Oh, boy. This sure took a dark turn.
Playing this year is probably the least of Anderson’s worries right now. Hope the justice system gets this right, regardless of outcome.
Daily Archives: November 17, 2021
Today, in there’s no money in college sports
I keep thinking there’s nothing a college athletic director can do any more that would surprise me, and I keep being proven wrong.
If all goes as planned, Mel Tucker will become the highest-paid coach in the Big Ten. And Michigan State will make a major show of strength that it plans to be a significant spender in college football in the next decade.
MSU is preparing a historic $95 million, 10-year contract extension for Tucker to remain with the Spartans, university sources confirmed to the Free Press on Wednesday. The 49-year-old Cleveland native is set to become among the highest-paid coaches in the country.
Alumni Mat Ishbia and Steve St. Andre will donate the private funding to the university for Tucker’s reworked contract, according to “Inside the Locker Room” podcast hosts Brian Mosallam, a former MSU Board of Trustee member, and MSU radio analyst Jason Strayhorn. University sources confirmed Ishbia and St. Andre as the donors for the new contract.
The deal surpasses the estimated $7 million contract of Penn State’s James Franklin that is the highest salary in the Big Ten in 2021, according to a USA TODAY salary database. Only former MSU coach Nick Saban at Alabama ($9.753 million) is making more this season than Tucker will under his reworked contract, according to the database.
You read that correctly. Mel Tucker, the current possessor of a lifetime head coaching record of 16-13 (11-6 at MSU), will soon be making more than his former boss, Kirby Smart. Not only has Mel not even sniffed a division title in his three seasons of coaching, he finished his first two seasons with losing records.
These people are fucking nuts.
I don’t need to tell you who Tucker’s agent is, do I? I also don’t need to tell you the sales pitch getting ready to be thrown Josh Brooks’ way soon by the same agent, do I?
2021 Mumme Poll, Week 11
I was pleased to see that some of last week’s wayward flock returned to vote, as we had 293 folks cast ballots.
Cutting to the chase, here is this week’s Top 25:
In all, 54 teams received at least one vote. Florida wasn’t one of those, despite its epic win last weekend.
Here’s what the selection committee hath wrought:
We’re not perfectly aligned, but there’s a pretty strong correlation between the two and none of us have had to say anything as stupid to defend our results as Gary Barta did. The biggest variation I see is UTSA, who we love a lot more than the selection committee does.
As always, we continue to do our work more briskly than the committee does… of course, their quarters are probably nicer.
As far as conference selection goes, the Big Ten rallied this week.
There’s a big drop off after the top two. Thanks to Cincinnati, the AAC winds up with a better showing on our ballots than the rest of the P5. Embarrassing. And also a good illustration of why we’ll soon be getting a 12-team playoff.
The geographic concentration of our voters has remained incredibly consistent over the season. Georgia voters made up 64.7% of the total.
And to what should be nobody’s surprise, Kirby Smart was the runaway winner of this week’s bonus question, receiving just shy of 90% of the votes cast.
This week’s takeaways:
- Georgia continues to keep their 100% showing rolling.
- Alabama was the only other team to crack the 90% threshold.
- Last week, there were six teams appearing on at least 75% of the ballots; this week, only five did. I think that will continue to shrink, unless chaos really strikes at the top.
Filed under Mumme Poll
Just keepin’ it real
Mike Griffith has some thoughts about Georgia’s starting quarterback I’ll just leave here without comment.
I think people that watched that game now look at Stetson Bennett and go this guy isn’t that great. I had somebody say well, you know, Tee Martin came in after Peyton Manning. I said no, no, no, no, no, Stetson Bennett is not Tee Martin. (laughs) You’ve got this wrong. That’s not a good comparison.
I’m not saying he can’t be the quarterback of a national championship team. There’s actually people saying that he should be in the Heisman Trophy discussion. I’m just looking at it and this guy threw four passes in the Spring Game and was the third string quarterback. He was the third string quarterback going into Fall Drills. He was the third string quarterback coming out of Fall Drills. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure what other SEC team he would start for. So I guess if you want to give him credit for seeing it through sticking around Georgia and being a good guy, he’s a cool guy, everybody likes him. But are his talents really in line with other SEC quarterbacks we see? I’m not sure. I mean, like I said, he’s behind a great offensive line, James Cook obviously was a pretty good running back, some of those catches the receivers made.
I’m just trying to be real here. I’m not trying to be a hater. And I get it, this kinda goes to the quarterback gets too much credit and too much blame thing. Let’s not make Stetson Bennett anymore than he really is. He’s a crafty little quarterback with good mobility but he’s got a pop gun arm. He’s got a hell of an offensive coordinator that can scheme ya and create open guys.
Again, if Georgia could trade Stetson Bennett for Hendon Hooker, if they were being honest, (chuckles) they’d do it in a split second. I mean, look at the dynamics Hooker brings. Think about how many times he shook off sacks, how big that arm is, (laughs) that is one heck of a quarterback there at Tennessee.
Well, okay, one thing — when members of the press do that “I’m just trying to be real here. I’m not trying to be a hater.” thing… Sigh.
Filed under Georgia Football, Media Punditry/Foibles
Your Daily Gator isn’t living up to the Gator standard.
Florida fans, how y’all holding up?
Emory, you knew the job was dangerous when you took it.
Filed under Gators, Gators...
Should they stay or should they go
Saturday is Senior Day for this Georgia team, but don’t read too much into who chooses to be honored.
“We basically said last year that if you’re a fourth-year player or beyond, you had the opportunity to go through, but it doesn’t mean that you’ve declared,” Smart said Monday during a news conference. “They’re not ready to declare what they’re doing. Devonte (Wyatt) and Justin Shaffer and some other guys were going to walk in that game, but they decided to stay. We certainly don’t want to force those guys to make a decision before they have to.
“We’ll honor the guys who choose to walk even though a lot of them have an extra year of eligibility. We’re just not crossing that bridge yet. If someone winds up walking twice then great, because they have a special opportunity. These are different times we’re in these days, obviously.”
Unlike last season, at least the seniors get the chance to be honored. They ought to invite back the kids who got screwed by Vanderbilt’s cancellation to receive the opportunity they missed.
Filed under Georgia Football
The articulate Gary Barta
Other than as broadcast fodder for Mickey, these weekly CFP rankings are a complete waste. Worse, they’re an opportunity for someone to do a bang up job of sticking their foot in their mouth.
Enter the CFP chair and current Iowa AD, Gary Barta, who did a masterful job of insertion with this:
Oy. As Bruce Feldman put it,
And before any of you go, “Senator, I thought you were big on statistical data…”, I am, but I’m even bigger on consistency. And there’s the rub. If stats are your reason for ranking Michigan ahead of Michigan State, fine, but explain why stats don’t apply so much in the case of Oregon. Here’s why I say that:
I’ll wait.
Filed under BCS/Playoffs
“This isn’t to cast any blame or make excuses…”
The eyes of Texas are upon Steve Sarkisian.
Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte released a statement of support for head coach Steve Sarkisian on the heels of the Longhorns’ 57-56 overtime loss to Kansas in his public Fort Acres Insider newsletter on Tuesday.
“At Texas Athletics, we all know it was a devastating way to lose,” Del Conte wrote. “You are all so passionate about your Longhorns and feel frustrated about how things have gone for five games. Trust, we’re so disappointed and frustrated too, but no one is more upset than Coach Sark and the team.”
Del Conte circulated talking points that Sarkisian spread earlier this week about the number of players who have transferred from the 2018 and 2019 recruiting classes, counting 52% in 2018 and 46% in 2019 that have left the program. Both of those classes ranked top three in the country. Additionally, Del Conte revealed that 25 players missed practice before the Kansas game because of the flu.
A head coach needing a statement of support from his AD ten games into his contract — that’s gotta be some kind of record, isn’t it?
Filed under Texas Is Just Better Than You Are.
The most NSFW thing I’ve ever posted
As someone who believes that what a coach says in the halftime locker room to motivate his team should stay in the locker room, I don’t approve of whomever taped Kirby Smart at the Cocktail Party on the sly and then released it, but…
… I defy any Dawg fan to listen to that and not immediately want to find a wall to run through.
I don’t think Kirby cares for Florida. I also don’t think he’d ever dance in the locker room after giving up 52 points to Samford.
Filed under Georgia Football
Get The Picture 
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