Friday morning buffet

Plenty to sample…

• Here’s a shocker:  “But as the College Football Playoff’s selection committee wrapped up two days of meetings at the Gaylord Texan on Thursday, it’s clear that objectivity is a sticking point as the college football season draws closer.”
• Patrick Garbin tells us that over the last two decades, experience has nothing to do with the performance of Georgia’s offensive lines.  I think that’s supposed to relieve us.
• For some reason, Vanderbilt has decided to move its home game against Ole Miss to the Titans’ stadium, which seats 68,798.  That seems like an invitation for OM fans to come fill the place up.
• This doesn’t sound good:  “The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has opened an investigation of Florida State University into whether its handling of the Jameis Winston rape allegations violated Title IX laws…”
• How would you like it if Finebaum hosted a live show from Sanford Stadium?
• Texas paid $266,990 to a search firm to help find Charlie Strong.  I bet most of us would have offered to do the job for a tenth of that.
• Here’s a look at how much of a role conversion rates and big play potential on both offense and defense as well as field position played in determining the last ten BCS champs.
• Marc Weiszer takes stock of how Georgia’s new focus on special teams is going.
• Tramel Terry, on life as a new defensive back:  “Each day it’s getting better and better. I’m just trying to get all the little terms and get them out on the field instead of thinking so much. Other than that I’m fine. I’ve just got to work hard in the summer time and get my feet right. I feel like I’ll be fine and be ready to play this year.”

Wednesday morning buffet

Grab a plate.

• Tracy Rocker sounds pretty no-nonsense about his charges:  “You produce, you stay,” Rocker said. “You don’t produce, next. It’s all about playing with the right combination and to get guys to produce with full-speed effort. That’s the most important thing. That’s what I’m working on up front is effort. Try to eliminate the MA’s (missed assignments) and go forward.”
• Bill Connelly looks at how the 2013 FBS teams ranked in order of their per-game difference between projection and reality as to offensive and defensive scoring efficiency.  Georgia ranks 116th.  He didn’t speculate how much of that to chalk up to luck, randomness or something else, but perhaps I need to dust off the ol’ “regression to the mean, bitchez!” meme.
• Another day in paradise on Finebaum.  (Do any of his listeners actually care about basketball?)
• Athlon ranks the SEC head coaches.  I don’t get how you can put Malzahn ahead of Miles, but that’s just me, I guess.
• Kirby Smart is coaching defensive backs again, drawing upon his experience at Georgia:  “He just coaches us at a different level, trying to get us to understand it from his point of view because he played the position and he knows what’s going on…”  They should be awesome in run support this year, if that’s the case.
• Today, Quayvon Hicks is Georgia’s only healthy scholarship tight end.
• One reason CAPA is going to Washington:  “One obstacle in securing some of the protections we want is the NCAA is colluding and excluding opportunities for trust funds. To solidify an antitrust exemption would be to the detriment of player protections.”
• Malik McDowell has outlasted his momma.
• I missed this when it came out, but Pete Fiutak’s April Fools’ story about Herschel finding a loophole in the NCAA eligibility rules and announcing a return to Georgia is a fun read.  Richt then joked, “If you can find an extra year of eligibility for Champ Bailey and Richard Seymour, we’d find a spot for them, too. ”

“As the second hour of the show began, Finebaum went to “Kellen” on Line 1.”

Sooner or later, everybody calls PAWWWLLL.

Kellen Williams was on his way to Birmingham for a job interview Monday when he simply couldn’t take it anymore.

The former Alabama offensive lineman was tuned in to the Paul Finebaum Show and heard multiple callers take shots at Nick Saban for his stance on the now-tabled 10-second proposal. So, Williams did something about it.

Yeah, he gave a half-assed defense of his coach.

“I think he’s just lobbying for the no-huddle offense to be kind of cut out but then again he also game-planned for it,” Williams said. “He knows better than anyone in the country how to stop it…”

That’s the kind of incoherent bullshit we’ve all come to know and love from Finebaum’s audience.  Williams fits right in.  Maybe he’ll become a regular with Tammy and the rest of ‘em.

“The fact that Tammy is standing right in front of me pretty much seals the quest to have a No. 1 bestseller, I think.”

PAWWWLLL has a book coming out, which raises three questions:

1. How long has it been since most of his listeners read a book?
2. Who plays Finebaum in the movie based on the book?
3. How did he convince Nick Saban to pose for the centerfold?

I’m kidding about that last question… at least I hope I am.

PAWWWLLL, when’s he coming back to the SEC?

Epic programming today…

Coach Petrino will be a guest on the Paul Finebaum Show on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.—
LouisvilleFootball (@UofLFootball) January 13, 2014

Wonder how Finebaum poses his question about Grantham’s contract.

The worm turns.

Little surprise from the biggest weather vane in the business:

Finebaum on Sportscenter: I was about to declare Saban the best coach in CFB history. I'm not sure he's the best coach in Alabama right now.—
Zac Jackson (@FSOhioZJackson) January 03, 2014

I hope Mrs. Malzahn isn’t the jealous type.

Today, in Finebaum’s Profiles in Courage

Good Lord, even for Finebaum this is embarrassing.

On Thanksgiving, worth noting the courage of Mike Slive bringing A&M and Mizzou to the SEC. Both schools have had major impact.—
Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) November 27, 2013

Yes, let’s make sure we give thanks for Mike Slive having the courage to make the only move he could to break a TV deal that wasn’t measuring up to what the Big Ten and Pac-12 were getting.  I know I’m particularly thankful that the SEC has managed to sabotage its football and basketball scheduling as a result of that courageous action.  Slive is just like a fireman rushing in to a burning building to save a young child… except for the fire and the kid.

Gah.

PAWWWWLLL, they’s tryin’ to fire Boom!

Now this is job security:  Muschamp’s got Foley, Machen and Finebaum in his corner.  For a year, anyway.

It’s pretty funny how Finebaum’s seal of approval is offered as something definitive.  Maybe Boom should publicly thank him for the show of support.

Get a room, you two.

Nick Saban calls Paul Finebaum “… a good friend for a long time.”

I never liked that jacket.

Finebaum has fond memories of the Classic City.

… Paul Finebaum doesn’t think Georgia fans care enough.

“I’ve always criticized Georgia fans because I don’t think they’re angry enough,” he said. “We got into this debate a couple years ago where I was asking the question, Georgia is coming off a mediocre year and the fans are still defending coach Richt I was like, ‘Georgia fans aren’t like Alabama fans. Alabama fans were ready to fire Nick Saban after losing one game.’ Georgia fans I think are a little more cerebral. They appreciate who Mark Richt is.”

But he does know first-hand that Georgia fans like to go crazy.

“My last time here I was doing a live shot for a local TV station in Birmingham in 2008, when GameDay was here and Georgia went down 31-0 after being ranked No.1 in the country, and right in the middle of it a lovely frat boy poured a beer can over my head,” Finebaum said. “I’m still waiting for somebody to reimburse me for that sport coat.”

I’d rather reimburse the fan for the beer, thanks.