Believe it or not, there are other happenings in the world of college football beyond the Pruitt hire.
- Georgia Tech’s AD has a four-hour meeting with Paul Johnson, declares the genius to be “as focused and energized as he has seen him”. As long as you keep him on the job, I’m fine.
- You know how the NCAA keeps vowing to take litigation all the way to the Supreme Court? Well, you can take the litigation to the Court, but that doesn’t mean the Court is going to accept the litigation from you.
- Damon Evans has a new gig.
- James Franklin says kids commit to a coach, not the school. Funny how that works out when a coach leaves the school freely while a player is blocked from transferring.
- Speaking of which, they’re not making that any easier.
- Title IX vs. football: “(A)t most Division I schools, 80 percent of all sports funds go to two men’s sports: football and basketball.”
- John Infante looks at the new NCAA governing proposal designed to give the big schools more autonomy and notes the curious absence of the word “amateurism”.
- Maryland AG counterclaims in the ACC suit, alleging that ESPN provided “counsel and direction” to the conference as it attempted to poach teams from the Big Ten. Pass the popcorn, please.
- Brian VanGorder, on the lessons he learned from Rex Ryan.
Get The Picture 
That tightening of the transfer rules is pretty maddening. Hard to understand why they think they should make it more restrictive on the players.
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Agreed. I honestly don’t understand why kids can’t transfer at will with immediate eligibility. Keep schools locked into 85 scholarships, there wouldn’t be that much movement anyway. It’s just nonsensical.
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+1
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Hasn’t Franklin made some pretty snarky comments about “decommits” in the past? Did he go to law school to learn to argue both sides of an argument? Or, is he just a disingenuous prick?
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The correct answer is ‘all of the above’. The guy is a good coach, one helluva motivator, and one big pile of douche of a man.
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no law degree required to be two-faced
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I read the James Franklin piece on the WWL’s website last night and immediately thought the same thing. His argument is convenient for him to use when it’s to his advantage. In any case, his hiring at Penn State gives me plenty of motivation to root against the guy.
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Situation ethics, James Franklin is thy name.
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Pretty sure I typed “situational” but seeing how much coffee is still in my cup, maybe I didn’t. Doh!!!
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I still wish they would have kept airing Damon Evans’ “Don’t drink and drive” commercial during the football season after his arrest.
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Dollars to doughnuts IMG ran off Damon Evans and this “we’re still friends” BS is a smokescreen. The fact that IMG would even hire that loser in the first place is an outlier from a firm that usually doesn’t make mistakes. I’m betting that after he got there they realized their error and showed him the door.
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“Regardless it still would be significant if this definition of the collegiate model was enshrined in NCAA legislation since it does not preclude many forms of professionalization advocated by NCAA critics.”
Wait just a damn minute…I thought Pruitt ran a 3-4 at FSU.
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Yeah, I can’t wait for the next press conference when a HS kid pulls a James Franklin hat out of a bag instead of a Penn St one…
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Senator, your first bullet was sublime. Perfect snark.
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Damon’s new business sounds suspiciously like Entertainment 720…
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Athletic Academia 720. (Or would they go 1440? It is “higher” ed.)
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Removing the transfer penalty would be total chaos, can’t believe any CFB fan would support that. There is an option for immediate playing time available, leave it alone. I understand the inequity of coaches being able to coach right away, and wouldn’t mind seeing that eliminated, but allowing players to become “annual free agents” would destroy the game.
On GT and its problem with Fish Fry, how do they get out of it? Unless they bring in another triple option coach, the personnel shortcomings would take years to fix. Seems like the Genius will have to modify his approach to a scheme similar to what other versatile option teams run and get away from the one dimensional run offense he has failed at.
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I don’t think it would take as long as you’d think to go from a CPJ offense to a Malzahn-type of formation.
Malzahn’s offense requires a little bit more QB athleticism/speed, and the formation is clearly more spread, but the net ground game orientation is very similar. I’d think it would take ~2 years to realign in that style, but I don’t think GT is smart enough to dive into that seamless of a transition.
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You may be right, I had thought that too. But if so, what in the world is he waiting on? It is obvious that the flexibility would make it much more difficult to defend and every Saturday there are teams succeeding at demonstrating the advantages. The guy is reportedly stubborn but how many 7 win seasons and crummy bowls does it take to realize it is holding you back?
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You say that, but Auburn had a great offensive line, and they did actual blocking, instead of flopping on the ground and hoping it works.
The skill positions could transition quickly, but the line play? That’s what would set them up for a 3-win season.
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Yes they did. GT might get better OL players if they were running an offense that didn’t depend on cheat blocking and also incorporated pass blocking. Hard to get to the NFL if they have never seen you pass block before.
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I know a big time GT fan..he is not feeling the good vibe coming from North Avenue. He wants CPJ gone. Says his buyout has been too high to this point.
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Hard to figure out which story wins today’s puffery award. The Paul Johnson, Damon Evans, and Brian Van Gorder articles are all worthy candidates.
Also, does any other Georgia fan laugh whenever they hear the name of Georgia Tech’s AD?
I certainly do.
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The Georgia Tech article is worth reading just to get to this nugget:
“Coaches also began to devote more attention to recruiting outside of the state, where they have found the Tech reputation carries more weight than it does in-state.”
Familiarity breeds comtempt, indeed.
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Or, translated, “we have to leave the state to find kids who know us only from US News & World Report rankings, and don’t know about our football history.”
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