Life in Athens

Damian Swann, on Josh Harvey-Clemons’ suspension:

“It happened,” Swann said. “It hasn’t been the first time we’ve gone into a season with guys suspended. It’s something we don’t want to deal with but we’ve kind of gotten used to dealing with it and now we’ve just got to go and play.”

Sigh.

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Post-spring depth chart

The big news is that John Theus is listed as Ward’s backup at right tackle.  And if you think that’s due to his injury, note that Dawson is listed as a starting cornerback, despite his spring injury.  There is some clear message sending going on there.

That’s a little disappointing, because it means the coaches are leaving Gates at left tackle, instead of moving him inside where he’s better suited.  Hopefully, Theus steps it up between now and the opener.

“Put as simply as possible, Bobo was the best play-caller in the country last year.”

Now, has Bill Connelly got your attention to read his Georgia preview?  I thought he might.

Bill summarized it to me as:  “a) this might be the best offense in the country, b) the defense was only good (not great) with Jones, Ogletree, Jenkins, Rambo, Geathers, Williams, Commings, etc., and now all of those guys are gone (which is terrifying), and c) holy crap, September is brutal”, but there’s a lot more in his analysis to unpack.

Start with how big the Cocktail Party is – not as a rivalry, but for what it heralds for the rest of the season.

Since 2005, the Dawgs have gone 3-4 versus Florida. Following their three wins, they have gone 12-0 with an average score of 39-14 for the rest of the regular season. Following their four losses, they have gone 12-5 with an average score of 32-23. After their loss to Florida in 2006, they lost to Kentucky. After their loss in 2008, they barely beat Kentucky and lost at home to Georgia Tech. They lost to Kentucky again in 2009, three weeks after the Florida loss.

But when the Dawgs win that game, they wreck shop for the rest of the regular season. They certainly did last year.

And how ’bout this Jarvis-Clowney comparison?

I pointed out in last week’s South Carolina preview how opponents tended to run a lot against the Gamecocks on passing downs for fear of Clowney obliteration. But opponents only ran 38 percent of the time on passing downs against South Carolina; they ran nearly 50 percent of the time on Georgia. Clowney may hit harder than Jones did, but Jones had an even larger impact on opponents’ game plans.

Bill is a Missouri fan, in case you forgot, so he knows from where he speaks there.

I think I’m gonna miss that guy… where was I?  Oh, yeah.  Bill has this to say about the biggest loss on the offensive side of the ball:

As good as players like Bennett, Conley, Lynch, etc., looked last season, nobody could touch King’s combination of efficiency (a perfectly solid 62 percent catch rate) and absurd explosiveness (22.6 yards per catch). King caught nine passes for 188 yards versus Kentucky, three for 104 versus Nebraska, and a ridiculous five for 142 versus Alabama, which is like 15 for 500 against a mortal defense. Mitchell could very well be a strong No. 1 receiver, but King was more than strong. He always had the explosiveness, but his efficiency improved dramatically in 2012; so did Georgia’s offense.

I’m actually not very worried about that.  Bill makes a good point about how King’s increased efficiency made the offense better.  Mitchell’s catch rate was considerably higher than King’s, so what does that say about making him the number one target in 2013?  He’s explosive; it’s whether he can stay healthy enough to maintain that explosiveness that’s a concern.

There’s lots more good stuff.  Needless to say, read the whole thing.

Steele’s 2013 Preseason All-SEC Teams

The link is here.

Here’s how the numbers break down per school, in order of total offensive and defensive players listed on his four teams:

TEAM	TOTAL	1st TEAM
Alabama	14	8
Georgia	12	2
Florida	10	1
Ole Miss	9	1
Vandy	8	2
Tenn.	8	2
LSU	8	2
TAMU	5	3
MSU	5	1
S. Car.	4	1
Missouri	4	0
Auburn	4	0
Ark.	3	1
Kentucky	2	0

There are a few things that jump out at me…

• Alabama has as many or more first teamers than ten teams have total.
• Tennessee has no skill position players listed.  I wonder when the last time that happened.
• Loucheiz Purifoy is listed on both the fourth team offense and fourth team defense.
• Robert Nkemdiche makes the third team defense as a true freshman.  His brother is a first teamer.  And Ole Miss shows out with the fourth-best total.
• Anybody else surprised by South Carolina’s total?  How ’bout Vandy and LSU showing out equally?
• TAMU has no defensive players on the list.
• Very thin crop at tight end, so why not Jay Rome at fourth team?
• There’s something not right about Jeff Driskel lining up next to Aaron Murray.

What do y’all see there?

Tuesday morning buffet

Tasty nibblets abound this morning.

• Just when you thought the NCAA/Nevin Shapiro mess couldn’t get any weirder, it does.
• Pete Fiutak thinks SOD failed at UT because he “was way too nice and way too decent to be able to crush and kill in the cutthroat world of the SEC.”  So how come he had a losing record at La. Tech?
• Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t find this list convincing.
• Mark Emmert goes on record saying a fourth college subdivision for the haves could work.
• Brian Cook looks at Big Ten recruiting and finds that Kentucky and Tennessee are wrecking havoc.
• Michael Elkon rips Tony Barnhart’s selection committee proposal.
• Wisconsin’s 2015 conference schedule is a piece of work.  At least fans will be able to stay home and see what’s on the Big Ten Network.