Al Thornton played college basketball at Florida State University out of Perry High School. In 2007, he was a first round draft pick (maybe one of the last college seniors with this distinction) of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers.

On a March 2008 evening in the visitors’ locker room of Philips (now State Farm) Arena, I awaited a chance to talk to Thornton before his first professional game in his home state. As he sat at his appointed locker, one of my questions for the rookie was about the toughest opponent he’d dealt with so far.

No surprise, it was somebody with whom he shared a city and an arena.

“Kobe.”

Whether you liked him as a player or not, Sunday was one of those sad, surreal days when you learned of the horrible tragedy that took the lives of Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, his 13-year daughter and seven others.

He wanted to win; he wanted to be the best; and I believe he matured immensely after past indiscretions. Just pray that God’s comforting arms are on those who grieve mightily right now over this.

Speaking of Thornton, he also played football at Perry High for one George Collins, a former University of Georgia All-SEC and Sporting News All-American offensive guard. He blocked for Moultrie’s Ray Goff in the 1975-76 seasons, 1976 being an SEC Championship year for the Bulldogs.

Naturally UGA football is where I was first going for the start of this piece until Sunday’s unfortunate news broke. Having given proper memorial, allow me to move on these other topics of interest.

Odd, even strange, was the feeling of the breaking news about Georgia’s new offensive coordinator. It forced me to take a look back at some headlines, because surely I missed the one stating Kirby Smart was seeking a new OC. Couldn’t find one. So on Jan. 17, when the headline reads ‘Todd Monken expected to bring fun, explosive offense to Georgia,’ all I want to know is what happened to James Coley.

After all, that was his job for the 2019 season, though many would argue and rightfully so that the Bulldog offense was neither explosive nor fun. There are plenty of places to find the numbers, so I will not try to make this another statistical analysis.

At that time Coley was still employed by the University of Georgia. Was he promoted? Demoted? The school actually listed him as ‘assistant head coach’ for whatever that’s worth.

Again, very odd position to put somebody in, even at a major college football program where winning is it. Coley could either become a sympathetic figure or a victim of the ‘help us win a championship or get out of the way’ mentality. Hard to feel sorry for him, since his Georgia salary came close to the $1 million a year figure. And he supposedly will get that money, even if a portion of it will feature Athens addresses on the check.

No official word out of the Lone Star State, but all indicators are that Coley is going to Jimbo Fisher’s staff at Texas A&M … not as coordinator, but tight ends coach.

That leaves UGA with Monken, whose career in football coaching spans both Division I college and the National Football League. He’s a coach who apparently doesn’t like five-yard plays, though with enough of those are you are moving the chains. Some would think, however, that Georgia needs to do more than just move those sticks into field goal range.

One thing that seems to be missing from this portfolio is winning. Monken spent the last four years with Tampa Bay and Cleveland, and how many playoff games did they win … excuse me … participate in? He won 13 games as Southern Mississippi’s head coach … in three years. Georgia will be expecting to win 13 games per year. And Monken coached school-record setting offenses at Oklahoma State, and we know how the defenses of the Big 12 made that difficult.

That’s the facts laid out before you with a number or two mixed within. We know how much of a new look Georgia’s offense was going to be in 2020 anyway with the departures of Jake Fromm, DeAndre Swift, two tackles and a guard. The defense is remaining intact as Monty Rice, Richard LeCounte and Eric Stokes chose to stay. What it all adds up to will be important for one man, our head coach Mr. Smart.

Can he look up at Michigan and think, “Well, Jim Harbaugh hasn’t exactly delivered what he was hired to do (beat Ohio State, win Big Ten, get into CFP) five years ago and is still on the job. He’s even lost four straight bowl games. But that’s his school, like Georgia is mine” and feel secure? Even with just two bowl victories in seven years, Gus Malzahn seems to beat Alabama and Georgia often enough to stay on the Plains.

Under Smart, Georgia has one distinction Auburn, Florida and Tennessee doesn’t. It’s been to that College Football Playoff.

How hard is it to get into that playoff? Well, there’s been six of them, for a total of 24 spots. Only 11 schools have taken at least one; seven have taken at least one, including Georgia and the 2019 champs from LSU. There’s Alabama and Clemson tied at five each, then O-for-4-lahoma (just made that up!) and three-timers Ohio State.

How hard is it to get into a bowl game? Well, there was an Observer story not too long ago that the number of these postseason games is increasing even as some of them can’t get a full stadium. We just watched 41 bowls, and 14 paired Group of 5 teams, which is what they realistically play a season for. I still say you have too many when two of them practically share the same name (Armed Forces and Military). Orlando’s stadium hosts three while the Dallas area also has three in three different venues.

They aren’t going anywhere, and neither are conference championships, and neither is playoff expansion talk.