Signing Day rewind
OK, first the macro. I like the first signing day. Truly.
I like it primarily because it shifts some of the power in a very one-sided process back to the players.
Yes, Will Muschamp rightly said in the first year of the first signing day that if a commitment does not sign in December when he is allowed to, is he truly a commitment?
Well, the other side of that equation – power schools telling a player they were going to offer once they heard back from another player, just be patient – had been going on for years. And worse, there were several instances in which the music stopped on signing day and Power Program P filled up and Stud Duck Q was left scrambling, went to option two but Mid-Level Power Five Program R was already full so Stud Duck was forced to either greyshirt or go to a MAC school.
So if the first signing day – and the “early signing day” tag no longer works since a vast majority of the power programs fill up their classes on the first day now – prevents even one of those instances a cycle, it’s a good thing.
Our discussion on Press Row about whether it’s a good thing for college football as a whole was a different matter.
I voted no on that query on the Papa John’s poll question for two reasons:
1) An offseason signature event like the old-school signing day gave the sport another central opportunity to be the centerpiece of the sporting world. That is something invaluable to every sport. Yesterday came and went and, other than the diehards, it was little more than a ripple in the news cycle.
2) I believe the sport will face a very real problem of a growing divide between the top 10-or-15-so programs and the rest of the country, and a very real divide of the top five or six and the rest of the country. If that divide galvanizes, the spectacularly unknown of the regular season – arguably the best part of the sport as a whole to the casual sports fan – could be strained if not forever widened as the power programs make the most of the early shopping season.
Will it happen? Who knows. Things feel cyclical in sports, and this may be one of those elite cycles before another run of craziness.
That said, there were some clear winners among area schools on this first signing day.
> Hard not to love Clemson’s top-ranked class, which included six 247sports.com 5-star prospects.
> Here’s the good and the bad of being an Auburn football follower. The Good: By almost every measure Auburn got a stellar class, ranked as high as No. 5 on the ESPN ratings, and it’s a group with a stud running back whose first name is Tank that everyone in the country wanted. The Bad: AU’s No. 7 ranked 247sports class is behind four schools – 2 Bama, 4 Georgia, 5 LSU and 6 Texas A&M – that the Tigers have to play every year.
> The aforementioned Tide and Bulldogs shocked the world and pulled in elite classes filled with elite dudes. Well, maybe that’s not all that shocking after all. (Side question: Could they actually have a top-five recruiting rank without Alabama and Georgia? I think that is against the rules somewhere.) Anyhoo, here’s some excellent analysis on the newest haul of Tide and the Bulldogs players from TFP college football poobah David Paschall.
> The UT Vols may have had the best day of any team in the country. UT climbed the charts at the 11th hour – getting five commitments from all five of the unknowns on their board Wednesday – and it’s downright amazing to consider what Jeremy Pruitt has done and redirected from Labor Day to this day. A 6-1 finish, a Florida Bowl, a top-15 class that included two Signing Day swipes of four DEs. All of this coming from a guy that was bona fide in the crosshairs after losing to Georgia State in the opener. Amazing. And know this: UT has long longed for consistency and depth across the defensive line – the place that divides the middle of the pack and the top of the heap in this league – and Pruitt added a half-dozen guys who could contribute rather early on the D-Line. Here’s more from TFP UT beat ace Gene of Many Hats Henley.
> We had Rusty Wright on Press Row on Wednesday and it’s staggering to think that yesterday was the one-year anniversary of his hiring. By comparison, last year at the first signing day, UTC had three signings. On Wednesday, UTC and Wright had 14. There was a reason he was smiling Wednesday. Here’s more from TFP UTC beat ace Lindsey Young.
Fab 4 picks
OK, we flirted with picking all the bowl games in this space. That doesn’t make a lot of sense because we are not going to bet all these games.
(Now if we get too many Co-Colas or too much eggnog, well, I may make a late call chasing a get-back game with BYU laying the two in Hawaii on Christmas Eve and move the put-together process into the main room. Hey, gotta be able to play Santa somehow, right? RIGHT? C’mon App State, cover that monster number in New Orleans. And while we are not close to New Year’s Day yet, go ahead and get on UT now. NOW.)
And besides, we already offered a pick in every game in our Bowling for Bowls of Bowl Game Success (Bowler Optional). You can see them here and you can also enter our free contest to win some stuff by picking all the bowls (save the Cotton) and playing along all bowl season. Check it out here.
With that, let’s roll with updated lines and info and intel and try to close strong and we will roll three Bowl editions on the Bowl Picks on each Thursday. Deal? Deal. (Side goal: We set a very high bar for our picks every year and aim for 60 percent. That will be a tall order this year after the dreadful limp out of the gate. And no, Spy, that limp was not from Luca and Clemenza and Tommy D banging my knee caps. Let’s get on this and ride.)
Charlotte plus-6.5 over Buffalo. We believe in the Fighting Healys. A lot. And more importantly, the Fighting Healys believe in their head coach, who has become a great motivator. And you will see this throughout the course of the bowl picks – and it’s much tougher later in the bowl calendar – but trying to gauge the motivation of teams in a bowl is a huge part of handicapping these babies. And it’s hard not to see the 49ers not motivated for the first bowl game in program history, right? You betcha. (I also like the over here at 51.5, but check back for an official go because of the weather and wind possibilities in the Bahamas. Deal? Deal.)
SMU minus-3 over FAU. Few teams are hotter than the Owls. Winners of six straight and conference champs, the Owls got to 10 wins. That got Lane Kiffin another shot in the SEC. Some assistants are gone, some are coaching with unknown futures. SMU’s late-season struggles were about some untimely injuries. Buy the hook here for safety and enjoy the tradition and history of the Boca Raton Bowl. (And we’ll all collectively miss Lane’s FAU Twitter. There’s no way Lane is going to keep the level of trolling he reached with the Owls, right?)
Georgia Southern minus-4 over Liberty. Two 7-5 teams that have high-octane offenses, so why side with the Statesboro Sprinters? Well, Liberty’s seven wins are built on a lot of fraud. Here are Liberty’s wins: Buffalo early (at home), Hampton, a bad New Mexico, a worse UMass and a two-game sweep over a terrible New Mexico State bunch. Yes please, especially at that number.
FIU plus-3 over Arkansas State. Butch Davis is 8-1 against the number in his career in bowl games. Repeat: FIU coach Butch Davis is 8-1 against the spread in bowl games. What does that mean? It means that Butch and his staff through the years have found a way to maximize the extended time and make sure his guys have a game plan and are prepared. There’s value in that friends.
Washington minus-3 over Boise State and under 50. I understand the storyline, but if you’re Chris Petersen in your final game, putting his Huskies against the program he helped building into a Group of Five monster – You have to also believe that Jimmy Lake, the Huskies coach in waiting, wants to make sure this is a good effort, right? Washington is universally better than Boise State. At almost every position. Also, it feels like the Huskies are going to play hard for Petersen, who will certainly not want to run it up on his former program either.
Fab 4 picks this season: 63-51-3 (55.3 percent against the number)
Bowl picks this season: 0-0
Hoops hurdles
We’ll ask it for Chas and Steve and the rest of the gang of Big Blue Nation or the Barnes Backers:
Is it too early to worry about UK and UT in terms of basketball?
Likely. It’s still very early, and especially in UK’s case, meshing all those stars can be exceedingly difficult and can take a little time.
For the Vols, however, this is two puzzling performances against teams that are similar in talent.
UT’s defensive effort was lacking last night at Cincinnati, which was somewhat surprising.
A bunch of layups. Several uncontested 3s. I know there was a lot of emotion and angst because of the opponent in Saturday’s loss to Memphis, but I’m willing to bet Rick Barnes is more upset about the effort and execution against Cincinnati than he was against the in-state Tigers.
And, yes, both the UK loss to Utah and the UT loss to Cincy were on the road, but the offensive inconsistencies are glaring, especially for the Vols, who appear not to have a go-to offensive option or even an overall offensive identity right now.
Thoughts?