“He’s a great man.”

As compliments go, this post at MrSEC.com about Mark Richt’s character is about as good as it gets.  Just a sample:

… Fans want undefeated seasons.  The media want headlines.  Richt may or may not supply enough of either to please those two camps, but he does provide something else in bunches — class.

While Nick Saban and his disciples build moats around their programs and while Urban Meyer makes threats and shoots dirty looks, it’s good to know that there’s someone like Richt in the SEC coaching fraternity.

It’s one thing for a man to say, “I want my son to play for that man.”  Many folks used to say that about Bobby Knight for gosh sakes.

But it’s far more important in the grand scheme of things for a man to say, “I want my son to BE like that man.”

Read the whole thing.  As a fan of the program, you’ll be glad you did.

Something you don’t hear every day.

Or at least not in the last half-century or so from a Georgia football player – in this case, the chip on his shoulder that outside linebacker Reuben Faloughi carries around:

“Vanderbilt turned me down,” Faloughi said. “I remember that.”

To be the best, you’ve got to play the best.

Let’s see… Julio Jones, whose career to date has clearly surpassed A. J. Green’s only as to the extent of his injury record, is considered a “likely candidate” to return punts and/or kickoffs in 2010 for a team that expects to compete for the SEC championship.  Meanwhile, in Athens…

This isn’t to say that A. J. should return punts just for the hell of it.  But if the coaches are convinced he’s the best option, they shouldn’t live in fear of what might happen if they put him out there.  We saw enough of that mindset last year – and look where it got ’em.

First I look at the purse.

Almost lost in this Rivals’ piece about the rising salary structure for college football assistant coaches – when people look back at this decade, Mike Hamilton is going to be one of the key stories – is a fantastic exchange between South Carolina defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson and well-known college athletics scold Andrew Zimbalist.

It’s set up with this quote from Johnson about the real world he operates in.

“The SEC is going in some uncharted waters at this time, in some people’s minds,” South Carolina’s Johnson said. “It’s just a whole other world now. It’s capitalism and social engineering running head-on. What these kids are bringing to the universities in cold hard cash is just phenomenal. And assistant coaches had as much to do with it as anybody. When you look at it from a pure business sense, it doesn’t make much sense that we don’t get paid that much.”

To which the economics professor sniffs,

“Colleges long ago stopped caring about the messages they were sending with astronomical coaches’ salaries,” said Andrew Zimbalist, professor of economics at Smith College.

That leads to Johnson’s “oh, snap!” comeback.

“It took me 36 years in coaching to reach this point,” said Johnson, who made $175,000 as defensive coordinator at Mississippi State in 2007. “If I averaged my annual salaries over those 36 years, I think it would come to about $50,000…”

Reading those quotes, which one of those two gentlemen strikes you as having a better grasp of markets and supply and demand?  Maybe the professor ought to invite the coach to do a little guest lecturing in one of his classes some time.

Wednesday morning buffet

You’ll find something to nibble on from these:

• Georgia’s offensive line wants to take the next step.
• More Vance Cuff love.  I confess to being intrigued; he’s on my G-Day watch list, for sure.
• Chris Low is on the Washaun Ealey bandwagon.
• Nice punch line.
• John Pennington surveys the SEC quarterback landscape and isn’t impressed with what he sees.
• I am reminded again of what a good man Mark Richt is.
• And of the strange lack of awareness Tech fans have sometimes of the glass house in which they reside.  (Although anything I can do to help with their blog stats…)
• So KFC’s really gonna do it.  1430 mg of sodium with each serving.  You can’t call it a heart attack on a bun, though… since it has no bun.
• If this takes off as a trend at sporting events, just shoot me.  Now.

It’s the meme… of the (pre)season

Boise State = Butler, that is.

Ivan Maisel asks the question.  Andy Staples goes there too, surprisingly with a touch of BCS credit-where-credit-is-due.  And Year2 plays “Jane, you ignorant slut” with himself on the same topic.

It strikes me as being within the realm of possibility if the Broncos get past Virginia Tech – now there’s a game that seems destined to get the hell hyped out of it by the WWL as the summer wears on.  Boise State ought to start out with a high preseason ranking that should only improve with a big road win like that.  Year2 is correct about the quality of BSU’s schedule strength as a potential hurdle as the season plays out, but one big thing in Boise’s favor is the unlikelihood that the SEC is going to boast an undefeated team this season.

Anyway, I’d like to see it happen simply to watch Orrin Hatch’s head explode as he tries to explain to the fans who are in the “competition” camp regarding the football postseason that it really doesn’t count because of Hatch’s concerns about financial fairness.  (I’ll award bonus points to the first pundit who throws a sour grapes accusation Hatch’s way because it’s a non-Utah school that breaks the BCS glass ceiling.)

I’ll likely feel sorry for Gary Patterson’s TCU program, though.  If Boise State beats Virginia Tech, it’ll suck all the media oxygen out of the room.  One meme at a time, Coach.

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UPDATE: Mr. Gillett gets his hands on a memo.