Tyler Gabbert finally ends up at UCF

Former Missouri quarterback Tyler Gabbert appears to have finally found his new home after spending 2011 playing college football musical chairs.

No promises, though.

The Orlando Sentinel reports that Gabbert will play for Central Florida, months after he visited the school. Gabbert is currently working on his degree from a community college in St. Louis after taking off the 2011 season. The quarterback could fill the hole left by sophomore Jeff Godfrey, who transferred from the Knights unexpectedly last month.

The Sentinel reports Gabbert would have three years of eligibility remaining.

Gabbert was in a quarterback battle with James Franklin last spring as Mizzou looked for a replacement for Tyler’s older brother, Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blaine Gabbert. Although it appeared for a while as though Gabbert might have the upper hand in the competition, Franklin eventually won the starting job.

Gabbert transferred from the Tigers just a few weeks later and ended up at Louisville, which would turn out to be just a temporary stop for the quarterback.

Last Thursday, Florida sophomore tight end A.C. Leonard was arrested on a simple battery charge after an apparent physical altercation arose from a verbal spat with his girlfriend.

On Monday, Leonard entered a written plea of not guilty for the misdemeanor, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

The police report from last week’s incident stated Leonard “shoved [his girlfriend] forcibly with both hands in her chest/neck area. The force of the shove knocked her down to the ground, causing her head to strike a dog cage that was behind her.”

Leonard then reportedly tried to force his girlfriend out of their apartment by her hair and then by her feet.

“She had chunks of hair ripped out of her head,” GPD spokeswoman Cpl. Angelina Valuri said last week.

Leonard was booked in jail for one night. Upon his release the next morning in front of a judge, Leonard said “I never hit her. I just wanted her to leave.”

Leonard has been suspended from team activities by coach Will Muschamp.

AP

Texas Tech has plenty of time to improve on a disappointing 5-7 season last year, but the Red Raiders aren’t starting 2012 off on the right foot.

The Lubbock Avalanche Journal reports that two wide receivers,  Eric Ward (pictured, No. 18) and Marcus Kennard, are expected to miss either all or most of spring practices. Drills for TTU started on Feb. 17.

Ward, who has a bruised shoulder, may not practice this spring while Kennard sustained a hamstring injury that is expected to sideline him for the next several weeks. Ward was the team’s leading receiver last year with 84 receptions for 800 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Barring any more developments, both should be back in time for fall camp. But injuries played a big role in Tech’s struggles last season; the school’s top two rushers last year, Eric Stephens and  Deandre Washington, suffered season-ending knee injuries.

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Tampa Bay coach Greg Schiano has dipped into the college ranks for two of his most recent hires: Pitt’s offensive coordinator Bob Bostad (O-line) and Ohio State’s defensive assistant Bill Sheridan (defensive coordinator).

Now it looks like he’s plucked one more.

Rumors began circulating earlier this evening that LSU defensive backs coach Ron Cooper would be joining the Bucs, and while that still hasn’t been formally announced by either LSU or Tampa, Randy Rosetta of TigerSportsDigest tweeted tonight that he received confirmation from LSU spokesman Michael Bonnette that Cooper is in fact leaving.

Cooper had been with LSU since 2009 and previously served on staffs at South Carolina, Mississippi State and Wisconsin. What role he’ll play in the coaching staff at Tampa remains to be seen.

Schiano had also pursuedVirginia offensive coordinator Bill Lazor and Florida defensive coordinator Dan Quinn for spots on his NFL staff, but with no luck.

AP

As a five-star recruit in 2011, James Wilder and didn’t make much of on-field impact for Florida State during his true freshman season.

Unfortunately for both the player and the program, the running back is making some off-field noise heading into spring practice 2012.

According to TomahawkNation.com, Wilder was arrested recently on a pair of felony charges stemming from an incident that initially began as an attempt by the police to arrest his girlfriend.  Wilder has officially been charged with battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest with violence.

Wilder’s girlfriend, Bianca Carmada, was in the process of being arrested on an outstanding warrant for failure to appear when the player allegedly became physically involved in the legal process.  From the website:

Sources tell Tomahawk Nation that Wilder allegedly grabbed his girlfriend away from the deputy as he was trying to arrest her and then allegedly slapped the deputy’s hand. The deputy as unharmed.

Based on the site’s description of what allegedly transpired, it would seem those felony charges will quickly evaporate into misdemeanors.  However, the Rivals.com FSU site had a slightly different account of how the events transpired, which appears below with our emphasis added:

As a deputy escorted the woman to a patrol car, Wilder, 19, began to tell the deputy that the woman was not going to jail. The release states that Wilder stepped between the deputy and the woman and pushed the officer. The officer unholstered his taser and advised Wilder that he would be tased if he continued to interfere.

The release says Wilder began “yelling obscenities” while still saying the woman would not be going to jail.

Wilder was then placed under arrest.

The school has yet to comment on the situation, although standard operating procedure for something such as this is a suspension until the legal issues are resolved.

Wilder last year was the No. 2 running back in the country and the No. 11 at any position according to Rivals.com.  He rushed for 160 yards and a touchdown during his first season in Tallahassee, with nearly half of those yards (76) coming in a 52-point win over 1-AA Charleston Southern the second week of the season.

Looks like the Maryland Trio aren’t the only ones bolting from an ACC school.

Here’s hoping the following transfer, if indeed it comes to fruition, goes a little more smoothly. Technically, redshirt freshman cornerback James Farrow hasn’t received his release from Virginia Tech, but it appears that’s the route things are headed. Farrow tweeted last night that he intends to leave the program for opportunities elsewhere.

“My decision to transfer elsewhere has nothing to do with VT football,” Farrow said. “I love the entire Hokie family and wish them all the best next season.

Scout.com reported yesterday that Farrow was transferring, but VT said shortly thereafter that nothing had finalized on that front.

“Maybe he’s trying to get some ducks in a row. I don’t know where this is all coming from, to be honest with you,” a VT spokesperson told the Washington Post.

Rivals.com has Farrow listed as a three-star athlete from Minnesota when he signed with the Hokies in 2011. He was expected to compete for a backup spot this spring, according to Andy Bitter of The Virginian-Pilot.

(Photo credit: Rivals.c0m) 

AP

It’s been known for a little less than a month that Chuck Neinas will, eventually, move on from his acting status as the Big 12′s commissioner.

Now, we have a date. In an interview with ESPN’s David Ubben, Neinas says he plans to be out by July 1 — the same day TCU and West Virginia officially join the Big 12.

“I’ve agreed to remain on until the end of June,” Neinas said, “so I’m fully confident they’ll have a new commissioner to be on board the first of July, and probably earlier.”

The conference’s board of directors met late last month to form a search committee and begin the process of replacing Neinas. A search firm is being considered and Neinas said he will assist in the search for his replacement.

Neinas took over the Big 12 on an interim basis when former Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe resigned last September amid mounting pressure and royally ticking off Oklahoma.

(Also, you can follow Dan Beebe, the fake one, on Twitter @DanBeebe. You won’t regret it.) 

So far, no serious names have emerged publicly to lead the Big 12 going forward.

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The news from earlier Wednesday, that Temple is close to joining the Big East, hinted strongly at the fact that Boise State would not join its new conference until next season.

A short time later, the school officially confirmed it.

BSU announced Wednesday evening that it will remain as a member of the Mountain West through the 2012-2013 school year, joining the Big East as a football-only member for the 2013 season.  The school also confirmed that “the Big East recently approached Boise State about entering the league for the upcoming 2012 football season, one year earlier than the league and Boise State announced this past December.”

Those talks, though, bogged down in part over the amount of money it would take to move a year early and in part over a 2012-2013 landing spot for BSU’s other sports, which, with the exception of its wrestling program, will move to the WAC next year.  In the end, being “fiscally responsible” trumped the desire to get started in its new conference ahead of the original timeline.

“While we have had several discussions with the Big East and the WAC in moving our sports into those two leagues a year earlier than previously stated, the University feels there were too many obstacles to overcome to make the move at this time,” Boise State president Dr. Bob Kustra said in a statement.  “While there certainly would have been advantages in making the move a year early, it became clear that it would not be fiscally responsible, as all of the expenses associated with early entry into the two conferences would not be covered.”

If BSU had moved its football program to the Big East a year early and its other sports into the WAC a year ahead of schedule, it likely would’ve cost the school somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 million.

Earlier this month, the NCAA’s legislation to allow schools to give out multiyear scholarships was upheld by razor-thin margins. With 330 institutions voting, 62.12 percent of schools voted in favor of an override of the legislation. Unfortunately for those voting in favor of an overturn, they needed 62.5 percent.

As we found out, that was a difference of just two votes; 37 did not participate.

Want to find out how your program voted?

The Chronicle of Higher Learning was able to obtain the electronic copy of how each of those 330 Division 1 schools voted. You can view that document HERE.

Among the more notable programs to oppose the legislation included Alabama, Florida State, Texas, USC and Wisconsin. Florida, Michigan and Ohio State supported the proposal.

AP

When Greg Davis had Vince Young and Colt McCoy under center at Texas, he was considered a very good offensive coordinator.  When he didn’t, he wasn’t and subsequently “parted ways” with UT after Year 1 of the post-Young/McCoy era.

Now, we’ll reportedly get the chance to see whether the Longhorns’ loss after the 2010 season will be a Big Ten school’s gain in the upcoming season.

While it’s not yet official, Kirk Bohls of the Austin American-Statesman has confirmed that Davis has accepted an offer to become the offensive coordinator at Iowa.  The report seemingly confirmed speculation that had arisen in recent days that Davis was a front-runner for the job.

An announcement could come as early as this evening.  Davis would replace Ken O’Keefe, who left the Hawkeyes after 13 seasons to coach wide receivers with the Miami Dolphins.

Like O’Keefe, Davis had been at his job for 13 years — 15 straight years with Mack Brown when two seasons at North Carolina are added in — before stepping down shortly after the end of the 2010 regular season.  During his final season at UT, and with Garrett Gilbert as the starting quarterback, the Longhorns finished 88th in the country at 23.7 points per game.

From the time Young became the full-time starter midway through the 2003 season through McCoy’s final year in 2009, UT never finished lower than 14th in that category or scored fewer than 35.2 ppg over an entire season.  Three times in those seven seasons UT’s offense averaged over 41 ppg, including 50.1 during the 2005 season.

AP

A month after interviewing at Oklahoma for the position vacated by Brent Venables‘ move to Clemson, ex-Ole Miss defensive coordinator Tyrone Nix has officially landed on his coaching feet.

Middle Tennessee State announced Tuesday that Nix was one of three new coaches added to Rick Stockstill‘s coaching staff. Nix will carry the title of co-defensive coordinator as well as linebackers coach for the Sun Belt program.

“I have known Tyrone for a long time and had the chance to coach with him for one year at South Carolina,” said Stockstill in a statement. “Tyrone is one of the most respected coaches in the country. He has coordinated defenses in the SEC the last seven years and those defenses ranked among the best in the SEC and nationally. He has a proven track record as a coordinator and has coached many all-conference, all-Americans, and NFL players.”

Nix has been a coordinator the past 11 years at Southern Miss, South Carolina, and Ole Miss, with the last four seasons spent with the Rebels.

In addition to Nix, Stockstill announced the hiring of ex-Texas Tech assistant Matt Moore as offensive tackles and serve as running game coordinator as well as former MTSU player Glen Elarbee, who will be in charge of offensive guards and centers.

AP

UPDATED 2/22 @ 1:50 p.m. ET: The BCS members released the following statement at the conclusion of their two-day meeting in Dallas. There really isn’t anything new, but feel free to check it out:

“In an effort to grow college football’s great popularity and success, we just completed two days of productive meetings in Dallas, Texas.

We have until the fall of this year to finalize any possible changes to our current structure. That’s when contractual obligations require us to begin negotiations with our television carrier for future coverage decisions. We have a self-imposed deadline of sometime this summer to decide what changes we will propose to our governing bodies for football’s post-season. It’s still early in our process and we will continue to meet with our conferences and review options.

Whatever we do, we want to protect college football’s regular season which is the best and most meaningful in sports. We want to preserve the great bowl tradition while making it better and more attractive. We also have heard the message about playing bowl games closer to or on January 1, the way it used to be.

As we proceed, we will evaluate the many pros and cons of numerous possible changes. Every idea has exciting up sides, as well as complicated consequences. From the realities of the calendar to the issues presented in terms of venues such as who hosts games, we have tremendous responsibilities and opportunities.

The bottom line is we will continue to talk about how to make a great sport even better for student-athletes, fans and everyone who loves college football.”

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(Writer’s note: the lone reason behind the selection of our featured image is Nick Saban‘s attempt to smile. It’s awkward. Like, almost to the level of Dana Holgorsen awkward. Anyway…) 

Shortly before the 2011-12 college football season came to a close, the grumblings for a change in the postseason format of major college football grew to loud cries.

For once, the major power brokers in college football responded accordingly. A day after Alabama’s 21-0 BCS championship win over LSU, members of the BCS met to discuss how the current process of crowning the champion of America’s second most popular sport could be modified. BCS executive director Bill Hancock said after the Jan. 10 meeting that the 11 conference commissioners will likely meet 5-7 more times before July to discuss more than 50 ideas for change.

Today was one of those meetings. Well, one-half; all 11 conference commissioners and Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick are meeting in Dallas today and Wednesday as part of those series of meetings to begin the process of expanding upon and/or whittling down those 50-60 postseason ideas.

(Although, it should be noted Slive said all ideas were still on the table as of today) 

More definitive results, relatively speaking, will probably be announced tomorrow. Just don’t expect any drastic changes or signed declarations yet.

“It’s a marathon, not a race,” said SEC commissioner Mike Slive, with Hancock adding he would be “surprised if anything was announced before the summer.“

That said, it sounds as though a plus-one model continues to gain serious momentum.

The primary concerns for the BCS members include, but are not limited to: protecting the regular season [/eye roll] and not interfering with finals, which extended from Dec. 2-21 last year.

Justified or not, that’s going to be attached to each and every conversation in regards to a possible change in postseason format. Trust me, if logic was involved in this in any way — and that isn’t to suggest the 12 BCS members somehow have an easy task in front of them — the BCS would have been gone a long time ago.

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Part of West Virginia’s exit agreement with the Big East states WVU “will use its reasonable best efforts to help Big East members schedule additional football games for the 2012-13 season.”

If the following report comes to fruition, WVU will be absolved of those duties.

Following up on months of speculation, the Temple-to-Big East rumors have heated up, and the results could provide immediate relief for a conference up to its eyeballs in scheduling issues. Pete Thamel of the New York Times reports that the Big East could add Temple as an all-sports member “as early as the next school year” to offset the loss of WVU to the Big 12, and that “a resolution is expected this month.”

Thamel goes on to say “Within the next month, Temple will also have to inform the new conference formed by the merger of the Mountain West and Conference USA of its intentions. Temple has been asked to join that league.”

The Owls were reportedly shocked when the Big East announced earlier this month that Memphis would be the newest member of the conference.

“Temple thought it would receive the Big East’s invitation and was stunned the Big East invited Memphis,” said a report by CBS Sports’ Brett McMurphy.

Temple was booted from the Big East in 2004 after years of bottom-feeder status, but the Owls have turned it around since the Al Golden era (see what we did there?) and could play helper immediately for Big East schools scrambling to finalize their 2012 schedule.

The rumor for the past month or so has been that Boise State could make a jump to the Big East early, but that’s been uncertain at best.

If the Temple addition becomes official, that would bring the total number of Big East programs to 13 in football and 18 in basketball. There’s been some continued rumors that Louisville could still find its way to the Big 12 at some point in the future.

AP

After getting unceremoniously dumped from West Virginia’s 2012 non-conference schedule earlier this month, Florida State looked to such BcS-level schools such as Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas A&M, Cincinnati, Syracuse and Pittsburgh to fill the sudden hole.

Unfortunately for all fans of, ya know, quality college football matchups, the Seminoles were forced to settle for a level or two below the aforementioned possibilities.

FSU announced Wednesday morning that it has plugged Div. 1-AA (FBS) Savannah State into the Sept. 8 hole created by WVU’s bailing on the non-conference date.  For its part, the Tigers will receive a guarantee of $475,000 for the game at Doak Campbell Stadium.

FSU received $500,000 from WVU for breaking the contract, although the ‘Noles are still considering further legal action.

Statements issued as part of the press release, though, show that FSU remains none too pleased that WVU pulled the plug on the game a scant seven months before it was to be played.

“West Virginia’s announcement at the 11^th hour really put us in a very difficult position,” said FSU athletic director Randy Spetman.  “We contacted every BCS school that had an opening in hopes of replacing WVU with a BCS opponent, but none of those few schools could make it work either because of our dates or theirs.  It is important for our fans to realize that the schools we contacted during the search did not pass on the 2012 game out of concern for the competition, but because of challenges they faced with schedule changes this late in the year.”

“I know our administration was frustrated by West Virginia’s decision and I can tell all our fans that we’ve done everything we could to explore all the options for a home game,” said head coach Jimbo Fisher.  “I believe the plans are for the ACC to go to a nine-game conference schedule once Pitt and Syracuse begin play.  With Florida always on the schedule,  it will leave us just two non-conference games every year so scheduling BCS teams will be more challenging from here on out for everybody.”

Spetman added that playing on the road against a BcS school was given consideration, but was ultimately nixed because “that would cost our fans and the university one of just seven chances to play a home game and also would have a negative impact on our local economy.”

With Savannah State officially scheduled, FSU will now play two 1-AA schools in 2012.  The Sept. 1 opener against Murray State had been scheduled prior to WVU’s decision.

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Already this month, a pair of Oregon State defensive backs have been indefinitely suspended for various issues, legal and otherwise.

Ah, what the hell, what’s one more amongst friends, right?

According to the Corvallis Gazette-Times, cornerback Malcolm Marable was pulled over very early Sunday morning after he was clocked going 104 mph.  Unfortunately, the speed limit wasn’t 105; it was merely 65 mph, and Marable was cited for “exceeding the speed limit 100+”, which carries a fine of $1,150.

The Gazette-Times also reports that Marable was warned for failure to carry proof of insurance and failure to carry registration.  Additionally, the car, a 2005 Nissan Altima, was not registered in his name.

The incident is eerily similar to one that involved Oregon’s Cliff Harris last year, although Harris was clocked at 118 mph, showing that the Beavers still have a ways to go to catch up to its in-state rival’s speed both on and off the field.

Marable, who played in 12 games as a true freshman last season, was suspended indefinitely following the incident.  He averaged nearly 25 yards on 13 kickoff returns.

DB Sean Martin was suspended after being arrested for drunk driving and fleeing police the weekend before last, while another member of the secondary, Mishawn Cummings, was suspended indefinitely for undisclosed reasons.

AP

A former All-American wide receiver has joined Skip Holtz‘s USF coaching staff, the school announced in a press release Tuesday.

Jerome Pathon, who spent the past three seasons as the wide receivers coach at the University of San Diego, has assumed the same position with the Bulls.  Pathon will replace Phil McGeoghan, who left for a job with the Miami Dolphins earlier this month.

“This is a very exciting addition to our staff,” said Holtz in a statement. “Jerome brings a ton of credibility with his experience as an NFL receiver and a collegiate All-American. He’s full of energy and excitement and I think his star is really rising in the coaching profession. He’ll fit in greatly with the current staff and I’m glad we had the opportunity to hire him.”

After setting single-season school records at Washington in receptions and receiving yards in 1997, Pathon was selected in the second round of the 1998 NFL draft by the Indianapolis Colts.  His eight-year NFL career also included stints with New Orleans and Atlanta.