Live by the sword, die by the sword.

Going into this season, I was skeptical that Kentucky was emerging as an elite SEC program. The Wildcats’ defense was porous in ’06 and didn’t look to be substantially improved in ’07.

The key to UK’s success last year was turnover margin. Kentucky was the nation’s second ranked team in that area in ’06, at +15. That was a margin considerably outside of its historical performance.

In the absence of what would be an unlikely repeat in that area, I doubted that UK would be able to improve significantly upon its 2006 won/loss record. And in fact for this season, the Wildcats are -2 in turnover margin, which is more in line with their historical numbers.

Looking back, Kentucky finished September 5-0 and was +7 in turnover margin. The wheels came off the wagon in October: a 1-3 record – the win being that memorable OT game with LSU – and a -9 in turnover margin. (UK was +1 in TO margin against LSU.)

cfbstats.com has the splits for UK in turnover margin here. They’re pretty dramatic. UK is significantly worse on the road, against conference opponents, against teams with winning records… and in games it loses.

Needless to say, Georgia can’t let Kentucky win the turnover battle.

In case you’re interested, Georgia’s splits in TO margin aren’t as large as UK’s. But make sure you check out the month to month trend line at the bottom of the chart.

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We’re all sensitive people.

Evidently hurt feelings over something trivial at a football game aren’t confined to the South.

Missouri players were enraged by a highlight video.

What’s next?

Journalistic whiplash

I’ve been waiting for Paul Finebaum’s take on Saban and Tuberville after last weekend’s showing for both.

It’s out, and to no great surprise, it’s another 180 degree turn from what he was writing just a couple of weeks ago… which pretty much puts him back where he was a couple of months ago.

He’s gonna hurt himself with these abrupt turns if he’s not careful.

Tale of the tape

If Goldilocks were a college football fan, she’d love the Georgia Bulldogs, statistically speaking, at least.

Check out the ranking summary from the NCAA stats site:

TEAM RANKINGS
119 teams ranked in Division Football Bowl Subdivision
12 teams ranked in Southeastern Conference
Category	National Rank	Actual	National Leader	Actual	Conf Rank	Southeastern Conference Leader	Actual
Rushing Offense	38	174.30	Navy	357.20	4	Arkansas	297.00
Passing Offense	73	209.10	Texas Tech	480.64	8	Kentucky	268.70
Total Offense	68	383.40	Texas Tech	542.82	7	LSU	455.30
Scoring Offense	32	32.80	Hawaii	50.22	6	Florida	41.30
Rushing Defense	33	126.90	Oregon St.	62.10	5	LSU	66.00
Pass Efficiency Defense	55	122.80	LSU	92.62	9	LSU	92.62
Total Defense	25	328.40	LSU	236.80	4	LSU	236.80
Scoring Defense	32	22.20	Ohio St.	11.36	4	LSU	16.70
Net Punting	18	37.91	Auburn	39.70	2	Auburn	39.70
Punt Returns	16	13.82	Kansas St.	22.06	3	Alabama	17.45
Kickoff Returns	52	22.00	Kansas	30.19	7	Tennessee	25.07
Turnover Margin	34	.50	Kansas	2.00	4	LSU	1.30
Pass Defense	27	201.50	Rutgers	153.20	8	South Carolina	163.27
Passing Efficiency	39	132.42	Oklahoma	179.95	5	Florida	175.57
Sacks	41	2.40	Georgia Tech	4.30	3	LSU	3.10
Tackles For Loss	43	6.60	Georgia Tech	9.50	4	LSU	7.10
Sacks Allowed	15	1.20	Tennessee	.30	4	Tennessee	.30

Get it?  Not too hot, not too cold…

Georgia doesn’t lead the SEC in a single statistical category, but is only in the bottom fourth of the conference in one category (pass efficiency defense).  Nationally, it’s the same story:  the punting game is in the top 15% of the country, and the worst statistical showing is 73rd (passing offense).

You’d hope that Goldie would take note of that national ranking in sacks allowed, though.  It’s probably churlish of me to point this out, but LSU currently ranks 79th in that category.  I’m certainly appreciative of Les Miles wanting to go in another direction at offensive line coach after last season.  I imagine Mark Richt is even more so.