Sad news

As I’m sure many of you have already heard, Paul Oliver has passed away.

This is, indeed, how I’ll always remember him:

Oliver played at Georgia from 2004 to 2006 as a cornerback. He’s best known for his performance against former Georgia Tech receiver Calvin Johnson on Nov. 25, 2006. Johnson, considered the best receiver in the NFL now, caught just two passes for 13 yards in that game and Oliver sealed the 15-12 win with an interception on the Yellow Jackets’ final possession.

The manner of his death makes me wonder about concussions, of course, but it’s way too early to tell about something like that.  In any event, my sincere condolences to his family for their loss.

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Fee-fees, nothing more than… fee-fees

Of all the stories leading up to Saturday, this one puzzles me the most.

So as a former hometown kid forced to transfer because of his off-field issues, he’s been preparing for this weekend by having teammates provide a sampling of vulgar trash-talk. Via TigerRag.com, that’s been especially the case from Mettenberger’s close friend, fullback Connor Neighbors.

“I’m going to heckle him throughout the whole week so when game day comes around he’s used to it,” Neighbors said. “I’m going to talk smack all week long so he can drown it out.”

Who’s he worried about?  Georgia’s players either don’t know him or still seem to be fond of him.  If it’s the crowd that’s his concern, I don’t see how his buddy whispering sweet nothings in his ear will make a difference, but anyway, it’s not likely anybody’s going to jump the hedges and get in his face.  Besides, the kind of fans he’s worried about will probably be too busy complaining every time Bobo and Murray aren’t perfect to have time to spew much trash talk Mett’s way.

Way overblown, in other words.  But if it turns out to be a distraction that affects his preparation, I suppose I’ll have to turn around in the stands and thank somebody.

“My Precious. My Preccccc-iiii-ooo-uu-s!”

Not that it would ever happen in a million years, but can you imagine the tight-lipped fury emanating from Butts-Mehre if a Georgia legislator proposed something like this?

Don’t even think about messing with that reserve fund, peeps.

Today’s profile in BS

Responding to a question about student-athlete compensation in the context of the Arian Foster allegations, David Cutcliffe said schools can’t pay kids the full cost of attendance because “…nobody is really getting rich off of this”.

Cutcliffe is making somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.8 million per year.  Rich?  As we like to say here at the blog, I do not think that word means what you think it means.

The biggest key for Saturday?

It’s pretty simple, as Garrison Smith explains.

“Ain’t no trickery, ain’t no razzle-dazzle,” Georgia defensive lineman Garrison Smith said. “It’s just all about playing the best you can and seeing who’s going to make the fewest mistakes.”

Interestingly, most of the computer modeling projections I’ve seen so far have Georgia winning by about five.  You can make a case for that, but it starts with not allowing any cheap scores resulting from screw ups, something we’ve seen in each of the first three games.

Sure, it would be nice to stop the run and no doubt we’ll hear plenty about that between now and game time.  But the reality is neither team is likely to sell out the way we saw North Texas do, which means Gurley and Hill are going to get theirs.  As long as that balances out and Georgia avoids being a generous host, I like the Dawgs’ chances.

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UPDATE:

SEC teams have allowed a combined 4 KO/punt return TDs. Georgia gave up two of them.

— David Wunderlich (@Year2) September 25, 2013

The blocked punt that North Texas put in the end zone counts as a return, so you can quibble over semantics if you want, but the bottom line is that Georgia’s special teams have allowed two touchdowns in three games.  Nationally, that puts the Dawgs in a tie for last with Western Michigan, which has played one more game than Georgia.

“But they’ve got a long way to go, and about four days to get there.”

Big change in philosophy on the offensive line, as Georgia’s decided to go with something close to a nine-man rotation there.  Bobo and Friend are considering a different set of linemen on every series.

That’s a departure from the strategy that worked the past few years, when after rough starts to the season the team settled on a front five and stuck with it. But offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said this year’s season opener at Clemson convinced him that they needed to use more players.

“I told you all after the first game I thought we got tired up front,” Bobo said. “At the end of the second quarter and fourth quarter playing 40 snaps. We had to IV a couple guys at halftime. We needed to roll those guys to keep those guys fresh. Not just at receiver or running back but offensive line too. I think it’s good for morale. How many snaps they get depends on how good they do in their series. But it’s more about keeping those guys fresh. … We lost some of our edge because I thought we were more mentally and physically fatigued in that Clemson game.”

They started down that road against North Texas and the results, as Friend admits, weren’t that great.  Then again, when you rack up close to 650 yards of offense, maybe fresh is better than great.

The only thing that makes me a little nervous is that the one guy they don’t plan on subbing is Andrews.  You know LSU’s got some big boys at defensive tackle who will be coming to play.  Better hope Andrews has another South Carolina effort in him this Saturday.

“We can’t let that happen again against LSU.”

The fix at special teams sounds like it’s begun in earnest.  Three things in particular are in the works:  (1) beefing up the coverage teams with more frontline players; (2) having a real competition at long snapper; and (3) getting Marshall Morgan to focus on driving his kickoffs into the end zone consistently.

All are welcome.  All should lead to improvement.  Will it happen quickly enough is the $64,000 question.  I’d sure be happy if number three bore fruit this Saturday.

Homegrown’s all right with me.

Pat Forde looks at how the top ten teams gathered their talent and says this about Georgia’s:

Georgia (5)
How the Bulldogs were built: Nobody in the Top Ten is more homegrown.
Star average: 3.64. Two five-stars, 13 four-stars, six three-stars, one unrated.
Percent of starters from in-state: 77.3
Percent of starters from in-state or adjoining states: 90.9
Of note: The Bulldogs’ spectacular offense starts six three-star prospects, while its leaky defense starts just one player who was not a four-star or five-star recruit.

His note’s a little unfair, given the wide disparity in experience between Georgia’s two units.  And I doubt you’ll ever see a four-star prospect at fullback.  But it’s also a compliment to Coach Ball.

By the way, can we stop with the “why can’t Richt keep the home state talent home?” talk now?