Why Georgia is doomed in 2010, ctd.

Phil Steele gives the pundits something else to ignore, returning starters:

SEC

	OFF	DEF	ST	TOTAL
Arkansas	9*	7	2	18
Georgia	10	6	2	18
Mississippi St	7	8	2	17
South Carolina	8*	7	2	17
Auburn	7	8	1	16
Florida	6	7	2	15
Kentucky	5*	7	1	13
Tennessee	4	7	2	13
LSU	6*	4	2	12
Mississippi	4	6	1	11
Vanderbilt	5*	5	1	11
Alabama	8*	2	0	10

Arkansas received good news when QB Ryan Mallett decided to come back for another year. Mallett threw for 3624 yds (56%) and a 30-7 ratio in ’09 and hopes to lead the Razorbacks to an even better season in 2010. TE DJ Williams (411 yds, 12.8) also passed up the NFL as the Razorbacks have 18 returning starters.

This will be a critical year for Georgia HC Richt who welcomes back 18 starters from last year’s team that won 8 games the fewest since ’01 Richt’s 1st yr.

Alabama returns just 10 starters from last year’s national championship team. However, 8 are back on offense including Heisman winner Mark Ingram, QB McElroy and WR Jones. HC Saban loses 9 starters on D but that side of the ball is his specialty.

One thing Steele doesn’t mention there is that the two SEC teams returning the most starters on offense also tied for first in scoring in conference games.

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Sunday morning buffet

Cold day, warm menu:

• Burger King brings new meaning to “have it your way”.  I’m hoping it starts a trend.
• “In the span of three years, Alabama spent more on football recruiting alone than it had previously spent pursuing athletes in all sports combined.”
• Hey, at least Junior has finally spoken to David Reaves.
• Please, just go ahead and shoot me.  Now.
• Vince Dooley won’t attend the Georgia-Tennessee game this year.  (And whose martini is that in the photo?)
• I hope you’re reading Doug Gillett’s 50 Most Loathsome People series, even though he’s got John Feinstein ranked waaaaay too low.
• GMC coach Bert Williams has plenty of good things to say about Jakar Hamilton.

Moving on, a long way from home

The AB-H is reporting that Willie Martinez has been hired as the new secondary coach at Stanford.  (Although I doubt it’s for his expertise in defending a Lane Kiffin-coached offense.)

For the cost, those cupcakes ought to taste good.

They may be easy games, but we can’t call them cheap wins at Auburn anymore:

Auburn will pay $2.425 million for three of its four non-conference home games in 2010.

That sum includes $1 million payouts to Arkansas State and Louisiana-Monroe as well as $425,000 to Tennessee-Chattanooga…

The school also will pay $2.325 million for three non-conference games in 2011 — $950,000 to Utah State, $975,000 to Florida Atlantic and $400,000 to Samford.

I wonder when they’ll raise season ticket prices next.  Quality home games like that should have the fans fighting over seating.

Picking up the gauntlet

I guess this is what happens when you can’t get a health care bill passed.

The Obama administration is considering several steps that would review the legality of the controversial Bowl Championship Series, the Justice Department said in a letter Friday to a senator who had asked for an antitrust review.

Granted, the devil’s in the details and it seems fairly clear from the letter’s contents that the administration would prefer for someone else to tote the water on this, but any way you look at it, it appears that the D-1 college football postseason is in for some changes.

When memes collide

I know it’s a little inside-ballish, but in light of my earlier post about Mark Bradley’s Chicken Little post concerning Mark Richt, this is an amusing read.

If I had a hammer…

Some snark writes itself.

“We look for something that holds to Alabama standards — classy, something fans are looking for,” (director of marketing and trademark licensing for the University of Alabama Jennifer) Martin said.

A bargain at $19.95.

Admittedly, the faux football grip is a nice touch.

Why Georgia is doomed in 2010, a continuing series.

(About that header:  I’m going to presume you’ve switched on your sarcasm meters.)

After my post yesterday about the statistical anomaly of Georgia’s 2009 turnover margin number, I thought I’d look for other statistical or situational nuggets that might suggest that the Dawgs’ prospects in 2010 aren’t as marginal as many pundits have already declared them to be.

So, consider this:  Georgia’s two leading rushers in 2009 were Washaun Ealey and Caleb King.  That, despite Ealey not seeing the field until the third quarter of the LSU game and King making his first appearance midway through the first quarter of the Arkansas game.

Ealey didn’t play in enough regular season games to qualify for inclusion on the list of leading rushers on the SEC’s stats page.  Had he been there, he would have ranked sixth in yards per game and third in yards per carry.  As it is, on the list of top returning running backs in the conference, he’s second behind the Heisman Trophy winner, Mark Ingram.

In other words, there’s no comparison between the shape Georgia’s running game is in going into the 2010 season and the shape it was in after Moreno left early for the NFL.  That should be particularly good news for whomever wins the starting quarterback job this season.

Recruiting roundup

Nah, as your uneasiness rises over the doings in Calhoun, this isn’t one of those “I heard from my best friend’s sister’s grocer who knows somebody who lives down the street from somebody who’s married to a teacher at…” posts to calm you down.

I’m just here to provide a little context, people.

• Brian Cook reminds us that, when it comes to the recruiting services, don’t lose sight of the forest for the trees.
• Be still, my heart:  Former UT coach Phillip Fulmer will be featured as an analyst by CBS College Sports on signing day.
• More trees and forest stuff from David Hale here.
• I haven’t been able to find their 2010 projections posted anywhere, but it’s worth refreshing your memory with a look at Mercer University’s football recruiting prediction model, which boasts a 70% success rate historically.
• Speaking of the 2010 class, there are lots of fascinating tidbits about how it’s shaping up in this post at MrSEC.com.  Here’s a sample:  “Four SEC schools currently have more commitments from Georgia than from any other state: Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Vanderbilt.”

One of these numbers isn’t like the others.

Georgia’s turnover margin during the Richt era, per the NCAA stats site:

• 2009:  -16
• 2008:  -3
• 2007:  +9
• 2006:  -1
• 2005:  +11
• 2004:  -2
• 2003:  +11
• 2002:  -8
• 2001:  +1*  (*regular season only)

Richt has never coached a team that averaged a per game turnover margin greater than one – plus or minus – until the past season.  And that includes two seasons with a freshman starting at quarterback.