The return of Man Enough

Hmm… where have we heard this before?

Former AU HC Pat Dye on UGA/ Mizzou game,'I think there's a good chance Georgia gets beat Saturday.'

— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) September 3, 2012

Upon further review, Buffalo-Georgia edition

I’ve gone back and watched the broadcast and read the post-game comments, so consider my Observations post amended for the record as follows:

• Very quietly, Shawn Williams played a helluva game.  In fact, outside of Jarvis, I didn’t see anyone on the defense play more consistently.  He is rarely out of position, and when he tackles a man, the man stays tackled.
• Connor Norman may know the defense well, but he lacks the physicality to be an everyday SEC safety.
• Even by their usual standards, the amount of offensive holding Penn Wagers’ crew missed/ignored/tolerated was astounding.
• One bit of preseason happy talk did hold up.  Aaron Murray’s fundamentals are improved.  Not just his footwork, but also his effort to make sure his upper body is lined up correctly.  His spiral is noticeably tighter, and better yet, it’s more consistent than last year.  If he can just slow his game down a bit in the early goings and get better support in the pass protection department, he could be on his way to bigger things this year.
• The freakish thing about Gurley’s two long TD runs was that extra gear he slipped into when he separated himself from the pack each time.
• Two people pissed about the lack of effort at the end of the first half were Richt, who sounded like he was having trouble containing himself in the interview on the way to the locker room, and Artie Lynch, whose near decapitation of the Buffalo punt returner was the essence of fury.

In the aftermath, I’m encouraged by a couple of developments.  One, four true freshmen who had to step up – Gurley, Marshall, Morgan and Barber – did.  Running back and special teams were something we all identified as structural areas of concern before the season started.  I’m not going to declare mission accomplished after one game against a MAC foe, but I’m no longer feeling Munson-esque about either.  (The new kickoff rules help.)  Two, as crappy as the defense looked at times, it came out in the second half and helped put the game away over the next quarter or so.  The talent is there.

All is not sweetness and light, however.  A third area of concern, the offensive line, came out of the Buffalo game a little shaky.  That doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement, but they’re still coming together and figuring their way along.  (Although I’m really getting tired of the “the defense threw a few fronts at us we hadn’t seen before” excuse-making, fellas.)  The good news is that Bobo is trying to bring them along slowly.  The worrisome part of that is how much he has to compromise the playbook to do so.

But that’s not my biggest worry.  Depth is.  Mark Richt has made his bed there and we’re going to have to live with it.  I expect everyone to be back against Missouri except Commings, Vasser and Rambo.  That’s unnerving enough, but if Ogletree gets added to that list, it’ll be downright discouraging.  Buffalo exploited their absences with a lot of underneath stuff.  Missouri, which has vastly more talented skill position players, is hardly likely to ignore the Bulls’ success.  It’ll be a relief when all hands are at last on deck, but we will be on eggshells all season worrying about injuries in key areas.  Richt had better be hoping for a little luck in that department.

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Football Perspective on, well… football perspective

If you’re a fan of Chase Stewart’s Stuart’s version of the Simple Rating System, you might want to take a look at his post surveying Week 1 results.  Georgia’s disappointing win over Buffalo doesn’t even register on his “upset” scale.

Of course, it didn’t make his list of impressive wins by favorites, either.  But then again, only one SEC victory did.

Now that we’ve got that settled…

Shorter John Adams:  if you pretend that running backs don’t count, Tennessee’s offense blows away the rest of the SEC East.

My SEC Power Poll ballot, Week 1

A reminder to everyone who’s about to jump my ass with this post – this is a power poll.  I’m not guided by resume ranking (if I were, UT would be no worse than third); this is about which team would beat which team if they faced off in the here and now.  That’s not to say I’m ignoring the week’s results.  I’m not.   It’s that I’m looking at them to see which teams are answering preseason questions.

Minor gripe:  this is absurdly early to run a power poll.  (Others’ mileage may vary, of course.)  There’s no way we’ve got a sample size of events worth a durn (especially when one team didn’t even see the field).  Were it up to me, you wouldn’t see anything until every SEC school had a conference game under its belt.  But as I’m not the one calling the shots, here goes:

1. Alabama.  LSU kickstarted its 2011 run at the top with a win over a top ten team, so it only seems fair to return the favor to the Tide.  Besides, you never want to get between Nick Saban and a signature game.
2. LSU.  If ‘Bama is #1, there really isn’t much choice as to who goes in the second slot.
3. Arkansas.  Obviously, a big drop from second to third.  Not the strongest of starts, either, trailing a 1-AA team in the second quarter.
4. South Carolina.   3B to Arky’s 3A. With a road division game on the line, S. Carolina came back to win with a one-armed quarterback.  That’s what good teams do, people.  Shaw’s health is a concern, of course.
5. Georgia.   3C, although I’d move the Dawgs with no suspended players ahead of both Arkansas and South Carolina.  If you’re a Georgia fan, you’re probably not happy the Dawgs failed to cover a cupcake game.  But if you’re somebody who identified running back and special teams as weak spots this season, Georgia may have answered a few questions.
6. Tennessee.  Had one of those wins that’s hard to evaluate fairly until we see more from NC State.  But it doesn’t look like the Vols are going to miss Da’Rick Rogers.
7. Missouri.  Destroyed a 1-AA team.  That’s nice.  What, you want a cookie or something for that?
8. Mississippi State. Ditto.
9. Florida.  Deploying Brissett and Driskel together on the first play of the game?  That’s a clown call, bro.
10. Texas A&M.  Can you have a bye-week bounce when you haven’t played a single game?
11. Auburn.  Defense gives up 528 yards but only 26 points.  Brian VanGorder, master of the bend but don’t break approach.
12. Vanderbilt.  The flip side to what I said about South Carolina: blowing a lead and losing to a team with a one-armed quarterback doesn’t even qualify as a moral victory.
13. Ole Miss.  The Rebel Black Bears won, if you want to call it that.  Losing to a 1-AA team midway through the third quarter isn’t exactly the stuff of legends.
14. Kentucky.  The Wildcat defense yielded scoring drives of 99, 85 and 93 yards on its first three series.  It’s gonna be a long year in Lexington.