Is Jamie Newman simply Jake Fromm with better legs?

Wait a minute.

What’s new: Jamie Newman is new, really new. Not only is he a different guy behind center, but he’s a very different player. There are some similarities between Jake Fromm and Newman as passers. Both can throw the ball to the middle of the field effectively but they thrive when throwing the ball to the outside. Newman is at his best downfield when he’s throwing the ball to the outside and that was Fromm’s strength, too. Both also prefer big receiving targets on the outside, but who doesn’t?

That’s pretty much where it ends. While Fromm was very much a pocket passer, Newman is a guy who can keep teams honest with his feet. He’s not the kind of guy who is going to air it out all over the yard and force teams to keep two safeties back. In fact, his legs will force teams to keep an extra man in the box to try and account for him. That won’t be new for the Bulldogs because they’ve seen loaded boxes for four years now due to the talent at tailback. Newman gives UGA a powerful runner who can really hurt defenses with the designed runs and scrambles.  [Emphasis added.]

I thought all the pundits who are high on Newman have stressed that he’s got a big arm and likes to throw it downfield.  Now we’re being told his skill set is going to encourage more of the same scheming we’ve seen from opposing defensive coordinators that’s driven us crazy for the past three years?  Hunh?

I’m not being snarky here.  I’m genuinely confused.  What’s the story?

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UPDATE:  For what it’s worth, Newman is now third in the odds to win the Heisman Trophy, according to William Hill Sportsbook.

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A lesson for Greg McGarity

A source with direct knowledge of the situation tells me this morning that former AD Malcolm Turner told Vanderbilt that it would take $800 million to get all its athletic facilities up to SEC standards.

— Chris Lee (@chrislee70) February 27, 2020

You never have to worry about how spending on athletic facilities will affect the health of your reserve fund if you never spend money on athletic facilities.

I have not come to bury Tim Brewster…

… but to give him some credit for knowing what matters.

The fact we play Georgia every year‼️🐊🐊 https://t.co/kvDLdQ9uLW

— Tim Brewster (@TimBrewster) February 27, 2020

Don’t get me wrong.  I still want Kirby to smoke his ass on the recruiting trail.  But I’d sure rather hear that than some sort of quasi-Paul Johnson “bigger fish to fry” BS.

Welcome to the Cocktail Party, my man.

“As much as I love the guy,” Leard said, “now he’s a politician.”

Tommy Tuberville’s former players range anywhere from bemused to disappointed over the candidate running to be Alabama’s next US Senator.

I’m not really sure why they don’t get it.  He’s still recruiting.  All that’s changed is he’s recruiting a different type of person.

“It’s hard to say, but I think it may be a very calculated step.”

Your “no shit, Sherlock” moment for the day:

Last Tuesday, the NCAA stunned many in the college sports world by announcing a proposal to change a policy that dates back to the 1960s. Under the idea, first-time transfers in all sports would immediately be able to compete at their new school, rather than sit a year as they did under old legislation. Not only was the statement’s timing a surprise but so was its path: The proposal is being fast-tracked to go into effect this fall.

At least one conference administrator expressed surprise at the announcement and said his league received no warning. Meanwhile, Todd Berry, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, a group opposed to the proposal, was completely “shocked” at the NCAA’s statement and said FBS conferences were against the idea as recently as last summer. “Something has happened recently,” Berry said. “I don’t know if it has to do with NIL or what.”

…

“It feels a little bit disingenuous,” one athletic director told Sports Illustrated under condition of anonymity. “It seems like we’re trying to pacify or appease so people aren’t so hard on us with the NIL.”

‘Ya think?

Christ, these folks have made a cottage industry out of cynically manipulating people’s emotions about college sports.  Why would anyone believe there’s something different going on as the NCAA faces its latest existential crisis?

Or that there are plenty of other folks willing to resort to their own kind of manipulations?

Nick Saban, Alabama head coach

“I don’t know how you manage a roster when this goes into effect. I can’t manage our roster now. Last year, we had eight seniors on our team. We had seven guys go out for the draft and three graduate transfers or guys that ended up transferring. So instead of having 18 seniors, you’ve got eight. You really have a three-year program at a place like this. I’m not necessarily saying it’s going to hurt our program because we’ll do a hell of a job recruiting players leaving other places to come here. But is that good for college football?”

You got any doubt that if you forced Saban into a choice of player compensation or one-time transfers, he’d choose the former in a heartbeat?  I sure don’t.

A model of stability

This seems fine ($$).

Pruitt took over as Tennessee’s head coach in December 2017. In February 2018, he announced his first coaching staff.

Since then, the Vols have had 11 coaching changes and stripped two coaches of coordinator titles. Earlier this month, they lost director of player personnel Drew Hughes to South Carolina, where he rejoined a coach he’s long been close with in Will Muschamp.

Churn among any coaching staff is a natural part of the sport, but Tennessee has undergone an alarming amount of change.

Sounds like it’s a real treat working for Pruitt.  No wonder Fulmer’s concerned about making things awful hard on the coaches.

Your Daily Gator has proof.

This Alligator Alley post about… well, it’s titled “New UGA QB Newman Sucks”, so I’m sure you get the general drift, reads like it’s ripped straight from the pages of Stingtalk, COFH week edition, as a statistical attempt to prove what the faithful already want to hear.

Though I can’t say how well this post, from one of their own beat writers, ranking the SEC’s starting quarterbacks for 2020, will go over.  Or what will bother them the most — that Newman is second, or soon to be Heisman top contender Trask is a mere fourth.

TFW you get the athletic program you deserve

Let me see if I’ve got this straight — Georgia Tech’s athletic department is so strapped for cash that it’s moving games from Bobby Dodd Stadium to MBS to raise a few more bucks from visitor ticket sales, but it’s got boosters who are willing to throw away “seven-figure money” suing the NCAA?  (Talk about your meteor litigation!  But I digress.)

The 404 sure works in mysterious ways.  Not that I’m complaining.

Is Kirby Smart history’s greatest monster?

I see we’re recycling one of Tuscaloosa’s greatest hits.

“It feels very calculated by Kirby Smart,” Suttles says. “It’s not the first time he’s done subterfuge with Alabama. He famously took a picture of their recruiting board when he left Alabama to work for Georgia and sent it to recruits to show them, hey, you’re not that high on Alabama’s recruiting board.”

Suttles mentioned how Alabama is in the middle of its Fourth Quarter program of offseason training, which was led by Cochran. He also noted how spring practices start soon.

You know, it’s hard to believe.  After all, Kirby had a reputation for being one of the gentler souls on the recruiting trail when he worked the ‘Bama beat.  It’s got to be a real shock for them to see such a different personality emerge once Nick stopped making him play nice.

Football recruiting, like politics, ain’t beanbag.  Then again, I suspect the pearl clutchers already know that.

Today, in doing it for the kids

Shot.

Phillip Fulmer was very adamant on his stance about the “One Time Transfer:

“I don’t think we’re holding the kids accountable enough period to be honest with you. You come in and you’re not the starting whatever as a freshman and you got the chance to transfer, I don’t know if that’s healthy. I don’t know if that’s telling our youth the right thing. Fight through some things, after 30 hours of academic work or something, some number that makes you commit”

“That’s awful hard on the coaches, you know you got a guy then all the sudden you don’t, I don’t like anything about that. So, I’ll have a vote, but don’t think I’ll be making the decision”

Chaser.

Phil Fulmer, who had one of the worst player discipline track records in the SEC when he was the coach, now wants to hold kids more accountable. https://t.co/PfDYkh1Uu4

— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) February 27, 2020

Ain’t it turr’ble when you make life awful hard on the coaches?