Second scrimmage tea leaf-reading

By the media accounts, the offense had the better of it at yesterday’s scrimmage.  I can’t say I’m surprised by that, given the obvious advantage in continuity the offense has at this point in time.  In fact, I’d be a lot more worried if I were reading headlines similar to the (admittedly misleading) one the AJ-C currently displays about Georgia Tech’s practice:  “Jackets’ defense impressive”.

So what can we take away at this point?  Maybe these things:

• Zach Mettenberger. Say what you will about the quarterback competition today – and Richt says he’s comfortable with it – the one thing you have to accept is that Bobo has done a good job of making a functional quarterback out of a kid who looked completely flummoxed at last year’s G-Day game.
• Kris Durham. With three touchdown catches and the praise of A.J. Green, it sounds like his recovery from the shoulder injury that sidelined him last year is a successful one.  Given the size of the receiving corps, that’s a fairly big deal.
• Vance Cuff. After watching him get burned repeatedly in his start against Georgia Tech last year, it’s hard to believe that this is the same player A.J. Green talked about yesterday:  “He’s getting more aggressive. He has the speed to go with anybody, but he’s getting much better,” Green said. “He’s more slender, tall, and I feel like he can get his hands on you quicker than some of the shorter ones because he has long arms. And he’s just jamming a lot of the receivers at boundary, and he’s been real aggressive.” There are always players that benefit from a change in coaching; maybe Lakatos is giving Cuff the opportunity to shine.
• Offensive line. Richt credited the first team o-line with playing well;  A.J. described the play of the linemen as “dominant”.

Needless to say, I’m looking forward to what we’ll see next Saturday.

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A playoff proposal so good, I wish I’d have come up with it three days ago.

Honestly, in the wake of Butler making it to the college basketball title game, I expected to see more columns like Kevin Scarbinsky’s making the rounds this morning.  (True, it’s still early.)

How can you not be stirred by this?

They’ve proved that, on any given day, if given the chance, a good team can beat a big name.

If given the chance.

College basketball gives Butler that chance. College football gives Boise State no chance.

That’s why college basketball equals democracy and college football equals aristocracy, and that, boys and girls, is the real reason the American colonies went to war against their regally blind British oppressors.

To give underdogs like the Bulldogs a fighting chance.

Wow!  Cue the fife and drum set, now!  Who knew that George Washington was in favor of a playoff?

I have to admit that I’m now fully on board the college football playoff train.  I had an epiphany sometime in the middle of the second half of Butler’s game – towards the end of that awesome ten minute-plus run when the Bulldogs failed to score a point from the field they were busy settling things on – about how to structure the perfect college football playoff format.

My idea is so absurdly simple that I’m surprised Scarbinsky hadn’t already come up with it:  twin bracket playoffs.  Set up one eight-team bracket composed only of BCS conference schools and one solely of mid-majors.  Then, have the winner of each bracket face off in the national title game.  Voilà!

Think about it.  It’s got everything everybody wants – a playoff with all the real contenders in it, more games for everybody, more money for the smaller conferences and a chance every year for the little guy.  College football will guarantee that Cinderella dances in the ball every single season forever.  Now that’s the America than our ancestors shed their blood for, amirite?

And there’s the bestest bonus of all, that college football would have twice as many sets of brackets as March Madness.  Take that, Seth Davis.

My friends, we stand on the verge of truly having it all at no cost to us.  I ask you, what could be more American than that?  Who’s with me here?