Oh no, I’ve said too much, I haven’t said enough.

In honor of Independence Day, I thought I’d highlight a couple of football coaches who’ve recently exercised their freedom of speech.

In response to Tommy Tuberville’s recent opinion that the Big XII Conference was doomed, the Empire struck back.

The Big 12 issued the reprimand on its athletic website, saying Tuberville’s comments were a “violation of the Big 12 Conference’s Principles and Standards of Sportsmanship, prohibiting public criticism of members.”

“Tommy Tuberville’s comments were unfortunate, and contrary to the very strong feelings of unity expressed publicly and privately by the Big 12 Board of Directors and athletic directors,” Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe said in a statement. “Coach Tuberville has admitted that his comments do not reflect his true feelings of respect for the conference, its leadership, and his excitement about its future and has apologized to the conference and its members.”

Tuberville was vacationing in Alabama on Friday and could not be reached for comment. Tech athletic spokesman Blayne Beal said the Big 12 asked the school not to comment on the issue.

The Big 12 concluded its statement by saying, “This will serve as the final decision and comment on this matter by all parties.”

The conference also sent Tuberville this thoughtful gift to commemorate the occasion.

Meanwhile, in this great land of ours, there are always coaches like the Zooker who are willing to speak their mind.

The former Florida head coach was a guest on The Paul Finebaum Radio show earlier this week and when asked if the SEC was a “better conference” than the Big Ten, Zook said:

“At this time, it probably is but I think there’s teams in the Big Ten Conference just as well as there’s teams in the Southeastern Conference that can play against anybody.

The biggest thing that I’ve noticed is that maybe in the Southeastern Conference there’s a few more big guys that can run, but trust me there’s some awfully, awfully good players in the Big Ten Conference as well.”

No word yet on any official comment from Mr. Delany, who at the least you’d expect could offer some context for the Zooker’s remarks.

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After the red panties, asking the wrong question

I know it’s hard to switch off the Mark Richt Hot Seat channel, so I shouldn’t be surprised at the number of media folks already surmising that Damon Evans’ departure is bad news for Mark Richt, but based on this quote…

Meanwhile, I keep thinking about that meeting barely five months ago -– Feb. 3 -– at which the Athletic Board expressed its enthusiastic approval of Evans’ job performance by giving him a new five-year contract and a $110,000-a-year raise.

At that meeting, UGA President Michael Adams said of Evans:  “He’s already become a nationally recognized figure in athletics, and we are fortunate to have him. . . . I think he’s done an extraordinary job. . . . And there’s not been a whiff of impropriety during that six-year period. If you’re the president of an institution, that means a whole lot.”

… shouldn’t the question being raised about now instead be about Michael Adams’ judgment?  How come nobody speculates about the temperature of his seat?

A question for Andrea Adelson

As she’s hosting a live chat today at the Orlando Sentinel blog, maybe somebody will ask her if she really believes that Todd Grantham can’t do better than this:

Todd Grantham is the new defensive coordinator for Georgia because of the Bulldogs’ record-setting defense. Under former coordinator Willie Martinez, Georgia set a school record for most points given up in a season each of the past two years.

In fact, in each of the past five seasons, Georgia yielded more points than it did the previous year. In 2004 — Georgia’s final season with Brian VanGorder as defensive coordinator — the Bulldogs gave up 198 points. VanGorder left to join the staff of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, and Martinez, Georgia’s secondary coach, moved into his position.

In 2005, Georgia gave up 213 points. In 2006, that rose to 229. Georgia gave up 262 points in 2007, a school-record 319 in 2008, then broke that by yielding 337 points last season.

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UPDATE: A bonus question for AA –  how she can rank a school which lost to Georgia by 24 points in its last game of the season and is also switching to a 3-4 scheme on defense seven slots higher than the Dawgs?