CURIOUS INDEX, 4/3/2008

by Orson on Apr 3, 2008 9:43 AM EDT

Joe Tiller is tired when he didn't used to be. Oatmeal, Joe! Oatmeal!

"I feel my energy level slipping a little bit," Tiller said Monday after Purdue's workout at the Mollenkopf Athletic Center. "I still feel like I have energy, and I look forward to these practices and coming out here, but I don't mind going home anymore. I used to want to stay up all night, watching tape. So if that's slipping, then that's me.

Notice he doesn't say what kind of tapes, mind you. We take Joe to be a John Ford fan over a Howard Hawks guy, with a special affection for the gritty existentialism of The Searchers. (You were expecting a porno joke there well TOO BAD. He's not Tommy Bowden, man.) This will be Tiller's last season, which Joe plans to celebrate by going 7-0, then losing five in a row to finish at 7-5. He will be replaced by Danny Hope, the former Eastern Kentucky coach who's in the Dauphin spot to succeed Tiller next year.

We spoke with a jail official in Lincoln County, Tennessee, and the story here is completely true: they really are wearing pink uniforms instead of orange so as not to blend in with all the Tennessee Vol orange on the street in Lincoln County. (HT: Ethan.)

Thank God Houston Nutt's pink jerseys never took a practice session in Lincoln County, lest they be arrested on the spot and pepper-sprayed within an inch of their lives.

Alabama's flipping a few guys around, which happens when you're still having depth chart/personnel issues. If you're the kind of person who likes stuffing an open container of milk deep in the file cabinet when leaving a miserable job and you happen to be a head coach some day, do this: recruit terribly in your last two years in the job, and then get fired. Watch the fun as your successor loses years off their life! (Last year, at the end of the season, you could see the outline of Nick Saban's skull under his skin. He looked dessicated by the strain.)

Segue: Iowa football! Feel it! 15 of the 39 players signed from 2005 to 2006 have left the program, meaning Iowa's APR score next round will be somewhere between zero and FAAAAAHHHHCK!

James Johnson, wide receiver for Georgia Tech, has quit the team because he's sick of football. According to Paul Johnson, he quit once before, was talked into returning, and is now just done with the whole thing. Somehow, we don't think he'll suffer the pangs of regret like a John Ed Bradley--the afterglow of the Chan Gailey era won't quite raise the goosebumps like that.

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Comments

I know that this is totally unrelated, and that it doesn’t have to do with football, but can we give Penn State some Fulmer Cup credit for this little event, or at least a little nod by way of a link?

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2008/04/02/basketball_player_to_be_charge.aspx

hasn’t this guy ever heard that there is porn on the interweb for all to see?

by Excuse me while I whip this out on Apr 3, 2008 9:52 AM EDT reply actions

I also just realized that my screen name, in reference to Blazing Saddles, just became quite ironic…

by Excuse me while I whip this out on Apr 3, 2008 9:54 AM EDT reply actions

I’m sure the Tennessee jail thing was really inspired by Kirk Ferentz and his demoralizing locker room.

by ThreenOut on Apr 3, 2008 9:59 AM EDT reply actions

- Carl Monday is trying to get the kid a life sentence as we speak.

Also, I say no to Fulmer Cup credit, seeing as how PSU’s basketball team has been MIA since the start of this millennium. And yes, I know MSU lost to PSU this year in BBall. That’s what happens when you get Hightowered.

by Ground0EastLansing on Apr 3, 2008 10:02 AM EDT reply actions

Shula didn’t leave old milk as much as he left a few guys who thought getting into bar fights was always the best course of action.

Besides, that smell probably came from Joe K’s old mini-fridge. Keeping a dead cow heart for sustenance tends to leave a bit of an odor.

by TideDruid on Apr 3, 2008 10:09 AM EDT reply actions

Re James Johnson: What kind of nincompoop waits until after Reggie Ball leaves school to quit football? Was JJ missing the sweet sound of a football sailing three yards over his head?

by Doug on Apr 3, 2008 10:13 AM EDT reply actions

Oh Snap.

http://www.news4jax.com/news/15775518/detail.html

by teddy dupay on Apr 3, 2008 10:27 AM EDT reply actions

ThreenOut @3

That was Hayden Fry that started the pink visitor’s locker room. Ferentz doesn’t appear to be the interior decorator type.

by Crabapple Buck on Apr 3, 2008 10:49 AM EDT reply actions

Yea, as a freshman, James Johnson made some pretty insane grabs. Quitter.

by Brian on Apr 3, 2008 11:12 AM EDT reply actions

Recruit lousy for your last two years… Time for another Ty W reference … Oh, never mind.

by MassDad on Apr 3, 2008 11:49 AM EDT reply actions

15 of the 39 players signed from 2005 to 2006 have left the program,

You say that as if it’s a bad thing. I’m not shedding any tears over lazy hat thieves leaving the flock. I’ll take 15 walk-ons over those cats any day. We’ll get this program back to the middle echelon of the Big Ten in no time.

by jebus on Apr 3, 2008 11:53 AM EDT reply actions

Let me just say, for the record, this is the first time I’ve ever seen “Joe Tiller” and “energy” in the same sentence together.

On the other hand, Joe is the first person I’ve ever heard say he was going for a “pickle tickle” on his post-game radio show, so he can’t be all bad.

by boilerpete on Apr 3, 2008 12:17 PM EDT reply actions

#6:
He had recurring tendinitis in his knees along with a number of other injuries. Probably from catching all those crappy passes as a freshman and then getting the crap knocked out of him.

by ehrenb2 on Apr 3, 2008 12:25 PM EDT reply actions

Shouldn’t the Lincoln County inmates be the ones wearing orange outfits AND shackles.

by Mark on Apr 3, 2008 2:05 PM EDT reply actions

While I’m not happy about the football exodus, what stuns me about that article is that the swimming and women’s tennis programs are below the cutoff. Why the hell are those people leaving?

by chitownhawkeye on Apr 3, 2008 3:21 PM EDT reply actions

I wouldnt call Lincoln County the “Heart of Big Orange Country” considering it’s not even in East Tennessee and it’s teeming with ’Bama faithful. However, recently (like 2 years ago maybe) graduated 3rd String Tennessee QB Jim Bob Cooter does hail from the area. The more you know.

by MightyMightyMitzu on Apr 4, 2008 12:04 AM EDT reply actions