Camp starts Wednesday
With the lockout lifted, most of the former Tigers who saw playing time last year have been able to get their contracts signed. Here are the details.
Patrick Peterson - Drafted and signed by Arizona
Stevan Ridley - Drafted by the Pats (who resigned Kevin Faulk) but hasn't signed yet
Terrence Toliver - UDFA Signed by Houston
"Pep" Levingston - Drafted and Signed with Seattle
Josh Jasper - UDFA signed with Tampa Bay
Richard Murphy - UDFA signed with Jacksonville and is impressing in their camp already
Jai Eugene - UDFA
Derek Helton - UDFA
Drake Nevis - Drafted but not yet signed with Indianapolis (who has resigned Joe Addia)
Joseph Barksdale - Drafted and has or will soon sign with Oakland
Kelvin Sheppard - Drafted and signed with Buffalo
Daniel Graff - UDFA
Not every Tiger gets a shot in the big leagues, but that doesn't mean they don't succeed. RB Orlando Gunn graduated in May and after a summer working for the NCAA is now working on a Masters in Sports Management at UCF.
Saturday Night Slant asks a question we are all a little nervous about: What are we going to do without Nevis and Levingston.
Kragthorpe was the coach on hand for the final Tiger Tour stop in BR and didn't say anything shocking, but may have further doused the flames of anyone who thought Mettenberger would see the field early.
"I feel kind of bad for Zach in a way, because he was learning a third offense in three years (during the spring)," Kragthorpe said. "Seeing a John Chavis defense every day in practice and every conceivable front and blitz they threw at him, it was an adjustment. But he did start to get a feel for our offense, and I expect that to continue in the fall."
Kragthorpe also revealed that Jarrett Lee has dropped from 230 to 207 pounds before camp.
Across town, Miles had his annual throw down with the Rotarians, but yet again did not bring Snoop Dogg along. He must be holding out for Akon...
Not a great weekend for MBB recruiting as we lost out on F Ricardo Gathers from LaPlace to St Johns. Meanwhile, recent graduate Garrett Green might be headed for San Deigo St.
Good news: LSU broke ground last week on that new Digital Media Center building that will house, among other things, EA's new North American Testing Center. Bad News: Lookout for more construction on the south side of campus, out by the Cow Palace.
The NCAA announced some changes for baseball last week. Hidden behind the headline of adding instant replay to CWS games is the revelation of changes to the RPI system that make road wins more valuable and home wins less valuable, a change that benefits those road warrior teams for up north.
Meanwhile, a pair of LSU players had good outings in the Cape Cod All Star game. Ryan Eades had a scoreless short start for the West and Mason Katz turned an RBI double into an inside the park home run on 2 errors.
We do our best to give coverage for the rest of the teams in Louisiana, so here's a preview of Tulane, where 6 wins are possible, but not likely.
Either something really will happen in the A&M to SEC story this month, or it's just a clever tactic to sell website subscriptions. The latest argument for a dance partner in this is Mizzou (Argument For and Against)
The Pac-12 announced their media plans for next year, where they surprisingly took Time Warner Cable as a partner instead of ESPN or Fox. They'll be launching several local networks, along with a national one. Combined with their frankly superb plans for online offerings and it beats what the SEC has on several fronts. Look for Slive to angle for re-negotiation within a year.
Here's an interesting take from The Bylaw Blog on the college sports landscape after the NCAA.
UNC surprisingly fired Butch Davis last week. If your looking for reaction that doesn't come from a UNC basketball fan, you can't do better than former Tar Heel player Michael Felder at InTheBleachers.
Somebody at ESPN is really buying into James Franklin, as the network and the SEC are working to make SCar @ Vandy the 1st CFB game of the year in 2012.