CITI BOWL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME WITH TOO MANY NAMES
It doesn't sound like he's renting a U-Haul or anything
Kirby Smart doesn't look to be going anywhere, and said he'd be fine acting as Alabama's Mickey Andrews.
It's been great having these players and doing this, and I'm looking forward to it next year. ...
I worked for [Andrews] for two years, and if I ended up coaching at Alabama for the next 30 years or however long he was at Florida State, I'd think my career was a pretty big success.
Probably safe to guess that he would take all those years except this last one.
Texas boldly kicks off wide receiver who hasn't played this year
Brandon Collins was removed from the Longhorns after being arrested in Texas. It should have very little impact on the BCS National Championship Game.
This is a picture that will change your perception of Nick Saban forever
Photo from fOTOGLIF
(HT: Capstone Report)
OTHER NEWS
South Carolina hires world's bravest man
It's hard to set this up any better than did Joseph Person of The State in his story about the new offensive line coach for South Carolina.
Shortly after South Carolina’s 20-7 loss to Connecticut in the Papajohns.com Bowl on Saturday, USC coach Steve Spurrier received a text message on his cell phone.
It was from Appalachian State offensive line coach Shawn Elliott, who had interviewed for the Gamecocks’ vacant offensive line position last week before USC left for the bowl game in Birmingham, Ala.
Spurrier said the text read: "Coach, I can help your team."
This should not be seen as arrogance on Elliott's part. Anyone had to feel like they could help Spurrier's team after seeing the line's performance in the Papajohns.com Bowl. Many people, though, would have decided very quickly to turn down the job.
Joe Haden to the Draft
Hard to think that even the most die-hard Florida fan is surprised by this.
A word on the NFL
The New York Jets won Saturday night for the final NFL playoff spot, eliminating the never-been Houston Texans. In its last two weeks, Houston had to play the Miami Dolphins, a team was still attempting to make the playoffs, and the New England Patriots, who might have left their starters in too long and now face the postseason without star Wes Welker. Meanwhile, the Jets played the Indianapolis Colts and the Cincinnati Bengals. In case you were on Pluto this week, you've heard that the 14-0 Colts removed their starters with a small lead and then watched as the Jets won. And I'm not going to say the Bengals weren't really trying against the Jets, but on their first drive of the second half down 27-0, Cincinnati ran on 3rd-and-16. Somebody who's a fan of conspiracy theories might even note that the Bengals might have had a motive in avoiding playing a team that defeated them in October, when both teams were inarguably trying to win the game. I'll simply point out that Cincinnati probably didn't want to reveal too much to a team that it could very well face the following week with more at stake.
Not that the Jets-Bengals rematch will be the exception this weekend; it will be the rule. Three of the four games are rematches not just of regular season games, which is hard to avoid, but of this week's regular season games. (At least the Patriots and the Baltimore Ravens haven't played in three months.)
These complaints don't mean that college football playoffs would be a negative for the sport for the same reasons or that the problems of the NFL playoffs should decide the debate about our sport's postseason. But it's just a remider to those who think playoffs are some sort of panacea that they also have problems.
Perception is reality?
Tennessee Athletics Director Mike Hamilton is still trying to decide what to do with the latest band of armed Vols: Basketball players Tyler Smith, Melvin Goins, Cameron Tatum and Brian Williams.
"My first reaction was anger, real anger," Hamilton said. "But I've learned that you should always try not to make an immediate decision on emotion." ...
Coming less than two months after a gun-related incident involving UT football players, Hamilton is concerned about public perception.
"This is not an indication," he said, "of what the lion's share of our student-athletes are about."
The University of Tennessee: Where only some of our athletes are armed and dangerous.