Moar wussification coming

For safety reasons, the NCAA Sport Science Institute has recommended eliminating the popular two-a-day preseason practices and reducing contact at all practices, including limiting full contact to once a week during the season.

No doubt the Bear is turning over in his grave about now.

Here are the details:

• In-season practices: Allow three days per week of non-contact/minimal contact, one day of live contact/tackling, and one day of live contact/thud. Currently, the recommendation is no more than two live contact/tackling days. Live contact means tackling to the ground and/or full-speed blocking. Non-contact/minimal contact practices don’t involve tackling, thud (in which players hit but don’t take each other to the ground), or full-speed blocking.
• Preseason practices: Allow up to three days of live contact per week (tackling or thud) and three non-contact/minimal contact practices per week. One day must be no practice. A non-contact/minimal contact practice must follow a scrimmage.
• Postseason practices: If there’s two weeks or less between the final regular-season game/conference championship game and the bowl game, in-season practice recommendations should remain in place. If there’s more than two weeks, then up to three days per week may be live contact and three days of non-contact/minimal contact.
• Spring practices: Eight of the 15 allowable practices may involve live contact, including three that can be scrimmages. Live contact should be limited to two practices per week and not on consecutive days.

There is a caveat.

Of course, these changes are just recommendations. Even if the NCAA writes these guidelines into legislation, “you can choose to do what you want,” Hainline acknowledged. “But culturally, to ignore this public document that has such widespread endorsement, I don’t think it makes any sense from any point of view that you can point to.”

Especially if you don’t want to get your ass sued off.

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“You have to have big, grown men…”

Kirby tried to tell us what’s coming.

Offensive line coach Sam Pittman has put an emphasis on size at his previous stops, including having the biggest offensive line of any NFL or Power 5 team for two-straight years.

Team/Year	LT	LG	C	RG	RT	Total
Arkansas/2015	6-5, 340	6-5, 334	6-3, 322	6-5, 312	6-10, 331	1,640 pounds
2014	6-10, 326	6-5, 350	6-3, 315	6-5, 337	6-7, 314	1,642 pounds
2013	6-6, 318	6-4, 315	6-5, 315	6-7, 330	6-5, 345	1,623 pounds
Tennessee/2012	6-6, 329	6-5, 310	6-3, 310	6-5, 324	6-6, 323	1,596 pounds

 

One thing the above offensive lines have in common – they led the SEC in sacks allowed per game. In 2016, even though Georgia was 10th in the SEC in pass attempts, the team was just seventh in the SEC and No. 47 in the country sacks allowed per game.

Georgia/2016	LT	LG	C	RG	RT	Total
Starting lineup	6-6, 314	6-2, 285	6-3, 293	6-2, 301	6-6, 325	1,518 pounds

That’s some difference there.  Pittman prefers to work with beef and it’s pretty clear that size was lacking across the middle of the offensive line last season.

Then, there’s the issue of a change in approach.  I don’t want to get too in the weeds about what was different about Georgia’s blocking schemes in 2016 from the previous season, but if you want to get a flavor for that, here’s a nice post outlining the differences between gap, man and zone blocking.

Bottom line, Georgia’s getting the personnel Pittman prefers and should see its linemen buying into his approach over the next two seasons.  I just wonder if Georgia quarterbacks will know how to act if they’re getting consistent pocket protection.

The return of Evil Richt

In 1972, Hunter S. Thompson set about covering the presidential campaign, paying special attention to the Democratic Party’s George McGoven as he failed to get into office.

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72 was serially published by Rolling Stone throughout the year. In one of the articles Thompson makes a poignant comparison to a campaign that happened in Texas in which Lyndon Johnson attempted to create a rumour to denounce his competitor.

It reads: “This is one of the oldest and most effective tricks in politics. Every hack in the business has used it in times of trouble, and it has even been elevated to the level of political mythology in a story about one of Lyndon Johnson’s early campaigns in Texas.

“The race was close and Johnson was getting worried. Finally he told his campaign manager to start a massive rumour campaign about his opponent’s life-long habit of enjoying carnal knowledge of his barnyard sows.

“Christ, we can’t get away with calling him a pig-f****r,” the campaign manager protested. “Nobody’s going to believe a thing like that.”

“I know,” Johnson replied. “But let’s make the sonofab****h deny it.”

I am reminded this morning of Tommy Perkins’ timeless analogy regarding recruiting in the state of Florida:

Miami: From a Bulldog perspective, if you looked at the state of Florida as though it were Afghanistan (and I do), the Gators, obviously, are the Taliban, while Miami is whatever warlord is running things in the Northeast. The Hurricanes don’t occupy anything remotely resembling moral high ground, but they are useful.

Why this morning, you ask?  Welp,

Rumors surfaced Thursday about the Florida football program committing an NCAA recruiting violation.

A source close to the program vehemently dismissed the allegations to SEC Country on Friday. A message board post — which later made the rounds social media — alleged that two UF assistant coaches offered cash to a prospect at Homestead High School. The poster also alleged there’s a video and it was provided to the NCAA.

The program source who spoke with SEC Country said Florida has not offered or recruited anyone from Homestead High School in three years. Florida State’s Ermon Lane, a 5-star prospect in 2014, is the last Homestead player UF recruited, according the source.

SEC Country also learned Friday that verbal commitments for the Gators were contacted by Miami staff members, who asked the recruits if they would reconsider the Hurricanes because of the alleged NCAA violation at Homestead. Members of Florida’s 2017 football recruiting class told SEC Country they received a text message from UF calling the rumors false.[Emphasis added.]

So it turns out Mark Richt is trying to do a solid for both himself and his former employer there, which, of course, is awesome.  I’ve got a feeling it’s gonna get pretty damned ugly in the Sunshine State over the next few days.  Popcorn, anyone?