Look what just parachuted in.
Daily Archives: June 17, 2015
Hyping the hype
This seems like a pretty good question to ask here at the blog: Which SEC school do you think is the most over-hyped or overrated headed into the 2015 season?
Talty lists a few schools, but I think most of us would point to either Arkansas or Tennessee as being the most likely candidates. I’m not sold on either, but it’s hard to say which of the two is the more likely to fail to live up to expectations.
Say what you will about Bert, he’s got a proven track record in major college ball and his team made some real strides on defense last season. That being said, his program doesn’t rank among the SEC élite in recruiting and he’s got the added obstacle of playing in the West.
Meanwhile, Booch pilots a program that barely squeaked into a bowl game last season. He’s recruiting better than Bielema, but arguably had an emptier pantry to refill. And he’s got the advantage of playing in the East (although Arkansas doesn’t have an Oklahoma on the schedule, either). But he’s never been in the position as a coach he’s in now either, at a P5 program with significantly raised expectations.
I sort of feel like if UT takes off early, say, with a big upset of Oklahoma, there could be some palpable momentum. But lost that game and flop against Florida and I can see the wheels coming off and another year of UT struggling for bowl eligibility. Arkansas, even with a tough early loss or two – I can see the Hogs hanging in there and being a tough out for the rest of the season, albeit not a division title contender. Not sure how overrated that scenario would make Arky.
Your thoughts?
Filed under SEC Football
‘Let’s look at the early signing date in the context of the total environment.’
As we saw yesterday, if the Collegiate Commissioners Association passes the early signing proposal for college football this week, folks like Dennis Dodd will take that as a smack in the face of the SEC. But what if it doesn’t pass? Does that make Greg Sankey the most powerful man in college football?
Or would it be an indication of another powerful man’s larger agenda?
Recently, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany suggested that the debate this week over early signing could morph into a larger discussion on recruiting issues.
“The issue of early signing has some momentum,” Delany said at the Big Ten meetings last month, “but I think there also may be some momentum to fold that into a broad discussion on the recruitment issues of camps, issues of oversigning, issues of grayshirting, issues of early enrollment, issues of 7-on-7 and teams traipsing around from campus to campus in the summertime.
“I think maybe a more global view of what’s going on in football off the field may drive people to say, ‘Let’s look at the early signing date in the context of the total environment.'”
Early signing might pass, Delany said. It might fail. It might face a delay, he said, “until we get a good overall view of the recruitment and access and the championship environment.”
As much as you know the SEC coaches would love to see something done on a universal basis to rein in satellite camps, everyone else in college football would love even more for a rule with real teeth to be adopted putting an end to certain forms of roster management aggressively pursued by some of those very same SEC coaches.
If the conferences decide it’s best to engage in some real horse trading on recruiting, expect Nick Saban, among others, to have a conniption fit in response. SEC Media Days could be more fun than I thought.
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UPDATE: And there you go.
That didn’t take long. And now we wait to find out what’s behind the postponement.
Filed under College Football, Recruiting
“Nick Saban, he only prepares now for those kids to play for him for three years.”
Charlie Woerner’s dad talks to Michael Carvell about his son’s recruiting, and in comparing Georgia to Alabama, has this to say about what they find attractive about the latter: “At Alabama, it has to do more with the strictness of the program, and the discipline…”
Yeah, I can see how the way Nick Saban handled the Jonathan Taylor matter versus the way Mark Richt did would make somebody think that.
Seriously, this is why Saban really doesn’t care about anyone else’s perception of how he handles personnel matters. Because it never matters to the next recruit’s family he talks to. And it sure doesn’t matter to the ‘Bama faithful. In that respect, he’s the Edwin Edwards of college football.
Filed under Nick Saban Rules, Recruiting
Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?
The CFP selection committee decides it can hold off on its last vote until after the Army-Navy game is played to complete the New Year’s Six bowl lineup if it determines the outcome of that game should be factored into the pairings.
This, you may recall, was supposedly causing real existential angst for the committee and mid-majors commissioners. Which ought to give you some real idea about how good these guys have it right now.
Wake us up when you’ve got an actual crisis, fellas.
Filed under BCS/Playoffs
This would be so, so Georgia.
The Ledger-Enquirer’s Guerry Clegg has a disturbing vision.
Some of the four-team playoff projections include two SEC teams. That’s going to be hard to pull off. Most of the top SEC contenders play each other. That includes the near-consensus top three SEC teams — Alabama, Auburn and Georgia. With Alabama on Georgia’s schedule this year, there are only two possible scenarios:
Either all three have at least one loss, or one of the three will have two losses and therefore be out of the playoff picture, possibly even with a 10-2 record and top six ranking.
The possibility of a rematch in the SEC Championship Game gives Georgia a slight advantage as far as redemption. On the other hand, the SEC title game also poses greater risk. It will be hard for the selection committee to justify picking a team that just came off a loss over champions from other conferences.
There are some scenarios where that could happen. Say Auburn goes 11-1 with its only loss to Georgia in a tight game. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs go undefeated — which would mean having beaten Alabama, Auburn and Georgia Tech among other possible top 25 teams such as Missouri, South Carolina and Tennessee. Then Auburn beats Georgia in a close game in the rematch. How would they justify leaving off a 12-1 Georgia team?
Are you kidding? I expect Herbie would be reaming out the selection committee on a nightly basis for even considering the possibility of putting non-conference champion Georgia in the semi-finals.
And if you think this is unlikely to happen, as Clegg puts it, “It’s a lot less far-fetched than the 2013 Auburn team beating Georgia and Alabama on back-to-back miracle finishes”. The SECCG probably ends on a Tray Matthews interception.
Sigh. I think I’ve just seen the future of Georgia football.
Filed under Georgia Football
The SEC lawyers up.
Not exactly sure what this says, but one of Greg Sankey’s first official acts as SEC Commissioner is to hire an attorney.
New Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey on Tuesday announced the hiring of William King as associate commissioner for legal affairs and compliance.
According to a release, King will head the league’s existing governance and compliance staff, serve as an adviser for institutions on NCAA regulatory matters, maintain and improve upon conference-wide efforts to fulfill SEC and NCAA compliance expectations, provide advice and counsel to the commissioner and serve as the league’s inaugural internal legal counsel.
“I am excited William will be joining the SEC office as associate commissioner for legal affairs and compliance,” Sankey said. “He has established himself as a national leader on NCAA enforcement and compliance matters, and he has unique experience in working with universities, coaches and student-athletes on infractions and eligibility cases. William also has enjoyed a distinguished legal career, which will serve the SEC well as we look to our future.”
King, you’ll remember, was the dude retained to help Todd Gurley when he was suspended last season. That didn’t work out so well, but he was also involved with Cam Newton and Johnny Manziel. Notice a pattern there?
Filed under SEC Football
Get The Picture 