The last refuge

Arizona State just lost its athletic director to the deeper pocketed University of Texas and its president is wondering where he goes from here.

“I am looking for people committed to the model that we’re trying to advance,” he said. “Obviously there are other models. There are models of $6 million football coaches. Maybe that’ll soon be $10 million. For me, I don’t think that’s the way for college sports to go, but at the same time I’ve got to keep the team on track, and have to keep the positions filled in a very, very rough and tumble market.

“If the only path to athletic success is the same path as professional teams — more and more money like the Yankees model — then where does that leave us in college sports?”

Judging from what the NFL has pulled off, it should leave you making plans to go lobby Congress.  An antitrust exemption would come in mighty handy about now.  Added bonus:  even the losers reformers think that’s the way to go.  Socialism, for the win!

Mark Richt has lost control of all scooters.

At some point, it gets so bad all Boom can do is laugh to keep from crying.

Former Countryside star and current #Florida #Gators OL Tyler Moore is in surgery. Broke his right arm last night, scooter accident.

— John C. Cotey (@JCCotey) November 6, 2013

If that had happened in Athens, though, somebody would have been arrested.

31.5

That’s the current point spread on the Georgia-Appalachian State game.  The over/under is 62.5, so Vegas is projecting a final score of something in the neighborhood of 47-16.  The Mountaineers have been held under that point total three times this season, by the likes of Montana, Samford and Furman.  Either that’s an indication there’s not a lot of Grantham love, some cheap late scoring is expected against the scrubs, or the betting public is expecting a couple more special moments from Georgia’s special teams.

I mention this not because I really care how the final numbers shake out (as long as Georgia wins, duh) but because I think there are some tactical decisions coming up Saturday and it’ll be interesting to how some of them impact the course of the game.  For instance:

• How much is Gurley going to play?  I suspect more than you might expect, not because they’re looking to pad his numbers, but because he’s got to work on his conditioning.
• It also seems like an awfully good opportunity for Aaron Murray to work on his timing issues with some of the greener receivers.  I hope that doesn’t mean he’ll play well into the second half, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more passing in the first half than you’d think.  And more incompletions.
• Bobo may not care about stats this week, but I bet Grantham does.  It’s also a chance to boost the psyche of a defense that’s been knocked around much of the season.  Look for the starters to stay in the game longer than normal with a big lead (of course, if there’s not a big lead…).  Another reason for that is that there are conditioning issues on that side of the ball, too, such as with Matthews and Harvey-Clemons, who was substituted for a good bit in the Florida game.

Nothing would surprise me.  And that’s even before I get to the subject of Georgia’s generosity.  The team we saw in the first half against Florida would destroy ASU; the bunch we saw struggle in the third quarter would make this Saturday a little too close for comfort.  The truth will probably lie somewhere between.  If that’s what we wind up with, and the Dawgs get healthier, I can live with that.

Wednesday morning buffet

Another day of tasty bits…

• Aaron Murray makes his 50th consecutive career start this Saturday.  As impressive as that is, it’s even more impressive when you realize that he’s the only quarterback in the SEC East to have started every game this season.
• Gary Danielson explains the secret to beating Alabama.
• Really bad call by the officials in last night’s Ohio-Buffalo game.  Even worse, it wasn’t reviewable.
• Chris Brown does his usual great job with this piece about Baylor’s offense.  I love this quote from West Virginia’s defensive coordinator describing the loss to Baylor: “unlike anything I’ve ever been associated with in my entire life. It was just catastrophic in a lot of ways to our psyche.”
• For the head coach of an 8-1 team, Gus Malzahn doesn’t seem to be having a fun week.
• Dan Mullen’s understatement about defending Texas A&M:  “You say we’ll put two guys on Manziel and two guys on Evans, but then there are seven on the other nine and we’re two short. That could be a problem.”  Yeah, that could.
• “Boyd, as well as prosecutors, said that he incorrectly identified the person who helped move the woman, raising eyebrows since Boyd and Carta-Samuels had been Vanderbilt teammates for three seasons by that point, making the chance that he, as a receiver, might misidentify his own quarterback seem curious to some.”  Then again, maybe that explains why Vanderbilt’s offense struggles at times.
• Shawn Williams is on the sidelines at the Georgia-Florida game and Corey Moore plays his best game of the season.  Coincidence?