LSU junior running back Jeremy Hill and guard Trai Turner have both declared for the NFL Draft.

Hill said on his Twitter account: “I am a Tiger for life. I will forever be grateful to my LSU fans, friends, coaches and family. This decision has been very difficult for me….. With all of that being said, I have decided to forego my Junior season and enter the 2014 NFL Draft.”

The loss of Hill will be huge for LSU fans who – at the start of the 2013 season – were probably wondering if Hill would actually be playing for LSU at all. Hill was involved in a fracas outside the ‘Tigerland’ set of bars in Baton Rouge, in which he blindsided a member of the public. LSU coach Les Miles left it up to the LSU players to decide if Hill would stay around — and he did.

Hill ended the season with 1,401 yards and 13 touchdowns as an eligible sophomore last season – including stealing the show against Iowa in the Tigers’ bowl win.

ESPN noted that Hill’s leaving would create a hole for top prospect running back Leonard Fornette and junior Terrence Magee, who had over 600 yards and eight TDs to his name.

BOTTOM LINE: I remember speaking to a LSU fan about the possibility of Hill not playing for the Tigers in 2013 after his arrest and he said: “We’re not going to miss him. We’re really deep at running back.” And as it turned out, LSU was pretty deep at running back in 2013 – but Hill helped them be that way. Hill puts up a huge amount of production, and particularly with a talent-stacked SEC West, this is going to be a huge loss for the Tigers. 

Georgia defensive co-ordinator Todd Grantham is going to Louisville, reports say.

ESPN’s Joe Schad, quoting sources, said Grantham will get $1m-per-year guaranteed on a five-year contract.

Grantham came to Georgia in 2010 after stints at Virginia Tech, Michigan State and in the NFL with Indianapolis, Cleveland and Dallas in varying assistant head coach positions.

In 2013 Georgia’s defence was 79th in the country in points conceded, 40th in run defense, 60th in passing yards allowed.

BOTTOM LINE: The biggest thing for the Bulldogs hasn’t been Grantham’s recruiting: He’s able to bring in some of the biggest talent in the SEC year after year. The biggest thing for the Bulldogs is how those players have played. The last two years has been missed tackle after missed tackle after missed tackle, and we’re surprised Grantham was not fired at the end of the 2013 season. But there we go.

Missouri wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham has given head coach Gary Pinkel another thing to think about: He was arrested on Friday night.

DGB was pulled over for expired plates on a Jeep which had a pound of marijuana in car. A POUND. 

Now, it must be noted that Green-Beckham and the two other men in the car were released without charge or bail while the incident was investigated.

Green-Beckham was arrested in his first year on drug possession, too.

Last year, Green-Beckham caught 59 catches for 883 yards and 12 TDs.

BOTTOM LINE: Although Green-Beckham’s father is that he ‘wouldn’t be charged’ it’s should be hard for police NOT to charge a group of three people with a pound of weed in their car, no? That’s either dealing, trafficking, or a big party.

Vanderbilt head coach James Franklin is expected to be announced as the new head coach at Penn State on Saturday, reports say.

Penn State has announced a press conference at 4.15pm on Saturday which will announce that Franklin has taken Penn State’s offer, which is rumored to be around $4.5m per year.

He will replace Bill O’Brien, who has gone to be the new head coach of the Houston Texans. O’Brien masterminded a stunning 2012 season (8-4), and wins over then-unbeaten Michigan and a double-digit road victory at Wisconsin, while also managing to recruit the country’s best high school quarterback in Christian Hackenberg.

A USA Today report says that Franklin will meet the Vanderbilt boosters and players on Saturday morning. It is expected he will announce his departure then.

The Penn State Board of Trustees will meet Saturday morning to approve the contract.

Some media sites have said that hiring Franklin is a terrible idea for Penn State, because of the current rape case that has entrenched the program – which saw five players indicted, including wide receiver Chris Boyd, who was booted from the program before the season started. Penn State is still down a ton of scholarships and will not play in a bowl game for the next two years because of its problems related to a child abuse case.

One reporter went as far as saying that the reason USC shied away from hiring Franklin was the rape case, and the cloud it might put over a program already in the NCAA’s  bad books.

BOTTOM LINE: Franklin hasn’t said anything to anybody about the contract and whether he’s leaving, although sources within Penn State have told us that Franklin signed the deal a couple of days earlier, but was waiting on board approval. Although some Vandy fans don’t like his way of doing this, there’s no point in Franklin announcing that he’s leaving if there has been no approval.

Alabama has hired Lane Kiffin as their new offensive co-ordinator – just days after previous incumbent Doug Nussmeier went to the job at Michigan.

The last time SEC fans saw Kiffin was when he walked out of Tennessee in 2010 to take the USC job, and he left a mess behind him. He was then fired mid-season by the Trojans in 2013 after they were schellacked by Arizona State. Before that they had lost to Washington State.

Kiffin had been invited by Bama Coach Nick Saban to evaluate the team’s offense in mid-December, a move that some saw as a sign that Nussmeier was not going to be coming back for the 2014 season.

The job for Kiffin should be a fairly simple one: Give the ball to running back stars Derrick Henry and TJ Yeldon, who will form one the SEC’s best thunder-and-lightning partnerships (it’s between them and Georgia’s Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall (if UGA can keep both fit/out of trouble). Alabama will be starting a new quarterback now AJ McCarron has completed a great four years in Tuscaloosa, where he won two National Championships.

We also anticipate more of a hurry-up offense to compete with Gus Malzahn at Auburn, which at times, seemed to fluster Alabama’s defensive line. We also anticipate the recruiting of great speed from Tuscaloosa, so Baylor and Oregon should be watching their backs from last-minute steals from the Crimson Tide.

Saban said: “We are excited to have Lane join our staff. He is an outstanding and creative offensive coach who has great experience both at the college and NFL level. He has a very good understanding of the game and I have always been impressed with what I saw in the games he called. He coaches with a great deal of passion and enthusiasm, and also does an excellent job as a teacher. Lane will be an outstanding addition to our coaching staff and we look forward to him and his family joining us at the University of Alabama.”

BOTTOM LINE: If Nick Saban was impressed with the games that Lane Kiffin called, he obviously wasn’t referring to the 2013 season, when USC flat-out stank. But let’s be honest, the Kiffin hire is going to be a massive risk for Alabama, bearing in mind Kiffin’s past, which this blog hasn’t mentioned before. The other bottom line is that the only person getting super-wealthy out of this deal (we think that Kiffin probably came pretty cheap for Alabama, and that Kiffin’s on a pretty short contract), is Jimmy Sexton, the college football superagent who shares Saban and Kiffin as clients.

BOTTOM, BOTTOM LINE: Since he was fired at USC, Kiffin appeared on College Gameday where he came off as humble, and we couldn’t help but be impressed. Kiffin’s job – if he just does the OC job and doesn’t do a lot of recruiting (which has got him trouble in the past) – will have some pressure taken off because at Alabama, there only seems to be one man who deals with the press: Nick Saban

So here’s your list of junior SEC college football players going pro this year. We’ll miss you, juniors!!

ALABAMA

Ha Ha Clinton-Dix (S), Adrian Hubbard (OLB), Cyrus Kouandjio (OT) and Jeoffrey Pagan (DE)

ARKANSAS

None

AUBURN

Tre Mason (RB), Greg Robinson (OT)

FLORIDA

Ronald Powell (LB), Loucheiz Purifoy (CB), Marcus Roberson (CB)

GEORGIA

None

KENTUCKY

None

LSU

Odell Beckham Jr (WR), Jarvis Landry (WR), Anthony  Johnson (DT), Ego Ferguson (DT)

MISSISSIPPI STATE

None

MISSOURI

Kony Ealy (DE), Henry Josey (RB)

OLE MISS

Donte Moncrief (WR)

SOUTH CAROLINA

Jadeveon Clowney (DE), Kelcy Quarles (DT), Bruce Ellington (WR), Vic Hampton (CB)

TENNESSEE

Antonio Richardson (OT)

TEXAS A&M

Johnny Manziel (QB), Mike Evans (WR)

VANDERBILT 

Chris Boyd  (WR) (although Boyd was thrown off the team earlier  this season)

BOTTOM LINE: We’re mixed in our thoughts about whether these juniors should have stayed in college. Evans, Landry and Beckham were NFL-ready wide receivers. You can’t argue that. We’re not hugely sure about Moncrief. Anthony Johnson at LSU was only a ‘freak’ by nickname only….he was one of the biggest disappointments of the 2013 season in a poor LSU defense. But Ego Ferguson was pretty immense, and he’s NFL-ready. Manziel? We still think – because of some of his decision-making during games that have cost fumbles and interceptions – that Manziel needed another year at Texas A&M, but maybe that’s just because we loved seeing the kid in college football. Oh, and Purifoy’s going to be flat-out filthy in the NFL. 

Vanderbilt head coach James Franklin is going to leave the SEC and be the next coach of Penn State, according to reports.

Franklin, who had been head coach in Nashville since 2011, took the Commodores to an unprecedented two straight bowl games, going 2-0. They beat Houston 41-24 in their last one only last week.

But Vanderbilt has denied the rumors. “Until I hear otherwise, he (James Franklin) is Vanderbilt’s football coach,” said Vandy AD David Williams to Jeff Lockridge at the Tennessean, who tweeted this out.

Penn State site Fight On State said Franklin had signed a contract, but the deal had yet to be approved by the Penn State Board of Trustees.

BOTTOM LINE: Franklin’s enthusiasm for the Vanderbilt program had the team energized – including a famous get-together with Georgia Defensive co-ordinator Todd Grantham after the team’s narrow home loss to the Bulldogs in 2011.Vanderbilt was 6-7 in 2011, and then had back-to-back 9-4 years. His running back Zac Stacy, who played for him in 2011 and 2012, put up 973 yards and 7 TDs in his rookie season for the St Louis Rams.In this appearance on an ESPN National Championship preview show in Pasadena, Franklin didn’t answer whether he was planning to leave Vanderbilt, although after turnaround at Vanderbilt, he was a hot property.

Not only was he interviewed by Penn State, but he was also interviewed by the Washington Redskins, who today opted by Jay Gruden.

Lane Kiffin is interviewing for the Alabama’s offensive co-ordinator’s job, according to CBSSports.com.

He was asked to come in and ‘evaluate’ the offense before the Sugar Bowl by ‘Bama head coach Nick Saban, who incidentally shares his agent, Jimmy Sexton.

But would this be a good idea?

Let’s get this clear, if there’s a person more persona non grata in college football than Lane Kiffin, we’d really to know who he is.

Here’s a list of fanbases who loathe him:

1) Tennessee’s fanbase: He preached loyalty, and then left to the University of Southern California after 14 months. The team who signed up for him were shocked and outraged. The fans still are.

2) Florida’s fanbase: During his stay in Tennessee, he accused Florida of recruiting violations, naming a recruit by name. SEC God Mike Slive gave him a vocal reprimand, so he’s probably not liked by Slive either.

3) Alabama’s fanbase: Nick Saban must have a short memory. Because when Kiffin brought linebackers coach Lance Thompson from Alabama, Kiffin basically said that Saban was nothing without Thompson’s recruiting skills. Way to go, Lane.

4) USC fans: Promised championships and the world. And failed to even get into a Pac-12 Championship. He also lied about putting the Trojans as pre-season No.1, which didn’t go down to well with the pollsters. He also violated a number of other NCAA rules, which USC hardly needed bearing in mind the situation that Reggie Bush had put the school in. Kiffin was fired mid-way through the season after Arizona State put 60-odd points on the Trojans….at LAX. And the team, who seemed to HATE playing for him, immediately improved.

5) Penn State fans: During the first year of Penn State’s problems, schools were allowed to try and pick off Penn State players with no NCAA one-year transfer issue. Kiffin didn’t ask about 1 player…..he asked about 25. Including some very junior players and some walk-ons. According to friend of the SEC blog: “O’Brien – infuriated – called Kiffin and said: “I can’t believe you’ve done that! No wonder no-one likes you”, and before Kiffin could try and weasel his way out of the situation, the phone was down.” Kiffin, by the way, only managed to get Silas Redd….who has spent most of his time in California injured.

BOTTOM LINE: If you want someone who’s been in continuous trouble with NCAA for underhanded stuff not only off the field, but on the field, then please, go for Lane Kiffin, Alabama. You haven’t been in trouble with the NCAA in a while, and Lane Kiffin will probably make sure you find trouble again. But the menace of Kiffin isn’t only that. He’s got to be disliked by Mike Slive, who probably doesn’t want him back in the SEC. Multiple fanbases really don’t like him. Not only that, but he’s not loyal. In the least. See what he did to Tennessee for details. Does Alabama, who’s done everything to rebuild its reputation after FulmerGate, really want to go back there? 

Alabama offensive co-ordinator Doug Nussmeier has taken the vacant offensive co-ordinator’s job at Michigan. 

Michigan only announced on Wednesday that head coach Brady Hoke had fired Al Borges after three years at Michigan.

Nussmeier was Alabama’s OC and quarterbacks coach for the last two years, coaching an offence that included a quarterback Heisman candidate in AJ McCarron, a RB who’s now starring in the NFL in Eddie Lacy (and other great running backs including TJ Yeldon and soon-to-be Heisman Candidate Derrick Henry), a host of great wide receivers including Amari Cooper, and not to mention a SEC Championship and National Title.

Because of their dependency on the defense, Alabama didn’t have to post gaudy numbers offensively. This year they were 49th in passing yards, 25th in rushing yards, and 18th in points scored, according to the ESPN report.

Nussmeier was the offensive guru at the University of Washington prior to coming to Tuscaloosa.

The favorite for the job – in the media’s eyes – is one Lane Kiffin, who was invited to Tuscalossa around December 16th to ‘evaluate Alabama’s offense’. Lane Kiffin and Nick Saban also share the same agent – one Jimmy Sexton.

Saban was nice about his OC leaving: “He is a bright coach who works hard and brings a lot of energy and enthusiasm to work each and every day. Our production and balance the last two years has been very good and he also brought a lot to the table in terms of coaching the quarterbacks. AJ (McCarron) had one of the best seasons and careers of any quarterback here, and that says a lot when you look at the history and tradition of that position at Alabama. We wish Doug and his family the best and appreciate all they did to help us be successful with the program at Alabama.”

THE BOTTOM LINE: It’s interesting, because we’d argue that offensively, Alabama had their problems during the season. They struggled with a beaten-up Virginia Tech in the opening game of the season, and weren’t great against Colorado State in Week 3. They struggled in the first quarter against Kentucky. They only put up 20 at a poor Mississippi State team. Oh, and they lost the Sugar Bowl against Oklahoma, in which AJ McCarron was pretty terrible all game long. And when there was a chance for a comeback using Derrick Henry – who was sensational during the game – they opted not to take him out of the game despite him not looking gassed.

Why are we making this argument: Because if this story is true, we don’t think Nick Saban worked all that hard at keeping Doug Nussmeier in a job. If Nick Saban really believed in Doug Nussmeier and his play-calling, Nussmeier would have been offered a ton of money (according to Bruce Feldman at CBSSports.com, he’s going to become one of the top five paid OCs in college football). Why? The University of Alabama could afford it. And they could afford it even more with the ton of money they are going to get from ESPN with the SEC Network deal. We think that Saban was quite happy for Nussmeier to go, so the Crimson Tide could start afresh after having no SEC Title or no Championship for the first time in the years.

CONSPIRACY THEORY: Al Borges was told he wasn’t coming back before the Kansas State game, but Borges pleaded with them to keep it quiet until after the National Championship Game. So they did, in deference to him. Doug Nussmeier was hired in the interim period between the SEC Championship Game and Sugar Bowl. In fact, Nussmeier told Saban and the team he was leaving prior to the Sugar Bowl. That was one of the reasons Alabama’s offense from offensive line to quarterback to TJ Yeldon was pretty inept all night long.  They were unmotivated. Again, Nussmeier hasn’t announced anything, but that’s coming. But again, Saban – who seemed to want an up-tempo offense after Auburn beat him – wasn’t too worried about him leaving.

CONSPIRACY THEORY 2: Doug Nussmeier already knew his job at Bama was in jeopardy the minute Nick Saban got Lane Kiffin to evaluate the offense on December 16th, after the Auburn loss.

Right, for the first time in this blog’s history, we’re doing a SEC bowl performance power rankings from top to bottom.

It’s inspired by the performances by UCF or UCLA (“Who did you think did really well in the bowls?”) as well as Michigan or Miami (“Who did you think really didn’t do that well in the bowls”).

WARNING: Some of the teams may come in two parts.

1)  Auburn: OK, so we know that Cinderella didn’t get her glass slipper. But by God did she have a go at getting it! The Tigers ran out to a huge lead, lost it, grabbed a lead with a minute left….and lost it to the Drive Of The Season. Tre Mason showed why he was in New York for a Heisman Trophy, while Auburn’s secondary – who we thought would be slaughtered all day and all night, played out of their skin. Well done (and bad luck), Gus Malzahn….well done and bad luck.

2) South Carolina: One point underdogs against a power running game and down 17-13 early in the third quarter, Connor Shaw turns on the jets and the Gamecocks run out 10-point winners. Steve Spurrier announces that the Gamecocks are Bowl National Champions. We think he’s still furious that he once again didn’t see the ‘Cocks go to Atlanta, despite once again beating the SEC East representative (This seems to happen every year).

3) Missouri: A 41-31 Cotton Bowl victory looked more comfortable than it actually was in an IMMENSE game in Dallas, with Shane Ray picking up Michael Sam’s sack with OSU driving to the Mizzou 26-yard line, and taking the ball back 74 yards to celebration. But this was a great game with both offense and defense sticking together in a performance to be proud of.

4) Mississippi State: You probably think we’re still drunk from Monday having Clanga Clanga this high, but listen to us. Vegas only had MSU as seven-point favourites. Rice looked OK in giving Texas A&M everything it could handle. But the Owls were overpowered by Mississippi State, who put up 44 points, 533 yards, and Dak Prescott put in an incredible performance. The Bulldogs’ defense was immense too…. only 145 yards and 7 points all night. And yes, we KNOW that people will say: “It was only Rice”, but here’s our answer: “We could see Mississippi State screw a game like this up. And if you couldn’t, then you’re lying.”

5) Ole Miss: Ole Miss never trailed in its game with Georgia Tech (winning 25-17 eventually), and came up with a key game-ending safety with four minutes to go with the Tech in with the chance of tying the game up after a missed field goal. Great work. This team will be good next year, too. 

6) Vanderbilt: Took a comfortable lead, then choked it, then hit the accelerator and won out comfortably 41-24 for everyone to say: “What was the fuss all about?” But it wasn’t comfortable all the way through. But hasn’t that been Vandy all over for the last few years?

7) Texas A&M: With A&M down 38-17 and pretty much out, Johnny Football rallied the troops and got them within three with five minutes left. Then game the game-winning interception, but if anyone starts praising A&M’s defense, they should probably ask: “How did the game end 52-48 if the D played so well?” And we’d say: We agree. Don’t get us wrong, it was a great game, but 52-48 in the general scheme of things over Duke isn’t too much to be proud of (FIRE MARK SNYDER, PLEASE KEVIN SUMLIN!).  Still, A&M went 2-0 in bowl games with Johnny as quarterback. That’s football, Johnny.

8) LSU: The big question: Did LSU care going into this game? They certainly knew how to win AND sleepwalk all the way through this one. They won. Yay. Tigers running back Jeremy Hill was the only one out of the offense who really came out with any credit, putting up a gigantic 216 yards and 2 TDs on a pretty proud Iowa defence.

9) Georgia: We know Georgia had the injuries – especially to quarterback Aaron Murray – but Georgia was dreadful all game. It encapsulated their season. There were drops, there was bad defensive play (FIRE TODD GRANTHAM, PLEASE MARK RICHT!), and bad special teams (HIRE A SPECIAL TEAMS COACH, MARK RICHT!) and bad quarterbacking. And they couldn’t finish a drive. And although Todd Gurley did his best (87 yards rushing, 97 receiving, 1 TD), this was disappointing.

10) Alabama: Alabama’s weaknesses wasn’t only the fact that their cornerbacks were exposed all night long, or that Oklahoma QB Trevor Knight looked like the second coming of Sam Bradford, or their offensive line who was exposed almost all day long, or the poor quarterbacking efforts of AJ McCarron, it was actually that you got a sense that Alabama didn’t seem to care. It was in the team’s body language. They just didn’t seem motivated. Sorry. Nick Saban did everything to motivate his team, but it didn’t seem to work. And Saban, in not giving the ball to his Man-Giant running back Derrick Henry every play when The Kid With The Incredible Receding Hairline was doing a great job, failed too. A poor performance, and the Crimson Tide deserved to lose 45-31.