W. T. F.

If you need further proof that it’s a long offseason, here you go.

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UPDATE:  Don’t miss this Twitter thread David Hale started.

Banned from Athens

I’d say this puts a serious crimp on recruiting (not that I expect Georgia to be recruiting Salomon anyway).

Kinda your ultimate Mark Richt has lost control story.

6,701

That’s this year’s season ticket magic number:  “Hartman Fund donors with 6,701 priority points or higher who contributed a minimum of $250 per seat and ordered new renewable season tickets will receive them.”

That’s a helluva jump from last year.

Bama effect: 6701 points needed for new season tix. Was 1001 in 2014. (0 in 2013).

— dawgsonline (@dawgsonline) June 22, 2015

The power of Saban, eh?  Outside of South Carolina, there ain’t much other must see on the home schedule.

No doubt Greg McGarity is pleased.

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Lovin’ the Laner

I know this is one of those seemingly endless things ESPN does to fill bandwidth during a long offseason, but, damn, Alex Scarborough, do you really have to write a tongue bath like this?

Lane Kiffin magic: He loses a Heisman Trophy finalist at receiver, a two-year starter at running back and a record-breaking QB, but does anyone doubt that Lane Kiffin will make it work? He still has a veteran center in Ryan Kelly, a mammoth running back in Derrick Henry, and a promising group of receivers, headlined by ArDarius Stewart and Robert Foster. With O.J. Howard at tight end and Mr. Everything Kenyan Drake back at running back/receiver, Kiffin will have plenty of weapons to play with. And when it comes to who starts at quarterback, just trust that it will work out, whether it’s Jake Coker, David Cornwell or another candidate. If Kiffin could turn former scout team QB/wide receiver Blake Sims into a record-setter then he deserves the benefit of the doubt.

One could argue it was Amari Cooper, not Junior, who turned Blake Sims into a record-setter, but setting that aside, when did Kiffin’s offensive magic become a no-brainer?  It sure wasn’t there in his waning days at Southern Cal, which managed to coincide with a dwindling talent base due to the NCAA sanctions.  And even directing an Alabama offense that wasn’t talent starved, it’s not as if the Tide generated a performance on that side of the ball commensurate with all those vaunted recruiting classes:  sixteenth in scoring offense and eighteenth in total offense are certainly well above-average, but how many of the offenses that finished more prolifically than did Junior’s outdo Alabama in talent?

Last season, Amari Cooper wasn’t promising.  He was the best wideout in college football and he’s gone.  Coker, who couldn’t beat out Sims for the starting QB job last year despite being anointed as a Heisman finalist by much of the media in the preseason, is neck and neck in a fight for the starting job again, so what does that say about who will direct Kiffin’s attack?

It’s not like I’m counting on Alabama’s offense disappearing this season.  There’s way too much talent there for that to happen.  But pardon me if I wait to see how Albert Einstein… er, Lane Kiffin does directing traffic in 2015.  If ‘Bama kicks ass, then maybe we can start talking about giving the Laner the benefit of the doubt.

Current Fulmer Cup standings

If you thought LSU leads, that’s because you have a short memory and forgot about Auburn’s April.

Georgia, believe it or not, currently has zero points, which means (1) either Georgia is recruiting higher character kids; (2) Richt has managed to run off every troublemaker in the program; or (3) we’re just waiting for this summer’s shoe to drop.

And, no, those three aren’t mutually exclusive possibilities.

The preseason conventional wisdom…

… as expressed by Stassen’s aggregation of pundits so far (h/t), has Georgia sitting eleventh nationally.

That’s third best in the SEC and, if you look at the range of point totals, closer to sixth overall than to twelfth.

Does that seem about right to you?  Too low?  Too high?

Whatever makes you feel good, podnah.

You knew this had to be coming.

For what it’s worth, from Ole Miss to Steve Spurrier, there isn’t a coach or a program in the SEC that wants to be linked to the Confederate flag nowadays.  So the suggestion that “the SEC as a body should join the chorus” of protest against the flag flying in Columbia is a day late and a dollar short, pal.  If Spurrier’s condemnation of the symbol didn’t move the necessary hearts and minds in 2007, I doubt it’s gonna have any more effect today.

Although I do wonder what would happen if a protest movement against student-athletes signing with Clemson or South Carolina cranked up and had an impact.

Today, in great ideas in marketing

When you say JoePa, you’ve said it all.