SB Nation Atlanta: All Posts by Patrick Vint

OFF-TOPIC: BHGP Bicycling Jerseys

2013-05-22T16:24:51Z

RAGBRAI is quickly approaching, the new granGable set for FryFest weekend, and surely there will be other bicycle-related shenanigans over the course of the summer. There had been some stated interest in BHGP-related jerseys. We contacted Spreadshirt, and they are not making jerseys at the moment, but plenty of other people are. If we can get critical mass (about 20 orders should do it), we can make this happen for about $50 a jersey.

So, if you're interested, comment below or email me at hawkeyestatebhgp@gmail.com. Also, vote below on what we should put on them.

Poll

What should we get on our jerseys?

Assume the Position 2013: Linebacker

2013-05-22T15:00:10Z

Assume the Position is our offseason guide to the Iowa Hawkeyes football depth chart. The math is difficult, so take it from us: As time moves on, we'll know more. That's why we rank the positions from most certain to least certain.

Previously on Assume the Position 2013:

1. Tight End

Today: Linebacker

Iowa has a fourth-year starter at middle linebacker, a third-year starter on the strong side, and the Big Ten's leading tackler on the weak side. In the Norm Parker years, this was the bedrock of a stout defensive front seven. Right now? ESPN is ranking the unit seventh in the conference. Let's just say we aren't looking for Pat Angerer or Chad Greenway to walk through that door.

The One You Heard Plenty About

James Morris (#44, Senior, 6'2, 230 lbs., Solon (IA) HS)

In this program, there comes a time when you are what you are. The list of players in the last 13 years that have made a massive leap forward from their junior to senior seasons is remarkably short. In the past three seasons, I can think of three: Jordan Bernstine, who overcame injuries and changed positions, and Matt Tobin and Adam Gettis, who were playing at Iowa's preferred position. Eureka moments for fourth- or fifth-year players are few and far between. It is a fact that Ferentz has acknowledged in the past, telling reporters that a player usually comes into his own between his second and third years in the system.

James Morris enters his fourth year in the program, with more than two seasons as a starter on the inside (there was a brief flirtation with Morris at weakside linebacker in 2011 where increased coverage responsibilities did not go well). There is absolutely no denying his skills as a leader on this team; his teammates have passed those duties to him for more than two seasons now. There is no denying he is a capable athlete in general; he was one of the best small-school prep athletes Iowa has ever seen, and his strength and conditioning numbers are not a cause of concern. Nobody can or should imply that he isn't motivated; he grew up in this program, and is widely recognized as a hard worker. These things -- talent, hard work, leadership -- are what have made the great Iowa linebackers so great. They were shared by guys like Pat Angerer and A.J. Edds and Chad Greenway and Abdul Hodge.

Why, then, is James Morris such a mediocre middle linebacker? I say mediocre because Iowa linebackers rarely stand out for doing something good, and I'm presuming he's better when not the focal point of the television cameras, but what we usually see is a player routinely out of position, whose instincts against the interior running game are suspect, and who doesn't have quite enough agility and strength to recover for those mistakes. Let's look at one play in particular: Venric Mark's 74-yard run against Iowa.

Here we are immediately after the snap. Northwestern is first and ten at their own one yard line, an obvious running situation. Mark, the only back in the game, is getting the handoff. Morris, playing middle linebacker, makes an initial step toward a hole to the left of the center, likely due to the quarterback's handoff in that direction. It's a massive error. Already, left defensive tackle Carl Davis is getting double teamed by the center and right guard, forced to his left. That's where the hole is forming. You don't want your middle linebacker on the other side of that double team, yet that's precisely where Morris voluntarily goes.

Iowa had a safety up in the box because Northwestern only had one receiver on the field -- again, this was a certain run down -- and Miller had positioned himself between Morris and the strongside linebacker, Christian Kirksey. The hole between those two should have been Miller's responsibility, and yet there is Morris doing double duty in the gap right of the quickly-toppling Davis (with Kirksey holding the edge). Hitchens, the weakside linebacker, is monitoring the opposite side of the center by himself and about to get blocked out of the picture. Again, neither Morris nor Miller realize that (1) this probably isn't good, or (2) neither one of them is blocked for a reason.

This is the point in the film room where Viper points out that Maverick pushed a bad position and only made things worse. Rather than realizing that he was beaten and turning to try to limit the damage, Morris tries to fill a hole that isn't there. Not only is he in no position to make the tackle, but he allows his own defensive linemen to block him out of the remainder of the play.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Morris looks to fill the hole between the tackle and end, but he's a gap and a half away from the hole. By the time he gets there, Mark is already screaming past him to the left of the Northwestern center. Morris flails wildly, for naught.

Your middle linebacker should never let a player be this open in the middle of the field in an obvious running play. Period. Morris made the wrong call, pushed it too far, and ended up pile jumping a pile that didn't even include the ballcarrier. This play was an ethereal combination of bad instinct, bad technique, and bad recovery that became the story of the season.

Can he turn it around? Morris has been fighting injuries for more than two seasons, including elbow and groin injuries last season. His once-maligned inability to get off a block from an interior lineman isn't as pronounced now. He could benefit from a defensive line not built out of spare parts and paper mache, which looks increasingly likely this year. But instinct is instinct, and it's not as if the overwhelming addition of experience he's receiving from a summer in the weight room and another handful of starts is suddenly going to have Morris seeing the field better. The better question is whether he can be more effectively used elsewhere. We already saw that his coverage skills make a full-time move to outside linebacker unlikely, but spring practice photos and schemes during the spring game raised the intriguing possibility of James Morris as a pass rush specialist, likely not from the defensive end position but on a blitz from one of the interior linebacker spots. That sort of "find the opening and run as fast as you can" setting seems more in tune with his skill set than "identify the play, take the correct line, shirk a block and make a tackle" we keep expecting. Alea iacta est for Morris at middle linebacker, but there could be life here yet.

The One You Should Hear More About

Christian Kirksey (#20, Senior, 6'2, 220 lbs., Hazelwood East HS (St. Louis, MO))

Kirksey, on the other hand, was one of the rare beacons of light on the 2012 Iowa defense. He enters his senior season as a two-year starter, first at weakside linebacker in the first half of his sophomore season, then at strongside following a 2011 reshuffling and throughout 2012. Kirksey recorded 95 tackles last season and added a pair of interceptions, both returned for touchdowns, and four recovered fumbles. Despite being slightly undersized, Kirksey was able to hold an edge against the run and make a tackle when a play came his, and showed the cover skills necessary for any Iowa strongside linebacker, frequently matching up at the line with a slot receiver and managing to hold his own. More importantly, he was the rare playmaker for a defense whose obvious basic philosophy was "just don't let them score too fast." And all of this came one year after he posted 110 tackles, five tackles for loss, two forced fumbles and a pick.

Christian Kirksey is a solid fundamental player who gets results without flash or histrionics. He should be the example held up to this linebacker corps -- hell, to the entire defense -- as the way to play the game. I would say that it is unfortunate that the butt-slapping mustachioed histrionics of his more-lauded teammate crowd Kirksey out of the spotlight, that it is equally unfortunate that Iowa fans have watched a string of phenomenal strongside linebackers in recent years -- first Edds, then Tyler Nielsen -- and might not remember how difficult the position is or how important it is to the defensive philosophy as a whole. But maybe Kirksey thrives away from the spotlight, playing his assignment as well as anyone on this team, not needing to show everyone how he leads. It doesn't change the pleasure we can get from watching him do it well every week regardless.

Mr. Production

Anthony Hitchens (#31, Senior, 6'1, 225 lbs., Clearview HS (Lorian, OH))

Iowa had a linebacker lead the Big Ten in tackles. No, it wasn't that one. Not that one, either. It was Anthony Hitchens, whose 124 tackles finished nine ahead of Ohio State's Ryan Shazier. It was this statistic that prompted Off Tackle Empire's Jesse Collins to put Hitchens in the conference's top five linebackers entering 2013:

Hitchens was a tackling machine for the Hawkeyes last year. He led the B1G in tackles with 124 overall, and despite only one of them coming as a TFL, Hitchens stakes his claim fair and square. Hitchens is one of those guys who just knows where he needs to be to make the play, and he routinely finishes things off.

None of that is wrong, per se, but it leaves out that Hitchens was probably more fortunate than good. In fact, he was benched during Iowa's November loss to Purdue and did not start against Michigan due to illness. The tackle numbers might speak for themselves, but so does a high profile benching from a staff that doesn't like to do that too often.

Hitchens was a running back and safety when he came to Iowa City, and only picked up linebacker midway through his first season on campus. In experience terms, he's still larval, with only last season's eleven starts under his belt (he played sparingly as a freshman and sophomore, recording 34 total tackles in those two seasons). Like Kirksey, he did not redshirt, so there wasn't even incubator time for him. If there is a player in the linebacker corps who could make a big leap as a senior, it's Hitchens. The talent and knack for finding the ball are there. If it is properly harnessed, he could be the breakout star of the three senior linebackers.

While You Wait for the Others

Quinton Alston (#52, Junior, 6'1, 225 lbs., Timber Creek HS (Sicklerville, NJ))

Alston is probably deserving of his own heading, but this is already approaching 2000 words, so we'll make it brief: He should probably be starting. If Iowa wanted to get crazy (LOL) and took a real hard look at its personnel, the glut of defensive tackles and lack of ends screams 3-4. And with Hitchens and Kirksey ready-made outside linebackers, Alston could line up next to Morris in the middle. That's never going to happen, of course, so Alston continued to be trapped in a glass case with a hammer and instructions to break only in emergency situations. If Iowa gets wild with Morris as a pass rusher, Alston fits in perfectly as a third-down middle linebacker. He gets top billing in 2014.

Travis Perry (#39, Sophomore (RS), 6'3, 230 lbs., Urbandale (IA) HS)

Holy crap do the coaches love this guy. Perry is a walk-on -- not former walk-on; current, paying-his-own-way walk-on -- who started a game against Michigan as a freshman. His only offers out of high school were from FCS schools, so Perry packed up his things and headed to Iowa City. He then put on 30 pounds, moved from safety to linebacker, and low and behold when the flu bug hit the team in November, Perry assumed Kirksey's position at strongside linebacker while Kirksey filled in for Hitchens on the interior. He's not going to pass Kirksey without an injury or suspension, and he's still not ready to be a Big Ten linebacker on a week-in, week-out basis, but there are positive signs for Perry as the next great Iowa cover linebacker going forward.

Also, "Madea goes to Ann Arbor" is in post-production.

Cole Fisher (#36, Freshman (RS), 6'2, 220 lbs., Millard North HS (Millard, NE)

Fisher redshirted in his first year on campus, as expected, then busted into the spring two-deep at weakside linebacker in March. There is a lot of positive buzz from the staff regarding Fisher, and he looks destined for that vacant WLB spot the second that Hitchens graduates and/or spontaneously combusts. For now, it's depth and special teams until told otherwise.

Laron Taylor (#51, Freshman (RS), 6'1, 225 lbs., Cass Tech (Detroit))

We don't know a ton about Laron: He's from Michigan, he was a two-star recruit with offers from Cincinnati, Western Michigan, and Indiana, coaches thought he probably could have helped a bit on special teams last year but opted to leave him in the weight room instead, he doesn't have he height to play outside but is in the sweet spot for middle linebacker duty going forward. If both Morris and Hitchens go down at the same time again, he's in line for some playing time.

Marcus Collins (#55, Junior, 6'0, 215 lbs., Monsignor Bonner HS (Yaedon, PA))

This guy was about to go to West Point before Iowa pulled him away with a scholarship offer just hours before Signing Day in 2011, so we know he really, really likes America. Aside from that, he contributed early in the season and on special teams in 2011 and 2012, but didn't make much of an impression either time. Certainly in the mix at middle linebacker, and maybe weakside, as we head into 2014. For this season, it's special teams and Ricky Stanzi t-shirts.

John Kenny (#45(?), Freshman, 6'2, 210 lbs., Carmel (IN) HS)

I would normally say that the chances of Kenny playing in 2013 are unlikely, but (1) he enrolled early at Iowa and participated in spring practice, and (2) there are two scholarship linebackers who redshirted on the entire roster right now. If Ferentz has his choice, I'm assuming Kenny redshirts. But if injuries mount and there's nobody better, they have shown no qualms about using him.

Reggie Spearman (Number unknown, Freshman, 6'2, 220 lbs., Simeon HS (Chicago))

Spearman was my favorite recruiting story out of 2013, a guy who not only could not make up his mind but openly instigated flame wars between fan bases on Twitter just for his own amusement. Still, he won't even turn 17 years old until August. There's a lot of growing to do with him, and my guess is that it will happen in the weight room in 2013.

College bowl tie-ins: What if we made these games interesting?

2013-05-21T13:00:05Z

We might finally have a playoff, but we have not rid ourselves of minor bowl games, the bane of existence for people who hate having more college football to watch.

With conference tie-in contracts coming to an end soon, bowl obligations are up for grabs. The Big Ten is finally taking leave from its triumvirate of Florida-based SEC games for more hospitable climes, the ACC is looking at a wholesale revamping of its bowl slate and the Buffalo Wild Wings is on the market.

Conferences utilize a number of factors in determining bowl partnerships, things like payouts, location attractiveness, television coverage, etc. But how would the bowl picture look if we threw out all of those factors (and a number of others, like the whole bowl-eligibility thing) and just made the best matchups?

New Mexico Bowl: New Mexico vs. The year's Fulmer Cup champions

New Mexico makes a ton of sense here. For one, the game is named for them. They also guarantee that someone is going to show up. Their opponents: The team that broke the baddest during the offseason. Not only does it give new meaning to the Fulmer Cup race, but it immediately becomes the toughest game on the out-of-conference schedule of whichever SEC team is selected.

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl: Idaho Vandals vs. Whatever team is employing Dennis Erickson at the moment

He might be associated with his six seasons at Miami and two failed stints in the NFL, but Dennis Erickson is a Man of the West. He has been coaching since 1969, held 16 jobs in those 44 years (three of those with Idaho), and, aside from Miami, the furthest east he's coached was Wyoming. His teams are bound to be on the verge of mental and emotional collapse. His offense is sure to score in bunches, especially against an overmatched cupcake. His players are certain to do terrifying and violent things to opponents, again especially against an overmatched cupcake. Idaho, you are the cupcake.

Poinsettia Bowl: The highest-ranked team with green jerseys vs. the Highest-ranked team with red jerseys

If you're going to name your bowl after the Christmas flower and play it before Christmas Day, you have to go with a full-on Christmas theme regardless of whether it results in Oregon playing Nebraska every December 20.

Beef O'Brady's St. Petersburg Bowl: Big Ten West No. 3 vs. The lower-ranked of Florida and Georgia

What pairs better with a a bowl named for a liquor-free Irish pub chain played in a liquor-free Tampa suburb than the boozy fans of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota facing one of the Cocktail Party combatants? As a veteran of two Iowa-Florida bowl games played in the greater Tampa area, I can assure you this is a recipe for success.

Las Vegas Bowl: BYU vs. Baylor

Solely for the annual hilarity of two of college football's most conservative fan bases unleashed in America's den of iniquity. There has never been a rush on rooms at the Las Vegas Ramada like there would be for this game.

Belk Bowl: Just make it an American Athletic Conference regular season game

As a Northerner, I'd never heard of Belk before they bought their own bowl game, and I'm certain I never would have heard of Belk were it not for that bowl game. It's the retail equivalent of every team in the newly founded American Athletic Conference. Someone has to buy naming rights for a geographically-challenged Cincinnati-Tulane game in 2016. Why not a retailer that connects the two states?

Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl: Big Ten vs. SEC in a chicken wing-eating contest

Three of the SEC's best teams -- Alabama, Georgia, and Florida -- ran three of the nation's most low-tempo offenses over the last five years. Nine Big Ten teams ranked 86th or worse in forward passing last season. Both leagues are filled with fat guys who like chicken wings. If there was a matchup tailor-made for a chain of chicken wing establishments whose commercials feature absurd events meant to slow games down and make them longer, it's this one.

Military Bowl and Armed Forces Bowl: Service Academy Tournament

The Military Bowl currently features an ACC also-ran against either one of the military academies or a Conference USA opponent. Only twice has an academy made the game: Navy lost in 2008, Air Force lost in 2012. The Armed Forces Bowl is not much better, hosting the service academies five times in 10 seasons. Increased emphasis on in-conference scheduling could limit Air Force (a member of the Mountain West) and Navy (soon to be a member of the AAC) in the near future. Meanwhile, the Coast Guard doesn't get to play any of the three main academies at all. Let's remedy that by allowing Army-Navy to officially move to the postseason -- they have the last Saturday of the season to themselves anyway -- giving Coast Guard a game against Air Force at the Military Bowl, and having the winners face off at the Armed Services Bowl. Tell me you wouldn't watch that.

Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas: Two former SWC opponents, anything goes

For those who pine for simpler days, when overmatched private schools in Texas would go toe to toe with UT and A&M, their success determined as much by their boosters as their coaches, I give you the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas. Two former Southwest Conference foes -- this has Rice vs. SMU written all over it -- are named to the game in late November. They each have one month to spend as much booster money as possible on Trans Ams and houses for parents and not-so-illicit bribes to build a team for the game. Eric Dickerson wants $1 million to play one more game, only for Baylor? Pay him. It's totally legal. Adrian Peterson or Tom Brady need something to do during a bye week? Let them name their price. Free agency in its purest form, on display in a bowl game named for mufflers.

Compass Bowl: Directional schools!

This one is easy: If you're in the Compass Bowl, at least one word from your school's name has to be found on a compass. The first Compass Bowl did exactly this: South Florida (which, ironically, is not in south Florida) beat East Carolina. Since then, just one directional school -- Southern Miss -- and one other school with a direction in its title -- South Carolina -- have played in the game. There are 15 FBS programs with a direction in their title. Certainly one of them can beat Northwestern every season.

Capital One Bowl: Walk-ons and future graduate students only

In honor of the massive amount of debt that walk-ons and graduate students will incur in obtaining their educations, some of it quite possibly payable to the title sponsor, the Capital One Bowl will feature two teams made up entirely of those two groups. Any player who has paid his way through school or applied to a postgraduate program is eligible. Scores by medical and law students count for double, doctorate programs quadruple. It will give the players a positive memory of their time in college for when they are writing loan repayment checks in 2047.

Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl: A BCS conference team vs. Hungry people

Let's take this one literally: A mid-level BCS conference team -- let's say Big 12 No. 5, so usually Texas Tech -- faces 85 really hungry people chosen through an essay contest. The essay topic: Just how hungry are you? The hungry people can field up to 25 players at once, and are allowed to commit defensive pass interference and encroachment. To up the ante, the winning team gets all the Kraft Mac & Cheese, Jell-O, and Oscar Meyer hot dogs it wants for the next year. Can a team of well-trained, well-fed college athletes shuttled to chilly San Francisco in December defeat a mob of really hungry people? It's basically The Walking Dead.

Alamo Bowl: Big Ten No. 4 vs. The cast of Friday Night Lights

Matt Saracen, starting quarterback of the Dillon Panthers, was the assistant manager at Alamo Freeze. Smash Williams, who worked with Matt, famously wanted two burgers with Alamo Sauce. This show was all about the Alamo, so why not send the FNL cast and crew out with a game against Michigan State? They are pretty much all available, and Coach Eric Taylor's playcalling -- shuttle passes on 4th and 25, play action in clear passing situations that almost gets his quarterback killed before resulting in game-winning touchdowns -- would completely confound every middle-tier Big Ten coach. And while the Dillon Panthers had no defense, that never stopped Andrew Maxwell from turning the ball over.

Outback Bowl: Australian Rugby Team vs. Pac-12 No. 3

Yes, the travel costs would be outrageous, but watching the Australian Rugby Team's old school offense face one of the newfangled spread attacks in the Pac-12 -- heaven help them if Leach gets this pistol/air raid-hybrid going -- could be the most compelling postgame matchup of all. Even if we get a boring Pac-12 representative -- say, UCLA -- there is still a cultural showdown to watch, as Bruins fans try to reconcile their love of basketball with the fact that Aussie Andrew Bogut was a former NBA No. 1 overall selection.

Pinstripe Bowl: SEC No. 3 vs. Pac-12 No. 2

It's a game in New York in late December. Why shouldn't it be two teams that (a) have never seen snow before, (b) have steadfastly refused to play a game north of Kentucky or anywhere between Colorado and Arkansas after September for 50 years, and (c) are absolutely certain to bring zero fans to the game? Just the thought of Steve Spurrier and Lane Kiffin shivering on the sidelines makes me giddy with excitement.

More from SB Nation:

Follow @SBNationCFB Follow @SBNRecruiting

• Oklahoma State’s insane transfer restrictions list

• Johnny Manziel’s greatest Alabama-trolling yet

• The program with the country’s strangest recruiting Photoshops

• Bill Connelly: Yep, Notre Dame’s going to be really good again

• National recruiting coverage

• Today’s college football news headlines

How to watch the 2013 Preakness live online, TV coverage, radio and more

2013-05-18T14:00:05Z

The horse racing world turns its attention to Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course for the 138th Preakness Stakes. The second leg of the Triple Crown is scheduled for Saturday afternoon, with a post time at 6:20 p.m. ET. Kentucky Derby winner Orb is the even money favorite in the nine-horse field. A win Saturday would give Orb a chance to win the first Triple Crown since 1978 three weeks later at the Belmont Stakes.

NBC Sports is once again providing television coverage of the Preakness Stakes. Network coverage begins at 4:30 p.m. Saturday live from Pimlico. Unlike the Kentucky Derby, there is no pre-race show on the NBC Sports Network.

NBC Sports is also providing streaming coverage of the race on its website, NBCSports.com.

The Horse Racing Radio Network will provide online radio coverage of the event, beginning with undercard races at 2 p.m. and shifting into full-on Preakness mode at 5 p.m.

A mobile app with odds, race information, and an event schedule is available at Preakness.com.

More Triple Crown coverage:

• Oxbow shocks at 15/1 | Video replay

• Longform: Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens returns

• 2013 Belmont Stakes info

• Complete 2013 Preakness Stakes coverage

• SB Nation's horse racing blog: And Down The Stretch They Come

NASCAR All-Star Race 2013: Start time, TV schedule for Saturday

2013-05-18T14:00:05Z

Carl Edwards will be on the pole under the lights Saturday night when the green flag flies for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series' 2013 NASCAR All-Star Race. Television coverage of Saturday's events is entirely on SPEED TV, with NASCAR RaceDay starting things off at 4 p.m. ET. Race coverage starts at 7 p.m., with post-race coverage at 11 p.m.

NASCAR and track owner Bruton Smith have made some changes to the format of this year's All-Star Race to improve competitiveness -- changes Martin Truex Jr. readily endorses. The race is divided into five segments, with the drivers' average finish in the first four segments dictating pit row order prior to the fifth and final 10-lap segment. The winner of the final segment wins $1 million, and any driver that wins all five segments earns an additional $1 million bonus.

The field for Saturday's race is limited to drivers who won races in 2012 and 2013, drivers who won the All-Star race in the past 10 years, Sprint Cup winners of the past 10 years, and the top two finishers in the evening's preliminary race, the Sprint Showdown. Fans may vote for the final participant following the end of the Sprint Showdown from those drivers who finished the Showdown with an operable automobile but did not otherwise qualify.

Kirk Kill & Jerry Ferentz

2013-05-17T14:03:33Z

Have you ever wondered what it would look like if Kirk Ferentz and Jerry Kill swapped hairstyles? Wonder no longer, thanks to LSUFreek.

This nightmare fuel is our gift to you for being patient during this week's technical difficulties. Good luck sleeping tonight.

The rest of his rivalry hairswaps are available at EDSBS.

Georgia Tech football has the strangest recruiting Photoshops of them all

2013-05-17T13:10:08Z

This year's college football offseason could go down as the Summer of Bad Photoshopping.

There is the Florida coaching staff, which is attempting to redefine the entire medium with a series of horrendous MS Paint-style photo edits complete with hashtags. Wyoming has joined in. Oregon State is in the mix.

Then there is Georgia Tech. Specifically, Yellow Jackets offensive graduate assistant Preston Pehrson, who joined Twitter on January 30, mostly to troll snowed-in Northerners:

Here there is some bad weather up North? That's to bad cause I'm about to go golfing! #migrationsouth
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) February 9, 2013

Weather in Atlanta is 57 degrees and the people in Georgia think its cold! What's it like up North? #themigration!
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) February 14, 2013

That hashtag eventually morphed into something called "The Migration," an attempt to lure recruits from the mid-Atlantic, upper Midwest and Northeast to Atlanta. Remember how Ed Orgeron told his Ole Miss staff that their planes did not fly north? Georgia Tech's apparently go out of the nation's most fertile recruiting ground to farm the snow-packed states.

When birds fly South they stick together! #TheMigration
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) February 15, 2013

If it had remained Pehrson reminding potential Georgia Tech recruits that Southern cities have warmer weather than Northern cities, it would have remained annoying but innocuous. That, of course, was not good enough for Pehrson. He inevitably turned to that hot new recruiting tactic: Photoshopping.

It began on February 22:

Bringing the North to the South! #TheMigration! twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) February 22, 2013

Pehrson then added another level by Instagramming his Photoshopping:

Bringing the North to the South! #TheMigration! twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) February 22, 2013

He then combined his two favorite pastimes: talking about weather and making fake shirts:

Wont need a sweatshirt in Atlanta much but this might work! #TheMigration twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) February 25, 2013

Pehrson changed it up, going to the old-school (as in, elementary school) arts and crafts bag:

Bringing the Northern stars to the Southern star! #TheMigration! twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) February 26, 2013

The calendar turned over to March, and Pehrson went into MEMEMODE:

It's coming! Get on or get out of the way! #TheMigration! twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 1, 2013

The migration must be very interesting! #TheMigration twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 1, 2013

#themigration twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 5, 2013

It will make you go crazy! #themigration twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 6, 2013

The Migration isn't playing around! Get with it or get out of the way! twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 8, 2013

Chuck? #themigration #GTFootball twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 16, 2013

Can't do it! #GTFootballHarlemShake #GTFootball #GTNation #themigration twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) April 18, 2013

Some of his memes were more successful than others. Here, an old woman tries to join the Georgia Tech football team:

Everyone wants to be part of the migration! #themigration twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 4, 2013

Here's a complete misuse of the Bear Grylls meme that compares joining Georgia Tech to drinking one's own urine.

Looks cold up North! #themigration twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 4, 2013

Eventually, Pehrson ran out of memes and veered into movies that are probably too old for most of his recruits to reference:

The look you get when you arnt with The Migration! #themigration twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 9, 2013

Who wrote a question mark after the migration!? #themigration #GTFootball twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 18, 2013

#themigration is coming fast at the NCAA! Get with it or get attacked! #GTFootball twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 20, 2013

Boom! #themigration twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 22, 2013

Gold Yellow Jacket! Produced by the migration #themigration twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 23, 2013

Better let them know now #themigration #GTFootball twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 25, 2013

Pretty simple! #themigration #GT #GTFootball twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 26, 2013

How many colleges have 3 movies filmed on campus in a year?#themigration #GT #GTFootball #anchormanpart2 twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 28, 2013

Come to Atlanta we have room! #themigration #Atlanta #GTFootball #GTNation #GT twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) April 4, 2013

Never refuse what Georgia Tech and The Migrations have to offer!#GTNation #GTFootball #YearoftheSwarm #themigration twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) April 6, 2013

Get a stick of the migration! #themigration #feartheswarm #GaTech #GTFootball twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) April 14, 2013

00migration! #themigration #GTFootball twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) April 15, 2013

Got to always give thanks! #themigration #GaTech #GTFootball #GTNation twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) April 27, 2013

We are going to take you! #livegold #GaTech #YearoftheSwarm #themigration twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) April 28, 2013

No one! #GaTech #GTFootball #themigration twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) April 29, 2013

We're the best at what we do. But what we do isn't very nice! #themigration twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) May 1, 2013

Just living the dream! #GTFootball #themigration #GT #GTNation twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) May 8, 2013

What did you think of #themigration when you were in #atl making the second movie? twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) May 9, 2013

Chip needs to know where he stands with #themigration twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) May 10, 2013

#themigration has made its first rule! #gtnation #gt twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) May 13, 2013

That doesn't even get the first-rule-of-Fight Club joke right. Also, it's kind of creepy.

If there is a school where recruits are up on a 12-year-old HBO television series, it's Georgia Tech:

#themigration going state by state getting great players to migrate to Georgia Tech to go wire to wire #GTFootball twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) April 20, 2013

I'm not sure what this is:

Up at 5 am "walking" with our players! #themigration twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 12, 2013

This is a train.

The migration started last night! Get on or get ran over by it! #themigration #GTFootball #GTFootballHarlemShake twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 13, 2013

This is a red wagon with an absurdly long caption. Note: This is not a bandwagon.

Building something! #themigration! twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 15, 2013

This is a shaggy dog covered in mud.

Dirty South! #themigration twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 14, 2013

This is WWE champion John Cena. It makes no sense.

You just can't! #themigration #GTFootball #GT twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 30, 2013

This is Stone Cold Steve Austin. Migration 3:16 says we're going to another Sun Bowl.

The Migration is looking to bring in guys that are stone cold! #themigration #GTFootball #GTNation #GT twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) April 7, 2013

The Rock says this. This is pretty dumb.

It's a weird smell but you better start to like it! #themigration #GTNation #GTFootball twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) April 13, 2013

This is Shaquille O'Neal. He does not know this picture is going to be used to promote mass migration:

@coachpehrson: Kazaam! Just couldn't get the sign fast enough! #canyoudigit #GTfootbal #GT #themigration twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) April 6, 2013

This is Mortal Kombat. It's older than the guys he is recruiting. They might be terrified.

New way #themigration will be recruiting! #GTFootball @recruitingajc @ajcgatech @gapanther twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) May 3, 2013

Eventually, Pehrson started going for live shots of people dressed up as other things holding up a handmade #TheMigration sign.

Georgia Tech blood drive April 2,3,4 12-5pm! They are with #themigration #GT #GTFootball twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 29, 2013

Even the Easter Bunny likes The Migration! #themigration #GTFootball #GT twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 31, 2013

Of course, there had to be some jokes about Georgia:

Come on @yo_randyjackson this is Georgia Tech! #GT #GTFootball #themigration twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) April 16, 2013

Don't let speed bumps slow you down. #themigration twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) May 14, 2013

It got weird when Pehrson entered a comic book phase:

Leprechaun? Haha the Migration doesn't do "little" green people! twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 17, 2013

Two for the holiday! #themigration #GTFootball twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 18, 2013

It started with one now we need others! #themigration! #GTFootball #GT twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 19, 2013

I mean really weird:

Enjoy the darkness! #themigration #GTFootball twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) March 21, 2013

I mean "Joker Phillips might want to lock his doors" weird:

#themigration isn't joking around! #GTFootball #GTNation @recruitingajc @ajcgatech twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) May 2, 2013

Who knew Superman was such a Girl Talk fan?

It's a bird! It's a plane! Naw it's #themigration! @coachingsearch @footballscoop @recruitingajc twitter.com/CoachPehrson/s…
— Coach Pehrson (@CoachPehrson) May 4, 2013

Recruiting is, and will remain, very strange.

HT Will Thompson.

More from SB Nation:

Follow @SBNationCFB Follow @SBNRecruiting

• Bill Connelly: Yep, Notre Dame’s going to be really good again

• SB Nation interviews Mike the Tiger’s handler

• Penn State players support trainer after SI story

• TCU loses best defender for LSU game

• National recruiting coverage

• Today’s college football news headlines

Mike Riley goes photoshopping

2013-05-17T01:21:59Z

Oregon State Beavers head coach Mike Riley has joined the Joker Phillips Bad Photoshop Recruiting Club, tweeting out this image Thursday night:

Some really exciting stuff coming in from the recruiting trail today, love finding the diamonds in the rough! twitter.com/Coach_Riley/st…
— Mike Riley (@Coach_Riley) May 17, 2013

Riley's bucktooth diamond ("The Jewel of the Williamette," as it were) is understated in comparison to the monstrosities recently sent out by Phillips and other Florida assistant coaches. While the simplicity of Riley's photoshopping is certainly appreciated, his failure to place a hashtag in the post is, frankly, inexcusable. Any of the following hashtags would have cemented the inherent excellence in Riley's tweet:

#Play4Rilez

#ComePlay4Rilez

#Play4TheOtherOSU

#Play4TheBeavers

#OSUDidntKnowYouBettaCallSomebody

#NoWeAreTheOtherOregonTeam

#YesTheOneInCorvallis

#IThinkCorvallisIsAGreatPlaceToLive

#NoIDidNotReplaceChipKelly

#IHaveBeenCoachingHereLongerThanChipKellyThankYouVeryMuch

#GoodDay

#ISAIDGOODDAYSIR

So far this offseason, Riley has managed just one verbal commitment, from quarterback Nick Mitchell. Those diamonds in the rough take time and pressure to form, of course.

More from SB Nation:

Follow @SBNationCFB Follow @SBNRecruiting

• Bill Connelly: Yep, Notre Dame’s going to be really good again

• SB Nation interviews Mike the Tiger’s handler

• Penn State players support trainer after SI story

• TCU loses best defender for LSU game

• National recruiting coverage

• Today’s college football news headlines