Televising spring games? I'd rather watch dental surgery because, invariably, those games has absolutely nothing to do with what happens in the regular season.
Try to guess from this quote which coach essentially agrees with me.
"To be honest with you, we tried to take a little pressure off the game because spring games are awful ... It's not the best of the best playing against each other. A lot of times you're just trying to find out what young players can do. If you came out to see a well-executed SEC game in the spring you're not going to see that."
• Tennessee's Phil Fulmer on the new NCAA rule that keeps head coaches from going out on the road during the current evaluation period.
"Sometimes you're even offering scholarships to guys you've never met," Fulmer said. "You've just seen (them) on film, or through a coach, or been in a camp once. That's a concern."
One source told me that the SEC coaches voted 10-2 for the rule. That might be a jealous reaction to Alabama's Nick Saban, one of the best recruiters in the country.
• Pray for Joe Daniels. The Ohio State quarterbacks coach is out this spring recovering from a diseased kidney that was removed in February. Daniels, 61, has been fighting cancer since being diagnosed in 2006.
• Rutgers is about to get a commitment from a kid that could be the best recruit in the history of the program. Quarterback Tom Savage of Springfield, Pa. has called a Friday press conference to announce his commitment to Rutgers according to one outlet. Savage is rated as the nation's No. 6 quarterback prospect by one service.
• All-America safety Eric Berry has been taking snaps at quarterback for Tennessee during the spring. That pleases receiver Gerald Jones who has played the change-of-pace quarterback role for Phil Fulmer.
"That puts a big smile on my face to see him come over to the offense and make big plays," Jones told GoVolsXtra. "We call him Superman because he does the unthinkable."
Jones accounted for 2,700 total yards in his senior season as an Oklahoma high school quarterback. Berry was 35-7 as a starter at Creekside High in Atlanta.
"It just brings a dynamic that you like and makes the defense have to prepare for," Fulmer said. "The physical skills that they do possess (makes it) pretty exciting."
• Ninety-five bucks for a spring game? That's what a ticket broker is getting for Nebraska's game on Saturday. Eighty-one thousand fans with nothing else to do will turn out, some having played almost $100 for a scrimmage. Reserved seats are $10 but the game has been sold out since April 9. By the way, the $95 is more than some regular-season tickets are going for.
Leftovers from the Dan Hawkins story:
On son/quarterback Cody:
"As our offense continues to evolve and the cockpit gets more buttons and switches and lights on it, that's his forte (improvement). He's not going to be throwing the ball like Kordell Stewart, but he is very accurate and very savvy. The more bells and whistles we can get involved the better we'll be."
On the evolution of the spread offense:
"Maybe what it will come to in the NFL is they'll (quarterbacks) get paid like running backs and you'll have three legitimate quarterbacks. Maybe at some point we're going to get three guys. We're not going to pay them like a running back and and we're not going to pay them $10 million. We'll pay them $2 million."
Receiver Josh Smith on his coach:
"I like his coaching techniques. He pretty much covers all the bases as being there as a father, a brother or a friend. Whatever you need him to be. He has a good way of motivating guys to stay on track."
Receiver Josh Smith on his counterpart on the CU ski team, Josh Smith. The football Josh was able to ski black diamond runs during third day on skis. The slope Josh came to the practice facility and fielded punts:
"I know how to ski. He caught pretty well. I coached him up. Hawk coached him up. Wow, he was pretty for his first time catching a football."
CU assistant Darian Hagan when asked if this current climate reminds him of when Bill McCartney was turning around the program (Hagan is a former CU quarterback):
"I use that in our recruiting. We're really a few guys away from being very, very good."
• I didn't forget about you. Florida coach Urban Meyer is the source of the quote above regarding spring games.
