The star offensive line prospect from Florida says he has “always been a Cane” but is burning bridges with potential teammates before he even announces his college choice.

Patchan took in Miami’s embarrassing loss to Virginia on Saturday and is ready to make some changes.

“They played terribly,” he said. “That was extremely tough to watch. Guys after the game – there’s too many guys that just it doesn’t bother them that they lost the game. There’s too many guys now at the U that ‘It’s okay we lost, well what am I going to do tonight?’ Like it doesn’t mean anything. They need to get rid of those type of guys.”

The high school student / coach / talent scout continues his evaluation:

“Half those guys in Miami uniforms shouldn’t be there. They physically don’t cut it. A lot of those guys were wasted scholarships. That was Miami’s fault in recruiting. You can’t take a guy who doesn’t know how to play football and ask him to do things that are expected out of University of Miami players.”

On second thought, maybe Patchan is perfect for Miami. I’m sure team chemistry would only improve with him in the locker room.

College basketball is just getting warmed up.

Big 10 powers Michigan State and Ohio State have already lost to Division II teams.

And now…#20 Kentucky falls to Gardner-Webb.

Hopefully the savants in the media poll can skip the whole vote-for-Gardner-Webb thing this time.

Credit to ladyQdawg on the DawgVent

The AJC ran an article on Wednesday detailing how valuable Georgia Tech considers its Thursday night ESPN appearances.

“It’s just like Monday Night Football in the NFL,” Yellow Jackets coach Chan Gailey said. “You do get the national stage.”

A Thursday night game at Bobby Dodd Stadium is electric,” (Giff) Smith said. “It definitely helps us in recruiting. The atmosphere is what it’s all about.”

After Tech’s most recent Thursday night game, a 27-3 loss to Virginia Tech last night, Tech fans are probably thinking less about the electric atmosphere and more about the electric chair for Chan Gailey.

While the national stage gives you the opportunity to showcase your program, the exposure can also turn on you.  Last night ESPN viewers were treated by the home team to a non-sellout, jerseys stolen from the visitors locker room, a turnover fest, boos, and a stadium that started emptying in the third quarter.

Things got so bad that even the ESPN crew  got into the act of ragging on the Yellow Jackets.  Did you know that QB Taylor Bennett dressed up as Tinky Winky from the Teletubbies for Halloween?  Me neither.  But thanks to Chris Fowler and the rest of the crew, we do now.  As Bennett’s night descended into a living hell, Fowler and company became more and more relentless with the Tinky Winky references.  (Did Fowler really imply something about his state of mind when he watched the Teletubbies?)

The night ended with a still shot of the Teletubbies while the Georgia Tech fight song played over it.  On this night on this “national stage” in an atmosphere that challenged touching a door knob for electricity, Tech ended up being humiliated and mocked.  They are now 9-and-11 under Thursday Night Lights.

Could eleven SEC teams be bowl-eligible this season? Six teams already have six wins. Florida and Tennessee should join the club soon enough.

That leaves three teams with longer but not impossible odds for six wins:

Arkansas. Currently 5-3.
Remaining games: South Carolina, @ Tennessee, Miss. St., @ LSU

Mississippi State. Currently 5-4.
Remaining games: Alabama, @ Arkansas, Ole Miss

Vanderbilt. Currently 5-3.
Remaining games: @ Florida, Kentucky, @ Tennessee, Wake Forest

Vandy might face the longest odds of any SEC team with postseason hopes. Conference wins over Ole Miss and South Carolina have put them in a position to need just one more upset, but the competition is tough in their remaining four games. Wake Forest should be considered no less an opponent than any of the other three.

Mississippi State is hanging their hopes on the Egg Bowl, but they could cement their postseason fate with an upset of Alabama or Arkansas. The Hogs meanwhile face three quality teams and each of the current division leaders. The MSU game might become a must-win situation to avoid a .500 (or worse) season.

If all of these teams manage six wins, the question becomes who, if anyone, gets left out? The SEC has eight official bowl tie-ins. An at-large spot could almost certainly be found for a ninth team. If it gets up to ten or even eleven bowl-eligible teams, it’s possible that someone like Mississippi State or Vanderbilt could miss out.

There are plenty of snobs who think that there are too many bowl games or that 6-6 teams should be grateful for the crumbs they get. But the significance of even the most minor bowl game to a program like MSU or Vandy cannot be understated. Croom is desperately seeking legitimacy (and another year on the job), and a bowl bid is the next step after two big road upset wins. The drought is even longer for Vanderbilt, and they are the only SEC team without a trip to a bowl in this decade (not to mention the last decade). One even wonders if the SEC will intervene and send a 6-6 Vandy team to a bowl for the first time in 25 years over a stronger program like Arkansas who might be disappointed in a 7-5 season.

While we’re celebrating the parity and the wild SEC season, the league hasn’t done much to live up to its billing nationally. LSU’s win over Va. Tech stands tall, but there’s not much after that. Tennessee lost big to Cal. Miss. St. was toothless against West Virginia. Auburn fell to South Florida and just escaped Kansas State. Bama lost to FSU. Georgia’s win over Oklahoma State was nice but hardly significant. We’ll see another round of big non-conference games soon against mainly ACC opponents, and hopefully the league can show out a little better there before the bowl season.

What a weekend of football. Even Maryland – Virginia was interesting. If you haven’t followed the ACC (and I don’t blame you if that’s the case), Virginia has ripped off a program-record seven straight wins since losing the season opener to…Wyoming. Most of those wins have been decided in the last minute, and the comeback at Maryland was no exception. They are definitely in possession of the golden horseshoe right now.

If you’re a basketball fan, this point in the football season is like the Sweet 16. Everyone dwells on the Cinderellas that made it out of the first round and how this might be the year of Southern Illinois or whoever. But almost always the Sweet 16 weekend brings those dreams to an abrupt end, and the real contenders emerge. There’s no question that the college football scene is muddled this year, but that’s only because the presence of a loss or two is making us think a little beyond the default undefeated=best rule.

There are still several unbeaten football teams – most as a result of schedule. That’s not to say that teams like Boston College or Kansas aren’t good; by this point in the season you have to have beaten someone to remain undefeated, and they have. Who knows – one of them just might survive the rest of the season. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time that a relative lightweight survives their schedule without a blemish. It’s reasonable though that most, if not all, of these teams will lose and end up with nice but irrelevant seasons.

Meanwhile, teams like LSU, Oklahoma, and, yes, even Southern Cal (has a premature obituary for a program ever been written more quickly?) are right there hanging around, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see things shake out over the next month to see these familiar names separate themselves a little. Until then, we’ll continue to fantasize and fret over a Kansas – Arizona St. title game.

It is interesting to see the issue of being undefeated vs. strength of schedule come up. We live by the bogus "every game is a playoff" mantra, yet it doesn’t seem quite right that LSU’s triple-overtime loss automatically makes them drop below Boston College. It’s good to see people discussing this problem. Obviously there’s a line somewhere; sooner or later you have to actually win regardless of the strength of your schedule. Still, is it heresy to suggest that the best team at the end of the season might have two losses? Or is it time to throw up our hands and say that trying to determine the "best" team is a quixotic pursuit?

It’s this pursuit of the perfect record that leads us to less-than-desirable scheduling. We can debate the merits of a strong schedule, but as it is now, schedule is secondary and a status symbol. Winning is paramount. As long as a single loss continues to carry such a heavy penalty, it remains in the best interests of major programs to schedule accordingly.

There are lots of ways to enjoy the bye week. I’ll be watching games at home and getting things in order for next week’s trip to the WLOCP. What will you be doing with the time?

If you’re stuck looking for something to do, why not stencil your favorite team’s logo on your lawn using professional-grade materials from the same people who paint the real thing?

Decorate your yard with the official logo of your favorite college team. Stencil kits come with four cans of World Class aerosol field marking paint in your school’s colors.

The product is currently available only for Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Oklahoma & Tennessee. Of course it is – there are only about three other fan bases (all in the SEC) who are bat-$#%* crazy enough to buy something like this.

PS…bonus points to this company for the use of "Georgia Tech University".

Earlier this summer, I questioned the assumption that the Georgia Tech passing game had nowhere to go but up with Taylor Bennett (or anyone not named Reggie Ball). No less a writer than Furman Bisher said that Gailey owed Tech fans an explanation for sticking with Ball after watching Bennett’s Gator Bowl performance. I pointed out that Gailey had in fact opened the door for someone like Bennett to take the position during Ball’s career,

Bisher asserts that “Chan Gailey stubbornly stuck with Ball,” but Gailey did try someone else when Ball was struggling, even if it wasn’t Bennett. Damarius Bilbo got a chance against the Dawgs and was even worse. 3 completions, 10 attempts, and 29 yards. Gailey eventually gave up and went back to his starter. The quarterback position was up for grabs several times during Ball’s four years, and each time he held off the competitors. Against challenges from Bilbo, Pat Clark, and Bennett, Ball stood out time after time. Tech’s own official site declared the position up for competition entering the 2005 spring practice, but Ball emerged again with a clear-cut victory.

It’s finally Bennett’s turn, and we’ve now had half of a season to see if that grass really was greener. Get the Picture looks at the results so far and concludes, “I think it’s safe to say at this point that, at least with regard to choosing his starting quarterback, Chan Gailey isn’t a stupid man.”

As expected, the weak passing game doesn’t make a bad team. I wasn’t the only one thinking that “behind Choice and another quality defense, I think they’ll be rather good.” Tashard Choice and, to a greater extent, the defense are proving to be the biggest factors keeping Tech above water this year and likely headed for another bowl bid.

The final score of an overtime game should award a single point to the winner. If a 27-27 game goes into overtime, the final score should be 28-27. Keep score as necessary during overtime (why not start at 0-0?), but let the record books record a victory margin of one point. I’ve never understood why the system grants a full six (or three) points for a scoring drive that artificially begins on the 25 yard line.

Last night’s 69-67 Boise St. win over Nevada took four overtime periods to decide. The game was tied at 44 following regulation time. But because both teams put up a combined 48 points in overtime, we get statements like this:

The game set a record for most points in an NCAA Division I-A game since 1937, when official record keeping began.

It’s wrong that an overtime game holds that distinction. Over a third of this "record-setting" game’s total points came in overtime.

A look around the SEC and college football landscape:

First, a tip of the hat to Jim Harbaugh. The new Stanford coach has been poking Southern Cal with a stick ever since he took the job. Maybe Southern Cal never really took this game seriously, but they usually stomp mudholes in teams that talk up the upset. Not so this time. While the Cardinal have looked awful for most of this season, they backed up Harbaugh’s braying in this one.

While Ohio State is a long way away from breezing through the rest of their schedule, would they be the least-heralded undefeated Big 10 team ever? Teams like Illinois and Wisconsin (and of course Michigan) will have their shot, but the Buckeyes have faced a few moderately decent challenges so far with few problems.

LSU is going to be pushed a few more times this season. The impressive multi-faceted running game is tough to stop, but the offense is going to struggle to put good teams away without a playmaker like Doucet in the passing game. The defense is plenty good enough to keep most teams from challenging them, but an undefeated season for the Tigers might include one or two more close calls.

You’re not hearing as much these days from the Alabama fans who had so much fun at the expense of Auburn a few weeks ago.

Southern Cal, Arizona State, Cal, and Oregon might give the Pac 10 the strongest top four of any conference. Consider some of the others:

• SEC: LSU, Florida, …, South Carolina?, Auburn?
• ACC: Boston College, Va Tech, …, FSU? Clemson?
• Big 10: Ohio State, Illinois, Wisconsin, …, Michigan?
• Big East: South Florida, West Virginia, …, Louisville? Rutgers?
• Big 12: Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Nebraska?

Arizona State gets tested beginning this weekend with Washington and then will play 3 of their next 4 against Cal, SoCal, and Oregon. There’s bound to be some shaking out within the next month. Still, it’s been an impressive six weeks for those four teams (even with Southern Cal’s loss).

Tennessee, South Carolina, and Kentucky currently lead the SEC East with one loss each. I don’t expect that grouping to hold through the end of the season, but Tennessee suddenly has the inside track to win the division. They don’t play LSU, don’t play Auburn, and they’ve already played Florida and Georgia. Their toughest remaining games are against South Carolina, Alabama, and Arkansas. Those games won’t be easy, but the Vols should be favored in at least two of them. Tennessee’s game against South Carolina in Knoxville could determine the East, though the Gamecocks still have Florida remaining.

All that said, I don’t believe too much in reading into a single game, and Tennessee still had plenty of problems earlier this year. I still expect Florida to emerge somehow, but a single loss to Kentucky, Georgia (wishful thinking I know), or South Carolina would sink the Gators.

Is there any conference race less interesting or more difficult to follow than the ACC? Even though BC is undefeated, with the haphazard distribution of the divisions I fully expect to see completely random and irrelevant teams like Maryland and Miami play for the conference title. Maryland and Miami might even be in the same ACC division. Are they Atlantic or Coastal?

I wrote a few weeks ago that the New York Times has recently opened up its archives after years behind a paywall.  One of the more popular applications to come of this opening of a rich historical trove is to look for the first mention of everyone and everything from Hitler to Britney Spears.

So naturally, I wondered about a few items close to our own heart.

First mention of the University of Georgia:  April 2, 1852

In an article featuring a couple of spiritual mediums in hot water, it is mentioned that

The University of Georgia has 175 students, of whom 151 are in actual attendance.  There are two literary societies connected with the University – the Phi Kappa and the Demosthenian.

There’s at least one member of the Dawgosphere who will be very happy to see his society mentioned in this historic news clipping.

You can see some of the other early articles related to the University.

First mention of the “University of Georgia” and “football”: August 18, 1897

The first mention of UGA football has very little to do with Georgia’s program.  Cornell has found a coach, and he’s Glenn “Pop” Warner.  The article notes,

In previous years the team has been coached by old Yale and Harvard players.  Warner has already turned out winning teams for the University of Georgia and the University of Iowa.  He will endeavor at Cornell to develop a distinct style of play.

Warner was 7-4 in two seasons at Georgia, and he gave the University its first undefeated season with a 4-0 mark in 1896.

The second article mentioning Georgia football deals with the 1897 fatal injury to Richard Vonalbade (“Von”) Gammon in a game against Virginia.  Gammon died of the head injury the next day, and the state of Georgia was set to ban the game of football at state schools.  A letter from Gammon’s mother convinced the governor not to sign the ban.  Her letter read, in part,

It would be the greatest favor to the family of Von Gammon if your influence could prevent his death being used for an argument detrimental to the athletic cause and its advancement at the university. His love for his college and his interest in all manly sports, without which he deemed the highest type of manhood impossible, is well known by his classmates and friends, and it would be inexpressibly said to have the cause he held so dear injured by his sacrifice. Grant me the right to request that my boy’s death should not be used to defeat the most cherished object of his life.

1892 Pandora – “History of Athletics”

The Anti-Orange Page has a feature from the 1892 Pandora yearbook looking back at some of the first football and baseball games.  Lots of great tidbits in there:

• “The next thing is a new gymnasium. It was mentioned some time ago, but not much has been heard of it lately. Let those in authority take advantage of the opportunity and keep up the enthusiasm by their substantial aid.”  Even in 1892, facilities for athletics were an issue.
• “But after all, they (Auburn) refused outright to play us baseball, fearing the team here, about which so much has been written and said.”  The South’s oldest rivalry indeed.  Even in 1892, an article’s not complete without calling Auburn a bunch of cowards.
• “It was not until the fall of 1890, that there was awakened among the students the proper spirit of enthusiasm. At this time Dr. Charles Herty came to the University as Instructor in Chemistry, and the whole success of our Association is due entirely to him.”  Herty was, of course, Georgia’s first football coach.

My favorite line though is this remark about the uselessness of mascots after a 10-0 loss to Auburn:

About a month later we tackled Auburn, proving without doubt that there is no virtue in mascottes, for Robert and his goat availed us naught.

The University of Georgia has come around just a little bit on the subject of mascots.

Quinton over at the Georgia Sports Blog looks at the waning intimidation factor at Neyland Stadium and concludes,

"A great team makes the venue, not the other way around."

I generally agree with that statement. A fired-up home underdog with the crowd behind them can be a dangerous thing, but that’s not something on which to hang your hat consistently. A great crowd (venue) can occasionally inspire an ordinary team to great things, but the effect (and often the crowd enthusiasm itself) is temporary. Of course a top-notch team doesn’t as a rule mean you’ll have a great venue. Boston College is relatively anonymous in a town that’s obsessed with pro sports.

When you get the convergence of a good team in a football-mad part of the world, the results can be impressive. It’s why places like Nebraska or LSU or Florida or Michigan have, at times, been pits of despair for opponents.

Naturally, this topic gets a Bulldog fan thinking about Sanford Stadium. No one questions the passion of Georgia fans. Yet when folks speak of Sanford Stadium, they speak of the setting, the Hedges, the tradition, but usually not of a particularly intimidating place to play. Why is that?

As Quinton notes, having a good team matters. Georgia has had some good runs, but they’ve also had some pretty ordinary stretches. Even football-crazy fans will moderate during a rough patch. Some might also blame that favorite whipping boy: the wine-and-cheese alumni.

In Georgia’s case, the schedule also has a lot to do with it. I’m not going to turn this into a strength of scheduling discussion, but it should be noted that I think, as a rule, our schedule is often plenty tough enough, thanks. The downside of my preferred scheduling approach is that there just haven’t been that many marquee games to come through Athens.

Clemson in 1991 was the last Top 10 nonconference opponent to play Between the Hedges. The Georgia Tech game has rarely had significance outside of the state. The Florida game is often huge but is played in Jacksonville. LSU has visited Athens just three times since 1991, and Alabama has visited just twice over the same time. That pretty much leaves either Tennessee or Auburn (depending on the year) as a potential marquee home opponent, and Georgia has a losing record in Athens against both of those programs over the past two decades.

In short, Bulldog fans in Sanford Stadium are likely to see 1) opponents of moderate to low quality or 2) a loss. Regardless of the quality of the Georgia program, that’s not exactly the formula for a frenzied home environment. Think about this – from 1992 through 1999, what was the most significant win at Sanford Stadium? What are some of the truly significant wins of the past decade or two at Sanford Stadium? I don’t mean nice wins like Oklahoma State or beating Alabama in 2003. I mean really big head-turning wins.

• Ga. Tech 2006. A comeback win over an ACC division winner. Not exactly nationally significant, but it meant a lot to the Bulldog Nation.
• Boise State 2005. I hesitate to mention this as a "big" win, but it was a symbolic clash of traditional power vs. the brash upstart, and it resonated nationally.
• LSU 2004. A landmark win over the defending SEC champion. Big in every sense of the word.
• Tennessee 2000. The streak ends.
• Clemson 1991. Simply electrifying.

That’s as far back as I go. Is that it? There are plenty of other memorable wins – Texas Tech in 1996, Auburn in 2003, South Carolina 1995, and so on – but let’s not confuse those with the kind of titanic wins we’re talking about here.

It hasn’t helped that some of the losses have been absolutely deflating. Consider Ole Miss 1996, Auburn 1997, Tennessee 2004, and even South Carolina 2007. The Dawgs follow up a nice, often significant, win by laying an egg at home. You can’t build home field momentum that way.

Mark Richt has elevated many aspects of the Georgia program, and performance at home is one of them. He noted early on the correlation between perfect home records and conference titles, and the Dawgs didn’t lost a game at home in 2002 or 2003. That edge has slipped somewhat recently, and near-misses against teams like Colorado and Mississippi State almost felt like losses. Two of the three remaining home games have the chance to be pretty significant with the SEC race potentially still up for grabs. Wins in those games could play a big part in rebuilding some of the Sanford Stadium edge that eroded in 2006.

A look around the college football landscape after five weeks:

It was, to say the least, an interesting weekend for college football. I won’t go so far as to say "good" or even "entertaining" in many cases. Alabama – FSU was just painful to watch. I’m sorry to have missed out on some of the few watchable games like Cal-Oregon.

Saturday, at least in Athens, was why we live for football in the South. Perfect weather, perfect setting, and (for us, anyway) a perfect outcome. To some, college football heaven is a sports bar with televisions as far as the eye can see. That’s fine for the NFL. College football is all about the immersion – the campus, the outdoors, the partisanship, and the tailgate. I have sympathy, not admiration, for those who hunker down in a bar to watch 111 games each week.

What to think of Auburn? The loss to Mississippi State is still glaring. Beating Kansas State looks a lot better now, and they played South Florida even. Now the win over Florida changes things a little. I was glad to see them beat Florida, but there was also this uneasiness that reminded me of way too many Georgia-Auburn games at Sanford Stadium. Is all of their road magic used up now?

Hey, didn’t you used to be Kirk Ferentz?

A common theme after this weekend’s carnage is to point to the results through five weeks as evidence that polls shouldn’t be release before (five, six, seven) weeks. My question remains the same as it was the first time I discussed this issue: how much would a poll released for the first time today vary from the current polls?

I know this sounds crazy given all of the Florida and Tebow hype since the season started, but I think many people are underrating Florida’s chances at LSU. Key to the game is LSU’s offense. It didn’t really set the world on fire against South Carolina and Tulane. Playmakers abound, but questions on the offensive line and an unsettled quarterback position keep me from enthusiastically jumping on the Tiger bandwagon. South Carolina showed that points, though not many, can be scored against LSU’s ridiculously good defense. Florida’s offensive system was able to put up points on a good LSU defense last year. A critical LSU turnover last year really changed that game, and this year’s meeting might turn on something similar.

Seeing teams like South Florida, Kentucky, and to some extent Wisconsin ranked so high at this early point in the season doesn’t really bother me. All are deserving of recognition for their seasons to date, but I don’t think any has the staying power to be a factor in the national (or even conference) title picture. Things will begin to sort themselves out in a few weeks. Kentucky has just one SEC game under its belt and will soon run its conference gauntlet. Seeing them atop the SEC East is just a temporary novelty. South Florida feasted on Auburn and West Virginia turnovers, and it’s hard to expect that kind of turnover margin to be there every week.

Ohio State deserves a bit more credit than they get for a win at Washington, but that’s been their only test so far. The Big Ten isn’t easy to read (or watch) this year, and the story might be which team just gets by from week to week. Penn State isn’t much of a factor after two losses. If Wisconsin and/or Illinois (!) stumble, are we looking at Michigan and Ohio State once again?

The way the conferences are setting up, we are looking at some potential BCS bowl matchups that are pretty ugly on paper. Then again, people thought that Georgia and Oklahoma would have an easy time with West Virginia and Boise State.

Washington has been a good story this year, but they are still 2-3. They get props for the tough schedule, the win over Boise, and playing Ohio State and SoCal close. But the program badly needs a win, and they have a bye week to get ready for Arizona State.

Cal has proven enough to say that a loss to Southern Cal, even if it is their only loss of the season, would leave them a good bit empty. They are in the position Texas faced circa 2004.

Finally, Ching points out that Georgia is the only SEC East team to beat Auburn since 2002. Impressive indeed. At the same time, Auburn is the only SEC West team to beat Georgia since 2003. Including the postseason, Mark Richt has just five losses in 6+ seasons to SEC West schools. Richt is currently 18-5 against the West. Coincidently, Richt has the same winning percentage (.783) in all games to date.

Have you ever written anything where every sentence was completely wrong? I’m talking “French benefits” wrong. This was posted on the DawgVent by me on Friday:

WV wins pretty easily

USF won’t win by scoring 20 or so points again. WVa won’t help again with 4+ turnovers. Emotion won’t carry USF past the 1st quarter.

If WVa doesn’t win the Big East undefeated, they should drop football.

Let’s see:

• WV wins pretty easily. Wrong. 21-13 loss.
• USF won’t win by scoring 20 or so points again. Wrong. It only took 21.
• WVa won’t help again with 4+ turnovers. Wrong. There were six.
• Emotion won’t carry USF past the 1st quarter. Wrong. It carried them the whole way. They probably still haven’t come down.
• If WVa doesn’t win the Big East undefeated, they should drop football. Even this was wrong. Best I can tell, West Virginia is getting ready to play Syracuse.

My solace? At least I’m not this guy.

No one is surprised by a recruiting story coming out of left field. Coaches will go to most any length to secure a commitment. Out-of-control boosters are a dime a dozen. 17-year-olds appear on national TV to pick which hat to wear. Fans who get sucked into the recruiting world are often obsessive and have their day made or ruined by the latest comment from a prospect.

TRIM THE LIST! TRIM IT! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!

I thought I had seen it all, but now we have Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com getting on the case of one of the nation’s top basketball prospects because the prospect isn’t making up his mind fast enough. No – really. Greg Monroe has committed the crime of not trimming his list of eight schools.

But I have to tell you that the way the top-rated high school player in the nation is stringing along his recruitment baffles me to no end, nice kid or not.

…Shouldn’t he be further along in the process than this?

Doesn’t it seem excessive?

Because so many other top prospects have committed, Parrish "feel(s) safe suggesting Monroe should have a better idea of what he’s going to do." That’s right, Greg. Won’t someone think of those poor, poor coaches?

The byproduct is a recruiting process that has strung too many programs along for way too long, while giving false hope to coaches who are waiting for a definite rejection before moving on.

My heart breaks for Kansas, Duke, USC, LSU, and the other members of the Angry Eight. When Monroe’s decision (finally) comes giving blessed release to Parrish and one lucky school, I truly hope the others are able to put the pieces back together and face another day.

By the way, Parrish can stop hyperventilating. Monroe will name on Friday the five schools which will receive an official visit.