Maybe it’s not sexy…

Mr. Emmert, with all that culture changing you’re so jazzed up about, any possibility this is on your radar?

Former Washington High defensive tackle and Alabama verbal commitment Darius Paige is headed to Foley High School in Alabama.

But that’s only the beginning of the story.

Washington High assistant coach George Schellang confirmed Tuesday afternoon that Paige withdrew from Washington and will be transferring to Foley High.

“Today, (Darius’) dad came in and withdrew him,” Schellang said. “He just came in and cleared out his locker. I saw the withdrawal form and it said he was withdrawing to attend Foley High. All of his transcripts are being sent to Foley.”

Schellang also confirmed that Paige first approached him during the summer about moving to Foley, saying it was recommended to him by Alabama assistant coach Jeremy Pruitt, who at the time was recruiting Paige.

“Darius came in the office one day during the summer after coach (Mike) Smith left and sat down and told me coach Pruitt, who is the Alabama coach who was recruiting him, wanted him to go to Foley High School,” Schellang said. “Basically, he said (Foley High) could take care of him academically.

“My reaction was shock and dismay that a Division I coach would tell a high school athlete that he needed to transfer, that they had people there to help.”

Shock and dismay?  But Alabama isn’t any ordinary Division I school, sir.

How much of this is true?  Who knows.  But one thing you can bet on – the NCAA’s lack of interest.

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Mark Richt has lost control of fall scrimmage.

How else can you explain Murray outshining Mason in today’s practice?

Passing: Aaron Murray 12-17, 170 yards, 1 TD; H. Mason 9-13, 86 yards, TD; C. LeMay 3-6, 44 yards, 1 INT.

— Seth Emerson (@SethEmerson) August 8, 2012

Either that, or I blame Bobo.

The Summer of Bray

It’s inspiring watching that young man mature before our very eyes.

I can’t wait to see what kind of discipline smart ass remark SOD lays out for this incident.

Everyone in the pool

I definitely got enough feedback yesterday on a football pick ’em pool to move forward, so I’ve gone ahead and set that up.

I’ve elected to go with an against-the-spread format.  (I didn’t see a clear consensus for anything other than not having a straight pick ’em arrangement and ATS is my personal preference, so there.)  You’ll pick ten games each week.  I’ll prioritize the choices like this:  (1) the Georgia game as long as there’s a spread, (2) any SEC-SEC matchups and (3) other games of interest.  The site does give the participants the ability to send me notice of particular games you might want picked, so I’ll try to keep that in mind if I get that kind of feedback.

The link to join is here.  And here’s some pertinent info from the site administrator:

This [link] will take people to the JOIN page and if they are not currently members, they will have to create an account on our site.
A couple of things you may consider letting people know:

1)  We do not SPAM.  Emails are used to send pick reminders and new pool notifications.  Users can turn that off getting emails from us on “YOUR PROFILE” page

2)  Username is what they’ll use to log in, so they should remember that and the password.  Try not to use spaces since people tend to forget they entered them.

3)  PICKS are due prior to KICKOFF or NOON on Saturday depending on the game.  We lock the entire pool at noon on Saturday for all games, but early games lock when they start.

4)  Players can see everyone’s picks at NOON on Saturday when the entire pool locks down.

5)  There is a “CONTACT US” link at the bottom of the page that will send us emails if anyone has any problems.  Of course, you can always let me know if there are any problems.

I’ve already set the first week’s games up.  Two start on the 30th, which means at least those picks will have to be in by that Thursday.  From what I can tell, the site won’t unlock the picks until the 25th, which should still leave you with plenty of time to make them.   Let me know if you have any questions or issues with the sign up.

By the way, hope you approve of the name.  You know I like naming things after coaches… and we all like a challenge.

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UPDATE:  There seems to be an issue with the link all of a sudden.  It was working a few minutes ago, but isn’t now.  Be patient while I get that addressed.  Thanks.

Getting special about special teams

A determined sounding Mark Richt on special teams personnel:

Richt also reiterated that veterans and starters are expected to contribute on special teams.

“In the past we’d say: If your heart’s not in it, don’t get on the team,” Richt said. “You want guys whose heart’s in it. But this year, we’re saying: You change your heart. If you don’t want to be on the special team, you change your heart.”

You think that says more about players’ current attitudes… or Richt’s past one?

Cutting edge offense

brophy has the scoop on the next step after the spread:

One thing that I can’t ignore from La Tech this past spring was the, eh, resigned attitude of Tony Franklin (that more and more OC’s are admitting) that they are only going to run what they are going to run (if they kids can’t get it after a week, then “fuck it“, they will just throw it out (despite the prideful ego of most OCs that pearl-clutch on their favorite concepts).  If they can tie it to a counter, great, if not…they’ll move on.  It kind of goes against the theory of “coaching”, but its ultimately about results, eh?

It’s not hard to understand why things didn’t work out so well between Franklin and Tuberville.

@#()*&% activist judges!

Before you dismiss Ray-Ray Armstrong’s chances for reinstatement at Miami, I cite you the case of Reuben Houston v. Georgia Tech.  (And Ray-Ray hasn’t been indicted – at least not in the judicial system.)

One question:  if Armstrong does get reinstated and Golden refuses to play him, do you think he could get a court order requiring that, too?  I’ve always wondered whether judges would make good defensive coordinators.

America is a great country, friends.  Anybody can sue anybody over anything.

If you can’t join ’em, beat ’em.

Virginia Tech’s athletic director proposes an ACC-SEC football scheduling partnership.  Given that three members of each conference already face off against each other annually (they’d stay locked and everyone else would rotate matchups), it’s not a bad idea.

Although I wonder if Les Miles will be able to sleep at night in those years when LSU plays Duke.

“Son, I coached Stephen Garcia, I knew Stephen Garcia, Stephen Garcia was a starter of mine. Son, you’re no Stephen Garcia.”

No fifth chance for Tanner McEvoy at South Carolina.

“That’s basically what’s confidential is confidential.”

Don Corleone explains the revisions to Georgia’s drug-testing policies.