With spring practices in the books across the college landscape, here's a look at Rivals'Top pick heading into the summer.
1. LSU: Take some Les Miles magic, pour in a polished Jordan Jefferson and add a typically stout Tigers defense and you get the best team in the land. Or, at least the best team in the SEC. The opener against Oregon at Cowboys Stadium will be incredible theater. Y'all have read it, yep...LSU.
How's 'em Craw-Daddies.
The NFL draft crown will remain in the SEC for yet another year.Gamecocks football, in between the media stories, experienced a typical spring practice session with new players being evaluated for depth purposes, star players being held back a little to avoid injury and the defensive play shining a little bit brighter through it all.
Exiting the spring, the Gamecocks football team did leave five questions that have to be addressed before South Carolina suits up against East Carolina on September 3rd in Charlotte, North Carolina to start the 2011 season and defense of their SEC Eastern Division crown.
The VFL program became a big hit with the 2011 recruiting class, which turned the three-letter acronym into a slogan and source of pride. The program’s basic goal is educating players in topics beyond the field, such as how to handle money and leadership skills.
It’s become a selling point in recruiting and has helped Dooley and his staff identify what prospective recruits might fit best into a program that’s placing more of an emphasis on bringing in players with quality character to go with quality football skills.
“If you’re a young man and that appeals to you,” Dooley said in February, “what does it say about your character? By me selling that program, if a guy, that doesn’t interest him, then I don’t care how good he is, I probably won’t enjoy coaching him, so maybe he should go somewhere else. If I only sold the NFL, there’s a lot of other issues when they come on campus that I’m going to have to deal with that may not be so well.
“When you sell the right stuff, it allows me to know when they come here, everybody understands what I stand for, they understand what the expectations are.”
As the expectations for how much the Vols win on the field under Dooley continue to increase, the standards for behavior and conduct off it are likely to grow as well.
“It’s important to me as a head coach that we develop them as people,” Dooley said in February. “It’s something that is important to me.”
All told, the SEC saw 10 of their players taken amongst the first 32 selections, including five of the first six picks of the draft. The lone non-SEC player in the top six was Texas A&M’s Von Miller, who went No. 2 to the Denver Broncos and was the first of eight first-round selections for the Big 12.
The Big Ten was third in the “conference race” with six players selected, followed by the Pac-12 and ACC with three apiece.
Interestingly, the first player from a non-BcS conference wasn’t selected until the New York Jets took Temple’s Muhammad Wilkerson at No. 30. Even more interesting was the fact that the Big East had just one player selected in the first round as well — Pittsburgh’s Jonathan Baldwin, taken by the Kansas City Chiefs at No. 26.
Former University of Kentucky football great Randall Cobb was selected by the Green Bay Packers in the second round of the 2011 National Football League Draft on Friday night in Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Cobb becomes Kentucky’s highest selection since 2003 when defensive tackle Dewayne Robertson was taken in the first round by the New York Jets. Cobb will join another former Wildcat, punter Tim Masthay, on the team that won the 2011 Super Bowl. Cobb, who gave up his senior season of eligibility to enter the draft, played wide receiver, quarterback, punt returner, kickoff returner and placekick holder during his three seasons with the Wildcats. He earned first-team All-America honors in 2010 from The Associated Press, ESPN.com and SportsIllustrated.com. As a junior, Cobb caught 84 passes for 1,017 yards and seven touchdowns while rushing for 424 yards and five touchdowns, throwing three touchdown passes and returning a punt for a TD. He broke the Southeastern Conference single-season record for all-purpose yardage by totaling 2,396 rushing, receiving and kick return yards. Despite playing only three seasons, Cobb set the UK career touchdown record with 37, including 22 rushing, 13 receiving and two on punt returns. Cobb also exits Kentucky ranked fourth all-time in all-purpose yardage with 4,674 yards, fourth in career scoring with 226 points, fifth in career pass receptions with 144 and sixth in receiving yardage with 1,661. During his time at Kentucky, Cobb was a first-team All-Southeastern Conference performer in 2009 and 2010, while also earning SEC All-Freshman team honors in 2008.
“A.J. Green is the best offensive player in the draft,” former NFL coach and ESPN analyst John Gruden said. “He has very good body control, outstanding hands and is an outstanding route runner. He has no areas of concern. He’s a great practice player; the guy has an unbelievable future. I think this guy is just what the Bengals need.”
Green joins former Bulldog teammate Geno Atkins on the Cincinnati squad, which also features former Georgia offensive lineman Dennis Roland.
“He took some vicious hits this year in traffic, yet held onto the football,” ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr. said during ESPN’s telecast. “With the poorly thrown ball he has no trouble going after it.”
During an appearance on ESPN’s College Football Live show this afternoon, Nick Saban briefly relayed a portion of what long-snapper Carson Tinker was forced to endure during a tornado whose aftermath the Alabama head coach called “the most devastation I’ve seen in my lifetime.”
According to Saban, the junior was thrown 50 yards from his house during the massive storms. Saban added that Tinker was injured — the specific nature of the injury or injuries was not revealed — but the coach said the junior’s expected to be OK.
What Saban understandably didn’t mention was the heartbreaking, gut-wrenching aspect of Tinker’s amazing story of survival.
The FOX television affiliate in Birmingham is reporting this afternoon that 22-year-old Ashley Harrison was one of two UA students who were killed in the massive storm system that swept through Tuscaloosa yesterday. Harrison, the station reported, was the girlfriend of the Tide’s long-snapper.
Tuscaloosa’s mayor, Walter Maddox, appeared on The Weather Channel shortly after the storm plowed through his city, and said that the “devastation is ‘catastrophic’ and parts of city ‘have been obliterated’.” Maddox added “please pray for us.”
On his Twitter feed, Aaron Suttles, Senior Recruiting Analyst for the Alabama Rivals site, TideSports.com, wrote that “I don’t mean to overstate, but it looks like bombs went off. Nothing left standing. Complete rubble. Cars upside down and caved in.”
Cecil Hurt of the Tuscaloosa News wrote on his Twitter feed simply: “Scale of destruction in Tuscaloosa is very bad.”
Based on the early reports, the loss of property will be massive. What’s uncertain at this point in time is what cost, if any, there will be in terms of lives lost, although initial reports indicate that there was one fatality caused by the storm. The photos and the video shot on the scene, though, paint a sobering picture of it taking a miracle for there not to be many, many moreMuschamp announced Tuesday afternoon —via Twitter incidentally — that the All-SEC corner has been dismissed from the football program.
“After meeting with Janoris Jenkins today, we both felt it was in his best interest to move ahead to the next stage of his career,” Muschamp said in the first tweet, before adding in a second one that “[w]e appreciate Janoris’ contributions to the University of Florida during his time here and wish him the best of luck.”
Jenkins was arrested early in the morning this past Saturday and charged with possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana. He was cited for the same offense in late January. In May of 2009, Jenkins was charged with resisting arrest without violence — after being on the receiving end of a taser.
He was named first-team All-SEC this past season as a junior, but surprised many by eschewing a shot at the NFL draft and returning to Gainesville for another season. Based on what’s happened in the past three months, we’re guessing Jenkins might be ruing that decision right about now.
“I think Ohio State has major problems and I think Jim Tressel has major problems. I’ve said on my Podcast. . . (that) Urban Meyer will be the coach at Ohio State in 2012. That was my prediction and I stick by that prediction. Urban Meyer will be ready to coach somewhere. He said when he was coaching Florida that there were only three schools he would ever coach at – Michigan, Ohio State and Notre Dame. I think Brian Kelly is going to do the job at Notre Dame and Michigan just hired a new coach, and I think this will be Jim Tressel’s last year. I’m not saying it should be. . . . This is a mess, it isn’t over yet and I think this is his last year coaching at Ohio State.”
“I just think that now that it’s come out that he talked about this problem with an alumnus from Jeannette, Pa., (Terrelle) Pryor’s hometown about selling these jerseys and other things and he did not tell the president or athletic director. I think Ohio State will get hit by the NCAA because they were misled. The worst thing you can do with the NCAA is not tell them the truth right away and that’s what happened. I think Ohio State is going to get hit.
“I just think it’s a mess. … I just think he will resign. That’s my opinion. That’s all. It’s just a prediction and that’s what we do in this business. Predict.”
Florida senior cornerback Janoris Jenkins has been cited for possession of marijuana for the second time in three months. Gainesville Police Department spokesman Cpl. Tscharna Senn said Jenkins was given a notice to appear in court on Saturday for possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana after police allegedly found a cigar with cannabis in a vehicle Jenkins was riding in. According to a GPD release, officers observed Jenkins, 22, smoking a cigar in a vehicle in a parking lot in downtown Gainesville about 12:35 a.m. Saturday. When he saw the police officers, Jenkins allegedly exited the vehicle and began to walk away. An investigation revealed a burnt cannabis cigar in the center console, according to police. Jenkins was arrested in January on the same charge after police said he was caught with a small, clear bag of cannabis and trying to roll a cigarette at the Status Night Club in downtown Gainesville. At the time, Florida coach Will Muschamp said the matter would be handled internally. Jenkins did not participate in spring drills because he was recovering from surgery.Declining the opportunity to leave early for the NFL draft this past January and instead returned to the Gators for another season. Whether or not he actually gets to see the field in a UF uniform for “another season” is certainly up for debate.
Coach Miles was out of town, but has been notified of the accident.
Browne has two children: an 18 year old and a 22 year old.
Speaking to Greg Auman of the St. Petersburg Times, Dunkley’s high school coach said that, while several schools are interested in the wide receiver’s talents, it appears that USF is the leader heading to the clubhouse. Blaze Thompson, Dunkley’s coach at Pahokee (Fla.) High School in 2009, told the Tampa Tribune that there are five schools in the mix, but the former report makes it appear that Dunkley is doing a heavy lean toward the Bulls.
“I think USF is the top one on his list,” Thompson told the Times. “A lot of schools have expressed interest in him, but USF is the only one he has actually visited. They’re interested in him, and he had asked me to look into them as well.”
Dunkley redshirted in 2010, and was suspended for portions of spring practice earlier this year due to academic issues. Thompson told the Times that Dunkley should finish the spring semester at UF strong academically and that will not be an issue in his transfer.
Garcia was suspended earlier this month by head coach Steve Spurrier on an indefinte basis for what the university later referred to as “unacceptable behavior”. The latest boot, of course, came a mere few weeks after Garcia served an initial suspension for the opening of spring practice for a certain incident that occurred in Atlanta in the days leading up the Chic-Fil-A Bowl. The two suspensions within that short amount of time were Garcia’s fourth and fifth of his so-called “career” in Columbus. Yet, somehow, some way, Garcia might still have a chance to find his way back on the field this fall. According to an Associate Press article, Spurrier said he spoke with the troubled quarterback recently and mentioned he, along with athletic director Eric Hyman and university President Harris Pastides, will discuss Garcia’s future over the summer. Spurrier left open the notion that Garcia could return, but if he were to be permanently booted (Garcia does graduate this semester), freshman Conner Shaw would take over as the starting QB for the Gamecocks.
An attorney for an Alabama fan suspected of poisoning landmark trees at Auburn Toomer’s Corner said Wednesday that prosecutors had rejected a plea deal that would have spared the man jail time. Defense attorney Glennon Threatt Jr. didn’t detail what he called a “low-ball” offer to the district attorney’s office on behalf of Harvey Updyke Jr., who wore a crimson-colored tie to a preliminary hearing. Updyke, who spent a night in jail after his arrest, is free on bond. He is charged with first-degree criminal mischief in the poisoning of the trees, where Auburn fans celebrate victories by heaving toilet paper into the branches of the 130-year-old oaks. If convicted, he could face one to 10 years in prison. “Emotionally, he’s distraught a little bit,” Threatt said. “Nobody wants to be facing jail time. He wants this to be over and know that he’s safe and know that his freedom and liberty will be protected. That’s what I’m trying to do for him.” The tree poisoning has angered Auburn fans, prompting thousands of people to attend a “Toomer’s Tree Hug” just over a week after the football team won its first national championship in more than a half-century. Threatt said people have said things that have caused concern for the defendant’s safety, and Updyke’s tires were slashed at a Walmart parking lot. A move to Louisiana would relieve some worries, Threatt said. “He has a lot of family that loves him,” Threatt said. “They’re very concerned about him, and they want to have him in a loving and nurturing environment. We believe that it was easier to create that environment for him outside the state of Alabama.” The plight of the trees has shined a harsh light on a rivalry that engulfs a state with no major professional sports teams. Updyke admitted to poisoning the trees on the radio show, finishing his call with “Roll Damn Tide.” He has children named Crimson Tyde and Bear, after iconic coach Bear Bryant. Some Alabama fans have defended the oaks, with one group collecting $50,000 for a fund dedicated to the trees. One of the poisoned trees is not doing well. Many branches don’t have leaves or have much smaller ones. The other tree is not showing any signs of poisoning right now, said Auburn horticulture professor Gary Keever. The professor said there was no danger to people. Auburn fans have used Toomer’s Corner as a meeting place since the school was established in 1856. Former Auburn athletic director David Housel said it morphed into what it is today in 1972, when Tigers star Terry Henley said “we’re going to go beat the No. 2 out of Alabama.”
Auburn fans then started the toilet paper tradition after a 17-16 victory.
