Syllabus Day

Hello. This is Rocks for Jocks.

Hand rises in second row.

Oh, great, the first question. Yes, you there.

“What is Rocks for Jocks?”

Glad you asked. This will be a weekly bulletin, or something approximating that. It will be published here and can also be delivered directly to your inbox via TinyLetter.

It will provide pain-free, perhaps even enjoyable insights into college football informed by statistics, history and research, not by Paul Finebaum’s callers or the little voice inside Lou Holtz’s head.

I will not be boarding any hype trains, and I probably won’t be calling for anyone to be fired. What I WILL do is dig into a college football topic each week so we can all understand the sport a little bit better (and maybe nail one or two underdog picks).

I’m happy to field questions and theories about what is happening in the world of college football, and why. Here are examples of questions or topics that would be welcomed:

-Which coaches improve their players most?

-Video of players running backward with the ball.

-Do noon games have higher upset potential?

-How different would things look without preseason polls?

-Why does Lane Kiffin tweet like that?

So, as the namesake implies, this should be easy, and there will be no tests. But if you choose to stick around, or ask a question now and again, we just might learn something.