Today, in we’ve all been there sometime

Now, this is something.

Drake University’s head athletic trainer says he was fired in September after he peed into a tub, cleaned it, and told the athletic director.

Scott Kerr, who worked for the school for 31 years, said that he had a medical condition which required him to drink a lot of water and, in turn, pee a lot. On Aug. 29, the 61-year-old was alone cleaning a metal whirlpool when he needed to pee. Kerr’s attorney Jerry Crawford said that Kerr decided to pee in the tub since he wouldn’t make it to a bathroom, then scrubbed the tub with bleach to clean it.

Kerr later divulged what had happened to athletic director Sandy Hatfield Clubb…

Now, you may wonder what possessed him to tell the AD.  I know I did.  At least until I read this:

… not only did Clubb disapprove, she allegedly told Kerr that he should have peed himself instead, like she once did. Via WHO TV:

“The Athletic Director recounted a story where she herself urinated in her pants in an airport while on Drake business and told me I should have done the same thing,” said Kerr. “When I heard that story I was very confused, embarrassed, and I didn’t know quite how to react to that story,” said Kerr.

“The Athletic Director said to Scott that if he had urinated in his pants instead of in a metal container, he would still be there because that’s what she did at an airport,” said Crawford. “That’s as shocking as anything in this case,” he said.

That’s like seeing his “damn, son, I don’t think I’d have said that” and raising.

Drake sounds like an interesting place to work.

Advertisement

Coming home, with beer experience

A former B-Mer is returning to Athens.

Josh Brooks is returning to Georgia for a high-level job in the athletic department.

Two and a half years after leaving the school, Brooks is on the way back to become executive associate athletic director and chief operating officer. He has resigned as deputy athletic director at Louisiana-Monroe to take the UGA position, according to the Monroe News Star and NBC10news.net.

He brings with him an interesting entry on his updated resume.

He was hired away from Georgia to become athletic director at Division III Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss., where he drew attention to the school by adding a beer garden and kids’ zone to home football games.

What’s that… “beer garden”, you say?  Hmmm.  My first thought is that nobody’s gonna care.  Then again, if McGarity can hit up contributors for the cost of the improvements like he has the IPF and baseball stadium, what’s the downside to picking up a new revenue stream with no upfront expense?  And that’s before you even get into the bidding for naming rights…

Quotes that make you go, “gulp”.

Yeah, not a lot of comfort when one of your defensive starters comes out with a blanket statement like this:

Deandre Baker was asked when the last time he has gone against an offense similar to Georgia Tech’s.

Surely he faced an option-oriented offense back in high school, right?

“I’ve never faced a triple-option,” Baker said.

Troubling, sure, but he’s a defensive back, so you have to be as worried about not giving up on the deep pass on the rare attempts when Tech’s offense strikes that way as you do in run support.  Maybe more so, considering how the Jackets nailed a few big plays to beat Virginia last week.

Pass defense is not the concern with Georgia’s defensive line, where there are plenty of true freshmen getting ready to face a steady stream of cut blocks while doing their best to jam the line of scrimmage.

Freshmen defensive lineman Julian Rochester, David Marshall and Tyler Clark will play the Yellow Jackets for the first time as will sophomore Jonathan Ledbetter.

“I do think that it’s tougher when you’ve got guys who have not played against this type of offense,” Smart said. “We’ve got several defenders who have not played against this type of offense.”

Even outside linebackers Davin Bellamy and Lorenzo Carter, Smart said, played in a more limited role last year behind Jordan Jenkins and Leonard Floyd.

“It’s key when you have got guys that have played this before that understand how fast it really comes; where our freshmen probably won’t know that unless we’re able to simulate it,” Smart said.

Good luck with that this week, Coach.

Meanwhile, Paul Johnson brings out the cute.

Opponents that go up against Johnson’s offense often have the mantra that it’s “assignment football,” something Johnson says he gets a kick out of hearing.

“I don’t know any team that you play that it’s not assignment football,” he said. “We’ll see. They’re talented. What we do is a little bit different. I know we’re stressing out on how to try to block them.”

Who knew cut block prep was stressful?

Get ‘yer Hate Week on, Day 3, you were always on my mind edition

I admit it.  I was being a little facetious yesterday when I questioned whether Kirby had the right mindset going into the Tech game.  There’s no reason to think he’s any more ignorant of what the series history has meant to his predecessors than Mark Richt was, who, after all, had no contact with Georgia before Dooley hired him.

If you’re looking for clues about how seriously Smart is taking the rivalry game, start with bringing VanGorder in as a consultant primarily for preparation for the triple option.  That’s hardly the first clue, though.  This is:

Smart said the biggest obstacle in playing Georgia Tech is the preparation. Because of the rarity of the triple-option offense, this will be Georgia’s first time defending it in 2016. Georgia has dedicated time in the offseason and during the bye week for this game, as the coaches understand how unusual the matchup will be.  [Emphasis added.]

Maybe that explains Florida.  Okay, I keed, I keed.  A little, anyway.

What that does tell us is that Smart’s been locked in on Tech from the get go.  Maybe, then, hate isn’t so much passion gone amuck as it is a coldblooded determination to drive those guys into the dirt.  Works for me.

A Fabris Pool housekeeping note

Word to the wise:  normally, the pick ’em involves only Saturday games, but there are two exceptions to the rule, opening week and Thanksgiving week.  First game is tomorrow’s LSU-TAMU meeting; there are a couple of Friday games on the list, too.

It’s the last pick ’em of the regular season, so don’t skip any of them.

Tommy Bowden, the gift that keeps on giving

Thanksgiving may only be a meal, but I suspect Agent Muschamp is mighty grateful for the assist he just got from Clemson’s former head coach.  (h/t)

"South Carolina needs to try and steal some signals against Clemson, that's their only hope" – Tommy Bowden on Clemson/South Carolina game

— ESPN Charlotte (@ESPNCharlotte) November 22, 2016

I suspect that bad boy’s already gone up on a few locker room walls.  Hell, Boom’s probably gonna stuff a turkey or two with it while he’s at it.

Is the NCAA starting to wise up?

There are encouraging signs that the parties to the cost of attendance lawsuit filed by Steve Berman may be on the verge of settling.

Lawyers for the NCAA, FBS conferences and plaintiffs involved in a cost of attendance lawsuit filed a motion Monday to “indefinitely” delay their case, strongly suggesting they’re close to reaching a damages settlement.

Settling the case could pay former and current NCAA athletes for cost of attendance stipends the NCAA previously didn’t allow them to receive. The lawsuit, filed in 2014 by former West Virginia football player Shawne Alston and later consolidated with other cases, claimed the NCAA and the conferences violated antitrust law by capping the value of an athletic scholarship at less than the actual cost of attending college.

In a joint motion Monday, the NCAA, conferences and plaintiffs wrote, “The parties agree that it is in the interests of justice and efficient management of the litigation to continue indefinitely the remaining dates related to the proceedings on Plaintiffs’ motion for certification of damages classes.”

That would be nice.  But it’s only one case and the big mother is still out there swimming around.

In a separate part of this case and a related lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken already granted class-action status to groups of athletes challenging the NCAA’s new cost-of-attendance limits. That case, which is jointly led by Berman and prominent sports attorney Jeffrey Kessler, is commonly referred to as the Kessler case. One of the lead plaintiffs is current Wisconsin basketball star Nigel Hayes. The Kessler case seeks an injunction that would eliminate the NCAA’s new limits.

Kessler, who said he is unaware if the damages case has been settled, said his case would not be impacted by such a settlement. Additional depositions are trying to be scheduled in January for the injunctive case, and discovery will likely end by late January or early February, Kessler said.

“We’re going full forward with our discovery and moving forward with injunctive relief,” Kessler said.

Of course, that’s a much tougher pill for the NCAA and the schools to swallow.  But I suspect discovery will be as embarrassing for them as it’s been before.  Glad I’m not in Stacey Osburn’s shoes.