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Sprints Is Late, But It's Not Because of an 'Incident' // 11.19.09

Kiffin defines 'incidents'
I'm not sure whether to give Lane Kiffin a pass on this or join those point out the ridiculousness of the claim.

Tennessee first-year coach Lane Kiffin offered an explanation for those questioning his recent claim about his football team's spotless police record.

"When I said 'incidents', the conversation was dealing with arrests and we had not had any arrests in 11 months and 11 days," Kiffin said Wednesday.

We now know that Kiffin knew that Nyshier Oliver had been cited for shoplifting when he made the statement. To me, "incidents" suggests a run-in with the law. That said, how many colleges can get through 11 months without someone getting cited for something?

Boy Wonder also said Oliver was punished for the inci-- I mean, somewhat unpleasant occurrence.

Kiffin said Oliver, who has not played and will redshirt this season, was disciplined internally. He wasn't allowed to dress for the Memphis game.

That'll show him. Not only was he not allowed to play in one of the more insignificant games on Tennessee's schedule -- just like he wouldn't have been allowed to play in the game had he not been involved in a shoplifting, um, matter -- he wasn't even allowed to put on his jersey. The horror!

The words "Prius" and "holdup" still don't belong in the same sentence
Meanwhile, Tennessee player and ex-players implicated in the ALLEGED attempted armed robbery get their court dates. I'm no lawyer, but I would think that Monday might be our first indication of whether Janzen Jackson is less involved than initially thought.

Take at least 14 points off your prediction for Ole Miss' final score
Jordan Jefferson will start at QB for LSU against the Rebels.

"Unless there's a setback, I'd expect him to start," LSU coach Les Miles said after practice Wednesday night. "He practiced the whole practice." ...

Asked if Jefferson could be effective not at 100 percent, Miles said, "Yeah. He's thrown the ball extremely well. He appears to be mobile."

Jarrett Lee is "ready to play" if something happens to Jefferson.

Nick Saban stretches the meaning of the word 'somebody'
His excuse for playing Chattanooga this week.

"Well, we had to play somebody," Saban explained. "I mean, you've got to play 12 games. So it just worked out with our schedule that this was a time that we could add a game. We only had two options relative to when we had a bye week earlier in the season. If we'd have played the game then, we'd have had like 11 games in a row without a bye week."

Coach, the problem isn't that you're playing an out-of-conference team this late in the season. It's that you're playing an out-of-subdivision team this late in the season, when you could have at least scheduled a Sun Belt team.

At least their quarterback is looking forward to it
Remember B.J. Coleman?

"It's every kid's dream when they're young to play against the No. 1 team in the country," Coleman said, though the Crimson Tide are actually ranked No. 2 in the AP poll and Bowl Championship Series standings, "and it's going to be fun to go down and play in Tuscaloosa."

There are several references to Coleman's learning under David Cutcliffe, but no mentions of his tutelage under Dave Clawson. Curious.

You knew Auburn wasn't going to do well
The Black Coaches Association has issues its report card on coaching hires, with Tennessee getting a "B" and Auburn and Mississippi State getting a "D." Now why would the Tigers and the Bulldogs get an ... oh, that's right.

More on this sometime later.

Don't Bet On It!: Around the SEC
The Mayor's weekly look at what he might say won't happen across the league.

Georgia safety considering NFL Draft
It's time for this already? Reshad Jones is saying he'll ask to be evaluated. He's a redshirt junior who passed up a chance to leave last year because of a lower grade.

Stay classy, Clemson -- and smart
The key to a good prank is preparation, which appears to not be the strong suit of the vandals who tried to mar Williams-Brice's field ahead of next week's Clemson-South Carolina game.

Matlock said the graffiti message, which included a ‘C,’ appeared to be incomplete.

"It looked like either they got caught or ran out of paint," Matlock said.

What did you expect from a fan base who ripped off their entire campus and tradition from Auburn and proudly uses a chant from the Flintstones to cheer their coach?

Stay classy, Auburn
I'm speechless.

He'll be on the court for the next game!
Not really, bur Renardo Sidney seems to be inching closer to playing now that he's "under review" instead of "non-certified due to non-response."

We're losing a good one
Richard Pittman of And The Valley Shook is one of the best bloggers out there -- which is good, since he runs one of the very few LSU blogs you'll find. We hope that "a step back" doesn't mean completely stepping away.