circuit.

Here are your Tennessee stories for the day:

Quarterback Jonathan Crompton believes Lane Kiffin has inherited a very mature team.

If Kiffin wants to keep the Vol fanbase energized, this writer believes he needs to land a top-notch quarterback.

New strength coach Aaron Ausmus is glad his career path has led him back to Knoxville.

Recently released Duke guard Elliot Williams intends to transfer to the University of Memphis in an effort to be closer to his ailing mother, Delois, who is suffering from a serious illness.
(more)

FAYETTEVILLE — SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said sagging Academic Progress Rate scores in men’s basketball aren’t confined to his conference. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Northwest Edition)
(more)

Tennessee needs a quarterback for the future. It also could use a more immediate boost in recruiting.
“It’s very important,” head coach Lane Kiffin said on the News Sentinel’s radio show, The Sports Page, about getting a quarterback for the Class of 2010, “especially when we haven’t had one for a couple of years sign.”
(more)

THIS BUSINESS OF OFFERING college athletic scholarships to kids who have not yet begun to shave has gotten a little silly. What’s next? Making offers as the youngster comes out of the womb.

Entirely possible.

“I guess you could offer somebody out of the crib, if you wanted to,” says Steve Spurrier, who did a little robbing of the cradle recently when he and his staff made a verbal scholarship offer to a rising sophomore at Lexington High.

“But, as you know,” Spurrier says, “sometimes the offer may go away between then and when it comes time to sign. Sometimes a lot of things happen in between.”

Actually, there is a lot that could happen between now and when 15-year-old Shaq Roland graduates from Lexington High. He has six semesters of high school remaining. He has three football seasons and three basketball seasons to play.
(more)

Here are few other blurbs from across the league today:

Tommy Hicks of The Mobile Press-Register says that once again college presidents have shown that all the fan crying and whining will NOT force a football playoff.

Cecil Hurt of The Tuscaloosa News points out that last night’s NBA draft saw zero first-round selections come out of the SEC… and that’s just the third time that’s happened since the NBA and ABA merged.

The Gainesville Sun has begun their annual “25 Best Players in the SEC” countdown and LSU receiver Brandon LaFell clocks in at #25.

Speaking of LSU, Chris Low of ESPN.com lists the main reason Tiger fans should be hopeful in 2009 (”playing with an edge on defense”) and the main reason they should be concerned (their passing game).

And though we focus solely on football and men’s basketball on this site, we should congratulate the SEC for winning five national championships during the 2008-2009 season:

Football — Florida

Baseball — LSU

Men’s Swimming and Diving — Auburn

Gymnastics — Georgia

Women’s Indoor Track and Field — Tennessee

(I had Florida’s softball team listed initially, but they were runner-ups to Washington.  My mindslip.  Thanks for catching it, folks.)

A few Tennessee stories for you this morning:

Quarterback prospect Jesse Scroggins (who was offered a scholarship by Southern Cal yesterday) would like to play with his cousin who is also a high school senior from Germantown, Tennessee.  Lane Kiffin doesn’t believe in two-for-one deals.  Bruce Pearl says he’s done it.  So who’s right?

Kiffin targeted James Cregg for a spot on UT’s staff as soon as he was hired.

2008-2009 wasn’t a great year for Tennessee athletics, but the best athlete on campus — Eric Berry — did have a great year.

This writer believes former Vol basketball coach Kevin O’Neill was hired by Southern Cal because he has a history of running clean programs.  He hasn’t run them nicely and neatly, but NCAA investigators have never knocked down his door, either.

Former McDonald’s All-American and West Tennessee native Elliot Williams is transferring from the Duke basketball program.

Mike Krzyzewski and Duke granted the release so Williams could move to a school closer to his ailing mother.

“My dream was to play at Duke and be a part of Coach Krzyzewski’s family.  The coaching staff and the fans have been great.  But at the saem time, it’s my mom, and I had to make a tough decision, leaving Duek to come closer to my family.”

Yesterday, Williams said he’s looking at four schools: Kentucky, Memphis, Tennessee and Vanderbilt.

Williams chose Duke over Memphis, Tennessee and Virginia initially.

If he does wind up in the SEC, the NCAA will still have to agree that Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Kentucky are close enough to home to grant him hardship eligibility immediately.

Wanted to catch you up on some notes from ESPN.com in quick fashion:

It should surprise no one that the BCS presidents have officially rejected the Mountain West Conference’s playoff proposal.

If you care which players will be attending SEC Media Days next month, here’s the full list.

Chris Low believes Ole Miss’ entire season might come down to how well they handle preseason expectations.

While the Rebels will be trying to meet expectations, Alabama fans will be hoping that their new offensive line can meet “the standard” set by their previous O-line.

For a school that will have only Nick Stephens (who looked average at best in 2007) and a walk-on former pro pitcher in Mike Rozier at quarterback for 2010, the options are quickly drying up for Tennessee.

Cincinnati quarterback Andrew Hendrix has committed to Notre Dame, leaving only Jesse Scroggins on the Vols’ current wish list.

Scroggins is attending Southern Cal’s quarterback camp/try-out this week in Los Angeles.  He is also still considering Florida.

Let’s say the Volunteers do land Scroggins… still, the lack of depth at QB is a major concern. 

If Scroggins suffers an injury or is a bust (see: Jonathan Crompton so far), Lane Kiffin could be facing two or three straight seasons with sub-par quarterback play.  And that’s not the way to survive in the SEC.

If they don’t land Scroggins then there will be a lot of people in Knoxville chewing Rolaids.

Last week we posted our series of stories on the Vegas’ sportsbooks’ odds for the upcoming football season.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five

Andrea Adelson of The Orlando Sentinel has found something just as entertaining.  At the internet sportsbook BetUS.com, there are odds for which schools will next get caught committing an NCAA violation and which schools will next be investigated by the NCAA.

Brilliant!

I don’t want to steal too much of Ms. Adelson’s thunder, but here are the SEC schools mentioned in the various categories:



Which team will commit an NCAA violation next? 
Florida  10-1
Ole Miss  10-1
Alabama  13-1
Tennessee  14-1
Georgia  14-1
LSU  16-1

(If we’re including secondary violations, the 14-1 odds for Tennessee and Lane Kiffin would be hard to pass up.)



Which basketball program will be investigated next?
Tennessee  14-1
Florida  15-1

(This line had to be set before John Calipari was hired by Kentucky.)



Which football program will be investigated next?
Florida  10-1
Ole Miss  10-1
Alabama  13-1
Georgia  14-1
Mississippi  15-1

(Must be a typo on the Ole Miss / Mississippi lines.)



And just for the Florida folks, there’s even a line on how many Gators will be arrested by 2011 and on whether the next UF arrest will be a felony or a misdemeanor.

The UT sports blog LosersWithSocks.com has posted an awfully fishy story about incoming Georgia wideout Marlon Brown… that some fans are believing (probably because they want to believe it).

I’ve gotten more than a dozen emails on this one, so we’ll discuss it this morning.

Brown, you might remember, was the subject of a pretty intense recruiting battle between Tennessee and Georgia as the top-rated player from the Volunteer State this spring.

According to the site, Brown recently lost his iPhone.  That led to an “intercepted text conversation between Marlon Brown” and 2010 recruit Justin Maclin.

There’s also a page from Maclin’s Facebook page (supposedly) that’s featured on the site and on it there’s a post from someone named “Marlon Brown.”

Sound fishy yet?

Read this excerpt from the supposed text conversation (all spelling and grammar errors are the author’s… as are the obscenities):



Brown: “like when i was at uf mane… we was out on univ ave, fine ass white bitches errwerr… den sat we was talking to urban, his players call him herbs lol… he”

Brown:  “was tellin me how he culdn give me no car but he had dat chronic and straight paper on lock.  gmamma was wantin a job tho.

Maclin: “lol so why did you end up at ga? I thought mark richt was all christian and shit.”

Brown: “yah he turns that on for da parents.  gmamma loved his crack ass but when we was 1on1 he told me abt all these things his best playas be gettin”

Maclin: “?”

Brown:  “stacks of cash, like crazy amounts of green playa.  why you think i’m so rich lol?  plus i got dis red vespa i be cuttin around campus on.  ladies love it… and his wife wanna be some nurse.  trust me she know how to take care of a dude, nah mean.”



First of all, this site is known for “commentary and comedy about the Tennessee Volunteers and their SEC rivals.”

Second, most folks don’t text long paragraphs like that. 

Third, I really don’t think Urban Meyer is handing out weed and Mark Richt is handing out cash.  Boosters might hand out cash, but most coaches know enough not to be promising vespas and greenbacks first-hand.  Much less delivering “dat chronic.”

Next, this is actually a rather racist joke considering the verbiage and comments such as “white bitches.”  If it’s supposed to be humor, it’s not very successful.

My take?  Sorry, I’m not buyin’. 

I think it’s a joke that wasn’t presented as a joke and folks are believing it.  I think it’s “War of the Worlds” with some serious racism tossed in. 

But that’s just me.

Plenty of news from Tennessee this morning:

Lane Kiffin believes new strength coach Aaron Ausmus “fits better with the direction of where we’re going just because we’re familiar with him.”

Tennessee’s football team just had its highest GPA for a semester in five years.  There have also been ZERO arrests since Kiffin took over the team last December.

Kiffin says the older members of the team are giving him good reports on the workout habits of UT’s incoming freshmen.

UT has hired Steve Rubio away from Central Florida to become a recruiting intern.  So it’s better to intern at UT than to be “director of player personnel” for D-I UCF?

Tennessee’s September 12th game with UCLA will be a 4pm ET kickoff on ESPN.

In basketball news, Tyler Smith is taking 1,500 shots a day and working on his dribble in hopes of improving his game before next year’s NBA draft.

Lane Kiffin hired his second head strength coach in about six months yesterday as Aaron Ausmus was officially named as Mark Smith’s replacement.

Ausmus was a former track star at Tennessee before heading to Southern Cal’s strength staff.  While at USC he met Lane Kiffin and Ed Orgeron.

Ausmus was then hired by Orgeron as his top strength coach at Ole Miss.

Ausmus was the strength and conditioning coach at North Texas last year.

(And sadly, no, that’s not actually Ausmus at left.  Be funny if it were, though.)

Robbie Andreu of The Gainesville Sun is already in full football mode apparently.  In fact, he’s ready to start making predictions.  Five of them to be exact.

As always, click the red words to read his explanations.

1.  Tim Tebow won’t lose and Florida will repeat as national champs.  (As long as Superman doens’t get hurt, that is.)

2.  Expect an Alabama-Florida rematch in Atlanta for the SEC title.

3.  Tennessee will be better in 2009 and will provide Florida with a tougher game than expected.

4.  Steve Spurrier will finally have a breakthrough year at South Carolina.

5.  Dan Mullen will have a very rough first season at Mississippi State.

Tomorrow could have been the tipoff to yet another down year in the SEC.

But because so many SEC stars decided to pull out of the NBA draft and return to school, tomorrow might well start one heck of a rebound for the league.

That’s the way ESPN’s Jimmy Dykes see it.

“I don’t think another league has increased its stock value more than the SEC with all these guys deciding to come back.  I think the SEC is setting itself up for one of the most competitive and certainly one of the most successful years that the league has had in a long time.”

Tennessee fans, we need your help.

This week on the Knoxville-based television show “The Sports Source,” the panel of media analysts will discuss the best and worst moments in Tennessee football over the past 20 years (1989-2009).

You should have a vote in what those moments are.

You might include big wins (beating Florida State in the 1999 Fiesta Bowl), upsets (”The Miracle at South Bend”), surprises (Clint Stoerner’s fumble), heartbreaking losses (Notre Dame in 1990, LSU in 2001), or embarrassing losses (Wyoming in 2008, Florida in 2007).

You might include off-the-field highs (Peyton Manning announcing his return) or lows (Heath Shuler announcing his departure, Manning losing the Heisman).  Or you might believe an injury ranks as a horrible moment (Jerry Colquitt, Chuck Webb).

And yes, you can call coaching changes great moments or bad moments if you like.

All you have to do to be heard is email us at John@MrSEC.com with the subject “Best and Worst” by Friday, June 26th.

List your best and worst moments from the last 20 years and we’ll tally ‘em up and talk about them on tv this Sunday morning.  And for those not in the Knoxville area, we’ll post the results right here on the Tennessee page of MrSEC.com.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Man, am I getting roasted from some of you because of my “hot seat evaluation” column from yesterday.  The ol’ emailbox is dang near full.

In yesterday’s piece, I wrote that LSU’s Les Miles and Georgia’s Mark Richt are the two coaches in the SEC — in my opinion — who can least afford a “bad, bad year” this year.

I wrote that with a 5-7 season (the same record that got Phillip Fulmer and Tommy Tuberville KO’d last year), Miles and Richt would hear the loudest cat calls.

Miles, in my view, could actually be fired at year’s end if LSU comes off the rails agian.  Richt, I believe, would survive a horrible year to face a critical 2010 season.

This, of course, has brought out the pro-Richt Georgia fans who believe that their coach will be in Athens forever and ever.  Amen.

(Interestingly, I’m not hearing many LSU fans who are willing to say that Miles could survive a horrible season.  Hmmm.)



Let me make a couple of things clear:

1)  I have nothing against Richt.  In fact, I think he’s easily the most likeable coach in the SEC.  I’m not saying that I would put him on the hot seat… I’m giving my view of how SEC fanbases would react to terrible seasons.  Personally, I think it’s absurd that Richt is currently hearing gripes about “not winning the big one” or his “whining” about Georgia’s schedule. 

2)  That said, there IS more griping now than at any time during the Richt’s tenure.  From the Georgia media and from the fanbase.  It’s part of the reality of college football in the SEC.  Expectations are high and they only get higher over time.

3)  Richt has been at his school longer than any other SEC coach.  Former Auburn offensive coordinator Tony Franklin recently half-joked that a coach loses 10% of his fanbase every year.  The numbers are clearly off, but the idea isn’t.

4)  Last year at this time, I would have been called an idiot for suggesting that Tuberville was on the hot seat.  He’d never had a single bad year at Auburn.  He’d beaten Alabama six straight times.

Similarly, I personally wrote that David Climer of The Tennessean was off-base for suggesting last summer that Fulmer was on the hot seat.  He’d just won the SEC East the previous fall.

Sorry, David.  You were right.



For all of those reasons, I stand by my position.  If Richt has a terrible year this year (and I don’t see one on the horizon, but I also didn’t see 5-7 campaigns in UT or AU’s futures last year), he’ll be in serious hot water when the 2010 season begins.

You might not like it, but it’s a fact.  Just ask Fulmer and Tuberville how much can change between June and December.

To finish this up, the excellent Junkyard Blawger for The AJC writes that Georgia fans are “disappointed, but we’re not deluded.”

Now, what do you think an Auburn blogger or a Tennessee blogger might have written last year had I suggested that their fellow fans and boosters would rise up with closed wallets to oust their coaches?

Probably something to the effect of, “we’re disappointed, but we’re not deluded.”

For the past seven weeks, our own Josh Ward has posted his “Top 5 Impact Freshmen in the SEC” for each positional grouping.

You can find the stories here:

Quarterbacks
Running Backs
Receivers
Offensive Linemen
Defensive Linemen
Linebackers
Defensive Backs

Today, Jay Greeson of The Chattanooga Times Free Press looks ahead to the fall and presents his own views on which players will make the biggest splash in the SEC pool (including one juco transfer).

You can read his explanations here, but for our purposes, here are the four incoming players he believes “will blossom sooner than the rest:”

Bryce Brown, RB, Tennessee
Russell Shepard, QB, LSU
DJ Fluker, OL, Alabama
Eltoro Freeman, LB, Auburn

Here are your Tennessee headlines for the day:

Peyton Manning said yesterday that folks will need to ask him in two years for a judgement on new coach Lane Kiffin.

Peyton Manning and Albert Haynesworth were on hand for UT’s offseason workouts yesterday.

Current Vol b’baller Wayne Chism scored 36 in a summer league game last night.  (The fact that a summer league is getting press tells you just how slow things are in Knoxville, I suppose.)

Former UT basketball coach Kevin O’Neill isn’t worried about taking over a Southern Cal program that looks to be in scalding hot NCAA water.  Ironically, O’Neill and USC will face the Volunteers this season.

For those looking for a recap of how O’Neill ran UT’s program, this excellent inside look at the coach’s methods (including his torture of former Vol Aaron Green) appeared in The Memphis Commercial-Appeal last fall.

UPDATE — Joe Person of The State reports that former Tennessee strength coach Mark Smith (who’s still being paid by UT) is talking to the Carolina Panthers about a job.

Would you be surprised if I told you that LSU’s Les Miles and Georgia’s Mark Richt sit on the hottest seats in the SEC?

Sure you would.  “How?” you might query.  “Why?” you might enquire.

“One captured a national title just two years ago!” 

“The other has never lost more than four games in a season!”

True enough. 

But the hottest seats in the SEC West and East still can be found beneath the rears of misters Miles and Richt.



Here’s what I asked myself when trying to reach my conclusions:

* Which coaches can least afford a bad, bad year?

* Perception is reality… so which coaches are battling perception problems?

* Which coaches are facing the highest expectations from fans and boosters?



For the purpose of this exercise, we’re going to project a 5-7 record for each coach in the conference.  That’s the “bad, bad year” we’re talking about.  And that record was bad enough to get the SEC’s two longest-tenured coaches blown up last year.

With that in mind, here’s how MrSEC.com ranks the league’s football coaches — by division — in terms of seat heat heading into the 2009 season.



SEC WEST


1.  Les Miles, LSU –

If he has a 5-7 year… Miles might actually be fired.  It could happen.

The perception is… Miles still stands in Nick Saban’s shadow.

The expectations are… through through the roof following a lousy 2008.

Final verdict… No one would have thought that one bad year would lead to Tommy Tuberville’s ouster at Auburn.  No one probably thinks that Miles could be jettisoned just two years after a national title.  But if the Tigers perform poorly (and especially if Saban once again does well at Alabama), it wouldn’t take long for fans to point to the following facts: LSU would be getting worse and worse the farther it got from Saban’s recruits and Miles’ national title came in a two-loss season… the only time that’s ever happened.  Plus, you can’t underestimate the Saban factor.  If Saban bests Miles again, you can bet that Tiger fans will be saying, “We’ve got to get someone who can beat Saban.”


2.  Houston Nutt, Ole Miss –

If he has a 5-7 year… Ole Miss fans would begin to howl.

The perception is… Nutt performs better when expectations are lower, not higher.

The expectations are… high this year and too high in most years in Oxford

Final verdict… Nutt will not be on the firing line this year, regardless of record.  But Ole Miss fans often forget that they haven’t won an SEC title since the school integrated way back in the early 60s.  They expect wins every year and the fact that the national media is heaping praise on this year’s Rebels won’t help Nutt’s cause.  If Ole Miss disappoints this year — and there is a bit of a “2008 Georgia” feel to this bunch — Nutt will once again hear that he can only get a team to a certain level, but no higher.  Stakes would be raised for his third year in 2010.


3.  Gene Chizik, Auburn –

If he has a 5-7 year… Chizik will be questioned, but he’ll get a Year One pass.

The perception is… he hadn’t earned the job in the first place.

The expectations are… silly steep.

Auburn fired a coach last year who had beaten Alabama the previous six years in a row, had an undefeated season in 2004, and was regarded as one of the league’s best gameday decision-makers.  Tiger boosters wanted better.  With Saban now building up Alabama across the state, good luck to Chizik with all that.


4.  Bobby Petrino, Arkansas –

If he has a 5-7 year… he’ll survive, but fans will start to wonder about him.

The perception is… he’ll build up Arkansas and leave on his own as soon as he can parlay a Hog turnaround into a better gig.

The expectations are… high, but most fans are still glad to have someone other than Nutt on the Razorbacks’ sideline.

Final verdict… Petrino wasn’t left a lot of talent (from Nutt) and his defense will probably struggle once again.  But if his offense takes a step forward and his defense makes any strides at all, he’ll get a pass into his third year.


5.  Nick Saban, Alabama –

If he has a 5-7 year… fans will start to squawk, but then they’ll worry about blaspheming their grid god and hush.

The perception is… he’s a genius and he has the Tide on the path to long-term greatness.

The expectations are… ridiculous and they’ve been upped further by the superb coaching job he did last year.

Final verdict… Saban could survive a 5-7 season.  Heck, he might be able to survive back-to-back 5-7 seasons if he continues to land America’s top signing classes.  The feeling among Bama backers is that Saban will fix things.  Even if this year shows the job’s not yet done, he’ll not lose too much support from the fanbase.


6.  Dan Mullen, Mississippi State –

If he has a 5-7 year… it would be an improvement over last year.

The perception is… he’s the right man for the MSU job.

The expectations are… pretty low for a first-year guy in Starkville.

Final verdict… Sylvester Croom could have probably survived at State had his teams’ not been so utterly unwatchable (a 3-2 loss?).  If Mullen can get any offense at all from this year’s team, the record won’t matter.  He’ll be viewed as the man with the plan for future success.



SEC EAST


1.  Mark Richt, Georgia –

If he has a 5-7 year… fans will begin to call for his head.

The perception is… Richt can win a lot of games, but he can’t win “the big one.”

The expectations are… high, despite the loss of three key playmakers on offense.

Final verdict… Richt is now the dean of the SEC’s coaches.  Ask Fulmer and Tuberville how heavy that crown lies.  Richt has been called a “whiner” by fans and Georgia media folks this spring for his comments about UGA’s schedule.  You wouldn’t have heard that talk two or three years ago.  Dawg fans bought into the national title buzz last year (even though Georgia was picked second in the East by the SEC media) and they weren’t happy about the three-loss season that followed.  So while he might be the best ambassador in the SEC, if Richt has a really bad year this year, look out.  Boosters control the decisions of presidents and ADs with their checkbooks.  And now that Richt has eight years in Athens under his belt, the Bulldog boosters might already have wandering eyes.


2.  Steve Spurrier, South Carolina –

If he has a 5-7 year… he’ll retire to play golf.

The perception is… this is a make or break year for Spurrier, Carolina and Stephen Garcia.

The expectations are… it’s time for Spurrier to turn things around.

Final verdict… There were actually quite a few Gamecock fans last year who stated that it was time for Spurrier to go.  His team imploded last year and was embarrassed in their bowl loss to Iowa.  His offenses have been fairly mediocre since he arrived and he’s had shoddy quarterback play each year — either due to a lack of good recruiting or his own meddlesome over-coaching.  If Spurrier’s team is mid-level again, expect fans to grow even more restless.  And I don’t believe the ol’ ballcoach will sit around to listen to the complaints.


3.  Lane Kiffin, Tennessee –

If he has a 5-7 year… he’ll get a pass because that’s what his predecessor accomplished with the same not-so-talented bunch.

The perception is… Kiffin’s a big mouth, but he’s Vol fans’ favorite big mouth.

The expectations are… average now, but they’ll be high soon.

Final verdict… Kiffin’s seat will grow warmer as time goes by.  He’ll get a Year One pass, but due to his own statements and actions and the fact that there are still a lot of pro-Fulmer folks around Knoxville, Kiffin could be looking at a three-year window to prove himself.  And 2010 could be worse than 2009.  To keep fans at bay, if his teams do underperform, he’ll need to continue to sign Top 10 recruiting classes.


4.  Rich Brooks, Kentucky –

If he has a 5-7 year… Brooks will retire and hand the reins to Joker Phillips (leaving most fans to ask “Why are we promoting a guy who was an assistant on a 5-7 football team?”).

The perception is… with Phillips already the coach-in-waiting, Brooks is just waiting for one really good (or one really bad) year as reason to retire.

The expectations are… hey look, there’s John Calipari!

Final verdict… Kentucky fans just don’t care about football like they do basketball.  Brooks has done a nice job and he’s made Saturdays in the fall a nice diversion until basketball begins, but most fans aren’t living and dying with the Wildcat gridders.  A bad year wouldn’t lead to a Brooks firing, just a Brooks retirement.


5 tie — Urban Meyer and Bobby Johnson –

If he has a 5-7 year… Meyer will hear moans, but he’ll feel no pressure; Johnson will be right about where he always is.

The perception is… Meyer might leave Florida for Notre Dame someday; Johnson can have the Vandy job as long as he wants it.

The expectations are… through the roof at Florida, but Meyer has built up enough equity to survive a bad year; low among all 250 Vandy fans.

Final verdict… One coach has never won more than six games at his current school and the other has won two of the last three national championships.  So how can I lump them together?  Because both can stay at their current institutions as long as they like.  Meyer has made Florida — arguably — America’s top football program.  Johnson has made Vanderbilt respectable.  Those schools literally can’t ask for more.

Here’s the news from Rocky Top this morning:

Point guard Bobby Maze says that Bruce Pearl is urging his team to work on their defense.  Maze also says that his grandfather told him from heaven to get a haircut.  Okay.

Tim Tebow says the best non-Gator in the SEC is Vol safety Eric Berry.  “He’s very physical and he’s just a playmaker.  He does things that you can’t teach.”

This is a week old, but it’s found its way into my emailbox a dozen times, so why not just go ahead and post it.

You might remember that Tennessee recently held their football camp for ladies… giving booster wives and booster girlfriends an inside lesson into college football in Knoxville.

Ed Orgeron was in charge of firing up the gals before they took to the field in a pseudo-Saturday pre-game build-up.  In case your wondering, his shirt — and theirs — remained on.

Here’s the video.  And apparently there are some female Arab Vol fans because I distinctly hear uvulating at one point.

Tommy Hicks of The Mobile Press-Register has put together his list of who in the Southeastern Conference will be “feeling the heat soon, if they aren’t already.”

Click here to read his whys and what-fors, but here’s who’s placed on his list:

Houston Nutt, Ole Miss

Lane Kiffin, Tennessee

Gus Malzahn, Auburn

Florida’s whole team

Each year The Tuscaloosa News attempts to rank the 25 best college football programs in history.

They’ve devised their own series of measurements which include the following categories of data: final AP poll from the previous year, final recruiting rankings from Rivals.com, attendance, former players on NFL rosters, APR scores, all-time bowl appearances, all-time AP national titles, all-time AP rankings, college football hall of fame inductees, and something called “coaching legacy.”

It’s clearly a mish-mash of facts and figures and I’m not sure why the most current year’s results are weighted more heavily than previous years — since this is an “all-time poll” — but these types of things are designed to start conversation, not to produce definitive answers.

That said, among the paper’s Top 25 for 2009, eight SEC teams make the list.

You can check the full list and find the complete write-up here, but for our purposes, the SEC’s rankings were as follows:

3.  Alabama
9.  Georgia
10.  Tennessee
11.  Florida
14.  LSU
16.  Auburn
23.  Ole Miss
25.  Arkansas

When it comes to finding a quarterback, Tennessee offensive coordinator Jim Chaney isn’t too picky. He’s got two major qualifications. “Just get a kid with a brain. A brain and an arm, I think that goes a helluva long way,” he said. How’s that for a simple job requirement?
(more)

USC didn’t have many options to replace Tim Floyd, but past experiences show Kevin O’Neill isn’t the right pick, Jeff Goodman says.
(more)

Quick notes from Knoxville this morning:

Tennessee already had the most expensive assistant coaching staff in the SEC… now they’re going to be paying two strength coaches as well.  One they’ll pay to work, the other they’ll pay not to.

Outgoing strength coach Mark Smith told ESPN.com’s Chris Low, “What’s done is done.  I think everybody kind of knows what’s going on there.  I just want to let it lie and move on.  I don’t think anything else needs to be said.” 

In other words, to make sure he got his full contract paid off, Smith signed a confidentiality agreement.



In other news, before leaving Alabama, Lance Thompson had to prove his defensive knowledge to Monte Kiffin during a one-on-one meeting.

Bruce Pearl will provide analysis of the NBA draft for NBA TV and NBA.com.

ESPN officials made what was already expected to be reality a reality today when they announced that Tennessee and NC State will open the 2012 season against one another in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game.

The two schools have only met twice in their history, the last time being in 1939.

“This match-up will continue the tradition of creating the Daytona 500 of College Football,” Gary Stokan the Chick-fil-A Bowl president said in a press release.  “I fully expect that in 2012 both these rising programs will be ranked in the Top 20.”

Maybe so, but this matchup, at least for now, looks a bit less appealing than last year’s Alabama-Clemson game and this year’s Alabama-Virginia Tech opener.

There is still an opening for the 2011 Kickoff Game and while Atlanta officials would love to lure Georgia into the game, it doesn’t look now as though the Bulldogs will be willing to give up a home game in Athens.

Since some of you just come in and take a look at the stories at top of the page, I wanted to make sure you’re aware of some of the bigger stories we posted last evening and this morning.

First, you can find my five-part series on how the Vegas’ sportsbooks view the SEC’s teams this fall.

Here you can get the BCS Championship odds from the MGM/Mirage family of casinos.

Here you can get the odds from the Harrah’s family of casinos.

Here you can get the odds from the Planet Hollywood Casino and sportsbook.

Here you can get the odds from the Hard Rock Casino and sportsbook.

Here you can find some observations on Vegas’ books, what their oddsmakers say about how lines are set (you can decide for yourself whether to believe ‘em), and the overall SEC odds from all of the big Las Vegas’ books.

Also, Josh Ward has published his most recent “Top 5 Impact Freshmen” list… this time projecting which incoming defensive backs will have the best opportunity to show their stuff in 2009.

Gene Sapakoff of The Charleston Post and Courier is doing his best to fill that dead period of time between mid-June and mid-July.

Today he’s penned an entire column based off of a Dos Equis television commercial.  (Personally, if I were trying to kill time in Charleston, I’d say to heck with writing, head to Fleet Landing and just drink a couple of Dos Equis.)

You can read the explanations for his choices right here, but here are his choices for The Most Interesting Man…

In The SEC: Lane Kiffin

Under The SEC Radar: Gus Malzahn

On the SEC Upswing: Jevan Snead

On The South Carolina Roster: Stephen Garcia

In All Of College Football, Maybe All Of College Football History: Tim Tebow

Here are your Big Orange stories for Thursday:

Strength coach Aaron Ausmus is heading to Tennessee (as rumored) according to his former head football coach at North Texas.

This move has been expected for weeks, but had to wait until UT could reach a monetary settlement with out-going strength coach Mark Smith.

Lane Kiffin might be turning off opposing coaches, opposing fans and some columnists (occasionally this one), but he’s winning over recruits. 

Tennessee has scheduled the College of Charleston for a basketball game in Knoxville this November.  Playing for the Cougars will be Knoxville native Tony White, Jr… whose father a hotshot guard for the Vols in mid-80s.

Scotty Hopson looks like an improved player now that he’s taken some of the arc off of his jumpshot.

Bobby Maze poured in 42 points and handed out 12 assists in a summer league game last night.  Of course, he also looked great in last year’s summer league only to struggle when he put on UT’s orange jersey in the fall.