Hey, whatever happened to Laremy Tunsil?

His absence is starting to make the Green and Gurley suspensions look quick by comparison.

Defense may win championships…

… but it doesn’t appear to be a key to Georgia beating Tennessee.

The Vols are 11-2 under Butch Jones when scoring 30 pts and 3-14 when failing to do so. Both losses when scoring 30 were against Georgia.

— Chris Low (@ClowESPN) October 9, 2015

I guess after all this time, now I know what Todd Grantham meant when he said this.

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View from the other side

Booch drops a hint, hint.

Butch Jones: "I give Richt's administration a hand, for letting him build a consistent program."

— Dan Harralson (@danharralson) October 8, 2015

Just like he’s earning, eh?

must have been a difficult decision for UGA admin after he started out 8-4, 13-1, 11-3, 10-2, 10-3, 9-4, 11-2, 10-3 https://t.co/FNiE5SpTaF

— RockyTopSaint… (@RockyTopSaint) October 8, 2015

“If every instinct you have…”

I know what D.J. Shockley’s getting at with his advice for Greyson Lambert this week, but I can’t help but cringe inwardly a little at his use of the “I” word.

… There were times Lambert did not trust what he saw, nor did he deliver the football with confidence like we saw against South Carolina. In 2005, we played at Tennessee and I remember a key moment in the game where I had just thrown an interception that was run back to the 1-yard line. The very next offensive play when we got the ball back Coach Richt called a deep post route and I hit it for a big play. That was the confidence I needed going forward. Bottom line, there was no time to sulk about the INT. I had to pick myself back up and play ball for my team with a loud stadium going crazy. For quarterbacks, instincts are everything, along with believing every time the football leaves your hand. Never second guess your decision. Against Tennessee, I expect Schotty to call high-percentage throws such as slants, hitches and screens. Lambert needs to play with poise, confidence and the belief he can make the plays when the time calls for it.

Um… Lambert trusting his instincts is kinda what got him into the mess in the first place, isn’t it?

Perhaps instead he should call upon the well-known quarterbacks coach George Costanza for some direction.

Good news and bad news

This is a good explanation for why Georgia wasn’t able to mount much of a pass rush against Coker.

Alabama only passed the ball 16 times in the rainy conditions, but Jake Coker completed 11 of those passes for 190 yards and a touchdown.

“We made a couple of big plays in the passing game, explosive plays,” Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said. “Most of them were maximum protection, not a lot of dropbacks. I think we had like four dropback passes in the whole game. That was kind of the plan because we had a lot of respect for their pass rush.”

Unfortunately, that makes the secondary’s inability to cover the few receivers sent out into coverage look worse.

“It was just one of those plays that was meant to be.”

Great, great piece from Mark Schlabach about Herschel introducing himself to the world in Knoxville 35 years ago.  Bill Bates describes that moment thusly:

Bill Bates: We started blitzing, because we didn’t think (Walker) would be able to pick them up. We had a blitz from one of the sides. He cut back to the left, and our coaches always told us to break down for a tackle. So I broke down.

I looked into Herschel’s eyes and realized he wasn’t going to make a move. The next thing I knew, I had footprints on my chest and turned around and saw No. 34 running into the end zone for a touchdown. It was a big deal and something I’ll always remember.

“I looked into Herschel’s eyes and realized he wasn’t going to make a move.”  Talk about your “oh, shit” moment.

Best one-sentence summary you’ll ever read:

Donnie McMickens: That was the end of my running back career.

By the way, Bates’ son is a reserve linebacker for the Vols this season.

Georgia and defending running quarterbacks

I don’t think this was said to make me feel any better about Saturday.  In any event, it doesn’t.

But it’s Dobbs who is the big wrinkle in the offense. As senior linebacker Jake Ganus pointed out, the only quarterback Georgia has played this season who can compare to Dobbs is South Carolina quarterback Lorenzo Nunez, who only played a fraction of Georgia’s matchup with the Gamecocks earlier in the season.

Because a defense has to account for the threat of him rushing as well as throwing the ball, it changes the dynamic of the way Georgia approaches its defensive gameplan.

It all comes back to that lesson of discipline that Jenkins learned three years ago.

“Any time you have a running quarterback, it makes everything a little tougher because you have to respect him in that aspect,” Ganus said. “Even in passes, you’ve got to be aware of where he’s at and if he’s outside of the pocket or not. We’ve just got to do a great of trying to keep him contained and just focusing, locking in on him.”

Nunez, in a blowout, still managed 10 rushes for 76 yards.

Dobbs showed his running skills against a very good Florida defense with this sweet move:

Add in a wet field Saturday, and, yeah, I’m a little nervous.

So, how did we get here, anyway?

Seth Emerson takes a look at what went into 2015:  Georgia’s Year of the Quarterback.  I don’t think you’ll find anything there we haven’t hashed over already, but I was amused by one thing.

Through all this debate, and amid all this angst about Georgia’s quarterback situation, one keeps coming back to a few prophetic words uttered two years ago. They were spoken by Mike Bobo, who was referencing Aaron Murray.

“Personally I think he’s taken for granted,” Bobo said after another game in which Murray threw for more than 400 yards and three touchdowns, and ran for another. “Georgia needs to realize it’s a blessing to have Aaron Murray and how much he means.”

It’s pretty safe to say Georgia realizes it now.

Crap on ’em while they’re here and then yearn for the good ol’ days when they’re gone.  That’s us.  We’re Georgia.

Slippin’ and slidin’

Damn those pesky raindrops.

But Wynn also brought up the weather and the sloppy field conditions as a factor in Georgia’s ground game struggles as well. Against both Alabama and Southern, the field has been in less than ideal conditions given the rain that fell before and during each game the last two Saturdays.

“It kind of played an important part in it,” Wynn said. “It’s hard to get your second step in the ground and move a d-lineman when the ground is wet and you’re slipping and sliding.”

Didn’t seem to slow Alabama’s offensive line down too much, but, okay.  Anyway, I’m sure you can guess what’s coming.

The weather forecast for Knoxville, Tennessee on Saturday calls for a 60 percent chance of showers.

I will say nobody else in Riley’s piece is blaming the weather.  The coaches are blaming themselves and the running backs acknowledge the need for more consistency in their play.  At least those are things Georgia can try to control

“This game starts with me,” he said. He added: “The head coach has the responsibility to own up to it.”

It’s about time, Richt… er, no.

Southern Cal, a program with a history and accomplishments at least as impressive as Georgia’s – I’m being generous with the phrasing there – has had these gentlemen as its last four head football coaches:  Paul Hackett, Pete Carroll, Junior and Steve Sarkisian.  Before you go running off proclaiming what a home run hire Carroll was, remember that his arrival was largely yawned over, coming in as a NFL coach with a mediocre record.  And then remember he’s largely the reason USC got stuck hiring the Laner as its seventh choice.

The point here isn’t that you can’t make a great coaching hire.  Of course you can; it happens now and then.  The point is it’s more of a crapshoot than some of you are willing to concede, and the odds get even longer when the folks doing the hiring don’t know their asses from a hole in the ground.  That, sadly, is reality.

Feel free to carry on with your axe grinding now.  I’m done.