“If he did that outside the football field, he’d have been in jail for three years.”

Aaron Murray doesn’t care for Nick Fairley’s thuggery in the 2011 2010 game.

… That was actually the first time in my life I was like ‘I don’t know if I want to play football anymore.’ I’m not kidding either,” Murray recalled. “I was on the sideline, and I had six stitches; my jersey’s covered in blood; I had a fractured sternum and can’t feel the left side of my body. I got whiplash in my neck, and I can’t really move my neck. I was like ‘Is this really worth it? It’s my freshman year, I can quit now and save myself a lot of punishment.’

“I had to sit up sleeping the next two weeks. I couldn’t even lay down. It was tough.”

The most disgusting part of that was watching Trooper Taylor and his towel-waving celebration of Fairley’s behavior.  But the refs deserve the bulk of the blame for letting things get to the point where Georgia’s linemen felt the need to retaliate.  And retaliate Ben Jones did.

“Ben Jones ripped the dreads off the middle linebacker’s head. … I’m in the huddle and have a fractured sternum (from Fairley’s hit), Ben hands me the dreads in the middle of the huddle. I’m like, ‘Ben, what do you want me to do with these?’ I have to call a play in like 10 seconds. So, he sticks them in his pants, and then, at his house in Athens, he attached it to the ceiling fan,” Murray told the show.

I wonder if Ben still has them.  He’s the kind who might.

(h/t Classic City Canine)

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“At some places, they celebrate eight wins.”

And at Auburn, they pay you seven million dollars a year to win eight games.

Too much is never enough.

Interesting catch by Dan Wolken…

But here’s the reality that is making many athletics directors across the league uneasy, even as they collected $43 million in revenue share from the league last year: After the initial budget pop, SEC Network dollars are flattening and fewer fans are interested in sitting outside for four hours in the September heat to watch mismatches. Some schools are turning to increased alcohol sales in the stadium to grow revenues after the SEC relaxed its rules this spring, but for now, it’s getting harder to find new ways to tap into the money spigot.

It should catch everyone’s attention when Auburn — an athletics program whose annual revenues have gone from $82 million in 2007 to $147.5 million in 2017 — is reducing expenses by 10 percent across all sports.

To be sure, Auburn is in much better financial shape than all but a handful of major programs, but recent expenses have eaten into its surplus. In an article on AuburnSports.com, Auburn athletics director Allen Greene described the nature of cuts as mostly cosmetic — having teams stay at more budget-friendly hotels on the road, eating at Outback as opposed to Ruth’s Chris, perhaps more bus rides for away games than charter flights.

Maybe they’re saving up for Gus’ buyout.

Threading the needle

So, reading this hot seat assessment of Gus Malzahn,

It goes without saying that to take the job on the Plains means you’re under scrutiny from the moment you coach your first game. Malzahn knows this all too well, having received a seven-year, $49 million contract last offseason only to be put on the hot seat a few months later after dropping a few games. While Tigers fans are debating whether or not the coach can fix the offense to be more consistent, it’s worth filing away the fact that Malzahn enters 2019 coaching under and AD who didn’t hire him and without his biggest supporter in the recently resigned school president.

… I have to ask, where’s the sweet spot between a season so bad he gets fired and so good it sucks from a Georgia fan’s perspective?

Auburn needs a president the football team can be proud of.

Less than two weeks after Auburn University president Steven Leath had his ass handed to him by the board of trustees, he gone.

Steven Leath is leaving as Auburn University president, the university announced in a Friday night news release.

The decision was mutual between Leath and members of the board of trustees’ presidential assessment working group and came “after extensive discussions about the university’s leadership,” according to the release.

Yeah, I’ll bet it was mutual.  At least he leaves having signed off on that terrific Malzahn contract.  What a legacy!

It just means more, bitch.

Just another day in the life of an SEC academic institution…

One week after Auburn president Steven Leath said there would be no discussion of a football facility at the board of trustees meeting, the board told him they want the facility and directed him to form a review group immediately. Gus Malzahn also spoke. https://t.co/13N30cbZxk

— Brandon Marcello (@bmarcello) June 7, 2019

Trustee McCrary, who is from Birmingham, noted that the project is needed to support “our team” as well as “our coach” and Auburn. The athletic department and Tigers Unlimited are currently raising funds for the project, which is estimated to cost between $60-$80 million to have a facility competitive with other programs around the Southeastern Conference. AU officials have not given any specific numbers on how much money has been raised, but sources tell Inside the Auburn Tigersa significant portion of the amount needed for the project has been pledged.

If you’re not spending, you’re not supporting.

A year without the rabbit’s foot

From Bill Connelly’s spreadsheet to Gawd’s ears:

Auburn’s projected S&P+ rank: 8th
Average projected win total: 7.8

Good lord. pic.twitter.com/ubWLW5nfw0

— Bill Connelly (@SBN_BillC) June 8, 2019

You know, I could live with that.  Quite easily, in fact.