College Sports

I hate to use that overused line, but I can’t seem to help myself. I am so ready for kickoff that I am counting down the seconds at this point.  So many games, so little time!

If you’re like me, it’s hard to keep up with what game is on what channel at what time. I mean, we all can keep up with our favorite teams, but I want to get all the good games (is there any other kind of college football game?).

Anyway, last year I found this website that lists all the games that are going to be televised. College football on TV will kick off this Thursday at 7 pm eastern on ESPN when South Carolina travels to North Carolina State, a little SEC-ACC action to get the season started. But the highlight of Day One of the season will be #14 Oregon vs. #16 Boise State (10:15 pm, ESPN).

Saturday’s action has some games that are guaranteed to kick the season off in high gear.  ABC will televise #13 Georgia at #11 Oklahoma State at 3:30 pm. This may be one of the best matchups of the weekend, and I have no idea what to expect. Georgia has been so Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde over the last few seasons that you just don’t know which Dawgs will show up.

But the game I (and most of the nation) am looking forward to the most is #5 Alabama vs. #7 Virginia Tech in the Chick-Fil-A College Kick-off game in Atlanta (8 pm, ABC). My gut is telling me that Alabama is ready to rock and roll… and my gut rarely lies.

I’ll have my picks of the top games in Thursday’s blog (posted well before kickoff, I promise!).

New Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin has made a point to have his players in full pads for most of the fall workouts. And not just running around in the pads, but full-out hitting. His theory is that only through full contact can the players develop the game skills they need.

Tennessee fans everywhere rejoiced. One of the gripes against the former administration was that Phillip Fulmer tended toward safety and didn’t believe in full out contact on a regular basis.

The results? Tennessee will limp into the season with a ton of injuries.

Now,  I’m not suggesting that these injuries are solely the result of the full contact drills. Wide out Gerald Jones’ sprained ankle could have happened in any non-contact drill. And Kiffin isn’t the first coach to run full contact drills throughout the fall.

But for a team with limited depth, I’m not sure it was the right direction to go. Florida and Southern Cal can have a few good men go down and the next guy in line is ready to step up to the plate. But at UT, the ranks were thin, the talent even more thin, and now things are heading down a slippery slope.

Today’s news was perhaps the biggest hit yet: Center Josh McNeil will have surgery on his knee, and his future is in doubt.

Coaches have acknowledged all fall that they have ridden McNeil hard, and that his knees were in rough shape. Now they are looking at one of the leaders of the line being done for the year. And with the huge (continuing) question mark at quarterback for the Vols, losing an experienced center isn’t a best case scenario.

So the Vols will limp into their opener against Western Kentucky on Sept. 5. The Hilltoppers most likely won’t provide the competition level that will show UT’s weaknesses and holes, but with UCLA the following week, and pre-season #1 Florida after that, well, let’s just say Kiffin may be regretting some of those full speed drills.

I’m a firm believer that pre-season polls are junk. Not even worth the cyberspace they are emailed through. I think this point was driven home at the SEC meetings when Tim Tebow wasn’t a unanimous All-SEC pick. Nope, South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier voted for Jevon Snead of Ole Miss. But Wait! Spurrier didn’t actually vote himself! Nope, he handed that duty off to one of his minions.

And that, my friends, is the dirty little (not so) secret of sports balloting, especially coaches polls. They, for the most part, don’t vote. Nope, they pass off that honor to an administrative assistant, grad student, or the sports information office.

When I worked in sports information, I voted for Top 25’s in virtually every sport, despite the fact I was not particularly well-versed in every team in the nation in, oh, croquet. Since most polls come out on Monday, the scene usually played out like this:

(SUNDAY NIGHT, DINNER TIME. TELEPHONE RINGS)

Me: Hello?

Coach: Hey, lowly SID. I need you to phone in my ballot.

Me: Ok. What’s your top 25.

Coach: Heck, I don’t care. Just make sure you don’t put State U. anywhere in the top 15.

Me: But aren’t they undefeated?

Coach: I don’t care, I have to recruit against them. And I hate their coach’s hair color.

Me: Anything else?

Coach: Naw, just make sure to put us in there somewhere.

Me: But we haven’t won a game!

Coach: Yeah, but if we receive a vote, it gets us in the paper.

I wish I was making this up. Really, I do. But this is how it goes at virtually every school. So excuse me if I don’t really care who is voted where in whatever poll. Frankly, I’ll just let them battle it out on the field and into the playoffs.

(Oh yeah, forgot there is no playoff in D-1A. Guess those SID/administrative assistant/grad student ballots really matter!)

Yep, College Sports View is back and ready to go.

Sure, we took a (very long) break. Life happens…  but with football season just days away, I started getting that old itch, the one that says, “Everyone is dying to know your point of view, so give it to them!”

And here we go.

I’ll probably write a lot about the SEC. Don’t take it personally if you are a fan of other conferences. The SEC is what I know, where I live, and what I love. But I love all of college sports, not just the SEC. Heck, not even just D-1, or the Football Bowl Subdivision, or the Bowl Championship Division, or the Football Bowl Championship Subdivision Division, or whatever the heck the NCAA wants to call it now.

Personally, I’ll stick with D-1A and D-1AA, D-2, etc.

You got something you want me to write about? Just let me know. Leave me a note. Send up smoke signals. Something. I’ll write about it. Ok, it should be about sports. I mean, if you are looking for a kick butt recipe for shrimp gumbo, you are hitting the wrong site. I mean, I could make one up, but seriously, ask my spouse. My cooking could (literally) kill you.

So there you have it. We’re back and ready to go.

Just a few weeks ago, the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) asked its members to stop recruiting younger and younger prospects. Coaches appeared to agree, including Kentucky’s Billy Gillispie, who has been the beneficiary of several of the youngsters announcing their plans.

The NABC said it strongly encouraged coaches from asking for commitments, or offering scholarships.

Well, that didn’t last long.

Florida has accepted a commitment from a player who will be entering 10th grade this fall, and Gillispie is backing off his earlier statement.

According to Gillispie, “I’m a company man. But I’m not going to get beat up as far as competing. You always want to try to do what the coaches’ organization asks. But you’re not going to sit by the wayside while other people are getting ahead of you.”

Baloney.

First of all, as I stated in a column on May 17, (newborn-commits-to-kentucky), these commitments aren’t worth the paper they are written on. Either side can back out with no reprisals. But the situation is getting out of hand. Eighth graders are being recruited… 13 years old! Come on!

And now Gillispie is crying about getting beat out by the SEC’s head “Billy” (Donovan) for a 9th grader. Yeah, whatever!

Unless the NCAA and president Myles Brand get a handle on this thing quickly, it will escalate even more. The organization can’t afford to sit in it’s ivory tower offices in Indiana and shake it’s head “no.”

The NABC tried, but it has no real power over it’s coaches. No one wants more NCAA legislation, but if the coaches are going to push it, the NCAA needs to push back… and soon.

Rising senior Billy Humphrey, Georgia’s second leading scorer this past season at 12.2 points per game, has been kicked off the Bulldog squad, according to head coach Dennis Felton.

Humphrey, a 20 year old, was arrested early Tuesday morning and charged with DUI, failure to maintain his lane, and the underage purchase of alcohol. He was taken to the Gwinnett County jail at 3:32 a.m.

It was his third arrest in less than a year.

“I am disappointed in Billy,” said Felton. “We’ve worked really hard with him in the past to see that he succeeds, but I feel that it’s now best for our program to move forward without him.”

Humphrey played in 30 of the Bulldogs 34 games this past season, starting 28. In addition to his 12.2 points per game, he averaged 3.5 rebounds. He shot 37% from behind the 3-point line and 83% from the free throw line, both bests on the Georgia team.

The part of this story that grabs me is Dennis Felton. Felton was hired to clean up a Georgia basketball program that was running wild under former coach Jim Harrick. Harrick had turned the Bulldog program into a joke, with accusations of academic fraud. In five seasons at UGa, Felton has a record of 75-79, a winning percentage of .487. On the surface, that looks bad, but look a little deeper and see that Felton has had an uphill struggle to rebuild the program. Players have been dismissed and transfered.

This past year was supposed to be the turning point for the Dogs. They had the players to make a run, four starters returning. The previous year they had finished 19-14 and advanced to the NIT.

So what happened? Before the season even started, forward Takais Brown, the team’s leading returning scorer, and guard Mike Mercer, one of the top athletes on the team, were both kicked off. Brown (now playing professionally in Finland) had failed several drug tests, and Mercer (who transfered to South Florida) was dismissed for being a disruption. He had previously been suspended for not adhering to academic policies.

To add insult to injury, reserve center Rashad Singleton quit in January because he wanted more playing time, and freshmen forwards Jeremy Jacob and Chris Barnes each suffered season-ending injuries.

So Georgia entered the rugged SEC schedule with one arm tied behind it’s back. But a run through the conference tournament saved Felton’s job… at least for now. Georgia, the sixth-seed in the East, won the tournament with a 66-57 victory over Arkansas.

In short, Felton was hired to bring discipline to a program that lacked it. He is doing that, but it isn’t easy. He’s made some recruiting mistakes that have haunted him. Attrition is a problem in the program (players have transferred out in addition to those kicked off). This isn’t a time when schools can sit by and let that happen, as the NCAA will impose penalties for lack of academic progress within the program.

But I hope Georgia doesn’t bail out on Felton (like many schools do!). Given a full chance, Felton will win at UGa… he’s a winner, and he’ll do it the right way.

Today is our nation’s birthday. We’re 232 years old today, and maybe we’re showing our age a little bit. But today is the day to celebrate that age and all our accomplishments. We spend today with family and friends, cooking out, on the water, playing games, whatever.

There are a lot of sports traditions that go along with the fourth. When I was a kid, my family spent virtually every fourth at an Atlanta Braves game. We’d get to the old Atlanta-Fulton County stadium, grab some hot dogs and head to our seats. After the game, we’d stay for the fireworks.

My favorite year was 1985, when a game with the Mets went into extra innings and didn’t end until after 4 a.m…. and the Atlanta brass shot the fireworks off anyway! I wasn’t at the game, but was watching it at home. When I saw that they were shooting off the boomers anyway, I just started laughing. The stadium was located in the middle of a neighborhood, hard by I-75. Can you imagine waking up to that noise? The Braves lost the game in 19 innings, a game marked by a pitcher (Rick Camp) having to hit for himself and tying the game up (again) in the 17th inning. I’ll never forget the dirty look he got from the ump as he crossed home plate.

Anyway, I digress. We all have our traditions on this day, and a great many of our traditions, and memories, involve sports in one way or another. And these memories can evoke powerful emotions. Not long after my husband and I first met, I took him to Atlanta for a game on the 4th. When the fireworks started, I couldn’t believe it… I got emotional. I remembered my dad taking me to the games, teaching me how to keep score. The July 4, 1985 games was one of his last to see before he died. He didn’t live to meet my hubby, but his love of baseball, and sports in general, now is being passed down to my little girl, through me.

So today, I think about the traditions of sport. There is a lot of bad in sport, but at the end of the day it unites us in a unique bond that transcends generations.

What’s the old ad? “Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet!” Amen!

China’s government has denied attempting to politicize the Olympic process, after receiving a letter from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) expressing regret over remarks made about Tibet and the Dalai Lama.

Tibet’s Communist Party boss, Zhang Qingli, was speaking at a ceremony honoring the Olympic torch as it passed through Lhasa. The remarks came at a ceremony marking the reuniting of the flame with a separate flame that had been carried to the top of Mount Everest. He reasserted China’s hard line on supporters of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader who has been in exile in India.

“The sky above Tibet will never change,” said Zhang. “The red five-star flag will always fly above this land. We can definitely smash the separatist plot of the Dalai Lama clique completely.”

So, China is accused of politicizing the Olympics, the world’s largest sporting stage?

Duh!

Isn’t that what virtually every nation has done since the era of the Modern Olympics has begun? Isn’t that what Hitler did in 1936? Isn’t that what the Soviets were doing in 1980 (even though there was a U.S.-led boycott)? And the L.A. Olympics in 1984 also had a jingoistic flavor (despite a reciprocal USSR-led boycott).

The Olympics provide a stage for nations to say, “Look at us! Look what we can do, what we have done!” But because China’s policies are so militaristic in form, so strident and outspoken in speech, it has a magnifying glass over it. The IOC “tut-tuts” and shakes it’s head. “Not what we expected, we are disappointed,” the organizers cluck.

Where were these people when the decision was made to place the Olympics in China? Did they not have any idea that China would use the Games as a “coming out” party? Did they think by sending the Olympics to China, it’s human rights atrocities would simply vanish? That the nation would think, “Hey, let’s clean up our act and get with the democratic program!”

Sheesh, my five year old could have seen this one coming!

Georgia’s bulldog mascot, UGA VI, passed away last week of congestive heart failure. He died at his home in Savannah.

Now normally I would probably not write about a mascot… especially one at a rival school. But Uga is different.

Uga (the name is pronounced uhg-uh, and is a reference to Georgia’s school initials, UGa), is probably the best known mascot in the nation. He has been proclaimed the nation’s best by no less than Sports Illustrated. The lineage, English bulldog, is secure, according the the University.

Uga VI was heavier than any previous Georgia mascot at 65 pounds. He outweighed his dad by 20 pounds. He first took the field for the Bulldogs when he was less than a year old, in 1999. During his tenure, Georgia’s football team won two SEC Championships (2002 and 2005)and had a record of 87-27.

But football was not the only arena where Georgia saw success during Uga VI’s reign. All told, 19 of Georgia’s 33 national championships came during this period.

Here are some quotes on the passing of Uga VI:

“This is a very sad day for the entire Bulldog Nation. Uga has always been such a strong figure associated the University of Georgia nationwide. Uga VI was a damn good mascot and a damn good dog. He was an outstanding representative of our fine institution.” Athletic Director Damon Evans.

“Uga VI served with extraordinary courage and heart as a beloved University of Georgia mascot. He was a true symbol of the toughness and competitiveness of our athletic teams, and was a rallying figure for the entire Bulldog Nation.” University of Georgia President Dr. Michael F. Adams

“Uga VI was indeed a damn good dog. Alumni of all ages had a special relationship with him, and he always drew a crowd of alumni faithful, whether at the Sugar Bowl, the Homecoming Parade, or simply walking into Sanford Stadium before leading us to victory. We will miss him and all he stood for.” Trey Paris, President of the Georgia Alumni Association

Like all previous Uga’s, Uga VI will be buried in a marble vault in the Southwest corner of Sanford Stadium, Georgia’s football stadium, with his predecessors.

Justin Gatlin, one of the world’s fastest sprinters, has given up after losing his most recent appeal to compete at the U.S. Olympic trials.

Gatlin, the defending Olympic 100-meter champion, lost his most recent appeal on June 26, and has decided not to further the case to the Supreme Court. He will continue to seek monetary damages from the U.S. Olympic Committee, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and other defendants. He claims that his first doping violation, in 2001, was flawed because he was taking prescribed medication for attention deficit disorder.

So now Gatlin will sit out the remainder of his suspension. I’m not surprised at the result of his various lawsuits. The different committees have had to take strong stances on illegal performance enhancing drugs. The violations worldwide in all areas of sports have been massive, and in some cases have threatened to do serious harm to the sports themselves. Look at cycling. It is a shell of what it once was, due to allegations and positive drug tests.

And while I have long been a Justin Gatlin fan, I think that to allow him to run would be sending a horrible message. His argument that his first violation was due to ADD medicine may be true. But even if it is, the second violation is the one that got him suspended for the duration. He knew what would happen if he was found guilty of any sort of drug violation. He associated himself with those who pushed performance enhancing drugs, all the while maintaining he was “clean.”

It caught up with him. It’s a shame, I doubt he needed the drugs to win. But he did the crime, and now he needs to do the time.