Sorry for the lateness here. It's Friday, I guess, and the Nutt stuff opens up the wormholes.
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First, one wonders if Prewett and Darby - one of them a middle-aged physical therapist and the other with the financial stability of a government office job - are "roommates" in the sense of the old Saturday Night Live sketch, like those girls at my last day job (not that there's anything wrong with that, I hasten to add: those were fun girls, if not the most pin-up worthy, a description that could just as well apply to our gal Teresa).
Anyway, Prewett and Darby's relationship is immaterial, but the Hog Blogger does deliver a couple excerpts of the e-mails taken from the aforemention computer via the ever-popular FOIA, dealing with the timing, knowledge and OMG dastardly cover-up of the infamous Prewett-to-Mustain e-mail in December, and, most interestingly, these two, the first shortly after Mike Shula was dumped by Alabama:
To: [Sherry] Hamilton
Teresa just said if the job is offered, [Nutt] is taking it. He will not interview. It will have to be offered. He wants the job from a recruiting standpoint. It recruits itself. I still think they will go after Spurrier first.
[...]
From: Darby
To: Diana Nutt
[Former local writer] Dana Caldwell is going to be in Fayetteville on Wednesday, June 20 and has planned a happy hour gathering at Hutch's in Colt Square...He keeps talking about filming some documentary on the football program. Do you know anybody that could go there and try to discreetly listen in on the conversation and take pictures with their cell phone.
The record with excerpts from all the e-mails, if you have some perverse interest in the conspiracy-fueled intensity with which such banal trivialities are pursued, are in a PDF here. I'm oddly comforted in some dark way that actual practice and the impending season haven't beaten back the rabid dogs of dementia. A good conspiracy theory knows no bounds.
On the field, if anyone is interested, the pain came in big doses Thursday, the first practice in pads, when Ben Cleveland sat out with a stinger, past injury casualty Peyton Hillis stayed on the ground a little too long following a big hit and, worst, essential deep threat Marcus Monk may have torn cartilege in his knee. He'll have an MRI today, then a month to get back to speed for Alabama, but even in the worst case (surgery), Nutt only expects to miss Monk for a couple of weeks of practice.
Sez Nutt:
The rest of you, beat each other senseless. You're replacable: never forget that. (I hope on some level Nutt identified his "playmakers" from the "impact player" designation on NCAA Football. No doubt university scientists are working on a glowing orb that follows Darren McFadden at all times)
• For the Record: A bit of non-news: the coach-backed challenge to the text message ban passed in the spring was rejected Thursday by the NCAA's rules committee. Not just rejected, actually: rejected for review, which means the Association doesn't even time to look at that shit, as our pal Saban would say.
Next target: e-mail? No links on that suggestion, just idle, reckless speculation extrapolating from the prevailing technophobia of the elite ruling class here. I'm investing in smokesignalsforbluechips.com, just in case.
Urban Meyer's next recruiting coordinator
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I've already written about Powe each of the last two days, as his two-year oddyssey back to the field is as well-documented as it is bizarre (and a credit to the tenacity of a kid who could have easily taken a well-worn road into obscurity after repeated denials and ridicule), but Strong is interesting, too, because a) he comes out of South Panola, legendary and rarely-challenged winner of 60 straight games and four straight championships in Mississippi's largest high school classification, where Strong's class never lost a game, and b) he's the "little" brother of Eddie Stong, who SEC partisans will remember as an all-league caliber punisher from much feistier Rebel defenses in the late nineties before he ran into some injury trouble. Chris is rated slightly higher (PS#2 by Phil Steele) but is big enough to move down on the line in a pinch - I've sat a folding table away from this kid, and physically, he is all the way stacked. He's can play right away, if they let him.
• Quickly...
ACC
Who dat junior Richard Goodman (seven catches in two years) has cut to the front of Florida State's wide receiver line. What does Dick's emergence mean for D'Cody Fagg? ... Maryland running back Pha'Terrell Washington is out for the year for academics ... Starting Miami linebacker Glenn Cook will miss three to four games, hopefully three or four more than starting safety Lovon Ponder will miss after showing up Wednesday on crutches ... And NC State asked its center to make calls on the secondary? Really? That's a problem, and Tom O'Brien's having none of it.
Big East
Overwhelming quarterback issues and an offensive line that was, objectively, "whipped" its first day in pads. Not a good outlook for Pittsburgh's offense ... A quick review of Rutgers' first week in camp ... FSU refugee Matt Hardrick, days after his dismissal, might be headed to South Florida ... And with the priority on its series with Southern Cal (see below), Syracuse has pulled out of games with its old Big East rival Boston College in 2011 and 2012. Jeff Jagodzinski takes this better than some others might have
Whither Sammie Stroughter? The fan favorite was MIA for vague "personal and academic" reasons again Thursday.
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Kansas has the schedule to start 4-0 without breaking a sweat - and it had better, for Mark Mangino's sake ... Beat writer contagia: it's the Missouri Columbia Tribune's turn to break out the watch-for-kickoffs-moving-back story ... He's firmly behind entrenched vets on the depth chart, but humongous tight end Jermaine Gresham is terrorizing Oklahoma's secondary ... Would-be receiver John Chiles is hanging on at quarterback for Texas ... And Texas Tech punter Jonathan LaCour is learning about those swirling Lubbock winds. Hell, Mike Leach could have told him that. That's what the Raiders want, Jonny! At least it's not raining mud.
Big Ten
What are the critics going to do to Chad Henne?, asks Lloyd Carr. Shoot him? ... The Harbaugh-"Michigan Man" tete-a-tete improbably lurches on ... Ohio State's quarterbacks are a contrast in personalities, none of which has defined itself as the starter (still, I mean) ... At least people are fainting on contact with Brandon Saine's speed ... And Dave Heller has the round-up of weird anti-Bielema sentiment after the Wisconsin coach's (completely routine, though unusually public) gag order on Jack Ikegwuonu re: the all-America corner's breaking and entering arrest last November.
Pac Ten
USC wants your East Coast recruits: the Trojans signed up Virginia in the spring, now Syracuse is in the lineup for 2011 and 2012 and Boston College commits to a home-and-home with SC in 2013 and 2014 ... The Trojans are also serious about the shotgun after losing two games on tipped passes ... Texas Tech coaching transplant Sonny Dykes is the people's choice in Arizona ... John Hunt breaks down Oregon's offense, by the numbers ... LaMarcus Coker's suspension from Tennessee, not surprisingly, was a headline in Berkeley ... And Sammie Stroughter Watch, Day Two: No word on the wide receiver's unexplained absence from Oregon State practice, though plenty of speculation, of course.
Audibles! What a concept.
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The nature of the topic of Alabama's running back situation has or shows intense or violent feeling; is ardent, fervent, vehement or excited; sharply peppery or pungent, according to Nick Saban, language cop ... Heat! replies LSU. The HEAT is on! ... Kestahn Moore is the man at running back and Florida's offense is humming, unless you, uh, count the snap from center ... 2005 uber recruit Curtis Pulley is back on the field at Kentucky, but not out of the coaches' doghouse ... Mississippi State is right on schedule under Sylvester Croom's "long-range plan," which presumably prescribes winning four SEC games in three years ... Steve Spurrier, reformer: South Carolina will review its athletic admissions process at the coach's exasperated behest ... And finally, Erik Ainge has a handle on the no-huddle.
The Rap Sheet
Crimes, misdemeanors and eligibility-crippling issues legal, academic, institutional and otherwise.
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Cleared, by the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, UCLA wide receiver coach Eric Scott, two weeks after his arrest for attempting to break into a house. "Cleared" may not be the most precise word in this case: though it was never certain whether Scott was actually in the process of burgling a home when neighbors called or he was well-acquainted with the owner of the house, the case was dropped Thursday not because of his innocence, but rather "a lack of cooperation from the witnesses and victims."
Scott is expected to be reinstated today, but the fallout from this case from UCLA's perspective is still its shaky process for background checks, which missed a series of past arrests on Scott, whatever the validity of the latest.
Guilty, according to a jury, former Northern Colorado punter Mitch Cozad, who was convicted after a five-day trial Thursday of second-degree assault for stabbing starting UNC punter Rafael Mendoza almost a year ago (Sept. 11, actually) in a "desperate bid to get the starting job." Cozad is expected to start for his new prison team, a position he could hold for up to 16 years.