This is truly sad.
What would make it even sadder is if I were having to pay something on top of my regular cable charge for that crap.
But we don’t need a ninth conference game, right?
**************************************************************************
UPDATE: Here’s more. Note the Georgia-South Carolina game has been set for 6PM.
Filed under SEC Football
The University of Texas, you may have heard, has decided to allow the sale of beer and wine at football games.
The response of Texas A&M’s chancellor to the news is three shades of awesome.
Too bad Steve Patterson’s preoccupied with brand building in Mexico. With world class sarcasm like that, if there’s ever a deceased rivalry game that should be brought back from the dead, it’s Texas-TAMU.
Filed under Envy and Jealousy
DUI charges against Davin Bellamy are dismissed after the arresting officer was himself arrested last month for allegedly sexually assaulting a juvenile.
Honestly, you can’t make this shit up.
Filed under Crime and Punishment, Georgia Football
I’d say it’s amazing it’s only Georgia that gets slapped for this kind of stuff, but at this point I’m just resigned to it.
Filed under The NCAA
This is a little strange.
Second straight year that’s happened… and this time with a kid who signed twice.
Hope he’s at peace with the decision. Life’s too short, etc.
Filed under Georgia Football
Sally Lehr, your problem is that what you see as a bug, Steve Patterson sees as a feature.
I fear for the rebranding.
Honestly, I think we’re about at the proof is in the pudding stage with Georgia’s newest scholarship quarterback, so there really isn’t much left to be said until we start getting camp reports in August. However, I thought I’d leave you with a couple of posts about Lambert and Virginia football for you to ponder until then.
Over at Glory, Glory Georgia Blog, you can find a look at a few clips from what might have been Lambert’s best day last season, albeit in a loss, against FSU. Now this is some cherry picking – believe me, you don’t want to see any clips of Lambert’s brutal game against UCLA – and you’ll see some good things. Lambert displayed good footwork and decent pocket presence against the ‘Noles on his touchdown throws, and his height is an advantage. But the placement of those throws leaves something to be desired, as did his choice of target on one. (Watch them all and ask yourself where Aaron Murray would have put those passes.)
And keep in mind for all the good Lambert did in that game – 220 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT – he still finished with a so-so passer rating of 132.51, mainly because he averaged an anemic 6.3 yards per attempt and only completed about 57% of his pass attempts. And that passer rating was his best of 2014 against a D-1 defense.
I won’t deny there’s something to work with there, or that the coaching Lambert received in Charlottesville is more than likely to be surpassed in Athens. But it’s hard to look at those clips and envision an overnight transformation in time for the season opener.
If you want to look at the bigger picture, statistically speaking, Bill Connelly, as usual, is your man. I’ll just let Bill’s summary of Lambert speak for itself.
Offensive coordinator Steve Fairchild is a pro-style, balance-at-all-costs guy. That’s not the most exciting approach, but it can work if you’ve got the pieces.
And in Lambert, it seemed like he had a heck of a quarterback prototype. Lambert was a big four-star whose every move screamed “pro-style.” And he was only a sophomore, so he had plenty of time to grow into himself. But he simply didn’t play as well as lanky, less-touted Matt Johns, and the offense didn’t move as well.
- Lambert: 5.7 yards per pass attempt (inc. sacks), 4.2% INT rate, 3.3 yards per (non-sack) carry
- Johns: 6.5 yards per pass attempt, 3.1% INT rate, 7.3 yards per carry
Johns overtook Lambert on the depth chart this spring, and Lambert transferred. His raw potential earned him a spot at Georgia that his production certainly couldn’t have.
Filed under Georgia Football, Stats Geek!
You want to know why satellite camps make Mark Richt uncomfortable? This.
The last decade unquestionably belonged to the SEC, with conference schools claiming seven straight BCS titles, beginning in 2006. Then the conference boasted the BCS runner-up (Auburn) at the end of the 2013 season and a College Football Playoff participant (Alabama) at the end of last season.
But where did the players come from in what certainly ranks as the golden age of SEC football? More than any other location, they hailed from Georgia – specifically from the Atlanta area.
And that’s with the coaches having to talk kids and families into out of state trips to really get to know each other. Imagine how much easier it would be for them to set up shop in the kids’ backyards to make a direct pitch?
Here are a couple of head shaking stats from Ching’s piece.
In Kentucky’s case, the Wildcats actually signed more Georgians (50) than Kentuckians (49). And South Carolina came close to matching that trend, signing 71 players from its home state and 70 from Georgia.
If the Metro Atlanta area were a state, it would have produced more SEC players in the decade than all other states except Florida and Texas.
Despite the poaching, over the last ten years, Georgia still managed to finish second in the conference with in state signees as a percentage of the total.
I’ll say it again – the amazing thing isn’t that Richt can’t keep other schools from signing Georgia kids in large numbers. It’s that Georgia Tech is so inept at signing Georgia talent.
Filed under Georgia Football, Recruiting, SEC Football
I can’t help but cringe every time I see Georgia’s athletic director has taken the time to speak with the AJ-C.
This interview with Seth Emerson isn’t nearly as bad as McGarity’s now infamous Q&A with Mark Bradley last year about the football program, but it’s not exactly revelatory, either. He discusses with Seth his hope that the athletic programs at Georgia will strive to do better in the Director’s Cup rankings, where Georgia has been on a steady slide for years. He doesn’t offer much of a game plan for that, though.
On the other hand – and I know some of you who don’t want to hear it will accuse me of beating on a certain deceased animal again – McGarity does say something that illustrates one issue I have with the management of the athletic department.
For all the angst that some Georgia fans over their most high-profile teams, they haven’t been the problem: The football team’s No. 9 ranking was worth 69 points towards the Director’s Cup standings, and the men’s basketball team’s NCAA tournament appearance earned 25 points.
Elsewhere, the strength of Georgia’s athletics now rests with swimming and diving, men’s tennis, men’s golf and track and field. What do they have in common? Coaching longevity: Men’s tennis’ Manny Diaz (28 years), swimming and diving’s Jack Bauerle (36 years for the women and 32 for the men), men’s golf’s Chris Haack (19 years) and track and field’s Wayne Norton (15 years).
Meanwhile, much of the rest of the program has seen tinkering in an effort to improve. There have been six coaching changes out of 15 varsity sports head coaches since McGarity took over. The jury is still out on each of the new hires, including baseball (Scott Stricklin has had two losing seasons), gymnastics (Danna Durante has made the final six twice but not claimed a national title yet) and women’s basketball (Joni Crenshaw replaced the retired Andy Landers this year).
“You look at the sports that have been consistently successful here, those coaches have been here a long time,” McGarity said. “They have a tradition that has been established over a number of years.”
Or to put it another way, none of the coaches McGarity has hired are pulling their weight. But I’m sure he’ll do a righteous job finding Mark Richt’s replacement one day. That’s the Georgia Way, innit?
Filed under Georgia Football
In so many ways, this is just wrong.
I knew we should have made the attempt to outbid those insect bastards.
Filed under Georgia Tech Football
Get The Picture 