“I don’t think [satellite camps] are objectionable.”

Read this story, and give me the over/under on the number of months it takes for the SEC to rescind its prohibition on satellite camps.

“But all quarterbacks benefit from their offensive system, so assigning that label is lazy analysis.”

Chris Brown’s piece on how to evaluate quarterbacks for the NFL draft is as good as you might expect.  I really like this six-pronged test:

• Accuracy: A quarterback who is not consistently accurate will never be able to survive in the NFL. While most top-tier college QBs rarely sail or one-hop throws to receivers, accuracy in the NFL is often a matter of inches, not feet.

• Arm Strength/Velocity: Evaluators should care very little about whether a QB can throw a ball 60 or 75 yards, but a great deal about whether he can throw a pass 30 yards on a line to the opposite sideline before a defender arrives. NFL defenses are fast and savvy, and while deep throws matter, the best way to stretch defenses is to make them guard the seams and deep outs in the 18-to-25-yard range.

• Anticipation/Timing: These concepts aren’t the same, but they are related. Anticipation refers to a quarterback’s innate ability to anticipate when receivers will be open and “to throw them open”; timing refers to his ability to precisely sync up his footwork and release with the receiver’s break. In other words, anticipation is what slingers hone in the backyard, while timing is what they perfect in practice drills. Great QBs possess both traits, but a passer who’s strong in one area can compensate for weakness in the other.

• Decision-making: Simply put, does the quarterback dependably know where to go with the ball, and does he avoid the killer mistake? Good decision-making requires knowledge and the ability to quickly process information while under fire, and it’s not enough to make the right decision some of the time: If the passer does the right thing four out of five times but throws a brutal pick-six on the fifth attempt, the mistake will mask the successes.

• Pocket Presence: All quarterbacks are less effective under pressure; the key is whether a given passer can hang in the pocket and hit open receivers or loses the ability to function when that pressure hits. Unlike college players, NFL quarterbacks rarely throw from an entirely clean pocket, so remaining poised is essential. And toughness means little if accuracy and decision-making falter under duress.

• Functional Athleticism: This is not the same as raw athleticism. A QB’s 40-yard dash time and max bench-press numbers matter far less than the athleticism he displays while doing QB things: Can he escape the pocket to avoid the rush and extend plays? Does he have the agility necessary to shuffle within the pocket? Is he big and bulky enough to brush off pass-rushers and withstand NFL punishment?

Sure, the NFL is a different beast than college, but that’s still a pretty good set of attributes to use for evaluation, even at the college level.  Brown analyzes four of the top QBs in the draft, but I wonder how the three contenders for the Georgia starting job fare with that list.  Obviously, this isn’t something we can answer at present, since we haven’t seen enough game action from Bauta, Park or Ramsey to fully judge.

And beyond that, keep in mind one other astute observation of Chris:

The knock on Mariota is that his immense college production stemmed from the crafty design of Oregon’s offense more than from his own ability — that he was that dreaded animal, the “system quarterback.” But all quarterbacks benefit from their offensive system, so assigning that label is lazy analysis. A QB prospect’s college system should merely be another factor in the evaluation, just like the quality of his competition or his supporting cast.

Which is why you don’t pick a starter purely on the basis of what he did in a G-Day game, QBR notwithstanding. 🙂

Advertisement

I await the outrage.

Four offseason arrests in Tuscaloosa this spring.

O tempora! O mores! Where are the Herbstreit tweets?  Where is the moaning in the press about Saban losing control?

Instead, what I expect to hear on Finebaum today are complaints about how the police department isn’t supporting ‘Bama football.

Pay for play: a thought experiment

After yesterday’s spirited discussion about COA, I’ve got something to ask the crowd ready to burn their college football fan cards over money paid to college football… oops, paid to college football players.  Check out this quote from Todd Gurley:

“You’re the one who brought up what-ifs,” he says while going over his abbreviated career. “I try not to focus on that, but I can’t help it sometimes. We were so close to winning championships. I missed 10 games. What if I had gotten to play in all of those games? We’ll never know, and we can’t go back and fix it. So now I’m focused on making sure I can max things out at the next level.”

So here’s another what-if for you.  What if, in a shocking burst of common sense, the NCAA had thrown in the towel in the O’Bannon litigation and agreed to let student-athletes market their names, likenesses and images without that affecting their eligibility?  And what if last December, instead of Mark Richt announcing that Todd was going to enter the NFL draft, Gurley held a press conference to announce that he was coming back for his senior season because he felt he owed it to his teammates and the fans and could afford to do so after signing several lucrative endorsement deals?  Would you be excited, or would you walk away from Georgia football because of Gurley’s bank account?

Bonus quasi-rhetorical question:  we know for a certainty that at least two of Georgia’s best players over the last decade (Gurley and AJ Green) were paid because of their football prowess.  If paying players is such an anathema, are you still following the program?

Wednesday morning buffet

Have some.

• Here’s a roundup of outstanding issues in the SEC West after spring practice.
• Tyler Dawgden takes a stab at comparing how Georgia’s 2015 offense, defense and special teams stack up against last season’s counterparts.
• Perhaps telling the UAB search committee that the school should have a football program isn’t the best way to interview for the AD job there.
• Something to sell on the recruiting trail:  “Under coach Mark Richt, the Bulldogs have had 75 players drafted since he coached his first season in 2001. Only LSU, with 79, has had more players drafted during that same span in the SEC.”
• Jim Mora says the NFL angst about spread quarterbacks is overblown.
• Bob Bowlsby is “fairly confident” the Big 12 will enact a tiebreaker to decide a champ.  Way to go out on a limb there, Bob.  (And in a two-way tie, wouldn’t that obviously be head-to-head?  Of course, this is Bowlsby, so maybe obviously is a poor choice of word there.)
• You don’t hear Mark Richt threaten very often.  But he goes there talking about satellite camps.

And it’s always going to be a big deal.

Remember when Georgia had a home-and-home scheduled with Ohio State?  Remember when it got cancelled?  Ever wonder why?

Welp…

You can scratch one possibility off the list: Ohio State.

Georgia and Ohio State had a memorandum of understanding to play in 2020 and 2021. But that was canceled by Ohio State, and McGarity said it will not be revived.

“Once Urban came in that was off the table,” McGarity said of Urban Meyer, hired as Ohio State coach in 2012.

It’s good there are no hard feelings, Corch.

The Mark Richt Way

It only took fourteen years, but Mark Richt is getting the IPF in the location he always wanted.  Patience is a virtue.

My only question is, if they’re foregoing the Hoke Smith site, will the cost for the new facility still be $30 million?  If so, that’s gonna be one palatial practice field.