Content provided by John Clay’s Sidelines.

Big Blue Links for Thursday:

• Mark Story of the Herald-Leader writes on Mike Casey’s induction into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame last night.
• Dan Wolken of the Memphis Commercial-Appeal gives an update on Eric Bledsoe.
• On his WKYT blog, Steve Moss writes on John Calipari’s work with EA Sports, the video game giant.
• A Sea of Blue thinks Rick Pitino and John Calipari are twin sons by different mothers.
• Metz Camfield of the Kentucky Kernel writes that Chris McClendon hopes to provide spark for UK baseball team.
• Bobby Reagan of the Kernel covers the Catspys.
• Bleacher Report writes that Mike Krzyzewski has received unwarranted criticism over John Wall.

Content provided by John Clay’s Sidelines.

SEC links for Thursday:

• Bob Holt of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that Arkansas could be facing a loss of scholarships over poor APR scores.
• Darryl Maxie of the AJC reports on Auburn coaches using limos in recruiting.
• Kevin Scarbinsky of the Birmingham News writes that kids think the limos are cool.
• Nate Allen of the NW Arkansas times reports that Andre Clark is leaving the Razorback basketball team.
• Kevin Brockway of the Gainesville Sun reports that Nick Calathes is at IMG preparing for NBA workouts.
• Mike Strange of the Knoxville News-Sentinel writes on Buzz Peterson’s return to Appalachian State.

• Ian Rapoport of the Birmingham News writes on Anthony Grant’s first signee at Alabama. And it won’t be his last.
• Pat Dooley of the Gainesville Sun writes that it’s time to enjoy a long football off-season.
• In The State, Ron Morris writes that South Carolina and Clemson boast few big-league baseball stars.
• Randy Rosetta of the Baton Rouge Advocate reports on LSU baseball’s 13-2 trouncing of Tulane.
• Rick Cleveland of the Clarion-Ledger writes on how Ole Miss tennis was hijacked by the NCAA Tournament.

Here are a few stories making headlines in Athens today:

Georgia’s backup quarterback, Logan Gray, might be off of special teams this year, but he could play a little bit of receiver in 2009… in addition to his QB duties.  (It’s midway through this link.)

Here’s more on Larry Munson’s induction into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame.

One of Munson’s more famous calls was the “We stepped on their face with a hobnail boot and broke their nose” line form the 2001 Tennessee game. 



Well it just so happens that Verron Haynes, the man who caught the game-winning touchdown in that game, signed yesterday with the Atlanta Falcons… after a year out of the league.

You know how fans and media have now taken to tracking universities’ planes and flight plans during coaching searches?

And you know how there are websites set up to help track planes?

Well, Mississippi State officials have now rendered their private planes untraceable.

Prob’ly some Area 51 technology right? 

Well, no. 

MSU actually just followed the leads of schools like Alabama and Ole Miss that have requested that their private aircraft not be traced by certain flight-tracker websites. 

It’s all perfectly legal and above board.

So the next time State is looking for a football or basketball coach, don’t count on being able to follow their AD’s flights via the worldwide web.

(Sidenote — I never understood the point of an invisible plane if Wonder Woman and her passengers could still be seen sitting in the cockpit.  What kind of sense does that make?  These are the kinds of things I think about at night.)

Some people might be laughing at Auburn’s statewide limo-driven recruiting tour, but I’m guessing that Gene Chizik is just fine with that.

As Tennessee’s Lane Kiffin has pointed out after numerous gaffes and broadsides, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.  And the “Tiger Prowl” continues to get publicity.

Here’s video of one of the caravan stops from Wednesday.  It shows AU’s coaches standing on the sidelines scouting an Alabama high school’s spring practice.  It also shows the stretch Hummer the coaches arrived in.

And here’s a detailed explanation of what the Tiger coaches are doing and why. 

I tell ya, the more I see this tour getting pub, the more brilliant I think the idea is. 

Chizik couldn’t have asked for more publicity.

And mark this down: It won’t be long before other schools’ staffs start doing the exact… same… thing.

Here are the top stories from the Heart of Dixie:

Anthony Grant has landed his first signee… Ben Eblen who followed the coach from VCU to Alabama. 

Eblen believed he was a major conference talent all along, but he chose to sign with VCU last year because of his relationship with Grant.  Now he gets the best of both worlds.

This doesn’t quite match the “I’m bringing everything and everybody from my last school” chutzpah of John Calipari, but the signing of the 6’1 point guard does put Grant’s Tide on the path to being called “Alabama Commonwealth.” 

In football news, Nick Saban has shared his thoughts on the SEC West… and he said that after watching Auburn’s spring game, he believes “they’ve got a pretty good football team.”  Yeah.  Just no quarterback.

One of Bama’s signees from February will be heading to East Mississippi Community College… not to Tuscaloosa this fall.

Just two quickies from Knoxville this morning:

Offensive lineman Ramon Foster believes he’s a good fit for the style of football the Steelers play.

And Peyton Manning was paired with Tiger Woods in a pro-am golf tournament yesterday. 

And why is that news?  It’s not.

But mentioning Manning’s name anywhere near Tennessee fans is like showing a picture of Erin Andrews to a frat house.  Everybody looks. 

So yes, the fact that I’m linking to a do-nothing story about Manning playing golf is simply an attempt to gain some eyeballs and in-bound links from the Volunteer State.

Hey, at least I admit it.

And did I mention our Erin Andrews gallery?

Arkansas basketball fans are angry.  Their team finished just 2-14 in the SEC last year, following a surprisingly good non-conference start that did nothing but raise expectations.

Now, in an effort to calm the fanbase, John Pelphrey has penned a two-page letter to the Razorbacks’ season ticket-holders.  It’s a nice letter.  It admits the struggles, but it also mentions the promise his young team showed last year.

But that letter has caused even more furor.  Some fans view it as the coach falling upon his knees and begging for mercy.

His athletic director — who’s still supportive of Pelphrey — says that the letter was simply a way to communicate with the fans.

Perhaps the season ticket-holders would have preferred the silent treatment. 



In my view, UA fans need to calm down just a bit.

Pelphrey took over a program in decline.  In his first year, he got more out of a veteran club than most people anticipated.  Sadly, that raised the bar for the coach’s second team.

That team had lost six seniors and Patrick Beverly from the previous year’s squad.  So how anyone could have expected last year to be anything more than miserable is beyond me.

There were too many new players on the court to expect a whole helluva lot.

Overall, this is a classic from-the-ground-up rebuilding job.  And while Razorback fans might not like it, they should have seen these struggles coming.

Even more struggles are likely on the way, too.  All six of those seniors I mentioned above — as well as Beverly — failed to graduate.  That’s bad news when it comes to Arkansas’ APR scores.

Is that to be blamed on the coach who inherited those guys?  Or the coach who recruited those guys and watched over them for three years?  Uh, I’ll go with the guy who brought them to campus.



Pelphrey might not be the second coming of Nolan Richardson, but it’s way too soon for him to be catching the kind of heat that’s currently cooking him.

Unfortunately for Pelphrey, he won too much too soon.  Now he’s paying for having raised those expectations in Year One.

Oh, well, if UA fans don’t give him a chance, the coach can still fall back on a career fronting a Men At Work cover band.

Personally, I’ve already heard enough about Twitter to last a lifetime. 

In terms of quickly getting updates from a website — visit twitter.com/mrsec — it’s a useful tool.

In terms of getting a 140-character message from a coach — “What a great day it is.  Just had some coffee.  I have a problem with flatulence” — well, it seems a bit useless, if you ask me.

But many coaches see it differently.  If kids tweet, then the coaches will tweet.  Anything to reach a prospect or a recruit.

Mark Richt, Lane Kiffin, Les Miles, Bobby Petrino, etc, etc.  Everyone’s starting to Twitter.

And Bob Holt of The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette covers all the tweeting in his latest column.

Lots of Razorback news this morning… and you can find it all right here:

The Arkansas basketball program seems to be built upon quicksand at the moment.  Forward Andre Clark is transferring out just as forward Brandon Moore is.  Michael Washington currently has his name in the NBA early entry pool.

With so many players leaving — to transfers and to the NBA — in the past couple of years, UA is in danger of losing a scholarship down the road due to poor APR scores.

Not a single one of Arkansas’ six seniors from the 2007-2008 season graduated. 

To make matters worse, the highly-regarded recruiting class from a year ago is disappearing player-by-player.

In an attempt to reassure the fanbase, John Pelphrey has put his plans for the program in writing.  His letter to season ticket-holders has already caused a stir among UA fans.

Pelphrey points out the positive in his letter: “We all saw glimpses of what this young team can accomplish when we play to our fullest potential.”

Perhaps Pelphrey just needs to see a friendly face.  Maybe that’s why Arkansas looks like it will open next season with a game against Louisville and Pelphrey’s former coach, Rick Pitino.

In other news, the cost of installing a synthetic field at Reynolds Razorback Stadium has actually been lessened by the downtown in the economy.  Hooray?

And the athletic department is transferring $1 million to UA’s academic coffers.  The move will allow Arkansas to avoid a tuition hike this year.