What happened to all the elite SEC quarterbacks?

Greg Ostendorf makes the case that there never were that many, that there aren’t really any right now and that the future doesn’t exactly look promising, either.

Some of his argument boils down to semantics.  If you want to define elite as quarterbacks who go on to a solid NFL career, then, yeah, you’ve got a pretty short list over the last decade.

But look back at the 2012 national leaders in passer rating.  There were three SEC quarterbacks in the top ten, which strikes me as a pretty good showing.  Aaron Murray set and still holds all kinds of conference records, AJ McCarron has himself back-to-back national titles and Connor Shaw was easily the best South Carolina quarterback of the Spurrier era.  None of that is too shabby.

But I’ll be the first one to admit we’re a long way from 2012 this season, and, perhaps, for the next couple of seasons.  Why?  Well, Ostendorf speculates it’s for several reasons, some of which I find more convincing than others.  You can read his points and decide for yourself.

One thing worth noting is that if he’s right about this…

The conference’s best hope might be in the form of two freshmen – Eason at Georgia and Shea Patterson at Ole Miss. Both were highly sought after coming out of high school, and both have shown abilities that could translate to the NFL. It’s still way too early to say for sure, but there’s potential there. And maybe that means there’s potential for the SEC.

… Georgia may have a little advantage for itself in a year or two.  Maybe.

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2016 Fabris Pool invite

A couple of weeks ago, I sent out an email blast to everyone who signed up last year to play pick ’em at GTP with an invitation to join the 2016 pool.  So far, seventy of you have re-upped.

For the rest of you, here’s a link to sign up to play this season. Don’t miss it!

Is the opener Nick Chubb’s game to lose?

If you want to do a little pondering about Georgia’s opener, Ian Boyd has a nice piece up you might want to read about two key matchups.  In his mind, they are:

1. How will Trubisky fare against a Nick Saban-style defense?
2. Can Chubb break Gene Chizik’s defense?

On point one, it’s hard to judge.  By most accounts I’ve read, Trubisky has an excellent arm and good grasp of Fedora’s offense, but isn’t a runner.  So I can’t say how much he’ll be able to sell being a true run threat.  The video clips Boyd includes show Trubisky operating in blow out situations against second-string defenses — hey, that’s the life of the backup quarterback, right? — so it’s difficult to translate those performances over to what we might expect against a defense that Boyd characterizes as one that “will be more talented than any non-Clemson unit the Tar Heels faced last year, and it’ll also be harder to read and attack…”

But if I’m Fedora, knowing what I know from watching Smart’s defenses struggling to cope with handling Auburn’s running QBs and Deshaun Watson, I’ve gotta try at least.

On the flip side, if I’m Kirby Smart, I’m gonna try to mask the state of Chubb’s health as long as I can, and if he’s healthy, let the big dog eat on a run defense that left a lot to be desired last season.

In the former Auburn coach’s first year as the defensive coordinator, North Carolina didn’t do well. The Heels finished 67th in the nation in Defensive S&P+ and concluded the year with an embarrassing performance against Baylor in a bowl game, when they yielded 645 rushing yards.

If reading between the lines you assume that the play of both of Georgia’s fronts will have a big impact on the game’s outcome, you and I are on the same page… not that that’s a really deep insight.  But the funny thing is that you read Boyd’s post and realize afterwards that he only mentions Georgia’s quarterback situation in passing.

It’s a Southern thing, but they want you to understand.

Presbyterian College in South Carolina is offering “Religion of SEC Football” as a class for university credit.

“Woo Pig Sooie!? Roll Tide!? Go Cocks!? What is it about college football that turns otherwise sane people into raving lunatics? Why is it that each fall millions of people schedule their lives around SEC football, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for RV’s and tailgating for days prior to a game? Why do fans often hate another school — such as the ‘Bama fan who poisoned 130-year old trees at Auburn? This class will attempt to answer these sorts of questions by exploring the ‘religion’ of Southeastern Conference football and how each of us fit into that faith.”

Somehow, I don’t think an hour a week is enough time to explain Harvey Updyke.  Also, do you get extra credit for attending an SEC game?

Musical palate cleanser, a thousand people walk into a stadium edition…

If you’ve ever wondered what Bowie’s “Rebel, Rebel” might sound like if 1,000 folks got together to perform it in a stadium, well… wonder no more.  (h/t)

Damn, if that doesn’t put a smile on your face this morning, I’m doing something wrong.  I know the logistics would make it near impossible to pull off, but I have this fantasy that it would make for the greatest college football halftime show evah.

BTW, Rockin’1000 has a website, if you’re interested.