Okay, this is funny.

Sources: Ole Miss football players have agreed with boosters to take a voluntary 10% pay cut for the duration of the pandemic pic.twitter.com/lyS909sYmq

— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) April 14, 2020

That’s it.  That’s the tweet.

Diminished returns

I’ve been expecting this…

NEW: @YahooSports obtained a letter from Group of 5 Commissioners to NCAA President Mark Emmert asking for "temporary relief from several regulatory (NCAA) requirements for a period of up to 4 years." Among them are sports sponsorships minimums, which hints at more sports cuts.

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) April 14, 2020

Bet you that four-year term is negotiable, too.

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Not in the cards

David Hale returns to his roots:

Few coaches have been cursed by “what if” more than Mark Richt. What if Rex Grossman hadn’t carved up his defense in 2002? What if D.J. Shockley hadn’t gotten hurt just before the Florida game in 2005? What if Steve Spurrier hadn’t pulled the massive upset in Athens in 2007, the year Georgia finished No. 2 in the polls? But, of course, no what-if looms larger than the one in 2012, when Aaron Murray’s pass was deflected and caught by Chris Conley at the 5-yard line, running out the clock on the Bulldogs’ comeback attempt against Alabama in the SEC championship game. A loss by the Tide wouldn’t have done much to change Nick Saban’s legacy, but boy would that win have altered how we view Richt. A Georgia victory likely sends the Bulldogs to the national championship game, where a less talented Notre Dame would’ve been the last obstacle to a trophy. Instead, assuming he never coaches again, Richt will take his place in the pantheon of greatest coaches never to win a national title, alongside Frank Beamer, Pat Dye and Bo Schembechler. Ah, what might’ve been.

Sometimes, I wonder if there’s a quiet time or two when Richt sits and ponders why he came up on the short end of the stick so many times.

Today, in stupendously hot takes

Danny Kanell brings it.

Czar/Commissioner of all CFB- a position they desperately need and he would be perfect for it

— Danny Kanell (@dannykanell) April 14, 2020

I don’t know what part of Kanell’s off-the-cuff opinion I appreciate more here, the idea that P5 commissioners are going cede their authority to a czar (for one thing, talk about your slam dunk set up to get your asses kicked even more in antitrust court) or that a guy who presided over a football league that just declared bankruptcy is somehow perfect for the job.

Stick to ragging the SEC, Danny.

Charty McChart

You probably don’t need a reminder of this, but Josh’s graph of Georgia’s offense after the South Carolina game in comparison with the rest of the conference doesn’t exactly exude dynamic.

Cooking up a show with @BD_illustrated tomorrow. Gonna talk some recruiting with @bulldawgbob2 and @GPoole_BI is gonna try to make sense of my stats and graphs… but here is chart for Rush and Pass SR for @GeorgiaFootball afer @GamecockFB… (not good)@statsowar!! pic.twitter.com/Cfdq4KWNTw

— DawgStats (@Dawg_Stats) April 14, 2020

Somehow, though, the Dawgs managed to go 7-1 despite that.  Well, if by “somehow”, I mean the defense gave up about nine points per game in those seven wins, that is.

The point being that the offense doesn’t need to get crazy great in 2020, given that the defense is likely to be.  A decent improvement orchestrated by Monken, and this team ought to be in business.

Mr. Consistent

Sports247’s Brad Crawford waxes eloquently on the glory of Kyle Trask (again).

Arguably college football’s most underrated signal caller last season, Trask won’t be a popular pick for some as the SEC’s top quarterback entering fall camp, but he will be the key to Florida’s rise next fall as a national title contender. Coming off back to back seasons of double-digits wins, Dan Mullen believes his 2020 team could be his best yet in Gainesville and Trask is a large part of that. After throwing two interceptions in his first start vs. Tennessee, Trask notched 21 touchdown passes to only four picks over his final eight starts, finishing with 2,636 yards passing. Trask was especially efficient in three games vs. Top 10 competition, registered seven touchdown passes vs. Georgia, LSU and Auburn. All this came after he entered the season as Florida’s QB2 behind Feleipe Franks, who has since transferred.

The “especially efficient” bit got me to looking at a breakdown of Trask’s stats from last season.  You know what?  I don’t know about the efficient part — his passer rating on the season was a good, but nothing to write home about, 156.09 — but he was remarkably consistent.  Check out his split stats:

Toss the outliers of FCS competition and the bowl game, and his passer rating runs in a range of 146.80 to 168.91.  He’s never that bad and he’s never that great.

He’s the Goldilocks of SEC quarterbacks.

“While Nix picked Burrow’s brain…”

I guess Bo knows he ain’t gettin’ to heaven the Heisman ceremony on Gus Malzahn’s coaching alone.

“We’re planning on a CFP…”

I imagine Bill Hancock has a lot of time on his hands these days.

Although if there’s a group of people who could stage virtual meetings without missing a beat, it’s the CFP selection committee.