I'm sure that Powe thought he was just being clever and he wouldn't be the first person to think he could outfox a police officer by "playing" dumb. (Once the cop informed him he was getting the citation whether he signed it or not, Powe complied with the order.) But this incident becomes a little more suspect when you consider that it took Powe two years to even be admitted to Ole Miss because of academic problems.

Powe signed with Ole Miss in February of 2005, but had to spend a year at Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia when the school denied him admission. Then after working to get his grades and test scores up, the NCAA still denied him eligibility twice and he filed a lawsuit. (That was later dropped and he enrolled in 2007.)

Oh, and there was this too: His mother was quoted in legal papers as saying, "Jerrell really is a good child, but he just can't read." That might have been what raised some concerns.

Anyway, Powe finally got join the Rebel football team last fall, but was briefly a poster child for everything that's wrong (or right) with college sports and the awesome "diploma mills" that seemingly only serve to make athletes eligible for games. Powe has been described in the media as "learning disabled" and he probably can write his own name, but the fact that a college football player being unable to read is not an implausible story probably tells us something. As does coach Houston Nutt's blustering denial:

Of course he can read, how do you think he's getting through college?" Nutt said. "Now he just needs to learn to keep his mouth shut."

Yeah, dude. Ixnay on the illiteracyay! (Do you think he reads Pig Latin?)

UM's Powe jokes; Nutt's not laughing [The Clarion-Ledger]
Ole Miss DT Tells Arresting Officer He Can't Read [Brooks]
Related: Powe cleared to play for Ole Miss [Daily Mississippian]

The most notorious example, of course, is the Houston Nutt cell-phone FOIA, but now one fan is actually suing the university president and chancellor for fraud, claiming they mishandled the Mitch Mustain situation.

He claims Sugg and White knew of the shady circumstances surrounding the e-mail, and failed to launch an extensive, independent (keyword there) investigation of the matter. Among the actions White did take were sending Miss Beckwith Campbell e-mails suggesting her son just ignore threatening e-mails calling for his transfer. Terry's lawsuit alleges that Nutt's contract should be terminated because he has failed to comply with NCAA regulations regarding coaches.

Arkansas blogger The Hog Blogger wonders if this isn't fostering the, uh, most flattering image of Razorbacks fans, but without getting into the particulars of matters, we find it rather thrilling to watch a fan base rally itself — using only the organizing principles of the Internet and some good old-fashioned lawyerin' — and empower up against what they see as a corrupt regime. And by "corrupt," we mean "not recruiting well enough."

Here We Go Again [The Hog Blogger]
Ever Wonder Who Houston Nutt Talks To? [Deadspin]

So you know the crazed Razorbacks message board fan who went through the impressive measure of FOIAing coach Houston Nutt's cellphone records, discovering that he had been text-messaging a local female reporter? Well, his quest to rid Arkansas of Nutt is not over; as you can see in this video, he's now accosting Nutt at practice. We are so glad we're not Houston Nutt right now.

Ever Wonder Whom Houston Nutt Talks To? Today's Your Lucky Day [Deadspin]

(UPDATE: We've been informed that the guy in this video is not the same guy who FOIA'd all the records. We bet they're friends, though.)

The "haters" North of us have their armies busy 24-7, attacking us and constantly blindsiding us every chance they can. It doesn't take much to generate the "mob mentality" these days. At this point, I have lost track of the false allegations against Houston and the number of resignation/firing deadlines that have come and gone. I know that anyone with any intelligence can see through all of this every time a new story rolls around. And NO, Houston has not had an affair with Donna Bragg! ... Everyone that knows me, knows I'm not nearly as nice as my husband. I tell it like I see it and don't add much sugarcoating.

We're not gonna get into the complexities of Arkansas football because, frankly, we don't care, but we'd like to note that a program that has fans who file Freedom Of Information Act requests on their coaches to find out who they're calling on their cellphones, inspiring their wives to fire off spirited defenses of their family lives ... well, jeez, what the heck is going on down there?

By the way, if we're a coach at a public university, and we're using the company cellphone ... we're probably a little terrified right now.

Diana Nutt Strikes Back [The Hogs, The Hill And The SEC]
Ever Wonder Whom Houston Nutt Talks To? Today's Your Lucky Day [Deadspin]

The full report is right here. (Warning: PDF.) We're not as well-versed in the land of Houston Nutt-dom as perhaps we should be, but Loser With Socks breaks it down, detailing text messages Nutt sent to a booster who wasn't big fans of Mitch Mustain and some suspicious contact Nutt had with a female sportscaster. Because Nutt is a public employee, this all technically public information, which is making pretty much every public head coach in America lightly urinate themselves a bit today.

We can't quite make heads or tails of all this, but we certainly hope no one ever subpoenas our phone records. Call to mom ... downloading "On A Plain" ringtone ... call to mom ... 976-FURRY ... Yeah, not good.

Quick, Hide The Records [Arkansas Blog]
The Frank Broyles Legacy Continued [Loser With Socks]
Houston Nutt Documents [PDF]

(UPDATE: Every Day Should Be Saturday is all over this as well, with much gusto.)