Category: Tennessee

Athlon Sports: Saban the best in 2013 coaching class

Nick Saban got more recognition for his great coaching ability (although we doubt he’ll care!) from Athlon Sports, who said he was the best coach in the 2013 class of 125 college football coaches. It espoused: “Saban is without question the best coach in college football. He started his career as a head coach in 1990 with Toledo, then spent the next four seasons as the defensive coordinator with the Cleveland Browns. In 1995, Saban was hired as Michigan State’s head coach and guided the Spartans to a 34-24-1 record under his watch. Saban left East Lansing for Baton Rouge and LSU in 2000 and led the Tigers to a 48-16 record in five years, including a national championship in

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Chizik denies allegations

Gene Chizik, the former Auburn coach, has denied allegations from blogger Selena Roberts that he manipulated players grades, ignored drug tests and paid players. He said in a statement: “During my tenure at Auburn, the NCAA conducted a multi-year investigation into the Auburn football program that they called “fair and thorough.” The NCAA focused intently on widespread accusations about Auburn players being paid and other alleged recruiting violations. The NCAA conducted 80 interviews. In October 2011, the NCAA rejected “rampant public speculation online and in the media.” Unfortunately, the recent story published by Selena Roberts is more of the same. It once again portrays Auburn University, current and former coaches, professors, fans, supporters and community officials in a false light.

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Report: Auburn paid players, changed grades under Chizik rule

If you’re an Auburn fan and think that things couldn’t get worse than they were after a winless SEC season and the firing of your head coach – plus a sea of off-season troubles, then think again. Selena Roberts, a reporter who has written for Sports Illustrated, brought out a report today that stunned not only this writer, will stun a lot of SEC fans. In the report – which is essentially an interview with former safety Mike McNeil – Auburn changed grades, paid players to host recruits, saw more than 40 players test positive for “recreational drugs” after their National Championship win in 2011, and offered money to players to keep playing at the school. Here are some stunning

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Clowney has $5m insurance policy

South Carolina defensive end and All-American Jadeveon Clowney has a $5 million insurance policy should he get injured in the 2013 season, it has been reported. The policy – which will be paid out via the NCAA should anything go awry next season – will be paid for by family members, and protect against future . The cost is $30,000. Reply to Charleston Post-Courier writer Daryl Slater’s report, Paul Myerberg of USA Today noted that the policy was the largest available to players. The insurance company offering the policy is HCC, based in Cincinnati. On South Carolina’s website, they said: “Student athletes can receive up to $5m in coverage, up from $4.4m in basketball and $3m in football.” The NCAA

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ESPN announces August-October SEC TV dates

ESPN has announced its August – October TV dates for SEC schools – starting with South Carolina’s hosting of North Carolina on Thursday, August 29th at 8pm. Here is the line-up: Thu, Aug 29 6 p.m. North Carolina at South Carolina * ESPN   9:15 p.m. Ole Miss at Vanderbilt ESPN Sat, Aug 31 5:30 p.m. Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game: Virginia Tech vs. Alabama (Atlanta) ESPN   8 p.m. Georgia at Clemson ABC   9 p.m. Cowboys Classic: TCU vs. LSU ESPN Thu, Oct 24 7:30 p.m. Kentucky at Mississippi State ESPN We’re already extremely excited! In order of games that the neutral should be excited about, here we go: 1) Georgia at Clemson – Two likely highly-ranked teams in one

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SEC Spring Game: Full Diary

The SEC has released all the dates of Spring Games – and when practice begins. Here’s to the athletes getting prepped for it already. All SEC schools and Pro Days start practice between March 2nd and March 27th. Here are the Spring Games in April: April 6th: Florida, Georgia April 13th: Kentucky, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt April 20th: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, LSU, Mississippi State, Missouri, Tennessee

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Most intriguing SEC players at the NFL Combine

To any outsider, you now understand why most good high school players want a chance to prove themselves at the SEC. If you’re good – and good enough to go pro – then you might get invited to the NFL Combine. 74 SEC players were asked to come. Thanks to Gamedayr for the list, without which this article wouldn’t have made it up here. Alabama (10) Quinton Dial, DE DJ Fluker, OT Nico Johnson, ILB Barrett Jones, OL Eddie Lacy, RB Robert Lester, FS Dee Milliner, CB Damion Square, DE Chance Warmack, OG Jesse Williams, DT MOST INTRIGUING: Eddie Lacy could be seen as the next Trent Richardson – particularly if he performs as well as he did in the

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National Signing Day (SEC East): Florida rules, but Georgia, do we have a problem?

There might have been a lot of headlines out west about the National Signing Day classes that Alabama and Ole Miss put together, but guess what? Florida’s was pretty darned amazing. Will Muschamp has the reputation as one of the best recruiters in the land, and he proved it with an excellent class. However, there are some deep questions about Georgia to answer, folks… CHOMP! CHOMP! CHOMP! THE MUSCHAMP EFFECT Among other thoughts from UF brass, Will Muschamp was hired to Florida for two reasons: 1) He’s a great defensive coach 2) He’s a great recruiter. After a fantastic 2012-3 season (marred slightly by an ignominious loss to Louisville), Florida needed to add some more depth on both sides of

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SEC players, coaches and fans’ tweet lives in 5 Words

There’s something amusing going around Twitter which is #MyLifeIn5Words, so we thought we’d think up a few for SEC players. Please add in your thoughts, too!! Jadeveon Clowney: Must eat the opposing quarterback #MyLifeIn5Words Nick Saban: Johnny Football. Revenge. September 14. #MyLifeIn5Words Johnny Manziel: All the fuss about Alabama? Puhleeze. #MyLifeIn5Words Les Miles: Am I really that mad? #MyLifeIn5Words Tyrann Mathieu: From hero to zero. Sorry. #MyLifeIn5Words Aaron Murray: God bless you, beautiful Athens. #MyLifeIn5Words Mark Richt (to UGA faithful): Love me or hate me today? #MyLifeIn5Words Hugh Freeze: The Blind Side and Jesus. #MyLifeIn5Words SEC fans: Fall Saturdays are for drinking. LSU Juniors: Let’s all go be pros! #MyLifeIn5Words Steve Spurrier: Must enrage my biggest rivals #MyLifeIn5Words Texas A&M fans: Johnny

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Ten big questions for National Signing Day

Like everyone else, we at the SEC Football Blog are really, really excited about National Signing Day on February 6th. Sorry we haven’t been covering “firm”, “less firm”, “wavy”, or “de” commitments hugely this off-season, but these are mad times for recruits, and quite frankly, we’re happiest to sit and wait to see where the chips fall on February 6th – our first reminder that yes, college football will be back in a few weeks time with the Crimson/White/Red/Black/Blue/Orange/Purple/Green/Rainbow games in April, before getting to the fun times of players arrests and ejections from campus. Anyway, there IS the important time of Signing Day. With five SEC schools predicted to be in the Rivals.com Top 10, we anticipate that things

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