Brian Grummell Posts

Every Monday during college football's endless offseason, The FanHouse Walk will put last week's stories to bed and deliver the essentials to bridge that agonizing space between now and September.

If He Can Get On The Field, Play Ball -- It's come to this: the 13-year-old brother of Tennessee safety Eric Berry has pledged to play football for the Vols. Nevermind that he's not even in high school, but the kid's set on Orange and who is Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin to say no? The saving grace in all of this is that verbals are non-binding and four years is a lot of time to fill where both parties could easily part ways.

Every Monday during college football's endless offseason, The FanHouse Walk will put last week's stories to bed and deliver the essentials to bridge that agonizing space between now and September.

There's an unnerving, repetitive theme to the first four items in this week's FanHouse Walk -- lawyers. Maybe its just the offseason or an odd week, but they seem to be everywhere related to college football right now. Today's headliner finds Florida's Attorney General Bill McCollum threatening the NCAA and its president Myles Brand with a $1,000 fine or even jail time if it doesn't make public documents related to its confidential investigation into Florida State athletics.

Several years after allegations first arose that Reggie Bush accepted cash and gifts, several days after letting embattled basketball coach Tim Floyd 'quit' and a day after Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke slammed them for their silence, USC commented about the investigations.

Essentially, USC re-affirmed its commitment to silence until the investigation concludes but did take time to accuse several individuals of lying about their involvement in the investigation.

Its a day late but definitely not a dollar short, as the NCAA will reportedly come down on Alabama to the tune of an unknown number of vacated football victories between 2005 and 2007, three additional years of probation and a cash penalty, according to the Birmingham News.

Alabama football players and athletes in several other sports were involved in a prohibited textbook and materials disbursement scheme. It's seemingly benign stuff compared to recent allegations against Memphis and USC, but this is Alabama we're talking about, which seems to have its Brooks Was Here moment every time it finds itself paroled.

Every Monday during college football's endless offseason, The FanHouse Walk will put last week's stories to bed and deliver the essentials to bridge that agonizing space between now and September.

Rap, Rap, Rapping At The Door -- Bad news is best delivered on Friday, so no surprise when it was discovered that in the new BCS contract the Rose Bowl must fill one of its slots to a non-BCS team (think Boise State or Utah) if it loses either the Big 10 or Pac-10 champion to the BCS championship game.

There are the Rose Bowl haters out there snarking away on this, but I think its another sad day for college football. Everyone bemoans the USC/Illinois type matchups in Pasadena, but I still find it fresh and what the Rose Bowl is all about. The various Miami/Nebraka, Texas/Michigan, USC/Texas type matchups were all enjoyable, but something has never felt right about them.

The entire college football world remembers Notre Dame's 3-9 effort in the 2007 season, but in South Bend, Ind., it never happened. Fort Wayne's Journal Gazette discovered the omission when perusing the Irish's spring prospectus and 2008 media guide.

The Notre Dame athletic department scrubbed all losing seasons both at Notre Dame and elsewhere from Weis' bio in both publications. This is the stuff made for conspiracy and intrigue in the slow death march of the offseason, but fear not, there's an explanation. Sort of.

Every Monday during college football's endless offseason, The FanHouse Walk will put last week's stories to bed and deliver the essentials to bridge that agonizing space between now and September.

You Can't Be Bad All of the Time -- First-year Tennessee football coach Lane Kiffin has built up a tremendous amount of antagonism this offseason. There's nobody to blame but himself, of course, but sometimes you have to give the Devil his due. For all his transgressions, try not to read too much into the story that Tennessee has been witness to 11 player departures. Wherever possible in college athletics, you want to look out for the best interest of the athletes but healthy, successful coaching transitions at big-time football programs almost require a good dose of roster turnover. Whether he's handled it right is up for debate but the raw numbers themselves should not be an indictment of Kiffin.

Weird story here, as Alabama kicker Leigh Tiffin was allegedly assaulted early Wednesday morning. He was apparently attacked from behind, motive unknown, and taken to the hospital. The attack happened near an entertainment district in Tuscaloosa.

Additional reports indicate his injuries are minor -- right hand, right leg, toes on both feet -- and that he has been released from the hospital. The Bama Beat says no arrests have been made and that police believe his involvement was "only as a victim." Kermit T. Frog once said it isn't easy being green. Tiffin proves it isn't easy being a kicker, either.

Every Monday during college football's endless offseason, The FanHouse Walk will put last week's stories to bed and deliver the essentials to bridge that agonizing space between now and September.

Mr. BCS Goes To Washington -- Except I have a feeling Jimmy Stewart would find some way to rail against the BCS, however wrongheadedly. You see, the big word in the halls of Congress on Friday was "fair" but don't let that confuse you. While the Mountain West and certain members of Congress are using the fairness term to stoke public support, their real concern is about money.

The National Football Foundation has announced 16 players and two coaches have ascended to the College Football Hall of Fame. Its not the sexiest list ever, but whatever, its got John Robinson and a pair of Heisman Trophy winners among the honorees.

Notre Dame receiver Tim Brown and (snicker) Miami quarterback Gino Torretta are joined by notables like Arizona's hard-hitting safety Chuck Cecil, Ohio State linebacker and ESPN analyst Chris Spielman, and West Virginia's Major Harris -- who was Pat White before there was a Pat White.