Mark Bradley writes a piece you’ll actually want to read…

… if only for the ending.

In May 2012, news broke that Adams was about to announce his impending resignation as president. Vince Dooley was driving back from Atlanta when he got the word. His passenger said, “There’s something I have to do,” and she directed him to head not for Milledge Circle but for Broad Street. And that spring night, Barbara Dooley rang the chapel bell.

Now do Leebern.

Not so bad, now that we think about it.

This didn’t take too long.

The board also voted to rescind the NCAA Championships Policy Related to Sports Wagering, which prohibited hosting championship competitions in any state that allows single-game sports wagering. The decision follows the board’s temporary action last year to suspend the policy following the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize sports wagering.

The board also reinforced its support for federal legislative sports wagering standards. While the board stressed that an exemption of college sports in any federal or state legislation is desired, it emphasized that any proposed legislation should protect student-athlete well-being and the integrity of games.

Nice touch with the “student-athlete well-being” nod there, Stacey.  As long as it doesn’t affect the bottom line, anyway.

Speaking of bottom lines, how long do you figure it’s going to take the NCAA to come up with an official March Madness pool?  Lotta money being left on the table, folks.

Irreplaceable

Jake Rowe lists this as one of Georgia’s biggest concerns after spring practice:

Running back depth: We really like the one-two punch at the top of Georgia’s running back room with D’Andre Swift and Brian Herrien. Swift has an argument as the most dynamic ball carrier in the nation and Herrien is more than capable of sharing the load with little or no dropoff. James Cook is an excellent change-of-pace option who can also serve as an offensive weapon/gadget guy.

Beyond those three, though, there are question marks. Zamir White isn’t yet healthy and no one truly knows when he will be back to his old self. Kenny McIntosh isn’t even in Athens yet and when he does arrive, how much of an impact will he make?

The fact that Walter Grant moved over from outside linebacker to give the running back room an extra body validates our concern here. It’s a physical position where an injury or two can really challenge your depth. Swift has a history of nagging injuries and you can bet Smart is crossing his fingers when it comes injuries at this position going forward.

There is something to be said for that.  What I wonder is, which would hurt Georgia more, Swift going down with an injury, or Jake Fromm?

Come back, baby, come back.

After another NFL draft that saw plenty of kids who left school early go undrafted, there have been plenty of questions about why there isn’t a path for them to return to college.  I mean, no harm, no foul, right?  Plus, if you hammer constantly that you’re all about helping student-athletes succeed academically…

Okay, let’s not get carried away here.  And I digress.

Anyway, Andy Staples explains why that’s more difficult than it seems at first glance.

This year, 49 of 144 early entries to the NFL draft went unselected. I’d love to see a change that would allow those players to make more informed decisions and have an avenue to return to college. But it would require either a separate rule change independent of the draft rule and/or the willingness of college football coaches to manage their recruiting so that they leave roster spots open for players potentially returning to school.

On that last point,

For reasons both altruistic and selfish, college coaches don’t want their players to leave early and not get drafted. Most coaches want the best for their players, and most coaches would prefer to get a veteran starter back rather than break in a new player at that position.

But coaches also need to know what their scholarship count will be come August, and if they have players hanging out there in March—after both football signing days—unsure about whether they’ll return, then they could get caught in a crunch. The NCAA allows 85 scholarship players on an FBS team, and programs must be at or below the limit when practice begins. So a coach would have to leave scholarships open while signing his recruiting class with the idea that a spot or two could be filled by a player who removes his name from the draft.

I’m not unsympathetic to the numbers crunch there, although, as Staples notes, there are ways to minimize that risk by providing a brief period for kids to get better real-world feedback on their draft chances while not leaving coaches out on a limb for very long with potential roster management dilemmas.

Of course, if they really want to avoid the problem, there’s always coming up with more player compensation so that some of the kids don’t feel the need to leave early in the first place.  I know, I know…

Too good for their own good

This guy.

#Pac12 commissioner Larry Scott on the league's football scheduling approach, which is consistently the most aggressive in CFB but create tougher paths to the playoff: "It’s pretty apparent our schools do not singularly focus on how to skate through as easily as possible."

— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) May 2, 2019

I don’t think that’s the Pac-12’s big problem, Lar.

A tale of two offenses

I appreciate Barrett Sallee’s work, but somebody’s gonna have to explain to me how these two post-spring SEC observations mesh:

“A little shaky”, eh?  That’s certainly one way to describe it.

When they play everyone’s favorite meteor game, there may not be enough decent offensive linemen combined to fashion a good SEC line from.  If that’s a recipe for “darn good offense”, then Jim Chaney really is a wizard.

Spring composite rankings

The rich stay richer.

Sporting News wanted to gauge how everybody else was ranked. We looked at CBS Sports, USA Today, Sports Illustrated and ESPN to see what a consensus top 25 would look like. We also included SN’s post-spring top 25, which was released Monday.

Shocked, shocked, indeed, to find Clemson and ‘Bama on top.

By the way, Texas sure has milked that epic Sugar Bowl win into heightened expectations, hasn’t it…

Two on the Gus Bus

It looks like we won’t find out who is destined to become the next hot Heisman Trophy candidate until the fall.

After 15 spring practices and several staff meetings, coach Gus Malzahn is moving forward with redshirt freshman Joey Gatewood and early enrollee Bo Nix over junior Malik Willis and redshirt freshman Cord Sandberg. Malzahn made the announcement this week at one of Auburn’s “Ambush Tour” spring speaking events in Dothan, Alabama.

“We left spring ball with Joey Gatewood and Bo Nix really 1 and 1A,” Malzahn told reporters at the gathering. “One of those two guys will be our starting quarterback in our first game. They’ll compete during the summer and in fall camp, and we’ll make a decision.”

Man, and that’s after all those “Joey is the next Cam” comments after the spring game.

I’m sure whoever makes the ultimate cut will be ready to deal with this.

Auburn’s starting quarterback will be greeted with arguably the nation’s most demanding schedule, as the Tigers have to face six teams who have appeared among the top 10 in early preseason rankings — Alabama, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Oregon and Texas A&M. Auburn opens Aug. 31 against Oregon inside AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Eh, that’s no sweat for the Gus touch.  He’s the quarterback whisperer.

Today, in irony is dead

Man who hired Corch after the his first walk away from the game has “a hard time believing” he’ll coach again.

Musical palate cleanser, lucky duck edition

I’m going to see this man, live and in action, tonight at the Fox.

My life is good.  Sometimes, even, very good.