Ole Miss suspends a pair of players

Ole Miss football players Clarence Jackson and Delvin Jones were suspended indefinitely from the program today by coach Houston Nutt for an unspecified violation of team rules. Lafayette County jail records list Jackson and Jones as being arrested by campus police this morning and charged with public drunkenness. They were listed as being booked into the jail at 3:50 a.m. As of around 2:30 p.m., there was no record of either player being released. Jackson had ascended to the top spot on UM’s depth chart at weakside linebacker in a depth chart the school released earlier this week. That was the spot previously occupied by D.T. Shackelford, who suffered a knee injury in the final week of spring practice and is expected to miss the 2011 season. The sophomore linebacker from Atlanta was arrested in September after he was alleged to have been in possession of a 46-inch flat-screen television, a TV stand and a DVD/CD player with a total value of close to $2,000 that belonged at Hume Hall, a building that houses the university’s mathematics department. The status of that case was listed as “open” in Lafayette County Justice Court this afternoon. Jones, a sophomore, played in just two games in 2010 before being one of two players suspended for the final two games of the year due to “bad freshman mistakes”.

Auburn AD: Confident in Newton case

Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs said he has no reservations about erecting a statue for Cam Newton while an NCAA investigation continues and expressed confidence that Auburn will ultimately be cleared of any wrongdoing. Jacobs points to comments from NCAA President Mark Emmert, who said “there was no evidence that money had changed hands and there was no evidence that Auburn University had anything to do with it.” “Out of respect for the NCAA process, technically it’s still an open issue,” Jacobs said. “But when Dr. Emmert, the president of the NCAA, comes out in February that he’s found no wrongdoing on Auburn’s part, I’m not sure how you can be any more confident than that. “And no circumstances have changed since then.” If the Newton saga hasn’t been officially closed, Jacobs at least takes that statement as indicative of a happy ending. The NCAA cleared the Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 NFL draft pick to play for the Tigers in the Southeastern Conference and national championship games— when Auburn briefly declared him ineligible—after finding that Newton’s father, Cecil, had solicited money from Mississippi State during the recruiting process. NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn said Wednesday that Emmert’s comments were only related to the reinstatement decision. She said that a school is notified when an investigation is closed. Jacobs spoke to The Associated Press Tuesday about a wide range of issues for an athletic program that won a national championship in football in January while dealing with the NCAA investigation. He also said Auburn is “pretty close” to a new deal with football coach Gene Chizik that Jacobs said will be competitive with other prominent Southeastern Conference coaches as Alabama’s Nick Saban ($4.7 million annually) and LSU’s Les Miles ($3.75 million). Auburn will put up statues of its Heisman winners Bo Jackson, Pat Sullivan and Newton—who was drafted No. 1 by the Carolina Panthers—during the upcoming school year. The monument to Newton did raise questions pending closure by the NCAA in the case.

Ex-Gator WR appears headed to USF

All signs continue to point to USF bringing in former Florida receiver Chris Dunkley this fall, as his coach at Pahokee High School said Wednesday morning that there is nothing to wait on except for USF receiving his formal transcript from Gainesville.

"Honestly, I believe it's going to happen with USF," said coach Blaze Thompson, noting that he continues to get calls from other programs interested in the former five-star recruit, who redshirted in his only season with the Gators.

Thompson said Cincinnati called about Dunkley on Wednesday, joining West Virginia and Marshall as schools that have expressed interest in Dunkley. Thompson said Dunkley has his final grades for the spring semester -- a grade-point average between 2.5 and 2.6, he said, which is enough to meet the NCAA requirements to transfer and accept a scholarship elsewhere. He said USF has confirmed his spring grades with Florida and is awaiting his official transcript, potentially the final hurdle to Dunkley signing scholarship papers with the Bulls.

Dunkley, 5-foot-11 and 174 pounds, was rated as the No. 8 receiver in the nation by Scout.com in 2009, choosing Florida over schools like Alabama, Georgia, Miami, West Virginia and Michigan.

USF is also in the mix for another Gators transfer, Bradenton Manatee running back Mike Blakely, who enrolled in Gainesville in January only to find the head coach, offensive coordinator and running backs coach had all changed from the coaching staff he signed with.
USF has received a release to speak with Blakely, and Manatee coach Joe Kinnan said Wednesday morning that Florida granted Blakely a release to all schools except the rest of the SEC, Florida State and Miami.

Another Gator 'Bites the Dust'....leaving The Swamp

This is the fourth time since Will Muschamp replaced Urban Meyer as UF’s head coach, that a player has decided to transfer out of Gainesville. The school announced via a press release Tuesday afternoon that running back Mike Blakely has requested, and received, a release from his scholarship so that he may ply his football wares elsewhere. It’s unknown at this point in time where that elsewhere might be.

“Mike has come to the conclusion that the University of Florida is not where he wants to play football,” Muschamp said in a statement. “We wish him the best of luck.”

“Everyone at Florida has been very supportive of me in my time here and I’m thankful for the experience that I had, but I’ve made a decision to continue my college football career somewhere else,” Blakely said in his own statement.

Blakely was an early enrollee but did not participate in spring practice after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder. Rivals.com had Blakely rated as the No. 6 RB in the country for the 2011 recruiting class.

WR Lance Ray cuts ties with Arkansas

Three months after his arrest for marijuana possession — and after said arrest kept him out of all of spring practice — Lance Ray has decided to part ways with the Arkansas football program.

Robbie Neiswanger of the Arkansas News is reporting Monday afternoon that the wide receiver has decided to transfer from the Razorbacks to an undetermined location. Head coach Bobby Petrino confirmed the move through a school spokesperson, and that Ray has been released from his scholarship.

Suspended ‘Bama lineman reportedly looking to transfer

Suspended University of Alabama defensive lineman Brandon Moore has explored options for a transfer, and East Mississippi Community College is one that the third-year sophomore has been in touch with, a source told The Tuscaloosa News.
Moore, who was suspended from the team by UA coach Nick Saban during spring practice, was unavailable for comment as UA players are not made available to media at this time of year.
EMCC coach Buddy Stephens had no comment, but confirmed that Moore has not signed any scholarship papers with the Scooba, Miss., school.
It is unclear whether Moore has asked for a release from his scholarship at Alabama, and may not yet have had the opportunity to do so. On Thursday prior to his Crimson Caravan speaking engagement in Birmingham, Saban indicated the tornado that struck Tuscaloosa and the resulting cancellation of UA classes has prevented him from meeting with Moore about his future with the program.
"We had plans to talk to all these guys when school was out. The fact that school got cancelled has made it a little more difficult," Saban said. "So the plan now is to wait until grades come in to further assess the situation. But he's suspended indefinitely."
If Moore transfers to a two-year college such as EMCC and maintains his academics, he would eventually have the chance to transfer again to a four-year school, perhaps one in the Southeastern Conference.

Vols hopeful on progress in passing

What a difference a week made for Tennessee’s passing game. If the Volunteers’ aerial attack can carry that same upward trend of improvement it showed during the second half of spring practice into the summer months, the moments of brilliance and potential the young group showed late last season could outnumber the moments of inexperienced mistakes.

“I feel we’ve grown a lot. From the first scrimmage to the second scrimmage, I even see that we grew,” tight end Mychal Rivera said during the final week of spring practice.

“QB Tyler Bray’s starting to trust me and he’s starting to trust the receivers more to where you get to your break and you’re turning and the ball’s already there, which is a great thing with your quarterback. His timing is getting real good, and the tight ends and the receivers are meshing with the quarterback and everybody real well.”

Former UF QB Chris Leak signs 2-year deal with Saskatchewan Roughriders of CFL.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders announced today they have signed import quarterback Chris Leak to the roster. Financial details of the signing were not released.

Leak (6’0 – 205 lbs) spent the last two seasons with the Montreal Alouettes and made his CFL debut against the Riders in August, 2009 when his first pass was completed for a touchdown. In his time with the Alouettes, Leak completed 36 of 59 pass attempts for 296 yards and one touchdown. In addition the 26-year-old had seven carries for 41 yards. Leak initially signed with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in June, 2008 but was claimed by the Alouettes a day later after being released by Hamilton.

Prior to joining the CFL, Leak spent time with the Chicago Bears after signing as an undrafted free agent in 2007. He saw playing time in their final pre-season game where he completed 11 of 16 pass attempts for 88 yards including one touchdown and one interception.

Leak played with the Florida Gators and led the team to a BCS National Championship in his senior year. He finished his college career with 705 completions for 8,788 passing yards including 72 touchdowns and 31 interceptions.

Nick Saban looking to steal 2 things from Pennsylvania in 2011

Larry Burton (Syndicated Writer) — Look at the Alabama football schedule, and you'll see one thing that is obviously on Nick Saban's list of things to steal from Pennsylvania: a win against home-state favorites the Penn State Nittany Lions at Beaver Stadium. If you're still scratching your heads wondering what the second thing could be, you only have to look at the list of good high school players in the state and see a big defensive lineman who is just the kind of player Saban wants at Alabama. That player is 6'4'', 245-pound Noah Spence of Harrisburg, Penn., a defensive lineman who in just his junior year last year registered 22 sacks and 104 tackles. The problem for Saban is simple: Everyone else in the nation wants this young man too, and stealing him from the area is going to be tough. Spence has offers from almost every major university, and if he doesn't, it's because they know they don't have a chance to land him, not that they don't want him. Alabama did not have the sack production they wanted last year, and Saban knows his defense is even more dangerous when the quarterback is running for his life. He also knows that Spence is just the kind of lineman who make a quarterback not just break into a cold sweat, but also a dead run as well.

He has yet to visit Tuscaloosa, but according to Spence, you don't have to live in the South to know all about Alabama, and he was honored to get the offer and have Coach Sal Sunseri come and look over his film and pave the way for his meeting this week with head coach Nick Saban.

Ex-Irish lineman gets waiver, will play for Vols in ’11

A few months after transferring from Notre Dame to Tennessee due to personal reasons, Alex Bullard (No. 78) has received a decision from the NCAA on his request for a hardship waiver. And, fortunately for both the player and the football program, it turns out the boundless benevolence of the NCAA is in play yet again.

Bullard announced via Twitter Thursday night that he has been granted a waiver by the NCAA and will be permitted to play immediately in 2011. ”Just officially got the news,” Bullard wrote. “Id like to give a shout out to the NCAA for allowing me to be eligible for this up coming season.”

The Franklin, Tenn., native played in three games for the Irish last year before his father passed away and he transferred to the Vols in the winter.

Bullard participated in spring practice as a walk-on, and took over for right tackle Ja’Waun James when the starter went down with a case of mono in late March. Head coach Derek Dooley said last month that he was pleasantly surprised with how the redshirt sophomore performed in the sessions.

Tide player injured in tornado released from hospital

Nick Saban revealed that long-snapper Carson Tinker has been released from a hospital. There’s no word on when exactly the player was released.

Tinker suffered a broken wrist and a concussion after being thrown 50 yards from his residence April 27. He had been hospitalized since.

Tinker’s girlfriend was in the same residence and was also thrown from the house, but heartbreakingly she did not survive her injuries. Saban touched on both the physical and emotional wounds his player still needs to get past.

“Carson’s good. He’s going to take a little while to get healed up. He’s also got some psychological trouble – he lost his girlfriend,” the coach said according to the Birmingham News. “It’s tough on everybody.”

Saban also addressed the devastation in his adopted state, and how the citizens of Alabama — and fans of the state’s two flagship football programs — need to come together in a time like this regardless of the colors they cheer for on fall Saturdays.

UFL’s Omaha Nighthawks take Ole Miss' Masoli, Herzlich in draft

The Nighthawks of Omaha have drafted a couple notable college players, specifically, former Oregon/Ole Miss quarterback Jeremiah Masoli and Boston College linebacker Mark Herzlich.

If you were wondering, yeah, those would be the same Omaha Nighthawks who picked up former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett.

Masoli was drafted 38th overall and Herzlich was the 51st pick.

Obviously, there were higher expectations for Herzlich, who looked to be a solid draft choice before he was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma. Masoli, as you remember, was on the wrong end of Chip Kelly‘s boot at Oregon before landing at Ole Miss for a season.

Regardless, it’s interesting that Herzlich, who had a lot of NFL potential, and Masoli, who, well, didn’t, landed on the same minor league team.

Georgia assistant football coaches Tony Ball, Bryan McClendon, get significant raises

Georgia assistant football coaches Tony Ball and Bryan McClendon received significant pay increases recently, but they were the only members of the Bulldogs’ football staff to get raises following the Bulldogs’ 6-7 season.

McClendon, Georgia’s running backs coach since 2009 and its youngest assistant, saw his pay more than double from $90,000 a year to $200,000 annually, according to documents obtained by the AJC under the Freedom of Information Act. Previously McClendon was one of the lowest-paid assistants in the SEC. Ball, Georgia’s wide receivers coach and a member of coach Mark Richt’s staff since 2006, will now make $200,000 after earning $165,480 last year. The raises, which were enacted in February and March, respectively, were the results of “competitive counter offers” from UGA, according to Athletic Director Greg McGarity. Both coaches were offered positions at other schools, but he declined to say from whom.

“All I can say is they were legit offers,” said McGarity, who was attending SEC athletic director meetings in Birmingham on Tuesday. “I think the key is continuity. We had already lost two coaches to other schools. Continuity of staff is important to me and to Mark and we thought it was important to maintain stability, especially.”

LSU....is Rivals top pic

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.

Georgia is number 1 in the NFL draft

The NFL draft crown will remain in the SEC for yet another year.
The country's toughest conference in college football took home bragging rights for the fifth straight year when it came to the number of guys drafted. While the SEC didn't trump last year's record of 49 players drafted from a single conference, it did edge out the rest of the competition with 38 selections through the seven rounds.
As for the rest of the automatic qualifying conferences, the Pac-12 (formally the Pac-10) finished second with 37, followed by the Big Ten (36), ACC (35), Big East (22) and Big 12 (19).
The SEC has now led or tied for the most selections in the NFL draft for 12 of the past 14 seasons.

For those keeping score at home, since 1990, the SEC has had 820 total selections in the NFL draft, an average of 35.7 selections per year. The Big Ten is second with 708 selections. And since 1997, the SEC has had 590 total selections in the NFL draft, an average of 39.3 selections per year.
The SEC also topped all conferences in players taken in the first three rounds. The SEC had 20, followed by the ACC (19), Pac-12 (15), Big Ten (13), Big 12 ( 9) and Big East (4).

Florida was dethroned as the SEC draft champ as Georgia and LSU tied for the conference lead with six draft selections. Vanderbilt was the only school not to have a player drafted. Alabama led with four players being drafted in the first round.

5 post-spring questions facing the South Carolina Gamecocks

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.

Here is the five questions facing the South Carolina Gamecocks this season.
Will they commit to summer workouts? Who will be the starting safety? Is the offensive line ready to block for Marcus Lattimore? How will Spurrier get DeAngelo Smith on the field? Who will be the starting QB for game one vs East Carolina?

No matter how you feel about the answer to the last question, Garcia is the better quarterback due to experience. Connor Shaw is talent-rich but short on real experience. Shaw is the future quarterback of the Gamecocks and may well start that first game. The feeling among most is that Garcia will play the majority of snaps for South Carolina in the upcoming season but will Shaw will be the starter for the ECU game just to prove a point?

Dooley working to improve Vols off field as well as on it

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.”

SEC ‘wins’ first round of NFL draft

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.