Former four-star RB leaves the Football program of Alabama

According to the Birmingham News, running back Corey Grant has left the Tide program and will transfer to an unknown destination.

“I don’t know where he’s going, but he’s not going back to Alabama,” Brian Blackmon, Grant’s high school coach, told the paper. “I don’t think he’s made up his mind.”

The presence of starter and Heisman candidate Trent Richardson, Eddie Lacy, Jalston Fowler and 2011 five-star signee Dee Hart, the No. 1 RB in the nation according to Rivals.com —had to play at least a minor role in Grant’s decision.

As a member of Saban’s 2010 recruiting class, Grant was given a four-star rating by Rivals.com and was the No. 5 all-purpose back in the country according to the recruiting service. After redshirting last season, Grant played in UA’s spring game, totaling 12 yards on three carries.

The Opelika, Al., native had received offers from, among others, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Stanford and Oklahoma before verbally committing to the Tide in July of 2009.

Update: UT athletic director Mike Hamilton resigns

Tennessee athletics director Mike Hamilton announced Tuesday he decided to resign so the Volunteers would have a “clean slate” when they go before the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions later in the week.

Hamilton, who has been at the helm of Tennessee athletics for eight seasons, said it was both a personal decision and one that he hoped would help reunite the Vols fanbase. During a three-year period, Hamilton fired a popular coach, hired a controversial one and now the athletic department faces 12 NCAA infractions against the football and basketball programs.

“The last several years at UT have been marked by turmoil, fractures and the development of camps. This is not healthy, nor is it productive for our university,” Hamilton said. “During the last three months in particular, I myself have become a lightning rod for negative attention, and that’s a major distraction for the many positive things that are going on in athletics and on our campus.”

Hamilton will join UT-Knoxville Chancellor Jimmy Cheek, former Vols and current Southern California football coach Lane Kiffin and former basketball coach Bruce Pearl and other Tennessee representatives to respond to the NCAA’s charges on Saturday in Indianapolis. He will take administrative leave from Tennessee beginning Monday and remain on staff until June 30 unless he finds new employment.

Mike Hamilton out as Vols AD

The Knoxville News Sentinel this morning that Hamilton has decided to “resign” as the school’s director of athletics. An email, the paper reports, was sent by UT president Joe DiPietro Tuesday morning to the entire board informing them of Hamilton’s decision.

“He’s an outstanding guy who’s done a lot of good things for the university, so obviously we’re going to work hard to find somebody to replace him,”

The move comes as UT is set to appear before the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions this week to answer questions regarding violations alleged in both the football program under Lane Kiffin and the basketball program under Bruce Pearl. Neither coach is still with their respective programs, with Kiffin bolting for the USC job after one year in Knoxville and Pearl fired for his significant role in the hoops scandal.

Vols Herman Lathers won't be ready for start of season

Vols coach Derek Dooley confirmed through UT spokesman Jimmy Stanton on Saturday night that returning starter Herman Lathers won’t be ready for the beginning of the season after fracturing an ankle last week, an injury that will require surgery to repair and has no definite timetable for return. Backup Greg King also required arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, but the procedure performed Friday is expected to have him ready in time for camp in August.

The potential loss of Lathers could be particularly damaging for the Vols, who were counting on the only returning starter at linebacker to bounce back from the shoulder surgery that kept him out of spring practice to anchor a group that doesn’t boast much experience.

The junior started each of the 12 games he played in last season, missing just one contest with an ankle injury unrelated to the one suffered some time in the middle of last week. His 75 tackles were the second-highest total on the team behind only Nick Reveiz, one of the two departed seniors who filled the starting roles alongside Lathers at linebacker.

The post-spring depth chart released by the Vols listed King as the backup behind Lathers at the weak-side position, and both have had their share of physical concerns lately. King missed almost all of last season after undergoing surgery on his knee, which has been a recurring problem for him throughout a promising career that has struggled to gain traction because of the run of bad health.

LB Petey Smith leaving ‘Bama

The latest player to leave Alabama's program is Petey Smith, who the Birmingham News has confirmed is transferring from the Tide to Holmes (Miss.) Community College.

The linebacker participated in spring practice, but shortly thereafter spoke to head coach Nick Saban about his future with the program. After apparently seeing the writing on the depth chart, Smith chose the transfer option as the next step in his football career.

“Basically, I just felt that I wasn’t giving it my all,” Smith told the News. “I’m not going to say I wasn’t happy. I didn’t feel like I had an opportunity to show what I could do with reps and everything. Instead of waiting, I thought I’d just go somewhere else. …

“I just thought it wasn’t the place for me. I didn’t want to wait until my junior or senior year. …I’m just gonna go to Holmes, play the football season and then I can really choose what school I want to go to through the recruiting process over again.”

Smith went on to tell the paper that he’s talked to schools from schools in the SEC, Big Ten and ACC, although he declined to name any specific schools that have expressed interest.

A member of Alabama’s 2010 recruiting class, Smith was the No. 32 inside linebacker in the country and given a three-star ranking by Rivals.com. He was a redshirt his true freshman season last year.

Vols starting LB fractures ankle

According to both the Chattanooga Times Free-Press and Knoxville News Sentinel, starting linebacker Herman Lathers suffered a fractured ankle during a seven-on-seven session this past Wednesday. It’s unclear exactly how the injury occurred. What’s also unclear is how long Lathers will be sidelined, although head coach Derek Dooley, through a UT spokesperson, told the News Sentinel that he won’t be ready for the beginning of the season. Whether that’s just a game or two is uncertain. Lathers, who started all 12 games in 2010, had already missed all of spring practice due to a shoulder issue.

He is the Vols only returning starter at the position.

Vandy's Hayward leads a list of 6 on Phil Steele's College Preview

Cornerback Casey Hayward leads a list of six Vanderbilt players named to preseason All-Southeastern Conference teams by Phil Steele’s 2011 College Football Preview, which hits newsstands on June 7.

Hayward, a senior from Perry, Ga., was also selected as a preseason All-America by Phil Steele’s, named to the publication’s fourth team defense. As a junior last season, he led the conference with 17 pass breakups and brought down a team-high six interceptions on the way to receiving second team All-SEC postseason honors as a defensive back from both league coaches and the Associated Press following the season. Hayward is the only Commodore and one of 26 players from the SEC named to one of Steele’s four preseason All-American teams.

Five other Commodore returning starters were named to All-SEC squads by the publication. A pair of fellow seniors, linebacker Chris Marve and tight end Brandon Barden, join Hayward as second-team All-SEC selections. Sophomore Wesley Johnson was named to the third team as an offensive tackle, while junior Warren Norman and senior Sean Richardson were named to the fourth team at kick returner and safety, respectively.

Kickoff for Vols-Gators', UT-Cincinnati at 3:30 p.m.

Tennessee may not be opening the season in prime time, but it will still have plenty of the national attention it’s used to.

The Vols have a pair of September games set for afternoon kickoffs at 3:30 as the television schedule started to take shape on Thursday, with a non-conference meeting with Cincinnati on the Sept. 10 picked up by ESPN2 and the annual rivalry game with Florida again picked up by CBS on Sept. 17.

The series with the Gators has another new look, but it was still the pick for CBS to begin its 11th season of national coverage of the SEC. Another new face will be on the sidelines when Tennessee travels to Florida for its first meeting with Will Muschamp, but that might only add to the intrigue of the early season, divisional showdown in The Swamp.

This will be an exciting conference’s Game of the Week broadcast, setting the stage for what could be a marquee win for either Muschamp in his first season or Derek Dooley in his second with UT.

The Vols open the campaign with home dates against Montana and the Bearcats before hitting the road to take on the Gators, one of just four contests away from Neyland Stadium this fall.

Arrest apparently led to dismissal of Miss. St.’s Dennis Thames

It has been reported that Mississippi State dismissed defensive back Dennis Thames from the football program for violating unspecified team rules. A report has subsequently surfaced which reveals that one of those team rules is apparently “don’t let alcohol and/or weed ride shotgun in your ride.” Allegedly. According to The Dispatch, Thames was arrested May 31 and charged with possession of marijuana and alcohol in a vehicle. Thames was booked into the Winston County jail shortly after noon local time Tuesday and was released a short time later.

This was Thames’ second brush with the law since signing with the Bulldogs as a four-star player out of Louisville (Miss.) High School; he was arrested for “public intoxication-other substances” shortly before the start of his freshman season in 2009. He also served a one-game suspension last year for violating unspecified team rules.

Ex-UGA RB Ealey to drop down a level to play in 2011

Washaun Ealey has found himself a new collegiate home. The running back’s high school coach confirmed to Marc Weiszer of the Athens Banner-Herald that his former player has transferred to Jacksonville State. The coach, Milan Turner, added that Ealey started classes Thursday. As the Alabama school competes at the Div. 1-AA level in football, Ealey will be eligible to play immediately. “It came down to where he wanted to go and play and it was a place where it was a good fit for him,” said Turner, who added that there was initial interest from SEC schools that subsequently waned. Ealey led the Bulldogs in rushing in each of the past two seasons, totaling 717 yards in 2009 and 811 last year.

SEC coaches favor 28-LOI limit for recruiting classes

Last week, details from Slive’s oversigning legislation were leaked, with one amendment asking the SEC to begin “Limiting the size of a football signing class in each academic year to 25, down from the current level of 28… The 25 limit would cover those who sign from Dec. 1 to August 1.”

The coaches felt a change in the status quo would limit opportunities for recruits.

“When you sit in our seat every day for 26 years, you see all the different things that could happen,” said Auburn coach Gene Chizik. “Are there some risk/reward chances you have to take on guys? Absolutely. Everybody across the country does it every year. Unfortunately, every school doesn’t recruit every single kid who is 300 points above the SAT and has a 3.0 GPA. That’s not realistic. We also want to give kids opportunities to be student-athletes as well.”

“You all are creating a bad problem for everybody,” added Nick Saban, who blamed the bad publicity surrounding oversigning on the media. “You’re going to mess up kids’ opportunities by doing what you’re doing. You think you’re helping ‘em but you’re really hurting ‘em. It took one case where somebody didn’t get the right opportunity. You need to take the other 100 cases where somebody got an opportunity.”

Top ‘Cocks recruit Clowney on path to qualify academically

Gamecock Central recruiting analyst Chris Clark reported Wednesday morning that “while Clowney’s academics meet the criteria to qualify under NCAA standards, he still has not been certified by the NCAA Clearinghouse.” Clark, however, goes on to write that navigating the Clearinghouse and USC admission hurdles should not be an issue for the defensive end.

“Not that it’s a problem, I’m told it’s simply too early in the process for that to happen,” Clark wrote. “His Clearinghouse certification and admission to USC are essentially the two remaining steps in his path to USC, and both of those are expected to be fine according to what I hear.”

Oversigning, cost-of-living expenses for scholarships topics at SEC spring meetings

The meetings will continue through Friday. On that day, the SEC is expected to announce it will distribute another record in revenue among the membership. Last spring, the league shared $209 million, the highest total in the conference's history and a 57.7 percent increase from the previous year. It was the first year that contracts signed with ESPN and CBS were included in the league revenues. This year's expected revenue-sharing record will mark the 21st straight year the league has had an increase.

Oversigning has been discussed and addressed at past SEC spring meetings. The Athens Banner-Herald reported recently that the league is expected to limit schools to signing no more than 25 football prospects to grants-in-aid in a single signing class. That would be three fewer than the current number allowed by the league.

Last month, commissioner Mike Slive said the SEC would take "a very comprehensive look" at oversigning during the spring meetings and that he expected the league to adopt legislation that would represent a change in the current policy. The 2009 rule adopted by the league limiting the number of signees to 28 per class applies only to recruits signed between signing day in early February and May 31, but does not include those who enroll at a school in January and wait until June to sign.

That loophole has allowed schools to go beyond the limit of 28 without penalty. It allowed South Carolina to sign 32 players in its 2011 signing class, with Arkansas signing 30.

Starting Vols DE undergoes another surgery

During his time with the media at the SEC’s spring meetings Tuesday, head coach Derek Dooley revealed that Smith underwent surgery recently on his left foot to repair a minor stress fracture. Andrew Gribble of the Knoxville News Sentinel writes that “Dooley called the surgery ‘precautionary,’ indicating that it wasn’t a necessary procedure, but one he considered an “insurance policy” for the upcoming season.”

While Smith will likely be limited during summer workouts, he’s expected to be fully recovered for the start of camp in August.

Smith suffered an injury to his foot during a mid-April spring practice session and missed UT’s spring game. The sophomore-to-be subsequently underwent surgery for that injury.

Last season, Smith played in all 13 games as a true freshman.

According to UGA, Mark Richt is not on the Hot Seat after all

Richt's critics point to the fact that he has never one a national championship. The last six national championships have been won by SEC schools and none of them were the Georgia Bulldogs. With that said, a closer look reveals that circumstances not coaching have kept them out of the BCS national championship game.

Three of the six SEC teams that won national championships during that period have done so with 13-1 records. Richt posted a 13-1 record in 2003 but the Dawgs were left out because of an undefeated Ohio State and Miami. If any of those 13-1 SEC teams had finished with that record when two BCS teams were undefeated they would have been left out of the game as well.

A fourth championship was won by LSU with a 11-2 record. Richt has three times had a record with two losses or less. The bottom line is four of those six championship winners could have easily been left out of the game like Richt was with similar records. It has not been coaching but timing that has hurt Richt.

Is Mark Richt on many fans' hot seat? Sure. However, Gary Hill made it clear that the fan dissension does not play into it. When asked about unhappy fans he stated the following, “You’ve got to listen; that’s why we serve on the board. But most of that doesn’t play into it. You evaluate the program independently and how the program is progressing. We’ve had a couple of down years. It will be very nice if he can improve that 6-and-7, at least modestly. But I think our program is in good shape.”

Stephen Garcia returns to Gamecocks ‘on a probationary basis’

In a press release, South Carolina announced that “quarterback Stephen Garcia will be allowed to participate in voluntary summer workouts with the football team.” Garcia had been serving an indefinite suspension from the program since April 6.

Garcia’s status will be evaluated again before the start of summer camp, the release states. So, provided he goes along with what’s being described as “a list of measurable guidelines”, the senior will be back under center for the Gamecocks this fall.

“Stephen is returning to the team on a probationary basis and still has to do some things here for the next two or three months to prove himself worthy of being a student-athlete at South Carolina,” said head coach Steve Spurrier in a statement. “We will give him another chance and hopefully he can do the right things and represent the University in a first-class manner.”

“Being a student-athlete at the University of South Carolina is a privilege, not a right,” said Athletics Director Eric Hyman. “We explain to all of our student-athletes that there are consequences for their actions. Our main goal for Stephen at this time is to assist him in developing the decision-making skills that are needed for managing life in general, whether as a student-athlete, a person, an employee, a spouse or a parent.

“With assistance from others, we have developed a list of measurable guidelines for Stephen to follow. I want to make it clear those guidelines, which will remain confidential, are designed to help him live a successful life and are not some trivial hoops for him to jump through in order to find a way to reinstate him. So the ball clearly rests in Stephen Garcia’s hands.”

The move is not all that shocking of a development, given the fact that Spurrier had hinted this was the direction the program was headed for nearly a month.

Auburn's Curry enrolling in community college

Sophomore linebacker Jessel Curry is planning to enroll in a California community college this summer, Inside the Auburn Tigers reported Sunday morning. The 6-foot-1, 214-pound Curry is expected to enroll at Grossmont College in El Cajon, Calif., according to the site. Curry was on the roster this spring but did not participate in any spring practices. He recorded nine tackles in six games as a true freshman last season, but was absent from team activities for the second half of the year and did not make the trip to the BCS National Championship game in Glendale, Ariz. "Jessel's got some personal issues that he's still handling," head coach Gene Chizik said March 25, at the start of spring practice. A report came out at the beginning of April that Curry was no longer with the team and seeking a transfer, but Chizik said Curry was still on the team at that time. “Curry is enrolled in school. He’s not going through spring practice,” Chizik said. “But if any status of any of our players changes, I’ll definitely let you know.”

Curry, a three-star recruit out of Buford, Ga., was an early enrollee in the Tigers' Class of 2010.

He is still listed on the Tigers' roster on their website.

Vols Kevin Revis granted permission to seek a transfer

Tennessee offensive lineman Kevin Revis has been granted permission to seek a transfer, UT spokesman Jimmy Stanton confirmed Thursday. Jason Fitzgerald, the former Rhea County coach who led the program when Revis was a Mr. Tennessee Football Finalist, told the Chattanooga Times Free Press on Wednesday that Revis was in the process of seeking options to play elsewhere. Revis played in one game in 2010 after redshirting as a true freshman. He was not listed in the UT two-deep at the conclusion of spring practice and was not a likely candidate to see significant playing time in 2011.

Revis is the eighth member of Lane Kiffin's one and only UT signing class who is no longer with the team.