Maybe he just needs a change of scenery.

While I enjoy a good Michael Adams bashing as much as the next fellow, as someone who’d like to see a new regime in Athens, I’ve kind of got mixed feelings about this Bob Ryan article (h/t Georgia Sports Blog) recycling some of the details from the Joe Rich Whitt book on Adams for a national audience.

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Money matters – supply and demand

Here’s are a couple of brief lessons in market theory:

Suggesting a big pay cut for folks who could go out in the market place and make more probably isn’t the brightest idea.

Compensating a college athletic director to the tune of $4.4 million in one year would seem to approach the level of clinical insanity, though.  Does Kansas have stock options?

KISS and the AirRaid offense

I love a post that makes you think about something you never reflected on before.

This one is about a positive feedback loop generated by the AirRaid offense (in this case, the one being installed at Louisiana Tech).

… At the college level, it is a given that any team that runs this offense can throw the ball and protect the passer. In other words, defensive coordinators do not doubt their counterparts’ basic competency in this area. Consequently, depending on whether they are an odd or even front team, they are going to run some type of a nickel or stack scheme. By nickel here I am not just talking about 5 defensive backs. Texas last year played with three linebackers most of the game against TTech, but they were aligned in various nickel looks. As a result, when an AirRaid team goes into Spring Practice the first front they throw up on the white board is something in the nickel or odd-stack family. They no longer scheme against base 4-3s, 3-4s, 4-4s, 50s, etc because they will NEVER see them. They then can focus all their time on technique and sorting.

In other words, the premise here is that coaches running this type of offense get an initial level of respect for their competency in getting their quarterbacks to throw and their linemen to block.  Because of that, defensive coordinators limit the types of defenses they deploy against this scheme… which in turn makes the offensive coaches’ jobs even easier because they have fewer schemes to prepare for… which means they can devote even more time to improving techniques in the passing game.

Good food for thought.  Make sure you read the comments to the post, too.

Monday morning buffet

An SEC nibble here, a nibble there…

• Maybe the Laner was initially reluctant to leave Knoxville when the USC job opened up, but it sounds like Layla and Orgeron were sure eager to bail.
• Derek Dooley sweats the small stuff.
• There’s a new flavor of the month at the South Carolina QB position.
• “What Tim would give you in the power-run game and the option game, [Brantley] is going to give you in the throw game.” Easier said than done, Coach.  Especially when, in addition to breaking in a new quarterback, you’ve got to replace four of your five top receivers from last year.  And your leading candidate at tight end was recruited as a quarterback.
• You might want to add depth at the offensive line to the to-do list while you’re at it.
• Julio Jones at safety this spring?  “I know y’all will go crazy on that one.”