Georgia fired Dennis Felton in mid-season appeared to be thoroughly botching their coaching search. They targeted Missouri coach Mike Anderson, and had to wait until he finished a strong run to the Elite Eight. In doing so, Georgia missed out on other coaches like Anthony Grant. If not for the farce of a coaching search in Arizona overshadowing things, Georgia would have been receiving plenty of ridicule.
Anderson rebuffed Georgia and the reported $2 million plus offer to stay at Missouri for a nice raise, but not what Georgia was offering. Georgia's coaching search appeared to be in disarray. As if the program did not expect to be rejected by their first choice if they overwhelmed him with cash.
Everyone keeps tuned to sports sites and ESPNews for the latest plumes of smoke from Memphis and/or Lexington regarding John Calipari and whether he stays at Memphis or goes to Kentucky. The flip side is that the move has paralyzed nearly every other coaching search as programs and coaches in-demand wait to see what happens.
As far as gimme games go for a bubble team, this was the absolute definition of one for Kentucky. They were playing Georgia in Rupp Arena -- a Georgia team that had already fired their coach and only had two conference wins. The Bulldogs were absolutely the best team to get at this point, as their season is circling the drain.
Kentucky absolutely needed the game. It was at home. It was the final home game (and possibly the last night at Rupp for junior Jodie Meeks). It was a must-win, can not lose. Yet, somehow the Wildcats managed to do just that.
Let's start with the end of this story: Georgia sophomore Tanner Strickland will turn himself into police after a warrant was issued for his arrest Friday for intent to distribute possession of fake IDs from the UGA campus to other universities, as reported by OnlineAthens.com. Strickland won't be suspended, but his punishment will be handled "in house," according to coach Mark Richt. More on that in a second.
Strickland and 13 other UGA students had their fake ID ring busted up by Gary Nork, a US postal inspector in Arizona who called Georgia officials with a tip he had received about bogus IDs being shipped from Athens. My own reaction is twofold:
First, I can't help but think of the Seinfeld episode in which Newman goes to great lengths to prove that Jerry is part of a mail fraud scheme (which he isn't really) and makes him pay "a small fine". Strickland's own small fine is that he won't be suspended but will doubtless spend much of his spring and summer running very long distances for Richt with precious little rest.
Second, it's interesting that two Georgia players will start the 2007 season serving suspensions for underage drinking: lineman Ian Smith (five games after his second alcohol arrest) and linebacker Akeem Hebron (two games). However, Strickland won't be suspended for providing seeking and acquiring the means to drink underage. They're both misdemeanors that seem in many ways linked, so shouldn't they carry similar penalties?
Developers in this college town are catering to a new real estate niche: High priced parking spaces for upscale University of Georgia alumni looking to ease the process of finding a place to park and a place to stay on gamedays.
In a new 250-spot, 18-acre lot due to open next year, well-heeled alums can pay $30,000 to get a guaranteed parking spot for their recreational vehicles.
Now, for your 30 grand(!) you get "amenities like televisions, live music, restrooms, picnic pavilions and a shuttle to campus," but this is a parking spot you pay property taxes on. And they're apparently selling like hotcakes:
"It's been very well-received," [former UGA kicker Kevin] Butler said.
I don't think this would work at a place like Penn State, where you get off the freeway -- after you wind your way through 30 miles of backroad -- and there are two things: wide open grass and an enormous 100,000 seat stadium.
Arkansas Athletic Director Frank Broyles is expected to step down this week. His departure is yet another symbol of the passing of one of college football's greatest generations, the great coaches who presided over the game from 1960 or so until the mid to late 1970's. Broyles coached the Razorbacks from 1958 to 1976 helping them win a championship and competing nationally in a great era against powers like Alabama, USC, Notre Dame and Michigan.
Another giant of his time has left us in the mortal sense: Bo Schembechler. Schembechler coached Michigan from 1969 to 1989 becoming the face of the program until his death just before the Michigan/Ohio State game last year.
Among the magnificent but dead is Alabama's Bear Bryant (1958-1982) who retired at the end of the 1982 season and promptly checked out of mortal existence. Ohio State's Woody Hayes (1951-1978) hung around until his death in 1987. Nebraska's Bob Devaney (1962-1972) checked out in 1997 and USC's comedic John McKay (1960-1975) lasted a little longer, passing away in 2001.
All those giants left the coaching ranks long ago, but each stewarded elite programs for a decade or more. To this day most of them remain the standard for which current coaches aspire to at each of their programs. Schembechler's death and Broyles' departure signal the end of their collective direct involvement in the college game.
They are the ones who were the game's caretakes from the mid to late 1970's until the late 1980's, an era of great transition and upheaval due to parity measures such as scholarship limits, the completion of racial integration and the rapid and dramatic death of plodding, run-heavy conventional offenses such as USC's "Student Body Right/Student Body Left" approach.
We'll save that analysis for another day, another time. Until then it's one final embrace of perhaps college football's "greatest generation" of coaches. Thanks for the memories, fellas.
Georgia fired Dennis Felton in mid-season appeared to be thoroughly botching their coaching search. They targeted Missouri coach Mike Anderson, and had to wait until he finished a strong run to the Elite Eight. In doing so, Georgia missed out on other coaches like Anthony Grant. If not for the farce of a coaching search in Arizona overshadowing things, Georgia would have been receiving plenty of ridicule.
Everyone keeps tuned to sports sites and ESPNews for the latest plumes of smoke from Memphis and/or Lexington regarding 
As far as gimme games go for a bubble team, this was the absolute definition of one for Kentucky. They were playing Georgia in Rupp Arena -- a Georgia team that had already fired their coach and only had two conference wins. The Bulldogs were absolutely the best team to get at this point, as their season is circling the drain.
Let's start with the end of this story: Georgia sophomore Tanner Strickland will turn himself into police after a warrant was issued for his arrest Friday for 
Can we get Guinness in here to check on this? Because I bet you a dollar this is 
Arkansas Athletic Director 
