Holy “I didn’t see that coming”, Batman.
“Okay, coaches, we’ll give you those limited transfer windows you’ve been jonesing for, and how about this to boot?” I never thought the NCAA had a sense of humor until now.
Seriously, talk about your unforeseen consequences…
Filed under The NCAA, Transfers Are For Coaches.
Kirby Smart’s contract extension is a done deal.
More than six months after Kirby Smart delivered Georgia football its first national championship in 41 years, the school finally announced a new, long-term contract Thursday that will make Smart the highest paid college coach in the sport at a public school.
Georgia will pay Smart $10.25 million in the first year of a new deal that runs through the 2031 season. The 10-year contract will have annual increases and go up to $12,250,000 for the 2031 season.
If you’re having a hard time totaling it up, here you go:
Smart is the sixth coach to be paid at least $9 million, according to figures kept by USA Today. His new salary is ahead of Alabama’s Nick Saban ($9.9 million), Michigan State’s Mel Tucker ($9.5 million), Ohio State’s Ryan Day ($9.5 million), LSU’s Brian Kelly ($9.5 million) and Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher ($9 million.)
Well played, Mr. Sexton.
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UPDATE: Or, to put it more dramatically…
Sources told ESPN that the $112.5 million total would be the most ever paid to a college football coach.
Filed under Georgia Football, It's Just Bidness
… is Todd Monken’s reality.
Y’all love non garbage time. Well using CFB Data I went back and filtered out the garbage time. Georgia scored 469 points in non garbage time… which was best in Power 5+ (Cincinnati)
Best thing is that the run/pass rate was basically 50/50 and success rate for Run/Pass was 49% and 44%. The picture of a balanced and efficient offense
Remember, that’s non-garbage time. There aren’t any fourth quarter, game well in hand, pound the rock ten times in a row numbers in there.
Between Stetson entering fall practice as the unquestioned starter, Monken having a full year to install his offense and, of course, that tight end room, if you’re not a Georgia fan who can’t wait to see what this offense is capable of in ’22, what’s wrong with you?
Filed under Georgia Football, Stats Geek!
The ACC’s Jim Phillips wants to party like it’s 1999.
It was from that viewpoint that he addressed matters such as conference realignment and the growing revenue gap between the SEC and Big Ten and the rest of Division I, which have become the most pressing matters in a summer that was jolted by UCLA and USC leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten. A main message – everyone needs to play nice.
“We are not the professional ranks,” Phillips said. “This is not the NFL or NBA lite. We all remain competitive with one another, but this is not and should not be a winner-take-all or a zero-sum structure.”
His remarks seemed particularly directed at the SEC and the Big Ten, the latter of which seemingly violated the tenets of an alliance formed between the Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC to stabilize conference realignment by taking two of the Pac-12′s cornerstone members. The possibility looms that, in time, the SEC and Big Ten could grow into super conferences by absorbing schools from rival conferences (including the ACC) and squeeze out the rest of Division I.
“I will continue to do what’s in the best interest of the ACC, but will also strongly advocate for college athletics to be a healthy neighborhood, not two or three gated communities,” Phillips said.
You’d think a guy who just got very publicly crapped on by someone whom he was convinced was down in the trenches with him would have a better approach to solving the revenue dilemma his conference faces — “In the 2021 fiscal year, the SEC generated a reported $833 million, the Big Ten received $680 million and the ACC took in $578 million” — than play nice, fellas, but, then again, you’re not a P5 conference commissioner.
Of course, when these are your options…
Phillips said that, regarding possible opportunities to create more revenue, “everything is on the table,” whether that’s sponsorships, ticketing and particularly TV money. That could include, he said, maximizing TV viewership by giving the conference’s most prominent teams the biggest stages. At the league’s spring meetings in May, Phillips told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the conference was looking into possible partnerships in the realm of legalized gambling.
Another possibility, he said, would be to alter the conference’s distribution formula so that the schools with the best performance and strongest brands receive a larger share of the pie, a move that could placate and reward the schools that draw more viewers.
Cool, Jim. ESPN has plenty of experience with the latter there. Ask them how things went with the Longhorn Network.
All Phillips has to hold the ACC together is that grant of rights. We’ll see how much that helps if half the conference decides to bolt as a group. In the meantime, boys, play nice!
Filed under ACC Football
Give the man credit for directness, I suppose: Kirby Smart wants the Georgia-Florida series out of Jacksonville and he knows why.
Smart said he does not believe the game being played in Jacksonville is a particular disadvantage for the Bulldogs, even though they have to travel to the Gators’ home state. However, he did have a potential solution for those who might want to continue the series at neutral sites.
“Tell you what, y’all call the AD down at Florida and ask him to come to Atlanta and come play us, we’ll play in Atlanta any time they want to play,’” Smart said. “It’s not an advantage for anybody. You look at the history of it, the one with the better team and the better players usually wins that game.”
For the Georgia coach, it’s about one thing: recruiting. NCAA rules prohibit prospects from making official visits to off-campus football games, meaning the Bulldogs’ top recruits cannot be provided tickets to the Florida-Georgia game.
“I’m competing against (coaches) all across the SEC, who host recruits at their biggest game,” Smart said. “When Auburn plays Alabama, guess where the recruits are? When LSU and Alabama play, that’s where the biggest recruits want to go. It’s an opportunity for us to bring these kids, who fly in from all over the country — what game do they want to come see Georgia play? They’d like to see Georgia play Florida, but they can’t do that.
“It’s very important. Recruiting is very important. … I just can’t get a Florida coach to agree with me about (moving the game).”
It’s the same mindset that exhorts the fans to be the best recruiting props they can be at G-Day, so, again, points for consistency. And, he’s not whining about the location itself being a disadvantage for the Dawgs, either.
That all being said, I might find myself in greater agreement with his stance if he weren’t embracing playing in neutral site openers. Or if he was lobbying the NCAA to change its rule just as loudly as he is urging his school to end a tradition that’s popular with a large segment of the fan base. But that’s what you get with a recruiting über alles attitude, for better and for worse.
Filed under Georgia Football, Recruiting
Smart delivered a status report on the team’s health status yesterday, and, overall, it’s promising.
- “Anybody who had a labrum issue for spring will be back. We had several guys who had labrums who were out for spring, but there’s nobody that won’t be cleared for fall camp,” head coach Kirby Smart said Wednesday at SEC Media Days. “I think maybe there’s one kid, (Mekhi) Mews, who’s a really good slot receiver, will be running a little behind; he got his during the spring. But we expect to be at full health.” That includes Bowers and Washington, thank goodness.
- The list of healthy players also includes linebackers Smael Mondon (Labrum), Rian Davis (knee), and Trezman Marshall (knee).Others back include wide receiver Arian Smith (lower leg), wide receiver C.J. Smith (labrum), offensive lineman Tate Ratledge (Lisfranc), defensive lineman Bear Alexander (labrum), and outside linebacker C.J. Madden (labrum).Smart said safety Tykee Smith is getting closer, although he’s yet to be cleared for contact.
- Ratledge is taking reps, but the coaches are taking things carefully with him: “Yeah, he’s been working, he’s been repping. We don’t have pads on. But he’s taking reps. You know it’s going to be an adjustment for him,” Smart said. “I think people expect him to walk back in there, but that’s not an injury that’s just easy to return from. When you do the study and the history of the injury it’s one of the toughest to recover from, especially for an offensive lineman who’s using his foot on every play.”
All in all, pretty good. But, as Kirby notes, ask again at the end of fall camp.
Filed under Georgia Football, The Body Is A Temple
Socratic wisdom from Georgia’s starting quarterback:
In response to Smart’s comments, Bennett told ESPN, “You know, I think I’m good. As far as the respect thing, I’ve gotten [Smart’s] respect, and I’ve got my coaches’ respect. And hopefully, I’ve got people who know ball’s respect.
“And you know, I can look in the mirror and know that there were some times that I struggled last year and let’s pinpoint these and let’s decrease those. But as far as worried about what the whole country thinks, I can’t do that.” [Emphasis added.]
Know thyself, indeed. It’s why I think he’s going to be a better quarterback this season than the one who took home a national championship.
Filed under Georgia Football
Division I college football players would have two periods of time — one in the winter and one in the spring — to enter the transfer portal and be immediately eligible to play if a proposed rule change gets final approval.
The Division I Council endorsed on Tuesday several of the Transformation Committee’s initial proposals and passed them on to the D-I Board for approval.
… Athletes in winter and spring sports would be required to provide written notification of transfer for 60 days following the NCAA championship selections in their sport.
In fall sports, including football, there will be two entry windows.
The first would begin the day following championship selection and last 45 days. The second would be from May 1-15.
What are the odds that, a season or two after these are implemented, the coaches are back whining about a new set of unforeseen consequences? And cloaking those in concerns about the players?
Filed under Transfers Are For Coaches.
I am so tired of seeing bullshit like this go unchallenged.
Compensation for college athletes is not a zero sum game for college athletes, and the ACC Commissioner knows that as well as anyone. There’s nothing stopping an athletic department from adjusting spending on facilities or administrative salaries to compensate for paying players. (Well, except for administrators’ greed.)
This is nothing but bad faith reasoning. You know, the same kind of stuff that led to the NCAA and their member schools getting their asses handed to them by the Supreme Court. It’s not that some people never learn. It’s that some people refuse to learn.
Filed under ACC Football, It's Just Bidness
I’d love to think Stetson’s initial response there was shining on the questioner, because, if it were, it was so deadpan as to be perfect. Eh, probably not.
That being said, his comment about Shirtless Bruce Pearl (ugh) was pretty funny. I guess the players notice more than we think sometimes.
Filed under Auburn's Cast of Thousands, Georgia Football
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