Huntley Johnson is on the mother.

In Athens, being found without a driver’s license behind the wheel of a vehicle with two bags of marijuana would be grounds for arrest, public shaming, Richt-blaming in the media and suspension.  In Gainesville?  Surely you jest.

The University Police Department stopped Harris in a motor vehicle on Saturday, Dec. 13 and cited him for neither possessing a license nor having one issued to him by the state.

According to The Gainesville Sun‘s Robbie Andreu, who is citing the UPD’s report, “Harris was stopped on Stadium Drive for going 10 mph over the speed limit on Dec. 13 at 11:29 p.m. [There was the] smell of marijuana coming from the car.”

Two small bags of marijuana were found in the vehicle, reports Andreu, but neither Harris nor his passengers were charged with possession of the substance because the drug was not on their person and none of the players were the owner of the car.

In the vehicle along with Harris were two fellow freshmen football players in defensive backs Jalen Tabor and J.C. Jackson.

Harris’s arraignment is set for Jan. 15 at 1:30 p.m.

“I think as soon as he gets his license, the charge probably will be dismissed,” attorney Huntley Johnson told Andreu, who first reported the charge. “That’s the way it’s usually handled in a case like this for a citizen, and he’s a citizen.”

Damn, maybe that’s our problem – all of Georgia’s players must be illegal immigrants or something.

Oh, yeah.  Almost forgot this:

Interim head coach D.J. Durkin is expected to release a statement Friday afternoon regarding whether the team plans to discipline the players.

Durkin’s gone after the bowl game, so what does he care?

I wonder if Treon Harris is on the Florida baseball team.

Lou Holtz explains why student-athletes can’t have nice things.

“An athlete should be paid if he works at Wal-Mart or McDonald’s — but not to go to college. The purpose is to go to college, not to be a football player…”

That would explain his recruiting classes at South Carolina.  And since when does a college football player have time to work a second job, anyway?

Conferences can troll, too, you know.

Conference USA sticks a finger in UAB’s eye by naming Bill Clark its Coach of the Year.  Which allows for another thoughtful reminder of what should have been:

Clark’s first year at the helm turned out to be his only when UAB President Ray Watts announced the school’s football program would be discontinued just days after the Blazers’ 45-24 regular-season finale victory at Southern Miss.

“Right now, we’re kind of going through the emotional roller coaster of getting bowl-eligible and then you don’t make a bowl,” Clark said. “Obviously, the biggest thing is not having our team back when we had a chance to be really good next year. All that’s really tough. This award is nice to have. It’s just another reminder of this team and all the heart and effort they put into it this past year.”

Well played, folks.

Christmas bull

For some inexplicable reason, on Christmas day, the Longhorn Network will devote five commercial-free hours to a broadcast of Bevo meandering around his ranch.

Though I’d rather watch that than five hours of The Paul Finebaum Show.

Corch and the GPOOE, together again

Privileged to have one of the greatest competitors in this sport @TimTebow speak to the team tonight pic.twitter.com/skGFtM9ZCa

— Urban Meyer (@CoachUrbanMeyer) December 18, 2014

Tebow is merely “one of the greatest competitors”?  How the mighty have fallen.

Maybe one day Corch will rank his SEC Network skills.

“Astounding”? I do not think that word means what you think it means.

It is astounding to think that while schools such as the University of Michigan continue to oppose paying athletes, they are willing to use the cost savings derived from not paying for their athletes on a bidding war for coaches.

Not really.  But this part’s spot on.

If the University of Michigan were then to allocate this $5.17 million amount in coaching savings equally among all 113 players listed on the Michigan football roster (walk-ons and redshirts included), it would allow for a payment of $45,752 per player per year.  Meanwhile, if this money was spent on recruiting college football players on the free market, some elite athletes would earn a far greater amount.

It is no wonder that most college football coaches fight so hard to preserve amateurism.

Nice racket, if you can get it, no?

Friday morning buffet

The Idaho Famous Potato Bowl mascot is here to welcome you to today’s buffet.

• Bowl season kicks off with five games tomorrow.
• “Pay that man his money.”  Somebody will.
  
• Wins cost more in the SEC.
• Georgia still has about 2,600 tickets remaining from its allotment of 8,500 that it received from the Belk Bowl.  Feel the excitement!
• Tennessee discipline, same as it ever was (and ever different from Georgia’s).
• Hal Mumme reflects on another branch of his coaching tree being named the new OC at Kentucky… which somehow leads to a Beavis and Butthead reference.  And why not?
• Andy Staples speaks the troof about those abominable weekly CFP selection committee shows:  “Since ESPN pays about half a billion dollars a year to televise all aspects of the playoff, it expects a return on its enormous investment. The weekly rankings offer a better return, which is why they likely will stay unless the group of commissioners has significant objections.”  No objection is significant enough to outweigh those checks being cashed.
• ‘Bama fan base, don’t ever change.
• Non-football, but if you haven’t seen The Colbert Report finale, do yourself a favor and do so right now.

“And I don’t think the NFL plans on shutting down anytime soon.”

Malcolm Mitchell is the early leader in the clubhouse for the Dawg I’ll be rooting for most next season.  Not just because he decided to come back, but because he put so much thought into his decision.

The story of a star college football player joining a (previously) all-women’s book club made for a feel-good feature, picked up by “CBS Sunday Morning”, among others. But it was also a window into the changed person that Mitchell became after the injuries.

“It placed a value in a lot of different areas,” said Mitchell, who grew up in Valdosta. “Coming from not a financial stable home the first thing in your mind is to make the most money you can. Just make the money so you can take care of your family.

“But there’s ways of going about it, from long term to short term. So you can leave early, and you can make the money. But it probably won’t be a long-term process, as if you stick around and get a little more educated.”

The long-term goal still includes playing football as long as his body will let him. Mitchell said he believes he always could and still can play at the next level.

“For how long, who knows,” he said. “But I want to know after that I still can provide a positive outlook on student-athletes somehow, based on how my mind can produce, not my body.”

Not to say he doesn’t have big dreams.

But making it to the NFL still remains Mitchell’s obsession. He met with NFL consultant Joe Mendes and asked the NFLPA for an draft grade. But he’d go only if he was rated the No. 1 receiver prospect overall and he knows he won’t.

And that is his goal — to be the top-rated NFL prospect — after next season.

“That’s definitely something I want to work towards,” he said.

Stay healthy, man.  And hopefully next year’s offense will be more geared towards your talents.

There was a dramatic decrease in Mitchell’s yards-per-catch – only 8.2 this season, versus 14.3 as a sophomore. Mitchell attributes that to Georgia’s offense, rather than his health. The Bulldogs started the year without Mitchell and Justin Scott-Wesley, two of the more explosive receivers, and were heavily reliant on the run.

“They couldn’t adjust to my style of play because I wasn’t playing at the beginning of the season,” he said. “So I wasn’t expecting them to change all of a sudden when I came back.”

But Mitchell answered “yes” when asked if he was every bit the deep threat he was. He doesn’t feel he’s lost any explosiveness because of the injuries, which also included hamstring injuries as a freshman and sophomore.

He’s promising a show in 2015.  I’m looking forward to seeing one.