Thought I forgot, didn’t ‘ya?
Nah. Here’s the topic du jour.
In no particular order, here are my seven:
- Beatles
- Byrds
- Stones
- James Brown
- Steve Earle
- Muddy Waters
- Chuck Berry
Yours?
Daily Archives: April 24, 2019
Your 4.24.19 Playpen
Filed under GTP Stuff
Lincoln Riley is troubled.
In the year 2019, is there a bigger generator of bullshit than the transfer portal?
“The part about it I still have a hard time with is that you don’t have to come tell your coach if you’re gonna get in it,” Riley said. “Any job in the world, if you’re gonna leave or go take another job, it’s the right thing to go tell the people that you work for. It’s just common respect, courtesy, that you have those conversations.
“We’re here to educate and help grow young men, yet we don’t put them in position where they’ve gotta make grown-man choices and have grown-man talks. That part to me is still a little perplexing, but I think it’s done some good things for players’ rights.”
Skip the part where he’s comparing this to a job. I’ll buy the rest of his two weeks notice whine when he lobs the same criticism at peers like Bobby Petrino for their “grown-man choices”. LSU just hired its new AD away from Texas A&M the same day it relieved Alleva of his duties.
So, again, what makes unpaid student-athletes different from professional coaches and administrators? That’s a rhetorical question, y’all.
Filed under Transfers Are For Coaches.
“I would never, ever ask anybody to do that.”
Once upon a time, I, like many of you now, was an unabashed amateurism romantic. My conversion to the dark side has occurred over time, but looking back on it, the sources of my revolt were the suspensions of Green and Gurley, which I found to be petty and arbitrary (especially in the case of the former). Sure, I had a particular ox that was gored, but I certainly don’t have a pro-Georgia agenda about it now.
I am reminded of it now and then, though. Yesterday came the news that Marty Blazer, a former financial advisor who’s a government witness in the FBI’s college basketball corruption trial, testified about payments he made for years to college football players.
Witness Louis Martin Blazer said he paid football players from Pitt, Penn State, Michigan, Notre Dame, Northwestern, North Carolina and Alabama, according to reporters present at the Manhattan federal court for the opening day of the second college basketball bribery trial.
As recounted by CBS’s Matt Norlander and reporter Adam Zagoria, Blazer said he paid athletes from multiple hundred to several thousand dollars. Blazer said he paid family members and associates of the athletes so they would choose him as their financial advisor upon turning pro. He testified he never paid a college football coach.
Blazer went into more specifics with Penn State and UNC. He testified that, at the encouragement of an assistant, he paid the father of former Penn State player Aaron Maybin to convince him to stay in school. Maybin went to the NFL and the money was repaid.
The problem with being an amateurism romantic these days is that you have to suspend your belief about the black market. It’s only possible to wag your finger about players being paid if you believe it’s the odd occurrence, or, to simply choose wilful ignorance.
I wish I could. Instead, I just become angry thinking about the highfalutin’ finger pointing at Georgia while other, more sainted places tried (and still try) to pretend they’re better than that. It’s a bullshit narrative. The reality is that there are two kinds of programs, the kind that makes sausage and the kind that makes sausage without being inspected. Pretending that there’s some way to stop the sausage making entirely is to ignore basic human nature. Romantically, of course.
Filed under Georgia Football, It's Just Bidness, The NCAA
How tough a place is Sanford Stadium?
So, 247Sports ranks its ten toughest places to play in 2019, and I’m a little confused. In some places, it sounds like it’s all about the venue, while in others, it’s about the quality of the team. Georgia, for example, is second. Alabama, though, is six spots lower, at eight.
I mention those two because it’s apparent that the quality of the team is what drives their rankings. Here’s the blurb about Sanford Stadium:
Why it’ll be tough: The Bulldogs have won 13 straight between the hedges since a 1-point loss to Georgia Tech left a sour mark on Kirby Smart’s first season in 2016. Taking care of business at Sanford Stadium has led to a pair of SEC East titles, a College Football Playoff berth and ample momentum heading into Jake Fromm’s junior campaign — which could be his best at Georgia. The Bulldogs’ average margin of victory in Athens during Fromm’s tenure is 28.1 points per game, which ranks among the most impressive point differentials nationally over the past two seasons. One caveat to that number? Only one of those wins came against a Top 25 team (Mississippi State). This year’s slate includes bouts with nationally-ranked Notre Dame and Texas A&M, so this unblemished mark will be put to the test.
Outside of the standard “between the hedges” reference, there’s no mention of the setting or the crowd. And, honestly, while there have been times I’ve been at a home game when the crowd has been intimidating as hell — I’ll put the last five minutes of the 2013 LSU game up against any home crowd in the country in that regard — as a 60-minute, week in, week out experience, it’s been good more than consistently overwhelming.
What do you guys think?
Filed under Georgia Football
The NCAA, master of consistency
There’s been some mention of Luke Ford waiting for news from the NCAA that his transfer waiver request has been granted and how it doesn’t seem fair that he’s twisting in the wind while Tate Martell is busy getting snaps in Miami.
The NCAA wants you to know that fair’s got nothing to do with it.
Former Coastal Carolina offensive lineman Brock Hoffman is scheduled to transfer from the Chanticleers to Virginia Tech after spring semester to be closer to his mother, who recently had a brain tumor removed. It turns out that he may have to wait until 2020 to play for the Hokies, though.
Hoffman announced on his Twitter page that the NCAA denied his waiver for immediate eligibility and will force him to sit out the 2019 season before the clock starts on his final two years.
Here’s his tweet and, yeah, it’s a little infuriating.
Five miles and his mom’s not sick enough. Sure, that sounds reasonable.
If this sounds to you like there’s no rhyme or reason to it, well, you’re wrong. Let someone explain.
Luke, if you haven’t hired Mars yet, you might want to think about doing so.
Filed under The NCAA, Transfers Are For Coaches.
Carried away
I know the underlying matter is serious and I shouldn’t laugh, but… well, this made me laugh.
In his defense he probably just thought he was recruiting? The only thing surprising about this is that it doesn’t happen more often:
Aggravated cyber-stalking is his job!
Damn it, Brian.
Filed under Crime and Punishment, Gators, Gators...
TFW the Process collides with the Georgia Way
Well, this doesn’t sound good.
One member of Georgia’s football recruiting office has been fired and another suspended for 30 days without pay, sources have confirmed to DawgNation.
Dacia King, who is listed as the Bulldogs’ recruiting program coordinator on the team’s website, was dismissed. Lukman Abdulai, who is director of on-campus recruiting, has been placed on a 30-day suspension without pay.
The reason for the actions and whether they are related are not known at this time.
“I’m not talking about any personnel stuff,” Georgia Athletic Director Greg McGarity said. “Regardless of what the position is, I just don’t comment on personnel decisions or matters. Sorry.”
McGarity also declined comment when asked whether violations of NCAA or SEC rules were involved.
Ah, jeez, one only wonders what steps Greg is prepared to take prostrating himself before the NCAA. That always seems to work.
As far as what happened, I don’t know, but King’s job is described as being “a liaison between prospective student-athletes and the Georgia coaching staff and helps plan visits and set itineraries”, so I’d expect whatever went wrong came out of this sphere of operations, since she’s been canned outright.
Obviously, it’ll be 90 days before we learn anything concrete about this, but in terms of rank speculation pulled straight from my ass, I’ll sure be curious to learn how this came out — or, to be more specific, which of Georgia’s rivals tattled.
Filed under Georgia Football, Recruiting
Get The Picture 