Mel’s got Mike Williams going first tomorrow in the NFL draft. We here at EDSBS will be tracking Marvelous Mel versus our own guru, the ever-reliable alphabetical order, at determining the top 25 . We’re not saying we’ll do as well as Bill Tobin’s mailman, but given Mel’s record of inaccuracy, we’re keeping our hopes high.
If you count from the first name, we’re golden on the first pick: Aaron Rodgers. Counting from the last name, we’re screwed with Khalif Barnes, barring an overnight blogstorm propelling the Washington lineman into the number one spot.
For those of you who can’t get enough of the NFL Draft coverage or interconference trash talk, there is a nice piece on running backs taken in the draft from the SEC as compared with the Big Ten courtesy of Page 2.
Stewart Mandel of CNNSI writes an excellent piece on Louisville’s expectations for next season. Petrino and company have large expectations in a weak conference, which we see as primo conditions for yet more BCS-shaking scenarios involving three or four undefeated teams and two bowl slots. The Cardinals will score, but despite Stranko’s man-crush on Spurrier I’ll say this anyway: a glorified OC of a coach will need a serious DC to balance out what he blatantly ignores. Spurrier found his in Stoops, and it got him a national championship. We’ll think about Louisville when Petrino finds his-see the Miami game last year for why we think current DC Cassity isn’t the answer.
What makes Mandel’s piece really interesting is the emphasis on the behind-the-scenes restructuring the school performed to create the team out of the shambles of “the worst athletic department in the nation.” ADs scrambling for funds from alumni, million dollar marketing campaigns, the endless drama of holding onto a hot and perpetually upwardly mobile coach…it would make great reality tv, I think, provided you tweak it a little to bring the kids on board. How about Flavor Flav as a compliance officer? Or Paris Hilton as…”massage assistant” to the team? Just a thought guys-you know where to reach my people…
Louisville’s new compliance officer? In my perfect world, yes, he would be.
He’s a coach. He’s a legend. He’s…Frosty.
I could have sworn this was Jean-Claude Van Damme’s name in Timecop.
Linkage courtesy of fanblogs.com: a faculty member with a football thing posts about the up and coming program at Millsaps College and their hiring of former Bama coach Mike Dubose. As a former Bama coach who was both literally and figuratively screwed while Tide coach, we wish him the best. Just lay off the interns, Mike-people never, never let you forget about that shit.
He feels your pain, Mike.
Eric Schaeffer is out at UT. Don’t confuse this with discipline-Schaeffer is looking at at least two years behind the next coming of Peyton Manning, Eric Ainge, and is already facing legal trouble. He’ll wind up at a D-II or sit out a year before enrolling at another school. Anyone kicked out of the program yet? Only James Banks, who failed as many drug tests as Tom Sizemore before Fulmer reluctantly booted him off the team. Multiple assaults, people-that’s when we’ll really crack down around here…
Tom Friend at ESPN gives the juicy background on all the first round prospects. Background matters: Adam “Pac-Man” Jones lives with WVU’s strength coach and is the first male in his immediate family to live to the age of 21. Whatever he is, it’s tougher than we’ll ever be.
We usually like to stay on message with college football stories, but this one was too good not to post. Reportedly, a 17 year old high school student in a suburb of Seattle faked the theft of his 2002 BMW M3 to collect the insurance money and sell the car for parts so that he could upgrade his wheels to a Bentley. That is a future CEO for Enron in the making.
Former Alabama Coach (and 1999 SEC Coach of the Year) Mike Dubose just secured another job in college football as he was hired by Division III Millsaps College to be their defensive coordinator. Wow, those sexual harrassment allegations really set him back… of course two losing seasons in four as the Head Coach of the Crimson Tide didn’t help either.
