Here’s the entirety of the SEC’s 2017 spring game schedule.
We’ll know Kirby’s made it when G-Day hits ESPN.
Daily Archives: February 14, 2017
Sanford Stadium, fixer-upper
Somebody’s about to spend some money.
The University of Georgia is planning a major, and expensive, structural change to Sanford Stadium, which will be presented at a meeting Tuesday of the athletic board.
The project is expected to include moving the locker rooms to the west side of the stadium, and adding a recruiting room next to the locker rooms. UGA athletics director Greg McGarity will make a funding request to the board about the project, according to an agenda of the meeting, which begins Tuesday afternoon.
The cost of the project is unknown.
Is the project fan friendly? You know, the people who actually pay to use the place?
As for the west end zone project, there are plans and documents, which are scheduled to be presented at Tuesday’s meeting of the UGA athletic board, and may already have been viewed this past week at a meeting of the finance committee.
The construction project includes the recruiting room, long sought by Georgia coaches, first Mark Richt and now Kirby Smart. Smart has mentioned that the current locker rooms, located on the east end of the stadium, are the same ones he dressed in as a player in the late 1990s.
The recruiting room would then be adjacent to the new locker rooms, which would make it more convenient for coaches.
Yeah, yeah, we get all that. What about us?
The project would also include improvements to public restrooms and other facilities close to the west end zone area.
Lucky ducks. Sometimes in life, it’s not what you know, or even who you know. It’s if you’re located close enough to the right people.
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UPDATE: The check has been presented. $63 million and it’s yours. And it wouldn’t be a major undertaking for the Georgia Way without this:
The UGA athletic board on Tuesday approved an overhaul to the west end of Sanford Stadium that athletics director Greg McGarity said would “not exceed 63 million.” But the school plans on fundraising the vast majority of it.
The board approved a plan to raise $53 million from private funds, which the rest coming from the athletic association’s reserves.
Wallets out, peeps. We must defend this reserve fund!
Filed under Georgia Football
“Tuesdays with Tuberville”
If I knew for sure that his first piece in the series, about the process of hiring and firing coaches, snarkily called out Bobby Lowder, hells, yeah, I’d subscribe in a heartbeat.
ESPN has some stats for you.
It’s time to trot out the preseason FPI rankings, everybody!
The model comprises four major components: the last four seasons of performance on offense, defense and special teams, with the most recent season counting most; information on offensive and defensive returning starters, with special consideration given to a team returning its starting quarterback or gaining a transfer quarterback with experience; a four-year average recruiting ranking of four systems (ESPN, Scouts, Rivals and Phil Steele); and head coaching tenure. These four components interact and are assigned different weights depending on the team to produce preseason FPI.
Combining all of the factors above produces a predicted value on offense, defense and special teams, which represents the number of points that each unit would be expected to contribute to the team’s scoring margin if it were to face an average FBS team on a neutral field.
Georgia pops up at number 13, good enough for tops in the SEC East… for what that’s worth.
Meanwhile KC Joyner, who’s brought you such previous hits as Marcus Lattimore, overrated player, and John Brantley’s preseason game greatness, now wants you to know that Georgia is a legitimate college football playoff contender. In 2017, I mean.
It’s only February, and the offseason feels too damned long already.
Filed under ESPN Is The Devil, Georgia Football, Stats Geek!
Not so fast, friendo.
The University of Colorado’s Board of Regents, not wanting to be tarred with the same brush as Baylor, has delayed considering Mike MacIntyre’s $16.25 million contract extension while the school reviews the coach’s handling of domestic abuse allegations levied against a former assistant coach.
Not sure where this is headed. Regents run the risk of looking like they’re rubber stamping if the investigation is done merely to provide cover for the school. But MacIntyre won 10 games last year and coached in the conference title game. Colorado posted a grand total of 11 wins in the four previous seasons, so how hard do you want to make his life?
Filed under Crime and Punishment, Pac-12 Football
This doesn’t bode well for Return of #93k.
Kirby, at last night’s Macon Touchdown Club, jokes about a (slight) decline in enthusiasm.
Last year, Smart enjoyed the fruits of being on the so-called coaching honeymoon, considering he was a new hire who had yet to appear in a college game as a head coach. This time, however, Smart had a full football season to reflect on when speaking to the crowd.
“It means a lot for me to come back and speak at the Macon Touchdown Club,” Smart said. “I do notice a few less people than last year. Last year we had them up in the (track overlooking the gym). We have to win some more games to bring them all back.”
As long as the checks keep rolling in, Butts-Mehre will chuckle along. But how will McGarity sell this year’s G-Day game? I’m thinking #QBR.
Filed under Georgia Football
Musical palate cleanser, I hear it’s nice that time of year edition
P.J. Fleck’s Chamber of Commerce pitch for Minneapolis’ weather that I posted yesterday immediately put Neil Young’s cover of Ian and Sylvia’s lovely “Four Strong Winds” in my head, so now you get to hear a live version. (Side note — there isn’t a song in existence that Emmylou Harris can’t make better just by harmonizing.)
“But by then it would be winter, not too much for you to do, and those winds sure can blow cold way out there.”
Don’t forget to write, boys.
Filed under Uncategorized
Kirby shoots and scores!
Nice shot at last night’s Macon Touchdown Club meeting taken at the Club’s executive director Lloyd Perkins for mispronouncing the name of one of Georgia’s signees.
Well played, Kirby. Now — how about beating Florida for a change?
Filed under Gators, Gators..., Georgia Football
Get The Picture 