Catching up howls at the moon for some reason

Storm Klein dismissed ... probably: Ohio State booted spectacularly named linebacker Storm Klein the other day after he was arrested and charged with assault and domestic violence. Details:

According to Columbus police, Klein "violently and purposefully" grabbed an ex-girlfriend – the mother of his child – by the arms and threw her against his apartment door during an argument, resulting in an abrasion and swelling on her forehead and abrasions on both forearms.

Klein was held overnight without bail on Friday, and ordered at his arraignment on Saturday morning to stay away from the woman (as well as alcohol, drugs and firearms) per his bond conditions.

Yeeeaaaaaah that sounds pretty bad. There's apparently a little more to the story, though; Klein claims the woman refused to leave his apartment (the "it was all her fault" defense works every time) and has a hearing later this month at which he'll be represented by attorney Larry James, who's making lots of confident remarks reminiscent of his defense of Terrelle Pryor (hahahahaha).

That might be relevant since Urban Meyer explicitly said in his press release that the dismissal will become something other than a dismissal in the event of a legal resolution:

"It has been made very clear that this type of charge will result in dismissal. If there are any changes in the charges, we will re-evaluate his status."

Whether Klein would be relevant in the event of a return is less explicit. He started 10 games last year as a junior and had 45 tackles but was generally regarded as a starting-by-default starter, and he lost his job in spring ball to Curtis Grant. Also complicating matters is the existence of 2011 uber-recruit Etienne Sabino, who would ideally be on the field somewhere on a somewhat-regular basis.

Translation: Klein was unlikely to be more than a part-time player this year regardless of legal standing.

The Robert Nkemdiche ultimatum-type thing: So ... this happened:

"I am waiting on Clemson to offer (teammate Ryan Carter)," Robert Nkemdiche told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "When that happens, it's locked ... it's a done deal ... it's over."

Nkemdiche "committed" to Clemson not even two weeks ago. Making said commitment dependent on an offer for a borderline high school teammate who has offers from only a handful of mid-major-ish schools was either a reasonable leverage move in a slanted system or the worst thing that has ever been done. I tend to lean slightly toward the latter; a commitment isn't a commitment if there are conditions that must be met in order to make it "a done deal," and there's a Spam-lubricated slope there related to big-time recruits demanding an offer for Teammate X and/or Friend Y since that could become demanding playing time or whatever else a couple years from now. I mean, if a guy makes it clear from the beginning that he wants to go to school with so-and-so, that's his decision, but presenting a public quid pro quo to a school that's already accepted your commitment just makes things really awkward if that guy isn't (a) worthy of a scholarship to the relevant school or (b) at a position of need.

FYI, Clemson already has four of Nkemdiche's teammates in its 2013 class; one more means a full 25 percent of the class will be let's-ride-the-big-guy's-coattails recruits. It seems to me that there's a value judgment to be made: How many scholarships is the No. 1 dude in the country actually worth?

As for Nkemdiche, he removed some of the awkwardness Sunday when he told the New York Times that he'll honor his commitment regardless of what happens with Carter:

"Of course I would want to play with him,” Nkemdiche said of Carter. “But if it doesn’t work out, I’ll still go to Clemson. ...

"I didn’t give Coach Swinney an ultimatum about anything,” Nkemdiche said. “I hope he doesn’t feel obligated to offer anybody a scholarship because of my commitment."

Fair enough.

You're still around? Montel Harris is probably (pending a knee that's made of paper mache) one of the top 10 running backs in the country and has reappeared at Temple after briefly dropping off the face of the Earth:

Former Boston College running back Montel Harris has transferred to Temple and is eligible to play this season. He arrived on campus Sunday and is enrolled in summer classes, which began Monday.

Interesting tidbit: Harris is the NCAA's active rushing leader with 3,375 career yards. The guy has legit ability. He also has played less than one full game since 2010; he hurt his knee at the end of the '10 season, blew it out in the first game last year and got a medical redshirt, hurt it again this spring and then got kicked off the team at Boston College in May because of repeated rules violations (whether those were of the weedy variety or related to a dispute over full-contact practices is a matter of debate). Word on the interwebs is that he was interested in Temple -- which is back in the Big East this year, according to the Big East -- because of the recent hiring of former BC assistant Ryan Day as offensive coordinator.

What makes this news particularly interesting (IMO) is that Harris will be eligible immediately because he's already gotten his degree. That's pretty convenient since Bernard Piece left early for the draft; the hilariously tiny Matt Brown has gotten pretty regular carries the last two years and has done pretty well for himself in the MAC but is no Montel Harris (at least not a healthy Montel Harris).

The Big East is slightly tougher since it had five of the top 20 rush defenses in the country last year, although how much of that was quality rush defense and how much of it was generally inept rush offense is hard to quantify. Regardless, Temple -- which finished seventh nationally in rushing yards per game last year -- should be able to move the ball on the ground pretty regularly.

Somebody actually gets a waiver: Philip Sims had his hardship waiver approved by the NCAA on Wednesday and will be eligible to play at Virginia immediately. I'm gonna be lazy here and Ctrl+C/Ctrl+P a paragraph from the thing I wrote when Sims left Alabama a couple months ago:

What happens next 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.

Sims was a big-time recruit (obviously since he went to Alabama) a couple years ago and played in eight games last year as the mop-up guy; he went 18 for 28 with no touchdowns and two picks while A.J. McCarron pretty well took hold of the starting job by, ya know, winning a national title. He might still be really good; there's just no meaningful data either way.

As for Virginia, they won't go 9-3 again this year but appear to be approaching consistent competitiveness in the ACC. Getting Sims some meaningful playing time/snaps this year would make sense in anticipation of upperclass years that might be of national relevance.

What's the problem, officer? Greg Reid channeled his inner Isaiah Crowell late Tuesday night and got himself arrested and hit with an amusing combination of charges:

Greggory Lamar Reid, Jr., age 21, from Tallahassee, FL was arrested Tuesday night in Lowndes County by the Georgia State Patrol during a traffic stop at the intersection of Georgia Highway 376 and Georgia Highway 7. A trooper stopped his 2000 Mercury Grand Marquis for window tint and seat belt violations around 8:45 p.m.

During an inventory of the vehicle, a suspected marijuana joint was located in a cup holder.

He was arrested and taken to the Lowndes County Jail. Mr. Reid is charged with possession of marijuana (less than an ounce), driving while license is suspended or revoked and seat belt violation.

Nice. Hilarious background info: Reid has been cited for seatbelt violations five times (!!!!!) in the last two years. I'm pretty sure that's impossible.

Reid is a pretty good corner and an utterly awesome return man; he's averaged 12.55 yards per return with three touchdowns in his career. I'm not expecting significant punishment for a couple misdemeanor charges -- not having a concealed/altered weapon in a school zone makes him not Isaiah Crowell -- but would probably advise him to start wearing his seatbelt and stop smoking weed while driving.

Speaking of Isaiah Crowell: The running back class of 2011 (the guys who showed up on campus, like, 11 months ago) is in pretty good shape. Via Matt Hinton:

Beware, Malcolm Brown (or beware Malcolm Brown, no comma).

This probably would have worked: An open-records request and a corresponding interview with Sun Belt commissioner Karl Benson revealed the following hilarity:

The same presentation included several maps of potential conference mergers -- one of which was titled “Makes Too Much Sense” and proposed a 33-school superconference combining the Sun Belt, C-USA, WAC and Mountain West Conference.

“I had very quiet inquiries with (Mountain West commissioner) Craig Thompson and (C-USA commissioner) Britton Banowsky to see if, ‘Hey, would you be interested?’” Benson said. “But that was dismissed quickly. No interest."

No? Karl Benson gets all of the points for creativity and loses all of the points for ridiculousness. I actually kinda wish this would've happened if for no other reason than Hawaii and Florida International nominally being in the same conference.

A recognizable name?!? The game that used to be the Insight Bowl is now the Valley of Sun Bowl. There's been no official release about this, but a Google search turns up an option to buy tickets to the "2012 Valley of the Sun Bowl" on the Fiesta Bowl's official site and an FBA release that includes the "Valley of the Sun Bowl" on this year's list of approved bowls.

A couple observations: (a) yay it's a game with a non-sponsor-y, geographically meaningful name and (b) that probably means it is lacking financial support and thus will cease to exist by 2015. This would only be problematic on a personal level since it'd mean one fewer local (and Big Ten-affiliated) bowl within 45 minutes of my house.

Boo for rivalry hiatuses: Utah and BYU won't be playing in 2014 (or '15) for the first time since 1946. They will play again in 2016 but have nothing scheduled after that; Utah doesn't seem particularly interested in continuing things now that there's a Pac-12 schedule to deal with and nah nah nah nah poo poo.

On the schedule to replace BYU: Michigan, which is gonna have some weird nonconference schedules (basically a bunch of random Pac-12 opponents leading up to that whole Big Ten-Pac-12 scheduling thingy) in the relatively near future and doesn't play Notre Dame in 2018 or 2019. The same two-year gap was written into the contract in 2000 and 2001, BTW; that does provide some precedence but doesn't make it any less lame.

I hate you: Stop it. Stop it right now.

Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson sees positives in the recently announced four-team college football playoff, but said Tuesday he believes it will expand to eight teams sooner rather than later.

"I know we're saying four teams for 12 years," Thompson said. "But I don't see it as a four-team playoff for 12 years. I just don't see it. If there is success with four, I think we will go to what is most ideal, which is eight. That would double the access points."

The problem isn't so much that eight teams would be awful but that immediately expanding to eight would mean immediately taking a step toward 12/16/24/EVERYBODY, which would be unquestionably worse than what we had before. DO NOT WANT.

I'm also not taking Craig Thompson too seriously since the commissioner of the Mountain West has an obvious vested interest in expanding access as much as possible. Pro tip: Making it sound inevitable does not make it any more desirable (except to the stupid people who comprise 98 percent of the population).

Blair Holliday is in a coma: What the headline says:

Duke wide receiver Blair Holliday is in critical but stable condition after suffering head injuries in a jet-ski accident at Lake Tillery in central North Carolina on Wednesday.

According to Art Chase, Duke’s media relations director for football, Holliday collided with teammate and fellow wide receiver Jamison Crowder, who was not treated for injuries. Holliday was airlifted to the University of North Carolina Trauma Center where he remained Thursday night. Both players were riding jet skis.

Holliday was listed in critical condition in Duke’s initial news release Thursday afternoon, but was upgraded to critical but stable.

Yikes. He's since improved to the point that he has blinked; that's about all the info that's been provided thus far by his family (understandably). FYI, Holliday's a sophomore who had three catches last year and was listed as a starter on Duke's spring depth chart.

I have no idea what's going on here: I seriously have no idea what's going on here, what this is, why it exists or where it came from:

Explain, plz.