Tommy Rees? Really?

Wasn’t expecting this…

Notre Dame offensive coordinator Tommy Rees has emerged as the top target for @AlabamaFTBL’s OC job. Rees has had discussions with Nick Saban and is scheduled to be on campus Thursday, sources tell ESPN. Saban is looking to replace Bill O’Brien, who left for the Patriots’ OC job.

— Chris Low (@ClowESPN) February 2, 2023

Notre Dame’s offense last season was kinda underwhelming — 45th nationally in offensive yards per play, 37th in offensive SP+, 41st in points per game.  Needless to say, Alabama’s offense was considerably better in all regards.

Nick Saban’s the GOAT and I’m certainly not, so it’s not for me to question what he thinks he’s got here.  Yet GOATs don’t usually settle like this.

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UPDATE:  Seems to be going over well…

I categorically refuse to believe this is a real thing.

Is Dave Rader not available? Has Nussmeier gone into retirement? Aren’t some of Clemson’s garbage scraps from last year laying about?
A competent 12-year-old with a custom Madden playbook?

All of those are better options. pic.twitter.com/lZ4ueQIew2

— Roll ‘Bama Roll (@rollbamaroll) February 2, 2023

Thought you guys trusted Saban.

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UPDATE #2:  Apparently, Rees is Saban’s third option.

Saban reportedly met with Washington offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb on Tuesday but he opted to remain with the Huskies.

AL.com also learned former Mississippi State coach Joe Moorhead was also contacted by Alabama early this week but the current Akron head coach was not interested in leaving his position for the job.

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That’s some Year of the Quarterback you got coming, SEC.

I was about to brush this tweet aside…

SEC QBs:

1 KJ Jefferson
2 Will Rogers
3 Devin Leary
4 Jayden Daniels
5 Carson Beck
6 Ty Simpson
7 Connor Weigman
8 S. Sanders
9 S. Rattler
10 Joe Milton
11 AJ Swann
12 Robby Ashford
13 Graham Mertz
14 Brady Cook

By: @JEDunn

🎧 https://t.co/LagO4pXvjJ
🎧 https://t.co/GVfYvM9KGX

— Braden Gall (@BradenGall) February 1, 2023

… until I paused for a sec trying to challenge the order there.  It’s not so much that I couldn’t, at least in places, as it seemed like a waste of time.  There is a lot of unproven/ ordinary talent there and even the better talent has some surrounding question marks.  Take, for example, Jefferson, who was second in the conference in passer rating last season, but has to deal with a new offensive coordinator coming in at Arky.  Overall, it’s just unimpressive to me.

Who do you like on that list to emerge as a quality QB in 2023?

Welcome to the new enforcement

Nicole Auerbach ($$) asks Jon Duncan, the NCAA’s vice president of enforcement, about what she calls the “NIL presumption”, and his answer… well, judge for yourself.

I have already heard someone posit that a fan could put a rumor on a message board, and the NCAA will assume it’s a violation. Like, someone could plant purposely false information. But when I see, in the bylaw, that it’s circumstantial evidence that could come from a news story, I think that must mean a booster talking about signing a deal with a recruit on the record, or something like that.

I wouldn’t say it’s limited to media stories or social media. We have information coming in from lots and lots of different sources. But we also know that sources have their own agendas. We’ve always got to ask why it is that somebody would put something on a message board. We know that there are folks out there who want to use the infractions process to advance their own agendas, and we work really hard to be discerning consumers of information and know that sources may have their own reasons for sharing information. We don’t want to fall prey to that. We don’t want to be a pawn in somebody else’s scheme. We work really hard to test information that comes in. We’re common-sense people.

The membership, I think, wants the NCAA office generally and enforcement specifically to be reasonable and exercise our common sense. We do and we will, when we invoke the presumption and then when a school responds, we’ll assign value to what they share. We’re not so cynical that we think everybody’s lying to us, but we’re also not so naive that we believe everything that every booster puts on a message board.

Hoo, boy.  The NCAA is going to scour social media for NIL compliance tips? Sounds like Pork Rind Jimmy could be making a comeback. What could possibly go wrong there?

Class of ’23

If you’re looking for a down and dirty signing class summary by conference, here you go.

One funky note:  “The Big Ten signed none of the top 34 overall recruits and only two top-50 prospects.”  Playoff expansion can’t come soon enough for those guys.

“Monk, stay at Georgia, you hear me?”

I would consider this a solid endorsement of Todd Monken.

Former UGA RB Kenny McIntosh is hoping offensive coordinator Todd Monken stays in Athens:

"It would be a lot more pressure on the younger guys to have to learn a whole new system, I've been through it..
MONK STAY AT GEORGIA, YA HEAR ME!!" pic.twitter.com/FX43ptL3zo

— Zach Klein (@ZachKleinWSB) February 1, 2023

Optics, NCAA style

Matt Brown makes a clever point here:

I know the NCAA is staffing up, and I know membership would like to see more aggressive investigations, but I will be very, VERY surprised if any hammers get dropped before the NCAA strikes out in Washington. They gotta keep up appearances, but,,,https://t.co/DdHdjHmWQ8

— Matt Brown (@MattBrownEP) January 31, 2023

If you’re in “Help us, Obi Wan Congress, you’re our only hope” mode, you’ve got to appear hapless, don’t you?  If you show you’ve got the power to clean up NLI abuse, what do you need the politicians for?

“That’s a dear friend of mine.”

If you hadn’t heard, three Georgia players have transferred to Nebraska in the past month — tight end Arik Gilbert, outside linebacker MJ Sherman and offensive lineman Jacob Hood.  Evidently, the pipeline runs between Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule and Georgia secondary coach Fran Brown, who have a long history together.

Rhule recruited the Camden, N.J., native to Western Carolina in 2003 where the cornerback was a standout punt returner for the then special teams coach. Brown was on the support staff at Temple when Rhule was there and then got his first full-time college coaching job as defensive backs coach with the Owls under Rhule in 2013 and worked with him for six seasons including two at Baylor until 2018.

Rhule is even the godfather of Brown’s son, Fran Jr., who is finishing up his senior year of high school in Medford, N.J.

Makes it handy to get the inside scoop on kids when their names pop up in the portal.

“As guys were going in, ‘Hey, coach this is a guy who fits you,” Rhule said Wednesday at a signing day press conference in Lincoln. “He kind of knows who I am and the way I want to do things, the process we want to have, the character of the guys that we want, the work ethic. He was able to tell me about them and then also tell them about us and what we’re doing here and then kind of let us recruit from there.”

Works for me.  Every player who leaves Athens for Lincoln is one less player who might otherwise wind up at Tech or an SEC program.

Geoff Collins, the gift that keeps on giving

Just what an athletic department that’s financially struggling wants to do…

In an attempt to spur ticket sales and revive attendance, Georgia Tech has dropped the per-game cost of season tickets on 94% of the seats in 55,000-seat Bobby Dodd Stadium and held the line for the remaining 6%.

… The rollback on ticket prices is a significant but perhaps necessary action by the athletic department as attendance, season-ticket sales and general enthusiasm for the team markedly dropped during the tenure of former coach Geoff Collins.

Tech’s home attendance average this past season was 36,625, 64th in FBS. Not including the 2020 season, when attendance was capped at 11,000 as a COVID-19 protocol, it was Tech’s lowest average since 1989, when stadium capacity was 43,719.

Talk about your money down.

I guess it was either that, or go to eight tickets, eight hot dogs and eight Cokes.

“If you’re not playing, you’re leaving.”

These are pretty staggering numbers ($$).

The Athletic studied the careers of the top 50 high school quarterbacks who signed with FBS programs in the recruiting classes of 2017 through 2020. More than 70 percent have transferred during their time in college.

… Based on these recent classes, if a top-50 QB signee doesn’t start one game in his first two years on campus, there’s an 87 percent chance he’ll end up leaving the program. But among the quarterbacks who did earn a start in their first two years, more than 60 percent still ended up transferring during their careers.

A crapshoot that makes the $13 million offer to Rashada by Gator Collective look even more insane, but what do I know?

Oh, by the way…

In fact, Georgia’s Carson Beck is the only quarterback on this list of 168 who did not start a game in his first three years and has not transferred. He’s hoping to succeed Stetson Bennett, win the job and lead the defending national champs as a redshirt junior in 2023. And if that doesn’t work out? There are plenty of other schools where he can play.