Saturday Night: Junior T.O. vs. Little Randy

If you thought this weekend's Alabama vs. Georgia game was just another SEC battle you would be partially correct.

It is going to be a knock down, drag out affair, but it's also going to showcase two of the best freshman wide receivers in the country. One, Julio Jones from 'Bama, has been called "Junior T.O.", the other, A.J. Green from Georgia, is known to some as "Little Randy".

And since YouTube videos are worth substantially more than 1,000 words I present you with some highlights of each player(prep). Just sit back, and let their amazing moves soothe your college football soul.





Can't wait for Saturday night now can you? Be patient my friends, you'll be seeing some amazing SEC catches in no time.

The NCAA Gets Slapped Around

For the most part, I think of the NCAA as the governing body of college sports that not many people think about, but that imposes its will sort of behind the scenes. However, on Thursday the NCAA got slapped around when the verdict in a case regarding a former University of Alabama booster was handed down.

A jury awarded $5 million Thursday to a former University of Alabama football booster who claimed the NCAA defamed him when it imposed penalties on the Crimson Tide in 2002.

The state court jury awarded Ray Keller $3 million in punitive damages, $1 million for mental anguish, $500,000 for economic loss and $500,000 for damage to reputation.

Keller, a timber dealer and fan whom the university severed ties with because of the probe, argued that the NCAA slandered and libeled him during the announcement of penalties by referring to him and others as "rogue boosters," "parasites" and "pariahs."

As with any court case, the NCAA plans to appeal the decision, and it remains to be seen how that goes. Eventhough Keller won his judgment, the damage of the violations that he contributed to still hurt the program.

The recruiting scandal cost Alabama scholarship reductions, a two-year bowl ban and five years of probation that ended earlier this year.

The more curious aspect of the incident that apparently was never resolved was how Keller's name surfaced in connection with the rule violations.

A potentially important question — how Keller’s name became public — wasn’t fully resolved despite three weeks of testimony.

The NCAA referred to Keller only as “athletic representative C” in announcing its findings against Alabama during a news conference. But Keller’s name repeatedly was used by the media, and the university sent Keller a letter telling him to keep clear of Alabama athletics.

Word said Alabama “threw Ray Keller under the bus” to avoid a potential death penalty for football, and the NCAA referred to him and two other boosters as “parasites” and “rogue boosters” who “corrupt athletes and should become pariahs” to other fans.

“These statements are not true about Ray Keller,” said Word.

But Dodd, the NCAA attorney, said Keller violated rules repeatedly and likely made his own name public by being a confidential source for reporter Cecil Hurt of The Tuscaloosa News. Keller co-signed loans for Hurt and sometimes fed him information, Dodd said.

Tuscaloosa News executive editor Doug Ray declined comment on whether Keller was a source for the newspaper.

So, the question as to whether Alabama made a "secret deal" with the NCAA to try and avoid heavy sanctions will probably never be answered. And we'll probably never know exactly how Keller's name became public. However, I do have a feeling that things like this occur involving major college football programs around the country much more often than the public is ever aware of.

Nick Saban: Open Mouth, Insert Foot

You may recall that back when he was first hired, Nick Saban came under fire for using a slang term that many consider derogatory towards Cajuns. Well, at this week's press conference he was at it again.

Sure, when you're the highest paid Division 1 football coach, coaching a storied program like Alabama, and you lose to one of the lowest paid coaches at a school like UL Monroe(whom your predecessor beat the previous season 41-7) you're going to be pretty pissed off. However, at some point either your brain has to catch up with your mouth, or your mouth has to become so full of feet that you just stop talking.



And for those you that don't want to, or can't, watch the video here's what 'ole Dick Satan said:

"Changes in history usually occur after some kind of catastrophic event,'' Saban said during the opening remarks of his weekly news conference. "It may be 9-11, which sort of changed the spirit of America relative to catastrophic events. Pearl Harbor kind of got us ready for World War II, or whatever, and that was a catastrophic event.''

Ouch.

Of course a "football spokesman" issued a statement saying "what Coach Saban said did not correlate losing a football game with tragedy; everyone needs to understand that. He was not equating losing football games to those catastrophic events." But the damage has already been done. You would think that with $4 million per year Saban could hire someone to write his press conference speeches for him.

Joe Scarborough Educates Us On SEC Football

Most of you probably know Joe Scarborough as the host of "Scarborough Country" on MSNBC. He's also taken over the fomer Don Imus morning timeslot with his new show "Morning Joe", and this morning he gave us all a little schooling on SEC football(if someone has the video please send me the link).

Apparently, an irate viewer had sent in an angry e-mail regarding something that had been said on the show about Germans "getting over the war". I'm not exactly sure what his point of contention was, but it's important to note that Scarborough believed that, for the most part, Germans had "gotten over the war". Then he said something to the effect of:

Do you know what the difference between Germans and Southerners is? Germans have gotten over their war. There's still a large percentage of Southerners that haven't gotten over the outcome of the Civil War, and that's why SEC football is so powerful. We(Southerners) pour everything into SEC football. Those Yankees aren't as passionate as we are. Bring Syracuse down into The Swamp and we'll whip them every time. You'll see it again this year, especially now that my man(Nick Saban) is back. Ah, I can't wait for SEC football to start back up, we should have a countdown clock for the beginning of the SEC season.

Wow. Obviously that's paraphrasing a bit, but you get the idea. Scarborough does have a pretty good idea of SEC football, as he received his bachelor's degree from the University of Alabama and his law degree from the University of Florida. However, I would like to think that it's because of the athletes, facilities, training methods and coaching. Not because we wish that the outcome of the Civil War would have been different so that we could show up on Saturdays waving our Confederate flags. Ole Miss even had to go as far as to enact a Confederate flag ban, and the last title they won was an SEC one in 1963. Though, with any luck the Orgeron will return them to prominence, so that we can see him and Scarborough discuss SEC football. Now that would be powerful.