Does anybody wanna win this thing?

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s your SEC East Division leading Georgia Bulldogs!

Here’s how the current standings look:

• South Carolina    3-2    6-2
• Florida                 3-2    5-2
• Georgia                3-2    5-2
• Kentucky             2-2    6-2
• Tennessee           2-2    4-3
• Vanderbilt           2-3    4-3

At the start of the day, South Carolina and Tennessee controlled their destinies.  By 4:00, Kentucky and Florida controlled their destinies.  Now Florida and South Carolina control their destinies.

USC has SEC games left at Tennessee, at Arkansas and Florida at home.  Florida’s remaining conference slate is Georgia, Vanderbilt at home and USC in Columbia.  As wacky as this season has been, it’s probably not worth trying to handicap their schedules.

And Georgia?  Even if the Dawgs win out, they’ll have to have some help.  Tennessee and South Carolina will both need to lose SEC games for Georgia to make it back to the SECCG with two conference losses.

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You say you want an evolution.

Chris Whitfield has a fine article worth your attention in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the ongoing evolution of offensive strategy… in Georgia high schools. The state that produced Herschel Walker and Garrison Hearst is in the midst of a sea change from the Wing-T to the spread.

Think that’s an exaggeration? Consider these facts that Whitfield cites:

• In the history of GHSA football, 13 players have passed for 3,000-plus yards in a season. Only three of the names on the list accomplished the feat before 2000.

• The top five single-season passing years have been recorded since 2000.

• Sixteen players in GHSA history have surpassed 1,250 receiving yards in a single season, seven of the top eight since 2000.

What’s the significance of this? Over time, it’s likely to affect the quality of the talent base that Georgia (and other colleges, of course) recruits.

… The time when Georgia’s high school quarterbacks were recruited to play other positions has come, and in most cases, gone. More and more quarterbacks from Georgia are playing that position in college because of the style of play they are playing in high school.

Quarterback is the most obvious position affected by this, but think about how the talent pool at wide receiver and offensive line could be changed, too. There’s also the impact on the defensive side – cornerback in particular – to consider. All in all, it’s a trend worth watching to see how things develop over the next few years.