Catching up does a lot of catching up

He's been taking lessons from Michael Floyd: This pretty well summarizes Tommy Rees' decision-making ability:

Notre Dame quarterback Tommy Rees has been charged with four misdemeanors after allegedly raising his knee and knocking the wind out of a police officer following an off-campus house party early Thursday.

The St. Joseph County Prosecutor's Office says the 19-year-old Rees was charged with one count of battery, two counts of resisting law enforcement and one count of illegal consumption of alcohol by a minor. Police had filed a preliminary charge of felony battery on a police officer, which would have required him to stay in jail until being arraigned before a judge.

Rees was released on a $250 cash bond.

Rees was among about five people who jumped a backyard fence and ran after officers arrived to break up a loud party several blocks from campus about 12:30 a.m. following the last day of Notre Dame's spring semester classes, Trent said.

When an officer caught up with Rees, the 19-year-old raised his knee into the officer and they both fell down, Trent said. Rees continued to resist, so the officer pepper-sprayed the quarterback so officers could handcuff him, Trent said.

Derpity derp. Meanwhile, Notre Dame fans everywhere are rejoicing at the certainty of Everett Golson assuming the starting job and instantly becoming a cross between Vince Young and Joe Montana. Depending on the outcome of Rees' legal situation, I'd downgrade the chances of him keeping the starting job from about 50/50 to ... I dunno ... something lower than 50/50. If I had to put money down right now on who starts the opener against Navy (in Dublin!), my money'd be on Golson. He was awesome in the spring game (11 of 15 for 120 yards and two touchdowns to go along with 25 yards rushing) but has never taken a snap, which means all those infuriating turnovers from the past couple years will totally/definitely/absolutely go away this year!

As for Rees, Michael Floyd's presence last year despite roughly 87 alcohol-related citations leads me to believe he's probably not getting booted barring some other significant screwup. That said, if Golson gets the starting job, a nominal spot on the roster might not be particularly desirable. We'll see.

BTW, by far the best part of that story is the part that has almost nothing to do with Rees:

Linebacker Carlo Calabrese also was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of public intoxication. South Bend police Capt. Phil Trent said Calabrese twice told officers: "My people will get you."

I'm undecided as to whether that should be taken seriously coming from a guy named Carlo Calabrese.

Anyway, you know what goes here:

Oh yeah.

Philip Sims is up and gone: This wasn't entirely unexpected given the way A.J. McCarron pretty well established himself as the starter by, like, winning a national championship and stuff, but probably the best QB recruit Nick Saban's gotten since taking over at Alabama is no longer at Alabama:

Alabama has granted backup quarterback Phillip Sims permission to transfer, the school announced on Friday.

"This was a very difficult decision because I've had a great experience at the University of Alabama and I'm thankful for the opportunity this program provided me," said Sims in a school release. "... The reason for me leaving is nothing more than a personal matter. I just need to be closer to home to support my family at this time and that needs to be my priority right now. I would still like to continue my football career, and hopefully I can do that and also be there for my family."

Sims was a big-time recruit (of course he was) out of Virginia back in 2010 and apparently wasn't kidding about the "closer to home" thing since he's already visited, chosen and enrolled at Virginia. Observation: Philip Sims is not Bryce Brown.

It's unknown as of right now whether he'll be eligible for next season; he reportedly hasn't requested a hardship waiver yet but almost certainly will due to the family circumstances. What happens from there is hard to say given the presence of Michael Rocco, the returning starter who's of debatable quality (awful for the first half of the year, pretty good for the second half) and presumably has a much lower ceiling.

FYI, Rocco's also a sophomore, so regardless of whether or not Sims gets a hardship waiver for this year, they'll be in the same class going forward.

Speaking of Alabama: This may or may not qualify as "news," but there's apparently a growing concern that presumptive starting running back Eddie Lacy won't be ready for the start of the season due to some sort of turf-toe situation that first cropped up last year. He did not play in the spring game last weekend and induced the following less-than-optimistic quote from Nick Saban (the first part of this is in reference to freshman T.J. Yeldon):

"He has a really good opportunity. Eddie will hopefully be able to come back, Jalston (Fowler) can do certain things, Dee Hart can do certain things. T.J. is one of those guys who can do everything."

Important caveat: It's almost four months until the season, which is a lot of time to rest a seemingly minor injury. Also, T.J. Yeldon: He's probably OK. He was an uber-ginormous recruit (BILLIONS OF STARS), as was Dee Hart two years ago (although he missed all of last year with a torn ACL and might not be back to 100 percent awesomeness). So the overall talent level is probably fine; the only real issue is that Lacy has actual game experience and has shown himself to be productive against actual defenses, whereas the other guys are pure hype until they're something more than that.

Montel Harris has a sad (and no discipline): Montel Harris was very, very good a couple years ago. He's probably still very good but won't be very relevant since he just got kicked off the team at BC:

Montel Harris did everything he could to extend his playing career at Boston College outside of adhering to the team’s code of conduct.

The Eagles’ all-time leading rusher with 3,735 yards was dismissed from the football squad by coach Frank Spaziani yesterday due to repeated violation of team rules.

Spaziani would not comment on the specifics of the infractions committed by Harris, who has been dealing with a potentially career-ending left knee injury and would have been a fifth-year senior for the 2012 season. The coach did say that Harris will remain on campus to complete his degree.

FYI, Harris missed all but the first game of last season after re-injuring his previously blown-out knee but got a medical redshirt (he had started throughout all of his first three seasons), which means he's headed into his last year of eligibility and therefore can't transfer this year; his only chance to play again is to graduate, do the graduate-degree thing and play out his last year at a place that won't mind taking on a guy with serious discipline problems who hasn't played football in about three years.

This should be less of an issue for BC -- at least from a strategic standpoint -- than it was a year ago since (a) there's now some non-Harris experience and (b) there was already a LOT of skepticism regarded the status of Harris' knee, which kept him out for all of spring practice. The bad news: The aforementioned experience comes in the form of Rolandan Finch, Andre Williams and Tahj Kimble, who cumulatively averaged 4.4 yards a carry last season. One of those guys (or the quarterback) will have to be a lot better if Boston College's offense is gonna be anything other than craptacular.

Everybody is going to Conference USA: Seriously:

North Texas will leave the Sun Belt to join Conference USA, a source close to the program said Thursday.

The source also said Louisiana Tech and Florida International will be joining the Mean Green in Conference USA, along with Texas-San Antonio, whose move was approved by the University of Texas System regents Thursday morning.

Charlotte also appears set to join the C-USA, scheduling a news conference on Friday to discuss conference affiliation.

And then there's this:

Utah State and San Jose State will announce they are joining the Mountain West Conference for the 2013-14 season on Friday, multiple sources told ESPN.com on Wednesday.

The two schools will replace San Diego State and Boise State. SDSU and Boise State are leaving for the Big East in football while the Aztecs will join the Big West in all other sports. Boise State is set to join the WAC in all other sports, but multiple sources said the Broncos are trying to get in the Big West, as well, now that the WAC is falling apart.

That last sentence pretty much tells the story (or at least half of it): The Sun Belt and the WAC are getting picked apart piece by piece, which was inevitable once the Big East started getting all grabby at the expense of C-USA and the Mountain West. Speaking of which, those two were supposed to merge (or something) but now are reportedly just expanding separately and might be considering some sort of scheduling agreement. Whatever. It's their hot body, they roll with gangs, etc.

Anyway, the Sun Belt has replaced the above-mentioned crappy teams with a bunch of other crap like Texas State and Texas Arlington; it'll continue being a totally irrelevant conference with a bunch of programs that shouldn't be in Division I competing for a spot in the GMAC Bowl or whatever. The WAC is probably gone (like gone gone): Once all the upcoming realignment stuff kicks in after next season, there will be two (!) football programs left in the conference. A dollar if you can name them. You can't; they're Idaho and New Mexico State. That is not a conference.

In case you're wondering, this concerns me very little

Woo lineman transfer: This gets a spot because Max Garcia is actually pretty good; he was a legit starter at Maryland as a sophomore last year and could've gone just about anywhere in the Southeast once he decided to bail on that disaster along with Danny O'Brien. He picked Florida:

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Former Maryland starting left tackle Max Garcia said Saturday he will transfer to Florida.

"Yes, I have committed to the University of Florida," Garcia said. "I'm a Florida Gator."

The 6-foot-4, 290-pound offensive lineman who is originally from Norcross, Ga., chose Florida over Georgia, Clemson, Ole Miss and Southern California.

The school announced Monday that Garcia had signed his scholarship papers.

FYI, he won't be eligible this year but does have a redshirt year available and will have two years left to play starting in 2013. I don't have much else to add here given my lack of expertise about Florida's underclass offensive linemen.

I don't understand: I'm unclear whether Urban Meyer thinks Mike Leach is brilliant or a freakin' idiot (quote taken from the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association Clinic last month):

“Mike Leach is a certified nut job. Everybody knows Mike Leach, right? He’s a certified … great friend of mine; out of his damn mind. Weird. Never plays, attorney, genius kind of guy. I learned so much from him two years ago. I had him come up and speak to our staff. We’re not gonna do what he does on staff. We don’t believe in it.

“I mean, this is the most bizarre shit you’ve ever seen. However, what I did learn from him … he’s not gonna change what he does."

Ummm ... OK. I'm guessing the point is that he's totally committed to one system that determines everything else related to player development, which makes sense regardless of the specific system and accompanying techniques and whatnot. I'm guessing.

Still, what's the point of learning a bunch of stuff if it's so bizarre and outside your philosophical realm that you're not gonna use any of it? No comprendo.

On a related note, read this. You'll laugh.

No thanks: Rutgers has new uniforms. Rutgers also might be moving to the XFL:

Ugh. The list of features I hate would be so long that I'm just gonna replace it with the list of things I don't hate: the numbers. They're very knight-like. Everything else looks ridiculous, as expected for a Nike production.

Speaking of which, these reactions make me want to stab myself:

Said ex-Rutgers RB and current Baltimore Raven RB Ray Rice: “I’m in awe right now. Let me tell you why I’m in awe. We had to wear the basic stuff so these guys could wear all this nice stuff.”

Added former Scarlet Knight and current Jacksonville Jaguar S Courtney Greene when asked for his thoughts: “I think ‘cold blooded… We’re going to look like the best team in college football."

No. Just no.