Technical Tidbits 2/19

Head coach Brian Gregory had some interesting things to say following Georgia Tech's big win over Clemson on Monday night, mainly focusing in on Tech's great second half defensive efforts and the contributions of Tadric Jackson. The win for the Jackets was as big as they come, snapping a 10-game losing streak to a bitter rival and providing some much needed momentum as we hit the home stretch for the season all at once.

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I hate to give Miami any kind of positive attention, but the 2016 recruiting class that Al Golden and company are putting together down in Coral Gables is truly a thing of beauty, especially this early in the cycle. The class for the Canes is currently ranked as the No. 1 in the entire nation, trumping even the mightiest of the mighty in the SEC, and is shaping up to be one of the most formidable since the golden days of Miami over a decade ago. We'd better watch out if everything pans out for them -- a class like that plus Al Golden's coaching could spell a breakout 7-win season for Miami football.

SB Nation's own Steven Godfrey recently put together a very convincing argument for why college football should do away with redshirts all together and instead allow for a fifth season of on-field eligibility. In fact, Godfrey cites four separate ways that getting rid of those irritating redshirts would help the landscape of college football, two of which really stick out to me. The first of these is that it would give athletes an incentive to be academically eligible when they come out of high school (or JUCO, as it may be). Georgia Tech in particular has experienced some issues with academic ineligibility among athletes coming to Tech (this was likely a contribution to Myles Autry's decision to leave as he was not eligible at the time of his departure) -- it muddies up the recruiting process and makes everything much more complicated. The second point that stood out to me is that the quality of play would rise dramatically. While I see quality of play as more of a college basketball issue, there is certainly an argument to be made that it could use some work in football as well, and getting rid of redshirts would bolster it significantly.

I'll leave you today with this interesting news from West Virginia (in fact, it may be the only interesting thing to ever come out of West Virginia) -- the Mountain State is considering naming an expressway after current Alabama coach and West Virginia native Nick Saban. I'm pretty sure that this is just an elaborate ploy by the state because last I checked, West Virginia didn't have a) highways or b) any birth records of anyone ever born there. How do we even know that Saban was born there?

Should the NCAA do away with redshirts?

Have a great Thursday!