Hell hath no fury like a former lineman scorned.

Greg McGarity, showing surprising backbone…

Cade Mays' attorney says Georgia did not support transfer to Tennessee. That might be reason wavier was denied. Read my blog: https://t.co/HsZaM59V39…t-support-waiver/

— Jimmy Hyams (@JimmyHyams) August 20, 2020

Didn’t know he had it in him.

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

UPDATE:  A quote from the blog post…

“Georgia was not supportive of Cade’s transfer waiver,’’ Greg Isaacs, May’s attorney, told the Sports Animal on Thursday morning.

Schools can not block a player from transferring, but they can state reasons why they think a waiver should be denied.

It is not known how many NCAA waivers are granted when a school supports the players’ transfer.

The NCAA denied Mays’ waiver request last week. Mays and his attorney have 30 days from that date to respond. They could appeal earlier in hopes of expediting a decision from the NCAA.

It’s entirely possible the NCAA will not make a ruling on the appeal until after Tennessee’s season starts Sept. 26.

“The appeal will have a different look,’’ Isaacs said. “We will repackage some things and add some things.

“The focus will be on Mays and the toxic environment he was put in.

“He didn’t transfer to Alabama or Oklahoma, but because of his emotional well being, he decided to come home where he feels safe.’’

He didn’t feel safe in Athens?  Was his life in danger?  In grave danger?  Did Kirby order the Code Red or something?

Advertisement

“All of our quarterbacks are really good.”

Hope you’ve got that Athletic subscription cranked up, because Seth Emerson ($$) does a good job of reading the tea leaves from players after the first few days of practice to cobble together a few impressions.  Considering the beat writers have zero access to those, that’s as good as we’re gonna get for the time being.

The header quote aside, there is some information that Seth gleaned from talking with the players.

The good news is that it appears Todd Monken is on his way to installing the new offense.

Players have been a little more forthcoming about Todd Monken, and what the new offensive coordinator is bringing to the team. Even then, you have to listen closely to find some morsels, because the players aren’t likely to describe the system in detail or new plays that Monken is installing — but it does seem that there may be a lot of those new plays. That’s based on Jackson mentioning the “volume” of the offense, but in an upbeat tone.

… Jackson sounded like things were already pretty far along.

“The offense, the receivers and quarterbacks, running backs and linemen, we have all done a great job up to this point learning the offense,” Jackson said. “Guys are playing fast. We have everybody in the right position to make plays. And coach Monken, I love the way he’s bringing in the offense. He loves to see guys make plays. And if you can make plays, you can play for him.”

The other tidbit worth mentioning is that Matt Luke appears to be remaking the offensive linemen in his own fashion.

The offseason buzz about new O-line coach Matt Luke wanting players a bit slimmer has been confirmed. Salyer dropped weight, and so did junior center Trey Hill, who said he lost about 10-to-15 pounds. Hill said he was inspired in part by Salyer’s weight loss.

“Because I know in the future for (me) my weight is going to be a problem,” Hill said, appearing to mean his football career.

Ericson said the coaches put them at a “specific weight they feel we can play well at.” They also consult with the players and come to a number that’s a goal. And it sounds like those numbers are shared within the group.

“We do make it a kind of competition, see who can get to their weight faster,” Ericson said. “Or if someone’s spiking up or if someone’s getting too low and needs to gain some weight then we kind of get on him. We make it a competition and kind of push each other.”

Ericson said he’s at his prescribed weight and is aiming to stay “as lean and mean” as possible.

It will be interesting to see how that affects Georgia’s run scheme this season.

I got ‘yer bubble right here.

North Carolina, saying the quiet part out loud:

While the campus spikes are disconcerting, North Carolina has possibly paved a path to the most logical plan for universities seeking to compete in fall 2020: play and train on a campus without students.

Once thought of as impossible months ago—even some conference commissioners denouncing it—UNC football players are continuing on-campus preparations for the 2020 season while students are attending digital classes, many of them back home. During a news conference on Tuesday, coach Mack Brown even acknowledged the advantage of a campus without in-person classes. Most UNC football players were already enrolled in online-only classes, but now with students not bustling about, the bubble enveloping the Tar Heels has a better shot of remaining intact. “It helps us create a better seal and a better bubble around our program,” Brown said. “The NBA (bubble) model is working. They’ve had very few distractions.”

College leaders have taken notice of the happenings in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels have, maybe accidentally, acquired what many around college athletics believe is the only sure way to have a season. They’ve got themselves a real, live college bubble—the envy of the rest of the nation.

“What they’ve done is created a bubble,” says one athletic director whose team is still planning to play this fall. “If there is a positive, some of their coaches are probably like, ‘Thank you!’”

Let’s be honest here.  If the goal is, first and foremost, to protect college athletes, based on what we know presently, isolating them away from the general student body is the most prudent course of action.

Problem is, that’s not the most prudent course of action if the goal is, first and foremost, to protect college athletics’ business model.

Proponents of the plan view it as a harmless measure to potentially save an industry from financial ruin. Detractors see it as another example of big-money college executives treating athletes differently than they do regular students, more proof that football players should get a cut of the NCAA’s monetary pie. In the meantime, this is all unfolding during a pivotal time. NCAA leaders are clinging to the last vestiges of their amateur model in a fight on Capitol Hill over athlete compensation, encouraging Congress to pass a federal NIL bill that includes a host of player restrictions.

Ellen Zavian, a former NFL agent who is now a law professor at George Washington, believes the NCAA’s decades-old argument in legal fights—we treat student-athletes the same as students—will fall apart with schools sponsoring on-campus athletics with no in-person classes. “You ever hear the saying, ‘Your actions are so deafening that I can’t hear what you’re saying?’” says Zavian. “This will be used to say that schools are treating athletes like essential employees and they should be getting hazard pay.”

For this reason and others, college athletics officials and medical experts have spent most of the summer detailing the impracticality of a college bubble. It’s virtually implausible, they say. “You can’t bubble college athletes or cocoon them away like the (pros),” says Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician who sits on the NCAA COVID-19 advisory panel. It’s an easier endeavor to sequester paid athletes for months as opposed to unpaid amateurs, who exist in college campuses in the middle of college towns, both teaming with temptations…

Plus, optics.

But above all, a bubble is implausible in college for one reason. “When the students all come back to campus, there is no bubble, because they’ve got to go to class,” a team doctor told SI this summer. “If we’re going to move forward and say they are student-athletes, then they’ve got to go to class.”

But what if there are no in-person classes?

I’d like to see Mark Emmert try that move in his next testimony before Congress.

Working both ends against the middle

I mentioned yesterday that Tom Mars, once one of the most feared names in college football legal tactics, seems to be losing it.  Here’s another example of what I meant:

I dunno.  Maybe he’s just trying to hep.

Today, in unmitigated bullshit

Every time I think I’m over Georgia getting screwed by the conference with regard to its schedule with Auburn, I see something like this and get all riled up again.

Provided the SEC has a normal 2021, here is a look at a decade's worth of the Deep South's oldest rivalry:
6 games at a full Jordan-Hare ('12, 13, 15, 17, 19 & 21)
3 games at a full Sanford ('14, 16 & 18)
1 SEC title in Atlanta ('17)
1 game at a socially distanced Sanford ('20)

— David Paschall (@DavidSPaschall) August 19, 2020

That… ain’t right.  Although it does ease the irritation somewhat to remember that Georgia went 7-2 in the nine of those games played.

Junior wants college football to do it for the kids.

The man is selfless.

Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin says players whose conferences have decided to postpone fall sports should be free to transfer without penalty.

During an appearance on the SEC Network on Tuesday, Kiffin said it’s a “shame” that players are unable to do so.

“Kids are having their schools or their conferences deciding to shut down, so they can’t play, and a lot of them have a lot of money on the line with the next level, or they just want to play their last year,” Kiffin said. “So it’s really unfortunate that the NCAA is not allowing them to transfer and be eligible immediately. We’re being told that won’t even go into a waiver process, so I feel really bad for those kids. It’s not their fault. Why can’t they come play somewhere? That doesn’t make any sense to me.”

He just wants to help.  And if there’s a little side benefit in there for him, who would begrudge that?  Because he just wants to help.

Musical palate cleanser, a little romance edition

Hope you’re in the mood for a little Crowded House this morning.  This is a cover they performed often of a song by an Australian group, Hunters and Collectors, “Throw Your Arms Around Me”.  The lyrics are passionate, the harmonies are killer and the chorus always makes me swoon.