Carlton Thomas is having a very good day.

Not only did he run for well over 100 yards, not only did he lay some terrific blocks (the one he threw on Figgins’ TD catch made me cheer), but he also bested the OBC in a battle of wits:

… The day started with South Carolina defeating Florida 17-12, which temporarily lifted the Gamecocks into a first-place tie with the Dogs. That was followed by this half-jab from Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier: “We’ll see how Georgia plays when they know they have to win.”

We saw. The comment was a source of amusement for some Georgia players afterward. When asked if there was something he wanted to say to Spurrier, running back Carlton Thomas only smiled and said, “Congratulations on the win.”

Phil Fulmer would have killed for a moment like that.

What in the hell just happened?

Did New Mexico State return to play today?

And what do you call that thing where the offense groups together before running a play?

Game day thread, Auburn edition

Because Russ wants you to comment.

Tell us something we didn’t already know.

The guys at Football Outsiders have created a stat (F/+) that they’ve honed into having a fairly high correlation with winning percentage, but they’d only used it to track offensive and defensive efficiency.  This week, Georgia had climbed as high as 11th nationally under their metric.

Then they went and factored in special teams performance.

Jones ♥ Grantham.

Considering the rumors behind Jarvis Jones’ original decision to bolt Georgia for Southern Cal, this is high praise indeed:

“I think I’ve got the best coach in football right now. He knows how to get his players in position to make plays, find tendencies, formations, all that,” Jones said. “So going into the game, we know all that kind of stuff. We know what they run in formations, we know their tendencies in their formations, so that really helps you. Once you know that stuff it really helps you to play full speed the whole game.”

Nobody comes back in Knoxville.

Today’s funky stat:

0 Games under coach Derek Dooley in which Tennessee needed to play the second half. In 22 games under Dooley, Tennessee has won all 10 games in which it led at halftime and lost all 12 in which it didn’t.

It’s kind of like the opposite of the old joke about only needing to watch the last two minutes of an NBA game.

Fergit, hayul.

Somebody forgot to send Orson Charles the memo about putting what happened in last year’s game behind him.

… The absence of so many players involved in last year’s game is pointed to by Georgia players as the reason they’re not using it as motivation. But while players largely said the right things at first, when pressed they opened up.

“Ben Jones will definitely use that. Because he’s still upset,” tight end Orson Charles said of Georgia’s senior center. “And I’m still kind of upset, now that you brought that up. So we’re definitely gonna approach this game like it was last year’s team.”

Maybe Coach Richt should get Todd Grantham to speak to the team about keeping emotions under control.