And now, the shaming begins.

The question is, can Nick Saban be shamed?

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UPDATE:  It’s turning into a full court press.

The parents of Alabama defensive back Maurice Smith were still in Tuscaloosa Wednesday afternoon where their son is still “in a holding place.”

Smith, who graduates on Saturday, wants to transfer to Georgia but coach Nick Saban is blocking him, Smith’s father said. Smith’s parents met with Saban on Tuesday after arriving from Texas.

“He definitely has denied any transfer to want to go to Georgia and anything that Maurice wants to do there,” said his father, also named Maurice Smith. “We’re still hoping that something can come through on that, but at this point it seems like it’s a block.”

The parents say Alabama is being “unfair because the kid is coming into his senior year and he decided he wanted to leave and he’s not having the option to do so. It’s kind of frustrating.”

Smith was “mistreated” at Alabama after asking for his release, his father said.

Because Alabama is blocking Smith’s request to go to Georgia, he has to appeal, per conference rules.  Which means Greg Sankey is about to get dragged into the shit storm.

Smith should meet the requirements to be eligible to play this season as a graduate transfer if he were given a release to go to Georgia, his father said. Alabama and the SEC have not responded to requests for comment.

We’ll see how long that lasts.

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Thanks for everything, Spurdog.

You want to buy into the notion that Richt left Georgia’s cupboard a little bare for Kirby Smart?  Boys, you have no idea what bare really looks like.

As dismal as what Boom’s inherited looks like and as mediocre as his term was at Florida, you know what the worst part is?  This.

Optimist: In four seasons, UF never ranked worse than 33rd in S&P+. Whether you appreciate the style (and it’s hard to at times), his baseline is pretty high, higher than South Carolina has managed over the last couple of years.

That’s right.  Florida at its worst under Muschamp was better than South Carolina the last couple of seasons under Spurrier.  Which leads to…

Pessimist: Yeah, but in four years, UF never ranked better than 29th only once, and that was with top-10 recruiting. Now he’s at a school that only recruits at a top-25 level. In terms of stars vs. results, he underachieved, and now the caliber of the roster he inherited is lower.

The prognosis isn’t pretty, doctor.  And Bill didn’t mention something that might make things even worse.  Check out Florida’s turnover margin under Muschamp:

• 2012:  +15
• 2013:  minus-2
• 2014:  +2

In other words, Boom’s one great year was accompanied by a stellar turnover margin.

Meanwhile, South Carolina finished 2015 with a +5 turnover margin, good for 32nd nationally.  If you’ll recall this handy little chart from the folks at Pick Six Previews,

it was literally the one bright spot in team performance last season for South Carolina.  If that regresses to the mean, there ain’t much left for ol’ Will to hang his hat on, it would seem.

Today’s Dawg porn is the best Dawg porn.

Via Ed Aschoff:

And, if you put your ear real close to the ground, you’ll hear rumors that Chubb was squatting near 600 pounds before fall camp. That might be more than Smart and his coaches want, but my goodness, that’s a lot for someone standing on two perfectly good legs.  [Emphasis added.]

My goodness, indeed.

Quarterbacks talkin’ quarterbacks

Chip Towers asks seven former Georgia starting quarterbacks for their opinions about you know what here.  Two themes appear to emerge:  one, that Eason’s a work in progress, not because of his talent, but because of his lack of familiarity with the college game and how that might affect his confidence; and two, perhaps a little surprisingly, a show of support for what Greyson Lambert brings to the table.

For example, here’s what David Greene has to say:

“I’m kind of in the camp that I think Greyson is a much better player than what a lot of people give him credit for. I think last year, it was a very vanilla offense, for the most part, at least that’s the way it felt. There’s no question, everybody at the spring game could tell, you’ve got a special talent in Jacob Eason. No question that his up side is tremendous. But one of the great things about playing quarterback is it’s a lot more than athletic ability. Greyson has a season under his belt here in Athens and I imagine the game has slowed down enough for him that he probably feels in control and command at this point. What you really want is consistency. You want to know what to expect when a guy gets on the field. I’m not saying Jacob won’t eventually do that. I actually thought Jacob handled himself extremely well in front of 90-something thousand at the spring game.

“Having said that, I think we’re going to be fine. I think the competition is probably made up more in the media and outside the Butts-Mehre than inside. As long as Greyson does a great job and runs the offense the way the coaches want him to, I see him being the guy. The only way I see Jacob getting into the game early or playing early in the season is if we just stall out and we’re just not generating enough offense. But I thought I saw enough from Greyson just in terms of natural ability last year, if he can get into a rhythm and he and Coach Chaney get into a flow and the team has a good mix between run and pass, the formula works. But heck, who knows, you never know how these things are going to play out. But is Greyson talented enough to do it?  He absolutely is.”

I find myself more convinced that the quarterback battle is going to come down to Chaney and Smart weighing on which side of the efficiency vs. explosiveness debate they prefer to land.  I don’t think they know yet.  But I think they will by the time August is over.

But we’re Georgia! There must be some mistake.

The AP tallies up its records from 1936 to determine an all-time top 25… and Georgia finishes fifteenth.

Yeah, that Mark Richt was a real underachiever by Athens’ standards.

The good news is that Kirby has a real chance to elevate the program into a period of sustained excellence that would surpass what we’ve enjoyed over the past fifteen years.  But some people need to stop pretending that Smart’s here simply to restore Georgia to its traditional greatness, or that the program was somehow being held back from its natural place in the college football world by Richt.

It’s gonna take a lot of hard work over time to elevate Georgia football to a new plateau.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Kirby’s got what it takes in that department.

Eternal attorney’s fees are the price of amateurism.

I love the juxtaposition of these two paragraphs:

When asked if he feels guilty about his salary given the financial restraints the NCAA places on players, Bowlsby replied, “I think I’m overpaid and I think there are others in college athletics that are overpaid. But that’s what the market dictates so I’m not going to attempt to turn the market in the other direction.”

… The Big 12 spent $1.4 million on legal services with Polsinelli Shugart in Kansas City, up from about $400,000 a year earlier. Big 12 spokesman Bob Burda said the increase was due to legal defense for NCAA lawsuits in which the Big 12 is a defendant. There have been multiple lawsuits in which current and former players have sought compensation beyond the value of a scholarship.

You know what they say — you gotta spend money to make money.

It’s meow time at Athlon again.

Yes, yes, once again, it’s that time for Athlon to get those quotes from anonymous coaches about their rivals.  I still maintain the exercise hasn’t been nearly as catty as when Tuberville was in the conference, but I gotta admit that somebody stepped up this year… with criticism of Mark Richt’s recruiting.

“They’re happy with their top two running backs, but I think they’re really worried about the depth offensively and the number of playmakers they inherited. It’s not like what it was in the past at Georgia. Obviously they need Nick Chubb to come back and be the same player he was, but who knows how he’ll respond after a pretty horrific injury.”

“They’re pretty solid at the No. 1s, but when you dig down the depth chart they don’t have the No. 2s or 3s like Kirby Smart and those guys are used to having at Alabama. The recruiting kind of fell off the last few years under Mark Richt.”

“On defense, Kirby isn’t walking into the same kind of talent he worked with at Alabama. Just one example: They don’t have a linebacker corps; I mean, they just simply don’t have any good linebackers. They’re player deficient right now. I think they’ll probably have some headaches early but Kirby will get it done. He’s really, really, really good, and bringing Mel Tucker with him was huge. Those guys can coach.”

Now that he’s gone, the truth can be told!  Sounds like Georgia was saved just in the nick of time.  Thanks for letting us know, oh anonymous one.

Wouldn’t it be hilarious if the source was Jeremy Pruitt?

“He wants to go to Georgia. Period.”

This isn’t a good look for Nick Saban.  Not that he cares.

Earlier this year, Alabama did not put a block on Chris Black, who graduated from Alabama and transferred to Missouri, another SEC school.

“So what is it, is it really about my son, or is it about Kirby Smart and Nick Saban? I don’t know what it is” Samyra Smith said. “You just had a player leave, Chris Black, and he’s at an SEC school, Mizzou. So don’t tell me it’s about a violation of rules, I can read you the rules, I understand them well. It’s not a violation of rules or else the SEC would’ve stopped it, the commissioner would’ve stopped it. But it’s allowed…

An Alabama spokesman did not immediately have a response when contacted by SEC Country on Tuesday night. Last month Saban was asked about the situation at SEC media days.

“Maurice Smith has been a good player on our team,” Saban said. “He’s a good person, and he would be a significant contributor to our team this year if he decided to stay at Alabama. … We have told him, ‘Because we support the SEC rule, it would not be in your best interest to have to sit out. If you want to go some place else (outside the SEC), we’d be glad to help you do that.’”

Nick Saban, conference man.  At least when it suits him.

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UDPATE:  I don’t know which is more predictable — that Mark Bradley would weigh in on the subject, or Mark Bradley’s take on the subject.  Trust me, you don’t have to read it to know what it says.