MATTHEW BROWN: Who made the right move?

Published 5:01 pm Friday, January 17, 2025

Now is as good a time as any to get started on that first book … and of course distribute it to the top critics in the literary field, National Football League players … on the sidelines during games, making sure it’s in the hands of those who get the most camera time … perhaps the National Basketball Association members would like a read on the bench … and pitchers in the MLB bullpens.

That book was 523,497th on an Amazon list and shot to No. 1? That many books sell at a time? There are that many books to sell at one time. I only do one a month, 12 a year. Got a long ways to go.

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Imagine it’s the start of 2024, or maybe the final month of 2023, and somebody tells you the first 12-team College Football Playoff championship game will feature a quarterback battle between Riley Leonard and Will Howard.

“Really? Wow! Who would have thought it? Kansas State vs. Duke. I would have had them pegged for the Pop Tarts or the Liberty Bowl, but this is an even better story. The little guys do get a chance to show they can stand with the elite.”

But it is 2025 and we know it took the transfer portal to get both Leonard and Howard on true contenders.

Give me a moment, because I want to see what exactly were Brian Kelly’s words about leaving the Notre Dame coaching job for LSU three seasons ago.

“I want to be in an environment where I have the resources to win a national championship,” Kelly said.

Now, to be fair, Kelly told Sports Illustrated in April of 2022 that he made requests to his former employer in South Bend, Indiana, to make a better investment into the football program, to improve the athletic center, but ND officials never acted upon them, or the ball wasn’t rolling fast enough. Kelly said LSU, for one thing, had its own nutrition center with an on-campus chef cooking only for the Bayou Bengals.

Kelly is the all-time leader in coaching wins (113) for the Fighting Irish, so I can see it if he felt he did all he could there in 12 years and that it was time for a new challenge, and what better than a prominent SEC program? Now that Notre Dame, under Marcus Freeman, is playing Ohio State for it all on Monday, Kelly is telling CBS Sports, “I wasn’t leaving Notre Dame because I couldn’t win a championship. You can win championships at Notre Dame, but I chose another path because I wanted a different challenge.”

So moves got made, you are where you are and the results are what they are. Later this year, LSU might be a favorite to win the Southeastern Conference in a poll that could also feature South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas up at the top.

Now just a minute, how in the world did I just write that sentence and not include the University of Georgia!!!!! Having absolutely nothing to do with the recent decision of quarterback Carson Beck to follow the money and set up home sweet home in Miami, the Bulldogs have some work to do between now and late August, even as defending SEC champions.

And I don’t just mean pick a piece or two out of the transfer portal and you are set. I don’t mean knocking on doors with your collective bowl like you’re the Salvation Army or the Red Cross (think fire victims in California first, or, there are still some messed up places here in Georgia from last September’s activities, not to mention the weekly disclaimer at the end).

Thinking about Beck for another minute, he was the back-up to Stetson Bennett on two national championship teams. Not once was he called on to save the day in those two years, just 11 appearances, 36 completed passes, 486 yards, six touchdowns, two interceptions and 58 additional rushing yards. His legacy will be compared to others before him who never achieved the big one, and as you know there are plenty of quarterbacks in that room (Fromm, Stafford, Murray, Carter, Bobo, Zeier, Greene, I think you get the point).

Hear me out on this, but it is possible that Bennett’s stay that extra season – while great for the program as a whole with that dual achievement of SEC and national title – was not so good for Beck’s development? Mr. Pound earlier in the week stated how nice “three-year starter” sounds at QB, and if not for world-changing circumstances like COVID-19 maybe that is Beck’s UGA legacy.

But, as stated before, results are what they are. Now we say that job belongs to Gunner Stockton, who also had a two-year wait. It’s his to lose, but to who?

The 2024 roster for Georgia featured seven players with QB by their names, but only Beck and Stockton played. Even newsmaker Jaden Rashada (Californian who sued Billy Napier and Florida over NIL, played three games 2023 at Arizona State, who apparently didn’t miss him at all in ’24) never saw the field, and he’s back in that portal.

(Ooh, did you ever wonder what happened to former Auburn head coach Bryan Harsin? He’s the offensive coordinator at Cal, which is in the running for Rashada. And who did Cal beat last year that same September weekend Northern Illinois stunned ND?)

So is it Stockton’s job to lose to any of the four remaining who might return, a newcomer like December signee Ryan Montgomery of Ohio or some portal crown jewel we don’t know about yet (though looking at the list I couldn’t tell you who that could be)?

But it’s not just the quarterback spot. There’s about 10 guys going into the draft (this from E.T.N.) including another load of defenders for the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers. What’s the future of the running game beyond Nate Frazier, the O-line and receiving corps?

For some, the answers must come in a couple of days or there will be no rest. For the rest of us, late August is fine.

(If at all possible, give pet adoption a try through the Animal Rescue Foundation in Milledgeville. Donations of any kind are also in great need. ARF is the little red building at 711 S. Wilkinson St., and more information is available at animalrescuefoundation.org.)