This blog is actually kind of a carry over of blogging that I was doing on Facebook via a group I started a few years ago. The revelations coming out about the Ohio State football program do not surprise me. I blogged on my Facebook group discussion board about three incidents of corruption last season including Scam Newton, the Tat 5, and LieMichael James.

Here are some excerpts from my posts on December 11, 2010 and January 4, 2011 in which I went off about the pay for play scandals and corruption:

"I believe that the pay for play and other back door deals are an extensive culture of NCAA football and sports."

"I got my hopes up...that the NCAA was finally cracking down on players and schools. However, it was mostly a song and dance to silence critics and in order for them to keep the corrupt system in place."

"Now, let me argue the case of the Tattoo 5. I keep hearing people say how it is their own items anyways. What the average person doesn't understand is that those items they sold were memorabilia and that by selling them they were making money off of their college football career which is an amateur sport...If players were allowed to sell their jerseys, signatures, rings etc then this would create an enormous loophole. What would keep a booster from saying to a recruit that hey if you come play here then I'll buy your jersey for $50,000 after every game?"

With more and more coming out about Ohio State, what I said then is starting to make a lot of sense. A report from SI reveals more than the "investigations" by the school.

This is from the SI piece that I read on ESPN College Football Nation Blog:

"Ellis estimates that Pryor alone brought in more than 20 items, ­including game-worn shoulder pads, multiple helmets, Nike cleats, jerseys, game pants and more. One day Ellis asked Pryor how he was able to take so much gear from the university's equipment room. Ellis  says the quarter­back responded, "I get whatever I want.""

Some of the other key points from the SI report also on ESPN College Football Nation Blog:

"Writers George Dohrmann and David Epstein paint the memorabilia sales among players as a systematic problem at Ohio State. It certainly calls into question athletic director Gene Smith's claim that the sales involving Pryor and the others were isolated. Ohio State's brief investigation into the memorabilia sales in December also looks shaky."

One part of the SI report that is sure to make Tressel look like a real weasel is that he "rigged raffles" in order for "elite players" to win. Otherwise, he's being accused of cheating people out of raffle tickets. Unfortunately, I still expect more media revelations of college football corruption to keep popping up throughout the sport. The NCAA or other powers at be need to seriously investigate and crackdown on violators. College football is too passionate and great to be brought down by a bunch of cheats.
 
Here is the link to "SI Report could impact OSU's 2011 depth" on ESPN College Football Nation Blog: http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/42630/si-report-could-impact-osus-2011-depth

Here is the link to the full report on SI.com:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/magazine/05/30/jim.tressel/index.html?eref=sihp&sct=hp_t11_a3

Here is the link to my posts on the Facebook group discussion board that is being archived: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=145394290824&v=app_2373072738&ref=ts#!/topic.php?uid=145394290824&topic=18852

·         Andrew Luck Junior QB Stanford 70.7 Comp%, 32 TDs, 170.2 Passer Rating

·         Kellen Moore Senior QB Boise State 71.3 Comp%, 35 TDs, 182.6 Passer Rating 

·         LaMichael James Junior RB Oregon 1731 Rush Yds, 5.9 Avg Rush, 24 Total TDs

·         Justin Blackmon Junior WR Oklahoma State 1782 Receiving Yds, 16.1 Avg Rec, 21 Total TDs

·         Denard Robinson Junior QB Michigan 4272 Total YDs, 6.6 Avg Rush, 32 Total TDs

·         Landry Jones Junior QB Oklahoma 4718 Pass Yds, 38 TDs

·         Brandon Weeden Senior QB Oklahoma State 4277 Pass Yds, 35 TDs

·         Knile Davis Junior HB Arkansas 1322 Rush Yds, 6.5 Avg Rush, 13 Rush TDs

·         Trent Richardson Junior HB Alabama, 6.3 Avg Rush, 10 Total TDs

·         Ryan Broyles Senior WR Oklahoma 1622 Receiving Yds, 14 TDs

·         Marcus Lattimore Sophomore HB South Carolina 1609 Total Yds, 19 Total TDs

·         Alshon Jeffery Junior WR South Carolina 1517 Receiving Yds, 17.2 Avg Rec, 9 TDs

*Stat totals are from last season.
These are my Dynamic Dozen Heisman frontrunners coming into the 2011 season. However, many of times the Heisman winner ends up being someone that was not on preseseason watch lists.
Here are links to other watch lists and Heisman info:
Heisman Pundit
http://heismanpundit.com/2011/02/22/the-2011-heismanpundit-com-heisman-trophy-watch-list/
Bleacher Report
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/700999-michigan-football-win-over-irish-would-vault-denard-robinson-into-heisman-lead
ESPN Pac-12 Blog
http://espn.go.com/blog/pac10/post/_/id/20134/is-the-2011-heisman-trophy-a-pac-12-race
These lists cover most of the preseason candidates except some longshots like Chris Relf and Edwin Baker which may have just as good of a chance looking at recent history. Bleacher Report has Terrell Pryor on their list, but I doubt he will have a chance since he has to sit out five games. Andrew Luck will be at the top of almost everyone's Heisman watch going into week one. It will be his trophy to lose. Here is a YouTube video of his college highlights so far.

The SEC West should be renamed to the Dirty South Division, because it’s just plain Nasty. Five out of the six teams are top 25 teams. Alabama, Arkansas, and LSU are the top contenders for the division. Mississippi State is also in the picture as well as Auburn with a longshot chance. Ole Miss is the only weak team, but they still brought in a top 25 recruiting class. I believe the winner of this division will once again play in the BCS national championship. 

Alabama returns ten starters from a stout defense that only allowed 13.5 ppg last season (4th overall). Safety Robert Lester was second in the FBS in interceptions last season with eight and he is just one of many talented players coming back on defense including linebacker Dont’a Hightower and safety Mark Barron. The question mark for the Crimson Tide is at quarterback, but they do return on offense playmaker tailback Trent Richardson (6.3 ypc) which reportedly bench presses 460 lbs and runs a sub 4.4 in the 40 yard dash. Coach Saban also brought in top recruits on both sides of the ball with Ha'Sean Clinton-Dix at Safety and Cyrus Kouandjio (6’7 325lbs) at offensive tackle.

The Hogs come into this season with the most feared offense in the SEC. Quarterback Tyler Wilson looks to continue their offensive success after the departure of Ryan Mallett to the NFL. They bring back the top SEC rusher Knile Davis (1322 Rush Yds) and a stacked stable of wide-outs in which five receivers each had 600 yards or more last season (4 of 5 return this season). Coach Petrino also recruited 3 four star offensive linemen including Brey Cook (6’6 295lbs) which will need to contribute right away after losing much of last year’s O-line. The Razorback defense will also look to continue its improvement with eight starters back from last season’s Top 50 defensive squad (23.4papg) anchored by DE Jake Bequette.

LSU will have a strong defense and rushing offense which led to most of their success this past season. Despite losing Patrick Peterson, the Tigers still boast an elite secondary coming into 2011 led by hard hitter Tyrann Mathieu and Morris Clairborne (5 ints last yr). Even though the Purple & Gold Cajuns return experienced quarterback Jordan Jefferson (7tds 10ints last yr), his ability to be a successful QB is questionable.  Running back Spencer Ware played good during the spring and had a breakout game in the Cotton Bowl against Texas A&M with 10 carries for 102 yards. Coach Miles also managed to haul in another top 10 recruiting class with high rated recruits in DT Anthony Johnson and OT La'El Collins.

As for the other possible division contenders, Dan Mullen will have the much overlooked Bulldogs well prepared for another successful season. Mississippi State brings back eight starters on offense including dual threat quarterback Chris Relf (1789 pass yds & 713 rush yds last yr) and returns seven starters from a top 25 defense last season (19.8 papg). Auburn will have to overachieve this season in order to have anywhere close to the success of this past season. The Tigers bring back the fewest returning starters of any FBS team (7 total), but brought in a slew of elite recruits for this season including a five star and 15 four star recruits according to ESPN. Ole Miss returns nine starters on offense and recruited some talent in the off season. However, they still have more improving to do after a 1-7 finish in the SEC and the competition is only tougher this year.

The SEC West should once again produce a national championship finalist. Brian Fremeau projected on ESPN.com that “it isn’t likely” that a SEC team will go undefeated. That may be true, but he also projected that only one team, Alabama, would have a double digit winning season in both divisions. I very much doubt that since four teams had 10 or more wins in a very competitive SEC West division last year. But looking closer at this year’s schedules, the West will have some challenging non-conference games on top of tough conference games. Despite all the teams beating up on each other, I still expect to see multiple SEC teams highly ranked at the end. The real question is not will the SEC West make it to another BCS championship, but will any team be able to beat the Dirty South in the BCS Championship?

Top Out of Conference games to Watch for the SEC West:
Sept 3: LSU vs Oregon at Arlington, TX (Cowboys Stadium)
Sept 3: BYU at Ole Miss
Sept 10: Alabama at Penn State
Sept 17: Auburn at Clemson
Sept 24: LSU at West Virginia
Oct 1: Ole Miss at Fresno State
Oct 8: Arkansas vs Texas A&M at Arlington, TX (Cowboys Stadium)

Here are a few links:
ESPN blog with a SportsNation poll on “which of these teams is most likely to win the SEC in 2011?”:
http://espn.go.com/blog/sec/post/_/id/22746/sec-champion-poll
Fan poll on College Football Universe for “will a team from the SEC win the 2012 BCS championship?”: http://www.collegefootballuniverse.com/page14.html
"Undefeated SEC champ? Not in 2011" by Brian Fremeau from Football Outsiders on ESPN.com: http://insider.espn.go.com/ncf/insider/news/story?id=6533481&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fncf%2finsider%2fnews%2fstory%3fid%3d6533481

I also posted this blog at http://www.hogblog.org/.

I recently posted the College Football Universe Top 10 and I just wanted to note a difference in the ESPN College Football Live rankings from CFU's. They over ranked LSU at No. 4 and Arkansas is slightly under ranked at No. 12. The Tigers should be rated below the Hogs in most preseason rankings even though they won’t be. They only bring back about three more players on offense than the Hogs. And LSU doesn’t even have a returning quarterback. Oh hang on, Jordan Jefferson is still listed at quarterback (I just had to stop to laugh). Well, they do have Jarrett Lee which is an experienced QB… experienced at throwing interceptions... okay okay…I’ll quit making fun of the LSU quarterbacks.

http://espn.go.com/blog/sec/post/_/id/21984/college-football-lives-top-25

http://espn.go.com/blog/statsinfo/post/_/id/18792/oklahoma-tops-cfb-live-preseason-poll

For the pollsters that want to vault LSU over Arkansas in the preseason ratings, there is a picture posted above to remind them of a game from last season.

I’m already anxious for the Battle for the Golden Boot and it’s only May! Who else is hyped to see the Hogs tame the Bayou Bengals into Purple Pussycats again this season?

I also posted this blog at http://www.hogblog.org/.

As of late, there has been harsh criticism of the former Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett by ESPN, Yahoo, CBS, and many others. There are some issues I have with the critiquing that I believe may be the result of rural southern prejudice aka redneck discrimination. One problem with the criticism is the use of quotes from unnamed sources to ridicule players. Another is that some players seem to get a free pass for similar problems that supposedly kept Mallett from moving up in the NFL Draft. 

A recent article by Jason Cole was an example of ignorance and cowardice. Near the beginning of the article, Cole describes Mallett’s selection as the 74th pick as “a stunning drop for a quarterback at one time considered a strong first-round candidate.”

Yes at one time, a while ago, Mallett was considered a strong first round candidate, but a person would have to be flat out ignorant of NFL Draft news to know that there was a strong chance going in that Mallett would not be a first round pick. Even ESPN floated around the speculation recently that the Patriots were interested in Mallett as a backup and Pro Football Weekly projected him as a second to third round pick around a month ago. Where have you been Jason? 

Further on in Mr. Cole’s writing, he began to ridicule Mallett. Excuse me, correction, his multiple unnamed sources ridiculed Mallett. Here are excerpts from his writing which exemplifies that:

                “His decision not to address the rumors publicly has been seen as a sign of immaturity by several NFL team executives.

                …an NFL general manager said earlier this month. “I can’t see him standing up in front of a team and being taken seriously when he spoke.””

As the article continues it gets worse. Cole quoted an NFC assistant coach that praised Mallett for his throwing abilities, but then the unnamed coach went on to take cheap shots at him:

                “Just an odd kid. You talk to him and you get this feeling like he just doesn’t understand what this is all about. Nice enough kid, but just kind of clueless and goofy. It’s like he’s in his own world,”

Cole did go on to quote Bill Belichick and John Gruden in which they complimented Mallett’s talents. But those quotes had names listed with them. The use of unnamed sources to bash someone is trash journalism and pure cowardice. Jason Cole should either have the courage to tell his own opinion from gathering information off the record or leave it out completely, but he should not hide behind quotes of unknowns like a coward.

For example, Nolan Narwocki harshly critiqued Mallett in the Pro Football Weekly 2011 Draft Preview guide like he did many other draft prospects, but he took credit for the criticism and did not pass it off in the writing as quotes from mystery men. And I understand unnamed sources are used frequently in today’s sports news world, but when it becomes ridiculing without a name added to the quote then it is just trash. 

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=jc-cole_pats_curious_selection_of_mallett_042911

The other problem I have is that Cam Newton gets a free pass from the press when Mallett obviously does not. Cam has been avoiding questions on his alleged pay for play scandal since last fall. But no one wants to concentrate on his shadiness since he is supposedly the chosen one for NFL stardom. When ESPN’s Chris Fowler interviewed him in December, the session was a complete joke mostly due to Cam’s answers or the lack there of.

One of many questions that Newton avoided answering was around the 6:00 minute mark of the interview video on ESPN. Chris Fowler asked Cam Newton, “so the reports are untrue that with them you had conversations about Auburn payments?” He gave a very elaborate response that did not come anywhere close to answering the question. The whole interview was that way. Even at one point Newton was getting so carried away around the 2:44 mark that he starts talking about “laughing and giggling” with Cecil. Watch the video for yourself.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5903485  

But Oh the love affair with Newton continues in the media and the haters continue to pounce on Mallett. For example, here are some excerpts from a column written by Mike Freeman on CBSSports.com in which he badgered the Arkansan quarterback and of course so did other unnamed sources:

                “I don't think Mallett can help it… he proceeded to act like he was God's gift to quarterbacking with the media. He did this knowing that everyone was watching, and still Mallett didn't care. 

                 Mallett has first-round talent and a third-round head. The drug rumors, the attitude -- it's why he dropped in this draft like BP's stock after the Gulf spill. The Boston Globe reported that two league executives said Mallett admitted in pre-draft meetings to marijuana use. "We didn't believe him," one of those executives said.

                They didn't believe him meaning they didn't think he was telling them everything.”

Well some of what Freeman wrote was his own opinion, but he still used quotes of unnamed executives reported by the Boston Globe. I would think with him being this harsh of Mallett then he must be critical of Newton. Oh wait, here is how he goes on about his darling Cam Newton: 

                “…the conspiracy theorists wonder why I like Cam Newton despite his troubled past, and not Mallett. Newton did make mistakes but there are three major differences… Newton's alleged stealing of a laptop and dismissal from the University of Florida were indeed problematic but in interviews with several personnel men, Newton seemed genuinely contrite about his mistakes. Mallett wasn't as convincing in his discussions with teams. Frankly, some of them just didn't think he was a good guy.”

Mr. Freeman does not point out something when he mentions Newton’s “alleged stealing of the laptop.” Cam threw the laptop out of his window when the police were coming for it and then claimed he did not know it was stolen. You would have to be a moron to believe that excuse. If he did not know it was stolen, then why did he throw it out of the window? Oh, I guess I’m just being a “conspiracy theorist”.  Anyways, that’s just “alleged”, but I guess “Mallett wasn’t as convincing”… code for he couldn’t BS as well as Cam. And some “just didn’t think he was a good guy.” But it’s perfectly okay for Newton to be shady? Mike Freeman get real.

He continues on to take another shot at Mallett:

                “…Mallett's alleged drug issues may be simple, or they may not be. We don't know. As the Globe reported, some teams think they aren't. 

                …Newton went first overall and Carolina's checking into Newton's background was so extensive the FBI would be proud. The fact Mallett fell into the third despite having perhaps the most pro-ready arm says a great deal. In fact, it says everything.”

Yeah Mike we don’t know about Mallett’s drug issues…“may be simple”… “they may not be”… “some teams think they aren’t.” Way to go philosopher Freeman. This may be simple. It may not be to you. I think it’s not. The media blitz of demeaning Mallett says a great deal. In fact, it says everything.

I think many sports media pundits find it hard to believe that a rural southerner that talks in the manner that Ryan Mallet does is bright enough to lead the offense of an NFL team. Various critics continue to act as though he would have problems leading an NFL team even though there have been numerous former teammates state differently.

Otherwise, many of the insults make Mallett sound as a hillbilly on drugs that no one would take serious in an NFL huddle. I would not be surprised if Mel Kiper and Todd McShay were downplaying him so he would drop low enough for New England to pick him. In contrast, most pundits are so in love with Cam Newton’s athleticism as well as bamboozled by his doublespeak that they do not bother to criticize his character.
 
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/story/15006407/drafting-mallett-might-be-one-gamble-belichick-regrets 

In my opinion, Mallett does need to mature and handle himself better in front of the press. He has already begun by having a good showing with John Gruden on ESPN in which he got to show off some of his football smarts. The real test will be if he can deal with the pressure put on him by the media and still perform when the times comes. There is a chance that he may not, but the repeated bashing is not necessary. Well, that’s my opinion, not from some unnamed source, and you can quote me on that.

http://espn.go.com/blog/afcsouth/post/_/id/22998/video-gruden-qb-camp-with-ryan-mallett

This blog entry can also be found on http://www.HogBlog.org