Comings and goings: Football updates

The Georgia football team has seen a number of departures since the end of the season. The most recent was tackle A.J. Harmon, and he announced via Twitter this weekend that he was headed to Alabama State, an FCS school.

Here’s a quick summation of where everyone has ended up:

LB Marcus Dowtin .....TBA
RB Washaun Ealey .... Jacksonville State
WR Logan Gray ....... Colorado
OT A.J. Harmon ...... Alabama State
DE Jeremy Longo ..... Retired (injuries)
LB Nick Williams .....North Alabama

Meanwhile, Georgia picked up its seventh commitment for the 2012 class on Friday when fullback Quayvon Hicks. The Pierce County High School player is listed as a three-star prospect by Scout.com.

Here are the other commitments:

WR C.J. Curry, Flowery Branch (Three)
DE Jalen Fields, Georgia Military College (NR)
DE Leonard Floyd, Eastman (Four stars)
K Marshall Morgan, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (NR)
WR Lonnie Outlaw, Georgia Military College (NR)
TE Ty Smith, Moultrie (Three)

Fields and Outlaw are two previous signees who would have (from my understanding) two more years of eligibility.

Still chiseled, Herschel imparts his knowledge to his former team

Herschel Walker has been hanging around the Georgia football program the past two days. He met with the team early Friday morning, and according to the Twitter updates of a few players left quite an impression.

"A 49 year old man just showed the #UGA football players how it's really done. And when I say 49 year old man, I mean Herschel Walker," wrote linebacker Brandon Burrows.

"Great First workout with Hershel Walker. "Georgia Means Something!" wrote linebacker Christian Robinson.

Walker also met the media on Thursday. I had meetings in Macon on Thursday and wasn't able to attend the media availability with my Twitter buddy Walker. But staff correspondent, friend to the stars and all-around swell guy Fletcher Page was there, and here's what he filed:

ATHENS – Herschel Walker couldn’t recall the last team he spoke to the football team at Georgia as he met with the media Thursday.

With his always-busy schedule as the primary culprit for his lack of trips to Athens, Walker finally found time to return to the football grounds where he famously dominated in the early 80s.

“To be honest, I was happy they asked me to come back,” Walker, who now trains and fights in mixed martial arts, said. “Sometimes I think people forget about you when you start getting old.”

Walker, 49, is just as physically impressive as he’s ever been. He says he’s still eating one meal a day, and is still pumping out a considerable amount of push-ups and sit-ups on a daily basis. He’s currently gearing up for a match in August.

“Doctors always want to test me,” he said, pulling his shirtsleeve up a bit to reveal his right biceps muscle. “But I’m not on steroids or anything. This is all natural.”
Walker spoke to the football team on Thursday night, and plans to work out with the players on Friday.

Flexing his modest charm as much as his biceps, Walker said he wanted to lift with the team “just to show that I can work out a little bit. I’m still in a little bit of shape,” he said in a profound understatement.

“My message is going to be more staying together as a team,” Walker, who won the 1982 Heisman, said. “One of the things people don’t realize, and I tell everyone one this and I probably shouldn’t, is that I hear about all these other teams at the first of the year. I don’t know who is going to be No. 1, Alabama or who else… The thing is, who’s better is who’s going to put it on out there right now in this hot sun …

"There’s going to be days like this one when it’s going to be extremely hot, but you’ve got to go out there and get it. I love working like this here. That’s what I want to stress to the guys is sometimes it’s not going to be happy times. But that’s OK as long as you get the time in. That’s what is going to make you a champion.”

Walker gushed about every sport at Georgia, even making mention of the program’s successes in softball and equestrian. He said he keeps up with the football team “more than people would think,” and said he hopes to attend more home games in the future.

“I watch a lot of UGA football,” he said. “This past year I was kind of upset because I’d say, ‘Oh Jeez, what’s going on.’ But I’ve kept up with UGA football all the time.”

What was going on was the worst season in 14 years at Georgia. The Bulldogs finished 6-7, losing in the Liberty Bowl to Central Florida.

While Walker casually avoided a question asking for specifics on why Georgia has stumbled, he did say, “I don’t know whether anything is missing.

“I’m happy with what’s going on,” he continued. “I think they had a great recruiting year. There’s no doubt Alabama and LSU are going to be strong again. But who knows what is going to happen. Like I said, the kids got to realize, hey when you step out there between those lines anything can happen. But if you think the guy across from you is better, you let him beat you. But I look at it like he puts his helmet on just like I did, and we can go at it. I think Georgia can do well.”

A Texas-sized gesture: Rangers draft Taylor

One of the classier moves you’ll see occurred on Wednesday when the Texas Rangers used a pick in the middle of their draft to select Georgia’s Johnathan Taylor.

Taylor suffered partial paralysis in March after an outfield collision. The Rangers used their 33rd-round selection to pick Taylor. The draft lasts 50 rounds.

Coincidentally, or perhaps not, the Rangers selected UGA outfielder Zach Cone – the man Taylor collided with – with the 37th overall pick in the draft.

“I was pumped up when the Rangers told me they were thinking about drafting J.T., and then I got a call saying that they had drafted him," Cone said in a release by UGA. "I was already planning on going over to see him and now we can talk about the Rangers. This made my day, it's just awesome, and I'm so happy for him."

Georgia head coach David Perno called it a “classy move and a great gesture on the part of the Texas Rangers organization.” Perno said Taylor was in the middle of rehabilitation work when he called him after the draft pick was made.

“We’re all very proud of him,” said the player’s mother, Tandra Taylor, in the school press release. “It’s just amazing, and when he got the call, his face lit up, and we were all very excited. It was awesome news.”

Taylor is in the “Day Program” at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, after recently graduating from in-patient care. It’s uncertain that he’ll be able to walk again. He appeared in 117 games for Georgia, including 91 starts, with a career batting average of .312.

UPDATE: Texas Rangers director of scouting Kipp Fagg said drafting Taylor was "the right thing to do." His statement:

"We thought selecting Johnathan was the right thing to do. We would have drafted him either way, regardless of any other circumstances involving his injury or Zach's draft status. Our area scout in Georgia, Ryan Coe, has had a relationship with Johnathan since he was a high school player. The club has always liked his passion and ability as a player.

"A few weeks ago, myself and a couple other members of our department visited Zach Cone in Georgia in the course of normal pre-draft activity. We presented Zach with a Rangers jersey for Johnathan that had been signed by the entire club, and asked if Zach could deliver it to his teammate.

"As an organization, I think all of us are always trying to do the right thing in any situation. Taking Johnathan in the draft today, it was something we felt was right."

Summer polls: The SEC's top coaches

Since it's summer now - maybe not on the official summer calendar, but on the football one - you're going to start seeing a lot of so-called fluff. And we here at The Blog That Needs Content, we're only happy to oblige.

Down in Destin last week, a Knoxville, Tenn., radio station asked media members to vote in a poll: Name the top six football and men’s basketball coaches in the league, and then the top 12 combined.

Here were the final results:

Football Coaches

1. Nick Saban, Alabama
2. Steve Spurrier, South Carolina
3. Bobby Petrino, Arkansas
4. Les Miles, LSU
5. Gene Chizik, Auburn
6. Mark Richt, Georgia

Basketball Coaches

1. Billy Donovan, Florida
2. John Calipari, Kentucky
3. Kevin Stallings, Vanderbilt
4. Mike Anderson, Arkansas
5. Anthony Grant, Alabama
6. Mark Fox, Georgia and Rick Stansbury, Mississippi State

Top 12 Coaches Overall

1. Nick Saban, Alabama
2. Billy Donovan, Florida
3. John Calipari, Kentucky
4. Steve Spurrier, South Carolina
5. Bobby Petrino, Arkansas
6. Les Miles, LSU
7. Kevin Stallings, Vanderbilt
8. Gene Chizik, Auburn
9. Mark Richt, Georgia
10. Mike Anderson, Arkansas
11. Dan Mullen, Mississippi State
12. Anthony Grant, Alabama

Here's a link to the breakdown of votes.

And, because you know you're curious, here's how yours truly voted:

Football coaches

1. Nick Saban
2. Steve Spurrier
3. Bobby Petrino
4. Dan Mullen
5. Mark Richt
6. Les Miles

Basketball coaches

1. John Calipari
2. Billy Donovan
3. Kevin Stallings
4. Mike Anderson
5. Anthony Grant
6. Mark Fox

Top 12 coaches combined

1. Saban
2. Calipari
3. Donovan
4. Spurrier
5. Stallings
6. Anderson
7. Petrino
8. Grant
9. Mullen
10. Richt
11. Fox
12. Stansbury

A few quick bullet points:

- My criteria was basically this: If I wanted a coach for the next couple seasons, who would I want. So that allows for a bit of projecting (in the cases of Mullen and Grant) and reliance on track record (Spurrier, Richt). And it also includes what coaches did outside the SEC, such as Anderson's track record at Missouri, and Fox and Grant at mid-major schools.

- Yeah, I didn't pick Chizik, despite being a few months off winning a national championship. For the moment, I still see Gus Malzahn as the top coach on that staff, with Cam Newton and Nick Fairley also being a bigger difference than Chizik, whose career record is still just three games over .500 (27-24). But maybe he'll prove me wrong.

- Relative to each sport, it sure looks like the SEC has a deeper trove of basketball coaches at the moment. Thanks to turnover, the football coaches are heavy on unproven coaches (Derek Dooley, James Franklin, Joker Phillips) and previously successful coaches whose seats are getting hot (Richt, Houston Nutt and arguably Miles.)

All that said, while I did put a lot of thought into it, like everyone else I voted while on stakeout in a hotel lobby, possibly while hungry. So blame any major oversights on that.

A Bulldog makes the Open (again), and another gets drafted

Russell Henley is headed back to the U.S. Open.

The Macon native, who finished tied for 16th in the Open last year, qualified again on Monday. It came in dramatic fashion, as The Telegraph's Jonathan Heeter reports.

Henley just finished his senior season at Georgia, where he helped the Bulldogs reach the championship match of the NCAA tournament. Henley hasn't officially turned pro yet, but he already has one win under his belt: The Nationwide Tour's Stadion Classic, last month at the UGA golf course.

- Georgia had one current player picked on the first day of the MLB draft, and had a signee picked too.

Outfielder Zach Cone was selected with the 37th overall pick by Texas. That technically makes Cone a first-round pick, as the Rangers were picking in the so-called "sandwich" round, with a pick as compensation for losing Cliff Lee as a free agent.

“It was exciting to get the news on the plane, and it’s a great opportunity,” Cone said in a release by UGA. “I’m sure I’ll be talking with them in the next couple of days.”

Also in the compensation round, Bulldog signee Dante Bichette Jr. was picked by the New York Yankees, at 52st overall. The son of the former major league slugger, Bichette Jr. is a native of Orlando, Fla.

The draft continues Tuesday and Wednesday.

An interesting idea worth exploring: Eliminating kickoffs

Rugers head coach Greg Schiano is thinking a bit out of the box. Okay, maybe not a bit. It's way outside the box. But I like it.

Schiano is proposing a novel concept, in reaction to the serious injuries that have resulted from kickoffs. One of Schiano's players, Eric LeGrand, was paralyzed just last year.

The proposal is to eliminate kickoffs altogether, as detailed in this story in the Newark Star-Ledger. While kickoffs are an exciting play, they have also proved dangerous, thanks to players rushing at each other and colliding at high speeds.

So what replaces the kickoffs? Punts, or at least a punting situation: In every situation where there would have been a kickoff (opening play of each half, after touchdowns and field goals) the team that would have kicked off will instead have it fourth-and-15 at its own 30. Most teams would punt it away, but maybe a team would go for it, just as they do when they try an onsides kick.

“It would lead to much less impact and fewer collisions, but it would still be a way to get the game started in similar field position.” Schiano told the Star-Ledger.

There are downsides: Kickoffs are an exciting play, and years of tradition will make it hard for the sport to make such a drastic change. And punts are boring. (Sorry, Drew Butler.) Some will also argue that injuries will happen regardless.

Still, my first instinct is to say I like the idea. Beyond the health benefits, it would create excitement: A fourth-and-15 vs. an onsides kick? Give me the shotgun formation and the dynamic quarterback.

Once upon a time, the 3-point shot in basketball would have seemed too ridiculous, too radical of a change. But it's been in effect for decades now and has probably helped increase the popularity of the sport.

Then again, with this proposed football change you're talking about taking away an exciting play, which is more difficult for people to embrace.

At a minimum, it would be great to see a smaller conference - someone at the non-FCS level, or the Sun Belt or WAC - try it on an experimental basis for a year, and see how it goes. That's a reasonable request.

So, what do y'all think?

UPDATE: Andy Staples of SI.com likes the idea too. And he writes a better column than me about it. The passage I like:

When I forwarded Politi's column for discussion on Twitter on Monday, plenty of Internet tough guys countered with the "Quit crying, it's a violent game" argument.

Those people probably wouldn't know a thigh pad from a Thighmaster. More than 100 years ago, President Teddy Roosevelt thought college football had grown too dangerous. While some wanted to ban the game, Roosevelt saw the value in a slightly-less-violent contact sport. So he called a summit of representatives from the football-playing schools and forced them to create rules to make the game safer. They banned the "flying wedge" and forced offenses to spread players across the line of scrimmage. They also legalized the forward pass, which probably brought howls from the purists.

With apologies to Teddy, Schiano's idea doesn't mollycoddle anyone. Quite the contrary. Of the recent rash of attempts to make football safer, Schiano's idea may be the first conceived with safety in mind that could make the game more interesting and make it more of a test of actual football skill.

And Brian Murphy of the Idaho Statesman actually wrote about eliminating kickoffs all the way back in October.

While the catastrophic injuries attract attention, nearly every kickoff leaves someone on the ground, grabbing a knee, an ankle or holding their arm.

“Basically, it’s a 70-yard blitz,” Boise State special teams coordinator Jeff Choate said. “The guys that do that (cover kicks) for us, a lot of them miss games, whether it’s a stinger or some other shoulder injury. Some things need to be examined in that reguard.”

I don't know if this constitutes a movement, but it will be interesting to see if the idea takes hold in more quarters.

This and that: Baseball, golf and football enrollees

ATHENS - As you can tell by the dateline, I'm back in the classic city. And it's good to be back, even though it's scorching hot and there's no ocean nearby to jump in.

There's a river, and a bunch of man-made lakes, but they're gunky. The dog has no problem jumping in them, but I'm a bit more discerning.

In any case, we are pretty much arriving at the doldrums-of-summer stage, as the season has ended for a bunch of Georgia spring teams. That doesn't mean stuff isn't going on. But it's not very much stuff.

Your news update:

- The Georgia baseball team saw its season end very late on Sunday night, as it fell to Oregon State in the NCAA tournament regional final. The Bulldogs lost 6-4, and even if they had won would have had to beat the Beavers again on Monday night.

This was very unfortunate not only for the Bulldogs, but for snarky people out there with middle-school senses of humor who wanted to make puns based on Oregon State's nickname. Yours truly of course finds this very immature.

- The Georgia men's golf team almost won the national title, but was defeated by Augusta State, 3-2, in Sunday's final. Ironically, the championship came down to the final match, where UGA's Harris English was defeated by Patrick Reed, a junior who began his career at Georgia.

- Summer school starts this week, so most if not all of the football signees will be registering for classes. Schools don't usually announce that players have registered - i.e., made it into school - but the only player we know who isn't making it is Chris Mayes. The Bulldogs pretty much knew the defensive tackle wouldn't make it when they signed him. (And the new over-signing legislation by the SEC will probably discourage teams from doing so in the future.)

It's also important to note that a player enrolling at UGA doesn't necessarily mean they're in the clear. You still have to make it through the NCAA Clearinghouse, so any excitement about players getting into school is a bit premature.

That said, from what I know right now, there's no cause to be concerned about anybody else on the signee list.

The week that was: Winners and losers

Here's my overview of the SEC meetings this week, which proved eventful and somewhat contentious.

The winners, in my opinion, of the week that was:

- Mike Slive
- The Georgia-Florida axis
- SEC basketball
- Steve Spurrier
- More cowbell
- Bobby Petrino

And the losers:

- Football coaches in general
- Nick Saban
- Houston Nutt
- Dan Mullen
- Graduate students
- The beach

The story (and here's that link again) has more details on each.

In other news, two things to watch in Georgia sports today:

- The baseball team, which staved off elimination on Saturday, faces Creighton in an elimination game on Sunday at 4 p.m. If the Bulldogs win, they'll face Oregon State at 9 p.m., and a win in that one would force a single game on Monday for the right to advance to the NCAA Super Regionals.

- The Georgia men's golf team is in the NCAA championship match, and faces Augusta State on Sunday. Here's the story on that.

Notes: SEC revenue up (surprise surprise), 7-on-7 crack-down, hoops

DESTIN, Fla. - Roster management wasn't the only item up for discussion at the SEC meetings. Here are my notes after Friday's meeting of the presidents and athletics directors.

I'll have one more report from Destin before the weekend is out. Otherwise, it's back to Athens and the grind.

Well, not a grind. Athens is a great town. It just doesn't have a beach.

Slive, SEC presidents have their way: A crackdown on over-signing

DESTIN, Fla. - The coaches voted one way. The presidents over-ruled them. And SEC commissioner Mike Slive showed, at least for today, that he really runs his conference.

At least that’s the read from Friday’s events, when the SEC school presidents voted – unanimously, according to Slive – to crack down on over-signing.

The annual limit on recruits was dropped from 28 to 25. The coaches voted unanimously against that two days before, according to South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier.

But Slive, who put together a series of roster management proposals, won the day.

“They don’t agree with everything, but I think they are some things with which they do agree,” Slive said. “Obviously they had their own interests to pursue. I though the conversation was helpful. Some of the issues we were able to accommodate their concern, some of them we were not.”

The conference now plans to send an official request to NCAA president Mark Emmert to have the NCAA adopt a uniform standard. There had been concern about the SEC putting itself in a position of competitive imbalance, but Slive, whose league has won the past five BCS championships, was adamant.

“No one, no one wants to win more than I do,” Slive said. “But we don’t want to win at the expense of young people.”

Georgia president Michael Adams, a vocal opponent of over-signing, was beaming as he departed the meetings.

“It’s a good day to be in the SEC,” Adams said. “People did the right thing. … People voted right. This was a good high point for us, I think.”

The 25-limit wasn’t the only part of the package of proposals that passed.

- The conference will now approve all requests for medical disqualifications. If necessary, it will seek an outside opinion.

- The exemption allowing graduate students to transfer in and not sit out a year was also eliminated, although it won’t go into effect until later. That means former N.C. State quarterback Russell Wilson would still be able to play at an SEC school this year.

Meanwhile, the league also announced that:

- Schools are now prohibited from hosting seven-on-seven events on campus. The move is an effort to combat what Slive called the “creep” of importance of seven-on-seven coaches and organizers, similar to AAU basketball.

- The SEC will distribute $220 million to its schools, an increase of 5.3 percent over last year. The $220 million is for the 2010-11 fiscal year, with most of it ($113 million) coming from football television.

UPDATE: My full story is now posted at Macon.com. You can read it at this link.

Live from Destin: Over-signing to be decided. Probably. Hopefully.

DESTIN, Fla. - The SEC's dominant, and perhaps overblown if you believe some coaches, issue is set to be ruled on Friday. And we'll be camped out at the Hilton waiting for the presidents and commissioner Mike Slive to reveal their ruling.

On another note, and a curious one, Mark Richt saw the need to clarify his public stance on Steve Spurrier's proposal to pay players $300 per game. Richt was not one of the six SEC coaches who signed on to Spurrier's proposal. He gave a fairly tame reaction at first on Wednesday, saying it was a nice idea. But UGA released this from Richt on Thursday night:

"I am all for providing more financial help for our players. I'd even go so far as to say I'd be willing to help fund it if there is a way that's possible. I just don't believe Coach Spurrier's idea is feasible.

"If we're going to do something like this, we have to do it for all 125 guys, not just 70. That would create all sorts of morale and chemistry problems. Doesn't everyone practice? Can you imagine trying to decide a dress list knowing that you'd be cutting out 55 guys who are working just as hard every day? Also, if we do this for football, I believe you have to do it for every sport across the board at every level of the NCAA. This is much bigger than SEC football.

"I'd prefer spending time talking about ideas that have a legitimate chance of becoming reality."

You could surmise that Richt felt a bit of blowback from his initial statement, perhaps from those who thought it would be bad P.R.-wise, i.e. for recruiting. But Richt is also the kind of guy who would give it real thought and decide to come back with a clearer, thought-out statement. After all, Spurrier's idea surely caught him by surprise. (And who knows if the six coaches who did sign it really cared much about what they were saying.)

The bottom line is Spurrier's idea, while noble, has no chance of passing. Slive and NCAA president Mark Emmert made that clear within hours. So why did Spurrier propose it? Having covered him, I think he's just clever enough to see the recruiting pay-off, as well as the opportunity for it to make headlines and deflect from the Stephen Garcia situation and the over-signing proposal.

But I also know Spurrier's has a fairly liberal social streak. (Remember his shot at the Confederate flag?) So I don't doubt that he honestly thinks it's a good idea. And he deserves credit for at least trying.

Ealey headed to Jacksonville State

Last month we found out Washaun Ealey would be leaving the Georgia football team. On Thursday the tailback's destination became known.

Ealey enrolled in classes at Jacksonville State on Thursday, according to football team spokesman Greg Seitz. Ealey would be eligible to play right away at the school, which is an FBS (formerly Div. I-AA) school.

Ironically, Ealey would still have a chance to play at Kentucky, since Jacksonville State plays there on Oct. 22. Last year Ealey broke a Georgia program record with five rushing touchdowns at Kentucky.

Ealey led Georgia with 811 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns in 2010, but it was still considered a disappointing year. He was suspended for the opener after a three-misdemeanor arrest, and was briefly suspended from team activities in February. Spring practice became a lost cause for Ealey after a hamstring injury.

Destin update: Presidents ready to 'hunker down' with ADs before vote

The SEC presidents appear to be concerned about going further than the rest of the country on roster management issues, but may do it anyway.

At least that’s what could be gleaned from South Carolina’s Harris Pastides, who was the only school president who was talking when the meeting broke up.

UGA president Michael Adams declined comment on his way out. He said none of the presidents would say anything.

That memo apparently didn’t reach Pastides, who said there was a “vigorous” and “lengthy discussion” over the roster management issues.

“And I think you’ll see the presidents tonight hunker down with their athletic directors and come together for a vote on that as well,” Pastides said. “But we think, we’d love the SEC to take a lead role on doing the right thing, and we would hope the NCAA would adopt whatever we do. I think that’s where our Ads and coaches are on. They don’t want us to be so far out front that we’re the only league that clamps down on that. We’re interested in seeing clarity on that in terms of what happens in the nation.”

The main point of contention is whether to keep the limit at 28 recruits per class, or cut it down to 25. The football coaches voted 12-0 against that, according to Pastides’ own coach, Steve Spurrier, who then added that the presidents “may” feel differently.

Pastides declined to give his own opinion, other than to sum up the league’s conundrum.

“I think most of the discussion was around if we go first and we do something that is viewed as restrictive and conservative, would that be a challenge for the rest of the country and to the other leagues,” Pastides said. “Or might we just be left out there as the only league. And we decided to do what was best for the college athlete. And I think that’s what we’ll vote tomorrow.”

NCAA president Mark Emmert was in Destin and spoke to the presidents, but Pastides said the issue didn't come up.

On Thursday, I asked Emmert about it, and he didn't indicate a uniform standard was in the making yet.

“The way it works with a whole array of issues is the NCAA sets a national standard and then if conferences want to be more restrictive then they can be," Emmert said. "So if the SEC or any other conference wants to have a more restrictive approach to that, then they’re welcome to do so. That’s a local decision that they can make.”

My take on this: SEC presidents, as a whole, want to be restrictive on roster management. But they’re deciding whether to do so over the objection of their coaches.

Either way, we should find out on Friday.

NCAA president Emmert: 'With many people we may have lost the benefit of the doubt'

Here's my story, just posted to Macon.com, on the issues affecting the NCAA, amid its recent scandals.

Some key passages:

NCAA president Mark Emmert was up front when asked if the NCAA has an image problem:

“Of course it does. I don’t think there’s any question about it. And we can’t pretend otherwise,” Emmert said, sitting in the lobby of the Hilton Hotel as he attended the SEC meetings. ...

“We’ve had a number of very high-profile cases that are very disturbing coming out, and they put us in a position where with many people we may have lost the benefit of the doubt,” said Emmert, the president of the NCAA since last year. “We have to address those issues, the real ones and the perceived ones and make sure that we restore people’s confidence in the integrity of intercollegiate athletics. That’s essential.”

And Mark Richt says you can still win in college football without competing in the so-called gray area.

“I think you can win without ...,” Richt started to say, appearing to choose his words carefully, “without you know, feeling you’ve gotta cheat. That you’ve gotta break the rules or bend the rules.

“Everybody’s human. Everybody’s gonna make mistakes. The rule book is sometimes very specific, and sometimes it’s very vague. It’s hard to sit there and never have a secondary violation. But from a gut level philosophical point of view do I think you can win by doing things right and doing things within the rules, yeah.”

Again, you can read the full story here.

South Carolina game time set

It turns out Mark Richt wasn't completely right about the Georgia-South Carolina game being at night.

The SEC has announced that South Carolina's visit to Athens on Sept. 10 will have a 4:30 p.m. kickoff and be broadcast on ESPN. And as usual, the Georgia-Florida game, set for Oct. 29, will be on CBS at 3:30 p.m.

Richt had told Bulldog fans at a Greenville, S.C. meeting that the game would be at night. Technically he could end up being right if the game goes late. But it might have to go an overtime or two for them to turn on the lights at Sanford Stadium.

It also probably won't be a fun time for them to be out in the sun.

Live from Destin: Day three

DESTIN, Fla. - The spotlight now shifts to the school presidents and chancellors, who meet this afternoon. They're not supposed to do any voting until Friday, but they're at least here and discussing the week's major topics.

Wednesday proved to be an eventful day. For a rundown, here are our three stories in today's papers:

- Steve Spurrier made a surprise proposal to pay players $300 per game. It was quickly shot down by the higher-ups, including NCAA president Mark Emmert. The NCAA prez told myself and fellow McClatchy reporter Josh Kendall of The State that paying players in such a manner "would be the death of intercollegiate athletics."

- Divisions in men's basketball are no more, or at least will be once athletics directors ratify the recommendation of the coaches' vote on Wednesday. Georgia's Mark Fox and SEC commissioner Mike Slive were among those in favor of the move.

The schedule remains the same for the 2011-12 season, but the league will immediately begin studying a new schedule format. That's where it'll get tricky; who are which team's natural rivalries, will everybody try to get Kentucky on their annual schedule, will the schedule be expanded to 18 or even more games?

- Finally, the roster management issues are now before the presidents. The coaches supposedly voted 12-0 against limiting each class to 28. (I say supposedly because Spurrier claimed that, but no one else confirmed it.) Mark Richt softened his rhetoric after meeting with fellow coaches.

But it certainly seems that they're on the opposite side of the issue from the presidents and many of the athletics directors. The question now is how much sway the coaches have with their bosses.

Slive appears to be pushing for some tangible action, and Emmert told us that he was "very pleased" with Slive for putting it on the agenda. But when I followed up by asking Emmert if there should be a uniform rule for each conference, he called it a "local issue."

I'll have more from Emmert in a later story.

- My favorite moment from Wednesday was Nick Saban. The Alabama head coach was the first to leave the joint meeting with coaches and A.D.'s, and made right away for a back elevator. The media horde still managed to get in some questions, following Saban to the elevator, where he appeared to blame us for the whole controversy.

“You all are creating a bad problem for everybody, because you’re going to mess up the kids getting opportunities by doing what you’re doing," Saban said icily. "You think you’re helping them, but you’re really gonna hurt them."

Hey, what'd I do? Wha' happen?

Roster management: Coaches have their say, now it's up to presidents

DESTIN, Fla. - SEC football coaches emerged from their final meetings on Wednesday in apparent agreement on roster management issues. Now the question is whether their bosses will go along.

The SEC is looking at a number of proposals to curb some issues such as over-signing, gray-shirting and medical disqualifications. Coaches, in favor of roster flexibility, made their case to their athletics directors in a meeting on Wednesday afternoon.

Now the issue will be decided by presidents and chancellors, who will vote on Friday.

“Friday afternoon we’ll find out what the league would like to do with these issues. … It’s always spirited dialogue,” commissioner Mike Slive said. “There’s nothing about the SEC that’s not spirited, I can tell you that.”

The most controversial proposal is to limit each signing class to 25 recruits. The current limit is 28, and Alabama head coach Nick Saban made his position quite clear.

“What’s the problem with 28?” Saban said. “You all are creating a bad problem for everybody, because you’re going to mess up the kids getting opportunities by doing what you’re doing. You think you’re helping them, but you’re really gonna hurt them. You take one case where somebody didn’t get the right opportunity but you need to take the other 100 cases where somebody got the opportunity because of it.”

South Carolina's Steve Spurrier put it a bit more nicely.

“We’re in favor of over-signing. We’ve never had a problem of too many qualifying and not having room,” Spurrier said. “All the coaches are in favor of the 28 and so forth. The presidents I don’t think are, but that’s OK.”

Spurrier said the coaches voted 12-0 to keep the limit at 28 and not drop it to 25. But he didn’t know if that would sway the presidents and chancellors.

“I don’t know. They’ll make the final call,” Spurrier said.

Georgia's Mark Richt had been among the vocal opponents of over-signing, and letting players go at the last minute. He didn’t come out and say he was in favor of over-signing now, and wouldn't get into the voting, but said after the meeting that the coaches “agreed almost unanimously” on the roster management issues.

“I think there was some education,” he said. “You get your proposals to look over a week ago. You read them then and you’re like, Hmm. Then yesterday morning, I got here and for about an hour I read them again and I’m trying to make total sense of everything, and it’s hard to get the entire gist of it. Then you start discussing these things getting lived out, it starts to make sense and you understand it better.”

Richt also said the roster management issue did indeed get as much attention behind the scenes as it was getting in the media.

“I’d say in our head coaches meeting, when it came to proposals, that was the one that had the most discussion to it,” Richt said. “I thought it was a very good discussion. I thought we had some good ideas that we presented. But we don’t want anything – there’s more conversation and more process to be done before everything gets spewed out all over the airwaves. It’s better that we don’t say anything at this point, and see where it goes.”

Update: Hoops coaches vote to (basically) eliminate divisions

DESTIN, Fla. – The SEC men’s basketball coaches have recommended that the league essentially stop using divisions, and the move is expected to be formally approved Friday.

The schedule will remain the same for the upcoming season. But the league standings will not be broken into East and West anymore, and the tournament will be seeded 1-12, with the top four getting byes, regardless of division.

“I think we’re tired of our league being presented as two different ones,” said Georgia head coach Mark Fox, who favored the move.

In the meantime, the SEC will also study future scheduling, under the assumption that the old division model (two each vs. fellow division foes, one each against the other division) will no longer exist.

“The issue comes down to, if you look at last year, Tennessee got in the tournament with an 8-8 record and Alabama was left out at 12-4. And they get listed in a (separate) set of standings,” Fox said.

SEC commissioner Mike Slive, a former chairman of the NCAA selection committee, felt it was a good move for the league.

“I’m pleased that we’ve come to this conclusion,” Slive said. “I think it’s better for SEC basketball.”

The move still has to be approved by the league’s athletics directors on Friday. But all indications were that the recommendation by the coaches would carry the measure through.

"I would hope so," Slive said. "But I don't vote."

Slive said expanding the schedule to 18 games, or even more, would be on the study list for the future, and could happen for the 2012-13 season.

Live from Destin: Update on possible hoops changes

DESTIN, Fla. – Basketball and football coaches are slowly trickling into the main ballroom to meet with the athletics directors. It’s still hard to get a firm grasp on what may happen on the basketball front, as far as changing the division and conference structure.

Before going in, Georgia’s Mark Fox said the basketball coaches, meeting separately Tuesday and Wednesday morning, had a “heated” and “excellent” dialogue.”

“It’ll be really interesting to see what the A.D.’s, after we go upstairs, how they feel,” Fox said. “Because again, what their discussions have been about, I don’t know. We had a lot of discussion about divisions, yes.”

The range of options for the league include eliminating divisions, adding two games to the league schedule, and seeding the tournament according to league finish, and not divisions.

“We did have very active dialogue, the most active dialogue we’ve had since I’ve been in the league, regarding a lot of topics,” Fox said. “But I think the general consensus is the coaches in the league now are genuinely concerned with doing what’s best to help the league. I really felt like all the conversations weren’t selfishly driven, they were motivated by an interest to make the league better.”

The word last year was that Western Division coaches blocked an effort to have the tournament re-seeded, rather than go by division finish. But on Wednesday one Western coach, Trent Johnson, answered “hopefully” when asked if re-seeding the tournament may happen today.

“I said this from Day one, I like the model that the Pac-10 has,” said Johnson, the former Stanford head coach. “You go one through 10 and play each other twice, you have a true champion and you celebrate your overall league champion more than the tournament. But we all know the tournament is money-driven.”

Live from Destin: Day two

Destin, Fla. - The media horde is back, yours truly amongst them, sitting here in the atrium of the Hilton hotel. The athletics directors are convened behind closed doors with the commish (Mike Slive, not Michael Chiklis), while the football and basketball coaches are downstairs, probably discussing how much they love each other.

There should be some actual news to come out of today's meetings, unlike yesterday, which was mostly about setting the groundwork and taking people's temperatures. In case you missed it, here are my stories from day one:

- On roster management, i.e. oversigning and grayshirting, everyone has opinions (though Mark Richt was less eager to provide his), but there remains plenty of disagreement.

- On basketball, there was talk about some fairly drastic changes - getting rid of divisions, re-seeding the tournament by using the RPI - but Mike Slive said after the meetings that he didn't expect any major changes to be voted on this week.


- The A.D.’s will meet with the football and basketball coaches in separate meetings this afternoon. That’s when there might be some real movement on issues.

The most likely tangible result is some vote on basketball: My guess is they will vote again on tournament re-seeding, and there’s a better chance it passes this year. I’ll also be curious if other coaches agree with Mark Fox about getting rid of divisions. But based on Slive’s comments, I’ll be surprised if they do anything more today than just talk about going to a 12-team set-up.

As for football, it would be surprising if they vote on over-signing. Right now it looks like the coaches are on one side, and the presidents are on the other. Some of the presidents are trickling in earlier – South Carolina’s Harris Pasites arrived Tuesday, and Georgia’s Michael Adams is supposed to come in today. So perhaps there will be a meeting of the minds.

The A.D.’s seem to be caught in the middle a bit. Greg McGarity and his coach and president are on the same page, luckily for them. I spoke to another athletics director off the record yesterday, whose coach has not publicly been vocal about the issue, and that A.D. was up front that he thought 25 was a reasonable limit:

If you sign 25 every year, this A.D. stated, and figure in redshirts, that’s 125 players, more than enough to be safe with academic casualties and transfers and get to the overall limit of 85. But this A.D. kind of threw up his hands to say: Can we get the coaches to agree?