SEC Football

1. Biggest negative recruiting weapon to be employed against Georgia? Probably defensive coordinator Todd Grantham, argues Michael Carvell at AJC.com.  The reason?  He has a track record, valuable NFL experience and because he’s a hot name in coaching circles, questions are being raised about how long he’ll be in Athens.  Coach Mark Richt: “We will always have great assistants here at Georgia. You know, we can’t control what everybody is going to do but neither can any other program sit around and promise they’re not going to have an assistant coach have an opportunity that he might take.”

2. The latest 300-pound behemoth to get an offer from Alabama?  6-foot-7, 310 pound Roderick Johnson from suburban St. Louis, MO.  ”All I have to say is it’s Alabama. It’s Alabama baby. The last three years they have run the SEC.” Johnson is now the fifth 300-pound + lineman that Alabama has offered since Mario Cristobal became the offensive line coach.

3. Five-star defensive back Tony Brown wants to play two sports – football and track.  The Beaumont, Texas star is tied for the fastest 60-meter hurdle this year at 7.76 seconds. He has offers from than 20 schools, including LSU.

4. Joliet, Illinois linebacker Clifton Garrett is a top target of Ole Miss for 2014. Rivals rates him the 53rd best player in the country.  Garrett is expected to visit Oxford later this spring. Here’s what his high school coach had to say: “I know that he likes (Ole Miss). To what extent he’s interested? That I couldn’t tell you.”

5. The Ole Miss 2014 class is up to six players with the commitment of Greenwood, Mississippi wide receiver Sammie Epps.

6. One of the  nation’s top wide receiver prospects has an offer from Auburn.  Homestead, Florida wide receiver Ermon Lane said recently he prefers a pro-style offense ”because that’s what most of the NFL teams run.”  Lane’s cousin is a former Miami linebacker.  In addition to Miami, Florida, Florida State, Alabama, Georgia, and LSU are all thought to have a shot.

7. Texas A&M’s 2014 class is up to 10 commitments, seven on the defensive side.  Defensive back commitment Cedric Collins: “The excitement around A&M right now is well deserved for the year we had. The win over Alabama was just the beginning. The goal is not just to win the SEC, but a (national) championship, and Johnny winning the Heisman was just a great way to start with our first year in the SEC.”

8. Charleston, Arkansas quarterback Ty Storey threw for almost 4,400 yards his sophomore year.  He visited Arkansas over the weekend. Storey likes Bret Bielema’s offense: “I like it because it’s more like a pro-style offense so it gets you ready for the next level and hopefully I can be there one day.” Gus Malzahn offered Storey a scholarship when he was at Arkansas State.

SEC Basketball

9. Little Rock, Arkansas guard Anton Beard decommitted from Missouri in February.  He now has a new top four and three of them are in the SEC.  Beard tweeted this morning: “Narrow my list to 4- Umass, Arkansas , LSU , Tennessee …”

SEC Football

1. The $425 million renovation of Kyle Field will begin November 10th – one day after Texas A&M’s final home game this fall.  A&M president R. Bowen Loftin: “This is probably the largest project ever done at Texas A&M.”

2. Will Kyle Field surpass Neyland Stadium as the largest in the SEC?

3. Where will Josh Harvey-Clemons play for Georgia this fall?  Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham could be tipping his hand.

4. Why so many missed tackles in college football? Auburn defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson: “A lot of the missed tackling in college football today is because the game has changed. It’s faster, it’s more spread out and there are better-skilled athletes playing than when I started out coaching.”

5. When spring practice starts at Auburn, the Tigers will have just two quarterbacks on scholarship in uniform, Kiehl Frazier and Jonathan Wallace.  Offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee: ”There’s two guys that are going to get a lot of opportunity in the spring.”

6. Brent Dearmon hired at Auburn, third high school coach hired for an off-the-field role on the Tigers staff. He joins former Auburn cornerback Dell McGee and Chip Lindsay who’ve accepted positions on Gus Malzahn’s staff.

7. Kentucky coach Mark Stoops has bought a home for $1.45 million.  According to the Fayette County property valuation administrator:  ”That makes it the third-highest single-family home sale in the past year.”

8. Mississippi State expects to improve its run defense in 2013.

9. Will we see top prospect Robert Nkemdiche lining up on the inside on passing downs this fall at Ole Miss? The Rebels secret to success?

10. Spring practice dates set at South Carolina. 

11. Most season-ticket holders at Missouri will pay the same price this year. No increase at Auburn this year.

12. LSU legend Billy Cannon released from a hospital on Thursday.  Had suffered a stroke earlier in the week.

NFL Scouting Combine

13. Texas A&M offensive tackle Luke Joeckel is out to prove he’s worthy of the No. 1 overall selection and thinks SEC defenses helped him prepare: “SEC defensive lines are the best in the country.”

14. Could Alabama’s Chance Warmack make draft history?

15. Former Alabama center Barrett Jones is six weeks in to a four-month timetable toward full recovery.  Recovering from foot surgery.

16. Just four months removed from hip surgery, former Auburn tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen said there no “red flags” raised by teams on Thursday.

17. Former Tennessee offensive lineman Dallas Thomas is in Indianapolis but recovering from a torn labrum: “I might be injured, but I’m still the same player that I was.”

18. A hamstring injury hampered his senior season but Missouri linebacker Zaviar Gooden thinks he can run a 4.3 second 40-yard dash at the combine.  ”Yeah, it’s possible. I’ve done it before. I’ve just got to do it on the big stage.”

19. NFL combine invitees for all SEC schools over the last three years. LSU has the most – Vanderbilt the least.

NCAA Miami Investigation

20. With the formal charges made, where does Missouri basketball coach Frank Haith go from here?

21. Three former Miami assistants want their case dismissed because of mistakes by the NCAA. Update: NCAA reportedly agrees to hear the request.

22. Possible for Miami to sue the NCAA? “I think Miami would have a case.”

SEC Basketball

23. Do the recent struggles at Ole Miss spell doom for coach Andy Kennedy? Canceled his scheduled press conference Thursday.

24. Auburn-Ole Miss and Missouri-Kentucky are two bubble games to watch this weekend.

25. So who needs a win more Saturday – Missouri or Kentucky? Dick Vitale: “It’s much bigger for Kentucky.” But the Tigers are in need of a quality road win. ESPN’s GameDay will be on hand – a lonely job for the driver of the bus.

26. When it comes to fans - does Kentucky basketball equal Alabama football? “To me, they’re identical programs.”

27. Missouri’s Phil Pressey has his father to thank for making him a point guard: “My dad noticed I wasn’t growing. I wasn’t going to be a shooting guard. He said, ‘Son, you need to start passing the ball.’”

28. When Florida hosts Arkansas Saturday night, Billy Donovan wants to see more production from Patric Young. ”I would just like to see him rebound better.”

29. Nerlens Noel still the favorite to win the SEC’s Freshman of the Year honors.

30. Seth Davis on the NCAA Tournament selection process: “Regardless of what you think about the RPI, the fact is that most fans really have no clue how it is actually used.”

Extra

31. Tennessee lawmakers consider legislation that would require schools to adopt concussion p0licies.

32. New Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly hires a former Navy SEAL to be the team’s “Sports Science Coordinator.”

SEC Football

1. Misdemeanor marijuana possession charge gets dropped against starting Florida cornerback Loucheiz Purifoy because of a lack of evidence.

2. Offensive lineman Kolton Houston is still working to restore his eligibility at Georgia. Remains on scholarship.

3. If the current scholarship numbers hold, Auburn coach Gus Malzahn will welcome 15 seniors, 28 juniors, 14 sophomores, 11 redshirt freshmen and 17 true freshmen to start training camp in the fall. (Exactly 85).

4. Kentucky coach Mark Stoops on his caffeine of choice: “I’m a coffee guy. I’m a latte guy. They’ve invested here. They gave me two new coffee machines.”

5. Kentucky’s governor signing into law a bill that includes $110 million for renovation of Commonwealth Stadium and other football facilities.

6. Here’s a conceptual rendering of what the east side of Texas A&M’s Kyle Field could look like. Construction expected to begin following 2013 season. Aerial view here.

NFL Scouting Combine

7. LSU players expecting questions about their relationship with former cornerback Tyrann Mathieu.

8. Former Alabama cornerback Dee Milliner reportedly has a torn labrum. He’ll undergo shoulder surgery following the combine this week.

9. Biggest chance to improve his draft placement among the 10 Alabama players at the combine?  Nose guard Jesse Williams. D.J. Fluker dropping weight - 16 pounds in a month.

10. Former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL quarterback Chris Weinke on working with Arkansas quarterback Tyler Wilson: “He’s probably made the most improvements out of anybody that I’ve worked with in a short period of time.”

11. Of the three Auburn players at the combine, defensive end Corey Lemonier is expected to be drafted first. “Biggest week of my life.”

12. Texas A&M is sending six players to the combine – another draft expert predicts Luke Joeckel as the overall number on pick. 

13. Should players refuse to take standardized tests from the NFL?

14. The executive director of the Senior Bowl says the best tight end at the game was Mychal Rivera of Tennessee. 

University of Miami Investigation

15. NCAA investigation at Miami alleges Missouri basketball coach Frank Haith “failed to promote an atmosphere for compliance.”  

16. Bernie Miklasz: “If this allegation sticks, Haith may face a short suspension or be hindered by some relatively minor restrictions on recruiting.”

17. Mike Lopresti: “Where is the NCAA image today, when Miami is deemed the good guy?”

SEC Basketball

18. Georgia at Arkansas tonight.Razorbacks coach Mike Anderson is worried about the Bulldogs rebounding ability. “They outrebounded Ole Miss by 15. That’s something that really caught my eye.”

19. Georgia is still smarting from that overtime loss to Ole Miss. Did a phantom fall lead to a technical foul?  Coach Mark Fox: “That’s part of life. We have to get over it.”

20. The loss to South Carolina last night did damage to Ole Miss tournament hopes - and not much left to improve the resume.

21. Frank Martin defends Ole Miss: “I don’t want to hear anything about the SEC is weak and Ole Miss don’t belong in the NCAA tournament because they lost on the road. I don’t want to hear that, OK? I don’t want to hear that.”

22. Alabama’s Rodney Cooper had the first double-double of his career last night.  He leads the team in rebounds. Crimson Tide now one of the last four in?

23. Despite their 11th straight loss loss night, Mississippi State coach Rick Ray and his Bulldogs more upbeat than expected: “I am really pleased with the way our guys came out and competed.”

24. Tennessee has scored more than 80 points two straight games - shooting 50.5 percent from the field in current four-game winning streak.

25. A smiling Kentucky coach John Calipari after the victory over Vanderbilt: ”I thought we were very coachable tonight.”

26. Cartoon war in Kentucky gets ugly.

27. UK rolled out a new intro video last night.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0fWjzBTvPw]

 1. Alabama makes the hiring of former Miami assistant Mario Cristobal official today.  He’ll be assistant head coach and coach the offensive.

2. Born and raised in Miami, Cristobal has both played and coached in the Miami area.  Could be a huge recruiting asset in South Florida.

3. Tennessee coach Butch Jones says his assistants are in demand.  Offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian had been approached by two SEC schools this offseason, and receivers coach Zach Azzanni has “turned down three SEC jobs this year.”

4. Arkansas coach Bret Bielema on how to practice during the season: “You have two heavy work days on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday is shine and polish, Friday is a walk(through) and Saturday you play. If you try to do more than that in a week, players begin to break down.”

5. In 2014, new LSU offensive coordinator Cam Cameron will make $1.1 million - the same as defensive coordinator John Chavis.

6. Do John Calipari’s postgame comments Saturday after the loss to  Tennessee “give pause to any prep players thinking about being ’Cats”?

1. 6-foot-5, 300-pound lineman Elisha Shaw is considered one of the top defensive tackles in the state of Georgia. The 2014 prospect says his favorites are Alabama and Georgia but he visited Auburn on Monday. ”Auburn really moved up my list a lot after that visit,: Shaw also holds offers from Florida State, Arkansas, Mississippi State and Ohio State.

2. Alabama traditionally recruits well in the state of Georgia.  The biggest haul came in the class of 2012 when seven players from Georgia signed with the Crimson Tide.

3 Auburn’s 2013 class now looks to be complete after wide receiver Derrick Griffin announced Tuesday he would be attending Miami.  Auburn wasn’t the only SEC school after Griffin.  He had previously committed to Texas A&M.  Griffin reportedly plans to play both football and basketball at Miami.

4. With the commitment of defensive lineman Toby Johnson Tuesday, Georgia now has four of Rivals.com’s top 25 junior college players. That’s more than any other program in the country. Georgia coach Mark Richt on the JUCO additions: “It breaks it up a little bit. It’s not all freshmen. There are some guys that are at least two years into their journey through college ball.”

5. Another one of those 2013 Georgia JUCO commitments is Jonathan Rumph. The 6-foot-5 wide receiver has been compared to A.J. Green. ”I feel real confident that I can come in here and help these guys win.”

6. Yet another quarterback named Connor at South Carolina.  Connor Mitch enrolled in January.  His father, brother and sister all played college sports.

7. A rundown of some recent news involving recruiting targets at Arkansas.

8. A basketball game in Louisville that would have featured Kentucky commitment Dakari Johnson and top high school recruit Andrew Wiggins has been canceled. The game’s organizer says they couldn’t find a title sponsor to cover the costs of the event. Wiggins will take his official visit to Kentucky on February 27th.  He’s also considering Florida State, North Carolina and Kansas.

Now that the NCAA’s flawed investigation of the Miami athletic department has resulted in the mailing of a number of notices of allegations, things don’t look too darn bad for ex-Hurricane figures who’ve since moved on to the SEC.

Missouri head basketball coach Frank Haith has been hit with a failure to monitor charge by the NCAA.  But in this case that’s akin to a man on death row getting a last-second pardon from the governor.  Last month, CBSSports.com reported that Mizzou’s coach was expected to receive an unethical conduct charge.  As we wrote at the time, if the NCAA had leveled such a charge at Haith, a show-cause penalty would likely have followed… and 99.9% of the time that type of penalty results in a coach’s dismissal.

Bad news, Haith.  Bad news, Missouri.

Instead, Haith will only have to beat back a charge that he failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance while at Miami.  That’s far from receiving a clean bill of health, but it beats the hell out of a firing squad.

We may never know whether CBSSports.com’s Jeff Goodman had a bad source for his initial story or the NCAA changed its plans after the Miami investigation became a public nightmare.  But you can be sure Haith is breathing a sigh of relief either way.  And was quick to share the news last night after his Tigers upset #5 Florida in Columbia:

“Contrary to what was reported, there was no unethical conduct in my notice of allegations.  It is just an allegation, so we get a chance to defend ourselves.”

At worst, Haith might face a short suspension.  Baylor coach Scott Drew received a two-game ban for a failure-to-monitor charge last April.  In Drew’s case, Baylor self-imposed the loss of one scholarship for two seasons, a decrease in the number of official visits allowed for one year (from 12 to seven), and prohibited Drew and another assistant from making recruiting calls for two months.

Read the rest of this entry »

Below are listings of signees and early enrolles already in the fold for each school, unless otherwise noted.

The number beside each player is his star-rating from Rivals.com.

ALABAMA

ARKANSAS

* Committed but unsigned; His mother wants him to attend Miami, but Collins expects to sign with Arkansas by Thursday

AUBURN

K Jimmy Hutchinson will be asked to grayshirt

LSU

DT Tevin Lawson has been asked to grayshirt but will visit Kentucky this weekend

DB Jeremy Cutrer did not qualify academically and will head to a junior college or prep school

MISSISSIPPI STATE

DL Trent Simpson has been asked to grayshirt

DL Ulric Jones did not qualify academically and will head to a junior college

OLE MISS

TEXAS A&M

WR Derrick Griffin did not qualify academically and was not given a letter of intent by A&M

OL JJ Gustafson has been asked to grayshirt

LB AJ Hilliard has been removed from this list, he is transferring in directly from TCU

Offensive tackle Denver Kirkland of Miami has decided to play ball at Arkansas rather than Florida State.  Kirkland ranks as one of the top 15 tackles in the nation.  The four-star recruit is a good get for a Razorback class that has been slow to come together.

Running back Alex Collins from South Plantation High School in Plantation, Fla., has committed to Arkansas.

Collins, who visited Arkansas on Jan. 25, made his announcement live on FOX Sports South.

“I like the fact that they run the ball,” said Collins, who also cited his trust in the Razorbacks coaching staff. Collins was recruited by Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema when he was at Wisconsin.

Collins, who’s ranked the nation’s No. 13 running back by Rivals.com, chose Arkansas over Florida, Florida State, Miami and Wisconsin. He’s the 21st prospect to commit to Arkansas for the class of 2013.

The announcement from Collins was apparently met with great anticipation in Fayetteville, Ark. Bielema posted the following message on twitter shortly after Collins announced he plans to sign with the Razorbacks.

Wooooo pig sooooie!Great night to be a Razorback!

— Bret Bielema (@BretBielema) February 5, 2013

Missouri athletic director Mike Alden was out of the country last week when the NCAA announced that it had bungled parts of its investigation into the Miami athletic department.  One of the ex-Miami coaches who was reportedly on the verge of being charged with unethical conduct is current Tiger basketball coach Frank Haith.

Yesterday, for the first time, Alden addressed the NCAA’s botched investigation:

“I’d look at this nationally first.  I’ve never seen anything like that before in my tenure in college athletics.  So, I think it certainly raises lots of questions.  I appreciate the fact that the NCAA has come up and they’re addressing it.  We’ll kind of have to see how that plays out…

Based upon the conversations I heard that were taking place yesterday (during a conference attended by NCAA president Mark Emmert and a number of athletic directors)… there’s a significant amount of concern nationally relative to the integrity of the process and the transparency.  How that impacts other institutions, whether it’s us or whatever, time will tell.  We’re just going to have to continue to monitor it.”

Alden said he has no insight on when the NCAA might wrap up its sleuth work.

Whether the governing body drops the hammer on Miami, its ex-coaches and Haith remains to be seen, but you can bet there will be some serious appeals if they do.  Further, the screw-ups in the investigation could also open the door to actual court battles — can you say Jerry Tarkanian? — if things go poorly for those currently under the NCAA’s microscope.