Alabama Fan Charged in BCS Case

I'm not going into the detail of what when down in the Bourbon Street Krystals, but Brian Downing has been charged with sexual battery in the incident.  Good.

His lawyers are a bit incredulous:

"The 18-year-old victim was never physically harmed and, in fact, was so intoxicated that he would have had no recollection of the incident, but for a video posted online," the lawyers wrote. "Any ‘harm' is entirely post hoc and amplified by media."

Fine. It was the media's fault.  But the media didn't put their 32YEAROLD BALLSACKONACOMPLETESTRANGERSFACEINPUBLICWHILEHEWASPASSEDOUT. Yeah, I have some strong views on that.  My guess is Mr. Downing won't have any problems with keeping the boys inside his pants during his time in Angola.

Tell you what, let the LSU fan put a sack of his choosing on Mr. Downing's face, and his lawyers' faces, in public and on ESPN. They could get Jim Gray and make a whole hour out of it.  Then just for funsies, still charge him with sexual battery because YOUDONTPUTYOURSACKONACOMPLETESTRANGERSFACEASSHOLES.
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At Least We Don't Live in Texas

I swear a friend who doesn't watch football thought this was a 30 Rock spoof.

He's got the career management skills of George Costanza. #firecraigjames

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UF Students Caught in The Act

Wonder if they were doing it Dawgy style?

"Well, it was kind of funny in a way, but it was kind of crazy coming in here and doing that, especially on a picnic table where everyone eats lunch," said Mark Lopez, who works at the construction site. "Yeah, it bothers me. People come in a place like this and do that."

Dude, your picture is on the internet.  


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(h/t @celebrityhottub)

On the Suspensions

So, we have some dudes that are suspended.  That isn't extraordinary.  That it is three running backs is.  That is also life, except when it isn't life at nearly half of schools in DI (h/t Blutarsky).  That number includes at least 10 other members of the SEC (including Texas A&M) and Georgia Tech.  In case it gets posted to the SEC website again today, Mizzu also doesn't penalize for the first test.

I honestly have no idea if the test results were known before the Florida game.  It is hard for me to believe they were considering the line Coach Richt has consistently taken on player suspensions.  It is a disingenuous, at best, for any fan of any school that has a more lax policy to be outraged at any actions of a school that has a tougher policy. There is no moral high ground when you are not on moral high ground. Furthermore, if failed drug tests are what led to the suspensions, it also illustrates the lengths Georgia drug testing policy goes to, testing at least three of the four scholarship RBs in a RB focused offense.  Of course, all of this is circumstantial, and therefore based on my suppositions.   

Finally, I admit I am a Georgia homer.  Hell, the name of the blog should indicate that. I also can admit when I am wrong. It would, frankly, shock me if I am. I wish others, especially those that write for less subjective outlets, would be, you know, less subjective.

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=========
For Further Reading:
-Bradley: I trust Richt and McGarity. (AJC)
-Weiszer: Richt Defends His Integrity (ABH)

At Least Smith Can Play Offense Now

I guess there will be no worries about that. Hell, Branden can wear 24 and 30, too.

Time for the Nick Marshall show.

Garcia Kicked off South Carolina's Team

Really.  They mean it this time.

#genesmithassurances

Marrying Down

That is all.

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Am I the only one?

That saw this and thought "Good for Coach Wilson?"

I mean, you can be all "Ha, ha, guys" and kiss their butts or you can say, "You know what? Stop with the Indiana will never be good routine."  The Coach defended his school.  That is what I would want my coach to do.  I guess only radio jocks can have bad attitudes and diss others.  Turnabout is not allowed.

The way Trudeau was acting, you would have thought Wilson brought up his arrest for supplying booze to high schoolers.

Yeah, Right

If Stephen Garcia really contemplated transferring after his 5th suspension, I believe that would qualify him for the Mike Price Career Mismanagement Award.  I mean, where else is he going to have a head coach that is as tolerant as Spurrier and a position coach that understands how hard it is to be brotastic in Columbia?

Honestly, he was forced to miss a week of spring workouts.  That is like being sent home from work for not coming to work.  Transfer to where?  As far as I know, Houston Nutt is done taking fliers on QBs transfering in for their last year.

Why the AJC is such a joke

A UGA player not getting arrested for receiving a relatively minor citation makes the paper. While a two year long NCAA investigation into Georgia Tech resulting in sanctions goes unreported until the final day of the process.

That's not a shot at Chip Towers. It's a huge shot at the gross incompetence and/or negligence of the former Tech beat writer and the AJC's Sports Editor. Every time I think I'm done commenting on the GT thing...I get dragged back into it.

PWD

Carlton Thomas Suspended for First Game

According to the AJC, Carlton Thomas has been suspended for Game 1 (or longer) for a violation of team rules. The suspension stems from a violation that occurred...wait for it....wait for it...back in the Spring. Back when they knew there was almost no chance for Caleb King to qualify and they knew there was little chance for Washaun Ealey to pull his head out of his ass.

(Note: Carlton Thomas wasn't arrested, but the photo can't be passed up)
Viva Richard Samuel.

PWD

Tyler's Note: I guess they told him he'd be the starting tailback and he went and acted like the last two starting TBs. Damn.

PWD Note: So...what does the depth chart at RB look like for Game 1 according to our commenters I wonder?

Auburn's Issues Sound Familiar

As you no doubt know by now, HBO Real Sports with Bryant Gumble will air a report tonight that puts at least 4 Auburn players on record as having received payment from Auburn and other schools. SportsByBrooks has transcripts from the TV show, and an updated article with more color about Auburn's potential next steps.

Clearly there is blood in the water.

Before you watch tonight's broadcast, I highly recommend watching this 60 Minutes Special from 1991 regarding Eric Ramsey's tapes. Those tapes lead to Auburn being banned from TV and Bowls in 1993 as they proved Ramsey was paid to play football at Auburn. The entire pay for performance program described in this video sounds fairly similar to the upcoming HBO story.



Remember -- none of this has anything to do with Cam Newton. Except that a lot of people who hate Auburn are looking for a reason to kick the hell out of the Tigers. If they can't bust them for CamGate, they'll bust them for something else.

Here is what I believe to be true:

1. Auburn was alleged to have paid kids up to $1,000 per month during the 1989 season and prior. They were also put on probation for violations of that exact nature. Many of the same boosters referenced in that 60 Minutes video are still around the AU program.

2. $1k/month is obviously $12k a year. If you would give a kid $12k a year for up to 4 years in '89, then giving a kid $50k up front in 2010 isn't tough to put your head around. It's actually a good deal by comparison.

3. It's not the easiest thing in the world to give someone $50k in cash. To move that sort of money around...as was alleged by Mississippi State in regards to Newton ...takes a proven infrastructure. People don't just that kind of cash to kids without knowing for damn sure that it'll land in the right spot AND that their risk of being implicated (barring a confession) is minimal.

4. You can't logically expect that an alumni group powerful and successful enough to invest $150k or more in a single player wouldn't protect that investment with additional investments of $25k-50k in ultra high quality players to surround him.

5. If Newton's dad thought he could get $180k from AU, there's no way he stopped asking after the first bidder said no.

6. If Newton's dad had asked for only $50k, Mississippi State would've been the 2010 SEC Champs and Gene Chizik's tenure in Auburn would be on life support.

Auburn may never get pinched for the Cam Newton debacle. Fine.

But it's becoming more and more clear that the money movement infrastructure that Auburn created and leveraged to turn around their program in the late 80s is back in business today as alleged by the 4 former players and the HBO special. And it's even more clear that certain other members of the SEC have passed the tipping point in their tolerance for Auburn's shenanigans.

So the question is simple. Will the NCAA finally attempt to cripple that infrastructure? Because it's not about Cam Newton now. It's way past that.

PWD

In All Fairleyness ...

Frankly, the Dawgs performed better than I thought they would tonight.  This was one of the few games in the Richt era where I thought we had almost no shot of winning.  While we weren't that close to a win on the scoreboard, the team performed quite well in spurts.  The first quarter was some of the best football we've played all year.  Eventually, however, we just couldn't keep up with Auburn's offense.  As soon as we kicked a field goal in the third, I knew the game was essentially over because they had broken serve.  That offense was the best unit we've seen all year.  Our defense continues to struggle and I think this is just who we are, fundamentally inconsistent, not particularly physical, and perpetually susceptible to a big play.  With that said, Grantham has two weeks to get ready and I expect a good performance against a hobbled Tech offense.

The Dawgs got a takeaway early and ended up winning the official turnover battle, but I would count the onside kick as essentially equivalent to a turnover.  It was a gutsy call by Chizik, but it worked and stole a precious possession that could have helped UGA put the pressure on Auburn to keep up with us, instead of us keeping up with them.  Richt said he had prepared the team for such a tactic, but they weren't watching for it when it actually happened, I guess.  Based on Boykin's second half returns, I guess they were only concerned with the onside kick after Auburn got one and forgot to block.

Three other good things before I get to the bad.  Aaron Murray and Alec Ogletree are as good a set of freshmen as we've had in a while.  Murray is quickly becoming one of my all-time favorites.  The kid was getting beat senseless, but kept fighting at every turn.  Tonight might have been his best game of the year all things considered.  If we had a legit running game to really sell the play action fakes, he'd be an absolute mortal lock for SEC and national freshman of the year.  Ogletree needs to start every game for us until he turns pro.  He's big, physical, as sure a tackler as we have in the defensive backfield, and he needs experience.  I know he got toasted on Auburn's last touchdown, but the way they were running all night you can't blame him for the cheat step up.  And lastly, A.J. Green is the best receiver we have ever had or will ever have.  How exactly will our offense function next year without him?  Nevermind, I know.  I was in Starkville.

Now, on to the ugliness.  I've never been a fervent Auburn-hater like Kyle King.  I've always sort of considered us friendly rivals with outbursts of mild fire-hosing or drink-throwing, but nothing of the Tech or UF caliber hate.  Our games always seem to be physical, hard-fought games that are fun to watch and inspiring of a certain earned respect.  With that preface, Auburn was a dirty football team tonight.  Perhaps it is unfair to characterize an entire team for the actions of a single player, so I guess I'll say Nick Fairley is a dirty football player.  I realize I'm biased, but it's not just me who thinks Fairley was unsportsmanlike.  Every father should show his son Fairley's actions tonight and tell them "if you play like this, I'll kick your ass."  Nick Fairley's a good football player and he'll be a millionaire very soon, but he'll never be able to buy a good reputation.  He's dirty and he plays the game the wrong way.  I'll never cheer for a player to get injured, but I'm as close as I can get to breaking that rule for Fairley.

Update: Lots of Georgia blogs are on the Fairley thing, but here are some more unbiased opinions for you too. 

Quinton

Thoughts on Cam Newton's saga

I'll start by saying that I find it highly unlikely that Mark Schlabach, Pat Forde and Chris Low would all put their names on the original story involving Newton and Mississippi State if they didn't have it cold. Joe Schad's a different animal entirely. I'd put his willingness to put himself out on a breakable limb as pretty high, but I digress.

It's important to remember that Forde, Schlabach and Low didn't say Auburn paid for Newton, and that's an enormous issue in this story. They simply said that a representative for MSU stated that someone representing Cam Newton tried to sell Newton to MSU.

Yes...Schad is reporting that the MSU recruiters say they were outbid. However, I wouldn't put much stock into that as the MSU recruiters have nothing to lose by lying or exaggerating to Schad. And I think Schad may be the weakest link in the entire ESPN news organization .

Hello, I'm Agent Killjoy:
However, the FBI getting involved as TMZ is reporting makes it an entirely different thing. Ask yourself why and how the FBI gets involved in a case like this? They certainly don't care about college football's integrity or NCAA violations. So why get involved?

Well...laundering money through a entity with non-profit tax status like a church...that's on their radar. Using cross state phone lines to commit fraud or other crimes is also on their radar.

But again...the FBI doesn't get involved with a lot of wild goose chases. They simply don't have the time. So why this case?

Consider these three facts:

1. The NCAA has no subpoena power. They can't make a Church(es) reveal documents they don't want to reveal. Nor can they make "runners" or "agents" cooperate with them.

2. Contributing to non-profit organizations in a non-quid pro quo manner is not an NCAA violation. Take a look at a some of the big name AAU basketball programs' web sites and notice that several have very visible "Donate Now" pay pal buttons that anyone can hit. Routing money to AAU coaches via their non-profit AAU status is very common and tough for the NCAA to prove without subpoena Same with routing money through a church I'd imagine.

3. NCAA investigators are often retired/former FBI agents who love sports and hate being lied to.

So,What's more likely? That MSU, Bama or UF called the FBI into this saga? Thereby increasing their own legal costs and creating distractions for their personnel. Or that an NCAA investigator called a former co-worker at the FBI and shared his information to date.

Bringing in the FBI is perfect for the NCAA. They can then let the Feds do the heavy lifting regarding the money trail and leverage their subpoena power to find dirty secrets. Then the NCAA can read the testimony and discovery documents after the fact.

The NCAA wants real meaningful change in the recruitment of student athletes and what better way to facilitate that change than to have the parents, runners, agents and/or coaches involved in high profile cases go to jail?

So is Auburn in real trouble?
Maybe. Maybe not. If I were betting, I'd suggest that Cam Newton's dad was more likely to end up in hot water than anyone at Auburn. But Auburn officials should be sweating bullets. Just remember, there are five people that you never want to see in your front yard:

1. Jim Cantore
2. An IRS Agent
3. An FBI Agent
4. Greta Van Susteren
5. Chris Hansen

If Cam and Auburn want due process, well..they are going to get it. Sadly, just not fast enough for Georgia to benefit on Saturday.

PWD

Bruce Pearl Fined $1.5 million by UT

Bruce Pearl fined by UT for providing misleading information to the NCAAs. More important to UGA basketball fans, Pearl will be banned from off campus recruiting for a period of 1 year beginning Sept. 24th.

UPDATE: The Vols assistants are being taken off the road as well!

Hamilton also reduced each of Pearl's assistant coaches' salaries by 25 percent. Beginning Sept. 24, assistant coach Jason Shay will not be permitted to recruit off campus for three months, associate head coach Tony Jones will be prohibited from off-campus recruiting for nine months and assistant Steve Forbes will be prohibited from off-campus recruiting for a year.

As Bulldog in Exile said, Hamilton had to make an example out of somebody to save his own ass. And unfortunately for Bruce Pearl's (and his crocodile tears), it's the basketball coach.

PWD

Agent misrepresented himself to AJ Green

Image by Hipple
ESPN is reporting that the agent who bought the jersey for $1,000 approached AJ Green via Facebook. The agent told AJ that he was a financial adviser and memorabilia collector.

AJ still shouldn't have sold the guy the jersey, and that's an NCAA violation. But it's an entirely different thing to sell a jersey to a random dude vs. an agent. In the agent scenario, he would essentially be laundering you money. In the laundering money scenario, it would have made more sense for AJ to just sell the guy a pack of toilet paper for $1,000. Why bother with the jersey?

I can't fathom how the suspension can stand at four games upon repeal. But this is the NCAA we're dealing with.

PWD

Four Game Suspension? Say What?

I must have missed something in the NCAA's report. When A.J. Green sold his jersey for $1,000 did he leave a live a baby in it or a dead hooker? Or maybe he sold the jersey to Myles Brand's zombie corpse?

Why the hell is he getting suspended for four games? Clay Travis had a great comment on this via Twitter:

On A.J., if he'd stolen ten jerseys, he probably misses a game. Sell one he owns, four games. Felonies count less than making money in NCAA.

What Clay didn't mention is...you beat up an cop in Knoxville and it's zero games on the suspension.

I also agree with Orson Swindle in that it's a very random punishment. I think the punishment will be reduced by a game or two, but who knows. This is as arbitrary a punishment as I've seen in a while by the NCAA.

By the way...I know Dean Legge is taking a ton of crap for his "AJ will play on Saturday announcement." I also know that in that profession you need to be right 100% of the time. But it's not like other media sources covering the Dawgs haven't been wrong about this exact sort of thing. It happens. You whiff, admit you were wrong, apologize and move on.

What a weird couple of months. I think we beat SC and Mississippi State with or without AJ Green. Arkansas on the other hand...that's going to be tricky.

PWD

Dispatch from the Dept. of Irony

Yesterday morning a Total Tithead Person driving a truck emblazoned with GTU football propaganda crashed into a building at the intersection of Peachtree and Roswell roads in Buckhead. Ironically, the truck sign says "Brace for Impact," which one can only hope will serve as a harbinger/metaphor for GTU's 2010 season.

[Photo: John Spink/AJC]

Apparently the no-texting-while-driving law doesn't go far enough. If you want to keep Georgians safe from nerd-guided truck missiles, what we really need is a no-twelve-sided-dice-rolling-while-driving law.
[Insert Rambling Wreckage joke here]

HT: edsbs

Da'Rested

I have been all over this on twitter all day. Wasn't in a position for most of the day to access this site. Have been having a blast with the idiocy of this story.

On Twitter the guy you need to be following is Wes Rucker. He's the Vol beat writer for the Chattanooga Free Press. He broke the story last night, and he's been all over it all day.

PWD

The New AD Search Begins Monday?

WSB-TV is reporting that Damon's tenure as AD ends Monday.  That should surprise exactly no one.  No matter what your job, a DUI is enough to put your employment in jeopardy.  But when you're the married, high profile head of the state's flagship athletic department, a DUI with a twenty-something girlfriend who throws her panties in your lap, it's fatal to your ongoing career.  The arrest report is hard to defend, even if he was an unpaid intern.

So our AD search likely begins tomorrow.  How confident are you that we will get someone who can compete with Jeremy Foley, Joe Alleva, and the rest of the ADs in the SEC and the country?  I for one am skeptical.  Our president, who will likely have veto power over the hiring at a minimum, has a spotty record for hires that won't embarrass the university.  Think Harrick.  Think Evans.  One might assume that the job would attract top talent.  We're highly profitable, still highly competitive, and have no major hiring decisions looming. 

Maybe our executive search firm will have so many good choices, Adams won't be able to screw the choice up.  But, I doubt it.

UPDATE: UGASports.com also has a couple of sources saying Damon's out and an announcement is coming tomorrow.   WSB has a list of possible replacements and The Mayor has already nominated Greg McGarity.

Quinton