“40 wins sounds a helluva lot better than 39…”

Jordan Jenkins reminds us that while things may seem weird going into the bowl game, it still matters to the seniors.

Thanks, Tuscaloosa.

SB Nation surveyed schools about how much they pay for outside police security and discovered that Alabama doesn’t pay one red cent.  No doubt Greg McGarity is jealous.  But, pity the poor schools, man:

“[Alabama’s athletic department] is in the event management business,” athletic director Bill Battle said Wednesday at the IMG Intercollegiate Athletics Forum in New York City. “We participate in about 400 events a year. We host about 200. Sometimes we have 150,000 people come to Tuscaloosa for a football game to sit in 101,000 seats. That’s a challenge in a lot of different ways, but that’s a great thing.

“But even when you have a successful football program, our [football] business generates about 80 percent of what our mission is,” with that mission defined as being “to develop and graduate student-athletes into good people.”

“If we want to truly accomplish our mission for all 500 of our student-athletes, it takes a lot of money to do that,” Battle said. “Nobody is pocketing a lot of money. Not many [schools] are making ends meet.”

The ones that do are doing so with a vengeance, though.

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Smart vs. Muschamp: saying the sooth

I’d run a reader poll on this topic, except I’d expect a lopsided result.  So you’ll just have to settle for witty observations in the comments.

The only thing I have to say about the Eason commitment… er, re-commitment… oh, whatever

I love what his dad has to say about the coaching changes, specifically, the new line coach:

“The icing on the cake was the o-line hire,” Tony Eason said. “You want to talk about all these people looking at quarterback development and the latest gurus and you have to fly your kid here or there, that o-line coach is more important than any of that. If you don’t have a solid line up front your quarterback isn’t going to play well and he’s going to look terrible.”

Amen to that, brother.

“Damn it, Coach Whatever-Your-Name-Is!”

We’re about to find out how deep Georgia’s 2015 coaching bench really is.

The Taxslayer Bowl may be the first time I’ve ever needed a current roster to keep track of who’s coaching instead of who’s playing.

Jim Chaney sounds like he’ll fit right in.

Seth Emerson does a Q & A with three beat writers who covered Georgia’s new offensive coordinators at his previous stops, and damned if it doesn’t come off sounding like much of what we we’ve been used to lobbing at Georgia’s offensive coordinators over the years.

In Pittsburgh, they had to live with losing a stud running back and working the offense through Nathan Peterman… and the verdict was “unexciting”.  Never mind the loss of James Conner or an “unspectacular” offensive line.

At Arkansas, they bitched about this:  “One of the biggest frustrations I heard was if the Hogs were built to be a hardcore, power-running team, then why were there so many short-yardage run failures?”  But the fans are unhappy about losing Pittman.

And, from Tennessee:  “Tennessee didn’t have great records during the Chaney years, but that usually had little to do with the offense and much more to do with the defense. They put points on the board, and at times they were prolific, creative and fun to watch on that side of the ball. They just couldn’t get enough stops. Georgia fans will remember that from a couple of Vols-Dawgs games.”

There are only so many ways to run a pro-style offense, I guess.  It’s good to know we’ll still have things to complain about.

 

“… Some guys are upset about it, but it’s above our pay grade…”

I think many of you missed the point I was trying to make when I posted something about the Missouri legislative proposal that’s a knee jerk reaction to the threat of a players’ strike.

First off, as Dennis Dodd noted, it’s not about taxpayer money.

It should be noted scholarships at Missouri are paid for by donors and other sources. Public money is not used.

#ConcernedStudent1950 pitched tents in the middle of campus to bring awareness to their issue. They were joined at times by faculty who supported their cause.

Of course, you could always try to argue they weren’t serious about what they were doing.  I mean, you could.

Several times in his interview on @KTGRBigShow Rep. Brattin referred to Mizzou's black football players as "acting out."

— Dave Matter (@Dave_Matter) December 16, 2015

Nobody would accuse Brattin of acting out, right?

More importantly, think about what one of Brattin’s cohorts is implying when he says,

“Those football players were way out of line,” Basye said. “They had a responsibility to the university and to the football program to play.”

Can you say J-O-B?  I thought you could.  Put it this way:

We here at the blog were curious what this sort of legislation — were it to pass — would mean for the structure of the NCAA as we know it.

If athletes are truly “student-athletes” as the NCAA stresses, would they not also have the right to protest without having their funds revoked, just like any other student?

Missouri’s athletic department has not responded to requests for comment. The NCAA, through a spokesperson, said it “will not have a comment.”

I’m sure the NCAA is thrilled.

Even more bluntly,

“… This is a public institution. We continually say that college athletes are students when, in fact, we treat them like employees. The reason why athletes may eventually be defined as employees is by situations like this. No other student at the University of Missouri — I can guarantee it — would have lost any type of financial aid had they stood up and protested this. Whether somebody agrees with it or not, that’s not a rule in America. People have a constitutional right. You have that right as a student.

“I was just stunned that, as a veteran and a congressman in a leadership position, it was not a smart move to do. I just found it one of the more ridiculous thing, that you’d actually take away a school reward — because that’s what it is. It’s supposed to be about education — and you’re essentially saying ‘you’re an employee and, if you don’t do what we say, we’re going to take away your pay.’ Congratulations to this buffoon. He has now just, again, put another nail in the ‘student-athlete’ coffin by trying to do this…”

Eh, I have faith in Rep. Brattin’s ability to propose a law for that, too.  Smaller government, for the win!

(h/t Bill Connelly)

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UPDATE:  A quote from the other sponsor of the bill may do an even better job of getting my point across.

According to the Kansas City Star, Bahr said: “If they have a contract to perform certain duties, and they violate that contract … then it’s not an issue of the First Amendment. It’s an issue of contract law. They failed to uphold that contract.”

Contract, eh?  If it walks like a job and talks like a job, then…

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UPDATE #2:  Minor details are a bitch, y’all.

Bahr said research department "neglected to mention" to Rick Brattin, HB 1743's sponsor, that state couldn't dictate ath. scholarship funds.

— Aaron Reiss (@aaronjreiss) December 16, 2015

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UPDATE #3:  Per the AP,

A Missouri lawmaker has withdrawn a bill that sought to strip scholarships from college athletes who go on strike or refuse to play for reasons unrelated to health.

Republican state Rep. Rick Brattin dropped the 5-day-old legislation Wednesday. He says he introduced the measure last Friday merely to entice dialogue about what he considers “an extremely important topic.”

Uh huh.

“I think he really knows what he’s doing and how to get the most out of his players.”

One thing I really like about the Sam Pittman hire is his recruiting prowess.  Look at this list of linemen he’s signed:

Among the recruiting wins aided by Pittman:

• Denver Kirkland, an elite prospect from Miami who surprised many on his signing day by choosing the Razorbacks over the likes of Miami, Florida State and Ole Miss.

• Dan Skipper, a four-star prospect from Colorado who initially committed to Pittman at Tennessee, but flipped when Pittman was hired by the Razorbacks.

• Frank Ragnow, a four-star recruit from Minnesota who had offers from the likes of Ohio State, Wisconsin and Florida State.

• Sebastian Tretola, considered one of the top JUCO linemen in the country who was offered by Oklahoma, Florida and TCU, among others.

All have been named all-SEC in some capacity in their two or three years working with Pittman.

Behind Arkansas’ starting five this season were six more linemen who were rated four-star recruits by at least one publication. The Razorbacks have another top lineman, Iowa’s Jake Heinrich, committed to the 2016 class.

We’ve all complained about the talent level of the offensive line that’s passed through Athens over the years.  One reason for that is that, for all the high school talent produced in state, Georgia has never really felt like a place that generates tons of great offensive linemen.  But it’s obviously not as thin as Arkansas, either.

And that hasn’t stopped Pittman from signing the kinds of kids needed for that offense, because he’s shown the ability to bring in linemen from all over the place.  Imagine what he’ll be able to do for Georgia.

“I’m not saying that I wouldn’t do that.”

Kirby Smart gets asked if he’d consider the hiring of a dedicated special teams coach for his staff and tosses this out in response:

“I obviously, philosophically, believe in having that,” Smart said. “But I’m not limiting myself to not breaking it up. Until I get that position filled and feel comfortable with it with the person I hire, I’m not ready to say that yet.”

Giant nothing burger, that.  Although it sounds better than “um… I don’t know.”

The reality is that Smart is up against the same numbers issue that Mark Richt faced.  You can only have so many assistants on the staff; if you name a special teams coach, you’re giving up a spot for someone else.  The only way that really works is if your head coach also takes on the duties of a position coach or coordinator, too.

Is Smart prepared to do that?  (Ironically, Richt started out that way, but didn’t hire a special teams coach when he was calling plays.)  Um… I don’t know.  I would guess it depends on how much bang for the buck he can get for making that kind of hire, as well as how confident he feels stretching himself personally that way.  Not to mention how much tugging he’s going to get to apply his time to non-coaching matters, as Richt did…