Oh yeah, that.

It sure would be nice if Georgia avoids this downer tomorrow night.

The first defensive possession for Georgia on Saturday will warrant special attention. The Bulldogs were the only FBS team last season to allow at least four touchdown drives of 75 yards or longer on the opening possession of a game.

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There’s something you won’t be doing on Thursday nights.

At least as long as Michael Adams has any say about it.

”To the best of my knowledge, and I think this is accurate, we’ve not played a home or away Thursday night game during my time here, and we won’t.

“I don’t do scheduling, but I do set certain parameters and certain rules within which the athletic departments are expected to operate. We don’t let teams play on exam days, for instance. We don’t like for them to play on reading days, but there’s been a time or two that has been unavoidable because of conference commitments.

“But generally, I think football ought to be a Saturday occurrence. I think it ought to be fun for an entire community on weekends.”

Hey, as the saying goes, even a stopped clock’s right twice a day.

Here we go.

Obviously, if you’re in the Craig James camp of “Moore and Martin ftw”, then this won’t matter.

Boise State WR Geraldo Boldewijn, S Cedric Febis and DT Ricky Tjong-A-Tjoe won't play as eligibility is reviewed. Huge blow for BSU

— Bronco Beat (@IDS_BroncoBeat) September 2, 2011

For the rest of those predicting a Boise win, that’ll probably come in handy if things don’t shake out that way.

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UPDATE:  The comments section to this news report in the Idaho Statesman is a blast, if you’re into potato-flavored paranoia.  The winner so far is this guy.

Mark Richt is a desperate desperate man and will evidently do anything in his power to win this game and not lose his job. I’ve now become very concerned for Kellen because if Richt is pulling this, who’s to say that he’s not going to try and knock Kellen out of the game and gain that advantage as well. I’m sure that BSU is just playing it safe by not playing those guys, but geez…

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UPDATE #2:  Note to delusional BSU fans – Richt didn’t know about the three players being held out until Petersen mentioned it at their presser.

ESPN, you ignorant slut.

I know this is just another example of the buffoonery the WWL chooses to offer in place of serious analysis, but I still can’t help but be amused by two Florida grads “debating” the outcome of the Boise State-Georgia game with both concluding that the Dawgs are the ones going down.  Color me surprised.

Pettis + Young = Green?

No doubt you found it as reassuring as I did to hear Craig James spout off yesterday about how he expected a Boise State win Saturday night because Kellen Moore would take care of business.  James didn’t mention any receivers, though.

No knock on Moore, who’s clearly an élite college quarterback, but you’ve still got to have somebody to throw to.  And that’s one thing I haven’t really heard played up much by the media in all the discussion leading up to the game.  Certainly the losses of Austin Pettis and Titus Young have been mentioned, but not in the apocalyptic terms reserved for A.J. Green’s departure.

But there’s a strong argument to be made that Boise State is in a similar boat to Georgia with regard to its passing game.  Maybe even more so.  Consider these points:

• Austin Pettis had 22 touchdown receptions inside the 20 the past two seasons (most in FBS), and was targeted 27 more times than any other Broncos receiver in the red zone since 2009.
• Titus Young averaged 47.7 yards per touchdown reception last year and was Moore’s greatest threat downfield. On passes thrown 30 yards or more, Moore targeted Young on 20 of 23 attempts.
• Young and Pettis combined for more than half of Boise State’s first-down receptions last season. On third down, they were targeted on 46 of Moore’s 94 attempts.
• Kellen Moore completed 65.9 percent of his passes for 22 touchdowns and no interceptions when facing a blitz the past two seasons. He completed 79.0 percent of his passes for 13 touchdowns when targeting Austin Pettis.

Where I come from, that’s a helluva lot of attention and a helluva lot of production.  Maybe Boise’s preparation is so good and Kellen Moore is such a terrific quarterback that the Broncos’ passing game won’t miss a beat in the first game without those two.  If that first game were on the fabled blue turf against, say, UNLV, that’s a likely possibility.  But it’s not.  So I’m not seeing a slam dunk here.

Then again, maybe the bright side of this for Boise is that it may take Georgia some time to figure out which receivers are worthy of being keyed on.  But is that any different a task from what the Boise defense faces?

Friday morning buffet

There was a lot of college football played last night… just not so much good college football.

• Oh, Kentucky.  We knew you weren’t going to be as good on offense this year, but this bad?  At the end of the first quarter, the ‘Cats had amassed one yard of total offense against a Sun Belt team coming off a 2-10 season.
• So which D-1 team’s got the worse defense, Memphis or UNLV?
• Easily the best thing about this Jasper Sanks Q&A:  “I definitely felt like I was an All-SEC-caliber tailback. But you come in with a guy like Quincy Carter, who demanded to throw the ball 40 times a game.”
• Hey, here’s a 61-year old kicker.
• I suppose I should be impressed about this, but I have to consider the source.
• Tell me there hasn’t been a moment when you wanted to do this.
• ESPN’s Edward Aschoff is piqued because he had to wait until Isaiah Crowell finished a tutoring session for an interview, but Crowell’s the diva.
• Maybe it’s not all about the economy:  “They’ll bring you your chicken wings and they’ll bring you your drinks.”
• Ben Dukes reminds us not to buy into the Boise hype.

We’re playing those mind games together.

The funniest comment I heard last night in response to the news that Connor Shaw was named the starter against East Carolina was that Spurrier was “giving Georgia something to think about.”

Todd Grantham’s already got Marcus Lattimore and Alshon Jeffery to worry about.  He better not have time to be pondering the OBC’s latest stab at quarterback manipulation.