The Oversigning Legislation That Improves Everything passes in Destin on Friday… and it’s business as usual in Tuscaloosa on Monday.
Alabama linebacker Petey Smith will transfer to Holmes Community College in Mississippi, he confirmed Monday afternoon.
Smith, who is the younger brother of Eric Smith, the Auburn running back who was dismissed from the team in February, first made the announcement on his Facebook page.
In a follow up conversation, Smith said he wants to jump-start his collegiate career after struggling to work his way up the Crimson Tide depth chart.
You’ve really got to admire the timing there. Either that, or somebody didn’t get Mike Slive’s memo.
Get The Picture 
Does this surprise anyone in the world of Mr. I Don’t Have Time for This S***?
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The kid is leaving on his own. He is not getting the PT that he wants. He is not being declared medically ineligible, nor was his scholarship revoked. The kid is leaving. What is wrong with that. Happens in Athens, Columbia, and Auburn all of the time.
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Who said there’s anything wrong with that?
I’m just making the point that Slive’s legislation doesn’t change things as much as the presidents would like you have you think it does.
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If a kid wants to play but isn’t good enough to beat out the guys ahead of him on the depth chart, what responsibility does the coach have? Play him even though there are better choices? If the kid chooses to go somewhere else to face a lower level of competition for playing time, how has he been the victim of “roster management”?
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If Petey Smith were a highly rated prospect who was recruited by several SEC rivals and Alabama chewed him up and spit him out to Jacksonville State, then the Oversigning.com hack would have grist for his mill.
As it is, Scout gave Smith three stars, and Rivals doesn’t appear to have him in their data base. And now Holmes Community College has won what doesn’t appear to have been a pitched battle for his services. Even if Alabama were under the 85 cap, it’s entirely possible — even likely — that Smith would have seen this outcome.
This, to me, is the thing you can’t fix with “roster management,” “oversigning” or whatever you want to call it: maintaining a roster is fundamentally a Darwinian enterprise. Whatever you cut the annual and overall scholarship numbers to, a coach has to sign a little over those numbers to manage your risk. The inevitable outcome of that is that some kid is going to find himself buried on the depth chart and have to evaluate his options.
Or you can take our approach and have OL depth issues for nine years running.
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