Over the weekend, the Florida Gator brain trust decided one way to respond to the 24 football player arrests in the past four years was to send the football team on ride alongs with the local Gainesville police. The theory, apparently, is that if players can see what police do on a daily basis from the front seat of a police cruiser they'll be more likely to stay out of the back seat.
Of course, it also makes it more likely that the police will know the name of the player they happen to be arresting. So everybody wins.
The SEC coaches meetings rolled into Destin, Fla., this week, and Lane Kiffin washed ashore.
You know Kiffin, the man who brought a Molotov cocktail to the SEC tea party, the guy who coaches like tickets have to be sold for the latest WWE event. You halfway expect for him to enter press conferences wearing orange tights, grab the mike, scream invectives at his rivals, then spike the microphone, kiss his biceps, and leave without taking questions. Kiffin coaches college football like Vince McMahon helms the WWE, it's all about creating a buzz.
It's remarkable to think that three years removed from the sex boat scandal, and the subsequent fallout that cost Mike Tice his job, the Vikings would seriously consider drafting Percy Harvin, the former Florida standout who tested positive for marijuana at the NFL Combine in February.
But it's not the failed drug test that should be most worrisome for Minnesota's front office -- plenty of professional athletes smoke weed -- it's the fact that he wasn't smart enough to pass on grass when he knew he'd have to pee in a cup once he got to Indianapolis. As NFL scouts have preached: it's not so much a drug test as an intelligence test. And Harvin flunked both.
The FanHouse Podcast: Because bloggers are much sexier on the phone.
We recently welcomed renowned lawyer turned author/blogger/athlete Clay Travis (read his new book!) to FanHouse. Naturally, we fired up the podcast machine. The result? Ye olde epic two-parter. The first half is after the jump and in it we answer the pressing questions: Is Tim Tebow a virgin? Is "fat-ass" an inappropriate term to use in intramural sports? Should you let your wife time your 40-yard dash? Is working at Deadspin fun? How many crazy pills did Lane Kiffin swallow? And, of course, who's more evil: Urban Meyer or Nick Saban? Do enjoy.
It's not fair, dang it. It's not fair that college football has the longest offseason of any major sport.
I'd probably feel a lot differently if, you know, something actually happened during this interminable stretch. Nothing ever does, however. The coaches are more or less all hired within a day or two of the title game. National Signing Day has proved this year that women are right when they say men don't understand what "commitment" means. And seriously, all you recruits out there, that stupid hat trick is played out. Pulling the ol' baseball cap switcheroo doesn't tell us you're impish and edgy. It tells us you're a sheep without any original thoughts.
What does it mean when we're only nine weeks removed from the crystal football and college football's most buzzed-up personality is Lane Kiffin (above), who hasn't even coached his team to a first down yet?
The most entertaining story of this college football off-season has been the way Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin keeps sticking his foot in his mouth, including an allegation that Florida coach Urban Meyer cheated by illegally contacting a recruit. At least, it's been entertaining to those of us on the outside.
Lane Kiffin has done a bunch of kind of silly things since he became the head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers. But none of them can really top his most recent behavior: his coaching staff started ripping their shirts in front of recruits, WWE style.
Seriously. Now, apparently Kiffin didn't actually rip his, but the whole point of the exercise was to get the players pumped. And it worked, according to some of the accounts, even if it started a little awkwardly after an assistant coach told the high schoolers how seriously they take special teams at Tennessee.
As we watched the Al Davis vs. Lane Kiffin saga unfold in Oakland over the past two seasons, it was difficult to not feel some sort sympathy for Kiffin.
After all, he was a young, up-and-coming head coach that seemed to be trapped in the firm grasp of Davis' lair, having little to no control over what was actually going on with the football team he was, supposedly, coaching.
Lane Kiffin made some pretty bold statements at a recent recruiting celebration banquet, stating that Urban Meyer "cheats" -- without winning no less! It was an odd way to behave considering that Kiffin must have known he was being recorded.
Florida's athletic department, predictably, is not thrilled about the accusations. And they're going so far as to sling around the legally charged term "slander" in a statement from athletic director Jeremy Foley.
Over the weekend, the Florida Gator brain trust decided one way to respond to the 24 football player arrests in the past four years was to send the football team on ride alongs with the local Gainesville police. The theory, apparently, is that if players can see what police do on a daily basis from the front seat of a police cruiser they'll be more likely to stay out of the back seat. 
The SEC coaches meetings rolled into Destin, Fla., this week, and 
It's remarkable to think that three years removed from the sex boat scandal, and the subsequent fallout that cost 
It's not fair, dang it. It's not fair that college football has the longest offseason of any major sport.
Lane Kiffin
As we watched the 
Lane Kiffin
