10

I guarantee you somebody’s butt crack is sweating right now.

https://twitter.com/#!/CharlesRobinson/status/103499321923747843

Bets?  Miami would be the obvious one, but maybe it’s something out of the blue.

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UPDATE:  It’s Miami, alright.  And it’s bad.

… Shapiro said he violated NCAA rules with the knowledge or direct participation of at least six coaches – Clint Hurtt, Jeff Stoutland and Aubrey Hill on the football staff, and Frank Haith, Jake Morton and Jorge Fernandez on the basketball staff. Multiple sources told Yahoo! Sports Shapiro also violated NCAA rules with football assistant Joe Pannunzio, although the booster refused to answer any questions about that relationship.

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UPDATE #2:  Orson Charles got invited to see Shapiro’s closet.

Death, taxes and comments about Mike Bobo

You want a surefire way to generate traffic at a Georgia football blog?  This usually works:

Georgia’s offense has been maddening over the last few years, hasn’t it? Think of all the stalled drives, all of the predictable play calls — first and bomb, anyone? — and the lack of any cogent identity. We’re calling play action passes on obvious passing downs without even establishing the run. We’re running microback Carlton Thomas right up the middle into a loaded box. Don’t even get me started on all the Wild Dawg nonsense. The only thing left to do is let Mark Richt take back the playcalling duties until we can hire a new OC, right?

To the keyboards, people!

Seriously, there are a couple of things worth pointing to from that post.  Firstly, I think this should be taken in context:

… On average, Coach Bobo’s offenses have been more highly ranked nationally. Coach Bobo’s best year (2007) was better than Coach Richt’s (2002). Coach Bobo’s worst year (2009) was better than three of Coach Richt’s five years (2001, 2003, 2004).

That’s not an entirely fair comparison.  2001 saw Richt installing a completely new offense with Jim Donnan’s players.  Bobo has had the luxury of refining a system already in place.  And that 2003 offense was the least talented bunch of Richt’s tenure in Athens – a very green and shaky offensive line, no established running back and an oft-injured receiving corps.

Secondly, though, while I may not agree totally with that comparison, this next point is spot on.

… Unfortunately, Coach Bobo’s tenure as OC has been worse than Coach Richt’s in the most meaningful statistic, wins. But why is that? Take a look at the defenses each dealt with: Coach Richt benefitted from defenses that were no worse than 16th nationally (with three years of top 5 defenses). Coach Bobo has never had a defense better than 28th nationally, and, more often than not, he was trying to overcome defenses that were in the bottom half nationwide. We’ve generally scored points in bunches, but, unfortunately, over the last half decade our opponents have been scoring even more.

There’s a reason Willie Martinez is gone and Mike Bobo isn’t.  It’s the same reason we shouldn’t fret so much about the situation at running back, but should instead worry more about what’s happening on the other side of the ball.  If Grantham can’t get the defense back to pre-2007 levels this season, I suspect that even Isaiah Crowell being named SEC freshman of the year would come as little consolation for us when all is said and done.

If there’s a new sheriff in town, who is it?

Mark Richt read a book this summer.  It’s a book about a bus.  No, not this bus…

but this one.

… Richt earlier this summer provided players a copy of Jon Gordon’s book “The Energy Bus”, which offers “10 rules to fuel your life, work and team with positive energy.”

Richt heard about the book from Atlanta Falcons coach Mike Smith when he spoke at UGA’s spring high school coaching clinic.

It seems to have taken off.

… Receiver Marlon Brown wore a “Get On The Bus” T-shirt last week that on the back had an illustration of a bus with Richt driving it to the Georgia Dome, a place the Bulldogs hope to reach for the Southeastern Conference championship game for the first time since 2005.

Players are wearing “No Complaining” bracelets. So is Richt.

Freshman tailback Isaiah Crowell even wore one in his hair when he met with reporters last week.

Those who do complain and aren’t positive are called “Energy Vampires,” and their pictures are posted in the locker room with horns and fangs added.

Maybe accentuating the positive is exactly what this team needs after the way last season ended.  On the other hand…

Cornelius Washington is out of jail – some players’ word for the injured players who have to spend practice working with strength and conditioning coach Joe Tereshinski. Washington is coming off a hamstring injury, and for the first week of practice he and several teammates were doing bench presses, push-ups and other assorted work on a lower field away from their teammates.

“That’s the point, keeping guys out of wanting to be hurt and staying on the injured list too long,” Washington said, smiling. “We call it jail, it’s like prison. We made a joke, ‘Oh I’m out on parole, on good behavior.'”

When do we start hearing “good cop, bad cop” comparisons?

Can a coach be Croom’d if Croom isn’t coaching?

CFN’s Russ Mitchell’s “outside-the-box” prediction has Mark Richt not even making the trip to Knoxville this year.

Bad tempers make for bad policy.

So some of the conference commissioners aren’t playing well with each other.

… Tension is high among some commissioners, as Texas A&M of the Big 12 appears headed to the Southeastern Conference in the near future. The Big 12’s Dan Beebe and the SEC’s Mike Slive had a heated phone conversation last week about a potential move, according to a high-ranking college official with direct knowledge of the call.

No worries, mon.  Mark Emmert is from the NCAA and he’s here to help.

Mark Emmert, the president of the N.C.A.A., reached out to several top college officials Monday, suggesting a meeting to discuss a less cannibalistic and more collegial way to approach conference expansion.

Is it just me, or does this strike anybody else as a dicey proposition?  Where does collegiality stop and collusion begin?  For some reason, as I read this, another story jumped to mind:

Soon after being elected commissioner of baseball, Peter Ueberroth addressed the owners at a meeting in St. Louis. Ueberroth called the owners “damned dumb” for being willing to lose millions of dollars in order to win a World Series. Later, at a separate meeting with the general managers in Tarpon Springs, Florida, Ueberroth said that it was “not smart” to sign long-term contracts. The message was obvious—hold down salaries by any means necessary. It later emerged that the owners agreed to keep contracts down to three years for position players and two for pitchers.

That worked out famously.

A final settlement of the three collusion cases was reached in November 1990. The owners agreed to pay the players $280 million, with the MLBPA deciding how to distribute the money to the damaged players.

You’re a college football grand poobah.  You’ve had all sorts of politicians sniffing around your cash cow sport lately, making mouth noises about antitrust enforcement.  If you have any sense, sitting down with a group of your peers to discuss ways to, well, avoid competition shouldn’t strike you as the smartest move in the book.  (It’s no wonder Emmert told conference officials that he needed clearance from the N.C.A.A.’s lawyers before the meeting could be held.)

The NCAA and antitrust law.  Yeah, there’s no reason to think this won’t turn out well.

I shouldn’t laugh…

… but sometimes I can’t help it.

Cornelius Washington, talking about Ray Drew after Drew’s scooter mishap:

“I don’t think he’s going to be on a scooter for a while,” Washington said.