A new persona is born.

Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to Smartass Richt.

Mark Richt said he was flagged for saying "You guys are the best officials in the SEC." Apparently sarcasm gets you 15 yards these days.

— Radi Nabulsi (@RadiNabulsi) November 19, 2013

Me likey.   Must have stung, too, if that’s what got the flag thrown.

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On the Plains, they really don’t care what you think.

Damn. I forgot to add one thing to this week’s observations post that cracked me up.  At one point as I’m sitting there, a promotional video appeared on the big screen, with Cam Newton in a room somewhere with what I guess were Auburn students… and laptop computers.  I kid you not.

I couldn’t tell if they were Dells, though.  Still, you’ve got to admire the cheekiness.

Free fallin’

This is what a bunch of college coaches look like when they’re suddenly subjected to a great deal of pain:

Not pretty.

Of all the defensive coordinators he knows, Todd Grantham is definitely one of them.

Tepid?  Yeah, I think this qualifies as tepid:

First, Richt was asked his level of satisfaction with his defensive staff.

“Well, here’s what I say: I say we’re a team here at Georgia, and we’re going to keep coaching and keep trying to make improvements and corrections on everything we do in all phases of the game,” Richt said.

He left it at that.

Then the defensive stats were pointed out to him: On track to give up the most points in program history, and the most yards-per-game since 1994. Given that, Richt was asked, did he expect it to be this rough given the youth, or was he disappointed in how the defense has played?

“Bottom line is at Georgia we’re a team, and we win together, and we lose together, and we’re always watching film after every game to make sure we make corrections on offense, defense and special teams,” Richt said.

I’m skeptical Grantham’s going to be asked to leave after this season – although if Kentucky puts a 40-spot on the scoreboard, I reserve the right to change my mind – if only because I don’t think McGarity is willing to pay a buyout and spring for the dough it would take to bring in a qualified replacement.  But if there’s not a shocking improvement in 2014, there won’t likely be a season after that one.

Upon further review, Georgia-Auburn

Yeah, I watched the replay.  All the way to the bitter end.  Because you want me on that review.  You NEED me on that review… um, sorry.

Let’s try some bullet points, shall we?

• Bobo really outdid himself in the second half.  He not only had to scheme against Ellis Johnson, but also against his own offensive line.  And he pulled it off.
• Aaron Murray helped.  Some of those throws he made were as good as a college quarterback can throw.  Add to that his toughness and you’ve got a quarterback who should be getting a lot more credit in certain quarters than he’s getting.  Is he the best Georgia quarterback of the Richt era?  Put it this way – if AM played with a consistently decent defense, we wouldn’t even be debating the question.
• One of those quarters, by the way, is not Gary Danielson, who was as effusive in his praise of Murray as I’ve ever heard him.
• Has anybody considered the possibility that one reason scoring in the conference is on the rise is because nobody calls holding on the offensive line anymore?  I just shook my head over what didn’t get called on either team Saturday.
• I will say this for Grantham – his kids may not absorb what he’s telling them, but they do play hard for him.  His biggest tactical error was playing too soft in the first half.  He got way more aggressive in the second half, not just with blitzing, but also with committing his safeties in run support earlier, and it paid off.  Up until the play (you know the play I’m talking about), Georgia had held Auburn to 146 second-half yards.
• Auburn ran 50 plays in the first half.  That’s as much on Georgia’s offense as it was on Georgia’s defense.
• Some of the defense’s shortcomings were clearly matters of execution as opposed to coaching.  The Dawgs stopped that frickin’ sweep twice; both times Leonard Floyd stayed home as he was supposed to.  Swann gave up a long completion because he and Moore were confused about coverage and Auburn snapped the ball a split second before he was ready (Moore wound up completely lost on the play.)  Herrera got sucked in a step too far to his right and was blown up by the fullback on one of Auburn’s rushing touchdowns.  And, of course, there’s Harvey-Clemons’ inexplicable batting of the ball on the play (you know the play I’m talking about).
• Swann really did play well on those pass break ups, but Marshall’s not that great a passer, honestly.  He’s got a strong arm and he can hit receivers who are open, but he lacked accuracy throwing to the sidelines downfield and he didn’t show that he could lead a receiver in a tight space, like the end zone.
• I really like Malzahn’s scheme, marrying power running to the spread.  With a running quarterback and patience, there were plenty of opportunities to exploit individual matchups.  As Danielson noted, without an athletic defense, it’s hard to handle.  (The same thing can be said about an uncertain defense, it seems.)

A frustrating game, and not simply because of the ending.  The team I saw play in the fourth quarter and will itself into a lead was a team that could challenge any other team in the country.  But that’s something I’ve seen in other games that were either losses – the third quarter against Missouri comes to mind – or came in wins that were much closer than they should have been, like the first half against Florida.  The problem, as it’s been all season, is consistency.

When this team plays like its collective hair is on fire, when the coaches are aggressive, when the players are focused on their assignments, Georgia is a dominant force, good enough to challenge for that national title game sights were set on at the beginning of the season.  But when the coaches succumb to their more passive sides – and there’s a part of me that admits it’s hard not to want to rely on Gurley, even when the other team run blitzes like a sumbitch, or to play soft zone to protect a bunch of green defenders who aren’t up to speed – you get first halves like we saw on Saturday.  That, plus injuries and special teams ineptitude, is how you get a very talented team to 6-4.

I dunno.  Maybe Richt should tell his coordinators to coach like Georgia’s down by twenty with twelve minutes to go in the game all the time.  I don’t see how things could turn out much worse.

The targeting chronicles, continued

You tell me what’s a stronger example of targeting, the final play of Saturday’s game, or this:

I get that it was the last play and that’s a tough place to throw a flag like that, but, jeez, either you’re serious about protecting players or you’re not, SEC.

My Mumme Poll ballot, Week 12

One big upset in last week’s top ten, so there’s change this week. (*tiebreaker)

• Alabama
• Auburn
• Baylor
• Clemson
• FSU*
• Missouri
• Ohio State
• Oklahoma State
• Oregon
• Wisconsin

Also considered:  Arizona State, Stanford, Texas A&M

By the narrowest of margins, I went with Auburn.  Arizona State’s played well and was a close call, but the Sun Devils lost to Stanford.  It’s certainly possible that I may be treating a Stanford squad that’s notched a bunch of impressive wins over ranked teams unfairly.  But Auburn’s starting to get that team of destiny smell around it and I had a hard time ignoring that.

I struggled with that last pick, no question, and wound up spending about twenty-five minutes putting this week’s ballot together.

Fabris Invitational results, Week 12

This may have been the most brutal week of the season.  We had a logjam at 7-3.

STANDINGS for WEEK 12

Rank	Selection Name	Standings Adjustment	W-L	Pts	Tie Breaker Game 17-20
1	www	Adj	7-3	7	21-27**
1	deadeye9145	Adj	7-3	7	21-31
1	Wolpfack	Adj	7-3	7	35-21
1	JonBenet Rams	Adj	7-3	7	24-17
1	Front Ranger	Adj	7-3	7	28-23
1	back9k9	Adj	7-3	7	34-17
1	uglydawg	Adj	7-3	7	30-24
1	jbryan94	Adj	7-3	7	42-27

Congrats to www for pulling it out with the tiebreaker.

The seasonal standings are as close as you can get, with sixteen of us within four points of the lead.

SEASON STANDINGS through Week 12

Rank	Selection Name	W-L	Pts
1	Trbodawg	75-45	75
1	Front Ranger	75-45	75
3	BosnianDawg	74-46	74
4	ShockleyforHeisman	73-47	73

My SEC Power Poll Ballot, Week 12

Five SEC teams had byes this past week, which makes putting a ballot together a little choppy… not to mention that the only conference team that turned in what you’d call a dominant performance was Ole Miss.  Anyway, here goes:

1. Alabama.  Not to knock A.J. McCarron, because he’s a good quarterback, but why all the media Heisman slobbering over him?
2. Missouri.  Crunch time, Tigers.
3. Auburn.  As the old saying goes, sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.
4. Texas A&M.  The Aggies looked better in the bye week than the Gamecocks did against Florida.
5. South Carolina.  And just to think, a few months ago Steve Spurrier was lobbying Mike Slive to change the rules so that cross-divisional games didn’t count in the conference standings.
6. LSU.  A bye week survivor with a big challenge coming up this week.
7. Mississippi.  We’ll find out this week how real this team is.
8. Georgia.  When it ain’t your year, it ain’t your year.
9. Vanderbilt.  Bowl eligible for the third straight season, which for Vandy is uncharted territory.
10. Florida.  Fifth straight loss, which for the Gators of the last thirty-five years is uncharted territory.
11. Mississippi State.  The Bulldogs just don’t have the horses to stay with the big boys.
12. Tennessee.  With two losses in the books already and Vanderbilt coming up this week, this ain’t your daddy’s November, Vols.
13. Arkansas.  Can’t wait to find out what Bielema’s newest weekly outrage is.
14. Kentucky.  At least UK fans now have somebody to swap stories with about brutal last-second miracle losses.