ATHENS Ga.
Georgia is getting ready to face Alabama in a crucial Southeastern Conference game. The Crimson Tide is coached by Nick Saban. Saban used to work for Bill Belichick. Can you figure out where this is going?
Yep, for the first time in his seven years as the Bulldogs coach, Mark Richt has totally closed practice for the week leading up to a game.
While doing his best to persuade skeptical reporters that it has nothing to do with Saban’s tactics, Richt sounded downright paranoid Tuesday when going over his reasons for the lockdown.
“Things have changed in the last few years. It’s not like it used to be. It’s so easy for information to travel so fast,” Richt said. “Maybe if we had an indoor facility where no one was walking around or looking in the window, we would all feel better. The reality is: What we do is big. People care. Winning and losing has a profound effect on people’s careers.”
Richt is hardly alone in sounding like a CIA wannabe.
While Belichick’s sideline videotaping has brought cheating to the forefront in the NFL, it has long been a concern at the college ranks, where cloak-and-dagger coaches have always suspected opponents are spying on practices, stealing signals and using all sorts of nefarious tactics to get an edge apparently with good reason.
