By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
***centralgasports@gmail.com***

Congratulations if you have been and are wise enough to skip every single “story” or “cast” or “show” or segment involving coaching candidates, and do so for at least two weeks after a change.

At least two weeks. Ignoring the blather for a month is wiser, a quality utilization of common sense. Yes, there is too much room in those meetings.

Brent Pry was fired on Sept. 14, nine days before Mike Gundy and 11 before Sam Pittman.

James Franklin was booted on Oct. 12, a week before Billy Napier and two weeks before Brian Kelly. And Hugh Freeze got it on Nov. 2.

Blaaaaaah, blahhh, blah.

CENTRAL GEORGIA’S BEST HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL COVERAGE

Last week
🏈 Roundup: High seeds Stratford, FPD, John Milledge, Westfield, Brentwood win by 39.6 points
🏈 Scouting Reports: This week’s GHSA and GIAA games
🏈 Maxwell Predictions
🏈 Who’s going to win this week’s games
🏈 Central Georgia state composite rankings
🏈 GHSA GIAA playoff master schedule/results
🏈 Central Georgia rankings
🏈 First HS football coaching casualty of 2025: Central's Laws on-field successes minimal, but off-field progress notable
🏈 Monday Morning Quarterback: Whoopdeo do, the first college rankings are out, which means a big “soooo what”; Good stat stuff/surprises; Loughdmouthings
🏈 Macon Touchdown Club players of the week

Two weeks ago
🏈 Roundup: Houston County gets home game, Northside awakens; Clutch night for Warner Robins; Washington County holds on, Dublin survives Dodge County, Lamar County wins battle of unbeatens
🏈 Scouting Reports: This week’s GHSA and GIAA games
🏈 Maxwell Predictions
🏈 Who’s going to win this week’s games?
🏈 Central Georgia state composite rankings
🏈 Central Georgia rankings
🏈 Monday Morning Quarterback: Will this Atlanta turkey of a season have a coaching change by Thanksgiving?; Bears are ballin’ at Mercer; Loughdmouthings
🏈 Macon Touchdown Club players of the week
🏈 Stratford, Brentwood get top seeds for GIAA playoffs (pairings, rankings)

Three weeks ago
🏈 Roundup: Warner Robins stuns Ware County; Jones County surprised in 2 OT; Peach County upset; West Laurens stays perfect; Northeast nears rare title; Brentwood bops rival; CFCA, Windsor hit 50
🏈 Scouting Reports: This week’s GHSA and GIAA games
🏈 Maxwell Predictions
🏈 Who’s going to win this week’s games
🏈 Central Georgia state composite rankings
🏈 Central Georgia rankings
🏈 Monday Morning Quarterback: What do we know about our main teams in Georgia, near and far? Well, it’s complicated, and entertaining; Surprises, Loughdmouthings (a readable podcast, OK?) galore
🏈 Macon Touchdown Club players of the week

Nobody is remotely close to hiring a coach. They know who they like, and all are employed, and most are liked by more than one school.

All the broadcast boobs and “media” hacks and bored “normal” media folks dove into the supreme waste of time and energy and whatever brains cells that remain within an hour of an announcement.

Mindless clickbait and drivel.

Go back and look at the lists – any lists – of the first week of verbal and typed crapbait. And cross off 90 percent of the names, because that’s the way it is.

Every single year. Every single sport. Every single time. And yet, simpletonness wins out every single year, every single sport, every single time, with the ridiculousness.

So, yes, an attboy/attagirl to those with enough wisdom to peek in, chuckle or laugh, and move on to stories of substance (like the dozens every day in The Central Georgia Sports Report).

The next grumble involves fans and a collection of the “media” hacks basically wearing a fan uniform, those who take such joy at being such miserable human beings.

Absolutely miserable, ignorant, intellectually lazy, and petty, who say and write things that enhance all those traits, things they’d never, ever say in person.

Clearly, the inability to grasp the humanity of the process is an issue. The humanity of the coach, no matter the salary, is of note, and that there’s a spouse and kids and parents involved.

We have sooo many crappy people out there that kids have to be pulled from school when things go south and youngsters parrot the crap their parents say (about what they know nothing about) to those kids, and there are threats and other trash.

Monday Morning Quarterback, 2025

🏈 Nov. 3: Whoopdeo do, the first college rankings are out, which means a big “soooo what”; Good stat stuff/surprises; Loughdmouthings
🏈 Oct. 27: Will this Atlanta turkey of a season have a coaching change by Thanksgiving?; Bears are ballin’ at Mercer; Loughdmouthings
🏈 Oct. 20: What do we know about our main teams in Georgia, near and far? Well, it’s complicated, and entertaining; Surprises, Loughdmouthings (a readable podcast, OK?) galore
🏈 Oct. 13: Sit down, get some coffee, and let’s revisit the Palooza on the Plains, because it must be done; Surprises, Loughdmouthings
🏈 Oct. 6: Nobody knows who’s in the CFP, nobody, so get ready; Surprises, Loughdmouthings (are loaded up, from ball dropping, high schools, fibbing …)

🏈 Sept. 28: Revisiting the Dawgs, Jackets, and Falcons (“oh my”, times 3); Surprises galore; West Laurens’ Cummings; Loughdmouthings: Mercer, screamers, Class A mutes, bummer)
🏈Sept 22: The Falcons, um, well, see, you can, …nope, no idea; Surprises; Loughdmouthings galore (Tech unis, SEC schedule, UAB twit, repping Dodge County, more)
🏈 Sept. 15: A good Saturday on campus for Peach State teams; Stat stuff, surprises; Loughdmouthings galore
🏈 Sept 8: Atlanta again puts the F in … Falconing, but there’s progress even in that; Surprises; Loughdmouthings galore
🏈 Sept. 1: Saturdays will never be the same without Lee Corso; Loughdmouthings galore
🏈 Aug. 25: Southwest and Northeast lost their cool, and then people done lost their minds; Surprises, Loughdmouthings
🏈 Aug. 18: Teams in transition deserve patience from the peanut gallery; Surprises; Loughdmouthings

Like in Louisville, where a Texas resident – biting tongue on insane Texan reference – was just indicted for threats against head coach Jeff Brohm, his family, coaches, and players.

Come on, people, a grip is really not a bad thing to have. It’s a damn game.

Passion doesn’t mean you have to be an ass, or piece of crap, or the things people call coaches, or that people have to be, well, use any name for a certain male body part.

And know this: the money is more the ego of the agent(s), more than the coaches, though there’s some ego there, too (antagonistically inspired by agents, maybe an ex).

Yes, Brian Kelly is making it tougher and tougher to like him much, in this case by pushing for his whole buyout. Then again, nobody forced LSU to be stupid. Then again, LSU may be trying to escape being stupid with inferences and innuendo.

Louisiana gonna Louisiana, in any and all forms.

Nobody’s forcing these ADs and presidents, etc. to be gutless and incompetent, and fiscal frauds and hypocrites. If they weren’t that way, they could tell the money people who extort them to go ahead on and leave if you pout and don’t get your way, but it’ll cost you more to come back if we get it right.

Friggin’ rich people who would never tolerate outsiders telling them what to do have such precious arrogance to be an outsider telling people what to do. That dynamic is a huge reason why college sports is increasingly unrecognizable.

It’d be nice if Kelly settled on a figure for him, but made LSU donate the difference to charity.

Hey, people with too much money and ego, give that damn idea a thought, huh?

But the non-coach decision makers need more pressure, need more dismissals.

No contract extensions until the first year is done is a start. No contract extensions without a postseason win is a start. No automatic raises just for showing up is a start.

And minimize the damn buyouts. Lord have mercy, this process and the money are atrocious.

See, every job will be filled, and there are times it will be by a better person. Every program survives.

Alabama survived Dubose and Shula. Texas survived Strong and Mackovic. Notre Dame survived Faust. LSU survived Hallman. Nebraska survived Frost.

Do major program really need a damn buyout? They’ll tell us how great they are, and then throw money at people to beg ‘em to stay?

Come on, man.

Everybody survives departures, so the buyout figures are criminal. Pay ‘em the rest of the year, and the next year, and move on. Because they’re not paying the same amount, and the investment is the investment.

Cut bait and be smarter.

Well, there’s a chance of the former, no chance at the latter.

Surprises

Since the prediction record last week was perfect – perfect, I tell you, perfect – in predictions with the limited schedule of just GIAA games, nope, no real surprises.

Maybe FPD cruising despite being banged up could qualify. Or Gatewood battling Southwest Georgia within two scores on the road.

Get ready for some surprises this week with the first round of the GHSA playoffs. Not sure who yet. Still breaking down film.

Loughdmouthings

Any time – like the present – is a good time for high school coaches still playing to take time and check their MaxPreps roster and stats (except those keeping the success of their kids a secret, as “strategy”).

Media will consult MaxPreps, hoping – not assuming, anymore – that the information is accurate and updated.

Such details can’t be too much to ask, can they? (That’s a rhetorical question). …

This recent trend of “media” people saying more positive stuff about Gunner Stockton is odd.

He’s been good and solid from the start. He’s been winning, from the start. He has new bodies around him, and has been fine.

Remember, as per the Gospel According To Recruitingcompoops, he came in as a five-star, so how could he not be superb?

He’s a football player at quarterback, always a bonus, and he’s been fine. Those who need to apologize for underrating him – for no real reason – need to apologize for saying silly stuff in the first place. …

Gee, Lane Kiffin can go on a podcast and stuff during the season, but other coaches can’t be torn away from the “busy” April to go visit some cities in the state and engage the fans responsible for $11 million salaries and staffs of 104? …

Before he got hurt, Travis Hunter had 29 touches for 298 yards and a touchdown, and 15 tackles with no interceptions.

All that Colorado Kool-Aid chugged down by “media” hacks and a growing cult deluded reality, in this case that he was not going to revolutionize anything.

Rookies don’t do that. Now, next year, expect the numbers to be better. But not Canton-esque.

What they wrote

“Who could've guessed that, by Week 10, we'd be living in a reality in which Arch Manning toppling Vanderbil would constitute a massive shake-up in the SEC power structure?”

David Hale, ESPN.com