Checking in quickly before lunch with some links.

-- For those who don't know, Rashad Johnson finally got his actual plea deal late yesterday. Capstone Report, naturally, is howling mad about the whole thing. I-Rap has the skinny on the whole situation (and yes, I just called him "I-Rap," because typing his whole name is tiresome).

-- On Mark Gottfried: Druid has a statistical comparison between the last two seasons and the final two seasons of the David Hobbs era, which most Alabama fans regard as disastrous. Also, Al at 8Box is tired of Gottfried, as well.
I'll merely repeat what I said in an earlier entry (and was echoed by my brother): you've seen the best you'll ever get from Mark Gottfried at Alabama. Much like the Mike Shula as a head football coach, he'll never be better than what he is right now: the leader of a harmless, middle-of-the-road program that occasionally has a standout season, but generally underachieves (or, at best, doesn't do anything spectacular).
If you're happy with what you've got now, then keep him. If you want to excel, however, you might need to look elsewhere.
NOTE: One thing I forgot to add in the Gottfried thing earlier -- many of us, in an effort to be fair to him the last two seasons, have repeatedly played the "you can't blame him for Ronald Steele getting hurt," since Steele was and is the most important player on Alabama's team (being the point guard and all). Well, check out this comment from a few days ago on Capstone, where a frustrated reader suggests you actually CAN assign some blame to Gottfried for Steele's condition, that Gottfried played his point guard too many minutes in '06, then continued to ride him in '07 despite his obvious deficiencies (eventually leading to Steele taking '08 off to heal).
ONE OTHER NOTE: Track 'Em has an interesting post about Jeff Lebo. In it, PoD asserts the three main areas of concern as a coach: 1) talent; 2) effort; 3) scheme. Auburn, he says, is good at 2, but not 1 or 3, and it's been that way since Lebo took over.
You think they'd take Gottfried? His teams are good at 1, and intermittently good at 2. That's an upgrade, right?
Just some things to think about.

Might be back later -- we'll see. If not, have a good weekend, everybody.

wlh