You know one thing Mark Richt really cares about?

Kickers.

At Georgia, Richt has enjoyed tremendous success with his kickers, using just three designated starters over his entire 11-year tenure. Former Bulldog Blair Walsh (2008-11), a fifth-round draft pick by the Vikings this spring, finished his career with an SEC-record 412 points, three points ahead of Richt’s first kicker, Billy Bennett (’00-03); the two sandwiched Brandon Coutu (’04-07). Knowing Walsh’s career was coming to a close, Richt made it a recruiting emphasis last year to “go find the best kicker in America,” personally watching tape of every top kicker in the South.  [Emphasis added.]  He made his first and only offer to Morgan, out of South Florida’s American Heritage High and ranked seventh nationally by Rivals.com.

Now if somebody could just explain how Jon Fabris fits in with all that, I’d really appreciate it.

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At the intersection of stupidity and offensiveness…

You know, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m as critical of the NCAA as anybody.  And I’ll also admit that I’m not at ease with the process that led to the Penn State sanctions.

But I’m not insane about it.

Whatever evil Joe Paterno and Penn State officials failed to stop, the 112 wins are wins.

Where will the NCAA draw its line? What other wrongs that have nothing to do with victories on the playing field will the NCAA address by nullifying the hard-fought wins of innocent student athletes?

The lesson the NCAA is teaching young people — that history and truth don’t matter if enough powerful people don’t want them to matter — can be as injurious to society as the cover-up was to the victims of Sandusky.

When you’re at the point where you’re equating vacating college football wins with enabling a serial child rapist over a period of years, it’s way past time to seriously question your standards of personal morality.  Or, as I said, your sanity.

All I can say is that I hope that’s the worst thing I read for a while.

Something else Mark Richt has lost control of.

Jimbo Fisher confirms Greg Reid dismissed from #FloridaState

— David Hale (@DavidHaleESPN) August 1, 2012

Anybody know what South Alabama’s secondary looks like?

“It is a little bit of peace of mind.”

As I told Gamecock Man in the comments the other day, I do give Steve Spurrier a lot of credit for retooling his offense to fit the skill set of his players.  That’s the sign of a good offensive coordinator, which the OBC certainly is.

That being said, it seems that may not be the secret to Spurrier’s success.  The key?  Having a starting quarterback without a life.

“Connor is a little different, and our whole style of offense is different than in years past,” Spurrier said. “He’s been around football his whole life and is pretty much dedicated to that. He doesn’t have a lot of outside interests other than to be the best quarterback he can to help our team win games and be successful and hopefully win the SEC.”

Well, you certainly couldn’t accuse Stephen Garcia of that.  (Or, it seems, Tanner McEvoy.)

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UPDATE:  I swear to Gawd, just STFU.

“What happened is Tanner got a speeding ticket and the guy said have you had a beer and he said yes sir, I had one maybe two I’m not sure, but he was not over the limit. It was not a DUI.”

Spurrier said he was unaware of the North Carolina law that states no one under the age of 21 is allowed to drive after comsuming any amount of alchohol.  [sic.]

“I learned that today. I didn’t know.  So Tanner was guilty of speeding and he was guilty of that [drinking a beer] too.  That could probably happen to 50 percent of  every college football player in the country if they’ve had one beer and driven.  I don’t reccomend having too many obviously. But, yeah, he’ll just have to pay the consequences for being arrested.

Steve Spurrier is supposedly unaware of underaged drinking/driving laws.  This, from a guy who’s been coaching college kids for the better part of three decades?  Methinks I detect the faint odor of bullshit wafting gently from the OBC’s mouth.

But aside from that, can you imagine the outcry if Mark Richt uttered a similar explanation?

For some reason, this comes to mind.

Hope he had a driver…

Name that caption: a penny for your thoughts, Coach Richt

I posted one before that showed a few miles on Mark Richt’s face, so it seems only fair to put up this picture of what can only be described as a serene head coach pondering something before the start of last year’s SECCG.

Photo by Associated Press /Chattanooga Times Free Press

Satisfaction that the hot seat had cooled? Peace of mind realizing Willie Martinez wasn’t in the building? You tell me.

So, how’s that “changing the culture” stuff working out?

Central Florida is found guilty of major rules violations by both its basketball and football programs, gets cited for lack of institutional control… and suffers the relatively minor penalties of a one-year postseason ban and a $50,000 fine in addition to the restrictions it previously self-imposed.

And that’s not even the punchline.  This is:

The school announced Tuesday afternoon that it would appeal the postseason ban for football.

“We don’t believe the `aggravating factors’ cited from the NCAA bylaws justify this sanction,” UCF President John Hitt said in a statement released by the school.

At a news conference, Hitt noted that none of the football players the school recruited improperly ever wound up playing for the Knights.

“We suck at cheating” as a defense to NCAA sanctions – hey, what’s not to like?

If for some strange reason you still believe the situation isn’t hopeless, you need to read this.  I’m not sure any article I’ve read this year about college athletics has depressed me more.  The idea the NCAA has that it’s going to be able to get its arms around third-party recruitment is borderline delusional.  The coaches know it.

“If they banned four teams, they have only 104 to go,” said former college coach Tom Penders, who detailed AAU-related issues in his book “Dead Coach Walking.”

“The money deals go down during July. People who are watching have no idea what is going on, like where the peanut is in the shell game. They might be watching it, but they ain’t seeing it.”

I know it’s never going to happen, but if the NBA and NFL aren’t going to run true minor league programs that are a real option for kids who don’t want to go to school, then they ought to drop age requirements for eligibility so that those with their hands out can go where the money is supposed to be.  In any event, I don’t see how the status quo is sustainable.  Something’s gotta give before college basketball and football crack apart from the strain.  I doubt that’s going to be good for the pros, either.