Is Mark Richt a chronic underachiever?

Over the last ten years, Bill Connelly’s not seeing it.  In fact, his numbers suggest very slight overachievement on Richt’s part.

Am I trolling some of you here?  Nah… okay, maybe a little.

**************************************************************************

UPDATE:  A little context from Mr. Connelly…

A couple of notes about today's overachievers/underachievers post (http://t.co/hkYm8QNW0w) based on responses I'm seeing:

— Bill Connelly (@SBN_BillC) January 28, 2015

There are 100 different ways to be an overachiever or underachiever. This is one. I'm all for Niumatalolo, Hudspeth, etc. getting love…

— Bill Connelly (@SBN_BillC) January 28, 2015

…but I wanted to clarify that "overachiever" in this case has nothing to do with developing talent, making more with less, etc.

— Bill Connelly (@SBN_BillC) January 28, 2015

This is specifically about overachieving within the statistical framework of a given game. And it could be all randomness and noise.

— Bill Connelly (@SBN_BillC) January 28, 2015

Today’s man bites dog story

James Franklin tells Herb “There are 110 pussies playing free safety. I’m not worried about safeties.” Hand to dial back the smack talk with a rival coach.

Grading on the curve

Here’s what Chris Low has to say about the work Steve Spurrier and his staff turned in this season:

Coaching: C-minus. The Gamecocks lost their edge, and Steve Spurrier himself admitted that the commitment across the board wasn’t what it should be. That always goes back to the head coach. Even so, Spurrier was as sharp as ever calling plays for much of the season, and the Gamecocks broke a handful of school records. He was at his Hall of Fame best in the win over Georgia, and yet, would also like to have a few play-calls back in some of those close losses. Defensively, nothing went right. There seemed to be chemistry problems on the staff. The Gamecocks didn’t always play smart or hard, and there weren’t a lot of answers along the way. Spurrier hasn’t ruled out making changes on his defensive staff after seeing the bottom fall out in 2014.

Given that, two questions:  (1) what grade do you think Low will assign to Mark Richt and Georgia’s staff? and (2) what grade would you assign to Mark Richt and Georgia’s staff?

Faux pas from the recruiting trail

I can guess what he was trying to say, but it sounds like this probably didn’t come across the right way.

I’ve seen some reports saying that Georgia is hopeful of changing Preston Williams from Tennessee, but based on this story, it sounds like that would be a waste of time.

The company you keep.

The 2015 Commencement speaker for Ole Miss Law School is Paul Finebaum.

No, really.

Word to the wise, Ole Miss law grads – you might not want to put that on your résumé.  Unless you’re looking for a job with Phyllis from Mulga.

Only at Alabama could a former Recruiter of the Year be brought in as an “intern.”

And only at Alabama could you internally promote an intern (at least, someone you call an intern) to take the place of one of the best recruiters in the nation and not miss a beat.

Now that’s depth.  And that’s how Nick Saban stays one step ahead of the game.

Not your everyday sales pitch

For fairly obvious reasons, Georgia has only one commitment from a running back in this class, the JUCO kid Chris Carson.  Carson just took a trip to Oklahoma State, which made the effort to sway his decision the Cowboys’ way.

The interesting thing is that OSU didn’t take the obvious approach, which would be hard selling the depth charts at the two schools.  Instead, this is the direction it took:

“They didn’t really show me the UGA depth chart,” Carson said. “They went down the list of past running backs that UGA had and the past running backs that they had (at Oklahoma State). They said they put more running backs in the NFL than UGA over the last 10 years. They showed me that, and they showed me how they had more 1,000-yard rushers than UGA over that period.”

Maybe the coaches there hope he won’t look at last year’s stats:  Nick Chubb, 1547 yards; Oklahoma State as a team, 1776 yards.

Tuesday morning buffet

There’s always something.

• Phil Steele updates his returning starters list here.  And here’s the list broken down by the P5 conferences.  Got to wonder what 2015 holds in store for Mississippi State and Florida.
• In case you were wondering if offenses were better than ever last season, you’re right.
• Bleacher Report using Michael Carvell’s click bait to ask the musical question “Is Georgia’s 2015 Recruiting Class in Danger of Collapsing?” = troll squared.  At least there’s no slideshow.
• Hey, there’s a Twitterfest bitch slapping contest!
• Georgia Tech is looking for donor support to provide cost-of-attendance stipends that will be given to scholarship athletes starting in the fall.  No doubt Greg McGarity is watching this with a keen eye.
• Best recruit troll of the year.
• Jeff Long will serve as the chairman of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee again in 2015, based on “Long’s ability to communicate the thinking of the committee to the fans”, per Bill Hancock.  I swear, you can’t make this stuff up.
• Gentry Estes has ten questions for Georgia’s upcoming preseason.  (And wouldn’t it be refreshing if the answer to the last one was “yes”?)