SEC Media Days: Alabama’s Draft Media Guide Covers

By: @LivingCrimson

The official 2012 Alabama Media Guide covers are outstanding. But what about the discarded proposals the public never sees?

A former employee of Bryant-Denny Stadium (and a big fan of the song “Take the Money and Run”) was kind enough to send us the alternative Tide covers, which were summarily rejected by the University’s marketing department.

We’re not sure why these covers didn’t make the final cut. As reigning national champs and card-carrying members of the SEC Rivalry Cabal, we think they’re pretty spiffy.

Trent Richardson became the first Tide player to win the Doak Walker Award in a season highlighted by his inhuman evasion of the entire Ole Miss defense. Now Trent is preparing for his first NFL game, while two-sport Senquez Golson (who before last season turned down $1.4 million from the Boston Red Sox) readies for another season in purgatory as a Rebel Black Bear. **No ankles were permanently harmed in the making of this picture.**

Michael Dyer famously bragged before last year’s Iron Bowl: “This year we're not going to spot anybody 24. We're going to play Auburn football.” Alabama went to halftime with -- all together now -- 24 points, and went on to squash the everliving daylights out of Auburn with a final score of 42-14. Dyer is now an Arkansas State Red Wolf and may soon be transferring yet again. **One team reverted back to its tired old excuses in the making of this picture.**

In the rematch with LSU and with the National Championship on the line, the Alabama offense targeted CB “Honey Bragger” by throwing over his head and outplaying him physically. Tyrann Mathieu took to Twitter for his disappointed fans: “Can anyone bring up another game where you felt as if I was exposed beside the NC game! I didn't think so? That was one game, 4 catches 0TDs.” He left out the part about those catches making downs to set up field goals…and also being manhandled by Trent Richardson in the first Alabama vs. LSU game in Tuscaloosa. **One ego was crushed in the making of this picture.**

Alabama’s 14th national championship accompanied a 21-0 score in the Superdome on LSU’s home turf, the first ever shutout in BCS history. My LSU friend Carter “The Power” Bryant summed it up best:

“I could name more kinds of "Whoop-Ass" flavors the Crimson Tide opened up on January 9th than Bubba Blue could name kinds of shrimp in “Forrest Gump.” After the game, I saw the grounds crew of the Superdome having to scrub the chalk outlines of the LSU offensive line off the turf. Thank goodness the red confetti covered it quickly so it wouldn't be more evident.”

**One NFL career was thwarted in the making of this picture.**

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I’d love to see your farked up Bama media covers. Hit me up on Twitter or Facebook. Roll Tide!

Ole Miss player under NCAA scrutiny

During it’s ongoing peacekeeping mission in Mississippi’s Billboard War, the NCAA may have found a member of the Ole Miss faction in violation of its amateurism rules.

That’s right—Ole Miss is under NCAA scrutiny for potential rules violation. Ole Miss.

A story in the Clarion-Ledger this morning reports that officials are investigating whether a birthday party this month for freshman wide receiver/cornerback Nickolas “Snoop” Brassell violated league rules.

Snoop, aka “DA CHAMP,” celebrated his birthday on January 6 at the Locker Room Sports Bar & Grill. The party was promoted on a flier, using a photo of Brassell.

The flier made rounds on the internet and also became Brassell's Facebook profile picture. It also mentions a $10 cover charge for the party.

The incident was first reported on January 2 by the Clarion-Ledger.

When all the dust settles, this will likely be a secondary violation with no permanent impacts on Brassell’s eligibility, but anecdotally it appears that these things are popping with increasing regularity.

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Ole Miss has their man: Hugh Freeze

Ole Miss introduced Arkansas State’s Hugh Freeze as their new football coach at a press conference in Oxford, Mississippi today. Freeze was the Red Wolves’ offensive coordinator for the 2010 season and replaced former head coach Steve Roberts.

In 2011, Freeze took ASU to a 10-2 record and 8-0 in the Sun Belt Conference, landing the program in the Godaddy.com Bowl.

Freeze comes to Ole Miss as the product of a high profile search committee, led by Ole Miss icon Archie Manning and FedEx executive Mike Glenn.

Freeze is no stranger to the program. He served as an assistant under former head coach Ed Orgeron, and promised during his introductory press conference that he would reinstitute his former mentor’s approach to recruiting (lights out, 12 months at a time).

David Cutcliffe—now the head coach at Duke—could coach but couldn’t recruit. Coach Orgeron could recruit, but couldn’t coach. The man Freeze is replacing—Houston Nutt—apparently didn’t do either recruiting or coaching very well. Thus, Freeze starts off trying to restock a very thin cupboard of talent in Oxford.  While he’s trying to catch up with the rest of the SEC in recruiting, he’ll be installing a new offensive system and with restoring fundamental football skills. That’s a big task in a place like Oxford.

Good luck and welcome to the SEC, Coach Freeze. Here’s hoping that your Saturday sermons are as good as the one you delivered in your presser.

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I’m the Ole Miss coaching search committee, and I’m trimming the “short list”

I’m Archie Manning, FedEx Vice President Mike Glenn, and an as-yet-to be named committee of Ole Miss Yes Men. I haven’t met yet, but I’ve already put together this list of coaches I’m going after. I’ve also put together a list of coaches that have no chance of moving to Oxford.

Here are the coaches that WILL NOT be on the “short list” to take over the Ole Miss Rebels at the end of the season.

Mike Leach. Sure, he’s interested. He did something with almost nothing in the middle of nowhere (nee, Lubbock) Texas. He’s coached and recruited in the SEC and his wide open offense was exciting to watch. But Coach Arrgghh is involved in a bitter contract dispute with his former employer and is also suing ESPN for defamation of character. ESPN pours billions in the the SEC and what conservative, business-oriented members of a search committee want to interview a guy who sues his former employers?

Rich Rodriguez. Another offensive guru with a history of litigation with former employers. There’s a reason why this guy hasn’t been seriously considered as a legitimate candidate for other profiled coaching jobs since being dismissed from Michigan. But the real knock on RichRod is that in his last football game, Mississippi State shellacked him 52-14. Wouldn’t you rather have somebody who’s at least beaten your in-state rival?

Gus Malzahn. Here’s a candidate that the search committee is drooling over. But alas, we recognize that there are other, much better opportunities for a hot name assistant coach than Ole Miss. Name one? Ok. North Carolina. More populous state. More fertile recruiting territory. Less brutal competition than the SEC West. Deeper pockets and less pressure.

Kirby Smart. See the entry for Gus Malzahn. If Malzahn inexplicably turns down the North Carolina opportunity, Smart is the next best option on the table and, being that he’s at least as smart as Malzie, he sees a better opportunity at Carolina, too.

Urban Meyer. I’m a very deliberate, very intelligent search committee. I’m going to make this process last a little bit longer than the last one did, and I’m going to be reasonably sure I’m getting the best guy I can afford. Which means I’m not wasting the going after a $3.0 to $5.0 million man after paying millions to buy out Houston Nutt.

Bill Cowher, Tony Dungy or Jon Gruden. Name one successful NFL head coach who transitioned down to the college ranks and succeeded in recruiting and managing a college program. Name one who was financially set for life, repeatedly said he was happy doing what he was doing, and made the move anyway.

Names missing from this cut sheet are Houston’s Kevin Summerlin, Texas DC Manny Diaz, Southern Miss’ Larry Fedora and former Clemson coach Tommy Bowden.

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Sources: Both Coach Houston Nutt and Athletic Director Pete Boone are OUT at Ole Miss

This is a developing story. Red Cup Rebellion—an Ole Miss blog at SBNation—reported Sunday that Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt has been fired and may be asked to step aside as early as Monday.

Following Saturday’s second half 30-13 collapse against Kentucky, Ole Miss is winless in the SEC and is guaranteed its second straight losing season.

From RCR:

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The coaches and athletics administration will meet today to discuss whether or not Houston Nutt will coach the remainder of the season and who his interim replacement would be if he is not to stay. The situation that I am hearing is likely to happen is that Nutt is ousted and Gunter Brewer is to serve as his interim but, given that this is Ole Miss, I wouldn't be stunned to see that not take place in favor of Nutt finishing this season.

This brings us to the much more exciting question of who exactly will coach Ole Miss next season. Rebel boosters have been in touch with a handful of intriguing prospective head coaches over the past several weeks, including Alabama's Kirby Smart, Oklahoma's Brent Venables, Auburn's Gus Malzhan, and Houston's Kevin Sumlin. I haven't a clue as to which direction we are looking to go with this next hire, but if that's the short list they're choosing from then I can't be too worried.

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Nutt started the season atop the list of SEC Coaches on the Hotseat and the 2-7 record of the 2011 season has only amped up the temperature. As RCR points out, this move—if accurate—should come as no shock to anyone.

Obviously, Ole Miss’ problems go way beyond the Coach. Athletics Director Pete Boone also finds himself under withering criticism over micro-managing the programs he oversees and downright rude treatment of seven-figure donors.

UPDATE: Confirmed. Though the site is experiencing heavy traffic and may not load until later today, the report is that Nutt will coach the remaining games left in the 2011 season and depart.

UPDATE II: SBNation.com is now reporting that Boone will step down from his AD post. The school has scheduled a 2:00 PM CST news conference in Oxford, MS.

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Houston Nutt has sealed his fate (Video)

Watch as Ole Miss Head Coach Houston Nutt goes off on RebelGrove.com’s Neal McCready and attempts to explain away the loss to Arkansas last Saturday.

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Video courtesy of Rebel Grove.

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Then read McCready’s column, wherein the former Mobile Press-Register beat writer and columnist takes Nutt to task for singling him out.

Nutt started the season on the hottest seat in the conference, rivaled only by Georgia’s Mark Richt in the imminence of the meltdown. Granted, Ole Miss’ problems go way beyond the head football coach, but Nutt is the face of the program.

This was the Rebels’ best game of the year. They led Arkansas 17-0 and were playing keep-away from the Razorbacks. If they’re able to play like that against Auburn, Kentucky and Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl, they might have a chance to stop the 12-game conference losing streak and stanch the flow of blood.

But when you are quoted as saying that you don’t believe your team has a chance of winning a conference game this season (*) and then have a highly public handbags-at-five-paces hissy fit with the Rivals.com columnist who is supposed to be one of your biggest cheerleaders, your fate as a head coach in this league has been sealed.

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* Did he really say that? The SDS site is the only source for that quote. Drop me a comment or a note if you can confirm or know otherwise.

Ole Miss is a kitchen grease fire and there’s no extinguisher

After a horrid 4-8 season last year, the Rebels under Houston Nutt are 1-3 overall and 0-2 in the SEC this season. Ole Miss hasn’t won an SEC game since this week last year and if it wasn’t for the absolute grease fire that this program has become, Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen might be completely winless against SEC West teams. On Saturday, they travel to Fresno State where they hope to pull off an upset against a WAC team.

Following a lopsided 30-7 loss against perennial conference doormat Vanderbilt, Ole Miss fans organized an anonymous group called Forward Rebels and began taking out pricey full page ads in regional newspapers, calling for whole cloth changes to the administration in Oxford. The Vandy loss (and probably the appearance of the ads) prompted Ole Miss Athletic Director Pete Boone to issue an 11:35 PM “hold the rope” email on the Sunday after the game, and then Boone commandeered Nutt’s Monday morning press conference.

Last Saturday’s drubbing by Georgia in the “Hot Seat Bowl” only further infuriated the Rebel Faithful, resulting in reports of threats made against Chancellor Dan Jones and an open letter to the fans, excerpted below. 

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Many are aware of anonymous, malicious and public attacks on athletics director Pete Boone. The Ole Miss family may not be aware, however, that as a part of this orchestrated campaign, I have received threats, promising that if I do not remove Pete Boone, "It is going to get real ugly," and threatening to expand the attacks to other athletics employees.

Friends, supporters and the media have asked how I will react to this anonymous and vicious pressure. The short answer is that I will not react.

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Ok. We’re not going to respond to anonymous and vicious pressure, but here’s a letter in response to anonymous and vicious pressure. But can’t we just get along?

Things haven’t been this bad in The Grove since the last coaching staff was run out of town.

I am tempted to buy a set of tickets for the October 15 game with Alabama, but I don’t think there will be enough Grove eye candy to make the trip worthwhile this time.

There’s probably not a winnable game left on Ole Miss’ schedule, unless either Auburn or Kentucky have epic seasonal meltdowns and somehow find a way to lose to a program that should finish the season 1-11.

Ole Miss is a fine old institution with an immense cultural and academic tradition. It’s had moments of gridiron glory too. But with other schools toying with the idea of joining the SEC, wouldn’t it be great if Ole Miss kept Houston Nutt and Pete Boone? After all, a Missouri or a West Virginia would like to look down a proposed 2013 or 2014 schedule and count at least a couple of guaranteed wins, right?

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Ole Miss problems go way beyond Houston Nutt

Can we all stipulate that the Ole Miss football program is in season two of a slow motion train wreck?

When your Athletics Director is sending a “hold the rope” email at 11:34 CDT on the Sunday night after your football program was pillaged, ransacked and burned by the studly Vanderbilt Commodores, you’ve got a full-scale meltdown in progress. It’s a core breach of biblical proportions and it’s a disaster brought upon the program by none other that Pete Boone, the author of the desperate email dispatch late last night.

Pete Boone hired Houston Nutt. Pete Boone fired David Cutcliffe after his first losing season, a season one year removed from a 10-win season, and replaced him with the biggest buffoon in SEC coaching history. It took Orgeron three years to get 10 wins total, all under the “leadership” of Pete Boone. And can we all agree that, under Andy Kennedy, the Ole Miss men’s basketball program is mediocre at best and sliding into obscurity? Pete Boone hired Andy Kennedy. Colonel Reb is crying.

But Colonel Reb is crying in an Ole Miss administration exile. The mustachioed southern gentleman in the old south garb has been dismissed from the Grove and replaced with a Black Bear, or something. Not only is Ole Miss struggling to gain some identity in its football and basketball programs, the entire athletics department seems to be in a massive identity crisis. They don’t even know who, or what they are any more.

This is not the Ole Miss that produced Charlie Conerly, Archie Manning, Deuce McAllister and Eli Manning. This is the program that instead produced the 2007 bunch who were suspended for stealing pillows and clock radios from hotels in which the team had stayed. This is the program that won the 2009 Oversigning National Championship by inking letters of intent from 37 players but still fielded only about 75 scholarship players for the 2011 season.

This is also a men’s basketball program that has famously flamed out in every season coached by Kennedy. Ole Miss hasn’t made the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament once under Kennedy. Attendance at Ole Miss home games is so bad that any SEC West school can generate homecourt atmosphere just by getting tickets, showing up and rooting their team on to a win.

If Chancellor Dan Jones has any sense left in him, he’ll start cleaning house. Find something else for Pete Boone to do. Buy him a bank. He’s got to be better at that than he is running an athletics program—it’s what he did after his first stint as Ole Miss AD (yes, this is his second bite at the apple, sports fans). Get rid of Houston Nutt, Andy Kennedy and that stupid black bear. Let Ole Miss fans return to the Grove with pride and reestablish their identity.

Some fans, alumni and boosters are already pounding the drum. Here’s wondering if Dr. Jones hears the beat.

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Costly Hot Seats: Richt and Nutt would be owed millions

Neither of the current SEC Hot Seat occupants did anything to cool the talk their exits from the SEC coaching fraternity. Ole Miss’ Houston Nutt laid an egg at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, blowing a 13 point lead in a five minute span of the fourth quarter. This was the program’s second consecutive season opening loss. Georgia’s Mark Richt’s team looked uninspired and unmotivated in a 35-21 drubbing by perennial Cinderella Boise State, a team that had never beaten an SEC opponent.

The two schools’ fans took to message boards, Twitter, Facebook and talk radio to vent their frustrations and calls for heads to roll easily drowned out those calling for patience. But should the two administrations decide that changes are necessary, expect the price to be steep.

Last fall, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution estimated Richt’s buyout to be on the order of about $5 million. Add in the cost of any replacement’s first year’s salary—let’s say $3.0 million assuming they get an already established head coach—and UGA faithful had better hope that the braintrust is making the right decision. The round figure of $8.0 million doesn’t take into account any contractual obligations to assistant coaches, so $8.0 million might even be quite conservative.

Last May, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger estimated Nutt’s buyout to be even sweeter. Nutt would get $6.0 million if there are three or more years remaining on his contract. Again, throw in another $3.0 million to attract a top-drawer replacement and $9.0 million is the conservative estimate.

If the season is dreadful enough for Ole Miss and Georgia, there’s little doubt that two new coaches enter the brotherhood next year. Losing football programs in the SEC are budget busters. Ticket sales drop off. Concessions dry up. Donations dwindle. Even enrollment suffers. So while a conservative estimate of $17.0 million is a staggering sum to replace the two SEC veterans, when faced with fiscal losses that drag out for two or more years the schools may decide that they have no choice but to pull out the checkbook.

Exit Question: What if Nutt and Richt go miracle maker and meet in Atlanta for the SEC Title? Not bloody likely, but coming close to that outcome might be the thing that saves them and ensures that the two programs are stuck in mediocrity for years to come.

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Kirby Smart, or Gus Malzahn?

A caller on WNSP 105.5’s Sports Drive yesterday afternoon had an interesting question for show hosts Pat Greenwood and Randy Kennedy. The basis for the question was the assumption that the Georgia Bulldogs have a subpar season (again) in 2011, leading to the departure of Mark Richt and a coveted opening at one of the big schools of the SEC.

It’s just as likely that Ole Miss lays an egg in 2011 and the Right Reverend Houston Nutt is shown the door. I didn’t hear whether Greenwood and Kennedy addressed a possible opening at Ole Miss, but even before these two teams face stiff nonconference opponents—BYU visits Oxford and Boise State travels to Atlanta—I see the odds at better than even that at least one of them will be in the market for a new head coach about four months from now.

The question: If you’re an SEC school looking for a head coach, do you hire an up-and-coming assistant and if so, which of the two most talked about assistants in the SEC do you go after: Alabama’s Kirby Smart, or Auburn’s Gus Malzahn?

For me, the answer is Gus Malzahn and it’s not even close.

Bulldog fans would likely stage a partial revolt if Athletics Director Greg McGarity tapped Malzahn over Smart, a Georgia alumnus and Broyles Award winning assistant coach. But if you’re looking to add excitement and pizzazz to what’s been a moribund football program over the last several seasons, Malzahn is the no-brainer.

Bama’s Kirby Smart is ready to be a head coach, too. His career includes stops at Georgia, Valdosta State, Florida State, LSU, the Miami Dolphins and Alabama. The LSU, Dolphins and Bama stints have all been with Nick Saban, arguably the best head coach in college football today. Saban has disciples coaching at Florida, Florida State and Tennessee in the SEC and Michigan State in the Big Ten. Clearly, Smart’s resume is right and he’ll be a solid head coach wherever he decides to plant his flag. But he’ll be a first-timer in the corner office.

Malzahn has been a head coach, and while it was at the high school level, he transformed programs from also-rans to offensive powerhouses. He knows how to run an organization. He’s won everywhere he’s been when he’s allowed free rein over the team’s offense. He took a woefully thin, talent-starved 5-7 2008 Auburn team and transformed it into one of the most productive attacks in the SEC. In 2009, Auburn won eight games and had undefeated Alabama on the ropes until the fourth quarter in the Iron Bowl. Few people can make chicken salad out of chicken scat like Malzahn did that year. And 14-0 last year wasn’t bad either, was it?

Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated called Malzahn “one of the sport's most innovative offensive minds, not just in the college ranks, but in all of football.” Mandel wrote that line in October 2009, getting on the Malzie bandwagon before it was trendy.

Both Malzahn and Smart are recruiting machines. Both are disciplined, experienced coaches who have won at the highest level in college football. Smart’s implementation of the Saban school of defense is crisp, physical and absolutely ferocious. But Malzahn’s offense is his offense.

Auburn faces an absolutely brutal schedule in 2011. They have away games at Clemson, South Carolina, Arkansas, LSU and Georgia. They will likely be underdogs in every one of them, and are likely underdogs hosting both Florida and Alabama. They have a wealth of young talent but a dearth of experience and senior leadership. If they can fashion an eight- or nine-win season out of that slate, it will be because Malzahn worked his magic on the offensive side of the ball and his stock will be sky high.

Smart would be a good choice for almost any program. But if Gus Malzahn is available and I’m shopping for a coach, I’m going with the wizard.

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