Fans are invited to check the notebook for coverage of Arkansas football from throughout the Internet.
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Four former UA standouts continue their professional basketball careers in the NBA
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Content provided by Vanderbilt Sports Line.

Stanford’s OC Greg Roman seems like a good guy. Is he the right coach for Vanderbilt? Well, let’s see what we know about him.

He’s had an awesome run at Stanford and as a result is currently a Broyles Award finalist. He could potentially bring insight into the formula for success at a “similarly situated” school. He’s never been a head coach though… He coached as an assistant in the NFL for 13 years prior to moving to Palo Alto. I trust Jim Harbaugh’s judgment — he calls him a “phenomenal teacher” with “fresh ideas” and raves the he is “aces.” Roman appears to be able to coach kids beyond what the recruiting services would say is their ceiling, and he has experience coaching seemingly every position on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.

Will an NFL-style offense play at Vanderbilt? Is Vanderbilt ready to hire someone who’s never been a head coach? Can he surround himself with a great staff? Can he recruit?

These and many other questions in the air. Discuss at will.

Content provided by Swamp Things – Gators Blog.

His Florida career officially over, Dan McCarney was introduced as the new head coach at North Texas this afternoon.

The former Gators’ defensive line coach had been with the program for three years before his departure this week.

McCarney accepted the offer this weekend. He had spent the past four years as an assistant coach, and was head coach at Iowa State from 1995 to 2006.

“I’m happy for Coach McCarney and his family,” said Florida coach Urban Meyer in a statement. “He has a proven track record as a head coach and we were fortunate to have him on our staff for the last three years. He did a great job with our defensive line and I fully expect him to be successful at North Texas.”

With McCarney’s departure, the Gators have one open position. They will find out their bowl destination on Sunday, and could wait until after that game to hire another assistant.

McCarney’s departure has already contributed to one recruit decommitting from Florida. Asheville (N.C.) defensive end Jeoffrey Pagan decommitted on Monday. Danny Wilkins, Pagan’s high school coach, said McCarney’s hiring at North Texas was part of the reason the four-star recruit changed his mind.

Content provided by Jerry Tipton on UK basketball.

Fans can celebrate the history of UK Basketball and support the school’s Art Museum.

That twin bill can be accomplished by buying a limited edition poster printed by the Art Museum. Former UK Coach Joe B. Hall will sign posters at the UK Bookstore on Dec. 11 from 1 to 3 pm.

John Calipari has signed a limited number of posters, which will be available for $40. Unsigned posters are $20.  Proceeds from the sale will benefit the Art Museum at the University of Kentucky.

The painting, created by Clifford Amyx and entitled 1958, captures the spirit and action of UK games during the 1950s era.  Amyx, a native of Jackson County, studied at UK where he received his Master’s degree in 1943.

From 1936 to 1941 Amyx was the assistant supervisor of the Federal Art Project in San Francisco. He returned to UK as a professor of painting and drawing in 1946 and helped develop the art department.

Content provided by Chip Cosby on UK football.

Recent scuttlebutt had Kentucky possibly getting an at-large bid to Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 22, but Las Vegas Bowl representative Mark Wallington said UK is no longer on the bowl’s radar. Wallington said the Las Vegas Bowl was looking at the Cats as an at-large team, but once it became assured that the SEC would get two teams into the BCS, UK came off the board.

The Las Vegas Bowl takes place Dec. 22 and pits a Mountain West team (likely Utah) vs. the Pac-10’s No. 4 or No. 5 team. But with only three Pac-10 teams currently bowl-eligible, the Las Vegas Bowl started looking at teams for other conferences to fill the open space.

If only one SEC team had made it into the BCS, there would have been one team left out of the league’s eight non-BCS bowls, which would have allowed the Las Vegas Bowl to come in and scoop up Kentucky as an at-large.

Now the Cats appear headed to the BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham on Jan. 8, where they will face a Big East (most prognostications have them facing South Florida).

Here’s my predictions for how the SEC Bowls will shake out.

BCS National Championship-Auburn vs. Oregon

Sugar Bowl-Arkansas vs. Ohio State

Capital One Bowl-LSU vs. Michigan State

Cotton Bowl-Alabama vs. Nebraska

Outback Bowl-Mississippi State vs. Iowa

Chick-Fil-A-Bowl-South Carolina vs. Florida State

Gator Bowl-Florida vs. Penn State

Music City Bowl-Tennessee vs. Miami (FL)

Liberty Bowl-Georgia vs. UCG

Birmingham Bowl-Kentucky vs. South Florida

Content provided by John Clay’s Sidelines.

Mark Story had interesting column this morning comparing Joker Phillips’ first year with Charlie Strong’s first year.

Personally, I’d give Strong a little more credit than Mark offers, but thought I’d look up some other numbers.

Here is how the two seasons compared, using the Sagarin Ratings.

The other statistical categories are by the latest NCAA statistical rankings.

1.  This writer wonders if Urban Meyer learned anything from Tim Tebow’s leadership.  (Meyer blew off his postgame interview after Saturday’s loss.)

2.  This writer gives five reasons why Mark Richt won’t leave Georgia (even though he believes the coach probably should go).

3.  Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham is glad to be past Georgia Tech and its triple-option attack.

4.  Steve Spurrier has now proven that South Carolina can be a player in the SEC.

5.  Spurrier changed his Monday practice routine after a loss to Arkansas and Carolina is 3-0 since.

6.  Kicker Spencer Lanning says he’s never seen Spurrier happier than after the Cocks’ win at Florida this year.

7.  Kentucky’s loss to UConn in Maui has John Calipari asking for more passes in his dribble-drive offense.

8.  UK hosts Boston University tonight.

9.  Bruce Pearl says the next step for his basketball team will be handling the success of last week’s NIT championship… starting tonight against MTSU.

10.  A lot of AP voters still have Villanova ranked higher than Tennessee.  (Think folks are voting against Pearl for a reason?)

11.  Navy offensive coordinator Ivin Jasper said yesterday that he has not been contacted by Vanderbilt.

12.  Houston Nutt says he has no regrets about bringing in Jeremiah Masoli.

13.  AD Pete Boone says Nutt’s contract will automatically be extended to 2014.  He also said he won’t force Nutt to make changes on his staff.

14.  The Rebel basketball team will be in Coral Gables to face Miami tonight.

15.  MSU’s bowl plans aren’t set in stone just yet.

16.  Receiver Chad Bumphis suffered a broken collarbone against Ole Miss and won’t be able to play in the Bulldogs’ bowl game.

17.  State hosts Florida Atlantic at The Hump tonight.

18.  LSU AD Joe Alleva says he won’t ask Les Miles to make staff changes.  (Which is big of him considering the Tigers went 10-2 this season… and, yes, I’m aware of their offensive struggles.)

19.  The Bayou Bengals struggled in all phases in last week’s loss to Arkansas.

20.  The Tiger basketball team will host Houston tonight.

21.  Arkansas offensive coordinator Garrick McGee can’t understand why Ryan Mallett is not up for more national awards.

22.  Folks in the Natural State are wanting to UA to give Bobby Petrino a new, longer contract ASAP.

23.  John Pelphrey sees progress with Marshawn Powell.

24.  Auburn cornerback T’Sharvan Bell has become a big play man for the Tigers.

25.  Gene Chizik says AU was still just learning how to use Cam Newton when they faced South Carolina back in September.

26.  If Auburn can knock off South Carolina, then an historic title shot will likely follow.

27.  Alabama tried to do the right thing by firing the guy whose songs went so wrong.  (Great read… couldn’t agree more.)

28.  Have a laugh and read some of the fan reaction from Saturday’s Iron Bowl.  (Bama and Auburn fans won’t find these musings funny in the least, but everyone else will.)

The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that a Florida State official has nixed the rumor that Florida’s football team vandalized and trashed its locker room following Saturday’s blowout loss to the Seminoles.


“The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said on Tuesday that rumors of damage to the Seminoles’ visiting locker room had been ‘completely overblown.’”


Last night the Rivals.com site that covers FSU reported that the Gators had “trashed” their locker room.  But the FSU athletic department official told the paper the locker room was in no worse condition than it normally is after a game.

A Florida spokesperson also downplayed the rumor.  “Our equipment staff checked with their equipment staff today and they said there was nothing out of the ordinary.”

STARKVILLE, Miss. – Mississippi State senior Kayla Woodard has been named to the 2010 ESPN Academic All-America Volleyball Team as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). The Addison, Ala., native, a third-team selection, becomes the third Mississippi State volleyball player to receive academic All-America team honors.
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