phil4bama

And at 3pm, there will be free CPR classes on the ramps leading down from the upper deck.

Just curious because I don’t follow baseball close enough to know but have we EVER lost this many midweek games in a season?

Word is he is concussed. frick, frick, frick!

A big part of the problem is Greg Byrne (who I think was excellent at his job until now) is playing the game by rules that no longer exist. Jimmy Sexton probably suspects this too and is throwing his weight around to squeeze every dollar he can from people not adjusting to the paradigm shift that has occurred in college football. Name me an elite coach in the NFL. I’m not talking about someone who is slightly above most of his peers, I’m talking about someone who is head and shoulders above the rest of the league. The last one I can think of is Belichik and even his name is questionable considering what he has done post-Brady. There are no Vince Lombardi’s, Tom Landry’s, Don Shula’s or Chuck Noll’s anymore. Why? Why does the front office affect the product on the field more than the guy running the team from the sidelines? My best guess is unrestricted free agency just like we have in the new college football. NFL coaches don’t have the luxury of 4-5 years of drafting and developing players to fit their system and hone their talents. Neither does college anymore. You have to win and win now, and the only way you can do that is put the best players you can afford and assemble on the field. The caliber of your football coach is very much diminished now. Teams are winning mostly because of the talent differential, not because the coach is a better tactician or a better motivator. Cleveland is a disaster and has been for years because despite having high draft picks, their front office is a train wreck and they draft poorly.

The name of the game is to hire a competent coach who is player friendly and keep him as long as you can without overpaying for him because his kind is no longer a rare commodity. You’re better off putting most of your money into NIL and scouting and recruiting but understand you have little room for projects (ie Proctor) and high priority on players who can play for you right now.

Byrne maybe should have extended CKD, but there is no way in hell he should have agreed to that unmitigated buyout. That is the first line in the sand colleges have to draw with Jimmy Sexton: the unlimited, unmitigated buyout is dead. If your client wants to walk, then walk. We can replace him tomorrow with a cheaper if unproven coach that can do what he is tasked to do now. That is, build a competent staff that can hold their own with other coaches if given equal or near equal talent. They don’t have to be elite football minds and sometimes it doesn’t matter if they are. Lane Kiffin is the best offensive coordinator in football IMHO. His offenses are elite. But he can’t put together a defensive staff and he can’t recruit defensive talent well, especially to a place like Ole Miss. He always fell just a little short for that reason. Maybe with Blake Baker, if he stays out of his way, and gives him enough talent to work with, he can put it all together and get a natty.
I was a big proponent of hiring Cignetti. Now, I’m not so sure he can sustain what he did. He’s elite at identifying overlooked talent, diamonds in the rough. Indiana had a school record 8 players drafted recently. But the last 2 seasons he had the luxury of having the overall #1 pick under center. That’s a huge advantage and one that will be very difficult to replicate no matter how good of a talent scout he is. That guy just isn’t always available and he’s going to be very expensive if he is. It also didn’t hurt that he preached to these kids how they were unwanted, overlooked misfits and they played with a chip on their shoulder. You can only play that card so many times before it becomes stale. I don’t think Cignetti is going to crash and burn; he’s a very good coach. But it will be difficult to have all the pieces fall into place again like they did last season. He’ll be consistently among the top 4-5 schools in the B1G going forward.

All this rambling to say that the days of the 8 figure coach is going to end soon, or it should because you’re waaay overpaying for the product. Smart athletic programs are going to invest the majority of their money into scouting and recruiting, and the schools that play the “Moneyball” game are going to be extremely successful. Top shelf talent is more critical than ever, especially under center. And who in the hell ever decided that “cause” to fire a coach doesn’t include job performance? In any other job on the planet, that is reason #1 for cause to fire. Byrne bet the house on DeBoer and it may not have been necessary or prudent and may cause him to be fired, especially because of the buyout he agreed to.

And so it begins. The consequences of unfettered NIL. This is just the canary in the coal mine. It will get a lot worse for non-revenue sports, especially sports that have both a women’s and a men’s team. Cut both to remain in compliance with Title IX and save more money at the same time. I suspect swimming to be on the chopping block at a lot of schools soon. Both sexes have a team, pool maintenance is an expensive endeavor, technical swimsuits are expensive (women’s run $500-600 each) and it’s just a money hole.

I’m not crazy about the extension either but Alabama fans are going to have to adjust to the new norm. And that new norm has greatly reduced the impact of your coaching staff and greatly increased the impact of your boosters. The final four coaches last year were Dan Lanning, Cignetti, Kiffin, and Cristobal while sitting at home watching you had Ryan Day and Kirby Smart with 3 natties between them and multiple 2nd place finishes. Note that 3 of the final 4 had Phil Knight, Mark Cuban, and John Ruiz backing them. Kiffin is the best offensive mind in football and he was given sufficient funds by Ole Miss boosters to compete. It’s not about the coaches anymore. It’s still about the Jimmies and Joes but to get them, you have to have the Benjamins.

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As long as it’s not an achilles, I would agree

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Or a lisfranc fracture.

At least Saban and Dabo tried to make young men who were prepared for life after football. The decline and fall of college sports will show an eerie but inverse relationship to the rise of ESPN/Disney’s money and influence in the marketplace.

Neville Arena

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Big 10 won the Football title and both basketball titles. Meanwhile Sankey is filing affidavits against his own schools. Cuck bastard.

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I’m beginning to put more stock in the conspiracy theory that Sankey the Yankee is a Big 10 plant sent to destroy the SEC from the command chair.

Sankey will throw a hissy fit to keep it because $$$$ He doesn’t GAS about the players, the schools, or the league, just the paycheck.