Contract shmontract

Mark Richt still hasn’t signed his.  Not that it’ll make any difference if he’s canned.

Georgia football coach Mark Richt, under fire for his team’s performance this season, has yet to sign a new contract drafted more than nine months ago. As a result, he has already foregone $600,000 of the $800,000-a-year raise called for in the deal approved by the athletic association’s board.

Nevertheless, UGA has vowed to honor the terms of the proposed agreement retroactively. That’s particularly beneficial to Richt in the event that he gets fired this year. It means he will be paid $2.5 million more than he would under his existing contract, for a total payout of $4.1 million. According to the current contract on file with the athletic association, he would be owed $1.6 million, or $800,000 per year remaining in the term.

“To me a handshake is an agreement and the board approved it. Everybody approved it,” Georgia Athletic Director Greg McGarity said Friday. “Just because somebody hasn’t signed it doesn’t mean we’re not going to honor it, if it ever reached that point.”

$2.5 million?

PAWWWLLL, THEY COULD USE THAT MONEY TO HIRE GARY PATTERSON, PAWWWLLL!

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Hmmm… so that’s what special teams look like.

Pretty spectacular downing of a punt from last night’s MSU-Missouri game for your viewing pleasure.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Ringling Bros proudly presents: "MSU Special Teams!" https://t.co/82rQK8GLDe https://t.co/thTAIaipwC

— FWtCT (@mstatesports) November 6, 2015

Ah, a man can dream, can’t he?

Together

If you wondered if Georgia would release a hype video for tomorrow’s game, the answer is yes.

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UPDATE:  FWIW, Miami released an eight-and-one-half-minute video on its miracle win.  Against Duke.

“I want good things to happen to Mark Richt, but my greater priority is for good things to happen to Georgia. “

Some perspective on the current situation – okay, some lengthy perspective on the current situation – from Doug Gillett, who resurrects Hey Jenny Slater. for the occasion.

OMG, there’s a game tomorrow!

Damn, I knew I let something slip my mind.

The good news is that tomorrow Georgia faces its first opponent in a month of Saturdays that ranks below it in both total offense and total defense.

The bad news is that who knows where this team’s collective head is going into the game.  Then, again, at 1-3 over its last four games, Kentucky is reeling as much as Georgia is right now.

In the end, maybe Tyrique McGhee’s take on the game is right:  Georgia wins, “…just to shut some people up.”

Actually, the most Georgia thing that could happen tomorrow would be for Georgia to both win and cover the fourteen-and-a-half points… because that wouldn’t shut anybody up.

The next front in the NCAA wars opens.

Sooner or later, you knew this was coming:

The NCAA’s transfer rules are now under attack legally. A former Weber State football player filed a class-action lawsuit Thursday in Indiana federal court that challenges the NCAA’s transfer rules requiring Division I football players to sit out a year if they leave for another school.

The lawsuit against the NCAA claims the transfer limits violate antitrust laws.

This part is sheer poetry.

“The NCAA’s limitation on the mobility of college athletes is patently unlawful,” the suit says. “For a striking contrast, one can simply examine the unfettered mobility of the players’ coaches.”

The funny thing is that in an unguarded moment, the NCAA would likely agree.  It’s just that the schools wish they could limit coaches’ movement as much as they do their student-athletes.

The truth about the Gurley suspension comes out.

It was never about amateurism.  The NCAA just didn’t want to see Todd Gurley in a tutu.

Soldiering on in the Classic City

Say what you will about the AJ-C being antagonistic in its Georgia coverage, Seth Emerson and Chip Towers have certainly made the effort to rein in a lot of the speculation and rumor mongering we’ve all seen and heard this week.

And for a guy who was supposedly storming out of Athens yesterday, Jeremy Pruitt sure was putting on a brave front.

McAdory standout Malcolm Askew has Georgia as his top school, so he certainly was on high alert this morning when rumors were flying about the job status of defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt.

Head coach Mark Richt responded to reports and Askew, a four-star junior recruit, said he got clarity on the situation as well.

“I called my 7-on-7 coach because he talks to Pruitt a lot,” Askew said. “I was trying to see what’s going on because I’ve got them as my leader right now. I know there’s so much confusion over there with the coaching staff, but I just really needed an update because I’ve got to know what’s going on.

“I kinda cleared it up with Coach Pruitt and he said everything’s all right. They’re focusing on Kentucky. Right now, he’s in place.”

I would not like to be a Georgia coach on the recruiting trail this month, that’s for sure.

What is the opposite of the Georgia Way?

Alabama Football Inc.

What do I mean by that?

In the last decade, enrollment has increased by more than 55 percent, to a record 37,100 students this fall, and more than half of the students now are from out of state, another seismic shift. The acceptance rate in the last decade fell to 54 percent, from 72 percent. This year, 2,261 freshmen are enrolled in its Honors College, two and half times the number 10 years ago. Its 174 National Merit and National Achievement finalists rank Alabama among the top five public universities.

“Just like Nick Saban has recruited five-star athletes, the university is going after the best and brightest students,” said Calvin Brown, Alabama’s director of alumni affairs. “We understand that there are young people out there who first view us, or any other institution, through the window of athletics.”

I’m not defending it, but if you think that’s an attitude that’s ever going to permeate Athens, Georgia, I’ve still got some lovely oceanfront property in Hahira I can let you have at a good price.

Saban doesn’t have time for that selection committee shit.

One of the perks to being Nick Saban is being able to say stuff like this about the first CFP rankings:

“The only reason we have it is for folks like you to talk about it and write about it and ask questions about it.”

Amen to that, brother.