Shot.
Chaser.
Of course, Eason had to sit out a year. Maybe that’s what Petersen means by “old-school”.
Daily Archives: July 24, 2019
Why it’s hard to take coaches seriously on the transfer portal
Filed under Transfers Are For Coaches.
Your 7.24.19 Playpen
Hey, kids, it’s Mueller Time!
You can follow his testimony live here, or you can simply wait for Trump’s gripping analysis on Twitter.
Promises to be a real shitshow, either way, I’m afraid.
Filed under GTP Stuff
“It’s a journalist transfer window.”
After The Athletic announced its hiring of Andy Staples, I tweeted this:
Staples’ hire is the latest example of the steady hoovering of journalistic talent the publication has embarked on over the last year. The format, absent ads and annoying popups, is certainly nice, but I wouldn’t fork over a subscription fee if I didn’t want to read the product. The Athletic is the only online sports site I pay to access.
I’m not posting this as a shameless plug, but because I’m interested in the future of its business model. What got me thinking about that is this article that Ed Kilgore forwarded to me, about how the website has taken a serious plunge into the English soccer market by doing the same thing it’s done here, across the pond.
A US sports website that wants to dominate the British football market has made a series of high-profile new signings, including an award-winning Guardian football writer and a BBC reporter with a massive following among London football fans.
The incredible hiring spree has been described as “setting off a bomb” in the industry.
BuzzFeed News has learned that the Athletic’s latest hires are the Guardian’s chief football writer Daniel Taylor and the BBC’s top football correspondent David Ornstein.
Taylor, who scooped the country’s top journalism accolades for breaking the UK’s football child abuse scandal, recently told the Guardian he’d be leaving after nearly 20 years at the newspaper.
Meanwhile, Ornstein, who has grown a cult following on Twitter for his tweets about transfer news and Arsenal, told BBC colleagues yesterday of the news.
What’s noteworthy is the ripple effect.
“The whole thing, it has set off a bomb,” one senior sports editor told BuzzFeed News. “Fuck, it’s tremendous.”
“Not just that there’s now 50 new jobs, but newsroom managers are trying to protect their teams. Reporters and editors are going to management to ask for more resources … and they’re giving them…
But the Athletic’s startling moves have also led to other newsrooms getting in on the hiring action, creating a merry-go-round of reporters at other outlets. It’s understood the Times has had multiple “crisis meetings” in recent weeks about the future of its football coverage.
There is a portion of the sports consuming public that is willing to pay for access. Hell, look at what we pay for tickets and for broadcasting of live sports. You’d think there’s a commercially viable way for that to translate over to sports journalism, especially if the alternative is the clickbait model employed by places like Dawgnation.
Speaking of which, I know I’m dating myself here, but I can remember a time when the Atlanta Journal-Constitution had a world-class sports desk, with an array of talented writers worth shelling out a subscription for. I’d like to think there’s a place for that today, even if it means paying a little more for the privilege. So, here’s hoping The Athletic can inspire more of the same.
Filed under Media Links
Confusion
I, along with others, thought that Clemson did a sharp job taking what Georgia did against Alabama in the SECCG and using it to their advantage in the national title game. Some of that was the aggressive way both teams attacked Alabama’s secondary, but some of it was also the way both teams played pass defense.
It’s easy to say Tagovailoa’s injury was the reason for his poor showing against the Dawgs, but that discounts the tactics Smart and Tucker came up with to confuse his reads. (After the national title game loss, they knew they had to design something different, right?)
You have to figure that’s something Saban will have his staff working on hard, and with those receivers, there’s no way we should ignore the possibility that Tua figures a lot of that out this season. But I’ll sure be curious to see what Georgia’s staff dials up in response, assuming there’s another meeting around the corner.
Filed under Alabama, Georgia Football, Strategery And Mechanics
“That’s the role football has to play at Notre Dame.”
I know it’s a common theme for some that the Irish simply have to become a full-blown member of a football conference in order to maintain postseason eligibility, but as long as Notre Dame has a national following — and, like it or not, it certainly has that — it’s going to enjoy its unique status with the CFP.
And if you think an appeal to the school that’s it’s leaving money on the table by not joining some P5 conference as a full-fledged member would sway ND, you don’t understand either the mentality there, or the resources there. ($$)
If that means the forfeiture of tens of millions from media rights deals from conferences, Notre Dame will make that trade. Leaving $20 million or more on the table is not nothing. But if it’s the price tag on independence, Notre Dame will buy without reservation.
“The $20 million is significant,” Dunne said. “Think of the scholarships and the leveraging potential of $20 million, because that’s where it would go, it would go to scholarships.
“That means we have to get together and make up for it. We understand what $20 million after taxes is all about. But our independence is worth more.”
As for what getting together and making up for it means, well…
Next summer the school will conclude its current capital campaign, pitched as “Boldly Notre Dame” in fundraising efforts.
The campaign is expected to clear $4 billion.
As long as college football needs the commercial appeal of Notre Dame more than Notre Dame needs the commercial appeal of college football, the status quo will remain intact. The school can afford it.
Filed under Notre Dame's Faint Echoes
Today, in doing it for the kids
The NCAA suspended DePaul’s men’s basketball head coach for this:
In 2016, the associate head coach instructed the assistant operations director to travel out of state and live with the team prospect, who was a top recruit who had already graduated high school but had not met the NCAA’s academic requirements.
DePaul had aggressively wooed the recruit, who in April 2016 signed a letter of intent to play for the university. But the associate head coach was worried the prospect wouldn’t complete the online course work that was necessary for him to be eligible to play. The recruit needed to complete 16 to 20 assignments, as well as prepare for midterms and final exams in a single month, but around the time he signed his letter, he had only finished one or two of the assignments. He also had “several distractions” around the house that reduced his productivity, the NCAA report states.
The assistant operations director lived with the recruit for nearly two weeks, limiting his extracurricular activities and making sure he finished his assignments.
Note that he didn’t do the kid’s work. He just stayed on top of things and made sure the kid did the work. In other words, exactly would have happened once the kid was already enrolled at DePaul, in order to maintain eligibility. Or, if the kid’s parents had the resources to hire a tutor, exactly what would have happened in that setting. Neither of which would have run afoul of the NCAA.
And when I say afoul, I mean afoul. In addition to Leitao’s suspension, here’s the rest of what the NCAA dished out:
… the former associate head coach was slapped with a three-year show-cause order, which essentially makes him unemployable with an NCAA member institution. The games in which the recruit played will be vacated and not be considered part of the team’s record. University officials said they will make public at a later date the number of games affected.
The NCAA also levied a $5,000 fine, plus 1 percent of the men’s basketball program budget on the university. DePaul had already self-imposed recruiting-related sanctions, eliminating six men’s basketball recruiting days in the 2017-18 academic year and six more in April. Institutions are only allowed a certain number of days to recruit athletes.
All for making sure a high-schooler buckled down on his academics. Nice to see they’ve got their priorities straight.
Filed under Academics? Academics., The NCAA
Musical palate cleanser, right on edition
Truth: it is impossible to watch this live version of “Shaft” without a shit-eating grin on your face.
Filed under Uncategorized
Get The Picture 