Somebody forgot to lock the fence gate.

2013 can’t completely explain this.

The state of Georgia produced 29 NFL draft picks. The University of Georgia produced one — he was from Florida.

— Shehan Jeyarajah (@ShehanJeyarajah) April 30, 2017

Sure, you can lay some of the blame there.  How much goes to poor evaluation or development and how much to various aspects of the Georgia Way, I can’t begin to say, but it takes a village to raise a talent deficit of that magnitude.

To drag out that analogy a little further, Kirby’s the new village manager, but the mayor and village council are still intact.  (I’ll leave you to make the rude cracks about the village idiots.)  All we can do is hope the manager is sharp enough to overcome the rest of the political structure.

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The Flushing

Okay, the news from the NFL draft hasn’t exactly been great so far, if you’re a Georgia fan.

Alabama had nine players drafted in the first three rounds.

The SEC had eleven players drafted in the first round.

Where was Georgia in all of this?  Welp,

Well, don't say there's no #UGA in this draft so far — Brendan Langley just got picked late in the 3rd round

— Gentry Estes (@Gentry_Estes) April 29, 2017

Sorry I asked.

You don’t have to try too hard to take see silver lining framing that dark cloud, though. As Seth Emerson noted the other day, this is essentially the end product from the disastrous 2013 class.

First, there are the players that are gone.

There are also other players who could be drafted who started their careers at Georgia:

Safety-outside linebacker Josh Harvey-Clemson, who started almost every game as a sophomore in 2013, then was dismissed from the team. He ended up at Louisville.

Cornerback Brendan Langley left the team after losing his starting spot during the 2014 season. Langley ended up at Lamar, an FCS program, and has a chance of hearing his name called on Saturday.

Then there’s the controversial Jonathan Taylor, whose career at Georgia was derailed by his 2014 domestic violence arrest. He ended up at Alabama, where he was also accused of domestic violence, then landed at a Division II school. Taylor almost certainly would be drafted somewhere if it weren’t for his track record, but someone may take a flyer anyway.

Then, there are the players who could have gone, but stayed.

Star tailbacks Nick Chubb and Sony Michel stunned many by returning for their senior years. While they weren’t guaranteed to be high draft picks, they would have been picked. The same probably goes for outside linebackers Lorenzo Carter and Davin Bellamy, and safety Dominick Sanders.

That’s five players who would have pushed Georgia’s draft number much higher this year, with several potentially going in the high rounds.

Bottom line, as bad as things went in 2013, the classes that followed are generally of high quality and the vast majority of those signees are still on campus.  Meanwhile, there’s a lot of conference talent that is in the process of departing.  The end result is a leveling of the playing field between the Dawgs and the rest of the conference, at least from a talent standpoint.  Now comes the rest of what’s needed to succeed, I hope.

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UPDATE:  The SEC finished with 53 players drafted.  Georgia had one.

Sometimes, it’s the little things that matter.

All the talk we hear about zone vs. man blocking, line splits, physique, and yet it’s thoughts like this that make you consider how a position coach can get the most out of his offensive linemen.

Stance is the most underrated aspect of OL play. We've been on a quest at Auburn to get in THE most efficient stances for proper execution. pic.twitter.com/NTKidXa2dO

— Herb Hand (@CoachHand) April 29, 2017

Maybe that’s something else that’s been affected by having three line coaches in the last three seasons.  Just sayin’.

“Oh yeah, I’ll be here.”

Welcome to Phase 3 of Georgia’s football preseason.

Spring practice is over, but the preparation for the 2017 football campaign is only just beginning.

“The key for preseason camp is how we manage our Phase 3, which is Maymester, final exams, workouts this summer, that’s the next step for us,” head coach Kirby Smart said. “Can we get bigger, stronger, faster? Can we outwork the teams we’re going to play from now until fall camp?”

Not hearing a lot of free time in there.

Off-season? Not really.

NCAA rules now allow a maximum of eight hours of mandatory workouts for players for eight weeks of the summer. Coaches are allowed to watch conditioning sessions and meet with players for up to two hours each week, although any on-the-field work with footballs remains prohibited.

But Smart wants his players to strive for much more than just what is simply required.

“There’s so much you can do without coaches out there,” Smart said. “Go out there, do it, get better, and that’s what we’re challenging those guys to do. Go out there and take the leadership role. Jacob (Eason), Jake (Fromm), let’s keep getting better and let’s keep moving forward because I do think we got better this spring.”

Good thing it’s not a job.  I’d hate to think these guys were being forced to do things instead of enjoying themselves after the regular school year ends just like their fellow students can.

Save us, Obi Wan Emmert. You’re our only hope.

Showing its usual thoughtfulness, the NCAA uses the backdrop of the NFL draft to remind its student-athlete football players that the NFL, statistically speaking, is a pipe dream.

1.5% of eligible NCAA football players are selected in the #NFLDraft.

Learn more about the chances of going pro: https://t.co/r5a9crxDlO pic.twitter.com/pZ1AvMbRfC

— NCAA (@NCAA) April 28, 2017

Now, math is math, so I’m not about to argue the stats there.  Just wondering, though — what do you think the percentage of highly rated recruits who get told by college coaches that their program can get them to the next level is?  You can sure bet it’s higher than 1.5%.  Which means, outside of a select few like Saban and Meyer, most are lying sacks of shit.

Maybe the NCAA ought to tweet about that.

“Georgia leads the series 50–43–2.”

It appears the Georgia-Florida game will remain in Jacksonville five more years.  The pot is definitely being sweetened.

The latest agreement in the storied rivalry has a total of $2.75 million in incentives for the schools over the life five-season contract. Each school will receive $125,000 as a “signing bonus” and $250,000 in guaranteed payment each year to both schools, which didn’t exist under the prior contract.

Both schools are also getting an increase in their travel and lodging stipend to $60,000 – which is a $10,000 increase from the previous agreement. The city is covering the University of Georgia’s air travel up to $350,000 each year.

And some of you thought Georgia was at a disadvantage flying to the game.  Not in the way it matters to Butts-Mehre.

By the way, I’m happy about it.

(h/t)

Not a damned bit.

With Fournette and McCaffrey going in the top eight picks last night, there’s your answer to the question I raised the other day.

Meaningless is as meaningless does, boys.

You gotta have faith.

So, it’s not easy being an Ole Miss fan these days.  Who knew?

The spread’s been berry, berry good to…

… college cornerbacks.

This is good news for general managers, because teams are so desperate that they’ll draft basically any corner these days. Last year, teams selected 31 defensive backs in the first four rounds — up from 22 from five years ago, during the 2012 draft, this despite the fact that last year’s crop was not considered particularly great. Prospects who could be drafted Thursday include Ohio State’s Marshon Lattimore, Colorado’s Chidobe Awuzie, Alabama’s Marlon Humphrey, Washington’s Kevin King, LSU’s Tre’Davious White, Florida’s Quincy Wilson, and USC’s Adoree’ Jackson.

There are a few theories that explain the cornerback boom (and why it will last at least a few years), but mostly it comes down to the proliferation of the spread offense. The point of the spread is to overextend the defense by putting more receivers on the field. With an increased demand for wideouts, there’s an increased supply, forcing more elite athletes to choose other positions to get noticed. Upon switching to corner, those athletes are testing the “10,000-hour theory” of defensive back play, chasing teams like Baylor, Oregon, and Texas Tech all over the place. During the 2016 college season, 26 teams faced at least 35 passes per game — in 2006, only two teams faced that kind of passing barrage.

It’s led to some rethinking on troop deployment, too.

College corners are seeing more passes and more snaps. The hurry-up craze has led some college defenses to adopt a rotation system. Back in 2008, Aliotti was the defensive coordinator for Oregon and he started to treat his defense “like a hockey team,” rotating players whenever possible to minimize the fatigue caused by the fast pace. “We got to a place where we had 20 to 23 guys we could count on each game,” he said. “You needed to combat the passing. We’d switch out a linebacker and one or two corners per play, I don’t think anyone did that prior to us.”

Aliotti is now an analyst with the Pac-12 Networks, and he’s since visited with many coaches, including Alabama’s Nick Saban, to discuss how to utilize a similar rotation system. The idea has spread throughout college, Aliotti said. Ohio State has rotated their defensive backs in recent years, and could have as many as three picks in the top 15 of this draft.

The result?  Mo’ backs and mo’ money for mo’ backs.

… Mike Farrell, national recruiting director at Rivals, said youth players have been figuring out what positions to play earlier on in order to “go where the money is in the pros.” The spread has made good corners a hot commodity in the NFL, and they get paid like it. According to Spotrac, there are 10 cornerbacks who average over $12 million a year; there are six receivers who average that. Josh Norman, Patrick Peterson, Joe Haden, Desmond Trufant, Stephon Gilmore, and Richard Sherman are currently on contracts worth at least $40 million guaranteed. Darrelle Revis is basically Warren Buffett.

Hmmm… I wonder if anyone’s shown Mecole Hardman this yet.

ESPN tours the new facility

If you’ve got a few minutes to waste, this is a fun clip.