Ole Miss just trying to get starting QB in Oxford

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Ole Miss just trying to get starting QB in Oxford

Orgeron still doing junior-college work

By Brian Bennett

bbennett@courier-journal.com

The Courier-Journal

HOOVER, Ala. — Mississippi coach Ed Orgeron is excited about how starting quarterback Brent Schaeffer can help the Rebels' offense this season.

Now, if he could just get Schaeffer on campus.

Orgeron addressed one of the Southeastern Conference's strangest player situations at yesterday's Media Days gathering. Schaeffer began his career at Tennessee in 2004 and played last year at a California junior college before transferring to Ole Miss.

But Schaeffer has yet to arrive in Oxford. He was taking online correspondence courses over the summer to gain his eligibility for the fall. Then he returned to junior college to finish his coursework in the classroom.

"We decided it was best for Brent to go back (to junior college) because there was an ending date, Aug. 2 or Aug. 3," Orgeron said. "When you take correspondence courses, there's an open-ended date, and some of the courses were taking too long to complete. I didn't know if he could complete them by the time camp started."

Orgeron said he and his assistants have been in contact with Schaeffer daily, and they expect him on campus next week. But even if the quarterback shows up on time, Orgeron said he might have to simplify his game plans for the season's first few contests to blend in the new starter.

That could be good news for the University of Kentucky, which plays host to Ole Miss on Sept. 16.

Spurrier spices things up

As usual, South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier added a dose of levity to the annual media event. Though he didn't crack many one-liners and didn't tweak any of his rivals, Spurrier still drew plenty of laughs with his jocular approach. A few of his best moments:

On the permanent 12-game schedule: "I watch girls' basketball, and they'll play four straight nights at the SEC Tournament. I don't hear them bitching and complaining that they're playing too much."

On players who skip "voluntary" summer workouts: "You can't punish them for missing summer workouts. You don't have to play them, though."

On Internet message boards: "I just tell people you can't believe everything you read. I started to say don't believe everything you see. But maybe if you see it, it did happen. Yeah, don't believe everything you read."

On agents coming after players: "All you can do is encourage your players to stay away from them. We try to investigate it if any of them are driving brand new cars or something like that. As long as they're driving old beat-up cars we feel like we're OK."

New rules in place

The SEC introduced its new coordinator of officials, Rogers Redding, yesterday morning before the coaches' news conferences. Redding, who took over for longtime officials coordinator Bobby Gaston, is a former dean of arts and sciences at Northern Kentucky University.

Redding explained a few of the new rules in college football this season, particularly those dealing with the clock. For the first time, the clock will start when the ball is kicked on a kickoff and when officials give the ready-for-play signal after a change in possession. The clock did not start until the ball was snapped under the previous rule.

"It's going to make a difference," Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer said. "You're going to lose some plays in the game. Some of the records that are out there, if you're losing 12 to 15 plays a game, likely won't be nearly as easily broken.

"The ready-for-play rule is probably as significant a change as has been made in some time in our game."