Okay, this ($$) got a chuckle from me this morning:
I do get the desire for [Georgia running up the score], but you’re not likely to see that much because a) Smart doesn’t like to embarrass other coaches, unless it’s Dan Mullen, and he’s out of the picture now…
This year’s Cocktail Party won’t be the same without him, I tells ‘ya.
Filed under Gators, Gators..., Georgia Football
It’s not easy keeping it real.
To hear college football coaches tell it, the sport is in dire straits.
Nick Saban says the game’s direction is unsustainable. Dabo Swinney bemoaned the lack of rules and guidance regarding player endorsements, telling ESPN that the situation surrounding name, image and likeness dollars is “out of control.” Kirby Smart worries fans will be turned off by athletes making decisions based on NIL deals.
I’ll buy that some of this handwringing is rooted in genuine concern for the future of the sport, but here’s the part coaches leave out amid their airing of grievances: Coaches are the people most negatively affected by evolutions that occurred within college football in the past year. But coaches aren’t admitting that…
There’s also never been a more challenging time to be a college coach.
Allowing athletes to freely transfer makes building a sturdy depth chart a chore. A player can be here today, gone tomorrow. Athletes may hunt for a destination they believe will yield the most lucrative endorsement deals. Meanwhile, although NIL changes were designed to allow college athletes to profit off their fame and not to influence recruiting decisions, endorsements undeniably are affecting recruiting, although to what degree remains unclear…
These changes erode coaches’ ability to control everything and everyone around them, and if you’ve ever spent much time around college football coaches, you know many of them are control freaks.
Being a college football coach in 2022 presents more hurdles and frustrations than the job carried a decade ago.
If coaches admitted that evolution was at the heart of their grumblings, I’d have a firmer stomach for their gripes.
You mean like this?
“First of all, you have to handle them with kid gloves because if you’re really tough and rough on them sometimes, they’ll leave,” Stallings said. “And they can leave without a penalty. They can go and be eligible immediately. I think the NCAA made a mistake when they allowed a player to transfer and play immediately. I think they made a mistake when they allowed them to transfer for no reason. That’s just a personal opinion.”
Empowerment’s a bitch. Ah, for the good old days when a player was just expected to take it for the team… er, coach.
Filed under College Football, Transfers Are For Coaches.
Seth Emerson ($$) counts roster numbers so I don’t have to.
• The super seniors — Stetson Bennett, Christopher Smith, William Poole, Robert Beal — do count towards the 85-scholarship limit this year. They did not last year.
• By my count, Georgia is currently at 77 scholarship players for the spring semester (not counting transfers out), with 11 more players set to enroll in June. That’s 88 spots but there’s still time for that number to decrease.
And why that matters right now:
That’s one reason Georgia has been waiting to raid the portal: It can afford to wait. But the seven-extra-spots rule expires after this year, so the team has to make sure it doesn’t leave itself with a roster crunch for 2023. Adding a few seniors like Derion Kendrick last season would be perfect. But a really good player at a need position (safety) with multi-year eligibility would also be a take.
No doubt Kirby’s on the mother.
Filed under Georgia Football
The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel punts on players faking injuries:
To address teams that are awarded an injury timeout through deceptive actions, panel members approved a reporting and investigation process. Schools and conferences will be able to report questionable scenarios to the national coordinator of officials, who will review and provide feedback to the conference for further action. Any penalties levied would be up to the conference office or school involved.
The NCAA Football Rules Committee considered several in-game options to address this, including altering the injury timeout rule to remove the injured student-athlete for more than one play. Currently, an injured player is required to sit out one play. This concept was debated at length, but the committee was concerned with the additional issues that could be created and did not want to encourage players to continue to participate when injured.
Committee members discussed how the pace of play appears to be contributing to this concern. “We considered all options to address this issue, including allowing both teams an opportunity to substitute after a first down,” said David Shaw, chair of the Football Rules Committee and coach at Stanford. “This is another step to consider in the future.”
I can’t wait to see which SEC school is the first to penalize its coach for having a player fake an injury. (Insert Greg McGarity joke here.)
They got nothing, in other words.
Filed under The NCAA
Post spring, Florida has a quarterback enter the transfer portal. Billy Napier won’t go a-portalling to replace him.
“No, I think we anticipated some attrition to be quite honest,” Napier said. “You know, most years you’re going to carry around four scholarship players, potentially five. I think that we took Jack Miller with some anticipated attrition. I think we, just based off of our research, our knowledge of the situation, certainly went out and signed Max (Brown) as well.”
That leaves UF with four scholarship quarterbacks: Richardson, Miller, redshirt freshman Jalen Kitna and Brown, a 2022 signee. Seems like that’s a tough gamble, if you want Richardson’s legs to be a part of your offense. Which, in turn, seems to say something about the state of the rest of Napier’s roster these days. Good luck on making all that work, Coach.
Filed under Gators, Gators...
Two quotes from Dennis Dodd’s piece about Dan Lanning worth sharing:
In the 2022 College Football Playoff National Championship that quenched a four-decade-old Georgia title drought, Alabama was limited to 18 points (lowest in three years) and 30 rushing yards (second-fewest in 15 years).
“There will not be a defense probably that epic [ever],” Don Lanning said…
“He was real life. He realized as a coach what I could do,” said Georgia linebacker Nakobe Dean, the 2021 Butkus Award winner now awaiting a high selection in the 2022 NFL Draft. “If they forget everything, they’ll remember … that defense. They’ll remember we won the natty.”
True, or nah? I’m thinking true, but then again, I’m pretty biased.
Filed under Georgia Football
Get The Picture 