SEC notes and links for Saturday:
NCAA REBUKES DANNY SHERIDAN – From Andy Bitter of the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer: The NCAA has heard enough from Danny Sheridan. College football’s governing body, which usually refrains from commenting about ongoing investigations, saw fit to release a statement Friday regarding the oddsmaker’s claims of knowing of a “third-party bag man” who paid Auburn quarterback Cam Newton’s family. After speaking with Sheridan recently, it made an unusual move by publicly rebuking his claims.
“Danny Sheridan continues to make vague, unsubstantiated claims without backing them up with proof,” the release read. “Contrary to his claims of having an inside source with details on the Auburn investigation, the NCAA has not provided information to Sheridan or anyone else.”
LEE SET TO START FOR LSU – Les East of The Advocate in Baton Rouge reports: “The arrest and subsequent suspension of LSU football players Jordan Jefferson and Josh Johns on Friday gave the Tigers some clarity one week before their season opener. They know that senior Jarrett Lee has replaced Jefferson as the starting quarterback and that Jefferson and Johns, a third-string linebacker, will be unavailable for the indefinite future. They also know that freshman wide receiver Jarvis Landry and sophomore offensive tackle Chris Davenport, who were interviewed by police along with Jefferson and Johns in a bar fight but weren’t charged, remain on the team.
POLICE DEFEND ARRESTS – Glenn Gulbeau of Shreveport Times reports: “We interviewed certain individuals all of which were present at the scene and all of whom provided statements which corroborated, leading to Mr. Jordan Jefferson and Mr. Joshua Johns being arrested for the crime of second degree battery,” Baton Rouge Chief of Police Dewayne White said at a brief press conference Friday.
LSU PROGRAM ROCKED BY QB ARREST – Jim Kleinpeter of Times-Picayune writes: Miles didn’t have a chance to prepare his team for what it was going to find out while the players were still in class. Baton Rouge police issued the arrest warrants at mid-morning. By 11:45 a.m., Jefferson and Johns had turned themselves in at the East Baton Rouge Parish prison and bonded out at $5,000 apiece. Both players were suspended indefinitely by the school.
A MSU PLAYER CRAZIER THAN SIDNEY – Garry Parrish of CBS Sports writes: “It appears so, yes. His name is D.J. Gardner. He was dismissed early Friday — less than 24 hours after he tweeted that the Mississippi State coaches are “bitches” who tried to “(expletive)” him over. Gardner never really explained why he thinks the Mississippi State coaches are “bitches” or what they did to make him think they were trying to “(expletive)” him over. He just called them “liars,” misspelled a bunch of other words and generally let loose. Consequently, Gardner’s career at Mississippi State is over before it ever really began.
- Gardner is the fourth Mississippi State player to leave the basketball program in the last nine months. One of those, Twany Beckham, is at Kentucky.
Mike Hamilton
MIKE HAMILTON FEELS VALIDATED – Andrew Gribble of Knoxville News-Sentinel reports: But as much as Hamilton has separated himself from UT and the spotlight since his resignation, he still had a sense of validation and closure when the NCAA upheld the university’s self-imposed penalties and issued no further sanctions.
“You want it to come on out and want to be as you hoped it would be,” Hamilton said in his first public comments since his resignation. “Given what we have gone through, the compliments the university received for how we interacted with the NCAA during the infractions process were validating when it relates to our compliance.”
- Tennessean poll: Did NCAA give UT a break? Right now, over 70 percent say no.
BAMA BACKUP CENTER TEARS ACL – From Cecil Hurt of Tuscaloosa News: The University of Alabama men’s basketball team, which will enter the 2011-12 season with high expectations, suffered a serious blow this week when sophomore center Moussa Gueye suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament while playing in a pick-up game. Dr. Lyle Cain performed surgery on Gueye’s injured left knee Friday morning. The immediate prognosis was indefinite, but an ACL injury could sideline the 7-foot center from Senegal for months. Gueye also missed last season at Lake Land (Ill.) Junior College with a leg injury.
NICK SABAN THE SEC’S ULTIMATE HIRE – So says Kevin Scarbinsky of the Birmingham News. He writes: You can argue that no program with this kind of tradition had ever landed a coach with this kind of resume. Saban had won two SEC championships and one BCS title in five years at LSU. He’d been named SEC and national coach of the year. His past performance turned out to be that rarest of commodities – a guarantee of future results. Alabama made an unheard-of investment in a college football coach when it hired Saban away from the NFL’s Miami Dolphins in January of 2007 for $32 million over eight years, with no buyout on the coach’s end if he chose to leave. But as AD Mal Moore said at the time, ‘We had to be right.”
SABAN KEEPING QUARTERBACK CONTEST A MYSTERY – Michael Casagrande reports for Chattanooga Times Free Press: Just a week remains before Alabama kicks off with Kent State, and the prevailing question remains. Who plays quarterback this season? That answer is still a mystery, and coach Nick Saban isn’t tipping his hand yet. Both AJ McCarron and Phillip Sims are expected to share snaps next Saturday, but not only who goes first but how the playing time is divided isn’t known yet.
“I think when you make that decision, you try to do it with the effectiveness of the players in mind,” Saban said. “I don’t want either guy if they do play or when they do play that they think if they go in and make a mistake that the other guy is going to come in. That is not how it is going to be managed.”
AARON MURRAY HAS ISAIAH CROWELL’S BACK – From Chip Towers of AJC: Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray said freshman tailback Isaiah Crowell need not worry about forgetting an assignment when the Bulldogs face No. 5 Boise State next Saturday. If Crowell is not sure what to do, all he has to do is ask.
“Especially in the first few games,” Murray said this week. “Those are going to be like home games for us, without a bunch of crowd noise. So we should be able to communicate a lot and I think that’s going to help with him getting his feet wet. I told him, ‘I’m right there with you. No matter what, you just look at me.’ I’m right beside him most of the time anyway or he’s right behind me.”
AUBURN WANTS TO SHINE ON SPECIAL TEAMS – Jay G. Tate of Montgomery Advertiser reports: Auburn’s special-teams development system already has some famous alumni. Wideout Emory Blake made his name as an unusually aggressive containment specialist, also called a “gunner,” on kickoff and punt coverage. He parlayed that work into a high-profile job at wideout last season. Three of the most celebrated special teams players from 2010 — inside coverage specialists Demetruce McNeal, Chris Davis and Craig Sanders — have seen their playing time increase dramatically during fall camp.
