I mentioned in this week’s Observations post the nice job Pickens did blocking on Swift’s second touchdown of the day. He was hardly alone in that regard; in fact, it was one of those plays where literally everyone did their job exactly as they were supposed to, which is why nobody touched Swift on his way to the end zone.
A starting wide receiver and Florida’s best defender are out due to injuries, so we’re about to get a taste of Dan Mullen’s team’s vaunted depth. Obviously, Henderson’s absence is by far the bigger concern, so it’s a real shame that Terry Wilson, who lit up the Gators’ secondary in last year’s game, is gone for the season.
Alabama AD Greg Byrne: “We are disappointed that our game against Southern Miss has been selected as a daytime kickoff at home. We realize we’ve played more non-conference day games at home in September than any other SEC team since 2014."
Since 2014: Florida Atlantic, Southern Miss, Middle Tennessee, UL Monroe, Western Kentucky, Kent State, Fresno State, Colorado State, Arkansas State, UL Lafayette, and New Mexico State with an average margin of victory of 41.1 points
I happened to notice, reading this CBS piece about the SEC’s TV schedule on September 21st, that Aaron Murray is part of the broadcast crew for the Auburn-Texas A&M game.
Hmmm… I wonder what the over/under is on how many times he’ll be asked about Nick Fairley and the 2013 debacle.
The California State Assembly on Monday overwhelmingly passed a bill that would allow college athletes to more easily make money off their own name, image and likeness, beginning Jan. 1, 2023.
The vote — initially posted as 66-0, but later shown as 72-0 with 7 not voting — all but assures that the measure will go to Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).
Because the bill was amended after it had passed the State Senate, it will have to return there for a concurrence vote that could come as early as Tuesday, according to the office of Sen. Nancy Skinner, the bill’s sponsor. However, the Senate approved its version of the bill by a 31-5 margin, and the bill’s basic intent remains unchanged.
If the legislation reaches Newsom’s desk, he will have 30 days to sign it or veto it. If he takes no action, the bill becomes law.
Yeah, that’s going well.
I’m not sure a veto would do much good, given those majorities. Bipartisan majorities.
Even Jim Patterson (R-Fresno), who expressed concern about the bill’s potential impact on schools in smaller markets like Fresno State, said: “I hope the NCAA will come to its senses” in its handling of athletes’ name, image and likeness.
Emmert asked the state politicians to give the NCAA more time to consider making changes to the way it treats the name, image and likeness rights of student-athletes. The organization formed a working group to study potential modifications to its current rules. That group is scheduled to report its findings to the NCAA’s board of governors at some time in October.
Skinner and others have argued that the NCAA has had plenty of time to reconsider its policies during the past decade amid a series of civil lawsuits dealing with similar issues. Skinner also noted that the NCAA hasn’t acted since a commission headlined by Condoleezza Rice suggested last year that college athletes should be able to receive endorsement money.
“That was a commission that they themselves initiated,” Skinner said. “I’d say, yeah, they probably need legislative pressure.”
If this is the best lobbying effort the NCAA can put forth, I can’t wait to see how Congress reacts to its request for an antitrust exemption.
Sophomore Adam Anderson, a 6-foot-5, 225-pound former 5-star prospect, continued to work at inside linebacker.
The Bulldogs array of outside linebackers is impressive, with Azeez Ojulari and JUCO transfer Jermaine Johnson starting against Murray State. Nolan Smith, the nation’s No. 1-ranked recruit in the 2019 class, came off the bench.
Georgia has typically gone with a 3-3-5 personnel look, but Smart explained things were done different against Murray State with intent.
“The reason he started … is what personnel they were in, we had a package that we’re gonna play against certain teams,” Smart said after the game. “They were in four-wides. We wanted more speed on the field, so we had two outside backers on the field instead of big D-Ends.
“We were just trying to go a little more athletic and more light. So he fit the mold for that. We knew we were gonna roll a lot of guys. So that’s just a small package we had.”
“We wanted more speed on the field…”. Good Lawd, as if that defense wasn’t fast enough already.
You ready for pain? Since 2008, Tennessee has as many bowl wins as Vanderbilt.
And it gets worse.
After last week’s loss to BYU, Tennessee has gone 9-17 since opening up the 2017 season with a thrilling win over Georgia Tech. Over that time, the Vols have a grand total of two wins over Power Five programs.
And it gets even worse than that.
Even with the losses to Georgia State and BYU, Tennessee barely gets on the radar to be among the nation’s biggest early disappointments, mainly because no one really expected anything in the first place.
No. 4 LSU’s offense came out hot in Saturday night’s 45-38 win over No. 12 Texas at Darrell K. Royal Texas Memorial Stadium with 573 yards that included 471 passing yards from Tigers quarterback Joe Burrow. The offense wasn’t the only thing that was hot, though. Tigers coach Ed Orgeron said Monday during his scheduled press conference that the locker room was pretty toasty as well.
“I called Louisiana Tech, and they told us about it,” he said. “So we did some things in the dressing room that were better. It wasn’t great, but it was better. At least we had air in there. They didn’t have air. We had some blowers in there.”
Now I don’t have a dog in this hunt (although, let’s not forget that Georgia travels to Austin in the foreseeable future), but if I have to choose sides, I’d go with LSU here. For one thing, why would Orgeron bother to make up a story like that after a big road victory?
Second, and perhaps more relevantly, how many folks would loudly proclaim their devotion to “the efforts we put forth in hosting our guests” and stick the visiting band in the upper deck of the stadium?
Through small sample of 2 games – for all linemen with at least 70 snaps:
Overall grade: 1 – T Andrew Thomas, UGA – 94.7 2 – G Ben Cleveland, UGA – 94.3 3 – G Josh Rivas, K State – 93.8 4 – T Tristan Wirfs, Iowa – 90.8 5 – G Solomon Kindley, UGA – 90.4@PFF_College
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