Now he belongs to the ages.

No surprise here.

Just confirmed that Florida has changed the name of the football stadium to Steve Spurrier Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

— Robbie Andreu (@RobbieAndreu) June 9, 2016

My only question is what’s left to be named after the GPOOE™?

Dawgrading, AJ-C style

How bad was last season for Georgia?  Bad enough that this AJ-C writer, in a column about how many wins it takes for a program to keep its fan base happy, decides not to give Georgia credit for all of its 2015 wins.

Georgia

Last year: 9 wins | Five-year high: 12 wins | Five-year low: 8 wins

• Somersaults: 9 wins
• We’ll take it: 7 wins
• Burn it down: 5 wins or fewer

The Bulldogs are confident they can contend in the SEC East, even with some uncertainty under center. New coach Kirby Smart gets somewhat of a grace year, but the man he just replaced never failed to qualify for a bowl game, and Georgia has recorded at least eight wins in every season since 2011. Pressure’s on.

Well, if you’re gonna fudge the numbers like that, no shit pressure’s on.

Maybe Mark Bradley convinced him not to count the Tech win.

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The difference between Athens and Gainesville

So, we get a BB-gate update in which Rochester and Clay’s attorney Kim Stephens expresses the hope that Rochester and Clay will be allowed to enter a pre-trial diversionary program, which would result in the charges levied against them being purged from their record upon completion.

Somehow, I think we’d be hearing something stronger than hope if you took out the words “Kim Stephens” and substituted “Huntley Johnson” in their stead.

Moar Chubb

It’s easy to forget what kind of season Nick Chubb was having last year before his injury.  So I’ll remind you.

That first season made a big impression on everyone, and the college football world expected big things from him in his second year. And before Chubb went down to that horrific injury, he was delivering. He carried the ball 92 times for 744 yards, averaging 8.1 yards per carry and forcing 23 missed tackles. He rushed for 120 yards in every game, despite seeing 20 carries or more just twice, once again showcasing his ability to create the big play, with 14 of his 92 carries going for 15 or more yards.

What’s important to note about Chubb is that while he can be a big-play threat create something from nothing, he’s also a very consistent running back from down to down. While he had plenty of 15-plus yard gains, they accounted for just 57.5 percent of his rushing yards, so even when he wasn’t breaking the big play, he was able to churn out the yards the Georgia offense needed.

Yeah, I can see how he was missed.

None of which is to knock Sony Michel, who, as the linked article goes on to note, wasn’t exactly a schlub in Chubb’s absence.  It’s just that Georgia’s offense is so much more when both are in play.  And that’ll help whoever starts at quarterback.

About that offense…

Just as a sort of follow up to yesterday’s post about the ESPN stat geeks identifying Georgia’s big problem as being quarterback play over the last two seasons, allow me to present to you a few tidbits from Seth Emerson’s post-spring preview of the receiver position.

• “You may see more vertical shots for Godwin, whose longest catch last year was 35 yards, and who averaged only 10.8 yards per catch.”
• “Last year’s offensive staff couldn’t quite figure out how to get the ball enough to McKenzie. Just get him the ball and see what happens would seem a good strategy, yet it didn’t happen much. Oh well.”
• “If the best laid plans at receiver don’t work out, there’s always the tight end to fall back on. That should’ve been the case last year, but … well, a lot of things went wrong on last year’s offense.”

I’m detecting something of a pattern here.

Again, it’s not to say that all of last year’s failings fall on Schottenheimer’s shoulders, anymore than it should be to say that it was all about the quarterback.  The reality is that Georgia’s offense, which managed to average over two fewer touchdowns per game in 2015 from its 2014 scoring production, has a lot of things that need fixing.  Better quarterback play is certainly part of that repair job, as is a more robust offensive scheme.  But there’s plenty of shoring up to do with regard to coaching the offensive line and receiver positions, too.  Of course, a healthy Nick Chubb won’t hurt, either.

Baylor’s gonna Baylor.

Lesson learned, eh?

Baylor has kept intact its assistant coaching staff after removing coach Art Briles despite an investigation’s multiple findings that football coaches had inappropriate conduct and influence in school assault investigations…

But the 13-page “Finding of Fact” prepared for Baylor by Philadelphia law firm Pepper Hamilton includes five references to coaches or football staff engaging in behavior that stifled school and criminal investigations into serious allegations, including:

• Meeting directly with a complainant or their parent and not reporting the alleged misconduct.

• Abdicating their duties under federal protections for student welfare, health and safety by not reporting incidents to the university or suspending players without explanation and helping them transfer.

• Seeking to maintain “internal control” over discipline of players and diverting cases from the student conduct or criminal proceedings.

Those instances helped reinforce “an overall perception that football was above the rules, and that there was no culture of accountability for misconduct,” the summary stated.

Maybe Art Briles was a real control freak.  Maybe the staff has taken the Nuremburg defense.  As long as everyone left means well, I’m sure it’ll work out.