Some early signs of early enrollees?

Saw this…

#UGA's early enrollees are one step closer to becoming #Dawgs. One name might surprise you. https://t.co/kmiCH3s1zf pic.twitter.com/ZU9YyQYiQG

— Paul Maharry (@pmaharry) January 2, 2016

… so I did some digging here.  And you know what?  Sure enough, Isaac Nauta’s name does come up.  So do four others, including Eason.

Hmmm.  Talk about your pleasant surprise.

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UPDATE:  Eh, never mind.

https://twitter.com/Patt_Brown/status/683149494960128002

https://twitter.com/costley23/status/683278973791506432

Reminds me why I shouldn’t follow recruiting stuff so closely.

You don’t have to be lonely at the Rose Bowl.

How can you not love Stanford’s band?

If I were an Iowa fan, I would have appreciated the halftime distraction. Any halftime distraction.

If you’re looking for a sense of involvement today…

Alex Gray over at Team Speed Kills has a nice drinking game for you.

Because it’ll make for a fun drinking game! Take a shot whenever you hear the names “Mark Richt” or “Kirby Smart.” Like, the entire game that’s all the announcers are going to yammer about. Over/under on combined Richt/Smart references? I’m going 20. Play this game, and you’ll be blitzed.

If the game’s a rout on either side, I’m afraid 20 will be on the low side, as there will be little else to discuss. Don’t play and drive, that’s for sure.

The Mark Richt era is dead, and I’m not feeling too good myself.

Motivation is the key for today.

Oh, wait… you thought I was talking about the Georgia team?  I was referring to blogging about the TaxSlayer Bowl.  Sigh.

Fortunately for both you and me, Bill Connelly has ridden to the rescue with a combination of ennui (hard to beat a header like “Georgia vs. Penn State will probably not be *the* worst thing on television at the time”) and advanced stats.

Penn State’s best offensive players (Barkley, Godwin) are a freshman and sophomore, respectively, which brings to the table a certain amount of inconsistency from the start. Add in a faulty line and scattershot quarterback, and you’ve got a recipe for inefficiency. Indeed, Penn State had one of the worst success rates in the power conference universe. Meanwhile, Georgia’s defense was willing to risk big plays for extreme efficiency, a gamble that frequently paid off.

On the other side of the ball, Georgia’s inefficiencies weren’t as pronounced, but the Dawgs were still mediocre in this regard.

There are two ways to look at the efficiency-vs.-explosiveness balance in this game. In theory, the offense that is actually able to establish some efficiency, therefore avoiding passing downs disasters, could render a solid advantage. But with Penn State’s big-play potential and the potential for a “screw it, it’s a bowl game” trickeration, this could go in the opposite direction. We could end up with two inefficient offenses in a game decided by who generates five big plays instead of three.

Georgia wants a grind it out game on both sides of the ball.  Penn State wants what every team playing Georgia wants:  make Greyson Lambert beat you.  I have no idea who gets their wish, except to say it really is about motivation.  I believe Georgia’s kids want to go out with a win today and so I respect that.  I’ll be rooting for them, too.

I’d be less than honest, though, if I didn’t admit that today and the week stretching through next Monday night’s championship game almost feels like a chore to me, something I have to get through to arrive at the next stage.  My apologies for that.  Maybe you can generate more enthusiasm for today’s tilt than I in the comments.  Have at it.

Another spin of the SEC coaching carousel

Something else that may have flown under the radar in the last 24-48 hours of bowl play are the musical chairs being played in the wake of Gus Malzahn’s hire of LSU’s Kevin Steele.

First, as expected, Lance Thompson flew the coop… er, flew to the coop… eh, left Auburn to join Boom in Columbia.

Thompson’s hiring leaves Muschamp with just one position to fill. Muschamp already has named Bryan McClendon offensive co-coordintor and wide receivers coach, Pat Washington tight ends coach, Shawn Elliott offensive line coach, Bobby Bentley running backs coach, Travaris Robinson defensive co-coordinator and defensive backs coach, Coleman Hutzler linebackers coach and special teams coordinator.

Kurt Roper will be announced as the Gamecocks offensive co-coordinator and quarterbacks coach as soon as his season’s complete with the Cleveland Browns following Sunday.

I’ll say this for Muschamp.  It remains to be see how well he does in his second run as an SEC head coach, but with Thompson, McClendon and Robinson, he’s clearly upgraded South Carolina’s recruiting prowess from Spurrier’s staff.  And considering how much the ‘Cocks like to dip into Georgia for talent, that’s not going to make Kirby Smart’s job any easier.

Meanwhile, Gus now has to replace three of his best recruiters, all on the defensive side of the staff, and while Steele is good at it, he’s not any better than Boom.  It’s not a place you want to be at while fending off hot seat rumors.

Speaking of which, were I rooting for LSU, I’d be pretty damned happy with the news of Steele’s replacement.

The SEC had a couple big wins on New Year’s Day, but LSU might have just notched the biggest one of all by reeling in Wisconsin’s Dave Aranda to run the Tigers defense.

Aranda’s new deal with LSU will make him one of the highest-paid defensive coordinators in the country, a source told FOX Sports.

During Aranda’s three seasons as Wisconsin’s defensive coordinator, the Badgers rank No. 1 nationally in total defense, No. 2 in scoring defense, No. 3 in pass defense and No. 4 in run defense.

Once again, Barry Alvarez being a cheap AD pays off for an SEC program in need.

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UPDATE:  Chris Brown has some good stuff on Aranda, if you’re interested.

Lotta stars there.

Honestly, after seeing this, I give up on trying to evaluate how much of Georgia’s disappointing 2015 season can be chalked up to substandard recruiting.  Although I suspect that the chart glosses over how that talent is allocated between the classes.

If my suspicions are right, then that’s good news for Smart.  Probably better than how much of a bounce his recruiting efforts got from Alabama’s win Thursday night, anyway.

“All I can say is that the matter has been satisfactorily resolved.”

Ken Starr has plenty of experience in knowing how to time the release of unflattering news, so it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that an announcement of a settlement of a claim against Baylor arising out of a student being sexually assaulted by Bears football player Sam Ukwuachu was essentially buried in an avalanche of bowl game news.

But I don’t think you really even need to reflect on the timing of that release to recognize how troublesome the matter was for Starr and his school.  That this one was settled to the apparent satisfaction of the girl’s lawyer without even having to file a lawsuit should speak volumes about Baylor’s culpability.

I guess Starr didn’t want the titillating equivalent of a special prosecutor’s report to sully Baylor’s name.

Your tradition. Their money.

I’m sure Mickey is taking this news well.

Viewership for Thursday’s two College Football Playoff semifinal games was down drastically when compared with last season, a clear indication that ESPN paid a price for the games’ move to New Year’s Eve.

ESPN had hoped to turn New Year’s Eve into a new sports holiday to showcase the semifinal games, much as Thanksgiving has become for the N.F.L. and Christmas Day for the N.B.A. The network aggressively marketed the advent of the semifinals in a promotional campaign, but the effort apparently did not succeed.

Apparently?

Clemson’s 37-17 victory over Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, which started at 4 p.m. Eastern, was seen by an average of 15.6 million viewers, a 45 percent decrease from the 28.2 million for the 2015 Rose Bowl, the semifinal game played in the comparable time slot on Jan. 1.

The second semifinal, Alabama’s 38-0 rout of Michigan State, averaged almost 18.6 million viewers in prime time, down 34 percent from the nearly 28.3 million for the Sugar Bowl last season.

That’s a total drop of about 15 million viewers.  Yeah, I’d call that pretty apparent.

As for what the steward of the game has to say about this, well, it’s about what you’d expect.

Reached Bill Hancock, who said he will hold off commenting on TV ratings until all the New Year's Six are in tomorrow.

— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) January 1, 2016

These guys don’t do retreat very well.  Unless there’s a lot of money at stake.  Which, ultimately, there will be.  Anybody wanna bet on how this gets resolved?