Texas defensive backs coach Duane Akina mic'd up

Duane Akina has enough skins for four walls through a dozen years as Texas' defensive backs coach. He's produced Thorpe Award winners in Michael Huff and Aaron Ross. That pair, plus Quentin Jammer, Michael Griffin, Earl Thomas and Kenny Vaccaro have been first-round picks under Akina's tuteleage. Nathan Vasher, Cedric Griffin, Tarell Brown, Aaron Williams, Curtis Brown and Chykie Brown have also carved out NFL careers after playing for Akina. In fact, 11 of Akina's 12 starting cornerbacks at Texas have spent time on NFL rosters.

You get the point.

The Hawaii native never fails to be the loudest, most energetic coach on the field and never fails to get the absolute most out of his players. 

Watch the Dean of DB U in action during the Longhorns' spring drills. 

This may be the best captain video made yet...but you decide

New Mexico started the trend with their video announcing the team captains, but Division III Cal Lutheran may have put together the best one yet.

We'll leave the decision up to you. Of the three schools we've featured that have released videos naming their captains (New Mexico, D-II Seton Hill, and D-III Cal Lutheran), which one is your favorite?

Each of these are really well done, and New Mexico deserves all the credit for the initial idea. 

Add another track to the NCAA's greatest hits album

If you spent any time watching the NCAA Tournament this spring, surely you saw this commercial or its variations at least once. 

"Think of the NCAA as a spirit squad cheering for student-athletes at every big event and every small one," the narrator says. "Just know we're always there for student-athletes."

Please allow me to pause this column as I go lose my lunch.

The narrator did have one thing exactly right. The NCAA is always there, never missing an opportunity to legislate student-athletes out of a once in a lifetime experience. The latest chapter to the NCAA's catalogue came over the weekend in Colorado Springs, as Prince Harry stopped by the Air Force football facility to meet head coach Troy Calhoun and exactly zero Falcons players. 

As the Colorado Springs Gazette details, Prince Harry's visit was such a big deal it was kept under wraps from just about anyone that wasn't on a need-to-know basis. Air Force was only able to get Calhoun on the field with the British royal after applying for a special waver from the NCAA, where he threw passes to a band of lucky intramural players. 

Actual Air Force players were kept away because of NCAA rules "limiting athletes' interactions with celebrities in a team capacity." Presumably this rule is on the books to keep schools like USC and UCLA from shuttling in the likes of Snoop Dogg to meet with players, because otherwise recruits and players would have no idea those schools sat in the shadow of Hollywood, right? And if the NCAA was ever going to make an exception to this rule, why not for a group of student-athletes that sacrifice years of their life at the very least, and oftentimes it's a whole lot more than that, to serve this country. 

The NCAA should have used an ounce of common sense should have told the bureaucrats in Indianapolis that Prince Harry has a lot more important things to do than touring the world stumping for Troy Calhoun and the Air Force Falcons. The British government doesn't make Prince Harry's schedule available to me, but my ounce of common sense says Harry won't be trekking back to Colorado Springs any time soon, and certainly not while this crop of Falcons players is at the Academy. Add it all up and you get yet another unnecessary mark in a long line of over-legislated blunders by an NCAA so burdened with procedure and regulation it can hardly move. Air Force players were denied an opportunity that likely won't ever come again, a chance to meet one of the most widely known people on the Earth, to tell their kids 30 years from now about how they once shook the hand of the prince of England. 

I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound like a very enthusiastic spirit squad to me. It sounds like an organization so addicted to red tape, it's completely enveloped in it. 

Mom and Dad will eat this Penn State recruiting video up

In the realm of recruiting videos, big hits, flashy effects and catchy music. Mom and dad just want to know if the coach sitting on their living room couch will send their son back home with a degree in hand four or five years later. Kids love the sizzle, parents want the substance.

With that in mind, Penn State cameras followed around a handful of Nittany Lions football players as they walked across the stage this weekend. Penn State set an athletic department record with 109 graduates, 18 of those being football lettermen - including seven who will return this fall.  They won't find it on their son's iPod, but that's music to Mom and Dad's ears. 

Video: This is how Oregon makes room for their 2014 gear

When you have Nike pumping more money, ideas, and equipment through your doors than any other University in the country, you naturally have quite a bit left over.

To get rid of that stuff, Oregon's equipment guys put everything together and price it to sell. We imagine that they kind of have to in order to make enough room for next season's stuff.

It goes without saying that the Ducks gear (everything from socks, to helmets, to stuff exclusive to coaches and players) being priced to sell is going to draw hundreds and hundreds of people. Many people are even camping out to be among the first to get their hands on some gear.

Why doesn't every school in the country do something like this? Fans and the community would eat it up.

Photo: Spartan Stadium is getting a $20 million makeover

By the kickoff of the 2014 season, Michigan State's Spartan Stadium is going to look drastically different than it did just a few short seasons ago, pending final approval.

With one of the biggest video boards in the country going up before the start of the 2012 season, and approved plans to break ground on a building at the north end of the stadium after this season, Spartan Stadium will go through a much needed updat for 2014.

The new two story building's lower level will house locker rooms for both home and visiting teams and coaches, a locker room for officials, an equipment room and media center, according to the Lansing State Journal. Leading up to this addition media interviews were done in portable trailers and there were no locker rooms for game officials. Needless to say, this will be a big upgrade.

The upper level will have new restrooms and concession areas connected to the already existing concourse of Spartan Stadium, as well as a recruiting room for all sports, where coaches from different sports can host players during games and the football staff can catch up with their recruits after games.

During our Midwest tour a few weeks ago, Michigan State's staff shared their excitement about the new facility with us, especially with regards to the recruiting room. The new concession area will be models for what the University wants to do in the coming years with all concession stands and the recruiting room is going to be an impressive, convenient place for coaches to mingle with recruits and their families after games.

Take a look at what the new facility will look like below.

Mic'd up with Indiana strength coach Mark Hill

 Interesting mic'd up session here with Indiana head strength and conditioning coach Mark Hill.

Coach Hill talks about why he believes in combining different weight room philosophies to fit his style, and his day to day duties as a strength coach beyond his responsibilities in the weight room.

The Scoop on What You Missed This Week

We had a great time at the DFO conference this week. Can't wait to do it again next year.

The Starting Five: Our five (okay, six) best stories of the week.

- Speaking of the DFO conference, here are our dispatches from inside the meetings: How to Plan a Bowl Trip and How to Build a New Facility.

- The College Football Hall of Fame welcomed its newest members on Tuesday. We counted 29 current coaches with a good shot at joining the Hall some day. 

- Note to current Texas Tech players: Kliff Kingsbury knows what you want to do during your down time and he does not approve. 

- Got $11 million laying around? If so, you could be in the market for Nick Saban's vacation home. 

- Mike Leach had a great point about what separates the SEC from the Big 12 and Pac-12, and you can see for yourself the next time you go to Orange Julius. 

The Film Room: Each week we post great videos from all levels of football across the country. Here's a sampling of the best from this week.

- If you're a high school position coach, this is a great way to set expectations among your players. 

- Mic'd up: Texas Tech running backs coach Mike Jinks, N.C. State cornerbacks coach Richard McNutt and Washington State defensive line coach Joe Salave'a. 

- Great 2013 season trailers for Ohio State, North Texas and Dartmouth. 

- Saving the best for last, Stanford linebackers: #PartyInTheBackfield.

News, news, news: We had to change this sub-section due to the events of this week.

- The world could exist as is for another 4,000 years and we'll never see another coach as successful as Larry Kehres. 

- Congratulations to Wayne Hardin and Bill McCartney, the two newest College Football Hall of Fame coaches. 

- The Mountain West will have 22 games on ESPN properties this season. Why that's a much needed step forward for that conference. 

- UCF could be adding black helmets this fall. 

- Arizona released 13 new uniform combinations this week.  

- There's a better than 50 percent chance your state's highest-paid public employee is a college football coach.