7:53 PM This is pretty damn cool: Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times has picked Hoop Dreams as the greatest American documentary of all-time. Ebert also called it the best film of the '90s.
7:50 PM With Newcastle United fans incensed about the perilous direction of the venerable English Premier League team, eminent Northerner Sting has stepped into the breach and formed a group aiming to buy out Owner Mike Ashley.
7:16 PM Former Nationals GM Jim Bowden Tweets this afternoon that the Washington's MLB club has hired Jim Riggleman as its new manager. Our sincerest condolences go out to Riggleman's friends and family.
7:01 PM 26-year-old Steven Smith, an assistant varsity football coach in Paso Robles, CA, has been charged with two counts of attempted murder after shooting a pregnant woman several times, including in the head. He remains in a local jail in lieu of $1 million bail.
(”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.
ATNN SEC COACHES: STEP INTO SLY’S DEAD LETTER OFFICE The website POLITICS AND SPORTS has a great post today about Mississippi State coach Sylvester Croom, who is the most deserving of all the college coach of the year candidates (sorry Zooker and Azamat).
And as Croom basks in the glow of MSU’s astonishing season, he also leaves in his wake the strewn wreckage of SEC coaching careers.
Excerpt: “Croom may be the most feared man in the history of Southern college football. The affable head coach at Mississippi State University has been responsible for the firing of at least three (SEC) football coaches.
“Croom has not reported these coaches’ infractions to the NCAA nor has he highlighted any personal indiscretions these coaches have committed. All Croom has done is to win football games against the teams coached by the ‘Croom Three’.”
The three:
1) Ron Zook (Florida)
2) Mike Shula (Alabama)
3) Eddy O. (Ole Miss) 4) Nick Saban (Alabama)
OLE MISS SWIPES SUPER 8 STUFF & MOTEL 6 MERCHANDISE: Better be careful when Ole Miss comes town. While the Rebels won’t likely steal a win, they will steal your pillows:
The JACKSON CLARION-LEDGER checks out news that 20 members of the Mississippi football team have been put on probation for stealing pillows and radios from team hotels.No wonder Ole Miss has been playing so soft all year. The Rebels’ down season will finally be put to rest on Friday, when they get smothered by Mississippi State.
AD Pete Boone said that since the items were paid back for by the players, there wouldn’t be NCAA violations. And the accused appear to be OK to play against the Bulldogs.
But this latest round-up means that at least 25% of the Rebel program has gotten into some sort of legal trouble this season.
When first hired, head coach Ed Orgeron declared he would put a fence around Memphis. Now the staff might want to put a fence around the practice field, just to keep their kids out of trouble - or have them get used to prison.