A general rule for pre-bowl rankings (and probably for all non-NC or semi-final bowls) is to factor where a team currently is and gauge how well it did that week relative to others (as best as possible). Sure there are aberrations, but with a 65-7 shellacking and #2 ...

I do agree post season rankings are losing relevance especially since many top players for a team chooses not to play the bowl games. But although may not make a difference for the Top-4 or Top-10 but sure as heck means something to be in Top-25 at the end of the season. For fans. For recruiting. For school pride & momentum ... many that us bottom feeders don't have as much of.

Actually, no. That seemed to be a much more competitive situation. Michigan lacked the athletes (especially minus Corum) to dominant TCU the way a more athletic team did.

And remember, lines are set not based on what's going to happen, they're set in order to influence betting in favor of the house.

This isn't personal Jon, but you said, in this thread, that there was a 99% chance that Michigan and Georgia would boatrace TCU. I respect your football knowledge as far as it goes, but seriously which is it? Hindsight is always 20-20.

I thought I said that about Ohio State. I might be wrong in my recolection, but those two are the obvious matchup issue.

My most distinct recollection is saying that the UGAg-tOSU game was the de facto national championship.

December 3rd

I objected to this, and the reply later the same day was:


I can't find any statement about Georgia-Ohio State being the real national title game, maybe it's there and I just don't see it. There was this though between the two semifinals: "after watching this game, what little faint hope I was holding onto for Ohio State has basically vanished."

My point here is not to play gotcha games. Certainly people can forget what they said or change their mind or whatever. It just goes back to my main point about all this stuff that nobody, but nobody can predict this stuff as well as some experts think they can. It doesn't mean you or anyone else doesn't know football; it does mean that stuff just happens. Conventional wisdom was right about the title game, wrong about both of the semifinals (yes Georgia won but they were down 14 after three quarters and they probably should have lost).

Its all about matchups. TCU matched up with Michigan a helluva lot better than they did against tOSU and UGA. Michigan matches up alot better with tOSU than UGA. And tOSU matched up well with UGA.


That's why the semis were so damn fun.

And why expanded playoffs can produce some fun games, even if you have years in which 1 or 2 teams are clearly better than most of the others and the championship game sucks.

I stand corrected.




Given how often I crosspost between my social media and here on some things, I assume(d) that landed here.

If Alabama hadn't lost to LSU and/or Tennessee, they'd be in the playoff. It's not like they had a wonderful resume. In addition to those two losses, they also squeaked by Texas on a last second field goal, and barely beat Texas A&M and Ole Miss.

For the folks saying that Alabama wouldn't have gotten embarrassed like TCU did, I think if you switched New England for Denver in Super Bowl XLVIII, they wouldn't have gotten blown out by the Seahawks.

Clemson fired OC Brandon Streeter and is about to hire TCU's OC.

Hogs #22 in EPSN recruiting (so far).

2023 football recruiting: Ranking the top 75 college teams

Sam continues to make progress in his 4th season. Top 18-25 is typically where we range so no surprise. We have desperate needs in pass defense and QB2. We got a little-middling experienced QB2 from NC (Arkansas kid who got passed by the Hogs so he went to NC) so hoping a nice upgrade from out QB2 kids that went to the portal.

We really, really need to address one of the worst (and at one time, the worst) secondaries in the country. Good think we didn't play the Dawgs this year, it could have been worse than TCU.

Embattled Alabama DC Pete Golding to Ole Miss, according to reports

UGA lost OL Devin Wilcox in a car accident last night, along with Recruiting Analyst Chandler LeCroy. Another player and staffer were injured, but their names have nor been released. Just devastating news the night after the championship parade.

Update: It was Warren McClendon who was the other player in the car. He just declared for the draft yesterday, but was not seriuosly injured. I expect he is pretty emotional torn up.

Wow, pretty sad news

Another rumor that Hog OC Briles is a candidate for same position at TCU.

From what I've read, the Hogs pay their coordinators really well. So I'm guessing & hoping we'll match/up the offer to keep him. Not good to lose DC and OC in same year.

And besides ... it's the SEC, the big boys league :)

But then again ... TCU has done what the Hogs haven't done for millennia, so Briles will have a better base to start from. I admit, likely TCU will get him closer to another runner-up NC than Hogs.

Michigan's Matt Weiss put on leave amid police investigation

All FOFC computer folks, "computer access crimes"?????

Also does this report seem excessively detailed to anyone else? I feel like we usually would have gotten reports of the investigation, the school's and the coach's statements and maybe a blurb about how long he has been coaching at the school. For this guy, we got detailed information about his contract and previous stops including the high school where he began his coaching career. It is like they want all of his previous employers to check if "computer access crimes" may have occurred while he was there as well.

I would guess maybe something like looking up a female student or staff member's personal information? Hopefully not CP or something along those lines.

Maybe he just found out about Napster.

CP was the first thing I thought of, but hopefully not.

No, not child porn. Or anything else that would definitely not be handled by the university's own police force.

From the police reports, which are public information, from two weeks ago (including typos):

"An employee reported fraudulent activity involving someone accessing university emails accounts without authorization. Upon further investigation, it was found that a crime may have been committed."

So, not good at all, but probably not something that would send him to jail. Hopefully, not having anything to do with football or harassing women.

Strike 3 Holdings has sent him a letter.

Reports: Florida QB commit asks out after NIL deal falls apart

4/$13 million? $3.25 mil a year?

Let's compare shall we? Here are the 2022 base salaries of guys who started a game in the NFL this year.

Mike White- $2,540,000
Taylor Heinicke- $1,500,000
Lamar Jackson- $1,771,588
Desmond Ridder-$705,000
Davis Mills- $897,160
Malik Willis-$1,408,650
Mac Jones- $1,368,471
Cooper Rush- $977,500

2022-23 Playoff starters minus Dak, TB12, and Cousins

Patrick Mahomes- $1,500,000
Josh Allen- $4,100,000
Jalen Hurts- $1,506,293
Brock Purdy- $705,000
Geno Smith - $1,260,000
Daniel Jones- $965,000
Skyler Thompson- $705,000 (Tua Tagovailoa- $895,000 for reference)
Joe Burrow- $895,000
Tyler Huntley- $895,000
Trevor Lawrence- $825,000
Justin Herbert- $3,026,250

Welp, apparently OC Briles is gone. Congrats to him, like I said, he's closer to playing for NC at TCU than at Arkansas, so I understand and thank him for some decent years.

Pittman has hired Maryland's OC & QB coach Don Enos to replace Briles. Both were with the Hogs in mid-2010s so they know each other. Based on his resume, I'd say he was an upgrade but I'll settle for even. I hope it won't be a difficult transition for our QB1 and RB1.

Michigan fires Matt Weiss amid computer access crimes investigation

Another update. Rashada is a (unrestricted?) free agent.

Source - Gators release '23 QB recruit Jaden Rashada from NLI

Congrats to Neon Deion on the #1 CB, kinda makes sense doesn’t it.

Rooting for you. I really hope you become a good coach at this level.

You can read the AJC coverage yourselves if you want, I'm just noting that the Atlanta newspaper is treading on some really sensitive ground as they look deeper into the car crash that killed a player and a recruiting staffer, and injured another player & staffer.

At issue seems to be the question of why 2 staffers in a rental car (typically used for recruiting visits) were picking up 2 current players from a local strip club in the wee hours of the morning.

The answer to that question may have some serious implications about the eventual liability for the accident.

No matter what the answer(s) are, them looking into it is unlikely to go down well with a rabid fanbase.

I was definitely wondering when those issues were going to be brought up when it happened. I knew it would, just a matter of when.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

I hadn't heard about the strip club part of it until this morning.

IIRC at one point since we've lived here (so 15 years give or take) Toppers was considered off-limits to the football team/athletes. It's reputation is, umm, questionable.

There is a reason Kirby is well liked.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

I'd LOL but that'd feel ... awkward. But realistically you ain't likely ain't wrong neither.

FWIW, as I just said to someone on my own social media, despite my feeling toward the institution involved I genuinely hope this turns out to be more understandable than it is starting to appear. I don't like tragedy mixing with scandal all that much, not even here.

However, if it isn't this might be the biggest university vs media scrum here since Jan Kemp.

Give me your take. Because it looks pretty understandable to me, but I might be missing something.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

If the university knowingly permitted use of a university vehicle & driver to pick up players, a sort of on-call car service, then the university just handed taxpayers a helluva lot of liability. (unless every bit of that was athletic association funded with literally zero university oversight)

It really doesn't have to get to the point of who was drinking, where they were drinking, etc. Those things may have bad optics but the issue is turning into a taxi service for drunk players. (And let's face it, given the quality of dancers at Toppers or lack thereof, nobody is sitting in there sober)

Now from an athletic standpoint, there's a significant potential can of worms here. It's only been three years since the NCAA stripped Mary Hardin-Baylor of a D3 national championship because the coach loaned his 20 year old Subaru to a few players.

If THAT was impermissible, I'm pretty sure having cars & drivers on call ain't gonna fly either.

Yeah, I think liability is going to be the issue. If the staffer was drinking, that's a hefty lawsuit. Heck, probably even a hefty lawsuit if she wasn't as it sounds against the rules for staffers to be out with students/players.

From everything I've read, they've identified her as a UGA staffer. That to me sounds like someone employed by the school.

There is near zero chance that it was University funded. I'm pretty sure those staffers (recruit coordinators) are all paid by the association. The question is if these girls were assigned by the university, or were they just out partying with some players.

Also, the family has stated that they have no intention of suing the University. I'm pretty sure that whole weird fiasco with the press conference with their lawyer where the family didn't show up was because they have already settled. And the idea that taxpayers would pay anything is laughable. The football program funds have more than enough to cover any lawsuit.

Honestly, they typically wouldn't differentiate that based on whether the University (proper) or the Athletic Association paid her.

The Hogs, so far, are worse off because of the portal. But I like the portal without the $ stuff. I like how players, many under utilized thru no fault of their own (some kids just have more talent, late bloomer etc.), get a second chance at a different team & opportunity to grow and play.

It’s like maximizing efficiency of available resources.

UGA issues their most extensive statement to date on the recent fatal car crash. The key point from the AD is this.


Meanwhile, fwiw, from some folks with far more connections than I have, I'm hearing that this scenario was not unusual at all and that the "recruiting" office is much more involved with the current roster than one might expect given the name.

I've read that it is very common in all major programs for the recruiting staff to stay connect to the players.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

I'm told that the level of connection here is often, umm ... biblical.
(And I don't mean the CMR kind)

Ain't nothing new about that anywhere of course, it's just that it used to be a recruiting thing whereas now it's more of a "don't lose 'em to the portal" thing.

Absolutely. I also think it is the product that most of those staffers were volunteers years ago, but now they have some that are full-time staff. There is a limited amount of time that they can be in contact with recruits, but they can pretty much always be with the players.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

Audit -- LSU discovered $1M overpayment to Brian Kelly in 2022

Brian Kelly knew he was getting those double payments. He could have went to the payroll department and let them know he was getting double payment. :p

But seriously, why can't they just pull all that money out in one shot? I mean, I have seen them pull double payments out in one lump sum when these mistakes are made.

That money was meant for Brett Favre.

Depends on the state. Some states won't allow you to pull more than X amount of salary back.

When you have that much money coming, I'm not at all surprised that he lost track of a million in the first year of employment and that is if he even ever looks at those types of things. Especially if there were signing bonuses or things like attendance or win threshold bonuses in place.

It also sounds like he has some going as personal income and then some going into an LLC - probably so that he can 'employ' family members and friends and reduce his tax burden. I've seen high earners, who make much less, do things with LLCs like have pictures of their kids taken and send them out on cards or put them on websites promoting whatever they are promoting and then max out their young children's 401Ks and IRAs.

Georgia athletics statement provides answer on rented vehicle in crash


UGA goes on the record that the use of the vehicle was "unauthorized"
So that covers what "policy" was.

A question that remains to be answered is how closely did reality match official policy. Was "unauthorized" use truly unknown to those in charge or was it given a blind eye?

I don't know the answer to that, I'm won't even suggest what the answer is. But it's a question that will need to be answered at some point.

I have driven a company vehicle for a long time. I'm not supposed yo use it for personal use by company policy. Have I? Sure. Not often. Does my boss know? Sure. As long as I don't openly abuse it, I'm fine. Most people in my industry don't get in trouble for personal use unless they do something stupid. Like the guy that got a DUI in another state in the company truck, or the one that had an accident while moving someone over the weekend. If those two, only the DUI guy got fired. It is like a rule *wink wink*. Probably the same type thing with this. She was supposed to use it for the day and take it home. *wink wink*

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

But that's kind of close to the definition of "lack of institutional control"

Maybe? But then you have to prove someone knew this was happening.