THE SCOOP
You will not find player autographs of Florida Gators on expensive memorabilia.
That’s because UF athletic director Jeremy Foley and associate AD Jamie McCloskey, who handles NCAA compliance, foresaw trouble with players signing helmets, jerseys and other expensive keepsakes years ago. So in the late 1990s, they instituted a policy where players would sign only school-issued team posters.
“We made the decision some 15 years ago that we wanted to try to limit the risk of potential issues that could arise from our annual fan autograph day,” McCloskey said in a statement last week as reported by the Orlando Sentinel. “The last thing we want to do is to put our student-athletes in a situation where we could have affected their eligibility from an event that we held on our campus. It wasn’t a very popular decision, but we thought it was the right thing to do.”
INJURY REPORT
Arkansas sophomore linebacker Otha Peters (broken arm) will miss 6-8 weeks, senior tight end Austin Tate (broken collar bone) will miss six weeks and senior receiver Demetrius Wilson (knee) will be out for the season.
WHICH TWIN?
Kentucky’s defense had four interceptions in its weekend scrimmage, including one by either Zack or Daron Blaylock, the twins from Walton High School in Marietta. Coach Mark Stoops couldn’t tell which one of the brothers, who both are safeties, had the pick.
SCOUTING REPORT
Count Daphne (Ala.) High coach Glenn Vickery as an early believer in Crimson Tide sophomore running back T.J. Yeldon.
“He returned a kickoff about 99 yards as a ninth-grader against Pace High School out of Florida and Pace High School’s pretty darn good,” said Vickery, Yeldon’s old coach. “You saw it coming.”
Yeldon, who often was a slot receiver early in his high school career, scored the winning touchdown in the 2010 state championship game after lining up at Wildcat quarterback.
Yeldon had only 11 catches last season as a freshman but Vickery says he has “very similar type hands” to Falcons receiver Julio Jones.
QUOTABLE
“He’ll get better and more comfortable with everything. He’s got some ability to make plays when things break down. And in this league, things break down from time to time.” — Auburn coach Gus Malzahn on quarterback Nick Marshall, who was chosen as a starter over the weekend.
“At 235 pounds, there’s not much you can do against a guy like (Alabama’s D.J. Fluker). We stalemated, honestly. We both came out of our stances and I locked out and I was like, ‘Wow, this guy is strong.’ My moves were not working.” — Missouri defensive lineman Shane Ray, then 235 pounds, recalling his meeting as a freshman last season against Fluker, a 6-foot-5, 339-pounder who was an NFL first-round pick.
BY THE NUMBERS
How back-to-back national champions fared in the third year:
School; Championships; Next Year;
Minnesota; 1940-41; 19th;
Army; 1944-45; 2nd;
Notre Dame; 1946-47; 2nd;
Oklahoma; 1955-56; 4th;
Alabama; 1964-65; 3rd;
Nebraska; 1970-71; 4th;
Oklahoma; 1974-75; 5th;
Alabama; 1978-79; 6th;
Nebraska; 1994-95; 6th;
Southern Cal; 2003-04; 2nd;
Alabama; 2011-12; —;
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