Yesterday, NFL draft guru Mel Kiper posted the top five returning seniors for each position going into the 2012 season.  Of those players listed, 22 are from the SEC and nearly 60% of those senior stars come from three schools — Alabama, Arkansas and Georgia:


Alabama
Barrett Jones, #1 OG
Robert Lester, #4 S
Chance Warmack, #3 OG
Jesse Williams, #2 DT
Michael Williams, #2 TE

Arkansas
Knile Davis, #2 RB
Chris Gragg, #1 TE
Cobi Hamilton, #4 WR
Tyler Wilson, #3 QB

Georgia
Sanders Commings, #5 CB
John Jenkins, #3 DT
Abry Jones, #4 DE
Bacarri Rambo, #2 S

Florida
Caleb Sturgis, #2 K

Kentucky
Larry Warford, #2 OG

LSU
Alex Hurst, #3 OT

Mississippi State
Johnthan Banks, #1 CB

Missouri
Zavier Gooden, #5 OLB

Ole Miss
Tyler Campbell, #4 P

South Carolina
Devin Taylor, #5 DE

Tennessee
Dallas Thomas, #4 OT

Texas A&M
Sean Porter, #4 OLB

1.  Anthony Grant says his Alabama basketball team is playing with a sense of entitlement.

2.  Mike Anderson says Oklahoma State transfer Fred Gulley is now eligible to practice with the Arkansas hoops squad.

3.  Clutch free throw shooting has become an issue for the Razorbacks.

4.  LSU needs to get over its loss to Mississippi State with Kentucky coming to town.

5.  Arnett Moultrie and Dee Bost are still playing big minutes for MSU.

6.  By comparison, Ole Miss had to go deep into its bench in a 66-63 come-from-ahead loss to Florida last night.

When Kevin Stallings put nearby Middle Tennessee State on the Commodores’ 2012 basketball slate, you can bet he didn’t expect for the Blue Raiders to come in boasting a 19-2 record and a perfect 8-0 mark in the Sun Belt Conference:


“It certainly looks like a tough game right now.  You can expect all of them to be tough, but Middle’s having a great year.  They have a very, very good team.  (Belmont coach) Rick Byrd told me early in the year when he played them after the first times, he said, ‘I’m telling you, they’re not really good for Middle or really good for their league.  They’re really good.’  They’ve certainly proven him to be 100% correct.”


Vandy and MTSU battle at Memorial Gym tomorrow afternoon.  The Commodores have won nine of their last 10 games and crushed Tennessee on Tuesday.

1.  Florida rallied from a 16-point halftime deficit to avoid an upset at Ole Miss.

2.  Who would have dreamed that the Georgia football program would be dealing with immigration issues?

3.  When John Calipari’s team travels to LSU tomorrow, they’ll be facing a former Kentucky Mr. Basketball who they chose not to recruit.

4.  South Carolina hopes to build on its first SEC win of the year when the Cocks trade baskets with Ole Miss tomorrow.

5.  Tennessee’ Cuonzo Martin believes Jarnell Stokes’ tough night at Vandy “was one of the best things for him.”

6.  Derek Dooley has hired Charlie Coiner – on North Carolina’s staff last season — as the Vols’ special teams coach.

In the last hour a pair of emails have dropped into the MrSEC.com inbox asking if NC State and Virginia Tech are “really” going to join the SEC.  After a little digging I found that the folks over at OutkickTheCoverage.com have posted a story today predicting a 16-team SEC with four divisions, semifinals for football, and the Hokies and Wolfpack as the most likely entrants into the league.

Now, we first wrote about the possibility of SEC football semifinals back in August of 2009.  And we still believe that the SEC could someday end up with 16 schools, but only if the landscape changes elsewhere.  After speaking to people at schools across the conference, we do not believe the SEC is fishing for new members at the current time.  In any way.

In our view, if a 16-school is being discussed in the press, that’s a long-range discussion.  Especially with the BCS system sitting on the verge of change that might slow the current realignment push to a halt.

That said, if the SEC expands again, stretching into new markets and new territories is clearly the goal.  That was the goal when Arkansas and South Carolina were added.  It was the goal when Missouri and Texas A&M were annexed.  It’s been the goal of every league throughout the expansion/realignment process.  Our readers know we’ve been beating that drum for two years now.  (Only Florida State — in our opinion — would offer enough name brand value to make them a viable option from inside the existing SEC footprint.)

Looking outside the league, Virginia Tech does make a great deal of sense for the SEC.  But the Hokies used up a lot of political capital to gain an invite into the ACC.  It’s hard to imagine them having the clout or the intestinal fortitude to jump leagues again anytime soon.  Especially after Tech officials made it very clear this summer that their school is better off in the ACC from a travel perspective and an academic perspective.

As for NC State — a school oft-mentioned because no one believes North Carolina and/or Duke would move to the SEC — there would be some serious political issues to work out as well.  NCSU is a “constituent institution” of the University of North Carolina system.  In other words, the schools have a connection.  We’re not talking Texas and Texas A&M, here. 

State has a 13-person board of trustees.  One member is the president of the student government.  Four trustees are appointed by the governor.  The remaining eight NCSU trustees are elected by the UNC board of governors.

If State’s administration decided that their school would be better off in the SEC, it appears from afar that at least two of the eight trustees put in place by UNC’s board would have to okay the move.  And that’s if all the other non-UNC-elected trustees favored the move.  And that’s if a vote to switch conferences only requires a 7-6 majority. 

Is it possible that State would move from the ACC to the SEC?  Sure, anything’s possible.  Especially when millions of dollars are on the table.

But it would appear Virginia Tech and especially NC State would have to wage some large-scale political battles to exit their current league. 

If they even wanted to switch leagues. 

If the SEC decides to expand again.

The talk of 16 schools is fun and it’s always good for pageviews.  Trust us, we know.  But for now, there’s nothing to suggest that the league will be expanding again in the short-term.

(Usual caveat: Never say never.)

Former Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton will go down in Volunteer history as a villain to many Big Orange fans.  He fired Phillip Fulmer and replaced him with Lane Kiffin.  He fired Bruce Pearl.

That’s dumb and dumber in many folks’ minds.  And some of those people let Hamilton know about it in a ridiculous manner — with threats.

Speaking to The Chattanooga Times Free Press, Hamilton said he “received several threats and it reached a point that I moved my family out of Knoxville for several days last spring and I was even assigned police protection.”

Surprising?  Not in the least.  Kiffin’s family claimed they received death threats on the way out of Knoxville as well.  Just this past week, San Francisco 49er Kyle Williams received death threats via Twitter after fumbling away his team’s shot at a Super Bowl. 

In the age of the internet, everyone is anonymous.  That cloaked status encourages decent people to behave like children and imbalanced people to behave like criminals.  If booze makes folks feel 10 feet tall and bullet proof, the anonymity of the internet allows some to view themselves as the biggest, baddest asses in the world.

Well, at least the ass part is true.

Hamilton — who’s now working as the president of a Nashville-based charity — says he has no regrets about the way he did his job, including the hires of Kiffin and Pearl.  “Lane was the right person for the job at that time.  I hate how things worked out in the end, but there was no way of seeing that when we made that hire.”

“I know every move I made while I was at UT was made with the best interest of the university in mind.  I have confidence in the decision to hire Lane, and Bruce had an unbelievable run.  Again, I hate how things ended with those two examples.  I’m like anyone else and there are times when you reflect on decisions and what you might have done differently.  In any area of your life, all you can do is your best every day, and some days I felt better about my decisions than others.”

In this writer’s view, Hamilton deserves heat from Tennessee fans because ultimately the buck stopped at his desk.  But in terms of his individual decisions, he wasn’t the clown he’s often been made out to be.

He fired Phillip Fulmer, but Fulmer had had two losing seasons in his last four and hadn’t won an SEC title in a decade at the time of his dismissal.

Had Hamilton hired a good replacement, no one would be claiming today that Tennessee should have held on to its legendary ex-coach.  Interestingly, Hamilton did — it seems — hire a darn good coach.  Kiffin and crew have done an excellent job at Southern Cal so far (though they’re about to feel the brunt of recruiting restrictions and NCAA penalties).

Hamilton’s mistake with Kiffin was not weighing the possibility that Pete Carroll might leave Southern Cal and the Trojans might come after the ex-Carroll aide.  (In truth, though, who at the time would have foreseen all that?)  But that’s exactly what happened and Kiffin left Tennessee high and dry.  And that burned the Vol football house to the ground.  Two years of attrition and a coaching change right before signing day aren’t appealing to prospective coaches.

Will Muschamp turned down millions to replace Kiffin.  Only the likes of Derek Dooley would take such a job.  So while Hamilton is pilloried for “finding” Dooley, in reality, his candidate pool was going to be awfully shallow simply due to circumstances.

As for Pearl, the ex-coach took Tennessee basketball to unseen heights, but he blew his career apart with a lie to NCAA investigators and a phone call to a prospect’s father in an attempt to keep the person quiet about a barbecue.  The idea that Hamilton is to blame for Pearl’s downfall is laughable.  Ditto the notion that UT could’ve kept Pearl and his staff.  Hard to do that when the coach lands a three-year show cause penalty and recruiting ban.

Hamilton oversaw a comedy of errors, yes, but fate and the actions of other people played a large role in his demise.  Had Kiffin not abandoned him after a year and had Pearl not found it necessary to cover up what would have been a secondary violation, Hamilton might still be Tennessee’s athletic director overseeing a pair of healthy programs.

Of course, just for suggesting that, I’ll probably get a couple of death threats.

Typical. 

This is what you get in any high-profile legal case.  When lining up charges, the prosecuting attorneys go as far as they possibly can with the evidence — sometimes so far that they can’t even come close to proving their case.  (Example: It was a mistake to charge Casey Anthony with first degree murder when the coroner couldn’t say for sure how her daughter had been murdered.)

Brian Downing — who was allegedly caught on tape putting his genitals on the face of a drunken LSU fan after the BCS Championship Game in New Orleans — is facing sexual battery charges, up to 10 years in prison, and a lifetime spent on sex offender rolls. 

Does he deserve to be punished for what in every sense of the word was an assault?  Yes.  Does he deserve to be treated like a rapist or pedophile for the rest of his life?  No.

“It just doesn’t fit,” said defense attorney Miles Swanson via statement, also adding that the charge of sexual battery “demeans the real and serious trauma of actual victims of sexual violence.”  Swanson also claimed in yesterday’s press release that Downing “has already been tried and convicted in the court of public opinion.  He has been fired from his job and suffers continual harassment by the public and media.”

True enough, but it’s not like the public and media are guessing at things here.  There’s video of Downing abusing an inebriated man in a Krystal.  The public vilification?  Well, that’s a natural when pictures are available.

That said, we agree with the defense team that Downing — as we stated above — should not be branded a serial sex offender.  His was the callous act of a buffoon and a ruffian.  He deserves 30 days in the hoosegow or community service… and a nice fat civil suit from the victim.  But the people of the state of Louisiana should not have to pay to have this man held in their correctional facilities for a decade.

Unfortunately, Downing’s attorneys are downplaying the entire incident as though their client did nothing wrong.  “The eighteen-year-old victim was never physically harmed and, in fact,” Swanson wrote, “was so intoxicated that he would have had no recollection of the incident, but for a video posted online.  Any ‘harm’ is entirely post hoc and amplified by the media.”

Sure, this is how the game is played when both sides are working on a plea agreement.  Over-the-top charges, then over-the-top reactions to the charges.  But Downing would definitely appear more sympathetic if he and his attorneys gave an inch here and showed some contrition.  Behind closed doors, let’s hope both sides are indeed negotiating this thing down.

Because just as Downing doesn’t deserve to be branded a sex offender and sent to jail for a decade, he also shouldn’t get a pass for putting his genitals on someone’s face just because that person was passed out cold.  That’s sets a heckuva precedent.

Here’s guessing that Swanson wouldn’t be so dismissive of an episode involving an unconscious member of his own family.  “Oh, well, she was passed out anyway.”

A day after seeing his Tennessee team pounded 65-47 at Vanderbilt, Cuonzo Martin spoke to a Knoxville booster club on Wednesday.  Asked for a bright spot from the previous night’s whooping, Martin delivered:


“When the bus starting rolling out of there.  That was the bright spot.”


For now, Martin is trying to build a program out of the spare parts left behind by a coach who brought the NCAA down on his own head.  But Martin’s not complaining.

“One day,” he said, “this team will be the last team standing.  I really feel that.  I don’t say that jokingly, I don’t say it, like, ‘Oh, man, give him another year on his contract.’  I say it because I truly believe it.”

Of course, a lot of coaches truly believe that when they take over a new job.

1.  Florida’s three-guard lineup will be tested by Ole Miss’ size tonight.

2.  Here’s another look at Florida’s new gray/silver Nike basketball uniforms.

3.  Will it be Georgia or South Carolina who grabs control of the SEC East this fall?  (Or someone else?)

4.  John Calipari doesn’t feel his top-ranked, 20-1 Kentucky team is “special” yet.

5.  Who will be the successor to Alshon Jeffery at Carolina?

6.  Jeronne Maymon says Tennessee doesn’t “bring the same energy” away from Knoxville.

With 4:45 to go in last night’s game, LSU trailed Mississippi State by 11.  A furious rally cut that lead to a single point with 18 seconds left, but the Bulldogs prevailed in the end 76-71.  Tiger coach Trent Johnson was less than thrilled with officiating that — in his view — helped the Dogs hang on for a homecourt victory.

In the game’s waning seconds he received a technical foul for sharing his views with the officials.  After the game, he explained his displeasure:


“When you’ve got good kids and they struggle and they fight and there’s things going on out there you don’t like, that’s hard…

The game was decided on the boards, but there was a reason for that.  You can’t be as aggressive as you want.  I just want a clarification so I can help my kids.”


Johnson handled that one well.  Good thing.  If he hadn’t he may well have gotten one of the league’s “don’t blast the officials” fines.

The Ole Miss basketball team hosts Florida tonight in the first of three Thursday-Saturday turnarounds in the next month.  But if you want Andy Kennedy to get onboard the Complain Train, you’re out of luck:


“I don’t put a lot of thoguht in that because I don’t really have anything to do with.  We all realize that we’re in a big business.  SEC men’s basketball is a high-dollar business.  And the reason that it is on a lot of fronts, is because of television revenue.

So television affords you the opportunity to get in those windows and those windows are Thursday and Saturday.  If they choose you to fit those windows, then we’ll do the best we can to do just that.”


Kudos to Kennedy.  Unlike other coaches who’ve chosen to gripe about the league’s schedule right in the middle of the season — when nothing can be done about it — the Rebels’ coach is biting his tongue.

You can be sure that Kennedy isn’t pleased that his team got the worst of the Thursday-Saturday turnarounds.  And if he’s still around for this year’s SEC Meetings in Destin, we hope he voices any complaints he might have before the next batch of schedules is put together.

But for now, Mississippi’s coach is refusing to create negative press for the league office and he’s not teaching his players that it’s not okay to make excuses.  Good for him.

Between doctors, vets and sales calls for my actual job, today’s going to require just a quick scan of the day’s headlines.  Here’s the first whip-around…

1.  Auburn has decided that if the oaks at Toomer’s Corner die as expected, they will be replaced by one or more new oaks.  (Kind of an obvious solution.)

2.  The Alabama basketball team is going backward.

3.  Boise State doesn’t expect to add Arkansas to its 2012 football schedule.

4.  Dee Bost had a big night for MSU last night… without scoring a lot of points.

5.  Ole Miss will look to pull the upset when #14 Florida visits the Tad Pad tonight.

6.  Rebel quarterback signee Bo Wallace was cited for underage possession of alcohol last Thursday.  Egad.