This man runs a major US university.
“We need to learn to dance with the pandemic rather than being fearful of it,” West Virginia president Gordon Gee said. “We have moved from ‘The Hammer,’ which I call where we just locked everything down, to what I call ‘The Dance.'”
Which goes to show you can get pretty far in life if you have the ability to raise lots of money.
Filed under General Idiocy
Dial up this interview with North Carolina AD Bubba Cunningham to the 17:30 mark and tell me if his explanation of why he has a problem with college athletes monetizing their NIL makes a lick of sense.
Filed under It's Just Bidness, The NCAA
Andy Staples ($$) talks to a bunch of athletic directors about how they’re preparing to deal with stadium seating in the time of coronavirus. This parenthetical comment should tell you how sensitive a topic it is right now:
(We’ve promised anonymity to the athletic department officials interviewed for this story because officials are understandably reluctant to speak publicly, fearing a panic from their donors.)
I suspect Andy misspelled “anger” in that last line, but whatever.
No state currently would permit even 50% seating in a stadium and most would fall in a range of 20-40%. So, among the options when you limit supply to comply with health regulations are these:
Lovely.
If you divvy up accordingly, what then happens with the tickets?
Sure, one anonymous AD referred to this as “… a development person’s worst nightmare,” but I’m thinking it’s just another opportunity for the bunch who did such a great job coordinating the sale of 2017 Notre Dame tickets to an energized donor base. Hey, it’s not like they started the virus, amirite?
Filed under Georgia Football, It's Just Bidness
Don’t feel political or virus-y this morning, so instead what you get is the tweet I obsessed over the most this past week. It’s absolutely mesmerized me.
Maybe that says more about me than the clip, I dunno. But after I got through laughing, I had so many questions: how does somebody go to that much trouble? how does someone in a devil’s costume manage to stroll around on a golf course unchecked? who the hell filmed it? why go to the trouble of toting around a helium-filled balloon when there’s a handy pond to toss the ball into? why bother to chase a dude in a devil’s costume?
Pulling up with tweaked hammies is the perfect cherry on the sundae, too. All in ten seconds. I wonder what he told his wife when he got home that day.
So, what’s on your mind today?
Filed under GTP Stuff
Here’s a deep dive into what Jamie Newman brings to the table after his last season at Wake Forest. The author does a good job outlining Newman’s strengths and weaknesses — there are both on display in the post — and summarizes as follows:
Newman is a strong armed passer who is a perfect fit for Todd Monken’s Air Raid offensive philosophy, and he’ll likely put up prolific passing numbers. If you’re optimistic in how Monken will utilize Newman’s athleticism, and equally optimistic that Newman can adapt to playing against more talented defenses week-over-week, Newman’s preseason Heisman odds are justified, and he will put himself in Heisman contention early and has an outside shot at following in the footsteps of Mayfield, Murray, and Burrow as transfer QBs turned Heisman winners.
The Monken factor is one thing we don’t know about, obviously, first, in terms of how he intends to use Newman in the offense…
What’s unclear is how Monken intends to use Newton’s athleticism. Historically, Monken has not used quarterback runs as any significant element of his offense. Only J.W. Walsh, who Monken coached as Oklahoma State’s offensive coordinator in 2012, had any meaningful rushing contribution from the QB position under Monken, accumulating 290 yards and 7 touchdowns that year. The next best rushing performance by a QB under Monken was Jameis Winston’s 281 yards and one touchdown in 2018. Overall, neither stat line compare to what we’ve seen from athletic quarterbacks at the collegiate level, and would be disappointing numbers for an athlete of Newman’s pedigree.
The silver lining is that Monken is at least saying the right things since arriving in Athens, stating that he’s more focused on adapting to his players rather than dogmatic application of a specific style. Newman’s athleticism supports his usage in designed QB runs and read option packages. While Monken does not have a history of using designed QB runs in his offense, if he really intends to adapt to his players, that will require such runs becoming an offensive staple.
… and second, in terms of how, as Newman’s position coach, he can direct Newman to shed some of the bad habits he showed last year at Wake.
Read the whole thing for more.
Filed under Georgia Football, Strategery And Mechanics
Here’s a good thought exercise for you guys. Check out what an eight-team college football playoff field, based on a combination of automatic bids and at large offers, would have looked like over the past four seasons…
… and tell me what’s improved by expansion. ‘Cause I’m not seeing it.
Filed under BCS/Playoffs
Dan Wolken thinks that now is the perfect time for college athletes to form a union.
But in the midst of COVID-19, nobody could blame college athletes for wanting to protect themselves from a new disease that, while statistically unlikely to kill them, could make them very sick and potentially cause long-term issues that nobody is quite sure about yet. Ask yourself: What’s in it for them to show up next month and be part of this experiment?
At this once-in-a-lifetime circumstance, the players — not the schools — have the power to make college football happen or not and to get something significant in return.
Whether you agree or not, what I can’t figure out is how you organize a union in the midst of a pandemic. I mean, I can see an individual player (or that player’s mama, more likely) choosing not to participate because of a perceived health risk a lot easier than I can see putting together an organization to reach out to college athletes — thousands of college athletes — who aren’t on campus and getting them to vote on a union all in time to negotiate with schools before the start of the next football season.
Am I missing something here?
Filed under Look For The Union Label
A funny thing happens if you look behind 1990.
Filed under Gators, Gators..., Georgia Football, Stats Geek!
Get The Picture 