And therein lies the rub

There’s another one of those “Georgia is the best situation in the SEC” pieces today, by Sports on Earth’s Matt Brown.  It’s fun to compare its one caveat to Andy Staples’ paean to the Georgia job, where he wrote in part,

… Add to this great facilities (now that the Bulldogs are building an indoor), great tradition, a sharp athletic director, possibly the best college town in America and the fact that they play in the easier division of the nation’s deepest conference. [Emphasis added.]

Brown’s take is cautiously observant.

… but this program has a sky-high ceiling, provided it gets the right leadership and institutional support, giving it plenty of hope to end the national title drought before too long.  [Emphasis added.]

At least we’ve got hope.  You can sell a lot of season tickets with hope.

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Mr. Conventional Wisdom, on automatic pilot

The Tony Barnhart post on the start of SEC Media Days writes itself.  Best of all, change a couple of dates, add an occasional one-sentence anecdote, and he can recycle it for at least another decade.  (Which says as much about SEC Media Days as Barnhart.)

2017 SEC media guide covers

Only one of this year’s fourteen media guides sports the head coach on the cover.  Without looking, can you guess which school it is?

Also, Missouri deserves bonus points for its weirdly honest cover caption.

When you’ve lost Phil Steele…

You guys know I’ve read Steele’s College Football Preview for years.  He’s typically optimistic about Georgia’s chances, and even in down years is rarely downright negative.  He’s not a harsh observer, in other words.

For some reason, the 2017 edition comes off a little differently, tone-wise.  Take, for example, what he writes about the offensive line:

The Bulldogs have gone against the grain of my experience rankings each of the last 6 years with 4 veteran units having weaker numbers and the 2 inexperienced units improving… They lose 120 career starts and only return 45 but given the history of the position, the unit may post improved numbers.  [Emphasis added.]

For Steele, that’s scathing sarcasm.  Maybe he’s getting tired of the Dawgs defying his analysis.

“I think what you find is that you end up enjoying some of the away games more.”

So, where do you figure the ‘How can we keep our young alumni and recent graduates engaged?’ problem sits on Greg McGarity’s top ten honey do list?  Twelfth?

No, I’m not just counting the young alumni with trust accounts…

Let’s change the subject.

With SEC Media Days set to kick off today, who do you think is dreading the inevitable questions about the NCAA investigation of Ole Miss more, Hugh Freeze or Greg Sankey?

Now here’s a branding I can get behind.

Attaboy, Tulane.  If you’re gonna sell beer at games, do it the right way.

Tulane Athletics announces a partnership with NOLA Brewing Company to launch a new Helluva Hullaba-brew, Green Wave Beer.

Emblazoned with the angry wave and Green Wave marks on the 12 oz. can, the beer is currently in production and set to be available at Yulman Stadium for Tulane’s football home opener on Saturday, Sept. 2 against Grambling State. Green Wave Beer will also be available in local restaurants and grocery stores starting in the fall.

“Tulane Athletics is excited to extend the Green Wave brand with our very own beverage,” said Jana Woodson, Associate Athletics Director, External Relations at Tulane. “We are excited for our alumni and fans to enjoy this new beverage and support our new partnership with NOLA Brewing.”

How hard a strategy would this be to emulate at UGA?  You’ve got some great local breweries in Athens, a fan base that would lap up a Bulldogs-themed brew like crazy and an opportunity to make some money… ah, hell, what am I thinking here?  Even if they decided to do something like this, they’d screw it up by slapping a Dawg logo on some swill like Miller Lite and selling it for twice the price.

Musical palate cleanser, I can name that song in one note edition

Is this the greatest opening guitar chord in the history of rock music, or the greatest opening guitar chord ever?

And what’s the over/under on the number of people that movie inspired to start bands?  I’m not sure I can count that high.