With storms and power outages rolling across the South today — and probably coming soon to MrSEC.com Headquarters — we’re going to run through as many quicky headlines as possible for you.

Here goes…

1.  Alabama could have three juniors taken in the first round of tomorrow’s NFL draft.

2.  The Iron Bowl rivalry even extends to said Draft.

3.  Cam Newton’s lack of leadership skills will haunt him in the NFL…

4.  Or not.

5.  A pair of Arkansas O-linemen want to keep UA’s run of good fortune in the draft rolling.

6.  Hog QB candidates Tyler Wilson and Brandon Mitchell sound off about their leadership skills.

7.  Due to a lack of size — he’s 6-1, 305 — former LSU D-tackle Drake Nevis is expected to be a third-round pick at best.

8.  Derek Sherrod could be MSU’s first first-round draft pick in 14 years.

9.  Receiver Chris Smith’s jaw surgery went well.

10.  Quarterback Barry Brunetti’s clearance by the NCAA is another win for Ole Miss.

11.  Here’s more on Will Muschamp’s decision to boot Janoris Jenkins from Florida’s team.

12.  Did Justin Houston fail a drug test while at Georgia?

13.  Peter King of SI.com says the Atlanta Falcons are trying to trade up for AJ Green.

14.  Joker Phillips has confidence that Kentucky will soon be competing for an SEC title.

15.  NC State point guard Ryan Harrow might have visited UK’s campus yesterday.  And maybe he didn’t.

16.  Ex-South Carolina O-lineman Jarriel King could go in the first round of tomorrow’s NFL draft.

17.  Former Tennessee offensive lineman Jarrod Shaw is just hoping to get drafted.

18.  SI.com’s Seth Davis says UT’s hire of Cuonzo Martin was the smartest basketball hire this offseason.

Maybe Cam Newton can take his Auburn receivers with him to the NFL.  Last month at the NFL combine, Newton had a disappointing day throwing the football and he blamed his problems on poor timing with his receivers — who came from all over country.

Yesterday, Newton had no problems hitting his old, familiar AU targets.  In fact, after completing just 11 of 21 passes in Indianapolis, the former Auburn star connected on 54 of 65 passes yesterday.

According to D. Orlando Ledbetter of The AJC, Newton “dazzled more than 125 NFL executives” in a “spectacular workout.”

“We wanted to show everyone who was in attendance, not only the intermediate game, but the perimeter throws, the (skinny posts) and the out routes,” said Newton, who also worked from under center.  “For me, I just wanted to show everybody what I’ve been working on.”

Ah, but not everyone thought the workout was as great as Mr. Ledbetter did.  Rob Rang of CBSSports.com gave Newton a “B” grade.  SI.com analyst Tony Pauline said Newton’s work was “solid, not spectacular.”

NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock believes Newton’s footwork “has a long way to go,” but he added that that’s the case with “any young, spread quarterback.”

ESPN analyst Todd McShay — who gave Nick Fairley high marks for his pro day work — says Newton’s throwing motion “did seem a bit mechanical at times,” but he also said it’s clear the QB is making progress.  His overall views:


His accuracy and consistency are not elite, but he offers rare athleticism and playmaking ability.  For most quarterbacks, this kind of pro day performance would have been enough to make teams comfortable selecting him anywhere int he top five overall.

However, Newton isn’t a squeaky clean prospect and there are enough character concerns and unanswered questions to give teams something to think about.  The physical tools are there and will likely keep him in the top 10-12 picks, but in the end it will come down to teams being comfortable enough with his mental makeup and work ethic to pin the hopes of their franchise on him.


When it comes to the NFL draft, it only takes one team to fall in love.  Don’t be surprised to hear Newton’s name called in the first three to five picks with that team’s GM saying, “We just couldn’t pass on a guy with this much potential.”

Perhaps a GM like Ron Rivera of the top-pick-owning Carolina Panthers?  Rivera and Newton “could be seen joking, laughing, and having extensive conversations” yesterday.  Hmmm.

Yesterday, SI.com posted a report detailing a six month investigation (by SI.com and CBS News) into the criminal records of a number of college football players.  The report used only the teams ranked in SI’s preseason Top 25 last year.  Background checks were done on more than 2,800 players on the those teams’ rosters.

It was found that Arkansas had 18 players on its roster who had been arrested or charged with a crime at one time or another, the second-highest number on the list.  Now Razorback athletic director Jeff Long has issued a response.

“The University of Arkansas has high standards and expectations for all of its students, including those who take part in intercollegiate athletics,” Long said via statement.  “When a student violates the law or the student conduct code, they are held accountable.  Students who participate in intercollegiate athletics are also held accountable to our student-athlete conduct code.”

“The Sports Illustrated/CBS News article on Top 25 football programs cited 18 members of the Razorback football team who had violated the law.  While I am in no way dismissing or rationalizing the infractions, I do want the public to know the nature of those infractions.”

Of the 18 players arrested, UA says seven were picked up on traffic violations that did not involved any illegal substances, three were arrested for driving while intoxicated, five were picked up on charges involving the illegal use or possession of alcohol, two was picked up for marijuana possession and one was nabbed for shoplifting.

“It is worth noting that none of these violations involved acts of violence,” Long said.  “Unfortunately, the article placed our students in a misleading context, one which failed to distinguish the nature and severity of violations from those featured in the story.”

I have no problem with Long explaining the arrests or defending his program.  That’s his job.  Also, Arkansas had no charges of violence, a claim not all schools can make.

But looking at this as a larger issue — which was the point of the SI/CBS piece — wouldn’t it be better if there were fewer arrests in college football?  Wouldn’t it be better if college coaches were a little more selective and less likely to chase recruits who’ve had run-ins with the law during high school?

And aren’t the answers to those questions self-evident?

Sports Illustrated and CBS News have just wrapped a six-month investigation into college football.  The two parties took SI’s 2010 preseason Top 25 and did criminal background checks on all 2,837 players on those teams’ rosters.  Some of their findings included:


* 7% of players (one out of every 14) in last year’s preseason Top 25 poll “had been charged or cited for a crime, including dozens of players with multiple arrests.”

* Of the 277 incidents uncovered, nearly 40% “involved serious offenses, including 56 violent crimes such as assault and battery (25 cases), domestic violence (6), aggravated assault (4), robbery (4) and sex offenses (3).”  The report also states that there were 41 charges of property crimes such as burglary and theft.


In case you didn’t know it by now, college coaches tend to give a lot of guys second- and third- and fourth-chances.  Some — like Houston Nutt — will tell you they’re in the business helping people, but in reality, coaches are in the business of winning and they’ll sign just about anybody with talent regardless of their criminal history.

But let’s focus in on the SEC here.  Last year, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida and LSU were in SI’s preseason Top 25.  Of those four squads, Arkansas led (?) the way with 18 players on its roster who had been arrested/charged with a crime at one time or another.  The Razorbacks’ total tied with Iowa for second place on the “most arrests” list behind only Pittsburgh (22 players who had been charged). 

Florida’s roster featured seven lawbreakers, Alabama’s five and LSU’s three.  Of the 25 teams in the poll, only TCU had a squeaky clean roster with nary a jailbird on the squad.

The piece is worth a read as it raises an all too familiar question: Does college football really have anything to do with a university’s true mission?

Of course it doesn’t.  College football is a breadwinner, a donation-getter, and a huge advertising vehicle for schools.  But there’s not a school in the country that would go out and actively seek regular students who’ve been charged with violent crimes.  A and B just don’t jive.

At MrSEC.com, we love us some college football.  But that doesn’t mean the sport isn’t overdue for a good bath. 

An 85-man roster featuring 18 players who’ve been arrested or charged with a crime?  It’s hard to defend that.  (Though we know folks will.)

If there’s one man in America who’s catching more heat than Bruce Pearl or Lane Kiffin today it’s the guy who hired both of them at Tennessee.  Just check out a few of the national pundits who are calling for the head of UT athletic director Mike Hamilton…


CBSSports.com’s Gregg Doyel:  “Why is Hamilton still there?  No idea.  None.  He may well be a good man, as readers have e-mailed me over the years.  But he’s a lousy AD.  Hires poorly.  Doesn’t make sure they act ethically.  Doesn’t do anything with teeth when they get busted acting unethically.”

SI.com’s Stewart Mandel:  “But what of Hamilton?  Under his watch, one of the nation’s proudest athletic programs has deteriorated into one of its most shameful.  Will Tennessee chancellor Jimmy Cheek go along with the illusion that the football mess can be blamed entirely on that mercenary scoundrel Kiffin, and that reducing Pearl’s salary last fall was an adequate show of force?  Or, will he do the right thing: recognize that Hamilton was ultimately Pearl’s and Kiffin’s greatest enabler; that Hamilton’s department is a textbook example of the risks of allowing splashy head coaches the freedom to act as their own freewheeling autocrats; and that ultimately Hamilton and his whole department should be replaced and rebuilt?”

ESPN.com’s Pat Forde:  “If I were the president at Tennessee, the man in charge of an athletic department that has hemorrhaged credibility at an alarming rate in recent years would need a Committee on Infractions miracle to keep his job.  Nothing short of an exoneration of both programs would be enough to spare Hamilton — and chances of that happening are even smaller than the chances that Tennessee plays in the next BCS championship game.”


Brutal, no?  But here’s the interesting thing: No one in the Knoxville media is actively calling for Hamilton’s ouster. 

In years past, some Knoxville columnists have flat-out called for coaches to be fired.  They have critiqued and criticized Hamilton himself.  But no one — as of today — has written a “Can him now!” piece like the ones cited above.

Perhaps the folks nearer to the situation have a better take on why Hamilton should remain employed than Misters Doyel, Mandel and Forde.  Or, perhaps a more distant view is necessary.

We just think it’s interesting that the national view is one of outrage while the local view is, well, kinda quiet.  That might be telling. 

As for why this site isn’t calling for Hamilton’s head on a stick, we rarely call for executions.  Unlike some writers, we don’t find that kind of thing to be much fun, even if it is very easy to do and it’s guaranteed to drum up pageviews. 

Hell, we were the one site on the web that tried to show a little compassion toward former Georgia AD Damon Evans following his DUI arrest last summer. 

Oh, we’ll write about wins and losses and we’ll certainly tell if you we think someone is doing a good job or not — so far UT’s Hamilton has a sub-par judge of character with a flair for raising funds — but we’ve never hollered for scalps and we don’t intend to start.

Besides, if the NCAA throws the book at UT (and Pearl) in the penalty phase, there’s a pretty good chance the Hamilton issue will settled by the powers-that-be at Tennessee anyway… and not by the sportswriters at SI, ESPN and CBS.

The NCAA just wrapped up its annual mock tournament selection seminar and the process was eye-opening for SI.com’s Seth Davis.  It could also prove to be bad news for Alabama fans.

Each year, the NCAA invites a number of media members to Indianapolis and walks them through the process of selecting the NCAA tourney field.  The journalists have the same type information available to them that the actual selection committee will use next month.  They follow the same guidelines.  They complete tasks in the same order.

Davis — one of the nation’s top basketball writers — learned a few things during this year’s meeting.  First, he learned that strength of schedule matters in the bid process… a lot.  Second, he now feels it will be impossible in an expanded, 68-team field to prevent teams from the same conference from meeting prior to the regional final round.  Third, he also pointed out that committee members pay special attention to a team’s success against RPI top 50 teams.

Turning things to the SEC, Davis also delivers what might be some bad news for Alabama fans:


“There will never be clarity over just how much emphasis the committee places on how a team performs down the stretch as opposed to early in the season.  Two years ago, the committee removed the record in the last 12 games as a piece of criteria because they thought it was misleading.  The NCAA wants the games in November to count just as much as the ones in February and March.  Again, I disagree.  Alabama is a great example.  The Crimson Tide played poorly in November, but then Anthony Grant suspended his best player for a few games, and after that player returned the team took off.  Now they’ve won 13 out of 15, including at home over Kentucky and on the road at Tennessee.  To me, that’s an NCAA Tournament team, but I was obviously in the minority because the Tide were left out.  At any rate, if the committee’s mission is to select the ‘best’ 37 at-large teams, then it only makes sense to give extra emphasis to the way the team is playing late in the season.”


But how much emphasis qualifies as “extra” emphasis?  Make no mistake, the selection committee does consider how a team finishes.  It has to.  There is no way for Leonardo DiCaprio to incept his way into committee members’ minds and remove recent scores and results from their brains.  Therefore that info has to play some role in the process at some level.

Also, the committee is in a room together for one weekend — conference tournament weekend.  Those league tourney games are the only games all year when committee members can watch together, discuss the outcomes, have their eyes opened by these teams, and roll their eyes at those teams.  Losing in the conference tourney might not be devastating, but getting bombed in the conference tournament can be.

The NCAA’s attempt to explain the selection process is a good move.  It helps fans and media understand how things play out inside the NCAA’s cones of silence.  But it’s not gospel.  There are still plenty of games left to be played.  And committee members — unlike the media at this week’s seminar — won’t be working on the double-quick.  So what was bad news for Bama this past week might not be bad news in a couple of weeks.

For the record, here are the bids and seeds received by the SEC:


Florida — 3rd seed in the East Regional

Kentucky — 4th seeds in the Southwest Regional

Vanderbilt — 4th seed in the West Regional

Tennessee — 7th seed in the Southeast Regional

Georgia — In a play-in game with Butler for the 11th seed in the Southwest Regional


(Just remember who’s been telling ya “five bids” while everyone else has been saying “six.”  That’d be us, in case you didn’t actually remember.)

For more on this topic, check SI.com’s report from Andy Staples here.  He believes “the committee relies entirely too much on the RPI.”

Kudos to Andy Staples of SI.com.  The site’s college football specialist does the best job yet of explaining just what Harvey Almorn Updyke took from college football fans when he poisoned the 130-year-old oaks at Toomer’s Corner on the Auburn campus.


“By killing the trees, he stole all the memories that would have been made under their branches.  Though the exact date isn’t know, the tradition of rolling Toomer’s Corner after a big Auburn win dates back to either 1962 or 1963.  For almost 50 years, Auburn students have run, toilet paper in hand, to commemorate what they probably will later consider some of the greatest times in their lives.  A student who rolled Toomer’s in the 1960s might have sent a child to Auburn in the 1980s.  That child may have sent a child of his own to Auburn a few years ago.  For three generations, rolling Toomer’s meant something in a state where college football victories mean everything.

The next generation won’t have that connection to the past.  Even if the school brought in new trees, it wouldn’t be the same.  A tradition, like an oak, has to grow from the earth.  It needs years to take root.”


You can read all of Staples’ piece by clicking here.  And you should.  (There’s even a link to a 1964 Sports Illustrated story about Toomer’s Corner.)

As for Updyke, Staples is right on that front, too.  “Only someone with a dark, dark heart would throw poison on something that has brought so much joy to so many.”

When he initially chose to delay his announcement of a college choice, Jadeveon Clowney said he needed more time to make a decision.

Then he let it be known that he’s already made up his mind a full week before his ESPN presser was scheduled.  Yesterday we learned that he’d told FoxSports.com’s Thayer Evans that he wanted coaches to have to wait for him.  “The longer I make them wait, I see who really wants me to come there.”

During the media buildup to his announcement, Clowney and those around him said numerous times that the player hadn’t sought out all of the attention surrounding him.  No, of course not.

But according to Travis Sawchik of The Charleston Post & Courier, Clowney also said “he was influenced by NBA star LeBron James’ decision to televise his free agency destination this summer.” 

Now national pundits like Ryan McGee of ESPN, Andy Staples of SI.com and recruiting analyst Phil Kornblut believe delays and the accompanying media hype will become an industry standard for the nation’s top recruit.

“I do think this is going to be the template,” McGee said.  Added Kornblut, “As Andy Staples said, the horse is out of the barn, now.”

Indeed it is.  So get ready for more 17- and 18-year-olds to make themselves bigger than their high school, bigger than the coaches recruiting them, and bigger than the schools offering them scholarships.

In turn, those players had better live up to their hotshot status.  By making themselves bigger than the game, these players will receive even more derision should their careers not pan out as planned.

As we’ve noted the past two days, the SEC doesn’t stand up well against other conferences in terms of RPI ratings.  And that fact could hurt the league’s NCAA Tournament bid hopes comes March.

But Seth Davis of SI.com believes three unranked SEC teams might be dangerous in the Big Dance… should they land invites.  And those dangerous teams are:


1.  Tennessee — “… Do not sleep on this bunch.  If nothing else, they will surprise you every time.”

2.  Georgia — “… Any team that has two projected first-round draft picks has a chance to play deep into the NCAA Tournament.”

3.  Vanderbilt — “Their four losses this season came by a total of 17 points, and two ended in overtime.”


But he isn’t high on every SEC team.  Asked by a reader about Florida, Davis answers:


“I don’t think they’re difficult to understand at all.  They’re just not very good.”


Ouch.

It seems a bit early to us, but a few NFL draft projections are starting to hit the internet.  Seeing as how some scouts say Cam Newton will be a great pro quarterback while others believe he’s too inaccurate and should be moved to tight end, we think it’s best to let things percolate for a few more weeks.  Most scouts are just now digging more deeply into film and their opinions will change in the days ahead.

That said, Andrew Perloff of SI.com has already revved up his prediction engine for April’s draft.  Since the selection order for the final eight teams is still being determined, Perloff only projects slots 1 through 24.  But of his 24 first-round picks, nine come from the SEC.


1.  Panthers — QB Blaine Gabbert, Missouri
2.  Broncos — DE Da’Quan Bowers, Clemson
3.  Bills — DT Nick Fairley, Auburn
4.  Bengals — DT Marcell Dareus, Alabama
5.  Cardinals — CB Patrick Peterson, LSU
6.  Browns — WR AJ Green, Georgia
7.  49ers — CB Prince Amukamara, Nebraska
8.  Titans — DE Aldon Smith, Missouri
9.  Cowboys — OT Tyron Smith, Southern Cal
10.  Redskins — QB Ryan Mallett, Arkansas
11.  Texans — LB Akeem Ayers, UCLA
12.  Vikings — DE Robert Quinn, North Carolina
13.  Lions — OT Derek Sherrod, Mississippi State
14.  Rams — WR Julio Jones, Alabama
15.  Dolphins — RB Mark Ingram, Alabama
16.  Jaguars — QB Cam Newton, Auburn
17.  Patriots — DE JJ Watt, Wisconsin
18.  Chargers — LB Vonn Miller, Texas A&M
19.  Giants — DL Allen Bailey, Miami
20.  Buccaneers — DE Adrian Clayborn, Iowa
21.  Chiefs — OT Gabe Carimi, Wisconsin
22.  Colts — DT Stephen Paea, Oregon State
23.  Eagles — CB Aaron Williams, Texas
24.  Saints — OT Anthony Costanzo, Boston College