Bummed out Steve Spurrier is the best Steve Spurrier.

If it weren’t for the Davin Bellamy quote currently occupying the slot, you’d better believe I’d have this remark from the Evil Genius up as the blog’s Quote of the Day.

“Did you see us play Georgia? Yeah, it was a sad, sad day, but anyway…”

Makes my day.

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Damn, Bill Hancock just moved his lips again.

College Football Playoff's Bill Hancock on 2 teams from same conference making playoff: “Our charge is to pick the best four teams, period." https://t.co/Y8EY6O8JQu

— Marc Weiszer (@marcweiszer) October 30, 2017

That’s bad news for either Georgia or Alabama.

“You talk about rat poison a lot, things like that.”

You get the feeling if it were up to Nick Saban or Kirby Smart, they’d force the selection committee to vote the other guy’s team number one tomorrow.

Maybe at the next presser, Saban’ll chew out the committee the way he does the media.

Envy and jealousy, beyond schadenfreude edition

Spencer Hall finds himself in a place past pity.  Join him there:

The best way to show the size of the giant asskicking pile the Georgia Bulldogs amassed in a 42-7 win over Florida: start with one small point. Jake Fromm, Georgia’s redshirt freshman quarterback, threw seven passes, not in one quarter, not in a half, but for the entire length of one regulation football game against a conference opponent and hated rival.

Unless you are Navy or another triple option team, let me tell you what throwing seven times in a 42-7 win means. It means one team beat the other team’s ass so badly, they didn’t even have to get up off the couch to do it. It means Georgia saw Florida getting Georgia’s last beer out of the fridge, and without really waking up, winged the remote control all the way across the house and into Florida’s temple. The remote control came flying back like the hammer of Thor, of course.

There’s more, so indulge yourself and wallow in it.

Georgia Tech’s gonna Georgia Tech.

Check out the blocking on Clemson’s #90 in the middle of the line.

Aaaaaand GT going after Lawrence's legs again on the third play. pic.twitter.com/BJ6Q9RiNPC

— Larry Williams (@LarryWilliamsTI) October 30, 2017

They’ll do it as long as the refs let ’em.

Observations from the end zone, Cocktail Party edition

It was the most exhilarating opening seven and a half minutes I’ve ever witnessed in a Georgia-Florida game.  Ever.  I don’t know if I can call it perfect, but if not, it’ll do until perfect comes along.

A shut down opening series by the defense, a turnover mixed in and three scoring drives that were lightning-fast — only the first took two minutes — and in what seemed like the blink of an eye, Georgia was up 21-0.  (In case you need a reminder, Georgia scored a combined thirteen points in its two previous games against the Gators.)

At the 7:31 mark in the first quarter, the first Florida fans left our section for the day.

It came so fast and so brutally one-sided that it felt as if everyone in the stadium collectively exhaled at that point and said, “what just happened?”.  The sense of the surreal even seemed to extend to both teams, as the pace slowed and the game retreated into a lull for the next quarter and a half.  The Gators forced punts on Georgia’s next two possessions and their running game seemed to gain a little traction behind Perine.  Even so, the three-touchdown lead held up as Georgia stopped Florida’s only real scoring threat on downs at the two-yard line.

Any residual doubts about the game came to an end in the third quarter, which has been a consistent feature of this season.  Fromm threw an ill-advised pass, his one true freshman moment of the day, and was intercepted.  From there (1) the Gators turned the ball over on downs; (2) Michel turned in his second long touchdown run of the game; and (3) J.R. Reed notched Georgia’s first defensive score of the season.

That made it 35-0 and there were still more than five minutes left in the third quarter.  By then, there were more empty seats on the Florida side of the stadium than there were Florida fans.  The rout was on.  All that was left was to see if the defense could break Florida’s scoring streak; that didn’t happen, but it’s not like I’m going to complain (unlike Kirby and the defensive starters, but, hey, they’re entitled).

Smart said after the game that the fan base was starved for success against Florida.  That’s a slight overstatement in one sense, in that with the win the series is tied at 4-4 over the last eight games.  In another sense, though, it’s spot on.  What we’ve been hungry for is for Georgia to dominate a game the way it had been dominated by some of the Spurrier and Meyer teams over the past quarter century.  That was delivered in spades, and for that, I thank you profusely, Kirby.

I almost feel like bullet points are unnecessary, but what the hell, let’s throw a few in here.

• There’s so much revenge factor in the win, it’s almost hard to believe.  Georgia’s running game was shut down last season; this game saw the Dawgs almost run for 300 yards.  I imagine if Sony and Nick go to see Jim Chaney today, it won’t be to urge a change in the game plan.
• In 2014, Treon Harris completed a whopping three passes.  Okay, Fromm completed four, but one of those was for a touchdown.
• Of course, the greatest satisfaction was shutting down Florida’s pre-game yapping.  Georgia went about its business and Florida never had an answer.
• Fromm’s interception was the result of bad judgment, but had no impact on the result.  Beyond that, he did what he’s been asked to do all season and did it well, by and large.  The touchdown throw to Wims was a beauty and, even better, came as the result of making a solid read on the defensive alignment and realizing he had single coverage on both outside receivers.
• Maybe I’m being a little picky here, but back-to-back delay of game penalties?  Really, Dawgs?  I don’t know if that was on Fromm or on the coaches, but I did notice that Eason came in right after that.
• There were a lot of weird statistics from the game.  Wims was the only Georgia receiver who had a catch, and he only had one.  (Swift had the other three.)  Florida dominated time of possession, largely because Georgia had only one scoring drive I can think of that lasted three minutes.  The Gators (I think) also had more first downs, again because most of Georgia’s scoring drives were so short.
• Obviously, if the running game is dominant, the offensive line was doing its job.  Yes, the Gator defense did slow things down in the second quarter by overloading the box.  Chaney didn’t take the bait and remained committed to the run, even with the diminished returns, because of the obvious expectation that the Gator defense would eventually wear down and that is what happened in the second half.
• This is why Nick Chubb and Sony Michel came back.
• D’Andre Swift is something to watch.  That is all.
• Aside from disappearing a little in the second quarter, when it appeared that they didn’t stay sound in their games, it was another great day for the defensive line.  Thompson’s return made a difference, but Atkins and Marshall turned in great efforts, too.
• Hello, sacks.
• You may not have noticed, but the defender on the incomplete fourth-and-two pass into the end zone was D’Andre Walker.  Yeah, Tucker was a little creative Saturday.
• You really had the feeling after a while — okay, maybe not that long — that Georgia wasn’t concerned at all about Florida’s passing game.  With good reason.
• Reggie Carter announced his return to the game with a bang, didn’t he?
• You knew sooner or later Florida was going to test Malkom Parrish on the deep ball.  He passed.
• I think Florida’s offensive line just had another motion penalty called.
• Roquan Smith.
• Lorenzo Carter was all over the place and generally had a kick ass day.
• I love watching teams throw at Deandre Baker.  Florida went after him on a bubble screen where the defender did get his block down; Baker still managed to play off the block and make the tackle.  That’s about the only passing yardage I can recall the Gators gaining on Baker.
• Special teams didn’t do anything particularly memorable.  That’s a compliment.  And a relief.
• There really isn’t much to say about the coaching after a dominant win like that.  Chaney and Tucker both had a game plan and their kids ready to execute it.  Ain’t really much else to add.  And Kirby made sure there was no complacency.  Georgia called an early time out after jumping out to a lead and Smart was out on the field as his team came to the sideline, chewing some serious ass.
• It looks like Steve Shaw needs to hold a meeting about the meaning of in the grasp.  Either Franks should have been called down the first time it happened, or Aaron Davis should have been credited with a pick-six on the second occasion.  That was just the worst part of what was a bad day for the officiating crew.

The season keeps putting up tests for Smart and this team.  So far, they’ve managed to handle every one.  Let’s see if the focus stays on track against South Carolina.

Jim Chaney haz a crayon.

Gary Danielson: Sony Michel has been shut down by Florida.

Sony (@Flyguy2stackz): 🏃🏾 pic.twitter.com/GUYvZ1sBT2

— Dayne Young (@dayneyoung) October 28, 2017

It sounds like Sony Michel’s big day was due in part to a couple of scheme adjustments Georgia installed during the bye week.

“They hit a little slice iso (isolation play) on us and we didn’t fit it right twice. That’s a good thing about Jim [Chaney].” McElwain added that his defense’s No. 1 challenge was to make Georgia one-dimensional (throw the ball), but because of the Bulldogs’ “really good backs,” the Gators had no answer.

Say what you will, but week after week, we’re seeing Georgia’s staff appear better prepared than their opponents’.  Add better talent and better preparation together and that’s how you get on a dominant run like the one the Dawgs have enjoyed.

“Anybody can throw a slant.”

Throwing a slant may be easy.  Defending a slant isn’t when you’re on the receiving end of a D’Andre Swift-lowered shoulder.

You got to back up all that talking Gardner meets Swift!💪🚚 @DAndreSwift pic.twitter.com/gQzjH0gO20

— UGA (@ugaFBnation) October 29, 2017

My, what a satisfying moment that was.

SEC Power Poll, Week 9

Another week with lots of byes, so there’s not too much shaking up going on in the rankings.

1. Alabama.  I’m just curious to know how many of those pundits who are arguing that the Tide isn’t the top team in the country would be willing to put real money on it.
2. Georgia.  The Dawgs are outscoring conference opposition by 32 points a game.
3. Auburn.  Didn’t play, but it’s not like anyone else in the SEC made the Tigers look worse for it.
4. Mississippi State.  Still hasn’t played in a conference game with a margin of less than three touchdowns.
5. LSU.  I know they’re gonna try to sell this week’s game with Alabama, but Coach O versus Nick Saban?
6. Texas A&M.  With Auburn and LSU still remaining, the odds of TAMU reaching nine wins look slim indeed.
7. South Carolina.  Boom endures.
8. Florida.  The Gators have lost three straight conference games and opened as a two-point underdog against Missouri.
9. Kentucky.  The ‘Cats are 6-2 with a +2 point differential.  That’s hard to do.
10. Arkansas.  Bert’s boys take the lead in the King of the SEC Dipshits race.
11. Missouri.  The Tigers have scored 120 points in their last two games and play three straight conference opponents that are offensively challenged.
12. Mississippi.  The post-Patterson sinking begins.
13. Tennessee.  There is no more perfect metaphor for the Vols’ season than completing a Hail Mary that winds up three yards short of the end zone.
14. Vanderbilt.  Remember back when some people thought Vandy might give Alabama a game?

No man can serve two masters.

Unless that man is Jimmy Sexton, apparently.

In either case, Florida believes, it’s a violation of the standards clause in McElwain’s contract. McElwain’s ability to dispute Florida over the buyout is hindered because of his agent Jimmy Sexton’s ties with potential candidates. Sexton doesn’t want to battle Florida over collecting the entire $12.9 million buyout because he also represents Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen, a top candidate to replace McElwain, or could be involved in other future Florida hirings.

“Sexton won’t fight it because it’s not in his best long-term interest,” the source said.

Holy crap.  I wonder how many of Sexton’s clients are wondering about where they stand with Jimmy if the proverbial shit ever hits the fan.  And how many of Sexton’s competitors are going to proceed to make that pitch to Sexton’s clients if in fact McElwain rolls over and takes whatever Florida offers.