Technical Tidbits 9/28: Hall receives contract extension, protesting Cornhuskers receive death threats

Georgia Tech has officially acted to extend the contract of head baseball coach Danny Hall for another five years, officially ending the brief period that Hall spent without a deal following the conclusion of the 2016 baseball season. If Hall remains in command for the duration of the deal, he will have spent nearly three decades at the helm of Tech's baseball program. There may be a situation wherein the athletic department decides to move on if things go downhill in a hurry, but fielding a consistent baseball program -- as Hall has certainly installed at Tech -- is something that very few schools have managed to maintain over the course of his tenure. It's a good start for athletic director Todd Stansbury, who likely had input on the decision even if negotiations began well before his hiring, and a safe play for the school as a whole.

With just a couple of days left before Tech's game against No. 14 Miami, head coach Mark Richt made some interesting comments regarding who he expects to contribute for the Jackets and how he plans to tackle Paul Johnson's offensive monster this weekend. Richt remains a class act himself, though his Georgia program often toed the line of respectability, and had nothing but good things to say about Tech's starting lineup. It's clear that he knows the team well, as he should, and I imagine that his preparation for the option will be as good as it usually was during his time in Athens. The contrast between his comments and those of Al Golden prior to just about every game against Tech is quite interesting. Though Golden largely owned the Jackets during his tenure, it's clear that Richt's knowledge is much more extensive and that he is better-equipped to win than Golden seemed to be. It will be interesting to see how the game plays out.

Meanwhile in Nebraska, a number of Cornhusker players have faced everything from harsh ridicule to death threats following their decision to kneel during the national anthem during Saturday's game against Northwestern. Some fans went so far as to suggest that the players be lynched prior to the national anthem of their next game, making the powerful statement that rights in the United States should belong exclusively to those who perceive a perfect utopia and not to those who dare to exercise the privileges explicitly bestowed upon them within the Constitution on the basis of social change. The justification itself is an oxymoron, with those who attempt to provide it likely falling into the category best described as the latter half of the word "oxymoron" itself. How hard is this to understand? Threatening the life of a college athlete for any reason is a disgusting display that sets the nation back by half a century. There's no argument in favor of what the Nebraska fans did, no matter how one chooses to look at it. Spencer Hall probably put it best in his article from yesterday. The attacks have transcended the movement itself, instead focusing on tearing down an individual. It just shows that a large percentage of the population is not ready to engage in conversation, a fatal flaw for those who possess it which will quite literally only be healed when the life has left their bodies. Only at that point can the nation as a whole engage in any type of productive debate, one way or another. The thought process exhibited by those fans is simply an incurable poison that has haunted them forever and will continue to do so without them ever realizing their own affliction. It's quite a tragedy.