Greatness thrust upon him

For the record, I think Dan Mullen is a good coach.  But this good?

It’s interesting because as great of a job as Mullen did last year and at Mississippi State, he’s only had 2 winning seasons in conference play during his 10 seasons as an SEC head coach. Obviously it was an uphill battle to turn around a historically down program in what many believe to be the toughest division in football.

But Mullen is probably the only person who would be considered a top 10 coach nationally who hasn’t won a division title.

He’s not making that last statement up.  CBS’ last top 25 coaches ranking has Mullen checking in at number ten.  (That’s one spot higher than James Franklin, whom I would suggest has a better resume than does Mullen.  Also note this comment about #6 Kirby Smart:  “I had Smart at No. 11 on my ballot, but it’s not that I don’t think he’s a good coach as much as I don’t think he’s been good enough for long enough to warrant being ranked this high this quickly.”  But I digress, perhaps.)

Trolling aside, is Dan Mullen one of your ten best coaches in America?

When they say it’s about the money…

… it is about the money.

Sounds like SEC is ready to put screws to CBS on next TV deal. This one ends in 2023. CBS pays $55M annually. ESPN pays $2B annually for MNF alone. “We believe we are going to do a lot better with (the next deal),” Pastides said. “We are beginning negotiations now.”

— Josh Kendall (@JoshatTheState) June 7, 2019

No problem here with the conference milking everything it can get, but I hope Sankey and his minions recognize the value in having the only game of the week broadcast nationally on a non-cable network.

I also hope they realize that CBS’ TV timeouts, which already seem like the longest in the business, aren’t going to get any shorter with a higher payout for broadcast rights.

He’s got your tempo right here.

From Michigan’s defensive coordinator, this is one of my favorite quotes of the offseason.

Don Brown is a national treasure. pic.twitter.com/GoUo3APKs4

— Steven Ruiz (@theStevenRuiz) June 6, 2019

Indeed.

The “U” word

Urgency.  It’s what’s for Georgia’s breakfast, served up by the national media in the preseason.

What makes 2019 particularly urgent?  Beats me.  If you listen to Barrett Sallee in that audio clip, he admits that the program was actually ahead of schedule the past couple of seasons.  Kirby Smart is recruiting like nobody’s (well, other than Nick Saban’s) business and I think it’s fair to say that Georgia’s joined the “reloading, not rebuilding” club at this point.

I’m not even sure the biggest potential threat Sallee and others cite — Fromm leaving for the NFL after his junior season — is that looming, as next year’s NFL draft projections for him are all over the board.

I imagine Kirby’s response to the question would be something along the lines of “every year is urgent” coachspeak, but is there anything special about 2019 to justify the nascent media narrative here?

“With one notable exception…”

It’s somewhat surprising with it being one of those years when the college football calendar allows for a second bye week that the SEC has actually done a credible job of making sure no school faces a calendar loaded up with opponents coming off bye weeks.

But for Georgia, that is.

The only team that has serious room to complain here is Georgia, which faces half of its league opponents coming off a bye. Of those, two are reciprocal byes (UT, Florida), leaving the always-dicey South Carolina game and bitter rival Auburn as the SEC teams well-rested and with an extra week to prepare. The ‘Barn game especially is iffy: it’s on the road. Still, that’s just two opponents in a 12-game schedule, hardly the inequities we’ve seen in schedules past.

The composite schedule is also notable for eliminating a great deal of the teams facing no opponents coming off of byes: In 2017, for instance, there were seven teams that faced no league opponents with a bye week.

And, as much as it will pain us Gumps who love to complain, even Alabama’s three bye weeks isn’t too grisly to overcome…

You know it’s rough when even ‘Bama bloggers are acknowledging that the Dawgs have a tougher row to hoe than does the Tide in that regard.

While we’re looking at the Roll ‘Bama Roll post, there’s one other scheduling category worth noting as it pertains to Georgia, what it calls “the quality of the consecutive competition”, defined as “the maximum number of consecutive SEC bowl teams that programs will face in 2019”.  Georgia is tops here, too.

Georgia: 6 (USCe, Kentucky, Florida, Mizzou, Auburn, Texas A&M). The four byes were bad enough — now, throw this string of contests into the mix. And, it gets worse still: this doesn’t even take into account that the game before this murderer’s row begins is Tennessee, a rivalry game against a team that should be improved and be bowl eligible this year. Along with their critical losses on the roster, that’s why in my post-spring predictions, I have Florida representing the East and not UGA. The Bulldogs could very well be a 13-2 team lurking behind a 9-4 record — and no result anywhere in between should surprise you.

Eh, maybe.  There are SEC bowl teams and there are SEC bowl teams.  I think he gets the real significance of this in his conclusion when he writes, “The downside of the East improving is that the road grows more difficult for those accustomed to a two- or three-game schedule.”  The East is getting better, which means the schedule grows tougher.  What’s worth remembering here is that Georgia doesn’t face the team in the division with by far the deepest roster.  Barring some unforeseen disaster, this isn’t a team going 9-4.

Not that the SEC has done the Dawgs any favors this season.

TFW “tethered to education” means getting a piece of the pie

Gotta love the NCAA’s flexibility on what amateurism means.

Our ADs have been in support of student-athletes using their name, image and likeness (or NIL) for non-athletic purposes, such as starting-up a business. However, when it comes to compensation to student-athletes for athletically related NIL, the issue becomes more complicated.

As Arizona State President Dr. Michael Crow pointed out at the Knight Commission meeting last month, universities own the intellectual property of their faculty and students if the university provided resources in the invention of new technologies. What rights do universities have with respect to their student-athletes using their NIL tied to their university sport?

… Providing carte blanche Olympic NIL rights to student-athletes without considering the interests of the university is not fair nor equitable, or not even how universities typically handle intellectual property with their faculty and students.

To paraphrase a familiar punch line, when it comes to revenue producing sports, we know what the schools are.  They’re just haggling over the fee.

And, yeah, you could say student-athletes are about to get a first-rate educational experience.

Friday morning buffet

Have a little nosh on me.

• You can get odds on Nick Saban’s retirement now.
• When Isaiah Wilson says, “I want to physically beat you,” I believe him.
• The Pac-12 has “multiple bids of at least $750 million in hand from companies looking to become equity investors in the conference.” If one of the conditions for purchase is that Larry Scott steps down, that might be a fair trade off.
• Maryland:  nobody could do a worse job than we did with Jordan McNair’s death.  Garden City Community College:  hold my beer.
• The majority of SEC coaches don’t sound that enamored with the Oklahoma drill.
• From sagging attendance and hefty debt service payments for their upgraded facilities to beer sales, a tale for our times.  Concerning a member of the conference generating the most revenue, to boot.
• More revenue woes:  when Mizzou is bleeding money, it’s the cheerleading coaches who must pay.
• Not a good look when three safeties, including both starters, enter the transfer portal on back-to-back days, West Virginia.
• A sign that you’re getting old:  Mack Brown has knee replacement surgery performed by a former player.

Musical palate cleanser, Night Tripper gone edition

Damn, another great leaves the stage for the last time.

Malcolm John Rebennack Jr., known around the world as Dr. John, initially aspired to be a professional songwriter, producer and sideman, like the utilitarian New Orleans musicians who forged his creative worldview in the 1950s. He wanted to work behind the scenes, not out front.

But after assuming the persona of Dr. John the Night Tripper in the late 1960s, Rebennack was behind the scenes no more. His idiosyncratic style and sound – the gravelly growl, the sly, deceptively leisurely phrasing, the original hipster patois, the hybrid Big Easy piano – embodied New Orleans and its music.

Rebennack, an icon of the city who remained an active creative force until he abruptly disappeared from public view 18 months ago, died Thursday of a heart attack after years of declining health, a family member confirmed. He was 77.

Quite the colorful character, to say the least, you have to like the way he exited his last Jazz Fest concert.

During the 2017 Jazz Fest, he performed on the main Acura Stage on the fest’s first Sunday. The day’s earlier acts were washed out by thunderstorms, but Rebennack, resplendent in a green suit, was unruffled by the turbulent weather.

He fronted his revamped Nite Trippers, a band consisting of New Orleans drummer Herlin Riley, bassist Roland Guerin, guitarist Eric Struthers, organist Joe Ashlar, trumpeter Leon “Kid Chocolate” Brown and guest saxophonist Charles Neville. They closed their set with an epic “Big Chief” and a salacious “Such a Night.” Rebennack then strutted offstage, grinning, surround by a trio of scantily clad young ladies.

Yeah, mane.

Here are two cuts in his honor.  The first is from The Last Waltz and it’s one of his classics.

And the second?  Well, I’m sure you’ll hear a lot of “Right Place, Wrong Time” over the next few days, so at least I’ll bring you a version that’s a duet with Eric Clapton.

Rest easy, big mon.  You earned it.