Tyrone Prothro is one of the O’Bannon plaintiffs. You may recall that he suffered a gruesome injury that ended his college career at Alabama.
But one thing from college lived on.
Geez.
Daily Archives: June 11, 2014
Must… not… use… lost control meme… must not…
One of Georgia’s top 2015 targets, five-star safety Rashad Roundtree, has some concerns about the home state team. Specifically, what’s with all those players leaving?
“It is really different,” Roundtree said. “You’re wondering what’s the problem or what’s going on at Georgia that makes everybody either get kicked off or want to leave. So it is kind of like, ‘Is there something under the covers that they are just hiding?’ So there is always that kind of feeling that this could be the wrong choice.”
Since Roundtree goes on to speak highly of Georgia’s coaches (Pruitt by name, in fact), you have to think this is something coming up on the recruiting trail. And before you ask…
“I am hearing from Georgia the most,” Roundtree said. “After that it would be Florida and Ohio State or Auburn…”
Filed under Georgia Football, Recruiting
How Georgia rides “that big hoss.”
To read much of the national media, you’d think Todd Gurley has struggled with injuries throughout his Georgia career. That’s not entirely accurate, but you can tell Mark Richt is sensitive to that perception when he discusses how he’ll use Gurley in the running game this season.
“So are we gonna give it to (Gurley) 30 times a game and wear him to a nub, no. But there may be a game or two where he’s feeling in, and we’ve got momentum, and he’s pounding, we’re gonna let him pound. But Douglas pounds pretty good too. Keith Marshall can hit a home run at any moment. So we’ll use all those guys.”
The thing is, that’s not really a departure from how he’s been deployed so far. Looking at Gurley’s career rushing stats, here’s how his number of carries per game breaks down (he was out three games last season):
- Less than 10: 3
- 10-19: 13
- 20-29: 7
- 30 or more: 1
As those numbers indicate, Keith Marshall’s made it pretty easy for Richt and Bobo to manage Gurley’s workload. With Chubb and Michel being added to the mix this season, there’s no reason to think that won’t continue.
Interestingly, there is one area of Gurley’s workload that’s increased dramatically. He has 53 career receptions. 26 of those came in his last four games. (Ten versus Auburn.) I don’t know whether Richt counts that as part of the pounding or not.
Filed under Georgia Football, Stats Geek!
Jeff Long, man of action
I don’t know if anyone caught Brett McMurphy’s Twitter feed yesterday, but… well, start here.
Long talked a good game.
Then comes the punchline.
That’s from the man charged with making the playoff selection committee’s deliberations transparent. Good luck with that, y’all.
Filed under Arkansas Is Kind Of A Big Deal
Still crazy after all these years
Jim Donnan wants you to know there’s one thing he really would have liked during his coaching career.
Q: What game do you wish you could have back in your five years?
A: “I would like to have had instant replay. There were a couple of games against [Georgia] Tech I would like to play over, but they deserved to win.”
No they didn’t.
Filed under Georgia Football, Georgia Tech Football
“Personally… that’s what I’ve been talking about for years.”
What Al Gore is to the Internets, Paul Johnson says he is to the elimination of national signing day. And exactly for the reasons you would expect.
“It would cut all the (crap) out of it. All those people who think they have offers would find out that they really don’t have offers. You know, if somebody walked in your school and said ‘You have an offer,’ the kid could say ‘OK, where is it? I’m ready to sign it.’ This would stop all this foolishness.
“And it would work the same way with the kids saying ‘Yeah, coach, I’m committed.’ The college says ‘OK, here’s your scholarship. Sign it.’ The kid says ‘Well, I don’t want to sign right now.’ Well then that kid is not committed. If a kid didn’t want to sign, they wouldn’t sign. And if he did sign, it’s binding. It would stop all this ‘He’s a soft commit.’ It’s not a commit, it’s a reservation.’
It’s not that he expects to gain an advantage on the recruiting trail from it. He’s just personally affronted by the puffery.
Not that that makes it a bad idea.
Filed under Georgia Tech Football, Recruiting
“What we really see are the ‘haves,’ the ‘have-nots’ and the ‘forget-about-its.'”
While we probably won’t hear from Brother Emmert until next week, yesterday had its moments in the O’Bannon courtroom. I can’t say for certain which side will prevail, but it’s already clear that competitive balance is getting the crap beat out of it.
Coaches are getting money that otherwise would go to players.
He and Hausfeld emphasized that the compensation of football coaches has risen more than 500 percent since the 1980s, in part because of exploding revenues and NCAA rules controlling how much of that money can flow to players. Additionally, Noll said, schools are redirecting money to the building and gold-plating of athletic facilities — $5.1 billion in 104 stadiums, arenas and practice facilities since the late 1990s.
None of this has helped level the competitive playing field, either, he said. Hausfeld showed slides highlighting the dominance of about a dozen teams in football and basketball since 1993, in contrast to the bottom quarter of programs that struggled mightily.
How much would directing more money towards players change the status quo? In the world of Mike Slive’s “so-called level playing field”, not nearly as much as the NCAA would have you believe. Especially if them what’s got the gold get to make their own rules.
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UPDATE: Exchange from today…
Filed under College Football, It's Just Bidness, The NCAA
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