Appeasing Kirby

🚨BREAKING🚨 Georgia and Florida will be allowed to host recruits at their neutral site game in Jacksonville on October 29th. (via @DawgsHq)

Details: https://t.co/Kx5xjXLcv6 pic.twitter.com/g302A0RAf0

— On3 Recruits (@On3Recruits) August 10, 2022

It’s not everything Smart wants, but it’s meeting him at least half way.

There have been plenty of debates the past several weeks – and over the years – on whether Georgia’s annual rivalry game against Florida should remain in Jacksonville or move to a home and home format. While that debate likely carries on, there has been one change starting in 2022. Sources tell DawgsHQ that Georgia and Florida will both be able to host recruits for the neutral site contest on an annual basis.

The SEC Eastern Division rivals have played in Jacksonville annually since 1933 with the exception of two years (1994 in Gainesville and 1995 in Athens due to stadium construction for the Jacksonville Jaguars), but Georgia head coach Kirby Smart has called for a change to that. His concern is the recruiting disadvantage that it puts the programs at playing the game at a neutral site.

While there still won’t be any contact between coaches and recruits allowed due to the off campus nature of the game, both schools – not just the designated home team like Oklahoma and Texas do for their annual neutral site matchup – now will be able to provide tickets for prospects and their families.

‘Bout damned time.  I wonder how much impact this will have on the series location debate going forward.

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UPDATE:  Seth Emerson ($$) fleshes the news out a little more.

The two schools had for years jointly agreed not to, in part for logistical reasons. It is not an SEC or NCAA rule. Hosting recruits at a neutral site is not like doing so at home games, with coaches not having as much face-to-face time with recruits.

But Georgia, as the home team this year, has opted to set aside some of its ticket allotment to be given to recruits for the Oct. 29 game. It’s not clear whether Georgia definitely will do so, or how many recruits it would host. But it is now reserving the option, and Florida would have the option in 2023 as the home team.

The main impact would be on Jacksonville-area recruits.

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UPDATE #2:  Another interesting note, from The Athletic’s Florida beat writer…

I'm told this is purely a Georgia decision, and that Florida wasn't consulted. But you'd expect the #Gators to respond in kind if there's value to hosting Jax-area recruits on gameday unofficial visits. https://t.co/bb4cn5rUuj

— G. Allan Taylor (@GAllanTaylor) August 10, 2022

Sounds like Kirby’s appeasing himself…

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Spreading it out

Given the random sample sizes involved, I’m not sure how useful a list of how the current SEC head coaches have done against the spread is, but if you’re interested, here you go.

All I can say after reading that is don’t bet against Sam Pittman.

Outlier seasons and freshmen contributors

Phil Steele takes a look at how much freshmen wide receivers played the last two seasons.  If you figured the results for 2020 and 2021 would look different, you’d be right.  Steele explains:

… Now 2020 was an odd year as with no spring practice, the true frosh WR’s could not benefit from being in early for the spring. With some conferences cancelling their seasons and then starting them up again that put them even further behind. Now in 2020 technically every WR redshirted as 2020 did not count against their eligibility so coaches were more likely to play them.

… My original thought was that Wide Receivers do have to learn route concepts and be in tune with the QB so they may have a little less play as true frosh than the RB’s. The top WR in 2020 was Kayshon Boutte of LSU who had 735 receiving yards and five TD’s. Quentin Johnston of TCU was second with 487 yards and an impressive 22.1 ypc. Jermaine Burton of Georgia was #3 with 404 yards receiving (15.0). Only 22 WR’s had more than five receptions and overall 32 WR’s had at least one catch which was 64% or 8% below the RB’s.

Now let’s look at the 2021 True Freshmen. I know that technically all of 2020’s true frosh were still true frosh, but I will just look at the ones that were in their first year on campus. We will just look at the 2021 signing class of WR’s and how much they played.

With everyone back from Covid and unlike in 2020 if a player played more than 4 games the player would lose a year of eligibility you would think that less true frosh WR’s would play. One advantage the 2021 true frosh had was being able to be on campus for spring if they enrolled early. The uninterrupted summer probably helped the WR’s gain cohesion with their QB’s.

In the end,

In 2020 the top 50 true frosh WR’s combined for 4051 yds rush, 24 td and 13.2 ypc.

In 2021 the top 50 true frosh WR’s combined for 5849 yds rush, 96 td’s and 14.1 ypc.

That TD differential really jumps out at you.  I would assume ’22 will look more like ’21 and ’20, for obvious reasons.

“We’re filling a gap of money that they weren’t going to get anyway.”

This is about as quintessentially “eh, what could go wrong here?” as it gets.

When USC partnered with an outside media company to launch BLVD LLC, the hope was that its unique approach to facilitating name, image and likeness endorsement deals for Trojans athletes would help stave off the rise of a donor-run collective — and keep USC out of the crosshairs of any future NCAA crackdowns.

But less than two months later, The Times has learned that a group of deep-pocketed USC donors and diehard fans are proceeding with their own NIL operation against the school’s wishes.

The group plans to soon launch “Student Body Right,” a third-party collective they say is essential for USC to properly compete with other top schools that feature collectives. They’re hardly alone among Trojans football fans, especially those frustrated by BLVD.

Within USC, however, the effort to start a collective outside of the university’s reach is being viewed as an existential threat that could invite serious scrutiny if the NCAA opts to enforce its NIL policies.

So, a booster group is going to defy the school and hand out money to players?  And its leader “was a Trojans football donor into the Pete Carroll era, but grew disenchanted with the athletic department and eventually cut ties”?

Shit, we’re gonna need a bigger bag of popcorn for this bad boy.

Pod Pundit

What in the wide, wide world of sports has happened to Matt Hayes?

2. Nick Saban, Alabama

The greatest of the great. But what’s more startling: that Saban needed the transfer portal to fix holes at wide receiver, tailback, left tackle and cornerback? Or that he got 5 elite players to do so?

1. Kirby Smart, Georgia

Fight amongst yourselves about the moment (Smart) vs. the résumé (Saban), I’m taking the moment — in a sport that screams what have you done for me lately?

Shit, I don’t think I’m prepared to go there yet.

Jalen Carter is a bad man.

Maybe my favorite random stat of 2021:

On last year's Georgia defense, do-everything linebacker Nakobe Dean made tackles on 11.4% of his snaps. A very high %.

Meanwhile, Jalen Carter made tackles on 11.7% of his snaps. As a 310-pound nose tackle. That's unfair.

— Bill Connelly (@ESPN_BillC) August 9, 2022

That’s it.  That’s the post.

TFW you’re back home

Sure, Agent Muschamp, playing to the great unwashed at Florida and South Carolina, took a couple of unfortunate shots at his alma mater, but you have to look at his entire body of work to appreciate what he accomplished while he was at those places.

Plus, he’s making a solid effort to get back in our good graces now.

Muschamp calls Dan Jackson "the second-best walk-on safety in Georgia history, you figure out who the best one is."

Connor Norman, presumably.

— Seth Emerson (@SethWEmerson) August 9, 2022

I’m okay with it.

Musical palate cleanser, legend passes edition

And when I say “legend”, I mean effing legend.

Lamont Dozier, the prolific songwriter and producer who was crucial to the success of Motown Records as one-third of the Holland-Dozier-Holland team, died on Monday at his home near Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 81.

Robin Terry, the chairwoman and chief executive of the Motown Museum in Detroit, confirmed the death but did not specify a cause.

In collaboration with the brothers Brian and Eddie Holland, Mr. Dozier wrote songs for dozens of musical acts, but the trio worked most often with Martha and the Vandellas (“Heat Wave,” “Jimmy Mack”), the Four Tops (“Bernadette,” “I Can’t Help Myself”) and especially the Supremes (“You Can’t Hurry Love,” “Baby Love”). Between 1963 and 1972, the Holland-Dozier-Holland team was responsible for more than 80 singles that hit the Top 40 of the pop or R&B charts, including 15 songs that reached No. 1. “It was as if we were playing the lottery and winning every time,” Mr. Dozier wrote in his autobiography, “How Sweet It Is” (2019, written with Scott B. Bomar).

I’m not sure calling Lamont Dozier a giant does him justice.  Check out this list:

RIP Lamont Dozier.

Without Holland-Dozier-Holland, there’s no Motown as we know it.

This is just a starter list. More at https://t.co/SF59mvlioF pic.twitter.com/0GIBSYceP9

— The '60s at 60 (@the_60s_at_60) August 9, 2022

My Gawd.

I could post MPC’s of just their songs for a month, with room to spare, but let’s just settle for this beauty today.

Sublime.  Rest in peace, brother.  You earned it.