'Bama backlash, more mailbag (cont.)

Florida coach Urban Meyer allowed cornerback Jacques Rickerson back on the team after a marijuana charge, but booted him last season after Rickerson was accused of hitting and choking his girlfriend. Marc Serota/Getty Images   Follow: @Andy_Staples | @SI_24Seven

[Twenty-four] arrests and counting for your alma mater under [Urban] Meyer, five this year already. Tennessee fires their strength and conditioning coach and it's front page news (on both your site, ESPN's and others), but when a Florida player is arrested for assault it doesn't even get posted on your college football section. Maybe the media thinks the S&C coach's firing has more to do with football than an off-the-field incident. That's fine, but can you tell me the last time a news outlet ever reported on the hiring or firing of an S&C coach? Can most college football fans even name more than their own S&C coach (if they can even do that)? Somehow though, that was deemed so news worthy that it made the front page. Maybe winning solves all problems. I just hope you let the victim of the next angry Florida player know that.
-- Michael, Philadelphia

Michael obviously didn't notice the arrest of Florida cornerback Janoris Jenkins made our college football section and the front page of the entire site. He also apparently didn't read this column from last August in which I took Meyer to task for allowing offensive lineman Ronnie Wilson -- he of AK-47 fame -- back on the team as a walk-on. I ended up being right. Wilson got thrown off the team again after a sworn complaint charged him with striking two people at a party. One, a woman, broke her wrist.

I find it funny people only started counting Florida's arrests after Jenkins got Tasered. This became a serious problem two years ago when nine players had scrapes with the law between the Gators' BCS title win against Ohio State and safety Tony Joiner's October arrest for trying to break his girlfriend's car out of a towing company lot (the charge was rammed through the usually slow Alachua County criminal justice system and dropped just in time for Joiner to play that week against LSU).

It's telling that the most serious crimes have been committed by repeat offenders. There's Wilson, of course. There's also cornerback Jacques Rickerson, who was thrown off the team last season. Had the team jettisoned Rickerson after his first charge (marijuana possession in February 2007) he wouldn't have been a Gator when he was arrested in November and accused of hitting and choking his girlfriend.

And let's not forget safety Jamar Hornsby, who remained on the team after he was charged with criminal mischief in April 2007 for allegedly slamming a man into the hood of a car. Later that year, Hornsby swiped the credit card of teammate Joe Haden's recently deceased girlfriend and ran up charges until his arrest in May 2008. Meyer kicked Hornsby off the team. Ole Miss signed Hornsby this year out of junior college, and Hornsby promptly got himself charged with beating a man with brass knuckles in the drive-through at a Mississippi McDonald's. Hornsby is awaiting trial, but Rebels coach Houston Nutt is holding out hope he can get Hornsby on the field.

Knowing Meyer's history, I understand his reluctance to boot troubled players off the team. At Utah, Meyer gave tailback Marty Johnson a chance after multiple drunk driving arrests, and he may have saved Johnson's life. At Florida, Meyer kicked troubled cornerback Avery Atkins off the team, and Atkins wound up dead of a drug overdose the following year. There's no way to know if Meyer could have helped Atkins, but he may feel he could have prevented the young man's death.

At some point, though, the program has to come first. As a Florida beat writer in 2007, I wrote Meyer missed a golden opportunity to scare his players straight when he allowed Joiner to play against LSU. Now, Florida has so much talent Meyer could throw any starter except quarterback Tim Tebow or linebacker Brandon Spikes off the team and still be favored to win the national title. Unlike some programs, Florida doesn't need to keep thugs on the roster for competitive reasons.

That said, The Gainesville Sun dug up some interesting numbers last week. During the same four-year period, Georgia has seen 30 players arrested. Tennessee has seen 21, Florida State 12 and Miami two. Yes, two.

That might be the real under-reported story here. Turns out the Hurricanes are some of the NCAA's best citizens -- and that's probably because they know coach Randy Shannon will boot their butts if they misbehave.

I'd be crushed...

OK, now it's time for the fun part. Our buddy Stew is coming back soon, mailbag in hand, but he's toying with the idea of dropping the Mailbag Crush. This can't happen. How else will we discover under-the-radar starlets who possess killer senses of humor and a love for college pigskin? In the past three years, the Crushes have been Jenna Fischer of The Office (back when she was under the radar), My Boys star Jordana Spiro and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Kaitlin Olson.

So I want everyone who reads this column to nominate a candidate for the Crush. You can send it to me using the mail link or on Twitter, or you can send it directly to Mandel on Twitter. In case you're having trouble choosing a crush, I'll offer a few suggestions.

Summer Glau: The Terminatrix from the recently canceled Sarah Connor Chronicles grew up in San Antonio, so she must have some kind of college football rooting interest. Plus, after two seasons playing a robot, a few Crush interviews would allow her to show off her comedy chops. Plus, she needs the work.

Rutina Wesley: The actress, who plays Tara on HBO's vampirefest True Blood, consistently delivers the funniest performance on premium cable. "Blah, blah, snore" has become a go-to phrase in the Staples household. Wesley graduated from the University of Evansville and Juilliard, so it's unclear whether she has a rooting interest. But since her show is based in fictional Bon Temps, La., (get it, Good Times?) we're going to assume it's LSU.

Bar Rafaeli: She's from Israel, so she probably knows squat about college football. But she's already on SI's payroll, and in these lean economic times, everyone needs to pitch in a little extra.