How big is Coley’s crayon box, I wonder…
Daily Archives: January 11, 2019
Assistant coaches? Assistant coaches? Saban don’t need no assistant coaches.
Man, this is some kind of exodus from Tuscaloosa now.
Maybe Nick will take a run at Eddie Gran.
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UPDATE: Now this is some funny shit.
Filed under Nick Saban Rules
Today, in the Georgia Way
All you need to know about Georgia’s “next big football facility project” can be summarized in one sentence:
The timeline for this latest Georgia project appears to be based on funding.
Filed under Georgia Football, It's Just Bidness
That hump’s not gonna get over itself.
This Andy Staples assessment… fair or not?
Still, the program that seems most likely to make the jump is one you’re probably not thinking of because it got close to a national title twice in the past six years. Georgia hasn’t won a national championship since 1980, so it belongs in the category we’re discussing here. (Clemson won a title in ’81.) The near misses for the Bulldogs in 2012 and ’17 only served to deepen the frustration of the fan base. This season’s SEC title game loss made it even worse, because Georgia outplayed Alabama for most of the game and then lost because a) it couldn’t stop a backup quarterback and b) the coaching staff called one of the most perplexing fake punts in recent memory.
But the fact that the Bulldogs have gotten so close combined with Kirby Smart’s high-level recruiting suggests Georgia can be in the mix every season for the forseeable future. It’s just a matter of getting over the hump. That won’t be easy with Saban’s Tide on the other side of the SEC, but Georgia feels ready to break through—just as Clemson did back in 2015.
What about this analysis?
The Tide can be beaten. Clemson just beat the brakes off of them. Lesser teams like Ole Miss and Texas A&M have snatched wins. But there is a massive difference between those and Georgia beating Alabama through six of eight quarters in the calendar year.
Kirby Smart’s Georgia was supposed to be something more than a fluke or out-of-conference rival. Georgia was supposed to supplant the dynasty by building a bigger palace for one of Nick Saban’s best former assistants.
The Bulldogs still have little to show after coming so insanely close twice. So far, no matter how promising, they are still just the SEC’s latest imitation.
Smart just finished his third season, coached for a national title in one and came close to repeating in another, so in a sense insanely high expectations feel rational. It’s Smart’s bad luck, as well as a moment of supreme irony, that the program he’s emulating has been the barrier to breaking through.
Filed under Georgia Football
Georgia Tech is going Full Saban.
When it comes to recruiting, or virtually any aspect of building a college football team, there are few better templates, if any, than Alabama and coach Nick Saban. When new Georgia Tech coach Geoff Collins held a news conference Thursday, his first time addressing media since his hire Dec. 7, he made clear again that Tech’s recruiting efforts going forward will be influenced by Alabama and Saban.
Collins himself and new general manager Patrick Suddes were formerly part of the Crimson Tide recruiting operation…
“When we took over at Alabama in 2007, (Suddes) was one of the integral pieces of helping set up the infrastructure for the recruiting, for the operations that we did over in Tuscaloosa and was a valuable member of the staff,” Collins said. “He understands the blueprint of how we do things.”
Collins said his plan for recruiting will be based a lot on what he learned from Saban.
“We were lucky to be a part of that initial set-up that’s gone on to have a lot of success,” Collins said…
Suddes and Collins are joined by another more recent Alabama employee. Collins closed the news conference with his announcement that the hire of Alabama offensive line coach and Tech grad Brent Key was official. At the news conference, Collins made mention of Key’s contributing to a national championship and two SEC championships with the Crimson Tide.
“I think it’s huge being able to learn from coach Saban the last couple years, be a part of that program and bring that knowledge here to Georgia Tech and a place that he loves,” Collins said.
Man, talk about your culture change. Going from being disinterested at best in recruiting to importing the Process to the Flats is likely to be a taller order than going from the triple option to a pro-style attack. No, Collins isn’t going to recruit at Saban’s level, but there’s a lot of hay to be made in the current version of the ACC by a Tech program that’s competent at recruiting in state talent.
And if he’s dinging Alabama and Auburn a little in the process, what the hell, eh?
Filed under Georgia Tech Football, Recruiting
One last thing about Eddie Gran
As I explained in the comments last night, the Gran saga is all about Jimmy Sexton, not Gran becoming Georgia’s next coordinator. If Kirby can be enigmatic and do his agent (who happens to be Sexton, duh) a small favor, no harm, no foul as it pertains to Athens.
But if you really want to put your mind at ease over the possibility that a Kentucky assistant coach said no to a job offer from Georgia, consider this.
First of all, please know that, here at DawgNation, if there’s a report anywhere we’re going to let you know about it. That’s why we have a team of breaking news reporters who’s job it is to inform you if there’s anything out there that bears our attention — or yours. And, to be clear, Matt Jones of Kentucky Sports Radio is somebody I consider a credible reporter. But I don’t for a second believe Gran was offered the Georgia OC job and certainly not “total control of the offense and $1.1 million.”
Here’s a couple of things to think about. Agents put these things out in the universe all the time. I don’t doubt there might’ve been some kind of contact or interaction between Georgia and Gran, but I don’t believe the Bulldogs ever offered him the job. Secondly, let’s think about this logically from Kirby Smart’s perspective. So just a year ago, you thought James Coley being on your staff was important enough to move him from WRs to QBs and make him co-offensive coordinator. A year later, your real OC leaves (somewhat unexpectedly). Now you’ve got a guy who sat in the offensive room with Chaney every day and in the coaches’ box for 14 games, and now you think the best idea is to go out and hire somebody else over him?
The give away there is “total control of the offense”. You guys have watched the program under Smart for three seasons now. Do you think it’s in Kirby’s nature to give anyone total control over any part of the football program? Don’t be absurd.
Smart isn’t losing any sleep over Eddie Gran staying in Lexington. You shouldn’t either.
Not so great can still be damned good.
So how disappointing are those CFP national championship game viewership ratings?
Despite the declines, Monday’s game still earned a larger audience than every game of last year’s World Series, every game of the last two NBA Finals, and every game of the last three NCAA men’s basketball tournaments. It trounced last year’s Villanova-Michigan men’s basketball championship on Turner Sports, which had a 9.2 and 16.0 million.
Oh.
Must be a lot of fatigue going around these days.
Filed under BCS/Playoffs
Musical palate cleanser, GUY edition
Coming soon, to a record store near you:
Steve Earle’s inspiration came from two main storytellers: Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark. In 2009, Steve Earle made an album of Townes Van Zandt songs called TOWNES and now he’s paying tribute to his other hero, Guy Clark by releasing GUY. The album by Steve Earle & The Dukes covers 16 songs by the great Nashville-via-Houston artist and leans toward some of the earlier tunes. On this edition of All Songs Considered we premiere the song, “Dublin Blues” and have a conversation with Steve Earle about the day he left San Antonio, headed to Nashville, met his hero, Guy Clark (who was playing pool) and quickly became his bass player.
The band playing with Steve Earle on this album is The Dukes: Kelley Looney on bass, Ricky Ray Jackson on pedal steel guitar, Eleanor Whitmore on fiddle and mandolin, Chris Masterson on guitar and Brad Pemberton on drums. And the record wouldn’t be complete without a load of friends, including Rodney Crowell, Jerry Jeff Walker, Emmylou Harris, Shawn Camp, Terry Allen and more.
Filed under Uncategorized
Get The Picture 