“Recruiting isn’t everything…”

But when it comes to national title winners, it’s a pretty damned big deal.

Read the whole thing, but note that in the last ten years, every BCS national champ was in the top 10 in roster talent (based on all available services at the time of a players signing) and all but Florida 2006 and Auburn 2010 had least one side of the ball in the top four.

Oh, and bonus points for the “But this post isn’t about basketball” beginning.

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Georgia Tech admission standards are just Chantastic.

Tech fans, can we please dispense once and for all with the holier than thou whining about admission standards and the Hill holding back Paul Johnson?  The genius says he’s been greenlighted to go after the same kids most everyone else chases.

In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Johnson shared updates and insights about his team, which begins spring practice in advance of his seventh season on March 24. Among them: an admissions leeway he has been granted by school president G.P. “Bud” Peterson, changes in the coaching of the offensive line and possible scheme adjustments for the offense.

The incoming signing class was among Johnson’s largest and was significant in another way. With the academic success that the program has had since his arrival after the 2007 season, Johnson went to Peterson last year for help. He had ammunition. The Jackets were honored by the NCAA last June for having an NCAA-measured Academic Progress Rate in the top 10 percent of FBS.

Of the 15 players who were part of Johnson’s first signing class in 2008 and who stayed for four or more years, 14 earned degrees. Of the 16 players in the 21-player 2009 class who stayed four or more years, 15 earned degrees and the 16th is completing degree work.

Up until last year, Johnson said, he was permitted to have 20 percent of the signees fall below the school’s admissions standards so long as they met NCAA qualifying standards, signees termed by the program as exceptions.

“(Peterson) said, with the success we’ve had, he would give me more leeway if I thought guys could make it through,” Johnson said.

Johnson said that Peterson removed the 20 percent cap and gave him autonomy to offer scholarships to prospective players as long as they were NCAA qualifiers, which are a lower standard than Tech’s.

Fine by me.  On to the next excuse for losing to Georgia…

Everybody Wang HUNH tonight.

Football Study Hall asks the musical question why doesn’t everyone HUNH, which leads to a debate as to whether HUNH is a tactic or strategy (pretty close to hair-splitting, IMO) and Gary Danielson calling Nick Saban’s observation that football was never intended to be a continuous sport stupid.

I do think Nick [Saban, one of the proponents of the 10-second rule] has a point: football was not originally meant to be a continuous sport. But I think it’s stupid coming from Nick, and I don’t understand why he’s doing it. He has the best players! He theoretically should have the most well-rounded players, and he could look more like the Seattle Seahawks than anybody else in college! But he fights it. Just swallow hard and put guys in there who can do a lot of things. You’ve got the better players.

The post goes on to explore the question in the context of Saban eschewing up-tempo stuff and speculates that…

So, Saban is making a conscious, strategic choice to be anti-HUNH because there are important tradeoffs. The HUNH might or might not be strategically superior, but there are certainly some benefits slowing things down too, namely in player attributes, scheme complexity, and play choice.

I think there’s something else in play as well.  It’s something that HeismanPundit has mentioned – the value of taking a contrarian position with an offensive scheme.  In the land of the HUNH, with its emphasis on isolating players, the power offense can wind up becoming king as defenses look to become smaller and quicker to combat offenses spreading the field.

But don’t take my word for it.  Take Nick Saban’s.

“We’ve kind of gotten antiquated, and now we’re all of a sudden back. Everybody used to run the ball like we run it. Now people have a hard time stopping us, because they don’t play against teams that run the ball like we runs it. These used to be the basic plays that everybody ran.”

Thursday morning buffet

Hungry?

• You know, there’s a guy every year who seems like he’s been around forever.  My 2014 nominee for that guy is Florida’s Andre Debose, who was just granted a sixth year of eligibility.
• “I just don’t want to see any University of Alabama (logos).”
• David Ching makes a case for a guy we probably haven’t thought about much yet, tight end Jordan Davis.
• SEC basketball crowds suck.  And here I thought continuously loud music packs folks in.
• So, the question becomes would college basketball be better served as a one-semester sport?  What I love about this discussion is that there isn’t a single word about what fans might want, other than to blame our limited attention spans.  “It is a big challenge to get people to care about college basketball when football is still being played.”
• Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Dan Rooney thinks it would be swell if college football players didn’t come out early.
• The day Georgia football almost died.
• Pretty good column in the Boston College student newspaper about March Madness:  “Thanks to March Madness, regular season success is overlooked.”
• Auburn’s AD has fired the football, baseball and men’s basketball coaches he hired since 2008.  Think he’s indebted to Malzahn right now?

All mod cons

Athlon ranks the college football coaching jobs here.  Georgia comes in eighth.

What’s funny is that Athlon really has to struggle to come up with any negatives.  It finds two – and one of those is us.

Cons: There are really no negatives to be found at Georgia, other than the fact that you are competing in the very difficult SEC, and you have a fan base that demands you win at a high level.

Mark Richt has lost control of the state legislature.

Obviously nobody in Georgia government has the first clue about big games.

It was for these reasons among his other contributions to the state of Georgia that Representatives deemed it appropriate to commend Murray for his achievements as a student-athlete as well as his work in the public service realm. A document titled House Resolution 1457, drafted by Representatives Williams of the 119th, Ralston of the 7th, Ehrhart of the 36th, England of the 116th, O’Neal of the 146th and others was put in place to commend Murray for his service.

Murray was a hit with House Members, and received no shortage of applause.

Here’s a pic:

No word on when they’re honoring Georgia Tech’s quarterback.