Wednesday, October 22, 2014
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Florida fan takes to Craigslist in search of new coach
Fed up with your coach? Perhaps it’s time to put their job on Craigslist.
That’s what one Florida fan decided to do this week by posting a Wanted Ad for a new Florida football coach to replace Will Muschamp, who hasn’t actually been fired (yet).
The state of Florida's flagship university is seeking a Qualified Candidate to develop and implement an exemplary football program while providing leadership on and off the field. This position should be available no later than Midnight Saturday, November 29th, but as soon as early morning Sunday, November 2nd.
Obviously, that Nov. 2 date coincides with the day after the Gators next game against Georgia. Florida is on a bye this week.
Muschamp started the season on the hot seat and has done nothing this year to get off it. The Gators are 3-3 this season and coming off an embarrassing 42-13 loss to Missouri.
The ad does have some humorous parts if you’re so inclined to read the entire thing (it is a little long). Here are a few of the better requirements:
- Ability to win games against glorified high schools and junior colleges, aka "cupcakes", especially when the contest is held on the university's own campus.
- Your offense must be able to score more points than the opposing team's defense. Your offense must be able to score more points than the opposing team's special teams as well. There can never be any confusion whether it's the actual players in uniform instead of drunk cheerleaders/Albert/Alberta.
- Must not be a graduate of the University of Georgia.
- Must not have the last name of Zook. We tried you out once. Didn't work out. Sorry.
The ad also endorses Spurrier as the next coach, something I think we all want to see happen.
While, Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley hasn’t been ready to address Muschamp’s future just yet, we have no doubt that some of the criteria listed in this ad is probably on his wishlist.
For more Florida news, visit InsideTheGators.com.
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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturday
And don’t forget to keep up with all of Graham’s thoughts, witty comments and college football discussions on Facebook
From Dr. Saturday - NCAAF - Yahoo Sports - Florida fan takes to Craigslist in search of new coach
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Lane Kiffin's mother fears for his safety Saturday at Tennessee
Robin Kiffin, the mother of Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin, is not looking forward to his return to Knoxville, Tenn., on Saturday.
Alabama visits Tennessee and it's Kiffin's first game back in Knoxville since he left after a season to become USC's coach before the 2010 season.
"I'm scared to death for his safety," his mother Robin Kiffin told CBS Sports. "Some people were visiting us last weekend from Tennessee and they said they better not let him on the sideline, they should put him in the press box. I want him to be in the press box."
Kiffin has been coaching this season at Alabama from the sideline and will be there on Saturday. iWhen asked about Kiffin being on the sideline during Wednesday's SEC teleconference, Alabama coach Nick Saban said he wasn't worried about it, though he did seem exasperated about the questions.
"Yeah," Saban said. "I mean, why not? We're going to play our game and do what we feel like we need to do to give our players the best chance to be successful. That's the decision that we made early in the season, before the season started, actually, that would help our offensive team and our quarterback. I don't understand why it would be any different in this game."
Before that comment, Saban asked a reporter why he used the word "really" in asking if Kiffin was really apprehensive about returning to Knoxville.
"Why would you say 'really? I haven't really heard much about it," Saban said. "I think the most important thing for us is we need to focus on the game. The game is not about that. The game is about the players and regardless of what fans think or what fans do, I think our coaches and our players need to focus on what we're going to do in the game and how we're going to help our play their best."
Kiffin signed a six-year contract at the school but left following a 7-6 season. Pete Carroll had left USC to go coach the Seattle Seahawks and Kiffin decided to go back to the school where he was co-offensive coordinator. Few Tennessee fans have forgiven him for leaving so quickly.
"I know that Tennessee fans have some really hard feelings," Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton told CBS. "Tennessee is a storied program so to have someone sort of walk out on them, even given it was for his dream job and the way that whole year went down, there's not going to be any love shared. But I also believe Tennessee fans are smart enough that they don't want any kind of scar on who they are by going overboard in the reaction to it. And I say that not even knowing what overboard means."
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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UNC probe reveals approximately 1,500 student-athletes took bogus classes
The University of North Carolina Academic Support Program for Student-Athletes was found culpable of creating easy, non-show classes that catered to student-athletes in an effort to give them better grades.
Kenneth Wainstein, a former top U.S. Justice Department official, said during a press conference Wednesday that academic counselors ushered as many as 3,100 students – approximately 1,500 of them student-athletes – into bogus classes that were geared toward keeping student-athletes eligible for play over the past 18 years (1993-2011).
The academic impropriety in Wainstein's report is far greater than previously reported by the school or to the NCAA.
Wainstein said many academic and athletic officials knew about the scheme, which began with Deborah Crowder, a longtime manager for the Department of African and Afro-American Studies, and gave student-athletes inflated grades for what Wainstein termed “paper classes.”
Paper classes were essentially classes that were independent study, had no professor and just required a paper at the end of the term. According to Wainstein, Crowder never gave students a grade unless they actually submitted a paper, but she awarded “artificially high” grades to the papers submitted regardless of their content.
In the end, the disparity was clear. Students enrolled in an Afro-American Studies paper class would finish with a 3.62 GPA versus a 3.28 GPA for students in a regular Afro-American Studies course.
For 81 students, the GPA boost from those paper classes gave them a 2.0 GPA that allowed them to graduate from UNC.
In all, athletes made up about 47 percent of the enrollments in the 188 lecture-classified paper classes. Of that group, 51 percent were football players.
Chancellor Carol Folt said during the news conference that she was shocked to learn that the academic improprieties were well known around campus and that no one did anything to stop them. Instead, the culture was allowed to fester simply to keep football players and other student-athletes eligible and counselors were not only knowingly enrolling student-athletes in these bogus classes, they were steering them in that direction.
“Like everyone who read it, I feel shocked and very disappointed,” Folt said. “I think it’s a case where you have bad actions of a few and inaction of many more. And had actions or processes been in place, we could’ve caught it and stopped it a lot sooner.”
Wainstein did note that he found no evidence that coaches or other athletic officials began this scheme and there was no financial incentive involved. Butch Davis, the UNC football coach at the time, said he did know the classes were easier, but had no idea an administrator and not a professor graded them.
However, Crowder said she felt pressure to create the paper class, which was later continued by Crowder’s boss, longtime department chairman Julius Nyang’oro, after Crowder retired.
Wainstein’s report was conducted over eight months and included 126 interviews. He said he did not find involvement at the highest levels of the institution, but did criticize the school for not noticing the red flags.
The NCAA and UNC released a joint statement Wednesday saying the investigation was ongoing, but did not mention whether sanctions would be coming.
"The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the NCAA enforcement staff continue to engage in an independent and cooperative effort to review information of possible NCAA rules violations as announced earlier this year. The university provided the enforcement staff with a copy of the Wainstein Report for its consideration. The information included in the Wainstein Report will be reviewed by the university and the enforcement staff under the same standards that are applied in all NCAA infractions cases. Due to rules put in place by the NCAA membership, neither the university nor the enforcement staff will comment on the substance of the report as it relates to possible NCAA rules violations."
For more North Carolina news, visit TarHeelIllustrated.com.
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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturday
And don’t forget to keep up with all of Graham’s thoughts, witty comments and college football discussions on Facebook
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Oklahoma State suing NMSU over mascot likeness after 50 years of usage
Oklahoma State has issued a cease and desist letter to New Mexico State asking it to stop using its Pistol Pete mascot.
The two schools use a similar likeness of Pistol Pete, a character based on a real cowboy named Frank Eaton. Oklahoma refers to the likeness as Pistol Pete while New Mexico State refers to it as the Classic Aggie. However, New Mexico State doesn't use that particular logo anymore.
We have just learned that OSU has filed a lawsuit claiming it has exclusive rights to the character some call Pistol Pete and which we here at NMSU call Classic Aggie. The basic character has served as mascots for both schools — OSU and NMSU — for many decades. We were surprised that OSU took this step, but are in communication with its legal and academic representatives and are confident that good sense will prevail and that this court action will lead to an agreement that will allow both schools to carry on their respective uses of characters that are part of their academic and athletic traditions.
Oklahoma State said it was the first to have the mascot in the 1920s and then New Mexico State adopted a similar mascot in the 1960s. NMSU said it initially paid Oklahoma State royalties when it adopted the mascot.
Still, Oklahoma State would like the Sun Belt school to stop using it now 50 years later.
Oklahoma State University owns incontestable federal trademark registrations for its Pistol Pete marks. Based on Stillwater-area, real-life lawman Frank Eaton, the Pistol Pete mascot originated from Oklahoma State University in the 1920s and is well-known nationally. For more than 80 years, Oklahoma State has continuously used marks depicting Pistol Pete. The university is strongly opposed to any effort to infringe upon its trademarks and will take the necessary steps to protect its rights to the Pistol Pete marks.
According to legend, Eaton earned his nickname by showing off his shooting skills in Oklahoma and winning a legendary gunfight in Albuquerque.
For more Oklahoma State news, visit OStateIllustrated.com.
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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturday
And don’t forget to keep up with all of Graham’s thoughts, witty comments and college football discussions on Facebook
From Dr. Saturday - NCAAF - Yahoo Sports - Oklahoma State suing NMSU over mascot likeness after 50 years of usage
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Block M on Michigan's campus painted green with an 'S' and 'U' added on (Photo)
Well, this is an effective way to make sure Michigan knows that Saturday's opponent is Michigan State.
Someone painted the block M on Michigan's campus green on Tuesday night and added an "SU" in white next to it. We don't need to explain what the three letters mean.
The block ‘M’ on Michigan’s campus has been painted green. http://ift.tt/1s7M6pW
— Alejandro Zúñiga (@ByAZuniga) October 22, 2014
The block M was donated to the then-university president by the class of 1953. According to Michigan legend, if you step on the M, you'll fail your first blue book exam. No word what the punishment is for painting the letter.
The Spartans are 17-point favorites for the game in East Lansing, Mich., at 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday. And it's not the only rivalry game this weekend that has a recent history of vandalism. Last year, someone posted an Alabama message on Tennessee's "The Rock."
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
From Dr. Saturday - NCAAF - Yahoo Sports - Block M on Michigan's campus painted green with an 'S' and 'U' added on (Photo)
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Kevin Sumlin says that all starting positions including QB are being evaluated
Could Texas A&M be making some changes to its depth chart and starting lineup before the Aggies' next game?
Coach Kevin Sumlin didn't rule anything out on Tuesday when asked about potential changes to his team in the wake of a 59-0 loss to Alabama and a three-game losing streak.
"To answer your question I don’t think there’s anything that’s off the table, any position, in evaluating where we are right now," Sumlin said. "Something like what happened Saturday is an eye opener, and should be an eye opener, not just to coaches and fans but to players too. We’re evaluating that situation. We’ve got coaches out recruiting today. They’ll be back in the office tomorrow and we’ll be practicing Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. I’ll have more info probably next week at the press conference.”
Sumlin and his coaching staff can afford to wait to annoince any changes publicly because the Aggies are off on Saturday. And then Texas A&M's next game is against Louisiana-Monroe on November 1. If there was ever a time to introduce some midseason changes to a team, a bye week and a game against a non-conference non-Power Five team is the time to do it.
Sumlin was asked if the upcoming practices would determine if freshman Kyle Allen would start over Kenny Hill at quarterback. Hill, a sophomore, has started every game for Texas A&M this season but hasn't played exceptionally as of late. In the last three games, Hill has thrown for six touchdowns and six interceptions. Against Alabama, Hill only threw for 138 yards.
“You know, I don’t know," Sumlin said. "There’s a lot of things that happen in practices, and we have a bunch of practices. We have a week of preparation. We have three (practices) this week, with meeting time. We’ve got plenty of time and plenty of reps that will determine not just…there’s a lot of evaluation going on, to be honest with you. To get back to those three things I talked about, the message yesterday was basically hey, there are a lot of things open. You can get beat 59-0 with anybody on the field. So the guys who are going to play to the standard that we set and have been, particularly early in the season and the last couple of years, I think we’ve gotten away from that. And it’s our job is to get back to that. And if that’s good enough to win or lose, you can live with that. But you can’t live with not having those three principles. And we’re not going to live with that.”
The Aggies' offensive line has struggled as well and Sumlin said his team hasn't adapted quickly to the stunts and schemes defensive lines have utilized to disrupt the offense.
"I don’t know, I think we’re seeing some new schemes," Sumlin said. "I’m seeing some things we hadn’t seen before, coming off really a similar game plan from earlier in the year. When you put something on tape, I say it a bunch of times, you’re either sending an invitation or sending a message. I think we invited some similar schemes that we had some problems with, with line stunts and movement and blocking movement and twists. That has been kind of the M.O. right now. We started to get on the perimeter, and we couldn’t get on the perimeter quite frankly because we weren’t as physical as we were at the beginning of year and have been since we’ve been here."
For more Texas A&M news, visit AggieYell.com.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
From Dr. Saturday - NCAAF - Yahoo Sports - Kevin Sumlin says that all starting positions including QB are being evaluated