HOOVER, Ala. - While most Southeastern Conference football coaches made it clear they don't like Internet message boards, Georgia's Mark Richt admitted there might be one advantage.

“I hate to admit it, but I think some of the Internet conversations in recruiting are probably healthy for us,” said Richt during the SEC Media Days last week. “Because if a kid is going to go to any given school and just spill the beans as to everything that happened while I was there, I think it's more accountability for us. If a program is trying to do things that they ought not do, there's a darn good chance that kid is going to say it.”

The Internet issue became a national story when Kentucky recently self-reported a NCAA violation because several fans posted messages, and pictures, for basketball recruit Patrick Patterson on his MySpace.com website.

Kentucky coach Rich Brooks said he tries to make sure his players understand that anything they post on the Internet reflects on the entire university.

“I think that's a problem that every parent has to deal with in today's society. Certainly every coach of any sport has to deal with it because it's interesting,” Brooks said. “I asked my team once, ‘What do you think? You're just sending this stuff to your friend, five or six buddies, somebody like that” Anybody can go on there.'”

Brooks warns his players that employers now look on personal websites for background information as well.

“What we've told them, and it's basically filtered down from the athletic director to every sport, that you have to be responsible for what's on your personal space on the computer pages. If it doesn't reflect kindly on our university, there will be consequences because of that,” Brooks said.

Kentucky junior linebacker Wesley Woodyard said players didn't fully understand the consequences of posting personal information on the Internet before Brooks and athletics director Mitch Barnhart talked to them.

“We respect what Mitch Barnhart tells us,” Woodyard said. “If we put something bad on the Internet, he wanted us to clear it up. If you give a college student freedom, he will take advantage of it. We sometimes don't think things look that bad on the Internet, but we also don't realize some things are disrespectful to our elders and we cleaned up things on the Internet.”

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LARRY VAUGHT
Danville Advocate-Messenger