Tuesday morning buffet

Here are a few items staying warm in their virtual chafing dishes for you to nibble on:

• If I were Carl Johnson, based on the recent trend in Gainesville, I’d start shopping for suitcases.
• The fact that Noel Mazzone is being seriously considered for the OC job at Pittsburgh should tell you all you need to know about Dave Wannstedt’s vision and why we need something like the Rooney Rule in college football.
• Chris Low manages to tell us in the space of one post that (1) Spurrier is stuck with a quarterback he thinks is lazy and (2)  Saban and the rest of his SEC peers have been busy turning each other in for recruiting violations.  It’s gonna be a fun year, methinks.
• I’m a sucker for unintended irony, so it’s no surprise that this item caught my eye.  One of the standard arguments playoff proponents make is that D-1 football doesn’t crown a legitimate national champ, so make sure you check out the header at this anti-BCS site, specifically the way it references “spokesperson” Anthony Davis.  Hey, it’s those other national championship claims that don’t count!
• You want to know how good a writer Michael Lewis is?  He can pick a subject I don’t care about, like the NBA, and a player I could care about even less, like Shane Battier, and make a fascinating article out of them.  It’s obviously non-football on the surface, but it’s another one of those Moneyball situations that Lewis excels at describing.  It’s the kind of thinking that coaches in all sports shouldn’t shy away from.  Well worth your time.

Advertisement

Kiffin watch: as long as they spell your name correctly

Junior believes in the old saw that there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

No Such Thing As …: Kiffin said he’s not concerned that UT has received what most would consider bad press for allegations against other coaches and minor NCAA violations.

“It has helped a lot,” Kiffin said. “For our program to be in the news so much now — not just locally but nationally.

“For the players that we need to recruit that are freshmen, sophomores and juniors that are seeing our colors and our logos, it helps us out tremendously down the road.”

There’s something deeply ironic about a guy who couldn’t function with Al Davis turning into the living embodiment of Davis’ “just win, baby” philosophy.

By the way, here’s some of that publicity at work:

How about ol’ Andre Ware there – “Players like to talk a little smack and they usually take on the personality of their head coach. I like it. The fans like it. I think the players will respond in part and I look for Tennessee to have a special season.”

Players taking on the personality of their head coach?  Penn Wagers will love that.

This is rich.

Let me see if I’ve got this straight.

• Georgia Tech’s athletic department is in a financial hole because its basketball team can’t draw.
• On the other hand, Georgia’s men’s basketball team, suffering through its worst season in a while, still manages to break even.
• Georgia Tech’s football team, in spite of the excitement generated by its new coach and its first victory over its hated in state rival in almost a decade, bucked a national trend and saw home attendance decline last season.  (Georgia Tech football – it was Chantastic!)  Considering that the school had to fund a buyout and a big new contract for the old and new head coaches respectively, that probably doesn’t add up to a lot of financial success in that area, either.
• Meanwhile in Athens, the dumbasses that run the athletic department have somehow bumbled their way into a $20 million surplus for the year and have managed to bank a total of $60 million – almost enough to run the entire athletic department for a year without selling a single ticket.  And that’s before the new football TV contracts kick in.

Brothers and sisters, can I get a “BWHAHAHAHAHAHAAH”?

Like I said before, when the magic of the triple option wears off, and the Jacket fan base grows even more apathetic (or maybe just distracted by the next Star Trek convention), it’s going to get rougher on the Flats, financially speaking.

No, they won't be going to the NC State game that weekend.

Maybe they can get some management advice from Furman Bisher.

********************************************************************

UPDATE: Westerdawg has some thoughts about what to do with the money.