Shots fired!

Maybe it’s just me, but if my team is 2-7, I’m kinda hoping it’s the other side who provides bulletin board material.

Auburn sophomore OL Chad Slade: RT @JamesCrepea Slade on Jarvis Jones: "You can stop him, it's not that hard."

— Seth Emerson (@SethEmerson) November 6, 2012

We may have just gotten the answer to this question.

****************************************************************************************

UPDATE:  Evidently, it’s simply a matter of going out and executing.

“You’ve got to be able to get your hands on him, block him,” Slade said. “He’s a good player, but you can stop him. It’s not that hard. You’ve just got to go out there and make the calls, go out there and execute the calls and know that he’s probably going to be on the side where the tackle will be made…”

Will Muschamp is having a V8 moment now.  If only he’d known!

**********************************************************************************

UPDATE #2:  Jarvis yawns.

“He’s a competitive guy,” Jones said. “He feels like if he can get his hands on me, he’ll be fine. If he wants to come see me, that’s fine. So that’s how I feel.”

Advertisement

Your Auburn stat of the day

The Tigers’ defense is last in the nation in interceptions with one – count it, one – in nine games.

‘Is this what we want the game to become?’

Shorter Nick Saban:  A smash-mouth LSU offense having success against my defense totally proves that you people in the media don’t understand my whine about playing no-huddle offenses.

Georgia’s offense: fun with numbers

While I was putting together this week’s Dawg stat watch, I came across some numbers that tell an interesting tale about Georgia’s offense this season.

If you’ll recall, one notable thing that Mike Bobo accomplished last season was to speed up Georgia when it had the ball.  It took a little while to get things going, but his strategy worked.  Georgia led the conference in total number of offensive plays, averaging 72.57 plays per game.  That helped the Dawgs finish third in the SEC in total offense.

In 2012, the Dawgs are again third in total offense, but they’ve gotten there by a different route.  Given the influx of fast-paced spread offenses into the conference, it was logical to expect Georgia to slide some in total plays ranking, but it turns out the Dawgs are down to a pretty lowly ninth.   Even LSU has run more plays than Georgia has.

But where the offense has made up for that is yards per play.  And it’s done that with a vengeance:  Georgia is first in the SEC, at nearly seven yards per play.  That’s an improvement from 2011 of about 1.3 yards per play.  It’s hardly insignificant.

It’s even more eye-popping when you look at things from a national perspective.  Georgia ranks fifth in the country in yards per play.  It’s averaging more yards per play than Oregon.  That’s pretty freakin’ remarkable.  In fact, behind an offensive line that could be described as a work in progress, it’s downright astounding.

Some of that’s attributable to Aaron Murray’s progress at becoming a more efficient quarterback.  And some of that’s attributable to a running game that’s been more consistent than last year’s.  But it’s also due to Georgia’s penchant for hitting the big play – the Dawgs are now third in the country in plays from scrimmage of 20 yards or more.

In other words, this really may the year that Mike Bobo deserves some slack from Georgia fans.

Mess with the ‘Horns, you get the bull.

Mack Brown thinks opponents flashing the upside-down Hook ‘Em Horns sign is “disrespectful” and something the Big 12 Conference should discuss.

Mack Brown is losing it.  Although I admit that would be a fun meeting to give a listen to.

Okay, if not Petrino, how about…

Jim Tressel to Kentucky?

Yeah, I laughed, too.  But there’s a certain sad logic in play that’s hard to dismiss completely:

Tressel was hit with a five-year, show-cause penalty for covering up rules violations, using ineligible players and lying to the NCAA. Show-cause penalties are supposed to be poison. Why would Kentucky go anywhere near him?

Tressel’s penalty is not as severe as, say, former Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl’s. Tressel is allowed to recruit. He is allowed to hire a staff. He is required to sit out five weeks of meetings, practices and games before he can coach, and he cannot coach a bowl game in his first year — but these are trifles for the likes of Kentucky.

The Wildcats are the long-standing doormat of the mighty Southeastern Conference. They are 12-23 in three years under Phillips. They are 1-9 this season. They are not going to a bowl game anytime soon.

Tressel is presumably willing to accept seven-figure paychecks. He has a resume that includes four Division I-AA titles, three appearances and one victory in the BCS national championship game, an Ohio State record of 94-22 (.810), six Big Ten titles and a 5-4 bowl record. Is there another man out there better qualified to make Kentucky respectable?

And vice versa.

Sure, it’s perverse in a way.  But I bet you’d find some well-heeled backers of UK football who would sign on to it in a heartbeat.

How many tattoo parlors can there be in Lexington, anyway?

Dawg stat watch, Week 10

Another week closer to Atlanta, let’s see how this year’s crew continues to shape up in comparison with its predecessors who played in the SECCG (stats, as always, via cfbstats.com):

1. Hold opponents under 18 points per game.  As a team, Georgia is yielding 20.9 ppg.
2. Finish at least +8 in turnover margin.  Georgia’s turnover margin is +4.
3. Average better than 380 yards per game on offense.  Georgia’s offense is averaging 468.2 ypg.
4. Finish in the top five in total defensive yardage.  Georgia’s defense ranks seventh in total defense.
5. Finish in the top three in first downs.  Georgia is fourth in first downs.
6. Finish no worse than third in passing yardage.  Georgia is fourth in passing yardage.
7. Finish no worse than third in sacks.  Georgia is seventh in sacks.

Ole Miss was definitely chicken soup for the Bulldog soul, as Georgia improved its standing in every statistical category listed above except for passing yardage.  Auburn is thirteenth in the conference in both total offense and total defense, so hopefully there’s more of that coming this week.