The hour is late, so we'll do this quick-like.
Ron Morris: Probation gone = Holtz bad. Yes, C&F is also guilty of this, but of whom do you think Morris was speaking of when he penned these lines about the lessons the Gamecocks learned from probation:
First, hire a football coach with no history of problems complying with NCAA rules. Steve Spurrier fit the mold when he came aboard three years ago. ...
It also helps to have a football coach who wants to be at your school. ....
USC has learned to better handle dealings with the NCAA through a fresh approach in the school’s athletics administration. When a rules violation is found, USC immediately reports it to the NCAA. As most schools have found, it is much better to self-report violations than to have the NCAA come hunting for problems.
The previous administration never figured that out. It operated in constant cover-up mode, which is what is done when you have something to hide. Instead of being up front with NCAA violations from the outset, USC constantly claimed innocence and painted the infractions investigators as out to get the school.
C&F has it on good authority that Morris was, in fact, referring to former South Carolina head coach Hou Loltz. Don't remember Hou?
He looked something like this.
But C&F's sources could be wrong.
Thoughts and prayers. To the family of Carl Howard. Sometimes, the most inane traditions are the one folks remember. So it is with the Cockabooses.
Carl Francis “Doc” Howard, who in 1990 along with business partner Ed Robinson came up with the idea for the Gamecocks’ unique tailgating units, died at his home following a brief illness.
The name drove C&F crazy, and he has so far been unable to enjoy the Cockabooses. But traditions are traditions.
Gray to Coastal Carolina. File this under "no one, surprising."
Elsewhere...
Watch out. Bammers are crazy. The judge in the defamation case that had Fulmer afraid to set foot in Alabama is shopping a book.
Wilson, who overturned a jury's $30 million verdict, is still shopping for a publisher for the book with the provocative working title, "A Lynch Mob Mentality: Ronnie Cottrell vs. NCAA, The Untold Story." ..."I didn't want to be remembered as an incompetent judge that flip-flopped rulings as the media portrayed me. I didn't want to be remembered as the judge that fixed the case as the plaintiffs attorney said. Most of all, I didn't want to be remembered as the judge who slept through (radio personality) Paul Finebaum's testimony."
Most of all? Most of all? Please tell me this is a joke. "I don't want to be thought of as fixing cases, but I sure as heck don't want anyone thinking I didn't listen to Finebaum." Judge, if his thoughts on Spurrier leaving South Carolina are any indication, you didn't miss much if you dozed while Finebaum was talking. Ahem ... continue ...
Wilson said he only recently sent the book proposal out to other publishers after the University of Alabama Press decided not to publish it.
I wonder why.
Wow. Just wow. This is what happens when you have pieces of cadavers grafted into your body.