THE BALLAD OF CAM NEWTON
Earlier on Team Speed Kills
NCAA Rules Cam Newton Eligible
Cam Newton Investigation: Why Auburn's Wins Might Still Be Vacated
Cam Newton Investigation: Why the NCAA Got It Wrong
Again, Mike Slive believes THIS IS NOT AGAINST SEC RULES
From his interview with Clay Travis at Fanhouse:
"The SEC had to determine whether it violated SEC bylaws for an individual's family member to solicit funds from an institution that is different from the one he attended. Ultimately," Slive said, "I had to determine what the appropriate league response was after balancing all of these factors and after considering all of that I did not believe that he had violated our bylaws."
::shakes head:: WHA? Read that carefully, ladies and gentlemen, because it means exactly what you think: It is not against the SEC's rules to try to get fair market value for your prospect. (Somewhere, Pat Dye is wondering why Mike Slive couldn't have been commissioner when he was Auburn's head coach.) Slive says that the SEC will try to close the Cam Newton loophole (read: the Cam Newton annihilation of the idea that there are rules in college football) at the national level next year. Which is all well and good, but they ought to start with the SEC rule book.
At Southern Cal, Pat Haden speaks out
This would seem interesting to me from this standpoint: Auburn fans not only wanted to see Southern Cal hammered in the Bush case, they wanted to see Auburn get the national championship trophy when the vacated wins came down. Now, Southern Cal AD Pat Haden would like to say something.
"In the Reggie Bush case, when the parent [did] something inappropriate the kid and the school suffered," Haden said. ...
"I was always told the parent is the child," Haden said. "That's what we've been telling our kids. If the parent does something inappropriate the child suffers the consequences."
Sure, there are differences -- no one can prove right now that the Newtons actually received anything of value in return for Cam playing. Still, it's an interesting parallel on a case that Auburn fans should be fairly familiar with.
Southern Cal linebacker Chris Galippo makes a salient point
This is what Twitter was invented for.
"So u can relate Todd Mcnair to an agent through a photograph, but you can't relate Cam Newton to his Dad? That makes sense..." Galippo tweeted after practice.
Only to the NCAA, Chris.
And that would be, who exactly?
Kenny Rogers has a reputation to keep!
Zeit says Rogers is considering legal action against entities putting him in false light. Rogers meets with Miss. Sec. of State Dec. 9.
Jon Solomon
jonsol
COACHING CAROUSEL
DAN MULLEN TO MIAMI ALERT LEVEL: ORANGE
This is not what Mississippi State fans wanted to read from the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
The University of Miami's search for a new football coach shifted away from Jon Gruden and toward Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen and other candidates Wednesday following Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt's morning meeting with Gruden in Tampa.
It's CRAZY TIME! (When has it not been for the SEC over the last year?) According to the Sun Sentinel, the meeting between Gruden and Miami broke down, either because the Hurricanes couldn't meet what Gruden wanted for assistants or the university didn't want to wait for Gruden to consider his options. (Read: See if an NFL team is interested in hiring him.) The truth is probably somewhere in between or a little of both. In any case, Dan Mullen is now going to be at the center of the rumor mill when it comes to the Miami story. And, unless he wants to sleep on the couch, he probably shouldn't refer all the questions to his wife.
Now, you can take to FlightAware
Dan Mullen might have joked about tracking planes earlier because he was supposed to go to Boynton Beach for recruiting. But he apparently didn't make the trip. Or so we've been told.
Train Island argues that Vanderbilt doesn't have to be a 'coach killer'
And I agree. What I would do if I were Vanderbilt was try to find someone who has had some success and has a few years left in them, but not a young coach. The blueprint for getting Vanderbilt to greater things has been drawn by Kentucky and South Carolina. The Wildcats hired Rich Brooks in a move that left people wondering what they were doing; UK is now a respectable program in the East. South Carolina went with Lou Holtz, then Steve Spurrier in a move that left people wondering what Steve Spurrier was doing; they're playing in Atlanta on Saturday.
Get someone who knows how to win, who has done almost everything he can do, and is looking for one more challenge. The young candidates are going to get a lot of offers, but the guys looking for their last job can be the best thing for a program trying to prove to the young guys that it's worth a shot.
Or Bud Foster
Really, if you're going to try to hire a 51-year-old coordinator, you could hardly do better than Foster if you can get him.
He has shied away from some jobs in the past because they were, he said, "coach killers" -- places where it is almost impossible to win, and a coach winds up unemployed because of it. Is Vanderbilt one of those jobs?
"That’s a hard one," he said. "That’s the toughest job, probably, in the SEC. You see schools like Northwestern and Stanford and programs like that, and I think academic institutions, you can get a good quality kid in there. Tennessee is a tough state to recruit in. I know we’ve been there before. And it’s in a tough conference."
Which is notably not a "yes," and given that Foster also calls Vanderbilt "intriguing," it sounds like he's at least willing to listen. He would be a home-run hire for Vanderbilt, if they could get him.
If he's ready for a shot at being a head coach and isn't getting any other offers, it will be interesting to see if Foster is ready to take on the challenges of Nashville.
Vanderbilt Sports Line makes a fair point
It's not like it's taken the shiniest job in the country to get Foster to pay attention.
Moreover, when you look at a guy who has seriously considered non-BCS conference jobs like Southern Miss and Northern Illinois, it makes you wonder: Why not Vandy?
The more you look at it, the more sense it makes. But Vanderbilt still has to convince Foster that it makes sense. With Miami and Colorado looking elsewhere and Minnesota looking a disaster area, they might have a pretty good shot at it.
Jim McElwain interviews with Colorado
McElwain seems to be in the middle of a brewing storm not of his own making: Former players want someone with Colorado ties to be the head coach, though the story doesn't make clear if there is any support in the administration for McElwain. But aside from the Buffaloes current interim head coach and former coach Bill McCartney, McElwain also looks like the guy on the list with the highest job at his current team.
OTHER NEWS
No word on whether he'll be ready to fumble
Stephen Garcia has removed the sling and is still expected to start Saturday.
And now Utah State is heading for the door
The Aggies are trying to get into the Mountain West. Craig Benson says the WAC will be fine, once they can get Provo High School to join the FBS. (HT: Mountain West Connection)
This story breaks your heart a little more each time
The AP has obtained a copy of the official investigative report on Kenny McKinley's death. Because people have different senses of how much should be made public of these things, I'll simply leave the link and let you decide whether to read it. So tragic.