| 28 January 2012
Gurley to Texas:
The Georgia running back commitment from Tarboro, N.C., isn’t on any official visit. He’s heading there to begin practicing for the International Bowl.
Gurley will spend Wednesday’s national signing day playing in the 6 p.m. ET game from Austin. The game will be shown on the CBS Sports Network.
The game matches a USA team against a world team. Players from 20 countries will be represented.
The game has scheduled a USA team signing day breakfast at Austin Marriott South at 9:15 a.m. ET. Gurley said he’ll fax over his letter of intent to Georgia.
Other players headed to SEC schools in the game: defensive back Ray Buchanan Jr. (Arkansas), linebacker Ronnie Feist (LSU), offensive lineman Joe Harris (South Carolina), defensive end Gimil President (Auburn) and kicker-punter Colby Cooke (Vanderbilt),
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Chris Low on IC:
The skinny: One way or the other, we're going to find out a lot about Crowell this offseason. He's a wonderful physical talent and demonstrated in stretches this past season that he can be a big-time SEC tailback. But he has a long way to go in terms of his mental toughness, durability and overall maturity before he can be considered one of the marquee backs in this league. Plus, he has some serious competition. The Bulldogs went out and signed Keith Marshall, rated by ESPN as the No. 2 running back prospect in the country. Marshall is already in school and will participate in spring practice. Georgia also has another top running back prospect committed in this class, Todd Gurley, who's rated as the No. 12 running back nationally. Crowell has said all of the right things, that he needs to be more accountable and work harder every day. He's going to need to if he doesn't want to get passed up in the rotation. The Georgia fans actually booed him in the SEC title game because they weren't sold on his toughness or his overall commitment. This thing could go either way for Crowell, who's not unlike a lot of freshmen in some ways. He just had so much hype coming in. But now's the time for him to realize that he has to bring it in every practice and every game, get in tip-top physical condition and be that consistent threat in the running game that the Bulldogs will need next season.
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Boykin showing off:
Georgia's Brandon Boykin won the the Paul Hornung Award this past season as the most versatile player in college football.
"He is fluid and explosive, and he showed off good top-end speed and an extra gear to recover and make up ground when in a trail position. Boykin flashed the ability to turn his hips and run with receivers to limit separation, and even when he was beaten initially, he was able to recover. There are some concerns about his overall instincts and playmaking ability, whether he is a better athlete than football player at this point, but Boykin was one of the top performers on either roster."
It should come as no surprise to anybody then that Boykin's physical skills have caught everyone's attention this week at the Senior Bowl. Kevin Weidl of ESPN Scouts Inc. lists Boykin as one of the players whose stock is up this week.
This is what Weidl had to say about Boykin:
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Kendrell Bell suing Donnan:
Former University of Georgia and Laney High School football star Kendrell Bell says former UGA football coach Jim Donnan deceived him into investing $2 million in a West Virginia company that turned out to be a Ponzi scheme, using money from new investors to pay inflated returns to people who put money into the company early on — including Donnan.
The company, GLC Limited, filed for bankruptcy last year owing some $27 million to investors and lenders.
Bell played for Donnan at UGA, then went on to play for the Pittsburgh Stealers. The linebacker was the league’s defensive rookie of the year in 2001, but his career was cut short by injury.
“James Donnan guaranteed (Bell) that his investment was safe and that James Donnan would protect him,” according to legal documents filed by Bell’s lawyers. “James Donnan was a father-figure to (Bell), and (Bell) trusted him implicitly.”
Donnan was a key figure in the company’s fundraising, according to the former football star’s lawyers.
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Sabanization of the SEC?
Auburn's transition from the run-based spread to a pro-style attack* brings up a somewhat disturbing trend in the SEC: Creeping Sabanization. When Saban joined the conference, the mix of offenses was fairly diverse. Florida was running the spread. LSU was running something with spread elements. Arkansas was relying healvily on the Wildcat. Within two years, Auburn and Mississippi state were also running the spread. Two national titles for Saban later, everyone is trying to copy him, but not necessarily in good ways. Florida is running a pro-style offense under a Saban disciple. Ditto for Tennessee. LSU is attempting a modern-day imitation of the Bo Schembechler offense. Now, Auburn is eschewing the offense that was a significant factor in the Tigers winning their first national title in 53 years.** Mississippi State is left as the only run-based spread team in the league (and no one is running the Air Raid that played a role in Clemson, West Virginia, and Oklahoma State all making BCS bowls). Chris Brown asks whether the age of the spread is in decline. The answer is clearly "yes" in the SEC.
The problem with the entire league imitating Nick Saban's style is that it is hard to replicate what Saban does. Saban is an epic recruiter. The characterization of him in The Blind Side turned out to be accurate. Programs that try to imitate his method will typically find themselves doing so with less talent. Additionally, Saban is an outstanding defensive coach, so his teams don't need an offense to put up big numbers. In sum, Saban's style of conservative risk minimization works with a talent advantage and a dominant defense. Without those two factors, the other programs in the SEC won't be able to do what Saban's team can. Thus, even though a well-coached pro-style offense can work (and Loeffler is as good a candidate as anyone to run that offense well), the rest of the SEC looking up to Alabama could still stand to use the basic premise of the run-based spread, which is to use the quarterback as a runner to create either a numerical advantage in the box of favorable throwing conditions down the field. If you want a succinct scenario for the end of SEC dominance, it's the possibility of the rest of the conference taking the wrong lessons from Alabama's success.
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Luck breaking the agent mold:
Andrew Luck will be represented by his uncle, Will Wilson, who passed the NFL certification exam in in 2010. He is an attorney who teamed with Wasserman Media group out of Los Angeles, CA. He does have a lot of experience in the sports industry but any agent will tell you that nothing can prepare you for doing business with the 32 NFL ruling families and their gatekeepers.
That’s right, Luck, who is considered the prize draft pick of the decade, will be represented by a newbie, beginner, virgin, start-up, rookie, freshman, and first-time NFL agent. Call him what you want but he is now the envy of the sport representation industry. Many agents are quietly skeptical and critical of Andrew’s decision. Some agents I spoke to at the Senior Bowl practices this week are even calling it a foolish move. On the marketing front, Andrew will be represented by Wasserman Media Group who is most known for its work in the action sports arena of skating, snowboarding, motor-cross and their recent acquisition of SFX Golf.
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Drawing socioeconomic conclusions from anecdotal evidence - bah, humbug:
I charted the high school locales of the 100 NFL quarterbacks that were either active or on injured reserve at the end of the 2011 regular season. Of those, just 18 hailed from one of the current SEC states. The generally talent-rich state of Florida claims just three.
If you believe recruiting rankings to be an accurate projector of future success, that trend doesn't appear to be changing. Of the 16 quarterbacks in the current class to garner a four- or five-star rating from Rivals, five are from the South (including the highest-rated, Florida State commit Jameis Winston of Hueytown, Ala). Just two, Tennessee commit Nathan Peterman (Fruit Cove, Fla.) and Kentucky commit Patrick Towles (Ft. Thomas, Ky.), are heading to SEC schools.
The underlying issue behind the geographic disparity is much more complex than weather. It's socioeconomic. Quarterbacks require far more individualized training than other positions, and gurus like Johnson (based in suburban Orange County) and rival Steve Clarkson (Pasadena) aren't cheap. Their clients tend to come from affluent parents that can afford to shell out thousands of dollars for a private trainer.
While poverty is hardly limited to the South, nor are those states devoid of their own affluent neighborhoods, it's no secret than many of the region's best high school football programs reside in some of its poorest areas.
"When I see a quarterback in the Southeast," said Farrell, "they never refer me to a personal QB coach."
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A quiet, bucolic family outing:
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Video Treats:
Jimi Hendrix Stephen Stills And Johnny Winter - The Things That I Used To Do
This was recorded May 7th 1969 at The Record Plant, NYC, after a night of jamming at he Scene Club. Stephen Stills on bass, Buddy Miles on drums.
Jimi Hendrix & Johnny Winter - Instrumental Jam 2
May 7, 1969 Record Plant, New York, NY
---------------- Artists ----------------
Johnny Winter - slide guitar, straight guitar
Jimi Hendrix - guitar, vocals
Steve Stills - bass, guitar
Dallas Taylor - drums
Buddy Miles - drums
Billy Cox - bass?
JOHNNY WINTER - Jumpin' Jack Flash (1974 UK TV Appearance)
Johnny Winter - Be Careful With A Fool
Technical term for "very large":
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