It’s pretty apparent that I don’t get into the weeds at GTP when it comes to recruiting. I simply don’t have the time or the energy that sites like LHB do (and do well, by the way). But I know it’s the time of the year when many are curious what’s going to happen, or want to offer their two cents about that, so here’s a post for you.
To get things going, here are a few items to chew over:
In terms of addressing needs, Chip Towers thinks the hay is already in the barn for Mark Richt.
CFN agrees. (Let’s revisit that offensive line situation in a few months, okay?)
MaconDawg makes a few projections about some of the targets still out there.
So share with us – your hopes, your dreams, your tears, your fears. What do you think is in store for the Dawgs on the recruiting front in the next few days?
You guys know I rarely leave the college football reservation here – music excepted – but I stumbled across a couple of things that for some reason, really stuck with me. So, I thought, why not share?
If you’re only here for the pigskin, feel free to skip. My feelings won’t be hurt.
Prepare to have your life changed forever:
Former President John Tyler, born 1790, has two living grandchildren. He is also the only deceased President who is not officially mourned.
Watch Wolf Blitzer, whom I can’t stand, get destroyed on Celebrity Jeopardy. (And check out the big brain on Andy Richter.)
Matt Hinton is a level-headed playoff proponent. So, leave it to him to nail what it is about extended playoffs that bother people like me so much. Here’s what he says in reaction to the 9-7 regular season NFL Giants playing in the Super Bowl:
… they’re the fourth Super Bowl team in the last five years that got there by “getting hot” on the heels of a meh regular season, following the ’07 Giants, ’08 Cardinals and ’10 Packers — all of which made it to the championship round after finishing 10-6 or worse, and two of which wound up hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. It’s not an anomaly. It happens all the time. And every time, the regular season means a little bit less.
So when playoff opponents in college football chant “Every Game Counts,” this is what they mean: The 9-7 New York Giants (or their campus equivalent, in the event of an FBS playoff) have not advanced a legitimate claim on a championship, did not deserve the opportunity they have now taken advantage of and threaten to cheapen the concept of a championship season. To which I have to say, as an advocate of level playing fields and the virtues of competition: They’re right. It’s thoroughly frustrating to glorify teams for “getting hot” at the expense of superior outfits that have consistently outperformed them on the whole, effectively overturning three or four months of results in three or four weeks.
In the NFL, that may be inevitable. In college football, it is not. And I also have to say, as a playoff advocate in the college game: It can’t happen here…
Ah, that’s good. Real good. But it’s far from the whole story. And that’s my problem.
First off, Matt goes on to assert that “it would be impossible for the college football equivalent of a 9-7 NFL team to make the cut in any logistically feasible bracket…”, but that simply ain’t true. Ask Dan Wetzel, or anybody else who thinks a 16-team playoff in which all conference champions are eligible is a swell idea, about that.
But there’s a more underlying reason at the root of my disagreement. Here’s his vision of what a D-1 postseason should aspire to:
… In other words, the format should be (and would be) structured so that there is no doubt that the winner of the playoff is the most accomplished team as a result of winning the playoff. That means (as opposed to the BCS) setting the bar low enough to allow every deserving candidate a legitimate opportunity, but also (as opposed to the NFL, or the NCAA basketball tournament) setting it high enough that only the deserving candidates can clear it. It means being inclusive to generate a legitimate, competitive field, and exclusive enough to avoid diminishing returns.
Who can argue with any of that? Allow Judge Chamberlain Haller to retort.
The people who call the shots don’t care what the Matt Hintons of the world care about. (Note that Matt cites the NCAA basketball tourney as an example to avoid.) They’re in it for one primary purpose, to maximize a revenue stream for themselves. The current floundering over what to do with the BCS and the bowls in the wake of recent declining numbers is all about the money. So is conference expansion. (Just ask Larry Templeton.)
Nobody’s going into this exercise trying to make sure that the undeserving are kept out. Oh sure, that may happen. But if it does, it’ll be nothing more than a happy accident. In the short run, in the medium run and in the long run, there are two goals: buck up the postseason numbers and don’t do anything to harm the regular season revenues. And if whatever course they set in the next few months doesn’t do the trick down the road, they’ll be back at tweaking the deal again. And again.
These are the people who were prepared to tell you what a great thing a 96-team basketball tournament would be. Some of them probably even believe it. To think they have different instincts about college football is foolish. They know what playoffs are designed to do.
Antonio Crawford and Paul Johnson are headin’ for a showdown. Cue the strings:
… Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson heard about Miami’s flirtations and had a 20-minute phone conversation with Crawford on Thursday. Crawford said his Georgia Tech scholarship will be jeopardized if he boards the plane to Miami on Friday.
“Coach Johnson basically said ‘If you’re looking around, then we’re looking around,’” Crawford said. “He said if I take my visit to Miami, they are bringing in a guy at Georgia Tech this weekend for a visit. If that guy commits, then he takes my spot.”
It takes Paul Johnson twenty minutes to tell a kid “if you make that trip you’re dead to me”? The man’s communication skills are clearly overrated.
Is Crawford willing to take the risk? “I’m still visiting the University of Miami this weekend,” he said.
You want to know how toxic a candidate Craig James is? Chernobyl-level toxic:
“If you ask the average Republican voter… he’s remembered for the scandal at SMU and using his position at ESPN to get a wildly popular coach fired. He is by far one of the most hated men in West Texas.”
That’s not hyperbole. Last year Stefan Hankin of Lincoln Park Strategies threw Craig James into a statewide poll and found that James was less popular in West Texas than Barack Obama.
“It’s not that people in West Texas don’t like him,” said Mayes. “It’s that nobody likes him.”
Which, again, makes you wonder what the WWL sees in the guy.
(By the way, if you want to hear what Leach’s attorney said on Finebaum’s show about James, here you go.)
“And Georgia fans, don’t be turds. Enjoy this. Soak it up. It’s awesome. If you don’t win this year, it’s still not a failure. It’s a heck of a run. Back-to-back in the Playoff era hasn’t been done. So, to ask for a third I feel like it’s gluttonous. I feel like it’s not OK. But we’ll be in the mix.”-- David Pollack, On3.com, 5/9/23
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