No, this ain’t about which members of the 2014 recruiting class are headed to Athens. You should know me better than that by now. It’s just three random stories I thought I’d share:
- At ESPN RecruitingNation, Jeremy Crabtree has a good story about how the new NCAA academic requirements are affecting JUCOs. He actually describes a thoughtful NCAA process behind the new rules – unlikely, I know – and while that’s commendable, I have this feeling that the JUCOs are going to game some of that with good old-fashioned grade inflation. It will be interesting to see how much impact these rules have on D-1 schools that have come to rely on talent injections from the junior college rankings.
- The AJ-C‘s Michael Carvell asks the SEC for an interview about its reaction to the Butch Jones loophole story and gets a statement instead. The statement is about as empty as you’d expect at this point, since Jones hasn’t actually done anything yet. Will this become next year’s big story at the SEC spring meetings? Stay tuned for signing day and we’ll see.
- By all accounts, Virginia’s run under Mike London has underwhelmed, to say the least, culminating in a terrible 2-9 2013 season. He’s coming back for what I consider to be one of the weakest reasons to keep a head coach, to save a good recruiting class. (Virginia right now is the only team with commitments from two of the top twelve recruits in the country.) But that’s not what I find interesting. This is: “But several programs, most notably Alabama and Ohio State, have continued to recruit Blanding and Brown in recent months, trying to convince the two prospects that London could be gone next season, according to two people involved in the Tidewater recruiting scene who have spoken to college assistant coaches still pursuing Blanding and Brown. They were granted anonymity in order to speak freely.” I am shocked, shocked to hear that Saban and Corch practice negative recruiting tactics. And here I thought Alabama and Ohio State were such good programs that they sold themselves.
Get The Picture 
I am interested to see how the Bitch Jones Loophole works out…it is an obvious solution to at least part of Tennessee’s problems…Tennessee football has, in my opinion, problems other than lack of talent…The Jones Loophole sounds awfully Kiffinesque to me…wonder what the Vol Gals are doing this weekend?
Desperation produces some interesting interpretations of the rules in all sports. Tennessee is desperate. The Loophole is just one manifestation for their desperation.
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It’s disgusting the lies that Saban and Kirby throw out there about other programs.
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Question on prospective student athletes signing the financial aid agreements: Will a player that signs an FAA be considered a scholarship and count towards the 85 or a walk-on?
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The recruits who sign financial aid agreements are not bound to the school at all. If they end up enrolling, they will receive a scholarship and count toward the 85.
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The NCAA and/or the SEC need to come down hard on UT about this. If they don’t, the door will be opened wide for the most unscrupulous to abuse the recruiting process even more.
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Like Bama has already? Don’t think they didn’t use the fan base in other SEC blogs to carry the point. They used all the anti-coach blathering that went on as proof of what they told the athletes they steered away from us. They continue to do so.
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Ballsy, this thread was talking about violating/bending NCAA Rules and SEC Rules concerning recruiting. How did that morph into a discussion of saying bad things about your beloved coach on the intertubes? If you believe that kids decide where to go based on anonymous blog postings you are even more gullible than I thought you were.
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Two potential recruits said as much in print when giving their reason for not coming to UGA two years ago. That occurred after it was a subject of several “discussions” on here. Where have you been, Mayor?
Your pushing of that old saw (Away with Richt and Bobo) has been ignored as of lately. Why do you keep pushing it.
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“He’s coming back for what I consider to be one of the weakest reasons to keep a head coach, to save a good recruiting class.”
Have no idea why London is having such a tough time at Virginia. He was great at Richmond. Maybe the Virginia AD remembers when Miami fired Randy Shannon and Teddy Bridgewater went to Louisville and Amari Cooper went to Alabama instead of following through with verbal commitments to Randy Shannon.
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Really untalented team this year, especially on the offensive side of the ball.
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In the case of UVA, I think there are a whole bunch of schools who would be trying to talk common sense to these highly rated kids who are committed there. UVA needs more than a couple players – they got stomped by Ball State and won 2 games all year. Why would a kid want to go there knowing London’s tenure as coach has been so lousy? The head coach and coaching staff are a big part of the decision. Even if London survives this year, what if he only wins 4 or 5 games next year? That seems likely. I don’t see anyway he survives for more than another year or two.
If I’ve got a shot at these kids, I’d at least be keeping in touch to let them know the door is still open if they have second thoughts due to the circumstances. If one school isn’t doing it, another school is…so you might miss out on a star player because if he has a change of heart.
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Why would a kid want to commit there if he has talent?” Calvin Johnson went to GT, it isn’t even close to a college or location that UVA is. Some young people just make bad decisions, others have grown up with a dream about certain schools, some like the proximity to home, etc. I lived in Virginia for a while, and considered living in Charlottesville later in life, really love the area. I honestly don’t know why UVA cannot get their football act together. I realize they have a weak football tradition but so did Stanford, Boise, Baylor, etc., recently
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You’re right, Mac. Charlottesville is really beautiful. A great place to retire, too.
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Retire and move north? That can’t be right.
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Do you seriously think that the NCAA or the SEC are going to do “anything” about the dirty recruiting, gray-shirting, over- signing to Butch Jones and UT, when they haven’t done anything to that little ba—rd Nick Satan and band of consultants (recruiters), Hell No, Mark Emmert and Mike Slive are scared S–tless of Satan. We all know how Satan and Smart go about their business. I hope Satan takes the job in Texass and takes Smartass with him…
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