It can't be personal, because I don't personally know anybody who works for the NCAA, but I hate the organization as a whole because it reminds me so much of our federal government: it is a bloated bureaucracy that seems to exist only for making bizarre, arbitrary, and confusing decisions with enormous power over student-athletes, and zero accountability for those decisions. Don't believe me? Go to the NCAA website and try to figure out how to ask a person responsible for athlete eligibility a question. There aren't even any email addresses or phone numbers listed for their media resource contacts! What chance do you think a serious "blogger" might have getting his questions answered through the same NCAA media inquiry form used by an ESPN reporter? I'm guessing zero, but I went through the motions. For that reason, it was written on Monday but will be saved for publication until Tuesday, to give the NCAA an opportunity to respond. Though I don't expect the NCAA to even tell me the time of day, I'm going to follow the same protocol as any serious journalist and give the source an opportunity to respond before I rip them to shreds. The deadline came and went without my question answered: "Why was Luke Ford's appeal denied?" Oh, how do I hate the NCAA? Let me count the ways, using a baseball analogy to talk about football: Strike 1: Kolton Houston is forced by the NCAA to undergo elective surgery to remedy a doctor's mistake in order to become eligible to play for the University of Georgia. Houston received an injection by a doctor of a banned substance to … [Read more...]
Kirby Smart’s no-win decision
Photo by John David Mercer, USA TODAY Sports [Typical disclaimer: Only the opinions of an ordinary Bulldog fan and alumnus are being expressed here. I've never met or spoken with Coach Kirby Smart. I'm not authorized to speak on his behalf, nor on the behalf of the University of Georgia.] There is no whining in college football. Conventional wisdom called for the most conservative, safest strategy: instead of continuing to play to win, now try to extend play and avoid losing during the final three minutes of regulation. The only problem was, that strategy failed miserably in the national championship game less twelve months ago, with a superior, more experienced Georgia defense. True, this Georgia defense has terrific young talent, but it is no longer anchored at key positions by the likes of Roquan Smith, Lorenzo Carter, or Davin Bellamy. Asking these freshmen and sophomores to stop an Alabama team from scoring that had beaten every regular season opponent by an average of three touchdowns and every prior SEC opponent by an astonishing average of almost 33 points per game would probably be asking too much of them. Talk about deja vu. Twice in one year, to lead the vaunted, favored Crimson Tide by double digits late in the second half, and to lose the game only because Alabama scored on their final possession? That would be a very bitter pill to swallow. So Kirby Smart faced a difficult decision with 4th and 11 for Georgia's offense at midfield, with 3:11 left in the fourth quarter of a tied SEC championship game. The "smart" play would be … [Read more...]
Jadon Haselwood’s final decision
Haselwood does look sharp in the Red and Black. If you follow college football recruiting, you've probably heard of Jadon Haselwood. He has been described as the best pure wide receiver prospect to commit to UGA since current NFL All-Pro A. J. Green. Then, in early October, the young man abruptly decommitted from the Bulldogs, shortly before visiting Mark Richt at the University of Miami. Currently, over 65 percent of the predictions by professional recruiting analysts are that Jadon Haselwood will ultimately sign with the Miami Hurricanes. Perhaps young Mr. Haselwood will accept a scholarship to the University of Miami -- if that turns out to be the case, as a Georgia Bulldog fan I will naturally be somewhat disappointed, but wish him good health and the best of success, unless the Canes are playing against my Dawgs. But I am predicting he won't. Even though no one pays me to prognosticate about where high school football players might play in college, I reject the current "conventional wisdom" of the recruiting experts and personally estimate there's about a 90 percent probability that Haselwood becomes a Dawg, simply by applying deductive reasoning and good, old-fashioned common sense. Here's my rationale...Jadon Haselwood is a fierce competitor who tells interviewers that he wants to catch passes, score touchdowns, and win championships. He also makes it clear that he wants to play professional football after his college career ends. His skill at the game and athletic ability will probably make Haselwood a potential first round NFL draft pick no matter where he … [Read more...]
D’Andre Swift’s highlight reel
Okay, Bill B. This blog's for you... I laugh every time I watch this clip from the Auburn game. Notice how the defender never lays a hand on D'Andre Swift. Doesn't even come close in fact, forced to just turn his head and watch helplessly as the superb UGA tailback runs right past him. https://twitter.com/SECNetwork/status/1061446743240466433?fbclid=IwAR0lWBp5ncxzrlrCMK6ZwZtZXM4nS-OD_WPheAjBCA4J0h3-c-twqXzwzew The Auburn player shouldn't feel too bad, though. D'Andre Swift made the entire Wildcat defense look silly in the Bulldog's previous game, with two ankle-breaking cuts on the same play. Great vision. https://twitter.com/CBSSports/status/1058823096759541762?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1058823096759541762&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.saturdaydownsouth.com%2Fkentucky-football%2Fwatch-spectacular-dandre-swift-td-run-gives-georgia-14-3-lead-before-halftime-over-kentucky%2F Once Swift has faked and juked his way through the defense, nobody's going to catch him. Now that he's healthy, D'Andre Swift is the best running back in college football. It's sheer poetry in motion--a portrait of the artiste as a young man. While there's never a bad time to be a Dawg, some seasons are better than others. However, this appears to be the beginning of a golden era for Georgia football. And D'Andre Swift is proving to be a very special football player. … [Read more...]
Bulldog pride
There are 365 days in a year, except leap years. Normally I'm proud to be a Georgia Bulldog fan (and alumnus) for at least 350 of them, I'm guessing on average. As for those other days, well, the problem isn't my alma mater. Nor has it been the football team, the basketball team, swim team, or tennis team that embarrassed me. Instead, the problem tends to be a minority of others who also call themselves Bulldog fans, but fail to understand the concept of winning with integrity and losing with dignity. In the spirit of full disclosure, I will confess that I haven't actually watched the LSU game yet because my oldest nephew's wedding was in California last Sunday. While Georgia was on the field in Baton Rouge, I was flying coast to coast from Atlanta to L.A. for the rehearsal dinner. Even so, I don't need to watch the replay to know most of what happened: turnovers, mistakes, a couple of bad calls by the officials, perhaps a key injury or two, penalties, and missed opportunities. Of course, that also pretty much describes every agonizing Bulldog loss that I've watched over the course of my lifetime. By the time I'd landed in L.A., a friend of mine had killed the battery on my cell phone with text messages giving me score updates as I navigated my way from LAX to Malibu. So without watching the replay I already know we stopped LSU on fourth down but the home team got the call. But no matter how you try to spin the tale, that one bad call didn't make the difference in a game lost by three touchdowns. These days, it seems that without any rules or restrictions, any idiot … [Read more...]
