Sorry, but I couldn’t resist.

For all my faithful readers who continue to insist that the Dawgs are at a marked disadvantage for the WLOCP because Florida sees it as another home game, I have proof – proof, I tell you – that you’re wrong.

Check out this quote from Florida punter/emergency quarterback Chas Henry:

“If we have two guys go down, what do we do if we’re on the road at LSU or Georgia?” Henry said.  [Emphasis added.]

Evidently the Florida players think Jacksonville is located in Georgia.  Maybe Coach Richt should take a page out of the same playbook and convince his guys that Florida’s really a home game.  He could hardly get worse results for trying, right?

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Wednesday morning buffet

Lots of tasty goodness to tempt you with today –

• Sports mortgages:  “Why don’t we make the best seats in the arena or stadium into condos?” It’s great to see Wall Street applying its golden touch in home finance elsewhere.  What could possibly go wrong?
• “Defensive lineman Abry Jones thinks Grantham “pretty much walked into a winning situation” at outside linebacker with athletic playmakers like Houston, who is listed at 6-foot-3 and 260 pounds and Washington, who says he’s now up to 260.”
• Where have we heard this before?
• Along the same lines, we’ll see where this goes.
• Tommy Tuberville has seen the future on Facebook.
• The change of tactics in Georgia’s secondary seems as profound as the overall change in defensive scheme.
• Notre Dame is staying on its toes on the subject of conference expansion.
• Here’s a breakdown of the most current APR numbers by conference.

Mark Richt brings out the contrarian in me sometimes.

The big story today is that Coach Richt is spending more time with the offense and in the quarterback meetings.  But after reading his quotes in this post at Hale’s blog, I’m far more intrigued about the opposite – that he’s spending less time with the defense.

“I was actively coaching the quarterbacks in the very beginning. After some time, Mike was coaching them and I was basically an observer. It had been that way, and then I’d say the last maybe two or three years, I was not just sitting in every single meeting. I’d spend more time looking at defense or whatever. Now I’m just going to get in the offensive room where I feel I can add the most value from the knowledge I have of coaching over the years, and I’ll spend time with the defense after scrimmages and after games watching film with them as they grade and things of that nature. Same with the kicking game.”

Let’s summarize.  The head coach has decided he can afford to spend less time being involved with the defense that’s being coached by three newcomers, including a new coordinator who’s installing a scheme that’s a fairly radical departure from what he’s had in place since coming to Athens than he did with a bunch that for the most part had been with him from the inception running a scheme that had been in place since 2001.  Hmmm.  Why do you think that’s the case?

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UPDATE: David self-kibitzes about his initial post here.  He makes some solid points in doing so.

I hate to disagree with David a little bit here, but my sense is that Richt felt he had to involve himself more in the defense the last two or three seasons because it was clear that the results on the field were diminishing.  In other words, the change is less about the new guys and more about the old ones.  It was something he didn’t want to do, but it was clearly a buck-stops-here approach.

Now that he’s made the change, he’s going to sit back, relatively speaking, and see what the new defensive coaches are able to achieve.  In so doing, he allows himself to get back to what he loves the most.  As David put it,

Richt said he has not missed a single offensive team meeting or individual quarterback meeting this spring, and that will continue into the season. From what he says, he’s not running the meetings, but he’s getting a firsthand feel for how the meetings are run and how the players respond. He’s closer to the action now, and it really sounded to me more like that’s what it was about for Richt. He missed being there.

I think that’s right.  I don’t think it’s about Bobo much at all.

Best horse-out-of-the-barn policy decision of 2010

It’s not even close.  The new attendance policies for Southern Cal practices include the following:

Among those not permitted access to practice are agents (such as athlete agents, marketing agents or financial advisors to athletes) or their employees, representatives or affiliates.

Amazing that you have to put something like that in writing in the first place…

Couldn’t we have kept this our little secret?

Why does Brian Cook hate Georgia fans?

Together again. Thanks, ESPN.

Looks like Tuberville and Saban are hooking up in 2012.

Texas Tech appears likely to play Alabama in the Red Raiders’ 2012 football season opener, Tech athletic director Gerald Myers said Monday.

Myers said Dave Brown, a vice president of programming for ESPN, ”brought us together on this.’’

“We’ve agreed to do it,’’ Myers said. “I think Alabama’s agreed to do it. But we haven’t gotten down to signing a contract or anything like that.’’

The deal would be for one game at a neutral site — in this case, Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Myers said.

“Coach (Tommy) Tuberville is aware of the game and is in support of playing it,’’ Myers said. “I understand (Crimson Tide coach Nick) Saban is also on board for it. We’re in the talking stages, but we haven’t gotten down to talking contract with it yet.’’

Fear those fingers, ‘Bama fans.

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UPDATE: Not so fast, my friends.

Kiffin watch: euphemism of the day

That would be “frayed relations”, as in

Sources said it was unlikely Tennessee tailback Bryce Brown would be allowed to transfer to USC because he would need to permission from Tennessee.

Brown, the No. 1-ranked prep player in the nation in 2009 when Kiffin signed him, is attending classes at Tennessee but is not participating in spring drills.

“I’d be shocked if that happened,” a source said, citing the frayed relations over Kiffin’s January departure to USC. … [Emphasis added.]

Robert Edwards speaks.

The AJ-C has a nice interview with former Georgia star Robert Edwards, who talks about his new job and his old school.

It sounds like a few of his players may be star struck in practice now and then.

“I also have a lot of friends who are going to come by and teach them something … Takeo Spikes, Hines Ward, and my brother Terrence Edwards.”

He’s got a pretty good grasp of where Georgia stands in the early spring, too.

Q. I know you visited Georgia’s practices last week. What are your thoughts on the team?

A. First of all, the facility that they are building is going to be outrageous. I’m kind of jealous I won’t be a student-athlete and able to experience that … But with the coaches, there was a need to change on the defensive side of the ball. They weren’t getting it done the last couple of years, whether it be the coaches fault or the players not playing up to expectations. I think it was a needed change, and the coach from Dallas will be great addition and he will bring the attitude of a pro-style defense. And he will bring the attitude they have to have every week to be successful. On offense, they have the playmakers. They have to establish them a quarterback, but they have a nice trio of running backs that can compliment each other. The have a tight end who is going to be All-Conference, and probably the best wide reciever in the nation. They just have to find someone to get them the ball. I think the O-line has been banged up the last couple of years. They can’t seem to stay healthy. If they stay healthy, then it will be the key to the success of the offense.

I hope he’s as good an evaluator as he was a running back.

Tripp’s time to shine?

If there’s a player on the team whom I’m rooting for this year, it’s Kiante Tripp.  Lost in the shuffle, the subject of a tug of war between the line coaches, Tripp’s a kid who seems not to have let his career to date get him down.  So I was happy to see this quote about him from a teammate:

“Kiante Tripp, he has that big body. He has an NFL-type body. All he needed was an opportunity, and I think he’s taking advantage of this opportunity to really shine.”

Obviously, we all want Grantham’s new scheme to succeed on its general merits.  But if it has the added benefit of resurrecting Tripp, so much the better.  If Trinton Sturdivant is “the Luxury” right now, maybe Tripp will turn out to be “the Bonus”.

Memes just want to be free.

You can’t stop the signal, people.  You can’t even contain it.  SI.com has a nice piece up about Rice transfer Sam McGuffie, who has this to say about his somewhat reckless running style:

“If you run that way your whole life, you’re not going to change that much,” McGuffie said. “It’s like Tim Tebow and how he throws. You’re not going to change it that much, even if you really want to.”

It’s a good thing the kid’s not a Florida beat writer.