Gators Dodge A Bullet…Or Pellet

Tennessee freshman Nu'Keese Richardson was kicked off the team following an arrest on charges of attempted armed robbery.

The University of Florida may have avoided a major issue this week, after it was reported a former recruit was kicked off the University of Tennessee’s squad. Freshman Nu’Keese Richardson, as well as another teammate, were removed from Tennessee’s football program after they were arrested on charges of attempted armed robbery.

According to a police report, Richardson and teammate Mike Edwards approached a parked car at 2 a.m. and brandished a weapon, demanding everyone in the car “Give us everything you’ve got.” When the victims opened their wallets to show they had no money, a third teammate police say was present, urged his teammates to make an escape. They were later found with the other teammate, who has been suspended, and a woman, whom the victims say drove the getaway car. In that car, police found hooded jackets and a pellet gun.

Richardson was the center of an offseason controversy involving an erroneous recruiting violation accusation by Tennessee’s head coach Lane Kiffin against Florida head coach Urban Meyer. At a breakfast with boosters, Kiffin said Meyer repeatedly called Richardson during his official recruiting visit to Tennessee, which Kiffin claimed to be a recruiting violation. Richardson, originally a verbal commit to Florida, eventually signed with Tennessee, prompting Kiffin to say, “I love the fact that the Urban [Meyer] had to cheat, and still didn’t get him.” Unfortunately for Kiffin, calling a recruit during an official visit is not a violation, but falsely accusing a coach of a violation is. Kiffin committed a violation for incorrectly saying another coach committed a violation.

If Richardson had kept his commitment to Florida, the Gators might be the ones dealing with this mess right now. There’s no clear reason why a freshman college football player, on full scholarship at a major program felt the need to allegedly commit an armed robbery, but that is something the Gators do not have to be concerned with while trying to stay on track for its third national championship in four years.

While no program is perfect, and Florida has had problems of its own, Richardson became someone else’s problem when he signed with Tennessee. In this instance, Florida dodged a bullet, or pellet, by the name of Nu’Keese Richardson.

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Played Out Storylines: Head Coaches in Waiting

Defensive coordinator Will Muschamp (left) has been named as Texas' next head coach, although Mack Brown has no plans to retire

I thought of writing about this some time ago, but rather than making the story a rant about an annoying trend, I decided to let some situations progress so more of a conclusion could be made.

Seven Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) ((formerly known as Division I-A)) (((I hate having to say all that))) programs have turned to the head-coach-in-waiting method to beget success through continuity. Some programs already have their successors as the head coach, while other successors are still waiting for their current head coaches to retire. The seven teams who have a head-coach-in-waiting or have already utilized a head-coach-in-waiting, are Texas, Oregon, Florida State, Wisconsin, Maryland, Purdue and Kentucky.

I have a serious problem with this method because it does not allow a fair interviewing process for head coaching vacancies. With so many qualified candidates available, and a push being made for minority candidates, it flies in the face of the system to announce who your next head coach will be before you even need a new head coach. Moreover, I have an even bigger problem with programs and coaches who have not achieved anything to have the audacity to name a successor. In all seriousness, in what other profession do you know where someone could do a mediocre job, not bringing you any tangible progress or success, then turn around and not only tell you when they feel like leaving, but tell you who will be replacing them? It’s laughable.

Maryland has announced offensive coordinator James Franklin will replace head coach Ralph Friedgen when he retires. Friedgen’s big shining moment was finishing first in the ACC in 2001 and then promptly getting blown out by Florida, 56-23, a month later in the 2002 Orange Bowl. Since 2004, the Terps have posted only two winning seasons and this year they are off to a 2-6 start.  Franklin is in just his second season as offensive coordinator, his seventh total season with the program. I’m trying to see where exactly the credentials are for a head-coach-in-waiting. This resume looks more like something you would get fired for rather than having a job saved for you in the future.

Purdue is in its first season with head coach Danny Hope, who was predetermined to be the successor to long-time head coach Joe Tiller. Tiller was a good coach, but never took the team past nine wins in his 12 seasons there. His greatest accomplishment was finishing the 2000 season tied for first place in the Big Ten, with Drew Brees leading the way. Hope got off to a rough start, beginning the season 1-5, but pulled off an upset against then-seventh ranked Ohio State, Purdue’s first victory over a ranked opponent since 2003. Purdue is currently 3-5. Again, a program with moderate success, but nothing gaudy has a head-coach-in-waiting, despite not beating any ranked team in six years. That doesn’t quite qualify as a resume so good that you need to save a head coaching job. Its program is certainly not good enough that you have to have someone in place before your coach retires to prevent any turmoil. So far it doesn’t look like the move has paid off.

Kentucky has been known far more for its basketball team than its football team. However, head coach Rich Brooks has decided his offensive coordinator, Joker Phillips, will take the reigns of the program when he leaves, although he has made no retirement plans. Brooks is in his seventh season as head coach, and named his successor in 1994 when he was coach at Oregon. Kentucky is currently 4-3 and looking for its fourth straight winning season. While Brooks has found success afer three abismal years to start his tenure, he has never gotten past eight wins in a season, and Kentucky has never contended for the SEC title. Naming Phillips as your successor despite never winning a conference championship seems a little pretentious considering half the teams in your division have gone to BCS bowl games in the past few years. Kentucky might be on the uptick, but it’s nowhere near a powerhouse and naming a head-coach-in-waiting seems like something they should be doing for basketball rather than football.

Oregon is the program that did this method before anyone else. When Rich Brooks was named coach of the St. Louis Rams in 1994, he made sure his offensive coordinator, Mike Bellotti, took over as head coach of the Ducks. Bellotti made the same move when he left his position with the football team to become Oregon’s athletic director last year. He also picked his offensive coordinator, Chip Kelly, to be the next head coach. Kelly is in his first season and dodged an awful start to get his team to 6-1. Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount punched a Boise State player after the team’s first-game loss and was suspended for the season. Kelly turned the situation around and now has the Ducks on a six-game winning streak.

Wisconsin is a program that did this method a couple years ago when long-time head coach Barry Alvarez became athletic director of the university and named Brett Bielema his successor. It has paid off as Bielema went 12-1 in his first year. Now in his fourth year, he is on pace for his fourth winning season. The Badgers are currently 5-2.

Texas has had tremendous success under head coach Mack Brown, but decided to name first-year defensive coordinator Will Muschamp its head-coach-in-waiting last year. While Texas is a powerhouse program that is successful enough to name head-coaches-in-waiting, it is strange that they would name a first-year coordinator, especially when Brown has absolutley no plans to retire anytime soon. It has been reported that the Longhorns did it as a way of keeping Muschamp with the program, but it is not fair to the hiring process to name a successor when the current person in place has no plans of going anywhere. Texas is a program that is big time enough to do this sort of thing, but the timing of this is absurd.

Florida State is known for its coach Bobby Bowden. But as we all know, all things must come to an end, and Bowden’s career is beginning to wind down. The Seminoles plucked LSU offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, putting him in the same position at Florida State, but promising to name him the next head coach. I didn’t have a problem when this happened because this was the type of situation that head-coaches-in-waiting was really invented for. You have a coach who has built an upper echelon program over the past three or four decades and it is finally time for him to step away. Therefore, you name someone in advance so the program has little turnover when the coach retires. However, due to Bowden’s love for what he does, Fisher is now in his third year as offensive coordinator and his wait could continue. Bowden has talked about coming back for another year or two, putting Fisher in an awkward position. Hindsight being 20/20, it seems a little odd to have a successor wait for what looks like four or more years to take over.

While the concept of naming a successor has good intentions behind it, it doesn’t always work out the way it was planned. With the turnover and uncertainty in college football today, it seems ridiculous to name someone to a position five or six years into the future (maybe even more) just so you don’t have to deal with searching for a new coach and maintaining recruits. Having a head-coach-in-waiting does not allow a fair hiring or interviewing process in a country where equal employment opportunity (EEO) is mandated by law. This concept has become trendy, but should not continue.

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Excessive Celebration Penalties Killing College Football

A.J. Green was mobbed by teammates and penalized for excessive celebration, although no camera angle showed any wrongdoing.

The NFL has been called the “No Fun League.” What can you call the NCAA, or more specifically, the SEC? The referees of the LSU-Georgia game went entirely too far in calling excessive celebration penalties that absolutely killed the end of the game. With LSU winning 12-7, Georgia scored a touchdown to go ahead 13-12 with 1:09 remaining. A seemingly phantom excessive celebration penalty was called on Georgia wide receiver A.J. Green that backed up the kickoff 15 yards. LSU returned that kickoff to the Georgia 37-yard line. Already in field goal range, LSU’s Charles Scott ran for a touchdown just seconds later, dropping the ball and pointing to the sky, thanking God for what had happened. He too was flagged for excessive celebration. The referees allowed their calls to decide the outcome of the game rather than the players on the field, and what a shame it was. While LSU walked out with a 20-13 win, the larger issue is why referees are so trigger happy when it comes to throwing flags.

ESPN’s Mike Golic, of the Mike and Mike Morning Show, went off about this sequence of events. He hit the nail right on the head as he distinguished between “celebrating” and “taunting” and wondered aloud why college football players are not allowed to enjoy themselves on the field. There is a clear line between celebrating with your teammates and rubbing it in the face of the opposition. Georgia’s entire team rushing the field to dance and taunt Florida after the first touchdown of the game two years ago was taunting and warranted an excessive celebration penalty. Georgia celebrating a go-ahead touchdown with one minute to play at home is an entirely different story.

The bottom line is, this has gotten completely out of hand. While NFL players tweet about what end zone celebration they will perform when they score that weekend, college players can’t high-five after a sack for fear of getting a 15-yard penalty. It’s a terrible double standard that has now led to the game being taken away from the players. It has gotten to the point where referees are standing out more than the athletes. When a college player celebrates a play, I no longer see what the player does, I only see two referees sprint full-speed towards him to threaten him with a penalty and make him stop. It appears there is no fun allowed for anyone on the field.

This rule needs to be overturned immediately. It is taking away from the game and is allowing more focus on the officials than the athletes and coaches. While those excessive celebration calls might not have been the deciding factor in the LSU-Georgia game, it had a huge impact and one day it will directly cost some team a game. Why not prevent that from happening all together and tell the officials to keep their flags in their pockets?

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Eyes on the Prize, Not the Future

Tebow will take more snaps under center this season.

After running through its first two opponents without complacency, the Florida Gators have started their national title defense just the way they hoped. But as the schedule enters conference play and competition stiffens, Tim Tebow, Urban Meyer and company need to make sure they don’t deviate too far from the formula that has brought them so much success up to this point.

Tebow has said head coach Urban Meyer is like a father figure to him, and Meyer in turn has said he sees Tebow as a son. There is no doubt that Meyer wants to see Tebow succeed, not just in the Swamp, but at the next level. In order to accomplish that task, Meyer and Tebow have begun work to discredit the naysayers who believe Tebow can’t be a quarterback in the NFL. As the leader of a spread option attack, Tebow has been knocked by scouts for not have a game that translates to the professional style. He lines up primarily from the shotgun and doesn’t make too many reads.

To counteract that problem, Meyer has stated he will tailor his playbook to accommodate questions about Tebow’s ability. He says Tebow will do some lining up under center and will throw traditional three- and five-step drops that will carry over to an NFL-style of play. While that is a nice gesture for Meyer to make, it can be a dangerous one that could cost his team as a whole.

Tebow is a senior, has engrossed himself in this offense for the last four years and can run the system like the back of his hand. While he would like to build his resume for the NFL by trying different offensive schemes, Tebow needs to make sure he has success with it. As a senior, his teammates are looking at him to carry the team, not look lost trying to grasp new concepts just because it could help his professional career.

If Tebow goes under center and begins making mistakes, it could cost his team a game, which in turn will cost his team another shot at the national championship, which in turn will ruin the entire reason Tebow came back for his senior year in the first place (“Let’s do it again!”). Coach Meyer should add new wrinkles into his offense so opposing defenses don’t figure it out, but if he puts Tebow in a spot where he can’t execute, he’s putting his entire team in a spot where they can’t execute. And all for what? So Tebow can be drafted a round earlier?

Meyer knows how to win, get his team prepared, and keep them motivated. I’m sure he knows what he’s doing. But if he ends up blinded by worrying about his favorite player’s future, he’ll be asking for trouble. The Gators need to focus on winning another national championship, not Tebow’s NFL prospects.

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For Spurrier, No Apology Necessary

 

South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier and his coaching staff faced a media onslaught of scrutiny prompting a profuse, yet unnecessary apology, after it was revealed Spurrier’s preseason All-SEC ballot left off Florida quarterback Tim Tebow. Spurrier maintains it was an accident, that he didn’t fill out the ballot and allowed one of his assistants to do it. The assistant put Ole Miss quarterback Jevan Snead instead of Tebow and Spurrier didn’t notice the omission when he gave the list a once over. When it was brought to his attention, Spurrier petitioned the SEC to have his vote changed to Tebow. He has since said that he believes Tebow and former Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel will go down in history as the two greatest college players ever when all is said and done. Either way, it shouldn’t matter, there shouldn’t have been scrutiny over this vote in the first place.

Whether the Tebow omission was a mistake or not, Spurrier should not apologize for exercising the freedom he was given in the coaches’ preseason all-conference vote. What is the point of giving someone the opportunity to vote if they’re only allowed to vote for one person? The media practically crucified Spurrier for leaving Tebow out and the Ole Ball Coach was forced to call a separate press conference to address the issue. It’s not like Snead is that far off from being an all-conference quarterback. He’s only a junior, on a top-10 team, and in all honesty is probably a better pro prospect than Tebow. Of course Tebow is entrenched with two national championships and a Heisman trophy, but that doesn’t mean Snead can’t have a bigger year than him. Besides, who really cares about a preseason all-conference list anyway? It doesn’t win you any games and rarely does that list look the same at the end of the season.

Should Tebow be mentioned as the best quarterback in the SEC? Probably, but that doesn’t mean no one is allowed to compete with him for the top spot. If you give other people the choice to vote, don’t get up in arms if they don’t see eye to eye with what you expect. Error or not, Spurrier didn’t need to apologize for including Snead in the discussion and this upcoming season will decide who deserves to be called the best in the conference.

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Kiffin Volunteers to be an Idiot

Without coaching a single game yet, Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin has bull’s eyes coming at him from all different directions. After attempting to turn the current national champions in for cheating and trying to raid every rivals’ coaching staff, Kiffin has now committed several NCAA recruiting violations and stirred up some serious ill will for Citrus, I mean Rocky, Top.

 

The problems started for Kiffin the first day he got the job. South Carolina head coach, the master of trash talk, Steve Spurrier, suggested Kiffin might have committed a recruiting violation by calling a recruit before he was authorized to do so by the NCAA. Kiffin says he was authorized to make phone calls, and did so to his prized recruit, top-ranked receiver Marlon Brown, who eventually committed to Georgia. Ouch.

Since then, Kiffin has made several more missteps. Kiffin said Florida head coach Urban Meyer cheated in the recruiting process by contacting wide receiver Nu’Keese Richardson while he was on an official visit to Tennessee. Kiffin made two mistakes on that public announcement:

1. What Urban Meyer did was not a recruiting violation.
2. What Kiffin did by talking about it in public was a violation.

“Coach Kiffin has violated the Southeastern Conference Code of Ethics,” SEC commissioner Mike Slive said in a statement. “SEC Bylaw 10.5.1 clearly states that coaches and administrators shall refrain from directed public criticism of other member institutions, their staffs or players.”

Not only did Kiffin not know the rules of violations by falsely accusing another coach, he ended up committing a violation himself. Ouch.

Later that week, Tennessee announced it was going to self-report more violations committed by Kiffin to avoid further punishment from the NCAA. The first of the new wrongdoings was during a recruiting visit at Tennessee where nine recruits participated in a mock press conference at the university’s media center. The second violation was the use of a fog machine for a recruit’s entrance to Neyland Stadium. Both of these violated NCAA recruiting rules, which prohibit simulating a game experience for recruits during official visits. Ouch.

The week after that, Kiffin ran into trouble again for referring to an unsigned recruit by name on a local Knoxville radio show. Kiffin talked about Bryce Brown, a Rivals.com five-star running back, who reneged on his verbal commitment to the University of Miami and is considering playing professionally in Canada before going to the NFL. What made it worse was before asking questions, the radio host told Kiffin he couldn’t refer to specific recruits by name. Ouch.

Not only has Kiffin shot himself in the foot several times, he has also made quick enemies with some of his top competitors. After Spurrier’s recruiting accusations, Kiffin lured Spurrier’s brother-in-law, David Reaves, off the South Carolina staff to Tennessee. The Ole’ Ball Coach certainly won’t forget about that one.

Despite accusing Florida of cheating, Kiffin allegedly went after the Gators’ receivers coach, Billy Gonzales, while Florida was preparing for the national championship game. However, Gonzales did not take the job. Ouch.

Kiffin then went after Forbes magazine’s most powerful man in sports, Alabama head coach Nick Saban, hiring Lance Thompson, one of Alabama’s best recruiters. Maybe Thompson can go over the rules with Kiffin one more time. Saban has since asked all of his committed recruits to not take visits to Tennessee.

Finally, Georgia head coach Mark Richt bested Kiffin once again. Not only did he snag Marlon Brown, Tennessee’s number one recruit, he also kept one of the Bulldogs’ best recruiters from going to Knoxville. Kiffin offered recruiter Rodney Garner a $400,000 bonus to join the Volunteers, but he turned it down, choosing to stay in Athens. Ouch.

Kiffin can try all he wants to bring some excitement to Rocky Top, even if it means ruffling a few feathers while rebuilding the program. However, he needs to understand what he’s doing in the big picture. He has now made himself the biggest target in the SEC next year, and he doesn’t really have the firepower to thwart the attack. We’ve seen what Urban Meyer can do when he wants to seek revenge. We’ve seen how motivated Mark Richt can get his team. We’ve seen how surgical Nick Saban can be when the Tide rolls. Next year, Tennessee goes to the Swamp and Tuscaloosa. Georgia and South Carolina will come to Knoxville. Don’t expect any house warming gifts.

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