Shorter Mack Brown: the best way to get players to stick around is to make them play more games.
Again, it never ceases to amaze me that the same people who will jump ship at the drop of a better set of numbers don’t see the wisdom in providing a financial inducement for players to stay through season’s end. Well, except for that whole “that’s how coaches gonna roll” thing, I guess.
Get The Picture 
Par for the course unfortunately.
Hey Senator – if you have not already, this edition on “Bubble Screen” on The Athletic is worth a look.
https://theathletic.com/2300303/2021/01/04/espn-bad-for-college-football/
“But hey, someone has to pay for those exorbitant TV rights deals, which fuel obscenely lucrative coaching contracts, which help to generate unpardonably egregious eight-figure buyouts when coaches are canned. Bottom line: Jimmy Sexton’s kids gotta eat, too, so chances are networks won’t be redacting commercial time any time soon — unless the ratings dramatically decline.”
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H/t for that article.
“Jones has long had an affinity for abstruse and/or sesquipedalian verbiage, and that’s cool. Why be mundane, right? We anticipate and enjoy Jones dropping an SAT word or a dozen into a telecast. On Friday he referred to the Bearcats’ secondary as “predacious,” to Georgia’s 6-foot-7 tight end Darnell Washington as “unrelenting and unyielding,” to Marcus Freeman’s Cincinnati defense as “intransigent and impenetrable,” and to front-line workers as “invariable and inexorable.”
The Athletic is well worth the money, y’all.
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I really thought he was playing a game we’re someone gave him a list of abstract words he had to work into the telecast. It was so forced and strained. “ Intransigent” didn’t even make sense.
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I didn’t hear that part. I’d already hit the mute button.
That dude was the worst announcer I’ve ever been exposed to.
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He’s not wrong.
In the end, what players play for most, even more than money, is championships.
It’s why Chubb and Sony came back.
It’s why Deandre Baker quit.
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Deandre also quit to not risk future earnings… of money.
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Yes, but if Deandre were playing for a title, had UGA v Texas been a quarterfinal playoff game, I’d bet just about anything he would have played.
And that’s my point.
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Maybe. My point is money is still a factor.
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Chubb and Michel returned, and regardless of their reasons they ended up making more money for themselves.
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Eh, the best way to get players to stick around is to have them play in games that mean something, rather than glorified exhibitions.
Almost put this in your post on the Peach Bowl yesterday, but guess I’ll go ahead and say it here:
the Peach Bowl was pretty much the same as every bowl game this decade has been for the Dawgs (other than the Rose Bowl), from the Liberty Bowl to the Outback Bowl to the Gator Bowls to the Sugar Bowls: show up uninspired, screw around for three quarters, try to pull it out at the end (or not).
It pains me to say it, but it is true….
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Why move heaven and earth to prevent opt outs? Who cares? Why is it a big deal?
One guy leaves, another guy gets an opportunity to play.
The way to look at the bowl games is that they are preview of the next season.
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I agree with you, but, then again, neither of us are head coaches.
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I’m sure coaches would agree with you fans and athletic directors would all agree not to include bowl game performance in how they are evaluated.
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*would agree with you IF fans and athletic directors would all agree to not include bowl game performances in how they are evaluated
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Nah, its a classic, “heads I win, tails you lose” scenario – you can bet if Mack had won Saturday night, he’d want the bowl win to count in his evaluation… Since he didn’t, the excuse-making continues…
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I wonder what in the world Mack Brown thinks that a bowl game could do to make it “fun” enough for a player to take the potential financial risk just for a fun time playing.
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I am not disagreeing with your point. But I see a difference in coaches and teams . When a coach leaves because he has better choices elsewhere I no longer have any connection to him. I don’t care or I hope he fails if he goes to a rival. Players who move on to the NFL are forever Dawgs whom I follow and pull for. I understand that’s not of a lot of value to them. Well, really no value. But as a fan I see the coaches who will move around as hired guns. They have very little real love for the school, it’s just a career. As a fan I see players as “my guys”, they chose my school and they have a special place with me. Some coaches who seem to become “Dawgs” are the same, but those are few. {Though I will say few head coaches leave UGA on their own accord}. My point is, as a fan we get attached to the players in special ways so we take it personally when they transfer or opt out. Not saying they are wrong, but our reaction is akin to a spurned lover who can’t “be happy” that we have been spurned.
I can never know what I would do if presented the chance for riches as a professional player, But I do love the guys who give it all for the love of the game.
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You do everything you can do to suck the life out of college football and make it a business with all this money flying around, then you can’t act surprised when the players start treating it like it’s a business.
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