Thursday, April 30, 2009

Noted In Passing

Kevin Scarbinsky posted a column Wednesday about the "Tiger Prowl" recruiting tour the Auburn assistants have been putting on this week. Unlike apparently everybody else in the sports world, I don't have any particular opinion about coaches riding around in limos; chalk it up to my inveterate anti-recruitnik stance, but I really don't care much one way or the other.

This, however, did catch my eye:

Has an Opelika lawyer offered to lease that white stretch Hummer to an Auburn recruit for little down and less a month?

That's a really interesting turn of phrase. Odd, isn't it, how specific it is about somebody in a particular occupation being involved in a very distinct recruiting violation? Now, why would the feature columnist for the state's largest paper make a veiled reference to a booster arranging for a recruit to get the keys to a large, truck-like vehicle?

The line would qualify as one of those obscure things that make you go "Hmm..."--that is, unless you believe Scarbinsky doesn't know the score.

Put that thought to rest: Scarbinsky knows the score, whether he's being allowed by the Bamaham News suits to write explicitly about it or not.

Exodus: Terence Moore

Jerry Hinnen--who actually still has a job in the newspaper business--on the recently-departed and already un-missed Terence Moore:

Trust me, Terence Moore: it was never your job to make me think. It was your job to explain why I should think the same way you think. Forgive me, but I think the inability to understand the difference between those two objectives--why the first gets you only halfway to where you need to be, why not risking being right can only result in being wrong--goes a long way towards explaining why neither Terence Moore nor tons of other former sports columnists have their job at all anymore.

What he said. Unlike others in the "Exodus" series, Moore's "work" won't be missed by much of anybody. He was already the least-read columnist in a largely-unread newspaper. Where he goes from here... well, who really cares? Let's just be glad he's gone.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

All Apologies

I didn't make it to A-Day. When I booked a long-weekend vacation to New Orleans several weeks back, it didn't occur to me to check the calendar for the spring game first. So I was in Jackson Square instead of Jordan-Hare last Saturday, and since it will be a cold and lonely day in Hell before I ever give money to a cable company again, I also don't have the scrimmage on my DVR (but anybody who has a copy on DVD, please drop me a line, I'd be happy to reimburse you for the disc and postage).

So, at least for the time being, no A-Day recap at FTB. Sorry about that.