Your 10.17.18 Playpen

Get it out of your system, aight?

Now is the bye week of our discontent.

One disappointing loss, and everyone’s an offensive coordinator.

Coach Kirby Smart was peppered with a host of quarterback-related queries Tuesday in the wake of the Bulldogs’ 36-16 loss Saturday at LSU in a game in which starting quarterback Jake Fromm didn’t have his most productive day, passing for 209 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions, and freshman backup Justin Fields didn’t see much in the way of playing time, rushing once for three yards and tossing no passes.

Smart said both Fromm and Fields must play better for No. 8 Georgia’s offense to get in gear and added there were points in Saturday’s game when he pondered expanding Fields’ role.

“We considered it a lot and talked about it a lot,” said Smart, whose team is off this weekend before facing No. 11 Florida on Oct. 27 in Jacksonville, Fla. “The point (in the fourth quarter) after Jake went down there and scored the one touchdown, we considered it once they came back and scored on us, but to be honest with you, the game was kind of out of hand at that point.

“Justin continues to work, and he’s doing a good job. He took good reps today, and he’s getting better. I think both of those kids understand they’ve got to play better for us to play better offensively.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Kirbs.  But what are you gonna do about it?  I mean, Dawgnation is barking.  Can’t you hear it?

“I’m not going to be influenced by outside forces on who to play or what to do,” Smart said. “Nobody knows what happens on a play when a kid throws the ball because the corner ‘cats’ (blitzes) and he throws the ball away. It looks like he missed a guy, (but) that might have been the best play he made all day because we might not have had the corner picked up and it was going to be a sack if he didn’t do that. So you just can’t go off of statistics.”

So while a full-blown quarterback controversy rages outside Georgia’s Butts-Mehre football complex, inside there remains cold, calculated and objective analysis of what the Bulldogs are doing at that position…

“Could (Fromm) have played better? Sure, he could have played better,” Smart said. “A lot of people could have played better. A lot of people could have coached better, too. But that’s over with. We’ve moved on to Florida and that’s what we’re focused on.”

The best motivation the staff may have at its disposal over the next week and a half is simply to tell the players (and each other) that if they’re sick of hearing the talk, the way to shut it down is to take care of bidness in Jacksonville.

Today, in adventures in athletics administration

If you can’t hit folks in the wallet voluntarily, it’s good to have a backup checkbook that’s mandatory.

ECU students could face a new student fee of $75.00 a year to help fund the athletics department.

… Senior Associate Athletics Director Lee Workman says the fee increase will help offset an athletics budget shortfall for the 2019-2020 school year projected at $2 to $3 million.

Gosh, how could that have happened, Lee?

He says that declining football ticket sales have contributed to the shortfall. Workman says, “We’ve had some declining revenue, to be honest, over the last couple of years, so that’s added to the financial strain. And so while we continue to build those back, and we will, that’s our plan. Student fee is a part of that as well as other funding sources we’ll be looking at.”

He’s got a plan, kids.  That’s gotta help, right?  What do you figure the odds are that if, by some miracle, the department gets itself back in the black some day, it’ll drop the new fee?

Chalk it up as an educational experience.

“Pretty much at Georgia, your job is in somebody’s else hands every day.”

I guess we’ll find out soon enough if competition is as an effective motivator as Kirby banks on it being.

Coaches will have more time to evaluate personnel because Georgia has a bye week before playing Florida Oct. 27 in Jacksonville.

While much of the focus was on quarterback Jake Fromm’s subpar day, he was hardly the only one who may want to flush the game from their memory.

Freshmen cornerback Tyson Campbell and punter Jake Camarda had their share of struggles.

They could find themselves pushed in practice this week with some competition from players behind them.

“Hopefully a lot,” coach Kirby Smart said after Tuesday’s practice. “We’re pushing guys to go out there and play and do some good things. Jake, we worked some other guys in there kicking today. He’s got to execute better. Talented kid, just didn’t have his best day. It’s kind of the same way with Tyson.”

Camarda averaged 35.5 yards per punt Saturday including punts of 29, 32 and 34 yards. He’s averaging 41.9 yards per punt, ninth in the SEC.

Campbell, the five-star recruit who has started every game this season, was targeted 12 times by LSU giving up passes of 37, 50 and 36 yards.

“We know that he’s a really good, talented player and he’s played better in some other games,” Smart said. “He went against some good players Saturday and they went after him. He didn’t make as many plays as he’d like to. It probably took some of his confidence away but he’s got to grow up fast and we’ve got to help him. We’ve got to help him some.”

That’s all fine, as far as it goes.  If it turns out you don’t have the competition to push, though, you’d better have a Plan B in mind.  Not sure what that would be in Camarda’s case, but it may be that some different scheming is in order to give Campbell more help.  A true freshman cornerback leading the team in tackles is not a goal of a good defense.

“(Being fired is) an occupational hazard now.”

Pity the poor coordinator.  Well, not necessarily poor in the literal sense.

My favorite part of the bullshit here is the faux concern for the players:

The reluctance of making a switch during the season has always been the potential for disruption. As a general rule, athletes like routines and don’t appreciate changes.

“The first thing I think about every day is our players,” Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said. “If I had to make a staff change because of production on the field, (I would) think ‘How is that going to impact our players’ lives … because in my way of looking at it, this would be a pretty dramatic move.”

Alabama coach Nick Saban understands the player side of these decisions because he had to install Steve Sarkasian as his offensive coordinator for the national title game in 2016 after Lane Kiffin accepted a job at Florida Atlantic.

“It would be a little difficult,” Saban said. “It depends on what the issue is. If it’s leadership, maybe someone on the staff can do better leading the players. … A possible change in scheme (could) have a tremendous impact on the players you’re trying to coach. It’s a difficult circumstance for the players. I’m not second-guessing anyone, I just know it’s a difficult situation for the players.”

If a coordinator is canned mid-season, it’s because the head coach is feeling pressure to save his ass.  What’s a little routine disruption compared to that?

“We are worried that this narcissistic sociopath is going to come back.”

Sounds like things are going swimmingly with the McNair investigation at Maryland.

Some are worried that Maryland’s decision to place Durkin on leave is planned simply to appease the concerned public.

“We’re worried that it is all predetermined,” one parent said. “That this is a whole charade meant to appease the people who feel like they have to say something.”

Gosh, I’m shocked, shocked anyone would think that.  I mean, this is Big Ten football.  Who sweeps anything under the rug in Big Ten football?

When in doubt, GATA.

Sounds like there was a lot of yelling at yesterday’s “back-to-basics” practice.

All about Junior

If there’s one thing the Laner does well, it’s self-promotion.

Strength in numbers

That said, it’s nothing short of ridiculous to try to rank Georgia head of LSU tow days after they pulled Georgia’s pants down on national television.  —  Go Dawgs!

If I’m ridiculous, you probably don’t want to look at anybody’s advanced stats this week. — Senator Blutarsky

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

• 2018 S&P+ rankings through 7 weeks
• 2018 Résumé S&P+ rankings through 7 weeks
• College football bettor ranks
• Sagarin

“He’s never smoked a cigar before.”

I imagine this is an interesting week for Booch.

This is cold. https://t.co/Ebflv00J6e

— Michael Casagrande (@ByCasagrande) October 17, 2018

No doubt the players find this funnier than he does.