Baby, you’re driving me mad.

Year2 charts last year’s SEC defenses and offenses and tells you something you already knew and didn’t want to hear again.

… Interestingly, only two teams came out above average in both offense and defense: Alabama (finished fourth in the SEC West) and Georgia (finished 6-7 overall, 3-5 in conference play).

And how’s this for understatement?  “You can’t find many justifications in their numbers as to why the Bulldogs finished the year under .500.”

I’m beginning to think Georgia’s 2010 statistical story should go on a list like this.

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That couldn’t have been easy for him.

Just curious:  if John Brantley had thrown for 3,049 yards and 24 touchdowns last season, do you think Pat Dooley would have him ranked as the ninth best player in the conference?

Me neither.

And, now, bring on the negativity.

Start with this piece at Rivals.com.  What we care about from it can be summed up in less than 140 characters.

Top 5 recruiting over last 10 years: USC, UGA, Florida, LSU and Texas. Dawgs are only school without an MNC during that time period.

— SicEmDawgs.com (@SicEmDawgscom) July 11, 2011

No doubt bad luck and timing explains some of that.

But there’s this, too.  (Even though kids like Heyward and Berry never were coming to Georgia.)

That Dawg’ll hitcheuu.

Take this with a grain of salt from a guy who thought Cornelius Washington was going to have a breakout season last year, but I believe this is pessimistic:

Meanwhile, moving Ogletree to Mo from strong safety was a bold move and, even though Grantham says he’s “100 percent certain” it was the right thing to do, it’s an uncertain how he’ll perform in games.

There’s no question that he’s physically gifted… and that he’s just plain physical.  If Jenkins and Geathers emerge as a true force in the middle and allow Ogletree to stay free of blockers and make plays, look out.

Mr. Consistent

One knock I read about Aaron Murray in the comment threads here is that he played worse against the better teams on the schedule, as if that’s some unique insight.  What an observation like that fails to take into account is that other quarterbacks perform similarly.

If you take a look at last year’s SEC passer ratings, one thing you’ll find is that Murray was very good at avoiding being very bad in a regular season game.  His worst rating of the regular season came against Florida, when he finished with a 130.25.  What’s remarkable about that is that every other quarterback who finished on that list with Murray had at least one game during the regular season with a lower passer rating than he did.

• Newton – 107.65
• McElroy – 106.21
• Mallett – 128.19
• Garcia – 92.51
• Hartline – 104.17
• Relf – 49.25
• Simms – 88.56
• Masoli – 42.89
• Brantley – 80.39
• Jefferson – 15.20
• Smith – 51.96

Even more impressive about that is Murray was the only freshman of the twelve.  There’s a reason he’s the likely preseason All-SEC first team quarterback.

Summertime, and the blogging ain’t easy.

But there’s always a StinGTalk thread to help me make it through the day.

This guy in particular forecasts a pretty gloomy year…

It could go down hill for Richt really fast this season. Every single SEC game on their schedule is a potential loss. They’ll definitely start the season 1-2 with a win over Coastal Carolina. They’ll probably split the Mississippi schools (if Questionmark Crowell is both as good as they expect him to be, healthy, and otherwise eligible) and lose to UT. There’s a SOLID chance that they are 2-4 or 3-3 going into Vandy. An unlikely loss to Vandy at that point would unseat Richt. Their depth problems will catch up to them here and they’ll fall to UF (as usual), making Richt’s seat ridiculously hot. Auburn without Cam will be a tough one for them, but not unwinnable, and they’ll have to be vigilant to prevent Kentucky from becoming a trap game. We’re pretty likely to find a 5-6 or 6-5 bulldogs squad on the verge of collapse when we play them. A loss to us would seal the deal either way. Even in the best case scenario, after 1 semester at UGA, Crowell will be academically ineligible to play the potential bowl game, which they’ll lose, and Richt will still be out.

… although notice he can’t quite bring himself to predict a Tech victory.  Wuss.

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UPDATE:  It goes without saying that this is a no-brainer.