The Works, GIMME GIMME GIMME-style

GIMME GIMME GIMME. This video's popped up a couple of places already, and posting video of "recruits" rather than "commits" feels like dipping our toes into the dark lake of overconfidence ... but when I found myself watching this a second time, I figured I ought to pass it along in this space anyway (audio NSFW, and not in that charmingly audio NSFW way like yesterday):



These gentlemen should most certainly play college football for the Auburn Tigers.

So should you elite wide receiving prospects out there. When Florida-based wide receiving recruit DeJoshua Jackson recently ruled out playing for a spread offense because he thought it would hurt his draft prospects, you couldn't blame him too much, I guess. Sure, he's flat wrong--you could ask first-round picks Michael Crabtree, Percy Harvin, or Jeremy Maclin how much it hurt them, but they wouldn't be able to hear you as they drive by in their solid gold rocket-cars--but tons upon tons of fans and coaches of pro-style teams have been reciting the same line of misinformation the past couple of years. (Tide fans, as we know, have become particularly fond of it since the Franklin hire.) Fortunately for Auburn coaches on the recruiting trail, they're just wrong, as Varsity Blue comprehensively demonstrates:

13 Receivers from spread offenses and 17 from pro-style offenses were selected, with 4 from 1-AA teams, which I didn’t include because 1) I don’t know what type of offense most 1-AA schools run, and 2) If they’re taking a guy from a 1-AA school, offensive scheme is probably not on the forefront of NFL GMs’ decisions. Considering that more schools run a pro-style offense (particularly in power conferences, from which most NFL players are likely to come), that’s not bad at all. In the first round, the same number of players from each offensive type (3 apiece). When you consider that some schools that I placed in the “pro style” category also have some elements of spread offenses, such as Ohio State, LSU, and Oregon State, it’s a complete wash, at worst. And I guess that brings me back to my main point, which is not that the spread is inherently better for a wide receiver prospect’s chances of making it to the NFL, but rather than the offensive scheme on the whole is irrelevant.

I think Tim maybe undersells the spread's impact on the NFL's quarterback scouting (there's a reason neither Chase Daniel nor Graham Harrell got drafted), but I think that's pretty definitive where wideouts are concerned.

Meyer redux. So, the Gainesville Sun columnist who delivered His Moral Infallibleness's anti-limo sentiments realized the error of his ways and backtracked:

Ah, the World Wide Interweb (another movie reference). When you make a mistake, you're going to hear it. Last week I had a Dooley Noted item about Auburn coaches parading recruits around in limos. I obviously misread the story because it was Auburn coaches in the limos going from school to school. War Eagle fans have corrected me with dozens of e-mails. My bad. Now calm down.

Year2 at TeamSpeedKills notes that the columnist may have not just made the error in the blog post: he may have, in fact, told Meyer that Auburn had recruits riding in the limos, and that was what Meyer was responding to. An Orlando Sentinel blogger argued for the same assumption.

Sorry, but I'm not buying it. First off, none of us knows what Dooley said to Meyer and what he didn't. His mea culpa didn't apologize for misleading Meyer--just for making the mistake on his blog. To assume both that Meyer was ignorant of what Auburn was doing (really? despite the fact it's been just about the biggest story in the SEC over the past week?) and that Dooley laid out his misinformation rather than just asking "So, how 'bout those Auburn limos?" is a mighty big leap if you ask me. Second, Meyer would know good and well Auburn wouldn't have recruits inside the limos--coaches can't do more than "bump" recruits during the current recruiting period, so the idea of them rounding up students in the middle of the school day for a quick joyride is ludicrous to anyone who's aware of how the current rules work. Even if Dooley was misinformed, Meyer wasn't, and he made the comments anyway--note that he didn't say that Florida's recruits won't be riding in limos, he says Florida's coaches won't be. Third, Meyer has been unbearably smug in dealing with other coaches' actions before and however well- or mis-informed he was, he was being unbearably smug again (why take the swipe at Tennessee's coaches yet again?). He and Dooley both deserved every word of anger they got from Auburn fan's direction.

Speaking of that response, Jay's Meyer takedown created its own mini-brouhaha when that same Sentinel blogger accused its "streets of Miami" reference as "racist (and) insulting." That response was then responded to by Plainsman Parking Lot. What a tangled, angry web we weave!

More from the BlAUgosphere. JCCW commenter and Bracket Challenge winner Jonesy has a blog, and he's even using it for the powers of good with Fun Facts like these:

The last Auburn football coach to leave Auburn and coach a significant game at another school was Chet A. Wynne. He left Auburn in 1933 for Kentucky. Jack Meagher, Carl Voyles, Earl Brown, Shug Jordan, Doug Barfield, Pat Dye, Terry Bowden, and Bill Oliver all have ended their head coaching career at Auburn, at least for the time being.

Dude ... whoa. When Chizik says this is his last job, he's probably not kidding, is he?

PPL also enjoyably fisked a braindead Tide-slurping column from the Decatur Daily.

Reputation: upheld! UPDATE: Per DocSat, and with no set date for the shirt's appearance at the store, the t-shirt item is retracted. Some things really are too good to be true, I guess.

Speaking of the Tide, K-Scar paid them one hell of a backhanded compliment this week by praising them for going an entire 10 months without a player arrested! Why, that's almost an entire year without so much as an armed robbery! Good for them! That's great!

Etc. Auburn's men's golf coach steps down ... ATVS skewers the cult of "leadership" in football, and except for the, uh, Hitler reference, I pretty much co-sign.