Sucks to be you, Nick

So, what about it, Nicky? This one was just the cherry on the sundae, wasn't it? How many is this now, nine? Nine players from your squad arrested on charges ranging from disorderly conduct to assault to cocaine distribution in a year's time. This is some pickle you're in, Nicky. Miami looking not-so-bad now?

It's bad enough to be you already. You have to live down the rep of being a liar or being disloyal because you took the Bama job in the first place. You have to justify your ridiculous salary. You have to resurrect a dying program and restore it to glory. You have to deal with what is arguably the most demanding, impatient and sometimes delusional fanbase in all of college sports. It can't be fun a lot of days. And now you have to explain how you said you were going to reinstate discipline to the team and yet nine of your guys now have mug shots on record in Tuscaloosa County. In a year's time.

But while I have no sympathy for Jimmy Johns, I do have sympathy for you, Nicky. I feel bad you're expected to create something magic and perfect from Mike Shula's mixed bag of recruits who were accustomed to ice cream cone discipline for four years. I feel bad that by the time you are actually able to field a team entirely of your own recruits and who have been guided by your standards of discipline from the start, your fans will probably be calling for your head based on the bad behavior of these other thugs. I feel bad that you're expected to make Bama perfect again overnight when that isn't possible.

But I feel better when I see you kick these guys off the team, suspend them for games and dish out other punishment. It tells me you might really care about how the program runs. So we'll see.