You can lead a horse to water…

I honestly can’t grasp the internal makeup of some people.

Sources at Georgia say RB Caleb King will be ineligible this season due to academic issues.

— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) July 8, 2011

The resources the school makes available, the opportunity to take over the position with Ealey’s departure and given Crowell’s learning curve – how do you let things come to this?

And, no, it ain’t Richt’s fault.  He still gets rewarded with the consequences, though.

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UPDATE:  Groo has more thoughts here.

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UPDATE #2:  Emerson summarizes how King finished his career at Georgia on less than a high note.

… King rushed for 430 yards last year, leading all tailbacks with a 5.4 yards-per-rush average. But he missed five games: The Liberty Bowl, when he was academically ineligible; he was suspended two games last year after a traffic-related arrest; he was charged with failure-to-appear in court in Walton County, after incurring a speeding ticket there in June. King also missed two games with an ankle injury.

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Ohio State has a sense of humor. Who knew?

This has to be a joke, right?

Ohio State University is wiping its stellar 2010 football season from the record books as self-imposed punishment for major NCAA violations, sources told The Dispatch.

But it is not suggesting that the team lose scholarships or be banned from postseason play.

The university submitted its response to the NCAA today, addressing allegations that then-coach Jim Tressel lied and allowed ineligible players to compete by failing to report that they had sold OSU-issued memorabilia to a tattoo-parlor owner.

Sources familiar with the university’s response also told The Dispatch that Ohio State is admitting major violations of NCAA regulations, but says it should not face harsh punishment because no OSU official other than Tressel was aware of player violations.

Ooh, wiping 2010 from the books!  That’s gonna leave a mark.

At least Jim Tressel will pay the price for… what’s that, you say?

Former Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel will receive more than $52,000 from the university and won’t have to pay a $250,000 fine for his involvement in a scandal that has tarnished the school’s athletics program, sources familiar with the settlement told The Dispatch…

… He will officially retire so that he also can collect his unpaid sick and vacation time, and use health-insurance coverage for him and his family under the plan available to all state retirees, the sources said.

Go and sin no more, Jim.

I’m surprised OSU isn’t asking the NCAA for an apology for making the school spend the time working up a response.  Seriously, we all mock the NCAA for being clueless, but the Buckeyes seem to be taking the mockery to a new level with this.  It’s almost as if they’re daring the NCAA to smack ’em back.

Doing the Lord’s work

Bill Connelly deserves some major praise for this undertaking.

Good thing he’s a genius.

‘Cause Paul Johnson’s wide receiver corps may be the worst bunch in D-1.

By the way, if wide receiver is only “probably” the weakest position group at Tech this season, this isn’t exactly shaping up as a banner season on the Flats.

Border patrol

Alabama is coming back to play in the 2013 College Kickoff at the Dome, news that is sure to set off fainting hearts everywhere about the leg up that gives Saban and Smart in recruiting the state of Georgia.

Never mind that their track record isn’t that impressive in reality.

Split personality

I was fishing around in cfbstats.com’s splits for Georgia’s offensive and defensive scoring stats last season, hoping to glean some random insight from the statistical mess that marked Georgia’s 2010.  It was a fool’s errand, of course.  But I did come across another weird nugget of data about the regular season.

Given the blame that’s been laid at the feet of last year’s strength and conditioning program, it will probably not come as much of a shock that defensive scoring rose on a month-by-month basis:

• August/September:  19.8 ppg
• October:  21.6 ppg
• November:  30.0 ppg

But would it surprise you to know that offensive scoring did the same thing?  It did.

• August/September:  24.3 ppg
• October:  37.2 ppg
• November:  42.7 ppg

I don’t want to read too much into this, although the total yardage numbers pretty much back up that picture.

How much of this should we attribute to a defensive line that physically wasn’t up to playing its role in Grantham’s 3-4?  Enough to be optimistic about what Jenkins and Geathers may bring to the table this season?

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UPDATE:  Maybe so.

… The word out of Georgia’s off-season strength and conditioning program this summer was that Jenkins showed up in shape, motivated and, in fact, has proven to be the fastest lineman the Bulldogs have on campus. His impact is expected to be substantial. . . .