SEC Football

1. Ole Miss wide receiver Philander Moore dismissed from team following domestic assault arrest.

2. The lasting legacy of Alabama A.D. Mal Moore, who announced yesterday he’s stepping down.  While at Miami, Nick Saban called his wife Terry and told her he wouldn’t be leaving for Alabama: “She said, ‘Oh, Mal’s already here. We’ve been talking for an hour.’  That was his first step in the right direction.”

3. An outpouring of tributes and support for Moore from A.D.s and coaches around the country.

4. Crimson Tide may have found their replacement for Barrett Jones in Ryan Kelly. Alabama left tackle Cyrus Kouandjio: “I trust him as much as trusted Barrett Jones last year.”

5. Alabama will open its 2015 season against Wisconsin at Cowboys Stadium.

6. The big attraction at Kentucky’s spring practice will be the three-way quarterback competition – Maxwell Smith, Patrick Towles and Jalen Whitlow all vying for the job. Fifteen players participating in pro day at Kentucky.

7. Big challenge at Missouri – gaping holes in the defense.  In SEC play, only Tennessee and Arkansas gave up more plays of 10 yards or more than Missouri (180) and more pass plays of 20 yards or more than Missouri (44).

8. Spring practice underway at Mississippi State.  Two JUCO transfers could start right away.

9. Tennessee coach Butch Jones at the last practice before spring break:  ”The soft guys will get exposed!”

10. With Jacoby Brissett no longer looking over his shoulder, Florida quarterback Jeff Driskel is more comfortable this spring. “This year, I’m the guy, and that does take a little bit off my shoulders.”

11. Most experienced tight end at LSU this fall will be Travis Dickson – he’s started on game in his career.

12. Auburn’s returning senior class wants to set a new tone. Defensive end Dee Ford: ”We’re taking more of a player approach to leadership, taking ownership.”

13. Ole Miss starting defensive end C.J. Johnson is having surgery today on his broken fibula – will miss the rest of spring practice.

14. JUCO transfer Jonathon Rumph is hoping to make an impact at wide receiver for Georgia this fall:  “Nothing’s going to be given to me. I just came in to work hard and try to earn my spot just like everybody else.”

15. Fans can watch Vanderbilt scrimmage the next two Saturday mornings – spring game set for April 13.

16. Georgia pro day today - 18 players will work out for NFL scouts. Bulldogs have as many as nine guys projected to go in the first three rounds of the draft.

17. At Tennessee’s pro day Wednesday, quarterback Tyler Bray was asked about his draft stock.  ”It’s whatever (NFL Network Analyst) Mr. (Mike) Mayock says it is.”

SEC Basketball

18. Missouri plays Colorado State tonight in Lexington.  Frank Haith wants the Tigers to attack: “When the game’s on the line, the aggressive team wins.” Matchup ranked as one of the best in the first round.

19. Guard Phil Pressey hears what people are saying about Missouri. “You mean that we have enough talent to be in the Final Four, but we can just as easily shoot ourselves in the foot and lose in the first round?”

20. Ole Miss guard Nick Williams started his college career at Indiana, so he knows Wisconsin and the Big Ten style of basketball. ”It’s a fight to score points in that style.”

21. Can you guess which Ole Miss guard gets mentioned as one of the ten names to know in the NCAA Tournament?

22. This will be Florida’s 17th NCAA Tournament – a compilation of the best and worst of the openers.

23. Losing four players to season-ending injuries this past year, coach Rick Ray sees a brighter future for Mississippi State basketball.

24. Even with a huge freshmen class coming in, Kentucky coach John Calipari will have scholarship flexibility next season.

Extras

25. Five things to watch for today in the NCAA Tournament.

26. What’s a victory in the NCAA Tournament worth?  $1.5 million.

27. Report: “College football and men’s basketball players at the NCAA FBS level have an average annual fair market value of $137,000 and $289,000.”

28. Want to change college athletics?  Hit coaches where it hurts – their wallets.

29. Proposed changes to loosen rules on recruiting are headed back to the drawing board.

30. What was Tim Tebow doing at SMU Wednesday?

SEC East

1. The Georgia defense ranks in the bottom half of the Southeastern Conference in every major statistical category.

2. The bar is high at Georgia.  Would a loss to Florida make them 10-2 underachievers?

3. Stat Tennessee fans can enjoy: “The Vols have won their last five games after an off week when facing an opponent ranked outside the top 10.”

4. Derek Dooley is talking about “NFL guys” in the Mississippi State secondary but he’s engaged in that type of talk before.

5. Florida running back Mike Gillislee’s 34 carries against LSU the most for a Florida player since 1993.

6. Florida needs a punt returner. Will Muschamp: “We need drastic improvement.”

7. Muschamp on Vanderbilt: “A guy I have a lot of respect for is James Franklin.”

8. South Carolina defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward on Steve Spurrier’s rule: “The rule is win or lose we get to celebrate, or moan, for 24 hours after the game. “

9. Headline: “Missouri looks forward to Alabama” (and I look forward to entering the ring with Junior dos Santos.)

10. Quarterback James Franklin and two offensive lineman will all miss the Alabama game with strained MCLs.

11. Kentucky quarterback Patrick Towles would be eligible for a medical hardship should he not be able to return this year. He’s out with a high ankle sprain.

12. It’s also conceivable that three Kentucky quarterbacks – Maxwell Smith, Towles, and Jalen Whitlow  – could all be sophomores next years. Putting Kentucky’s youth in context.

SEC West

13, Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze on the fourth down gamble against Texas A&M that backfired: “I want to be clear: I would go for that again every single time…”

14. A shoulder injury will sideline Ole Miss wide receiver Collins Moore the rest of the year.

15. With South Carolina coming to town Saturday, LSU will play the week after a loss for the first time since 2009.

16. Paul Finebaum on Arkansas’s next coach: “Jeff Long is about to make not only the most important decision in his career, but the most important decision in the history of the University of Arkansas.”

17. Auburn defensive end Dee Ford: “Believe it or not, the record is 1-4, but we are getting better.” Tigers offense – “a litany of question marks.”

18. Alabama is a three-touchdown favorite at Missouri but Nick Saban points to last weekend’s games – three of the top-five ranked teams went down to defeat – to remind his players that anything can happen.

19. Columbia, Missouri writer: “The snobs of the SEC are comin’ to town.”

20. After missing the first five games of the year, Mississippi State tight end Malcolm Johnson is “probable” for Tennessee.

21. A Texas writer dreams of Aggies quarterback Johnny Manziel facing Conference USA defenses.

SEC/College Football

22. Nothing to see here.  University of Arkansas says deferred payments for coach John L. Smith not unusual.

23. Forget about balance – play to your strengths in the SEC.

24. The SEC CBS afternoon game between LSU and Florida drew its highest ratings since Auburn-Georgia in 2010.

25. SEC East trending up and those “I Luv Chiz” bumper stickers trending down.

26. Burning SEC questions this week include the Ole Miss conference losing streak and the location of Harpo’s Bar and Grill.

SEC Basketball

27. Vanderbilt’s Kyle Fuller and the words his father told him before he died.

28. Former Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl re-lists his Knoxville home -knocks about a quarter-million off the price

Kentucky QB Maxwell Smith out indefinitely with torn ligament in ankle…
True freshmen Jalen Whitlow and Patrick Towles will play for UK versus Mississippi State on Saturday
Alabama has lost backup RB Dee Hart and WR DeAndrew White for the season to knee injuries
Arkansas LB Ross Rasner says players to blame for Razorbacks’ collapse, not coaches
The SEC has five teams in this week’s Top 10 of the AP Poll and four of them play each other this weekend
#4 LSU will play #10 Florida in Gainesville
#5 Georgia will play #6 South Carolina in Columbia
ESPN’s “College GameDay” show will be in Columbia for Bulldogs versus Gamecocks
Keep up with news from across the SEC every day on MrSEC.com!

Joker Phillips must feel that he’s being trailed by a black cloud these days.  Two plays into Saturday night’s game with South Carolina, quarterback Maxwell Smith — who Kentucky had built its up-tempo, passing game around — went down with an ankle injury.  Today, the severity of that injury was learned.

According to The Lexington Herald-Leader, Phillips said Smith (pictured at left) is out indefinitely after tearing a ligament in his left ankle.  Surgery will obviously be required.

On the bright side — at least for fans — they’ll be able to see “the next Tim Couch” in action on Saturday against Mississippi State.  In addition to true freshman signal-caller Jalen Whitlow who went in for Smith in UK’s 38-17 loss to Carolina, true freshman Patrick Towles will see action. Phillips said, “They’ll both play.”

As we noted last week, Towles was going to redshirt this season, even though fans, Towles and Towles’ father — who went to the press with his concerns — wanted to see what the Bluegrass State’s former Mr. Football could do.

On Saturday, everyone will find out.  And Phillips will hope all of the “next Couch” hype turns out to be true.

The Kentucky offense is at its best — and we use that term loosely — when quarterback Maxwell Smith is throwing the ball over the yard.  The Wildcats entered Saturday’s game with Florida as the league’s top-rated passing offense.  Unfortunately, Smith threw four picks in his 60 attempts against Western Kentucky two weeks ago and Morgan Newton — poor, poor Morgan Newton — was Gatorbait this past weekend when he had to fill in for the banged-up Smith in Gainesville.

Making matters worse, Patrick Towles’ dad is talking.  Towles is a Kentucky native.  He’s a true freshman quarterback who set passing records in high school and is viewed by many Big Blue fans as the next Tim Couch.  Now four games into his first season with the team, his pop is popping off to let everyone know his son wants to play ASAP.

Terry Towles passive-aggressively told The Louisville Courier-Journal yesterday:

“We are not looking into anything like (transferring) at this point at all.  Patrick dearly wants to contribute to the University of Kentucky and he wants to do it now, but as far as transferring, we’ve not made any decisions on that…

All Patrick has ever wanted is just an opportunity to compete, and I think there is some definite frustrations over that.  He wants to contribute.  He came to the University of Kentucky because he thought he could immediately help.  And he’s frustrated.  But he’s staying positive.  I’ve talked to someone who sees practice, and he’s going at it full-tilt and working hard.”

By sharing his son’s frustrations with the media it seems that papa might be a little frustrated with matters his own self, no?  Matter of fact, the more the senior Towles opened up, the more clear it became that he was firing a warning shot toward UK’s coaching staff:

“Patrick has always been about one thing, and that’s winning — winning now.  He’s not concerned about playing part of one year, taking  away a year of eligibility.  He’s not concerned about that at all.  He wants to play now.  Right now…

(If he doesn’t) We’ll make determinations later in the year, but I know he wants nothing more than to be at the University of Kentucky.  We’ll see how this season continues to play out.  If we feel this program is headed in the right direction, then Patrick — I know — certainly wants to be a part of it.”

Hmmm.  Patrick’s frustrated and Patrick wants to be a part of the UK team, but “we” will see how things go and “we” will make determinations later in the year.  Interesting.  (For the record, I’m personally not a big fan of players’ parents opening their traps.  It usually just causes more trouble for a team/coaching staff and puts more pressure on the player/son.)

Meanwhile, embattled — “doomed” might be a more fitting term — head coach Joker Phillips announced after the second game of the season that he planned to redshirt Towles which was the exact opposite of what he’d initially said he’d do.  (Wow, a coach that promised to play a recruit and then decided to redshirt him instead?  Whodathunkit?)

Now Phillips is being backed into a corner by a dwindling UK fanbase who want someone like Towles to be excited about and a player and/or his dad who are demanding playing time “right now.”

For Phillips, it’s probably a lose-lose situation.  If he doesn’t play Towles, his father could eventually issue a “him or us” ultimatum to UK AD Mitch Barnhart via the media.  If he does throw a true freshman into the SEC fire, it’s likely Phillips’ record will look even worse at season’s end… which could also seal his fate.

And speaking of losses, the Cats could also lose safety Mikie Benton for a week if the SEC office decides that his Saturday helmet-to-helmet hit on defenseless Florida pass-catcher Jordan Reed is worthy of a suspension.  The play did draw a flag:

We await a decision from the SEC on Benton.

We await further complaining from Towles’ father, too.

Morgan Newton got off to a disastrous start for Kentucky last season.  The starting quarterback in last year’s season opener, Newton is coming back from off-season surgery on his throwing shoulder as well.  So it’s no surprise that sophomore Maxwell Smith was named UK’s starting quarterback yesterday.

The only real surprise is that it took so long for Joker Phillips to make that call.

It’s possible that Phillips and offensive coordinator Randy Sanders wanted to have a true competition in fall camp.  It’s possible that they knew Smith was their guy all along — he did take over for Newton last season — but they wanted to push him.  It’s also possible that Smith didn’t take the job and run with it in the way the coaches had hoped (though they have said otherwise).

Regardless, Smith is the right man for the job.  Newton looked flustered under fire last season.  And freshman Patrick Towles — “the next Tim Couch” to many Wildcat supporters — is too young for a coach on the hot seat to turn to.  Smith makes the most sense.  And he showed improvement over the course of last season.

Smith first got playing time against Florida, LSU and South Carolina last season.  The results: 7 completions in 19 attempts for 50 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions.  Not good.

But after Newton went out with an injury, Smith took over in full and began to make strides.  In his final four appearances of the season (against Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt and Georgia), he completed 77 passes in 134 attempts for 769 yards, four TDs and two interceptions.  Much better.

More telling, his yards-per-attempt improved from a ridiculous 2.63 in his first three games to a somewhat healthier 5.73 in his last four contests.  If he can make improvements again this season, the Wildcat offense should be nowhere near as anemic as it was for much of last season.

For his part, Smith says he now knows Kentucky’s playbook.  Sanders admits that his young pupil has made improvements, but he laughed at the “knows the playbook” notion:

“He’s still wrong, but the nice thing now is at least he knows what he didn’t know.  There is still more for him to learn.  He’s worked very hard at it and he’s so far beyond where he was.  Last year I used the analogy that we were teaching him Algebra I.  Well, he’s way beyond that point, but I don’t think he’s quite into the (trigonometry) part of it yet.”

He may not have to be.  As UK fans learned last year, even a steady quarterback like Mike Hartline — who was hardly a crowd favorite in his day — can be good enough to win some games.  In fact, if Smith can even sniff Hartline’s senior year production (3,178 yards, 23-9 touchdown-to-interception ratio), he’ll be a Bluegrass State hero this fall.

Here are some recruiting headlines as you head into the weekend.

Linebacker Noor Davis chose Stanford over several SEC schools.

Here’s an update on Georgia’s in-state recruiting.

Kentucky QB commit Patrick Towles has been nominated for the U.S. Army All-American Bowl.

Arkansas has added another offensive lineman to its 2011 class for the fall.

The Razorbacks have offered a scholarship to a high school sophomore.

Arkansas appears to be looking for help from the junior college ranks.

Avery Johnson is “50-50″ on his commitment to LSU. He’s the younger brother of Patrick Peterson.

Kentucky has received a commitment from quarterback Patrick Towles from Highlands High School in Fort Thomas, Ky.

Towels chose Kentucky over offers from Vanderbilt, Louisville, Cincinnati and Illinois. He made his commitment to Kentucky after taking a visit to Lexington on Friday.

Towles has been taught at Highlands by a coach familiar to Kentucky fans – former Wildcat quarterback Jared Lorenzen.

“He was a great talent who played in the NFL, won a Super Bowl, and he’s been great for me,” Towles said. “He’s been supportive through this whole process. He didn’t put any pressure on me to go to UK, and he would have supported me if I went somewhere ese. But when I called him and told him I had committed (to Kentucky), he was excited.”

Lorenzon played quarterback at Kentucky from 2000-2003. He played in the NFL with the New York Giants from 2006-2007.

Towles is the third commitment for Kentucky’s class of 2012.