D’oh!

Another one bites the dust for the Sugar Bowl.

Georgia will be without a third starting offensive lineman when it takes on No. 7 Baylor in the Allstate Sugar Bowl on January 1, 2020 (8:45 p.m. ET on ESPN). Fourth-year junior right guard Ben Cleveland will be academically ineligible to play in the game according to his father, Derek.

Cleveland struggled with a couple of classes during the fall semester per his father and was unable to earn credits for those, preventing him from being able to participate in the bowl game. He does, however, plan to return to school for his final season and he’s less than a semester from graduating with the credits he earned from the fall semester.

We’re about to find out just how vaunted that o-line depth really is.  Good luck with that, Jake.

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UPDATE:  In the for what it’s worth department,

Kirby Smart said he "cannot confirm" a report by @Dawgs247 that RG Ben Cleveland will miss the Sugar Bowl because he's academically ineligible:

"There's still things out there. Nothing's final yet."

— Seth Emerson (@SethWEmerson) December 18, 2019

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Don’t blame Bobo.

In case you were wondering…

Kirby Smart said he didn't talk to Mike Bobo about coming to coach at Georgia. He said any changes to his staff will be decided after the bowl game.

— Marc Weiszer (@marcweiszer) December 18, 2019

The Geoff Collins unified theory of recruiting

Waffle House über alles.

GT HC Geoff Collins describing the importance of Waffle House in his recruiting pitch is absolutely everything. pic.twitter.com/rS9VPNY8yA

— Chris Marler (@VerneFUNquist) December 18, 2019

I’ll be looking forward to hearing from the first kid who goes all “yeah, they offered me at UGA, but Waffle House“.

Your 12.18.19 Playpen

A month from now, we’ll be into the 2020 offseason, with a lot of free time due to no college football, so I thought it might be fun to get some book recommendations from the GTP faithful.

Try, if you can, to pick out authors who might not be too well known to most of us.

I’ll give things a start with Phillip Kerr, who wrote a series of books about Bernie Gunther, a private detective in 1930s Berlin, and the ethical problems of operating in an amoral and lawless society.  Kerr recently passed away, but wrote thirteen books about Gunther that stretch over a period of time starting in Weimar Germany and extending into the 1950s.  Great stuff.

Please share in the comments, gang.

Let’s get the (signing) party started.

First one of the day is from one of the biggest names in the class:

Signed ✔️

Welcome @JuicedUpK9 #ATD #GoDawgs pic.twitter.com/p3AxLt1Yc8

— Georgia Football (@GeorgiaFootball) December 18, 2019

Have at it in the comments — your hopes, your dreams, your disappointments, whatever.

“… I’m really grateful that the NCAA is willing to be part of this conversation.”

So, yesterday, Mark Emmert got to hang out with a couple of Senators who appear to be receptive to the concept of federal regulation of college athletes’ NIL rights.

Meanwhile, the guy who’s introduced legislation in the House to restrict the NCAA’s ability to prevent kids from getting paid, seemed none too pleased about the meeting.

Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.) on today's meeting between Emmert, Romney and Murphy: “It’s an ignominious start to the Senate working group when their first meeting is with the chief apologist for an exploitative system and not with the student athletes that are being exploited."

— Steve Berkowitz (@ByBerkowitz) December 17, 2019

He’s not happy.

Later, at an event here staged by the Aspen Institute, Walker said the NCAA has “refused” to arrange a meeting between him and Emmert, even though he has tried for one “multiple times.”

Walker added that he met with a lobbyist for the NCAA last winter and was immediately asked: “What do you think you’re trying to accomplish here?”

I wish he’d have given the guy the Auric Goldfinger response.

Anyway, if Emmert thought he would get a warmer take from the Senators, well, at least they sat down and talked.  I’m not sure how much comfort he can take from this quote from Mitt Romney, though.

Romney also said he was concerned about differing rules across states, adding “there probably needs to be some kind of national standard or series of guidelines, although at this stage I don’t know what those will look like, and … one of the areas of my personal interests is to see a way not just for the very top athletes to be able to take advantage of the name, image and likeness – which is appropriate – but also athletes that are in sports not quite as visible.”

Looks like it’s gonna be a fun dance for a while.

Rich, getting richer

It’s Early Signing Day, so I’ll have a post up later to discuss the official members of Georgia’s class of 2020.

In the meantime, a reminder of how things are on the recruiting front these days:

Rivals.com has 33 players in the Class of 2020 rated as five-star recruits. A whopping 22 of them have either committed, or are predicted by Rivals experts, to sign with just five schools: Clemson (6), Georgia (6), LSU (4), Ohio State (3) and Alabama (3).

That’s five schools getting two-thirds of the very best recruits in America.

And to think some of you still believe that paying college athletes would be bad, because it would lead to the top talent being concentrated at the richest programs.

Living in the USA

This may be the most Mark Emmert comment ever:

Emmert is now VERY worried athletes might pick the wrong university b/c of money.

I'd like to know which of his member schools he thinks is sub-standard. Because if they are all top-notch, what's the real harm?

— Andy Schwarz (@andyhre) December 17, 2019

Musical palate cleanser, I got the blues edition

You could use a little Mick Taylor in your life today, right?

Such a great tribute to Stax, even with an off-key Keef.

By the way, if you don’t own the DVD of this show, you should.

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UPDATE:  By the way…

Happy birthday to the one and only Keith Richards head over to @officialkeef to leave your birthday wishes for him 🎉 🎸 🎉
📸: J. Bouquet #happybirthdaykeith pic.twitter.com/dqClfrEG8p

— The Rolling Stones (@RollingStones) December 18, 2019

Now that he’s given up drinking, I’m worried about his health.

Every picture tells a story.

This is one of those things I’ve just gotta share with y’all.

For some reason, this work of art isn’t available for sale, although you’re invited to contact the artist directly about it (there’s a link at the site to do so).

Anyway, he’s titled this “Georgia Vs Georgia Tech“, which lacks a certain… I dunno, flavor?  I mean think of the labels we have for other iconic Dawg moments:  Hobnail Boot, the Celebration, Run, Lindsay, etc.  Surely there’s a better title than Georgia Vs Georgia Tech, amirite?

(By the way, as a complete aside, my favorite moment of that entire brouhaha was, while in the middle of it, Pickens actually taking the time to look and size up the distance to the wall to make sure Swilling hit it when he hurled him at it.)

So, have at it in the comments.  We can do better.

(h/t Dawg19)

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UPDATE:  Turns out, it has a name.

@MummePoll got some answers to your blog questions. 1.) original not for sale because I sold it before I could finish painting it. 2.) it’s titled “Trip to the Woodshed”, I just listed it as Georgia vs Georgia Tech to make it easy to find on that print website pic.twitter.com/neqfutlBxR

— C Barker ATL (@cbarkeratl) December 18, 2019