Heading out for warmer weather now, so you scamps behave.
I do have internet access, so there will be a post or two from Amelia to whet your appetites.
Monthly Archives: October 2019
Outside eyes
If you’re wondering how a Gator fan rationally reviews Georgia’s last few games to suggest how Florida could fashion its gameplan Saturday, you might want to take a look at David Wunderlich’s piece on just that.
One quick rebuttal on David’s first point: the Dawgs took away Kmet as a weapon in the second half of the Notre Dame game, and given that Kirby’s already taken notice of Pitts, I would assume Georgia’s defense took some valuable lessons away from the earlier matchup.
Filed under Gators, Gators..., Georgia Football, Strategery And Mechanics
“I feel like it was just one game.”
Let’s face it, the important question about Georgia is whether the South Carolina game was a one-off experience for the offense, or a sign of deeper problems that are likely to rear their head as the Dawgs roll into the toughest part of their regular season schedule.
The team votes for the former, of course.
Senior running back Brian Herrien can provide a boost to Georgia’s offense, but he missed the South Carolina game with back spasms. He said that afternoon was an anomaly.
“I feel like it was just one game,” Herrien said. “We have to execute, of course … Watching that game, sometimes we weren’t focused enough, or sometimes we were complacent about who we were or what we were doing.”
The head coach doesn’t sound like he’s in total agreement, though.
When asked about the offensive woes and offensive coordinator James Coley’s performance, Smart deflects. He cites the lack of explosive plays, turnover margin and other metrics the Bulldogs watch closely.
But even Smart hedges.
Against Kentucky and South Carolina, the Bulldogs’ flaws were exposed. After a collapse against the Gamecocks and an ugly win over the Wildcats, the offense has offered more concern than confidence. Georgia ranks No. 62 nationally in passing offense.
“I think 50% of [the passing woes against Kentucky] would be due to conditions,” Smart said in a teleconference on Oct. 23. “It was the biggest struggle. It was just tough for anybody to palm a ball and throw a ball and effectively catch it.”
Sounds like the makings for a good, simple reader poll, so here goes nothing.
Comments, as always, are welcome.
Filed under Georgia Football
Never underestimate doing it for the kids.
I confess. As much as I ascribe low motives to the NCAA’s stance on amateurism, one particular play didn’t dawn on me until I read this piece ($$) in The Athletic.
On Tuesday, the NCAA’s board of governors voted to direct its three divisions to consider updating their bylaws by January 2021 to allow NCAA athletes to benefit from their name, image and likeness rights. The announcement doesn’t immediately grant NCAA athletes the right to profit off of their publicity rights and remain eligible, but opens the door to each division amending its bylaws to grant that right.
The announcements mean the NCAA faces a battle to be the sole entity capable of selling NCAA athletes’ group licensing rights. [Emphasis added.]
Damn, I should have seen that one coming. “Sure, kids, we’ll let you monetize your NIL rights, but only if Mark Emmert calls the shots on the contracts.” Now, there’s a deal. And how would the NCAA do it?
Experts believe the NCAA will wage a legal battle over the right to represent NCAA athletes in group licensing deals.
“The NCAA is reasonably likely to launch a counter campaign against the NFLPA’s licensing efforts and make all types of legal threats against the players, including potentially those that would be unenforceable as a matter of law,” said Baruch College sport law professor Marc Edelman. “The most likely threat would be to deem any college athlete who were to sign an agreement to allocate their group licensing rights ineligible to compete in college sports.”
According to Edelman, such a threat opens the NCAA up to potential antitrust litigation.
Ya’ think?
That counter campaign is gonna be lit.
Filed under Georgia Football, The NCAA
Today, in trust the defense
One thing that’s been touched on this week is that Florida leads the SEC in offensive plays of 60+ yards, with seven. Keep that in mind as you see this series of tweets from David Hale.
Overall, both Georgia and Florida are hitting roughly the same level of explosive plays on offense, but defensively, Georgia is doing a far better job of limiting other teams’ big plays than the Gators are. In fact, check out Hale’s conclusion about Florida:
Don’t turn the ball over, Dawgs, and believe in the magic of Todd Grantham.
Filed under Gators, Gators..., Georgia Football, Stats Geek!
“Most quarterbacks this day and time wouldn’t do that.”
I don’t know if you caught this yesterday, but Auburn’s backup quarterback, Joey Gatewood, bailed and put his name in the transfer portal. Gus is pretty nonchalant about it, or so he claims.
“He’s a fine young man, and I really appreciate everything Joey has done for our program. Everyone in our program will be rooting for him moving forward.”
At least as long as Nix stays healthy, anyway. Maybe the reason Malzahn is so cool about it is because he’s used to it by now.
Gatewood is now the seventh quarterback signee under Malzahn to either transfer, leave the team for other reasons or change position. He joins Sean White (dismissed), Jason Smith (moved to receiver, then to defensive back), Woody Barrett (transferred), John Franklin III (switched positions twice and then transferred), Tyler Queen (transferred) and Malik Willis (transferred). Only three quarterback signees under Malzahn have finished their college careers playing quarterback at Auburn: Nick Marshall (2013-14), Jeremy Johnson (2013-2016) and Jarrett Stidham (2017-18), with two of those being junior college transfers and the other, Johnson, finishing his career as a backup after being benched in 2015.
Man, judging by what Auburn fans have said over the years, there’s a lot of Heisman Trophy-level talent just wasted on the Plains. That’s some quarterback whisperer you’ve got there, Tigers.
Filed under Auburn's Cast of Thousands
They said it, not me.
The next time a Florida fan tries to correct you by insisting the correct reference is “the Florida-Georgia game”, send them here:
It doesn’t get any more official than that.
Filed under Gators, Gators..., Georgia Football
Your 10.30.19 Playpen
Okay, let’s get incendiary here: give us your Cocktail Party weekend recommendations! Go on, rub it in the faces of everyone who bitches about Jacksonville, playing a game in Jacksonville, the travel, the weather, the unfairness of it all, etc.
I’ll start. Don’t go to Amelia Island without eating once at T-Ray’s. Just don’t.
And with that, you folks have at it.
Filed under GTP Stuff
Welcome back, Lawrence.
Your stat of the day:
If you’re gonna make your quarterback play in a box, Cager being back this week is huge for Georgia.
Filed under Georgia Football, Stats Geek!
“Just watching them on film. I can see they’re very consistent.”
The recent track record of the Cocktail Party — the game, that is, not the weekend — suggests strongly that the team the runs the ball best, wins. Georgia is better than Florida this season at running the ball and stopping the run, so the Gators have to hope they can buck the trend with the passing game.
The question is, can they? At The Athletic, Will Sammon ($$) suggests they can.
But the one Florida probably must win in order to defeat the Bulldogs is its consistent passing attack versus a defense that has allowed just 5.4 yards per pass attempt. And there is a reasonable chance it will.
He bases that in part on Georgia’s pass defense’s vulnerability to the big play. His evidence for that strikes me as a little weak.
Georgia surrendered big pass plays to Tennessee and South Carolina. On throws 15-plus yards downfield against Georgia, South Carolina was 1-for-2 for 46 yards and Tennessee was 3-for-10 for 127 yards, per Sports Info Solutions.
That doesn’t look like a lot. And that impression is borne out by Georgia’s first-place ranking in the SEC in allowing passing plays over 10+ yards and 20+ yards against FBS opponents this season. The Tennessee 73-yard TD pass he cites is the only pass play of 50+ yards Kirby Smart’s defense has allowed.
Sammon does post a chart that indicates a key personnel issue for Saturday, though.
Notice the YPA averages for Tyson Campbell and D.J. Daniel. Then notice the target/completion ratios for the two. Based on this, you should assume Kirby’s already noticed:
Based on that, I’m anticipating two things tactically come Saturday. One, when he’s out there, Florida is going to do everything it can to target Mark Webb in pass coverage. And, two, I expect to see more of Florida’s third leading rusher, one Emory Jones, who’s averaging over six yards per rushing attempt, at the quarterback spot.
It’s a huge game for both teams and both coaches are going to be pulling out all the stops to win. In particular, Mullen showed a kitchen sink game plan on offense for LSU and I doubt he’s gonna pull back this week.
Filed under Gators, Gators..., Georgia Football, Strategery And Mechanics
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