The Week That Was: Offseason Doldrums

When I started to write this, I was very concerned that there would not be an awesome college football story to lead things off. We are officially in the doldrums between signing day and spring practice, and players getting in trouble is one of the few things that grabs a headline.

CUE NICK SABAN'S MUSIC!

That's right, the moment I started writing this column was the exact time the Twitterverse broke the story of four Alabama players getting arrested, three for second-degree robbery and one for the fraudulent use of a debit card.

Obviously the Hokie in me initially hoped that this could somehow give Tech an advantage come August, but after further research I found that when you have a roster full of four-star recruits, it's not hard to replace four freshmen (three of which who barely played last season). After further reading, however, it's simply mind blowing that these guys thought they could get away with it. Alabama football players are the biggest celebrities in Tuscaloosa. That would be like an actor driving drunk in Hollywood, or Lil' Wayne getting caught with pot in New Orleans... Well, you get my point. All are indefinitely suspended.

In local news, Mike London redefined the concept of an “eehhhh” hire by bringing on Steve Fairchild as offensive coordinator. Fairchild replaces Bill Lazor who bolted Charlottesville for the Philadelphia Eagles at the end of January. Best known for his four-year stint as head coach at Colorado State, Fairchild has spent his time bouncing between the NFL and college.

Word out of Charlottesville was that the athletic department forced London to make some of these other staff changes to move the team in a different (read: more successful, better [clock-] managed) direction. Lazor leaving wasn't part of the plan, so it compounds the shake-up.

Speaking of shake...

Now while Fairchild's 16-33 record at Colorado State seems unimpressive, he WAS 1-0 in bowl games, which is one better than his boss. Record aside, London seems to think he made a good hire, with the head ball cop saying that they are "very fortunate to have him on staff".

Obviously UVa wants its team to move to the next level, but needless to say I think they are treading water. Honestly, I haven't seen this much fake movement since Frank Ocean's performance at the Grammys.

In what seems to be the newest Babysitter's Club book, London has now hired three coaches (Fairchild, the Notorious TOB and special teams coach Larry Lewis) with head coaching experience to his staff this offseason. Those three coaches' combined head coaching record? 171-162. Dream big Mike, dream big.

Here are some quick hitters from the rest of the week:

Despite losing to Illinois on Thursday, Indiana retained their number one rank in the AP Top 25, the classic "screw you guys, it obviously doesn't matter who we put here" move by the voters. Duke and Miami are ranked second and third, respectively.

Notre Dame and Louisville played what was possibly the game of the season in college basketball thus far, with the Irish beating the Fighting Pitinos 104-101 in five overtimes. Yep...it took sixty minutes of game time for each team to break 100. The teams averaged 40% from the field, 24% from three and 64% from the line. They had 29 turnovers combined, and eight players fouled out. Yep... Game. Of. The. Season.

In a shocker, ESPN.com's Mark Shlabach ranked Alabama first in his early top-25. Number two? Well, let's just say it's a team with a good defense and returning quarterback that have questions at every other skill and line position on offense. Don't get your hopes up Tech fans, I was talking about Stanford.

And finally, the De'Anthony Thomas tweet of the week

MY FINGER JUST WENT TO SLEEP— DE'ANTHONY THOMAS (@1STCLASSMOMBA) February 12, 2013

Have a great week y'all.