Earn your scholarship, you lazy bum!

Reading Bill King’s post about Georgia adopting a new policy on multi-year scholarships, I see that Steve Spurrier quote that many others subscribe to in arguing that it’s a bad approach to take:

“What if a young man decides he doesn’t want to give much effort or go weightlifting or go to workouts? How do you get rid of him? Everybody has to earn his or her way in life.”

So here’s what I’m wondering – is keeping athletes on a short contractual leash the only way that Steve Spurrier knows how to motivate a football player?  (If so, that might explain his less than stellar NFL career.)  I mean, whatever happened to threatening to take away playing time as a stick (or promising more as a carrot)?  What about simply being an inspirational leader as a coach to get kids to go the extra mile?

If the answer to that is that some kids can’t be reached, surely that’s something Spurrier should have noticed on the recruiting trail in the first place, no?  In any event, is it necessary to have the rule for all 85 student-athletes on scholarship if only a handful are a motivational problem?

Let’s face it.  Spurrier isn’t carping about effort.  He wants to maintain control over roster space when a kid doesn’t pan out to his satisfaction.  And that’s his business, honestly.  But he shouldn’t whine if another coach wants to go about his business differently (as long as it’s within the rules, of course.)  And Spurrier shouldn’t make it sound like it’s the player’s fault when he goes into Mr. Ruthless mode.

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UPDATE:  Spurrier has an ally in Paul Johnson.

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They had their moments: Georgia 2011 defensive highlights

When they got pressure on the quarterback, they were dynamite.

I think Jarvis Jones just sacked John Brantley again.

“This could be the legacy for a lot of these guys, creating the new BCS.”

I hope this doesn’t come as a complete shock to some of you, but as the BCS meetings get underway, the kids aren’t playing well with each other.  Go figure.

… Sources told the Chicago Tribune three weeks ago that a plan favored by some Big Ten decision-makers would remove the top four teams from the bowl pool and have the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds host semifinal games.

Three benefits: An end to the sham of “neutral site” games in places such as New Orleans and Miami; both fan bases would not have to travel for consecutive games; and regular-season games would add meaning.

But sources are skeptical that leagues such as the Southeastern Conference would OK the potential for prime-time December games in places such as Columbus, Ann Arbor or Madison, Wis.

Don’t forget: Under the current format, SEC teams have won six consecutive national titles.

College football’s TV partners also appear to favor having bowls host the semifinal games. If the top four teams are removed from the bowl pool, it would break with tradition and devalue the Rose, Fiesta, Sugar and Orange.

Delany’s pissing off the SEC and ESPN?  Yeah, this is gonna go smoothly.

There are messages. And then there are messages.

I wonder what Alvin Kamara thinks about those 105 letters from Nick Saban now.

Of course, the subtext here is that Tyren Jones had better hope he has a healthy senior year.

Just what Paul Johnson needs.

If this comes to fruition, predict the year that Georgia State first recruits a better class than Georgia Tech.

The more you get to know about Randy Edsall, the more you like him.

Just kidding.

… And Maryland decided O’Brien can’t play for Vanderbilt. Why not Vanderbilt? Franklin is there.

Edsall’s job security depends on his own performance. But if Franklin somehow wins big at Vanderbilt, it would make Maryland’s athletic director and president look awful. In the classic style of modern-day university administrators, Loh and Anderson are letting Edsall take all the bullets. But the fact is, the university president and athletic director can step in at any time and grant O’Brien his unlimited release. It is the right thing to do. And they haven’t done it.

Now, this is where it gets really rich:

Maryland’s new offensive coordinator is Mike Locksley. He was the head coach at New Mexico before getting fired last fall.

Last month, a New Mexico player named Zach Dancel decided to transfer.

Guess where he is going.

Yep. Maryland.

To play for his old coach.

“Of course there are a couple guys at New Mexico who are interested, who have their release,” Dancel told The Washington Post last month. “I’m sure they’re considering it. A lot of guys are good players and they’re going to have other options. … I’ve been in contact with a couple of them about Maryland. Locks is going to get players in there and Maryland is going to be up and coming and could potentially be a good team in the next year or two.”

Dancel was a starter at New Mexico. And he wasn’t kidding when he said other players may join him. The Albuquerque Journal reported that New Mexico running back Crusoe Gongbay, who led the team in rushing last season as a true freshman, has left the program. Gongbay is a Maryland native, and it would surprise nobody if he joined his old coach at Maryland.

Evidently, Maryland thinks it’s perfectly fine for players to transfer into its program to play for a former coach, but terribly wrong for players to transfer out of its program to play for a former coach. There is no principle here. Just “educators” covering their butts.

Don’t forget Loh and Anderson are the geniuses behind Maryland’s move last year to eliminate eight sports programs.  Why did they do that?

Loh said the current business model in college sports, where schools rely on two revenue-producing sports (football and men’s basketball) as well as lucrative television contracts associated with those sports, is “inequitable and unsustainable.” Loh pledged to continue to work with the ACC, NCAA and other national organizations to address what he called the escalating financial arms race in college sports.

Barry Gossett, a co-chair of the commission and a member of the Board of Regents of the University System of Maryland, said that without success in football and men’s basketball, “we’re not going to have a great deal of income to work with.”

Anderson said the struggles of the football team — it has a 2-9 record — and attendance issues late in the season played no role in the number of teams that were targeted to be cut. Anderson also said that the team’s attendance and revenue was up from last year.

It’s about the money, but it’s not.  This is the president of a school in a conference with a big money TV contract bitching about inequity?

These clowns deserve each other.  Unfortunately for Danny O’Brien.

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UPDATE:  Edsall caves.

Maryland is lifting restrictions and telling departing quarterback Danny O’Brien, offensive lineman Max Garcia and linebacker Mario Rowson that they are free after all to transfer to Vanderbilt if they wish, according to a source.

Head coach Randy Edsall is meeting with the players this morning and informing them of the decision.

That doesn’t mean he’s not a dick anymore.  It just means that he’s a sensitive one.

By the way, I hope this doesn’t screw up Georgia’s chances for Garcia.