Sad!

We are told no statistics will be available to the media from the UGA scrimmage.

— Marc Weiszer (@marcweiszer) April 2, 2016

This just means G-Day QBR is even more critical, amirite?

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UPDATE:  Here’s the presser in its entirety.

Nothing shocking there, but I do like hearing that there is an emphasis on being organized on the field.

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A matter of state security

Those of you who are sickened by the thought of reading another post about the Open Records law can assume I’m just screwing with you and skip what follows to avoid upsetting your delicate sensibilities even further, but the rest of you might find this comparison either amusing or obnoxious, depending on your level of cynicism.

And that’s exactly why the proposed Georgia law is so egregious. It may be intended to hide recruiting activities, which, okay, sounds pretty bad already, but the practical effect is that it could kill legitimate reporting on serious or even criminal issues within an athletic program in the name of keeping up with the competition. Even better, it gives the athletic departments of Georgia universities more time to respond to information requests than the National Security Agency generally requires.

Yessir.  If you accept Rep. Earhart’s insistence about the bill’s purpose (“The pure and only intention on this is… so people don’t have access to find out who our schools are recruiting”) at face value, I guess you could say the Georgia General Assembly takes the threat of Nick Saban’s recruiting more seriously than national security.

And to think some people have the nerve to question Southerners’ perspective about college football.  Sheesh.

“Everybody’s got opinions,” Emmert said. “But the membership is addressing them.”

I don’t know about you, but I find that there are few things in life more comforting than Mark Emmert’s assurance.  Take, for example, the sticky issue of player transfers.  Emmert wants you to know that he’s on the mother.  Totally.

“The issue of transfer rules, whether it’s for undergraduates or graduates, is one of the most hotly debated and discussed, I think, in sport right now, whether it’s football or basketball,” Emmert said during his Final Four news conference this week. “The challenge is it’s really hard to figure out a right way to resolve this issue.”

Well, at least he seems familiar with the concept.  So why the struggle?  How hard can it be to balance this attitude…

“We have such a massive number of kids that transfer nowadays because of everybody wanting instant gratification,” North Carolina coach Roy Williams said Friday. “Coaches in some way have been blamed for that. We have absolutely nothing to do with it. It’s the want and need of instant gratification. The culture we have, if things don’t work out, just leave and go somewhere else.”

… with this one?

Villanova coach Jay Wright and Oklahoma’s Lon Kruger said they don’t have any set policies regarding transfers, taking them on a case-by-case basis. Wright said he was not ready to say whether standardized NCAA rules regarding transfer limitations would be the right fit, but added “players do have the right to choose where they want to play, just like we all as coaches have the right to go where we want to coach.”

Yeah, that “fine for me, but not for thee” approach can be a bitch sometimes.  Lucky for Mark there’s a judge out there willing to clear up things.

The logic of Preseason Homerism

According to this observer at Roll Bama Roll, Jeremy Pruitt is “just a more approachable, relatable guy” than Kirby Smart.  Given that he appears to base his conclusion on the usual preseason happy talk you hear from players dealing with a new coach, my only question is this:  if Georgia players say this spring that Mel Tucker is an improvement over Jeremy Pruitt in certain regards, does that mean we should take that as gospel, too?

What SEC coaches did on their summer vacation

Bert’s got big plans for the summer.

“If these satellite camps go through, I’ve been in discussion with two Big Ten teams. I’ve been in discussion with teams in Florida and Texas, as well as the (Dallas) Cowboys,” Bielema said. “If this thing goes through, we’re going to do an exclusive camp right there with the Cowboys unique to us that no one else in the SEC will be able to do. That’s going to be a huge advantage.

“I’m talking about going east with a Big Ten team I’ve got a relationship with. If that pans out, some really good things could open the door.”

Sounds great.  Meanwhile, remember that fearless leader Greg Sankey warns everyone about the giant can of whoop ass his minions are prepared to open on the rest of an unsuspecting world if the NCAA doesn’t leave ten thousand dollars in unmarked bills in a paper bag pass legislation soon to shut down guest coaching camps.

Okay, so the SEC wants you to know it’s tanned, rested and ready to take charge.  If that’s the case, why is the conference fighting Harbaugh on this in the first place?

 

It’s a great day to be a troll.

Georgia has its first spring scrimmage at Sanford Stadium today, which can only mean one thing:  spring scrimmage QBR stats!

I can hardly wait.

More seriously, it’ll be interesting to see if there are ways in which Smart treats spring scrimmage – and spring scrimmage stats – differently than Richt did.