Clemson assistant named as Auburn’s co-DC

AP

Three days after adding Ellis Johnson to his new Auburn coaching staff, Gus Malzahn has given the new coordinator some co-defensive help.

Malzahn announced via a release that he has hired Charlie Harbison as the Tigers’ co-defensive coordinator.  Harbison will also serve as AU’s defensive backs coach.

“Charlie is an outstanding coach and recruiter and we’re excited to have him join our staff,” Malzahn said. “He’s very familiar with Coach Ellis Johnson, having coached together on two different staffs, which will be a tremendous asset to our defense. He is a true professional and one of the class guys in college coaching.”

Harbison comes the The Plains after spending the past four years at Clemson.  He also has extensive experience in the SEC, serving on staffs at Alabama (1998-2000; 2003-06), LSU (2001-02) and Mississippi State (2007-08).

“I’m looking forward to joining Coach Gus Malzahn’s staff at Auburn,” Harbison said. “Having coached against Auburn on several occasions, I’m very familiar with the great success and tradition associated with the program. This is a tremendous opportunity for me and my family.”

Harbison is the third assistant added by Malzahn, joining Johnson and offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee.

(Photo credit: Clemson athletics)

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A new development has cleared the path for the return of Jesus Wilson to Florida State.  How soon that happens, however, remains to be seen.

According to WarChant.com, Wilson has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft after originally being charged with a felony in connection to the “borrowing” of a scooter earlier this month.  As for punishment meted out by the courts, the wide receiver will perform 30 hours in a work camp and serve a probationary period of one year.

Additionally, he’s already made restitution.

July 9, Wilson was arrested and charged with the theft of a motor scooter back on June 11.  Here are some of the pertinents from the reports:

The keys were in the ignition, making a getaway rather easy. The owner of the moped, Sebastian Bellini, informed police he thought he dropped the keys. Soon after the alleged theft, Wilson crashed the vehicle with damages costing $882.13. When police investigated the accident Wilson told police he had borrowed the scooter from a friend. When asked to identify the friend who had allegedly lent him the vehicle, Wilson failed to show up to a photo lineup. Wilson later sent the police a statement claiming to have taken the bike, which led to an arrest just days later.

Because of the felony charge, Wilson was automatically and indefinitely suspended according to FSU policy. Based on the fact that the charge was dropped to a misdemeanor, he’s now eligible for reinstatement.

Wilson's attn Tim Jansen: Wilson plead guilty to misdemeanor to "move forward." With no felony charge, he could be eligible this season.—
Warchant.com (@Warchant) July 31, 2014

Wilson was a three-star member of the Seminoles’ 2013 recruiting class who caught three passes for 23 yards as a true freshman. Provided he’s back with the team, Wilson’s expected to play a bigger role in FSU’s offense in 2014.

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A few months after being “parting ways” with Alabama, Dee Hart apparently found a new football home.  And, when he gets there, he’ll find a very familiar face.

In a text message Wednesday, Dee Hart confirmed to the Orlando Sentinel that he is in the process of transferring to Colorado State.  The Rams’s head coach is Jim McElwain, who was Alabama’s offensive coordinator when the running back signed with the Tide in 2011.

Because Hart has already graduated from UA, he’s expected to be eligible to play for CSU immediately in 2014.

Hart was a touted five-star member of the Tide’s 2011 recruiting class, rated as the No. 1 running back in the country.  The paper talent never translated to the field in Tuscaloosa as Hart’s career totals are just 43 carries for 166 yards and a touchdown.

In February of this year, Hart was arrested and charged with giving false information and possession of marijuana. It was revealed at that time that Hart hadn’t been a part of the team since shortly after the Tide’s Sugar Bowl loss to Oklahoma.

The search for a new football home did not take long for former Texas A&M defensive end Gavin Stansbury. Stansbury plans to join the Houston Cougars of the American Athletic Conference and will be eligible to play immediately this fall. The news was first reported by Joseph Duarte The Houston Chronicle and followed  up by Bruce Feldman of FOX Sports via Twitter.

Just last week Texas A&M confirmed Stansbury decided to leave the program. This decision was made following an arrest after a traffic stop. There was a warrant for Stansbury’s arrest stemming from an altercation at a party at Rice University in April. Stansbury was faced with a misdemeanor charge for assault. Stansbury was suspended from team activities but had returned following the arrest.

As far as football is concerned, this is a nice addition for Houston. Stansbury was a three-star prospect at defensive end according to Rivals.com. The Cougars were picked third in the AAC this season, behind Cincinnati and defending champion UCF. Stansbury appeared in 10 games last season for Texas A&M and finished seventh on the team with 47 tackles and tied for the team-high with three sacks. He is ready to step right in and see some significant playing time for the Cougars.

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One of the perks of playing college football at a big program is getting an iPad loaded with the playbook on it every season. Today many players started getting their digital playbooks as camps start opening up. This tends to be a pretty exciting time for college football players, and they are surely advised not to share any of the information through public forums like Facebook or Twitter.

Sometimes players can get away with it. Kickers, for example, have a pretty simple role on a college football team. Kick the ball far on kickoffs and between the poles on extra point and field goal attempts.

Here is the playbook’s instructions to Oklahoma kicker Michael Hunnicutt.

We got iPads for our playbooks today. Here’s the only play loaded on mine.. pic.twitter.com/3TcEpjx5wj

— S. M. Hunnicutt (@Hunnicutt08) July 31, 2014

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As a legal investigation continues to cloud the future of Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon, the university has issued a statement stating the five-stare Class of 2014 addition is not currently reporting to team activities. That is about as close as we have gotten to any word of a possible indefinite suspension for the talented running back expected to contribute right away for the Sooners.

OU Athletics statement: “Joe Mixon is not reporting for team activities at this time. We will continue to monitor the situation.”

— Oklahoma Football (@OU_Football) July 30, 2014

Mixon was reportedly involved in a serious altercation over the weekend, with a 20-year old female reportedly being the other party involved and injured in the incident in question. Mixon’s attorney has stated his client’s innocence, but police continue to work the investigation to determine the next steps. The timeline for the police investigation is unknown just yet, but is expected to continue into next week and perhaps longer.

It is typical for schools to indefinitely suspend players tied to any ongoing legal investigations, so it was probably only a matter of time before Oklahoma released this type of statement, with summer camps set to open.

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Iowa is going to offer free tuition to five students, chosen at random, who have purchased season tickets for the upcoming 2014 season. If nothing else, it is one way to battle the downward trend in college football attendance.

“The fans in the stadium really feed off the energy from students, so we’d like to have a full student section,” Lisa Pearson, director of marketing for Iowa said to the Iowa City Press-Citizen. “We’re trying to get as many students into the stadium as possible.”

Iowa typically reserves 10,000 tickets for students, according to the Iowa City Press-Citizen, but only about 7,300 were sold last season. Overall season ticket sales have also dipped at Iowa with 52,000 tickets sold last season for Kinnick Stadium, which holds more than 70,000 on game day.

Students at Iowa might want to take the gamble on free tuition. Iowa should be a pretty good team this season and could easily play into the Big Ten West along with Wisconsin and Nebraska. The Hawkeyes always seem to have a year that comes out of nowhere and that appears to be what many are thinking this season. Iowa was picked second in the unofficial Big Ten media poll last week.

UPDATED (8:21 PM ET): It seems there may be a concern over this whole plan now. Iowa Athletic Director Gary Barta released the following statement, as shared by KWWL;

“This afternoon we learned of concerns related to a student football promotion,” Barta said in a written statement. “A question has been raised whether the promotion is compliant with state raffle laws. I have suspended the promotion temporarily as we determine how to make sure that this promotion is in complete compliance.

“In the end, our goal is to do everything possible to make sure that the student experience at Hawkeye football games is as fun and exciting as possible,” he added.

So now there is a waiting game to find out if Iowa will be able to follow trough on this plan.

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Penn State and Pittsburgh used to play every season, but once the two programs went their separate ways by joining the Big East (Pitt) and Big Ten (Penn State), it has been a struggle to get the two programs to see eye-to-eye when it came to scheduling any future games. Much of the tension stemmed from the days of Joe Paterno leading the Penn State program and demanding an extra home game in any scheduling arrangement with Pittsburgh, but that is best left for historians to dig deeper into today. Penn State and Pittsburgh have a four-game series lined up for 2016 through 2019. If it was up to the head coaches of both programs today, the series would continue on an annual basis.

The topic of power conference opponents scheduling other power conference opponents has become an increasingly relevant topic with the emphasis shifting on strength of schedule in the College Football Playoff era. With Pitt also needing to fulfill a non-conference scheduling requirement to schedule an opponent from another power conference opponent each season under the ACC’s new guidelines, it would seem only natural for the Panthers to explore the revival of past annual rivalries against either West Virginia or Penn State.

Pittsburgh head coach Paul Chryst was asked about historic and regional rivals Penn State and West Virginia this week while moving through the ESPN car wash. In what may come as a bit of a surprise, Chryst told Brett McMurphy of ESPN he would prefer to see an annual match-up with Penn State instead of West Virginia if he had to choose between the two. Penn State head coach James Franklin appears to be on the same page, telling McMurphy today on his run through the ESPN media gauntlet he would support seeing an annual series with the Panthers.

What needs to happen before this can actually become an annual tradition in the Keystone State? There may not be a whole lot that needs to fall into place, although Penn State playign a nine-game schedule in the Big Ten moving forward while the ACC sticks to an eight-game schedule will present many of the same problems faced with reviving the Backyard Brawl between Pittsburgh and West Virginia. In the end, Penn State’s desire to assure an extra home game on the schedule could resurface in a different capacity by ensuring Penn State has seven home games at a minimum for years to come.

With new leadership in place at both schools compared to the late 1980s and early 1990s, perhaps getting these two in-state rivals back together for the long term could be a more realistic possibility.

Penn State and Pittsburgh last played in 2000. The two schools agreed to a two-game series in 2016 and 2017 and later agreed to extend the series by two more games through 2019. Penn State leads the all-time series, 44-41-4.

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For those who thought — or were hoping — they’d seen the last of these types of posts this year, you are sadly mistaken.

The latest to release its preseason watch list is the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, given annually to the nation’s top senior (eligibility-wise or academically) quarterback.  In other words, don’t freak out because Florida State’s Jameis Winston or the like aren’t included.

Among those who are included are three semifinalists for last year’s award, with all three hailing from the Pac-12: Arizona State’s Taylor Kelly (no relation), Oregon State’s Sean Mannion and Oregon’s Marcus Mariota.

Speaking of the Pac-12, they paced all conferences with seven quarterbacks on the watch list.  The Big Ten was next with six, followed by the SEC (five), Big 12 (three), Mountain West (two) and one each from the AAC, ACC and Conference USA.  Prairie View A&M’s Jerry Lovelocke was the only non-FBS player to make the initial cut.

AJ McCarron of Alabama was the 2013 recipient of the award.

Below is the complete list of 27 players:

Hold the phone on at least one of the players reportedly booted past the Austin city limits.

Both Rivals.com and 24/7Sports.com are reporting that Josh Turner is once again a member of the Texas football team.  Per the latter recruiting website, Turner was set to transfer when, “just prior to Turner finalizing his plans, head coach Charlie Strong allowed Turner to appeal to the decision of his dismissal.”

A meeting with head coach Charlie Strong was held Tuesday night that went well enough that Turner was placed back on the team, albeit with what 247Sports termed as “severe restrictions.” What those restrictions entail wasn’t divulged.

Turner has started five games in the secondary during his 37-game UT career.  He will be a senior in 2014.

Running back Joe Bergeron and Jalen Overstreet along with defensive end Chevoski Collins remain on the outside of the program looking in and are not expected to see their dismissals reversed. Bergeron is seeking to be released from his scholarship so he can transfer to a Div. II school in the state.

Maybe the situation’s not as dire as it appeared at first blush.

Ty Montgomery is in the midst of recovering from shoulder surgery, with Stanford’s David Shaw acknowledging this weekend that the star wide receiver might not miss just the opener against UC-Davis but the following Saturday’s conference opener against USC as well.  While there’s certainly the possibility that Montgomery could be held out of the opener — see: competition, level of — there appears to be more optimism regarding the game against the Trojans.

“Ty’s ahead of schedule. He’s ahead of schedule. He’s a phenomenal athlete,” Shaw said Wednesday.

As for holding out Montgomery for the opener even if he’s healthy enough? At least in the here and now, the Cardinal head coach doesn’t want to hear that kind of talk.

“f he’s ready to go Game 1 and the doctors say, `You know what, he’s at limited risk for re-injury, let’s let him go play,’ I’m all for it,” Shaw said. “There’s no babying football players. If Ty’s ready to go, he’s returning kickoffs, he’s playing the game. If he’s not, we’ll hold him off. I don’t have an issue with that.”

For his part, Montgomery said today that “[w]henever they can tell me I can play, I’m ready to play.”

Montgomery was easily the Cardinal’s top pass-catcher in 2013, leading the team with 61 catches for 968 yards and 10 touchdowns.  The next closest was Devon Cajuste‘s 28-642-5.

For good measure, Montgomery was third in the nation in kick return average (30.3) and was one of just seven players to return more than one kickoff for a touchdown (New Mexico’s Carlos Wiggins returned three for scores).

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If it weren’t for bad injury luck, Chris Gallon wouldn’t have any luck at all.

Speculation has surfaced recently that the Bowling Green wide receiver either suffered a significant new injury or had reinjured his knee.  While the school has yet to address what if any injury issue the wide receiver may be facing, the whispers are growing louder.  And sounding season-ending-ish before the season even gets started.

From the Twitter account of WTOL-TV’s Jordan Strack:

Can confirm rumors that BGSU Wide Receiver, Chris Gallon, was injured once again. Sounds like he will miss the entire season.—
Jordan Strack (@JordanStrack) July 30, 2014

The loss of Gallon certainly wouldn’t be optimal for BGSU’s offense.

In 2012, Gallon led all Falcon receivers in catches (54), yards (720) and receiving touchdowns (six).  He was second in all three categories last year (24-232-2) when he went down with what turned out to be a season-ending injury.

In a move not even remotely unexpected, it appears LSU won’t have one member of its 2014 recruiting class at its disposal.

In a tweet, Ross Dellenger of the Baton Rouge Advocate confirmed that, according to head coach Les Miles, “Trey Lealaimatafao will ‘probably not‘ play this season after arm injury.”

Last week, Lealaimatafao suffered what was initially feared to be an amputation-level injury to his arm after punching through a weight-room window. Fortunately for Lealaimatafao, the physical damage wasn’t as severe as initially reported and the defensive tackle was released from the hospital two days later.

One day after his release, was Lealaimatafao was arrested for allegedly stealing a bicycle from an on-campus library.

Lealaimatafao was a three-star member of the Tigers’ 2014 recruiting class, rated as the No. 26 defensive tackle in the country and the No. 43 player in the state of Texas at any position.

Josh Magee has already left one FBS football program, and is set on doing the same a second time.

South Alabama head coach Joey Jones confirmed to al.com that Magee has decided to leave the Jaguars due to family reasons.  The website wrote that “Magee will look to play elsewhere, probably closer to his home in Hoover (Ala.).”

The move came as a surprise as Magee had a solid spring practice, with Jones saying that “obviously, we had high expectations for Josh.”

Magee was a member of the Tide’s 2012 recruiting class, but took a redshirt his true freshman season. After one season in Tuscaloosa, he decided to transfer to USA, sitting out the 2013 season to satisfy NCAA bylaws.

He exited spring this year as one of the Jaguars’ No. 2 wide receivers.

(Photo credit: Rivals.com)

Yes, yes, another post, another arrest.

The latest college football player to run afoul of the law is New Mexico’s Jamal Price, who the Albuquerque Journal is reporting was arrested following a domestic incidence Monday.  Specifically, the offensive lineman was charged with breaking & entering and conspiracy to commit a fourth-degree felony.

The paper wrote that “[a] criminal complaint says he pushed his girlfriend and Lobo basketball player Khadijah Shumpert at her apartment on Monday night in a dispute over an ‘Apple’ television.”

Because of the arrest and subsequent charges, Price has been indefinitely suspended from the team.

“I do think there is a level of frustration that’s shared by the coaches and the players,” Lobos head coach Bob Davie said. “In fact, I know that. I know guys want to make the right decision. They understand what it takes to make the right decision and they are hurt by this. I know our football team is hurt by this.”

Price started 10 games for the Lobos in 2013.  He was listed as the starting right guard on UNM’s depth chart heading into summer camp.

(Tip O the Cap: ArrestNation.com)

(Photo credit: New Mexico athletics)

Unfortunately, a situation off the field will cost Fresno State a potential defensive contributor on it.

Bulldogs head coach Tim DeRuyter confirmed to the Fresno Bee that Randon Knotts has decided to leave his football program. While no specifics were given, the coach pointed to the general “family issues” as the impetus for the departure.

“We like the progress he was making. He’s a really outstanding young man, but he has some family issues back home that he needs to go home and take care of,” DeRuyter told the Bee.

There was no indication that Knotts would be returning at any point in the near future, if at all.

Knotts was a two-star member of Fresno’s 2013 recruiting class and took a redshirt as a true freshman. The paper wrote that “Knotts in the spring got reps at safety as well as the nickel position.”

(Photo credit: Fresno State athletics)