In the immortal words of Mick Mulvaney, those of you hoping the Georgia-Florida game would be moving from Jacksonville soon need to get over it, at least for a few more years.
Daily Archives: October 22, 2019
TFW you need a few more clicks
Oh, ‘fer Crissakes, DawgNation…
Filed under Georgia Football, Media Punditry/Foibles
The Mount Rushmore of coaching salaries
I wonder how many of these guys will still be at the same job five years from now.
By the way, out of 130 coaches, the lowest ranked SEC coach is still in the top 50 nationally. Now, we just need a ranking of coaches’ agents.
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UPDATE: More fun details here.
► The average total pay for the 122 FBS coaches for whom USA TODAY Sports could obtain compensation figures is $2.67 million, up 9% compared to last season. The increase is the largest in four years.
► For the first time, there is a league in which all of the coaches are making at least $3 million. It’s the 14-school Southeastern Conference, in which the average total pay is $4.95 million.
► Thirty-three coaches would be owed eight-figure buyouts if they were fired without cause on Dec. 1, with 13 of those buyouts exceeding $20 million. (Some buyout clauses contain offset and mitigation language that could decrease the amount paid to the coach if he secures another job.)
Your typical college AD would get fleeced at a neighborhood poker game.
Filed under College Football, It's Just Bidness
Okay, who ordered the Code Red?
Seth notes an interest juxtaposition here ($$):
“Many times during the night there’d be sometimes where, ‘Hey coach, the ball’s feeling super slick right now,’ and sometimes it wasn’t and you were feeling good,” Fromm said. “It was definitely a big part of the game in not throwing as well as you would want to. The ball was super slippery tonight.”
But Smart denied that Fromm ever told them that, and said the decision to stop passing it was more a coaching decision: “At the end of the day, there’s some tough things that had to happen to throw the ball in those conditions. One, you’ve got to protect, two you’ve got to throw and catch, and you’ve got to protect the ball once you get it. Handing the ball to a guy is a helluva lot easier in those conditions.”
In the vast scheme of things, the discrepancy is irrelevant: Georgia got a 21-point shutout win over a conference opponent in shitty weather and that should be that. I just find it amusing that both Smart and Fromm are so willing to take credit for the suck.
There’s no “I” in team and there isn’t one in don’t pass, either.
Filed under Georgia Football, Strategery And Mechanics
PAWWWLLL!!! flinging poo
Funny, I hear people say the same thing about your show.
Filed under PAWWWLLL!!!
Victim of circumstance
This is some story: a high school football player gets suspended for the first game of the season because of an ejection in the state playoffs last year but changes his name, class and jersey number and plays anyway.
Of course, the ruse is discovered — his tats gave him away! — and the school penalizes itself by cancelling its season and canning the entire coaching staff.
And it’s here that I introduce you to the head coach… er, former head coach.
Jackson, as well as head coach Brandon Gregory, both went along with the lie that the junior didn’t play, despite him actually putting up 109 yards on the ground and scoring a 56-yard touchdown in the 32-21 win.
Gregory told the Post-Dispatch that the imaginary freshman Burks, “earned” the start and that “it was his time to play ball.” Jackson also put his acting skills to the test, telling the newspaper that “watching last week, it wasn’t fun at all. It gave me a spark.”
… Gregory said after the news was made public that “a mistake was made.”
He also said that he did not know Jackson should have been suspended for a game.
“That’s kinda my wrongdoing of not knowing the rules and that he shouldn’t have not sat out the jamboree, he should have sat out week one so that’s what happened” he said.
As for the coach’s defense of Jackson wearing a different jersey, Gregory said “that’s a thing our kids do on the regular basis, you know, they try to change jersey numbers and sometimes don’t let us know.”
This dude’s wasting his talents coaching high school football. Clearly, he’s got a bright future in politics.
Filed under It's All Just Made Up And Flagellant
“I think [the California law] is a bunch of bulls—t.”
Is giving the NCAA four years to figure out a compromise a fatal flaw? Apparently so, to some.
“The NCAA knows that it can sit back and do nothing for the next four years, because the law doesn’t go into effect until then. Then when there’s a lawsuit, they can kick the can down the road for another decade. That’s what they’ve always done.”
Hard to argue with that. But it’s also worth mentioning that there are several states proceeding with bills that shorten that time frame significantly.
Because of that, I do think the NCAA will take a run at Congress to address the situation with national legislation. As the article points out, the organization and schools are already spending lavishly on lobbying efforts there. One problem, though.
However, there’s a catch. In D.C., cutting deals means getting and giving—or, to use a phrase that’s both timeless and timely, a quid pro quo. What does the NCAA have to offer Congress in exchange for wading into a controversial, divisive, and high-profile issue that’s as likely to get members criticized as praised, and draw attention to the fact that lawmakers are bargaining with one of America’s least-liked organizations to the probable detriment of college athletes? Absolutely nothing. And besides, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle seem increasingly unsympathetic to the association’s cause.
Actually, I disagree a little with that. The NCAA does have something to offer in exchange: the termination of its tax-exempt status. Now, would it want to put something like that on the table? Hells, no, it wouldn’t. But you can bet it would game out the cost-benefit analysis of sacrificing that for a sweeping antitrust exemption. Of course, that would risk clouding the perception that it’s in it for the academic mission, not the business one. (You can stop chuckling now.)
The bigger risk, though, is that Congress does what it wants to do after the NCAA opens the door. In other words, there’s a lot left to play out. Read the whole article; it’s thought provoking, to say the least.
Filed under Political Wankery, The NCAA
“You’re always trying to set the golden standard…”
“Whether it’s how many first downs you give up, red area attempts or three-and-outs. … I think our kids realize they are aspiring for excellence, not perfection. We have high targets and try to hit them.”
Those philosophies are backed by goal-setting. Smart is detailed in how he runs his program, and everything is predicated upon expectations. His quality-control staffers analyze a 17-page book each week when scouting an opponent, analytics come into play and his players are given a list of objectives in the meeting room each week.
Some of the goals are lofty, so not all of them are attainable. They’re used offensively, too, with intentions centered around explosive plays and run efficiency, but they’re resulting in more success defensively. Georgia hasn’t yet met seven of its 10 defensive goals for a week, and it didn’t do so last season either. Against Kentucky, a majority were checked off.
As told by Rice and outside linebacker Azeez Ojulari, here’s a look at the defensive whiteboard:
- Hold the opponent to 13 points or less
- Hold the opponent to 3.2 yards per rush
- Create over 20% havoc
- Limit explosive plays
- Average 4.5 yards per passing down
- Obviously, win the game
I like that “obviously”.
The seasonal stats suggest the approach is working.
Total defense (yards allowed per game)
No. 6 overall, No. 1 in the SEC: 266.7 yards allowed per game
Last week: No. 12 overall, No. 2 in the SEC: 281.7 yards allowed per game
2018 end of season ranking: No. 13 overall, No. 2 in the SEC: 314.3 yards allowed per game
2017 end of season ranking: No. 6 overall, No. 2 in SEC: 294.9 yards allowed per game
2016 end of season ranking: No. 16 overall, 327.5 yards allowed per game
Scoring defense
No. 4 overall, No. 1 in the SEC: 10.6 points allowed per game
Last week: No. 6 overall, No. 1 in the SEC: 12.3 points allowed per game
2018 end of season ranking: No. 15 overall, No. 5 in SEC: 19.2 points allowed per game
2017 end of season ranking: No. 6 overall, No. 2 in SEC: 16.4 points allowed per game
2016 end of season ranking: No. 35 overall, 24 points allowed per game
The offensive stats haven’t followed the same trend line.
Hey, I’m old enough to remember when it was the offense that was supposed to carry the team while the defense got its act together. Funny how that’s playing out in real time.
Filed under Georgia Football, Stats Geek!, Strategery And Mechanics
“What are the repercussions here?”
A lot of people are giving Jeremy Pruitt credit for speaking truth to power here about SEC officiating, but I would have been a lot more impressed if he’d have called out Steve Shaw over it the way he went after Greg McGarity about Georgia’s IPF situation.
I mean, “we make mistakes”? Pffft.
Filed under SEC Football
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