Just because a market is free doesn’t mean it has to make sense.

Here’s a classic “one of these is unlike the others” moment for ya’.

Michigan State steps up for Narduzzi, who's earning $904K now. Just short of Smart, Chavis, Grantham. cbssports.com/collegefootbal…—
Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerCBS) February 26, 2014

“Todd Grantham had his reasons.”

Evidently none of which involved five million large ones.  Guaranteed.

Selling point

You guys know I don’t follow recruiting all that closely – I know, a weird admission on my part on a day when all my posts touch on the subject – but I have to admit there’s a recruiting topic I will be tracking for a while. Here’s a bit from Mark Ennis, a Louisville blogging guru, about a certain new member of Bobby Petrino’s staff:

SI: The Grantham move was a head-scratcher at first, if only because of how much Georgia struggled defensively last season. A million dollars for an assistant most Bulldogs fans wanted out anyway? What’s the rationale there? Pay more to draw away a respected SEC coordinator?

ME: Well, in his introductory press conference, Petrino said he really liked Grantham because he found him challenging to scheme against from the time he was at Arkansas. So I think that was the draw. As for the big bump in pay, I think Louisville badly wants to project stability and the idea that these coaches will be here for a long time. So I think the raise was to get Grantham to commit to multiple years. People forget that while Georgia fans didn’t necessarily love him, he was sought after by the NFL every offseason.

SI: And he’s an SEC guy with current high school contacts, which should help a great deal in the transition to the ACC and recruiting in the area.

ME: Yeah, I’m not sure people appreciate just how big of a talent producer the state of Georgia is now. It’s better than Pennsylvania and Ohio. So to be plugged in there is only a good thing…

Grantham wasn’t bad at all at recruiting while at Georgia.  So it’s only to be expected that he’d continue trying to mine the area he’s familiar with and made contacts.  But he’ll be selling a different product to area recruits than he was pushing before.  Not to mention that the competition hasn’t exactly slacked off with the hire of Jeremy Pruitt.

In fact, it sounds like there might be an early test by which to judge that.

UGA shipped out a last-minute offer to safety T.J. Harrell of Tampa, and he hopped on a plane in a hurry for an official visit with the Bulldogs this weekend. Harrell also has an offer from Louisville and could commit by the end of the weekend if allowed. He looked like he was enjoying his UGA trip, based on his tweets.

https://twitter.com/TJHarrell34/statuses/426898352194981888

The Varsity? Man, Georgia’s pulling out all the stops for this kid.  Seriously, if Georgia can jump in late and pull Harrell, it should mark a starting point for fun times on the recruiting trail.  And while I’m sure they’ll never admit it publicly, it’ll probably be good for a few quiet high-fives in the bowels of Butts-Mehre.

“I think Coach Grantham is a familiar face for Lamont.”

I don’t blame Louisville’s new defensive coordinator for checking the temperature of Lamont Gaillard’s commitment to Georgia.

I just wonder what his sales pitch is.

Todd Grantham? Big fan of Greg McGarity… big fan.

You know, earlier today I posted that link to Seth’s article about Grantham’s tweets because I thought they were ambiguous, but worth a fun spin.  I couldn’t say for sure that Grantham was taking a shot at the Georgia program.

I’m pretty sure now, though.

“What appealed to me most was being able to team up with coach Petrino and what he does but also the vision of the athletic director and if you look at the things he’s done,” Grantham said. “To win a championship, it takes a lot of different elements. And the first thing it takes is to have an athletic director that has a vision for the resources needed moving forward. And you obviously have that.”

Ouch.  But I bet Georgia’s reserve fund kicks Louisville’s reserve fund’s ass, man.

Of course, maybe all that means is that now he’s working for somebody who’s willing to shell five million large to a coach who can say this with a straight face:

“Two of the last three years we’ve won the SEC East,” Grantham said. “We really have been the backbone of getting to those conference championships. I think the ability to see how we changed an identity and developed some mental toughness and physical toughness there and develop players.”

Early prediction:  if Georgia gets it done in 2014, prepare to hear Grantham praise Pruitt for getting it done with Grantham’s players.

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UPDATE:  This just gets buttah and buttah.

Somebody needs to tell Todd Grantham that Mike Bobo's back still hurts from the last three years—
Mark Schlabach (@Mark_Schlabach) January 16, 2014

@Mark_Schlabach here here Mark! As a proud Alum & FORMER letterman I can say this publicly and proudly #GoDawgs @CoachBoboUGA—
Arthur Lynch (@alynch1788) January 16, 2014

“To get a coach like Todd Grantham on our staff says a lot about our program.”

Giving Todd Grantham a five-year guaranteed contract that pays him $1 million a year says a lot more, my man.

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UPDATE:  By the way, note that Grantham’s making a change for himself at position coach.

Louisville announces Grantham DC hire and that he will coach safeties. Release says UGA went 36-18-1 with Grantham. Don't remember the tie.—
David Paschall (@DavidSPaschall) January 16, 2014

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UPDATE #2:  Stay classy, coach.

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UPDATE #3:  Sometimes this shit just writes itself.

Todd Grantham today on being at Louisville: "What appealed to me most was being able to team up with Coach Petrino and what he does."—
David Paschall (@DavidSPaschall) January 16, 2014

Who said this?

The Todd Grantham fan club checks in (anonymously):

Getting a few texts from coaches in disbelief that Grantham could fetch that. One from SEC says he's disappointed he's leaving league. Ouch!—
Travis Haney (@TravHaneyESPN) January 12, 2014

If anybody but Spurrier made that last comment, I’ll eat my hat.

Tuesday morning buffet

Plenty of nourishment this morning…

• Bruce Feldman says this about AJ McCarron’s rising Heisman chances:  “… AJ McCarron is your guy that people look at as your default character.”  Hey, it’s not like that hasn’t worked before.  Which is one reason the Heisman is pretty worthless at this point.
• Josh Harvey-Clemons shook off the end of the Auburn game to play well against Kentucky.  “The arrow is up on him as a player…”
• On Saturday, Auburn will be trying to score its first touchdown against Alabama since its winning score in 2010.
• Mark Richt wants you to know that the No. 1 sport for ACL injuries is girls soccer:  “It’s not really a high-contact sport but a lot of change in direction. And that happens a lot.”  That tells me somebody’s been doing his research.  Wonder why…
• Richt also would like for Dawgnation to get over Will Muschamp coming to Athens.
• Guess what Todd Grantham is using as a teaching point for this week’s game.
• This bowl season looks like it’s shaping up as MACtion’s world, and we’re just living in it.
• Beau Bock just got a woody.
• Of all the quarterbacks Nick Saban’s seen this season, Nick Marshall is one of them.
• Michael Carvell has more on those five-year schollys Georgia’s offering.
• Do you think Greg McGarity has any days where he wakes up thinking, “there but for the grace of God go I”?

Once more, with feeling

Hey, it’s déjà vu all over again!

Mark Richt spent the week leading up to the final regular season home game against Kentucky answering questions related to the performance of his defense and those who coach it.

“I’ll say this: It’s definitely good policy for me, and it’s not the answer you want, but my main focus is Kentucky,” the Georgia coach said. “That’s where I gotta keep my mind. That’s where I have to focus on.”

That was in 2009 when Georgia’s defense was coached by embattled coordinator Willie Martinez, who was fired after the regular season.

I accept the inexperience factor to some extent, and it’s apparent that Grantham hasn’t lost his charges the way Martinez did, but, still, if I’m Richt, I’d be getting a little tired of having to recycle my material, so to speak.

(A nuanced) Fourth and Todd

To be fair to Todd Grantham, there’s a more fleshed-out version of his fourth-down comment that made the rounds the other day:

“Because of our team, you’re going to have some fourth-down opportunities, so you’re going to have to stop them on four downs.  They went for it three times on fourth-down.  If we stop any of those, it’s less points.  In fact, if we stop the two they went for it on our side, the game is probably over because we’re going to get a field goal and it’s (now) a two possession game. That’s the big thing: You’ve got to finish people off.  To do that, it takes some dueling.  That’s where we are.  We’ve got to learn to finish people off.”

That makes some sense, honestly.  The defense doesn’t need to be shutdown good every play.  But it needs to win enough key plays to lock a game down after the offense has done its job.  The point being that you’re trying to sell inexperienced players on a level of effectiveness that will win you a game.  Style points don’t matter.

That’s probably small consolation to some.  But I’ll take a season full of one big stop, three-point win sort of games, regardless of the opponent, pretty or otherwise.