Talking Points: Bagging Bodies and Cuonzo Martin's New Deal

by Joel Hollingsworth on May 12, 2011 7:13 AM EDT in Rocky Top Talking Points

The morning Talking Points:

The headline on this teaser link to a paywall story to which I don't have access (whew!) says that Jim Chaney called wide receivers coach Charlie Bagget "a collector of bodies." Well, we do have bodies.
Tennessee has released the details of Cuonzo Martin's deal. Follow the link for the particulars, but one of the most interesting provisions is the one that automatically extends the term of his five-year contract for the same number of years the program will have to endure NCAA sanctions. Heh. Somebody better draft that part right in the actual contract, or ol' Cuonzo just may be able to get himself lifetime tenure just by breaking the rules every couple of years. Loopholes for the lifetime achievement! (Yes, it will be limited to those specifically handed down this June, it will specifically exclude Martin's own intentional wrongdoing and probably his own negligence to boot, and the MOU specifically says that Martin can actually be fired for breaking the rules, but see, that sentence isn't nearly as amusing now, is it?)

After flirting with football for spring practice and once getting tackled by two offensive linemen during an interception return, UT basketball point guard Melvin Goins is hanging it up.

Derek Dooley has decided to move football practices this fall to mornings:

"I think the one thing that is evident is, we made a decision to kind of take the morning for football and the afternoon for school and I think there's a lot of reasons that make it a good thing," Dooley said. "Number 1 is, it's a lot better, I think it's going to be good for academics. They'll be up, they'll go to class and they won't have to hit the alarm. And then they can roll right into their study time. I think there's a value of getting the football out of the way, so to speak, before they can attack their day. "We've done a lot of research, a lot of diligence. I've been thinking about doing this for two years, three years. So this decision was not made on a whim."

Also important is the hope that this will mean more guys are getting home and to bed before the gremlins can attack.

C.J. Watson, Gibril Wilson, and Turk McBride are among UT's graduates this year, thanks to the Renewing Academic Commitment program.

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