A clean break

The last of the Van Halanger guys is leaving Georgia’s S & C staff.  Whether you want to credit McGarity or Richt, it’s pretty clear we’re in the midst of a remake of the program.

”Why in the world would you want to know how smart a football player is?”

Really, is there anything more tiresome than the leaking of some poor kid’s Wonderlic score to the media and the subsequent mockery for it?  For one thing, how much does it matter?  For another, even the guy who came up with the test is skeptical about its utility for evaluating a prospect’s chances to play in the NFL.

My advice to Mo Claiborne – if some boob comes up to you and starts to give you hell about your score, hit him with your wallet.

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In Florida, boys will be boys will be football players.

You have to admire Scott Lakatos’ optimism in the face of the hand he’s been dealt for the first part of the season.

“We’ll be fine. We’ll be fine,” Georgia secondary coach Scott Lakatos said. “We have enough guys that know how to do more than one thing. So we’ll be fine, barring any catastrophic rash of injuries.”

But some would argue that they’ve already had a catastrophic rash of other things.

“I look at it like this: What would happen if a guy got injured, and you lose a guy for X amount of time? I mean you’ve gotta line up and play,” Lakatos said. “So someone’s gotta play. So whatever the reason is, if you have to replace people, that’s part of the game.”

In Florida, they don’t like leaving things up to chance so much.  That’s why Will Muschamp is still weighing his options on A. C. Leonard – “He still has a lot of things to work through before his status for the fall is addressed…” – and why Jumbo Fisher is displaying a new-found appreciation in the value of flexibility in dealing with players in trouble.  Compare that with Richt’s decision to suspend Commings for two games before the legal system weighed in.

Maybe Richt needs to buy a beach house with another coach.  That may not be conducive to “shar(ing) a whole lot of notes together”, as Muschamp put it, but it seems you can share just enough.

Mark Cuban thinks the plantation works just fine, thank you.

Everyone’s favorite smart owner agrees David Stern is on the right track trying to amend the one-and-done rule.  It’s just that he thinks Stern isn’t going far enough.

Stern said Tuesday that he’d like to add a year to the rule. Cuban wants to take it a step further, requiring players to wait three years after their high school class graduates to become draft-eligible.

At least he’s up front about why he supports the rule change.

“I just think there’s a lot more kids that get ruined coming out early or going to school trying to be developed to come out early than actually make it,” Cuban said. “For every Kobe (Bryant) or (Kevin) Garnett or Carmelo (Anthony) or LeBron (James), there’s 100 Lenny Cookes.”

And what NBA owner wants to spend big money on a draft bust?  Or maybe on any contract with an 18-year old?

Of course, a billionaire’s dream wouldn’t be complete without some rationalization.

“It’s not even so much about lottery busts,” Cuban said. “It’s about kids’ lives that we’re ruining. Even if you’re a first-round pick and you have three years of guaranteed money — or two years now of guaranteed money — then what? Because if you’re a bust and it turns out you just can’t play in the NBA, your ‘Rocks for Jocks’ one year of schooling isn’t going to get you real far.

“I just don’t think it takes into consideration the kids enough. Obviously, I think there’s significant benefit for the NBA. It’s not my decision to make, but that’s my opinion on it.”

See?  It’s really about the kids.  I guess Cuban’s trying to warn them that a million dollars doesn’t go as far as it used to.  And maybe he doesn’t know how the educational system works.  It turns out that if an 18-year old’s professional career doesn’t work out, he can go back to college to get his degree.  A least he’ll be able to afford the tuition at that point.

These guys don’t even try hard anymore to disguise their self-interest.  But it’s the NCAA that’s keeping the players down.

And in a shocking development…

Really, who could have expected that Bobby Petrino wasn’t straight with the people he worked with?  (And yes, to answer your first question, Petrino does have a morals clause in his contract.)

Does he survive the storm?  His AD is clearly pissed, but I think it’s going to come down to how much the Pork Rind Jimmys of that neck of the woods care about it.  My guess is that after a couple of days of reflection they’ll find they can live with it, as long as the 10-win seasons continue to go along with the deal.

It’ll be a helluva way to run a football program, though.

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UPDATE:  Andy Staples cites a parallel tale.

Long is not the first athletic director to face this type of predicament. In May 1999, Alabama AD Bob Bockrath’s coach, Mike DuBose, lied about a relationship with a secretary after she filed a harassment complaint. Ultimately, the truth came out and the school had to pay the woman $350,000. Did Alabama fire DuBose? Nope. It fired Bockrath. (DuBose went on to win the 1999 SEC title and got himself fired in 2000 for losing.)