There’s a new coach on the University of Florida football staff and he knows something about winning championships.  According to Jason Lieser of The Palm Beach Post, Will Muschamp announced today that former Gator quarterback Chris Leak has been added to his staff as a quality control coach.

Leak — with some third- and fourth-down help from a freshman battering ram named Tim Tebow — led Florida to a blowout, upset win over top-ranked Ohio State in the January, 2007 BCS Championship Game.

The Gators’ 2006 title was their second overall and first since Steve Spurrier led his alma mater to the 1996 national crown.  UF would go on to win the 2008 national title, as well, giving Urban Meyer two crowns during his brief stay in Gainesville.

After his college career, Leak played in the NFL, CFL, and in the Arena Football League.

SEC Football

1. LSU and Wisconsin in discussions about a neutral-site football game.

2. Quarterbacks Johnny Manziel and AJ McCarron headed to the beach together in May. “We’re either going to Key West or Cancun and will hang out with our other friends.”

3. South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier – 68 years old and still can’t sit still.

4. Auburn defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson on linebacker JaViere Mitchell: ”I think he’s got a shot to be a starter.”

5. What we know now about Auburn’s offensive line, quarterbacks and special teams after spring practice.

SEC/NFL

6. Marcus Lattimore’s support group includes a fraternity of elite running backs.

7. Texas A&M running back Christine Michael was Seattle’s first draft selection.  ”If the Seahawks weren’t so successfully weird, you would overreact now.”

SEC Basketball

8. Turns out Tennessee’s Jarnell Stokes was ready to leave – but then changed his mind.  Stokes’ decision part of a nice weekend for Tennessee sports.

9. According a story related by Missouri coach Frank Haith – don’t expect John Calipari and Kentuck to return to Maui anytime soon.

Extras

10. Looking for a list of all undrafted free agent signings by NFL teams?  Here you go. A list of the best names not drafted includes former Tennessee wide receiver Da’Rick Rogers and several former SEC players.

11. How much money did USC quarterback Matt Barkley lose by staying in college another year?  (A lot).

About a dozen former South Carolina players didn’t show up at a reception recently and coach Steve Spurrier wasn’t happy about it.

Spurrier banned the players from the weight room as punishment for a failure to show up at a cookout and reception at the home of school president Dr. Harris Pastides.

The coach told the ex-players the ban was in place until they wrote a letter of apology to Pastides.

Following South Carolina’s Saturday scrimmage, Spurrier addressed the incident in public for the first time.

“We had a reception at the President’s house and we thought everybody was going. About 12 of our senior guys decided they didn’t want to go. It was a little embarrassing for me. As soon as they write a letter of apology to the president, they can come back to the weight room. If they don’t think it’s important, they don’t need to come to the weight room. Pretty simple.”

According to the coach, several of the players have already followed directions.

“A lot of them are still out of town. Hopefully, they’ll all do it and we’ll all be happy again. But it was a bad thing that happened a week or so ago.”

One of the former players involved was safety D.J. Swearinger.  He was a spectator at Saturday’s scrimmage. Swearinger and tight end Justice Cunningham had taken to Twitter earlier to voice their displeasure about the weight room ban.

Georgia has unveiled re-branded Nike uniforms for all of its athletic teams, but the colors and main “G” logo will remain
Georgia OT John Theus is moving from left tackle to right tackle this spring
Auburn OT Avery Young is hoping to receive a medical redshirt after missing last season
Tennessee S Brian Randolph says his is about 80% recovered from an ACL injury suffered last season
Florida DE Dominique Easley is moving to DT this spring
Ole Miss DE Kaleb Eulls is moving to DT this spring
Steve Spurrier says South Carolina QB Connor Shaw should be 100% by June following foot surgery
BBVA Compass will cease sponsoring a Birmingham-based, SEC-affiliated bowl after this season
Follow SEC football, basketball, and recruiting in one spot each day… MrSEC.com

The NCAA will lift limits on the ability of coaches to stay in contact with recruits in August.  Coaches will be allowed to send unlimited texts and social media messages to recruits, as well as make unlimited phone calls. Restrictions on printed materials will also be lifted. Following the signing day press conference at South Carolina yesterday, Gamecocks wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator Steve Spurrier, Jr. was asked about the impact of these pending changes. His answer included the mention of an SEC competitor.

“It’ll change it a decent bit. Whatever they tell us the rules are, that’s what we’re going to get after and do the best we can with. There’s pros and cons to it. This past year, you get one call a week starting Sept. 1, and by the time Sept. 1 rolls around, I recruited seven guys this year. So instead of calling seven, I’ll be calling 30. As a staff, we’ll be calling 400 guys. Definitely it will change the way you recruit.”

“I think there’s going to be some more stuff this summer that the SEC is deciding on (about the rule changes). But you can mail out anything. I’ll start mailing out Fatheads (wall stickers) of our best players. I’m going to mail them to everybody. It’s perfectly legal. You can mail out whatever you want. Because we’ve got to think about what Alabama’s doing, and they will absolutely press the envelope, regardless of calls. You can send out whatever you want. Last year, you couldn’t mail out media guides. You can send out anything now.”

Let the battle of the Fatheads begin.  Spurrier, Jr. also said the recruiting support staff will grow as a consequence of the deregulation. “We will probably hire someone that sits in the office and calls recruits.” But when asked if he was worried if things will spin out of control in a recruiting arms race, Spurrier, Jr. wouldn’t bite. “I’ve got no comment on that.”

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

5-stars = 0

4-stars = 5

3- stars = 15

Total 3+ stars = 20

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

Clemson = 3

South Carolina = 3

Georgia = 1

Marshall = 1

Ohio State = 1

Tennessee = 1

Loyalty:  It wasn’t a great year for prospects in the Palmetto State, but with two top 10 programs you expect more than six of the state’s 10 best players to stay at home.  Steve Spurrier has built up the Gamecock program by catching and passing Clemson on the homestate recruiting trail (Jadeveon Clowney, Marcus Lattimore).  Gotta keep that going.  And one sidenote: Is there an SEC state that Urban Meyer didn’t invade on Wednesday?

The NCAA recently threw in the towel.

Knowing that it had no way to accurately monitor all communications between coaches and players in our social-media-crazed world, the NCAA rulemakers just said to heck with it and ripped page after page of contact rules from it book of laws.

As a result, coaches can now communicate with recruits all year long.  Schools can hire extra personnel to help them recruit (a huge plus for the richest programs).  And all lines of communication from texting to carrier pigeon are now open.

While that might sound good to fans, recruits and coaches haven’t exactly been jumping for joy in response to the news.  Take South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier for example.  GamecockCentral.com — the Rivals site covering Carolina behind a paywall — reports that the Ol’ Ball Coach shared his lukewarm feeling about the changes on a Columbia radio station yesterday:

“I’m not sure exactly how it’s all going to take place.  Initially, I didn’t like what I heard.  You’ll be able to recruit all summer and make calls and text message all year long.  Some schools are just going to hire 10 or 15 people to call and text all day long…

If you’re not doing it, you’re not going to be keeping up, I guess.  But I’m past the stage where I’m going to hang around all summer and text and try to recruit guys.  There’s a time for recruiting and a time for coaching your team…

Maybe it’s a good idea, maybe it’s not.  It just depends on how much time it takes away the coaching staff from coaching their players than worrying about a bunch of players that might not be on their team anyway.”

If coaches had no family lives before, what happens when they’re texting and calling 365 days a year?  And if recruits were bothered by months of phone calls and texts before, what happens when more recruiters are hired and then given more time to call and text?

Where there are no rules… there is anarchy.

In case you hadn’t noticed, Steve Spurrier doesn’t often mince words.  He certainly didn’t this weekend when asked about a previous declaration that ex-Gamecock defensive line coach Brad Lawing — who’s taken a job at Florida this offseason — was the best D-line coach in the country.

His response:

“That was a while back that I said that, wasn’t it?  I don’t feel like we’re going to miss Coach Lawing.  He’s an excellent coach.  No question about that.  We think Deke Adams is a very good coach.  He’s a guy that worked his way up.  He coaches a bunch of small colleges.  Yeah, he’s a good coach.”

Spurrier had even more to say about Adams: “He’s sort of my kind of coach, good family man, wonderful personality.”

Considering the rumors Carolina defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward touched off with is out-of-bounds statement regarding Lawing’s departure (“Brad’s reason to leave here was way beyond football, and that’s between him and his family.”), Spurrier’s comment is sure to be parsed, dissected and analyzed.

Rumors and unofficial reports became reality this afternoon – South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore will leave school and enter the 2013 NFL draft.  Lattimore made the announcement at a news conference just moments ago, calling it “the best decision for me.”

The South Carolina running back suffered a brutal knee injury against Tennessee in October.  He leaves Columbia with 2,677 career rushing yards and 38 rushing touchdowns.

USC team doctor Jeff Guy also spoke at the news conference, saying Lattimore injured three of four ligaments. But  only one ligament was completely reconstructed – his ACL.  His other ligaments were reattached or supplemented and reattached.

Lattimore has started walking and is “perfectly on-course” to where he should be right now.  There are no plans for additional surgery.

ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper said yesterday that Lattimore has “first-round ability” but he’s a “wild card” because of the knee injury.  “He is the only elite running back, when he’s healthy, in this draft. Everybody else is a third-, fourth-round pick or back”

Steve Spurrier said Lattimore’s “influence and fingerprints are all over our team,” calling the running back the team’s best recruiter.

According to reports out of the Palmetto State, South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier will be given a two-year contract extension.  The new deal will not provide a raise for the coach, but it will carry him through the 2017 season.

Spurrier has gone 21-4 the last two seasons, a remarkable achievement considering Carolina’s football history before his arrival.  Since becoming Gamecock coach in 2005, Spurrier has already become the all-time winningest coach in USC history.

No extension has ever been more deserved.