Friday morning buffet

Chock full o’ goodness.

• In declining to match Florida’s move to raise ticket prices for this year’s Cocktail Party game, Greg McGarity tells his old boss, “It takes two of us to tango, so to speak.”
• Dan Mullen has no regrets, but admits to “mixed emotions” about the recruiting of Cam Newton.  Let’s see if he feels the same way a year from now.
• Toughest.  Punishment.  Ever. – “Later that school year, Jones failed to comply with a university directive that he complete 40 hours of community service after he was found in a dorm room where marijuana was present. As punishment, the university prohibited him from using his student ID card to charge items at the campus bookstore.” Go, and sin no more!
• Georgia places five on Phil Steele’s list of top 2011 recruits.
• Paying outsized salaries to college coordinators:  it’s not just for Texas and the SEC anymore.  (I bet RichRod wonders where that money was when he was the head coach.)
• Speaking of Michigan, ahhh, what might have been.
• The national media is beginning to have a very different take on Mike Hamilton’s future than the local media.
• Chris Low says that Mike Slive is ready to take on the subject of oversigning at this year’s SEC spring meetings.  How would you like to be a fly on the wall for that?

About these ads

A tribute to a man with a dream… and a pair of red panties.

This one goes in the “damn, son, I don’t think I would have said that” department.

Richt: "We also wanted this building to have what Damon Evans called the wow factor."—
Tim Tucker (@ajcuga) February 24, 2011

Their mascot can kick your mascot’s ass.

These guns are deadly, people.

Either that, or that Vandy student validated every nerd cliché you know.

Let them eat cake.

You know, you read this thoughtful series over at Team Speed Kills about whether college athletes should receive some form of compensation which doesn’t threaten the NCAA’s amateurism standards, see this eminently reasonable point…

The thing is, A.J. Green might have needed the money. And with a better system in place, A.J. Green — who is not known as the kind of guy who goes around breaking rules — might have been able to avoid the incident. That is a case for tweaking the system, not a wholesale revision of what college football has always been…

and start to nod your head in agreement.

That is, until you discover that Mark Emmert doesn’t give a damn what you think about it.  Because he inhabits a different planet than you do.

… He doesn’t believe that infractions such as taking money from a prospective agent or selling sports memorabilia stem from athletes being broke, as is widely the perception.

Right.  It’s not like kids who come from lower class families (or even worse circumstances) and are now expected as a matter of routine to give up their summers for “voluntary” training and summer school could possibly need money any more than the schools which make up Emmert’s constituency do.

Next up: Overcompliance.com

John Infante points out that a college football program can find a competitive advantage in almost anything if it has sufficient resources.

Even in Montana they know who Mike Hamilton is.

Stewart Mandel answers his own questions.

… But what of Hamilton? Under his watch, one of the nation’s proudest athletic programs has deteriorated into one of its most shameful. Will Tennessee chancellor Jimmy Cheek go along with the illusion that the football mess can be blamed entirely on that mercenary scoundrel Kiffin, and that reducing Pearl’s salary last fall was an adequate show of force? Or, will he do the right thing: recognize that Hamilton was ultimately Pearl’s and Kiffin’s greatest enabler; that Hamilton’s department is a textbook example of the risks of allowing splashy head coaches the freedom to act as their own freewheeling autocrats; and that ultimately Hamilton and his whole department should be replaced and rebuilt?

… Rarely does the NCAA come down specifically on the athletic director, possibly because of his or her lack of direct involvement in the case or possibly because many ADs play an active role in the governance of college athletics. Just last November, amid the NCAA’s investigation, Hamilton was named to the executive committee of the Division I-A Athletic Directors Association. He’s clearly respected by his peers.

But Hamilton, who succeeded former Vols football coach Doug Dickey in the AD’s chair in 2003, represents a common dichotomy among modern-day athletic directors: He’s a businessman first, manager second. His background before his current gig was primarily in fundraising and marketing, which can be both a blessing and a curse. Under his watch, Tennessee has more than doubled its fundraising revenue, struck lucrative licensing and endorsement deals and undergone massive facilities upgrades…

So ADs don’t turn on their own and Hamilton raises a boatload of money for his school.

I think that adds up to a “hells, no”.

The best laid plans of mice and Vols

Tennessee has received the NCAA’s Notice of Allegations.  Here’s what that includes with regard to a certain former head coach and staff no longer associated with the football program:

The notice contains the following allegations of violation of NCAA rules against the football program:

• By former members of the football coaching staff: impermissible telephone contact (16 total calls) with prospective student-athletes from Jan. 3-9, 2010.
• By a former assistant football coach: allegations relating to impermissible contacts with prospective student-athletes.
• By a former head football coach: failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance within the football program and failure to monitor the activities regarding compliance of several assistant coaches have also been made against a former head football coach, and permitting a football recruiting intern to make impermissible contact with high school staff during a recruiting visit.

Junior scores with a failure to promote and a failure to monitor.  That’s gonna make Pat Haden happy.

The basketball program was also hit with a failure to promote and a failure to monitor, which should raise the question in the eyes of the impartial observer about what Mike Hamilton’s concept of managing an athletic department amounts to.  That’s not something we’re likely to hear an answer to for a while.

… The University has a deadline of May 21, 2011 to formulate and submit a response to this Notice of Allegations to the NCAA. It is anticipated that the University’s appearance before the Committee on Infractions will be during the committee’s meeting on June 10-11, 2011.

Because the University and Athletic Department are now in the response phase of this process, there will be no further public comments regarding this matter by any University official until this process is complete.

Any way you want to measure it, Aaron Murray had a good year.

I guess it’s Statistics Day at Get The Picture.  College Football Outsiders tipped me off to this post at California Golden Blogs, about a different metric for assessing quarterback efficiency.  Given the nature of the college game these days, this makes a lot of sense:

… Utah State sports economist David Berri devised a more intuitive formula that addresses some of the common criticisms lobbed at the passer efficiency rating.  Berri calls his measure the QB Score and it looks like this:

QB Score = Total Yards – (3 x Plays) – (50 x Turnovers)

The traditional passer efficiency rating tends to take on a “more is better” approach: if players throw a bunch of TDs and hundreds of yards, they can get away with a fairly high turnover rate.   Berri’s measure has a different philosophy: if you generate yards and avoid turnovers, you will be rewarded…

A conference by conference application of Berri’s formula yielded this for the SEC:

SEC
Player	QB Score	Efficiency Rating
Cam Newton, Auburn	1645	182.0
Greg McElroy, Alabama	1106	169.0
Aaron Murray, Georgia	729	154.5
Ryan Mallett, Arkansas	630	163.7
Mike Hartline, Kentucky	482	146.4
Chris Relf, Mississippi St	360	141.0
Ryan Aplin, Arkansas St	123	133.3
Jarrett Lee, LSU	80	119.9
Matt Simms, Tennessee	-118	129.3
Stephen Garcia, South Carolina	-181	148.7
Larry Smith, Vanderbilt	-296	94.3
Tyler Bray, Tennessee	-486	142.7
Jared Funk, Vanderbilt	-581	102.0
Jeremiah Masoli, Ole Miss	-618	121.1
Jordan Jefferson, LSU	-635	114.7
Spencer Keith, Kentucky	-689	111.3
John Brantley, Florida	-693	116.4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice year, John Brantley.

Seriously, though, Aaron Murray acquits himself quite nicely there, better than Ryan Mallett.  And notice how big a gap appears between Murray and last year’s other heralded freshman quarterback, Tyler Bray.

One related item worth noting:  Kellen Moore is good.  You would think that Cam Newton’s running ability would have pushed him past Moore in QB Score, but that wasn’t the case.  Let’s hope Todd Grantham comes up with a few wrinkles for the Georgia Dome.

Georgia and big plays

Chris Low has a post up about which SEC teams have been the best at big plays (20 yards or more) over the past three seasons.  Georgia ranks third during that period, behind only Florida and Auburn, with 210 big plays.

What’s noteworthy is the trend – unfortunately, it’s downward for the Dawgs (conference rank in parentheses):

• 2008 – 83 big plays (1st)
• 2009 – 65 big plays (4th)
• 2010 – 62 big plays (6th)

My first thought on seeing that was about Matt Stafford’s arm.  No doubt a good part of that drop can be attributed to going from Stafford’s ability to go deep with Joe Cox’.  But take a look at these numbers from cfbstats.com:

• 2008 – 21 big rushing plays (2nd)
• 2009 – 17 big rushing plays (6th)
• 2010 – 12 big rushing plays (12th)

And now you know why Isaiah Crowell was a high priority in this year’s recruiting class.

Wednesday morning buffet

It’s bound to be better than whatever Harvey Updyke is consuming this morning.

• Should be another fun day for Mike Hamilton.
• Georgia’s 2012 recruiting class isn’t shaping up to be a large one.
• Someone needs to tell Zach Dillard about the First Rule of Holes.
• That whole “Urban Meyer cutting financial ties with Florida” thing?  Never mind.
• I’m having a hard time figuring out why the NCAA hyperventilated over this, but seemingly yawned about this.  If I were a Michigan fan, I’d be screaming bloody murder.
• The difference between Cam Newton and the GPOOE™?  “I see myself as an entertainer-slash-icon” is something the former says about himself.  Tebow leaves it up to his followers to say things like that.
• Matt Melton takes a brief look at homefield advantage.