Sprints Tries a Comeback Like Eli Manning in the Super Bowl // 02.06.10

We're back, part 95
If you've missed Sprints, we're going to try to get back on the horse and get this thing going again in the offseason. If you haven't -- well, it hasn't missed you.

Site issues
If you've gotten irritated with the site getting a bit buggy lately -- we're with you. The tech team at SBN, which is one of the best in the business, is working on it. We hope that most of the hiccups have been worked out, but you can always let us know if not and we'll pass it up the chain.

Ole Miss alumnus wins strange football 'bowl'
In case you didn't hear, there is football played in New York and New England, though it tends to be of the highly-paid and far more boring variety. The two cities' teams played in something called the "Super Bowl," which pairs the No. 1 team from the American Football Conference with the No. 1 team from the National Football Conference.

In any case, the winning team was quarterbacked by former Ole Miss player Eli Manning. Congratulations to Manning and his football team on winning this bowl, which is fervently watched by canine owners if I got the correct impression from the commercials. I'm sure they'll get a nice trophy for the victory.

Derek Dooley jumps the shark
After he denied several students' requests to be released from their scholarships early, you would think Tennessee head coach Derek Dooley would be willing to hold himself and his program to the same standards he holds his players to and would be happy to offer them multiyear, guaranteed scholarships. You'd be wrong.

You have these contracts. It's called quid pro quo. We give you this. You give us that. But if they don't give us that and we decide not to give them this, then it's the worst thing you can do.

I'm kind of torn on whether I agree with Dooley on the merits of this issue. I understand that athletic and academic scholarships are not a perfect comparison, but I still see something odd about saying that it's fine for a school to judge students receiving academic financial aid on performance (not "trying hard," which some people try to make the standard for an athletics scholarship), but it's terrible for a school to judge students receiving athletics financial aid on performance. I understand both sides of the issue, though, because performance in athletics is more subjective than academic performance -- though neither is completely objective.

But Dooley doesn't have to just be measured by the merits here. Dooley has to be measured based on the standards he's set for his player -- that they have to show commitment to the team before he can release them from the scholarship, and Dooley is judge, jury and executioner in that matter.

In other words, it's not that Derek Dooley wants Tennessee and its players to be committed to each other. It's just that he wants to be the only one who can decide when the commitment can end.

Lorenzo in charge
Garnet And Black Attack sees the hiring of Grady Brown as the cornerback coach for South Carolina as a sign that Lorenzo Ward is in charge of the defense.

One thing that should, thus, be noted is that this hire would seem to suggest that Ward is being given the keys to the defense -- not to say that Spurrier would have any reason to be against this hire, but it's Ward who made the decision, not Spurrier.

This South Carolina fan would be perfectly happy if Brown can simply teach defensive backs to catch interceptions instead of watching them bounce off their hands.