Category: Vanderbilt

Saban blames NFL for Sugar Bowl defeat

Nick Saban, the Alabama head coach, isn’t blaming players for their lack of preparedness going into the 2014 College Football Play-Off semi-final loss to Ohio State. He’s not blaming himself. Or his coaching staff. Nope. He’s blaming the NFL. “I just felt like, in our experience last year, our team chemistry from the SEC Championship game to the playoff game was affected by something,” he said. “I think that to have a December 15th deadline from when a junior can submit for a draft grade and then you get that assessment back sometime right before or right after Christmas, and then you have a playoff game coming up on January 1st or 2nd, and I think it’s my obligation as

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Butch Jones: No backflips over Tennessee’s recruiting success

There were no backflips after Tennessee’s fantastic 2015 recruiting year, head coach Butch Jones said, adding that 2014 was an overachievement from a team that didn’t bring back anyone on the offensive and defensive lines. “Contrary to reports, there were no back flips, and there were no somersaults, but I think in the world of college football, you’re judged by wins and losses, but also you’re judged by does your team overachieve or under achieve. And I thought last year’s football team, team 118 overachieved.” He added that overachievements have also been seen in the classroom, where he saw only 12 players manage an average of a 3.0 GPA to 52 (Now, let’s not talk about what classes they were

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Dan Mullen: Dak Prescott was close to going pro

Dak Prescott was close to leaving Mississippi State and going pro, admitted head coach Dan Mullen. “He applied, got all of his NFL paperwork,” Mullen said.  He added that it was with his counsel that Prescott decided to stay in school. “We did some research and study of looking at quarterbacks that were coming out, where he might fall…..If he had gone and maybe midround draft pick that’s going to sit the bench in the NFL, he’d have a chance to get zero game reps, and I think that experience in the long run will help his career of getting those live game reps. It might not be at the NFL speed or in that offense against those schemes, but

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Kevin Sumlin: Texas A&M losses to LSU led to Chavis hiring

Kevin Sumlin, the Texas A&M head coach, has admitted that thr straight losses to LSU led him to hiring new defensive co-ordinator John Chavis. Firstly, the question: “Coach, you guys played LSU the last three seasons. They held you to under 20 points in all three games, all losses. Did you kind of take the mindset, if we can’t beat LSU and John Chavis, I’ll go hire him away?” Sumlin’s answer was brutal and to-the-point: “I didn’t kind of. That’s exactly what I did. There’s really nothing more to the answer than that. That’s true. We’ve studied the defense. We get it. We struggled. It’s a great fit for us and a great fit for him. He was ready for

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Spurrier with the zingers!

I could sit here and give you a long news article about Steve Spurrier and what he said about South Carolina football – “We’ve got a good team at South Carolina ready to go this year. We had a little bit of a struggle in the middle of last season” – but that’s not why we look out for what the Head Ball Coach says at SEC Media Days. It’s the zingers. So here’s a collection of them: INTRODUCTION SPEECH “A lot of familiar faces out there after a lot of years coming to this event. I figured a bunch of you guys would have retired by now.” “We believe we have a fighting chance to do that. I know

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Bama poised as Texas A&M 5-star de-commits

Texas A&M 5-star commit and No.2 prospect in the nation Greg Little has decommitted. The 6.5, 305lb giant offensive linesman from Allen High School in Allen, TX is ranked as the top player in Texas, top offensive tackle and No.2 player overall. He is said to have great feet for his size. 247Sports.com now has Alabama as a favorite for Little’s commitment. Texas A&M originally beat Alabama, Oklahoma and Ole Miss to Little’s commitment on June 20th, 2014. Ohio State is also thought to be a contender after putting in an offer. Little has been recruited by a ton of schools apart from A&M, Alabama and Ole Miss, including LSU, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi State, South Carolina and Tennessee among

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Derek Mason: 2014 Was On Me

Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason isn’t shying away from responsibility for Vanderbilt’s awful 2014 season. “We weren’t a very competitive football team in 2014, and that’s on me. I take full responsibility for that,” he said at the SEC Media Days in Florida today. “We struggled to find identity,” he said. “What we’ve tried to do in the last eight months is try to right the wrong.” When asked about pressure, he said: “It’s college football. I’ve been coaching 22 years. So my understanding is that every year I coach on a one-year mentality. That’s a mindset. That’s what you do. You understand exactly what this game is and what you have to do, and it’s about production. We’re going to

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Jonathan Bullard: Mr Florida Honest

We’d like to give a lot of respect to Florida Gators senior Jonathan Bullard. Firstly, the defensive end wasn’t particularly polite about this offense at SEC Media Days: “They are still striving to be good.” He also said that he wanted to stay on at Florida because there was no real reason to go: “My family isn’t in a very bad situation where I had to go get money right away, so they were really just on my side and I feel what’s best for me is to come back here.” ….And get a better draft position: ” I hope I can show that and get drafted to where I want to be” (In other words stats said that he wouldn’t

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Florida turnaround not going to happen ‘overnight’ – McElwain

The turnaround of the Florida Gators isn’t going to happen overnight, new coach Jim McElwain has said. McElwain, who came from Colorado State after head coach Will Muschamp was ousted from Gainseville after an awful 2014 (led by an horrific offense), said at the SEC Media Days: “I think part of the experience of being in this conference is realizing it doesn’t happen just overnight,” he said. He was full of praise of standout corner Vernon Hargreaves, who could well be a Top 5 pick in the 2016 NFL Draft: “I love the way this guy comes to work every day. The way he practices, the way he thrives in competition, and not only that, the way he takes care

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SEC Media Days: What We’re Expecting (SEC East)

On Tuesday we told you what we’re expecting from SEC West coaches on the schedule. It should be a lot of talk about the schedule, quarterbacking and good running backs. Of course, we’d love them to talk about LSU and Alabama’s penchant for getting people arrested, shitty defensive co-ordinators, and their hot wives/daughters/do-nothing husbands-in-law, but it’s probably not going to happen. Anyway, this time it’s time for your SEC East coaches. FLORIDA What Jim McElwain will probably get asked: How he’s settling into the job (“I love it down here. It’s a change from the Rockies”), how he plans to change the offense (“Don’t expect miracles, but we should be better than last year”); How tough the SEC’s schedule is (“We’re

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