Not exactly a vote of confidence

Michael Adams says he’s not one for making mid-course corrections with Georgia’s coaches.

“I don’t believe I have ever commented on any coach mid season. You know the answer. What we do with every head coach — every head coach, not just the high-profile head coaches – but at the end of the season the AD sits down and makes a judgment. Then he makes a judgment whether or not he needs to talk to the president about that.”

Dennis Felton begs to differ.

But that tells me Richt’s got the rest of the year to get things turned around.

Advertisement

Ken Starr’s last refuge

If you can’t get anyone in the Big 12 to listen, there’s only one place left to go.

President Bill Clinton’s nemesis Kenneth Starr, now president of Baylor University in Waco, Texas, is on Capitol Hill today lobbying more than two dozen members of Congress about the preservation of college sports’ floundering Big 12 athletic conference, among other education issues.

A lobbyist familiar with Starr’s visit, which began Wednesday and ends today, tells PI that the push is about Starr “really trying to convey that you have to have the student athletes’ interests at heart first before chasing after the biggest contractual agreements” with television networks. Baylor could stand to lose significant money if the Big 12 broke up, with its marquee, cash-generating schools — Texas, Texas A&M, Kansas, Missouri and Iowa State among others — scattering elsewhere. The quality and profile of competition for the conference’s smaller schools would also likely suffer with a Big 12 breakup.

Sure, that’s transparent nonsense on its face.  This ain’t about student-athletes; it’s about Baylor’s bank account.

But that’s not the best part of this.  The real irony is watching Starr run to the same place, and likely some of the same people – “Among the lawmakers Starr personally met with were many members of the Texas congressional delegation, as well as Reps. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) and Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.).” – that was and who were just a few short months ago holding hearings and leveling threats about the anti-competitive behavior of schools in the Big Six conferences.  Except now, he’s asking these fine public servants for protection from behavior that’s the polar opposite of anti-competitive.

You know what would be perfect?  A Joe Barton quote in support of Starr.

Scratch deeply enough and everyone’s a socialist.

Hey, the stats are at it again.

I’m kidding a little bit.  Georgia’s early statistical story is going to be skewed by the weird goings-on from the South Carolina game.

But it’s worth noting that despite playing Sagarin’s seventh toughest schedule to date, Georgia’s offensive stats look pretty decent.  The Dawgs are middle of the pack in the conference in total offense (at better than a 30 yards per game clip over Auburn!) and show up in Bill Connelly’s top 25.

Thursday morning buffet

The buffet is open.

• Georgia has run 127 offensive plays through two games, and four of the five linemen have been in for every snap.  That shouldn’t be the case this week.
• Sanders Commings has Georgia’s only sack of the season.
• “We’re the whoremasters.”
• Best defense of Dee Finley you’ll read.  (The cops in Gainesville sound like a fun bunch.)
• Mike DuBose is back, baby.
• “Who can you trust now? It’s so unfortunate that it has come to this,” said a source with knowledge of the Big 12’s situation. “Everyone is working independently. No one is being straight with anyone anymore.”
• Non-football, but funny as hell:  “Never too hot to fish when you got cold beer.”
• Don’t forget there’s a good SEC game on tonight.
• You can probably guess who said this:  “I wouldn’t mind. It’s just a number.”
• If your team doesn’t play well enough to get attention, you can always try the uniform.

Coach, you talkin’ crazy.

I would have loved to have seen Brandon Boykin’s face when he was told Richt said this:

“Before the season’s over, I could see him running the ball between the tackles a little bit,” Richt said. “Right now we’re just kind of using speed stuff and outside plays and things of that nature.”

“Running through the tackles?” Boykin said. “Well, I got to get my mind right for that. Whatever they want me to do, I’m going to try and make something happen.”