Today, in screaming hot takes

"I think there are about 15 quarterbacks who could play for Georgia and do the same thing [as Jake Fromm]." – @AmalShah1 with me on @SXMCollege 84.

— Barrett Sallee (@BarrettSallee) August 4, 2019

Okay, here are last season’s national leaders in passer rating.  I’ll hang up and listen to your list of those fifteen now.

Advertisement

Sixty seconds you’ll never get back.

There are few more pointless exercises pundits go through this time of year than quibbling with teams that are overrated and underrated in the Coaches Poll, because there are few more pointless exercises these days than the Coaches Poll itself.

But I have to tip my hat to CBSSports’ Tom Fornelli, who’s managed to achieve pointlessness squared with his take that Georgia is over-ranked by one spot.

Georgia is in a somewhat similar position as Michigan here. For the most part, I believe the Coaches Poll got the top 15 right. Sure, I’d move a couple teams up or down a spot or two, but there’s nothing egregiously wrong with it. One of the bigger of their small mistakes, in my mind, is having Georgia at No. 3 ahead of Oklahoma at No. 4. Georgia is talented and good enough to win the SEC and get to the playoff. But should it start the season ranked ahead of an Oklahoma team that has won 46 games the last four seasons, at least 10 games in 16 of the last 19 seasons, and been selected for the last two College Football Playoffs (and three of the last four)?

Well, since we’re taking a walk back through recent history, how did the two do the last time they faced off?  And while we at it, how have they fared lately against Alabama?

But apparently I digress, because he’s rolling.

No, it shouldn’t. Particularly when you consider that last we saw the Bulldogs, they were losing to Texas in the Sugar Bowl. And spare me all the excuses about Georgia not caring about the game because they felt they should be in the playoff. That’s an excuse for losers, and this Georgia team isn’t full of losers.

I’ll spare him all the excuses if he’ll recall that Oklahoma lost to Texas last season, too.

Throwing darts against the wall

Stassen has now tracked thirteen of its fifteen sources for its preseason consensus chart and Georgia is still firmly ensconced in third.

And if you look closely, you’ll find a reason why Florida rates so highly — there’s no other team that the pundits congregate around for that eighth spot.  There’s a big gap between the Gators and seventh and there’s a big gap between the Gators and ninth.  It’s basically process of elimination; somebody’s gotta be eighth.

When college football is top-heavy, as it is this season, everything outside the top sixth is basically a crap shoot, anyway.

Speaking of line play

Part of me wants to cringe a little listening to Jordan Rodgers here…

… while another part thinks, “you know, he’s got a point”.

Jim, you’re not in Athens anymore.

Jim Chaney is asked a question and gives an honest answer.

On the idea of coaching around the offensive line:

“I don’t think it’s possible. I don’t believe it’s possible. I don’t think you can coach around your offensive line. Football’s been a game played on the line of scrimmage for a lot of years. At Purdue years ago, we threw it all the time and everybody says, ‘Well, you’re doing that to bypass your line.’ We had a lot of linemen go on and play in the NFL. We weren’t winning the game because of the lack of the line play. We were winning because of the line play. We were just doing it a different way. It’s hard to hide if you’re deficient on the offensive line. It’s difficult to do. I think it’s virtually impossible at times. My anticipation is that our kids are going to go out there and compete. We’re going to be just fine. We’re going to go get better as the season goes on and continue to develop. And hopefully everything will go our way.”

At least until he got to the last sentence.