8:00 PMJeRome Wilkins, a former University of New Hampshire football player accused of sexually assaulting a woman outside a house, said in court Friday that he did have sex with the woman but that it was consensual.
7:30 PMRafael Nadal says he was given a surprise drug test Saturday a few days after a French TV show lampooned doping allegations against Spanish athletes.
Outspoken former San Diego State and NFL star Kyle Turley guested on the Scott and B.R. Show on XX 1090 in San Diego this week to talk about the departure of Aztec football coach Brady Hoke to Michigan.
(Audio highlights below? Yesssir)
Combine one of my favorite radio shows, as the Scott Kaplan & Billy Ray Smith production has been for many years, with one of the few sports personalities who’ll unmute my ‘puter for more than a couple-six seconds and, welp … let’s just say that’s when the magic happens.
I can attest that the entire interview is a verifiable treasure already worthy enshrinement into the pantheon of great radio moments like Orson Welles‘ 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast, Russ Hodges’ “The Giants win the Pennant!The Giants win the Pennant!” call in 1951, and the complete archive of David Lee Roth’s New York morning shows following his ascension into Howard Stern’s terrestrial radio timeslot. (Both weeks.)
Chris Huston is a former USC football sports information dept. staffer who now publishes the bible of Heisman Trophy-tracking websites: HeismanPundit.com.
His weekly Heisman Pundit Poll is nationally-syndicated and features these main media panel members: Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel, Teddy Greenstein and Brian Hamilton of the Chicago Tribune, Olin Buchanan and Tom Dienhart of Rivals.com, Jenni Carlson of The Oklahoman, Bruce Feldman of ESPN.com, J.B. Morris of ESPN the Magazine, Austin Murphy, B.J. Schecter and Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated, plus Dick Weiss of the New York Daily News.
I’ve spoken to Chris many times and dude knows his stuff. Today he posted some previously unreported info on the Lane Kiffin hire, along with observations from the perspective of a true USC insider.
Former Tennessee recruiting coordinator Ed Orgeron has contacted multiple UT mid-term enrollees and encouraged them not to attend class today so that they can easily leave UT and enroll at Southern California, multiple sources told the News Sentinel.
By attending class today, the nine mid-term enrollees, who have been at UT since Monday, would have to follow strict transfer rules, which include sitting out a year.
Orgeron is currently making contact with the UT recruits and early commits from Los Angeles.
Here’s some fun video from Saigon Knoxville last night via Da Wiz. John Brice of Rivals Tennessee site Volquest.com tells Jim Wogan of WATE-TV that UT players told him UT-turned-USC assistant coach Ed Orgeron was on the phone with new UT recruits (on campus and due to enroll tomorrow!) and early commits offering them scholarships to USC on Tuesday.
UPDATE: As noted here, UCLA reports that Chow has not yet joined the USC staff.
Shelley Smith reports on ESPN Tuesday night that Norm Chow will leave UCLA to join Lane Kiffin’s staff at USC. Smith reported that the Lane Kiffin hire was a “package deal” largely predicated on assistants Chow, Ed Orgeron and Monte Kiffin joining the staff.
Meanwhile, the 9:30pm ET presser for Kiffin in Knoxville has been delayed. Stay tuned. More on that coming up.
(”Why yes, that is a giant chain around my shoulders. It’s Prada.”)
So now it’s time to put together a team picture, and you know what’s better than the coaches running around with their shirts off? How about everyone with their shirts off?? Oh yes, there’s video of the largest sausage fest in college football, and it’s below the break. Hey, it’s a camera and a bunch of football players - everybody flex and nobody smile!
This week’s Kiffin calamity? The Vols coach kicked Demetrice Morley off the team for missing practice. And why did the senior safety skip out on some scheduled spring drills? Because he was off witnessing the birth of his child.
So, a player misses out on one little practice to welcome his new bundle of joy into the world, and Kiffin cuts him? How typically lame of Lane. Well, it might appear that way, but there’s much more to Morley’s story.
Is it possible to buy a championship in college football? Tennessee’s sure trying. They’re spending absurd amount of money in the only place it’s legal: the coaching staff. Besides the $2 million due new head coach Lane Kiffin (more than he made in Oakland), the Volunteers are going to drop millions more on the assistants, including $150,000 for one who doesn’t even have a job yet.
Maybe the players play for school spirit, but no sport is more mercenary when it comes to coaching than college football. AD Mike Hamilton (who makes $315,000 himself) said the budget for coaches would increase “significantly” this year, but some of the numbers are truly ludicrous (and more than a little nepotistic.) Get ready to hate Tennessee even more, after the jump.
TUBERVILLE RUMORED TO BE RAZORBACKS’ NEXT COACH: Arkansas didn’t have to go far to nab its next football coach. They didn’t even have to leave the conference:
KNWA-TV reports that Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville will become the next Razorbacks coach. Sources are telling the station that the Tigers’ coach will soon be leaving one SEC school for another.Ex-Hogs coach Houston Nutt just did the same thing, when he left Fayetteville and quickly took the Ole Miss job.
ARKANSAS SPORTS 360 further reports that an official announcement may not come until Saturday, as Tuberville is hammering out details of his contract.So, Tommy’s now off to Fayetteville, and Houston’s already landed in Oxford, where Tuberville had previously coached. Does this mean Ed Orgeron is headed to the Plains, thus completing the coaching circle?
• 100% INJURY RATE tries to cure itself of Olympic fever, as they run down past mascots of the Games:
• FOOTBALL JESUS LAS VEGAS takes a fond look back at all the College GameDay signs at last week’s Kansas-Missouri game.• CHICAGO BULL finds the Illinois football and basketball coaches are exact opposites.
