The Ghost of G-Day Past

Boy, lots of great, memorable performances here.  Like this one:

APRIL 12, 2012

Red 32, Black 31

… The 2012 game also provided the platform for Christian LeMay’s only big Saturday as a Georgia Bulldog. He completed 7 of 10 passes for 154 yards and an interception and threw a 66-yard touchdown pass to Jay Rome in the fourth quarter that would have been a game-winner had the Black team been able to make the 2-point conversion. LeMay wound up transferring to Jacksonville State.

Er… okay, how ’bout this one?

APRIL 10, 2010

Black 17, Red 7

At the time of the 2010 game, Reed Plaza on Sanford Stadium’s north side was undergoing extensive renovations, so several sections were closed. Redshirt freshman Zach Mettenberger was the game’s big dog, completing 6 of 10 passes for 150 yards and touchdown passes to Rhett McGowan and Arthur Lynch.

Eight days later, Mettenberger was dismissed from the team due to an incident that earned him an arrest near Valdosta. A former Oconee County High standout, Mettenberger went on to play at LSU and was a starting quarterback in the NFL with the Tennessee Titans.

Eh, screw it.  I’m just going for the tailgate, anyway.

“It was on a need-to-know basis.”

Mock the secrecy surrounding this if you will, but when you’re living in Harvey Updyke’s world, I don’t think it’s crazy to keep the hedges’ location on the low down.

Gotta get those rats.

Meet rat poison’s kissing cousin, “rat trapping“.

Smart is hopeful that his players have been mindful with what the coaches have taught them throughout the spring. What he doesn’t want to see is what he calls “rat trapping,” which is when a player starts “doing his own thing” on the football field.

I smell a Lexicon entry coming.

And now, junior pro days

For the reader who suggested the other day that it was time for the NCAA to crack down on those kids who were skipping bowl games to protect their health for the NFL draft, I have some bad news:  the NCAA is taking steps to coddle the ungrateful bastids.

Thanks to a proposal from the SEC, the NCAA is paving the way for full-fledged football pro days in which NFL personnel evaluate underclassmen considering entering the next year’s draft.

Earlier this week the NCAA Division I Council adopted proposal 2017-80, legislation from the SEC, which will help up to five underclassmen per school to be evaluated by NFL personnel during a separate pro day each year.

“Our proposal would make it easier to facilitate our student-athletes being observed under the revised NFL rules,” an SEC spokesman said. “Our motivation is to help young people receive the best information possible on which they base decisions about their future.”

The change will allow each school to conduct a the pro day practice and specify that both the college team’s coaches and NFL personnel can be present and conduct the practice and that the practice won’t count towards the college team’s practice limit (i.e., 15 spring practices).

See, if you’re chasing the top recruits (the SEC pushing this proposal should be a giant tell in that regard) with a message that your program will do everything it can to get them ready to play on Sundays, it would be beyond stupid to undercut that by threatening them with punishment if they actually made a decision to look out for their pro futures.

How does it feel to argue in favor of something too dumb for the NCAA to consider?

G-Day rosters announced

Weiszer has the deets.

The Red team appears to include the first-team offense and the second-team defense and the Black team looks like it has first-team defense and second-team offense.

The offensive players for the Red team include:

–Quarterbacks Jake Fromm, Stetson Bennett and Sam Vaughn; offensive linemen Kendall Baker, Ben Cleveland, Lamont Gaillard, Andrew Thomas, Isaiah Wilson and Solomon Kindley; running backs D’Andre Swift, Elijah Holyfield and Brian Herrien; tight ends Isaac Nauta and Charlie Woerner; wide receivers Terry Godwin, Mecole Hardman, Riley Ridley, Jayson Stanley and Trey Blount.

And the defensive players for the Red include:

Defensive backs Tray Bishop, Latavious Brini, William Poole, Ameer Speed, Eric Stokes and Tray Bishop; defensive linemen Michael Barnett, Michail Carter, David Marshall, Devonte Wyatt, Justin Young and Chris Barnes; inside linebackers Monty Rice, Natrez Patrick and Jaden Hunter; outside linebackers Keyon Brown, Brenton Cox and Jaleel Laguins.

The defensive players for the Black include: Defensive backs Deandre Baker, Richard LeCounte, Tyrique McGhee, J.R. Reed, William Poole (again), Mark Webb and Jarvis Wilson; defensive linemen Tyler Clark, DaQuan Hawkins-Muckle, Jonathan Ledbetter, Julian Rochester and Malik Herring; inside linebackers Juwan Taylor, Tae Crowder and Nate McBride and outside linebackers D’Andre Walker, Robert Beal and Walter Grant.

The offensive players for the Black include: Quarterbacks Justin Fields, Stetson Bennett (again) and John Seter; offensive linemen Pat Allen, Warren Ericson, DeMarcus Hayes, Trey Hill, Cade Mays and Netori Johnson; running backs Prather Hudson and Ian Donald-McIntyre; tight end Jackson Harris and wide receivers Ahkil Crumpton, J.J. Holloman, Kearis Jackson, Matt Landers and Tyler Simmons.

Kicker Rodrigo Blankenship and punter Marshall Long are on the Red team. Kicker Brooks Buce and punter Bill Rubright are on the Black team.

A few random thoughts:

• The running back arrangement looks a little lopsided, no?  Swift (who’s questionable), Holyfield and Herrien vs. Hudson and Donald-McIntyre isn’t what you’d call a level playing field.
• That second-string offensive line doesn’t look too shabby there.  I’m looking forward to see how deep that position group really is.
• Stetson Bennett’s gonna be er’rywhere.
• We may be worried about depth on the d-line — although the Red team looks to have a decent bunch at the position — but, man look at the linebackers!
• Should we make anything of Natrez Patrick lining up with the Red team?

And your thoughts?

It’s gonna be a Chantastic day!

I can’t blame you if you’ve forgotten Georgia Tech is holding its spring game tonight.  It’s not as if there’s been a huge amount decent level any promotion of the event.

In fact, I’m not sure Tech really cares at all.

Georgia Tech has broadcast its past four spring games online, but will not do so this year. The reason is that the athletic department has committed to using its in-house production capabilities to an online broadcast of the softball team’s home game against North Carolina, which also is being played Friday evening.

An online broadcast of a home softball game trumping your football team’s spring game sends quite the message to recruits, don’t it?  Not that the genius is all that concerned.

At the least, coach Paul Johnson wasn’t protesting the decision.

“There’s no advantage into giving your opponents the spring game,” he said Wednesday after the team’s 14th practice of the spring. “I just don’t know what you’d gain from that.”

When the Jackets go 12-0 this season, remember where it started.

“Well, he’d be the biggest free agent in college football history.”

“Don’t kid yourself—every single one of us would love to be in Nick’s situation,” one SEC coach said. “But that’s a tough spot. You know what Jalen gives you. You’ve seen him go through the wars. But Tua, boy, that’s a talent right there. He looks like one of those ‘hey, these dudes only come along every so often’ type of player.”

Well, Kirby probably wouldn’t.  But that’s because he may already be in Nick’s situation.

That’s where the money is.

Pretty eye-opening numbers here:

Over the last 13 years, NCAA Power 5 conference athletic departments have earned approximately $64 Billion in revenues. Revenues have grown at a compound annual growth rate of 7.1% over this period. pic.twitter.com/LzEVyNgqYF

— Ted Tatos (@TedTatos) April 19, 2018

If you really want to believe these programs are losing money, the only explanation for that is that college athletic directors are the most inept administrators on the planet.  That may in fact be a valid explanation.

It’s not an excuse, though.

**************************************************************************

UPDATE:  Check this out.

NCAA Power 5 Conference schools paid athletic coaches a total of $9.7 Billion in compensation over the past 13 years. This represents approximately 15% of their total athletic revenues over this period. pic.twitter.com/Uufdqk67TO

— Ted Tatos (@TedTatos) April 19, 2018

Yep,  that’s right.  Coaching salaries have been growing at a faster pace than revenues.

Name that caption, he’s in charge edition

This is too good to pass up.

Phillip Fulmer has signed a four-year contract to continue as Director of Athletics through 2021.

READ » https://t.co/MOBiR67drk pic.twitter.com/0hQy550avk

— Tennessee Athletics (@Vol_Sports) April 19, 2018

A penny for your thoughts on his thoughts.

There’s more to quarterbacking than G-Day QBR.

For there to be a real quarterback controversy at Georgia, there’s one huge barrier Justin Fields will have to overcome.

The thing that stands out to Thomas about Fromm? His overall knowledge of the offensive system in place in Athens.

“I would say Jake, his knowledge of the game. It’s crazy some of the things he sees and the plays that he checks to sometimes is just perfect,” Thomas said. “Sometimes we didn’t even see it.”

The Bulldog lineman was then asked for an NFL comparison for Fromm. Without hesitation, Thomas had a name ready.

“Probably Peyton Manning. That’s a joke that we have,” Thomas said. “We do a drill, it’s a check drill where we change the play to whatever you want to call it and Coach Smart tells Jake not to be Peyton Manning — because he tries to get the call perfect every time.”

Fields is an immense talent.  I don’t think there’s anyone out there who would reasonably debate that, but talent doesn’t mean much without a solid grasp of the offense.  Yes, Smart’s already shown in two seasons that he’ll start a true freshman quarterback, but that doesn’t mean it’s his preferred option, especially when he goes into his third season with an experienced quarterback who has learned the system and gained the trust of his teammates and coaches.

The funny thing is that with the usual dumbing down that goes on in the spring game, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to see Fields acquit himself well and excite the fan base, as well as pundits who love a good story.  But we’re not going to know whether he’s anything more than a good story in the short run until he’s got a lot more practice work under his belt.

I don’t expect Fields to redshirt — one nice thing about that opener against Austin Peay is that it ought to give him a great opportunity to get his feet wet in a real game — but barring injury (I know, I know), bringing Fields along slowly and carefully this season is a luxury Smart and Chaney have and I doubt they’re foolish enough to waste it.