I should have known the real lesson from the Jonathan Taylor fiasco isn’t that Nick Saban made a terrible mistake in judgment.
It’s that we Georgia fans are making a terrible mistake in judgment indulging in a warm, comforting sense of schadenfreude.
Consider yourselves chastised.
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UPDATE: Speaking of schadenfreude, you gotta love this header.
Forgive me, Mark.
Filed under Media Punditry/Foibles
Just something prompted by a comment today, from Mayor, where he politely asked about a matter not related to the post: would it help if I put up an Open Thread post for everyone to ask random questions, say, once a week or so?
Filed under GTP Stuff
It’s not just us…
The article at the link is pretty good, too.
Filed under Georgia Football
If there’s one group of players who are excited about Brian Schottenheimer’s arrival in Athens, it’s the tight ends. And with some justification, it seems.
With Schottenheimer coordinator with the St. Louis Rams, tight end Jared Cook led the team each of the past two seasons in receptions. He had 52 for 634 yards and three touchdowns (ranking 15th in receptions in the NFL at the position) in 2014 and 51 for 671 (a team record for receiving yards for a tight end) and five touchdowns in 2013.
Teammate Lance Kendricks was 28th among tight ends in the league last season with 27 catches for 259 yards and five touchdowns and had 32 catches for 258 with four touchdowns the previous year.
When Schottenheimer was coordinator with the New York Jets before that, tight end Dustin Keller led the team in both 2011 and 2010 in receptions. He ranked ninth among tight ends in the NFL in 2011 with 62 catches for 811 yards and five touchdowns and 11th in 2010 with 55 for 687 with five touchdowns. Keller in 2010 had two more catches than receiver Braylon Edwards and three more than receiver Santonio Holmes and running back LaDainian Tomlinson.
That may be one answer if wide-out depth doesn’t develop too quickly this season. If Rome stays healthy, Schottenheimer’s got some options with experience to work with at tight end.
Filed under Georgia Football, Strategery And Mechanics
You may think this was the end to something that wasn’t fair…
The monetary value of a college athlete’s name, image and likeness is being hashed out in court, but many universities have already arrived at a figure: zero.
Colleges from the Big Ten to the Mid-American Conference ask or require athletes sign waivers giving up their publicity rights without compensation, even as college sports generate billions of dollars in TV contracts and merchandise sales. The media deal for March Madness alone is worth $771 million a year.
Under pressure from a lawsuit claiming it took financial advantage of players, college sports’ governing body, the NCAA, got rid of a similar waiver last year…
Donald Remy, the organization’s chief legal officer, told the Tribune that the wording had nothing to do with publicity rights and was eliminated “to avoid confusion among student-athletes and their families.”
… but it wasn’t. The NCAA just outsourced it back to the schools and conferences.
The Big Ten created a waiver in 2007, the year it launched the Big Ten Network. The form states that neither the athlete nor his heirs are entitled to compensation for letting the network and other broadcasters use his name and image. The conference earned $318 million in the 2012-13 tax year, according to its IRS filing.
Bidness is bidness. Even for the little guys.
Schools that compete on a less lucrative rung of college sports are coming up with waivers, too. In August, just before announcing a new TV rights deal with ESPN, MAC Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher sent an email to his member schools saying an attorney was developing a release in consultation with the Big Ten and the SEC.
The document, obtained from Northern Illinois University, is even more stringent than what the bigger conferences created. It calls for athletes to give up rights to their names and images, forever and without compensation, for any purpose the MAC and its member schools see fit, including broadcasts by ESPN and ABC. Signing the form is mandatory.
MAC spokesman Ken Mather said in an email that the waiver “filled the void” when the NCAA eliminated its version last year. He did not respond to a request for further information.
I guess the MAC doesn’t want to be left out of the litigation fun either.
Filed under It's Just Bidness
Marc Weiszer had a fun note from Richt’s post-scrimmage presser.
No players were available afterwards for interviews, but they could be heard a floor below cutting loose as Richt spoke to reporters.
“Sounds like they’re having some fun down there,” Richt said. “Wrestlemania. It’s usually Wrestlemania about right now.”
Horsing around! Youthful hijinks!
Hey, there have been seasons when we would have gotten news of somebody getting hurt from that. Maybe things really are looking up with S&C… or just the program’s luck in general.
(And, yes, that was posted with my tongue fully planted in my cheek.)
Filed under Georgia Football
This is rich – the organization that compared the McNair investigation to that of the Oklahoma City bombing is now miffed enough to whine, “It is unfortunate that Mr. McNair’s unfounded claims have resulted in an attack on the character and integrity of dedicated individual committee members and the overall infractions process.”
Poor babies.
I’d almost say someone displays a perverse sense of humor here, but who am I kidding? This is the NCAA. It’s just the same old tone-deaf assholery we’re accustomed to.
Filed under The NCAA
Give McGarity credit. I’ve gone from fretting over why Georgia wouldn’t spend a few bucks to enhance support for the coaching staff as most of the competition in the SEC has done to wondering if there’s enough space at Butts-Mehre to house everybody.
Filed under Georgia Football
What’s intriguing to me about the contest to see who becomes Georgia’s next starting quarterback is the mental approach taken by the three candidates. They really couldn’t be more different.
Park is confident, almost to the point of being devil-may-care about it.
“People tend to follow people that get excited and want to play. I just came to scout team and told them, ‘We’re playing back-yard football, why not have fun over here?’ ” Park said. “So we came out every day and had fun.”
Park, who moved to South Carolina in middle school, brought his fun attitude to the media room earlier this week.
“I don’t think anybody talks about the competition but you guys,” Park said Tuesday, during a media session in which the 20-year-old also referred to a 38-year-old reporter as “bro.”
Ramsey feels the pressure of being the anointed leader, whether he is or not at this point.
“Obviously I know I’ve got two or three other guys gunning for my position,” Ramsey said. “Everybody’s trying to get it. You’ve just gotta come to work every day, you’ve just gotta prepare, and just try to win the day.”
And Bauta? Perhaps he’s the most interesting, because he’s the philosophical one.
Bauta was asked this week how he keeps from letting the competition consume him. He took a deep breath.
“The way I go about it personally is understanding that this job is not for everybody, and this kind of job that we have open here, a quarterback’s job disturbs his mind, body and soul and disturbs his peace all the time. And how you handle that is up to the quarterback as an individual,” he said. “So I don’t care who you are, this is your life, this is what you do. If you want to live the quarterback life then you’ll live the quarterback life.
“It keeps you uneasy at all times. If you show it, I don’t think it’s good for you. But the guys who don’t show it, more power to you.”
I don’t know who eventually comes out ahead. I don’t even have a personal favorite at this point. But whoever it winds up being, I hope a little of Bauta’s uneasiness rubs off on him. Because I think that’ll help keep the winner grounded in the job.
Filed under Georgia Football
Sigh. We lost another great last week, as John Renbourn, one of the giants in the British folk scene, died. He was one of the mainstays of Pentangle, which put out a few brilliant albums. He also compiled a number of noteworthy solo albums. His work with his fellow Pentangle guitarist, Bert Jansch, shouldn’t be missed. (I saw the two of them in concert once; to call their performance dazzling would almost be an understatement.)
Anyway, here’s an example of his style, which ranged over about as broad a spectrum of musical genres as is possible for a guitarist to play.
More links to clips here, if you’re interested.
Filed under Uncategorized
Get The Picture 