Tight, tighter, tightest

We haven’t had a reader poll in a while.  Here’s an easy one:  which coach has the tightest sphincter in college football right now?  I’ll give you a choice of three.

• Mack Brown, who’s in full “remain calm, all is well” mode after firing his defensive coordinator two games into the season;
• Junior, who announced his latest starting quarterback decision with one of the more awkward videos you’ll see; or
• Boom, who’s elected after Florida’s embarrassing loss to Miami to keep his coaching staff and players away from the media.

Remember, there are no wrong answers here.

Feel free to explain yourselves in the comments.

It’s the singer, not the song.

I’d rather hear this warbled by Nick Jones than Aaron Murray.

Nick Jones: "We are rooting for LSU and Florida and somebody else to trip (Georgia) up."

— Josh Kendall (@JoshTheAthletic) September 10, 2013

Upon further review: Georgia-South Carolina

I settled down and watched the replay of Saturday’s game for the first of what I’m sure will be several times.  I wouldn’t say I’ve got anything earth shattering to share, but there were a few things worth noting.

• If anything, the job Mike Bobo did in the cold, hard light of digital replay impressed me even more than it did live.  The way he protected the offensive line with his playcalling – the number of times they were able to use Clowney’s inside move to direct him to run himself out of plays was remarkable – was only bettered by his recognition that SC’s smaller defense could be effectively bludgeoned by Georgia’s running game.  Add to that the way he adjusted pace to wear out the ‘Cocks and you’ve got a virtuoso performance.  Keep it up, brother, because the defense can use all the help it can get right now.
• The offensive line was better than it showed at Clemson.  Some of that was due to the playcalling, but Chris Burnette deserves credit for stabilizing the line play, too.  Andrews looked much, much better finishing blocks this week.  Under the circumstances, Gates looked like he did the best he could, and really his worst moment, the Clowney sack, was partly on the shoulders of Marshall, who appeared to miss a blocking assignment.
• Other than that whiff, the non-line blocking was as good as I’ve seen from a Georgia offense.  Wide receivers were throwing downfield blocks all over the place, Marshall and Gurley did well in blitz pickup (Marshall in particular had a couple of awesome blocks), Lynch showed why he deserves the preseason acclaim and Hicks was simply amazing with several nice blocks on Clowney, along with everything else he did.
• When Aaron Murray rolls out, good things tend to happen.
• The sideline reaction to Brendan Douglas’ first run was fabulous.
• The pass rush was actually a little better than I initially gave it credit for.  Shaw was very good at escaping from trouble.
• Sure would have loved to have seen what would have happened if Reggie Davis had been able to hold on to that quick slant pass.
• I can’t get enough of watching those South Carolina defensive coaches get into it on the sideline – after Georgia was forced to punt, for some reason.

Name that caption, almost too easy edition

This one comes via Puffdawg.

The possibilities are endless, no?

You guys must be excited.

In terms of visits, yesterday was the second busiest I’ve experienced in the almost seven-year history of this blog, with over 25,000 hits.  And considering the busiest day came when the Twitterverse grokked on to The Montana Project, this tally is really about straightforward interest in the program.

Glad to see you’re enjoying yourselves.

Sex and drugs and OSU

When Sports Illustrated is about to release a bombshell of a story alleging “…academic improprieties; inconsistent monitoring of drug use; payments to players by coaches and payment by boosters for work not performed; and a hostess program providing recruits with sex” and the best you can do in response is apologize to other programs and supporters, you’re admitting you’re pretty much screwed, at least in the court of public opinion.

And how about this tepid response from Mike Gundy, who supposedly is personally involved in some of the claims?

“ … I’m going to guess that once we get all the information and we see what’s out there, then our administration and the people inside will look at it and we’ll see where we made mistakes and we’ll try to make ourselves better and we’ll correct it and then we’ll move forward. And I would hope that there will be some of it that we look at and say I’m not sure one way or the other based on what’s out there.”

That’s not exactly “I’m a man!” type bluster there.

Where this goes from here is hard to say.  Luckily for the school, most of the story centers around things that happened far enough back in time to escape NCAA sanctions.  The interesting thing to keep an eye on is if there are any ramifications for Gundy personally… and Les Miles.

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

UPDATE:  “I’m a man!”, indeed.

One of the signature moments of Gundy’s nine seasons as coach came in September 2007, when he staunchly defended quarterback Bobby Reid at a postgame press conference. A columnist for The Oklahoman had questioned Reid’s maturity, and Gundy responded by shouting at the writer, “He’s not a professional athlete, and he doesn’t deserve to be kicked when he’s down.”

Johnson (Reid’s onetime roommate), Mickens, Shaw and wide receiver Artrell Woods say Reid was a professional athlete, though. They say that Reid had received money earlier in his career, when he was the starting quarterback. (Now an offensive administrative assistant at Oklahoma State, Reid denies receiving money while a player.) By the time of Gundy’s rant in 2007, Reid was no longer a starter, and Woods says Reid’s bonus money had dried up. Says Woods, “They cut his ass off.”

Tuesday morning buffet

Another day, another buffet line to negotiate.

• So, Spurrier advises Richt ‘Do not under any circumstance take the Georgia job’.  In 1991.  I’d love to know the context of that quote.
• Is there bias in the preseason rankings?
• Glad you like those jerseys, Arkansas State.
• Josh Kendall takes a look at South Carolina’s linebacker play against Georgia.  It isn’t pretty.
• If you’re the Georgia equipment trainer and Todd Gurley wants something, don’t argue.
• Salty Gamecock tears are quite tasty, you know.
• Craig James, doting father or schmuck?  You decide.
• Chip Towers thinks the special teams’ problem with dropped snaps stems from Nathan Theus snapping with more velocity than Ty Frix did.
• Bill Snyder is one classy dude.
• So is Mark Richt.

Truckin’

Great shot gracing the front page of The Dawgbone this morning: