Paint it black, swoosh edition.

You know, I was fully prepared to fire off a blog post mocking Alabama for being the team embracing black jerseys this season, until I found out Nike’s got bigger plans than that.

According to a report, several college football teams will be wearing black uniforms this season. Andrew Lind of the Tidewater News tweeted several photos on Saturday of black Nike uniform t-shirt designs — the same designs that will reportedly be used on jerseys this fall. Teams that are reported to participate include Alabama, Florida, LSU, Georgia, Florida State and a few others.

Yes, the same people who visited those Power Ranger abominations on the Dawgs for that 2011 game against Boise State are ready to dazzle us with this:

No, it’s not the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen – although we haven’t been blessed with a helmet shot, so there’s still a chance – but I find it amusing that with all the debate among the fan base about when the Dawgs should choose to dabble in going black again, the decision is apparently being taken out of our hands.

And how schmucky could Nike be with this?  Why not dictate that Georgia has to wear these in the Alabama game?

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Bobo blames Pruitt.

Their coaching paths only crossed for one year, but in that time it sounds like Jeremy Pruitt left a strong impression on Mike Bobo.

Of course, Bobo still has fond memories of Richt, who hired Bobo as the Bulldogs’ quarterbacks coach in 2001 before promoting him to offensive coordinator in 2007. Bobo still speaks to his former boss, and he built the Rams’ meeting structure around Richt’s plan.

But the Rams’ practice schedule is built on the model that arrived in Athens with defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt, who developed a practice model based on his experience working under Nick Saban at Alabama.

“When Pruitt came in at Georgia last year, we changed our practice schedule, and I liked it,” Bobo said. “I thought our linemen got better because of the number of reps they had. For the receivers, we had to watch them a little bit at that volume of practice, but there are different things you take from different folks. At the end of the day, I‘ll do what I think will give us the best chance to be successful.”

Outside of the quarterback situation, I’ve heard more talk this offseason about Pruitt’s influence on the program than any other subject related to Georgia football.  I couldn’t quantify it in any exact sense, but it’s pretty clear it’s not inconsequential.

Jim Delany opens a new front.

And unlike some of his other crusades, this one might leave a mark.

Delany pointed out that, starting with the 2016 season, Big Ten football schedules will move from eight to nine conference games and will mandate one Power 5 non-conference opponent. The other two non-conference opponents must be Football Bowl Subdivision schools.

In other words, no Jacksonville State (at Auburn Sept. 12) or Charleston Southern (at Alabama Nov. 21) or anyone else from the Football Championship Subdivision.

A year from now, the Big Ten will be the only Power 5 conference with all of these rugged scheduling components: Nine league games, at least one Power-5 non-conference opponent, all 12 regular-season games against FBS schools and a conference championship game.

“We think it’s what our fans want,” Delany said. “We think it’s what our players want. And we think it’s what the College Football Playoff committee wants.”

Not necessarily in that order, of course.  And if you don’t think this is a sales pitch served to the selection committee that will be honed and repeated ad nauseam, with a side of sneer at the Big 12’s and the SEC’s scheduling, think again.

“I’m not sure that people have paid as much attention to the (College Football Playoff) guidelines for selection of teams,” Delany said. “There are about eight paragraphs that deal with the issue of when resumes look similar, similar record, similar resumes. Conference champions are going to get the first tiebreaker consideration. And strength of schedule is going to get the second.

“So if you start looking at schedules that have FCS teams that have some 20 fewer scholarships, I think that’s a consideration. I think, if you’re playing more conference games and you’re in a strong conference that, typically, is going to give you a stronger strength of schedule resume. I think winning a conference championship game gives you an advantage.”

If they weren’t paying attention before, Big Jim will make sure they’re paying attention now.

Will the SEC react?  Probably not in the short run, anyway.  But let’s see what happens after the first time the conference doesn’t have a representative in a four-team playoff field.

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UPDATE:  It may be what the fans, the players and the selection committee wants, but…

Pat Fitzgerald said Big Ten coaches voted 14-0 AGAINST going to nine league games. "But hey, we do what we're told."

— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) July 31, 2015

Eh, don’t sweat it, fellas.  It’s nothing that can’t be fixed with a bigger playoff field.

Recruiters read comment threads.

Internet wisdom, for the win:

“Really what every school says, tells the recruit that they’ll have playing time and they can coach them up and maybe get them to the NFL,” Manac told the AJC.

This is the same pitch that 3-star cornerback Chad Clay gets from Ohio State, the team that finished second to the Bulldogs when Clay committed in May, and Oklahoma.

While this is a pretty typical pitch that committed players receive, they aren’t always this cordial.

“I’ve heard some schools say, ‘Do you want to be an underachiever? They always underachieve,’ or, ‘When’s the last time they won a championship?’ Stuff like that,” Clay said.

Some schools do things like that.  It’s just too bad for them that more high schoolers don’t read Georgia message boards, I suppose.

Through the hot seat looking glass

I haven’t linked to Coaches Hot Seat Blog in a while, but I’ve got to mention the oddest thing I’ve seen lately:  Nick Saban sitting sixty-three degrees hotter than Mark Richt on a list ranking the seat warmth of every D-1 coach in the business.

I mean, isn’t it against the law in Alabama merely to express disappointment in Saban’s performance?

‘How can a guy catch a ball eight yards downfield with a lineman standing right there next to him?’

The irony of using Auburn as an example of the envelope pushing of the downfield lineman rule officials swear they’re going to enforce this season – no, really, they swear it! – shouldn’t escape any Georgia fan who saw what seemed like last season’s only actual attempt to call that penalty in the Auburn game overturn a brilliant fake punt call.

Incorrectly, of course.

Knowledge is money.

Online bookmaker sets odds on who wins Georgia’s quarterback battle.  Those of you convinced it’s Bauta can make some pretty good dough putting your money where your mouths are.

Then again, Dean Legge seems pretty sure there’s a reason Ramsey’s the favorite.

At least I’ve still got dibs on GPOOE™.

Ohio State trademarks Urban Meyer’s name.

A friendly word of advice to Corinne Brown…  you’d best get on the stick, girl, before somebody trademarks “Corch”.