Hurry up and out

When they talk about the downside to running the HUNH badly, I think this is what they mean.

The Auburn offense's drives tonight. Look at that TOP. pic.twitter.com/6mz6Ta8CGY

— Justin Ferguson (@JFergusonAU) October 7, 2018

Sandwiched in the middle of that was this ($$):

Mississippi State held the ball for nearly 17 consecutive minutes of game time in a 23-9 win against Auburn.

The stretch totaled 16 minutes, 42 seconds. In the second quarter, the Bulldogs had a 4:14 drive end in a punt, but Auburn fumbled and Mississippi State got it back. That was followed by a 4:23 drive to the end of the half. The Bulldogs then received the ball to start the second half and went on a field-goal drive that lasted 8:05.

That’s got to be brutal for a defense.

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Your weekly dose of conventional wisdom

If you had Dan Mullen in the Tony Barnhart Obvious Observation Pool, collect your winnings.

Five things we learned about SEC Football, Week Six.
No. 1–No coach is getting more out of his talent than Florida's @CoachDanMullen .https://t.co/DzuBzI9n7J

— Tony Barnhart (@MrCFB) October 7, 2018

Now that I think about it, a weekly contest to pick Mr. Conventional Wisdom’s top Sunday pearl seems like an obvious blog post topic.

It’s not easy to be persona non grata at Maryland.

But Mr. “Blame it on the dead kid” has managed to pull it off.

A Maryland booster who last week made controversial comments about the late Terrapins offensive lineman Jordan McNair was removed from the school’s travel group for Saturday’s game at Michigan after players saw his name on the passenger list for a charter flight, multiple sources told ESPN.

Rick Jaklitsch, an attorney from Upper Marlboro, Maryland, had been set to travel with the Terrapins football team to Michigan on Friday. But when players saw his name on the passenger manifest, they became outraged, sources said, and told athletics staffers, including Cheryl Harrison, Maryland’s senior associate athletic director and chief development officer. Jaklitsch was informed he wouldn’t be traveling with other boosters and the team.

Pathetically, this was the second time the players had to raise their voices about this douche nozzle.

Jaklitsch’s comments upset many in the program, sources said, and earlier this week players informed football administrative staffers that they didn’t want Jaklitsch around any team activities. But he was still set to travel with the team to Michigan until players again intervened. Passenger manifests for Maryland’s charter flights are set in the summer.

You’d think somebody in the athletic department would have the sense to realize letting Jaklitsch jock sniff on the flight wasn’t the best idea, but, hey, he’s a booster.  Who wants to upset a paying customer any more than you have to, right?

Kirby gets grumpy about the best things.

Hyosub Shin / AJC

Jake Fromm had a helluva game last night.  He notched a 217.75 passer rating and, more importantly, directed an offense that got on a serious roll.

After punting on their first possession, the Bulldogs went on to score on seven of the next eight. Included therein were TD drives that took 15 seconds, 1:04, 1:30, 2:46 and 3:15. If not for the need to prolong some drives just to rest their weary defense, Georgia probably could have kept scoring in a hurry. As it was, the Bulldogs possessed the ball for half the time of their visitors in the first half. They ended up as a 3-minute differential in the game.

And yet… and yet, the head coach didn’t sound totally happy about a 560-yard offensive game, or at least, as Seth Emerson relates ($$), some aspects of it.

That began with a six-play drive in which Georgia went 75 yards entirely through the air. Look, the Bulldogs might cling to the culture of being a run-oriented team, but when they’ve really needed it, they’ve put the game on Fromm and his speedy receivers. Of course, Smart said that came with an asterisk.

“Everyone always says, ‘Why don’t you do that all the time?’ ” Smart said. “Well, they don’t play the defense all the time. It was a two-minute drive. If it was that easy, we’d be able to do it all the time. Jake does well for pace of play and being able to get the ball out. I also think it helps when the defense is a little worn down and you’ve been chopping wood for two quarters, as opposed to starting the game like that.”

Look, I get the point about wood chopping, will imposition and all the other catchy metaphors Smart likes to utilize, but when your offense demonstrates that it can crank out 90-second or less scoring drives almost at will against an SEC defense, that carries its own form of demoralization.  Jim Chaney sent a message to every defensive coordinator left on the schedule that if you sell out to stop the run, you do so at your own risk.

Now that I think about it, “pick your poison” kind of has a nice clichéd ring to it, doesn’t it?  Maybe Kirby shouldn’t look so grim.

“The 6-0 record proves it.”

If you’re one of those folks who has a vested interest in seeing the SEC get two teams into this year’s CFP, yesterday brought you some good news and some not-so-good news.  The good news is that Texas’ upset of Oklahoma put the Big 12’s chances on life support.  With the Pac-12’s shot already being measured for a casket, that likely puts two P5 conferences on the outside looking in.

The bad news?

An undefeated Notre Dame team is in.

Would you like her to spell out the consequences?

Assume No. 1 Alabama wins the SEC, No. 3 Ohio State wins the Big Ten and No. 4 Clemson wins the ACC. There could be a debate whether a one-loss Georgia team, whose only loss would be to Alabama in the conference championship, is simply better than undefeated Notre Dame. Or the committee could consider Georgia and Notre Dame at the expense of Clemson.

I have a feeling I know which way the committee goes.

Trolling a troller

This week on Finebaum:  does Eddie Gran not calling the next Herschel Walker’s number in overtime make him a bad playcaller, or the worst playcaller ever?

“We mess up a lot.”

For those of you fretting over Georgia’s inability to totally dominate a conference opponent from the opening snap, just imagine how you might feel if you were an Alabama fan today.

“I don’t think you really beat the other team when you give up 31 points like we did today,” Nick Saban said.

Poor Nick, having to settle for a 34-point margin in a road conference game.  I don’t know how the man gets out of bed this morning.

Is it really the Year of the Quarterback for the SEC?

Judging by passer rating this morning, I’m thinking nah.

Tua and Jake are on a level of their own (well, Tua’s on a different level from everyone else, but work with me here).  Ta’amu’s passer rating is respectable, although his ranked (82.37)/unranked (209.45) opponent splits are more illustrative of the season he’s having.

The rest is just a giant pile of mediocrity, or worse.  130 is considered average, and the conference has five starters — including preseason Heisman candidate Jarrett Stidham — currently on the wrong side of that.  Nick Fitzpatrick, also touted coming into the season, is below the Mendoza Line at a paltry 103.86.

From a national perspective, the conference has two of the top four quarterbacks, but from there, it’s only posting two more in the top fifty.  A sign of conference strength this ain’t.