“Five hours from our doorstep are the finest players in America.”

Andy Staples at SI.com has an interesting piece up about why the rich stay rich when it comes to recruiting and winning.  Bottom line?  Home is where the heart lies for top talent.

… An SI study of 2004-08 recruiting data for the 65 BCS-conference schools and Notre Dame revealed that programs which draw at least 50 percent of their players from within 200 miles or from within their home state stand a far better chance of winning consistently than those that did not. Of the nine schools that won 50 or more games from 2004-08, seven signed more than half their recruits during that span from within their state or from within 200 miles of campus: Texas (93.2% from in-state, 71.8 percent from within 200 miles), USC (72.0, 61.0), Georgia (63.6, 70.1), Florida (62.3, 47.9), Ohio State (55.8, 66.3), Virginia Tech (54.3, 44.0) and LSU (50.4, 56.5). Oklahoma barely missed the cut, with 49.1 percent from within 200 miles.

Of the 22 schools that won 40 or more games during that span, 16 attracted more than half their players from within 200 miles or from within their state. Of the 44 schools that won fewer than 40 games, only 13 met the homegrown recruiting criteria.

Based on that, Lane Kiffin and his cast of recruiting all-stars have their work cut out for them, no?

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It’s not too soon to start thinking about spring practice.

College Football News has posted a handy scheduling guide to all (but Mississippi’s) of the SEC spring games this year.  It looks like April 18th is the big day, with seven schools playing then.

Georgia’s G-Day is scheduled for the 11th.

Schadenfreude, darling, schadenfreude…

Damn, am I the only one amused by this?

“Coach Meyer was pretty upset,” Reid said. “He asked ‘Where were all these other schools before the Under Armour game? Did they even know who Greg Reid was as a sophomore and junior like we [Florida] did?’ [Meyer] spoke in a very powerful [tone].”

Meyer probably used the same tone he did when he got Justin Trattou and Omar Hunter to jump ship from Notre Dame.

By the way, it didn’t work with Reid.

Pay attention.

For those of you that think Utah’s surprisingly strong defensive showing in the Sugar Bowl was due to the absence of Andre Smith at the left tackle position, Doc Saturday offers a compelling rebuttal.

I know it’s been convenient to blame the loss on Smith/third string left offensive tackle/Alabama’s fragile state of mind after losing the SECCG and not getting a shot at the national title, but the truth of the matter is that Saban and his staff got outcoached on both sides of the ball.  Saban did coax a great year out of his squad, but it’s a little surprising that he’s gotten a pass on the bowl game from the media.

Of course, while the media may not have given the Ute coaching staff the credit it deserved, that effort didn’t go unnoticed by their peers. (h/t Doc Saturday)

During the morning he spent as the University of Utah’s co-offensive coordinator, Aaron Roderick made one memorable play call: a post-corner route, sending himself to Seattle.

Not counting defensive coordinator Gary Andersen, who became Utah State’s head coach, the Utes have recently lost three assistants to schools offering more money but only equal or less responsibility: Offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig and line coach Charlie Dickey moved to Kansas State and Roderick will coach Washington’s receivers.