Jumbo Package: NCAA looking into “integrity issue” of faked injuries

Happy Tuesday, everyone. As you know, it’s a big night for basketball as they travel to Auburn to take on the top ranked Tigers. Alabama is fresh off of a rousing win over #4 Baylor, but this is going to be a tough one.

Nate Oats inadvertently stirred the pot a bit.

And it wandered into one of those flash-fire topics that this reporter recognized and noted for future use. It wasn’t nearly as provocative in context as it would appear in a stand-alone quote on Twitter — a lesson learned.

The size of the basketball venues at Alabama and Auburn has been a lightning rod since Auburn Arena debuted in 2010. Its current capacity is listed at 9,121. That’s considerably smaller than the 14,474-seat, 54-year-old Coleman Coliseum.

The mea culpa seems unnecessary. Nate said what he said, and Auburn fans took it how they so chose. A bunch of trash in the mentions is just par for the course when dealing with that lot.

The NCAA is focused on cutting out fake injuries.

National coordinator of officials Steve Shaw told The Athletic on Monday that faking injuries is going to be “a big topic” at the next meeting of the NCAA Football Rules Committee on March 1. This is a rule-change year, meaning the group can put forth its recommendations for immediate consideration from the NCAA’s Playing Rules Oversight Panel.

“Obviously, we want to take feigning injuries out of the game,” Shaw said. “It’s a bad look for the game. It’s an integrity issue. If you have a feigned injury, it garners an unmerited timeout for your team. We’re really looking at: What’s the next step to move away from that?”

I maintain that a player who is tired and needs to come out is perfectly justified in going to the ground. The offense should not have the ability to trap players on the field, and since we are talking about integrity issues, how about we also discuss teams rushing to snap the ball before replay can review a dubious play, or before the officials are set. A ten second buffer as suggested by Nick Saban a few years ago makes plenty of sense.

Pawwwwl thinks a lot of folks want Bill O’Brien’s job.

“It is the most coveted position I think as an assistant coaching position in college football and I should be,” Finebaum said Monday on “McElroy and Cubelic In The Morning”. “You have skill positions players across the board. You’re in the best program in college football and you’re working for the best coach, so you’re on that national platform.

“And that’s really happening a lot. We saw it for years with Bill Belichick. Everyone who worked for Belichick wound up getting a job somewhere else. And now it’s the Saban effect. Greg, if you’re going as offensive coordinator, can I be the quarterback coach? It may help me get a better gig.”

The Tide lost a DL recruit to academics.

Bob, a four-star defensive lineman, is attending Hutchinson Community College in Kansas instead and has been enrolled there since Jan. 7, McCullough said. He will be at the school for the next “two years to a year-and-a-half,” before joining Alabama, according to McCullough.

He is at the school for academic reasons, according to McCullough. He added that Alabama had always known Bob would need to attend a junior college before joining the Crimson Tide.

I stumbled across this cool coaching video from Alabama WR coach Holmon Wiggins.

Last, as I’m sure you heard, Tom Brady officially retired this morning.

He mentions the Buccaneers. He mentions the Tampa fans. He mention the Glazer family. He mentions G.M. Jason Licht. He mentions coach Bruce Arians. He mentions his other coaches in Tampa. He thanks “every single Bucs staffer and employee.”

This statement isn’t something he thumbed on his iPhone while sitting on the commode this morning. It was drafted, re-drafted, re-re-drafted, read, re-read, re-re-read, and vetted by professionals. He said what he meant to say. He didn’t say what he didn’t mean to say.

It can’t be an accident that the entire Patriots organization was omitted.

Certainly seems a bit salty, doesn’t it?

That’s about it for now. Have a great day.

Roll Tide.