THERE'S A NEW LAWYER IN TOWN, MR. SLIVE, AND HE'S GOT HIS OWN AGENDA THANK YOU. The SEC spring meetings are underway, and Derek Dooley brought his own agenda, complete with a presumably laminated exhibit full of data to support his position that there aren't enough coaches in college football. According to Dooley's chart, the coach-to-player ratio is highest for football when it should be the lowest due to the scrutiny the sport receives. Football is 8.5:1 unless you add full squads and staffs, in which case it's 10.5-12:1. The NFL, by the way, has a ratio of something more like 3:1, and those coaches don't have to recruit and don't have to monitor academics and off the field behavior of teenagers away from home for the very first time. Dooley makes a pretty good case, but the issue isn't on Mike Slive's agenda, so only us fans are listening.
CHILLIN' IN DESTIN. WISH YOU WERE HERE. Another topic of interest at the spring meetings is the abolition of divisional play for basketball. You'll recall that the issue arises primarily out of seeding the SEC tournament according to divisions, giving worse teams in the West byes over better teams in the East. Cuonzo Martin is playing it smart and just listening, baby. Just listening.
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU'VE WON A FABULOUS OPPORTUNITY TO SPEND SOME MONEY! Tennessee has turned ticket sales over to IMG, which is going to transition from just taking orders for tickets that sell themselves to something unspecified but presumably more aggressive. Let's get this out of the way first: According to the GVX article, IMG will "be actively selling tickets for games inside the football stadium and basketball arena," which either (1) duh, because where else are the games played, or (2) seems to indicate they've never had the chicken and egg discussion because selling an item needed to get inside a venue from inside that venue doesn't sound like a Recipe for Success (TM). Also, what are they going to do to more aggressively to sell these things? Will they be going door to door, smiling large, and flipping you off when you tell them to leave for the fifth time? Will they be dressing in forest green skirts and setting up a card table outside the Kroger on Saturday mornings? Will they be giving away a BIG SCREEN TV provided you subject yourself to a 90 minute presentation before learning that the prize is a film projector and inflatable mattress? Oh, we could go on, and you should in the comment section.
INVASIVE GELLIN'. Jacques Smith had another foot surgery, but it was "precautionary," according to Dooley, meaning they just wanted to go in there and wrap some duct tape around the thing for the fall just to give it a little more strength.
MORE NEW ARRIVALS AND ITINERARIES. Safety Janzen Jackson's been on campus doing unspecified things that Dooley hopes will result in him enrolling and rejoining the team in early July when the second session of summer school begins. Tennessee has a ton of DBs flooding the backfield, but we need this guy. Tiny Richardson appears to have lined up his last duck and is expected to be on campus today. Six-foot-seven, 265-pound Cameron Clear is still hell-bent on playing as a tight end for Tennessee, and he'll apparently get his shot.