Finally.

BREAKING Ex #ND QB Everett Golson transferring to #FSU: "I can't wait to get started. Go Noles!" @FOXSports story: http://t.co/QxhhzoduwT

— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) May 19, 2015

So, moving on to the next trivial story that gets blown up way out of proportion during the offseason…

Call us from the Ivy League when you get there.

Sounds like somebody wants to take his football and go home.

Northwestern prez emeritus Henry Bienen, member of @KnightAthletics, says he hopes school will get out of big-time sports if it loses w/NLRB

— Steve Berkowitz (@ByBerkowitz) May 19, 2015

Talk about cutting your nose off to spite your face – Northwestern received more than $27 million from the Big Ten in fiscal 2014.

Is it worth pointing out nobody stopped Henry Bienen from taking the school out of big time athletics when he was running the joint if he was so concerned about having to deal with Satan… er, a players’ union one day?

Roquan Smith, Mark Richt wants you.

Wonder why Georgia was happy to take Smith without requiring that he sign a NLI?  Let the head man explain:

“One thing about Roquan that’s different from anybody we have is just his athleticism,” Richt said. “He has the ability to play all three downs, in our opinion. A lot of people think you have to have good corners to play man-to-man coverage, which is true. But if you’re playing man everywhere your linebacker has to match up with running backs, too, and we think Roquan is really well-suited for that. We think he’s unique in that way. We definitely need him.”

The first time I get an real inkling there’s finally an ILB at Georgia who can provide consistent pass coverage, I know I’m gonna plotz.  From your lips to Gawd’s ear, Coach.

Enough to go around, and then some.

The holy trinity in high school recruiting circles has always been Florida, Texas and California.  It sounds like it may be time for the big three to make room for another:

The big surprise at the top of the 2015 Draft was Georgia. The Peach State shot right by California and Texas to finish with the second-most draft prospects at 30. Of late there has certainly been a slow and steady climb in the numbers regarding their production in college and NFL players. Georgia has been a solid No. 4 for about a decade or so, but is steadily gaining on the big three…

… Georgia, with a population of 10.1 million, had the highest number of 2015 drafted players per capita at 2.97/million.

… If you go strictly by the states that produced the top 10 draftees in 2015, looking specifically at the total high school football playing numbers, the order would look like this:

Florida (111.4)
Georgia (90.91)
Alabama (60.87)
Maryland (53.3)
Pennsylvania (34.6)
California (25.2)
North Carolina (25)
Ohio (21.7)
Texas (17)
Illinois (14.9)

So the surprise shouldn’t be all the other schools who come to Georgia trying to poach local talent.  Nor is it that Georgia can’t close the borders – too many kids, after all.

What I can’t figure out is why in the hell Georgia Tech can’t recruit big time in state.  That’s not just a triple option issue, as recruiting under Gailey wasn’t exactly Chantastic, either.

(h/t)

Gettin’ drunk every weekend at the barbecues

Having lost the battle to eliminate the SEC’s cross-division rivalry games, LSU’s Joe Alleva (h/t) draws a line in the sand over what really matters to his fan base:

“I don’t care what network we’re on,” Alleva said, “as long as we’re playing at night.”

No Thanksgiving game

Alleva said the networks continue to push for LSU to move its game with Texas A&M to Thanksgiving day, but he has continued to refuse.

“As long as I’m here, we will not play in Tiger Stadium on a Thursday,” Alleva said. “I guarantee you that.”

It’s good to see there are still some traditions held sacred.  Now, pass me that bottle, will ‘ya?

S & C news I didn’t expect to hear.

Jeebus, I didn’t know Nick Chubb had eight pounds to lose.

Are we finally approaching Georgia’s time?

I was going to use this comment from JC Shurburtt as an excuse to post a little recruiting Dawg porn…

Speaking of the Bulldogs, just looking at how they are recruiting, they should be in prime position to contend for a College Football Playoff berth and a National Championship in 2016 or 2017. With Eason in the fold they have a quarterback. Plus, they are loading up on the defensive line when you look at who they signed in 2015 and who they are likely to sign this cycle. It’s an incredible assembly of talent and a tough-to-recruit position.

… but his speculation about where Georgia is headed in a season or two leads me in another direction.

Obviously, it’s a long, long way ’til February, but if he and a lot of other folks who follow recruiting far more closely than I ever will are right, you can make a pretty strong argument that Georgia is on its greatest run of recruiting under Richt.  Add to that a sea change in support from the administration, an Eastern division that, while improving somewhat, is still less formidable than its Western counterpart and, finally, an enlarged postseason pool, and I can’t help but wonder one thing:

If Georgia can’t make it into the CFP by 2017, when will it ever?

Okay, take the smartass “when the playoffs expand to sixteen teams” response out of the picture.  Seriously, if the stars are aligning as they seem to be and Richt can’t get the program over the hump in the next three seasons, what’s the argument left to make about what’s missing that will get Georgia there?

I am not asking this in the angry “Richt’s gotta go now” sense, nor doubting that he has the ability to get there no matter what (although I’m sure I’ll hear from some of you in one or both of those camps).  I’m simply asking if there’s anything else in a structural sense still holding the program back.  ‘Cause I’m not seeing one, to be honest.

Georgia, Mike Bobo’s not done with you yet.

It’s interesting to see how he views the local recruiting market now that he’s not working for the home state team.

“Obviously, our state is No. 1, and California and Texas have been kind to CSU for a lot of years, not just recent guys,” Bobo said. “We’re going to recruit those states, just like a number of schools across the country. There are some ties in the South. I’ve basically been there my whole life, and some other coaches have been there, so we’ll recruit the metropolitan cities like Atlanta, which is a transient city. … We’ll recruit Florida because of the sheer number of players. You’ve got California, Texas, Georgia, Florida. Really, everybody in the country recruits those states.

“Now, we can’t spend all our time and resources in Florida and Georgia, just because of the distance, but there are connections. It’s a 20-hour drive to California like it is Georgia. I hope we can get three to five guys from Georgia and Florida in this next class, but we’ll see what kind of inroads we can make.”

“Transient city”, hmm.  Sad, but true.

In any event, better Colorado State than Auburn.

Nice work if you can get it. Or even if you can’t.

You know the old Richard Pryor one-liner that “Cocaine is God’s way of telling you you have too much money”?

Charlie Weis is God’s way of telling schools the same thing.

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UPDATE:  By the way, in 2013 Notre Dame paid Weis almost a million dollars more not to coach the team than it paid Brian Kelly to do that.