The Package

I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall watching Smart’s expression when Monken explained this to him:

Georgia went to a bit of a different look near the goal line on Saturday night against Auburn as defensive linemen Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis entered the game on offense as blockers. The Bulldogs were able to score both times that Carter and Davis entered the game, and afterwards, Kirby Smart gave credit to new offensive coordinator Todd Monken for the idea.

“(Todd) Monken talked about the inability to travel a lot of guys in the NFL and how they use defensive players for those packages,” Smart said following the 27-6 win on Saturday. “We certainly think that Jordan is a weapon because of his athleticism and his size, and Jalen did a lot of that stuff in high school. He’s a really talented guy who has played some fullback and things. We’ve had it in for awhile and thought we would use it when we needed to. I thought Monken and the offensive staff did a good job developing that package.”

It was probably something like this…

… followed by a shit eating grin.

Not sticking around

There’s one other shoe of note that dropped yesterday.

Virginia Tech will be playing the 2020 season without one of its best defensive players.

Cornerback Caleb Farley said Wednesday he won’t play in 2020 because of concerns surrounding the coronavirus pandemic and will instead train for the 2021 NFL draft.

“After much consideration with my family, I have decided to opt out of the 2020 college football season and begin preparing for the 2021 NFL draft,” Farley said in a video statement. “I am opting out due to uncertain health conditions and regulations and all of the other opt outs going on in football right now. I tragically lost my mother Robin January 2, 2018 to an illness and I cannot afford to lose another parent or loved one. Though the competitor in me badly wants to play this season, I cannot ignore what’s going on in my heart and I must make the decision that brings me the most peace. Thank you, Virginia Tech — my coaches, teammates and anyone else who has supported me in the past. I wish you all the best. Stay safe, and God bless.”

Farley entered the 2020 college football season widely considered as one of the best corners in the country. He had 12 passes broken up and four interceptions in 10 games as a sophomore in 2019. He missed the final two games of the season because of a back injury and had offseason back surgery.

You probably saw Farley’s name on some preseason All-ACC teams and even some preseason All-American teams. The corner will likely be a high pick in the 2021 NFL draft even with just two years of game film. Farley had 36 tackles and two interceptions as a freshman in 2018.

My bet is that he’s just the first of several high profile players to pull the plug on 2020 college football.  What say you?

“They’re gonna bail.”

If you’re wondering to whom and what the header refers ($$)…

As each day passes and the coronavirus numbers gain unwanted skyward momentum this summer, though, hope for any such achievements fade.

“If you’re Trevor Lawrence, for example, what’s the value to go back and play a year at Clemson? You know, the guy can be a first-round pick. There’s probably 10-20 guys that legitimately can forgo a season and still be a high-round guy,” the prominent agent continued. “Then there’s going to be also a big contingency of players that believe they’re a high enough caliber player but (they’re) also just afraid of getting sick or afraid of what happens to their season. … There’s literally nothing to gain (by coming back) for these top players other than, you know, the greatness of Alabama football and Nick Saban or Dabo Swinney and Clemson football. I mean, what benefit truly is (there) for you to play? There’s no benefit. All risk.”

Now, sure, some of that is agent talk, but, if these guys are to be believed, they’ve already been discussing this with some of the top prospects.

I suspect there are more than 10-20 college players who might be interested in making the jump, but the irony could be that prominent agents won’t want to carry those who aren’t obvious first round picks for a longer period.

And somebody has a sense of humor.

Of course, perhaps the schools and the NCAA surprise us all with a long-awaited plan of their own.

“Maybe they say to the players we’ll pay you to play,” an agent said. “But that’s never going to happen.”

Contingencies, contingencies

Nothing in this tweet comes as a surprise to me.

I didn’t name the category “The NFL Is Your Friend” for nothing, you know.

“Fans attending games, though, are assuming a level of risk by entering a stadium.”

Shocked face ($$).

The NFL is considering requiring fans attending games this season to sign liability waivers shielding the teams from COVID-19 lawsuits, sources said. The waiver proposal is likely to be forwarded to clubs by the middle of next week as part of a broad range of league recommended best practices for re-opening stadiums amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Even better, “It is probably something you do electronically, just trying to figure out the operational challenges associated with waivers…”  Yeah, those operational challenges can be a real bitch.  Compared to those, the aftermath should be a relative walk in the park.

I am under no illusions here.  The average fan who is willing to risk going to a game with 70,000 of his or her peers isn’t likely to be as worried about catching the coronavirus as in missing football.  Still, the NFL doesn’t sound like it’ll take any chances.

“I envision saying, ‘Hey, make sure you have your mask on when you come through to the next level,’” the source said. “I’d be careful calling it a checkpoint because I am not sure if that’s what it’s going to be. But make sure you have your mask on.”

Checkpoint implies responsibility.  Can’t have that.

Will this be a model for college football if implemented?  Does a wild boar pee in the woods?

Validation

I’m just curious.  Agree or disagree with this?

Intellectually, I don’t get this, but I’m not going to deny that a lot of people feel like that.  What say you?

Jim Harbaugh’s open letter

I suspect a lot of you are going to like this.

 

Here is the open letter to the football community from #Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh who shares his proposals, including allowing college football players to be one and done before entering #NFL draft pic.twitter.com/7Z30cWrzFX

— Larry Lage (@LarryLage) May 7, 2020

Two problems:  one, it requires the cooperation of the NFL, which is probably a non-starter.  Second, it makes way too much sense for the NCAA to accept.

Other than that, it’s perfect.

Y’all doing anything with those Saturdays?

Hey, look what college football’s best friend is contemplating!

NEWS: If college doesn't play in the fall, the NFL may move some games to Saturdays.https://t.co/lQOKL3YIcG

— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) April 30, 2020

If school presidents and conference commissioners aren’t nervous enough about the season already — and they are — this won’t help.

Kirbs, gettin’ salty

Shot.

"Some coaches outside of our conference tell [recruits] that it's better to not go to the SEC because it's too tough, too competitive, and you might not have as good of a career there."

– Kirby Smart just now on our show … which coaches/schools is he talking about? 🤔

FULL: pic.twitter.com/6pkm1pntzZ

— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) April 24, 2020

Chaser.

The SEC had 40 players selected thus far, the most by a single conference through the first 3 rounds in NFL Draft history. The previous record was held by…the SEC (32 in 2013).

The next three conferences with the most players selected COMBINED for 41 through Round 3. pic.twitter.com/34gssr2OX6

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 25, 2020

Obviously, the message isn’t sinking in.

The cream rises.

It bears repeating that there’s something to the star rankings the recruiting services use.  Here’s how last night’s first round of the NFL draft broke down, based on recruiting stars:

32 First Round Picks in the #NFLDraft tonight. Here is a breakdown of their High School Recruiting Ratings:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – 6 (19%)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – 16 (50%)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ – 9 (28%)
⭐️⭐️ – 1 (3%)

— SportSource Analytics (@SportSourceA) April 24, 2020

Before you go all “hey, there were more three-star players picked than five-star players!” on me, remember the odds.

The NCAA said in 2013 there were 310,000-some seniors playing football. Here’s how long their odds are to reach various recruiting ratings, using class of 2018 data from Rivals, if we settle on 300,000 football-playing seniors as a fair estimate.

• 30 five-stars, or 0.01 percent of the class
• 380 four-stars, or 0.13 percent of the class
• 1,328 three-stars, or 0.44 percent of the class
• 1,859 two-stars, or 0.62 percent of the class
• 296,403 unrated, or 98.88 percent of the class

There’s a reason we’re paying Kirby Smart the big bucks and it isn’t to extol five-star hearts.