Victim of his own success

Andy Staples ranks the head coaching job at Georgia as the fifth most attractive in all of college football, citing facilities, revenue and recruiting base (coupled with a subtle jab at Georgia Tech).

Now, I’m a Georgia partisan – shocking to discover, I know – but I’m not blind.  That hasn’t always been the case.  A school which boasts the hires of an assistant running backs coach and a 1-AA head coach (after Georgia was unceremoniously dumped by the not-so-special Glen Mason, remember) as Richt’s immediate predecessors wasn’t exactly siphoning off the cream of the coaching crop, so to speak.  Even if you categorize some of the decision making which went into those hires as inept (and that’s a kind way of describing the process that led to Ray Goff becoming the head honcho), there’s no way before this last decade that a neutral observer would call Athens an élite destination.

So if it is now, ironically, I’d think you’d have to say that Mark Richt has had a hand in making it so.  A significant hand.

No hard feelings

Mark Richt, speaking about Zach Mettenberger:  “I’d let him baby-sit my kids, if that helps.”

Pat Dye wonders if the SEC presidents are man enough to trust their coaches.

Hoo, boy.

… If you look around the SEC the integrity of the coaches is such that they are not going to mistreat a kid. If you don’t allow coaches to sign over the yearly limit of 25, they are going to come up short of getting to the squad limit of 85 players on scholarship.

(h/t Joe @ Coaches Hot Seat Blog)

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UPDATE:  Pat, here’s your answer.

SEC has voted to cap signees at 25 . UGA president Adams said league has done the right thing.

— Marc Weiszer (@marcweiszer) June 3, 2011

“We tell them where they are.”

As you digest the news that Washaun Ealey has taken his act to Jacksonville State, listen to what Mark Richt had to say the other day about player evaluations.

And check out Richt’s initial reaction at about the 1:57 mark to the question about whether there’s been a decline in integrity on the recruiting trail.  Talk about a pregnant pause…

(h/t The ACC and SEC Blog)

Nerds will be nerds.

If you’re a Georgia fan, there’s nothing but win in this story.

Steele looks at his #14 – South Carolina

Even if you don’t think much of Phil Steele’s prognosticating skills, you’ve got to admit he has few peers in assembling data.  I haven’t gotten this year’s mag yet, but he’s posted his preview of the Gamecocks at his site for your reading pleasure.  Here are a few tidbits that jumped out at me, in no particular order:

• South Carolina is 5-11 in its most recent road openers.
• Stephen Garcia is 3,200 yards away from becoming South Carolina’s all time passing leader.
• Looking at Steele’s efficiency measurement, yards per point, the defense has been on a slight decline over the past three seasons, but the offense made a huge breakthrough in 2010.

Plantation living

I don’t agree entirely with his math, but Jay Paterno makes a valid argument that student-athletes on full scholarship have a better deal than many are willing to acknowledge when he says,

… An opportunity to attend some of the top universities in the country and graduate with no student loans to pay off looks good when you consider the average college student in this country starts off with $24,000 in debt the day they graduate.

We haven’t even begun to discuss the hundreds of thousands of extra earnings you can realize over your lifetime with a college degree that you wouldn’t make without one.