Post-Spring Storylines to Follow in SEC

Arkansas’ coaching search.  With each passing day it becomes more likely that the Razorbacks will keep an “interim” tag on Taver Johnson, use the remainder of the year to find a long-term replacement for Bobby Petrino, and make that decision official following the 2012 regular season.  I believe that course of action to be the wisest.  While Petrino is a low-down scoundrel and rotten human being, replacing him as a football coach will be difficult and Arkansas needs to find the right coach, not the right-now coach.  Not only would a coach hired before the start of the season have an incredibly condensed time frame with which to learn the team and instill his system, looking for a head coach to start immediately would dramatically limit your pool of candidates.  I simply can’t imagine a current head coach ditching his program post-spring to take another job.  I know there exists little which is ethically “off limits” in major college football, but I don’t see an “A” list coach doing that to his team.  Because of that, if you want to hire a permanent replacement to start immediately, you reduce your candidate pool to coaches out of work and assistants – Arkansas can do better.

Read more: chuckoliver.net

Prep baseball superstar, possible first-round MLB pick, dies of mysterious apparent suicide

Tennessee road on Tuesday after an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, sending shockwaves throughout the Volunteer State baseball community.

As reported by the Jackson Sun, the Nashville City Paper and a variety of other Nashville-area news sources, Parsons (Tenn.) Riverside High ace Stephen Gant was found dead in Perry County shortly after the local sheriff’s office had been called about a manwalking up and down the road with a gun threatening to commit suicide.

“We found the body of Stephen Gant about 30 feet from the roadway with a gunshot wound,” Perry County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Nick Weems told the Sun. “We do believe at this time that it was self-inflicted; however, we will continue to investigate to look at other possibilities to make sure it was suicide.”

Read more: yahoo.com

Recruiting haul first step for Vandy

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Caleb Azubike had it all planned out.

The four-star defensive end from Nashville (Tenn.) McGavock would make an unofficial visit toVanderbilt as a courtesy to his hometown school. But he wouldn’t actually agree to play for this traditional Southeastern Conference doormat, would he?

Come on: You’ve got to be kidding, right?

“The day I went up for a visit, I never thought once that I was going to go there,” Azubike said.

Yet here he is a year later as one of the headline attractions in the greatest recruiting class in Vanderbilt history. Azubike credits his change of heart to Vanderbilt coach James Franklin‘s powers of persuasion.

Read more from Rivals.com

2.2.12

That’s the plan, anyway.

The Tennessean reports that the SEC is working with Vanderbilt and South Carolina to kick off the 2012 college football season with what could be a Thursday night gamein Nashville televised on ESPN.

Vanderbilt is currently scheduled to face Presbyterian for their ’12 opener on a Saturday without TV coverage, so yeah, I’m sure it wouldn’t be a big deal for the Commodores to reschedule that game.

Read more of “2012 season opens up with… Vanderbilt?” on CollegFootballTalk.com
8.3.11