Chicken soup for the Bulldog soul

This never gets… this never will get old.

pic.twitter.com/07YFOFuI8v

— Dawg Sports (@dawgsports) September 20, 2015

SEC net yards per play

Three weeks into the season, here’s how the yards per play offense/defense differential in the SEC (stats via cfbstats.com) lines up:

• Mississippi – 3.92
• Georgia  – 3.49
• Mississippi State – 2.44
• Florida – 2.14
• LSU – 1.83
• Texas A&M – 1.68
• Missouri – 1.59
• Alabama – 1.30
• Arkansas – 1.24
• Vanderbilt – 1.06
• Tennessee – 0.19
• Kentucky – 0.11
• Auburn – (-0.39)
• South Carolina – (-1.84)

Sure, it’s a small sample size, but even so, there are some pretty clear indications of which teams are playing well and which teams not so much.  For all that, I think the most surprising number is Alabama’s pedestrian 1.30 net ypp, which is only eighth-best in the conference.  ‘Bama doesn’t do pedestrian.

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Hard times in Columbia

You know, I’m actually having to give some serious thought to displacing Vanderbilt as the lowest ranked team in my SEC Power Poll vote.

And judging from this, I’m not the only one.

Former South Carolina safety D.J. Swearinger, who was a part of some of the best defenses in USC history, tweeted his displeasure with what took place in Athens.

“Yeah that was my last time watching Carolina (probably),” he said. “I’ll watch when I hear they playing like Carolina and not the weakest team in SEC.”

Jimmy Williamson does not approve of such frivolity.

The only thing more epic about the Oxford, Mississippi police trolling of Harvey Updyke is Updyke’s utter cluelessness about being trolled.

Crème de la crème

Sagarin’s ratings today are pretty amazing to see, with four of his top five spots held down by SEC teams, including one-loss Alabama.

Sandbagged

Boy, when’s the last time anyone at Georgia so dramatically changed the perception of their standing as both Lambert and Schottenheimer did in a mere four hours last night?

As astoundingly impressive as Lambert’s showing was (he’s vaulted into fifth nationally in passer rating), I’m even more taken by what Georgia’s offensive coordinator pulled off.  First, he’s Lambert’s position coach.  Some of the credit for the improvement in Lambert’s game has to go to Schottenheimer.

But what was really great was letting everyone know from the get go that the answer to the question of why Georgia’s game planning in its first two games was so conservative was that, yes, he was holding something back.  And when I say from the get go, I mean from the get go, as the Dawgs came out in their very first series throwing the ball.

And that’s why, of all the numbers Seth Emerson mentions in this piece, this number is my favorite:

15

Times that Georgia threw it on first down Saturday. The first two games of the season Georgia only threw it a combined nine times on first down.

No doubt this is one of the worst defenses I’ve seen South Carolina deploy under Spurrier.  But Schottenheimer made them look bad by going away from the tendencies he’d established.  All in all, just a brilliant night.  No wonder Spurrier made an effort after shaking hands with Richt last night to find Schottenheimer in the crowd on the field and congratulate him.  The master knew what his pupil had accomplished.

Boink!

ICYMI: Here's Ole Miss running the "tip drill" to perfection VIDEO: http://t.co/DeVhbZCRQr

— Ole Miss Football (@OleMissFB) September 20, 2015

I’m not going to argue it’s a sign that the Alabama dynasty under Saban is over, but what does it say about a program that in losing gives up two signature plays of the year in the last couple of seasons?

Mark Schlabach is already referring to that play as the “Tip Six”.

I’m guessing the next Saban presser isn’t going to be a mellow affair.  Or Monday’s Finebaum show.

“I’m not sorry for giving him an opportunity. I’m sorry for the way things worked out.”

The sausage making that went into Nick Saban’s decision – and let’s not get too cute here, it was Saban’s decision – to admit Jonathan Taylor to Alabama after his dismissal at Georgia ain’t pretty.

Taylor’s path to the University of Alabama and Nick Saban’s team is well-known: Saban recruited him and put him on the team but dismissed him after another domestic violence police report was made. Under national media scrutiny for signing Taylor in the first place, Alabama athletic director Bill Battle said officials had “thoroughly investigated numerous sources regarding the young man” in addition to talking with Taylor before he enrolled.

Outside the Lines has learned that McGarity was among those Battle had spoken with — in a phone call in which McGarity confirmed details found in the police report. The call occurred just four days after Georgia had taken extraordinary measures to inform Alabama about the case, Outside the Lines has learned. Georgia officials sent photos of the woman’s injuries to University of Alabama police nearly three weeks before Taylor enrolled and also sent copies of two police incident reports involving Taylor. One report contained information not available to the public — contact information for the alleged domestic violence victim and the person who reported the incident to police. Alabama did not reach out to either person, a source told Outside the Lines, nor did it ever reach out to the district attorney presiding over the case.

The photographs sent to Alabama campus police have not been made public because they are part of Taylor’s pending court case. Outside the Lines did not review them, and Georgia officials say that deputy athletic director Williams is the only non-law enforcement official at the school who has seen them.

They were, however, “shared with [Alabama campus police] in order for all involved at the decision-making level to see the severity of the injuries involved, and for the nature of the incident to be understood in the hopes of preventing other students from being victimized,” Georgia spokesman Bob Taylor told Outside the Lines.

An Alabama spokesman on Friday said neither Saban nor Battle ever saw the photos.

That’s what you call willful ignorance.

Two things here… one, McGarity spoke on the record about how serious Taylor’s assault was.  (“The police report was very descriptive, there probably wasn’t much of a question that what happened, did happen.”)  I don’t know if that was done out of a sense of propriety or to make sure everyone knows that Georgia wasn’t guilty of its own cover up of Taylor’s transgression here, but it’s worth noting in either case.

Second, it sounds like anyone who was skeptical of Taylor’s girlfriend’s retraction of the charges she filed against him in Tuscaloosa was right to feel that way.

Three days after Taylor’s arrest, however, the girlfriend recanted her story and told police her wounds were self-inflicted. She was arrested on a charge of filing a false police report but, according to court records, on July 7, Taylor pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of criminal mischief as a result of the incident, and her charge was dismissed the same day.

Lt. Kip Hart, assistant commander of the Tuscaloosa Homicide Unit, told Outside the Lines that the woman’s charge was dismissed because she later came back to police and told them her original report was true. “There was evidence to believe the initial story was accurate” Hart said. Court records confirm she ended up cooperating in the case against Taylor, and that’s why the prosecution of Taylor moved forward.

There is something unsettling about all of this.  Perhaps mostly because it’s hard to understanding why Saban’s judgment appears so clouded in pursuing Taylor.  This being Alabama, nothing further will come of it, but it’s interesting to compare what’s happened at Baylor in the wake of the Ukwuachu conviction.

You live for days like that.

Georgia ends South Carolina’s season three games in and lays the worst hit ever on a Steve Spurrier-coached team.  (He’s feeling it, too.)

Georgia Tech craps the bed at Notre Dame.

Auburn is exposed by an LSU team that still doesn’t have a passing game.  Plus, this.

Feel the Bert love.

Really, as a Georgia fan, does a Saturday ever get better than yesterday?

Just another day at the office

So, which of these three seemed the most improbable before yesterday’s action went down?

• Georgia obliterates South Carolina in a game in which it only had one sack and didn’t win the turnover margin battle;
• Greyson Lambert sets a new NCAA record for completion percentage; or
• Alabama will come into Athens in a couple of weeks as the more desperate team.