Not so fast, my friend.

You could see this one coming a mile away.

But being fast is not as important as being right.

That’s the word this week from Florida coach Will Muschamp and offensive coordinator Kurt Roper coming off the 65-0 opening-day win over Eastern Michigan in which the offense was not really all that fast getting lined up and firing off plays.

Execution takes priority over speed in the Gators’ new spread, uptempo offense.

“My ideal is to no-huddle, we’re quick tempo, we’re at the ball, we can play fast whenever we need to play fast,” Roper said Tuesday. “I’ve never been one to really harp on tempo. It’s all about execution, staying on the field and those things.”

…

“I think we can change tempo based on the game situation and how we want to go about things. That never really presented itself,” Muschamp said. “We felt pretty comfortable in the rhythm we were in.

Boom isn’t a no-huddle, break neck guy.  He’s a defensive guy who wants the pace of a game to favor his defense.  So while he may hire an offensive coordinator who utters devotion to tempo, that’s not the same thing as sticking with a high paced offensive attack game in and game out.  And I’ve seen nothing from him in his stint at Gainesville to suggest he won’t hesitate to have Roper tone it down to a level he’s more comfortable with.

That kind of approach worked so well at Auburn, where it cost two successive head coaches their jobs.  Of course, maybe Muschamp wouldn’t know about that, since he’s never coached at Aub… oh, wait.

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Rivalry? Depends on who’s doing the rivalry-ing.

Josh Kendall says Georgia is number two on the rival list for South Carolina, behind only Clemson.

The OBC qualifies that a little.

Says South Carolina’s traditional rivals are Clemson, Georgia and Tennessee, but adds: We don’t have a lot of rivals. We haven’t beaten anybody enough times for them to say you’re a rival.”

But not when you mean him personally.  That one still burns as hard as ever.

Steve Spurrier 1-2 vs. UGA as QB at Florida. "But we won our freshman year. Put that on there. …We kicked their butts my freshman year."

— Marc Weiszer (@marcweiszer) September 10, 2014

Bill Stanfill says hi, Coach.

What kind of fake juice does Steve Spurrier use?

I’m sorry, but when you’ve got a coach whose signature move on the sidelines is tossing a visor in disgust saying that he and his staff have to coach up his team emotionally for a home game against a highly ranked rival, you’ve got a problem.

Spurrier knows two in-game emotions, smug and pissed.  “Rah-rah” is alien territory.

Mike Leach’s great idea

Hells to the yeah on this bad boy:

“Rather than coaches and athletic directors being asked about officiating, I think what needs to happen is, after the game, at the press conference, there has to be a representative from the officials answering these questions,” Leach said. “Right now, the officials aren’t accountable for any of that stuff, and they’ll make some screwy call right, wrong or indifferent, and there’s a coach sitting there, and everybody’s asking him. It’s a total ambush waiting to happen, because we’re not allowed to comment on it. If you do, you get fined.

“It directly affects the success or failure of your team, whether it’s a good call or a bad call. All of a sudden, you’re sitting there, and those questions should be directed to the referee, rather than you or the athletic director. What I think should happen is that when you have a press conference, as they come off the field, the referee should … have to answer any quick questions the media have on the calls they made and why this was made and how this was made, so coaches and athletic directors aren’t left with that, so at least there will be an explanation you see. … I think that needs to happen. I think that’s long overdue.”

Wouldn’t you have loved to hear the media go after the crew for an explanation of the celebration call on AJ Green?  How about the targeting call on Ramik Wilson?  (Or pretty much any game Penn Wagers calls.)

No doubt mistakes happen.  Officials are human like the rest of us.  But you know what else?  Nobody likes criticism all that much.  And maybe if officials knew they’d have to face public questioning about a controversial call, they’d make a little more effort to get it right.

When things changed

Over at The Blawg House, Cory Brinson takes a look at when Georgia’s fortunes as a road team changed in the South Carolina series.

I’d humbly like to suggest another turning point.  From 2002 through 2008, your typical Georgia-South Carolina game was a real low scoring grinder.  The average score during that time was roughly 18-10.

Then I wrote what may still be my favorite post at GTP.  Since then, each team has scored at least 35 points three times, and Carolina hit the 30-point mark, something it had never done against a Richt defense before 2009, on another occasion.  The games may still be nailbiters, but there isn’t much grinding going on anymore.

Big ‘uns

Wow.  South Carolina’s starting offensive tackles are listed at 6’8″, 344 and 6’6″, 333.  Those are some large human beings.

I don’t know how quick they are, but it probably takes an extra half-second to run around them.

In defense (gulp) of James Franklin

Lord knows I’m no great fan of James Franklin’s behavior and there’s no question that Vanderbilt looks like crap so far this season, but I think John Pennington goes a little too far with this piece.  Sure, Franklin made good use of Bobby Johnson’s recruits, most of whom are long gone now, but it’s worth pointing out that Franklin did a better job of recruiting at Vandy than Johnson did.  Not only that, but Franklin redshirted almost the entire 2013 class.  It’s hard to see how that’s leaving somebody holding the bag.

Pennington is right that it’s too early to judge Mason.  But I’m not really sure how it’s any different for judging the talent that Mason’s been left to work with.

Your small sample size stat of the day

I know, I know… we’re only two games in, but check out who’s last in the SEC in defensive third down conversions.  Then, check out the national stats.  Astoundingly bad.

Most of the bleeding is coming on passing plays where the opponent needs less than 10 yards to pick up the first down.  Opponents are 11 of 18 converting in those situations.

You can question Mason and the receivers all you want, but that’s the kind of distance situation Georgia’s passing game is more than capable of handling.  Especially with a better running threat to brace it than either of South Carolina’s previous opponents have.  I expect Bobo will come prepared to exploit it.

It’s the little things that make him so good.

I got a chuckle out of this:

The defensive linemen worked a scoop-and-score drill where they had to pick up a football on the ground and run towards the opposite end of the practice field. An overeager Josh Dawson false started on the drill, but defensive line coach Tracy Rocker didn’t seem to notice. Rocker’s point of emphasis during the drill was to make sure that the players “go to the right end zone.”

Now that’s a plan.  Would you want to be the guy who has to walk back to the sidelines and face Rocker if you ran the wrong way on a fumble recovery?