College Football's Statutory Take

Every Monday during college football's endless offseason, The FanHouse Walk will put last week's stories to bed and deliver the essentials to bridge that agonizing space between now and September.

If He Can Get On The Field, Play Ball -- It's come to this: the 13-year-old brother of Tennessee safety Eric Berry has pledged to play football for the Vols. Nevermind that he's not even in high school, but the kid's set on Orange and who is Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin to say no? The saving grace in all of this is that verbals are non-binding and four years is a lot of time to fill where both parties could easily part ways.

It's really not that big of a deal given the non-binding voluntary nature of the affair but it's still gross and stinks too much of the gases emanating from college basketball for this college football fan. Hopefully this is a one-time deal but you know how pesky those Pandora's Boxes are. This is just begging for some college football equivalent of the nation's sex laws.

Bad News Comes In Threes -- In a week filled with endless celebrity deaths, here's another sad troika: The Lane Kiffin Show has returned with three new episodes discussing the SEC East and West and a bedroom encounter with his wife Layla. As usual the emperor has no clothes.



Illegal, Except When It Isn't -- Completing our Tour De Tennessee today, it has been announced that the Volunteers will play North Carolina State in 2012's Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game. Should be fun, but what happened to the NCAA supposedly outlawing these kickoff/preseason/classic type games?

Overtime, Ball on the 25

-- Not a good week for college football linebackers and their cars. North Carolina State linebacker Nate Irving and Texas linebacker Sergio Kindle were both taken out of commission indefinitely after various acts of vehicular mayhem. Fortunately both are alive but left behind damaged cars, trees and buildings.

-- Baltimore Ravens General Manager Ozzie Newsome to Alabama: I think I love you, but what am I so afraid of? I'm afraid that I'm not sure of a love there's no cure for.

-- Some interesting 2009 non-conference game discussion.