Good on Georgia Southern for this:
If UGA isn’t adding its full-throated endorsement to this, shame on us.
Category Archives: Georgia Southern Football
Get after his ass!
All I can say is that it’s about damn time somebody righted this wrong:
You won’t get a lot of argument over whether or not former Georgia defensive coordinator and Georgia Southern head coach Erk Russell belongs in the College Football Hall of Fame.
The problem is, he’s not eligible.
Under current rules, a coach must have been a head coach for 10 years to be nominated for the hall.
… However, because he does not meet the 10-year requirement, the legendary coach has been left on the outside looking in.
But perhaps there is a way to finally make it happen.
In an interview with UGASports at SEC Media Days being held at the College Football of Fame, National Football Foundation Chief Operating Officer Matthew Sign acknowledged there is a process in place to request a waiver that could potentially get Russell admitted.
The NFF handles all aspects of the nomination and selection process for the College Football Hall of Fame.
“Erk has always been that unique candidate in that, he obviously meets all the criteria as a coach, except for the 10-year mark,” Sign said. “It has been a discussion over the years.”
According to Sign, the following would need to happen for a waiver to occur.
“On top of the Honors Court, we have an Awards Committee. That would be something the Awards Committee would take up and something they would have to approve,” Sign said. “It would also have to get approval from the board of trustees.”
For a waiver to potentially occur, per Sign, it would need to be brought up for recommendation by a member of the NFF board.
Make it happen, fellas! If there isn’t a single one of you who is willing to step up and do this, the lot of you should be shunned by polite society. Don’t disappoint us.
Filed under Georgia Football, Georgia Southern Football
His decision, your consequences
Shot. (Literally.)
This past weekend was not one that will be remembered fondly in the proud history of Georgia Southern football.
For one, the Eagles lost, 28-20 to Louisiana. The setback was the program’s third straight of the season, and served as the last straw for head coach Chad Lunsford. He was fired Sunday.
As if all that wasn’t enough, a video clip of an Eagles player surfing on top of a bus and chugging a beer extended to him from the crowd made the rounds online.
… AD Jared Benko indicated Sunday that Adcock’s surfing escapade factored into his decision to fire Lunsford.
“I share with our coaches and staff all the time, every day is an evaluation… Everything up to the time of the decision was factored in,” he said.
Today, in “I heard it on the Internet, so…”
Man, the number of people who owe Georgia Southern quarterback Shai Werts an apology after mocking the kid for being arrested for having a substance on the hood of his car that field-tested positive for cocaine…
Filed under Crime and Punishment, Georgia Southern Football
Today, in a penny saved is a penny earned
Based on some financial disclosure information that came out yesterday…
Georgia offensive analyst Jay Johnson has received a new salary for the 2018 season, an indication he will remain on staff this year.
Johnson is now set to earn $135,000 in base salary, according to information provided by UGA on Tuesday. Johnson was earning $50,000 last year from UGA, during a year he was still being paid $550,000 by Minnesota, his former school.
The information provided by UGA appeared to only be base salaries. The school typically also pays coaches in supplemental compensation, and that often is much more than the base salary. (Defensive coordinator Mel Tucker, for instance, is receiving $390,000 in base salary, the school said Tuesday, but Tucker’s total salary last year was $900,000.)
The information also confirmed the hiring of Tyson Summers as a quality control coordinator. Summers, the former coach at Georgia Southern, is being paid $50,000 in base salary. Summers received a $900,000 buyout when let go by Georgia Southern last year, per his contract. [Emphasis added.]
… inquiring minds want to know (or at least my mind does) something: is Greg McGarity getting a buy out discount for Summers? Johnson’s old salary and Summers’ new one sure seem like more than mere coincidence. If so, I can’t help but be amused by the thought of Georgia Southern indirectly subsidizing the reserve fund. Usually the money flows in the opposite direction.
Filed under Georgia Football, Georgia Southern Football, It's Just Bidness
Monday morning buffet
I’m already thinking about my Friday morning breakfast at T-Ray’s… er, focus, Blutarsky.
- Need to get your mind right for Florida? Here’s one suggestion. (h/t Three Year Letterman)
- Jerry Palm explores the possibility of two teams from the same conference getting into the CFP.
- Georgia’s five-year cycle.
- One thing I appreciate about Bill Connelly is that he never stops thinking of new ways to look at stats. Here’s a piece about the question “At what point does play-calling begin to shift?”
- “One of the weird things about figuring out how to judge teams throughout a season is that being too dominant can sometimes work against a team.” Some people would call that Dawgrading. Just sayin’.
- Jake Fromm now has a burger named for him.
- Will Dell McGee be a candidate for the open Georgia Southern job?
Make them an offer they can’t refuse.
I tell clients all the time that a contract is only as good as the people who signed it are. So you can imagine how good these contracts were:
Georgia Southern’s co-offensive coordinators last season, who were fired in the wake of a 5-7 record, have filed separate lawsuits against the school’s athletic association, head coach Tyson Summers and multiple administrators including athletics director Tom Kleinlein. The lawsuits allege breach of contract, fraud and tortious interference after the school failed to execute the 18-month contracts the coaches signed initially, then pressured them to sign shorter deals two days before their dismissal…
… After being offered the job by Summers and receiving formal offer sheets, both David Dean and Rance Gillespie signed 18-month contracts on Jan. 27, 2016, that established June 30, 2017, as the end of their term.
Both coaches claim that more than nine months later, they learned the school’s Board of Regents and the Georgia Southern University Athletic Foundation never signed the contracts. According to the lawsuits, Summers notified the coaching staff on Nov. 3, 2016, that new contracts were being prepared.
The second contract, which was given to the coaches following the 10th game of the season on Nov. 16, had changed the end of the agreement to Feb. 28, 2017.
The lawsuit alleges that Summers, Kleinlein, senior associate athletics director for business operations Jeff Blythe and director of football operations Cymone George “conspired to change the terms of the January Contract and specifically the employment end date” in order to save money, knowing they would be making coaching changes on the offensive staff.
The lawsuit states that Dean refused three requests from George to sign the new contract, believing he already had signed a valid contract. Dean claims he finally signed the new contract on Dec. 2 following a phone call with Blythe that left him with the impression that if he didn’t sign it, he could be fired any time and that his salary and benefits would immediately cease. Gillespie’s lawsuit makes the same claim, saying Blythe “informed Gillespie that it would be in Gillespie’s best interest to sign the November contract for his own protection.”
All this to save a few bucks, evidently, as the fix was already in.
These events were unfolding amidst a swirl of speculation that Summers might be removed as head coach following his first season, as fans were upset by offensive changes away from the school’s traditional triple-option attack and the failure to make a bowl game despite returning 17 starters from the previous year’s 9-4 team.
On Dec. 3, following the final game of the season, Kleinlein announced that Summers would remain as head coach. The next day, however, Dean and Gillespie were let go. On Dec. 9, Georgia Southern hired Georgia Tech quarterbacks coach Bryan Cook — who turned down the job a year earlier — to be the offensive coordinator.
Whatever GSU saved will likely get eaten up in attorney’s fees, but at least they know one thing there. As Brian VanGorder can tell you, nothing good ever comes of ditching the triple option in Statesboro.
Filed under Georgia Southern Football, See You In Court
“But I’ve got to have somebody that wants to play us.”
Apparently Georgia has been talking to Kent State about a future game, with a guaranteed payout of nearly $2 million. Georgia Southern’s athletic director wants to know why such sweet, sweet bank might be leaving the state his program shares with Greg McGarity’s.
“I’m not devaluing Kent State. But you’re paying them significant amount of money and they’re probably not going to have 100 fans there,” Kleinlein said. “(Whereas) I’m going to bring 15,000 people with me…”
Dude, I think you just answered your own question.
Filed under Georgia Football, Georgia Southern Football
Ain’t got time for you no more.
Georgia Southern writes, Georgia Southern calls, but…
“I’m trying to get that game back again,” Georgia Southern athletics director Tom Kleinlein said on Thursday. “We sat down and talked about it a couple months later and thought it was a great experience. Obviously we bring a bunch of our fans there, and a lot of their fans and our fans are closely-tied fan bases. And with the whole deal with Erk (Russell) coming from here it’s a great, great game. We’d like to play again in the future. But I’ve not gotten a response to being able to play that game.”
Georgia athletics director Greg McGarity did not immediately respond to requests for comment, via text and e-mail.
The last discussions with Georgia were earlier this spring, according to Kleinlein, and those came via e-mail.
“They have said that they’re kind of in the process of some other things right now,” Kleinlein said.
Like scheduling Austin Peay.
Filed under Georgia Football, Georgia Southern Football
Had it all the way.
In a night filled with inexplicable happenings – I still can’t figure out what in the hell the officials were up to with the GSU muffed punt – the overtime period topped it all.
First, Southern decides to take the ball out of the hands of its most effective player by running the wildcat. Twice. (When you’re running the triple option already, what’s the point?) It was as if the Eagles’ offensive coordinator looked across the field at Brian Schottenheimer and said, “You think you make dumb ass playcalls? Buddy, you ain’t seen real dumb ass.”
Then came this.
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On a night when it seemed like the offensive line couldn’t block its way out of a paper bag, everyone on the line made their blocks. Hunter Long, who’d been used and abused all night, not only got his block down on the line, but managed to throw another one downfield that sprung Michel for the score. Stunning, really.
And a welcome relief, because I was not looking forward to Mark Richt having to play another game of Marshall Morgan roulette.
Filed under Georgia Football, Georgia Southern Football
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