Deluxe Fruitcake

Been a while since we’ve had any thing to say about Rick Pitino. Finally there is some news out we can post on the situation.

Federal prosecutors in Kentucky have asked a judge to order a psychiatric exam for the woman accused of trying to extort $10 million from Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino.

In a motion filed yesterday, prosecutors say Karen Cunagin Sypher may be “so mentally incompetent” that she doesn’t understand the legal proceedings or can’t assist in her own defense.

How about that she might be so mentally incompetent she can’t assist in her own defense. Leave it to a federal prosecutor to figure that out.

Help the Womens Soccer Cats Pluck the Cards

The womens Soccer Cats opened the season with a 2-1 win over Cincinnatti. Down 1-0 at the start of the second half they scored 3 minutes into the period when Giuleana Lopez found Samantha Au in transition, lofting a ball over the Cincinnati defense that Au tracked down and fired into the upper right corner of the goal tying the game. Nine minutes later the scored again when Jenna Goblirsch was left alone 25 yards out at the top right of the 18-yard box and buried a shot in the upper left corner of the goal.

The Wildcats next game is Saturday, Aug. 29 when they play Louisville. The game will be a “Blue Out” and all fans will receive admission for just $1.

No More White For Rick

The sporting news is full of the Pitino-Sypher encounter. Encounter meaning he nailed her in a frigging restaurant probably next to the meat grinder in the kitchen. Heres a few of the things being said.

http://blogs.ajc.com/mark-bradley-blog/2009/08/12/the-pitino-affair-sex-in-a-restaurant-a-job-in-jeopardy/
Think of it this way: The enthusiasm for and scrutiny of basketball in Kentucky can be likened to the fervor for football in Alabama. And wasn’t Mike Price dumped as head coach by the Crimson Tide before coaching a game after reports surfaced that he’d had sex with a stripper in Pensacola, Fla.?

Price denies to this day such an encounter took place. (He settled a lawsuit with Sports Illustrated, which had reported the alleged assignation, out of court.) Pitino has admitted to having sex with Sypher and giving her $3,000. (Though his lawyer claims the money was for her to buy health insurance, not to have an abortion.)

http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/whats-next-for-rick-pitino/
There aren’t a lot of historical touchstones here, especially for college. The Patriots never considered firing Bill Belichick when his name popped up in as the “other man” in a bitter New Jersey divorce case.

http://www.aseaofblue.com/2009/8/12/986230/where-have-you-gone-joe-dimaggio
Instead of looking for heroes on television or in arenas, we should be looking for heroes in our everyday lives. Because our everyday lives are filled with people we love, and who love us. Our everyday lives are filled with people who love us in spite of our quirks and short-comings; who love us even when we are unlovable. The father who plays catch with his son, the mother who teaches her daughter the art of cooking, the grandfather who takes his grandchildren fishing, the grandmother who reads tales of dogs and cats to her grandkids. These are the true heroes. Not some ballplayer who can hit better than most, or a coach who wins more often than not.

http://www.examiner.com/x-2108-Love-and-Marriage-Examiner~y2009m8d12-Joanne-Pitino-the-sad-case-of-adultery-and-abortion
We are hearing words of sympathy for Coach Pitino, his wife, Joanne, and his family. And we should. But our hearts must ache for Joanne Pitino who joins the ranks of wives and mothers tarnished by adultery.

The story of adultery is becoming all too common — an indiscreet move on the part of their husbands’ leaves the families vulnerable. In the world of politics it was Elizabeth Edwards and more recently Jenny Sanford. Love and marriage gone awry.

http://www.east-coast-bias.com/2009/08/extortion-is-easier-than-being-groupie.html
This is getting ridiculous. What ever happened to the good old days when a groupie would carry Shawn Kemp’s Travis Henry’s the father’s child to term and THEN extort child support from him? Rape is a serious crime and I try not to base any judgments based on pieces of news reports, but between Pitino and Roethlisberger, this is getting ridiculous.

http://www2.kusports.com/weblogs/hawk-umentary/2009/aug/12/gimme-shelter/
In case no one noticed. Rick Pitino is Slick, not Bill Clinton smooth, but incredibly slippery nonetheless.

Married man + High Stress Job + Temptation = No moral Backbone.

The comments that are being posted on blogs put all this mainstream reporting to shame. Some of them deserve a Nobel Prize for creative writing.

“Kentucky’s a part of the country where this is a BIG deal to many people”
Easy, chief, the dude coaches in Louisville, not Pulaski County.
I do suppose this means that Pitino can’t wear white anymore.

Papal agenda, Wednesday, April 12, 2009:
1. Excommunicate Richard Pitino (multiple infractions of conduct clause)
2. Place Karen Sypher on 15-year penance list (whore)
3. Clarify papal decree on restaurant floor sex
4. Tune in to the Dan Patrick Show

Can anyone say “….and providing the commentary for tonight’s matchup here on TNT between the Warriors and the Heat, Coach Rick Pitino!”

So, Marvin Stone transfered before this? Man, the evil this man did during the 2003 era is off the charts…who knows what else this man has done?!

I know that Fr. Bradley pays for hotel rooms for players…I wonder what else is hidden under Rick’s rocks???

Rupp Arena should take the seats behind the other goal and call it the “Erection Zone” and have Karen Sypher present in that area during the UK/Loserville game.

An ode to Pitiner

When he was coach at Kentucky
He was king of the world
His adultery much more secretive
With much hotter girls
His teams were set for Glory
As coach rebuilt the team
Destined to be on top forever
At least that’s how it seemed
Then he left for Boston
He had something else to prove
Once he got to beantown
Pitino lost his grove
The girls were not quite as hot
His teams just could not play
He traded in Ashley Judd
For his ho of the day
So as the controversy thickens
And Vinnie is still on the floor
Will U of L be strong
Or will Pitino get the door
Once a king of the bluegrass
Know known as Richard Pitiner
The bluegrass waits for an answer
From the man who plays too much with his Weiner.

Regarding Pitino, he once again didn’t cover the one inbounding the ball…so to speak.

Two lessons to be learned in Rick Pitino situation: Wrap it up and Take it to go.

Quick — the restaurant table ricky had sex is now up for auction on ebay —— Word is out that the U of L alumni association is pooling their funds in an attempt to purchase the table and have it mounted under the speakers at freedom hall.

Sypher or a stripper I got to think about this for a while. I thought about this for a while and said self can I have both. Self answered nope so I take the stripper. Coaching in El Paso can’t be that bad can it.

Alternate Reality

I’ve been an avid SciFi reader since the late 50′s. The trend over the last twenty years in SciFi has been away from hard core to fantasy. I loved the old time travel story’s with a passion so I wondered what Andre Norton would have written about Hawai’i coach Greg McMackin’s blunder in using a word he shouldn’t have used.

Would she have written a story about time travelers accidentally changing the course of history causing the British to win the revolutionary war? If she had,  Greg McMackin’s use of the word would have had a totally different meaning. He would have meant the players were dancing around like a bundle of sticks or branches.

Sadly, what Greg McMackin did wasn’t a SciFi story, it was real life and he really blundered in the way he used the word. Anyone who knows him knows that his crying while apologizing wasn’t an act, it was the real man truly sorry he had hurt the gay community, the fans, his school and his players.

It’s sometimes difficult for someone not raised in Hawai’i to understand not only the way people talk, but how words are used. Due to the waves of immigration of Chinese, Mexicans, Portuguese, Japanese and Filipino’s there were tensions between the races. They came up with a unique way of dealing with the problem; humor. There are jokes about the length of a Japanese persons legs,  Filipino’s eating dog, Potagee’s being dumb and Haole’s diets to name a few. Thats all they are though is jokes and Hawai’is favorite comedians like Frank DeLima use them in their on stage humor.

They also came up with a way of distinguishing between using a word to describe a person and to slur a person. Here’s some definitions from the Pidgin dictionary and their usage.

popolo
(poh poh loh)

Definition: slang term used to describe an individual of African-American descent
Used In A Sentence: No, Ku`uipo’s boyfriend stay popolo.
In English?: Actually Ku`uipo’s boyfriend is African-American.

Potagee
(poh tah ghee)

Definition: slang term used to describe an individual of Portuguese descent
Used In A Sentence: Randy stay one pocho or wot?
In English?: Do you know whether or not Randy is Portuguese?

Mahu
(mah who)

Definition: homo sexual; a man who acts very feminine or like a woman
Used In A Sentence: Ho dat Charlie, he so mahu yeah?
In English?: Does that Charlie bat for the other team?

Haole
(how lee)

Definition: slang term used to describe an individual of Caucasian descent
Used In A Sentence: Damn haole!
In English?: I wish that Caucasian individual would understand me for once!

The way you distinguish between describing a person and a racial or sexual slur is that they would simply add fu^&*#g in front of the word and it became a slur.

Why go thru all this? Coach Greg McMackin wasn’t intending it as a slur he was using it as a description all though a not very good one. It got blown all out of proportion by the media and activists. Should he have used the word no but lets face it even those who are yelling the loudest about it say things like that on occasion.

Is $28,000 a letter enough of a punishment to satisfy the media and activists only time will tell.

Is Title IX Hurting Mens Sports

Two for one day here at BigBlueRules. People have posted good looking girls, good looking mules and even Burt Reynolds in the forums but this is fairly new for us. We are putting up pictures of good looking girls on the front page to try and keep up with sex appeal of other blogs and we are giving you something to think about at the same time. This is a family site outside of a semi nude Burt Reynolds in the forums and I hope your following where I’m leading you.

Although Title IX was originally intended to help with education its become very important to something it wasn’t intended for womens sports. Here is some information to ponder while considering if Title IX is hurting mens sports or benefiting the country in general.

According to the latest data available from the NCAA there are 492 more women’s programs than men’s in Division I. There are scholarships available for women (32,656) and (20,206) for men.

The findings of a first-of-a-kind study of NCAA participation and scholarship data conducted by the College Sports Council (CSC) shows that in NCAA Division I “gender symmetric sports” (teams where both male and female athletes participate), female students are accorded far more opportunities than male students to compete and earn scholarships. As a result, the CSC is calling on the NCAA to equalize scholarship limits.

Findings of the study, the first of its kind to compare scholarship opportunities for men and women in NCAA Division I using the organization’s own data, include.

At the NCAA Division I level, there are far more women’s teams (2,653) than men’s teams (2,097). The study found the greatest gender disparities in favor of women in the sports of Volleyball (313 to 21) and Soccer (300 to 195).

Overall in “gender symmetric” sports, there are far more scholarships available for women (32,656) than for men (20,206). But those numbers don’t consider football in their data and instead compare sports that are available to both men and women.

Leaving football out provides a slanted view of scholarship opportunities. Football takes 85 men’s scholarships for each FBS team and 63 scholarships for each FCS team. That’s 10,200 scholarships available for 120 FBS schools and 7,749 scholarships available for 123 FCS schools (including five schools that were provisional in 2008).

Even in one of the only sports where there are more men’s teams, golf (285 to 228), there are still more athletic scholarships available for women (1,368 to 1,282.5).

In every “gender symmetric” sport with the exception of gymnastics, men face longer odds against getting a scholarship than women. By far, the most difficult athletic scholarship to obtain at the Division I level is in men’s volleyball, where there are 489 high school athletes for every full NCAA scholarship. Similar long odds exist for men competing in Track and Field/Cross-Country (221 to 1), Soccer and Water Polo (196 to 1) and Tennis (136 to 1).

Over the past twenty years, men have lost about a team each year while women have gained 3 each year. That pace has accelerated in recent years with men losing about a team and a half each year while women gain six annually.

Before Title IX. Things were different. The primary physical activities for girls were cheerleading and square-dancing. Only 1 in 27 girls played high school sports. There were virtually no college scholarships for female athletes. And female college athletes received only two percent of overall athletic budgets.

Since Title IX. There’s been real growth in the number of women who participate in sports, receive scholarships, and benefit from increased budgets. There are more opportunities to compete at elite levels through competitions like the Olympics, World Championships and professional leagues. Even more importantly, we know that playing sports makes women healthier. They’re less likely to smoke, drink, use drugs and experience unwanted pregnancies. Studies also link sports participation to reduced incidences of breast cancer and osteoporosis later in life. These health benefits for women and society alone should be reason to keep Title IX strong.

Why Title IX is still critical. The general perception is that girls now have equal opportunities in all areas of athletics. But that’s just not true.

In 2006 -2007 there were 3 million girls participating in high school athletics. They made up 41% of high school athletes, even though they represent more than 49% of the high school student population.

In 2005-2006 there were 171,000 women participating in college athletics. Women represent only 42% of college athletes, even thogh they represent over 50% of the college student population nationwide.

Each year male athletes receive over $136 million more than female athletes in college athletic scholarships at NCAA member institutions.

Women in Division I colleges are over 50% of the student body, but receive only 32% of athletic recruiting dollars and 37% of the total money spent on athletics.

In 2008, only 43% of coaches of women’s teams were women. In 1972, the number was over 90 percent.

They practice hard, and they have coaches – but is cheerleading a sport?
It probably depends on whose definition you’re using.

No doubt, most cheerleaders would tell you it’s a sport – just like gymnastics. But according to federal law, an activity can’t be considered a sport unless competition is its main goal.

And while many cheerleading squads participate in competitions, some say their primary function is supporting other athletic teams.

So here’s the interesting twist: It’s the law – specifically Title IX – that’s causing some colleges to call cheerleading a sport. Why? It’s a less expensive way of complying.

Take a look at Quinnipiac University. The Connecticut school decided to cut its women’s volleyball team this spring in an effort to save money. But controversy erupted when it proposed replacing the team by elevating cheerleading to a varsity sport.

Hard to blame the school, from a dollars and cents point of view:

Last season, Quinnipiac’s volleyball team had a budget of more than $70,000 for 11 players – that works out to $6,300 per team member.

The cheerleading squad’s budget was around $50,000 for 40 participants – about $1,250 per person.

So it still comes back to the question: Is cheerleading a sport? Or maybe, as in the case of Quinnipiac University, are schools willing to call it a sport just so they can get rid of costlier women’s teams?

From Catlanta in the forums on Title IX.

For starts, Title IX is settled federal law and for seconds, way too much of a political hot potato for Congress to change. I was not a fan of Title IX and felt that many male athletes were treated unfairly in the first few years of its implementation.

However, and this is a big however, since the advent of Title IX, medal counts for women from U.S. universities have skyrocketed in Olympic competitions. If the SEC had been a country, they would have placed something like fifth in total medals, and many of them were earned by women athletes. One SEC school, Auburn University, had 18 medals (7 of which were earned by women swimmers) and would have tied for 14th in the world, with Canada and Spain.

Title IX is making a giant positive impact on Team USA and, therefore, probably won’t be going away anytime soon, so might as well make the best of it.

So is Title IX hurting mens sports or benefiting the nation?

SEC Recruiting Expenses

Here are the figures for the last three years on recruiting expenses for football, baseball and basketball in the SEC. The final number following football spending indicates the recruiting ranking according to Rivals.com for that year.

One thing that stands out is that Kentucky was ranked 1st, 3rd and 2nd in spending for baseball. I wonder what would have happened if we had ranked like that in football spending. A second is that Tennessee is spending a lot of money to be as bad as they have become. Finally the name Alabama must still be strong for them to be as good as they are with as little as they spend on recruiting.

FOOTBALL

2005-06

Tennessee: $1,071,264 (23)
Florida: $643,406 (2)
Auburn: $621,115 (10)
LSU: $577,393 (7)
Georgia: $534,004 (4)
Arkansas: $490,771 (26)
Ole Miss: $436,948 (16)
Miss. State: $300,100 (44)
Kentucky: $291,370 (36)
S. Carolina: $248,585 (24)
Alabama: $237,774 (11)
Vanderbilt: N/A (60)

2006-07

Tennessee: $1,311,894 (3)
Auburn: $756,880 (7)
Florida: $649,375 (1)
LSU: $634,896 (4)
Arkansas: $513,784 (31)
Georgia: $506,462 (9)
Ole Miss: $389,224 (27)
Kentucky: $319,289 (54)
Miss. State: $286,430 (39)
S. Carolina: $283,505 (6)
Alabama: $258,846 (10)
Vanderbilt: N/A (67)

2007-08

Tennessee: $1,081,250 (35)
LSU: $776,029 (11)
Auburn: $737,380 (20)
Georgia: $523,056 (7)
Florida: $506,673 (3)
Arkansas: $494,181 (36)
Ole Miss: $405,654 (29)
Alabama: $360,327 (1)
Kentucky: $312,056 (57)
S. Carolina: $289,639 (22)
Miss. State: $272,872 (44)
Vanderbilt: N/A (90)

3-YEAR AVERAGE

Tennessee: $1,154,802
Auburn: $705,125
LSU: $662,772
Florida: $599,818
Georgia: $521,174
Arkansas: $499,578
Ole Miss: $410,608
Kentucky: $307,571
Miss. State: $286,467
Alabama: $285,649
S. Carolina: $273,909
Vanderbilt: N/A

MEN’S BASKETBALL

2005-06

Auburn: $311,113
Arkansas: $220,669
Florida: $206,346
Georgia: $196,482
Kentucky: $169,498
Tennessee: $144,240
S. Carolina: $122,819
Alabama: $110,591
Ole Miss: $84,968
LSU: $83,599
Miss. State: $83,374
Vanderbilt: N/A

2006-07

Auburn: $306,000
Arkansas: $286,007
Florida: $283,078
Georgia: $196,437
Kentucky: $165,123
LSU: $152,015
Alabama: $126,649
Tennessee: $125,528
S. Carolina: $98,340
Ole Miss: $93,759
Miss. State: $85,064
Vanderbilt: N/A

2007-08

Florida: $354,208
Arkansas: $304,275
Auburn: $293,000
Kentucky: $211,253
Georgia: $155,152
Alabama: $138,332
LSU: $127,021
Tennessee: $124,244
S. Carolina: $117,713
Ole Miss: $104,829
Miss. State: $100,058
Vanderbilt: N/A

3-YEAR AVERAGE

Auburn: $303,371
Florida: $281,210
Arkansas: $270,317
Georgia: $182,690
Kentucky: $181,958
Tennessee: $131,337
Alabama: $125,190
LSU: $120,878
S. Carolina: $112,957
Ole Miss: $94,518
Miss. State: $89,498
Vanderbilt: N/A

BASEBALL

2005-06

Kentucky: $80,449
Arkansas: $69,140
Auburn: $65,883
Florida: $62,210
Alabama: $53,703
Tennessee: $50,308
Ole Miss: $43,921
S. Carolina: $42,164
Georgia: $40,868
LSU: $28,150
Miss. State: $23,325
Vanderbilt: N/A

2006-07

Arkansas: $91,756
LSU: $80,348
Kentucky: $72,458
Auburn: $68,500
Alabama: $57,325
Florida: $47,514
Tennessee: $47,440
Georgia: $45,829
Ole Miss: $42,460
S. Carolina: $31,804
Miss. State: $18,342
Vanderbilt: N/A

2007-08

Arkansas: $87,115
Kentucky: $71,849
LSU: $70,493
Auburn: $68,500
S. Carolina: $53,196
Tennessee: $50,282
Georgia: $47,962
Florida: $47,612
Ole Miss: $46,868
Alabama: $38,609
Miss. State: $26,518
Vanderbilt: N/A

3-YEAR AVERAGE

Arkansas: $82,670
Kentucky: $74,918
Auburn: $67,627
LSU: $59,663
Florida: $52,445
Alabama: $49,879
Tennessee: $49,343
Georgia: $44,886
Ole Miss: $44,416
S. Carolina: $42,388
Miss. State: $22,728
Vanderbilt: N/A

Surprise winner or not?

From fourth in the Sunland Derby in El Paso to first at the Kentucky Derby. Mine That Bird a $9,500 horse won the Derby as a 50-1 long shot. Not only did he win it he won it in a fashion that will be remembered for a long time coming from the back of the field in spectacular ride by Calvin Boreal to win it with ease. Mine That Bird was horse the 2 year old champion in Canada and his sire won the Belmont in 2004 and grandsire the Derby in 1996 so it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise that he won but it is to the experts.

I got a big laugh out of the owners being reminded that Kentucky is the horse racing capital of the world. New Mexico is the quarter horse racing capital of the world and the the All American Futurity was the first million dollar horse race and currently is over a two million dollar purse for a 20 second horse drag race that thoroughbreds couldn’t in compete in because they are way to slow.

Looks like there won’t be a triple crown winner again this year or if there is it will be a bigger surprise than this race.

Croom resigns at Miss St

From ESPN

JACKSON, Miss. — Sylvester Croom resigned from Mississippi State on Saturday, five years after becoming the Southeastern Conference’s first black head football coach.

Croom announced the decision after meeting with athletic director Greg Byrne. It came less than 24 hours after an embarrassing 45-0 loss to No. 25 Mississippi in the most lopsided Egg Bowl in 37 years.
Croom and Doom

Mississippi State coach Sylvester Croom resigned Saturday, a day after his team lost 45-0 at Ole Miss, the Rebels’ second-biggest win ever in the rivalry. Croom was 21-38 in five seasons and lost eight-plus games in four of his five years. The major problem was offense. It simply never got better under Croom.

Mississippi State Offense
Under Croom, FBS Ranks Total Scoring
2008 105th 113th
2007 113th 96th
2006 103th 97th
2005 113th 113th
2004 107th T-114th

Croom, who took over the team while it was under NCAA sanctions, won 2007 SEC coach of the year honors after leading the Bulldogs to an 8-5 finish and the Liberty Bowl. He signed a contract extension in the offseason that paid him $1.7 million this year.

But he came under immediate pressure from fans after a season-opening loss to Louisiana Tech of the Western Athletic Conference, and the heat only intensified as the offensively inept Bulldogs stumbled to a 4-8 finish.

The coach was 21-38 overall. He did not immediately return a phone message left by The Associated Press.

“Five years ago, Mississippi State gave me the unprecedented opportunity to be a head football coach in the Southeastern Conference and to build a program based upon a strong foundation,” Croom said in a statement.

“We have tried to build a program the right way that can compete for conference championships. I believe the foundation has been set for those goals to be reached under the leadership of someone else, and it was my decision to resign.”

Byrne was scheduled to meet with reporters later Saturday afternoon.

Calls for Croom to make changes to his coaching staff and run-first offensive philosophy dogged the Bulldogs. The team continued to have trouble at quarterback and Croom switched starters midway through the season.

A source familiar with Croom’s situation at Mississippi State told ESPN.com’s Pat Forde that the breaking point was not a refusal on Croom’s part to make staff changes; an important issue was the continuing ineptitude of the Bulldogs’ offense under Croom. In five years, Mississippi State has never ranked in the NCAA top 100 in total offense.

The Bulldogs were 11th in the SEC in scoring offense (16.6 points per game) and 10th in total offense (297.7 yards per game) through 11 games and lost badly at Georgia Tech (38-7) and Tennessee (34-3). Yet some optimism remained that Mississippi State could salvage a bit of pride and its promising recruiting class after a 31-28 win over Arkansas last week and with a good game against the revitalized Rebels.

Croom even got a vote of confidence from incoming Mississippi State president Mark Keenum.

But Mississippi State was outmatched from the start and looked poorly prepared against Ole Miss. The quarterbacks were hit hard on nine of their first 10 pass attempts as the Rebels put together a school-record 11 sacks and set another mark by holding the Bulldogs to minus-51 yards rushing.

Croom seemed stunned after the game.

“They came in here with the idea they were going to beat us bad, and they did from start to finish,” Croom said. “I don’t know why what happened today occurred. I’m sorry to say that it’s an absolute mystery to me.”

Byrne, a new hire who’s been on the job less than a year, wouldn’t comment on the speculation surrounding the football team during the season but said Saturday that a possible resignation was discussed in the morning meeting.

“We discussed the football program and many topics were addressed, including resignation,” Byrne said in a statement. “I want to thank Coach Croom for the leadership he has provided our football program over the last five years.”

While Croom wasn’t able to squeeze many wins out of his tenure, there’s little question he improved a Mississippi State program that was at its lowest ebb. The Bulldogs were hit with major sanctions following rules violations under previous coach Jackie Sherrill and had won just three games a season between 2001-03.

Hired Dec. 1, 2003, the Bear Bryant disciple who had been an all-American center at Alabama and an NFL assistant for 17 seasons inherited a team low on talent. Heavy sanctions and the SEC’s lowest budget made the challenge even steeper.

“We couldn’t even get recruits to visit campus,” Croom said this week while talking about his early recruiting efforts.

But Croom upgraded the talent enough that the Bulldogs were competitive in the nation’s toughest conference and they earned their first winning season since 2000 last year, capping it with a 10-3 win over Central Florida in the Liberty Bowl.

He also was having success off the field, drawing commitments from several top recruits, including a quarterback.

A spokesman said players would not be available Saturday, but some defended Croom following Friday’s loss.

“I think it is unfair,” wide receiver Delmon Robinson said of the criticism. “When it’s man-to-man coverage, it’s the receiver against the [defensive back]. If the receiver doesn’t win, it’s not the coach’s fault that he didn’t win. It’s all about the players. We’ve got to win and we’ve got to go out there and execute coach’s plays.”

It was the second straight season an embarrassing loss in the Egg Bowl led to a coaching change. Coach Ed Orgeron was fired a day after the Rebels collapsed in a 17-14 loss. Ole Miss led 14-0 going into the fourth quarter, but Orgeron went for it on fourth down at midfield. The Bulldogs stopped the play, went on to score and finished with 17 unanswered points in the fourth quarter.

Byrne said Croom’s assistants remain under contract and will work until a new coach is hired. He told Forde that Mississippi State’s search for a successor begins immediately and will be national in scope. He declined to discuss any specific potential candidates but said he wanted a “passionate leader who is capable of helping us win in the SEC. We have a lot of talent here in this state, and a very supportive fan base. We can win here.”

Among the coaches Mississippi State might target to replace Croom are Oklahoma defensive coordinator Brent Venables, East Carolina coach Skip Holtz and TCU coach Gary Patterson.

“Looking forward I plan to work closely with athletic director Greg Byrne to move quickly, but with due deliberation, to find a new head football coach with high energy and a commitment to compete for championships and bowl opportunities in the best conference in America,” Keenum said.

There likely will be several candidates for a coveted SEC job, but Mississippi State’s new coach shouldn’t get comfortable. There have been coaching changes at five of six SEC West schools in the past five years, with only Tommy Tuberville at Auburn lasting through that time. And even he’s facing criticism in a losing season.

The Rebels’ new coach, Houston Nutt, had been at Arkansas for 10 years before resigning after last season and moving to Ole Miss. But he believes tenures like that could be a thing of the past because fans and boosters have little patience for losing.

“It’s sad, but it doesn’t surprise me,” Nutt said. “It’s the way of the world in college football right now.”

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3733168

Tennessee picks new coach

By BETH RUCKER, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 1 minute ago

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP)—Tennessee and Lane Kiffin have reached a tentative agreement with the former Oakland Raiders coach to lead the Volunteers, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Friday.

A formal announcement was expected early next week, said the person, who requested anonymity because the deal had not been finalized.

Kiffin, 33, replaces Phillip Fulmer, who was forced out after 17 seasons as Vols coach. Fulmer won a national championship in 1998 but had two losing seasons in the last five years, including a 4-7 mark this year.

Tennessee athletic department spokeswoman Tiffany Carpenter declined to comment on Kiffin because Fulmer had not finished his season. Athletic director Mike Hamilton did not return a phone message seeking comment.

The Vols (3-7, 2-5 Southeastern Conference) host Kentucky (6-5, 2-5) on Saturday night in what has been dubbed “Phillip Fulmer appreciation day.”
The Knoxville News Sentinel first reported the deal.

Kiffin was the youngest coach in the NFL’s modern history when hired to lead the Raiders in January 2007 at age 31.

The son of longtime NFL defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin had a rocky relationship with Oakland owner Al Davis, who fired him Sept. 30 for what he said was insubordination. Kiffin had a 5-15 record with the Raiders.

He’s since filed a grievance with the NFL to claim salary he maintains he’s owed by the team.

Kiffin spent seven seasons as an assistant at Southern California under coach Pete Carroll, including two as recruiting and offensive coordinator.

He was a backup quarterback at Fresno State, where he began his coaching career as a quarterbacks coach. He also spent two seasons as offensive line coach at Colorado State.

Tennessee announced on Nov. 3 that the 58-year-old Fulmer would not be back next season. He has a 151-52 record as coach.

Fulmer signed a new seven-year contract in the summer which was worth $2.4 million this season. He will receive $6 million as a buyout of the contract, payable over a 48-month period.

Terms of Kiffin’s deal were not available.

Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher had not heard the reports Friday. But he called Kiffin an excellent coach who was involved with recruiting while at Southern California and said he got to know Kiffin some during his time coaching Oakland in the NFL.

“He went into a very, very difficult situation there in Oakland. I thought he handled things professionally. He certainly had that team moving in the right direction in the opinion of his peers, including me, and didn’t get a chance to finish it. I think he’ll be a great college coach,” Fisher said.

ESPN to televise SEC games for 15 years

On top of the great Kentucky recruiting news recently the SEC and ESPN signed a major television deal that promisses to give the Cats more national exposure and spending money. The Southeastern Conference has signed a 15-year deal with ESPN reportedly worth more than $2 billion to televise sporting events, including football and men’s and women’s basketball. Its past time that the SEC got a tv package they deserve. Finally fans who dont live in the raycom broadcast area will be able to see some SEC sports other than the prime CBS games. Goodbye and good riddence Raycom.