Talent will out.

When he’s not hearing things about the coaching carousel, TSN‘s Tom Dienhart does OK.  Sometimes.

He’s written an article about how the elite teams in D-1 football have recruited since 2002, along with some fairly general comments about how that’s related to results on the field.

One of his big underachievers?

What on God’s green earth is going on at Tennessee? Despite having talent galore, the Vols haven’t won the SEC championship since 1998. Worse yet, Tennessee has played in just two SEC title games in the last eight years. To whom much is given, much is expected. And the Vols haven’t provided much in return in recent years. This news has to make Phillip Fulmer fidget.

For what it’s worth, Dienhart has Georgia at #2 on his list.

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Stat overload wrapup

Sunday Morning Quarterback finishes his analysis of statistics and wins/losses from the ’06 season by bringing all of his data together in a piece that’s well worth your time to read.

It looks like if you’re an offensive coordinator, shoot to get your team’s yards per pass average over 8.0 (76.2 winning percentage). If you’re a defensive coordinator, hold your opponent under 300 yards (76.6 winning percentage). And if you’re a head coach, tell your team you don’t care about penalties.

Dan Inman, helping his team win anyway he could. (courtesy Scout.com)

How did Georgia stack up with regard to those three categories? Pretty consistently with SMQ‘s findings:

• Georgia was 8-1 in games when it held opponents under 300 yards total offense; 1-3 when it didn’t
• Georgia was 3-0 in games when its average ypp was 8.0 or better; 6-4 when that stat was under 8.0 ypp
• Georgia was 6-2 in games when its penalty yards exceeded the opponent’s; 3-2 when the opponent was the more penalized team