Y U DOING DUMB THINGS, SAMMY WATKINS?

I would've covered this in yesterday's assortment of legal shenanigans if it had already happened. It had not. From USA Today via a bunch of local people via the Clemson University Police:

Clemson All-American receiver Sammy Watkins was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana and a controlled substance on Friday.

Watkins and soccer player Amadou-Tidiane Daniel Dia were stopped by university police after an officer saw the car scrape a curb and the temporary license tag was not lit. The police report said an officer smelled marijuana in the car and a subsequent search found two pills for which Watkins did not have a prescription.

According to the Clemson University Police, Watkins was charged with possession of a controlled substance and simple possession of marijuana, which are both misdemeanors.

Please note that this took place at some point early Friday, as in very late Thursday. Appropriate reaction to a guy smoking pot while driving while carrying non-prescription painkillers in a car with a temporary tag at some point between midnight and 3 a.m.:


BRILLIANT!!! He's like Tommy Rees in receiver form!

Dabo Swinney ANGRY:

“I am aware of the arrest last night. I am mad and hurt by the poor decision that Sammy Watkins made. He is a good young man who has been a model student, citizen, player and teammate. This is a reminder that good people make poor decisions. But, there are consequences for your actions ... and there will be in this case.

“I am in the process of gathering the facts and discipline will be determined when I have completed that process.”

The two big differences (between Watkins and Rees, I mean) are (a) Watkins obviously isn't going anywhere other than probably the bench for a couple games -- a misdemeanor pot charge is slightly less severe than four misdemeanor charges based on evading and then kneeing a police officer -- and (b) Watkins is really freakin' good.

The list of best receivers in the country goes something like this: Robert Woods, Sammy Watkins, gap, a bunch of other guys. The guy had 82 catches for 1,219 yards and 12 touchdowns last year as a freshman (!!!) despite not having a single game with more than 155 yards or two TDs. He's kinda/sorta important to that offense.

I will now save you the trouble of looking up Clemson's schedule for the first few weeks: Auburn (possibly difficult), Ball State (lol), Furman (wwwhheeeee) and at Florida State (eek). Translation: An any-game suspension is meaninful since the Auburn game is sitting there as a potential loss; anything beyond that but short of four games is essentially meaningless since the rest of the September schedule is cupcake-tastic.

I also won't be surprised at all if some tsk-tsking and stadium steps are deemed sufficient and Watkins torches Auburn for 140 yards and two touchdowns, in which case all will be forgotten/forgiven. Regardless, my outrage over a generally behaved college kid smoking pot will be relatively low. Just stop doing stupid things, plz.

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.

Blaming 'logistical issues' is easy but ridiculous

I learned a new formula this week: horrifyingly massive workload + sick kids + sick me = WANT DEATH. Ughgh ...

Anyway, the conference commissioners are starting to say various things about various things related to playoff scenarios. This is interesting for obvious reasons. It's also depressing because the things they're saying are not (entirely) the things I was hoping to hear.

This is from my post a couple weeks ago, specifically the part about the possibility of playoff games being held on campus:

This needs to happen. This soooooo needs to happen for soooooo many reasons, specifically the massive advantage for the teams ranked first and second (the preserving-the-regular-season thing) and the guarantee of actual fans producing actual sellouts rather than guys in suits filling up the JerryDome to create the illusion of a sellout. The possibility of this excites me to a ridiculous degree. There are also some obvious benefits to bowl integration (from a transition standpoint) if they want to go that route, but I hope they don't until the campus thing is thoroughly vested.

Yeah. That. I still want that. I'm probably not getting that.

This is from an ESPN story that came out earlier today:

If Football Bowl Subdivision conference commissioners and the sport's other power brokers approve a four-team playoff to determine college football's national champion, the semifinals and the national championship game will be played at neutral sites and the BCS bowl games will be played closer to New Year's Day, a source familiar with the negotiations told ESPN.com on Tuesday.

... A proposal to play the semifinal games at the home stadiums of the higher-seeded teams is all but dead, according to the source. The semifinal games will either be hosted by the existing BCS bowl games or opened for bidding. The source said it seemed almost certain that the national championship game will be opened to bidding by the existing BCS bowl sites and other cities such as Atlanta, Dallas and Indianapolis.

Lame. Before I rant about said lameness, I should point out that there are a couple of good-ish things included (at least implicitly) in those comments.

The first is the specificness of the details regarding scheduling/sites/bidding/whatnot. There's obviously been extensive discussion about the logistics of a four-team playoff to the point that it seems like by far the most likely end result of all this. The second is the above scenario's lack of reference to Jim Delany's death grip on the Rose Bowl, although ESPN's source says the Rose Bowl's role is still a matter of debate and that Delany, Larry Scott and the Rose Bowl people all "prefer" to keep the Big Ten-Pac-12 thing intact.

I'm skeptical anything's gonna come of that preference given Mike Slive's (correct) assessment of its ridiculousness:

A four-team playoff proposal that would ensure a Big Ten/Pac-12 Rose Bowl semifinal pairing ... prompted a smile from Slive.

"It's not one of my favorites," he said. "What we're trying to do is simplify in many ways. I don't think that adds to the simplification of the postseason."

You don't think? It's absurdly and unnecessarily complicated and is of no benefit to anyone other than the guys who make $500K a year to make sure the Tournament of Roses looks exactly like it did in 1930. I'm gonna be downright pissed if Delany gets that approved after apparently conceding defeat on the homefield-semifinals proposal.

Back to the semifinals, the stupidest part about the whole thing is the stupidly stupid reason for going with neutral sites. Back to ESPN:

The conference commissioners have reached a conclusion that some FBS schools' stadiums aren't large enough to host a national semifinal game and that many college towns don't have enough hotel rooms to accommodate bigger crowds.

"What happens if TCU finishes No. 2 in the country and hosts a semifinal game?" the source said. "TCU finished No. 3 two years ago. Are they really hosting No. 3 Ohio State in a 45,000-seat stadium? Where are people going to stay if Oregon hosts a semifinal game? In Portland? As much as it would be great for the sport to see a game played in Ann Arbor, Mich., Tuscaloosa, Ala., or Lincoln, Neb., some of the logistical issues are just too severe. I think that idea has come home to roost as far as these guys are concerned."

Ummm ... what? The point of homefield advantage is that most of the people who get to buy tickets are the people who normally go to the games at that stadium; miraculously, lodging and transportation are not issues for those people at regular games, even the ones that include College GameDay and LSU-Alabama-type media throngs all that stuff.

I went back through 10 years of regular-season-ending rankings (I got bored after that) and found that the smallest stadium that would have hosted a semifinal game if the four-team playoff format had been in place was Autzen, which has an official capacity of 54,000 but averages a few thousand over that. UNACCEPTABLE.


Because it'd be SO AWFUL if 20,000 random rich dudes got squeezed out of their $250-a-pop seats in favor of, like, actual fans, the kind who would either (a) live in the general vicinity as students/season-ticket holders or (b) fly/drive in and find a place to stay, just like the 10,000-15,000 visiting fans do for every road game at every major venue. Hotels exist; if Oregon hosts a semifinal game, people will stay at the same places people currently stay when they travel to see a game at Autzen.

BTW, the Fiesta Bowl (at University of Phoenix Stadium) and Lucas Oil Field both can seat about 63,000 fans; is it really worth stripping the freaking essence of the sport out of the postseason in order to avoid that once-in-a-century scenario in which TCU or Boise finishes in the top two and can only accommodate 50,000 people at a semifinal game? Not even the NFL Sponsored By Sprint on FOX Brought To You By Coors Light sells out like that; I know because the microscopic city of Green Bay has a football team and somehow does not turn into that city in Andromeda Strain when people go there in December/January for playoff games.

What it comes down to is obviously not "logistical issues" but the opportunity to sell luxury boxes and corporate sponsorships (including comped tickets) and whatnot. Any argument otherwise is so totally laughable that ... I mean ... ARGH. This tweet from MGoBlog's Brian Cook pretty accurately encapsulates my frustration:

The BCS is arguing college football stadiums are unprepared to host college football games.

Pretty much, yeah. And the alternative really screws the fans (as always) since it requires anybody wanting to go to shell out a huge chunk of money for a trip to L.A. or New Orleans or Miami or wherever for a semifinal game and then, in the best-case scenario, do the same thing a week later for the national championship game. Nuts to that.

I kinda blamed Delany earlier for "conceding defeat" but didn't expect much (and not just because he comes up with awful ideas like Legends and Leaders and the Stagg-Paterno Trophy); the on-campus thing was doomed from the beginning because it had no real voice at the table and plenty of voices against it. Delany's interest wasn't the same as the fans' but was more of a "this would kinda help my conference" thing, whereas the bowl reps have been sitting there trying to salvage the very existence of the entities they're representing and the non-Midwest commissioners just want to figure out how to ensure everybody a Scrooge McDuck-esque pile of cash (preferably without leaving the comfy confines of their 60 degree winters). Survival and cash apparently won, which sucks but isn't surprising.

The not-totally-cynical part of me thinks an imperfect four-team playoff is indisputably better than a two-team game pretending to be a playoff. The other part of me thinks about the stupidity of sacrificing games in Ann Arbor and Tuscaloosa and Lincoln in exchange for some luxury boxes and corporate sponsorships and then remembers this:

Sigh.

The Bobby Petrino story just got so much better

No. Freakin. Way.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) -- A person familiar with the decision says Arkansas is bringing back John L. Smith on an interim basis next year to replace Bobby Petrino.

Smith, an assistant who left the Razorbacks after last season to become the head coach at Weber State, is returning on a one-year appointment, according to the person who spoke Monday on condition of anonymity because the school had not made its decision public.

The person also said athletic director Jeff Long felt Smith would "unite" all the current Razorbacks coaches.

Because if there's anybody to smooth over a public-relations disaster, it's this guy:



This would be awesome if it were an Onion story. It's so much better in real life.

This is why they can't have nice things

You'd think Alabama would know how to protect a trophy seeing as how they claim to have won like 483 national titles. Apparently not:

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- A piece of history from the University of Alabama's championship run was shattered on Saturday afternoon following the Crimson Tide's annual A-Day scrimmage.

The Coaches' Trophy from this season's BCS national title was accidentally knocked off its podium and shattered by a player's father whose foot got caught on a rug that sits beneath the trophy display.

The handmade trophy sculpted in Ireland is valued at $30,000.

At least it's not expensive or anything. I can only hope the entire scene was as hilariously entertaining as Real Madrid's not-at-all-alcohol-related trophy disaster:


Outstanding.

Anyway, Alabama already has a replacement in the works; the original probably isn't salvageable based on ESPN reporter Alex Scarborough's tweet that said "here's what's left" and included the following photo:

Observation: That is not a crystal football. That is a shard.

I'm not sure exactly how the procedure works but assume that the shard will be given a medical hardship waiver, placed in the trophy case and designated with an imaginary national title from a 7-3 season. BOOM SABAN'D.

Catching up has lost control of the program

Aaron Lynch is officially gone: Aaron Lynch was one of Notre Dame's three or four best players last year as a true freshman; he's no longer one of Notre Dame's three or four best players since he no longer plays for Notre Dame. Details:

Notre Dame announced Friday that standout defensive end Aaron Lynch is transferring out of the program and plans to return to Florida, his home state.

"Aaron recently approached me about his desire to leave Notre Dame and return to Florida," coach Brian Kelly said in a release.

This is significant for a couple reasons, the first being that Lynch had 5.5 sacks, seven tackles for loss and 33 tackles last year after coming in as one of the top recruits in the country. He's not readily replaceable despite the existence of the talented-on-paper guys behind him on the depth chart, none of whom have done much of anything in their careers since they play defense for Notre Dame (zing!). The second is that Notre Dame is turning into Cuba; I've honestly lost track of the number of guys who have bailed in the past three months (Dayne Crist, Mike Ragone, Deontay Greenberry, Tee Shepard, Aaron Lynch, et al). All those transfers are explainable in and of themselves but are contributing to the ever-darkening cloud over Brian Kelly that won't go away until he wins and wins a lot.

The circumstances behind the Lynch thing were also kinda weird since Lynch had been making comments all spring about his homesickness and whatnot, which led to a bunch of rumors:

What started with an excusal from practice last Wednesday and Kelly denying that Lynch quit the team ended nine days later with the head coach beginning a last-minute press conference moments after Lynch's release by saying: "As you know, Aaron Lynch has quit the football team."

Derp.

As for Lynch, word has it that he's headed to South Florida once he gets his release. Assuming that's accurate, he'd have to sit out the upcoming season (he's got a redshirt available) but would have three years left to dominate the Big East starting in 2013.

Obligatory Brian Kelly gif goes here:

Perfect.

I'm shocked and appalled: This is relatively old news now but is worth discussion: Urban Meyer had some issues at Florida, and by "had some issues" I mean "might have had absolutely zero control over what happened with his team."

The thirty-some drug arrests were pretty well documented but not as interesting from a football standpoint as some of the other stuff that The Sporting News published last weekend. A brief summary of said stuff:

• Percy Harvin, Aaron Hernandez and Brandon Spikes missed the 2008 season opener against Hawaii with "injuries" that were actually failed drug tests. Relevant quote: “They were running with us on the first team all week in practice,” one former player said. “The next thing you know, they’re on the sidelines with a (walking) boot for the season opener like they were injured. Of course players see that and respond to it."
• Conditioning was apparently whatever Percy Harvin wanted it to be. Matt Hayes relays an account from a former player about the team running steps during offseason conditioning when Percy Harvin sits down, refuses to continue and tells the coaches, "This (expletive) ends now." Result: “The next day,” a former player said, “we were playing basketball as conditioning" Hilarious.
• The pure volume of failed drug tests is amazing. Name an All-American at Florida (other than Tim Tebow, obviously); that guy tested positive for marijuana at some point during his career or at the combine or both. And yes, this is coming from somebody who realizes that like 75 percent of the population under the age of 25 smokes pot. It apparently was so bad that Will Muschamp brought in Bill Belichik to talk to the guys he inherited about NFL teams not wanting dudes who are high all the time.
  
• Safety Bryan Thomas was asked to "move on" to free up a scholarship after the 2008 season. He refused because he was on track to graduate the next year and threatened to "tell everybody everything" if forced out. The next day, he was given a medical hardship waiver. He ended up graduating (after three years), transferring to North Alabama and being named all-conference in each of his last two seasons. That's some Nick Saban-esque scholarship allotment.
  

So ... umm ... yeah. None of those things are totally shocking but cumulatively tell a story of something resembling a real-life version of The Program.

Meyer has since come out and issued some non-denial denials about how they were all "great kids" and there are "no issues with Urban Meyer and the NCAA" and blah blah blah. There's also no official comment from Harvin or anybody else other than some presumably disgruntled players who are talking about stuff that's pretty shady but not necessarily uncommon (lol SEC). Your interpretation of the story probably depends a lot on how much you love/hate Florida/Ohio State.

IMO, this quote from Bryan Thomas pretty well summarizes things:

“As far as coaching, there’s no one else like (Meyer); he’s a great coach,” Thomas said. “He gets players to do things you never thought you could do. But he’s a bad person. He’ll win at Ohio State. But if he doesn’t change, they’re going to have the same problems.”

Bingo.

Ronald Powell goes down: Former uber-recruit Ronald Powell has had his ascension to awesomeness at Florida briefly interrupted:

The school announced Monday that Powell, who led the Gators with six sacks in 2011, suffered a torn ACL in his left knee during Saturday's spring game and will miss four to six months.

Ouch. Powell had six sacks and nine tackles for loss last year as a true sophomore at defensive end/outside linebacker and was the defensive MVP in both of Florida's two spring scrimmages this year. He also was the consensus top recruit in the country in 2010; he's not lacking talent.

The question now is whether he's out for the season or if he's really only out for four to six months, which seems unreasonably optimistic since that would have him back in about September. I'm skeptical. Missing any amount of time will be relatively damaging to a defense that was really good last year but doesn't have a comparable pass rusher. The potential replacements are guys like redshirt sophomore Gideon Agajbe and junior Larentee McCray, who have pretty limited meaningful experience and nothing resembling Powell's raw talent.

It sounds like there'll be a more specific timetable after Powell's surgery, which won't happen until after the swelling in his knee goes down. Unfortunate.

Speaking of injuries: Colorado is down its best receiver:

Junior wide receiver Paul Richardson suffered a torn knee ligament Monday and will miss the 2012 season. The injury occurred during a non-contact special teams drill.

Richardson missed four games last year with a sprained knee but still had 39 catches for 555 yards and five touchdowns, and he had similar numbers as a true freshman. He's pretty good. Toney Clemons and Logan Gray were the other starting wideouts last year but are both out of eligibility, which leaves ... ummm ... ??? There are a couple of sophomores who got insignificant playing time last year and then nothing.

Given that the quarterback situation looks potentially disastrous and Rodney Stewart has finally graduated after roughly 11 years as the starting running back, adjust your expectations for the Colorado offense from "not good" to "craptacular."

Steve Spurrier can still be an a-hole: This is the OBC's hilariously unfiltered response to an ESPN question about his feelings on the South Carolina-Georgia game getting pushed back to midseason:

“I don’t know. I sort of always liked playing them that second game because you could always count on them having two or three key players suspended.”

LOL WWWHHEEEEEEE!!! I have nothing to add here.

Mizzou is no longer color-distorted Michigan: Missouri unveiled some new unis this week that aren't hugely different except for OMG WHAT IS ON THE ALTERNATE HELMET:

The block M is no more; this is not particularly surprising seeing as how Mizzou has been fazing it out for a while due to the typical association with Michigan (Jerel Worthy says hai). I'm on board with that aspect but think the tiger logo is a little overdone and would look cleaner if it had the oval outline that appears on the black helmets and the jersey crest. That said, as far as Nike overhauls go, this one's pretty benign since I can still identify the team, which is always a plus. I'm reserving judgment on the yellow jerseys until I see them in use.

More weird uniforms: Nike's creative budget must be running low since the only noticeable difference here is TCU's number font:

Meh. What's far more interesting than the unis, IMO, is the helmets that have lost the horned-frog stripe from front to back and replaced it with whatever this is:

That's ... like ... sweet? I'm neutral about the scale-type things but prefer the uber-purply purple to the last version, which was more subdued. Obvious observation: Anybody with purple helmets has some liberties not provided to Michigan/Notre Dame/Penn State.

STATUES STATUES STATUES: Auburn has some new statues. One of them is of Cam Newton, which I guess was inevitable once he won the Heisman and somehow got cleared by the NCAA (grumble grumble logic grumble). Anyway, these bronze things are about 150 percent of life size and weigh almost 2,000 pounds. I can't find an actual cost analysis, but The Auburn Plainsman estimates the price for each one at $100,000.

You're wondering where I'm going with this. Here it is: I'm amused that commemorating Cam Newton's awesomeness for all of eternity cost only half as much as Cam Newton himself.

That is all.

Trent Richardson is awesome: Just watch the video and beware of dustiness.


Again, Trent Richardson is awesome. Great story.

Every story ever written about a new defense

Editor's note: You've ready this story 3,000 times and know it by heart except for the names/locations, which I took the liberty of having my 5-year-old mad-lib for entertainment purposes (seriously). Lesson: Every new defense will always claim to be infinitely more aggressive regardless of what scheme is being employed or how good the last defense was. No exceptions.

BIG STATE UNIVERSITY, Your State (AP) -- While the offensive overhaul gets the most attention this spring at Big State University, coach Pink Panther is making a few tweaks on defense, too.

"Aggressive" is the word heard most from players when asked to describe the philosophy under newcomers Panther and defensive coordinator A Yellow Car.

"It's going to be a multiple aggressive defense. We're going to be flying around showing a lot of different looks," linebacker Lightning McQueen said this week.

Safety Diamondbacks has even loftier aspirations.

"One of our goals is to be one of the most aggressive defenses in the nation this year," the junior said.

Not that the Giraffes were slouches on defense under Panther's predecessor, Donuts. But Donuts employed a "bend but don't break" scheme that relied primarily on four-man rushes to get to the quarterback with the secondary dropping back in coverage. Opposing offenses tried to exploit Big State with short passes in space.

And for a second straight year, Big State finished last in the league in red-zone defense, allowing scores on 6,544,321 percent of possessions inside the 20 each of the last two seasons.

So fickle fans anxious to see improvement might enjoy the promise of different defensive wrinkles out of the base four-down scheme.

"Everyone's getting used to the new coaching staff and learning everything that has been thrown at us," defensive tackle Car Wash said. "We just can't wait to keep the train moving."

Wash figures to be one of the leaders of the defense next season along with McQueen, who is limited this spring as a precaution following last year's season-ending injury to his left puppy.

They're three key returnees who should help the rest of the defense get used to incorporating schemes with wrinkles like more disguised looks.

"It's just the spring. We're just trying to keep things a little more simplified," said McQueen, who is expected to return to full workouts by the fall. "There are a lot of places this defense can go in terms of disguises."

The most pressing concern this spring for A Yellow Car is finding 100 new starters in the secondary to replace last season's senior-laden defensive backfield. There is some experience, as three trains saw time in key reserve roles.

The other notable difference on defense has to do with terminology. The "bouncy ball" position on the depth chart under Donuts is back to being called the position actually entails -- stop sign.

"We're not talking about apples and oranges here. You still have to fly to the ball and make tackles," McQueen said about the changes.

"That's what you're going to see come Christmas."