Proof that amateurism makes people stupid

How can the people who run our nation’s universities sound this clueless?

His football program is installing new football lockers that cost an eye-popping $10,500 each, but Texas President Gregory L. Fenves “cannot comprehend” paying UT athletes.

That’s the main takeaway from an interview Fenves gave for a class-action antitrust lawsuit filed against the NCAA. The lawsuit seeks to challenge what schools can give to athletes playing football and men’s and women’s basketball.

The notes from the interview, first discovered by USA Today, were taken during an interview on Feb. 22 and attached to a legal filing. Fenves was one of five current or former university administrators interviewed by Kenneth Elzinga, an expert for the defense.

Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart and former Purdue athletic director Morgan Burke were also interviewed. A UT spokesman declined to comment on Wednesday.

Fenves told Elzinga that he “cannot comprehend how athletics could be a part of university life” if athletes were paid like professionals. The UT president related an anecdote of going to a men’s basketball game this season and watching freshman Jarrett Allen, although his name is mentioned specifically.

Allen, described in general terms, was a “a very good basketball player, but he also makes mistakes ‘like a freshman,’” according to Elzinga’s notes. If Allen was paid like a professional, fans may watch him make “stupid turnovers” and may choose not to come watch him play.

So, over the top lockers, lavish training facilities and all the other bells and whistles players receive that regular students never get a whiff of don’t cause any dismay in the general student population, but Johnny Football getting a check for his work or his likeness/endorsement — something any of them can do now, but the players can’t — is somehow a bridge too far?

Tough call between stupidity and outright denial right there.  Should make for a fun deposition, though.

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Another advanced stats dump that explains much about 2016

Bill Connelly breaks down last season’s top running backs’ statistical performances by eleven different categories.  Care to guess how many times a Georgia player’s name crops up?  Let’s just say it’s not a good number for a team that was supposedly built around the running game and leave it at that.

Hit me with your best shot.

I honestly don’t know what took me so long, but I’ve added an obvious entry to the Lexicon this morning.

Subtract one hurdle.

Maybe this doesn’t rise to the level of an excuse for last year’s team, but it’s fair to characterize it as an irritation that’s now gone, like a bad itch.

This time last year the team was bussing to every spring practice, as it also had to do during the season. While the indoor facility was under construction in 2016, the team practiced at a makeshift set of practice fields off Milledge Ave., taking bus 10-minute bus rides to and from each practice.

Now that it’s over, players admit they hated it.

“Oh, it was miserable,” tight end Jeb Blazevich said. “I think one of the biggest hang-ups was taking time away from our day, which sucked. But more than that, it was hard to stay after.”

Blazevich meant that because of the need to get on the bus, they had to forego extra time spent on the field. For most of the year, if a receiver wanted to run more routes with his quarterback, or catch more balls, they couldn’t just hang after practice.

Eventually last year the team did enlist a late bus for guys who wanted to stay after.

“But originally it was just go there and come back,” Blazevich said. “Everything’s over there. So if you want to do some extra work, it’s tough. You couldn’t. But thankfully we’re over that hurdle.”

At least some people have one less thing to bitch about when it comes to Georgia football.

Continuity stress test

When Georgia travels to South Bend this season, it’ll make for an interesting contrast between the coaching staffs.  The Dawgs will be coached by the same coordinators year-to-year for the first time since 2014.  The Fighting Irish, on the other hand, won’t.

Kelly has been in the midst of one of the most extensive overhauls ever of a team of his own making. The eighth-year coach has changed offensive coordinators, defensive coordinators, half of his assistants and all of his strength coaches. In all there are 17 new members of the football hierarchy, an obvious indication of dissatisfaction with what was going on.

Notre Dame is coming off a four-win season — three of those at home, none against ranked teams — and doesn’t have a talent advantage over the visitors.  Besides the coaching turnover, they’ll be starting a new quarterback as well.

If Georgia can’t walk in there and come out with a victory, either we chalk it up to the power of Touchdown Jesus or start some hard questioning about when this staff is going to get its proverbial act together.  I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen Gawd as a micro-manager when it comes to football.

I got the red zone blues, mama, and they’re the worst blues of all.

Lorenzo Carter is just sick about it, man.

The Bulldogs’ red zone defense – in a word – was horrible. Georgia ranked next-to-last in the SEC, just ahead of Ole Miss as opponents scored 90.7 percent of the time they reached the 20-yard line.

Bulldog foes scored 39 of the 43 times after they reached the Georgia 20, tallying touchdowns on 32 of those occasions with seven field goals.

“Once we got a chance to sit down and look at the film, look at the number of times the other team scored touchdowns, it was like a punch to the heart, a kick in the stomach,” Carter said.

The difference between you and me, Lorenzo, is that I didn’t have to wait for the replay to get that feeling watching it.

The dream lives on.

One day, Kirby’s gonna land that Hawaiian/Samoan lineman, and I, for one, am gonna celebrate.

#UGA #NotreDame #TCU showing new interest in 2019 DT Faatui Tuitele from Honolulu St. Louis https://t.co/ptXszbxNh1 pic.twitter.com/P0jqmAKPNy

— Adam Gorney (@adamgorney) April 19, 2017

My only regret when that day comes is that Larry won’t be around to wrestle with the kid’s name.

Our recruit can beat up your recruit.

The SEC, where recruiting just means more.