You know what’s coming next, right?
Notre Dame is fourth nationally in red zone touchdown percentage, converting seven of eight opportunities.
Daily Archives: September 19, 2019
Today, in something’s gotta give
Filed under Georgia Football, Notre Dame's Faint Echoes, Stats Geek!
Another key for Saturday
Nick Toomey’s excellent Twitter thread here, as usual, illustrates a good point. If running the ball successfully is Job One for the offense, keeping Ian Book in the pocket and making him throw on passing downs is Job One on the defensive side.
As Nick posts, Georgia’s success controlling first and second downs is going to be important. A one-dimensional Book is easier to read (see what I did there?).
Filed under Georgia Football, Strategery And Mechanics
The difference between “being familiar with” and “being successful in”
Holy crap. This isn’t just bad; it’s spectacularly bad.
That’s so horrendous it may have bludgeoned regression to the mean to death.
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UPDATE: On the other hand…
Filed under Notre Dame's Faint Echoes, Stats Geek!
TFW you don’t feel
Alabama coach Nick Saban says top recruit Antonio Alfano “basically quit.”
Saban says the defensive end for the second-ranked Crimson Tide stopped coming to class and the football building. He says Alabama tried to set up counseling for him and that it remains available but “until he responds you just have to assume the guy quit.”
Alfano’s father, Frankie, posted on Twitter on Friday that his son’s grandmother was “very ill and is still fighting on life support.” He said Antonio had not attended classes or practices.
He’s a five-star kid, so I can’t figure out if the Sabanbot does or doesn’t have time for this shit.
Filed under Nick Saban Rules
Talk, talk, talk…
If you are in need of a little bloviation, the guys at Chapel Bell Curve have posted our chat.
If you haven’t been listening to their podcasts, give ’em a try. Good stuff.
Filed under Georgia Football
“He told me he was a lot more nervous in high school than he ever has been in college…”
Andy Staples ($$) shares the perfect Jake Fromm story:
Fromm rarely shows or admits when he does get nervous. Yet his father Emerson is fairly certain Jake’s nerves were jangled as a junior at Houston County High when the Bears played Middle Georgia power Northside High. How does dad know? Because in high school, Jake Fromm puked before every game except that particular meeting with Northside.
On that November night in 2015, Fromm barfed during the game.
A few minutes into the game, Houston County lined up with Fromm in the shotgun. Fromm called out his cadence and then paused briefly to empty the contents of his stomach. Then he switched the tailback to the other side of the formation — Emerson recalled that Jake didn’t want the back to have to run through the puddle — and calmly completed a pass. The Bears scored on the drive and wound up winning 34-13.
It’s the switching the formation part that makes it perfect.
Filed under Georgia Football
I’m Phillip Fulmer, and I approve this message.
Yeah, here’s a real surprise.
Jeremy Pruitt announced Wednesday that Tennessee sophomore defensive back Bryce Thompson and sophomore linebacker Jeremy Banks will travel to Gainesville for the Volunteers’ game Saturday at ninth-ranked Florida.
Thompson had been suspended indefinitely following a misdemeanor domestic assault involving a girlfriend on Aug. 24. Banks was arrested this weekend after being pulled over for a traffic violation. After running his record it was determined that he had an active warrant for a failure to appear in court in Knox County for driving on a suspended license.
While it could be Thompson’s first action of the season, Banks is coming off the best game of his career in the Vols’ 45-0 win over the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Banks intercepted a couple of passes and had three tackles in the win.
Thompson was a Freshman All-American in 2018, leading the team with three interceptions. Pruitt announced last week that he had been re-instated to the team and was being allowed to practice.
If you thought Thompson was sitting out this week — and remember, Pruitt’s on the road, meaning he can only take 70 — you know nothing about Tennessee football, Jon Snow.
If you thought Tennessee fans might have a problem with this, you know nothing about Tennessee football, Jon Snow.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, for the win.
It’s a big game, part two.
Stupid me, I forgot the unwritten rule of Georgia football: it’s only a big game if Georgia loses.
Just shoot me now. Please.
Filed under Georgia Football, Media Punditry/Foibles
It’s a big game, part one.
Jack Bauerle is the longest-tenured coach at the University of Georgia, his memory of great football moments in Athens stretching to 1970 when he enrolled as a varsity swimmer. He’s as good a person as any to ask how big of a deal it is that Notre Dame is coming to Georgia for the first time.
“Very seldom have I seen a buzz like this for any game,” said Bauerle, who has coached Georgia to seven team NCAA championships in women’s swimming. “Maybe 1976 was something like this when Alabama came in and they were undefeated and the town didn’t sleep on Friday or Saturday night. That sort of reminds me of what’s going on here.”
Or you can ask Loran Smith, the semi-official historian of Georgia athletics who was the longtime sideline reporter for football broadcasts and still serves in a variety of roles around the athletic department. He’ll take you back further, to 1929 when powerhouse Yale made a rare trip out of the Northeast to play the first game in newly-built Sanford Stadium. Or maybe to 1942 against No. 2-ranked Georgia Tech in the game that launched Georgia to its first Rose Bowl.
“It’s just something people feel like is uniquely special – Notre Dame coming to ‘The Hedges,’ ” Smith said. “Athens is always wrapped up in college football, but you’ve got Thursday’s edge on Monday this week.”
What makes a particular game between the hedges a big game? I can’t say it’s necessarily the stakes. This Saturday, if Georgia loses — perish the thought, I know — it hardly strikes a death knell on Georgia’s season, ultimately, as the Dawgs could go on to run the rest of the regular season table and find themselves back in the CFP as the SEC champ. Notre Dame’s path after a loss may be a little rockier, but don’t forget the Irish did a good job of clawing back into the national title picture in 2017 after losing to Georgia at home.
Nah, what makes a big game a big game is us. Our excitement. Our expectations.
Something we discussed briefly in that Chapel Bell Curve podcast I mentioned was where this week’s game fits in the pantheon of big games we’ve seen at Sanford Stadium. A few I could think of when the anticipation seemed enormous:
- 2014 Clemson
- 2013 LSU
- 2008 Alabama
- 2007 Auburn
- 2004 LSU
- 1997 Auburn
- 1992 Tennessee
- 1983 Auburn
- 1980 South Carolina
(Georgia’s record in those games: 5-4. But I digress.)
Just curious what you think of that list and where you think this week’s game measures up.
One editorial comment I’ll make is that I know Notre Dame plays in a lot of hyped-up regular season games, but if Saturday night’s crowd brings the same level of energy that fourth quarter crowd in the LSU game brought, the Irish won’t know what hit ’em.
Filed under Georgia Football, Notre Dame's Faint Echoes
A question for you amateurism romantics
As New Mexico is planning to make tuition at its public colleges and universities free for all state residents, does that mean scholarship athletes there will be taking a pay cut?
Filed under The NCAA
Get The Picture 
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