Thursday, September 5, 2024

Armen Keteyian & John Talty - The Price: What It Takes to Win in College Football's Era of Chaos

 This is a very entertaining look at the status of college football in the new era of NIL by two well-known sportswriters both of whom I have never heard of.

Chapter 3 The Kirby Smart Story

Saban congratulates Kirby on winning the National Championship against his team, but the next day makes excuses on why Alabama lost.

"Why can't he just be happy for me?" Kirby asks one friend.  (Because Saban is totally self-centered) P.57

The book features a great min-biography and character analysis of Kirby Smart.  The chapter on Smart is called "The Prince."  He is the consummate Georgia man but his story starts in Alabama.  Born on December 23, 1975, in Montgomery, Alabama.   First seven years in Slapout, now called Holtville.  In 1982 the family moved to Bainbridge, Georgia.  He came along at the peak of Vince Dooley years in Athens.

Even though undersized as a DB Coach Dooley gave him a scholarship.  Otherwise college football would have taken a different turn.

Even as a child intensely competitive.  Intense board game player.  

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The chapter on collectives is sickening.  This is not the college football I grew up with even though we know college football players have been paid forever.  Where is college football headed except into chaos?

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The authors have a few pages on Auburn and Jimmy Rane, but not much.  The book grows stale in a hurry.

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Excellent profile of super agent Jimmy Sexton.  P. 227

Sexton knows how to work one school against another to get the best contacts for both of his clients.  P. 230

His Jimbo Fisher contract is his best work yet.  P. 231

But was that good for anyone else other than Fisher and Sexton?  P. 231

Son of a Memphis dentist, Sexton grew up as a manager for Tennessee.  Became friends with Tennessee star Reggie White, who asked the 20-yr old to represent him.  How it started.  Graduated from UT and went to work for a sports agency making $500 a month.  Tutored by Robert Fraley, he soon surpassed Fraley after Fraley tragically died in a plane crash.  P. 231

Bill Parcels was his next big client.  P. 232

Then came Tommy Tuberville and then Nick Saban, who switched to Sexton while moving from Michigan State to LSU.  P. 232

Hugh Freeze is a Sexton client.  P. 237

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