It’s not as catchy as “regression to the mean”…

but this shows the head guy’s focus is in the right place.

Q. We know about “Finish the Drill”- is there a new slogan or phrase that sums up what 2010 Georgia football is all about?

A. “Win the turnover margin”.

Works for me.

Today’s words of wisdom

… come from this SEC quarterbacks preview at Pre-Snap Read:

… the SEC doesn’t throw parades for 3,000-yard passers, only for national championships.

Tim James should have hired Phil Steele as his campaign manager.

From Steele’s preview of #15 Auburn, this is almost pornographic if you live in the state of Alabama:

… my main set of power ratings calls for an 11-1 season with an 11-0 vs 11-0 showdown vs Alabama in game 12.

Wednesday morning buffet

Plenty to put on your plate today…

• DeLoss Dodds sounds like the proverbial cat who swallowed the canary.  Which isn’t particularly good news for the future of the Big XII.
• Mississippi State has a big home field advantage?  Who knew?
• I’m not sure if Ryan Myerberg has the timeline of Coach Grantham’s hire totally correct, but you’ve got to love this bit about him:  “He’ll be aggressive; fast and furious, not read and react.”
• Tony Barnhart may have hit on the one approach that might move college football to adopt an early signing day for recruits:  “The biggest plus to an early signing period is that schools don’t have to keep spending money in January just to “babysit” players who already want to sign. A ton of money is spent just making sure guys who have committed don’t change their minds or have their minds “changed” for them by aggressive recruiting down the stretch.”
• The eyes have it.
• More Garcia love from his head coach.
• Texas Tech may have stiffed Mike Leach on a good-sized chunk of his 2009 guaranteed salary?  Color me shocked, shocked.
• And you think there are too many bowl games.  (h/t The Wiz of Odds)

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They’ll be here all week, folks. Try the veal!

If you haven’t read David Hale’s wrap-up of the first day of the SEC spring meetings, do so now.  The Spurrier quotes alone are worth the price of admission.

I’m amused that he was surprised at the number of Tim Tebow questions still coming up.  David, I’ve got news for you – they’ll be asking about the GPOOE™ at this year’s SEC Media Days (“Corch, can you give us a comparison between Tim and Brantley?”), next year’s (“Coach Meyers, were you surprised by the season Brantley had in comparison to Tim and what does that say about your program?”) and the year after that (“What does Tim’s NFL career to date say about your program, Corch Meyers?”).

We’ll always have the GPOOE™.

A little 3-4 talk

Tom Dienhart has posted a good overview article on the rise of the 3-4 defense in the college ranks, with several quotes from Todd Grantham.  But there are a couple of quotes from other coaches that are interesting and worth sharing.

Here’s one reason Brian Kelly made the switch at both his old school and his new one:

… Kelly dumped the 4-3 for a 3-4 last season at Cincinnati, and he brought the scheme with him to South Bend. He appreciates all of the problems the 3-4 presents for offenses. But Kelly also had other motives for making the switch.

“The thing for me that forced the move was because we were changing personnel so much on second and third downs,” he says. “I wanted to be able to get into a defensive structure where we wouldn’t be changing personnel as much. And the 3-4, with the four linebackers on the field, gives you a lot more flexibility to match up and also allows you to keep that personnel on the field.”

Continually switching personnel meant more practice time for more players, and that wasn’t ideal. To Kelly, the more practice time a player gets in first-, second- and third-down scenarios, the better chance a team has at executing at a high level.

That actually makes some sense to me.  The more practice time Georgia’s starting linebackers can get working on their coverage skills, the better.

On the other hand, here’s a word of warning from Washington’s defensive coordinator (who deploys a 4-3 scheme):

“To be a good 3-4 team, your nose guard has to be a stud and so do your two inside ‘backers,” says Washington coordinator Nick Holt, whose base defense is a 4-3 but who occasionally uses a 3-4. “You want those inside ‘backers to be big enough to stuff guards who are coming at them because they aren’t covered up by the three down linemen.

I guess we’ll find out what Georgia’s got soon enough.

Channeling Munson

Two developments that should remind us not to take anything for granted this year when it comes to depth issues:

1. Clint Boling underwent arthroscopic ankle surgery.  The prognosis is that he should be fully recovered in a “matter of weeks”, but still…
2. Jalen Fields failed to qualify.  That hurts a little more, potentially, as he was expected to be given a shot at outside linebacker.  My recommendation to bubble wrap Houston and Washington this year still stands.

Let’s hope this news won’t be taken as a metaphor.