What do the Intertubes have against Mark Richt?

And snuffing out another rumor before it gets legs, Richt said he hasn't heard from Penn State. "I didn't even know about that (rumor)."

— Seth Emerson (@SethEmerson) December 16, 2011

You know, on one level, it seems like we’ve gone far away from the hot seat rumors that enveloped Georgia’s coach at the beginning of the season.  But on another level – projecting the instability of Richt’s program – this new set of rumors seems like little more than the flip side of the same coin.

Gee, I wonder who stands to gain from that.

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UPDATE:  Like this matters.

… Coach Mark Richt said again he plans to be at Georgia for the long haul despite his name being linked last week to the Texas A&M job (“I don’t know where all that came from”) and this week to the Penn State opening ( “I didn’t know about that. Is that’s what’s happening now? ).

“I’ve never been a guy to try and leverage a situation because the first day I got here I said I want to be at Georgia,” Richt said.

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No need to rush; take all the time you need.

Craig James requests of and receives a leave of absence from ESPN to ponder his political future.  Mercifully, that includes the bowl game he was scheduled to broadcast this Tuesday.

Happy holidays, all.

The center cannot hold.

Between the news that 125 member institutions have voted to override the NCAA on its $2,000 stipend rule and now this proposal by its Resource Allocation working group being submitted to the Board of Directors –The group will recommend scholarship reductions, including 85 to 80 in Football Bowl Subdivision football, 63 to 60 in Football Championship Subdivision football (with a limit of 80 total counters) – it’s hard for me to see how Division I football continues on as it is, say, ten years from now.

There’s a passage from one of my favorite authors that seems àpropos:

“Is democracy impractical? Is that what you are saying?”

Glawen said, “As I recall, Baron Bodissey had something to say on the subject.”

“Oh? Was he pro or con?”

“Neither. He pointed out that democracy could only function in a relatively homogeneous society of equivalent individuals. He described a district dedicated to democracy where the citizenry consisted of two hundred wolves and nine hundred squirrels. When zoning ordinances and public health laws were put into effect, the wolves were obliged to live in trees and eat nuts.”

Mike Slive and Jim Delany aren’t moving into any damned trees.

“The right place at the right time.”

Gus Malzahn apparently believes that his wife’s now infamous viral video (put out there by a ‘Bama fan, natch) cost him shots at the Kansas and North Carolina head coaching jobs.  Well, now.

Are there athletic directors out there dumb enough to let something like that influence a hiring decision?  Hey, in a world in which Jim Mora (Jr.?  Jim L.? Whatever.) can land a Pac-12 job, I wouldn’t underestimate that as a possibility, but I think Malzahn does a little underestimating of his own if he doesn’t think Auburn’s ranking in total offense falling from 7th nationally with Cam Newton to 104th without didn’t have an impact on his desirability.

But I’m also wondering if we’re nearing at least a temporary end to the age of the hot coordinator, at least in so far as them jumping to head coaching jobs in major conferences.  Look around the BCS conference landscape this last month or so:  head coaches or former head coaches with baggage (Leach), no institutional loyalty (Graham), no college experience to speak of (Mora), nothing more than a short stay at a mid-major school (Freeze, Sumlin) and other warts (Weis) are the guys claiming the jobs ahead of the Malzahns of the college football world.  Has a single head coaching job at that level gone to an assistant yet?

Last year, Will Muschamp got the Florida gig.  This year, Kirby Smart is interviewing at Southern Miss.  Something’s going on.  Who knows how long it lasts?

With enemies like these…

If you need a reminder that political stupidity is bipartisan, then, brother, the two-man Congressional Collegiate Sports Caucus is for you.

You’re no doubt familiar with longtime scourge of the BCS Joe Barton, last seen apologizing to BP for the Gulf oil spill.  But an eye needs to be kept on Barton’s new BFF Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), who, in explaining that he doesn’t understand why football is allowed to have an entirely different title system than every other collegiate sport, actually said this:

“There’s competition in every single sport, including here. Everybody who gets here wins by winning on Election Day in a contest…”

Perhaps somebody can take Cohen aside and quietly explain to him how football polls work.  They have, like, voting and everything!

No wonder somebody like Bill Hancock can hold off change singlehandedly.

Friday morning buffet

It’s a deep buffet today, folks.

• The SEC is getting close to releasing its 2012 football schedule.
• “I ate so many ribs, there was no way I could have practiced later in the day.”
• Another day, another “Mark Richt reaches out to a school that needs him more than he needs it” rumor.
• If you look at Maryland football as a controlled experiment on how to run a program completely into the ground, then this move makes complete sense.
• LSU’s president says that we’ll know American research universities are in a real state of crisis when some of them start giving up football.
• Here’s a handy guide to all the comings and goings on SEC coaching staffs so far.
• Mark Schlabach reports that Todd Graham resigned his position at Pitt without meeting with his athletic director.  Pat Forde sticks a few knives in Graham, as well.
• Hugh Freeze undoes one of the Nuttster’s grayshirt deals.

Oh yeah, he bad.

I’m glad that Mike Davis had an enjoyable time on his unofficial visit yesterday, but I got a bigger kick out of this observation of his:

… Davis also made it a point to say that there was one other thing that stuck out to him at practice other than the running backs. “I had no idea that Alec Ogletree was that big and that fast at linebacker. He’s really, really good. Wow.”

First down, Perry!

Last night, Rick Perry touched the hem of the GPOOE™’s garment and we’re all the richer for it.

You know at least half the folks sharing the stage with him were mentally kicking themselves for not having gone there first.

I only hope that if Perry somehow finds himself anointed, er… selected as the GOP candidate to run next year for President – proof that we indeed live in an age of miracles, friends – he goes all in at the first debate with Obama, comes out sporting a #15 jersey and eye black with Bible verses and then starts Tebowing every time he manages to get through a debate exchange without stumbling.

With that, Corch will have no choice but to declare Rick Perry the Greatest Politician Of Our Era.