Son, what do you think you’re doing?

Through two scrimmages, #UGA QB Hutson Mason is 24-of-30 in pass attempts for 288 yards and three touchdowns. No interceptions.

— Radi Nabulsi (@RadiNabulsi) April 5, 2014

Don’t you realize that spring practice is the time for backup quarterbacks to feed the trolls with better stats than the starter?

Now that I think about it, you probably do.

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When you lose the Republican, NCAA…

I doubt you’ll be very shocked to learn that players from other colleges have begun contacting the National College Players Association with unionization questions of their own.  Here’s the quote that should wake up schools:

Bohannon, who is in his final year of eligibility, said he wasn’t necessarily advocating for a union but wanted athletes to have more rights.

“Being a Republican, I don’t like the whole unionization thing, I don’t think that’s probably the best option,” he said. “But right now it’s really, there’s not many other options for our student-athletes, so I think it got the necessary publicity that we need, and hopefully the NCAA listens to some of our voices.”

A lot of these kids are begging for meaningful dialogue on serious issues that are important to them.  Ignore them at your own peril.

Jim Delany can always use a good chuckle.

Sooner or later, this is bound to be good for a quote:

State Sen. Michael Connelly (R-Naperville) wants there to be another public Big Ten school in Illinois.

Connelly and state Sen. Matt Murphy (R-Palatine) have introducted legislation in Springfield to study the feasibility of making one of the current state universities a Big Ten school.

The measure, Senate Bill 3526, would create a study commission to explore the possibility of establishing an existing Illinois public university as another Big Ten university. The bill passed the Senate Higher Education Committee on March 19 and will be called for a Senate vote soon.

The two lawmakers said the idea developed due to concerns that some suburban students seem to be leaving Illinois to attend other, high-priced Big Ten institutions out of state.

“This is something that has been under the radar but is now getting a much stronger drum beat,” Connelly said. “I’ve got three kids that are college age and we know that there are a lot of kids with 34 ACT scores and high class rank that are rejected by the University of Illinois and wind up going to places like Kansas and Indiana and other states. Michigan has Michigan and Michigan State — two Big Ten public schools — and we thought why not do a feasibility study to see if we could do the same?”

Sort of like, if you pass it, they will come.

The measure passed the Illinois Senate, by the way.

The Big Ten has not spoken with Murphy about his proposal, he said.

Now there’s a surprise.  I’m sure Big Jim will be calling you any day now, fellas.

More than one way to skin that cat

ESPN purports to survey the entire SEC landscape about its starting quarterback prospects, looks at all the programs replacing starters at the position, sees plenty of uncertainty and concludes thusly:

The only place in the SEC that doesn’t have to be patient in the matter is South Carolina. Coach Steve Spurrier named Dylan Thompson the starter well before spring practice ever began.

Ahem.

The starting job is now essentially Mason’s. The coaches give lip service to the idea that someone could push Mason for the job, but that’s mostly to keep Mason, a fifth-year senior, on his toes.

“Hutson’s obviously ahead of everybody,” head coach Mark Richt said. “But we don’t want any position to think, ‘There’s no chance anyone can take my job’ or take playing time or whatever. So we’re telling everybody to compete for the starting job. We’re not saying, ‘Hey try to compete for the No. 2 job.’

“I’m not trying to cause a controversy at all, because Hutson is clearly in the lead. But it’s gonna be his job to keep it that way, and it’s gonna be the other guy’s job to try to close the gap.”

The only difference between Richt’s and Spurrier’s approaches is how they threaten their starters’ hold on the position.  Richt’s just trying to goose his guy a little to keep him sharp.  Spurrier uses the unspoken threat of being Steve Spurrier, in-game changer of quarterbacks, to do the same.  Either way, does anyone doubt right now who the starting quarterbacks for the Georgia-South Carolina game will be?

Read more here: http://www.macon.com/2014/03/23/3007656/a-real-quarterback-competition.html#storylink=cpy

I’ll always love my mama.

Over at MrSEC.com, Josh Ward professes not to understand why Malik McDowell went through the NLI signing ritual at this late date.

In the end, McDowell got what he wanted. He signed with Michigan State and will be able to play for the Spartans this fall.

It’s confusing why McDowell wanted to sign at all. The letter of intent isn’t required for McDowell to be able to receive a scholarship to play at Michigan State. With McDowell being so close to enrolling in school, the letter of intent really offers McDowell no advantage.

But if McDowell gets to campus and decides he made a mistake, he’s bound to Michigan State for a year because he’s signed the letter of intent. More heavily-recruited prospects should think twice in the future before they sign a letter of intent and make such a strong commitment to one school.

In many cases, I can see the wisdom in Josh’s point.  But maybe Malik signed the LOI so he’d have an excuse to keep mom off his back.  “Mama, even if I wanted to leave, which I don’t, but even if I did, I can’t, because I signed the letter.”  Hell hath no fury, and all.

That being said, if that day ever comes when McDowell wants to transfer, I hope Dantonio’s got enough of a sense of humor to let him go anywhere he wants, as long as it’s not on mama’s list.

Musical palate cleanser, gotta go to school edition

On the wings of news that Eric Dickerson – Eric Dickerson! – has lent his public support to the O’Bannon plaintiffs, I thought this was an appropriate choice: