Friday morning buffet

Go ahead and get you some.

• Pete Fiutak’s succinct description of this year’s Georgia Tech offense:  “Square peg, meet round hole.”  (Although he does predict a six-win season for the Jackets, which, should it happen, should vault Collins into serious consideration for ACC Coach of the Year.)
• I know folks try to make hay about Nick Saban’s age on the recruiting trail, but he sure sounds credible denying he’s ready to retire.
• Here’s a list ranking ACC schedules by difficulty, and, no, Clemson’s isn’t the easiest.
• Kirby Smart, on last year’s team’s mentality:  “Players are taking ownership, which we didn’t have as much of that last year at this time. There was a lot more entitlement.”
• Mike Leach’s class wrapped up, with a final assignment to design three plays, under the premise that he might use one of them in Washington State’s game next season against Houston.  He reviews five of those here.
• Details from Rush Propst’s personnel file ain’t pretty.
• Good point from Groo:  “What stands out among this smaller senior class is that a good chunk of them are defensive linemen. Georgia returns six seniors along the DL next year…”
• North Carolina and Wake Forest have scheduled a non-conference home-and-home series.  That’s got to be cheaper than what cupcakes are demanding these days.
• C’mon.  You know you want to read a StingTalk thread entitled “Why do we hate them?”.

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“The NFL doesn’t tell us who to recruit and we don’t tell them who to draft.”

Sure, Mike Leach is a strange dude, but strange enough to actively torpedo the draft prospects of one of his players?

Wednesday morning buffet

Morsels and nuggets, just for you:

• Zamir White’s teammates are waiting for him.
• “According to the “Madness, Inc.” report, $986 million is spent annually on student-athlete scholarships at these schools to support 45,000 student athletes. That ends up being just under $22,000 per student. By comparison, approximately $1.2 billion is spent annually on coaches’ salaries to pay just 4,400 coaches. That averages out to about $273,000 per coach per year.”
• In addition to (allegedly) murdering several hookers, Ted Cruz is accused of doing the same to Texas Tech’s national championship dreams.
• Robert Beal was back at practice yesterday, so running those stadium steps must have paid off.
• Another state looks at a bill allowing for student-athlete compensation.
• Alabama and Oklahoma have scheduled a home and home for… 2032 and 2033.
• There’s only one class in America like this:  “The conversation started with a question about using plays suggested by prison inmates and quickly shifted to a Valdosta State custodian named Big John who once offered a helpful tip for the school’s offensive linemen.”
• Just curious — how much of a say-so do you think Fulmer had in the hire of Tee Martin?
• Somebody obviously doesn’t pay attention to who’s in the stands for those cupcake games:  “(G-Day) is awesome,” quarterback Jake Fromm said. “It’s really better than a home game because you have only your fans there…”

“If we could just think of the coolest, most fun class we wish we could’ve had in college, let’s do that…”

This piece in The Athletic about the first session of Mike Leach’s Insurgent​ Warfare​ and Football Strategy​ class ($$) is worth the price of admission.

Although the most Leach story in it didn’t happen on campus:

Last spring, Leach traveled with a group of Washington State representatives to Cambodia and Laos. While traveling, former state Sen. Michael Baumgartner noticed that there were topics that would randomly pique Leach’s interests to the nth degree.

Treehouses and old movie theaters were two that came up in conversation early. And as the group embarked on a tour of a local floating village, Baumgartner noticed another: Leach was fascinated by the brightness of the locals’ clothes despite the water — waters in which the fishermen wouldn’t fish because it was too contaminated — the people use to clean them.

“He asked so many questions about the laundry,” Baumgartner said.

“It’s kind of amazing because you have the silted soil, and I don’t know how they got the laundry so clean,” Leach added. “It’s pretty brackish water, but it would be hard to get your laundry clean there. I don’t have the details on that.”

LOL.

Wednesday morning buffet

A few nibbles here, a few nibbles there, and pretty soon you’ve got a full buffet.

• Missouri has decided to celebrate its appeal of NCAA sanctions in a unique way.
• Plaintiffs’ lawyers in Alston want to get paid.
• Class is in with Mike Leach.
• Lane Kiffin:  “You go to the national championship in what was it, the second year, and could have won the game a million times.”
• Cocktail Party alert!  “On Tuesday night, the Jacksonville City Council voted 15-1 on Tuesday to approve an $18-million deal that sets the stage for the city to demolish the Landing…”
• David Hale looks at how punters and kickers pass the time.
• The secret to Georgia’s offensive line’s success?  Size and Sam Pittman.
• Mose of the players who will appear in this game are two to four years old today.
• Yeah, that Jeff Long is a fine athletic director.

“I’ve gotten fairly artful at it.”

Mike Leach, on dodging sideline reporters at halftime:

Mike Leach lays out his strategy in evading halftime reporters like it’s a play he diagrammed.

“I’ve gotten fairly artful at it”

Simply glorious pic.twitter.com/Abld6aO6mv

— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) March 3, 2019

LOL.  Of course, there’s an obvious consequence for tipping your hand by going public with your tactics.

Thanks for the heads up @Coach_Leach! Wearing running shoes next time I cover @WSUCougFB 😂😂 https://t.co/6d0axwRIhz

— Molly McGrath (@MollyAMcGrath) March 4, 2019

Back to you, guys!

Professor Air Raid

That Mike Leach leadership seminar is gonna be lit.

As part of the application process, students will be asked to address the following two essay questions, which will be reviewed by Leach and Baumgartner. There is a 200‑word limit for each of the essay question responses.

1. Can the British strategy in the Malaya insurgency be used today?
2. Is the wishbone a potentially viable offense for the NFL? Why or Why not?

I am assuming that’s the first time those two questions have ever been pitched in the same course.

Oh, and best of all…

The seminar’s final session will take place April 23 and will be livestreamed online for public viewing. The livestreamed lecture will summarize the four previous lectures and will culminate in a live question-and-answer session.  [Emphasis added.]

You’d best watch.  There will be a test at the blog afterwards.