Spurrier’s contempt for Tennessee, on display:
He’s never beaten Butch Jones… like that matters, I guess. LOL.
Daily Archives: March 18, 2015
“I knew the rules, I still broke them.”
Todd Gurley, being a normal human being, has some regrets.
“I had a pretty good career. I mean I’ve got a couple regrets, but then again I don’t,” Gurley said. “I feel like I had a great career here, could’ve done a lot of things better. But nobody goes through college thinking they went through it perfectly…”
Not to say that Georgia was cheated when he was suspended – Nick Chubb made sure of that – but if you look at Gurley’s game stats before the suspension, he was on his way to a monster season. After Vanderbilt, he was averaging 18.8 carries and 154.6 rushing yards per game; project that over a 13-game season and you’re looking at 244 carries and 2,010 rushing yards. And that’s just running the ball.
Again, with the way Chubb stepped up, I don’t know that the stats would have made much of a difference, overall. I wish I could say the same about the team’s psyche after being let down about Gurley’s suspension not being lifted for the Florida game. Ah, well.
Filed under Georgia Football
“You don’t like these set of rules? Go play in that association.”
A lot of this Dennis Dodd post about Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick’s vision of D-1 academic elites and lower brow schools splitting into two collegiate athletic associations is silly – for example, Vanderbilt walking away from the SEC over fulfilling some highfalutin quasi-Ivy League mission would be an expensive one, to say the least – but I will say that Swarbrick has grasped one reality that I predict his peers will eventually have no choice but to embrace if they keep losing antitrust litigation.
… If the NCAA loses the O’Bannon case, players could make up to $20,000 in a trust fund payable after they leave school. Several lawsuits against the NCAA and Power Five conferences are calling for the full-on payment of athletes.
Northwestern is still waiting on a National Labor Relations Board ruling that would allow private-school athletes to unionize.
“The irony of all this is, maybe the only way we can get resolution is to ask our athletes to unionize,” Swarbrick said.
That, at least, would bring some sort of cost certainty instead of spending endless hours in court.
“You could have an enforceable collective bargaining,” Swarbrick said.
Yep, the same thing that keeps kids out of the NBA and NFL until the pros are good and ready to take them could be what allows schools to live with the cost of the consequences. Ironic, ain’t it?
Filed under It's Just Bidness, Look For The Union Label
Start of spring practice: it’s a beautiful day… let’s play two!
I wasn’t there, but plenty of others were.
- Here’s a good round-up of observations yesterday at Field Stream Forum.
- Patrick Garbin notes that Jeremy Pruitt hasn’t changed his approach a bit.
- Nick Chubb, comparing the two offensive coordinators he’s played under: “He’s a lot nicer,” Chubb said. “That’s pretty much it. They’re both great coaches.” And upon further review? The niceness may not last either, Chubb added. “It’s his first day,” Chubb said. “It’ll come.”
The best news of all was that Thomas Brown sounds like he gets to play with a full deck of healthy cards.
Tailbacks Nick Chubb, Sony Michel and Brendan Douglas were joined in the backfield by Keith Marshall and A.J. Turman, a pair whose 2014 seasons were derailed by injuries. Marshall, who rushed for 759 yards, 6.5 yards a carry and eight touchdowns as a freshman in 2012, is practicing with no limitations according to Richt.
“Keith Marshall is back,” Chubb told reporters. “I’m excited about him having a big year.”
That would be awesome.
Filed under Georgia Football
Take the wheel.
I had a random thought last night for a blog post exercise for you guys: you’re named as the head coach of a typical D-1 football program. What kind of offensive and defensive schemes would you run? And why?
Lay it out in the comments.
Filed under Strategery And Mechanics
“We define what pay constitutes.”
Pretty lively debate at the oral arguments for the O’Bannon appeal yesterday. The panel hearing them seemed pretty up to speed on the issues, and of course it’s impossible to say how their ruling will turn out. But it sounds like most observers drew two conclusions from the day’s results:
“But an even bigger issue is antitrust injury,” Carrier said. “The panel did not want to rely on the appearance of NIL rights in the contracts to assume that such rights existed. I didn’t think this was a big issue before argument but there now seems to be a chance that the NCAA can win on this issue.
“What the plaintiffs can take solace in is that amateurism as a defense was not resuscitated in argument. Even if it doesn’t form the foundation for a significant remedy in this case, future cases such as Alston and Jenkins would benefit significantly if the NCAA cannot use the defense.”
Should that be the way the appeal goes, that’s a win the battle, lose the war scenario for the NCAA: no damages, but amateurism as a defensible stance put down. Hausfield might be unhappy with that result, but Jeffrey Kessler sure wouldn’t be.
Comments Off on “We define what pay constitutes.”
Filed under It's Just Bidness, See You In Court, The NCAA
Bret, being Bert
Never one to let an opportunity pass, Bielema takes the Borland retirement announcement as a moment to renew his argument against letting HUNH offenses run amuck.
“We have to protect student athletes to extremes we never thought of before,” Bielema told Sporting News on Tuesday. “I just read a study that said players in the no-huddle, hurry-up offense play the equivalent of five more games than those that don’t. That’s an incredible number. Our awareness as a whole has to increase.”
An argument to which Barrett Sallee provides the perfect rebuttal.
If Bielema is so concerned with the number of games, plays and how they relate to player safety, then why did he say this inside the radio/Internet room at SEC media days in Hoover, Alabama in 2014?
If the four-team playoff is a “good starting point,” then those two extra games—and potentially more extra games in an expanded playoff structure—are safety hazards, right?
Bielema can’t have his cake and eat it too.
Oh, sure he can. Because Bert.
Filed under Bert... uh... Bret Bielema
Get The Picture 