Time enough

Seth Emerson ($$) makes a good point about one benefit for Georgia in particular from the SEC’s decision to start the 2020 season three weeks later than originally planned.

It was long assumed that Georgia was one of the programs that would suffer most from not having any spring practice. New offensive coordinator, new quarterback, new starters almost everywhere.

But now, assuming the season does start on Sept. 26, the Bulldogs would have seven weeks of full practices, not to mention more than two months of walk-throughs and other football-related activities.

That’s why, if allowed by rules, Kirby Smart will almost certainly push to go ahead with practice. That doesn’t mean putting on helmets and pads right away. They don’t want to practice too hard and too long and risk injuries. But more time together means more time to install a new offense, and more time to gel.

That pretty much destroys the “no spring practice” ding so many have pushed at Smart’s program.

Between that and the presumed toughening of Florida’s schedule when the conference announces the 10-game format details, that doesn’t leave the Gators’ hopes resting on much more than the Portal Master™’s game day genius, Kyle Trask’s Heisman-worthy season and third and Grantham.  Will that be enough to change the media narrative?

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“We’re going to have cases on every single team in the SEC. That’s a given. And we can’t prevent it.”

I’ve seen enough over the past four months not to be particularly outraged or even surprised by this Washington Post piece about a meeting this week between SEC football players, members of the conference’s medical advisory board and SEC officials, including Commissioner Greg Sankey.

Hell, the conference isn’t even trying to avoid saying the quiet part out loud.

MoMo Sanogo, a linebacker at the University of Mississippi, asked the officials on the call why his school planned to bring thousands of students to campus for fall classes. Sanogo said he has four classes per week, and he fears some of those classmates will go to bars and parties at night, then unknowingly infect football players during class.

The answer Sanogo received shed light on the pressure that university presidents, who rely on college football for prestige and revenue, face to reopen their campuses this fall, even as the pandemic surges. “It’s one of those things where if students don’t come back to campus, then the chances of having a football season are almost zero,” an official who did not identify himself said.

It really does mean more.

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UPDATE:  Lots of words saying nothing.

The SEC’s statement on today’s story from the Washington Post pic.twitter.com/Es8xTHBNRI

— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) August 1, 2020