Today’s random stat

I came across something Paul Myerberg wrote about Georgia before the 2013 season…

Georgia is 18-3 since the start of the 2007 season when intercepting two or more passes, including a 3-0 mark in such games a year ago. In fact, this record improves to 18-1 when counting only regular-season games; two of these losses came in bowl play, to Michigan State in the 2012 Outback Bowl and UCF in the 2010 Liberty Bowl.

… and decided to rummage around cfbstats.com to see how the Dawgs fared since Myerberg posted that.

• 2013:  1-1
• 2014:  3-0
• 2015:  3-0

All told, 7-1, which adds up to a 25-4 mark over the last nine seasons.  That’s not too shabby there.

“Papa John’s is the official delivery pizza.”

Shit, they’ll slap a G on anything, as long as the price is right.

Well, almost anything.

Don’t look for an official beer or liquor. Gribble said those are “prohibited categories.”

Right, Don Leebern?

Can the defense be ready for the opener?

Yesterday, I mentioned the Dawn of the Dawg post that, among other things, put us on high alert about North Carolina’s defense.

Georgia loses the opener because “North Carolina’s defense figures to continue its upward trend under defensive coordinator Gene Chizik, who turned the Tar Heels’ defense around in a big way last season. I expect that to continue in 2016, and that should give Georgia a loss in week one.”

I’m thinking if North Carolina wins the opener, it’ll be because of what happened on the other side of the ball.  The Heels will be bringing a lot of offensive firepower into the game.

… That means that an offense with four returning starters up front and three at receiver shouldn’t miss a beat. Oh, and those three receivers were the Heels’ top three wideouts, combining for 140 receptions for 2,080 yards and 18 touchdowns last season. Don’t forget that Hood is one of just five returning Power 5 running backs with at least 1,000 yards, 10 touchdowns and an average of 6.0 yards per carry.

We know what the bad news is:  Georgia’s defense, at least from this distance, looks to have a ways to go on settling on an effective front seven, especially on the d-line.  But there is some good news, too.

Georgia had great success with its secondary statistically a season ago as the Bulldogs led the nation in passing yards allowed with an average of 156.5 per game.

Of course, that number might have been skewed some since Georgia did face run-heavy teams Florida, Auburn, Georgia Southern and Georgia Tech, as well as a cupcake early on in Louisiana-Monroe. But even against teams that could throw the ball, Georgia more than held its own for the most part…

This is Georgia’s most experienced unit, which will need to aid the large number of new players stepping into bigger front-seven roles. Sanders cemented himself as a leader and was lauded in this area by head coach Kirby Smart early during spring practice. The Bulldogs will need Sanders, who has started every game except one in his career (last season’s Florida game, in which he was suspended for a half for a targeting violation in his previous outing), to continue posting numbers such as the team-best six interceptions he had in 2015.

Mauger also brings valuable experience to the safety position and is someone who can rotate down to nickel back if need be. On the outside, Parrish locked down the No. 1 cornerback spot once again this spring and could be joined by Juwuan Briscoe as the top two. Briscoe ran with the first team during Georgia’s G-Day spring game and earned one of the program’s most improved player awards after its conclusion.

McGraw picked up where he left off as Georgia’s top nickel defender, and Davis appeared to slide into a primary backup role.

That’s a relief.  Because Smart and Tucker are going to need all the help they can get from their secondary.

One big reason Georgia will need its back end to lock down receivers, especially early in the season, is the fact that the front seven is breaking in a ton of new players. It won’t be easy replacing pass-rushers Leonard Floyd and Jordan Jenkins, thus making the secondary’s job of keeping opponents covered that much more important.

Or, for Bellamy and Carter to step up and take charge.  Or, even better if we’re really being greedy here, for both.  I’m okay with greed.

There goes the Eason for Heisman talk.

Tom Luginbill states the obvious like it’s not obvious.

“If you go back and actually watch Georgia’s spring game and you watch all the plays in which Jacob Eason was blitzed, where he was confused and you watch the result of the play, there’s a lot of cause for concern,” Luginbill told The Out of Bounds Show on ESPN 105.9. “What we saw with the highlights, whether it was the SEC Network or on SportsCenter, was a handful of plays where everything was base (defense), it was tailor-made cover-2, cover-3, no pressure, know where to go with the ball, nothing changes post-snap and you look like a superhero.”

Kinda like you’d expect from any talented early-enrollee freshman quarterback playing in his fifteenth college scrimmage, no?

I can see why they pay Luginbill the big bucks.

While we were all in the air conditioning…

You go to punishment with the penalties you have, not the penalties you might want or wish to have.

Documents obtained by a television station in Louisiana show that Alabama has already begun disciplining left tackle Cam Robinson and safety Hootie Jones, who were arrested on drug and weapons charges in Louisiana May 17.

According to the documents obtained by KNOE 8 News in Louisiana, coach Nick Saban suspended both players indefinitely May 19.

There’s more.

According to the documents, both players have had to undergo weekly urine tests, have had regular drug counseling, have monthly video appointments with a mental health consultant and have had to meet twice a week with a Tuscaloosa police officer for gun safety/ownership education.

They also both have had to complete 20 hours of community service.

In addition, Robinson has spent at least 26 hours riding along with the Northport Police Department while Jones had to spend 21 days in a drug rehab program, per the documents.

They’re still suspended, but, as the article notes, there’s no word on whether that suspension will extend into any games.  Yeah, I know.  Besides, why punish Nick Saban?

This isn’t your father’s Georgia offensive line recruiting.

Be still, mine heart.

So in just over six months on the job, Pittman has reeled in seven commitments to play on the offensive line for him in the upcoming years, nine if you count holding on to Cleveland and Barnes

Four of the seven prospects who have rankings on Rivals.com are considered four-star prospects and the other three are three-star prospects. Griffin doesn’t have a ranking yet, but it’s safe to assume that he’s a very talented prospect if the Pittman and the rest of the staff saw enough to take his commitment with three years left of high school. And Catalina could take over on Day 1 so his ranking should be “starter.”

If Pittman sucked as a position coach, you still could argue he’s an upgrade, just because of his skill as a recruiter.

But of course, he doesn’t suck as a position coach.

Nick Saban locks in the Greg McGarity discount.

Jeremy Pruitt is signed, sealed and delivered… at less than the going rate.

New Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt will save the program a little cash.

Though he’ll be one of the highest paid defensive coordinators in the country, his salary will be considerably less than his predecessor. The deal approved Tuesday will pay Pruitt $1 million a year and spans the next three seasons.

Former Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart made $1.5 million last season as the highest-paid assistant in the nation.

Not just a cut from what Kirby was making, either.  It’s also a cut from what Pruitt was getting paid in Athens last year.  Of course, once you add back in what Georgia still owes him, it’s all good.

Honestly, given the warm feelings between Pruitt and McGarity, I’m surprised he’s making as much as he is in Tuscaloosa.  Thanks, Nick.

 

The least surprising thing you’ll read today.

Jim Donnan told Kirby Smart the biggest mistake Donnan made in his first year as Georgia’s head coach was spending too much time with alumni.

It’s still too early to make predictions.

This piece at Dawn of the Dawg, provocatively titled “Why Georgia football will not win more than eight games in 2016”, has, I’m sure, generated plenty of clicks – which is a good reason why bloggers use provocative titles.

It’s kinda lacking in substance, though.

The author points to three specific reasons Georgia will fall short of nine wins in Smart’s first season:  the schedule, youth and new coaching staff.  Allow me to peel off a little bit on each topic.

The schedule:  Georgia loses the opener because “North Carolina’s defense figures to continue its upward trend under defensive coordinator Gene Chizik, who turned the Tar Heels’ defense around in a big way last season. I expect that to continue in 2016, and that should give Georgia a loss in week one.”

North Carolina finished 96th nationally and 13th in the ACC in total defense last season. To put that in some perspective, the team that finished 95th was South Carolina.  Those rankings were an improvement over the Heels’ showing in 2014, so technically you can call that an upward trend, I suppose.  Except even that’s belied by the way Chizik’s defense played over the second half of last season, when it yielded almost 100 yards more per game in November than it did the previous month, only to top that by an incredible post-November increase of another 220 ypg against Clemson and a crippled Baylor offense.

NC’s defense finished 127th in plays defended last season.  That averaged out to almost 80 plays a game.  Georgia’s offense, in case you’re wondering, averaged fewer than 63 plays per game in 2015, with a season high of 77 against Missouri.  It seems to me that if Chaney can run the ball and the Dawgs can avoid turning the ball over, there’s a good chance the offense can do enough to win.

The rest of the tough spots on the schedule he cites – Ole Miss, Tennessee and Florida – are certainly closer calls, especially given that Georgia lost to two of them last season.

The lack of veterans:  Hey, did you know Georgia had some seniors last season?  Did you know Leonard Floyd left early for the NFL draft?  Did you know Smart may start a new quarterback?

Did you know that Georgia isn’t the only school facing significant roster turnover in 2016?  Yeah, I get that there are some real concerns at wide receiver and there’s a respectable chance Eason starts, but take at look at those potential losses again and you’ll see North Carolina and Florida having to replace their quarterbacks and Ole Miss losing its top defensive talent, the best offensive lineman in the SEC, and a great wide receiver in Treadwell.

I’m not a big fan of preseason Homerism, nor of its opposite.  Besides the obvious, it’s simply too early to know who’s playing where.  What I do know in June is that Georgia’s recruited better than North Carolina over the past few seasons, and certainly not worse than the other three programs have over that time.

The new coaching staff:  If you want to pick on Kirby Smart for being a newbie, that’s a valid point.  Out of those four potential losses, he definitely comes up short in the experience department against his head coaching counterparts.

But that’s not where the argument goes.  Instead, it’s “Smart’s assembled what appears to be a strong cast of assistant coaches, including offensive coordinator Jim Chaney and defensive coordinator Mel Tucker. Despite the coaches’ prowess, there’s something fans need to consider: Most of these guys have never coached together before now.”

Well, wait a minute… Chaney and Pittman have coached together before.  Smart and Tucker have coached together before (and Schumann was on the Alabama staff with them, as well).  Sherrer comes out of the Alabama system and as the article acknowledges, coached with Rocker in Athens last season.

As a problem, this seems way overblown.  What’s a bigger concern is the transition the players have to make with a largely new coaching staff, and even that is a somewhat lesser issue on the defensive side of the ball, where Smart is swapping out a DC who cut his teeth under Saban (Pruitt) for another Saban-groomed defensive coach, and where two of the position coaches from last season were retained.  All told, that should prove to be a much less painful change than the one the team faced in 2010, for example.

Offense may be more of a challenge.  Some players will be learning their third offensive system from their third offensive coordinator in three years.  But if youth is being served in certain areas, like wide receiver and quarterback, then even that problem is somewhat mitigated.  Besides, I doubt there are many who would argue that it’s not worth making the tradeoff at offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, or that Smart has managed to upgrade the coaching experience in both spots significantly.

None of which is to guarantee nine or ten wins in 2016.  I’m just not buying that anyone needs to accept eight as the ceiling at this point.  There’s a lot left to go through before making that call.

Nick Chubb is a man of his word.

#Dawgs Nick Chubb says "It's gonna be something to see. I'm gonna be back for the opening game." 💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾 #ChubbStrong pic.twitter.com/Vl78TxQTVa

— GATA Dawgs (@BassinDawg) June 20, 2016

Do you need another reason to watch the opener now?