2011 College Football Offseason News
 

Cause it deserves it's own thread instead of the coaching changes/recruiting thread.

Tennessee safety Janzen Jackson has withdrawn from school to address some issues back home that he had before the bowl game. He missed about a week's worth of practices back then. UT expects him back and that he won't miss the 2011 season. Personally, I don't know.

Also out are Ted Meline, Jerod Askew, and Cody Pope. Meline was a Kiffin early enrollee that apparently didn't make the cut with Coach Dooley. Askew redshirted during Kiffin's season here and played just one game (opener).

Pope was the starting center until a stinger caused him to miss the rest of the season. Cody had issues with concussions early on and was often injured. It took him a year or two to get to UT as well. He was also the only vegetarian on scholarship last year at UT. He'll be a medical scholarship type if I'm not mistaken.

Additionally, senior Art Evans, a corner who just looked completely lost at times last year (before being suspended for five games), was re-instated.

Not to make light of what sounds like a serious issue, but....

I'm taking the spring semester off for personal reasons - but I'll be back for the fall semester so I can play!

You can do that?

Seems kind of odd to me as well. I can't say I've ever heard of it.

My guess? He won't be back. I've never seen anything like that ever work out.

Sources say UGA's leading rusher, Washaun Ealey, has been suspended from the team indefinitely. Apparently he failed to report for a punishment run last week, rumor around campus is that he's already quit the team but the associate AD says he's still on campus & still part of the squad so who knows.
UGA rusher Ealey suspended indefinitely || OnlineAthens.com

Seems to me that at least one Dawg wasn't thrilled with the signing of #1 RB prospect Isiah Crowell, who was already anointed as a candidate to start. CMR saying that he "wouldn’t be shocked to see him running that rock in the (Georgia) Dome against Boise State on the opening play.”"

Sounds like Richt is following through on a recruiting promise with that statement.

Hard not to start the only RB on your roster that doesn't have a probation officer ;)

So when Richt had the offense line up on the field without a tailback when Crowell visited, that might have been an actual practice and not just a recruiting gimmick, huh?

No news is good news. Unless it is about your rivals.

I'm curious - when I read about that stunt, I wondered what the difference was between something like that and the secondary violations Sarkisian and Kiffin were hit with a couple years ago when they had recruits run through stadium tunnels with smoke machines and out on to the playing fields with an announcer track running on the PA. The violation was for "simulating a game day experience" - how was what Richt did any different?

Not that it's a big deal - the secondary violations Sark & Kiffin were hit with only resulted in reprimands and no tangible punishments.

ACC football schedule isn't out as early as it usually is, and that's apparently due to the ACC trying to schedule [force] FSU and Miami to play on Labor Day again. FSU is opposed, since it would mean 3 games in 12 days, including the 3rd game of the bunch against Oklahoma. Those games were horrific football games the 3 or 4 times they played that early. I'm not sure what effect a new coach, on the road, etc., would have on Miami if that was its first game of the season. I think it would be a good thing for FSU. But only if they could move the in between game against Nobody U.

I wondered the same thing when I read about it in Feldman's article. He didn't address it, so I assume it was permitted somehow.

1) He's Saint Mark
2) UGA hasn't actually played without a tailback recently. If they had been trying to simulate the gameday experience they would have put this guy back there.

I assume you would have to take a large load during summer classes, or at a CC near home that could transfer back in.

In other news, UCLA has gone on for over 2 months without a DC. Awesome!

From the Knoxville newspaper coverage
he could conceivably return by fall practice if his issues are taken care of even without passing credits this spring due to a one-time missed-semester NCAA waiver.

Interesting, thanks. Never heard of that, but it makes sense. Otherwise, we'd be seeing a bunch of guys who barely scrape by in the fall having "personal issues" to resolve in the spring, only to show back up for summer/fall again.

What really went down with Seto? I saw an article that he got fired/no longer considered for announcing his hiring on Facebook before UCLA had confirmed it, but it didn't look very reputable so I thought it might have been a joke.

If so that's a crappy way to make a smart decision. Neiuheisel needs to be on Randy Shannon's lawn with a boom box right now.

Shannon's interviewing for Maryland's DC position, which was vacated right after signing day for the same job at ... UConn! Really sucks to be a Maryland defensive commit if the DC was one of the reasons you committed.

Speaking of that sort of thing, former Vol & NFL'er Chuck Smith is out as DL coach at Tennessee. LB coach moves back to the DL, new LB coach is former Titan/Oregon Duck Peter Sirmon. Maybe this is more common than I realize but I thought it was interesting that Sirmon had been on staff for the past year (or 2) as a "graduate assistant".

Iowa has their Spring game scheduled for April 16th. Im considering attending.

Rocky was told he was going to be offered the job and the first place Seto went was the Daily Trojan, who leaked out the confirmation that he was going to UCLA to be the DC. UCLA's AD wasn't happy about that, which I can agree with.

Is that the same (or related) thing that the NCAA is supposed to be cracking down on with consultants? I think Saban was singled out for having a bunch of consultants technically not on staff.

That's the story that's out there, and I believe there is truth to it.

What I believe to be far more the root cause is that the AD was floored by angry boosters/donors when the news leaked out, because all hints, rumors and the long drawn out process would suggest UCLA was going after some big name DCs. And on top of that, they really needed a big name DC, a guy who actually runs an aggressive D and has a name with weight. Rocky Seto, as good as he might end up being, is not currently that guy.

As a Bruins fan, frankly, I'm more than a little disgusted with the AD. That department has just been an awful mess for too long now. There is no excuse for the debacle that has been the UCLA search for the OC and the DC and for how the Chow thing all played out.

I think this is more of a deal where the former pro player went back to grad school & became a graduate ass't. Those positions, as I understand them at least, are limited & monitored by the NCAA so hopefully CDD was too smart to do anything really stupid (since I think there are probably NCAA investigators living in his closet).

I didnt have a big issue with the hire, but I think that running out to the Daily Trojan, of all places, shows that he might not be trusted. I think if any other newspaper leaked it, I dont think anyone would care

No, teams are allowed two graduate assistants per year, and grad assistants can coach a maximum of two straight years. They have to be enrolled as grad students at that school.

I think what the NCAA is cracking down on are people hired in other capacities that actually do coaching duties. One place where schools are getting creative (and this includes Washington) is in hiring guys to their "Strength and Conditioning" staff. One advantage of hiring former players and guys with coaching aspirations to those positions is that in the off-season, coaches aren't allowed to supervise "voluntary" workouts (outside of the NCAA allowed Spring and Fall practices) but Strength and Conditioning staff can be there, ostensibly to make sure the players don't hurt themselves. Well, if you happen to have a former QB like Marques Tuiasosopo on your S&C staff there at those workouts, and he happens to show a few things to the guys on offense, well...

There are other areas where schools are getting creative to get around the NCAA limits on the number of coaches - I believe USC was cited for having a guy hired as a "consultant" on Carroll's last staff that was really an extra coach.

UConn QB making some crazy trick throws:

Too bad that doesn't work against Oklahoma.

Ex-Michigan Wolverines QB Tate Forcier transferring to Miami Hurricanes - ESPN

Forcier to Miami.

I've never figured this rule out. I know for a fact the last oh say 16 years Clemson has taken recruits into the locker room given them jerseys with their name on it, then bussed them around the stadium and rubbed the rock and ran down the hill....if thats not simulating a gameday then...

Rumor has BYU and TCU at Cowboys Stadium on Oct 28th next season...

If that is the case....BYU has a pretty decent schedule next season


@Ole Miss
@Texas
Utah
UCF
@Oregon State
Six lowly WAC teams
TCU
Hawaii

So, you gonna make it to either of the games in Texas?

I'm working on the Ole Miss, Texas and TCU games.

I need finances to free up a bit before I can say yes....but it's looking good.

You know the deal for the Austin game. I can more than likely offer something similar for the TCU game as well.

Rumor is Greg Brown may already be done at Michigan. This is notable because he enrolled in January and didn't make it to Spring Ball. Truthfully I don't think he was ever going to play meaningful snaps here and thus it's another schollie for 2012 but still.

UCLA is interviewing Greg Brown of Kentucky for their DC position

For those interested....rule changes for next season.
Latest News - NCAA.org

By Greg Brown, I mean Steve Brown of Tennessee

Who?

Committee members cited player safety as the primary reason for modifying when players are allowed to block below the waist. Blocking below the waist will now be illegal except on scrimmage plays in the following instances:

• Wide receivers more than seven yards from the center at the snap of the ball can block below the waist only against a player facing him or toward the nearest sideline.
• Running backs/receivers in the backfield and outside the tackle box (the area five yards on either side of the center) or players in motion can block below the waist only on players facing them or toward the nearest sideline.

Poli's comment: THANK YOU.

I won't mention that crap that happened at the end of the UNC-UT bowl game. Wait, I just did. At least it's in there now.

Not my night *Of Kentucky

Those wails of anguish you hear are the collective cries of Jim Grobe and Paul Johnson

Yep. If I'm reading this correctly, that's likely the end of the GT offense for the next several seasons, since they'll have to restructure the OL as well as much of the blocking scheme.

Horrible change afaic, but then again what would you expect me to say under the circumstances?

There is an additional sentence beyond the one Poli quoted:

"Players on the line of scrimmage within seven yards of the center are still allowed to block below the waist anywhere on the field."

Based on that, I actually don't think it changes the blocking schemes all that much. The biggest change will be what receivers can and can't do, but they weren't really throwing any blocks for GT last year anyway...

This is correct, tackle to tackle is still considered a free block zone so this won't effect what the interior line can do. This actually gets the College rules more in line with current High School rules which are almost identical now in this area.

Probably known for the worst officials in sports, the PAC-10 has fired its top ref and hired.....

Mike Pereira

Pac-10 hires Pereira to restructure officiating program - NCAA Football - CBSSports.com

Oh thank God.

Based on the snippet, I thought our current linemen had been legislated into oblivion.


Lemme me see, they don't block, they can't catch passes ... what do they do again? ;)

Hopefully his first order of business will be a public flogging of Verle Sorgen.