Tuesday morning buffet

Feel free to jump right in:

• Northwestern’s athletic director wants his school to play another game at Wrigley.  No word on whether the players agree.
• Georgia is one of just six schools to have played exclusively on Saturdays since 2000.
• Auburn has some serious home-field advantage to overcome in this year’s Iron Bowl.
• Les Miles had to deal with a genuinely creepy 86-year old (former?) member of the media with an Erin Andrews fixation at a recent presser.
• At this rate, WAC Commissioner Karl Benson will soon be trolling the high schools looking for new conference invitees.
• Is this really necessary?
• More on John Brantley, formerly known as the second best quarterback in the SEC.
• A great line from an otherwise over the top bashing of Junior:  “Kiffin has a bachelor’s degree from Fresno State in leisure service management, which qualifies him to stick the umbrella in the Mai Tais at Club Med.”
• Calling the Georgia game for ESPN on Saturday night will be Mark Jones and Bob Davie.  I’m glad I’ll be in attendance.

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WWBLD?

Michael Elkon makes a compelling case here that Gus Malzahn is more valuable to Auburn than Gene Chizik is, which makes me wonder what the school might do if faced with the real threat of Malzahn receiving a tempting offer to coach elsewhere.  After all, messing around with the long knives behind the head coach’s back is a tradition on the Plains.

The cynic in me notes that Camgate might turn out to be a case of very convenient timing for some people.

“We can get to what they did.”

We argue a lot here about whether the offense or defense should shoulder most of the blame for this year’s disappointing season, but I think Mark Richt hits closer to what the systemic problem is with this comment from last night’s Bulldog Hotline (h/t, as always, to Jim from Duluth):

… Dale in Glendale wanted to give a shout out to one of the guys on the scout team. He asked CMR for his top 3 ways we can get back to where we are.

CMR – In the big games, we’ve got to play the entire 60 minutes. If you turn the ball over at a key time or make a penalty at a key time .. bottom line is we’ve got to win these close ball games. Even like an Arkansas game .. we fight and scrap to get back in the game, then 2 min. left and a chance to run the clock down and kick a FG to win.. one of our guys misses a protection he’s done 5 times already in the game.

In our offseason program, we’ve got to train our guys to make these plays at the moment of truth…

Speaking of that Arkansas game, you’ve got to train your coaches to make the right calls at the moment of truth, too.

But I think his larger point about focus is well taken.  It’s hard to think of a single loss this year when there wasn’t a stretch in the game where the team got its act together on both sides of the ball and made a game of it.  The good news is that they haven’t had any of those soul numbing performances where the team disappears that plagued Georgia in the past three or four seasons.  The bad news is that this season they weren’t able to sustain those periods of excellence long enough to salvage a win against the better teams on the schedule (and, ugh, Colorado).

Which makes this quote from Richt a good reminder about the effort needed from the defense Saturday night.

… Asked if his defense gained confidence from keeping the Yellow Jackets in check last year, Georgia coach Mark Richt instead talked about 2008.

“I think two years ago anybody who’s still left over realized how crucial it is to be focused every single snap,” Richt said. “Every single snap, You just can not think you’ve got ‘em, because you don’t. You might have got ‘em one play, but you don’t have these guys unless you are focused every single snap and you do exactly what you’re supposed to do and then it gives you a chance.”

And it’s why I share Paul’s concerns.  One thing I like, though, is that Grantham’s been looking at tape from last year’s game.

… Grantham said he has watched some of Georgia’s defense against the Yellow Jackets last year.

“We can get to what they did,” he said. “You’ve just got to be sound on those guys. They’re going to make you defend everything. They’re going to make you defend the fullback. They’re going to make you defend the quarterback on the edge. They’re going to make you defend the pitch and you’ve got to be able to handle those and you’ve got to understand they’re going to try and get angles on you different ways.

“They’re going to test your support system and we’ve got to be able to handle that stuff.”

It’s not that I expect him to take much from Martinez’ scheme.  But that game from a focus and preparation standpoint was easily the best effort the staff and players turned in against a quality opponent in the last two seasons.  It’s worth reminding everyone in the program that they’re capable of playing a solid 60-minute game if they put their minds to it.

Honestly, if they do, I don’t see how this one stays close.

Presumption of innocence

The perfect distillation of the mindset of the Auburn fan base:

“Everyone is concerned about it,” says Scott Johnston, who runs J&M bookstore on South College Street. “People would be shortsighted not to be. We’re going to presume innocence. But if they find Cam ineligible after the season is over, at least we can say we won it on the field.”

Which is why nobody on the Plains is in a big hurry for a resolution to the situation.

Speaking of distillation, Pat Dye passionately defended Auburn’s decision makers at the Macon Touchdown Club… sort of.

“I do know this,” Dye said. “Jay Jacobs and Gene Chizik have unquestioned character and integrity. And if they’re playing him, they don’t know anything either or any reason not to play him.”

Dye then asked if there were any media members in the audience, and there were at least four or five.

“Are you gonna write what I say?” he asked. “If you are, I’m not gonna say it. All you got to say is. ‘I won’t write what you say.’ These people pay their money to come to this club to hear what the guy says, and some of us up here will tell it like it is, but we don’t like to read about it in the paper the next day.”

The Touchdown Club itself charges dues for membership, but the weekly meetings are open to the public.

He then said he would “reserve my right to not say what I was going to tell you, but it was some damn good stuff.”

I can’t believe Dye wouldn’t break out the good stuff.

30.

John Pennington thinks the math is pretty simple for Saturday night’s game.

… If you’re looking for a magic number in Saturday’s game, pay attention to the number 30.

Under Richt, Georgia is 53-7 when they score 30 points in a game.  They’re just 6-14 when they give up 30.

On the other side of the field, Georgia Tech is a wicked 19-0 under Johnson when they put up 30 points.  But they’re just 5-5 when they allow 30.

Seems pretty simple, doesn’t it?  First team to 30 wins.

As a reminder, Georgia is currently averaging 33.5 points per game, good for 26th nationally.  Tech is scoring at a 61st-ranked 27.0 points per game clip.