CFB AM: John Jay coach allegedly encouraged players to hit referee

On Tuesday, we covered the John Jay High School story, in which two players attacked a referee during a game last week in Marble Falls, Texas.

A spokesperson from the Austin Football Officials Association said regarding the two suspended players, "The first thing we want is that those two kids never play football again."

Now there are a couple new updates on this story: The two players are alleging the referee directed racial slurs at them prior to the attack, school district officials said Tuesday.  

Meanwhile, Brian T. Woods, the school district's superintendent, said at a news conference that an assistant coach has been placed on paid leave while the district investigates allegations that the coach "suggested retaliation against the referee for missed calls."

So are the two kids lying about the racial slur in an effort to cover themselves? Maybe. Is it possible they're telling the truth AND the coach also ordered retaliation for missed calls? Maybe. But those seem like two very different explanations for the same outcome.

We may get a response soon from the referee, Robert Watts, in light of the racial slur allegations, but he has already indicated he won't be saying or doing anything without legal counsel and is in the process of determining his next step, which may include pressing criminal charges. (Update: Watts' attorney spoke publicly for the first time, calling the incident "heinous" and "premeditated crime" and denying that Watts used racial slurs.)

The school district will hold a disciplinary hearing for the two suspended players and are treating this incident as an assault on a school official. It's also in the process of filing a complaint regarding the racial slur with the Texas Association of Sports Officials.

In terms of possible charges being filed against the players, police said their investigation could take a week, so we have a little bit of time left it seems until we'll know more on that front. We also haven't heard any explanation yet from John Jay head coach Gary Gutierrez, which I'm guessing we won't until the entire investigation is complete and discipline for all parties involved has been determined.

If you've yet to see the video of this incident, here it is along with Mike Pereira's take:

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

The SEC now has 10 ranked teams. The latest AP poll is out after Week 1, and the SEC totally dominated it as expected after watching the league's performance last weekend. Ohio State remained the unanimous No. 1 team, with Alabama moving up to No. 1 and two new teams entering the mix --€“ Texas A&M at No. 16 and Mississippi State at No. 25. The rest of the SEC's reps in the top 25: Auburn (No. 6), Georgia (No. 10), LSU (No. 14), Ole Miss (No. 17), Arkansas (No. 18), Missouri (No. 20) and Tennessee (No. 23). Now feel free to return to the weekly bitching about how the league is overrated. All of this will be played out on the field.

Texas changed play-callers after one week. We mentioned Charlie Strong's pointed comments about Texas' offense yesterday, so it was no surprise at all when he announced later on Tuesday that he was removing the play-calling duties from offensive coordinator Shawn Watson and offensive line coach Joe Wickline and giving them to wide receivers coach Jay Norvell, with Strong himself taking the play-calling lead. The reason here is that Texas wants to run a more up-tempo offense -- which it completely failed to do in its 38-3 loss at Notre Dame last week -- and Norvell has experience from his last job at Oklahoma in a faster offense. We'll see if this makes a difference for the Longhorns, but here's the problem: Texas still has, you know, the same unsettled quarterback position and the same set of players. So good luck, Jay.

The gold watch story. Virginia Tech's J.C. Coleman caught some eyes on social media the other night by wearing a gold watch on his wrist while playing Ohio State. How this is even allowed I have no idea -- can't you pretty easily cut somebody with a watch? --€“ but Coleman was asked why he wore it and his response was classic. "It's my time."

This ridiculous Kansas State band story. Kansas State's marching band director was suspended and the school will pay a $5,000 fine after the Wildcats' halftime show this past weekend that included a Starship Enterprise that looked very much like a penis flying into a Kansas Jayhawk. K-State now has to get approval for all future halftime shows after the "Big 12 warned of potential sportsmanship and ethical conduct violations." Really? This has become a much bigger deal than it needed to be.

New Audible podcast. Bruce Feldman and Stewart Mandel discussed all things Week 1 on a new episode of The Audible, including why Ohio State's offense is unfairly good. Listen to the pod here:

LASTLY

* Joined "The Eric Hasseltine Show" yesterday for our weekly college football chat, with Memphis Tigers' radio man Forrest Goodman filling in. Here's the link to the segment if interested (starts around 2:30).

* Penn State buried the game tape of its loss to Temple. Like, dug a hole in the ground and put the tape in there.

* Michigan State is reportedly bringing 200 different recruits (across sports) to the Oregon game this weekend, making it the biggest campus recruiting event ever for the Spartans.

Have a great Wednesday, everyone.

Teddy Mitrosilis works in social content development at FOX Sports Digital. Follow him on Twitter @TMitrosilis and email him at tmitrosilis@gmail.com.