Insane on the Plains

Auburn’s gonna Auburn, y’all.

With the regular season over, Josh Moon of the Montgomery (Ala.) Reporter reported Monday that a faction of AU power-brokers have gathered support to oust Malzahn, to the point where a search for his replacement is already underway…

Malzahn signed a 7-year, $49 million contract after leading Auburn to wins over Georgia and Alabama en route to an SEC West championship in 2017. The cost to buy the sixth-year Auburn coach out of his contract at this point is a reported $32 million with $16 million of that due nearly immediately should they make this decision.

For what it is worth, FootballScoop was told that people representing Auburn met with Bob Stoops a few weeks back….

Why in the world Bob Stoops would want to work for those folks is beyond me, but whatever.

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

UPDATE:  Big Game Bob strenuously objects.

Bob Stoops emphatically denies to @usatodaysports reports Auburn representatives have reached out (or will):
“I haven’t talked to anybody from Auburn. I haven’t met with anybody…nor am I set to talk to anybody. It’s just foolish speculation…that has no basis to it." pic.twitter.com/DkhHRZcGOg

— George Schroeder (@GeorgeSchroeder) November 27, 2018

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Observations from the 35, Tech delenda est edition

I know I’ve harped on this a little, but I can’t help but observing that Saturday gave the lie to the narrative that the Georgia Tech rivalry means little in this day and age.  Students were out on Thanksgiving holiday, the weather wasn’t particularly pleasant and it was a nooner — all things that would suggest a flat day in Sanford Stadium.

Instead, the place was jumping with energy from the opening kickoff.  The crowd was loud, especially when the defense needed it, loud enough that Tech was forced to call a timeout on offense to gather itself.  The team was as focused as it’s ever been this season.  You’d think it would be hard to stay pumped defending the grind that is the triple option, yet the defense played with high energy all game long.

And if you had any doubt about how much Kirby wanted to mash Tech, just consider that the first string on both sides stayed on the field through 45-7, or less than two minutes remaining in the third quarter.

If that’s an example of no big deal, then I hope Georgia plays a lot more teams it doesn’t care about.  And with that, here come the bullet points.

• There were so many superlatives that emerged from the game, I hardly know where to start, but I’ve got to say that few things surpass watching Tech’s offense, down 45-7, run a 15-play drive that ate up nine minutes on the clock, gained less than forty yards and wound up turning the ball over on downs.
• Although there was the bizarre decision by the genius to go for it on fourth and six inside Tech territory when it was still possible to pretend the Jackets were in the game, watch the offense get stuffed and then have the Dawgs drive the dagger into GT’s heart with the bomb to Hardman.
• By the way, on that play, what do you think was going through the minds of Chaney and Fromm when they saw Tech’s defense line up an inside linebacker in single coverage on Mecole?
• When I play offensive coordinator in the stands, it usually involves the game of counting the box to call run or pass, but after doing so for a few series, I quit because it really didn’t matter.  At one point, Tech committed ten men to the box, Georgia still ran the ball and came up with a decent gain.
• I get that there’s a significant talent disparity, but making matters worse is that Georgia was the better conditioned team and by a noticeable margin.  Tech can try to pretend that its poor tackling was purely a matter of bad execution on the part of its defense, but I routinely saw Georgia players simply outmuscle Tech’s.  Similarly, there were plays where it appeared that the Jackets had the outside sealed to prevent a gain, only to see a much faster Dawg outrun the defense.
• What can you say about Jake Fromm over the past five weeks?  He’s been nothing short of brilliant.  The bomb to Hardman was perfectly thrown, with no break in the receiver’s stride.  An even better touchdown pass was the one to Holloman; that one was so good I almost didn’t realize how good a catch the receiver made on it.  Fromm was 13-16 on the day and really could have dictated whatever passing numbers he wanted.  Crazy good.
• Fromm also could throw the ball to whomever he wanted.  By my count, those thirteen completions went to at least seven different receivers.  Interestingly, I don’t remember a single completion to a running back.  (Not that it mattered.)
• Fromm’s passing day came with zero sacks.  Another great performance from a patched up offensive line that saw a true freshman start at right guard.
• If I were a defensive coordinator calling plays against Georgia’s two-minute drill, I’d make sure to have somebody cover Isaac Nauta.
• Is there anything that really needs to be said about Holyfield and Swift at this point, other than Swift’s return to health makes them such a dangerous duo?
• It’s nitpicking, I know, but why do they run James Cook so much up the middle?  It’s like Carlton Thomas redux.  Maybe with another year of S&C it’ll be better.
• As much fun as it was to watch the offense have its way, the defense’s performance was nothing short of stunning.  I’ve never seen a Georgia defense handle the triple option better.  Never.
• That started with the defensive front, which executed at a high level all game long.  Ledbetter, Walker and Herring were particularly dominant.  Two things were noticeable:  one, the line did a fantastic job keeping its feet in the face of constant cut blocking, and two, showed real discipline in maintaining assignment football.  (When you’ve got a true freshman like Adam Anderson kicking ass with containment, you’ve done your job, coaches.)  There were so few misses that it was almost a surprise when a Georgia player didn’t execute properly.
• Jordan Davis had a freakin’ sack!
• They weren’t under any real pressure to pass defend, so it was reasonable to expect a decent day out of the inside linebackers.  They did better than decent; in particular, Crowder had an excellent game.
• It’s got to be hard being a defensive back going up against the triple option — long stretches of nothing but being blocked by receivers broken up by the occasional attempt to catch you sleeping on the pass — but the secondary did its part, as well.  Campbell got in on a sack, Baker had a nice tackle on a running play, but more importantly when Marshall tried to throw the ball on the first string secondary, there was never anything there.  (Marshall’s definitely mastered the sideline out of bounds throw, though.)
• The offense and defense were fantastic.  Special teams were anything but.  I’m not sure what is going on with Blankenship, but that makes for a second straight week of poor early kickoffs before he settled in.  The kickoff returned for a touchdown was the result of the right side of the coverage team losing contain.  That was followed by an offside call on Rodrigo’s first kick that was a touchback.  He also clanked a field goal attempt that was within his range.  The one bright spot was another strong Hardman punt return.  I’m not sure why there’s been a slide in special teams this season, but they’d better get that fixed before the SECCG.  Just sayin’.
• Georgia scored touchdowns on its first five possessions, a field goal on its sixth as the clock ran down to end the first half and another touchdown on its next possession.  If only they’d replace Jim Chaney with a real offensive coordinator…
• Defensively, Smart and Tucker painted their 2018 masterpiece.  Focus, discipline and execution were all off the charts.  Let’s hope they keep it coming.
• I guess I can’t let a couple of special moments with the genius pass without comment.  First, he pretty much lost it when his B-back was flagged for a downfield block below the waist.  The reason I say that is because he was still bitching hard at the refs about it three plays afterwards.  He topped that later, though, when he had to burn a time out because he hadn’t sent a player in with the next play call.
• Is there a more dick move than calling a timeout with 44 seconds left in the game, down 45-14?  I suppose Johnson hopes a few weeks from now everyone will look at the score and figure it wasn’t as much of an ass-wuppin’ as it really was.
• The Jackets knew early on that they weren’t going to be in a good place at game’s end to do any hedge harvesting, so they settled for cheering on the sidelines when the replay booth didn’t flag one of theirs for targeting on Beal, who, I might add, left the game with what looked like a concussion.  Nice.

Really, season-enders don’t get much better than that.  Now, on to bigger and (hopefully) better.

Fearless

Per Seth Emerson ($$),

No. 5 Georgia opened as a 13.5-point underdog to No. 1 Alabama in Saturday’s SEC Championship Game at the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook. The Bulldogs haven’t closed as that big of an underdog since 2009 against Florida when the Gators were favored by 15 points. If the line holds and Georgia was to win Saturday, it would be the greatest upset in the 26-year history of the SEC championship.

This is the first time this season Georgia has even been an underdog.

Will the Dawgs be fazed by that?  Welp,

D'Andre Swift on playing Alabama: "We ain't scared." pic.twitter.com/qILGXtLHb8

— Radi Nabulsi (@RadiNabulsi) November 24, 2018

Nor should they be.  ‘Bama may be having a season for the ages, but as the stats in this piece show, Georgia isn’t exactly outclassed.

Comparing the two statistically shows a balanced, well-matched pairing with a spot in the College Football Playoff likely at stake. Both are top-15 in total offense and top-12 in total defense. Georgia is more effective running the ball while Alabama is better with the pass.

Looking at the game-changing measures, both are good on third downs — converting and stopping the opposition. Big plays have also punctuated the offensive production for both the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide while Georgia has done a better job preventing them on defense. In the turnover battle, advantage Alabama.

Georgia lost its composure in Baton Rouge and has spent the following weeks regaining it.  Now on a five-game win streak, the offense has rounded into shape.  In the month of November, Georgia is second in the country in yards per play, averaging a tick over 8 yards every time it touches the ball.  (A significant factor in that is Swift himself, who has been superb as his health issues recede.)

It would be crazy to guarantee a Georgia win, of course.  Alabama is head and shoulders above any other opponent the Dawgs have faced this season.  I’d like to think, though, that the way Georgia has been playing of late means the same situation exists for the Tide.  What I do know is that if Georgia questions itself going into the championship game, it has no chance.  Shoot your shot, boys.

Mix and match: Kirby Smart’s defense

I’ve written a couple of times before about Kirby’s defensive philosophy/approach, here and here.  I’m going to dive back in with what may be the most extensive analysis of that I’ve seen (h/t Ian Boyd).

When you talk about Kirby, the defensive guru, everything obviously starts with his coaching mentor, Nick Saban.  But that’s just a beginning point; Smart isn’t a Saban clone, at least not completely.

My primary reason for studying Kirby Smart’s defense was in finding out how much he would keep from his near decade-long boss, and how much he would truly carve out on his own. Would he be simply Saban 2.0 – now with improved media relations? Or would he deliver a distinct defensive philosophy that was entirely his own? The answer, of course, is somewhat in between.

In many ways, defensive coaches are molded by the offenses they face. Saban, for example, spent a lifetime facing a litany of offensive schemes at both the collegiate and NFL levels, which in turn has led him to his near omnivorous approach to defense. There is almost no front, coverage, or blitz missing in Saban’s mental library, and he is thoroughly prepared to use them all if the situation demands it.

Smart’s defense, by contrast, appears more molded by the proliferation of the spread offense that coincides with his coaching career. His defense is more condensed, more streamlined, more focused. In short, Smart’s defense appears to have fewer individual play calls, but with more checks and adjustments built-in…

It’s an excellent, in depth piece that goes into tremendous detail with personnel, sets and adjustments.  It took me over an hour to go through, so set aside a little time when you get the chance and read it all.  It’s well worth it if you’re trying to understand what Georgia tries to do on defense, which, by the way, is nicely summed up at the end as…

In many ways, Smart does not see predictability simply as a mistake, but a symptom of an even greater sin: complacency.

It was an innocent question.

Y’all don’t lift weights?? https://t.co/5uEWMmsbGx

— Keith Marshall (@Truthh4) November 24, 2018

Okay, maybe not so innocent.  But it sure was obvious Saturday which team was the better conditioned one.

Today, in this is good, right?

D’Andre Walker, the model of an efficient beast.

Against Georgia Tech's triple-option offense, Georgia's D'Andre Walker rushed the passer just 3 times… He got home with a pressure on EACH of those 3 rushes. pic.twitter.com/p6qCQeuyQY

— PFF College (@PFF_College) November 26, 2018

Talk about making the most of your opportunities…

Redemption song

A quick Michigan-Ohio State thought: FOX really needed a far more muted presentation of Urban Meyer. Seriously…..Gus Johnson saying there aren't many men like him, the whole crew talking about "all the things he's gone through"….Just a really tone-deaf, bad look all around.

— Mike Harrington (@ByMHarrington) November 24, 2018

There are, of course, obvious reasons I want Georgia to win the SECCG, but a very underrated one is that I really, really wish for both Alabama and Georgia to make the CFP semi-finals so I can watch Corch sputter with rage when Ohio State — which is going to beat Northwestern to claim the Big Ten championship — gets excluded.

“Tech’s loss was so bad…”

Mark Bradley takes a stab at wit with the “how bad was it?” response that the loss was so bad it was almost a source of amusement for Paul Johnson.  Right, sure, whatever you say, Mark.

Actually Bradley does a better job of answering that when he writes,

For his part, Marshall wasn’t overly impressed with his conqueror. “I really don’t think they’re as good as they were last year,” he said, and he has a point.

Last year’s Bulldogs had Roquan Smith, Nick Chubb and Sony Michel, three of Georgia’s best players ever.

Here’s the thing about that.  If you really think 2018 Georgia is a lesser version of the team it fielded in 2017, what’s the only sensible explanation for the Dawgs dominating the Jackets, both statistically and in the field of play, more Saturday than a year ago?

Now that’s funny.

SEC Power Poll, Week Thirteen

Another regular season is in the books, a little different from what we’ve experienced in that both preseason media favorites wound up winning their respective divisions and facing off for the conference championship.

If there was a surprise, it’s that the East finally caught the West in the cross-divisional series for the first time in a decade or so.  A lot of that can be chalked up to the bottom of the West being worse than the bottom of the East.

So here’s my last regular season power poll of 2018.  (You can expect one more after the playoffs.)  As I usually do with the last one of these, I include each team’s net yardage per game number in a weak attempt to offer some context on the conference’s over- and under- achievers.

1. Alabama (+255.8).  Alabama’s smallest margin of victory this season was against Texas A&M, 22 points.
2. Georgia (+177.3).  It’s impressive to see how this team has gained momentum since the LSU loss.
3. Mississippi State (+133.6).  You can make an argument that MSU has the SEC’s best defense.  The reason the season doesn’t quite reflect that is because the offense hasn’t been consistent.
4. Missouri (+89.8).  Move over Tennessee, Mizzou is the new king of November.
5. LSU (+43.2).  Scream about the refs if you want, but the net yardage figure suggests that the Tigers overachieved this season.
6. Texas A&M (+109.3).  5-3 in the conference with a negative points differential makes the Aggies another overachieving team.
7. Florida (+81.9).  The Gators are +4 in conference points differential, but what goes for TAMU goes for them, too.
8. Kentucky (+34.0).  Honestly, you could flip the ‘Cats and Auburn here and I wouldn’t have a problem with it.  Both suffered embarrassing losses to Tennessee.  I give UK a slight nod because of more wins and because I don’t think Stoops is as gutless as Malzahn was in the last two minutes of that first half against Alabama.
9. Auburn (+10.5).  The SEC’s biggest disappointment of 2018.
10. South Carolina (+5.0).  Ironically, in a year when Boom’s offense made real strides, his defense finished next to last in the conference in yardage.  I doubt there were many folks expecting that.
11. Vanderbilt (-22.0).  Finishing the regular season by beating your hated rival for the third year in a row, something that last happened in the 1920’s, and denying the Vols bowl eligibility while earning it for yourself is about as sweet a resolution as it gets.
12. Tennessee (-51.9).  Of the Vols’ seven losses, six came by at least 25 points.
13. Ole Miss (+27.1).  If you want a better picture of OM’s year, note that the yardage differential in conference play was minus-51.5.
14. Arkansas (-77.5).  A weird year — bad early, somewhat competitive in the middle part of the season, then finished by being outscored 90-6 in the last two games.

Here’s an additional set of data points, presented for your interest.

Net SEC Points Per Drive
(Offense minus Defense)
(vs conf opp) pic.twitter.com/WjRSrv1a86

— The Solid Verbal (@SolidVerbal) November 25, 2018

I don’t see any dramatic differences there.  Thoughts?

“Heroes have graced the field before you…”

I don’t know if you noticed, but they spruced up the Sanford Stadium field for the last game of the season.

Some added logos at 25 today in Sanford. pic.twitter.com/s9Xu5jlINM

— Marc Weiszer (@marcweiszer) November 24, 2018

Give B-M a little more time, and they’ll start selling off weekly naming rights for individual donors.