SEC coaches seek answers to off-field problems

For instance, there was this exchange at the SEC business meetings here during an informal interview session with South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier:

Reporter: Do you have a comment on Dustin Lindsey?

Spurrier: The kid from Mobile? He's one of the twins (on Carolina's team). Why (talk about) just one of them? Both of them play, Dustin and Jordin.

Reporter: I understand one of them was arrested last night or the night before (actually on Saturday).

Spurrier: Recently? I didn't know about that one. He get in a fight?

Reporter: No, a DUI.

Spurrier: Well, we'll have to handle it the best we can ...we're not going to kick him off the team for that. There's a lot more disgraceful things. He didn't get in a wreck, he didn't fight the police, he didn't kick police car window out. I had one former player do that when they arrested him."

Off-season shenanigans in the majority of SEC football programs have led league commissioner Mike Slive to begin dialogue with coaches and athletic directors on establishing an educational program to help athletes transition from high school to college.

"I've suggested to our coaches and athletic directors that as a conference, maybe there's a preventive educational program we can put into place," Slive said.

"This isn't an issue limited to any particular league. But like I've said in the past, I want all the activity to take place on the field and on the courts. I want to talk about all the positive things this league does on a daily basis."

Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer*, who has had 11 players since February 2004 either arrested or cited for crimes ranging from underage drinking to aggravated assault, said he and other coaches would welcome league intervention.

"If the SEC can do something to educate our players from all backgrounds to the social adjustment of a college campus, whether it be in Knoxville, Gainesville, or Athens or any place, I'll take any help I can get them to adjust to situations," Fulmer said.

More than half of the SEC's 12 schools have had players involved in off-the-field problems in recent months such as:

* Tennessee defensive tackle Tony McDaniel was indicted on a felony charge of aggravated assault for allegedly hitting a student in the face during a pickup basketball game on campus in January. Also receiver Bret Smith and former quarterback Brent Schaeffer were arrested April 10 on misdemeanor assault charges in connection with an early morning fight at a UT dormitory.

* Ole Miss star defensive tackle McKinley Boykin was arrested on a domestic violence charge. He's one of at least nine Ole Miss players or coaches who have been arrested in the past 20 months.

* Mississippi State offensive tackle Richard Burch was arrested after selling more than an ounce of marijuana.

* Vanderbilt defensive lineman DeMarcus Bradley was charged with aggravated assault after a fight at Spin-A-Pin Lane in Bradley's hometown of Springfield, Tenn.

* Six South Carolina players were charged with taking $18,000 worth of property from Williams-Brice Stadium on Nov. 23 after the team learned it would not go to a bowl game because of its fight in the Clemson game. The players stole laptop computers, projectors and framed, poster-sized autographs.

* LSU fullback Shawn Jordan was charged with possession of a controlled substance in his hometown of El Paso, Texas. He had smuggled steroids across the border from Mexico.

* Five Georgia players have been arrested, for everything from repeated driver's license violations to bar fights to public drunkeness. Senior defensive tackle Darrius Swain is serving a 45-day jail sentence for repeated driver's license violations.

Coaches feel the off-season problems have escalated in recent years because NCAA legislation reduced the number of recruiting contacts, as well as limiting time athletes can spend each week in their sport, and also the elimination of athletic dorms.

The bottom line is coaches don't personally know their players as much as they have in the past.

Last year, Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville was ecstatic to get a recruiting visit from Willie Williams, one of the nation's best high school linebackers from Miami (Fla.) Carol City.

What Tuberville didn't know was Williams had been arrested 10 times between 1999 and 2002. Then on a recruiting to Florida, Williams hugged a woman against her will and discharged hotel fire extinguishers. Despite all that, Miami signed him.

"When we brought Willie Williams, and we never heard of him having prior problems with the authorities," Tuberville said. "That was our fault, I guess we didn't dig deep enough. You're going to make mistakes and kids are going to make mistakes. But sooner or later, there has to be a trust factor there about who you are talking to, such as with the high school coaches."

One major football power, Oklahoma, has begun conducting background checks on high school prospects before signing them. Coaches and athletic directors in the SEC hope it won't come to checking to see if a prospect has an arrest record.

"We've discussed the possibility of doing background checks, and I don't know if it something we will do," Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton said. "Background checks are expensive.

"But making a number of bad decisions on prospects can be expensive also from a public image standpoint and possibly from a violations standpoint."

Most coaches understand that many of the players they recruit come from one-parent backgrounds, where discipline in the home is sometimes lacking. Coaches also know kids have a tendency to go a bit wild when they first get to college, because it's the first time they haven't had parents or a parent to control them.

Fulmer said having knowledge of a player's background helps him understand how to mete discipline.

"Every case is different," Fulmer said. "Sometimes, you have to look at where a kid has come from. A lot of them haven't been loved and encouraged very much, some of them are angry. The only way they know to get something or defend themselves is by fisticuffs."

Georgia coach Mark Richt, who was once suspended for a game when he was a quarterback for Miami (he broke a dorm rule by having a guest in his room after hours), said he doesn't expect his players to be perfect.

"We're all hypocrites if we say we haven't sinned or haven't made stupid mistakes in our life, that if they were on the front page of the sports that we wouldn't be embarrassed by it," Richt said.

"Not many people learn from other people's mistakes, usually they learn from their own mistakes. We've had a lot of guys who've made mistakes, learned from them and grown into fine men."

Arkansas coach Houston Nutt, who has enjoyed two consecutive incident-free off-seasons after a string of off-the-field problems, constantly preaches good behavior.

"I told our team just before the end of school, 'You've won the spring, now win the summer... carry it over... don't put your scholarship in jeopardy,' '' Nutt said. "But they know with the new rule, they're bold enough to take a few more chances."

The rule Nutt is talking about is the NCAA's APR graduation scoring, that links graduation rates to possible scholarship reductons. According to the rule, if a coach throws a scholarshipped player off the team because of discipline problems, the coach can't use that scholarship for another player.

"Yeah, that makes it a bit different, but gosh I don't know at what point that you have to worry about that," South Carolina's Steve Spurrier said. "If players do some things that completely embarrass the team and university, we usually dismiss them. Some guys deserve second chances and some guys don't.

"But I think a kid who's at least 18 years old should be held accountable for what he does."