Tennessee received commitments on Thursday from linebacker Otha Peters and defensive end LaTroy Lewis.

Peters, who attends Covington (La.) High School, chose UT over offers from Mississippi State, Nebraska and Texas A&M.

“I’ve pretty much been liking Tennessee since they offered me or whatever, but I just didn’t know about the distance and how my mom would be all right with that,” Peters told GVX247.com. “But I talked to her about it (Wednesday) night and she said she’s OK with it. I just wanted to commit to Tennessee. I didn’t want to drag it out anymore.”

Lewis’ commitment gave UT six for the week and eight for the class of 2012. He picked the Vols over Notre Dame, which hadn’t yet offered him a scholarship. Michigan, Ohio State and Iowa had offered Lewis.

“I loved Tennessee a lot when I went (for a visit),” Lewis told GVX247. “The people there are great and the facilities are great. The history is great. Their school is great.”

There had been growing concern about UT’s class as the Vols entered the week with only two commitments. As coach Derek Dooley said Thursday at SEC Media Days, patience has been a key to the Vols’ recruiting efforts.

John Calipari was in a talkative mood yesterday, covering a number of topics with the Bluegrass State media.  Not surprisingly, the issue of his vacated wins was on the agenda:


“This is a players-first program.  It’s about our players.  It’s not about me.  They don’t have to put my record anywhere, for all I care.”


Calipari then touched on whether or not his new team might be selfish with the basketball:


“It seems to play itself out.  If you’re teaching them to be good teammates and you’re teaching them to be good basketball players, that doesn’t become an issue.  Especially when you recruit like we are.  We’re recruiting good kids.”


He also talked about the expectation level in Lexington this season:


“We’re supposed to win every game by 30.  That’s OK.  I’m fine.  I’ve had teams that have been underrated.  I’ve had teams overrated.  We’ll become a good defensive team.  We’ll share the ball.  We try to take good shots.  We’ll try to play harder than the opponent.”


And he even shared his thoughts about possible changes that could be coming to the SEC’s conference schedule:


“They should never go to 22 (conference games).  It’d be a disaster at 22. … Sixteen should be fine.  Eighteen is OK.  I’d rather not have it, but if it’s best for the league, I’d say fine.”


Commissioner Mike Slive seems to be in favor of an 18-game league schedule — and as we learned at the recent SEC meetings in Destin — what Slive wants… he usually gets.

The SEC’s football coaches have had their say, and now the SEC’s presidents will tackle a number of options and proposals regarding oversigning, ahem, we mean “roster management” on Friday.

If the presidents go with the biggest possible change, the SEC’s oversigning plan would become second only to the Big Ten’s hard 25-man signing class cap in terms of toughness.  Andy Staples of SI.com believes that a switch by the SEC to a 25-man cap would inspire the other major conferences to follow suit.

Nick Saban made his feelings quite clear today regarding a possible move from 28 to 25 signees:


“What’s the problem with 28?  You all are creating a bad problem for everybody, because you’re going to mess up the kids getting opportunities by doing what you’re doing.  You think you’re helping them, but you’re really gonna hurt them.  You take one case where somebody didn’t get the right opportunity but you need to take the other 100 cases where somebody got the opportunity because of it.”


Wow.  If only I believed Saban was motivated 100% by what’s best for “the kids.”  Not saying he doesn’t care a great deal, but I have a hard time believing some of his outrage isn’t tied to the fact that he’s going to a roster-building option.  (And this from someone who believes Saban is the A-1 best coach in college sports today, so hold your “You hate Saban” hooey.)

According to Steve Spurrier, the coaches voted 12 to 0 to keep the SEC’s cap at 28 today.  As we have said, we at MrSEC.com would be in favor of a hard 28-man cap with no loopholes (as opposed to the 28-man “cap” that allowed a couple of SEC schools to ink 30+ players this February).

“We’re in favor of oversigning,” Carolina’s coach said.  “We’ve never had a problem of too many qualifying and not having room.  All the coaches are in favor of the 28 and so forth.  The presidents I don’t think are, but that’s OK.”

The trick for the SEC is to not put itself at a disadvantage.  As long as the SEC’s oversigning cap is comparable or even to other league’s oversigning caps, the SEC will still win in the long run.

There’s an old saying regarding fast football players: “If he’s even, he’s leavin’.”  Considering the SEC’s incredible talent advantage over other regions — more than 30% of the NFL’s draft picks since the late 1980s have come from the nine-state SEC region — Saban and Spurrier would still hold a major advantage over coaches from other regions… even with a 25-man or hard 28-man cap.  If they’re even, they’re leavin’.

But on Friday, the presidents will make the final call.  And no one knows for sure just how tough big of a change in the system they’re going to make.

Mark Richt has been the picture of cool this offseason.  Hot seat talk hasn’t appeared to get under his skin at all.

But last night, when a fan on UGA’s Bulldog Club tour shared a lengthy complaint about the Dawgs’ rushing attack, play selection, and coaching staff, Richt fired back.

“I’ll tell you this, and you’re certainly close to an expert in football, I’m sure you are,” Richt said before explaining what makes a good running game.  He then added: “I’ve seen teams throw the ball and win the national championship; I’ve seen teams run the ball and win the national championship.  Believe me, you can win the SEC doing it more than one way.  Steve Spurrier, when he was at Florida, he chucked the ball, and he won how many SECs?”

And then — according to The Macon Telegraph — “the temperature rose a little bit more.”

“I see your frustration, I understand your frustration,” Richt said.  “I wasn’t born yesterday, I’ve coached football for 25 years, so I know what the hell I’m doing, OK?”

That response drew a strong ovation according to The Telegraph’s Michael Lough.  (How would you have liked to been the fan getting dressed down publicly?)

Richt continued his remarks: “I appreciate your passion, I appreciate your support for this football team.  Everybody can just calm down and know that we’re in good hands.  And (running backs coach) Bryan McClendon is a hell of a coach, he’s a hell of a recruiter.  And I’m glad we got Bryan McClendon.”

Eventually, Richt’s fire flickered out and the boy scout emerged once more.  Minutes later when answering another question, the Bill Bixby side of UGA’s coach said: “Excuse me for saying ‘h-e-double heck.’  I know there’s a media member here.  Can you just say that I know what the heck I’m going?  Just so my Sunday school class doesn’t give me grief?”

1.  Auburn will have “extremely young people” on both sides of the ball this fall.

2.  The Tigers’ Anthony Morgan feels at “home” back at running back.

3.  The media seems to be more interested in Anthony Grant’s opinions about his old team — VCU — than his current team.

4.  The future looks bright for next year’s Bama hoops team.

5.  New Nick Saban assistant Chris Rumph is bringing energy to the Tide practice field.

6.  Former Tide star Julio Jones will be attending the NFL draft (and bucking the wishes of the NFL Players Association).  Good for him.

7.  You know all those rumors about Ryan Mallett’s off-field issues?  Well this reporter did a lot of digging into the former Arkansas QB’s past and found that “Ninety-nine percent of it seems positive to me.”

8.  Through four practices, the guys trying to replace Mallett in Fayetteville have done “OK.”

9.  Offensive tackle and early enrollee Brey Cook is settling in at Arkansas.

10.  Here’s more — we mentioned this yesterday — on Mike Anderson’s plans to recruit in Memphis.

11.  LSU cornerback Morris Claiborne continues to fly under the radar.

12.  Defensive tackle Anthony Johnson is drawing notice due to his motor.

13.  Dan Mullen says Mississippi State’s lack of depth at defensive end “really scary right now.”

14.  Injuries and angry coaches became the theme for yesterday’s practice session.

15.  State’s coaches are also busy shuffling linebackers. 

16.  Longtime MSU color analyst Jim Ellis will take over play-by-play duties now that Jack Cristil has retired.

17.  The Ole Miss quarterback derby is still “really tight.”

18.  David Lee’s new offensive system has “leveled everyone out,” according to UM quarterback-hopeful Nathan Stanley.

19.  The #38 jersey of the late Chucky Mullins will return to action in Oxford this fall.

Content provided by Garnet And Black Attack.

I got together with the editor of the fine SBN Gators blog Alligator Army to discuss this weekend’s game. I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading his answers to my questions. Many thanks to him for participating.

The problem is that Florida fans can’t move past Tebow when the coaching staff can’t move past Tebow either. As has been demonstrated with John Brantley, Urban Meyer and Steve Addazio are unable or refused to design an offense around a pocket passer. Mercifully, they no longer make Brantley run the option, instead using Jordan Reed and Trey Burton to do that. Plus, Brantley is blitzed on nearly every down, since Addazio cannot come up with a blitz pick-up package. Florida is finally moving the ball in exchange for giving up on Brantley being a long-term solution at quarterback. You will see three quarterbacks on Saturday and for the remainder of Florida’s season.

Gators be able to take advantage after having struggled to throw the ball for most of the season?

Probably not. Everyone has passed against Alabama, but not Florida. Against Georgia, UF stuck with the running game, despite that being UGA’s strength. UF’s biggest problems on offense are that Brantley is not accurate, the line cannot protect him, and UF cannot figure out a way to feature a receiver. In a better system, Carl Moore and Omarius Hines would be All-SEC. Under Florida’s 2010 offense, they are edge blockers who have to catch a pass on 3^rd and 7. The Gators could hit some big plays, but don’t expect a consistent passing attack, no matter who the Gators’ quarterback is.

3. A lot of folks believed that the Gators defense would suffer due to the loss of Charlie Strong, but it’s generally been OK this year. How do you feel that Strong’s departure has affected Florida?

It has had zero impact. Florida’s problems with youth and a smaller front seven were expected. Teryl Austin is similar to Strong in using multiple looks and locking up the opponent’s best receiver. I really don’t think Strong could have done better because the greatest coach in the world can’t fix youth and undersized players. Florida will keep taking two steps forward and one step back on defense, no matter who was coordinator this season.

Marcus Lattimore is the closest my generation will get to Bo Jackson or Herschel Walker, but Alshon Jeffrey is my pick. To have an All-American receiver, who almost never gets locked up, is a huge advantage. You can stack the box and stop a back. But a receiver can hide in the formation and get open on every play. Plus, he is a deep threat because of his speed and size. Guys who are 6-foot-4 should not run like he does.

I love reports that really don’t report anything new… they just get someone saying on the record what we already knew.

Enter USA Today.  This morning they posted “news” that the investigation into Cameron Newton’s past is ongoing.  We’ve actually known since Friday that the NCAA is looking into the matter.  But Auburn AD Jay Jacobs confirmed that fact yesterday… which has led to the fresh headlines.

“It’s not a closed matter,” Jacobs said.  “It’s still ongoing.  … But we look for Cam to continue to play for us.”

So far, Auburn has found no issues with Newton’s eligibility.  As we wrote on Friday, the AU administration would not have OK’d Newton to play back in September if they believed their was a chance of him being declared ineligible.

“Any of our student-athletes, if we have any questions about them, about their eligibility,” Jacobs said, “We wouldn’t want them to play.”

The crystal clear point?  Newton is playing.

So while USA Today’s story might pop up in your Google news search as being “new,” it’s really just Jacobs going on the record with a fact that was already known — the NCAA is looking into the matter.  And so far they’ve found nothing… at least nothing that Auburn is aware of.

Content provided by John Clay’s Sidelines.

As provided by UK Athletics:

November 1, 2010

An interview with:

COACH JOHN CALIPARI

COACH CALIPARI: Well, we really had no real fight or viciousness to our game. We didn’t really rebound. We did turn it over 15 times. Couldn’t make a three. Other than that, I thought we showed some good signs (laughter).

The only good news is last year when we played Campbellsville, it was kind of the same. We had 24 turnovers, whatever assists, couldn’t make a shot. We looked discombobulated. It was kind of the same. Then we came out and started playing a little bit better.

The thing with a game like this, I think Pikeville came out, which every team we play does, with a high energy level and aggressiveness. They were pretty big kids. They were seniors. They banged our freshmen around.

If we learn from this, this was a great game to play. If we don’t learn from this, we got to do it some other way. I got to get them to understand. That means probably got to get meaner, which I don’t like to do. Just learn. You know what just happened. Let’s get better.

It wasn’t just that guy, that guy. I mean, right up and down the line at every position. I couldn’t take seeing a free ball and their guy pushing us out of the way and grabbing it. We don’t win that way. My teams, we get that ball.

So questions.

Q. What did you think of Brandon (Knight)?

COACH CALIPARI: I thought he played pretty well. I mean, look, again, he’s got to get a feel for how we’re playing. He’s got to understand, you can’t just drive in the first play of the game. You got to get everybody involved. He’s got a green light. Get everybody involved. When you see spots, go take your place.

But what he does, what I like, is he has a fight. When he saw we were dying, he took it and drove it, like I’m going to do it. At times I’m going to just let him go. If no one else wants to do it, go do it all.

We can’t do it that way. We have to have him run our club. He’s a scoring guard that has to run our club. We only had seven assists. Part of that was we couldn’t make an open shot. We missed them all. This is a team, that shooting is one of our strengths. But we got to do it with numbers on our back and people in the seats. We got to do it then.

I mean, offensive rebounding, that’s got to be one of our main things. We’ve got to be a team that really goes and offensive rebounds. Today, again, some of our guards got them, but you’re not going to get them in a real game. A two-guard or a point guard is not going to rebound in an offensive game. You got to go back.

This is one of those games I’ll go back and watch the tape and we just got to start figuring it out. We changed a little bit of transition for this game because I felt more comfortable on what we’re trying to do to make it simple. We did get to the rim and drew fouls, which is what the dribble‑drive is supposed to do.

I didn’t see the fight. But these kids don’t understand. They don’t get it yet. The advantage we had last year is that they could go back to practice, and we have enough guys, if you didn’t play, you got dunked on or scored on, that’s what you missed, so then you think you’re working hard. You come out to a guy that’s really working and it shows. It shows.

So we’ve got to do some things in practice. I’ve said I’ve got to make these practices rougher, we have to get more physical, physical without fouling, but we got to get more physical. Guys got to accept it.

Small lineup wasn’t particularly good today. I mean, if there’s no energy, you can’t play small guys. Doesn’t work. So we were better with one of those big guys in there with the smaller guys, and one of them has to come off the bench. That’s just how it is. Unless they really want to go in there and fight and go crazy, you can play that kind of lineup then.

Q. Any other way to add more depth for practice than walk‑ons?

COACH CALIPARI: Here is the problem. I’m not going to put guys on there just to put them on. If I don’t feel comfortable with anybody, we’ll stay how we are. It is an issue. I’ll be honest with you. I had this same situation in 1995-96. Exactly the same. I think I had eight guys on scholarship and four walk‑ons, something like that, if I remember back. That team was a little bit more of a veteran team. We got to play together better.

I mean, we’re just trying to figure each other out, create for each other more. You’re not just running this so you can go get something. You’re doing it to see if you can get something. If not, figure out where your teammates are.

We’re not there yet. This is going to be a daily chore. The biggest thing is, are we in shape? I’m not sure we are. Are we physical enough? I know we’re not. We’re not tough enough. We don’t play vicious enough. Do we find each other on the court? We don’t. Are we skilled enough? Yeah, this is one of my more skilled teams, no question about it. They should be playing together better.

So I think some of it is we’re just going to have to force it in practice. If they pass on a guy, we stop. No, you need to pass that, pass the ball. If they’re not being physical enough, we got to have some remedies for that.

Q. Obviously you guys were shooting better free throws tonight. Is that something you’ve been working a lot on or the guys are better free‑throw shooters this year?

COACH CALIPARI: We’ve been working on 3‑point shooting, too. We’re one-for-11 from the three. Of the 11, I don’t think anybody was guarded. So you’re talking about a horse shot that we were one-for-11 for. When I watch the tape, I’ll make sure of that. I bet you nine of them were wide open.

But what you want them to be is confident and go in there and get fouled so you want to go to the line. Darius goes 11 for 12. Brandon goes nine-for-10. Doron goes eight-for-10. That’s because they’re driving the ball and getting fouled. At halftime, I’m like, ‘Why do they have so many more shots than us?’ Because we kept getting fouled. And that’s why we shot 50 fouls and they shot 20.

I look as us defensively, we didn’t talk enough, we didn’t help enough. When a team drives down the length of the court and shoots a layup, there’s something wrong right now. Again, it’s what happens when you’re trying to play all young guys.

You know, last year we were deeper. We had more guys. This makes it even more important that guys understand how they got to play. Then it’s our job as coaches, let’s just come up with stuff. Look at our weaknesses and let’s get better with it.

I’ll go back and watch this tape. I’m going to have a clear picture of, ‘OK, where do we need to take this?’

Q. Can you create that toughness that you are looking for?

COACH CALIPARI: Oh, yeah, absolutely you can. What you have to have is a player understanding that it’s one of two things: He outworks me or I outwork him. This isn’t about cool. This isn’t about style points. Either he outworks me or I outwork him. So now we got to go to practice and make it that way.

I thought we were. But obviously not to the level we needed because, again, we had guys that were getting outworked. And it’s OK? It’s not OK. It’s not OK. It’s not OK to start the game the way we started the game. We could have been down 10‑0. We did some good things. There were things in there that I liked.

But, again, where we are right now, what I told them in that room, ‘It’s November 1st, guys, as long as you don’t make excuses for how you played, as long as you accept you got outworked, you got out‑toughed, you got out‑hustled, as long as you accept that you did not make each other better offensively, you almost worked against each other, as long as you’ll accept you would not go offensive rebound, if you accept it, we can work on it. If you want to come in here and have excuses, we got problems.’

I think they all know. You got to give Pikeville credit. They came in, weren’t afraid. They had a veteran team. They had some physical guys. They were like, ‘Bring it.’ They did a great job.

Q. What did you think of the leadership you got from Darius (Miller) and DeAndre (Liggins) tonight?

COACH CALIPARI: I just think that we’re not where we need to be. I think Darius (Miller) did some good things and there were other times he just stopped playing. You can’t do that with freshmen because they are going to stop playing. I didn’t think DeAndre (Liggins) in the first half had the energy he always plays with. If he doesn’t have the energy, we have problems.

The hustle points we had today were probably the lowest I’ve had in four or five years for the team. The first half was the lowest hustle points I’ve ever seen one of my teams have. We got beat in everything. 28 (hustle points). Usually a bad game will be 38, 42. A good game will be 50. If we get up to 60, we’re up 25 at half. We were at 28. Second half was 36.

So when you put those two numbers together, that’s one of the lowest I’ve seen my teams do. That’s where we are. The other team outworked us. Simple. I don’t care who they are. You play a team, and they play harder than you, you’re losing. You’re not going to look good. You can’t have one or two guys doing it, then two guys stop playing like it doesn’t matter.

This is a team sport. It’s five guys becoming a fist. Five guys together. One heartbeat. We all know what we’re doing. We’re all responsible to each other. That takes time. This group, we’re going to have to learn it because we go have a home game against an NCAA tournament team, go on the road and play four games. Oh, my gosh… Going to be interesting.

So we’re going to have to, in a hurry, get some guys up to speed.

Thanks, guys.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports

Content provided by Garnet And Black Attack.

OK, folks. If you’re like me, you’re about to settle in and watch a few football games. You’re probably not like me in that you might not be grading papers during the commercials, but that’s OK. What we hold in common is what’s important, and that’s enjoying some big games this afternoon–the Cocktail Party, Michigan State at Iowa, Mizzou at Nebraska, and others. This thread is the place to chat about these games.

And if you didn’t already know, Clemson sucks.