Keeping up with the Sabans

Add Dan Mullen to the list of coaches who have discovered the joys of creative roster management.

In defense of the occasional cupcake game

Will Leitch writes a lovely piece about the benefits of playing a Charleston Southern on a Saturday in late November:

This weekend is when everything relaxes for a bit. When Georgia is hosting LSU, or Auburn, or Alabama (Oct. 3, 2015!), it is a massive, serious, all-encompassing endeavor: The crowd is jammed to the gills with bourbon, packed shoulder to shoulder and screaming for four straight hours. It’s wonderful — it’s the reason college football is so much better to watch in person than on television, the precise opposite of the NFL — but it’s certainly something you have to fortify yourself for. And it makes it impossible to soak in the beauty of sitting in Sanford Stadium and enjoying the little things, the view, the ambiance, the band, the camaraderie. You can’t hear yourself think; you can’t absorb it.

A game against Charleston Southern, coming in the middle of the closing sprint, gives you that second to absorb. It’s a game I can bring my three-year-old son to and not worry about us both getting trampled during a tight fourth-quarter back-and-forth. It’s a game it’s OK to miss a few plays while in line at concession, or just walking around the concourse and observing the stadium. It’s a game it’s OK to leave at halftime if your kid gets too cold. Sports are high-pressure for both players, and fans. Sometimes everybody needs a week off. This isn’t the best weekend for competitive college football. That doesn’t mean it can’t be the most fun, though. Everybody relax. Everybody take five.

In truth, there is something to be said for that.  I’d only add a couple of thoughts.  First, cupcake games, like almost everything else in life, are best enjoyed in moderation.  Second, if we’re serious about enjoying the relaxed pace of a game day like tomorrow’s, a nooner kickoff sure puts a real time squeeze on those trying to savor a mellow pre-game tailgate.

Not that anybody’s going to listen to me on either point any time soon.

On a related note, here’s hoping that Jack Loonam gets his wish.  I’ll be cheering for him when he hits the field.

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I got ‘yer game control right here.

So, fess up:  are you sick of hearing or merely confused by the selection committee’s new buzz phrase?

Papa’s got a brand old bag.

As someone who firmly believes that marching bands are part of what makes the college football experience unique, I’m a big supporter of the Redcoats, so I ask this question with all due respect and appreciation.  If I’m reading this tidbit in Bill King’s column correctly, they’re planning to have that James Brown tribute show back for the Georgia Tech game.  For the love of everything holy, why?

“That place should have the best facilities in the country. How was that allowed to happen?”

After reading this piece about Florida’s program, one thing’s clear:  we know where Greg McGarity honed his basic instincts.

“It’s very frustrating, but it’s our fault.”

As the old joke goes, the most consistent thing about Georgia’s defense this season is its inconsistency.

There is no trend line to the defense’s struggles. It went from great in the second half against Clemson to struggling the next game against South Carolina. It shut out Missouri, and two weeks later it was gashed by Florida, then two weeks later shut down Auburn.

The quality of opponents and the matchups don’t seem to matter, either. Auburn is the best offense Georgia has faced this season, while Florida ranks 91st in the country. Georgia’s pass defense was the culprit in the loss at South Carolina, and it was the run defense that was gashed in the loss to Florida.

Georgia’s offense has been fairly consistent all season. Its lowest scoring output of the season was 20, against Florida, with 34 points being the second-lowest. The lowest yardage output of the season has been 379, in the win over Missouri.

The defense, however, has been all over the place: Four games giving up more than 400 yards, including the two losses; four games giving up fewer than 300, including just 147 in the shutout of Missouri. And even within games there have been disparate performances, especially the first and second halves against Clemson and Arkansas.

All of which probably means they’ll let Charleston Southern gash them to the tune of 400+ yards tomorrow, and then turn around and hold Georgia Tech to its lowest yardage total of the season.

Tomorrow’s game? I got nothing.

Honestly, I can’t even get worked up about Charleston Southern’s long snappah.

Yeah, they definitely outgained Vanderbilt.  So did Georgia.  And CSU still lost.

Weiszer says Charleston Southern has the edge in intangibles.  So there’s that.

Just come out of the game with your collective health intact, Dawgs.

Quakin’ in me boots

So, Georgia Tech backed into the ACC Coastal title – quick, name all the members of the Coastal Division… that’s what I thought – as Duke imploded against a shitty North Carolina team last night.  And now it’s time for us to be vewy, vewy afwaid of a team that’s lost twelve of thirteen to Mark Richt.

Stingtalk is just getting warmed up.  (You gotta love the paucity of recent highlight clips on that last thread.) So is Mark Bradley.

Hate Week is always more enjoyable when they convince themselves their team has a real chance.  Bless their hearts.

“It’s really kind of hard to believe that’s the number.”

This season’s turnover story for Georgia is pretty amazing.  It’s not just that the Dawgs are second in the country in turnover margin.  It’s this, too.

The Georgia Bulldogs have played 10 games, 40 quarters and 600 minutes this football season.

In all that time, they have allowed just six points off turnovers.

And those six points came in the routs against Kentucky and Vanderbilt.  In other words, offensive turnovers have essentially been reduced to an irrelevancy.

The only sad part of that is there’s no way to capture it in a bottle.  Regression to the mean is going to be a scary concept in 2015.

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UPDATE:  You want a chart?  Okay.

How is Turnover Margin affecting Win Percentage in 2014? Here is a quick summary. #CFB #Analytics pic.twitter.com/De5HgD5eGV

— SportSourceAnalytics (@SportSourceA) November 21, 2014