Wednesday morning buffet

Eat, eat…

• “The top ten most talented teams in the country last year were Alabama, Ohio State, USC, Notre Dame, Florida State, LSU, Auburn, Georgia, Texas, and Michigan.”
• You know the old joke about someone being so incompetent he could screw up a one-car funeral?  That would be Rutgers’ AD.
• According to his dad, Pennsylvania’s D’Andre Swift was really impressed by the G-Day crowd:  “To be able to walk into the stadium and be a part of it and walk down and watch the guys coming through the ‘DawgWalk’ and see all the tradition that Georgia has was just remarkable. I’ve never seen how a town shuts down for a game. That city is a college football town, and everybody embraces that tradition and the football program fully. That, to me, was just remarkable about Georgia in every way.”  If you were there, take a bow.
• The ACC is already trying to figure out what to do if Clemson, FSU and Louisville all wind up 11-1.
• Good point in this post — if Missouri is an improved team in the SEC East, don’t forget that Florida and Tennessee both have yet to play the Tigers.
• Hugh Freeze notes one difference between Kirby Smart’s defenses at Alabama and Georgia:  “He’s playing a lot more odd front. I’m sure he’s adjusting to what he thinks is best for his team. It’s been different from what we expect from them, but the results are well for him.”
• Cool game management, Clay Helton.  You’re lucky Stanford didn’t have a two-point trick play up its sleeve.

Thursday morning buffet

Come, you must be hungry.

• It appears Gus Malzahn’s rabbit foot may be down, but not out.
• The genius has lost control.
• Brian Fremeau has composed a chart of comebacks and blown leads over the past ten seasons that’s worth a look.
• Look at the big brain on Rice’s Calvin Anderson.
• If you’re wondering what the former BCS computers have to say about this season, here you go.
• Georgia be pumping up Trevor Lawrence.
• Louisiana-Lafayette, which is Georgia’s next-to-last regular season opponent, canned its defensive coordinator after one game.

Talent will out. Or will it?

According to the 247 Sports 2016 College Football Team Talent Composite, Georgia ranks sixth nationally in total talent.

North Carolina is 29th.

You can’t tell the players without a scorecard.

You’d figure the least a guy making $9 million a year could do would be to keep his commitments’ names straight.

Tl;dr

An alert reader brought this one to my attention:  over at From The Rumble Seat, a blogger decided it would be an enlightening exercise to devote more than 2,500 words to the idea there’s something amiss with Georgia Tech’s recruiting that doesn’t involve the coaches.

I’ll leave you to guess what that is, if you’re so inclined.

It’s a (Smith) family affair.

Maurice Smith’s brother chimes in with some Saban disappointment.  Nick probably doesn’t have time for this kind of shit:

Smith’s mother, Samyra, provided a statement from Maurice’s younger brother Ainias, a sophomore at Dulles High School in Sugar Land, Tex. Ainias Smith was listed among “freshman to watch” in a 247Sports recruiting story last December, and is being recruited by schools.

But Alabama can clearly be stricken from his potential list. And Ainias Smith’s statement said he has heard similar feelings from others in the Houston area since word of his brother’s situation came out. [Emphasis added.]

“I respected coach Saban, but it’s hard to have respect for what he’s done to my brother and has never apologized for how he was treated,” Ainias Smith’s statement said. “He didn’t even care if he had food or money to eat during those weeks or if he was working out to stay in shape to possibly return to the team. This entire situation has made me have trust issues with coaches because the way coach Saban talked to us while he was at my house, and it made me think that everything was going to be all good. But now he has showed me another side that I didn’t think I would see out of him.”

Gentlemen, start your negative recruiting engines.

At Georgia Tech, an arms race with no arms

Paul Johnson is feeling unloved these days.  He wants more than Georgia Tech is prepared to give.

“We are way behind and there is no question about it,” Johnson said. “I would like to see (new) facilities and whatever. If you look at the other schools we are behind in most every aspect from facilities to staff to salaries or whatever.”

On Saturday at a press conference, Yellow Jacket athletic director Mike Bobinski said he feels like the football program is fully funded and there have been no requests for new facilities or additional staff. Johnson refuted that notion.

“We had a plan for a locker room and a locker room would be great. We had several meetings and they drew it up and it would be big for the program,” Johnson said. “It is about recruiting when kids walk in that is their impression (of the school). It is like you guys know it is an arms race. If you are not building you are falling farther and farther behind.”

So, all it takes to make Tech a recruiting powerhouse are a few shiny distractions?  If the locker rooms are nice enough, maybe the genius figures the kids won’t even need to talk with him before committing.  He really is jonesing for a place that recruits itself, isn’t he?  Although it would be a shame for recruits not to get a sense of his real warmth before signing day…

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UPDATE:  It sounds like Paul Johnson won’t have Mike Bobinski to kick around much longer.

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UPDATE #2:  An alert reader reminded me of Paul Johnson in happier times.