Not your father’s special teams

Of all the things you could have pointed to in an effort to convince me that there really is something different about this year’s approach to special teams at Georgia, ongoing competition for a special teams spot might be the one I’d have the hardest time believing.

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Herbstreit keeps the faith.

Bye week, schmye week.  He’s staying on the bandwagon.

My week 2 Final 4 (not projected-strictly after 2 weeks of Fball) 1. UGA 2. Oregon 3. FSU 4. Oklahoma

— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) September 7, 2014

They’ll always have transparency.

Remember this?

“The members of the selection committee are an outstanding group of people with high integrity and excellent judgment, and ultimately the decision will be theirs,” Hancock said when the College Football Playoff released selection details.

That Bill… what a card.

Yesterday, Pat Haden, selection committee member and USC athletic director (as we are about to see, not necessarily in that order), freaked out during the Southern Cal-Stanford game in response to a complaint by Steve Sarkisian about the officials throwing too many penalty flags, and, well…

Haden jogged across Stanford Stadium field between the third and fourth quarters of USC’s 13-10 victory after he said he received a text message saying USC Coach Steve Sarkisian wanted to talk to him…

Television cameras showed Haden as he stood next to Sarkisian on the sideline, engaged in an animated conversation with officials.

At one point, a broadcaster said Sarkisian had to pull a “fired up” Haden back from the discussion.

The optics, to say the least, are terrible.

The decision by Haden to run to the sideline to assist his coach is now raising eyebrows — not just because of its bizarre nature — but because Haden is part of the 13-member College Football Playoff selection committee…

Haden is recused from voting for USC in the selection process, but his actions Saturday bring into question the biases committee members take into the selection process.

Ya’ think?  Maybe not, if you’re Pat Haden.

Asked after the game if he was concerned about the appearance created by a member of the selection committee on the field engaging the officials, Haden shook his head and said, “I’m the athletic director of my team as well.”

As long as you’ve got your priorities straight, I guess that makes it okay.  Even if Bill Hancock’s gone all Stacey Osburn on us.

Through a spokeswoman, College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock declined to comment on Haden’s sideline incident because he had not had a chance to see it.

Maybe he can wait until next February to watch it.

“You were always on my miiind…”

Steve Spurrier’s immediate reaction to winning his 200th college game, joining a select group of SEC head coaches:

“Oh, I hadn’t really thought about that, I was hoping to get a win,” he said. “I was worried about going into the Georgia game 0-2.”

You were always on my mind.

Georgia will get his best shot.

7-0.

As an aside, note that no person who’s served as a defensive coordinator under Mark Richt has tasted defeat yet this season.

Bobby Petrino is Bobby Petrino.

I may owe Todd Grantham an apology for thinking that he hauled ass out of Athens for purely mercenary reasons.  After seeing that Petrino went for it on fourth-and-four leading by forty-five points in the third quarter against Murray State, it may be simply that Todd found a head coach he could really believe in.

Let’s just say that’s something I doubt we’d ever see happen in Athens.

The Big Ten haz a sad.

Playoff math is pretty straightforward:  five power conferences, four spots in the semi-finals.  Somebody’s gonna get left out.

The early leader in the postseason disappointment club house is the Big Ten, which saw an Urban Meyer-coached team lose for the first time at home, a Michigan State team fight hard but eventually fade to No. 3 Oregon and Michigan get shut out by a Notre Dame team still holding out five players due to an academics investigation.  Its only ranked team without a loss, Nebraska, needed the play of the day to pull out a last-minute win against a FCS opponent.

It’s a good thing Jim Delany fancies himself the head of a broadcast network.  A conference commissioner would be a little down in the dumps over that kind of a day.

At least Rutgers and Maryland are undefeated.

It’s more eloquent than putting a bag over your head.

Vanderbilt lost at home by 38 yesterday.  Ole Miss never had to punt.  One fan had enough.