Daily briefing: On Coastal Carolina’s Grayson McCall, Nick Rolovich and AAC expansion
Ivan Maisel’s “Daily Briefing” for On3:
Grayson McCall simply fun to watch
My takeaway from an entertaining Appalachian State-Coastal Carolina game Wednesday night is that Chanticleers quarterback Grayson McCall, on top of having mad skills, is just plain fun to watch. The quick release, the accuracy, the ability to move away from pressure — the redshirt sophomore continues to embarrass all those schools that passed him up coming out of Indian Trail (N.C.) Porter Ridge, in the Charlotte suburbs. You wonder if it’s occurred to McCall that the Power 5 is just a transfer portal away. There’s no question that a bunch of offensive analysts charged with scouting other teams have thought about it. I hope McCall keeps making Coastal coach Jamey Chadwell look smart.
Nick Rolovich has to live with decision
Of course Nick Rolovich is going to sue Washington State for firing him. Suing someone whom you feel has wronged you is the American way. I can’t wait to see why Rolovich believes he has a case. Washington State denied him a religious exemption for a COVID-19 vaccine. Rolovich is a devout Catholic, a church whose leader, Pope Francis, has advocated vaccines. Rolovich believes in his convictions so strongly that he refused to comply with a vaccine mandate for Washington state employees. Employee mandates are legal. Rolovich is wrong on the science, too. But he isn’t being wronged. He made his decision. I wouldn’t want to live with the consequences, either.
Conference musical chairs
The Big 12 cherry-picked the AAC for its best members, so the AAC is doing the same to Conference USA. When the Sun Belt does the same to Conference USA, which conference does C-USA raid? If this continues to play out accordingly, some NAIA conference is going to go after Mater Dei or IMG Academy. It really is a form of inflation, isn’t it? A dollar is worth 95 percent of what it is a year ago, and the AAC is now half-AAC, half-Conference USA. It’s just a hunch, but I think the TV networks may see through this.