Saturday Afternoon Dawg Bites

by T Kyle King on Feb 9, 2008 3:24 PM EST in News

It is really, truly, irrevocably the offseason. The Super Bowl (a/k/a the methadone program for college football fans) is done. High school players' letters of intent have been signed, sealed, and delivered. Heck, we're still 56 days away from the G-Day game, and even Bloggerpalooza '08 is liable to consist mostly of possible Democratic National Convention delegate Doug Gillett attempting in vain to persuade me to vote for a guy whose name sounds like the answer to a Carnac the Magnificent question.

The last time we elected as president a political novice from the Prairie State, my home town was burned to the ground and my great-great-grandfather was confined to a prisoner of war camp run by the U.S. government, so Doug's going to have a pretty tough time getting me on board the Barack Obama bandwagon.

Here are a few items of interest deserving of our notice this weekend:

We begin, regrettably, with some sad news, as Joshua Willis, a 19-year-old former football walk-on for the Red and Black, died from injuries he suffered in an automobile collision earlier this week. Our sympathies go out to Willis's friends and family.
As noted previously by Joel, Peter, and Orson, the balloting for the 2007 College Football Blogger Awards has been delayed briefly due to technical difficulties. We apologize for the inconvenience, but the voting should commence on Monday.
The Georgia women's tennis team had a bad day yesterday, falling in the quarterfinals of the I.T.A. National Women's Team Indoor Tennis Championships with a 4-0 loss to Georgia Tech in a clash of top-six teams. Fortunately, the second-ranked Red and Black men's tennis team fared better yesterday, posting a 7-0 shutout win over Georgia State.

This mention of University of Georgia tennis is accompanied by an obligatory photograph of Dan Magill.

Adam Nettina of Pitch Right fame has moved on to his new home over at Under Center, where Adam broadcasts a weekly show at 8:00 p.m. on Tuesdays. Give him a listen.
Special thanks go out to reader Will, who e-mailed me with a link to this Atlanta Journal-Constitution article, which confirmed a point I previously made regarding Mark Richt's buyout clause. Notes Tony Barnhart with respect to the coach with the 119th-hottest seat in Division I-A:

Georgia's Mark Richt has made it clear that he wants to spend his entire career as the Bulldogs' head coach. Richt backed up that claim when he signed his eight-year deal in January of 2006. Richt agreed to the most basic -- and most expensive -- of buyouts. If he is fired, Georgia owes him $2 million for every remaining year on the contract. If he leaves, Richt owes Georgia the same amount.

By contrast, Urban Meyer has a $500,000 buyout and Nick Saban has no buyout at all. I'm sure that's in no way indicative of those coaches' devotion to their respective schools, though.

Go 'Dawgs!

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In your humble opinion?

What is the legal wrangling outcome going to be for Rich Rod? Will he have to pay and should he have to pay and how would this case be presented if you were representing Rich Rod?

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by bcsbusters on Feb 9, 2008 10:42 PM EST reply actions

I haven't followed the case . . .

. . . closely enough to have formulated an informed opinion (I defer to MGoBlog's Brian Cook, from whom I have gotten much of the information I have upon the subject), but, without having read the contract, I would say that it's probably in Coach Rod's interests to reach some sort of settlement.

The notion that West Virginia failed to live up to its promises after Rich Rodriguez turned down the offer from Alabama a year ago may be a slender reed on which to rest the coach's hopes of arguing successfully that his employer breached the contract first, but, if he has enough of an argument to earn the opportunity to present his case to a jury, it will give both parties the chance to make life miserable for one another in a protracted legal battle that combines the time-consuming flyspecking of a business dispute with the vengeful nastiness of a divorce proceeding.

It is in no one's interests for this to drag on for months. Michigan's reputation would be tarnished by such a fight, which gives Coach Rodriguez's present employer plenty of incentive to raise the funds to pay over to West Virginia. W.V.U., which took a giant step backward in choosing Coach Rod's replacement, doesn't need to damage the public perception of its program, as such an injury to its image could come back to hunt West Virginia when, as is likely, it is looking for a new coach in four or five years.

The last time Michigan poached a coach from Morgantown, the result was a negotiated reduction of the buyout figure, which was promptly paid. That needs to happen here. In all likelihood, even the winner of this court battle would lose more (in the loss of public goodwill and the expense of maintaining the suit) than it would gain.

by T Kyle King on Feb 9, 2008 11:12 PM EST reply actions

Oops . . .

. . . I meant "come back to haunt West Virginia."

Hopefully, this will not end in Coach Rodriguez coming back to hunt West Virginia, although I suspect that is how most such disputes are handled in that part of the world.

by T Kyle King on Feb 9, 2008 11:16 PM EST up reply actions