Apparently, you can go home again.

At least you can, if Greg McGarity moves out of the joint first.

Mike Bobo‘s third stint at Georgia as a coach has officially begun. Dawgs247 has confirmed that Bobo at UGA’s football facility as of Friday and has started working for the program as an offensive analyst.

Kirby Smart has explained the “analyst” role in Georgia’s off-field staff as one used to coach the coaches. Bobo will be charged with self-scouting and breaking down future opponents among a myriad of other duties.

I hope he gets to look Monken in the face and tell him to run the damned ball.

Advertisement

Note to Josh Brooks

Georgia linebacker Nolan Smith arrested in Barrow County for driving on a suspended licensehttps://t.co/IKeKtW0sG9 pic.twitter.com/k87lisCdDC

— Marc Weiszer (@marcweiszer) January 28, 2022

After years of this, can we not get a Department of Driver Services Customer Service Center opened in Butts-Mehre?  Sure would cut down on the arrests, methinks.

Needed to build a bigger portal

This is something.

Who's won Florida in recruiting over the past 5 classes (2018-2022)?

2018 – Ohio State
2019 – Alabama
2020 – Clemson
2021 – Alabama
2022 – Georgia*

Winning = Getting the most Top 15 FL recruits of any FBS program.

— Conor "Innovator" McAnalytics (@ConorMcQ5) January 28, 2022

When it came to in-state recruiting, Dan Mullen didn’t erect a fence.  He threw out the welcome mat.

Over time, it’s only going to be more puzzling to think of all the pundit takes about Mullen’s recruiting not being that big a hurdle for him to overcome.

Bookending a season

First score Last score
🤝
Defensive TDs#GoDawgs pic.twitter.com/xPHMmzP83S

— Georgia Football (@GeorgiaFootball) January 28, 2022

There’s something especially appropriate about a Kirby Smart-coached team starting and ending a national championship-winning season with defensive scores.

Divisions, divisive

I just have to laugh at Andy Staples’ cheerleading ($$) for the likelihood that the P5 over the next few years will ditch divisional play all in the name of coming up with a better delivery system for expanded playoffs — not because of his pitch, but because of where he winds up with it:

Eventually, realignment got the rule changed. The Big 12, reduced to 10 teams, wanted to reinstate its championship game midway through the last decade. The ACC had been playing in two divisions since 2005, but only the most hardcore fans could correctly identify which teams were in which division. So those leagues teamed up to ask for a change that loosened the requirements.

That’s how you get a No. 1 vs. No. 2 Big 12 championship game.

At the time, the Big 12 was playing the ideal conference format, a nine-game, round robin schedule.  Every conference team played every other conference team!  Why did they need a championship game?

Don’t answer that.  It’s a rhetorical question.

By the way, David Hale made a point about scrapping divisional play I hadn’t considered.

I could imagine some pushback from coaches if some conferences go divisionless, while others don’t, but I would also imagine that will fade away as the P5 takes a uniform approach.  Probably by the time the next CFP TV contract is being negotiated.  Because, money… oh, shit.  I just answered my rhetorical question.

Working for the man

Here it comes.

An Iowa state representative on Wednesday introduced a bill that would classify college athletes in that state as employees. The bill is authored by veteran Rep. Bruce Hunter (D-Des Moines), who currently serves as the ranking member of the Iowa House Labor Committee.

The bill comes as conversation heats up surrounding player compensation amid the introduction of name, image and likeness rights for athletes. Several sources told CBS Sports last week the NCAA will have to soon deal with an employee-employer relationship, at least at the highest level.

Hunter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

If adopted as law, the bill would apply to Iowa’s three public institutions: Iowa, Iowa State and Northern Iowa. It would not govern private schools in the state.

“My intel says it has no legs,” said a high-ranking source from one of those public schools who did not want to be identified.

Wishful thinking, or nah?  I mean, this had no legs, either, at the beginning:

Hsu compared the Iowa bill to California’s SB-206, the original state NIL bill filed in 2019 that spurred the momentum for the nationwide NIL movement.

This bill would allow the Iowa state board of regents — those who oversee the public universities — the ability to fix athlete compensation in the same way it sets compensation for school presidents and other state employees.

This particular bill indeed may not fly at this juncture, but it’s hard not to see history repeating… especially once a legislature in a football-rabid state senses a recruiting advantage is in the offing.

1st and throw

Per David Hale:

% called passes on 1st down (P5 vs FBS)

Most
MissSt, 75.5%
UVA, 73.1%
Mia, 61.1%
USC, 58.8%
Pitt, 56.5%

Least
Minn, 23.1%
Wisc, 27.7%
BC, 31.9%
Cuse, 32.4%
Colo, 34.2%

Others
FSU, 51.5%
ND, 50.1%
Tenn, 49.5%
UNC, 48.8%
NCSU, 48.2%
Bama, 44.9%
UGA, 40.2%
Clem, 40.2%
Lou, 39%

— 💫🅰️♈️🆔 (@ADavidHaleJoint) January 27, 2022

My first thought is that UGA percentage should be higher, especially with Bennett’s issues on third down, but then I realize there wasn’t much need for Monken to call first down pass plays in the second half of almost all of Georgia’s regular season games.