Really, if you’re a Georgia fan, there are no bad choices here. The best thing is, they’ll likely be revisiting the same choices next November or so.
Daily Archives: February 11, 2022
Beer comin’.
Sanford Stadium fans, it’s getting closer.
Filed under Georgia Football, I'll Drink To That
Today, in fundamentals
Here’s a stat that probably confirms what you thought:
Damned impressive, especially with a little context added in.
I will be curious to see what kind of numbers Oregon sets in that regard this season… and if Georgia misses a beat. I doubt the latter, because it takes a village to raise a tackler. 😉
Filed under Georgia Football, Stats Geek!, Strategery And Mechanics
When you have two former quarterbacks…
Nick Saban’s always taken an eclectic approach to his staff hirings and it’s never blown up in his face, so I’ll defer to the master, but, still, watching him hire four members of Boom’s staff in Columbia had me doing some head scratching. And, now, this:
So, between Mettenberger and Joe Cox, Saban’s collecting former Georgia quarterbacks now? Makes me wonder what Logan Gray is doing these days. He’d make an excellent addition as a special teams analyst.
Filed under Nick Saban Rules
The Harsining
You know, in 15+ years of blogging, I’ve had the pleasure of bloviating about a number of coaching crises. What’s transpiring at Auburn now ranks up with the best of ’em.
What I appreciate most about how the situation there is evolving is that both sides are inept at getting to an end point. Auburn is clearly ready to move on, but doesn’t want to pay a second monster buyout in two years. So it’s tried to invent some horseshit excuse for firing “for cause”, first by having someone leak innuendos about an affair with a staffer, and when that didn’t work, invent a new cooperation policy that, if not complied with, would result in firing.
Apparently, that didn’t work, either.
Auburn coach Bryan Harsin met with the officials running the school’s inquiry into the football program on Wednesday night, sources told ESPN.
Upon Harsin’s return to the country from his previously scheduled vacation on Wednesday, Harsin’s meeting included speaking with Henry Gimenez, the lawyer specializing in the collegiate sports space from the Birmingham-based firm Lightfoot, Franklin and White. Sources have told ESPN that Gimenez has been a key part of the outside counsel assisting Auburn’s inquiry.
The meeting, according to sources, was relatively benign and included questions about staff and players who have left the program. No clarity was given at the conclusion of the meeting, other than Harsin carrying on his duties as coach and attending Thursday morning’s annual in-person SEC head coach meetings in Birmingham.
Good work, everyone.
Speaking of Birmingham, what transpired there is a pretty good indication that Harsin, who clearly is prepared to hunker down for as long as it takes, isn’t ready for being under the bright lights of SEC media.
If you thought that was awkward, dude, just wait to see what’s in store for you at SEC Media Days.
But that’s not the topper, at least not for today. This is.
It wouldn’t be the first time Paul Finebaum took a call on his radio show from a coach’s relative.
Still, the SEC Network analyst could have been wading into uncharted waters — which is saying something for the Mouth from the South — Wednesday when “Dale from Boise” called in to support and defend Auburn coach Bryan Harsin…
As it turns out, “Dale from Boise’s” appearance on the “Paul Finebaum Show” had many people wondering if he is actually Harsin’s father, Dale Harsin. So much so that it took off on social media and left Finebaum questioning the same thing.
“First time caller on the show,” Dale from Boise started. “Anyway, on the recruiting portion of it, it said he didn’t recruit very well. Well, I think he did a pretty good job recruiting some of these players. They don’t have to be star-struck with five-star ratings. They can be good players. (He) went after good players that want to play the game and not star-struck with their stars and stuff.
“I thought he did a pretty dang good job: Kellen Moore, Leighton Vander Esch, Jay Ajai.”
PAWWWLLL! thought about it and did some checking of his own.
“Then, last night and this morning, I started getting texts from media friends of mine who said they had friends listen to that and they think it is Harsin’s father. I’m like, ‘OK,’ so I got to the studio today and we listened to that and we listened to some other tape of him from a couple of months or a year ago. I’m a talk show host. I’m not an FBI voice analyzer, but it certainly sounds like the same guy who was on television as Bryan Harsin’s father.”
Thanks, Dad. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that either Mrs. Harsin or the wronged staffer calls into Finebaum next. That’s entertainment!
By the way, I’m not sure Dad did Son any favors with this observation.
“They want him to go after the five-star players, and you don’t always have to,” Dale from Boise explained. “Go after the players that want to play the game and want to be part of a team not be star-struck with all their stars…”
That might work in Boise, pops, but on the Plains, “they” aren’t so convinced.
Stay tuned for the next episode of “How The War Eagle Turns”.
Filed under Auburn's Cast of Thousands
The laziest recruiter in the SEC?
Mullen is gone, so the crown passes to…
Junior is so convinced of his allure, he thinks he can conquer the world with some social media bites. And don’t get me wrong here — he’s had some success in the transfer portal, but Ole Miss finished tenth in the conference in the 2022 recruiting rankings. That won’t get it done in the SEC West.
Plus, this.
Transfers won’t win championships by themselves. But the Laner is entertaining, I’ll grant him that.
And, in related news…
Guess not liking recruiting runs in the family.
Coaches, making bank
Good thing that sweet SEC money is rolling in, because after a natty, the expected raises for Georgia’s coaching staff are, too.
Muschamp and Schumann each will make $800,000 in 2022, according to records turned over by UGA this week. The two coaches were named co-defensive coordinators by coach Kirby Smart after Dan Lanning accepted the head coaching job at Oregon in December.
That salary represents a $200,000 raise for Schumann, who previously was under contract through the 2023 season as Georgia’s co-coordinator. It’s a $500,000 bump for Muschamp, who joined the Bulldogs’ defensive staff as a defensive analyst one year ago. Muschamp was promoted to an on-field position last summer after Scott Cochran took a health-related leave of absence. Cochran returned to work last fall and remains on staff in a support role as a special-teams analyst. Indications are he will retain his $550,000 salary.
Those raises were among several salary actions executed by the athletic association in the past month or so. Notably, the Bulldogs hired Bryan McClendon as passing-game coordinator and receivers coach last week at $700,000 per year. That represented a $150,000 increase over Cortez Hankton, who accepted the same position at LSU. McClendon comes to UGA from Miami, where he was co-offensive coordinator.
Also, offensive quality-control specialist Buster Faulkner, who assists offensive coordinator Todd Monken with quarterbacks, received a $50,000 increase to $200,000 annually.
Two missing names, though: Kirby Smart and Todd Monken. The former has Jimmy Sexton negotiating a blank check deal, so nothing to worry about there, but I’ll breath a little easier when they announce Monken’s well deserved bump. Get ‘er done, Josh!
Filed under Georgia Football, It's Just Bidness
It just pays more.
Football been berry, berry good to the SEC.
Of course, there’s something of a catch.
Nearly all of the SEC’s revenue increase came in TV and radio rights fees, which rose to $588 million in 2021, from $497 million in 2020. In December 2020, the SEC made a new football and men’s basketball television deal with ESPN that will begin with the 2024-25 school year. ESPN/ABC will pay the SEC “in the low $300 million range” annually, according to Sports Business Journal, a significant increase on the $55 million the league makes per year from its contract with CBS.
All that’s before Oklahoma and Texas join the conference.
It’s a relief to know the SEC won’t feel obligated in any way to kowtow to Mickey’s interests, innit?
Filed under ESPN Is The Devil, It's Just Bidness, SEC Football
Get The Picture 