tennessee

It looks like the NCAA is kicking the University of Tennessee while they're already down. With a disgruntled fanbase and the huge rumors of Jon Gruden taking over the coaching job for Derek Dooley after seasons end that almost seem to be going no where, this is going to send their fans into a frenzy.

A former University of Tennessee assistant football coach knowingly worked with a booster to provide impermissible travel and lodging to a prospective student-athlete, according to findings by the Division I Committee on Infractions. The former coach was also cited for unethical conduct for his role in the violations.

 

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public/ncaa/resources/latest+news/2012/november/tennessee+football+program+cited+for+recruiting+violations

Man, the NCAA has been busy.

Next week, USC HC Lane Kiffin comes to Indianapolis for NCAA hearing for major violations while HC at Tennessee:

The attorney, who has represented individuals and institutions against the NCAA, said Kiffin could be subject to a "show-cause" penalty if the Committee on Infractions rules against him. Former USC assistant coach Todd McNair received a one-year, show-cause penalty, prohibiting him from recruiting for that length of time. Most of the allegations made against Kiffin at Tennessee involved recruiting.

Kiffin also could be suspended for a game or games.

No matter what, if any, sanctions the NCAA imposes on Kiffin, they would not directly affect USC. It would be up to the school to make sure Kiffin abides by them. But regardless of the outcome of Saturday's hearing, any compliance-related misstep would worsen USC's NCAA predicament because the school already is on probation.

AD Pat Haden will be chaperone for Kiffin on the visit to Indy. 

I'd love to be sitting near those guys on the plane ride. What possibly could a USC Rhodes Scholar like Pat Haden have in common with Lane Kiffin, a BA in Leisure Management from Fresno St.?

I found this article on ESPN.com about Erik Ainge, former UT quarterback and 5th round draft pick by the NY Jets.  This article gives an in-depth account of his struggles with drugs, painkillers, alcohol, and heroin to be specific.  It is also mainly a piece that he wrote himself to bring awareness to athletes with substance abuse problems.

Here are some things I found interesting/appaling:

Throughout that process, I became hooked on pain killers. I got them from the team doctor. I went through the prescriptions pretty fast. After he had been giving them to me for quite a while, he said he couldn't give them to me anymore.

I was hooked on them and I was playing football, and there was no way I was going to cancel my senior year by going to rehab. I started getting them from people, buying them, getting them off the street. I wasn't the only player on the team that was doing it, so we knew people. It wasn't, like, super sketchy or anything. We knew people who had them, and we were Tennessee football players, so they pretty much just gave them to us.

I hope the above isn't a widespread issue with NCAA athletes across the nation.

I was under the influence pretty much every day, every practice. I mean, I was a drug addict, so it's not like I stopped using drugs for any reason. Did the Jets know? I don't know. That's all they knew me as. I was a drug addict from the first day I stepped foot on the Hofstra campus [site of the team's training base until 2009].

Now the present:

A normal day for me consists of therapy with my psychiatrist and/or NA or AA meetings. Five nights a week, I go to meetings. I had four recovery groups, but I can't afford them anymore because of the NFL lockout.

The lockout has caused a lot of problems for me. My substance-abuse insurance through the NFL and CIGNA got canceled as a result of the lockout. If I were a normal player -- let's say I had a broken leg and I was in the hospital -- they'd have forms they would've sent me to continue receiving insurance through the NFL. Since I'm a drug addict in the drug program, my insurance just got canceled, and I didn't like that.

Interesting to see how the lockout is affecting athletes that aren't the highest paid and able to easily weather the lockout.

The full article can be found here:

http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/columns/story?columnist=cimini_rich&id=6267822

a quick run down of the story says that several, i've heard the number 7, football players from the university of tennessee were involved in a bar fight last night which ended in the assault on an off-duty knoxville police officer. one player has been charged so far, Da'Rick Rogers a freshman 5* receiver.

http://www.newschannel9.com/news/fight-992807-football-arrested.html

As if there's not enough distraction, incompetence and road rage on the 405 and 5 Freeways in southern California.  Gee, thanks Tennessee!

This would have been a cool football game to watch, but Tennessee AD said "maybe later".

Understandable.  By the time "later" rolls around  UT should be a little bit better, Mike Garrett will be on California state pension, and USC football will probably be down 20 scholarships or more.