Now Fromm knows a little bit about how Eason felt.

This shouldn’t come as a real surprise.

One of the strengths of the Georgia offense during the 2017 season was their offensive line. Not only did they pave the way for a dominant running game, but they kept their freshman quarterback, Jake Fromm, clean in the pocket, which was critical to his development throughout the season.

However, the Georgia offensive line finally met it’s match in the National Championship Game against Alabama.

Fromm was pressured 19 times on his 37 dropbacks, easily the highest rate he faced all season.

Of Georgia’s five starting offensive lineman, only left tackle Isaiah Wynn played a clean game, allowing zero pressures on 37 snaps in pass protection. Each of the other four starters, however, allowed at least three pressures apiece.

I guess we know who didn’t get stuck with trying to block Da’Ron Payne.

Honestly, considering the pressure, Fromm handled himself pretty well most of the night.

At Alabama, AD work for head coach.

The Process works in mysterious ways, my friends.

Alabama associate AD for football Ed Marynowitz is not expected to return Nick Saban’s staff, sources tell FootballScoop.

Longtime NFL personnel executive Michael Lombardi tweeted Wednesday Marynowitz holds an offer to join Jon Gruden’s personnel department with the Oakland Raiders.

Sources have also told FootballScoop that Marynowitz holds an offer to join super agent Jimmy Sexton’s staff that he is also weighing.

Marynowitz holds a key off-the-field role for the Crimson Tide. As associate AD for football, he serves as a point person between the player personnel and football operations departments while also serving as the football program’s liaison with the athletic administration.

So Alabama has an athletic director on Saban’s staff, a guy who happens to have an offer to go work for Jimmy Sexton.  I’ve got a feeling that on some level I cannot begin to comprehend, that would be an advantage for Saban, because, hell… why not?

I think I’m getting dizzy and need to lie down now.

Today, in making a buck

His NCAA career over, Davin Bellamy has applied to trademark the phrase “Humble Yourself”.

If issued, although the process will likely take a few months, the trademark would allow Bellamy and only Bellamy to be able to profit from using “Humble yourself” on various clothing apparel and other merchandise.

Given his status as a Georgia graduate getting set to enter the NFL draft, any revenue will not have any effect on his NCAA eligibility.

The only thing, then, that separates Bellamy’s commercial enterprise from causing him a problem is timing.  The message, the player, the money… everything else is the same.  That this makes sense to anyone is strange to me.

Oh, lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood.

Look, guys, if I’m not slitting my wrists over Georgia’s loss to Alabama, it’s not because I wasn’t disappointed in the outcome.  Trust me; I was there and I wasn’t celebrating at the game’s end.

Let me put my current even keel in perspective for you with a simple question:  at this very moment, is there any other program in the country besides Alabama — duh — that you’d trade places with Georgia for?  I can’t think of one.  Considering where we thought Georgia was before the season started, I count that as remarkable progress.  Sue me for being optimistic as a result.

Kirby Smart’s already accomplished something that genuinely concerned me at this time last year.  He’s managed to overcome the limitations of an athletic department I wouldn’t trust to find its way out of a paper bag if I gave it a flashlight and pointed it in the right direction first.  If he can do that, is it really that hard to imagine he can’t lead this program to a national title in the near future?

What “buying in” sounds like

Boy, especially considering the timing, this is one helluva thing to say to your head coach:

As the Bulldogs were getting ready to run out of the tunnel and onto the field, Chubb found Smart and told him, “I’ll go anywhere with you, and I’ll follow you anywhere, and I’ll fight for you because I believe in you.”

I gotta think that’s something that would give even Kirby Smart goosebumps.

*************************************************************************

UPDATE:  You can find the clip of Smart’s reaction to what Nick said here.  Yeah, I’d say he felt it.

Musical palate cleanser, why so glum, chum? edition

This one goes out to everyone who can’t get over Monday night’s loss.  It’s a terrific cover of Ray Davies’ “Better Things” by Fountains of Wayne.

Nothing wrong with rockin’ out and havin’ fun, amirite?

Jake Fromm and the here and now

Junior, for some reason, feels the need to take a victory lap on Alabama’s recruiting.

"Jake Fromm is very talented. But Fromm is not a first-round draft pick. …. Tua has a higher ceiling." – Lane Kiffin says coaching staff wasn't unhappy when Fromm chose Georgia @dpshow

— Andrew Perloff (@andrewperloff) January 9, 2018

Sure, right, whatever you say, Laner.  Fromm was just wasting your precious time when you evaluated him and extended an offer.  Even more curious –since when does anyone at Alabama care where a recruit gets drafted by the NFL?  Nick Saban’s got plenty of shiny rings from national championship seasons with QBs who never sniffed the first round.

You’ll have to excuse me if this kind of stuff matters more to me than a kid’s draft potential.

Fromm, the SEC Freshman of the Year, finished his rookie season 12-2 as a starter.

“Fromm is a very bright kid,” Ridley said. “You can ask anyone in the room that. He’s very talented and he’s very smart. Our coaches really trust him to make the right checks and the right reads. When he’s out there if he has confidence in you he’s going to continue to go to you. I guess I started out hot tonight and he continued to work me. Unfortunately we came up short, but it’s branding and it’s going to continue to grow.”

…

“I wouldn’t want to have no other quarterback,” said receiver Terry Godwin. “He’s out there making the right checks, putting us in the right plays, and off the field he’s caring about us. He’s an overall complete guy. On the field he’s the leader we need.”

Oh, and strangely enough,

… Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm starts with the best odds to win the Heisman Trophy.

According to Sports Betting Dime, Fromm has 10/1 odds of winning the award.

Too bad for us Georgia fans he won’t be drafted in the first round.

A new redshirt rule?

This is one of those things that sounds like it makes too much sense to be accepted.

The ACC has proposed (for everyone) to allow players to play in any four games and still count for a redshirt. The AFCA has been pushing for this. Would be effective next year and not retroactive. #AFCA2018

— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) January 9, 2018

My bet is that one concern over adopting this will be that it will make graduate transfers more likely.  Yeah, you and I know that’s not a bad thing, but neither of us are college administrators.

Why the 2018 title game wasn’t like the 2012 SECCG

I know it’s tempting to wallow in a “Georgia’s come up short against Alabama in the big one again” mindset after Monday night’s disappointing loss, but my advice to anyone going down that path is to think again.  Smart and his team did one thing I haven’t seen happen in a damned long time:  they played Alabama on Alabama’s terms and forced the Tide to be the team that had to make the in-game adjustments.

Two years ago, when Saban called an onside kick in the fourth quarter of the title game, it blew people’s minds. But it was a calculated risk — the coaches saw a potential weakness and attempted to exploit it. Removing Hurts from the game and putting in freshman backup Tua Tagovailoa required a whole different kind of leap of faith.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Tagovailoa’s title-winning comeback performance was that he so frequently looked like a little-used true freshman…

This was the roller coaster that Saban has spent most of his coaching life trying to avoid.

The move worked, and Saban deserves all the credit in the world for trusting his gut instincts.  Consider, though, that Smart forced Saban into a place he’s worked his entire career to avoid going.  In my mind, that’s a big deal.

Meet the new scapegoat.

In introducing his latest hire at defensive coordinator, the genius is careful enough in setting the parameters to leave himself enough wiggle room to have somebody else to blame when things inevitably don’t work out:

“I don’t know anybody who has total control,” Johnson said. “But I have complete confidence in him or I wouldn’t hire him to put in his defensive scheme. I’m not going to hire someone who runs a certain scheme and then bring them in here and say, ‘No, you can’t do that, you have to do something else.'”

Woody is a 27-year coaching veteran who directed Appalachian State’s defense the past five seasons. After putting in his 3-4 scheme, the Mountaineers led the Sun Belt Conference in total defense three times and ranked among the top 30 nationally each of the past four seasons.

Appalachian State closed out this season with a 34-0 rout of Toledo in the Dollar General Bowl .

That was enough to persuade Johnson he’s got the right man to take over Georgia Tech’s up-and-down defense.

“I can see a method to the madness — what he’s trying to accomplish, how he coaches, that type of thing,” Johnson said. “I expect him to run his scheme. I’ll be watching. We’ll sit down during the week and I’ll have my suggestions within his scheme. But, no, I’m not going to micromanage or tell anyone what to do.”

He’s not going to micromanage, but he’s going to have weekly suggestions for the DC.  Yeah, that’s gonna work out just fine.