Now we know why all those recruiting dudes were chasing that job.

Georgia is shelling out some serious bucks to its latest hire.

Georgia’s newly created position of Director of On-Campus Recruiting comes with a six figure salary.

Former high school coach and athletic director Daryl Jones will make an annual salary of $110,000, according to information obtained in an open records request.

If Jones’ presence helps reel in one of his former high school charges, my bet is that most in the Dawgnation will consider that money well spent.

The ACC has a football problem.

There are a couple of eye-opening quotes from Clemson’s AD in this Q&A piece worth noting.  First, if you want to understand why the ACC seems to be teetering on some sort of precipice these days, here’s why:

… The conference and the membership well understand what is happening. For example, in this latest contract with ESPN, 80% of it is generated by football. As good as basketball has been in the ACC, it is very evident just through this contract that football has to be very, very relevant.

Raiding the Big East for Pitt and Syracuse may look great from a basketball perspective, but it doesn’t do a damned thing for football.  Too bad that’s where the money is.  And the ACC has had a hard time understanding that lately, which is kind of surprising, given that the moves that brought FSU, Miami and Virginia Tech into the conference were all driven by football.

But here’s the sobering part of the conversation:

… For example this new contract has two look-in windows- one at five years and one at 10 years. The purpose of that – in talking with ESPN people and our people in the same room – is to look at the end of five years where are we- competitively, what’s our performance, and does it merit a significant increase in the rights fee. There’s no question that on ESPN, the rights to television money is larger than any other conference. They’ve got other- the SEC has CBS and other conferences have other carriers, but there is tremendous exposure for the ACC football games as well as basketball games and other Olympic sports. As far as exposure, it’s a very good contract. Dollar wise as far as what ESPN is paying, it’s at the top, but overall because of the lack of CBS, you don’t have the same kind of dollars that other conferences have. But, having said that, ESPN has made it very clear that the purpose of writing in those look-ins is to see where we are in five years. You don’t wait until the end of the 15 years to say, ‘hey, how are we doing?’ That’s the purpose of the five-year and the ten-year look-in to challenge our conference and all of us associated with the conference know that football is extremely important and we have to perform and do everything we can to perform. [Emphasis added.]

The WWL insisted on writing look-in provisions into the new TV deal.  That’s not exactly a vote of confidence in your long-term prospects, ACC.

Mack Brown’s recruiting secret

So, Texas has a program that ought to get your typical eighteen-year old high school recruits flocking to Austin.

Oops.  Maybe this is the kind of stuff Georgia Tech fans are talking about when they bitch about their school’s limited curriculum.

(h/t The Agitator)

Those playoffs can’t save you now, my pretty.

What do you call a Dan Wetzel playoff piece with a disclaimer like this?

I could be wrong, though. I could be completely wrong.

Why, promising, of course.

And it lives up to it.  I’m not sure what my favorite part is – the idea that after having eviscerated the ACC and the Big East, the Big 12 and SEC are going to turn right around and bail them out with an expanded playoff is right up there; the suggestion that the conferences potentially on the outs should apply political pressure is good, too – but this bit is quintessential Wetzel:

They should’ve been united in arguing that an eight-team playoff is inevitable. Once the four-teamer’s contract ends in eight to 10 years, the wildly successful playoff almost certainly will expand. As such, why not get out in front now, when there aren’t just four 12- to 16-team super conferences left?

There is nothing a ginormous playoff can’t fix in Wetzel’s world.

Bright lights, big city

ESPN, Los Angeles.  I wonder if there will be any “hot seat” cracks.  Richt is a good enough sport for that.

https://twitter.com/#!/UGAAthletics/statuses/204615697937088512

Maybe he’ll have time to look up the Laner while he’s out on the coast.

Kiffin watch: I idolize you.

I never knew four sentences could create such intense disgust.

… Since he was in high school, Kiffin has idolized the Head Ball Coach. He loved Spurrier’s innovative mismatch pass offense. Loved the visor. Loved the John Blutarsky pencils-hanging-out-of-nose attitude.

Fortunately, in the very next sentence, Junior redeems himself with another subtle crack.

“Probably the best college coach there was,” Kiffin says.

Past tense, for the win!

Best of all, this is part of a piece about the “transformed” Lane Kiffin.  Sure he is.

Give the people what you want.

It’s always reassuring to see the marketplace react to a quality product.