The Saban Effect: NCAA looking into slowing down offenses

If a rule comes into place in the 2014 season which would allow teams to substitute within the first 10 seconds of the 40-second play clock (therefore reducing the speed at which an offense can operate), we should call it The Saban Rule. Why? Looking ahead to seeing the days in which his man-mountain defenses would be completely exhausted by lighter, faster offenses (see the second half of the Auburn vs Alabama game for details), Coach Saban complained in September: “All you’re trying to do is get lined up [on defense],” he whined to ESPN.com in September, ESPN’s website reported today. “You can’t play specialty third-down stuff. You can’t hardly scheme anything. The most important thing is to get the

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Clowney leads SEC Defensive NFL Combine invitees

Jadeveon Clowney leads the list of SEC defensive linesmen going to the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, starting February 19th. Here’s the list of defensive players: Defensive linemen Ego Ferguson (LSU), Dominique Easley (Florida), Kony Ealy (Mizzou), Ed Stinson (Alabama) and Dee Ford are the five SEC names that jump out at you. Jadeveon Clowney (DE), South Carolina Kony Ealy (DE), Missouri Dominique Easley (DT), Florida Ego Ferguson (DT), LSU Dee Ford (DE), Auburn Anthony Johnson (DT), LSU DaQuan Jones (DT), Penn State Daniel McCullers (DT), Tennessee Jeoffrey Pagan (DE), Alabama Kelcy Quarles (DT), South Carolina Chris Smith (DE), Arkansas Ed Stinson (DE), Alabama Robert Thomas (DT), Arkansas Linebackers For the linebackers, CJ Mosley (Alabama) and Ronald Powell (Florida) both stand

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Manziel, McCarron lead list of offensive invites to NFL Combine

The quarterbacking foursome of the Four Ms lead SEC names invited to the NFL Combine. Texas A&M’s Heisman winner Johnny Manziel, Alabama’s AJ McCarron, Georgia’s Aaron Murray and LSU’s Zach Mettenberger have all been invited to the Combine, which starts on February 19th. Connor Shaw at South Carolina has also been invited. While Manziel, McCarron and Shaw will probably make the trip, it’s not certain if Murray and Mettenberger will have recovered enough from injuries they sustained at the end of the year to partake – which may drop their draft status, despite both players’ electric arms (Mettenberger’s particularly). Auburn’s Tre Mason will be the one to watch from the running backs, while LSU has three running backs invited (Jeremy

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Alabama leads NFL Combine invite list

National Signing Day was Wednesday. And now NFL Combine Invite List Day is Thursday. OK, so we made up the ‘NFL Combine Invite List Day’, but today the NFL really did release breakdown of how many people had been invited to the Combine, which runs from February 19-25 in Indianapolis. The SEC had 71 players invited, smashing the second-placed ACC with 48. The Pac-12 had 45, Big Ten 36, Big 12 had 25. Every team in the SEC had at least one player invited. Eight SEC schools had at least eight. Alabama had 12 players invited, LSU had 11, Florida had 8 and Missouri had 7. Position-wise, SEC had 28 offensive and defensive linesmen invited to the combine, dwarfing B1G’s

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Ole Miss: The country’s most bizarre National Signing Day

After a tremendous 2013 National Signing Day, it would have taken Godlike qualities (and a Nick Saban resignation) to have propelled Hugh Freeze to those heights. Instead, the Ole Miss coach continued with another tremendous National Signing Day, solidifying his offensive line with a bunch of offensive linesmen, including four-starrer Rod Taylor, as well as Tyler Putman, and Jordan Sims. They’ll join JUCO O-Lineman Fahn Cooper, who enrolled early. Defensively, Freeze got JUCO DB Tee Shepard, who had previously committed to Notre Dame and Mississippi State, before he decided to play in Oxford at the last minute. Shepard had said that he would be playing his sophomore year in a community college. Did that all change? We don’t really know. Speaking

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Despite Evans, a superb National Signing Day for Auburn

Regardless of the screw-up with local boy Rashaan Evans, Auburn had a very, very good National Signing Day. To explain the Evans situation: five-star OLB Evans went to a local Auburn high school and it was anticipated that he would become an Auburn Tiger. So much so that Auburn put his name on their website, celebrating their victory. Well, it was a little too early, rather like Alabama fans celebrating a 2013 Iron Bowl victory. At his commitment ceremony, he opted to play for the Alabama Crimson Tide. Anyway, it’s all in the past, because Gus Malzahn had a great haul – at prep and JUCO level. Auburn signed the best JUCO player in the land in WR D’haquille Williams

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Texas A&M continues National Signing Day excellence

We’d like to make this clear: Texas A&M fans on Twitter spent an awful lot of time in hope as some of the country’s biggest recruits made their decisions to come to schools, but they weren’t exactly crying their eyes out when it didn’t happen. That’s because Kevin Sumlin had already put together a monster JUCO recruiting haul, and the signatures already coming in were among the best classes in the country. And, thank God for Aggies fans (and much-maligned (and generally by us) defensive co-ordinator Mark Snyder), a bunch of it was on the defensive side. DE Myles Garrett, the No.2 player at that position in the nation, is coming to College Station, as is already-signed athlete Speedy Noil.

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No Title? No problem! Bama’s No.1 on National Signing Day

No Championship? No problem for Nick Saban. The Alabama Crimson Tide was AGAIN the No.1 recruiting team on National Signing Day, with a tremendous signing day haul. It included: Three of the ESPN 300’s top 10 players (OT Cameron Robinson, DE Da’Shawn Hand, CB Tony Brown), and the No.10 and No.12 players in the nation, too (ATH Bo Scarborough, and CB Marlon Humphrey). They also stunningly picked up OLB Rashaan Evans from Auburn High school – who had also been rated highly, despite many thinking – including Auburn itself– that Evans was a cert to play in Jordan-Hare. The move seemed to have annoyed Evans’ mother, who seemed clearly worried about what people in the area would think. Saban described

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Georgia has a 5-star day at National Signing Day

Usually when it comes to Georgia fans, they like to swear in the general direction of Mark Richt. They blame him when the Bulldogs lose. They blame him when the Bulldog players get arrested. They blame him when the Bulldog players get injured. But now, Georgia fans are actually happy with Mark Richt- especially after National Signing Day. The Georgia coach landed No.14 player on the ESPN 300 list DE Lorenzo Carter (despite the close attentions of Florida, LSU and Florida State), which definitely got the fans buzzing – especially those who had been critical of Richt for not filling out his staff after defensive co-ordinator Todd Grantham decided to leave for Louisville. The 6ft 5, 324lb player said: “The defense

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LSU lands No.1 WR recruit

What a morning for LSU head coach Les Miles on National Signing Day. The bombastic coach probably expected No.1 wide receiver in the nation Malachi Dupre to sign for them….and he did. He said in a press conference at his high school at John Curtis Christian: “I feel that it was right to stay home and bring a national championship back to the state…It was best to stay here … It’s time to get ready for Wisconsin and the first game.“. Dupre is part of a recruiting surge by Les Miles and his team, who got five commitments and letters of intentions that they weren’t particularly expecting on National Signing Day. Miles is also expecting No.1 running back in the

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