February 9, 2010

Guess you had to be there.

Great write-up from Spencer/Orson about one of the iconic plays in Georgia football history:

Of course, if you’re soulless, you could take Bill Bates’ word for what happened.

“Let’s talk about that game,” Bates volunteers. “Sure, Herschel did well, ran me over, whatever, scored a touchdown…”

Whatever, indeed.

February 9, 2010

This is what passes for journalism these days.

In an article worthy of footballcoachscoop.com – except that it’s presented on a legitimate TV news station website – we learn that the Pac-10, Big XII and Mountain West conferences are on the verge of upheaval… if, um, well, “It could happen”… it’s so close, even though, er uh, “This is all speculation…but sources are telling ABC 4 Sports…” okay, they’re unnamed sources, but it’s so happening… if, uh, “Several dominoes have to fall first, but here’s how it could all play out…”

If these folks get paid by the “if”, they’re gonna be very wealthy one day.  Fine reporting, gents.

February 9, 2010

Another reason why Georgia is doomed in 2010

The bad news just keeps on coming:

… Belin’s results are undeniable. This season, two of his linebackers were in the top 10 in the SEC in tackles — Chris Marve (second) and Patrick Benoist (eighth) — and Marve made the All-SEC second team. In each of the last five seasons, Belin has put one of his linebackers on the first or second team All-SEC teams.

That is a feat former linebackers coach John Jancek never accomplished.

February 9, 2010

Tuesday morning buffet

Eat… there’s no football for a while.

  • For Georgia Tech, more and more, it’s looking like Andy McCollum.
  • When you haven’t played in a bowl game in two years, scheduling two 1-AA teams in the same season doesn’t seem like the brightest move.
  • This has to be a record“The Gophers football team under coach Tim Brewster the past three years has had six coordinators.” Best of all, the AD thinks it’s some kind of coincidence.
  • Oversigning at Florida?  No problem – Meyer… er, Addazio… er, somebody will take care of it.
  • Today’s musical question “So if we’re more certain that Alabama was the best team in college football than we are that the Saints were the best team in the NFL, which system is really closest to fair?”
  • Fun facts about 2010 SEC/Georgia recruiting:  (1) Georgia (the state) provided more SEC signees than Florida; (2) Georgia only signed kids from three states (Tennessee and Vanderbilt signed kids from twelve different states); and (3)  On a percentage basis, no SEC school signed more recruits from its home state than Georgia did.
  • And while we’re on the subject of Georgia recruiting, yours truly was asked to answer a few questions about it over at The ACC & SEC Blog.  Feel free to critique.

February 8, 2010

Taking a playoff pulse

I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before, but GTP’s second poll is all about the D-1 football postseason and which format you’d prefer to see.  For the purpose of this exercise, don’t worry about the horsetrading it would take to get where you want to go.  I simply want to see what everyone likes the best.

Here are some details on your choices:

  1. Blutarsky’s eight-team, conference champs only playoff:  reduce D-1 to eight ten-team power conferences, with some judicious rejiggering to balance out conference strength.
  2. Eight-team, current conference champs only playoff:  Troy would be in, Florida would be out.  So would the polls and computers, though.
  3. BCS Guru’s “plus one”.
  4. Mike Slive’s “plus one”.
  5. Eight-team playoff, based on top eight teams in BCS rankings.
  6. Sixteen-team playoff, based on conference champs plus eight other highest-ranked teams in BCS standings.
  7. 1-AA sized playoff (20-24 teams)
  8. The BCS
  9. Your father’s postseason:  bowls without BCS.  Ahhh, the way we were.  JoePa’s favorite.
  10. Other (describe in comments)

Alrighty then – let’s see what we’ve got.

February 8, 2010

Why does Gary Patterson hate brackets?

Doesn’t he get this whole “settling it on the field” business?

Q: Why do you support the BCS?

A: I’ve got an easier road to win a national championship than I do going to a playoff. Five years ago, people said the TCUs of the world, Boise and Utah would never play in a BCS game and be successful. Now we’re doing that. It’s only a matter of time before the other stuff’s going to happen. You’re going to find a team that’s going to get a chance to be there.

Q: How does that happen?

A: Keep winning. Start high in the polls, play good people. People are figuring out the Mountain West Conference is a tough league. We gained the respect, and that helps us with the respect down the road with the computer rankings. There’s only one way you can make a point and that’s not to whine about it, not to complain about it, just to go out there and prove it on the field. That’s what we try to do at our program. I think that’s why people around the country have taken TCU as one of their favorites this year because we tried to do it the right way. That’s what it’s all about, trying to do it the right way…

The man obviously doesn’t have a clue.  Maybe Hatch and Barton can talk some sense into him.

February 8, 2010

We’ve never had it so bad.

Those of you who consider the Georgia program to be in the throws throes of a death spiral might do well to read this article to get some idea of how the program is received by observers of some of its poorer relations.

You might also reflect upon the data from these charts:

Perennial recruiting powers

The following schools were ranked in Rivals.com top 10 recruiting classes in the country the most times for the period 2000-2009:

School No.
Florida State 8
Georgia 8
Southern Cal 8
Florida 7
Oklahoma 7
Texas 7
Miami 6
LSU 6
Tennessee 6
Alabama 5
Michigan 5

Perennial football powers

The following schools were ranked in the final Associated Press top 10 the most times for the period 2000-2009:

School No.
Ohio State 7
Oklahoma 7
Southern Cal 7
Texas 7
Florida 5
Georgia 5
LSU 5
Va Tech           5

February 8, 2010

Plausible deniability

Maybe it’s the cynic in me, but is it possible that Corch Meyers is setting this whole leave of absence thing as a defense in case things don’t go well enough in Gator Land in 2010?  I mean, when you read that Notre Dame assistant Corwin Brown is a possibility as Florida D-coordinator (and, please, please, please, hire that man), you can almost hear the excuses being formulated.

Or, more likely, the blame.  I hope Coach Addazio has a very sharp sword to throw himself on should the time come, so at least the end will be brief.

February 8, 2010

We’re putting the band back together.

So, at what point in time should we start referring to Southern Cal as Knoxville West?

February 8, 2010

Gone, but not… oh, never mind.

Amidst the announcement that Florida State is vacating 12 of Diddy’s football wins, comes word that the fan base has taken that news very, very hard.

… According to FSU, renewal of booster memberships is up 90 percent compared to early 2009, while monetary gifts have jumped 17 percent.

Florida State’s ticket office has reported an 80 percent increase in new sales and ticket renewals have skyrocketed. By this time last year, the ticket office had 423 renewals. This year, they have 2,327, a spike of 450 percent.