Kiffin watch: pumpin’ out another secondary violation

The latest from Junior is three shades of awesome, is what it is:

The University of Tennessee self-reported another secondary recruiting violation to the NCAA.

The incident involved head football coach Lane Kiffin calling former UT recruit Alshon Jeffery after National Signing Day. Coaches are not allowed to recruit athletes who have signed with other schools after National Signing Day.

UT head football coach Lane Kiffin made the call on March 10 after ESPN.com reported that Kiffin told Jeffery that the recruit would spend the rest of his life pumping gas if he decided to sign with South Carolina. Kiffin denied ever making those comments. According to UT’s Sports Information Department, Kiffin called Jeffery to determine the origin of the reports.

I swear to God, you couldn’t make this shit up if you tried.

There’s even a punch line.

A Tennessee athletic department official said that Jeffery confirmed Kiffin did not make the “gas pumping” comment regarding the recruit.

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UPDATE: Since I’m accused of being worthless in the comments to this post, let me just throw this in for your viewing pleasure.

Stay classy, Rocky Top.

This strikes me as incredibly pathetic:

The University of Tennessee Athletic Department today offered a statement from head football coach Lane Kiffin for fans critical of Phillip Fulmer being chosen to receive the 2009 Robert R. Neyland Award.

“Coach Fulmer has had a tremendous impact on Tennessee,” Kiffin said. “He’s the second- winningest coach in Tennessee history behind General Neyland. It’s only fitting that he receives this prestigious award. I hope all Tennessee fans will show up early Saturday to show their appreciation for all he has done for our program, our university and our state.”

I just can’t figure out the worse part here – that there are Vol fans pissed off enough to object to honoring a guy that’s won ’em a MNC and a few conference titles, or that Fulmer’s being bailed out by Junior.

I’m not a Fulmer fan by any means, but that Orange and White Game should be one cringe-inducing experience this Saturday.

Looking back: SEC stats, 2005-8 edition

Matt Melton’s got his four-year statistical review of the SEC up and it’s chock full of goodies.

Start with his summary of home field advantage in the conference during that time period.

… Now here is how homefield advantage shakes out in the SEC (in conference play only) with respect to the nation at large (with rank out of the 11 IA conferences in parentheses).As you can see, homefield advantage has meant next to nothing in the SEC over the past four seasons. Home teams have won about 51% of the time, meaning its accounted for a little more than what we would expect from a coin flip.

For you move-the-game-out-of-Jax advocates, Matt notes that Georgia’s road record is three games better than its home record over that time period.

He makes a terrific point about Bo Pelini maybe knowing a little bit about coaching defense with this chart:

And this is the line of the day, as far as I’m concerned:

Auburn fans, your team jumped the shark when Brandon Cox forgot how to play quarterback.

Today’s caption contest

I supply the picture, you supply the caption in the comments, folks.

Courtesy Kevin C. Cox, Getty Images