We here at ESDBS.com have a little bit of a hero worship problem when it comes to the evil genius in the visor. That’s right… Steven Orr Spurrier.
So far since taking the South Carolina job he’s been the new humble and kind Steve, but we know when the competitive juices get going, he will land some good verbal assaults like “You can’t spell Citrus Bowl without U T”. Well, we’re glad to see he’s working on his game this spring too. In response to a South Carolina player being accused in a scuffle, he landed a nice jab at his old rival Fulmer by stating, “I guess at one time somebody accused (Newton) of slapping him or something. But this was not a full-blown fight. If you want to read about some full-blown fights, read about the Tennessee players, not our guys. We?ve not had any knockdown, drag-out fights amongst our players.” Way to go SOS. We salute you.
…how about updates on two of our favorite upstart programs, Boise State and Louisville?
Oh, and here’s a picture of Dan Hawkins looking like an angry supersized fetus.
Fumble again and you’ll be living in a vaaaaan down by the riiiivvver!
This one’s from David Climer’s column in the Tennessean:
Too often, Fulmer has fallen back on the oldest excuse in the book. On Monday, he said the recent problems are ”nothing more than a reflection of society in many ways.”
Climer rightfully calls it a copout. We couldn’t agree more. Compare Dr. Phil’s amateur sociology with this quote from an article about another SEC coach with a different approach to discipline, answering a question about disciplining players who commit crimes:
“We’re all trying to do what’s best,” Spurrier said. “It’s their ultimate responsibility. They chose to do things, and they knew they’d get what they deserved.”
Accountability. What a novel concept.
The Tennessean follows up with this article on what we’re calling the latest in the string of “Free-for-Vol” arrests in Knoxville. Money quote:
”One of these is too many,” (current UT AD Mike) Hamilton said. ”What you hope is that we’ve gone through a bad run, and it’s not a trend. We’re all embarrassed, but I don’t think this is necessarily indicative of our athletic program.
Certainly not. You don’t see Pat Summit’s players knocking out people in pickup games. It’s just indicative of the football team’s behavior. Way to answer a doubt no one raised, Mike.
And yet he exists: Alabama’s inimitable Paul Finebaum. He’s big in Belgium.
Our man-crush on FoxSports busiest internet slave continues. Here’s Pete et al. picking their sleepers in the draft. Question: can beastly Braylon Edwards really be considered a sleeper at this point? And did someone design Matt Jones on an XBox? 6′6″ and a sub 4.4 in the 40 for me means running the QB draw offense ’til someone stops it. Somehow I don’t think that’s a brilliant plan for the NFL.
Mark Snyder, the defensive guru behind the success of the mighty sweater vest, has been named to replace the retiring Bobby Pruett. Thundering Herd fans everywhere want to know if he too will don the sweater vest look.
Two prominent members of the USC Trojans engaged in some fisticuffs after arguing over money. The result, WR Steve Smith got the better of TE Dominique Byrd, landing a haymaker and breaking his jaw.
You would think this type of behavior would be frowned upon in Trojan country, but the head “genius” and ultimate “players coach” (much like the greats Ron Zook and Rick Neuheisel) Pete Carroll characterized the incident as “no big deal”. Is this a blip in the otherwise successful tenure of Carroll or the beginning of a Bobby Bowden/ Phil Fulmer-style discipline program beginnng? Stay tuned.
