Cell Block News and Notes: Wednesday Edition

• Mike Hart where have you gone? Enclosed is a Florida newspaper article about Mike's preparation for the combine. It also references former Wolverine Ryan Mundy as well.
  


• Western Michigan and Illinois will play at Ford Field next year. WMU beat Iowa last year.
  


• ESPN's Mark Schlabach starts to get excited about Spring Practice. Which starts next week for some teams. What? Next week?
  


• Do you think LSU is getting a little nervous about playing App. State in their first game of the year without suspended Jr. QB Ryan Perrilloux? They might rabbit, they might.
  

My take on the over signing debate that is storming college football blogs all over the internet:

For those that haven't heard, this year Alabama and Miami signed in excess of 30 players with the scholarship limit of 25 each year or 85 for your entire team. We call out Alabama and Miami but this is a common practice for other teams as well. Some of you from the corporate world may recognize something similar in the hotel and airline industries. Those industries know for a fact that they will receive a certain number of cancellations each day and over book on purpose so that they can maximize revenue.

Well, it seems some college football programs have taken up the same approach. Some programs are expecting so much attrition each year that they are signing way too many kids to a recruiting class. See, they are expecting a certain number of players to drop out of school, fail in the classroom, get a DUI, knock over a Jiffy Mart, or get busted for drugs. Is this what our society has come to? Betting that kids will fail and fail often?

So what happens if your program is clean and kids stay healthy, do well in school, stay out of trouble and your over the 85 limit? You have to send kids to Jr. College, gray shirt them (offer a scholarship in next years class), or just cut them. Should we really be treating kids education/future like a full airplane or and over sold hotel? I think not.

One last point, if you feel the kid you are recruiting won't qualify - stop recruiting him and let him play at a school where he would. Case in point, Michigan was recruiting BJ Daniels a dual threat QB out of Florida. Then all of a sudden Michigan stopped recruiting him. Many believed that he would not have qualified academically at Michigan, so he went to South Florida. That was the right thing to do.

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A day in the life at the Combine: Here's how things will break down for each group of players during their four-day stays in Indianapolis:

Day 1

• Arrive and register• Pre-examination and X-rays at hospital• Orientation• NFL team interviews

Day 2

• Physical measurements (height, weight, arm length and hand span)• Injury evaluation• Media interviews• Psychological testing (Wonderlic Test)• NFL team interviews

Day 3

• NFLPA Meeting• Psychological testing (Wonderlic Test)• NFL team interviews

Day 4

• Workout, which will include all or some of the following elements: 40-yard dash, bench press, three-cone drill, broad jump, vertical leap, 20-yard shuttle, 60-yard shuttle, position-specific drills• Departure