College Football Off-Season and into 2010

[Xalinor]

Brian Kelly is implementing a brutal winter workout schedule out in South Bend. Seven players puked before stretching was done this morning.

Kelly believes some of the players have a sense of entitlement and is going to beat that notion right out of them.

[Gold Storm]

Cutcliffe turns down Tennessee. That's 0-2 now. Its gotta be frustrating for their fans. Considering the AD's assertion that he wants to have a coach in place by the weekend when recruiting can begin, this is the point where I would be getting nervous as a fan that desperation is setting in.

Its situations like this when you end up hiring Billy Gillispie. :leaving:

Looks like Tenn will get/go after La. Tech’s Derek Dooley, it sounds like more of a stop gap measure.

The son of former Georgia coach Vince Dooley has gone 17-20 in three seasons at Louisiana Tech, where he is the only coach at the Division I level who also works as the athletic director.

[Rhom]

I just saw a leaked video of the press room drama just before Lane Kiffin announced that he was leaving Tennessee. Its actually quite hilarious. I'm no newsie, so I don't know how its supposed to work... but that one TV guy comes across as a major douchebag. It takes a class A asshole to make Lane Kiffin seem like the reasonable one in the room. :lol:

Brian Kelly is implementing a brutal winter workout schedule out in South Bend. Seven players puked before stretching was done this morning.

Kelly believes some of the players have a sense of entitlement and is going to beat that notion right out of them.

That didn't work out well for Rich Rodriguez in Michigan...

[TheHoundRules]

UGA hires Grantham as DC. I like the hire. It may have been better then some of the others we were trying to get.

I am ready for spring practice to start.

[dornish prince]

good luck with that, THR. as a casual observer, i worry that UGA is regressing to the middle of the pack. much like the rest of us there, i hope that your highly touted HS athletes from last couple of years begin to pan out.

the situation at UT and UF must be heartening to you. richt is a good HC. he can't do it all though. also, IMO, bobo should also be gone. the play calling this year was very vanilla for you guys (all to protect a subpar QB, IMO). it requires a "stafford", "moreno" and "green". it is the same scenario that fried al borges in auburn after he lost campbell, cadillac and ronnie.

also, the hire for DC is great but how in the world do you account for all the early nfl entries? it is gonna be tough.

one last thing...i think that gray should change positions. mettenberger is clearly the better pure QB. ;)

[TheHoundRules]

good luck with that, THR. as a casual observer, i worry that UGA is regressing to the middle of the pack. much like the rest of us there, i hope that your highly touted HS athletes from last couple of years begin to pan out.

the situation at UT and UF must be heartening to you. richt is a good HC. he can't do it all though. also, IMO, bobo should also be gone. the play calling this year was very vanilla for you guys (all to protect a subpar QB, IMO). it requires a "stafford", "moreno" and "green". it is the same scenario that fried al borges in auburn after he lost campbell, cadillac and ronnie.

also, the hire for DC is great but how in the world do you account for all the early nfl entries? it is gonna be tough.

one last thing...i think that gray should change positions. mettenberger is clearly the better pure QB. ;)

You have some good points DP. I am on the fence with Bobo. Under Stafford, I liked his play calling. This year, not so much.....but he had a weak QB. Cox was not what I was expecting. I look forward to seeing what he can do with Mettenberger or Murray. Both have great potential, and I see a QB battle starting this spring and going into the fall. Logan is out of it. If he wants to stay at QB, he will be riding the bench.

As for the defense. We lost some D linemen, but we were deep there. Losing Rennie will hurt, but losing Reshard Jones is not that big. He had big hits, but I did not really like him all that much. Not very good in coverage. Rambo will be very good.

We have recruited very well over the years. It one of the QB's can step up, our offense will be dangerous.

The SEC East is wide open next year. I would not be surprised to see South Carolina win it.

[lokisnow]

I don't think there was any realistic chance of Chow going to USC when they didn't even call him. He's used to the racism he's faced his entire life. Doesn't mean he has to like it, and the disrespectful snubbing of asking the Kiffin kid first, cause Kiffin is white, isn't a good way to get Chow back to USC. After all, as said in this thread, Asians are intellectual (or viewed as intellectual), in other words, they're not "real" football coaches.

[Rhom]

Thank God... our long national nightmare is over. The NCAA has finally taken a stand on messages written on eyeblack.

“In other news, the committee clarified several equipment issues for 2010, including an issue regarding ‘eye black.’ The committee agreed that if a player elects to wear eye shade, it must be solid black with no words, numbers, logos or other symbols,” reads a passage buried well down near the bottom of the NCAA’s news release on rules changes proposed and adopted by the esteemed committee of coaches in their Feb. 11 meeting.

No longer will players be able to taunt others with blatant messages like Bible verses or other blatantly offensive 3-4 letter messages nearly half an inch tall across prominent cheek bones.

I, for one, am glad that the NCAA took a stand on this egregious violation of simple decorum. From now on, any messages to be conveyed on the field should be in the form of tattoos of naked women or overly elaborate religious symbols entertwined with Asian lettering or Celtic designs.

[Rhom]

So the NCAA took less than a year to find that Rich Rodriguez and his staff did violate practice rules at Michigan. There's several things I don't like about this story as a whole, but primarily I don't like the "We had a communication problem" and "We misinterpreted the rules" excuses. I believe that every college has violated the rules on practice hours, I just think that Michigan was probably a little more egregious and probably was a bigger paradigm shift than what the players there were accustomed to. What I don't like is the lack of accountability shown by the staff.

I've said it before in this thread, but I really identify with the Michigan football fanbase. They are the winningest program, but don't have the most national titles. They are accustomed to being at or near the top of the polls. They felt their old regime had gotten complacent. They turned to a guy with a reputation of building a program through toughness and hard work. They are now learning the same lesson that Kentucky learned with Billy Gillispie, and its a hard lesson to learn. I think they'll end up in the same spot we were at the end of last season soon; faced with the embarassing decision to cut your losses and run or stick it out. Only time will tell if they will make the same decision my school did.

[crimsondragon]

Hey guys. New to the board. I love college football and am thrilled that other readers do too! You know, because those two things are mutually exclusive, right? :rolleyes:

So, will the NCAA hammer USC or will the punishment be light?

[Rhom]

Hey guys. New to the board. I love college football and am thrilled that other readers do too! You know, because those two things are mutually exclusive, right? :rolleyes:

Welcome to the board. The college football thread is generally one of the more active ones as the season nears. I enjoy these boards because its one of the few places I can talk with fans of other teams in a non-confrontational manner. I mean, where else could a Kentucky fan and a Kansas fan have rational college basketball discussions?????

So, will the NCAA hammer USC or will the punishment be light?

I'd be stunned if they hit them with anything substantial. The NCAA doesn't have subpoena power; and Reggie Bush is out of school, so USC can't compel him to cooperate. I just don't see them getting a whole lot of information on the situation. So even though everyone knows what's going on, they may not be able to actually get any proof in writing sufficient to hang USC. Which is just fine with the NCAA. IMO.

Its a far cry from the injustices of the Duke and Corey Maggette case. In that situation, there is actual sworn testimony recorded where Maggette admits taking improper benefits while enrolled at Duke and the case still lingers in some sort of NCAA purgatory never to see the light of day.

I always think back to Jerry Tarkanian's famous quote about cheating at Kentucky, "Yeah,they're going to find them guilty and then give Clevaland State three more years of probation." :lol:

[Gold Storm]

Hey guys. New to the board. I love college football and am thrilled that other readers do too! You know, because those two things are mutually exclusive, right? :rolleyes:

So, will the NCAA hammer USC or will the punishment be light?

I do not think they will hammer USC, they are just too big and popular. There is an joke about how the NCAA caught Kentucky cheating, they were so upset that they put Cleveland State under probation and sanctions. There is a reason they gave the death blow to SMU and not Texas when they were both doing the same thing. Hell they catch Alabama cheating every four or five years, slap their wrist and then move on.

[adamsputnik]

I just found this thread, and it looks like there's at least one fellow Dawg fan on here. Good to know!

Anyone on here planning to go to the Spring Game for his team? UGA's might be interesting with the QB battle that will probably last right up until the first week of the season. Should also be interesting to get some more broad opinions on the game. I participate on an SEC forum and to say it is parochial would be an understatement, to say the least!

[BLU-RAY]

It's a traptouchdown!

Too funny. I hope this happens.

[Gold Storm]

It's a traptouchdown!

Too funny. I hope this happens.

The only question is if a player scores three times, will they throw octopi on the field like they do in Detroit?

[Spring Bass]

It's a traptouchdown!

Too funny. I hope this happens.

That is beyond awesome. Wouldn't they have to pay George Lucas money to use him, though? My guess is they'll end up picking something else.

I'm not surprised that Whittingham turned down the Tennessee job. He's got pretty decent pay, a decent team and program, and quite a few roots in Utah.

[Kalbear]

The Ducks need to stop fucking up off the field.

[Kalbear]

The ducks need to stop fucking up off the....waitasec.

Okay, so first we have LaMichael James pleading no contest to strangling his girlfriend. So much for the nice guy. He's going to take anger management issues, but is probably sticking around with the team.

Then we have the other shoe dropping: Masoli is going to be charged with burglary.

Seriously. In addition to losing a bunch of players due to them being dumbasses, in addition to potentially losing the QB who was supposed to have a banner year as a senior, we're starting to look worse than Miami in the 80s.

This is ridiculous.

[lokisnow]

being QB at Oregon is more cursed than being the professor teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts in Harry Potter. Seriously, players should be told: "Don't do it!"

[S John]

Lots of talk about conference expansions in the off-season, especially in regards to the Big 11 looking to pick up a 12th team, possibly from the Big East. In light of that, some interesting comments from Coach Stewart the other day:

"It's exciting. It's disheartening as well. ... The Big Ten could ... they'll pick a couple of our teams. However, the SEC and the ACC will also do the same, so that's exciting. I don't know where we're going to land. We could land, whatever, in one of maybe three conferences, the ACC, the SEC, maybe the Big Ten."

"We talked about it today [in] a recruiting meeting," Stewart said. "Let's say the SEC invites us in. Well, that gives us a certain prestige. Then you say, where are we geographically compared to them? Now would the ACC be better? Well, geographically it might be, but clout-wise would it be? If the Big Ten would says, hey, come on in, that's an East-West travel. Probably the ACC would be the best travel league. But, really, football-wise, the ACC, SEC, Big Ten ... any will be good. I just hate to see the Big East disband."

Intersting. I'm sure this is all just Billy Stewart's opinion, but it does show that WVU is keenly aware of the position that losing another Big East team would put the conference in... and is keeping its options open. I suppose the big question is.. would the ACC or SEC make room for WVU? And how exactly would they go about doing that?

Brian Bennett, ESPN's Big East blogger seems to think that WVU has the best chance of all teams remaining after a potential Big 10 raid to be scooped up by another BCS conference.

Personally, I would hate to see the Big East destroyed. I feel especially strongly about this during basketball season becuase I really do love Big East basketball and I love that WVU is a part of it. However, as much as the state loves the basketball team, WVU remains a football school and the administration has a responsibility to do whatever it takes to make sure that we remain in a BCS conference.

I still hate conference championships and I still blame this whole damn mess on the ACC. I suppose if we end up joining those fuckers its some consolation that as long as Huggy Bear is around we'll be disrupting the Carolina dominance in bball, or should we land in the SEC, should give Kentucky some fits too. :P

Still, even if we come out unscathed, some combination of Pitt, Louisville, USF, Syracuse, UConn, and Rutgers is going to get screwed out of playing in a major football conference. A shame.