Head Shots from 5/20/08

Big Ten Coaches Want a Break: Coaches are proposing a 2 week quiet period in the summer where recruits would be off limits from the dirty old men stalking them, also known as coaches and recruiters. The story was posted on ESPN and within minutes, comments popped up with suck gems as "This is why the Big Ten sucks" and "Sure, give Carroll, Meyer and Stoops 2 weeks alone with the Midwest’s blue chip recruits".

Mark May busy at work again, I see. His cohorts in comments were ‘McSheezyThaDraftMan’ and ‘MelKiperMustDie’. No idea who THAT could be, Todd.

Perrilloux Finds a Home: Ryan Perrilloux has signed his scholarship papers in AL-A-BA-MA! No, not the Crimson Tide, but Jacksonville State. RP can now play next season without riding the pine as he would transferring to a D1A school, which was important since he had already burned his redshirt season (along with the bridges behind him). Was that the season he was in a FBI counterfeiting investigation or and incident with a fake ID and a riverboat casino?

Sports Illustrated has commentary on the situation, with nothing but praise towards Perrilloux, explaining how well he played against Middle Tennessee State and Tennessee. In that case, he’s already shown he can be successful against D1-AA caliber defenses.

JSU currently has no quarterback on the team, which was also a positive in Perrilloux’s eyes. Was Jacksonville State without a QB because of graduation or injury? No, and we can’t make this up, he was kicked off the team. Funny how the world works.

Julio Jones for President: You know your school loves football when a football player gets third place in the Student Council President race. You know your school REALLY loves football when that player is a write in candidate who has yet to step on campus. Really tall Bama recruit and one member of Nick Saban’s 110 man recruiting class, Julio Jones is already a fan favorite.

Look out, we might have Terrelle Pryor elected as Governor of Ohio if this keeps up.

"I’m Terrelle Pryor, and I approve this message."

Jim Tressel Invades Florida: Open spots on the 2009 Ohio State football team are disappearing faster than small children at an elementary school when Charlie Weis got wrong directions to the all-you-can-eat buffet. (Note: Poe is implying Charlie Weis eats small children and house pets. Everyone is dogging on Charlie. 3-9, 3-9). JT has been quite the jet-setter, keeping tabs on recruits in Florida, Maryland, Tennessee (third time I had to type that word) and California.

Ohio State is currently on the short list for so many Florida kids, you’d think we replaced Florida State in the Big Three (we have). Two running backs, several defensive backs, and several wide receivers are getting the JT love, to the point where they might not have enough spots for everyone.

Two of the kids are amongst the fastest in the Speed State (hey, it was Microsoft that had me capitalize it). It’s just a shame that they might move north and play in the Big Ten and steal all the speed from the ACC. Yes, the ACC. Not surprisingly, many of the kids are also on Urban Meyer’s radar. No, he really has a radar. Unless you have the speed of a twin engine Cessna, he will not recruit you. Thus the call into Michigan’s tight end (non-existent in any Ohio State-Michigan game), who blew past the entire Florida defense on a screen.

LSU Gives In, Ryan Perrilloux Goes Out

Ryan Perrilloux rattled the cage in bayou one too many times. It’s the story that I’ve expected to read about every time I’ve read a story about Perrilloux over the past few years. Perrilloux = Counterfeiting Ring = FBI = Casino Gambling = Bar Fights = Missed Class and Meetings = Failed Drug Test = King of the World = No more D1 football.

Strangest part of the story to me is about how Les Miles and LSU are getting all the credit for kicking the kid off the team. It’s not everyday that you have to kick the starting QB off the team, but then again its not everyday the starting QB does something and deserves to be kicked off the team. What else could they do? Perrilloux has been suspended on and off for the past year, missing games and practice. At some point you have to realize he might be more trouble than he’s worth and 6 strikes and you’re out, and that’s what happened Friday. That, or one of the other QBs looked good enough in practice to chance the Perrilloux dismissal.

Ohio State has had its share of issues over the years. Now, LSU. Penn State has, Oklahoma has, WVU, Florida has, South Carolina has, and the list goes on (USC, USC, USC). I mean check out the Fulmer Cup on EDSBS. For the most part, they have been individual exercises and not a result of the nature of the programs. I mean, you’re putting one hundred 18-22,23,24 year old men on a team. I went to college, had fun, did what I had to do, and didn’t get in a whole lot of trouble (Poe hasn’t been arrested, yet). Alas, I wasn’t going to be a QB for a college football power. These guys have different backgrounds and ideas about their futures, and you’ll get a few bad apples that don’t want to follow the rules. For every bad apple, there are 40-50 good apples that you’ll never hear about.

Take it from an Ohio State fan: Get Perrilloux on some D-1AA team. Let him play for one or two years and try out for the NFL. You don’t want him calling ESPN, robbing people for cell phones behind bars, carrying guns and Grey Goose in an SUV near a witness’ house, and spending a few in the Toledo Correctional Facility.

In the World of Overly Optimistic Beat Writers…

Hide the children, Ron Zook is coming. With impeccably odd timing, a writer for an Illinois paper talks about how Ron Zook is poaching Ohio football players. It seems like he’s a year late on the Illinois recruiting class, which should be promising but not overwhelming. It just seems like a strange time to release an article just weeks after Melvin Fellows decommitted from Illinois to take the home state Buckeyes. Zooker got Cordale Scott last year from Glenville, but Ohio State got Devier Posey and Jake Stoneburner, both of whom could see action this year. And Ohio State got Garret Goebel last year out of Illinois, who was probably the state’s best prospect (I think he figured he could play day one after watching the DTs play). Anyway, the guy is a year late on his story. If anything, he should have jumped on the "Gentlemen’s Agreement" bandwagon.

Speaking of snake oil salesmen in wizards’ hats, Jim Tressel could have been dogging Walker: Texas Ranger’s favorite old man Joe Tiller with the comments. But Joe Tiller and Purdue aren’t national newsworthy, thus Rich Rodriguez hath been attacked. So now the state of West Virginia, West Virginia University, AND Jim Tressel are out to get him…wait, that IS right. Hopefully for Tiller’s sake, Purdue can go all MAC game on Michigan and put up 50 points. Wait, then Purdue will somehow give up 52.

Lessons in Logic - Pryor and Perrilloux

Terrelle Pryor Doesn't Have Caller ID: which explains why Mike Farrell from rivals.com keeps getting interviews. Basically Mike goes, "Hey TP bro, any new updates for me?" Pryor says, "Who is this? Oh yea, the Rivals dude that was on my front porch. Naw, still 4 schools." Rivals actually breaks some "news" with:

"Pryor admits he was set to sign with Ohio State the day before Feb. 6, but a conversation with his father, Craig, made him think twice. His father wanted him to take another look at Penn State and take an official visit." -rivals.com

Now I know why I never listened to my dad. That's a shot at Penn State, not Pryor. Pryor should be able to take as much time as regulated by the NCAA, if he wants. National Signing Day is not the College Draft that ESPN, Rivals, and Scout make it out to be. NSD is the first day that prospective athletes can sign with a school. If TP wants to wait until April 1, good for him. But I assume that his choice to delay his signing has generated more supposedly unwanted "attention" than if he would have signed.

TP was going to sign with Ohio State, wants to visit Penn State, while Michigan and Oregon are still in the picture. Thanks for all that reporting, Mike!


Suspended Indefinitely: Speaking of other super dual threat QBs who don't know if they want to play on a team that can challenge for a national championship every year, Ryan Perrilloux obviously doesn't want to LSU's starting job. Perennial bad boy Perrilloux doesn't like to follow team rules that include but are not limited to 1) Going to class and 2) Going to team functions. He does however like bar fights, riverboat casinos, and counterfeiting.

"Ryan has been suspended indefinitely due to his failure to follow team rules," Miles said. -rivals.com

Looks like its some Maurice Clarett (funerals, not guns) and less Reggie Bush and his USC slot machine. Fanblogs.com reports Perrilloux ignored team rules, Momma P got mad and threatened to pull him off the team, his dad passed away, and now his locker is clean.

So no hope of getting last season forfeited and the National Championship being handed over to Ohio State? At this point, I'll take whatever I can get. Perrilloux did run the options once against Ohio State, I think we need an NCAA investigation! On a serious note, it's beginning to look a lot like Arkansas in Baton Rouge.