The tenth man

From Seth Emerson’s observations of yesterday’s practice:

One tangible benefit for being able to hire a 10th assistant coach: Scott Fountain, in his new role as the special teams coordinator, was working with the kickers and punters. The past two seasons Shane Beamer, who was special teams coordinator and tight ends coach, worked with the tight ends during the early periods while the kickers and punters worked without a full-time assistant coach.  [Emphasis added.]

I’d say that sounds positively Richtian, except I assume that Fountain and Butler were working with them as support staff.  It’s one of the clear benefits of flooding the program with expanded staffing and it’s hard to argue that it didn’t payoff spectacularly last season.

That being said, I’m sure glad Fountain is Georgia’s special teams coordinator.

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One shining moment

When I say that an extended playoff has the consequence of watering down having a meaningful regular season, this is what I’m talking about.

Once again, the college basketball regular season has been rendered meaningless by the much-coveted “upsets” and “bracket busters.” Those things are great for TV and for your office gambling pool, but they don’t make for much quality basketball in weeks 2 and 3 of the NCAA tournament.

Teams that were dominant over a four-month stretch — Virginia, Arizona, Michigan State, Xavier … poof, gone. Defending national champion North Carolina, out in the second round and finishing in 32nd place.

Left in their place are upstarts like Loyola-Chicago, Nevada, Florida State and Clemson (yeah, Loyola won a national championship that one time … during the Kennedy administration). Do you really want to see a college basketball Final Four of Nevada, Florida State, West Virginia and Clemson? (That’s one possibility).

The equivalent in college football would be Boise State, N.C. State, Oklahoma State and Georgia Tech. Would that get you fired up for the CFP semifinals?

Single-elimination tournaments are a monumentally stupid way of determining a national champion.  And, no, that’s not close to what we have now in college football.

Yes, it’s possible for the best team in college football to lose before the national championship game. That was probably the case with Alabama in 2014, and might have been the case with Clemson this past year.

But at least in those instances, you knew those teams lost to a quality opponent … not somebody who managed to string together 40 decent minutes and hit a shot that bounced off the rim, off the glass and went in. (Sorry, Tennessee fans).

But stretch the college football playoffs to eight, twelve or whatever and you’ll be there soon enough.  With the exception of the NFL, the pros don’t make that mistake with single-elimination games, but then, they have a lot more time to fool with extended playoff series than college basketball and football do.

Generally speaking, a postseason exists not because it’s the ideal way to crown the best team, but because it makes money.  I get that, and there’s no question that March Madness is wildly successful, commercially speaking.  But it sure sucks to watch a team excel for more than thirty games against a tough regular season schedule only to see that turn to ashes because it suffered through an off-night against a hot mediocrity… er, Cinderella.

I know many of you think the more playoff, the merrier.  So be it.  I just see expansion being another wrong turn made by people who seem bound and determined to abandon every aspect of college football that’s made it uniquely attractive to so many of us.

Today, in let’s hope this isn’t happy talk

I really like this quote from Terry Godwin.

“We tell these young guys, we never want to come up one play short again,” receiver Terry Godwin said. “That’s the difference between a national championship, and being the runner-up. Nobody ever remembers the runner-up. You always remember the champion. We don’t want to be one play short.”

The challenge for Smart isn’t going to be making players like Godwin stay hungry.  It’s going to be infusing the same attitude in the rest of the team.

The Knoxville exodus begins.

One day of spring practice, one less defensive lineman on the roster.  Jeremy Pruitt’s magic is already at work.

Wednesday morning buffet

The chafing dishes are open for business.

• It’s official.  Booch goes to ‘Bama:  “With that announcement came the predictable, obvious and necessary jokes. The coach with the five-star heart is joining a program with five-star players. The man who coined the phrase “champions of life” is now a member of the national champions. A former SEC coach is now going to be getting coffee for the greatest coaching legend of our generation.”
• Auburn’s shitty finish to last season “left a chip on our shoulder”?  What, you’re mad at yourselves for crappy play?  Does that mean you’ll take it out on each other in spring practice?  Geez, Malzahn can’t even do motivation right.
• Evidently Jon Fabris was at spring practice yesterday.  I hope they kept him away from Rodrigo Blankenship, who definitely does not need a directional kicking challenge.
• There’s a new professional football league on the horizon that intends to play in the spring with players who don’t make it on NFL rosters.  I mention this because of one marketing element I wholeheartedly endorse:  there will be no TV timeouts and 60 percent fewer commercials.  Praise Jesus and let’s hope it turns out to be the start of a trend.
• Jacob Eason speaks (h/t):  “Honestly I couldn’t tell you. But if I’d not gotten hurt and I finished out the season I doubt we’d be talking right now. But that’s the thing about football. It’s an injury-related sport, things are going to happen and it did but I couldn’t be in a better spot.”
• Jason Butt drops an intriguing note in his story about Natrez Patrick:  “Patrick’s December arrest marked the third time he was booked on a marijuana-related charge. In the past, that would have been automatic grounds for dismissal. However, Georgia’s drug policy changed recently to allow for certain offenders who are dealing with addiction not to be subject to removal from the team.”  We’re not living in Michael Adams’ world anymore and that’s a great thing for Georgia football, not to mention it’s a more enlightened way to deal with kids struggling with addiction problems.
• Dan Mullen explains that paying college athletes wouldn’t work because they’d have to pay taxes… you know, like every other hard-working American — including Dan Mullen — already does, which would put them in a financial hole.  Sounds rough.  (It’s also probably bullshit.)  Rhetorical question:  would Mullen be able to overcome his scruples if at some future date players got paid?
• Drew Lock on Derek Dooley’s new offense:  “It’s more complicated of an offense but I do think it’s easier.”  Whatever you say, Drew.

Musical palate cleanser, Nuggets edition, day three

Today, it’s the 13th Floor Elevators with their classic “You’re Gonna Miss Me”.

The lead singer, Roky Erickson, has an… um, interesting history, but as Wikipedia puts it, “If Roky Erickson had vanished from the face of the earth after The 13th Floor Elevators released their epochal debut single, “You’re Gonna Miss Me”, in early 1966, in all likelihood he’d still be regarded as a legend among garage rock fanatics for his primal vocal wailing and feral harmonica work.”

His vocals definitely make the song, although the guy playing lead jug comes in a closer than expected second.