You’re not the boss of me.

In case you still have doubts about a college football season this fall…

It’s why Gov. Kate Brown’s recent comments about Phase 1 of the return to normal life fell flat for some. Gov. Brown suggested that large events, including sporting events through the end of September, should be canceled or modified.

Maybe she was just establishing some expectations, but kickoff for Oregon-Ohio State was still four months away.

Said one prominent UO source: “I would argue that (Gov. Brown) has very little if any input given the aforementioned. I believe the funding may be enough to cover being part of a public system. Bottom line it doesn’t help cover any operating costs. The schools have to open in the fall.”

When a West Coast school is telling the state governor how things are gonna be, yeah, they be playin’.

Advertisement

The superior intellect

One place we’re routinely assured the Portal Master™ has a decisive advantage over Kirby Smart is in-game coaching.  Never mind that Mullen has yet to prevail in a single head-to-head meeting; rings are being run around even as the losses mount.

As a reminder, here is an example of genius.

Frustration on the Florida offense surfaced early last week in the game against Georgia as the Gators called two timeouts of their opening possession.

The Gators called timeout with 13:13 left in the first quarter, and then two plays later with 11:42 on a drive that went eight plays, but ultimately ended on an incomplete pass on fourth down at the Georgia 40-yard line.

Coach Dan Mullen said earlier this week that a lot went into calling the timeouts, and that there was an “administrative” problem. But Gainesville Sun columnist Pat Dooley shed light on the issue in a podcast called “Dooley Noted.”

Dooley said a fan first raised the issue that some Gator players had the wrong wrist band.

“(Kyle) Trask was getting one play, the receivers were getting another, it was a disaster,” Dooley said, and later confirmed the issue. “So obviously, that’s a bad mistake. That’s a mistake that shouldn’t be happening in Week (10), that’s a mistake that shouldn’t be happening at a program like this with all the people that are running around with jobs.”

Some fans also pointed out that it was particularly embarrassing as the Gators were coming out of a bye week and seemingly should have plans like this ironed out.

‘Ya think?  Good job, fans.

Kirby’s done some stuff that’s made me pull my hair out, but I’d like to believe by the time he’s got a decade of being a head coach under his belt, he’ll at least have fully mastered the art of having everyone wearing the same play calling device.

Greener pastures and rankings

I guess this was inevitable.

College football transfers are as prevalent as ever thanks to the transfer portal. Given that, it makes sense for us at 247Sports to attempt to measure the impact of the newcomers beyond the high school and junior college ranks.

This part of the evaluation actually makes some sense.

Transfers happen for a reason. Players transfer up for a better challenge, transfer down for more playing time, transfer out for a better environment, transfer in for personal reasons or any number of other scenarios. In some cases, we’re grading a young player with almost no experience. In others, we’re grading an experienced player that has had success but is on the decline or maxed out.

But the bottom line is that transfers do not succeed at the same rate as normal high school players. For the most part, your true elite impact players don’t transfer. They easily see playing time and succeed. They have no reason to transfer.

There’s one notable exception to that logic: quarterbacks.

You can look at the complete list here.  (Be forewarned:  there are a lot of names there.)  As indicated, most of the players there have seen their rankings dip once in college.

Here’s one example who bucked that trend, though.

Here’s another, although the improvement is much smaller.

At least Kirby is taking kids who are trending in the right direction.

***************************************************************************

UPDATE:  By the way, the meltdown on the Gator board is glorious.  Posters are threatening to drop their Sports247 subscriptions over it.

“… just because you can make money from your likeness doesn’t mean you will.”

I’m sure some of you will see this piece as a sort of “a-ha!” moment, but I’m really not getting the point to it.

Some college athletes will benefit greatly from the NCAA’s modernization of rules allowing them to profit off their name, image and likeness.

Many, however, will not see much of an increase — if at all — in their bank account. The NCAA’s working group recommended to the organization’s Board of Governors to allow college athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness, but with certain guidelines, and “guardrails” are still being developed through feedback from college universities and conferences. Still, the implementation of the new rules appear to be on the fast track before the 2021 football season, and football programs across the country are already implementing training sessions to help prepare athletes for the possibilities that include pitfalls, harsh realities and potential success stories as they enter the business world as potential spokespeople and managers of their own personal brand.

Brand marketing consultant Jeremy Darlow has been hired by Georgia Tech and West Virginia in recent weeks to help educate players about how the impending “NIL” ruling will affect players. Sure, there is money to be made, but the vast majority of players are not in a position to capitalize.

“People on the fringe are going to come to school thinking I have an opportunity to get a shoe deal or an endorsement deal from this major brand, and that’s just not how it’s going to be, in my opinion,” Darlow told 247Sports. “It might be the Wild West a little bit at the beginning but once things settle down you’re going to see the same athletes signing deals that you would have seen (after college).”

I think he’s selling some kids a little short here — there are college athletes who are going to have an opportunity to monetize their social media skills but aren’t going to sign anything after college — but the larger question is, is every college athlete truly convinced they’re about to make their fortune with NIL?  I have a hard time believing that.

After all, haven’t y’all been regularly assuring us that the third-string offensive lineman is going to be extremely jealous of the star quarterback who gets the marketing glory?

Zach Evans mocks your Daily Gator.

ESPN has thoughtfully provided a timeline for all the relevant recruiting action for TCU’s first five-star signee.  It runs from February 8, 2019 to yesterday.  There are two dozen entries.  This is the only one of those that mentions Florida:

Feb. 19, 2020: A report from 247sports.com indicates that Evans has scheduled his fifth and final official visit to Florida on March 20.

There you go — the stuff that orange and blue dreams are made of.

Some time in the future, I’m looking forward to reading the first Gator message board thread that what-ifs Evans taking his official visit to Gainesville.  No doubt it will involve a couple of nattys along the way.  Ah, what might have been.