Evil Richt, with a vengeance

It’s the P.S. in his letter that really nails it for me.

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UPDATE:  Too good to be true.

The deadspin article with a letter from me is bogus!!

— Mark Richt (@MarkRicht) September 4, 2014

That’s kind of evil, too, now that I think about it.

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“There’s so much information out there.”

Despite all the assurances about the members’ college football smarts and the wealth of information to be made available to each selection committee person, somebody’s worried about the dissemination of information, or something, because here’s the next genius move:

The College Football Playoff selection committee has finalized what it calls “point persons” to gather material about teams in each conference and independent schools.

In an attempt to make sure no facts go overlooked, the 13-member selection committee assigned two people to fully review each conference and the independents…

Bill Hancock, executive director of the playoff, said conferences will designate someone — most likely their commissioner — to funnel information to their selection-committee contacts. Schools can also choose to provide information to the selection-committee contacts.

The point-person process is similar to what the NCAA basketball tournament selection committee uses. Examples of information that football playoff committee point persons may collect include injury updates, Hancock said.

Other types of information “could be things like this team maybe has played better in the last two games because the left tackle is developing,” Hancock said. “Or things like, ‘Hey, remember this team won all of its nonconference games by relying on the run and now they’ve become more diversified.'”

So what we’ve got here is people set up to receive spin from the conferences who in turn can spin the spin to the committee.

“They will not speak on behalf of any conference or institution during the committee’s deliberations or represent any conference’s or independent institution’s interests during those deliberations,” the statement said. “Their function is to gather information and ensure that it is available to the committee. Their role as a liaison to a particular conference or independent institution is purely for the purpose of objective fact-gathering.”

Yeah, right.  You can sense the oncoming train wreck, can’t you?

That train done left the station.

Talk about your day late and dollar short:

Confirmed: #FSU interviewed Jameis Winston's accuser last month. First time the school asked for a detailed account of the allegations.

— Matt Baker (@MBakerTBTimes) September 4, 2014

I’m sure that whatever the school learned from her will make a huge difference.

“But we do want the game experience to be an enjoyable one for students.”

I heard a number of concerns/complaints both before and after the game about student seating.  I guess that’s what happens when you do this for a popular game:

However, Tim Cearley, University Associate Athletic Director of ticket operations, says that even highly-anticipated home games do not typically garner enough student attendance for capacity to be met. This year, the ticker office sold 18,800 full home season tickets awarded, and there are only 16,000 student section seats available.

Looks like they guessed wrong.  But they also added fuel to the fire.

On Aug. 27, The UGA Athletic Association sent an email stating that the student gates will open at 4:00 p.m., and if capacity is reached, access will be denied into Sanford Stadium despite having the ticket privilege inscribed onto one’s student ID.

“Looking back at it, I feel like it was shouting fire in a crowded theatre,” UGA Law student Sarah Darden said.

Leave it to Jimmy Williamson to explain the facts of life to students.

“No matter what process we choose, whether general admission or assigned seating, I don’t know if we could meet all expectations,” Williamson said.

Why bother, in other words?  Resistance is futile, peeps.  That’s the attitude that’ll keep students coming back for more.

Oh, yeah… wasn’t he the guy who was hurt all the time?

Seriously, if Todd Gurley manages to start every Georgia game this season, what do you think the odds are that the pundits will continue to characterize his career with “but even so there are concerns about his durability” qualifications?

Just throw the damned ball.

Mike Bobo wants an improved passing attack for the South Carolina game.

Hutson Mason invites the Gamecocks to load the box to force him to throw.

I’m detecting a theme emerging.

I think too much is being made about Mason’s anemic passing stats against Clemson.  As Chris Conley puts it, “Unfortunately when you have talented backs like we do, sometimes when you run the ball, you have success…”  Georgia’s offense in the second half wasn’t broke, so why fix it?

Mason has enough game to be a contributing factor in Columbia, if that’s what’s needed.  Texas A&M’s shredded the South Carolina defense for 511 passing yards without a single pass going for more than 33 yards.  Hill played a great game, but his passer rating was a fairly modest 161.37, because his yards per attempt were just 8.5.  (Just a reminder – Aaron Murray’s passer rating against SC last season was 244.15.)

The point is that the Gamecocks were vulnerable to a passing attack that wasn’t based on bombing them deep, but rather on finding ways to slice and dice them with precise routes and accurate throws.  (Take a look at Bruce Feldman’s analysis of one of those ways TAMU went after the Carolina defense successfully.)

There’s no reason to think Mason can’t hold up his end of the deal with that kind of approach to moving the ball.  And Georgia’s got plenty of talent on the receiving end of things.  The key to winning in Columbia is going to be whether the offensive line can build on its second half against Clemson.

For the “tackle numbers are overrated” crowd…

For all the dismissals Georgia’s inside linebackers received about their tackle stats last season, it’s worth pointing out that after his monster game on Saturday, Amarlo Herrera leads the SEC in tackles (12), tackles for loss (3.5) and is tied in sacks (two).

I had no idea Georgia’s defensive line played so poorly.

Boom don’t need no stinkin’ twelfth game.

Kind of amusing to see the preseason “keep an eye out for the Gators” talk dwindle to “7-5 looks a whole lot better than 6-5.” after the news came out that Florida and Idaho elected not to reschedule their rained out game from last weekend.

“I got to make sure I’m in town for the weekend on Parents Day.”

University of Arkansas at Little Rock AD resigns after his comments about the physical attributes of the mother of one of the school’s women soccer players were picked up on a live microphone.

The topper is that the school recently canned its baseball coach after he faced charges of sexual harassment.