since 99% of hte use cases are pulling sort, rows, and start from some SOlrParams, that use case should probably be refactored into a utility method as well.
While we are at it, we should limit consolidate the null sort checking. See: http://www.nabble.com/Sorting-problem-tf4762114.html#a13627492
Currently for "score desc", the parsing utility returns a null SortSpec, then has to create a new one to attach rows/offset
ryan
