The Larry King-ish Stream of Consciousness Column for 10/2

In this edition of the LKSOC…the mess with UNC football gets worse, the worst moments of Tennessee DB’s are revisited and Barry Switzer shares some precious memories:

◊ It looks like John Blake was getting straight paid by Gary Wichard

The investigation into the funny business North Carolina football team has revealed that agent Gary Wichard of Pro Tect Management and former Tar Heel assistant coach Jon Blake were just a little more than casual acquaintances. Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! provides a few of the particulars right here:

Time and a slew of different investigative bodies will determine the extent of Blake and Wichard’s relationship and whether it involved the recruitment of Tar Heel players.  Yahoo! Sports reported Wednesday the existence of at least six wire transfers from Wichard’s private bank to Blake, a credit card from Wichard’s Pro Tect Management in Blake’s name and a personal loan given to the long-time college coach.  Blake previously worked for Wichard. (Yahoo! Sports)

C’mon Dan, you’re wondering whether or not Wichard’s relationship with Blake involved the recruitment of Tar Heel players?  Jesus, maybe you need a refresher course, it’s all ball bearings nowadays ($1 To Irwin Fletcher).  Why else would Wichard be funneling money to him?  Perhaps you need that stuff you referenced put together in bullet point format, you know, to make it more understandable:

• Six wire transfers from Wichard’s bank, The First National Bank of Long Island, to Blake

• A $45,000 personal loan to Blake from The First National Bank of Long Island

• A Pro Tect Management credit card that was issued to Blake

Here’s the problem facing UNC with this mess: this isn’t some agent who’s snooping around campus trying to entice football players to sign with him using $100 handshakes. This involved an actual, honest to goodness assistant coach who was on an agent’s payroll. If people thought the punishment USC got was harsh, wait until they get a load of the penalties that UNC football will be hit with down the road.

◊ Players’ lowest moments, saved for posterity

Guess who wishes YouTube (and by extension the interwebs) was never invented? If you said, “Tennessee defensive backs,” you’d be correct:

◊ Despite beating Texas, UCLA’s still pretty crappy

With a win over Washington State today, UCLA can do something I thought was impossible less than two weeks ago: they can move over .500 for the season. That’s yet another unexpected result to come out of the Bruins’ mindboggling road win over Texas this past Saturday.

But I’m not ready to check this one off in the “W” column for the Bruins just because it’s lowly Wazzu that’s coming to town. That’s because UCLA is still a football team with a one dimensional offense and a defense that’s yielding 4.6 yards a carry to the opposition.

I’m not backing off of my preseason bottom 10 ranking for Wazzu, because this is a team that most certainly sucks ass. But what better opportunity for a Pac-10 road win will Paul Wulff’s team have?

The glaring flaw thus far for the Cougars has been defending the pass. Washington State has the nation’s 116th-ranked pass defense, giving up 286.2 yards a game and 13 scoring tosses already this season. But UCLA isn’t really equipped to take advantage of that weakness, currently ranking 118th nationally in pass offense.

Will Wazzu have enough pride to suck it up, stuff the Bruin rushing attack and make this one interesting? Heck, might as well try to force a shootout, it’s the best approach to take.

◊ Sorry Glenn, there’s always someone with a camera

Remember rocker Glenn Danzig, the lead singer for the band that carries his name? If not, let me refresh your memory:

That was back in the early 90’s. Here’s Glenn today, wearing his own band’s t-shirt and lugging kitty litter to his car:

After seeing this, I’m convinced that somewhere there’s a picture of Dave Mustaine cleaning out a port-a-potty. Please, interwebs, give that treasure to me.

◊ Grab an older guy’s hand and avoid that shit on the ground

Here’s an epic excerpt from a Dallas Morning News interview with former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer. Here he shares some of his fondest memories of playing Texas every year in the Cotton Bowl:

Well, it’s me telling those freshmen that have never been down that ramp to watch where Bevo’s been because it will be a big pile, and I don’t want you to step in it. I told the rookies to grab the hand of a veteran and they will lead you down, because there will be so many stars in your eyes that you won’t even look down to see all of that stuff.  To go on that field is a great excitement and atmosphere, but nothing tops being in the locker room after winning the ball game. (Dallas Morning News)

Now that I think about it, I guess getting shit on his cleats would be pretty damn demoralizing for an Oklahoma freshman participating in his first Red River Shootout.

Josh Shirley disgraces himsely at UCLA, but gets a reset at U-Dub

A little less than two weeks ago I speculated whether or not UCLA had to officially release three of its prized football recruits (Josh Shirley, Paul Richardson and Shaquille Richardson) after barring them from enrolling in school this fall.  UCLA’s actions came after the trio were arrested on suspicion of stealing another student’s purse.

First off, I can say for certain that the purse in question did NOT belong to Nikola Dragovic, the marshmallowy soft member of the UCLA men’s basketball team.   Secondly, it turns out UCLA did end up granting the three football players their official releases.

However, I’m still of the belief that the school didn’t need to, their actions up to that point had already voided the LOI’s, thus making Shirley and the two Richardsons recruitable players again. But that’s all neither here nor there.

There’s now been official confirmation from Washington that Shirley has enrolled there and will start his Husky career this fall:

Washington football coach Steve Sarkisian announced today that Josh Shirley, an incoming freshman student-athlete from Fontana, Calif., has signed a financial aid agreement and will join the Husky football team when players report to fall camp on Aug. 8.

“We are very aware of the circumstances surrounding Josh,” said Sarkisian. “We have done our due diligence and truly feel that this is not indicative of his true character or the way that he was raised. We are excited about the opportunity Josh has to excel on the football field, in the classroom and in his personal life in our environment, around our people at the University of Washington.” (University of Washington)

I’m a pretty easy going kind of guy, I’m all for a teenager being given a second chance if he owns up to a knuckleheaded move.  But has Shirley even had the time to own up to anything?  It seems like Sarkisian had this kid’s ass enrolled only moments after Rick Neuheisel got through putting his boot to it.

How about letting the kid cool out for a year at a junior college?  If no purses come up stolen at the school, then it’s all well and good, Josh learned his lesson and it’s on to a D-I program.  But instead, Shirley’s now enrolled in his second Pac-10 school this month.  And I’m sure he’s learned his lesson.

College football notebook 7/13

In the notebook today we have a basketball school getting serious about football recruiting, a quarterback getting back on the radar screen and why UCLA’s trio of disgraced freshmen weren’t given formal releases…

North Carolina re-secures Russell, bags other top prospects

Don’t look now, but North Carolina is starting to make some serious inroads on the recruiting trail.  Butch Davis has secured six verbal commitments in the past ten days:

7/2: DB Kameron Jackson out of Madison, AL
7/5: OL Jamar Lewter out of Washington, DC
7/7: DB Darien Rankin out of Salisbury, NC
7/9: RB/LB Christian Russell out of Raeford, NC
7/10: QB Marquise Williams out of Charlotte, NC
7/11: OL Landon Turner out of Harrisonburg, VA

The commitments of Lewter And Turner were a couple of great gets, as Lewter sports standing offers from Auburn, Clemson, Pittsburgh and USC (among many others) while Turner’s offer list is highlighted by Florida, LSU, Michigan State and Virginia Tech.

Russell’s pledge is actually a re-commitment that appears to end his recruiting saga.  While playing for Fayetteville (NC) Westover High last season, he gave a verbal commitment to the Tar Heels.  But then his coach, Milton Butts, decided to leave Westover to take the Hoke County High job just down the road.

Not only did Russell end up following Butts over to Hoke, but at his coach’s behest he also opened his recruiting back up.  Butts is no stranger to having heavily recruited players, having been the high school coach of guys like Joey Evans, Aaron Curry and Tank Tyler.  As he tells it, the demand for Russell might actually exceed that of anyone he’s previously coached.

The rising senior took unofficial visits to Alabama, Duke, N.C. State and UCLA in previous weeks and at one point it looked like he’d end up anywhere but Chapel Hill.  But Davis convinced him late last week to once again give some verbal love to the Heels.

As a junior, Russell not only tallied 136 tackles but also ran for 1,728 yards and 23 touchdowns.  He’ll probably translate into a linebacker on the next level, but then again, you never can tell.  I thought Allen Bradford would end up at linebacker at USC, and we see how that turned out.

Speaking of the Tar Heel linebacking corp, All-ACC first teamer Quan Sturdivant was arrested a few days back for possession of weed.  Sturdivant toyed with the idea of entering the NFL draft before deciding to return for his senior campaign.  Now his availability for the season opening tilt with LSU in Atlanta is in doubt.

Marve is back on the radar screen

Quarterback Mitch Mustain transferred from one BCS conference school to another one and was never heard from again. Robert Marve did the same, leaving Miami and ending up at Purdue.

After having to rehab a torn ACL during his mandatory sit out season, Marve appears to have avoided Mustain’s fate. Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.com reported today that Marve will be Purdue’s No. 1 quarterback when preseason drills start in August.

Marve had a good spring practice but didn’t necessarily make sophomore Caleb TerBush irrelevant in the quarterback race.  But now he’ll get the first team snaps in preparation for the season opener on Sept. 4 in South Bend.

Neuheisel kicks three incoming freshmen off the team…so does UCLA need to grant them releases?

Coming out of Fontana (CA) Kaiser High last season, linebacker Josh Shirley was one of the nation’s most sought after recruits.  Miami, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Tennessee and every top school on the West Coast pursued him hard. In the end he decided to go with UCLA over Washington.

Wide receiver Paul Richardson and defensive back Shaquille Richardson were also highly coveted members of what turned out to be a pretty damn good recruiting effort by Rick Neuheisel.  Once the dust had settled, Rivals had it ranked as the nation’s 8th best.

But it appears that the three players might never wear powder blue and gold after they were all arrested for allegedly stealing another student’s purse in late June.  Neuheisel kicked the trio out of summer school and also barred them from enrolling for the fall quarter.  Apparently they MIGHT be allowed to enroll in January if certain unspecified requirements are met.

Reports also said that the three could face additional discipline from the UCLA Dean of Students. That’s the part the confuses me, though.  If they’re kicked out of summer school and barred from enrolling in the fall, what discipline could the crusty old dean enforce?  Are these guys even attending UCLA at this point?  And if one is kicked off a team, doesn’t that require a formal release?

I did some digging on the NCAA web site to figure this thing out.  Here goes: there has been no formal announcement from UCLA saying the players have been released from their scholarships because there doesn’t have to be.  Once an incoming student-athlete is barred from enrolling, the letter of intent that he signed is rendered null and void.

Therefore, Shirley and the two Richardsons are free to go wherever they want to. Of course, that would be contingent on another university accepting them in the wake of criminal charges.  And no other school will comment because the trio now qualify as recruitable athletes.