Mark Bradley’s just trying to help, y’all.

Concern troll gets smacked.

@MarkBradleyAJC Research much? NCAA killed the HCIW title a few years ago when it put same recruiting restrictions in HCIW as HC.

— Jake Rowe (@Rowe247) January 13, 2014

Bradley beat a hasty retreat by incorporating Rowe’s comment into his post, but I still bet if Richt doesn’t have his man in a week, we’ll start seeing comparisons to the process leading to Ted Roof’s hire.

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James Franklin can’t help it if the grass is greener.

I gather from this that James Franklin intends to recruit a 2014 class at Penn State devoid of honor and integrity.

Or, he could simply be full of shit.  Yeah, I suppose that’s possible.

Who said this?

The Todd Grantham fan club checks in (anonymously):

Getting a few texts from coaches in disbelief that Grantham could fetch that. One from SEC says he's disappointed he's leaving league. Ouch!

— Travis Haney (@TravHaneyESPN) January 12, 2014

If anybody but Spurrier made that last comment, I’ll eat my hat.

The best thing about the new playoff format

… is that I can laugh about this.

AFCA exec director Grant Teaff: Coaches poll will take on even more significance in playoff. People want to know what coaches think.

— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) January 13, 2014

I’m sure with the Coaches Poll having no weight in the selection process going forward, coaches’ interest in compiling a weekly top 25 is going to skyrocket.

PAWWWWL, I just got my Dish Network statement.

Coming soon, to a cable bill near you…

Distributors in SEC country can expect to pay a rate of $1.30 to carry the soon-to-be-launched SEC Network, according to several sources with knowledge of the rate card.

That fee, paid on a monthly per-subscriber basis, is what cable and satellite companies within the SEC’s 11-state footprint would pay to ESPN, the owner of the SEC Network. Outside of SEC territory, the channel’s license fee drops to 25 cents.

That’ll be a win for Mike Slive, who will once again be able to show his presidents that they swing the biggest Johnsons in the room at the next get together.

An in-market rate of $1.30 makes the SEC Network significantly more expensive than the Big Ten Network. BTN launched in 2007 and currently charges up to $1 in its 11-state footprint from New Jersey to Nebraska. Sub fees on average from both inside and outside the footprint average 37 cents, according to researcher SNL Kagan.

Note also that they’re looking to stick the locals with a higher share of the cost than the BTN does.  Never underestimate the drawing power of the GPOOE™.

Further proof that nobody’s interested in Georgia coaches

Enter the Sabanator.

Just confirmed report that Chris Wilson is in fact interviewing at Alabama today

— Anthony Dasher (@AnthonyDasher1) January 13, 2014

Guess that means we know where Orgeron winds up. 😉

Georgia, you’re so Georgia.

While we’re talking about staff positions, how ’bout hiring somebody to be put in charge of monitoring this?

CB Shaq Wiggins arrested for driving on a suspended license….paid $500 bond for speeding, $1,500 for suspended license..

— Anthony Dasher (@AnthonyDasher1) January 13, 2014

My pick would be to hire somebody off of Jimmy Williamson’s roster.  You get some real insight into what they’re up to, plus they have to go out and get somebody else.  Kind of like raiding a top recruiter from another school’s staff.

Some post-Grantham thoughts

Rumor has it that the towel is holding out for a three-year guaranteed contract.

A variety of thoughts that popped into my head after learning the news that Georgia’s in the market for a new defensive coordinator:

• The contract.  Seriously, can anybody blame Grantham for jumping at a five-year, $5 million guaranteed deal?  Hell, if he hadn’t taken it, I’d have questioned his judgment.  There’s no way Georgia would match an offer like that and I doubt Grantham even asked.
• The timeline.  Pretty damned fast, I’d say.  Petrino was officially named Louisville’s head coach on Thursday.  He first offered the DC job to Alabama’s Kevin Steele, who initially, according to reports, accepted and then changed his mind and declined.  Petrino and Grantham made contact on Saturday, per Greg McGarity.  It’s a done deal the next day.
• The initiator.  The $64000 question we’ll probably never get an answer to is who reached out to whom first.  And I’d sure like to know, for a couple of reasons.  Is Petrino that impressed with Grantham’s run at Georgia?  Or was Grantham perhaps being proactive in response to “that talk” with Mark Richt?  The size of the contract and the fact that Grantham was telling recruits after Lakatos’ departure that he was busy looking for a replacement make me lean in Petrino’s direction, but the speed with which the two came together would argue in favor of Grantham letting Petrino know that he might be in play with the right offer.  It’s a mystery unlikely to be solved.
• Nepotism, for the win?  I’m not sure how much this came in to play, but one thing’s for sure.  It’s a helluva lot easier to hire your brother to coach at Louisville than it is at Georgia.
• Rodney Garner.  Twice Richt called on Garner to hold things together when the defensive staff was in transition.  On both occasions, Garner came through.  On the other hand, there’s been plenty of chatter over the years about Garner being a sticking point with certain occupants/would be occupants of the coordinator spot.  This time, he ain’t around to make a difference either way.  Which leads to…
• Recruiting.  The early response from recruits hasn’t been too troubling – anywhere from no difference to wait-and-see mode is manageable.  In any event, this is the worst reason in the world to rush into a hiring decision.  I expect Richt is smart enough to know that.
• The hiring process.  Richt claims that he’s already had a fair amount of interest expressed in the position and I have little reason to doubt that.  It’s an attractive job.  There is plenty of returning talent, with a good class coming in this season if the staff can hold things together.  And the position coach opening in the secondary gives anyone coming in a leg up on shaping the defensive staff.  My gut tells me that it won’t take as long to hire somebody as it did when Richt replaced Martinez.
• Greg McGarity.  He won’t be micromanaging the hire, but you can be damned sure he’s in control of the contract parameters.  Georgia isn’t as desperate to attract top coaching talent as Louisville, so it won’t be necessary to lay out the same kind of deal that Grantham got to land a qualified replacement, but this is the SEC and you’re not going to get your guy without a competitive offer, which makes it hard for me to see how Richt gets his man for much less than what Grantham was getting while in Athens.  This part of the play is going to be interesting to watch, to say the least.
• Kirby Smart.  If I had to guess, this is the hire that would please the fan base the most, but it’s hard to see how this happens without a bunch of people taking a deep breath before taking the plunge.  There are some burned bridges after what happened the last go ’round.  And after watching Alabama’s defense flounder against HUNH offenses as much as Georgia’s did in 2013, I’m not so sure this is the slam dunk that those arguing in favor of it believe it to be.  Still, if the rumors are true about Orgeron coming to Tuscaloosa, I wonder if Smart might see the Georgia job as an opportunity to really be in control of the defensive staff and a step up.  It would admittedly be nice to see his recruiting talents come to Athens.  But I question whether McGarity is up to the salary requirements (not to mention what he’d likely have to do for Bobo, as well).
• The rest of the field.  There are plenty of good choices out there.  Richt’s not close-minded about hiring, as indicated by the process last time.  But you wonder what he might have to promise these days to get a slam dunk hire.  I guess we’re about to find out how good Georgia is in attracting top flight coaching talent in the new world of exploding assistant salaries.

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UPDATE:  Seth Emerson’s analysis is worth a read.  Particularly this:

Did Richt let Grantham leave? It’s probably comparable to when Rodney Garner left after last season: Both were welcome back. But when they had a better offer, Richt (and Greg McGarity) said, essentially: Good luck to ya.

By comparison, if Mike Bobo had come to his bosses with a $1 million offer to run another team’s offense, the bet here is Richt and company would have fought to keep him.

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UPDATE #2:  Chip Towers sheds some light on a question I thought would remain murky.

So now we’re left with the chicken-and-the-egg question. Is this something that Richt initiated or is it something that just happened? There’s evidence on both sides of the equation.

Consider the timeline:

• Richt meets with AD Greg McGarity for his end-of-year review on Thursday morning.
• Thursday evening, UGA announces the resignation of Lakatos.
• On Saturday, Grantham informs McGarity that Bobby Petrino wants to talk to him about Louisville’s defensive coordinator position.
• On Sunday, news breaks that Grantham has accepted the Cardinals $5 million offer.

Here’s what I think: I believe the Lakatos resignation was going to happen anyway. There is some validity to the “personal reasons” the fourth-year assistant cited and clearly the Bulldogs needed to address the shortcomings at that position.

As for Grantham, I happen to know that he had no plans whatsoever to leave Georgia as of Friday night. Louisville swooped in fast-and-furious on Saturday. But the Cardinals’ lucrative offer left the Bulldogs no choice.  [Emphasis added.]