Making Tuesday fun since 2006!

--- ESPN's Bruce Feldman has an extensive writeup about Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel.

There's too much to excerpt so I'll highlight some themes: chip on his shoulder (recently measured in at 6-0, finally taller than 5'-11 3/4"), broken pretty much every Missouri passing record, coaches love him, expects to win 10 games and lead the nation in total offense, more aggressive offensive approach coming in '07, outraced Ryan Perilloux twice, says the kid never shuts up, natural leader (coach Pinkel says he's a better leader than Chris Chandler and Mark Brunell), extremely accurate, Missouri took a risk on him and it paid off.

Also: Feldman is drinking the Mizzou kool-aid.  Hey I drank it last year but am now a little gunshy after that horrible collapse.  He caught some of Oklahoma's spring game and is feeling better about the Sooners' chances this year thanks to tailback DeMarco Murray.

Also: a Q&A with new Miami coach Randy Shannon.

Bruce Feldman: Being the first guy from inside the program, much less being a guy who grew up right here to take over as head coach at UM, does that add to the pressure or take some of it away?

Randy Shannon: No. I don't think of it as the pressure. Miami is one of a handful of schools in America that can say they can win a championship every year. It's expected. You don't go to a Miami or a Florida State or a USC and can be satisfied winning eight games. That just doesn't happen here.

You can, however, be satisfied winning eight nine games at UCLA!  Anyway, it's a solid interview although I think coach Shannon is all over the map with some of his thoughts and philosophies.  He wants good, in-control players but he also wants aggression and an attitude to not back down.  Playing a balancing act sometimes results in an inconsistent message.

Also: another edition of the Mailbag.  Hypocrisy with Florida's off-field gaffes?  A reader that can't distinguish between Los Angeles and San Diego, Rudy Burgess still has that magic at ASU, Florida's secondary makes like swiss cheese, Nebraska tailback Marlon Lucky's dinged up, people are smiling at Michigan State, Texas A&M has a third exciting back to prepare for, Lloyd Carr once again proves himself a crank (he likes the old clock rules!) and a California linebacker commits to Notre Dame.

--- ESPN's Ivan Maisel also makes the trip to Coral Gables to document Randy Shannon's imprint on the Miami program.

What stood out (unrelated) was a quote from new offensive coordinator Patrick Nix:

Nix said one of his primary goals has been to rebuild the mental toughness for which Miami has been known.

"They do seem a little fragile at times," Nix said of his offense.

That's not good.

--- Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel takes a look at Florida State and its radically transformed coaching staff.

Sounds like a wait-and-see situation as to when/if the Seminole offense improves.

Also: If you remember last week, Mandel wrote about a visit to Alabama and coach Nick Saban's "jerkish" ways.  Media and fans picked up on that aspect of the story (Mandel storngly defended Saban) and it became a bigger issue.  Saban later called Mandel to apologize and conduct a makeup discussion in place of the one he blew off.

SI.com: You indicated that you think some people have a certain perception of you -- a negative perception -- that you don't think is right. Maybe [you think] the column I wrote [falls into that category]. Why do you think that is, and what is the biggest thing about you that you feel is misunderstood?

Saban: First of all, any perception that anybody has, I take responsibility for. I, myself, in trying to be a good person who goes about his work, and has a lot of compassion for the people I work with, that's how I'd like to be perceived -- as someone who cares about his players and wants to benefit them in every way. This game is about the players, and to see them do well in their character, attitude and development, their competitive spirit, how they go about what they do in representing their organization and institution, the fact that I care about them doing it the right way - that's more how I'd like to be perceived.

Quite frankly, I feel like I was perceived that way for a long time. I think that's who I am.

Also: Mandel's quaint image of Virginia Tech and its campus has been shattered after Monday's deadly and barbaric shooting rampage that left at least 33 people dead.

Prior to Monday, you knew of Virginia Tech president Charles Steger primarily for one, now seemingly trivial reason -- as the man who finally pulled the plug on former Hokies quarterback Marcus Vick's trouble-filled career.

On Monday afternoon, Steger showed up on your television offering his reaction to a shooting on his campus. Not just a shooting -- the deadliest campus shooting in American history.

... Wait, what's that they're saying now? ... The deadliest shooting rampage of any kind in American history?

At Virginia Tech????

You say to yourself: This simply can't be.

--- CBS Sportsline's Dennis Dodd profiles Georgia defensive lineman Michael Lemon whose mother was murdered less than two months ago.

It's almost incomprehensible that Lemon was able to focus on football, especially with the battle going on in the defensive line. Three of the four starters are gone, including both defensive ends -- Quentin Moses and Charles Johnson. This could be his year, his career.

It seems that nothing has distracted him. Lemon led the winning red team with five tackles during Saturday's G-Day spring game.

"He's always been a business-like kid, not a high maintenance kid," defensive coordinator Willie Martinez said.

Also: checking in on spring ball at USC.

The talking point in recruiting and with the media this year has been that the Trojans have ten legitimate scholarship tailbacks and only one ball.

--- The Sporting News' Matt Hayes has a lengthy write-up about the very unique atmosphere around the Alabama coaching job.

Lots of goodies in this one as he talked to former coaches about all the boosters and expectations and fans.  Did you know Dennis Franchione was offered a 10-year contract during his stay at Alabama but it had a clause saying he could only coach at Alabama or not at all within those 10 years?  He worked for six months to remove the clause, and Alabama only relented when he revealed Texas A&M's contract offer.  There's lots more of that in the article.

Also: celebrating the return of the old clock rules.

I despised the rule for one reason only: I want a distinct and definitive line when it comes to the differences between the college game and the NFL. In the college game, with the old (now current-again) rules, a two-touchdown deficit with two minutes to go was manageable.

In the NFL, a two-touchdown hole with two minutes to go meant find the next game on the dish.

Who wants less of something? Who wants more boring, predictable finishes? This is what the Playing Rules Panel lost sight of last year when the rules were passed. The sport sold its soul for more cash to please advertisers -- and don't kid yourself, that's exactly why the changes were made -- without seeing the big picture.

The college game is unique. Games are longer, more exciting, more unpredictable.

Let's keep it that way.

Same reason we should avoid a playoff.  If we play it the way the NFL does we lose the massive audience that wants an NFL alternative.

Also: Hayes think Randy Shannon can get Miami back to its winning ways.

Also: 'Inside Dish'.  Finding a replacement for Brian Leonard at Rutgers, Antonio Logan-El flirts with Maryland and Tulsa's newfangled offense is wearing the offensive and defensive lines out in practice.

--- The Sporting News' Tom Dienhart ranks the SEC, ACC and Big East coaches.  You already know CFR's SEC coach rankings.

CFR's quickie list, ACC: Davis, Beamer, Grobe, Friedgen, O'Brien, T. Bowden, B. Bowden, Gailey, Groh, Roof (N/A Shannon, Jagodzinski)

CFR's quickie list, Big East: Rodriguez, Schiano, Kragthorpe, Leavitt, Wannstedt, Edsall, Robinson (N/A Kelly).  Those first four are all guys who have made something out of nothing or next-to-nothing.  They are part of what is great about college football.

Also: the coaching merry-go-round is the norm.

Yup.

Also: Minnesota's never-ending PR push continues as new coach Tim Brewster meets with Dienhart.

"We will win the Big Ten," he says. Brewster doesn't blink, smile or laugh.

--- The Dallas/Ft. Worth Star-Telegram's Wendell Barnhouse documents a pattern of off-field incidents at various schools this spring.

It’s a good thing that NFL commissioner Roger “Captain Crackdown” Goodell isn’t in charge of college football. There would be a few teams missing players for the 2007 season.

Spring practices at several schools have been about arraignments and suspensions as much as blocking and tackling drills.

Sometimes members of the media just can't think of a story so they fall back on crime stories and off-field incidents.  This stuff happens every year, it's boring (if sad) and I think its lazy to make it the theme of an article.  That's like writing "Spring is Here" and documenting all that's happening to the flora and fauna around us.  No doy, give us something relevant to think about and ponder instead of simply react to ye scribes.

--- The Mobile Register's Paul Finebaum (rightly) turns on a fellow scribe who penned an idiotic rant about Alabama coach Nick Saban on Easter Sunday in the Montgomery Advertiser.

This part was especially tickling:

"The hypocrisy of Nick Saban is astonishing," Moon's column began. Yep, got my attention, too.

From there, Moon began to hammer the Tide coach's attitude toward the media -- from allowing reporters into a recent scrimmage for only six minutes to refusing to allow players to speak afterward.

"This from a guy who owes most of his financial success to the very media he's now giving the shaft," wrote Moon. "Let's be real here. Nick Saban's reputation is mostly hype. ... When he needed the press for his personal advancement, we were great guys to have around."

The media is a vital part of a healthy and functioning democracy ... but mannnnnnnn can they take themselves way too seriously sometimes.  As I read those words I get this vision in my head of Moon yelling angrily at Saban something to the effect of "I made you, I made you!" and wagging his finger.  Oh, the betrayal!  Come on guys, think this through.

Saban's image may be manufactured, but he's not the one selling it.  For most non-football matters the guy simply doesn't give a damn.  It's been documented over and over again now.  The hype?  That's fans and the media, not Saban himself.  Criticize the intelligence of the public and media, not the man.

And yeh, he's a boor with the media but man up a little and press onward.  We can't get mad at coaches on one end for mindless 'coach speak' and throwaway quotes and on the other bristle our hairs and grow claws when they decide they're going to be inaccesible.  Work with what's available and have a more coherent argument if you're going to put anger in the newsprint for all to see.

Saban owes the media nothing more than the truth when the time calls for it and the media owes him nothing more than respect and to report on him with integrity.  That's just how it goes, there's simply no reason for a sense of betrayal - particularly from a writer to his subject - anywhere in the process.

Here is Finebaum's media take in response to Moon's all-too-public venting:

I think the media issue might have been the most interesting raised by Moon. Certainly, having started as a beat writer and spending many years as a newspaper columnist, I don't want to crack on my profession. However, the information age has changed exponentially in recent years. Newspapers are not held in nearly the regard of yesteryear. Besides, with talk radio, the Internet and everyone on your block having their own blog, there are myriad ways to get information faster than your daily newspaper.

It may not be nearly as accurate, but hungry fans don't seem to really care anymore, as long as they get something, anything.

Interestingly, Dennis Franchione circumvented the mainstream media, even his own sports information office at UA, by breaking news on his now infamous Web site, Coachfran.com.

The problem with Moon's premise is that fans have grown to view the media in a highly skeptical fashion and Saban has not lost the support of a single one by shunning the media, or even limiting its access. In fact, when media members whine about things like this, the public turns against them as opposed to rallying behind them.

Besides, there's also a little bit of gamesmanship going on with Saban, who is trying to establish his own rules and boundaries with the media. He is winning so far. He's a heavy favorite to keep this momentum going.

Yup.

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