This, I believe, is the opposite of a cannon shot.
And look who’s minding their ABCs.
Obviously, there’s a long way to go here, but if Stockton does eventually sign and enroll, that may very well set up Georgia’s quarterback room better than it’s ever been set in my memory. Dayum, Kirbs.
Filed under 'Cock Envy, Georgia Football, Recruiting
Georgia fan base: Pretty please, Butts-Mehre, could you improve the game day experience for us by enhancing tailgating, fixing the restrooms, working with ACCPD to smooth out traffic, etc.?
Butts-Mehre: Sorry, fans, no can do. But to make up for it, how ’bout a new irrelevancy that you can send us your money for?
Sanford Stadium will be home to the Topgolf Live Stadium Tour in June, according to an announcement from the UGA Athletic Association on Thursday.
Topgolf Live brings an immersive golf experience to Sanford Stadium and more of the country’s other most beloved venues. The series enables players to tee it up inside the stadium, hitting golf balls into on-field, glowing targets placed between 60 and 140 yards from the tee box. Toptracer technology accurately traces the flight path of golf balls, instantly scoring every shot in an interactive, in-stadium game, designed for all skill levels.
“We are excited to offer a brand new experience within the confines of our iconic Sanford Stadium,” said J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics Josh Brooks. “We have been working on ideas for people to enjoy and experience everything that Athens and our facilities offer, and we believe this is a big step towards doing just that. Similar to the first-ever concert we had in Sanford with Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan in 2013, this is another opportunity for us to showcase a stadium that we believe is second to none.”
The Topgolf Live Stadium Tour is scheduled to arrive in Sanford Stadium on June 18-23. Tickets go on sale on Thursday, Feb. 4 on http://topgolflive.com/. Tee times are reserved in one-hour increments. Prices start at $80 for player tickets and $40 for students. NCAA rules prohibit bringing a high school aged non-family member as a guest.
Premium tickets, which are available for $175, include access to drink tickets, a limited-edition Topgolf Live hat provided by Black Clover, a complimentary Topgolf Lifetime Membership and a game play voucher, redeemable at any U.S. Topgolf location, excluding Topgolf Las Vegas.
Be still, my heart.
I don’t need you to showcase Sanford Stadium, Josh. I already appreciate it. I need you to showcase making attending games on Saturday a better experience.
I can’t really figure out why this is so hard for them. Is nobody letting anyone in the building know we’d like something more than we’re getting for our money?
Filed under Georgia Football
First of all, fuck you, Greg Sankey, for not even making the effort to go to a nine-game conference schedule. If there’s one thing 2020 taught us, it’s that the world wouldn’t end if SEC schools played more regular season conference games. Instead, every SEC team has a game scheduled against an FCS opponent, a treat for fans across the conference. Thanks so much.
Second, there are a couple of more things from Georgia’s schedule worth noting. Georgia doesn’t have any back-to-back road games on the calendar. The only school that has a bye week before playing the Dawgs this season is Florida, and, as has been the custom, that’s when Georgia has its bye week.
There’s also this tidbit from Marc Weiszer: “That’s two of the four new head coaches that Georgia will face this season. There have been only 15 head coaching changes at FBS programs, according to Football Scoop.” You’ve got to like those odds.
Now, on to the rest of the conference:
What do y’all see in addition to that?
Filed under Georgia Football, SEC Football
Shot.
Chaser.
After hiring Josh Heupel, Danny White may not be the AD Vol fans want, but is he the AD they need? Or deserve? Discuss.
(h/t)
I’ve mentioned before that the transfer portal is one means by which the lack of parity in college football can be addressed. There are something like a thousand players in the portal now, which means there’s a ton of roster upheaval being processed, on both the losing and receiving ends.
That being said, Bud Elliott suggests there may even be a secondary consequence.
The best schools are still loading up on the best high schoolers. But for programs who are outside the current top five recruiting classes, it can be a bit of a different story. Some are leaving a lot of spots open for transfers. That’s because transfers, just like recruits, count against the cap of 25 new players a school may bring in in a given year. And this year, transfers are immediately eligible.
“If it is a borderline recruit for us, we’d rather take a transfer who we know can cut it physically at the college level,” said one staffer.
Many coaches and recruiting personnel have echoed those sentiments. Their thought is this: Why not take a transfer player who can be OK for two years and get that scholarship back quickly to use on a future recruit as opposed to risking a four-year mistake on a borderline high school prospect you’ve never worked out or seen in person? Coaches think the bust rate in this 2021 high school class might be much higher than normal due to the lack of evaluation and development time.
Take Oklahoma, North Carolina, Penn State and Florida State, which only signed an average of 16 players in the early cycle. Oklahoma has three transfers as of this writing. Penn State has four, while FSU has eight already.
With so many schools signing five or more fewer high schoolers than they normally would, doesn’t that mean the talent will likely trickle down? If the top 25 or so schools leave an average of two extra spots open for transfers, that’s 50 high school prospects who would otherwise not be available for some lesser programs to sign who are suddenly available.
“There’s no doubt,” a scouting director said on Monday. “If you are at a G5 school and you know your athletic director will be patient with you, there is absolutely an opportunity to sign some prospects who would normally be signed as flyers by P5 programs. It should trickle down to FCS schools, too.”
Sometimes the law of unintended consequences can have a positive outcome. It’ll be interesting to look back on the 2021 and 2022 classes in a couple of years to see if this is a recruiting trend that has real legs.
Filed under Recruiting, Transfers Are For Coaches.
When you can blow $20 million on Gus Malzahn’s buyout, this doesn’t seem like much of a stretch.
Hey, don’t knock it. If there’s ever a situation when a pilot on an Auburn charter plane goes down mid-flight, all that flight simulator time could come in mighty handy.
Filed under Auburn's Cast of Thousands
Why, the recent, rich tradition of Tennessee football, of course.
Since Phillip Fulmer’s last good season, in 2007, this is what Tennessee football has been: a losing program (78–82 overall, 36–70 in the SEC, zero East Division titles); a program in constant transition (Heupel is the sixth permanent head coach); and now a program immersed in a self-acknowledged major NCAA investigation that has months (perhaps years) left to unspool.
From ’08 to ’20, the Vols’ SEC winning percentage was .339. The only East Division programs lower than that are Kentucky and Vanderbilt. South Carolina (.481) and Missouri (.473 since joining the league in ’12) are well ahead of Tennessee.
The records against the teams the Vols used to battle in the East are frightful: Florida has won 15 of its last 16 against Tennessee; Georgia has won nine of its last 11. And the annual crossover rivalry against Alabama is a recurring nightmare—the Crimson Tide have won 14 straight.
That’s a helluva low bar to cross. Opportunity isn’t nowhere. It’s located in Knoxville.
Filed under Because Nothing Sucks Like A Big Orange
“The Saban dynasty is over,” you said.
“He’s getting old. There’s no way he can convince recruits any more that he’ll be there for their entire career,” you said.
“He can’t even keep a staff together from year to year. There’s no way to hold recruiting classes together with that kind of turnover,” you said.
Filed under Nick Saban Rules, Recruiting
I received an email from a reader, Matthew Allen, that kind of breaks my heart. He asked me to share it with y’all, so here it is:
Senator,
This may be too far off the radar for you to consider, but I want to ask anyway. A family friend of mine (actually, his son, Zac Hendrix) is a recent UGA grad and mentored a young, at risk child in Athena while he was there. The child lived in a mobile home park, and last night his home burned, killing his mother, grandmother, and sister. He is now alone and needs help.
Zac is asking for donations for the little boy. I’m wondering if you could make a short post on the blog about it. If not, I understand.
Here is an article about the fire: https://www.onlineathens.com/story/news/2021/01/27/house-fire-athens-kills-three-boy-escapes-flames/4276946001/
>Here is the GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/57f3a1e9
Many thanks.
Please, do what you can to help. Thanks, folks.
Filed under GTP Stuff
Mullen just lost his quarterbacks coach, Brian Johnson, to the NFL. I guess this is what suffices as words of consolation for Gator fans from one of the dudes at Florida’s Sports247 site:
Johnson’s departure, though, leaves Florida with a two-fold hole to fill. Not only did Johnson help coach up quarterback Kyle Trask to a record-shattering season in 2020, but he was also one of Florida’s best recruiters.
The Gators haven’t been particularly strong recruiting so far in Mullen’s tenure, and the 2021 class for Florida currently ranks No. 12 nationally and No. 5 in the SEC.
That said, Mullen has been quite successful pulling instant impact players from the NCAA transfer portal, a strategy that has helped patch some holes on the roster in his first three years in Gainesville.
All that’s missing is a touch of snark and it could have posed as a number of comments here at GTP.
Filed under Gators, Gators..., Recruiting, Transfers Are For Coaches.
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