A few hours ago we told you that South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier has an untamed tongue.  It didn’t take long for him to prove that point once more.

Today both Southern Cal and South Carolina — the two USCs from either side of the country — held their Pro Day activities.  Marcus Lattimore’s return to action was cheered at one.  ESPN’s cameras were present at the other to provide live coverage of quarterback Matt Barkley’s workout.  Apparently ESPN’s choice didn’t sit too well with Spurrier who reportedly said:

“I noticed both USCs had their pro timing day today.  One of them finished #7 in the country, the other was not in the top 25, yet ESPN decided to go out to the one in California which did not finish in the Top 25 and televise their day live.  It’s interesting that (ESPN) doesn’t come around here on signing day, they don’t come around here on pro timing day, and yet they us to play all these Thursday night games.  Maybe we need to consider playing on that new network, FoxSports 1.”

Wow.  There are a helluva lot of digs in that one quick comment.  First, Spurrier smacks around the Trojans — and old buddy Lane Kiffin — over their disappointing finish last season.  Then he goes into full attack mode against SEC television partner ESPN.  The same ESPN that is expected to unite with the league on its brand new network.

While Spurrier may feel that the folks in Bristol don’t pay enough attention to his program, they certainly pay enough cash.  ESPN pays Mike Slive’s league $150 million per year.  That’s $2.25 billion over the course of a 15-year deal for the right to ask Carolina to move some games to Thursday.

Biting the hand that feeds?  Hey, we told you Spurrier gets lippy when he’s winning.

It was little more than a year ago when then-Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema complained of Urban Meyer — who’d moved from Florida to Ohio State — bringing his SEC recruiting tactics to the Big Ten.  In Jim Delany’s league, there had been a gentlemen’s agreement that kept Big Ten coaches from recruiting players who’d already committed to other Big Ten programs.  Meyer violated that unwritten rule and Bielema responded by saying this:

“We at the Big Ten don’t want to be like the SEC — in any way, shape or form.”

Bielema spent one more year in Madison before moving to Arkansas this past offseason.

Well, Michael Carvell of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution caught up with South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier and asked him if he thought should be such a gentlemen’s agreement in college football.  According to Carvell, “that got a good laugh from the Ol’ Ball Coach” who then said:

“No, because the situation could change for a young man.  Then all of a sudden, maybe (the college where he’s committed) is maybe not the best place for him — whereas six months ago, it looked like the best place for him…

Sometimes things change from when a kid commits in the summer and by the end of his senior season.  Sometimes the coach may get fired, or whatever.  Something may happen — this, that or the other.  Maybe a kid gets a better offer.  It’s going to happen when you commit six months before signing day.”

Anyone else think that Spurrier — a man high-skilled in the art of needling — will poke a little fun at Bielema’s pas Big Ten/SEC comment during the SEC’s spring meetings in Destin?

Write the word “oversigning” somewhere on the internet and it won’t take too long for fans of other conferences to quickly blast away in capital the letters “S-E-C.”  Shortly after typing out those letters, fans of other leagues will soon begin to explain to you how oversigning has been the key to the SEC’s recent success.  (As if the biggest budgets, best facilities, priciest coaches, and the most fertile recruiting patch in the nation have nothing to do with it.)

Last night, CBSSports.com’s Matt Hinton posted what he calls his “oversigning index.”  At the top of his chart, the most egregious practictioner of the legal act of oversigning is Alabama’s Nick Saban:

“That should come as no surprise, given that Bama has consistently (and legally) operated on the edge of NCAA scholarship caps throughout Nick Saban’s tenure. Ostensibly, teams are limited to 85 scholarship players on the roster at any given time. In practice, because the NCAA doesn’t do a head count until the start of preseason practice in July or August, sometimes long after incoming freshmen and other newcomers have already arrived on campus, coaches can cross the line on national signing day as long as they’re able to come in under the cap six months later. Yet even after a concerted crackdown on “oversigning” by the SEC over the past three years, no coach in any league overshot the mark this year with such gusto.”

Ah, ha!  The winners of three of the last four BCS titles is also the champion of oversigning.  Oversigning must be the SEC’s secret weapon, a guarantee of success.  Right?

Uh, not necessarily.  Here’s who else made Hinton’s list of the top oversigners this past signing day:

Read the rest of this entry »

Looking at Wednesday’s signees — including junior college and prep school athletes — here’s a snapshot of the talent produced by the state of Missouri in 2013 (as graded by Rivals.com):

5-stars = 0

4-stars = 3

3- stars = 19

Total 3+ stars = 22

Here’s where the state’s 10 highest-ranked players are headed:

Missouri = 5

Kansas = 1

Kansas State = 1

Nebraska = 1

Ohio State = 1

Arrested Prior To Signing Day = 1

Loyalty:  There’s not much Mizzou can do about a local prospect getting nabbed by the law two days before signing day, but holding on to just five of the state’s best players simply won’t cut it.  The Show-Me-State doesn’t crank out tons of talent, so what’s there needs to be kept at home.  Consider it a new border war for the Tigers — close down the state’s borders.

1. Here are the announcement times for tomorrow’s ESPNU broadcast.

2. Twitter exploded during Reuben Foster’s announcement on Monday.

3. Look at the jump in attention paid to LSU wide receiver commit Kevin Spears.

4. Robert Nkemdiche is expected to sign with Ole Miss. Here’s a recent interview.

5. QB Tanner McEvoy won’t sign with Florida. He chose Wisconsin instead.

6. Could Georgia sign OL George Adeosun? He’s never visited Georgia.

7.Alabama and Auburn have plenty to watch for on signing day.

8. Tennessee is hoping for a strong finish to the 2013 class.

9. Grantland has a signing day preview to get you ready for tomorrow’s madness.

10. The anticipation is building for Ezekiel Elliott’s announcement. (See video below.)

Sorry about the swing and miss on yesterday’s thought/lyric of the day.  Judging from the emails, many of you like having a random song thrown your way each morning.  Well, with signing day rolling ’round tomorrow, this song felt like a good one to throw today.  It hit #4 in early-1988 which — incredibly — was 25 years ago.

“Sign your name across my heart.  I want you to be my baby.”

25 years ago?

Mark Richt finally took care of an old swing accident — yes, a swing accident — that’s caused him to have hip pain for decades.  Georgia’s coach had hip-replacement surgery on Saturday.  During the fall, Richt had said that he would have the surgery between signing day and spring practice.  Instead, he had the procedure three days before signing day.  A school spokesman said, “He’ll have to tell you why (he had the surgery Saturday) and he’s still in the hospital.”

Richt — who’ll turn 53 in two weeks — is scheduled to hold a news conference on Wednesday, but spokesman Claude Felton said, “We’ll just have to see how he’s doing.” Rivals.com currently ranks Georgia’s class as the 10th best in the nation.

The 2013 season will be his 13th at the head of the Bulldogs’ program.

Offensive lineman Dan Skipper from Arvado, Colo., switched his commitment from Tennessee to Arkansas on Monday.

Skipper made the decision after taking an official visit to Arkansas earlier this month.

“It really surprised me how much I liked it, I knew that going in,” Skipper told HawgSports.com. “I was surprised by the academic support staff, I think that was actually what sold me.”

It couldn’t hurt Arkansas that newly-hired offensive coordinator Jim Chaney and offensive line coach Sam Pittman were at Tennessee when Skipper committed to the Vols.

Skipper is the second lineman to switch his allegiance from Tennessee to Arkansas following the transfer of Chaney and Pittman. Honolulu lineman Reeve Koehler previously favored Tennessee but decided to commit to Arkansas on Jan. 19.

Arkansas has 17 commitments for the 2013 class, including pledges from three offensive linemen. Signing day is Feb. 6.

Get ready to hear plenty of moans and complaints, folks.  When the words “Nick Saban” and “grayshirt” are mentioned in the same sentence, messageboards explode with angry accusations and just-as-angry defenses.

According to TideSports.com, Alabama’s coach has asked injured offensive line commitment Bradley Bozeman of Roanoke, Alabama to take a grayshirt and join the Tide football team next year.  That’s a January of 2014 enrollment rather than a 2013 enrollment.  The 4-star prospect committed to Alabama in June, but he’s currently rehabbing from an ACL injury.

So is Saban exploiting a teenager’s injury in order to skirt the SEC’s 25-man “soft” signing cap?  Not according to Bozeman:

“Coach Saban switched my scholarship to a grayshirt.  I have known about it for about two months.  We have been keeping it on the down low.  We didn’t know for sure if that was going to be the option.  It was due to the ACL injury.  It will give me more time to get stronger…

Honestly, I think it’s the best decision for me.  I trust in the coaches.  They are going to make the right decision.  They won three out of the four national championships.  I am going to honor my commitment.  I am staying with them…

We are six to eight weeks ahead of schedule (in his recovery).  I squatted 400 pounds recently.  We are trying to be smart about it though.  The doctors told me I will be back to 100% by April.  They said I have probably been one of the best recoveries they have seen.”

You might remember that Saban and Alabama were mixed up in two ugly grayshirt stories that made national news last year.  Bama asked a Georgia running back named Justin Taylor to take a grayshirt just weeks before signing day.  He wound up signing with Kentucky instead.  Then an Alabama defensive line prospect named Darius Philon was asked to grayshirt a week before signing day (according to a teammate).  Though he put on an Alabama ball cap at his school’s signing day event, Philon wound up inking with Arkansas instead.

Taylor had been an Alabama commitment for a year.  Philon had been committed to the Crimson Tide for more than five months.

In Bozeman’s case, Saban at least gave the player a heads-up to the situation well in advance of signing day, though Bama coaches didn’t give him the final word until his visit to Tuscaloosa this weekend.

For those unfamiliar with the process, a grayshirted player signs his letter of intent in February only to delay his enrollment until the following year.  He does not report in the fall with other February signees.  The eligibility for a grayshirted player does not begin until he enrolls as a full-time student the following year.

Now that he’s the latest Alabama grayshirt to make news, all eyes will be on Bozeman to see if he does ink with Alabama… if he changes his mind as Taylor and Philon did… and if he indeed winds up a member of Saban’s football team this time next year.

Robert Nkemdiche is considering taking a visit to Florida this weekend, sources have told 247Sports.

This report comes a week after the defensive end from Grayson High School in Loganville, Ga., said he was down to LSU and Ole Miss. From 247Sports:

“As is the nature with recruiting, this is a very fluid situation, but multiple people have confirmed the visit is being planned at the time, including Grayson High School head football coach Mickey Conn. If the trip to see the Gators in Gainesville does in fact take place, this would be Nkemdiche’s first official visit with signing day only three weeks away.” 

It would still be a surprise if Nkemdiche signs with any school other than Ole Miss, where his brother, Denzel Nkemdiche, plays linebacker. But with Robert Nkemdiche’s recruitment, it’s probably time to stop being surprised by anything at this point.

Signing day is 22 days away.