Techies are just… different.

The next time you hear a Tech fan whine about being labeled a nerd, point out that they bring it on themselves.

Georgia-Georgia Tech factoid of the day

… comes from the Macon Telegraph’s Josh Kendall, who points out that

… [Richt] is on the verge of becoming the first Georgia head coach ever to beat the Yellow Jackets in seven consecutive years.

Today’s overblown rhetoric award goes to…

CBS Sportsline’s Dennis Dodd, who headlines his column about the upcoming Kansas-Missouri game this way:

Kansas-Mizzou in real World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party

That’s because they’ll sell beer in the stadium.  Until halftime.  Really.

By the way, care to guess where Dennis went to college?

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You don’t see this headline every day.

Turkey fryers banned at USC tailgate.

At Baton Rouge, maybe. But Arizona State? That’s just strange.

(h/t The Wizard of Odds) 

You should be dancing, yeah.

Mississippi put twenty – twenty – players on probation for a series of petty thefts.

The worst part is that this doesn’t appear to be some sort of isolated incident.

… Orgeron bristled earlier in the season when asked if the suspensions were becoming a trend. But after Sunday’s announcement, about 25 percent of the football roster has been hit with some sort of punishment during the current season. [Emphasis added.]

But it’s thuggish for players to be enjoying themselves on the sideline during a game.  Riiiiight…

The most important game this week

Georgia Tech.  Georgia Tech.  Georgia Tech.

Lots of interesting undercurrents to this game, besides the obvious bragging rights.

One of which is Chan Gailey’s job prospects.  It sounds like both coaches have that on their minds.

“I am coaching the best I can coach,” Gailey said. “Week in and week out, that is all I can do. I can’t worry about all that other stuff. I am trying to do the best I can do day in, day out. I don’t worry about all that other stuff.”

The way schools hire and fire has Richt worried.

“You just don’t know sometimes what makes people decide what they want to decide,” Richt said when asked about Gailey’s future. “The one thing people tend to miss somewhere along the way is that the other teams are pretty good, too. Those other teams, they’ve got nice facilities and nice stadiums and they have great athletes.

“I just don’t think people give the opponents enough credit,” Richt said. “It is a very, very highly competitive situation. The bottom line is one team is winning and one team is losing every week.”

Georgia’s been outcoached and outplayed once this year by a team whose coach was rumored to be on his last legs.  In one form or another, I have no doubt that Richt is reminding every player and coach about what happened in Knoxville earlier this year.

The second most important game this week…

for the Dawgnation is, of course, the one being played in Lexington, Kentucky.

Statistically speaking, it looks good for UK, at least in terms of how the Kentucky offense could fare against the Vol defense.

The Wildcats generate about 100 yards more on offense at home than they do on the road. Tennessee, on the other hand, yields over 125 yards more on the road than it does at home.

The other splits – for UK’s defense and UT’s offense – don’t show that kind of disparity. So the stats would seem to suggest that UK stands a good chance of outgaining the Volunteers.

One troubling item, though, for UK is revealed in the ‘Cats’ month to month offensive yardage splits. Kentucky has seen its production decline significantly from September (492 ypg) to November (324 ypg). Tennessee’s offensive production has declined somewhat as well, but nowhere near on the level of Kentucky’s.

That suggests a team that’s getting worn out on the offensive side of the ball. That would seem to be confirmed by some of the comments appearing in the papers that cover UK football. All of that certainly appeared to be the case in the second half of the Georgia game, as the Kentucky line had problems handling the Dawg pass rush, UK couldn’t run the ball effectively and Woodson made some questionable on-field decisions. Even going +3 in turnover margin didn’t help.

Tennessee, on the other hand, after that comeback win against Vandy, feels pretty confident about itself.

The gameplans for each team look pretty obvious. For Tennessee, shut down the Kentucky running game to make the ‘Cats one-dimensional on offense and grind out the game on the UK defense. Kentucky has to hope it can match what Cal, Florida and Alabama did, which was to use the passing game to set up the run, along with some timely special teams play, and keep the Vols on their heels.

Kentucky has the weapons to make that work. And it’s not like Tennessee has looked like a world beater on the road this year – those three losses came against teams that have lost 13 games themselves so far. But the big question is whether the Wildcats have enough gas in the tank to end a 22 game losing streak against Tennessee. Going by what happened in Athens, you’d have to be skeptical of that.