read online:
Media guides need revising, by David Paschall,
Chattanooga Times Free Press
16 July 2010
There is a lot of revising going on these days in the Southeastern Conference.
With five days remaining until the league's football media days event, Vanderbilt sports information director Larry Leathers is having to update a 16-page coaching section in his guide to show Robbie Caldwell as the interim head coach following Bobby Johnson's retirement. Johnson made his surprise announcement Wednesday.
"At least I'll have Robbie as the head coach and some of his background," a hurried Leathers said Thursday. "We'll also have one story on Coach Johnson retiring. Throughout the book, there are still going to be references to Bobby Johnson, which is not the worst thing in the world because the whole staff is associated with Bobby, so it's not like there is a complete changeover."''
Fortunately for Vanderbilt, the school is printing just 3,600 fact books.
It's a more sizable mess at Georgia, which shipped out about half of its 21,000 guides a couple of weeks ago - when Bulldogs athletic director Damon Evans was making news for his late-night DUI arrest and extramarital antics. Evans was arrested June 30 and was forced to resign; July 6 was his final day on the job.
Georgia is reprinting more than 10,000 guides for media and donors that will show Frank Crumley as the interim athletic director. The cost due to the changes could reach $50,000, according to sports information director Claude Felton.
There are 15,000 Tennessee media guides currently being printed amid roster uncertainty following last week's brawl at Bar Knoxville. Sophomore safety Darren Myles was dismissed by new coach Derek Dooley after the incident, but Myles will have a profile and his stats from last season in all 15,000 copies.
Tennessee sports information director Bud Ford said editing out Myles was not worth the cost.
Less than a week before 2010 SEC Football Media Days (Juy 21-23), media relations football contacts at numerous schools are scrambling to revise, update and change the preseason football guides for numerous reasons.