In SEC football, its five strikes and you're still not out

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Did you know that many college head football coaches -- particularly in the Southeastern Conference -- train for the priesthood in the offseason?Apparently, coaches like Tennessee's Phillip Fulmer, LSU's Les Miles and Alabama's Nick Saban believe they have to save every serial knucklehead on their teams.Vols' punter Britton Colquitt gets arrested for a fifth (how appropriate) alcohol-related offense, yet he's still on the team with a five-game suspension.At LSU, possible starting quarterback Ryan Perrilloux is suspended indefinitely for missing team meetings and deciding class was a waste of time. Perrilloux is improving, though. Previously, he was a person of interest in a federal probe into counterfeiting for allegedly passing fake money near his hometown of LaPlace, La., in late 2006. Then, he was issued a misdemeanor summons for using a fake I.D. trying to get in a Baton Rouge casino and then being involved in a fight at a nightclub just off campus.The Vols and the Crimson Tide are neck-and-neck in a race to see how many players can get arrested in a specific time frame. Tennessee has the lead with eight players in a recent six-week span, but 'Bama is closing fast with eight in the 14 months Saban was anointed the program's savior. One of the latest Tide suspensions was freshman defensive tackle Jeremy Elder following his recent arrest for allegedly robbing two students at gunpoint.And one final opinion, if Arkansas running back Darren McFadden falls out of the top five in the NFL draft because he doesn't fit a team's need, then some general manager needs to be fired. McFadden dazzled at the NFL combine, but that's no big surprise. The big surprise is if Cowboys' owner and former Razorback Jerry Jones wheels and deals to jump up in the draft and take McFadden. It's a poorly kept secret how much Jones covets D-Mac.(Contact Ron Higgins of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., at www.commercialappeal.com.)