The day Mark Richt lost control of Mark Richt.

The concept of Howard Schnellenberger disciplining Mark Richt (h/t Lewis and Hersch @ Dawg Run Message Board) is blowing my mind, man.  What sort of depravity gets you suspended at The U in its prime?  (You’d think being sandwiched between Jim Kelly, Bernie Kosar and Vinnie Testaverde on the depth chart would be enough motivation for a guy to walk the straight and narrow.)

By the way… does this make Richt a thug?

Advertisement

Kicking a thug while he’s down

This is harsh, man.

“I don’t want to put any pressure on them, but losing that guy may have been the best thing to happen to them,” said Dooley, who coached the Bulldogs to six SEC championships and one national title in 25 seasons. “It was a bad-apple type thing, if you ask me.”

“Bad apple” was the second term Dooley used to describe Crowell’s effect on the team. The first was more effective but he asked me not to use it.

Two observations that emerged from Dooley’s great football mind, as Towers refers to it, beg for counterpoints.  First off, I find it interesting that the factual support Dooley cites for his supposition that early player departures can have a positive effect on a Georgia team – “Historically when things like this have happened in the past, they tend to have a unifying effect on teams. They go on to have an even better season than they were predicted to have.” – was from the Butts era.  Funny how Dooley forgot about this more recent exit from Athens.  Or, maybe not.

Second, comparing any Georgia back to Herschel Walker is a disservice, but as far as Dooley’s point about Crowell getting weaker in the fourth quarter, what other options does he think Richt had?  The only player on the team who averaged more than Crowell’s 4.03 yards per fourth quarter carry was Ken Malcome, and his sample size is a little suspect.  Only two Georgia backs managed to rush the ball more than twenty times in a game last year.  Brandon Harton did it against Kentucky.  Weak, “had enough” Isaiah Crowell accomplished that three times.

A well-coached backyard team

This is Chris Brown’s magnum opus, a detailed (and I mean detailed) look at the evolution of the Air Raid offense.  (Aside from all the technical expertise Chris brings to his post, the history of Kentucky under Leach makes for an intriguing tale.)  As you read through the whole thing – and if you’re a fan of college football, you’re crazy if you don’t – make sure you keep asking yourself a question:  will this offense work in today’s SEC?

Because that’s the question Kevin Sumlin is seeking an answer to right now.  It should make for a fascinating year.  As I’ve said before, having the opportunity to see how this plays out is the one totally redeeming feature of conference expansion.

Location, location, location

I know T. Kyle, bless his heart, is doing his damnedest here to channel the ghost of Larry Munson, but all I could do was chuckle when reading this:

… Hinnen twice gets in backhanded digs at the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, characterizing them as a less daunting opponent than the perennially overrated Florida St. Seminoles and absurdly insinuating that the Vanderbilt Commodores may pose a bigger challenge than the Engineers on Georgia’s “cushy home slate,” but home field advantage has meant little in the Peach State’s in-state rivalry…  [Emphasis added.]

When one team has won ten of the last eleven games, I think it’s safe to say they could play in Venezuela and it wouldn’t make a difference.

And it’s probably worth mentioning that Vanderbilt has had exactly the same amount of success against Georgia during that time period as the Jackets have had.

Learning to love this year’s home schedule

Things are looking up for the McGarity Master Plan:  Georgia is no longer hawking 2012 season tickets.

The cradle of head coaches

Here’s a pretty interesting statistic from this article ranking the top assistant coaches in the SEC:

Of the 124 current head coaches in the Football Bowl Subdivision, 34 were once full-time assistants on an SEC staff — almost 28 percent. That’s not including the five FBS head coaches who are former SEC head coaches — Ohio State’s Urban Meyer, Texas Tech’s Tommy Tuberville, USC’s Lane Kiffin, Texas State’s Dennis Franchione and Akron’s Terry Bowden — or the two SEC head coaches who were head coaches at other SEC schools, Nick Saban and Steve Spurrier.

Granted, some of that you can chalk up to group think on the part of ADs who prefer to play it safe in their hiring decisions, but that’s still a pretty impressive percentage.  Don’t think somebody as sharp and as motivated as Todd Grantham isn’t aware of the numbers, either.

Is there a quarterback ready to shine at Florida or LSU?

I wouldn’t exactly call this a blazing insight on my part, but this Bruce Feldman mailbag, which addressed Florida’s chances this season and this post at Capstone Report about LSU’s Zach Mettenberger got me wondering which school is likely to be happier with its quarterback production in 2012.

Here’s what Feldman defines as success for the Gators’ QB situation in 2012:

The Gators don’t need their quarterback to be Andrew Luck to win the division, but they need significant improvement over what they had there since Tim Tebow left town. They need their QB to avoid turning the ball over, and consistently find open receivers and make accurate throws on time. Both were around 47 percent on completions last year. That needs to improve at least 10 percent in 2012.

Meanwhile, somebody doesn’t think Mettenberger’s is destined for success against the SEC’s tough defenses, and that maybe his head coach knew that last year.

I have no doubt that Mettenberger will be good; programs like LSU get good quarterbacks. But if he were better than what they had, wouldn’t he have made an appearance in New Orleans a few months ago? It is proposterous [sic] to think a team would hold anything…ANYTHING…back when the crystal football is on the line.

When Alabama played Texas for the first of their National Championships in the last three years, it was well-documented that if something happened to Alabama’s starting QB Greg McElroy, Alabama head coach Nick Saban’s next option was to burn the redshirt off of AJ McCarron and put him in the game. In game 13 of a 13-game season.

And yet, last January, with the walls of LSU’s season finale burning down around them, Mettenberger stood on the sidelines, without so much as a sweatbead gathering on his forehead throughout the game.

He has never faced a 3rd and 16 on the road. He has never had to take a snap after throwing a pick the last time he touched the ball. He has never been drilled by an SEC linebacker. And he has never faced the complexity of a Nick Saban defense…the kind of complexity that still has Jarrett Lee in a fog.

My feeling going into the season is that Mettenberger has more support surrounding him than either of the two prospective Florida quarterbacks.  LSU has a real running game, which is something the Gators have lacked.  LSU isn’t breaking in a new offensive coordinator, either, while Florida is on its third one in three seasons.  And as much as an Alabama fan might sniff at Mett’s prospects against a Saban defense, it’s worth noting that LSU and ‘Bama split their two games last season with the very quarterbacks he derides.  Florida, however, couldn’t win a game last year that Brantley didn’t start.

But I also think that means Miles has the luxury of playing it close to the vest with his new quarterback.  That’s something Muschamp probably doesn’t share.  So the risk/reward ratio is bigger at Florida.  If the Gators do strike it rich, they’re likely to get a lot more production, because they’ll need it more.

All three quarterbacks were highly rated coming out of high school and all three come into this season with little relevant experience.  It’ll be interesting to see if any of them are ready to blossom.  Or in Mettenberger’s case, whether that’s even needed.

Coaches Poll: as relevant as they wanna be.

Shorter Grant Teaff:  if outsiders can’t see eye to eye with us coaches on how awesome the Coaches Poll is, we’ll just have to take our crystal football and go home.