Chris Strong is gone, Powe is (fingers crossed) in, and some Schadenfreude

Coach O was a recruiting guru. Coach O was not, however, a getting-students-to-go-to-class guru. Chris Strong, the crown jewel of last years signing class, has withdrawn from school and will not see action on the field in an Ole Miss uniform (likely) ever again. Strong, an academically questionable recruit out of South Panola who qualified after a semester at Genesis One, failed out of school last semester because he was likely too high to give a fuck.

There is good news (kinda sorta) though. Jerrell Powe, after his epic uphill battle against written language and the NCAA compliance offices, may actually qualify (for realsies this time) and see action this fall. Even ESPN's Bruce Feldman blogs about it. I, personally, won't get my hopes up until I witness first-hand Powe attempting an on-field ingestion of Matt Malouf this upcoming September.

And finally, Joe McKnight, the cause of Ed Orgeron's most impressive(ly competitive) erection, is ineligible for spring practice at USC (#25). The situation with McKnight at USC fully proves, to me at least, that all of this recruiting hype and obsession over stars and class rankings is absolutely dumb, especially when these kids can't get it done in the classroom. Yeah, I know, college football is really a minor league for the NFL and literacy doesn't matter when you've got an agent, but the NCAA says these kids have to pretend like they want to earn a degree. Although some of you may object, we should definitely be more concerned with playing by the NCAA rules than Scout.com's recruiting rankings.