On to the next scandal

The NCAA rules on l’affaire Newton:  nothing to see here, move on.

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UPDATE:  LSUFreek’s depiction of the reaction to the verdict’s pretty funny (as usual).

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“We’ve just gotta take care of the ball.”

People, I hate to keep harping on this, but when it comes to ugly wins, what you see as a bug is a ginormous feature to Mark Richt.

“You do tend to want to help them by chewing as much clock as possible,” Richt said. “If the other team is having trouble scoring, you don’t want to take a whole lot of risks offensively that would allow them to score defensively … That certainly is not what you want to do when your defense is playing well. ”

The better the defense gets, the more lackluster Georgia’s second halves will get.  Don’t blame Bobo.  Blame Grantham.

Danger is Vanderbilt’s middle name.

I’m not sure what it is about Vandy that brings out the sugar-coating we’re seeing this week, but I flat out love this turn of phrase from Chip Towers, from his post entitled “Dangerous Vanderbilt team awaits Bulldogs”:

This is no ordinary Commodores team. They have some offensive issues and are unsettled at quarterback.

Some offensive issues?  Here’s their current resume.

The Commodores rank 100th nationally in rushing offense (115.2 yards per game), 114th in passing (129.2), 117th in total offense (244.4) and 119th in first downs (11.6).

Last year, Vandy finished 80th in rushing offense, 105th in passing offense, 117th in total offense and 116th in first downs.  So by Towers’ measurement, the Commodores have managed to regress from the one year they were run by a guy whose main claim to fame was doing unspeakable things to turkeys.  I’m sort of curious to hear from Towers in what areas Vanderbilt’s offense doesn’t have issues.

As for being unsettled at quarterback, well, it’s Wednesday and James Franklin still doesn’t have a clue who will be starting for him at the position Saturday.  So give Towers credit for something; that’s pretty much a textbook case of unsettled.  The good news is that it’s a night game, so Franklin’s got a few extra hours to get a sign from God about who to choose.

Let’s be honest here:  Vanderbilt is a mess on offense.  Georgia shut them out last year when it didn’t know what it was doing on defense.  Now that the Dawgs’ defenders look like they have a clue, are we really supposed to think there will be a drastic scoring  improvement from Vandy this year?  Why, exactly?

That’s not to say that Georgia couldn’t find some way, somehow to blow this game.  But it’s going to take some doing.  Don’t forget that Vanderbilt intercepted Stephen Garcia four times… in route to a 21-3 loss.  Even with the Ole Miss meltdown, the Commodores are only averaging 11.5 points per game in conference play.  In their two SEC losses, they’ve scored a total of three points.

Is it going to be an ugly game?  No prediction about that, but I can’t say that would be a surprise.  However, unless you think Vanderbilt can hold Georgia under fourteen points – maybe well under fourteen points – I don’t see how the Dawgs don’t win this one.  Despite the danger.

Amarlo Herrera is feisty.

You like to see players to go out there with a little chip on their shoulders?  Then you ought to like Georgia’s true freshman linebacker.

“I really don’t care too much about the attention because we’re winning and if you watch the film, you see what I can do, or if you watch the game, you see what I can do,” Herrera said. “I don’t really like to talk much about it. That’s how I was in high school. I didn’t get to play in no big All-American games and I had one of the best senior years.”

Herrera didn’t get an invite for the US. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio or the Under Armour All-American game in St. Petersburg, Fla. No, he played in the less high-profile Offense-Defense All-American Bowl in Myrtle Beach.

From hot seat to hot hire

Funny, but when I heard the news about Arizona firing Mike Stoops, I had this exact thought pass through my head:

… Imagine Byrne, frantically refreshing ESPN, waiting for news that Georgia has foolishly opted to fire Richt after the Bulldogs go 8-4 in the regular season – let’s say Georgia loses to Georgia Tech to end the regular season. How quickly does Arizona fire up the private jet to hire Richt? All the names on the list would quickly move to the background should he become available; they should, at least. If that came to pass, Georgia’s loss would be Arizona’s enormous gain.

I’m not saying McGarity wouldn’t necessarily be justified in making a move – at this point, who knows yet? – but I’d expect the media to turn on a dime and do a 180 if it happened.

And it sure as hell would mean that he’d have to make a home run hire for a replacement, or get crucified in the aftermath.

Aaron Murray channels his inner Vince Dooley.

This is good, Aaron.

“They don’t make many mistakes, and they force you to be perfect,” Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray said. “They’re not going to give up a lot of big plays. They almost held Alabama to seven points in the first half.”

Almost!

Add something about how good Vandy’s long snapper is – it would help if you’d pronounce it “snappah” – and I’ll be ready to proclaim you a poor-mouth master.  You’ve learned well, grasshopper.

At least we’ve still got goals.

You think Georgia’s fan base is negative?  At Tomahawk Nation, they’re already urging Jimbo Fisher to quit playing most of FSU’s seniors and get ready for next year.

Mumme Poll, Week Six

Without any further ado, here are the first results of the season.  (Don’t forget that the top vote only comes into play as a tiebreaker at #1.)

Rank	Team	Votes (Top pick)
1	LSU	162 (109)
2	Alabama	162 (41)
2	Oklahoma	162 (10)
4	Clemson	151 (0)
5	Wisconsin	147 (1)
6	Boise State	145 (1)
7	Oklahoma State	143 (0)
8	Stanford	127 (0)
9	Oregon	111 (0)
10	Arkansas	106 (0)
11	Michigan	63 (0)
12	Georgia Tech	52 (0)
13	Kansas State	25 (0)
13	Illinois	25 (0)
15	West Virginia	8 (0)
16	Nebraska	6 (0)
16	Georgia	6 (0)
18	Arizona State	5 (0)
19	South Carolina	4 (0)
20	Texas	2 (0)
20	Virginia Tech	2 (0)
20	Texas A&M	2 (0)
23	Baylor	1 (0)
23	Michigan State	1 (0)
23	Florida	1 (0)
23	Washington	1 (0)

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COMMENTS

• Are you a little surprised to see the top vote break so strongly for LSU?  I am.
• Bias alert:  despite having a worse record than South Carolina and losing the head-to-head match up, Georgia received two more votes.
• We like Kansas State (#13) a lot more than the coaches (#18) do.  Conversely, the coaches gave South Carolina (#13) more love than we (#19) did.
• Conference distribution:  SEC – 6; Big 12 – 6; Big 10 – 5; Pac-12 – 4; ACC – 3; Mountain West – 1; Big East – 1.
• We’re not impressed with Houston, which puts us in a minority.  UH is ranked in the Coaches, AP and Harris Polls.
• Overall, there’s a clear consensus for the top ten… top twelve, really.

Coaching ’em up, ctd.

When you put it like this,

The Bulldogs are third in the SEC in pass defense (174.7 yards per game), run defense (85.8 ypg), total defense (260.5 ypg) and scoring defense (19.2 points per game) and rank in the top 20 nationally in each category.

They posted those numbers despite having just five players — Abry Jones, Jarvis Jones, Brandon Boykin, Sanders Commings and Shawn Williams — who started all six games.

… yeah, I think you’ve got to give the coaching staff a little credit.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what they can do when Ogletree and Washington get back for Florida.  Man, when’s the last time you were eager to watch Georgia’s defense?