I keep saying it.

Leonard Floyd is a bad mother.

Even more amazing is that he did it all essentially on pure ability and almost zero technique. “The whole season I just played,” Floyd said. “I was just trying to make plays. I played 100 miles per hour.”

Perhaps even scarier for the SEC is that Floyd was underwhelmed by the league’s competition. “I figured it would be harder than what it was,” Floyd said.

Here’s hoping he gives Dylan Thompson a little taste of what Clowney gave Aaron Murray.

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The secondary ain’t heavy.

Stack the box to slow Todd Gurley down?  Ain’t no thang, mane.

“I think that’s a sign of respect,” Gurley said. “Because if they want to put six or seven guys in the box I’m like, OK, do that. I like that though, because it’s good because if you get past that second level all you have is the safeties.”

Kinda like this.

The most Vandy thing ever

Derek Mason embraces his inner Robbie Caldwell with this observation.

Mason: I thought our punting was excellent. In terms of our execution on offense and defense, it needs to be better.

— VandyFootball (@VandyFootball) September 9, 2014

I guess he’s got the finest long snappah in the conference.

A knockdown, drag out fight

Saturday may be shaping up as Bert’s kind of game.

Richt says SC game to be physical and "could get a little bloody": …"It may get down to a bit of a fist-fight." http://t.co/QOwL3mxyCp

— Gentry Estes (@GentryEstes247) September 9, 2014

South Carolina loses and that puts the ‘Cocks three games in the hole on beating Georgia for the East, with every other division rival still to play.  Not a place Steve Spurrier wants to be.

Raise your hand if you had this in the team’s captains pool.

An unusual honor this week…

Todd Gurley a special teams captain this week.

— David Paschall (@DavidSPaschall) September 9, 2014

Not that he doesn’t deserve it.

Random Dawg-‘Cock stuff

Just a few tidbits for you to swirl around in your mouth for their tasty goodness:

• Weiszer notes that the Gamecocks are 4-0 in Columbia in the series when both teams are ranked.
• Georgia is favored by six.  The last time South Carolina was a home underdog was 2010 when it was a seven-point underdog to #1 Alabama.  (The Gamecocks won that game 35-21.)
• Hey, have you heard about that Mike Davis kid?  Georgia has.
• Against East Carolina, Ward played with all kinds of defensive fronts.  But South Carolina only has one sack in its first two games.
• I’m not sure the advanced box score from the Georgia-Clemson game tells us much more than we already knew.  But I will say that those who look at that game and conclude that it shows Mason can’t contribute on offense if needed are reading too much into his stat line.  He did just fine against Georgia Tech when the chips were down.  (And, don’t forget, Mitchell and Scott-Wesley were missing from that game, too.)
• I hope you’re catching the breakdowns on The Blawg House this week.  He’s turned his attention to Dylan Thompson, with a look at every throw Thompson made against Texas A&M and an overall analysis of Thompson’s game.  The bottom line is that Pruitt needs to find a way to keep Thompson from getting too comfortable – okay, that’s a “duh” comment on the surface, but his game really deteriorates when he can’t set and throw.  Not to mention Thompson doesn’t have Shaw’s running ability as a Plan B.

“It’s not false bravado. It’s real.”

Boy, it’s something to see what getting medieval on last season’s third-worst D-1 scoring defense’s ass does for a coach’s confidence.

Sign of the times

I’m not dumb enough to equate what bloggers write to how teams and coaches are thinking, but I’ve gotta admit that, as I usually get tweaked by South Carolina folks for being overconfident about the SC-Georgia game, I’m amused to find this season I’m getting dissed for poor mouthing.

“We just need to do what it takes to win.”

For all of Gus Malzahn’s offseason blathering about balance, it sounds like balanced means whatever works.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

But I will say, from what little I’ve seen of Auburn’s offense this season, that Nick Marshall doesn’t look any more polished as a passer than he did last year.  Johnson, his backup, is far better at throwing.  So what does Gus do if he runs into a defense that actually has success slowing Auburn’s running game down?

So it’s come to this.

The downside of Chantastic is revealed in an email sent out yesterday by the athletic department to Georgia season ticket holders:

From: ugatickets@sports.uga.edu

Sent: Monday, September 8, 2014 8:44 PM

Reply To: ugatickets@sports.uga.edu

Subject: UGA vs. Georgia Tech Football Tickets

 

PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS EMAIL.

Dear Hartman Fund Contributor,

Georgia Tech has returned a limited quantity of tickets priced at $90 each for the game scheduled for Nov. 29th. We are extending the offer for you to purchase up to 4 tickets on a first-come, first-served basis.

Contractual agreements stipulate that, for home events, schools may charge visiting teams the ticket price our patrons pay at the visiting team’s stadium. The visiting school may return unsold tickets to the home school. Those tickets are to be sold at the face value that is charged to the visiting team.

The returned tickets that are available will be located in the 600 level of Sanford Stadium.

If you are interested in purchasing Georgia Tech tickets at $90 each, please click on the link provided below beginning at 10:00 am Tuesday (Sept.9th) or call the Ticket Office at 1-877-542-1231.

That is sad, folks.  Be prepared for a rash of stories on the Hive and Stingtalk about how they’re so tired of being terrorized in Athens by 75-year old women cussing and throwing bottles of urine at them that they’re no longer willing to make the trip.

It’s a rivalry game, Jackets.  Act like it.

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

UPDATE:

Georgia Tech returned 2,000 tickets for the Nov. 29 football game at Georgia. On sale now to Georgia season ticket holders for $90 each.

— Marc Weiszer (@marcweiszer) September 9, 2014

Quite a few ticket returns there.