“UGA’s staff knows that the talent margin is closing…”

Sucks when a narrative gets its ass kicked:

It could be stated that 5-star WR Demetris Robertson was the biggest recruiting miss of the Kirby Smart era at Georgia.

Robertson, the nation’s No. 1 receiver in 2016 on the 247Sports Composite, opted to go his own way at Cal instead of joining Smart at Georgia in May of 2016. That was despite a deep-rooted relationship with Smart and UGA assistant Glenn Schumann during their time at Alabama.

Well, that can no longer be described as a miss. The Bulldogs were the choice for the prodigal receiver from Savannah to come back to his home state this time…

Robertson, the nation’s No. 13 overall prospect in 2016, now gives the Bulldogs 17 players on their roster that held the coveted 5-star rating from the 247Sports composite.

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Don’t drink the fake juice!

Just curious — how credible do you think Shane Beamer is when he says this?

Q: Do you think Kirby and the staff will use it as motivation?

SB: Probably not. I think Kirby does a great job of not worrying about what people on the outside say. That’s one of the great things about him. It’s all about, ‘Let’s worry about us.’ Even last year, remember before the (Alabama-Vanderbilt) game, the defensive lineman for Vanderbilt kind of called out Alabama, and you never really heard Alabama say anything about that. It’s the same thing with (Georgia).

It’s just a philosophy. Even when players from opposing teams said something that could be used for quote-unquote bulletin board material, we never brought it up. I’m sure you guys know what kind of competitor Kirby is, so he will keep that internally. As far as if he says it to the team, I’d be surprised if he does.

Leaving aside that what Lincoln Riley said doesn’t rise to the level of bulletin board material for me, does anybody really believe that Kirby doesn’t use that kind of stuff when it’s appropriate?  As far as Beamer’s example of Alabama goes, I sure remember how Saban’s staff took all that blackout bravado from Richt’s team in 2008.

I’m not saying any coach needs to go overboard using that sort of motivation, but there’s a time and a place for everything.  (Just ask Corch.)  Why throw away what can be a useful tool on occasion?

Those were the days, my friends.

Somehow, this list of story lines at this year’s SEC Media Days starting Monday pales in comparison to the seemingly annual saga a decade or so ago of whether Phil Fulmer would be served with a subpoena by crazed Alabama fans.

Now that’s what I think of when somebody says, “it just means more”.

A “cannon shot”

• Year of the Gamecock (n.) – an era currently spanning the period from the second week of January to about the middle of the month of October for the years 1992-2010.

— from the GTP Lexicon

One of the great pleasures I took from the Lou Holtz era in Columbia was the sincere delusion that came upon the ‘Cock faithful like clockwork every preseason that this would be the year their beloved team would storm into Atlanta and seize an SEC title on the way to world dominance, as well as some converted safety playing quarterback going on to win the Heisman Trophy triumphantly.  Oh, the celebrations to come!

They never did.

Weirdly, that kind of talk simmered down during Spurrier’s run at South Carolina, even though he achieved more than Holtz and coached two players that were worthy of Heisman consideration without snickering.

Now it seems like Agent Muschamp, of all people, is inspiring a return to the good ‘ol days.  I mentioned Tori Gurley’s prediction on Finebaum the other day; check out this bravado from The Big Spur, a South Carolina message board.

UGA’s staff knows that the talent margin is closing, that we are no longer a team with a couple of nice pieces – that we are getting deep. Sandridge was a cannon shot. A championship playoff run, at a position of need, and we still get the commitment – regardless of what is being written about currently (and make no mistake, it isn’t a coincidence).

It has been a long time since we’ve been this deep. On the staff and on the roster. It’s the middle of July and we are all in the same range of commitments and we are ahead of them. Pressure is all on them.

The ‘Cocky talk, she burns.

If I’m lucky, these guys can take up a significant portion of the slack created when Stingtalk went dark on us.  A blogger can only hope.

Stupid is as stupid does.

Gary Patterson is a coach.  Coaches like to be in control.  So Patterson’s take on the new NCAA transfer rules comes as no surprise… even this bit:

Additionally, Patterson believes the NCAA should not allow freshmen to transfer. He pointed to the number of college basketball transfers as a reason to prevent freshmen from doing so in football.

“You know how many basketball kids transferred last year? 800,” Patterson said. “That’s with 13 scholarships. Can you imagine football teams with 85 scholarships, what the number of transfers is going to be?

“What we’re teaching our kids to do is quit. I’m not starting. I’m not getting my playing time. Every freshman I’ve ever known wants to transfer because it’s harder than anything else he did in high school.

“As I tell people all the time, at your house you’re going to allow your 17-year-old, 18-year-old to run your household? Let them pay your bills, that’s what you do? No. You don’t do that. So why are we putting our jobs in jeopardy because of an 18-year-old? That’s stupid.”

Pretty theatrical there.  I can’t help but wonder what his reaction would be if an AD tried that line of reasoning on him.  But I digress, I suppose.

What is funny is that he doesn’t seem as choked up about this.

The NCAA likely felt it needed to make a change in regards to transfers with stories such as Corey Sutton coming to light. Kansas State refused to release Sutton from his athletic scholarship in May 2017 even though Sutton’s list of 35 potential transfer destinations didn’t include Big 12 schools or teams on future K-State schedules.

In fact, some schools were FCS and Division II.

Patterson called the K-State situation the “worst-case scenario” when it comes to transfers, but thought the NCAA went too far, especially without putting some parameters on it.

Maybe a parameter of thirty restrictions would suffice for Gary.