BATON ROUGE – While the nationally-ranked LSU men's golf team is preparing for a berth into NCAA Regional play in the coming weeks, the Tigers solidified their lineup for the 2010-11 campaign on Friday with the announcement that transfer Ken Looper will join the program following a brilliant three-year career at the University of New Orleans.
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Coach Petrino visited West Memphis Thursday night.
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Todd Van Emst, AuburnAuburn assistants Trooper Taylor and Curtis Luper chat during National Signing Day. Luper is Auburn’s recruiting coordinator and has helped develop ideas like “Tiger Prowl” and “Big Cat Weekend.”Auburn’s strategy of visiting high schools with a full…

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A judge has kept alive the battle to block a Walmart store near an endangered Civil War battlefield in Virginia.

Content provided by Dawg Sports.

No Free Form Friday today, as work has been triply busy these last few days. I normally compile that post on Wednesday and Thursday evening, and this week I was busy doing lawyerly things. May have something “Free Form Saturday”-ish tomorrow, but no guarantees. In the meantime, let us mourn the passing of a tacky gridiron tradition cut down before its prime. 

As Mark Weiszer notes today in the Banner Herald, the NCAA has officially put the ixnay on those caravans of assistant coaches, including University of Georgia coaches, who have been canvassing the south in an attempt to both shock and awe the best and brightest football stars that the high school game has to offer. Effective immediately no more than two assistant coaches from any school may visit a prospective student athlete at any given time.

Dark Richt makes a brief appearance in the article, as Mark Richt slyly notes that his coaches chose this week for their round-the-state “Dream Team” tour because they figured that by next week that type of thing would be verboten. Turns out they were right. While freedom of assembly is still in the Constitution, the freedom to assemble on the lawn outside Isaiah Crowell’s third period history class is no longer available. I was really looking forward to Auburn’s coaches rolling up to the doors next season not in a gaudy  land yacht, but an actual yacht, with Trooper Taylor and Ted Roof riding on the stern Leo DiCaprio/Kate Winslet-style. Further proof that the NCAA hates America, Americans, and potentially kittens.

Kind of like this, but with stubble. And a backwards baseball cap. Gus Malzahn is steering, I presume.

In other recruiting news, you probably already know that North Carolina QB Christian Lemay will announce his “leader” and two “finalists” this evening at his church. My best guess is that Georgia is the leader, but I don’t really know. I am also uncertain exactly what the significance of being Lemay’s leader is, so I’m waiting to deal with that until later tonight or tomorrow in hopes that he’ll clear things up a little at his announcement. Until later . . .

Go ‘Dawgs!!!

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Not many Florida players have had a tougher last two years of football than Dorian Munroe, once a starting safety who now finds himself as a former Gator.

Dorian Munroe

Two torn anterior cruciate ligaments in his right knee sidelined Munroe for most of the last two years, and the NCAA turned down his appeal for a sixth year medical hardship because he played in one game in the second half of 2009.

Those couple of plays on special teams against Georgia sure weren’t worth the headache. Munroe torn his ACL days later.

But don’t feel sorry for Munroe, a bright Gator who is making plenty of moves off the field.

Munroe has a 3.55 GPA in graduate school for sports management. He graduates this fall.

Over the summer, Munroe will serve as an intern in the NFL offices in New York in the player development department. Munroe might even get the chance to help the NFL evaluate some of his old teammates entering the 2011 draft.

“I’d love to play football, and I’ m still going to be training for a potential workout for some time next year,” said Munroe, who is still rehabbing his knee. “But you’ve got to have a plan after football. I want to be involved in football, possibly as a coach or an executive.”

Munroe started two games in the 2007 season and entered the offseason as the favorite at strong safety alongside Major Wright before the first ACL  quickly ended his 2008 campaign. Munroe entered the 2009 fall camp as a backup safety before suffering a meniscus tear in his knee.

Despite the physical setbacks, Florida was impressed enough with Munroe to ask whether he wanted to serve on the staff in some capacity this fall.

Once again, Munroe will be juggling football and the demands of graduate school

“It’s a juggling act, it can be tough, but Florida is helpful in promoting academics,” Munroe said. “Tony Meachum, the academic advisor for defense, has helped push me to get to this point.

In an era when football players can be Rhodes Scholars (Myron Rolle), it’s good to see a guy such as Munroe handling his business.

1.  Alabama has landed three players on the watch list for the 2010 Lombardi Award.

2.  Nick Saban said the Tide might shift its game with Georgia State from a Saturday to a Thursday.  That was news to Georgia State.

3.  Here’s more on the short life and sudden death of Auburn’s Tiger Prowl.  (Technically, the fundraising/barnstorming can continue, but coaches will no longer be able to visit high schools en masse.)

4.  Cameron Newton’s leadership and confidence won him the starting quarterback job on The Plains.

5.  Newton gives the Tigers “the best chance to win,” not the best chance NOT to lose.

6.  Bobby Petrino isn’t interested in talking about what expansion might mean for Arkansas.

7.  Here’s more on Petrino’s Thursday teleconference.

8.  The Razorbacks made some progress in the secondary (and at backup quarterback) this spring.

9.  Here’s more on the depth Petrino has behind starting QB Ryan Mallett.

10.  Les Miles likes his quarterbacks… doesn’t like the idea of SEC expansion.

11.  I wrote quarterbackS because Jarrett Lee is still in the race with incumbent starter Jordan Jefferson.

12.  Houston Nutt said he was surprised Jevan Snead — who was given a fifth-round evaluation by the NFL — wasn’t drafted at all last week.

13.  Nutt said quarterback candidate Raymond Cotton is still getting medical opinions on his shoulder injury.  He also hopes to resolve the status of two suspended Rebels by June 1st.

14.  The student newspaper at Ole Miss is gloating over the fact that the Rebs swept LSU in most major sports this past year.

15.  The student newspaper at LSU has returned serve with a very fan-like reaction — they refer to UM’s Grove as “a tree-riddled lot.”  Oh, it’s on!

16.  Greg Byrne’s tenure as Mississippi State’s athletic director officially ends today and some new names are rumored to be in the mix to replace him.

1.  Florida offensive line coach Steve Addazio believes Michael Pouncey can actually move past his just-drafted brother Maurkice with a strong senior season.

2.  Here’s more from Addazio’s teleconference yesterday.

3.  On the basketball front, Florida will host Ohio State in mid-November.

4.  Mark Richt remains open to the idea of Logan Gray playing a position other than quarterback.

5.  Richt says “this type of thing (players thinking transfer) actually happens a whole lot more than anybody ever knows.”

6.  If AJ Green doesn’t return punts for UGA this year, it won’t be because of injury concerns.

7.  John Calipari is teasing Kentucky fans with the idea of starting a JV team in Lexington.

8.  This SI.com writer says Brandon Knight “gamed the system” by signing a financial aid agreement with UK and not a Letter of Intent.  Could it be he’s heard rumors of Cal leaving the Cats to coach LeBron James in the NBA?

9.  It sounds like Steve Spurrier has had it with quarterback Stephen Garcia.  “We’ll have another guy ready.  We had no one ready last year, and whatever Stephen did, we lived with.”

10.  Here’s more on Spurrier’s Thursday teleconference, including a take on when he might think about retiring.

11.  Derek Dooley says he’ll have to earn the trust of his Tennessee team.

12.  Dooley hopes his father Vince will be “thinking orange” if not wearing it when UT travels to Georgia this October.

13.  SEC head coaches defended the rising salaries of assistant coaches during yesterday’s teleconference.

This is one of those stories I’m happy to pass along.

We told you recently about Auburn signee Shon Coleman, who is battling leukemia. Coleman is one of the nation’s top offensive linemen out of Olive Branch (Miss.) High School.

The good news for Coleman is he doesn’t have to take on the battle by himself.

Auburn student Josiah Greene, who was deployed with his Army Reserve unit overseas on a peacekeeping mission to Kosovo, has started a tribute fund with St. Jude in Coleman’s honor. The fund will help children who are fighting cancer.

The story about Green and Coleman was written by Bruce Feldman of ESPN.com. Read it here. (I believe an ESPN Insider subscription might be required).

If you can’t read the entire story, click here for Chris Low’s recap.

Here’s a portion of what Greene had to say about why he decided to help Coleman and others:

“I have a passion for being a positive influence in the lives of young people and hope to channel that into becoming a teacher someday. The older and more experience I can take with me, however, will allow me to to make a bigger and better difference for kids in the future.”

Greene’s initial goal for the fund was $10,000. As of Thursday morning when Mr. Feldman posted the story, Greene had already raised about $7,600. What a gesture by Greene.

For updates on how Coleman is doing, his mother is keeping a journal with updates.

It’s a good thing I just wrote up that long piece on Auburn’s Tiger Prowl.  I might not get many more chances to do so.

The NCAA Division I Board of Directors finalized legislation yesterday that will immediately — yes, immediately — limit coaches in their ability to visit high schools en masse.

From now on, no more than two coaches can visit a prospective recruit’s school in the same day during an evaluation period.

That means you, Auburn coaches.  There will be no more piling out of a stretch Hummer like it’s some sort of clown car at the circus.

The Big East Conference pushed for the rule change, which also specifically mentions the use of limos and “extravagant buses.”

Personally, I think the Tiger Prowl idea — which other programs are now mimicking — was a good one.  It’s fun, it’s showy and there’s not a thing illegal about it.  Or at least there wasn’t.

At the same time, the NCAA wants to keep as even a playing field as possible among all of its FBS members.  Schools in leagues like the Big East or Mountain West simply can’t afford to keep up with SEC or Big Ten schools in a new stretch Hummer race.

So I’m not surprised that the smaller guys complained… or that the NCAA acted on their behalf. 

But I am disappointed.  I was a fan of Auburn’s unusual tactic.