He had his reasons. Nobody said they had to be good reasons.

According to Joe Schad, Mike Gundy’s rationale for blocking Wes Lunt’s transfer to half the known college football universe is based on three factors:

• That Lunt allegedly cited a desire to transfer “closer to home” and that those blocked schools are not “closer to home.”

• The belief that at least some coaches at some interested schools improperly contacted Lunt.

• The possibility Oklahoma State could face some of the blocked conferences in a bowl game.

The third one is my favorite.  I’m surprised Gundy stopped at 37 schools.

About these ads

Tuesday morning buffet

Indulge yourselves.

• Fun Bryan McClendon stat:  A true freshman has led the Bulldogs in rushing in three of his four seasons as the Bulldogs’ running backs coach.
• One of the O’Bannon defendants had licensing agreements with more than 80 former college athletes from 1995 to 2010.  Does the NCAA pay attention to anything it says is important to it?
• ACC Network?  Not with Raycom sitting out there holding rights that nobody seems to be in a big hurry to buy back.
• Only at Southern Cal – “Porn Star Attempts Recruiting DT to USC”
• Does Georgia have a shot at hosting College Game Day this season?
• “Why wouldn’t you want to make money?”:  helpful advice for Minnesota’s beer sales problem.
• Two signing periods, or just an earlier NLI signing date?

Musical palate cleanser: c’mon baby, light my fire

Ray Manzarek, R.I.P.

Your opinion of The Doors probably depends on how big a wanker you felt Jim Morrison was.  Me, I loved ‘em.  And regardless of what you might think of Morrison, there’s no question that Manzarek and Krieger were superb instrumentalists.

In honor of his passing, here’s a ten-minute long live version of a song that was on the set list of every band that played at a bar mitzvah party I attended.

“I hope I’m on scholarship for four years.”

Hey, here’s a real shocker for you (h/t Players).

In the summer of 2011, the NCAA changed this rule. It passed legislation giving Division I universities the option to offer multiyear scholarships, guaranteeing an education as long as the athlete stays out of legal trouble, doesn’t violate school or NCAA rules, keeps playing the sport and maintains academic eligibility. The athlete is also free to leave, under the same transfer rules as always.

But nearly two years after that legislation, multiyear scholarships are rare, not publicized by universities and largely unknown by the athletes. According to data of 82 universities at the Division I-A level obtained by the Post-Gazette through open records requests, only 16 have offered more than 10 multiyear scholarships. Thirty-two of the universities have offered between one and 10, and thirty-four have not offered any.

You can read the whole thing, but it all boils down to this:

1. Coaches don’t like losing control.
2. The NCAA was covering its ass in its usual less than coherent way.  (“The great majority of athletic scholarships are still good for just one year, renewable on a coach’s decision, a procedure that flaunts the education-first narrative pitched by the NCAA and member schools, especially at a time when promising an education until graduation is possible.”)
3. Student-athletes don’t have a clue what they’re being offered.

Same old, same old, in other words…

Easy in, easy out.

I had a little time to kill yesterday, so I popped on the replay of the Georgia Tech game.  One thing that really struck me was how quickly the opening series went:  Mitchell returns the kickoff almost fifty yards to the Tech 44 and four plays later the Dawgs are in the end zone.  It barely took a minute.

That got me to wondering if that was Georgia’s easiest opening score of the season.  With a little research, here’s the list (every successful opening drive resulted in a touchdown, by the way):

• Buffalo:  7 plays, 53 yards, 3:10
• Missouri:  did not score
• FAU:  7 plays, 71 yards, 2:25
• Vanderbilt:  7 plays, 47 yards, 2:11
• Tennessee:  13 plays, 84 yards, 6:06
• South Carolina:  did not score
• Kentucky:  did not score
• Florida:  3 plays, 20 yards, 1:23
• Ole Miss:  did not score
• Auburn:  6 plays, 76 yards, 2:05
• GSU:  10 plays, 79 yards, 3:39
• Georgia Tech:  4 plays, 44 yards, 1:03
• Alabama:  did not score
• Nebraska:  did not score

Yes, you read that correctly – it took more time off the clock for Georgia to score after the Florida fumble than that drive against Tech took.  That all being said, honesty compels me to admit that the opening drive against Auburn may have even been easier.  What do you guys remember?

Monday morning buffet

It’s the start of a new week.  You need to eat.

• If this is the kind of stuff I’m missing, I could get used to the AJ-C‘s new paywall real fast.
• When I say it’s not easy being a mid-major, this is what I’m talking about.
• Todd Grantham’s not worried about his young safeties.  We’ll see if he feels the same way after the Clemson game.
• It looks like Mike Slive’s got more catching up to do on the commissioner pay front.
• Bernie’s a braver Dawg than I am.
• Most surprising thing about this poll?  That better than forty percent of the participants aren’t willing to pay more on their cable bills for the SEC Network.  Least surprising? That more than a quarter of them would be interested in a Finebaum show on the network.
• Do you care about this?  I don’t.

Just go already, man.

Michael Adams wants you to know at heart he’s another Dawg fan, nothing more, nothing less.

“I don’t have many regrets,” Adams said during an interview in his north campus office in his final weeks as president before his retirement on June 30. “You want to know what my biggest regret is? Not getting the final five yards against Alabama. To have gone out in the national championship game, and I felt that night that was the national championship game and I think the following events proved me right. I’m not sure I’m over that one yet.”

See?  That’s just like you or me or any other slob who didn’t preside over the hire of a man who would preside over an embarrassing academic scandal.

But in Adams’ mind, Harrick doesn’t count as his biggest regret because his hire wasn’t really Adams’ fault.

“I said to coach Dooley, ‘Would you like for me to get Jim Harrick in the pool,” Adams said. “He said, ‘Yes. I think the better the pool, the better.’ We interviewed three finalists. Coach Dooley made a recommendation to me for whatever reasons. I think, and still think, that he and coach Harrick got along very well.”

Dooley’s first choice was then Delaware coach Mike Brey, who turned down the chance and eventually landed at Notre Dame. Harrick won the national title at UCLA in 1995 but was fired the next year over expense reports from a recruiting dinner that violated NCAA rules.

“Ultimately on decisions on the head basketball coach and the football coach, I make the decision only from the standpoint of that was my recommendation to the president,” Dooley said.

Adams said Dooley recommended Harrick twice, the second time after Harrick decided he wanted to stay at Rhode Island before changing his mind.

“I think the AD was involved in the hiring, he played the lead role in hiring Jim Harrick, not once but twice,” Adams said. “I think that I can document all that.”

“I think that I can document all that.” ?  Who in the hell talks like that in a beat writer interview?

The sad thing is that he probably did make an effort at the time to document it… just in case.

Weiszer wrote a fair piece, which means what you’d expect.  But there is one uncontaminated bit of good news in it.  We get a vacation.

Adams, who turned 65 in March on what he called his “Medicare birthday,” plans to take a year off from the university. He said he will spend time at his lake house and travel next year to Australia, New Zealand and California and may write books.

Don’t feel any need to rush back on our account.