Craig James, eat your heart out.

This may not be Julia Child, but it’s alright.

(h/t EDSBS)

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Grantham, by the numbers

How convenient – Todd Grantham gives us a yardstick with which to measure his defense’s progress this season.

… As a rule, Grantham said you should stop teams at least 80 percent of the time when it’s third-and-10 or more. He said the Bulldogs were in the 60s last season.

“That’s something we’re going to address and get better at,” Grantham said. “We were actually better on the intermediate third downs [third-and-3 to third-and-7] than we were on the longer ones.”

The Bulldogs also gave up 13.5 yards per completion a year ago, and Grantham said that needs to be closer to 9 yards.

I guess you know one thing I’ll be tracking weekly this fall.

The problem with compartmentalizing ethics

I get what he’s trying to do here with this post about Tressel…

Simply put, Jim Tressel’s track record on recruiting, roster management, and oversigning has been impeccable, no one can challenge that, and we are not going to throw the baby out with the bath water.  What Tressel did has absolutely nothing to do with the topic of oversigning and therefore nothing will change here with regards to how we feel about how he manages his roster and what he does to avoid the abuses of oversigning.

That said, it is fully understood that the debate on oversigning is often times a debate about ethics.  It is also fully understood that to engage in a conversation about ethics in one area and yet ignore or defer comment on unethical behavior in another area can be deemed as irresponsible and misconstrued as having an agenda.  That is not the case here.  This site is about having a linear discussion about oversigning in order to have it eliminated.  We will gladly take whatever criticism comes with this narrowed approach, but at the same time we hope that our readers understand that the most effective way to address the oversigning issue is to stay on point.

… but ultimately it’s not convincing.  It’s like arguing that a man who is an axe murderer is a good family man.  Maybe so, but who cares?

The problem here isn’t with arguing passionately against oversigning.  It’s with choosing a coach who’s been caught with his hand in the cookie jar as your ethical poster boy.  At this point, who knows what motivates Tressel’s behavior?  All of which justifies pointing out that nobody in the Big Ten benefits more from the conference’s rule on oversigning than Ohio State.

The NCAA: making it up as they go along

The NCAA may not be world beaters when it comes to investigations, but they sure have this whole thin-skinned thing down pat (h/t Dennis Dodd).

Baylor University’s criticism of the NCAA for its reinstatement decision regarding men’s basketball student-athlete Perry Jones is off base, related to timing, process and precedent.

That they resort to arrogant sniping like this is, of course, entirely their fault.  Their constituent members want some sort of consistency in how the rules and regs are applied.  But that’s not how Mark Emmert’s bunch roll:  “Regarding comparisons to other cases, each situation is different and has a different set of facts.”

It’s a dartboard approach to enforcement.  And nobody gets to watch when the darts are thrown.

Heavy, dude.

I don’t how they’re doing with the “faster, stronger” part, but if these numbers are to be believed, the Dawgs are definitely getting bigger.

Georgia’s offensive line just got bigger. Kenarious Gates has gone from 307 pounds to 328. Justin Anderson went from 326 to 342. Cordy Glenn from 320 to 348. A.J. Harmon from 320 to 345. Chris Burnette from 300 to 313. Ben Jones from 300 to 316…

… Bruce Figgins, who is moving from tight end to fullback, went from 265 to 272.

Alec Ogletree, moved from inside linebacker to safety, is now 236 from 224. Another inside linebacker, Richard Samuel, is now listed at 243, a gain of nine pounds.

Nose guard Kwame Geathers went from 325 to 350. Ends Abry Jones from 297 to 309 and DeAngelo Tyson from 290 to 306.

Of course, this is coming from the land of Vance Cuff’s 4.24 40 time, so a degree of skepticism is warranted.  Still, I can’t help but wonder how many schools in the country deploy a 348-pound offensive right tackle.  And it looks like Geathers now weighs more than John Jenkins.

Hopefully we’ll get some first hand observations from the beat writers during spring practice about how these kids look in the flesh.