Suck it up, boys.

Bret Bielema sees all those no-huddle attacks spreading (see what I did there?) across the SEC and has… wait for it… health concerns.  No, not about his defensive coordinator’s career, but about the players.  No, really.

“Not to get on the coattails of some of the other coaches, there is a lot of truth that the way offensive philosophies are driven now, there’s times where you can’t get a defensive substitution in for 8, 10, 12 play drives,” Bielema said. “That has an effect on safety of that student-athlete, especially the bigger defensive linemen, that is really real.”

Shit’s getting really real there.  His solution is a rules change that would allow a 15-second substitution period after every first down to allow defenses to make substitutions.  (Bielema, by the way, is a member of the Playing Rules Oversight Panel.)

Needless to say, some of his peers who are invested in the faster paced game are not exactly enamored with that.

“I’m not for that at all,” Freeze said. “If the offense doesn’t sub, the defense shouldn’t sub, and that’s the way the rules are.”

The article cites Saban, Spurrier and Muschamp in support of Bielema’s position.  That makes sense in light of Bill Connelly’s post on offensive pace in the 2012 season.  Take a look and you’ll find Alabama, Florida and South Carolina running in the bottom quarter of the national pack in that department and Wisconsin, Bielema’s old stomping grounds, only slightly faster.

I would love to hear Mark Richt’s take on this.  Georgia ranks 98th on Bill’s chart, but Bobo does mix in some no-huddle stuff.  And don’t forget that Richt, technically speaking, was ahead of the game with no-huddle, only to see the conference shut it down.

Anyway, I don’t see Bielema’s crusade going anywhere.  And as Spurrier points out, there’s an obvious way to deal with the problem:

“Of course, the answer is for the other team’s offense to stay on the field and get the other fast-paced team stay on the sideline,” Spurrier said.

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Wednesday morning buffet

Lots of good stuff today…

• The NCAA is considering an accounting trick – counting student fees not only as subsidy, but also as revenue generated by the athletics department – to make schools’ bottom lines look better.  I’m sure students who have to take out loans to pay those mandatory fees think that’s just peachy.
• There are many reasons why this isn’t such a great idea.  But I can’t help but wonder if it would make money.  If it did, at least for some schools, and they felt they needed the additional cash flow, how long to you think it would take for them to launch?
• If the NCAA losing the O’Bannon case isn’t such a big deal, then why are people like Jim Delany predicting the apocalypse?
• And while I’m on the subject of O’Bannon, hell hath no fury like a shoe marketer scorned.
• Is it just me, or is Athlon’s coaches talk feature a lot less snarky since Tuberville left the SEC?
• The Division I-A Faculty Athletic Representatives come out against expanding the playoffs beyond four schools.  I’m sure that will make a huge difference in the long run.
• Bruce Feldman lists the ten softest non-conference schedules of 2013.  All the usual suspects are there.
• What caused the Alabama defense’s statistical drop in the second half of last season?

The art of being a jerk

Turns out Mike Gundy is even better at it than I first gave him credit for – he lifted most of the transfer restrictions on Wes Lunt, though not publicly, but did it so late in the process that Lunt had lost contact with the coaches he’d had previous relationships with so that Gundy’s apparent change of heart had no effect.  Well played, sir.

All that being said, the lesson here is that if you’re an OSU player who wants to transfer and Gundy even hints that he’s prepared to gum up the works on that, go to the media with your problem early and often.  And if you’re a coach who isn’t named Randy Edsall going up against Gundy on the recruiting trail, I think you know what to say.

Help a Jacket out.

Wes Durham is leaving Georgia Tech after almost two decades and the search is now on for the next Voice of the Jackets.  Any suggestions?

Football Ticket Cutoff Scores 2013

If your sense of things is that demand from the fan base is solid, but not as rabid as it was a few seasons ago, you’d be right.

If you made a $250 contribution to the Hartman Fund, you’re getting season tickets.  And if you ordered away tickets to Tennessee and Auburn, you’re getting those, too.  No problem getting a single game ticket to the Kentucky game, either.

Maybe McGarity can explain how more cupcake games will increase demand.

Now he’s just screwing with us.

I love Phil Steele for the massive amount of data accumulation he bombards us with every year, but there are times when he pushes the analytical envelope a little too far.  This is one of those times.

The Final 14 Teams Who Fit the
National Championship Mold in 2013

Alabama	Notre Dame
Florida	Ohio St
Florida St	Oregon
LSU	South Carolina
Michigan	Stanford
North Carolina	Texas A&M
Northwestern	Vanderbilt

I will eat whatever hat Mr. Steele cares to furnish if Vandy winds up closer to a national title game than Georgia does this season.

“When in doubt throw the flag.”

Ole Miss beat writer Parrish Alford explores the legacy of consistency Mike Slive has left SEC officials on enforcement of the new targeting rules.  He, like me, is puzzled by Slive’s response to two plays from last season:

Elston’s hit fell within a range of gray area that allowed for his suspension as the league enforced its policy. The initial contact was below the helmet, and Elston’s momentum carried him higher into the hit.

Dial’s hit — You can see it here — was clearly an effort to target Georgia’s starting quarterback. Elston — Here it is — was at least trying to make a play.

If the rule of thumb is “When in doubt penalize and eject” it would seem that we can expect an increase in the number of ejections.

Safety is the top priority. It’s easy to talk about safety and more difficult to achieve it in a naturally aggressive sport whose participants are from the beginning of tackle football praise for inflicting pain and punishment.

The quest for safety needs to include equal application of the rules.

There was enough in Elston’s hit for debate. There should have been no debate about Dial’s hit, and nothing happened.

I questioned Slive’s decision to suspend Elston.  But once he went there – “the result of a flagrant and dangerous act” – he left himself open to exactly the kind of skepticism he received after he did nothing about Dial.  And now he’s dumping the problem on officials who will have to react in the heat of the moment?

I don’t see this ending well.