TFW you don’t have results to sell

Thought this makes for an interesting contrast with the complaint from Chip Towers about player access.

Shane Beamer opens spring presser talking about more open media policy with players/assistants. "I think it’s important for all of you not just in the media but in the fan base to get to know these people and meet these people."

— Josh Kendall (@JoshTheAthletic) March 18, 2021

Keep in mind Beamer coached under Kirby, so he knows how the other half lives.

Advertisement

AJ Green | Georgia Highlights

For your viewing pleasure…

The Green-Pickens comparisons are interesting, of course, as both were their teams’ number one receivers and both are physically skilled.  I’m just not sure I see Pickens at AJ’s level quite yet, though.  And y’all?

The power of symbols, and recruiting

A lot of y’all missed a point about the hullabaloo engulfing Texas with regards to “The Eyes of Texas”, or at least the reason I posted something about it.  It’s basically the same shit Ole Miss coaches had to deal with for years because of things like Colonel Reb.

It’s the recruiting, stupid ($$).

On the football field, does it affect the future? Babers believes it already has.

“Here’s the thing, this is going to be and it’s already been used as a negative recruiting tool. I know it is. It is happening,” said Babers. “And you know what? The schools are stupid if they’re not using it as a negative recruiting tool in Black households.

“So when you walk into the household with that Black mom and Black dad or whoever it is, and they ask you about this issue, and whether their son or daughter’s going to have to stand for ‘The Eyes of Texas’ and it is personal to them, because they are a person of color, y’all better have a clear, concise, and uniform message and you got to be ready for every question and don’t get stumped. That’s going to be an issue because right now, those seeds are being planted, in my opinion, by other schools.”

“You” in this case really means Steve Sarkisian, who’s caught in the proverbial spot between a rock and a hard place.  It’s clear he’s been told not to risk pissing off UT’s big donors and is going along with that.  Somehow, though, he’s got to find a way to balance that with a credible explanation on the recruiting trail in response to the big ass rocks other programs are lobbing at his.  That’s an awfully small needle to thread.

And if he can’t, and recruiting suffers as a result?  Two guesses on who will pay the price for that.  (Hint:  it won’t be the donors.)

Standards, when you want them

You gotta love how college football insists in one breath that when it comes to players’ NIL rights, unless there’s a uniform approach, it will lead to chaos that will destroy the sport, and in the next says, different standards on intra-conference transfers are no big deal, brah.

Though, the rules are far from consistent across each Power Five league. Here’s how each P-5 conference handles intraconference transfers, barring exceptions and waiver rulings.

• ACC: No restrictions outside of NCAA-mandated rules after eliminating them Monday morning.
• Big Ten: Must complete a year in residence for eligibility. Graduate transfers are not subject to that rule.
• Big 12: Athletes must forfeit a season of competition in that sport if NCAA rules dictate that they must sit a year in residence.
• Pac-12: Interconference (sic) transfers must sit a year in residency if they’re not a grad transfer. Up until 2019 players were forced to forfeit a season of eligibility to transfer.
• SEC: Players must sit a year in residence if they’re not a grad transfer.

So, the range is from no restrictions whatsoever on one end to losing a year of eligibility on top of sitting out a year on the other.  That hardly seems un-chaotic to me, but what do I know?

Damn it, Kenny, block!

Graham does a nice job illustrating something I’ve mentioned here before:  McIntosh’s shortcomings in pass protection.

Some fellow pundits have been predicting that Kenny McIntosh is going to take away a lot of carries from the vets in UGA’s RB room next season, becoming option 1A or 1B. Here’s why I’m skeptical…

With a patchwork online UGA leaned on its RB’s and TE’s in pass pro against Cincy pic.twitter.com/m5BfobljTk

— Graham Coffey (@DawgOutWest) March 18, 2021

McIntosh is great with the ball in his hands, but he struggles in pass protection. Georgia had a lot more success through the air when McIntosh wasn’t part of pass protection. The clip above is a play killing miss…

Two plays later White enters and gives JTD just enough time pic.twitter.com/rcqqJ3zmId

— Graham Coffey (@DawgOutWest) March 18, 2021

On the very next play, McIntosh came back onto the field, and showed poor effort in his blocking. He whiffs on the same defender twice, doesn’t get low, and lacks urgency. JTD should’ve thrown this into the stands, but the missed block(s) are what blew the play up. pic.twitter.com/3QG1M5fF6X

— Graham Coffey (@DawgOutWest) March 18, 2021

Those of you who have been blithely predicting that McIntosh is about to take a bunch of carries away from White need to consider that it’s unlikely that a program that highly values its wide receivers’ ability to block downfield is going to tolerate mediocrity from backs who don’t do a good job protecting the quarterback.  Especially…

UGA is going to be breaking in a young offensive line against Clemson. Monken is superb at using his TE’s and RB’s to help his line, if they execute. Better pass blocking has to be priority one for McIntosh this spring. Otherwise his work load will be light until this o-line gels

— Graham Coffey (@DawgOutWest) March 18, 2021

McIntosh’s game has value, certainly.  But his opportunity is going to be limited if he’s not a well-rounded back, and well-rounded includes doing the grunt work in pass pro.

Dollars and sense

I almost feel like I need to pin this post as a permanent answer to those who ask me why I like college football as much as I do, despite the way it treats the hired help.  Here’s David Hale’s take:

The only thing I can add to that is to say that those who see player compensation as the red line that ruins college football forever, despite every over the top commercial decision schools and the NCAA have implemented over the past two decades that have steadily degraded the sport, have a remarkable ability to hold their noses.  That’s part of the problem, which the NCAA and schools are more than happy to exploit.

There’s absolutely no reason they can’t do better.  They should be held accountable to do so, if for no other reason than to preserve the good things that Hale references.

You don’t ask and they don’t tell.

I thought Kirby Smart said one interesting thing at yesterday’s Pro Day presser.  Evidently there are some things Georgia’s staff doesn’t share about players with the NFL.  Or at least prefers not to.

On whether data and metrics such as GPS numbers are useful and whether those numbers are shared with NFL teams…

“They’re useful for us. We don’t typically share that information out, so unless they’re squeezing it out or something is leaking it, we don’t give that information out. We tend to share information that will only help our players. In some cases, it would help. In some cases, they may be consecutive practices in a row, so we don’t share all that out. It certainly helps us, because it tells us when we need to pick it up and when we need to cut back volume wise.”

I’m not really sure why that’s so hush hush, as Smart makes clear there’s context for how the numbers are generated.  (Not to mention it sounds like sometimes they do release information, albeit reluctantly.)  Anyone know why?

“… colleges are essentially incompetent commercial actors…”

Andy Schwarz wrote a thought provoking opinion piece about AB609, the radical bill that would require California universities to pay royalty fees directly to athletes in exchange for the use of their name, image and likeness.   Essentially, he argues that for some, the effect of the bill would be to force schools (at least some, anyway) to disengage from their entanglement with athletics.

In contrast, AB609 is a great example of the other reformist tradition, one which thinks the problem is that college sports are overly embedded into the American economic system.

This viewpoint advocates for pulling back on the throttle. Mandating that California schools essentially opt out of the coaching and facilities markets won’t, by itself, help athletes earn more, but it will work to make sure that coaches, and likely California schools, earn less.

This is a view that colleges are essentially incompetent commercial actors and so athletes can only get justice if the schools are reined in, rather than pushing for the athletes to be let loose.

The question of whether California’s elite educational institutions should be part of the upper tier of the college sports industry is a policy question. Many smart people think the answer is no, and it seems AB609 would go a long way towards ensuring that California schools become more like the University of Chicago or the Ivy League in their approach to sports.

It seems to me that’s an argument that’s right up some of y’all’s alley.  I’d be curious to hear what you think about this.

You can’t tell the freshmen without a scorecard.

Jake Rowe gives us a breakdown of number assignments for the early enrollees here.  I am puzzled by one thing, though.  Since Carroll and Vandagriff both play offense, how did they get assigned the same number?  Any ideas out there, or should we expect one of the two to be renumbered in the fall?

Eh, wait a minute… just remembered they’ve got Carroll working out with the defensive backs this spring.  Carry on, gentlemen.