Marketing idea of the week

Pretty damned funny, if you ask me.

(h/t MrSEC.com)

Over 5,000,000 served

I see that the hit meter crossed the five million mark today.  If you had told me that I would have attracted that kind of traffic when I started this joint, I would have laughed.  Even more amazing to me, more than 40% of that number has occurred just in this year.  So, yeah, I’m crushing my benchmark – and for that, all I can say is thank you very much to everyone who drops by GTP.

Advertisement

Prepare the Finebaum tongue bath!

When I read this, why do I get the sense of a guy sizing up the next bandwagon to jump on?

I’ll hang up and listen to your answer.

Erk would be proud.

If it turns out at season’s end that the Tennessee game was the start of a significant turnaround for this Georgia team, Boss Bailey will deserve some sort of Most Valuable award from Dawgnation.  Per Aron White:

247: Right before the Tennessee game, Orson Charles was interviewed and said everybody was “Pissed off.” Was that something you sensed too out of this team? You guys have seemed to play angry the last couple of weeks.

AW: “I think so. I think that everybody, we were so disappointed in ourselves and the way that we let down the Bulldog nation in those first five games. We’ve got to have an edge. Our honorary captain before the Tennessee game — Boss Bailey — man, he just stirred our team up so much. All the emotion we could see in him just made us realize we haven’t been upholding the ‘G’ like we should. They built a reputation around Georgia, and we haven’t been living up to it. I think the last two weeks, we definitely have. Guys have been coming out and playing with passion. That’s what we have to do.”

——————–

247: What was Boss’ message to you guys?

AW: “He was just like, ‘I see the defense, and somebody knocks the ball out and there’s not 10 other guys right there swarming to the ball.’ He really just talked about the attitude they used to have when he was playing, and he said he doesn’t see it. He was almost on the verge of tears he was so emotional over how much he cared about Georgia. Seeing how much he cared and how much he’s still a part of this team even though players like that aren’t around anymore, I think it made people feel they were accountable to the whole Georgia nation and everything Georgia stands for. I know me personally it definitely got me going seeing him before the game. He came in and said something in the locker room right before we came out. It almost brought back that feeling, when we used to watch Georgia back in the day with the stingy defense and the big-play offense. That’s what we need to get back to, in my opinion, and I feel like we’re on the right track right now.”

Wonder if he told them to GATA.

********************************************************************

UPDATE: Richt promises more tough love.

Georgia Tech football: creating balance a decade from now

Alabama loses to South Carolina and Georgia Tech announces that it’s added the Tide onto its 2019 and 2020 schedules.  Coincidence?  I think not.

Besides, that sucker can always be Radakoviched in 2018.

The sound of light bulbs going off

I don’t want to read too much into it, but I do find it encouraging to hear this sort of talk about now:

*** What else has changed in the past two weeks?

Well, safety Shawn Williams and cornerback Sanders Commings continue to lock down starting roles in the secondary, a move that took place before the Tennessee game.

Cornerback Brandon Boykin gave what I thought was a revealing quote when asked about the two newcomers to the lineup: “They’re playing really good because they’re preparing and they know what to do.”

And there it is.

Richt has said all along that everyone is a freshman in this defense because all players have to learn it new. Therefore, there’s no reason Georgia shouldn’t have gone to hungry young defensive backs when things weren’t working early. Next up is safety Alec Ogletree, who I’d expect to make some noise the remainder of the season.

And this, as well, from a kid who hasn’t played much so far.

“The first thing I did was look up at the scoreboard and see how much time I had to play. I remember it was about six or seven minutes,” Lott said. “They called the first play, I was like Oh I know this. Let’s do it. Came out there and made the first play, I was excited about it. I was amped up, I was ready to make more plays.”

If they really are starting to climb the learning curve on defense, it may be time to get a little excited.

Dreaming the SEC East dream.

Apparently, we’re not the only folks who are looking at the recent carnage in the SEC East and wondering “why not?”.

Except up in Bluegrass Country, it’s the coaches and players doing the wondering.

How can you not love a header like this:

Phillips: UK can’t look past Georgia

It really was a woodshed game.

It’s been easy for some to dismiss the results in the Vanderbilt game because, after all, it was just Vanderbilt and that’s what Vanderbilt does.

Except, as John Pennington notes, that really hasn’t been the case lately.  That was Vanderbilt’s first shutout loss in seven seasons.  Georgia’s average margin of victory from 2005-9 was just over 10 points per game.

Even more impressive is Phil Steele’s game grade, which is how he assesses the level of dominance in a team’s win, taking into account point differential, yardage differential and opponent.  Georgia finished third last week.  For more context, check out Georgia’s grades in its 2010 and 2009 games here.

In short, it was by far the best performance this team has achieved over the last season and a half.  And it was also the worst beating Vanderbilt’s taken over that same period.  So no, it wasn’t a case of “just Vanderbilt”.

Tuesday morning buffet

Get in line and start sampling:

• Year2 thinks Steve Addazio may have too much on his plate.  He’s got an interesting breakdown of what other responsibilities the offensive coordinators at the BCS conference programs hold.
• Les Miles wants you to know his players are working hard preparing for this week’s game with Auburn:  “Our guys will be wet from sweat.”
• Randall Cobb has scored 33 touchdowns in two-plus seasons.  Not too shabby.
• Georgia fans, rejoice!  Per John Pennington, the Gators have “… now replaced Georgia as the league’s biggest disappointment so far.”
• Georgia fans, be prepared.  “But the latest disappointment, losing 10-7 to unranked Mississippi State on Homecoming, pushed Gators coach Urban Meyer to acknowledge that the offense needs to be reworked completely before facing Georgia on Oct. 30.”
• Dennis Dodd pimps Mike Leach for the Minnesota job.
• Meanwhile, back at the ranch, they’re already asking questions about Tommy Tuberville’s job security.
• A Tennessee commit says several of Florida’s younger players told him bad things.  “They were just saying they aren’t happy and they don’t think Florida is the right place for them,” Dallas said.
• Everything you wanted to know about that breakdown in coverage which led to the winning score in the Kentucky-South Carolina game is right here.  Let’s hope they don’t get that fixed any time soon.

Mumme Poll, Week 7

Rank	Team	Votes (Top pick)
1	Auburn	108 (18)
2	Oklahoma	108 (17)
3	Oregon	106 (63)
4	Boise State	104 (6)
5	TCU	102 (1)
6	Michigan State	101 (0)
7	LSU	96 (2)
8	Alabama	91 (2)
9	Utah	51 (0)
10	Wisconsin	49 (0)
11	Stanford	35 (0)
12	Ohio State	31 (0)
13	Oklahoma State	30 (0)
13	Missouri	30 (0)
15	Iowa	15 (0)
16	Florida State	13 (0)
17	Nebraska	7 (0)
18	Arkansas	3 (0)
18	Arizona	3 (0)
20	Mississippi State	2 (0)
21	Ball State	1 (0)
21	Oregon State	1 (0)
21	Virginia Tech	1 (0)
21	Northwestern	1 (0)
21	South Carolina	1 (0)

*******************************************************************
COMMENTS

• Tiebreaker comes into play this week, with the logjam at #1.
• Oregon has to settle for third, despite garnering the most tiebreaker votes by a wide margin.
• We’re already seeing consolidation at the top – notice the drop in votes from Alabama to Utah.
• Still no Big East votes.