A buddy flick, in Orange and Blue

From a Q&A with Nick de la Torre of GatorTerritory:

How much pressure is Todd Grantham under this year?

Nick de la Torre: “Prior to getting rid of two coaches after the 2020 season, Dan Mullen had only ever fired one coach in his entire head coaching career—and he filled that spot by hiring Grantham at Mississippi State.

“Mullen thinks Grantham is one of the best defensive minds in college football and is behind him. They may butt heads on the sideline, but they have a massive amount of respect for each other. However, if Florida’s defense comes out for a second showing of their 2020 performance, Mullen might have to make a move.”

If that doesn’t sound like Mark Richt, circa 2008, I don’t know what does.

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Can you imagine how much NIL money all the Auburn preseason Heisman Trophy candidates could have made over the past decade?  Sadly, we’ll never know.

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UPDATE:  (NSFW at the end)

Taco Casa Sweet Tea > Milos pic.twitter.com/3gMkCM0d4O

— Nick Perkins (@NPerkins96) July 1, 2021

If you’re looking for unforeseen consequences…

One other thing from that Dellenger piece caught my eye.

Another pressing question: How much involvement can a school have in facilitating NIL deals? In the NCAA’s original legislation, programs were strictly prohibited from such, but the minimalist proposal passed Wednesday isn’t as clear. At least six state laws are silent on an institution’s involvement, presumably making such activity permissible.

One AD in a state without a state law told SI that his policy will be silent on institutional support, providing his program flexibility. He hopes his school doesn’t have to get involved in facilitating athlete deals. But will others?

“That’s my biggest thing,” he says. “As soon as we’re allowed to be involved, it’s a pay for play. People will be brokering and setting up deals.”

There is a fine line there, I suspect.  And if a school crosses it, there could be all sorts of consequences, starting with everyone’s favorite, Title IX.  Still, it’s going to be a recruiting tool ($$), right?

“In college, the marketing piece has always been extremely important,” USC personnel director Spencer Harris said. “It doesn’t matter if I evaluated the right players if we can’t get them. The recruiting process is, ‘How do you get the player to choose you,’ so we’ve made such a big investment in this space to support our players at the highest level and build their brands, and it’s a huge recruiting tool.”

I’ve got a feeling more than a few compliance folks are going to be pulling their hair out over this.

Oh, the money you’ll make!

My favorite Day One NIL story:

You don’t know Kole Taylor, and you might not even recognize his name.

But in the college football hotspot of Baton Rouge, the LSU tight end is famous—at least his shoe is.

During a game between LSU and Florida last December, Taylor’s size 14 cleat was partially responsible for the Tigers’ upset win over the sixth-ranked Gators. In the final seconds, with LSU nursing a three-point lead and in control of the ball, UF defensive back Marco Wilson was flagged for a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for tossing Taylor’s shoe 20 yards down the field. It happened after LSU was stopped on third down. Instead of a punt, the Tigers were awarded a game-securing first down.

And thus, The Shoe Game was born.

“This year, if that happens, Kole would have three offers from shoe stores in Baton Rouge before the team plane lands back home,” says Hayes.

LOL.  Makes you wonder what Marco Wilson could have gotten.

And from the same piece, my second favorite story:

If anyone predicted how this played out, it’s Tom McMillen, the former NBA player and U.S. Congressman from Maryland who is now the president of Lead1, which represents the athletic directors of the Football Bowl Subdivision.

In 1992, McMillen authored a book detailing the doom that may await college athletics in light of the rapid increase in coaching salaries—the driving motivation in the latest athletes’ rights movement.

“We had just passed the million dollar mark for a coach’s salary,” recalls McMillen. “My comment at the time was, if you don’t slow the arms race down, expect one on the student athletes’ side. That’s the story of the last 30 years.”

Ironically, the spark that lit college football’s big-money inferno came from the same high court that slammed the NCAA earlier this month. The 1984 Supreme Court case, NCAA v. Oklahoma Board of Regents, released television rights to conferences, resulting in the now multimillion dollar league TV contracts and escalating salaries. Fifty of the 130 FBS head coaches last year made at least $3 million, according to a USA Today database.

In a fit of irony, it was NCAA president Mark Emmert who, in a way, struck one of the first matches. As LSU’s chancellor in 2004, he made Nick Saban the highest paid coach in the country with a salary of $2.3 million.

I’m not sure if irony is an adequate expression there.  There’s probably an obscure word in German that’s more up to the task.

Still bleeding

Honk if you’re a Vol who hasn’t entered the transfer portal.

Tennessee defensive lineman Darel Middleton on Wednesday entered the NCAA transfer portal, sources told GoVols247. A 12-game starter over the past two seasons, Middleton’s future with the program had looked uncertain since the end of the spring when he was absent from a couple of practices and Tennessee’s Orange & White Game. He will have one season of eligibility remaining wherever he transfers.

He is the second Tennessee defensive lineman to enter the transfer portal in the past week with Greg Emerson going into the NCAA database last week.

They brought in two d-line transfers, so, in a sense, it’s a wash.  The great thing is they’ll have five seniors on their d-line in 2021, so they’re going to have to dive right back into the portal again after this season to fill those holes.

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UPDATE:

Never good to have this at the bottom of your 247 Transfer Portal page… pic.twitter.com/WlOPLsYIh9

— Bill Connelly (@ESPN_BillC) July 1, 2021

“They better win that Clemson game…”

Two months out from the start of the season, and Heather Dinich Dawgrades Georgia’s schedule.

.@CFBHeather says the Big 12, not the SEC, will get two teams in the CFP this year: Oklahoma and Iowa State 👀 pic.twitter.com/8sjfBW58kr

— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) June 30, 2021

It’s adorable she thinks the selection committee is going to care about strength of schedule.

There’s chutzpah, and then…

… there’s this guy.

Senator Tommy Tuberville, a former bigtime football coach, told me last week he’s wary of impacts from paying players & even the name/image/likeness issue. He worries players might be enticed to go to bigger schools where they can make more money, and involving agents/lawyers/etc

— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) June 30, 2021

Tubs is certainly an expert on going to bigger schools to make more money.

His first head coaching job came at Ole Miss. In 1998, he said that he would die as the school’s head coach, famously declaring on his radio show that “they’ll have to carry me out of here in a pine box.” Two days later, Tuberville left to take the head job at Auburn. A New York Times article from 2000 detailed how he left “without saying goodbye to his football team,” and his former players at the school have reflected on how they felt wronged by the move. “He addressed the whole team, saying he wasn’t going anywhere, and that he’s going to be a part of Ole Miss for a long time,” former lineman Ben Claxton said. “The next morning my mom woke me up and told me to turn it to SportsCenter. He was getting off a plane with an Auburn hat. It felt like a slap in the face.” Fans printed shirts featuring Tuberville’s face and the words “Liar, Liar” on them.

Decades later, the pine box comment still gets brought up routinely. When asked about it on a radio show in 2019, Tuberville said that Ole Miss was not willing to commit to him and his staff financially. Yet this explanation doesn’t align with his previous response to a similar question. When asked about the comment during a 2013 deposition over the hedge fund fraud, Tuberville said, “I can’t remember that.”

Tuberville left Auburn in 2008. This time, his resignation was to the point. “After long consideration, I have decided to resign,” Tuberville wrote in a two-paragraph letter to the school. “I understand that, notwithstanding my resignation, the University will make a total payment of $5,083,334 as outlined in Section 21 of my contract.” Such a demand was unheard of then, and would be unheard of now. Coaching buyouts are reserved for those who get fired, yet Tuberville somehow finagled it so that he quit and got Auburn to pay him millions. Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs said that Tuberville’s departure was “completely his decision” and that he and the school president asked Tuberville to reconsider three times. Yet they ultimately paid Tuberville his buyout because, according to Jacobs, it was “the right thing to do.”

… Tuberville left Texas Tech in 2012. He famously sneaked out of a dinner with recruits so that he could accept a job at Cincinnati. “The waitress brought our food out, and we thought he went to the bathroom,” said Devonte Danzey, who was considering Tech but later committed to Auburn. “The next day, [Tuberville] announced he was going to Cincinnati.” The coach’s abrupt exit shocked Texas Tech players. “Never felt more anger in my life,” tweeted tight end Jace Amaro. “Can’t believe what just happened,” wrote safety Cody Davis. As at previous stops, Tuberville’s athletic director was stunned by the news. “As recently as yesterday [Tuberville] looked me in the eye and gave me his commitment and dedication to Texas Tech football,” Kirby Hocutt told reporters in 2012.

Dude may be the least self-aware human being in America.

Plus, this:

Some context on Tommy Tuberville’s concerns that NIL will push the best players to just a few schools…

In the playoff era, 65% of 5-star recruits went to the same 8 schools (Bama, UGA, Clem, OhSt, LSU, USC, A&M & FSU).

Only 26 of 130 schools have signed more than 1 (20%). pic.twitter.com/0pzaC9dMye

— 💫🅰️♈️🆔 (@ADavidHaleJoint) June 30, 2021

It’s July 1st. Has college football’s world ended yet?

Just wondering.

YOKE will have 5,000 college athletes signed up for the platform by 8am, per CEO @mickassaf 🤯 https://t.co/rW4WTwgAgO

— Front Office Sports (@FOS) July 1, 2021