More fraud in South Bend

Evidently Lennay Kekua wasn’t the only phony thing about Notre Dame’s 2012 season.

Bruce Feldman confirms that the four have been dismissed from school.

Jeremy Pruitt’s coaching philosophy, in two sentences

Short and sweet.

“It’s not about what we as coaches know. It’s about what the players know,” said Pruitt. “You can’t play fast if you’re not in shape and you know what you’re doing.”

This season there are a lot of little things I’m looking forward to not missing – the frantic handwaving, Herrera chewing out a DB after a touchdown for missing a signal, a substitution penalty after a timeout, etc.  And the towel.  Always the towel.

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All the color groups are represented there, that’s for sure.

There are eight schools getting the treatment.

Created to help fans kickoff the season in style, all eight will release at select retailers the day before the season begins in earnest: Wednesday, August 27. (Sorry Georgia State and Abilene Christian; I guess we’re not counting you this time.) Nike.com will stock all eight that day beginning at 8am EDT, each carrying a $120 price tag.

Bill Connelly’s “SEC balance of power”

Bill’s wrapped up his conference previews with Alabama (don’t worry, still quasi-godlike) and then gone on to power rank the fourteen conference programs.  Here’s how he sees the SEC right now:

Tier 1
1. Alabama
2. Auburn
3. South Carolina
4. LSU
5. Georgia

I was tempted to put Alabama in its own tier again, as I do think the Tide start a step ahead of everybody else. But all five of these teams have top-10 potential, and there’s been just enough turnover in Tuscaloosa to hold off.

Tier 2
6. Ole Miss
7. Texas A&M
8. Missouri
9. Florida
10. Mississippi State

Any of these Tier 2 teams could end up playing at a top-15 level … which would make them Tier 1 candidates in any other conference. Instead they’re at least one step behind each of the top five teams.

Tier 3
11. Tennessee

The Vols are too young (and have been too iffy in recent years) to be considered anything more than a top-40 or -50 team this year, but they have too much potential to be stuck with the names below.

Tier 4
12. Arkansas
13. Vanderbilt
14. Kentucky

Arkansas almost belongs with Tennessee, but I think the Hogs are still a year away from top-50 quality. And if you combined Vandy’s defense with Kentucky’s offense, you might have close to a Tier 2 team. So there’s that, at least.

Honestly, I could nitpick a little here and there (especially with Tennessee on its own tier and the order of his Tier 2 teams), but overall it looks like a pretty fair representation of where things currently stand.  What I’m curious about is which team you see winding up playing the farthest above its preseason assessment and which team falls the farther below.

I’ll get the party started with the usual caveat about injuries – not that it worked for Florida or Georgia last year – but the team I think may be most overrated is TAMU.  I know Sumlin recruits like a sumbitch, but you don’t lose all that All-American talent without missing a beat.  And the team I can see making a jump is Mississippi State if Prescott is ready to take his game to the next level.

What say you guys?

Tennessee chooses its quarterback.

Just as a refresher, here are the passer ratings for the three kids that took snaps last season for the Vols and were in the running for the starting position in 2014:

• Justin Worley – 117.39
• Josh Dobbs – 103.28
• Nathan Peterman – 42.53

So, in fairness to Butch Jones, it’s not like he had a lot of attractive options picking this year’s starter.  Worley, it was announced yesterday, retained that position.  And of course they’re gonna say stuff like this:

“We challenged them about a week and a half ago across the board to play with more consistency, and since then they’ve all stepped up their level of play,” Bajakian said. “At this point, Justin is playing the best football he’s played since we’ve been here. He’s earned the job, and obviously they compete on a daily basis and will continue to do so.”

Bajakian said Worley is “hitting on all cylinders right now,” and QB1 said he goes into this season feeling “completely different” than he did this time a year ago.

“His timing and rhythm’s outstanding right now,” Bajakian said. “His anticipation, he’s throwing guys open. His ball location and accuracy is on point. The combination of all that is important in this offense.

“On top of that, and this is something that he’s really challenged himself with, he has stepped up as a leader since the end of last season. He’s made his presence felt, and I think his teammates look at him as a leader.”

That’s quite a different tune than the one Bajakian was singing less than a week ago.  Worley must’ve had a helluva week since.

Jones has recruited well, but between this, completely green lines and the schedule, I’m having a really hard time seeing how UT claws its way to bowl eligibility this season.

It’s only special teams, but I like it.

Interesting note about Georgia’s scrimmage tomorrow:

The Bulldogs practiced in full pads for two hours Thursday and will hold their second scrimmage tonight and scrimmage special teams Saturday night.

A scrimmage devoted to special teams?  I can’t recall that Richt has done that before, but I must say that if this is an indication that he really means to get serious about improving the unit’s performance, I’m not gonna complain about it.