Something to do until the USC job opens up.

What a time to be alive!

Urban Meyer announced today he's launching a podcast focused on building "elite leadership, culture and behavior."

Since we have some experience in the audio world, we're happy to help mentor @OSUCoachMeyer as he takes on this new venture, any guest suggestions to pass along? pic.twitter.com/cWZU2uGALI

— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) July 8, 2019

Corch and Zach Smith with podcasts.  Our cup truly runneth over.

Your Daily Gator is predictable.

I don’t think I need to post anything more here than, “Edwards is the ninth player that has transferred away from the program this offseason.”

“Nobody wants to play with bad people.”

This is a fascinating article on a developing trend with recruiting the class of 2020.  Bottom line, elite talent is concentrating around just a handful of programs.

Of the presently committed 18 five-star prospects, 13 of those players are pledged to just five teams: Clemson, Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State and LSU. Expand those numbers out, and 21 of the 34 top-50 prospects who are committed and 35 of the 70 committed players in the top 100 of the 247Sports Composite are committed to those programs.

“There definitely is an arms race between Georgia, Clemson, Ohio State, Alabama, LSU, those type of schools,” Georgia quarterback commit Carson Beck told 247Sports. “All the top talent is going to get truly split between those schools unless one school comes together and form that No. 1 class that’s just unreal.”

These kids want to get to the NFL, but they want something else along the way.

Still, the majority of five-star prospects 247Sports spoke to said the opportunity to win in college is critical. As an extension, a select few programs are in the running for the large majority of elite recruits. There’s a reason Alabama’s held the No. 1 overall class in eight of the last nine years.

“Ultimately, I feel like Georgia going to be there. Alabama is going to be there. Ohio State is going to be there. Clemson is going to be there,” Fleming said. “I feel like it’s those four. It’s those four schools that are really in the running year in and year out.

“If you want a national championship and want to be a contender, you’ve got to be at one of those schools.”

I can’t believe nobody in that article talks about Dan Mullen’s coaching.

Promises made.

Promises discarded ($$).

After just one year, Pruitt handed off defensive play-calling duties to Derrick Ansley, an up-and-comer who was the highest-paid defensive backs coach in the NFL with the Oakland Raiders last season. Ansley is a coach Pruitt says can “finish my sentences.”

“If I can’t call the plays, I’m going to quit coaching,” Pruitt said last year. “I like to be involved in the game-planning and I like to call the defense. I would like to call the offense too if I could.”

That’s the mindset when there’s nowhere to go but up.  At least you hope that’s the case.

Improved development and recruiting offer reasons to believe Pruitt’s second team will be better than his first, but there’s plenty to prove after consecutive last-place finishes in the SEC East, capped by embarrassing losses to Vanderbilt.  [Emphasis added.]

That shit never gets old.

A decade of “what-ifs”

Be forewarned.  This Seth Emerson piece ($$) is a painful read.

There is no question this Georgia program is in better shape than it was at the time of that 2010 season opener. But the nine years since then have been marked as much by the great moments as the unrealized potential, stabs at greatness snatched away in the most stunning fashion. It is a decade of what-ifs.

He’s got fourteen events, or, in some cases, non-events, on his list.  I wonder if there’s another school out there that can match that.

Jake who?

I’m really fascinated by this statistical deep dive ($$) into which college quarterbacks are likely to step up into the elite territory manned by Murray and Tagovailoa last season that somehow manages to neglect mentioning Jake Fromm, other than to note his place in this chart:

That’s it.  29 other quarterbacks are mentioned — including Justin Fields — but no Fromm.  Kinda weird.

“People act like it’s going to have to be a total transition.”

I know Paul Johnson famously claimed at his retirement that his successor’s job wouldn’t be so daunting at the beginning — “It’s not like someone is going to have to come in and start over.” — but the reality, as laid out in this State of the Program piece about Georgia Tech ($$), is quite different.

Take this relatively minor point as an example:

Formerly in four-point stances, Georgia Tech’s offensive linemen now don’t have 70 percent of their body weight falling forward when the ball is snapped. They now have their weight more evenly distributed and are focusing more on pass protection.

It’s going to be a total transition.

“How many college football rivalries have multiple books written about them?”

For those of you, like me, who feel the folks in South Georgia are somewhat taken for granted in the “move the Cocktail Party from Jacksonville now!” conversation, here’s an impassioned take from the editor of The Clinch County News to fill in the gap.

Money plea:

The game is also an economic godsend to South Georgia and the Golden Isles. Pulling the game from Jacksonville would be financially disastrous for those areas of South Georgia. It’s South Georgia’s home game. Don’t take that away from us.

Read it all.  If you’ve got a rebuttal more nuanced than “tough shit”, feel free to share in the comments.

Your cord-cutting PSA

I still get the occasional email asking me if I remain satisfied with dumping DishTV in favor of YouTube TV.  (I am.)  Here’s a good give-and-take over at MGoBlog about cord-cutting and watching televised live athletics for your reading pleasure.  (SPOILER:  They like YouTube TV, too.)

Another simple Monday question

With regard to the California Fair Pay to Play Act and its critics who claim (natch) it would hurt the very kids it claims to support:

“Why would any student-athlete go to, say, Arkansas, if they can make more money in California?” she asked during a Chronicle interview.

Why, the weather, of course, said absolutely no one.