Vandy at night

Either 7:00 or 7:30 PM.

📺 times and networks set for games on October 6: https://t.co/vswqiKUetR pic.twitter.com/NI9ECq80zN

— Southeastern Conference (@SEC) September 24, 2018

Not passing the Urnge smell test

Okay, let me ask you something:  knowing Jeremy Pruitt as you do, does this sound like the kind of reaction he’d have to a player who refused his coach’s direction to enter a game and was sent home at halftime?

#Vols coach Jeremy Pruitt on Quart’e Sapp: Quart’e has been a great ambassador since he’s been here. One incident doesn’t define who you are.

— Wes Rucker (@wesrucker247) September 24, 2018

Hell, if things went down the way they were described at Pruitt’s presser, I’m surprised Sapp hasn’t been suspended — disobeying a coaching order like that would seem to be the definition of violating team rules, no?

Maybe it’s just that we’re seeing a kinder, gentler Jeremy Pruitt.  (That sound you hear is Occam’s snicker.)

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“I’d bitch, too, the way we’re playing.”

Georgia Tech fans can rest easy in the comfort of knowing Paul Johnson holds them to the same level of respect he does for his staff and players.

Coaching, Johnson said, “is one of the few jobs that 100 percent of the people can do better than you.”

Uh, somebody misspelled recruiting there.

Observations from the armchair, Mizzou edition

The weirdest part of a weird game?  The disparity of performance between Georgia players — there were some absolutely brilliant games played by kids like Ridley, Walker, Baker and Stokes and there were some who were flat out busts.  Overall, I thought the team brought its C-game to Columbia, but for once the average doesn’t really tell the entire story.

On to the bullet points:

• Allow me to take the contrarian position on the Okwuegbunam fumble.  After seeing one of the broadcast replays, I don’t think his forward progress was stopped.  He appeared to be twisting his body to turn inside when the ball was ripped free.  Regardless, after all the plays we’ve seen over the years where SEC refs let a play continue for what seems an eternity, this strikes me as a strange hill to die on for Mizzou folks.
• One thing I didn’t expect was to see the cornerbacks outplay the safeties.  Reed and LeCounte took me back to the last year of Grantham’s defense.  Both were frequently out of position and LeCounte’s tackling, in particular, was abominable all day.  Watch the way he olé-d his way through the Lock touchdown run.  I know folks are bummed out about the defensive line’s run play, but this, to me, is the biggest thing Kirby has to clean up.
• It didn’t help that the safeties had to make a lot of tackles.
• Eric Stokes had his coming out party:  four tackles, three passes broken up and a blocked punt he also returned for a touchdown. He’s going to be taking playing time away from somebody.
• For all the complaining we could do about Georgia’s pass defense, the worse thing you could really say about it is that Missouri completed a lot of dinks and dunks.  That’s not the way anyone thought the Tigers could win the game and they were right.  Lock got nothing deep and didn’t hit half his pass attempts.  In my book, that’s a damned good day.
• The bad part of that, if you will, is that Georgia let enough of those short passes connect, along with a run game that, while, again, was not something that broke many big plays (nothing over 20 yards on the day), did allow too many drives in the second half to be sustained.  Bending and breaking is not what Georgia is supposed to be doing.  I saw a front seven that appeared to relax a bit once Georgia’s offense got its footing and paid the price for that.
• Which means that focus for sixty minutes is the other big thing the coaches have to work on this week.  This team is a bit too much in love with itself for comfort.
• Interior run defense was hit and miss, as the safety tackle totals indicated.  There were plenty of times when Missouri backs were stopped for little gain, but there were plenty of times when the Tigers’ offensive line got more push than expected.  The ILBs were inconsistent, too.  More things needing clean-up, I suppose.
• D’Andre Walker may not be forty, but he’s a man — four tackles, two sacks, two forced fumbles, a pass break-up and a quarterback hurry.  If he’s not the SEC defensive player of the week, I’ll be interested to see who is.  Does Georgia win if he just had an average game?  Probably, but it would have been a helluva lot closer.
• Perhaps the most overlooked story of Georgia’s season to date is the improvement in the receiving corps.  They don’t get a lot of opportunities, but they sure make the most of it when they do.  Ridley, as I mentioned, had a spectacular day.  Holloman, goal line brain fart aside, is really starting to come on and made a brilliant catch.  Mecole is Mecole; you hold your breath every time he touches the ball.  They’re doing all this and Terry Godwin is still recovering from an injury.  They block, too!
• Speaking of recovering, it looks like Swift isn’t quite back to full speed, although 80% Swift is still worth giving the ball to.
• Holyfield never finishes a run without lowering his shoulder.  Beast, baby.
• Did the Dawgs run a jet sweep?
• Georgia outgained Missouri with about 450 yards of offense, so you don’t want to say the offensive line had a bad day.  But it was an inconsistent one, at least with regard to the run game.  At times, Georgia would get rolling on the ground, but there were times when they needed a short gain and the line either got out-muscled or out-schemed.  There is no excuse for starting a drive on the other team’s seven-yard line and settling for a field goal.
• Which reminds me, fellas — you put Justin Fields in at quarterback for the first time in that setting and you’re dreaming if you don’t think everyone in the stadium is expecting a quarterback run.
• I’ve already mentioned noticing Fromm’s habit of taking a while to get himself up to game speed.  I hope that gets fixed, because once he’s on, whoa, baby.  Two things that stood out to me as I watched were (1) his completion to Holyfield, which came after he ran through all his reads as the play developed and (2) the touchdown passes to Ridley and Holloman.  Jake ain’t perfect, but there isn’t a quarterback in the country that can make that sideline throw downfield better than he can.
• I know it’s a popular thing to blame Chaney for having an off day with his playcalling, but I’m gonna tell you I think that’s more on Chaney’s boss.  Kirby is nothing if he’s not consistent about insisting his team impose its will on the opponent.  The problem with that approach on Saturday is that Purdue showed the week before that Missouri’s defense was vulnerable to the deep ball, not the run.  Waiting a half before exploiting that weakness probably wasn’t the best tack to take, but I do understand why it happened.  And it did work out in the end.
• Special teams was a mixed bag, but it didn’t follow the script we saw before Missouri.  Blankenship was mortal.  He had two kicks returned, both past the 30-yard line, pulled a field goal attempt and had another blocked.  Camarda had one mediocre punt that contributed to the field position advantage that Missouri enjoyed most of the day.  On the plus side, Hardman has another boss return day.  (Crumpton is going to see less time on punt returns unless he starts fielding and fair catching punts instead of letting them hit and roll, though.)  Did I mention Eric Stokes’ big day?
• If one of your complaints about Richt was not showing enough emotion on the sideline, then, brother, Kirby Smart is your guy.  He’s got some range, that’s for sure.  Too bad he had as much source material as he did for that.

The best way I can describe Georgia’s day is that while the bodies all got off the bus, clearly some players’ heads never did.  That the team managed to survive and advance against a conference opponent on the road — and really, survive is an unfair way to describe a game that Georgia never trailed in and had Missouri in a two-score or more deficit from the middle of the second quarter through game’s end — is never anything to sneer at.

This is an immensely talented team.  It’s also a very young team.  That means there are going to be bumps in the road, at least in the short run, although a lot of that will be covered over by talent advantage.  It’s up to Kirby to keep that run as short as possible, because the time will come when the talent advantage won’t be enough by itself.

Rise and shine, campers. It’s Tennessee Week!

So, who you got in the pool for the first member of the media to ask Jeremy Pruitt about the new indoor practice facility?

Excuses, excuses

I’m not trying to make light of Missouri’s effort Saturday.  The Tigers could have thrown the towel in early in the second half, but did their best to hang around instead.

Still, it’s kind of nervy to hear a guy who finished with an 82.4 passer rating playing the “we beat ourselves” game.

SEC Power Poll, Week Four

Interesting weekend, at least as far as the SEC East goes.

1. Alabama.  You know, more than once as I watched ‘Bama grind Texas A&M into dust, I found myself thinking, “hey, the Aggies aren’t a bad team”.  Like it mattered…
2. Georgia.  Can you describe a game in which a team never trailed as a close call?  Asking for a friend.
3. LSU.  Your weekly Joe Burrow update:  49.3% completion rate, last among SEC starters; 116.33 passer rating, 13th among SEC starters.  If there’s an offense crying out for a defensive coordinator to make the quarterback beat you, it’s LSU’s.
4. Auburn.  Still don’t know enough about this team, but there appear to be question marks on offense, especially with the departures of two starters.
5. Texas A&M.  Is there a more improved quarterback in the country than Kellen Mond?  Did it make any difference against Alabama?  (Though at least they covered the spread.)
6. Kentucky.  Finally, an East team not Georgia claims the scalp of a ranked team from the West.  No fluke, either.
7. Mississippi State.  Maybe it was just one game, but the Bulldogs were really manhandled on both lines.  Live by the run; die by the run.
8. Florida.  The next three spots are exceedingly close.  I put the Gators here because I think they have the best defense of the three.
9. South Carolina.  Bounced back from the Georgia beating with a solid effort on the road against Vandy.
10. Missouri.  Resilient but had flaws on the offensive line and secondary exposed.  Missouri is vulnerable to teams that can get after the quarterback and throw the ball.
11. Ole Miss.  Non-stop entertainment against any team without much defense.
12. Vanderbilt.  You know the ‘Dores have to be thinking they’ve got another legit chance to beat Tennessee this season.
13. Tennessee.  May you live in interesting times, Vols.
14. Arkansas.  Yeah, I think they’d lose to Tennessee.

Fabris Pool results, Week 4

Back to normal this week, with a three-way tie at the top.

STANDINGS for WEEK 4

Rank	Selection Name	Standings Adjustment	W-L	Pts	Tie Breaker Game 47-21
1	darnolddawg	Adj	9-1	9	31-17**
1	Ant123	Adj	9-1	9	27-20
1	ChattDawg	Adj	9-1	9	28-31

Congrats to darnolddawg, for pulling it out on the tiebreaker.

As far as the seasonal race goes, it’s pretty bunched up for now.

SEASON STANDINGS through Week 4

Rank	You	Selection Name	W-L	Pts
1		StoneColdDawg	30-10	30
2		Ant123	29-11	29
2		Dr. Goober	29-11	29
4		jayelbee23	28-12	28
4		Call me Lilliputian, we in Swifts World	28-12	28
4		Robert Hoover	28-12	28
4		All I Do Is Win-ston	28-12	28
4		DC Weez	28-12	28
4		Athens Dog	28-12	28

Musical palate cleanser, dreamin’ of the past edition

Here’s one of my favorite tunes from the eighties, The Plimsouls’ “A Million Miles Away”, in a format you oldsters may remember — the “music video”:

If you really want to date yourself, can you remember the movie soundtrack in which the song appeared?  No?

Well, here you go.

Time sure damn flies, don’t it?