BREAKING: NICK SABAN ANGRY. SEC institution presidents are expected to vote on measures to curb oversigning today in Destin. In related news, Nick Saban "blamed the media for making oversigning an issue." According to GVX, he did this "angrily," which of course means he was breathing and awake. But you know, Mr. Angry Pants may have a point:
"You're going to mess up kids' opportunities by doing what you're doing. You think you're helping them, but you're really hurting them. It took one case where somebody didn't get the right opportunity. You need to take the other 100 cases where somebody got an opportunity."
FROM CRADLE TO ALTAR TO GRAVE. I meant to include this yesterday and forgot, but Dan Mullen has learned to love cowbells:
"When I arrived at Mississippi State a couple of years ago, the cowbell was sort of an amusing thing to me," Mullen said. "That all changed when I learned the symbolism and tradition of it. This past season when I buried one of my players (defensive end Nick Bell, who died of cancer), his mom stood over his coffin and rang her cowbell as they closed the coffin. It gave me a totally new perspective of what the cowbell means to Mississippi State University."
That's likely appalling to people who don't understand football or the SEC, but folks in Arkansas are nodding their heads and whispering woo pig sooie.
YEAH, I'VE HEARD THAT, BUT LET'S NOT. This Scout article on the new celebration penalty for 2011 concludes with the standard line "Act like you've been there before." Lots of folks say that -- shoot, I may have said it myself -- but now I'm wondering. Where's the fun in that? I think I'd prefer to watch somebody act like they just won the lottery, cheated death, vanquished terrorism, and saved the world than just finished lunch.
NOT YOUR AVERAGE KIDS. AVERAGE BERRIES. Do these Berry twins look and act like they're 13? No.
HT: Mr. SEC.
REDEFINING TERMS. Maurice Couch, who could be the most important recruit of this year's class, has arrived, and he has goals:
"We have great potential to be really good up front, and we’re just missing one piece, and that’s where I come in. When I leave Knoxville, I want to be remembered. I don’t want to be just a guy who came in, played and left."
Last year? Sack of potatoes. This year? Couch potato.
ETCETERAS. Eddrick Loften is still not yet enrolled, but he says he has the scores and is just waiting on the NCAA Clearinghouse. . . . Cuonzo Martin's wife has an exclusive Facebookish website called MarriedToTheGame.net, which is for coaches' wives. After the GVX article today, I imagine they're busy vetting new membership requests because folks are like that. . . . Derek Dooley does not want to ban Twitter and would prefer that his "players just learn how to manage it responsibly." . . . Dooley wants to get fired for losing, and this quote is not taken out of context for comedic effect at all. . . . In other surprising news, The SEC dominates the BCS.