Reading this story, it dawned on me that Daniel McMillian, the former Florida player who elected to turn pro early and was arrested in Gainesville last night, won’t be able to rely upon the generosity of Huntley Johnson to extricate himself.
That may be the greatest stay in school incentive in all of college sports.
Filed under Crime and Punishment, Gators, Gators...
I’m sorry, David Ching, but it’s hard for me to look at an article purporting to be about a first look at Todd Grantham’s rebuilt defense as being substantive when there’s not a single mention of his towel boy… or defensive players helplessly waving their hands waiting on the play call… or third downs… or…
Filed under SEC Football
Shaq Wiggins is the latest to discover that Bobby Petrino is a consummate dickhead.
Former Louisville cornerback Shaq Wiggins says he has a solid list of schools he’s considering as a graduate transfer, but his release from the Cardinals does come with restrictions.
Wiggins told ESPN on Thursday that Louisville coach Bobby Petrino restricted him from transferring to Kentucky, Mississippi State, Purdue, Notre Dame and Western Kentucky…
… Wiggins said he was most confused over the idea that he couldn’t transfer to Mississippi State. Wiggins said he assumed it was because former Louisville defensive coordinator Todd Grantham left the Cardinals for the same position at Mississippi State in January, but he couldn’t be for sure.
“When [Petrino] said Mississippi State, I was like, it had to be deeper than what it seems to be because Louisville doesn’t play Mississippi State,” Wiggins said. “It just so happened to be Mississippi State on there, once Coach Grantham left.
“I really don’t know what’s his state of thinking or why he chose to put Mississippi State on there. It’s something personal, but I have no idea why. It’s really not fair.”
Get in line, son. Get in line.
Filed under Fall and Rise of Bobby Petrino
Tom Herman does a little PR.
Gee, I can see Greg McGarity and Kirby Smart laying the wood just like that for the new west end capital project. Can’t you?
Seriously, watching Georgia and Texas over the next few years is going to make for an interesting controlled experiment. How much of a difference does opening the checkbook — really opening the checkbook — make in this day and age? And how much bang for the buck does what an athletic department spends the money on get you?
Competition from that Jake Fromm kid? (Eason’s word, not mine, by the way.) Well, yeah, sort of.
Smart has talked up the competition this spring between Fromm and Eason, as if there’s a chance Fromm really could yank the job away. Eason was asked if this felt like a real competition again?
“Yeah. I mean there’s always a competition every year, no matter who’s there,” Eason said. “I feel like Jake’s coming in, he’s a great kid, like I said before, and I’m looking forward to the next couple years with him.”
Did Eason need a push in order to get better and study harder? Eason started answering the question before the sentence was finished, his answer seeming pre-ordained.
“I think competition makes everyone better,” he said. “But having that guy there that’s pushing you in the butt, that’s definitely something you’re aware of. But ultimately it’s on yourself to get out of yourself what you want to get out.”
I think Kirby is right to look for ways to push his players’ buttons to make them better. I also think Eason is right when it comes to judging himself, and ultimately it comes down to finding that place inside that you reach to push yourself to improve. If he can’t find that, it won’t matter what Smart says about Fromm.
Filed under Georgia Football
One other thing about that ESPN spring FPI set of rankings:
Teams on the rise
There are four teams in the top 25 in the spring football version of Preseason FPI that are at least 20 spots higher than their ranking at the end of last season.
… Georgia is up to No. 13 after finishing outside the top 40 in 2016. The Bulldogs return 17 starters, tied for the most in the SEC, and added the No. 3 recruiting class.
It’s another sign that it’ll be hard to make the case for 2017 being a second throwaway year for Kirby Smart. ESPN’s not buying in.
Filed under ESPN Is The Devil, Georgia Football, Stats Geek!
Greg Poole looks at that same Saturday Down South piece with Tom Luginbill I mentioned yesterday and uses it to make an excellent point.
Offensive coordinators are the dumbest people on earth. If you don’t believe it, just survey fans immediately after a loss or a disappointing season. We all see the obvious play-calling gaffs that could have swung the game/season. Who among us is not a better OC than Jim Chaney, right? Second-guessing play calls is as old as football. I remember riding home from high school games as a kid and listening to my Dad and his friends complain about the blown call that certainly would have changed the outcome. “Just give the ball to ________________.”
Those of you with long memories might recall the long-ago age when, the now sainted, Mike Bobo was pilloried for his inept play-calling. How did Bobo transform himself into a competent coordinator, a genius even? Your best clue might be Mr. Bobo’s choice of offensive coordinator when he left UGA for Colorado State – his offensive line coach, Will Friend. Bobo’s metamorphosis in the mind of the fanbase began with Friend’s arrival in Athens.
That’s all in response to Luginbill’s point that “Although Georgia’s offense looked conservative last season, it might have been more out of necessity than identity.”
While Poole goes on to focus on the crucial role Sam Pittman plays in the hoped-for offensive resurrection of 2017, something with which I don’t argue, I’d go even further and say there were a lot of moving parts that contributed to last year’s anemic attack. Those would cover everything from other points Luginbill made, like Eason’s inexperience, to the question of how much the offense reflected Smart’s desire to establish a certain mentality there, despite that being a poor fit for the talent on hand.
What we don’t know is how much control that left Chaney with and what sort of compromises he was forced to make with his gameplan as a result. To the extent he deserves something of a pass for the way last year played out, you’d have to think with a returning quarterback, a staff and offensive personnel coming back and operating on the same page for the first time in a few seasons and an injection of talent on the offensive line, that the room for benefit of the doubt shrinks noticeably going forward.
Filed under Georgia Football
It sounds like if Tommy Tuberville has decided to run for governor of Alabama, he’s picked an interesting campaign platform for it.
And I thought he’d go for “vote for me if you thought Auburn was robbed in 2004”.
It sounds like at least some of you have read Seth Emerson’s piece about the state of the athletic department and the fan base’s reaction to that. Methinks it’s an appropriate subject for a reader poll, so here goes.
I would really like to read your comments on this, so fire away.
Filed under Georgia Football
Get The Picture 