A few gameday thoughts

I’ll be heading out shortly for another opener.

From setting up the tailgate tent all the way through the final whistle in Sanford Stadium, it’s hard to beat the pleasure of the first game of the season, even when it involves a cupcake (no offense meant there, Austin Peay).

The only hard wish I have today is that the Dawgs stay injury-free.  That being said, I’ll be watching closely to see how the team looks, physically and mentally.  I’ll be curious to see if Jake Fromm’s taken the next step.  I want to see what some of the new faces, like Robertson, Cook, Campbell and, yes, Fields, bring to the table.

I want to take in what having a real, two-deep offensive line looks like.

Tell me what you’re anticipating for today and feel free to use the comments, as always, as the game thread.

See you on the other side.

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Play like you’ve been there before.

As I’ll be in Athens for most of the day today, I’ve got quite a few games queued up on the DVR for watching over the holiday break.

One of those, for obvious reasons, is South Carolina’s home opener against Coastal Carolina.  With the heavy emphasis on intangibles for Georgia’s SEC opener in Columbia, it will be interesting to compare the mindset of both the ‘Cocks and the Dawgs today.  Who’s better prepared not to get caught looking forward to bigger fish to fry Saturday week?

As Bud Elliott puts it,

Coastal Carolina +29.5 (-105) at South Carolina: The Gamecocks were extremely lucky last season (6-1 in single-score games). This is an opportunity to bet against an inflated reputation from 2017. And South Carolina has a lookahead situation, with Georgia coming to town next week.

Believe it or not, this has been an issue for South Carolina over the years.  Here’s a sample of that.

South Carolina is 0-3 ATS under Will Muschamp as 20-point favorites, all three games came before a matchup with Clemson or an SEC rival. Gamecocks have Georgia next week.

— Chris Fallica (@chrisfallica) August 31, 2018

Matt Melton goes into greater detail.

1. South Carolina’s largest margin of victory under Will Muschamp is 26 points (and that took three defensive touchdowns).
2. South Carolina has played three Group of Five teams at home under Will Muschamp. They have beaten those teams by five, six, and one point respectively.
3. South Carolina has a pretty big home game coming up on the Saturday after this one. I don’t know that the Chanticleers will have the Gamecocks full attention. I have a little bit of data to back that claim up. Since 2005, South Carolina has opened against a mid-major program with Georgia on-deck four times (2005, 2007, 2010, 2011). They won all four of those openers, but only covered once.

None of this is to say we’re about to see an outright upset for the ages.  (Boom’s probably used up his quota in that department.)  But if this really is supposed to be a South Carolina team ready to step up to divisional contender status, then history shouldn’t be repeating in a game against a decided underdog.

Who does a better job of taking care of business today?

He can’t say he didn’t know.

Boy, who could have seen this coming, eh?

Colorado State allowed 8.4 yards per play to Hawaii last week. Now allowing 11.5 per play to Colorado.

Rams were No. 110 in yppD last year, and things are not good this year under new DC John Jancek.

— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) September 1, 2018

How — ironic?  fitting? — would it be for John Jancek to wind up being the downfall of Mike Bobo?

Loaded for bear

Yeah, I’d say the talent base has been seriously upgraded under Kirby.

The projected first and second team offense for #UGA on Saturday vs Austin Peay would include:

8 former 5*
8 former 4*

15 total that were in the #Rivals250

Does not include James Cook (former 5* RB who will likely have some role in the offense) and Jamaree Salyer (former 5*).

— Trent Smallwood (@SmallwoodTrent) August 31, 2018

Lawdy.