This doesn’t have quite the trolling power of a Hugh Freeze hire, but it’s still a pretty good comeback to Junior’s return to the SEC:
SEC Media Days is gonna be a blast this year.
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UPDATE: Remember, kids.
Filed under Mike Leach. Yar!, SEC Football
Boom may poke fun at his alma mater, but he sure doesn’t seem to have a problem surrounding himself with Dawgs.
The Bauta comment appears not to be made in jest, in case you were wondering.
Filed under 'Cock Envy
Color me shocked, shocked by this:
During a conference call this week previewing the Playoff final, Herbstreit said generating a false sense of an elite team being undersold is nothing new, in fact, former coach and three-time national champion Urban Meyer used to do it all the time, he says.
“Every coach in the country looks for an angle,” Herbstreit said. “We’ve been doing this a long time and Chris (Fowler) and I used to laugh — Urban Meyer in ’06 used to make stuff up. Just throw it out on their hotel meeting rooms and somebody would say something and he’d say ‘Just put it on Herbstreit or ESPN or whatever.’ But it would be a fake quote just to get his team mad.”
It would have been a lot more impressive if Herbie had called Corch out on his bullshit. Shockingly so, even.
Filed under Georgia Football, Urban Meyer Points and Stares
If Andy Staples ($$) is right about this, it would be disappointing.
It does, however, seem as if Kirby Smart has eschewed a complete overhaul.
The Bulldogs have one remaining open assistant coach slot, and it doesn’t seem likely Smart intends to use it on a new offensive play-caller.
It’s not just what a fresh set of eyes would bring to the offensive scheme that matters to me. It’s also that Smart would be signaling with the right kind of hire that he’s open to making the offense more dynamic.
Admittedly, that doesn’t require anything close to a complete overhaul of Georgia’s offense, but I do think it requires something more than just a little tweaking around the edges.
Filed under Georgia Football, Strategery And Mechanics
First of all, if Cade wants to go, that’s his choice. I can’t say I admire his taste in jersey colors, but I’m not going to knock a kid who wants to play somewhere else. Besides that, there was nothing stopping him from jumping into the portal before the bowl game; to his credit instead, he showed up and played hard. So, more power to him and good luck.
That being said, I’m really fascinated by the way his departure is being engineered to generate a greater likelihood of a transfer waiver request being granted by the NCAA. Remember, as Mark Schlabach explained yesterday when he broke the news, under SEC and NCAA transfer rules, Mays would have to sit out the 2020 season. He’s already a sophomore, so if he’s keen to get to the NFL, that’s counterproductive without a waiver.
And that’s where it gets interesting. First of all, his family has hired The Guy.
Mars is even more The Guy now than he was when Justin Fields retained him, because he’s currently associated with the NCAA. Which may seem strange to you and me, but it sure isn’t to Mars.
In essence, the Mays family has figured out how to weaponize Auburn’s approach to compliance matters in the realm of transfer waivers, which, quite frankly, is brilliant.
Mars or no Mars, though, you still need a reason to underpin the request, and that’s where things appear to be, um, more artificially induced than in Fields’ case, where Mars had the good fortune of another student-athlete making just the right kind of racial comments to fuel Field’s waiver request.
Here, instead, we’ve got the sudden, conveniently timed appearance of a family lawsuit against the University of Georgia.
In a lawsuit filed Dec. 5 in the State Court of Clarke County, Kevin and Melinda Mays, parents of Cade Mays, are seeking damages after the father’s right pinky finger was partially amputated on the hinge of a folding chair as he attempted to stand up.
The lawsuit is seeking $3 million for Kevin Mays to pay for bills, pain and suffering, lost wages and attorney fees, according to court documents. It is seeking another $500,000 for Melinda Mays for a “loss of consortium.”
Other defendants include corporate furniture retailer DeKalb Office and Mity-Lite, the manufacturer of the folding chair.
The incident occurred in Sanford Stadium’s club level when Mays’ parents accompanied him on an official visit on Dec. 15, 2017.
(As an aside, “The injury to the finger has kept Mays from work including duck hunting, real estate and hay businesses.” Mr. Mays has an interesting and varied career, to say the least. But I digress.)
I suppose we’re about to hear some fairly lame argument that the legal confrontation between his parents and the school makes Cade uncomfortable remaining with the Georgia football program. I say it’s lame because either there’s been legal maneuvering going on over the past two years leading up to the filing of the suit that presumably hasn’t bothered Cade, or the Mays family just decided all of a sudden to seek compensation for the injury, in which case we’re back to some remarkably convenient timing.
On one level, I really don’t care, because I think kids should be able to transfer freely once in their undergraduate career. But the rank manipulation of the NCAA transfer waiver process does rub me the wrong way, especially in like of how fickle the organization appears in cases like Luke Ford’s. If this works, and I’m pretty confident that Mars will succeed, it’s just going to open a whole new front of manipulation. Congrats to all involved for making that happen.
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UPDATE: Hoo, boy, shit’s gettin’ real now.
The lawsuit, obtained Wednesday by Knox News, was filed on Dec. 5 in the State Court of Clarke County in Georgia.
The Georgia Rivals.com affiliate first reported the lawsuit on Wednesday afternoon, hours after news broke about Mays’ transfer plans.
“The Mays family has never said a word to anyone about Kevin Mays’ lawsuit,” Mars wrote to Knox News. “The timing of the news stories about Mr. Mays’ lawsuit makes clear that UGA leaked this story to sports writers today after Cade delivered a letter to Kirby Smart late (Tuesday) explaining the reason he’s leaving Kirby’s program.
“In fact, one sports writer I spoke with earlier today confirmed that’s how he found out about the lawsuit. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that UGA is continuing to take the low road about the lawsuit, but in my opinion, directing sports writers to Mr. Mays’ lawsuit set a new record low for UGA Athletics.”
It is to laugh. First off, the lawsuit is a matter of public record. Second, the idea that Greg McGarity is directing a cabal of beat writers to embarrass Mars’ client is a real hoot. Third, “a new record low”? Buddy, you have no idea how low things can get in Athens.
That being said, I do wonder if this is a sign we’re about to usher in an era when McGarity doesn’t play nice. Whatever that might result in, it wouldn’t be anywhere near a record low. Probably not, though — more like Mars is trying to bully McGarity.
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UPDATE #2: Greg speaks!
Filed under Georgia Football, The NCAA
As Seth Emerson put it yesterday ($$),
You can at least say this for Georgia’s offense: It may have seemed boring to watch during the season. But once the offseason hit, well, it’s been anything but boring.
On that note, here’s a list of names in the transfer portal to watch as potential replacements for Jake Fromm. Anybody there interest you?
Filed under Georgia Football
That hyped meeting between Kirby and Jake on Monday? Maybe it was just so Fromm could get a phone number from Smart.
Kirby’s recruited like a sumbitch. The defense is likely to be the conference’s best in 2020. Even with all the departures — and let’s not forget all the hand-wringing on display about the supposed talent drain before the Sugar Bowl — Georgia will still be the most talented team in the SEC East.
There are no guarantees in life or in football, sure. But why not at least wait until we see what Smart does with the open coaching spot and the quarterback transfer market before we slit our wrists?
Look at the bright side — for once, G-Day QBR may actually have some relevance.
Deep breaths, peeps.
Filed under Georgia Football
Get The Picture 