So Bama got another Offensive Linemen for 2010. That makes three already for those of you keeping score. Of course, there is no suprise to this since, well.. Offensive Linemen love to play at Bama. So anyway, here's a quick look at all of the Offensive Linemen that UT has offered along with a few other positions and players. This list does not include Tight Ends and all links open in a new window.

Robert Crisp, Chapel Hill, NC: 6'7, 299 lbs, 5.31-40, 19 reps. Crisp is a massive OL, but only one problem: he's committed to NC State.

Chaz Green, Tampa, FL: 6'6, 290. Green is a quick OL with 15 offers. Florida is at the top of his list.

James Hurst, Indianapolis, IN: 6'6, 285, 5.4-40. James Hurst is the number 2 (overall OT) ranked in this years class. He is committed to North Carolina (solid verbal), but he has had some vocal interest in UT and namely Bryce Brown.

Matt James, Cincinnati, OH: 6'8, 280, 5.2-40. Matt James is another slowly slipping away from us. He has named a top 3 that includes: Cincinnati, Notre Dame, and Ohio State.

Mark Shuman, Fork Union, VA: 6'6, 280, 4.9-40. Committed to Virginia Tech.

James Stone, Nashville, TN: 6'5, 297. Look at this dude mean muggin'. Stone is a guy who the Vols have a really good shot at. However, this is also the guy who we may see a huge Marlon Brown repeat in. The Bulldogs have really gone after this guy. Most believe UT is still in the lead, but according to the Rivals article James is getting a lot of attention from UGA and he is loving it.

T.J. Leifheit, Wilmington, NC: 6'7, 300, 5.39-40. If you have the time or get the chance to, watch this guys film. I'm not a coach, a great evaluator, or anything of the like, but I do think this guy deserves to be higher up than 26. There is one play where he pushes the defender about 9 yards back and pushes him into the ground, then comes across the field to make a block for the wide receiver. Leifheit will be narrowing his list soon and USC is pretty high up there.

Eric Mack, St. Matthews, SC: 6'4, 315, 5.1-40. Mack is a pretty thick dude. Watch some tape if you get the chance. No top anything list yet for Mack, but Clemson has made the latest impression on him.

Jawuan James, Suwanee, GA: 6'6, 293, 5.3-40. James committed (Solid Verbal) to Alabama today. A pretty general feeling across a lot of message boards and stuff is that this guy really deserves to be in the top 10 of offensive linemen. Not just Bammers either.

David Yankey, Roswell, GA: 6'5, 275, 5.0-40. No top anything yet, but this guy seems to like Standford quite a lot.

Ian Silberman, Fleming Island, FL: 6'5, 275, 5.13-40. Solid Verbal to Florida. This guy, at just 257, is as much of an athlete as an offensive tackle, so he may not even get to play OT. We'll see I suppose.

Dan Koenig, Cape Coral, FL: 6'6, 260. Koenig has four favorites: Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, and Tennessee. He expects coaches from these four will be visiting him at some camps over the next couple of weeks. Dan likes to be a leader and wants to be known for that.

Ed Christian, Valdosta, GA: 6'5, 280. Solid Verbal to FSU.

Johnathan Feliciano, Davie, FL: 6'4, 283, 5.31-40. Solid Verbal to the Canes. Doesn't even show on his page that UT has offered, if that's any indication to you how close we are to landing him.

Chad Linsday, The Woodlands, TX: 6'3, 307, 5.4-40. This guy is going to Bama already so I don't like him. But he does come from possibly the coolest sounding place of all time: The Woodlands.

Wes Rea, Gulfport, MS: 6'5, 290. Ole Miss, Bama, and LSU are the early leaders for Rea. Ole Miss had the last contact with him.

Charles Barkins, New Orleans, LA: 6'1, 302. Name is close to Charles Barkley, and that's all I need to know.

Jose Jose, Miami, Fl: 6'2, 355, 5.53-40. Jose (am I referring to his first name or last name?) has a top four: Miami, Tennessee, Alabama, and Florida. This guy is my personal favorite solely for his name. That's really all I know about him

Torrian Wilson, Miami, FL: 6'4, 315. All-State (Florida) player with a Vol offer.

Kolton Houston, Buford, GA: 6'5, 270. Committed to UGA.

Dominic Espinosa, Cedar Park, TX: 6'3, 282, 5.0-40. Espinosa is the number one center in this class and he has been committed to Texas since February.

A.J. Cann, Bamberg, SC: 6'3, 260, 5.1-40. South Carolina is his number one, but it's pretty well assumed that Tennessee is not far off.

Brandon Linder, Fort Lauderdale, FL: 6'6, 280. Linder has a top four: Miami, Ohio State, Florida, and Notre Dame.

In other recruiting news, Andrew Hendrix got an offer from UT the other day, and we're definitely his top school. According to Jamie Newberg Heaps will stay close to home and Scroggins is our man since he has a lot of family in Nashville and Memphis. (Probably a paywall.)

And on an extremely odd note, Lache Seastrunk has admitted some interest in UT and has said he'd like to talk to the coaches. I say this is odd because our depth chart at RB is ridiculous, this guy is from texas, and we have never recruited him. No, I don't think on NSD he signs with us, but this is a pretty major thing when the current No. 2 overall player according to Rivals says he is interested before we've ever made a move.

A Sea of Blue is hysterical, but then again, who wouldn't be? It's like an episode of Lost almost, with the evidently shady bad guy (Gillispie) and the one who saves is thought to save the island.. errrr, program. (Cal). Not to mention the Oscar worthy cinematography what with the all the dramatic shots of the gate. Then the door. Then the gate. Then the door.  Then the gate. Then the.... door.  Gotchya!

This sort of a joint operation between me and rblakeh. He is at the practice and is sending me pictures and text updates to post here since he doesn't have computer acess. I'll be updating this as soon as I get information from him.  So for a post practice picture, here it is:

6:40

Probably 1500-2000 are there right now and more are still coming in. More to come, so stay tuned.

Should be starting drills soon.

7:18

Coach O up top.

Monte is in here somewhere. I think thats him at about the 20.

6:25

Here they come!

4 v 4 drill. 3 OL 3 DL 1 DB 1 RB battling for 10 yards. A fight followed one of these.

He's telling me that the D is winning right now.

Stocker or Cottam caught a great pass from BJ.

Cromp and some OL running a lap for a fumble now. Hardesty is dominating

Crompton apparently is not doing very well.

Bryce Brown is in for an unofficial (as assumed) and they (the fans, i believe) are trying to spot him.

Nick Stephens is also wearing a brace. Good news.

He's pretty sure Bryce Brown is watching the OL and DL duke it out.

I've got to run into town, I'll try to make it back asap!

I'd like to take this time and look over the past month and also take a look into the near future. A lot of things are about to change for us. Lane Kiffin will be opening up practices to the public, our recruiting chimera has made us a legit recruiting force, on however small of a scale, it is still a change. An altogether new attitude seems to be sweeping over Rocky Top: bold, stout, excited, and ambitious. The sky's the limits.

Tomorrow Orson Charles will be announcing which school he will play for. Charles himself has confirmed it has come down to Tennessee, Georgia, and USC. So here is what we know about the 6'3 230-ish Tight End. He has confirmed he does have a slight favorite, which is as good a guess as anyones. The Tampa native eliminated Florida over a week ago and surprised us. (Stole this link from Hooper.) And his favorite number is none other than the luckiest of all numbers, the number seven.

Charles will make his decision around 4:30 eastern tomorrow, March 6 and we'll all finally know where he'll be going next fall. This prediction is a hard one. One moment I feel so confident to say that he will be wearing Orange next season, but the next it doesn't seem so likely. I believe Orson Charles means it when he says it is hard thing eliminating anyone out of the race and he likes all three of these schools.

But whenever I consider all the factors I would have to say my prediction is: Georgia.

Orson Charles says that UGA was the first school to seriously consider him and seriously begin discussing things with him. His high school quarterback Aaron Murray has committed there and on his visits, Charles has made several other friends there. He likes the offensive scheme and likes his potential role there.

Bryce Brown is another one UT fans watching very closely. Brown has provided all of us, not just UT fans, with a lot to talk about. His handler, Brian Butler, has about as much mystery surrounding him as Area 51. No one can doubt, however, that Bryce Browns holdover has been in enticing to say the least. The number one overall player in the nation according to rivals wild ride is winding down. With visits to Missouri, Clemson, Oregon, Tennessee, Kansas State, and LSU under his belt, Brown will be making his decision on March 16 (if all goes according to plan, of course). He had planned to take a visit to Miami, but a family death may complicate this.

An interesting thing about Brown's situation is that he initially wanted to take a visit to USC, but made a last minute decision to visit LSU instead. USC assumed Brown wasn't interested and withdrew themselves from the Bryce Brown sweepstakes. This last minute decision to switch visits tells me one thing: Brown wants to play in the SEC and LSU was the one place he thought he could find USC talent in the SEC. Only one problem: Bryce Brown went to LSU hoping they would make an impression, not expecting them to. The only thing I could find regarding his trip to LSU was four sentences explaining that Bryce Brown enjauxed the visit and think's LSU is really grand and wouldn't mind geauxing there. I'm done, I promise. These type of statements are nothing new from Brown, which leads to me to think that the Tigers didn't make as much of an impression as I thought. Like I said, he was hoping not expecting.

My Bryce Brown prediction is: Tennessee

Bryce Brown has been committed to Miami for over a year, but that doesn't change much. The fact that his brothers goes there, does. But other than this fact, I don't see much drawing him to the team. The Clemson, Missouri, and Kansas State options died a long time ago in my opinion which leaves only Oregon, LSU, and Tennessee. As I've already said, LSU doesn't seem like it did much for Brown. Oregon has several capable running backs, but that doesn't mean Brown wouldn't play there. The biggest problem for Oregon in my opinion is the fact they're not in the SEC and they don't have large amounts of talent in extreme excess. No, I'm not saying the Vols do, either. But I believe that Brown thinks the recruiting staff here at UT is powerful enough to bring in the caliber of players he wants around him.

This leaves only one man. David Oku. There isn't much to say about him other than I believe UT's huge interest in Brown has made Oku want to look elsewhere. Oku has most recently stopped in Auburn. Oku will have to make a decision soon since April 1 is the last day someone can commit.

My prediction for David Oku: Auburn

Oku likes the coaching staff and the offensive scheme at Auburn.

To all the naysayers who say, "UT's recruiting class is done for this year" I really have to say I'm a little bit shocked UT fans could believe this when we have enjoyed so many surprises this offseason. The very fact the Kiffin staff was able to bring in players like Nuke and Teague is amazing. The fact they were able to retain some of the players, Jerod Askew, from the Fulmer staff is also amazing. And the very fact that our great recruiting staff was able to pull in visits from guys like Bryce Brown, Orson Charles, Nu'keese Richardson, and Janzen Jackson is astonishing. On only around 4 months on the job, no less!

Here's to hoping all of these recruits choose Tennessee!

I decided to make a run down list of each conference and their star coaches. This was entirely for fun and there may be some errors, so feel free to let me know what you guys think and I'll make the changes accordingly. This will be split up into three different posts, so stay tuned!

I allowed three coaches to be named per conference, but I made as many Honorable Mentions as I saw fit. It's really kind of the first stringers and the red shirts. I did make a few rules as to who could be named as one of the Star Coaches for your conference, but there's not really too many rules for the honorable mentions. The rules for the Star Coaches were the following:

• Had to at least have been the Head Coach for two FULL seasons
• Depending on conference, had to have made either a bowl appearance or a bowl win
• Only three slots are allowed per conference to title a coach a  'Star' 
• Coaches can only be given merit for time spent with a certain conference; therefore, if they have coached at two teams within the same conference, then they will get credit for both tenures
  

Conferences and coaches names are in alphabetical order:

ACC

• Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech: Beamer has been the Head Coach for the Hokies since 1987. They were an independant team when he first started there, but after only four mediocre years under Beamer they were invited to the Big East where in 13 years the Hokies made 11 bowl appearances and won 3 Big East titles. After the 2003 season, the Hokies were invited to the ACC where they have gone to a bowl game every season since and won an additional 3 conference titles.
• Bobby Bowden, Florida State Seminoles: Bowden has been the Head Coach of the Seminoles since 1976. Bowden has taken the Seminoles to an overwhelming 30 bowl appearances where their record is 20-9-1. The Seminoles have won two National Championships under Bowden.
• Jim Grobe, Wake Forest: Jim Grobe has been the Head Coach at Wake Forest for eight seasons where their record is 54-44 and they have gone to four bowl games, winning three.

Honorabla Mentions

• Butch Davis, North Carolina
• Ralph Friedgen, Maryland

Big 12

• Mack Brown, Texas: Brown has been the Head Coach of the Longhorns since 1998. Brown has taken his team to a bowl game every season and won 8 of those. Brown's Longhorns have been their conference division champions four years, and won the National Championship once under him.
• Mike Leach, Texas Tech: It was a tight one between Leach and Pinkel, but Leach won out. The Red Raiders have gone to a bowl game all 8 years Leach has been there. They have won six of those games and once been named their divisions leader. Leachs overall record at TTU is 76-39
  
•  Bob Stoops, Oklahoma: Stoops has done some impressive work for Oklahoma in the nine years he has coached there. While his Sooners have only won 4 out of 9 bowl games, two were National Championship games where his record is 1-1. Stoops ball club has been conference champs five times. His record at Oklahoma is 109-24.

Honorable Mentions

• Mark Mangino, Kansas
• Gary Pinkel, Mizzou

Big East

• Brian Kelly, Cincinnati: He's only been there three years, but he has mad Cincinnati legit. In two seasons plus a bowl game of another, Kelly has taken the Bearcats to 3 bowls and won 2. They have also been conference champions once. Their record is 21-6
• Jim Leavitt, South Florida: Leavitt first became the Head Coach for the Bulls in 1997 when they were merely a D-1AA Independent and has brought them all the way to a legit force in the Big East. The Bulls are 2-2 in bowl games under Leavitt and have an overall 87-52 record.
• Greg Schiano, Rutgers: While the Rutgers have still struggled in their conference, they have been able to come away with 3-out-of-4 bowl wins under Schiano.
  

Honorable Mentions

• Bill Stewart, West Virginia
• Dave Wannstedt, Pitt

Big 10

• Kirk Ferentz, Iowa: In 9 seasons the Hawkeyes have gone 70-53, gone 4-3 in bowl games, and won two conference titles.
• Joe Paterno, Penn State: Joe Pa has been the Head Coach for the Nittany Lions since 1966! In those 42 years, Joe Pa has taken his team to a bowl game 36 times and they've gone 25-11-1. The Nittany Lions have won two National Championships and three additional conference championships. Paterno's overall record is 383-127-3.
• Jim Tressel, Ohio State: Tressel has been the head man for the Buckeyes since 2001. In those eight years, the Buckeyes have gone 83-19, won 5 conference titles, one national championship plus an additional two more national championship appearances. The Buck Eyes are 4-4 in bowl games under Tressel.

Honorable Mentions

• Mark Dantonio, Michigan State
• Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern
• Ron Zook, Illinois 

Coming up will be C-USA-Pac 10.

Chest-bumped for the sake of the poll.  What do you think?  --hooper

ESPN recap

If we can play defense as well as Vandy did, we should be able to handle the Katz no problem. While Meeks still scored an overwhelming 26 points, the rest of the starters only managed to put up 11 collectively. However if both of those stats double, it's 52 points for Meeks and 22 from the other starters collectively. I'm just sayin'.

I know it's early and we still really need to be worrying about Ole Miss but, how does everyone like our chances against Kentucky this time around?

FOOCH'S NOTE 2:05pm: I had been meaning to post this link, so might as well move it to the front page.  I'm not sure how much info will really come from this, but I think I'm going to live-blog it anyways.  You can watch it live at sf49ers.com.
____________________________________________

49ers.com Official Story

7pm Feb. 16

"The event will offer an opportunity for fans to hear directly from Team President, Jed York; Head Coach, Mike Singletary; General Manager, Scot McCloughan; and COO, Andy Dolich. 

The night will be emceed by the new radio voice of the 49ers, Ted Robinson, who will be making his first appearance for the team behind the microphone. 

York will open the event by discussing his new role as President of the Club and speak to the direction of the team’s future and how he sees the franchise getting back to its winning ways. He will also provide insight into the decision making process on hiring Head Coach Mike Singletary and why Coach Singletary is the right person for the job."

Should be a slammin' time!

Bryce Brown may either be visiting next week or the following weekend from everything I've heard. There's even some rumors of him being a silent commit; however, I don't know much about that. I'm pretty sure he's planning on another USC visit, too (he and his brother visited there a while back and he says he'd like to see the place again).

Anyway, as much I was want this guy, I'm just so impressed we're even getting him to visit, if he does in fact visit. It's just got to say something about this staff that has not had the time they've needed to even get this guy to consider us.

Dunno if anyone's seen this yet, but, just in case...

Worth a read I suppose.

And here's the link to a VSPN radio special that featured interviews from Nuke, Marlon Brown, And Bryce Brown. 05/2009