I don’t care about the NFL or the Super Bowl, but I sure do love Todd Gurley’s choice of apparel leading up to the game.
Maybe that’ll even register in Montana.
Daily Archives: January 26, 2019
The continuing adventures of throw the damned ball
We all know there are holes at receiver that have to be filled this season. One hope is that Demetris Robertson is ready to step up. There is more involved with that than just catching passes, of course.
Robertson arrived on campus in mid-July, and got off to a quick start. After scoring on a 72-yard speed sweep in the opener against Austin Peay, it appeared the former Savannah Christian star was certainly going to be one watch.
It didn’t quite work out that way. Robertson did not catch a single pass for the Bulldogs before a concussion limited his play over the final third of the year. Hence the question, what’s next? Is Robertson still the player most projected he would be when every major program in the country was pining for his services three years ago?
Short answer, yes.
Teammates will tell you he’s the same player he was as a freshman at Cal when he caught 50 passes for 767 yards and seven touchdowns. However, at Georgia, it’s not just about how well you run your routes.
If you want consistent playing time under Kirby Smart, you’ve got to learn how to play physically, and how to block. He arrived at Georgia at the same time summer strength and conditioning drills were coming to an end. This also put Robertson behind, a fact he pointed out during a post-game conversation after the SEC Championship.
“For me, it’s really just been learning the offense. This is the third offense I’ve had to learn,” Robertson said. “Plus, I wasn’t here over the summer to get my chemistry and work out with the guys.”
It was obvious early on last year that nobody at Cal expected Robertson to block when he was there; he looked lost trying to do so here. How much difference will a year in the program make? Let’s just say I’ll be curious to see if we get any clues at G-Day.
Beyond Robertson’s progress, this is Kirby Smart’s team we’re talking about, so you know that, if nothing else, Georgia is exploring all available options, like this one: “Coley was my coach my freshman year, he knows how to use me…”
Pressure is a privilege, y’all, and the best way to create pressure is with competition… and that takes numbers.
Filed under Georgia Football
“I think it’s bad for college football.”
This is what losing control sounds like:
Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi may need to find a new holder for his kicking game next season, but he otherwise barely is affected by the NCAA’s transfer portal that ushers free agency into college athletics.
But that doesn’t mean he likes it.
“It’s become really a mess,” he said Friday morning. “I don’t know if I’d say it’s good, bad. It’s free agency. It just gives kids a way to find a different place if things don’t go perfectly. I really don’t like it at all.”
Narduzzi met with reporters inside an ice house in Market Square where the Dollar Energy Fund, with the help of Pitt football players, was raising money to help Pennsylvanians with their winter heating bills.
He offered some strong opinions about the portal that was instituted by the NCAA on Oct. 15 and allows schools to initiate unrestricted contact with student-athletes who enter their names, even if they eventually decide to stay.
“I think kids are going to make a lot of bad decisions,” he said. “We’re just teaching the kids that there’s an easier way to get out of this, instead of working hard and trying to improve your status.
There’s the reasoning I’ve been looking for! Transfers are bad for kids because they’re making bad decisions, while coaching transfers are, by their very source, born of sensible wisdom. Because, you see, the only way a player should improve his status is working his way up the two-deep. You can’t expect a coach to accept the same standard, can you?
“I’m sure if there are reasons to transfer … but when you have 20 guys on your team transferring, whatever it is, really?”
“If”? LMAO.
I can’t say I’m enamored with the concept of player free agency, but, damn, every time somebody like Narduzzi sputters this sort of bullshit, I find it harder to object.
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UPDATE: Compare and contrast with this.
Filed under Transfers Are For Coaches.
Warren makes bank.
Whether a title of some sort will come with it remains unclear, but Charlton Warren received a nice raise and multi-year contract to join the Georgia Bulldogs as defensive backs coach.
Warren received a three-year contract from UGA that will pay him $600,000 a year, according to salary information released by school in response to an open records request. He is now signed through June 30, 2022…
Warren was making $200,000 a year as defensive backs coach at Florida, but he was scheduled to receive a raise for 2019 that would increase his pay to $401,500, according to published reports.
Thoughts: first, we’ve come a long way from the days when Georgia was the last school in the conference to offer assistant coaches multi-year deals. Second, if you’re Kirby Smart, and your choice was giving Jim Chaney a monster raise, or spreading the wealth around to the rebuild of your staff, what would you choose?
Filed under Georgia Football, It's Just Bidness
Get The Picture 