Catching Up

I'm going to unveil the preseason Week 2 Blogpoll this afternoon, but before I do that, there were a few items that caught my eye during my blogging hiatus. And rumor has it Tim Brewster is going to unveil his starting quarterback this afternoon. We'll see if the speculation that redshirt freshman Adam Weber is the guy turns out to be true.

** First, Nathen Garth has decommitted from Tubby Smith's Gophers. On its face, this would appear to belong in the not-so-good news department. But the GopherHole quoted Garth as stating that the decision might have had more to do with playing time--that is he wouldn't get what he intially thought. Here's the quote:

"This re-opening was not basketball related. Coach Smith never doubted my talent or game. It was something I wanted to do and Coach Smith was supportive of my decision. Since the roster at Minnesota has changed with Al Nolen being qualified, he told me the opportunities I was presented before, were different now."

When I first learned of the Garth decommitment I was worried. But after hearing that from Garth, I'm breathing a little easier. It would appear Tubby and his crew might think they can do better elsewhere. That said, Tubby has to get to work. The only other commitment Tubby has secured is from JUCO forward Paul Carter.

** I found this little reporting amusing. The Post and Courier of Charleston reported today that Tim Brewster went hard after Tommy Bowden's offensive coordinator Rob Spence. Here's what was reported.

Brewster, the new head coach at Minnesota, had made a courtesy call to let Bowden know he was courting Rob Spence to run the Golden Gophers' offense. Brewster was making an offer that would have given Spence a $100,000 raise.

"I thought he was gone," Bowden said.

Bowden was so convinced, he had already tabbed receivers coach Dabo Swinney to take over Clemson's offense. But Spence, who had spent two years with the Tigers' football team, surprised his boss and others by electing to stay. There were multiple reasons for Spence's decision — his family, his faith — but the driving force was his drive to fix what went wrong with his offense late last season. The man known as the mad scientist couldn't allow his Clemson tenure to be defined by an experiment that blew up in his face in the last five games of an 8-5 disappointment.

I don't remember seeing anywhere Brewster indicating Mike Dunbar was his first choice, but I also don't remember seeing anywhere that Brewster's large salary offer to Spence was turned down. Time will tell if Dunbar is the right guy, but if you read this Star Tribune article, you'd walk away thinking Dunbar was Brewster's number one guy.

** On the other side of the football, Everett Withers is apparently a "flat-out star." One wonders if anyone turned down a Brewster offer for this position. Whatever the case, I'm excited about Withers' defense. Anything could be better than the Glen Mason sieve.