Any press is good press? New top 10 list

[Huey78]

My apologies if already posted - we're number 7.

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Top 10 Winter soap operas

Monday, February 16, 2009 | Feedback | Print Entry

This is one of the big dry spots in the college football calendar, lumped in between signing day and the beginning of spring football, yet there are still a handful of things to keep an eye on. Here are the winter's 10 biggest soap operas:

Mike Leach vs. Texas Tech: What a mess this is. Leach is coming off the best season in school history while the bulk of Tech's other athletic programs are really struggling, but the contract negotiations between the two sides have dragged on and on. Usually contract talks take about two weeks. This thing has lasted a year and now we're on the brink of Tech's Feb. 17 deadline. Leach said he was all set to agree on the deal before Tech added in four terms, two of which were rare for coaching contracts, one said that all of the money from his personal speaking properties, whether he makes an appearance or if he authored a book on his life in Wyoming, would go to Tech.

Leach's reps at IMG counter-offered, asking for the same price, but keeping the terms of his current deal. However on Friday, Tech AD Gerald Myers issued a statement, talking about how that would make Leach too expensive to fire. And now there is talk of a rally in support of Leach outside the Tech football offices Tuesday at 11 AM.

"As with any great event, several people helped organize it and information has been sent to 50,000 people through e-mail, facebook, local media and fan site message boards," says 28-year-old Tech grad John Baucum, one of the rally's organizers. "I am in contact with the student newspaper right now and a local business is going to pass out flyers about the event around campus. I have no idea how many to expect. I'm hoping that we have several hundred people. 1,000 or more would be awesome."

Baucum, who got his Bachelor's in Journalism in 2003 and a Masters in Sport Management in 2007, says he and others in his group, don't want to see Mike Leach leaving Lubbock anytime soon. "I'm hoping that the rally shows both sides that the fans are steadfast in their support of Leach and that we're hoping both sides can come together and reach an agreement on what's become a contract stalemate at this point. Mike Leach and his family want to be here, there's no doubt in my mind about that."

The Kiffin Chronicles: It doesn't seem like two days pass without some news item about new Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin. The former Raiders coach has been prone to brash statements and hasn't just stepped on people's toes, he's stomped on them and then gotten in his car and drove over them too. It's still two months before the Vols spring game and you wonder what else might come up?

Bryce Brown: Arguably the nation's top running back prospect, Brown is still deciding on his college choice. Reportedly, he's committed to Miami, but if you read comments he made recently, it doesn't sound that way. It sounds more like he's leaning to Oregon. Of course, he likes LSU and coach Les Miles. But he also might visit USC because he's intrigued by the marketing potential of being in L.A. Last weekend, he visited Tennessee, even if he didn't sound too impressed by the talent currently in Knoxville. Still, he went on that visit any way. Oh, and this doesn't mention anything about his mentor Brian Butler.

Staff shifts: Even though schools are busy preparing for spring ball, many staffs are influx as key assistants come and go. Washington just lost its offensive coordinator Jim Michalczik to the NFL. ASU's Dan Cozzetto left Dennis Erickson's staff to go to Washington and Matt Lubick, the Sun Devils' ace recruiter, almost went up to Seattle too but got a promotion at ASU and stayed. Brian Kelly at Cincinnati wanted to shift from a 4-3 to a 3-4 so he fired D-coordinator Joe Trosey. Word is he might bring over UVA DC Bobby Diaco, who could be just one of several big moves at Virginia with the rumored re-hire of former Cavalier offensive coordinator Ron Prince by Al Groh.

Also in the ACC, Miami has two new coordinators to break in and the Canes are just a few weeks away from beginning their first spring practice.

Free agent QBs: Robert Marve isn't the only gifted quarterback with starting experience out there. Michigan's Steven Threet, who had began his career at Ga. Tech, is also now on the market. Marve, the former Miami QB, is back at home this semester in Tampa plotting his next move. He gets to take five official visit and on Monday his high school coach Robert Weiner said there has been a lot of interest from Purdue, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oregon and Cal. Weiner said the "perfect situation" would be if a school has a senior starting QB for the 2009 season as Oklahoma State, OU and Cal would. Marve also is open to the possibility to going to one of the three schools that is on the red-flag list as set aside by Miami, which were Florida, LSU and Tennessee. At those schools, Marve would have to pay his own way for one year. According to Weiner, Marve also can't speak with coaches at those schools or tour their facilities during this latest recruiting process.

"Money's not the issue for one year, but in the end, it's a matter of being able to evaluated those places," Weiner said. Another wildcard in this is Orson Charles, a blue-chip tight end prospect from Weiner's Plant High School powerhouse still hasn't announced his college choice. The coach said Marve is intrigued by the potential of playing with Charles, who is still also considering UF and Tennessee among his other choices of Georgia, FSU and USC.

Getting his Irish up: There is no hotter seat than the one under Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis. He's coached the Irish to two dismal seasons in a row. ND finished off this past recruiting year well, landing top LB prospect Manti Te'o as well as his pal slot receiver Roby Toma. Last week, Weis, announced that he's taking control of his team's playcalling responsibilities for 2009. "I thought the best chance for us to win this year would be to make me the offensive coordinator," Weis said. Weis also announced that defensive coordinator Corwin Brown has been promoted to associate head coach, even though Brown now will only be a "co-defensive coordinator" with linebacker coach Jon Tenuta. Weis, who won the Hawaii Bowl in December, is still dealing with two bad knees and there have been rumblings that he might still coach from the press box, but my hunch is that isn't true.


Cleaning house at SMU: The Mustangs have made national news as June Jones got rid of nine scholarship players. Over the weekend SMU athletic director Steve Orsini defended the statement issued by coach June Jones that violations of "department policies and/or team rules" applied to all nine football players released from the program, Bobbi Roquemore reports.

In the wake of Jones' decision, a few players have come forward to try and clear their names. One of them is sophomore linebacker Travis Bon, who has a 3.3 GPA and no strikes under Jones' "three-strikes" disciplinary policy. Bon said the statement implied that the reason he was let go was because he was a troublemaker. "I don't want my reputation hurt," Bon said.

I spoke to a college coach I know about his thoughts on this situation and after saying it's always tricky to try and read too much into the inner workings of another program, he joked and said maybe the violation of team rules is to because "someone didn't make enough plays." This isn't very common although usually you don't hear a reason given publicly. It's more so-and-so won't be returning to our team this season.


More losses for Wazzu: After just finishing one of the worst seasons in school history, Washington State took another big hit after coach Paul Wulff got hit for rules violations during his tenure at Eastern Washington. "We're not talking recruiting violations," he said. "We're not talking the types of violations that truly give a competitive advantage."


Wulff has been suspended from the first three days of the Cougars' 2009 fall football practices due to NCAA rules violations that occurred when he was Eastern Washington's coach from 2000-2007. The NCAA, terming the violations "major," found that from 2003-07 Eastern Washington exceeded the NCAA-mandated 11 coaches on its football staff. It also found the program allowed ineligible players to practice with the team. Finally, it charged the program with a lack of institutional control and Wulff with a failure to monitor his program. Wulff blamed a "culture" at EWU that he said allowed the violations to occur, and indicated that [deleted] Zornes and Mike Kramer, his football predecessors, had been part of that. However, on Sunday, Wulff issued a statement reiterating that the violations under his watch were his own fault. "I have taken responsibility for violations at Eastern Washington while I was head coach and accept the penalties," Wulff said.


The whole situation is pretty sticky as Bud Withers wrote Sunday.


The Oregon Succession: There's been all kinds of rumors about when Mike Bellotti steps aside and designated head-coach Chip Kelly gets the keys to the program. Some expected it would've happened the day after signing day, but obviously that day came and went without any shift. George Schroeder got on the "roller coaster" at Oregon with athletic director Pat Kilkenny for an interesting Q&A about the transition:


"I hope [Bellotti] does it sooner as opposed to later," said the AD. "It's a selfish answer. You know, I don't think he really knows -- which I find a little curious. But everybody operates at a different speed. Maybe he's going to go off to the top of the mountain and have an epiphany. ... I almost think he's ready to leave coaching but not ready to take this job on. I think maybe he's struggling a little bit with that, given the uncertain times and so on and so on."

The Oversigning Scramble: In the past few years as recruiting coverage has boomed, we've heard more and more about how some schools "oversigning" and then what happens in the wake of it all. Last year, there were a lot of eyes on Alabama. This year, the focus shifts to Oxford where Houston Nutt just signed a class of 38. Does this mean staffs run off other scholarship players to make room? Do they have their fingers crossed that lesser talented signees don't make it academically in favor or more promising borderline student-athletes? It's all fairly murky, but between now and fall camp, keep an eye out for some of the fall out.

RANDOM STUFF

• Is another SEC coach in hot water for a recruiting violation? The Memphis Commercial appeal took Nick Saban to task after hearing the comments made by a junior from Memphis who had committed to Bama. The recruit said he liked the "stuff that he was saying" after running into Saban when the Tide coach visited his school. The player's high school coach later tried to "clear all this up" as colleague Chris Low reports.


My three cents: this story is a prime example of the farcical side of today's recruiting world. Maybe Saban has a special way for wording "Hi, howya doin'?" that makes him come across like Beyonce'. In truth, this kind of enhanced bumping is increasingly more common especially with high-profile celebrity coaches. It's also why the NCAA didn't want head coaches out on the road during the spring evaluation period. Of course that doesn't mean the same stuff can't happen in the winter, when they are allowed to be on the road. In fact, it's now more likely to happen since the recruiting calendar has shifted up so much earlier in the last two years.



• The Tulsa World caught up with Oklahoma LB Ryan Reynolds, who reports he's set to return in 2009, although he's skipping spring ball.



Reynolds recently got fitted for his new knee brace and began straight-ahead running last Monday. "Then it's just progressing for the next three months," he said. "After that, I'll be cleared for May, June, July and August. I'll get a good three or four months before the season starts."


Reynolds said the most important lesson he learned the first time about bouncing back from major knee surgery was dietary. Last time, the 6-foot-1, 225-pound Reynolds ate himself into a 245-pound body, then had to drop weight while playing his way back into game shape. Now, with a conscientious eating plan and as much cardiovascular work as he can get, Reynolds has stayed at 225 and will be fast and fit when May comes.

[CalallenStang]

Travis Bon?

[SMU21TCU10]

We sure are getting a lot of bad press

[couch 'em]

Any time you go from total doormat to actually trying you are going to get bad press. See: TCU.