Wednesday Crimson Tide links & other items

A few items worth a look on this Wednesday:

NCAA & controlling recruiting websites
Ben Cook wrote in his weekly column: “Those ‘team’ web sites are the problems that nobody has wanted to address before, but it is a situation the NCAA is looking at in terms of just what control it can exercise. While the NCAA knows it has no jurisdiction over independently owned web sites that cover any aspect of college athletics, it can certainly make things difficult for any school that is unofficially tied to a web site.”

Report: ‘Expect Andre Smith holdout’
Andre Smith’s NFL career has been a train wreck before it even began. Now it looks like it could get worse. According to one reporter, “The Bengals anticipate a long and arguably agonizing holdout from first-round draft pick Andre Smith.”

Alabama’s offensive line
Chris Low of ESPN examines Alabama’s offensive line plans in 2009. “There’s a standard that we have as an offensive line, and that standard was met last year,” Junior David Ross told Low. “We’re going to have to meet it again. I mean, we’re going to run the ball between the tackles. There’s no question. That’s our offense. So we’re going to do whatever we have to do to be successful at that.”

UAB’s football outlook
Interested in UAB football?

Of course not, but here is a preview of UAB’s 2009 football team. One part of it caused me particular trouble: “This is one of those situations where the team will be empirically better than last year’s, but the final record may not show it simply because of the competition.”

I doubt the team will be better until UAB improves the coaching staff. Leadership is always the most important element in success. I believe it was Napoleon who declared, “An army of rabbits led by a lion is superior to an army of lions led by a rabbit.” It was demonstrably true in the campaigns of Frederick the Great; likewise in the campaigns of Caesar and Publius Cornelius Scipio.

You can’t have success when you lack leadership. UAB lacks leadership. I’d also contend (until I see evidence to the contrary) that Auburn lacks leadership. There is a heavy emphasis on the “STAFF” and not the head coach. There is good reason for this; 5-19 doesn’t inspire confidence. When you know you have something to worry about, you better concentrate on the only rainbow in the otherwise gloomy sky.

A wise fan should look at the gathering storm clouds and prepare for the worst. That applies to all three UAB fans and thousands of Auburn fans.

How corrupt is government?
Following the tanker project? It is big news for Mobile. It doesn’t look good if you care about responsible government; political pressure is the biggest problem in this military decision.