Of course they do.

Rivals adds sixth-graders to its recruiting database.  Oy.

You gotta spend money to make money.

Maybe this will make the folks at Butts-Mehre a little calmer about dishing out the money lately:

For Alabama’s athletics department, both expenses and revenues continue to grow. As a result, the school again finished with a surplus in the 2013-14 financial report submitted to the NCAA in January.

According to the documents obtained by AL.com, Alabama’s athletics department made 33,050,145 more than it spent in 2013-13. That’s an increase from the $27.2 it made in 2012-13 and continues the trend of surpluses in recent years. It hasn’t operated at a loss in the last 10 years, according to documents obtained through the public records requests.

And don’t think this tidbit won’t catch a few eyes.

The athletics department transferred $9.1 million back to the university last year after contributing $5.9 million a year earlier.

Yada, yada, yada, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.

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And while we’re on the subject of hires…

Happened to catch this note at Football Scoop when I was checking on the status of the Taylor hire/non-hire:

Georgia: Per source, Birmingham Southern corners coach Carter Blount has accepted a special teams quality control job with the Bulldogs.

If you’re guessing there’s a University of Alabama stop in his background, you wouldn’t be wrong.

A pleasing Plan B

Rumor du jour heure:

Per source, UGA plans to move RB coach Bryan McClendon to WRs and will hire Wisconsin RB coach Thomas Brown http://t.co/IkvvbhPFQo

— Doug Samuels (@CoachSamz) February 16, 2015

If this one bears out, there will be much rejoicing in Dawgnation.

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UPDATE:  If there’s ever a “take it for what it’s worth” moment, it would be now, as Chip Towers is reporting Thomas Brown to Georgia as the new running backs coach.

 

The opposite of “Why are you so nervous?”

So, a gun is fired on campus during a dust-up between two fraternities, the cops know who fired the gun, and all Jimmy Williamson can come up with is the shooter “likely will be charged”?

I guess there are times it’s good not to be a football player.

Early money

5Dimes has your early odds on conference champions here (h/t).

Here’s how the SEC breaks down:

2015 SEC Championship Odds at 5Dimes
Alabama +260
Auburn +400
Georgia +400
Mississippi +420
Tennessee +900
LSU +1000
Arkansas +1200
Missouri +1300
Mississippi State +1500
Texas A&M +1500
South Carolina +2500
Florida +2500
Kentucky +7500
Vanderbilt +10000

Georgia sits tied at number two, and first in the East.  Speaking of the East, Vegas doesn’t seem overly impressed with the division’s depth.

And, yes, no other school in the country matches that Vanderbilt number.  Ouch.

The Pruitt-ization of Georgia football continues.

Meet Georgia’s new receivers coach.

Lance Taylor, who is currently the running backs coach at Stanford, will succeed Tony Ball as UGA’s receivers coach, sources with knowledge of the hiring process told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Taylor, 34, fits in the mold of several of the Bulldogs’ hires of late in that he has Alabama connections. A former Crimson Tide football player, Taylor walked on as a wide receiver and played in 38 consecutive games from 1999-2003. He was also a graduate assistant at Alabama from 2007-08, the same time current Georgia defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt was there as director of player development.  [Emphasis added.]

He should fit right in.  (Here’s a Q & A with Taylor from last year, if you want to get a little flavor.)

Taylor also has a connection with Brian Schottenheimer, which means he has some NFL experience to sell, too.

So the staff gets younger and more Alabama-ish at the same time.  You figure Taylor can recruit a little?

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UPDATE:  Found a YouTube clip, as well.

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UPDATE #2:  Not so fast, my friend?

Update at Georgia: Stanford RBs coach Lance Taylor will not be leaving for the UGA WR job http://t.co/IkvvbhPFQo

— Doug Samuels (@CoachSamz) February 16, 2015

Not making that mistake again

It might have gotten a bit lost in the Roquan Smith signing news, but Georgia also got another commitment for its 2016 class last week, Creekside offensive lineman Aaron Dowdell.

“Creekside offensive lineman” may ring a bell, because Georgia whiffed on a couple from the school in the 2015 class by being slow with offers to them.  And it sounds like that’s something the Creekside coach hasn’t forgotten.

“Georgia has always been his favorite school,” Creekside coach Olten Downs told the AJC.

The 6-foot-4, 300-pounder is rated as the state’s No. 35 overall prospect, per the 247sports composite rankings.

“He really comes off the ball well, and he’s very athletic,” Downs said. “They (UGA) wanted to get on this one early, since they came in so late on the other OL.”

Two Creekside senior offensive linemen, Marquel Harrell (Auburn) and Venzel Boulware (Tennessee) got last-minute offers before this year’s signing day but decided to stick with their original choices.

Good politics?  Sure.  But it also seems to reflect Rob Sale’s aggressiveness on the recruiting trail, compared to Will Friend’s.  Now it just remains to be seen if he can coach ’em up.

Don’t think twice, it’s alright.

The New York Times gets into the Roquan Smith story and comes up with a new narrative about what happened on signing day.  Smith not putting his signature on the dotted line of the NLI wasn’t a happy accident resulting from being delayed by well-wishers.  Instead, it was a deliberate choice.

… Smith said he woke up that February morning, known as national signing day, still undecided between U.C.L.A. and the University of Georgia. He went through with the signing-day ceremony, he said, because the event had been planned and many people from town were showing up for the celebration.

Larry Harold, his high school coach, told Smith not to sign the letter of intent until he was sure. Harold looked closer at the document and noticed that Smith did not have to sign it to receive an athletic scholarship. Harold and Smith went to lunch with Smith’s parents to talk more about the decision.

Then the Georgia coaches got Harold word about Ulbrich’s departure and that was that.

Now the NCAA says this whole no-NLI thing is overblown.  Susan Peal’s even got stats!

Susan Peal, the N.C.A.A.’s director of the national letter of intent, or N.L.I., said athletes could ask for a release through the university’s athletic director if they want out of the agreement. She said 96 to 98 percent of the athletes who asked for a release were granted one. Peal said that there were approximately 42,000 athletes who signed letters each year in all sports and that typically only 2 percent asked to get out of them.

I wonder what her percentage is for student-athletes who request transfers.

The reality is more like this.

Todd Wofford, the football coach at Central Gwinnett High School in Lawrenceville, Ga., said recruits had never really seen the letter as voluntary and that was why many signed.

“The other reason they go ahead and sign is that their families are really excited about signing day and the celebration and they just sign and go about it,” said Wofford, who had a linebacker sign with Ohio State in 2014 and a linebacker sign with Alabama on Feb. 4.

But Wofford added that only top players had the leverage to decline to sign the letter of intent.

And my bet is that if you break down Peal’s stats, you’ll find a very large number of that two percent she speaks of are highly rated football recruits.

My other bet, for those who think this issue will fade away…

Ty Darlington, a center for Oklahoma’s football team, is one of 15 student-athlete representatives who vote in the new autonomy structure adopted by the so-called Big 5 conferences. He said coaches’ abruptly leaving was an issue for athletes.

“We just went through it here, our D-line coach left for the Packers right after signing day,” Darlington said. “It is an issue to be addressed.”

He added: “You shouldn’t have to sit out a year. Being from Florida and going to Oklahoma to school, I can see where parents say to a coach: ‘You are in control of my child. I know you.’ And then the coach is gone.”

… is that it won’t.

“We appreciate the work Coach Jenkins did here.”

This is an amazing story about the new head coach at Alabama State University.  The most amazing part, of course, being this:

Prior to Jenkins’ departure in December from Bethune-Cookman, officials there had conducted an investigation into a number of allegations, and Assistant Athletic Director Tony O’Neal, who wouldn’t answer questions about the investigation, said, “Anything that needed to be reported (to the conference and NCAA) was reported.”

ASU Interim Athletic Director Melvin Hines said he was aware of the investigation and the incidents that prompted it, and he said he knew of the allegations reported to the NCAA.

And still hired the man!

Of course, he did get something of a bargain.

Jenkins compiled a 46-14 overall record and won Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Coach of the Year honors three times in five seasons at Bethune-Cookman. The contract ASU trustees approved will pay Jenkins a first-year salary ($175,000) that’s $90,000 less than what he was earning at Bethune-Cookman ($265,000).

At most places, a guy taking a $90,000 pay cut to come work for you should speak volumes.  But evidently they’re a little hard of hearing at Alabama State.