“It’s hard to legislate integrity.”

So, the NCAA recognizes there’s a problem with players faking injuries to stop play.  The NCAA recognizes that there’s no way for officials to make a determination about the validity of player injuries.  The NCAA knows this looks bad.  The NCAA knows that ultimately this one’s on the coaches.

And the NCAA knows something needs to be done.

The answer, it turns out, is simple: tie it to playing time, since it’s the most valuable commodity to both players and coaches.

Somehow, they manage to get that far, but no farther.

So what would be appropriate to deter bad actors? Two plays? Four? Ten? “Some people said a possession,” Steve Shaw said. “Some went as far as a quarter.”

Ultimately, the rules committee decided there was no magic bullet and tabled legislation. But instead of doing nothing, it opted for a direct warning to coaches: Either you deal with this now or we’ll have to do something.

“We’re going to work with all coaches — and maybe players — to where they see this video and recognize that we’re looking at this very closely,” Steve Shaw said, “and our expectation is that in the 2020 season feigning injuries as an issue in our game will go away, with clear expectations that if players and coaches don’t take care of it, the rules committee then will have to address it and deal with it in some kind of playing time respect. That’s really the only way we think we can get after it.”

Faking injuries will go away because Steve Shaw issued a stern warning?  Uh hunh.  What do you think of that, Mike Gundy?

YOU’LL HAVE to forgive Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy if he rolls his eyes a little bit at this…

“Warning coaches isn’t going to do anything,” he said. “Until they say that if he’s hurt then he’s out for the remainder of the drive, then coaches are going to go into meetings and say, ‘We have to slow their offenses down. I know the rules committee says we need to try this, but the rules committee is not paying my paycheck.'”

When he’s right, he’s right.

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It was fun.

Was this the best game I watched between the hedges during the Mark Richt era?

Yeah, I think it was.  The last four minutes of the game — especially the last defensive stand — was as loud as I’ve ever heard Sanford Stadium get, before, during and after Richt.

The broadcast team, by the way, was excellent, especially on how they called the game winning drive.  But what I really loved was Danielson’s, at about the 17:30 mark there, watching Murray and Landry congratulate each other, “how fun is that?” reflection.  You could tell for just a minute how much he missed the competition.

Looking back on that 2013 season, for an 8-5 final mark, it’s remarkable how much drama there was, considering the devastating run of injuries that gutted the offense for much of the season.  South Carolina, this game, Tennessee, Florida… and, of course, Auburn.  Ah, well.

“I would like for the world to go on.”

Good quote from Mel Tucker about the world we’re in right now:

“I believe everyone who loves football would like to see a 2020 season,” Michigan State coach Mel Tucker said, “but not if it puts the health and safety of our student-athletes, coaches, staff and fans at risk. I’m a football coach, so I am going to leave the recommendations to the health professionals and continue to do what I can do to push Spartan football forward in the most impactful and safest way possible.”

For the moment, that’s all you can do.

“wtf”

Welp.

Mississippi State defensive lineman Fabien Lovett, who criticized Bulldogs coach Mike Leach’s tweet that showed a meme of a woman knitting a noose for her husband during self-quarantine, entered the NCAA transfer portal on Friday.

Lovett wrote on Twitter that he had entered the transfer portal and has three years of eligibility remaining.

Lovett’s decision came one day after Leach posted the now-deleted tweet.

Maybe somebody needs to rethink his social media policy.  If he has one, that is.

From the land of it just means more

It is still possible to laugh about this damned disease.

Saw this on @Michael_T_Wood’s IG feed. Well done, @WaltMaddox pic.twitter.com/0ZkQx3BsL9

— Roll ‘Bama Roll (@rollbamaroll) April 6, 2020

It’s funny, but it also probably works.

And now, a word from our sponsor

We are all struggling to come to terms with the impact of the coronavirus and, specifically to this blog, how that already affects and will likely continue to affect for some time the world of college football.

My posts on the subject have tried to explore that.  What I didn’t anticipate (and that’s my fault) is how impassioned some of you are about the disease and its impact on society at large.  Unfortunately, that’s led to discussions outside the scope of the subject of a specific post.  And it’s leading to a lot of personal invective that’s making me uncomfortable, to be frank.

Yesterday is a good example of that.  I tried to set up a discussion about whether you would feel comfortable attending Georgia’s season opener.  While there were a few comments on point, the discussion devolved into a debate over unrelated topics like the Chinese, wet markets, the Russians, lawyers… well, you get the picture.  (Before you go there, I was just as guilty of it as anyone.)

So, it’s time for a reboot.

Please, stay on point.  I went back to check and I’m not crazy:  my posts on the coronavirus have been tied to football matters. I don’t expect that to change between now and whenever college football returns.

You guys need to stick to the subjects I introduce.  That’s the rule around here, anyway.  I will, coronavirus or no coronavirus, enforce the rule by either removing posts that violate the rule or by removing the commenter who won’t respect me or their fellow commenters.

If you want to vent about where the disease came from, members of my profession, whether small businesses are getting the shaft, or any number of general topics related to the coronavirus, that’s what the Playpen is for.  Save it for Wednesday, please.

Believe it or not, I am making more of a concerted effort to stick to sports because I think we all need that as much as we ever have.  It’s simply an unfortunate aspect of college football right now that the coronavirus is part of the package.  Let’s all try not to make it any more contentious than it already is.  Be cool.

Thanks.  Let’s get through this together.