Do You Think Michael Carvell Will Have A Job Next Year? Please Vote

Before answering that question, consider this – when did “Journalism” become a series of reader questions? I thought journalists wrote facts and occasionally offered insider opinions and informed analysis.  Those days seem to be so far in the rearview that they have drifted over the horizon.

 
Michael Carvell, whom I’m sure is a nice person and does not fight kittens in dank cellars, covers recruiting for the AJC. Perhaps March is the bleakest month with signing day a fading memory, and Michael has nothing better to do. Two words for you Mike: THE BEACH. Take a vacation, champ. Kick back and enjoy a few sugary blasts from a few tangy margaritas. Smoke a cigar and listen to the waves as your folding chair sinks deeper into the sand.  You crushed it this recruiting season! Actually, I don’t know if you did or not, but you still have a job for now. Get a pedicure!

Well Mike didn’t take the month off. In fact, he scrambled. Apparently no good stories about exciting 2014 recruits can be written now, and apparently doing a summary or recap of 2013 is impossible. So having beaten the Todd Grantham is leaving UGA how will it affect recruiting thing to death before Grantham announced he is staying at UGA, Mike decided there was nothing left to do other than non-report by asking a series of inflammatory questions and speculating about what will happen in the future.

You can see it coming a mile away.

Probably the most popular form of negative recruiting that will be used against UGA this year will be Todd Grantham.

Grantham is the Bulldogs’ defensive coordinator, and he’s considered one of the college football’s brightest minds. Recruits want to play for him because he has NFL coaching experience, and they think that he can help put them in excellent position get to the league. Those are the positives.

The negative for any elite defensive recruit that is considering UGA is this: Will Grantham, who got NFL feelers this off-season, still be around to coach me in a few years?

What do you think? Do you think Grantham will still be at UGA in a few years?

Ignore his ridiculous argument that having a bright and successful defensive coordinator is a negative. Ignore that he seems to be arguing that Georgia should go back to having a mediocre or worse coordinator who may or may not be on the verge of getting canned. Ignore the asinine logic and ridiculous drivel he has already subjected you, the fair reader, to and keep reading, because Carvell doesn’t stop there. He goes on to conjure a complete fake conversation between high school coaches and Grantham.

You can expect this topic to be torpedoed heavily against the Bulldogs in recruiting battles for 2014 defensive prospects.

It’s a very simple conversation between the coach of a competing college and a recruit, as one high school coach indicated. Here’s the summary:

•   Coach: “Grantham is a fine coach at Georgia. Do you think he’ll still be there to coach you?”

•   High school senior: “Hmmm. Well …”

He puts the bow on the present nicely, with this little series of questions:

If you were an elite 2014 defensive recruit, what do you think about Richt’s comments? Do you trust him enough to replace any top assistant with another top assistant? Could he get somebody as good as Grantham if he left? Or would the attraction to playing defense for Georgia leave with Grantham? And if you were Richt, how would you address this situation? Please post below.

So here’s the deal. I’m a blogger, I guess. I’m not constrained at all by the ethics of journalism, and apparently those are out the window anyway. So let’s rumormonger a little too.

If you were a reader of the AJC in 2014, would you want to read Carvell? Do you expect him to have a job in 2014? Please vote below.

Immediatly Open Investigation Into Refs From this Game

If they are not put in jail, shot, or put in the electric chair for the insanity from tonight’s game, then there is no reason to watch college basketball anymore.
Refs are crooked and take money from all sorts of folks. I don’t konw if these refs did that or if they were dropped on their heads repeatedly in their youth. Either way, they do not deserve to serve french fries at Burger King, much less ever possess a whistle ever again.

 

If Ole Miss wins this game, they are due for a meteor.

 

Pathetic – Tech Blog Blames NCAA and UGA for Poor Recruiting

One of the great joys in life is listening to Tech fans rationalize and make excuses for their miserable football program . But this post on FromTheRumbleSeat takes the cake. Titled “The State of College Football After What We Learned Today,” the author does not offer any introspection about Tech’s ability to recruit.

Instead, the author argues that the system creates an unlevel playing field and that the NCAA needs to step in to “fix” the situation. This type of outward looking blame-game is absolutely typical of a graduate of the North Avenue Trade School. Indeed, the author goes on to suggest that Bama and UGA are stealing recruits from Tech.

Let’s pause here for a second – UGA stole a single player from Tech. Saban has never heard of Georgia Tech, and probably assumed it was the same as Georgia Southern. But in typical Tech fashion, the author suggests that Tech recruits are coveted and often stolen by prime schools (he ignores that Tech lost recruits to powerhouses such as NC State and Mississippi State).

Let me attempt to do my best to paraphrase this post (but read for yourself): The SEC is good, and they recruit well, which causes a snowball effect and accordingly the ACC cannot compete because the best kids want to go to the SEC. This is unfair and the NCAA should change it. Sometimes other schools steal Tech’s recruits… that’s very unfair.  In fact, Tech has recruits everyone else wants, keeps them secret as long as they can until big programs swoop in, and if only there was an early signing day Tech would be able to compete with Alabama.

Read the whole post, but here are the pertinent parts:

The concept of a “runaway freight train” describing the SEC’s ever-increasing dominance of college football is pretty accurate. Nothing will ever stop them until the NCAA changes the rules surrounding how they do what they do.

The problem is, when on the poor end of things, it can become a vicious cycle only capable of being broken by an incredible coach (a very rare breed) who can get players to perform more than anyone ever expected them to.

These kids all tell us they’re “solid” to Tech, and have convinced themselves that they are, but have had other schools recruiting them since their commitment to Tech. (Keep in mind, the other schools are likely turning up the heat on our commitments mostly because they’ve lost commitments of their own, but also because some kids were undiscovered by most before committing to Tech.) They listen enough to start thinking they might just take one more visit…what harm could that do? Then they take that visit, and are amazed at how nice campuses are, how beautiful their women are, how big their signing bonuses stadiums and weight rooms are, the teams they’ll get to play against…and they’re gone. All this basically to say that the system is broken.

It’s pathetic and downright sad that our program is having to keep certain recruits secret, so that other programs won’t come in and swipe them up. We have no way of evening the playing field when we’re not one of the top programs or in the top conference in the country, when we play by the rules of how many we can sign, and keep players on the team for 4-5 years regardless of how well they perform.

We watch uga and Alabama sign 30+ guys per year (somehow this works out mathematically to fill an 85-man roster, though I’ve yet to figure out how), while we’ve yet to sign more than 23 under Paul Johnson and have only signed over 20 twice. We watch them dogfight over the nation’s top prospects, only to come and snatch our top prospects up once they realize they can’t have all of the prospects that everyone wants.

At the end of the day, if college football is to continue as the game we know and love, it’s going to be caused by changes in recruiting rules that benefits teams who very effectively recruit before other teams are able to jump in and grab their players. An early signing period is the only way to derail the unstoppable freight train that has become the SEC.

Anyone feel similarly, or am I just complaining and throwing a hissy-fit?

I actually agree that it’s “pathetic and downright sad” that Tech has to somehow keep recruits secret (how do you do that anyway? Coaches can’t publically talk about recruits), or it’s at least sad the author thinks that’s what’s going on. But he knows what’s really happening: better football programs at better schools with more “beautiful” women (or any), stadiums that hold more than 50,000 fans, and weight rooms that contain free weights (and no Richard Simmons videos) tend to be able to take who they want.

Remarkably, nowhere in the post is there any indicia that Paul Johnson is to blame. Paul Johnson has only signed over 20 twice? Has Tech ever had a full roster? Tech, for all its flaws is still a BCS program. In fact, Tech has been able to recruit in the past. In 2007, the last year of Gailey’s tenure, Tech recruited the 18th best recruiting class in the nation, with eight 4-star recruits including Morgan Burnett (NFL), Nick Claytor (NFL), Jonathan Dwyer (NFL), Derrick Morgan (NFL), and Josh Nesbitt. Five of those 4 stars came from Georgia, and Morgan Burnett was a UGA legacy Tech managed to flip.

Georgia Tech chose to fire Gailey and hire Paul Johnson. Since then, Johnson has overseen six recruiting classes, and in total has recruited ten four-star recruits. Simply put, Johnson has not been able to recruit like Gailey could. This is not the SEC’s fault.

Let me rearrange some of the post’s sentences (in italics) to form a more accurate synopsis:

It’s pathetic and downright sad Tech fans can’t look in the mirror and instead engage in non-stop complaining and throwing hissy-fits. Because Tech’s campus is a shit-hole and the students are rejects from the Big Bang Theory, recruits who also visit the SEC are amazed at how nice campuses are, how beautiful their women are, how big their stadiums and weight rooms are, the teams they’ll get to play against.

Being at a loser school with myopic focus on science kills recruiting and starts a vicious cycle only capable of being broken by an incredible coach (a very rare breed) who can get players to perform more than anyone ever expected them to. Tech fans cannot admit Paul Johnson is not that coach. Even if he was, he’d bounce for another program like O’Leary did.

We’re not one of the top programs or in the top conference in the country, and should start acting like it. DragonCon is more fun anyway.

A last note to the author – An early signing period isn’t going to help you. Your better recruits know they have to wait it out with the bigger programs, and they won’t sign. If you want to get better, fire your asshole coach and find a young upstart who can recruit. Hang onto him for 4 years and then when he leaves hope you can do the same all over again with another coach. You’re smart kids, you can figure this out. We’ll enjoy kicking your ass in the meanwhile. I’m sure you enjoyed 2008.

Te’o May Need Compassion Not Ridicule Right Now

I’ve thought a decent bit about this strange story.  A Notre Dame Heisman finalist linebacker decides to make up or remain complicit in an pretty elaborate ruse to convince the world he has a girlfriend.  But the big question remains - why?  Here are some possibilities:

1. The kid is a massive prankster who doesn’t give a shit about anything and wants a laugh
2. This is part of some strange publicity stunt, hatched before the Heisman thing got huge.
3. Some other reason.

Let’s examine them one at a time. My ultimate conclusion, which is mere speculation and based on nothing other than reviewing the Deadspin article, suggests that maybe Te’o deserves some compassion and understanding, as opposed to ridicule and investigation. It may not be some sinister plot by the Notre Dame PR machine, but instead a weak cover thought up by an insecure college kid who isn’t ready to tell his whole story to the world yet.

 

Here are the possibilties in more detail:

 

The Prank -  The Deadspin story seems to suggest that Te’o's buddy may have a prankster side to him.  And just maybe the friend and Te’o, the  mormon-raised linebacker, really want to see us all be the fools. But here’s where that doesn’t check out – Te’o's dad appears to have been pretty involved in this. There may not be any evidence that he was activiely fabricating stuff, and perhaps he was just repeating what Te’o told him,  but that means Te’o was punking his dad too.  This just doesn’t add up. What’s the payoff for the prank? Making Brian Kelly look like a dumbass for handing him the gameball?  If this was an elaborate prank, why kill the girlfriend off? And what’s the punchline really? None of these explanations fits what we seem to know about Te’o anyway, and none on their own seem to offer a comelling reason to undertake the prank. I’m not buying it.

 

The Publicity Stunt – This one immediatley falls apart.  Faking a relatinoship to boost yourself? Is it news that a ND linebacker has a girlfriend? Faking her death to pump yourself up? His grandma died the same weekend as the fake GF’s death. If it was some publicity stunt, why kill her off then – he already had all the PR he needed? But the argument in favor of a stunt is also somewhat compelling, if not awkward – if Te’o wanted to back away from the fake twitter gf, he didn’t have to kill her off.  He could have just quietly broken up with her. Quick, does Aaron Murray have a girlfriend? I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe not. And if he broke up with a girlfriend, I wouldn’t give one rat’s shit. So the whole tragic death thing suggests someone had a flair for the dramatic. Still, if Te’o cares at all about his future career, the GF dying angle just isn’t that compelling and draws a lot attention to him that could end badly.

 

Other – Why would a highly elligible 21 year-old bachelor at a major University enlist the help of another young bachelor of similar background and disposition in creating a fake story about having a girlfriend?  I haven’t seen the Catfishing movie (I think that’s what it’s called), but there is a substantial segment of the population that makes up online people, sparks relationships, and takes them as far as they will go.  But those folks usually don’t do it in the public eye. In fact, it’s the opposite, as they usually don’t want to get caught.  This story with Te’o seems similar but different.  Allegedly, the ND message boards are buzzing with rumors that Te’o made this up with a friend to avoid questions about why he wasn’t dating anyone.  Let’s just cut to the chase – if Te’o is gay, he’s in a tough cross-section of two very masculine cutlutres.  Football and Samoans are probably two of the less accepting sub-cultures for a gay athlete to come out.  In fact, despite the fact there are 124 division I teams, each with roughly 100 players on a team, meaning there are 12,400 Division I football players, I am unaware of any openly gay football players (including NFL). That’s not to say there aren’t any, but they would seem to be few and far between. Even if you assume that 1% of the population is gay (I think the figure is more like 5%), one would expect 124 gay football players.

 

My guess is that Te’o has had a lot of opportunities with the opposite sex, and if he did turn them down, he probably faced a lot of scrutiny from teammates/friends/etc.   That’s probably tough to hide after a while.  And whose to say what being openly gay would do to his draft stock? Would other players want to be on his team? That may seem silly and unrealistic, but I’m guessing that in the hyper-macho NFL, a gay player would be very unpopular, and a GM would take that into consideration.  If Te’o were gay and concerned about that, the gf ruse make a lot more sense.  How do you make up a fake girlfriend these days that people can verify? Do it online. The media obviously ate it up. Probably seemed like a real good idea for a while.

 

This story won’t go away anytime soon, but for Te’o's sake, I hope it does. If I’m right and it is a cover-story, then hopefully the media won’t figure that out either, and he can live his life in relative peace and announce (or not announce) anything he likes on his own schedule.  At the least, if this is not a prank or publicity stunt, I hope it does not affect his NFL draft status too much.

 

 

Ted Roof Hired as Defensive Coordinator for Georgia Tech – Promises to Tank Defense and Deliver National Champsionsip Like He Did At Auburn

AP Wire  – Atlanta, Georgia.  Georgia Tech, the smartest college in the Universe, except the schools taught by vulcans or elves, has hired the only man known to have slowed down the Georgia offense.  The collective brain trust at Georgia Tech hired the invincible Ted Roof.

Those of you familiar with the 7 foot, 7 inch tall Roof will recall his stellar defenses at Duke, where he went 6-45 as a head coach.  Many credit Roof as the reason Duke’s program has turned around after he was fired in 2007.  David Cutcliff, who used none of Roof’s players to make it to a bowl game this year,  still comments frequently about the culture change Roof brought, particularly in areas like the cafeteria and restrooms.

Roof’s coaching resume includes a prior stop at Georgia Tech as defensive coordinator. Tech fans fondly recall the close loss in 2001 where Georgia Tech held Georgia to absolutely no passing touchdowns in a 31-17 loss. The shutout is marked by a plaque and banner at Bobby Dodd Stadium.  Roof also fondly recalls the game, and implores any naysayers that Verron Haynes, who ran for 215 yards, and over 140 after the first contact, will be unable to repeat such a performance given his departure from Athens.  “The game plan is foolproof now,” said Roof.  Mark Richt responded “I just hope Merritt Hall, another walk-on fullback, can come close to that performance. If not him, we’re sure we can pull just about anyone out of the stands to run on Tech.”

Roof’s first year as a defensive coordinator at Auburn saw him excel  during 2009 when his unit led the nation in total defense amongst the 46 worst defenses.  While Roof acknowledges the 75 other defenses which outperformed his Auburn team that year, he also notes that the 2008 Auburn defense only ranked 14th out of 120 teams, indicating substantial improvement in no areas whatsoever, but leaving room for substantial improvement which never happened.

Georgia Tech fans note that when Roof took over Auburn’s defense in 2009, the decline in performance directly correlated with a national championship in two years.  Roof has questioned whether he can deliver a similar decline in performance at Tech, given that Tech’s 2012 defense ranked 43rd in the nation.  Statisticians at Tech point out that Roof’s ability at Auburn to cause the defense to go from 14th to 60th (a change of 44) in two years is still possible at Tech if he can cause their performance to drop from 43rd to 87th.  Pessimistic Tech fans using percentage change note that Roof took Auburn from a 2008 defense in the top 12% of football to one in the 50th percentile in 2010 (change of -38%).  Applied to the 2012 team, Roof would have to take the 2012 number (35th percentile) and degrade the defense to the 73rd percentile, which equates to the 91st ranked defense out of 124.   Roof has vowed to do his level best, causing many small erections from Tech fans, now giddy at the guarantee of a National Title. These optimistic Tech fans cite Paul Johnson’s stellar recruiting (which in 2011 included an actual 4 star recruit and in 2012 had 2!) as evidence that Roof can tank the defense and bring home the Crystal Football.

Few Georgia fans have been available for comment, as a mysterious illness has struck all that have been asked the question. This reporter has noticed that immediately upon informing these ill UGA fans about the hire, an uncontrollable bout of laughter has gripped them which does not subside for hours.  No word on if Athens will be quarantined.

Gurley v. Crowell – End of Year Comparison

How did The Crow do this year at Alabama State compared to Gurley? Not well.

Total Rushing Yards: 842 v. 1385

YPC:  5.3 v. 6.3

 

What about compared against Marshall, our #2 back, against Crow?

Total Rushing Yards: 842 v. 759

YPC – 5.3 v. 6.5

(Go here for Crow’s stats.  Here for Gurshall’s)

 

Food for thought.

 

 

 

Wathcing This Game is Like Watching an Ex in a Porno

I continually find myself going to my happy place when I think about this game. Sure, I suppose Alabama is who I’ll root for. I guess. I don’t want Notre Dame to come back to prominence. This is kind of like rooting for a horrible dictator that’s been around for 50 years to put down the coup d’etat that of the dictator that will likely be just a little bit worse.

Hope you all enjoy the game. I’ll be watching with the detached interest of one wondering if what the last scene holds.