Missing the point

The headline on this AJC recruiting update about Steve Spurrier's comments to a junior quarterback he's recruiting misses the bigger news. The reporter's so focused on the idea Spurrier might retire that he buried the prospect's quote about coming changes in Spurrier's offense...

"South Carolina is bringing in a little more of shotgun offense with a zone read, and [Spurrier] said that I would pretty much be a perfect fit for that system."

If you believe what Connor Shaw is saying, Spurrier is going to focus on adding designed QB runs to his system. There's been talk about that as a possibility here, but if he's promoting it to recruits who won't reach campus until 2010 than I think it has to be taken seriously. This should be interesting to watch, because Spurrier refused to use the shotgun at all for years and then came up with formations out of it no one had ever seen before when he finally chose to integrate it into his scheme.

The highest paid employee of any private university in America turns out to be Pete Carroll at 4.4 million dollars a year. Interestingly enough, considering Notre Dame is a private institution, no one else from the sports world is in the top ten. No word on what hero "journalist" Ken Krayeske thinks about any of this. As for Carroll, he's busy "rocking out to Coldplay's White Shadows".

The New York Rangers have hired former Tampa Bay Lightning head coach John Tortorella to take over their bench, a move I think will prove to be terrific for them. Stunning that they would hire Torts when Barry Melrose is also available. Tortorella will shake things up in a complacent locker room with stiffs like Wade Redden who are making big money and don't produce. The Lightning's play since dumping him sure makes that move look brilliant, doesn't it?

Baseball has another scandal brewing. This one involves skimming money off the top of signing bonuses given to players from the Dominican Republic. The biggest name dragged into the investigation is Washington Nationals GM Jim Bowden, who denies everything. The more bizarre info comes from Chicago, where the White Sox senior director of player personnel was fired last May. Financial records indicate he blew through 570 thousand dollars in 2007 operating Club Burn, "voted Phoenix's top gay bar", in addition to owning six houses in the area. Pretty impressive stuff for a guy who was making 185 thousand dollars a year. The movement to sign more players from Latin America has given MLB a huge new talent pool, but it's also caused some serious problems over the years. I'm sure Bud was working on solving this too - you can be assured there's no way any of it'll be his fault.