Sprints Knows What Tyler Bray Did This Summer // 08.09.12

It's for a good cause
Here's the memorial fund for Tim Allen of Canis Hoopus, who died Monday after a battle with depression. Mental illnesses are incredibly difficult to deal with -- they can make you question your very identity -- so I can't reiterate this message enough: If you are depressed and start getting into a dark place, get help. If you see someone you suspect is getting into a particularly dark and lonely place, talk to them and see if they need help.

The other part of Tyler Bray's very busy July
Tyler Bray will not be piloting any watercraft any time soon. Seems like even before Bray was caught preparing for competitive bottle-tossing for the 2016 Olympics, he was riding a boat rather dangerously.

When the other couple's watercraft wiped out, Bray piloted his Yamaha watercraft too close to them, spraying them as they swam back to their watercraft, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency Officer Dewayne Williams said. "He (Bray) was almost on top of them."

"It could have been very, very dangerous very quickly," said Williams, who said he watched the incident from about 100 feet away in his marked TWRA patrol boat.

As a South Carolina fan, I can appreciate a roguish quarterback as much as the next guy. But at some point, this has got to have some repercussions for Bray, or the idea of Derek Dooley as any kind of disciplinarian kind of goes out the window.

A scandal or something less?
There's a story here, but the question is whether it's as much of a story as it looks like at first blush. Apparently, an Alabama coach encouraged a football player to transfer to another high school, which seems a bit shady. The information comes from an assistant coach in Pensacola.\

"My reaction was shock and dismay that a Division I coach would tell a high school athlete that he needed to transfer, that they had people there to help."

Which is kind of surprising. But there's a little bit more there than meets the eye.

Alabama football spokesman Jeff Purinton said the school could not comment on what Pruitt did or did not do because it could violate NCAA rules by discussing current recruits. He added that colleges are allowed to tell recruits what they need to do to be academically eligible to sign a letter-of-intent.

Paige was academically ineligible this past spring at Washington High. However, he has a better chance of making up credits at Foley, where a student can accumulate eight credits over a school year, compared to only six at Washington. [Emphasis added]

Now, there's a line somewhere in this area, and it's not quite clear whether Alabama crossed it or not. If the understanding was, "I've got some guys at this high school that can fix things up for you" -- well, that would be very bad. Like NCAA investigation bad.

But if it's simply a matter of which school offers Darius Paige a better chance of getting into Alabama on the up-and-up, I'm not sure that there's anything sinister here. Isn't that a lot better than Paige not being eligible and having to change his plans?

You say pushed, they say encouraged
Judging by Spurrier's response to this question, we can assume that Tanner McEvoy was pretty much told that he would be better served to get out of Columbia. Coach Spurrier, any talk of allowing McEvoy to try his hand at another position?

"Nah," Spurrier said. "(McEvoy) mentioned something about a position change, but other than that, I don’t want to get into all the details of it. You guys can do your FBI work, do whatever you want to. But we wish him the best and hopefully it works out for him, wherever he ends up."

In other words, McEvoy brought up the possibility of playing at another position, but Spurrier told him that wasn't likely to work out either. So the third- or fourth-string quarterback did the math and decided he best go elsewhere.

That's not a "no"
Gators coaches still haven't decided whether Jacoby Brissett or Jeff Driskel will start. Never mind -- the Florida media already wants to know if the other guy is going to transfer. Whoever the other guy is. Offensive coordinator Brent Pease tried to answer that question without, you know, knowing which of his players he was talking about.

"If that's what they want to do, they do it," Pease said. "These kids are competitors. They work hard. They want to go out and play.

"They're about this team, about this university. I sense none of that. But if they find out the situation doesn't work for them, I'm for them because they're good kids and I'd do anything to help them, as well as coach (Will) Muschamp would."

Unless of course it's the other guy who ends up at second string and wants to transfer. Then it might be different.

Some thoughts on Urban Meyer
Andy Hutchins uses an ESPN piece on Meyer as a launching point for an interesting riff on the former Florida coach. Worth a read.

Toomer's Corner update
The trees have been pruned to get ready for football season, but their fate still seems uncertain.

The giant alligator is moving back to the center of Florida field
The "F" will go to the 25-yard lines.

This is an unconventional way to motivate players
An ice cream truck visited Kentucky's football facilities