Oh, what could have been.

Quarterback drought at Florida?  Damned shame, I say.

What has made the stretch tougher for Florida fans to stomach is the number of in-state quarterback prospects who have enjoyed success at other schools. Bridgewater, out of Miami Northwestern, led Louisville to a 33-23 win over the Gators in the Sugar Bowl and is projected as the top overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft. Geno Smith, out of Miramar High, passed for more than 11,000 yards and 98 TDs in his college career at West Virginia. Aaron Murray, out of Plant High in Tampa, is a Heisman candidate at Georgia who holds the school record for career TD passes with 99.

Murray and Bridgewater were offered scholarships at Florida. Smith was not. Tampa Plant High coach Robert Weiner said that the interest between Murray and Florida was mutual.

“He actually was a Florida fan, wore Florida shirts when he was in high school,” Weiner said. “Urban Meyer and Dan Mullen recruited him. But I always tell our guys when you go on a visit you’re going to have a gut feel about a school. I think Aaron felt that went he went to Georgia. Football was a big part of it, but I also think he fell in love with Athens, the campus, the downtown area. He liked the small-town feel of it.”

Aaron Murray has taste and the rest is history, thankfully.

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Have pity on the poor Tide.

Gregg Doyel makes an idiotic argument.

If Alabama knew star offensive tackle D.J. Fluker was on the take, then the NCAA should throw the book at the Crimson Tide. Reduce their scholarships. Put them on probation. Take away, yes, the 2011 and ’12 national championships.

But only if Alabama knew — or should have known — that Fluker had jeopardized his eligibility by accepting money from a middleman.

Otherwise, what are we talking about here? We’re talking about a handful of alleged cheaters in this story, none of them named “Alabama.”

Fluker broke NCAA rules by taking money from a leech trying to get his hooks into a future NFL draft pick, if the allegations in this story are true. And if true, the leech in question — former Crimson Tide defensive end Luther Davis — broke Alabama state law by giving money to a college athlete. So did any agent or financial adviser Davis was representing.

That’s a lot of alleged cheaters and rules-breakers and criminals.

Know who didn’t cheat or break any rules or laws?

Alabama.

I’m not sure why I have to explain this to someone as enlightened as “My opinion on this form of “cheating” has evolved over the years” Doyel, but assuming that he still feels that schools that learn of a student-athlete who accepts payment from an agent while still playing college ball should suspend the player or suffer the consequences, he’s just incentivized the hell out of schools’ making sure they insulate themselves from knowledge of any agent dealings with kids on campus.  Kick the can down the road will become the order of the day – what they don’t learn about players getting paid until they’re gone won’t hurt ’em.

Georgia didn’t cheat or break any rules or laws when A.J. Green got paid for his jersey.  Tennessee didn’t cheat or break any rules or laws when Mo Couch got something from the very same agents who dare to put Alabama in a bad spot.  Funny how I don’t hear Doyel cry out that Couch’s coaches and teammates, who presumably are innocents in this, don’t deserve to be punished.  Yet it’s Tennessee and Georgia, not Alabama, who have lost the services of players.

Do I think the underlying premise behind the rule is hypocritical and illogical?  Sure do.  But that doesn’t justify special treatment for Alabama.  If you don’t like the results – and if ‘Bama gets stripped of a national title or two, I can certainly understand that many won’t – then change the rule.  Don’t pick and choose who has to suffer, especially if by so doing you’ll encourage more blind eyes.

An explanation, not an excuse

Reality check for some of you from Anthony Dasher:

As poorly as Georgia’s veteran-laden defense played down the stretch last year, to somehow project a group made up largely of young, unproven players to automatically improve overnight and stuff the likes of Clemson and South Carolina … was everyone truly expecting that?

If you look at the Bulldogs’ remaining SEC schedule, both Tajh Boyd of Clemson and Connor Shaw of South Carolina have started more games than any quarterback Georgia will see in conference play the rest of the year. In other words, for as inexperienced as the Bulldogs’ defense was (is) coming into the season, it’s not a surprise that two of the best teams and most experienced quarterbacks on their schedule would have some measure of success.

At the same time, improvements obviously have to be made.

Amarlo Herrera didn’t pull any punches when he said Tuesday that Georgia’s defense has to get better if it wants to win a championship, SEC or otherwise. He’s right about that.

Opponents have rushed for over 200 yards against the Bulldogs five times in the last six games and the one that didn’t – Clemson – ran for 197.

Getting a handle on that is Job 1 for defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and his staff, who at some point are going to HAVE to figure out a way to slow opposing teams down on the ground.

That’s about as good a way of putting things as they stand after the first two games as you can say.  It was wishful thinking to expect this defense to walk out in the first game and shut Clemson down in any meaningful sense.  That being said, Grantham had damned well figure out a way to slow down opponents’ rushing games, and soon.  At this point, his rushing defense has been slashed by every offensive scheme known to man, so blaming high numbers on the triple-option is starting to border on the silly.  Get to work, fellas.

“It wasn’t too much fun out there on Saturday.”

For sure, it’s nice to hear the other ranked team moaning after a Georgia game.

“It’s up there.”

Aaron Murray’s greatest hits, from a passer rating standpoint:

255.6 vs. No. 24 Auburn in 2011 in a 45-7 win.
250.9 vs. Georgia Tech in 2010 in a 42-34 win.
249.1 vs. Florida Atlantic in 2012 in a 56-20 win.
244.2 vs. No. 6 South Carolina in 2013 in a 41-30 win.
237.3 vs. Ole Miss in 2012 in a 37-10 win.
236.9 vs. New Mexico State in 2011 in a 63-16 win.
227.4 vs. Georgia Tech in 2012 in a 42-10 win.

They’re all wins, so you know what that means.

Just for yuks, here’s a comparison with every quarterback who started for an entire season or more under Richt:

• David Greene – one game with a passer rating greater than 225:  232.2 against Vanderbilt, 2002
• D.J. Shockley – one game with a passer rating greater than 225:  236.6 against Boise State, 2005
• Matt Stafford – no game with a passer rating greater than 225  (top rating:  216.6 against Kentucky, 2008)
• Joe Cox – one game with a passer rating greater than 225:  256 against Arkansas, 2009

To be fair, some of that reflects a change in Georgia’s passing game, as there seems to be a higher emphasis on completion rate now than there was early on.  But the rest of what goes into passer rating – yards per attempt, touchdowns, interceptions – shows you’ve still got to have a gifted guy manning the position.  Murray’s statistical resume will likely go down as the best in Georgia history.

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UPDATE:  Patrick Garbin supplies some more information.  Who knew Stafford had a better record starting against top ten teams than Greene?

Warning: contains vulgar language.

A junior Sports Media-Multimedia Journalism major at Oklahoma State University manages to come up with something that, if true, is way more damaging to the OSU program than anything Sports Illustrated has managed to piece together so far.  (And far more colorful, language-wise.)

Freedom, bitchez!

What’s the difference between a newspaper publisher and a college football head coach?  You can shame the publisher.