Derek Dooley is playing a dangerous game with Bryce Brown

When Bryce Brown was the #1 recruit in the nation coming out of Wichita in 2009, you just knew his college ride wouldn’t be a smooth one.  Back then, his street agent Brian Butler actually implied he might advise Brown to skip college altogether and play in the Canadian Football League.  Nah, that shouldn’t have sent up red flags to anyone.

Butler’s basically a college football version of Sonny Vaccaro, meaning that he’s a slimeball of the highest order.  The guy actually sold updates of Brown’s recruitment for $59 a year.  And I’m sure he cashed in many other ways as well when he was shopping his prized blue chipper around to colleges.

Brown settled on Tennessee as his college choice, and if you pay any attention at all to college football, it’s been a pretty tumultuous year for that program.  Between the player arrests and the sudden defection of Lane Kiffin, there’s been more heartache than glee lately in Volunteer Nation.

So with the hiring of Derek Dooley as the new coach, everyone is hoping for a fresh start.  That includes Bryce Brown, but the fresh start he’s looking for is back at Kansas State.  Brown let Dooley know about his decision to transfer to Manhattan, but he did it via text message this past Tuesday night before heading back to Wichita.  Way to man up, Bryce.

Dooley has now confirmed that he hasn’t granted Brown a release and apparently doesn’t intend to do so. Here’s the rationale he provided to Austin Ward of the Knoxville News Sentinel:

Citing three main areas of evaluation, Vols coach Derek Dooley confirmed late Friday night that Brown will not be released from his scholarship - and the fact his request was made in a text message appears to have little to do with the ultimate decision.

“As with the other players who have asked for a release, I went through the same process with the same criteria with Bryce,” Dooley said. “These are the three key factors - what their personal investment into the program was, did they have their heart into it and did they give it a good, fair shot. No. 2, the harm that their departure creates for the organization. No. 3, how they handle it as a professional.

“I’ve done that with every one of these guys — with Aaron (Douglas), with Todd Campbell, with Nick Stephens, Nick Lamaison and now Bryce. So now my decision based on those three factors with Bryce is not to release him.” (Knoxville News Sentinel)

In a meeting with Dooley a few days before sending his now infamous text message, Brown apparently didn’t hint at wanting his release.  All parties involved (including Brown’s father Arthur) agree on that:

“Bryce met with Coach Dooley on Saturday for about 30 minutes and Dooley asked him not to tell anyone they talked,” Arthur Brown said. “I’m really not sure why.”

Dooley acknowleged he met with Brown on Saturday but said he was not asked for a release.

Arthur Brown also said his son, one of the nation’s top recruits entering last season, did not ask Dooley for a release at that meeting. This week Dooley said that the reason Bryce has not been released is because he “has not come to me, looked me in the eye and said, ‘I want a release.’” (ESPN.com)

I’m absolutely positive that the moves Bryce Brown has made this past week were in large part influenced by Brian Butler.  And the train wreck that has ensued says all you need to know about Butler’s ability as an adviser as well as the Brown family’s collective judgment in steering Bryce in the right direction.

Brown should have stepped up, met with his coach and politely asked for his release.  But after years of being a coddled blue chipper whose strings are being pulled by a two bit con man, I wonder if he even has the capability to do something that classy.  That might be asking too much of the kid.

On the flip side, I think Dooley’s playing a dangerous game.  Let’s not be naive, Butler was selling Brown’s services in 2009.  So when Brown ended up at Tennessee, well, I’ll let you fill in the rest.

If Kiffin and Company found out a way to make it worth Butler’s while to get Brown to become a Vol, then Dooley really should sever ties as quickly as possible.  If this drags out and Brown gets frustrated, who knows what sort of information regarding his recruitment might come to light.

If something were to surface, the NCAA won’t nail Kiffin because he’s already long gone.  And Brown?  He’ll just go about his business at K-State.  No, it’ll be Dooley who has to deal with the wreckage in Knoxville.  Smarten up, coach.

Boise State and Idaho hate each other? Who knew!?!

In the history of recorded time, a university president has never called out another school the way Boise State’s Bob Kustra called out Idaho. Here’s his response to an article from the Argonaut, the Idaho student newspaper:

“This is a great example of why my wife and I no longer travel to Moscow games,” Kustra said. “It’s a culture that is nasty, inebriated and civilly doesn’t give our fans the respect that any fan should expect when visiting an away team. … I don’t think at Boise State you’re going to find that, so for me personally, when I read what Pete said I knew, I knew.”

“For me, this is not about football. For me, this is a cultural issue. It’s about fans having to learn how to treat other fans and universities. What bothers me more than anything else, is that the fans are not about denigrating our athletic program. … What bothers me personally is the denigration of our academic programming. That’s what I simply can’t tolerate.”

“I’ve seen rivalries all over America, Oklahoma-Oklahoma State, Texas-Texas A&M, Kansas-Kansas State, but you can go inside those rivalries and you’ll find all kinds of slams and digs and whatever, but I’ve never seen the nastiness aimed at the quality of our academic program that I find here in Idaho from the University of Idaho Vandals and as long as that goes on, why would I want to encourage a game where people don’t know how to act like grownups?” (Idaho Statesman)

Damn, I had no idea that Idaho and Boise State had this level of animosity toward one another.  But Kustra’s being more than just a little naive about how other rivals in the college sports world treat each other.  When Alabama and Auburn fans get together, EVERYTHING is fair game.  His head would spin if he were president of either one of those fine institutions.

But can you imagine if Kustra were Georgia Tech’s president and he made those comments about Georgia? Or if he was the top guy at Florida and implied that FSU had an inferior football culture?  He’d need a permanent security detail for the rest of his life.

In terms of the actual on the field rivalry between Kustra’s school and the drunken bastards up in Moscow, there’s actually not much of one lately.  Since Idaho notched a 36-35 overtime win in 1998, Boise State has won the last 11 games in the series.  Average score in those games?  51-18.

Not only has Kustra chimed in from the Boise side, but so has Bronco head football coach Chris Peterson.  Here’s what he had to say about the rivalry during the WAC football media preview:

“Why would we (go to Moscow)?” he said. “I don’t think our fans even like to go up there. Most of Idaho’s fans are in Boise anyway.” (Idaho Statesman)

Now that Boise State is leaving the WAC and joining the Mountain West, the game against Idaho won’t automatically appear on Boise’s schedule.  In 2011, the two sides won’t play because Boise is already booked solid.

After that, the two schools could get right back to playing each other…but what does Boise have to gain from that?  From a financial standpoint (which is what drives college football these days), a trip to Moscow to play Idaho doesn’t benefit Boise at all.

With just a hair over 16,000 permanent seats, Idaho’s Kibbie Dome is the smallest venue in all of FBS.  With that in mind, Peterson’s comments make a little more sense.  I don’t think the coach is saying he wants ties to be completely severed, he’d just like it better if Idaho made the trip to Boise every year.

As it stands, Bronco Stadium doubles the capacity of the Kibbie Dome, and plans are in the works to increase capacity to around 50,000 in the not too distant future.  With the facility as the game’s permanent host, Idaho could be the designated home team in alternate years and a majority of seats could be given over to its fans.

That’s if Kustra and the powers that be at Boise State even want to keep the series going.  In terms of recruiting, it would probably benefit his school’s football program a lot more if Idaho were dumped in favor of out of conference games that would provide more exposure (home-and-home deals with Pac-10 schools, road games against Big 12 schools, etc.)

And the very thought of having Vandal fans outnumber Bronco fans every other year in his own stadium is probably hateful to Kustra.  In the first year of such an arrangement, the postgame scene would probably be a hundred times more chaotic than anything LaGarrette Blount could generate.

Top ten reasons Terrence Cody flunked his Ravens physical

Ravens second-round draft pick Terrence Cody failed his conditioning test today and was forced to sit out the team’s first training camp practice.  The 349 pound Alabama product has never missed a meal, and apparently he’s added even more meals that he doesn’t miss.

Here are the top ten factors that went into Cody flunking his physical:

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Raymond Cotton’s case of nitwit-itis torpedoes Ole Miss’s QB depth chart

A few weeks ago, Raymond Cotton was Ole Miss’s quarterback of the future.  Today, he’s on the verge of being South Alabama’s quarterback of the future.  How did it come to this?

For starters, Cotton’s never been completely healthy since he signed with Ole Miss in 2009.  A torn labrum in his throwing shoulder has only been further irritated by the increased number of passes he’s had to throw since becoming a collegian.

However, that injury didn’t prevent him from participating in the Ole Miss spring game this year, a game in which he didn’t fail to impress (5-of-7 for 178 yards and 2 scores).  But sophomore Nathan Stanley, who’s backed up Jevan Snead the last two seasons, also had a pretty good effort, going 11-of-16 for 166 yards and a couple of scores.

Following the game, here’s what Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt had to say:

“We’re not afraid to play Raymond Cotton,” Nutt said. “He’s can rise to the occasion. We will make a decision on his physical status in the next two weeks. The best case scenario is if Raymond can rehab and play, but we’re going to do what is best for Raymond.” (AP)

If you’re Nutt, what are your options?  Your backup quarterback from the previous season didn’t do anything to fall out of the race for the starting job while your prized redshirt freshman is nursing a bum shoulder.

It’s obvious to everyone observing the situation that Nutt couldn’t very well name Cotton the starter.  But instead of coming out and saying just that, Nutt hedged his bets a little bit.  His motivation for doing so may have been a desire to keep his quarterback’s spirits up.

However, instead of comforting Cotton, Nutt’s approach appeared to have emboldened him.  Reports started circulating weeks ago that he expected a lot of playing time this fall ahead of Stanley, whose superior knowledge of the offense didn’t appear to be that big of a deal to Cotton.

Apparently Cotton is of the belief that SEC coaches start inexperienced quarterbacks who have torn labrums all the time, it’s not that big of a deal.  Good health and familiarity with the playbook?  I guess those are both HIGHLY overrated attributes in the mind of a redshirt freshman.

If you think Cotton was getting these crazy theories on depth chart management from his parents, think again.  They, along with Ole Miss coaches, had been telling him to stay put:

“If (Raymond) listens to mom and dad, he’ll make the right decision,” Nutt said.

On Friday at Southeastern Conference Media Days, Nutt said Cotton’s status with the team was still uncertain. The redshirt freshman quarterback has told people on campus he plans on transferring after the summer semester, but Nutt still wants him to stay.

The third-year Ole Miss coach said he hoped to meet with Cotton and his parents sometime on Friday, and that the issues could be resolved by the end of the weekend. (Jackson Clarion-Ledger)

Oh, there was a resolution, alright: Raymond Cotton is transferring, with a likely destination being South Alabama.  Why South Alabama?  He’s familiar with the Mobile area after his family moved there following his senior year of high school in Ft. Meade, Md.

It appears that Nutt and his staff did everything in their power to keep him in the fold.  Unfortunately for them, they were dealing with a kid who refused to look at the big picture.

Cotton’s head scratcher of a move now leaves Ole Miss with two scholarship quarterbacks, the aforementioned Stanley and junior college transfer Randall Mackey.  Ouch.

Suddenly, Ole Miss might be a very likely destination for Jeremiah Masoli, a guy whose rap sheet sank what had been a fantastic career at Oregon.

He’s got a year of eligibility left and can play immediately because he’s got his undergrad degree in hand.  But can Nutt afford to roll the dice on a troubled player who had two run-ins with the law in a six month period?

I don’t think Nutt really has a choice at this point, not with his quarterback depth chart in ruins.  He’d probably settle for a decent kid to fill the third string spot at this point.  But it would be a mighty nice luxury if the quick fix happened to be one of college football’s most dynamic talents.

Jeff Fisher’s new least favorite person: the coach of his alma mater

It’s damn near the end of July and USC head coach Lane Kiffin has gone and hired Kennedy Pola away from the Tennessee Titans to be his offensive coordinator.  This is after Kiffin stated publicly that he would be the one calling the plays this fall for the Trojans.

The trouble for Kiffin, who’s mastered the art of getting himself into hot water, is that by hiring one USC alum (Pola was USC Class of ‘85), he’s gone and pissed off another, that being Titans head coach Jeff Fisher (USC Class of ‘80).

“I am very disappointed in Lane Kiffin’s approach to this,’’ Fisher said. “Typically speaking when coaches are interested in hiring or discussing potential employment from coaches on respective staffs there is a courtesy call made from the head coach or athletic director indicating there is an interest in talking to the assistant.”

“So I am very disappointed in the lack of professionalism on behalf of Lane, to call me and leave me a voice mail after Kennedy had informed me he had taken the job. It is just a lack of professionalism.” (The Tennessean)

This has given Kiffin an opportunity to practice something else he’s gotten good at, that being damage control.  Here’s the statement he released today in an attempt to smooth things over:

“We reached out to Kennedy Pola yesterday to gauge whether he had any possible interest in returning to USC before we moved forward with the process.”

“Kennedy said he would think about it and get back to us today. Once Kennedy did call back earlier today, out of my great respect for Coach Fisher I immediately reached out to Coach to make him aware of the situation.”

“I have spoken with Coach Fisher and he now has an accurate understanding of the timeline of events.”

“We realize the timing of this isn’t perfect for all parties, but this is a great opportunity and promotion for Kennedy.” (Orange County Register)

I think it’s highly doubtful that Fisher would accept an invitation from Kiffin to give the Trojans a pep talk in the near future.  But whether or not Fisher and Kiffin speak to each other ever again isn’t what interests me in this matter.  No, what’s fascinating to me is what motivated this hire in the first place.

After running backs coach Todd McNair was released nearly a month ago in the fallout of the Reggie Bush scandal, it opened up a spot on the Trojan staff.  So you’d think the position of running backs coach would be the one that would be filled.

That’s exactly the position that Pola’s worked for the last six years in the NFL.  In fact, Pola was the running backs coach who preceded McNair at USC.  He left the school in early 2004 to take the same position with the Cleveland Browns, where he took over for…Todd McNair.

There’s no reason Pola would go back to USC and assume his old duties, not after he’s gotten a great reputation in the NFL for being a great tutor of running backs.  So it makes sense that nothing less than coordinating duties would lure him away from the Titans to work for Kiffin (I’m sure Pola will also tutor USC running backs as well, though).

But why would Kiffin give up those duties so close to the start of the season?  My theory is that it’s got something to do with last week’s hiring of Pat Haden as USC’s athletic director.

Did Haden force this hire as a way of putting his stamp on the program?  That might not ever be made clear, but the timing is mighty curious…and a little strange.  If this is Haden’s handiwork, then it appears he’s already confused about what an AD does.  His role is to keep the football program squeaky clean and on the good side of the NCAA, not to dictate who’s calling the plays in the Coliseum.  Whether you like Kiffin or not, that’s his job to decide.

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