“Football season’s over,” Courson said. “But COVID’s not.”

The 2020 season may not have been the on-field success we hoped for, but the Georgia football program definitely did well combating the pandemic.  As Seth Emerson notes ($$), there never was an outbreak that spread through the team and only one staffer was hospitalized.

No doubt there were plenty of reasons behind that success — one that I assume the staff has trumpeted on the recruiting trail to parents, and why not? — but the biggest one is something pretty simple.  The program took the thread of the pandemic seriously.

Inside the building, there was no politicizing of mask-wearing, social-distancing or otherwise.

“That was nonexistent,” said Josh Brooks, the deputy athletic director who was promoted to athletic director earlier this month. “It never became a political issue here. It became a safety issue.”

Naturally, that started with Smart, but everyone followed his lead.  Well played, y’all.  Keep up the good work.

Urnge top tier

Supposedly, this is where Danny White has set his sights on replacing Jeremy Pruitt:

Multiple college football sources confirmed to FootballScoop Saturday that Fleck, Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott and SMU head coach Sonny Dykes are among those coaches being vetted for the Tennessee job. At least one of those coaches and his agent have reached out to gauge interest of assistant coaches around the country in a potential opportunity to join a staff on Rocky Top.

Color me a little underwhelmed.  First of all, considering the situation, I marvel that UT would consider hiring another assistant coach.  Sure, Elliott is widely respected, but so was Chad Morris and look how that turned out.  Speaking of Morris, Tennessee wants to look at his successor at SMU?  Fine by me.  As for Fleck, he’s a quirky dude who, as the linked article notes, has never remained at one program longer than four years.  I’m not exactly sure the Tennessee football program can be turned around that quickly.

All in all, I wonder if the situation in Knoxville is so dire this group is the best White can summon, or if he’s juking everyone out while he’s chasing someone better under the radar.

The state is loaded.

Thought this was interesting enough to share:

Mapping Auburn's evolving recruiting footprint over the last three coaching regimes. Note the shift in emphasis to Georgia.

Images from @BigPlaidChad's Heroku app chewing on data from @CFB_Data. pic.twitter.com/3d1ptOK0qB

— Jay Glover (@jayau92) January 20, 2021

Keep in mind that’s not simply reflective of the geographic shift after Malzahn’s hire.  He chose to emphasize Georgia more after Kirby Smart came on board and upped Georgia’s recruiting from where Richt had it.  What does that tell you about the level of talent high schools in this state crank out year after year?

What does that tell you about how lazy a recruiter Paul Johnson was?

You’re not in Tuscaloosa anymore, Sark.

You’re in Austin now.

Coming out of Thursday, Mike Stoops was all set to join Steve Sarkisian’s staff at Texas.

That’s not the case anymore, though.

So what changed?

… Sarkisian, the former Alabama offensive coordinator, shared during that call that he could no longer make the hire. Multiple sources referenced that backlash regarding the potential of hiring Stoops may have played a role in eliminating the possibility.

Can you imagine how Nick Saban would react to being told that a booster or boosters objected to him hiring somebody and he couldn’t proceed with his plans?

So much for burnt orange Process.