Going above and beyond

I mentioned last week that North Carolina was looking at an epically large recruiting class -- 29 recruits had already committed, and a couple more were considering the Tar Heels. Fortunately for those recruits (and even more so for the players already on the team), 29 was the final tally.

Regardless, I was quite critical of Butch Davis. But Davis' efforts paled in comparison to those of Houston Nutt, who hauled in an astonishing 37 recruits at Ole Miss.

I haven't had a chance to look at the roster and see if there's room for a full 25-man class, but it doesn't matter. 37 does not equal 25, and it's not even close. It's been pointed out that players who enroll early can count toward the previous year's class if it had fewer than 25 recruits, but here's the problem: Ole Miss had 31 recruits last year.

South Carolina was another offender this season, finishing with 29 recruits and getting kicked out of a high school in the process.

And I'm not even sure how this is possible, but somehow Troy has 39 recruits signed, as well as one more who has committed but hasn't officially signed his letter of intent.

I'm not trying to beat a dead horse here -- I've already said my piece on blatant oversigning -- but with eight schools signing 29 or more recruits this year, this epidemic seems to be spreading.

I'll give the Big Ten credit for trying to limit this problem by instituting a cap at 28 scholarships and requiring an explanation of each recruit past 25 in a given class, but why should one conference be at a disadvantage because it tries to be fair to recruits?

According to numbers compiled by the recruiting service Scout.com, SEC teams lined up an average of 101 commitments during the four-year period from 2004-07. Big Ten teams averaged 85 recruits in the same period.

I'm firmly behind mgoblog on this one: If a school can't explain where a scholarship is coming from, the NCAA shouldn't allow a recruit to be locked into that spot.

Lane Kiffin does what he wants

This is Lane Kiffin:

Find more videos like this on www.truveo.com.

He seems to be on a mission to piss off everyone in the SEC, which ... well, when you're going up against Urban Meyer, probably isn't a good idea.

In case you haven't heard about Kiffin's slightly overboard pep talk at a Tennessee function Thursday morning, this is what went down:

Earlier in the day, Kiffin told fans at a breakfast celebrating UT’s recruiting class that Meyer violated rules by phoning Nu’Keese Richardson while the wide receiver prospect was on an official visit at Tennessee.

“I love the fact that Urban had to cheat and still didn’t get him,” Kiffin said, according to a WVLT-TV report.

It's one thing to talk a little trash -- gamesmanship and all that -- but it's another to accuse a peer of cheating, especially when you're not even right.

Florida, of course, made sure to point this out in a statement:

“It is obvious that coach Kiffin doesn’t know that there is not a rule precluding phone contact with a prospect during an official visit on another campus during a contact period,” Florida athletic director Foley said in a statement.

“His allegations are inappropriate, out of line and, most importantly, totally false. It is completely unfair to Urban Meyer, our coaching staff, our football program and our institution,” he said.

So you think Florida will let up when it's leading by four touchdowns on Sept. 19 at The Swamp? Yikes ...

The worst part for Kiffin, though, isn't the response from Florida; it's the SEC commissioner jumping in and basically calling Kiffin an idiot.

"We expect our coaches to have an understanding and knowledge of conference and NCAA rules," read Slive's statement.

Kiffin issued a non-apology apology in an attempt to cool things down, saying that "my comments were not intended to offend anyone at the University of Florida.”

I'm sure that makes them feel better. I'd like to think that a head coach with Kiffin's bravado would be enough of a man to stand up for himself and apologize when he makes an egregious error, but apparently not.

Kiffin's digging himself a hole here, as pointed out by Gene Wojciechowski at ESPN in a fairly critical article. Everyone knows how tough it is to win in the SEC, and when you've made yourself a whole list of enemies in your first two months on the job, it doesn't get any easier. Also, the conference commissioner is usually somebody you'd prefer NOT to upset.

Steve Spurrier was never a popular figure either when he was a Florida, but there's one big difference: Spurrier won a whole bunch of games and established himself as an outstanding coach before pissing people off, while Kiffin has done absolutely nothing. If Tennessee struggles early on in Kiffin's tenure, he probably won't be given the same benefits as someone who actually gets along with people and doesn't publicly embarrass the university.

With all the attention Kiffin has brought on Tennessee -- from the assistant coach shopping spree to Spurrier's complaints about his recruiting tactics to this "misunderstanding" -- any grace period he might have had is over.

I'm confused by this

Manti Te'o is a consensus five-star recruit out of Hawaii and one of the top linebackers in the country. There's no real debate about that -- he was ranked as the #2 overall prospect by ESPN, #6 by Scout and #12 by Rivals. He's the real deal, according to everyone with an opinion that means anything.

Te'o committed to Notre Dame on Wednesday, choosing the Irish over USC and UCLA and others. This was an odd choice on a couple of levels, but what confuses me most is this: Te'o is Mormon, and has stated that he plans on taking a mission after his freshman year in college. Notre Dame = not Mormon.

I realize that not everyone who goes to Notre Dame is Catholic, of course, but it seems that if your faith is important enough that you plan on interrupting a portion of your young adult life (and career) to go on a two-year mission, it would certainly have an impact on where you'd choose to spend the surrounding four years.

This makes me wonder if we might see a rehash of the Ben Olson situation. Olson, you may recall, was the top QB recruit in the country and 2002. He was also Mormon and committed to BYU, only to leave for a two-year mission immediately upon his arrival. Olson never played a down for BYU, instead transferring to UCLA in 2005, where he played off and on while battling a series of bizarre foot injuries.

There are two things about Olson's situation that are relevant for Te'o.

First, there's no guarantee that he'll return to Notre Dame. This has already become a concern on Notre Dame message boards, and rightly so. Because Te'o will be on leave from his NCAA eligibility during his mission (similar to a military exemption), there's no additional penalty if he chooses to transfer during that time. Te'o would basically be a free agent, and you can be sure that USC, BYU, UCLA and probably a whole bunch of other schools will be vying for his services upon his return.

The other issue is whether Te'o will be the same player, both physically and mentally, when he returns after a two-year absence from football. There's no way to know whether Olson's injuries were layoff-related or not, but it's worth considering. Linebacker is also more of an instinct-based position than quarterback, but if Te'o returns and can't tackle or is slow to react, he obviously won't have as much of an impact.

With all that said, I think Te'o might be the biggest pickup for Charlie Weis in his tenure at Notre Dame -- and yes, that includes some of the five-star offensive players he's picked up, such as Jimmy Clausen and Sam Young.

The Irish certainly haven't had a bad defense the past few years, but they also haven't had an impact defensive player who could take over the game and force offenses to adjust, a la Rey Maualuga or James Laurinaitis.

If -- and again, this is a big if -- Te'o returns to Notre Dame for the 2011 season and hasn't lost much in terms of skill, he could end up being that guy. And while I may be looking too far into the future, if the Irish can build their defense around Te'o while their young skill-position players on offense continue to improve ... look out.

It'll be interesting to see whether Te'o ends up back at Notre Dame after his mission and -- regardless of where he plays -- if he becomes the force everyone thinks he can be after missing out on two crucial years of development. Weis doesn't have a great track record in terms of developing highly touted recruits, but this is one guy who might not need much help.

Preston Parker has issues

Florida State receiver Preston Parker, who led the team in receptions each of the last two seasons, has been dismissed.

Coach Bobby Bowden announced the junior receiver was dismissed from the team Monday in a one-sentence statement released by the school. Parker, who met with Bowden before the announcement, will remain in school on scholarship.

The 21-year-old Parker, from Delray Beach, was arrested and charged with driving under the influence after Tallahassee police found him asleep in his running car early Saturday.

Unfortunately, The Associated Press left all the good stuff out of this story; the Palm Beach Post, on the other hand ...

According to a Tallahassee police report, officers found the former Atlantic High standout at 4:42 a.m. Saturday, "passed out" behind the wheel of his Dodge Charger in a McDonald's drive-thru lane. A witness stated the car had been there nearly 20 minutes.

The report states the car was in drive with Parker's foot on the brake. When police woke him up after several attempts, Parker took his foot off the brake, the car moved forward and the officers yelled for him to stop.

Parker agreed to field-sobriety tests and was arrested on the DUI charge. He submitted breath and urine samples at the Leon County Jail, where his blood alcohol content was .054 -- Florida's legal limit is .08 -- and his urine sample was a presumptive positive for marijuana. Parker admitted to drinking and smoking marijuana that night.

Parker doesn't have Alex Boone's tolerance level, apparently -- and he certainly couldn't keep up with Michigan running back Kevin Grady, who blew a phenomenal 0.281 after falling asleep while driving -- but this was his third arrest in the last two years. One of those ended with a felony weapons charge (along with weekly drug testing), while the other involved him stealing a DVD from Best Buy. It's good to see that Florida State hasn't tainted it's stellar reputation.

Anyway, Bowden finally decided he had seen enough. And when Florida State can't handle your problems, you've got serious problems.

Personally, I think it's ridiculous that he's remaining on scholarship -- why should the school put up however many thousands of dollars for a guy who can't stay out of trouble? And if that's counting toward the Seminoles' limit of 85 scholarships, it makes even less sense, because the receiving corps next year will need all the help it can get:

Taiwan Easterling and Bert Reed combined for 53 catches good for 617 yards and four touchdowns as freshmen last season. Reed, however, was suspended three times last season and arrested once for his role in a campus brawl in November that resulted in five receivers, including Easterling, being suspended for one game.

The tradition lives.

He had a few too many

Most of us know Alex Boone as the former uber-recruit offensive tackle who ended up at Ohio State and had a pretty successful career, although he was mildly disappointing as a senior. By all accounts, though, he was one of the Buckeyes' leaders and a good teammate.

Police in Aliso Viejo, Calif., know Boone a little differently:

Ohio State offensive lineman Alex Boone was arrested after being subdued with a Taser during an alleged drunken tirade, authorities said Monday.

Boone, 21, was taken into custody late Sunday for investigation of resisting arrest after Orange County sheriff's deputies responded to a disturbance call outside of a home in Aliso Viejo. When they arrived, the 6-foot-8, 312-pound tackle had been jumping on car hoods, yanking on a tow truck cable and trying to break a window, said sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino.

I'm not sure whether this is funny or terrifying. While I would normally make some comment along the lines of "ha ha Ohio State," I can't even imagine trying to take down an enraged man with about 7 inches and 150 pounds on me.

The obvious question here: What the hell ... oh, wait:

Boone ran away from deputies and was found hiding underneath a patio, authorities said. Boone was combative and uncooperative and had to be taken down with a stun gun, Amormino said.

"He was yelling obscenities at deputies and had a strong smell of alcohol," Amormino said. "His blood alcohol level was at least three times the legal amount."

Nice. That must have been one, um, thirst-quenching evening for a 310-pound man to get his blood alcohol level up to three times the legal limit. Based on our handy-dandy DUI chart ...

... and extrapolating out to 310 pounds (going upward in increments of 20 pounds), it appears that Boone would need about eight beers to reach a 0.08. So to get to the remarkable "at least three times the legal amount," Boone needed somewhere in the range of 24 beers. Wow.

Let's get stalker-ish

Today, of course, is National Signing Day, the semi-creepy day when all the stalking of our favorite recruits' Facebook pages and high schools pays off and we get to find out which 17-year-olds will be attending our school of choice. It's like March Madness mixed with "To Catch a Predator."

Are we crazy? Yeah, probably. But what fun would the offseason be without something else to immerse ourselves in? And in case you're wondering if you care too much, just check out your friendly neighborhood message board -- trust me, there's always someone crazier. But I digress ...

LSU appears to have the inside track on the No. 1 class, especially with top-ranked receiver Reuben Randle -- who dominated the Army All-American Game -- expected to sign with the in-state Tigers tomorrow.

USC also has a loaded class (big surprise), with top QB Matt Barkley and three other five-star recruits on their way to L.A. Several other elite recruits, including top linebacker Manti Te'o, will announce today and are considering the Trojans, so this could end up as a monster class.

Alabama appears to be in great shape again this year, while Florida, Texas and Ohio State will all likely end up in the top 10 with all the major recruiting services.

Rich Rodriguez has done an outstanding job coming off a 3-9 season and will almost certainly end up with a top-1o class at Michigan, and I'd also like to commend Dennis Erickson at Arizona State, which has received a commitment from four-star DT Corey Adams and is expected to get a favorable announcement today from five-star linebacker Vontaze Burfict (who originally committed to USC).

It looks like North Carolina will end up with at least 30 recruits -- again, this is ridiculous -- and South Carolina isn't far behind with 28 (and that's before any last-minute commitments). Both of these classes are highly rated (and overrated), of course, just due to sheer volume, but that'll take care of itself in the long run.

You can get updated coverage throughout the day at Rivals, Scout and ESPN (although ESPN is a little unreliable at times when it comes to recruiting).

There are plenty of big names still out there, of course, so I'll try to get up a post with an update on some of the notable commitments and the surrounding craziness, which there's always plenty of on Signing Day.

Everybody's doing it

I'm not one of those people who will sit and debate for hours on end about the best way to set up a college football playoff. I've accepted the fact that it just isn't going to happen, so there's no real point in conjuring up brackets and ways to get the bowls involved and all that.

Do I want a playoff in college football? Well ... a few years ago, I would have unequivocally said yes. But I'm not so sure anymore.



Actually, let me clarify that. It's not that I don't think a playoff would be better than what we have now -- it could be better, but only if done the right way. And that's my concern -- I'll bet you can't remember the last time the NCAA put something together and you thought, "That seems fair and well-planned."

There are so many people with a financial stake in the process that I just don't see how it could be limited to a reasonable number of teams, and that's the only way that a playoff would be a legitimate way to determine a national champion.

I've heard people throw out ideas for a 64-team playoff along the lines of March Madness, and all I will say to that idea is this: No. Absolutely not, even if you could figure out the logistics. The one thing that almost no one will dispute is the need to keep the regular season as meaningful as possible, because once that intensity is gone, college football will never be the same.

Here's a question for you: Which was the best team in the NFL last year? It wasn't the Giants. They might have been the best team over the final four weeks, but I would argue that the Patriots were better at every point throughout the entire season except for the one game that arbitrarily determined the championship.

The Patriots beat the Giants -- in New York, no less -- in the final week of the regular season. But that game meant absolutely nothing, according to the NFL. The Super Bowl was the only game that counted, because ... well, just because. That's the way a playoff is set up, of course -- whoever wins the final game is the champion, no matter what happened at any point prior to it.

And this year isn't much different. As a Phoenix resident, I'm loving the Cardinals' run to the Super Bowl -- but regardless of what happens, there's no way I could possibly justify declaring the Cardinals the champion of the NFL. They got hot at the right time, but I also watched them lose 47-7 to New England, 48-20 to Philadelphia and 56-35 to the N.Y. Jets. They scored 427 points this season, and they allowed 426. Basically, they were a slightly above-average team.

The best team doesn't necessarily win a playoff. The hottest team wins a playoff -- just ask any college basketball national champion in the last ... well, ever. And the more teams you include, the better the chance of a mediocre team winning it all.

I've also heard arguments for a plus-one, but tell me this: Who would you have picked for a plus-one game this year? Obviously, there would be no Florida-Oklahoma matchup in a plus-one scenario, so no matter how you arrange the bracket, you'd still be left choosing from at least three teams -- out of Oklahoma, Florida, USC, Texas and Utah -- for only two spots in the national title game. This year, a plus-one would have solved nothing.

The only way -- again, the ONLY way -- I can see a playoff serving its purpose is if it's limited to either six teams or eight teams. If there was a way to get those top teams together -- something that would ensure that the legitimate contenders all had a shot, but that no (or a minimum number of) undeserving teams were included -- that would probably be ideal. A top-five team that's won two or three games against other top-five teams would have by far the strongest resume of any team in the country and would have earned the national title. There would be no possibility of a Cardinals-type run, because an 8-4 or 7-5 team would never qualify.

There are some pretty interesting proposals out there -- I've always liked Brian's at mgoblog, particularly in regard to using bye weeks and home-field advantage to reward the top teams -- so I'm sure that there's a way this could be done.

But with conference tie-ins, the lawsuits from the non-BCS conferences, the bowls reaching in for their slice of the payout ... I just find it unlikely that the NCAA will ever allow that type of a setup. And until I see proof otherwise, I'll have a hard time supporting a hypothetical playoff that will most likely be pointless (a plus-one) or will take college football in a direction we don't want it to go (a devalued regular season and a system that declares a "playoff" champion, not a season champion).