This morning, I greet you with the joke of the day:
#Michigan's Don Brown: "I work for the best head coach in America, and the way he treats his coaches and players is tremendous."
— Austin Fox (@AustinFox42) December 16, 2019
*Takes a deep gander at Michigan's past five seasons*
Either he's nowhere close to the best coach in America or he's overachieving at an extremely shitty program. Take your pick!
Word of the Day: Ravish.
COMMIT TO THE PROGRAM. Jeff Hafley's on his way out, but it's looking like most, if not all of Ohio State's defensive back commits are going to stick with their commitments.
That's a testament to how Ryan Day has sold his program.
Ryan Day on the defensive back commits: "These guys chose this school for Ohio State and for what we're going on defense, and the defense isn't going to change. I talked to the recruits about that."
— Colin Hass-Hill (@chasshill) December 16, 2019
He's emphasized the point that the defense will remain the same a couple times.
No offense to the teens involved, but I feel like Hafley leaving shouldn't change anything for anyone.
Let's be real – there was never a shot in hell that Jeff Hafley was going to be their position coach or coordinator throughout their college career anyway. Everyone knew that. Shit, I knew that from about the third sentence in his introductory press conference.
That's why committing to a position coach – especially a young, up-and-coming position coach – doesn't make much sense to me. Those are revolving door jobs, one way or another. You can't be shocked or caught off guard when a guy leaves or gets canned. That's just what happens.
Don't commit to one specific position coach, commit to the program you think is consistently going to give you the best position coach possible.
Odds are, you're going to go through at least one coaching change in your career wherever you go, and the next guy is probably going to mean just as much – if not more – than the guy who recruited you. So pick the program you trust to hire the next guy, not just the current position coach.
GO JOE. Thanks to Joe Burrow's Heisman Trophy speech and more than a few generous folks across the country, Athens County will be a little less hungry.
Athens County native and Heisman Trophy winning LSU QB Joe Burrow highlighted his hometown’s food insecurity issues Saturday night during his acceptance speech. The speech has since prompted more than $200,000 in donations to the Athens County Food Pantry
...
The pantry served 5,702 individuals in 2018, about a third of them children, according to its website. One in three people in Athens County falls below the poverty line.
Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, said it was awe-inspiring to see someone like Burrow who hasn’t forgotten where he came from. The impact of a campaign like this is huge, she said.
“An outpouring of support like this means those agencies will be sufficiently resourced for years to come,” Hamler-Fugitt said.
I don't care if you want to call him a Tiger or a Buckeye. Above all, Joe Burrow is a legend. I can't express enough how much I respect that he used one of the most important moments of his life to help out thousands of folks he might never meet.
“RECRUITING YOU FOR WHAT?” This week seems like a pertinent time to remind you all that Ohio State's roster is made up of more than 85 players, and the teens that sign on Wednesday aren't the only teens that are going to sign with the Buckeyes this year.
If you cap your attention to the Buckeyes at the 85 players, just like the scholarship limit, you miss out on fine fellows like Derrick Malone, who I assume has finally convinced his family that he actually is on the Ohio State football team.
“Derrick came home one day and said, ‘Dad, Ohio State’s recruiting me,’” Derrick Sr. remembered. “Well, I started laughing. I was like, ‘No, you must be smokin’ dope, Dude! Ohio State is not recruiting you. Recruiting you for what?’
“He said, ‘Football’ and I said, ‘Man, you ain’t even an All-City player! How you getting recruited by them? C’mon, Man! They’re after four and five-star guys.’”
But as it turned out, his son had met an Ohio State assistant coach when his Thurgood Marshall basketball team had played in the Final Four of the Division II state tournament in Columbus his junior year.
He had told the coach he was coming to OSU on an academic scholarship and wanted to be a football walk-on. And his enthusiasm and confidence had made an impression.
When another preferred walk-on decided to go elsewhere, the spot was offered to Malone, who had been the captain of his high school team, was a real student of the game and, by the way, was 6-foot-5 and nearly 250 pounds
Moral of the story: You never know who's watching or when the right person's gonna show up at the right time, so do well and work hard even when you don't think it matters.
I write for this website because about five years ago, I started a shitty blog that no more than 30 people read regularly, but I always did my best for those 30 readers. I'm still not sure why or how, but of them just happened to be Ramzy Nasrallah.
VEGAS DOESN'T KNOW. I'm preaching to the choir here, but Vegas has the wrong team favored in the Fiesta Bowl. I know it, you know it, the computers know it, and deep down in his soul, Dabo probably knows it too.
SP+ BOWL PICKS
— Bill Connelly (@ESPN_BillC) December 16, 2019
* GUHHHH, I hate these lines so much. So much favorite -3.5 or -7.5 b.s., and the only space between SP+ and the line involves teams I dont think SP+ has as good a read on.
* GOOD LUCK IN YOUR BOWL POOLS, FRIENDS pic.twitter.com/mAE5f6FRfn
Note: there's a typo on Connelly's sheet – Clemson is favored by 2 points, not Ohio State.
What even more ridiculous is that Ohio State actually opened as one-point favorites, but bettors slammed Clemson right out the gates and moved the line to Clemson -2 within minutes.
Looks like a lot of people are going to lose some money. Or, a few people are going to lose a lot of money. Either way, money will be lost. Bucks by 13.
TBT. Goldman Sachs hit us with a delightful throwback photo yesterday featuring a couple of former and future teammates.
Congratulations to Joe Burrow, 2019 @HeismanTrophy winner (left), pictured here with GS' Jim McNamara (zero Heismans) during Joes time at our office. @Joe_Burrow10 is always welcome back, but we think he may have some other plans post-graduation pic.twitter.com/svJRtqB253
— Goldman Sachs (@GoldmanSachs) December 16, 2019
The Bengals should go ahead and snag Austin Mack and make it a Goldman Sachs trio.
NOT STICKING TO SPORTS. The best illusions of 2019... The overlooked condition that can trigger violent behavior... A bank employee who stole $88,000 is arrested after posting pictures of the money online... Don't worry, there are vegan condoms now... A smoking driver blows up his car due to "excessive" use of an air freshener... A big volcanic bump unlike anything seen before is found on the moon.
