Fromm is under the league average, at 8.02. And that’s the bread and butter staple of Georgia’s passing game! It’s a good illustration of how compacted an area Coley is having his offense operate within.
I’m not sure I’d necessarily chalk that up to manball, but it seems really conservative. It’s also an indication they’re not really fooling defenses much.
Filed under Georgia Football, Stats Geek!
Maybe this will help.
I definitely thought he was sensitive to the pressure in the second half last week. It didn’t bring out his best.
Filed under Georgia Football, Stats Geek!
A lot of people are going to see certain things that are wrong. I think it’s important to try and come together and find a way that’s right for the student-athlete, for the game and for the universities. Let’s take the University of Florida, for example. There’s only two of their 21 sports that sustain themselves: Football and basketball. And basketball doesn’t make enough money to support other sports. Football has to support 19 others, for men and women. You have to take all that into account and understand that all of it is part of this bigger issue.
Here’s what that “support” means in real life:
If you are lucky enough to be the head golf coach at Texas A&M, you are down to make $209,100, which is dog food compared to the head men’s golf coach at the University of Texas, who makes $275K.
The head women’s basketball coach at UTEP makes $246,000, or $700 less than the defensive coordinator for a Miners football program that is currently 1-4.
And if you are the the head women’s bowling coach at Sam Houston State university you pull in $73,584.
These are a few examples taken from state schools in Texas, but they reflect the entire country.
If you want to look at least one reason why the NCAA and its member schools are in an alligator-fight against student-athletes being paid, look no further than the ledgers and just how much money is spent to pay coaches, and staffers.
“The other side of student-athlete benefits has always been coach and staff compensation,” Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said.
Schools are asking college athletes from revenue producing programs, most of whom come from impoverished backgrounds, to subsidize the salaries of athletic staffers in non-revenue producing programs. Why should that be their responsibility?
Well, let Mr. Bowlsby, in a remarkable fit of honesty, explain.
“Whatever resource the athletic department has they typically spend it; they operate hand to mouth,” Bowlbsy said. “The difference between the college athletics model and the pro athletics model is they manage to a profit. We manage to a zero outcome, or something marginally above zero.
“If there is $300,000 left, they are going to find something to do with it.”
Just as long as it doesn’t involve player compensation, anyway.
Filed under It's Just Bidness
When you run your offense inside a 20-yard box and direct the bulk of your passing attack to the sideline, that’s what you get from one of the best quarterbacks in college football.
Filed under Georgia Football, SEC Football, Stats Geek!
This is the kind of shit you get when you’ve got more money than sense.
Auburn University responded to an open records request this morning concerning costs surrounding the development of the new “AU” shield and “visual identity system.”
Chermayeff & Gelsmar Havlv, LLC is providing the university consultation through 2019 for $30,000, but that may not be the total cost associated with the new logo.
That’s thirty grand for a “visual identity system” that’s been put on hold because the reaction to the minor logo change was overwhelmingly negative.
Rumors of the newly-developed logo being scrapped after an uproar from alumni and boosters swirled since September.
Student Government Association president Mary Margaret Turton said Ronald Burgess, Auburn University’s chief operating officer, told her the university will stick with its traditional logo at a meeting of the student senate earlier this week.
“Because we’ve had conversations regarding the visual identity system for the past few weeks in here, I do want to share an update that I got this morning,” Turton said, according to the Auburn Plainsman. “General Burgess announced that we will not be moving forward with the new logo this morning. We have plans from that directive to continue using the traditional Auburn logo, so I just wanted to share that.”
The new logo was shared among department heads in August and a source shared it with Auburn Undercover.
The new logo utilized the traditional “AU” shield framework, but closed the white space between the “A” and “U” to provide more focus on the “A” for Auburn. The “U” in the logo was also shorter in height than in the previous version.
Some people have way too much time on their hands. And too much money.
Filed under Auburn's Cast of Thousands, General Idiocy
Look, don’t get me wrong. Kentucky isn’t a particularly good team this season. As Josh notes, the ‘Cats haven’t exactly been stopping SEC offenses. Getting Georgia’s execution back on track should be enough to carry the day.
So I understand doubling down on core identity.
And when Kirby Smart was asked about how Fromm has handled the fall out from the loss, the Georgia coach said his quarterback seems to be in good spirits.
“He’s been great. He’s been helping those wideouts, challenging them, just as he was before,” Smart said. “Challenging them outside, giving them looks like we know they’re going to get. Hard corners, and trying to get them more physical guys at the line, pressing them and things like that. So we can simulate those looks a little better. But Jake’s been great.”
True, when you don’t give a defense new wrinkles, you should be able to anticipate what you’re going to get.
Which brings me to Seth’s preview piece for tomorrow’s game ($$). He’s got a couple of quotes from Charlie Woerner that are revealing. For example, here’s what Woerner says about the offense going up-tempo:
“We don’t always do it, but when we do it is really effective,” tight end Charlie Woerner said. “They’re not ready. Most of the defenses we play, they change a lot of their defensive personnel, so it helps us when we go fast and get them stuck in a personnel grouping they don’t want. But yeah, two-minute wasn’t great on Saturday. We’ve got to continue to work on little things, get better on our tempo stuff, so we can use it all the time and it can really be a weapon for us.”
But Woerner said they don’t always want to be in tempo because of certain plays they want to run. They want to be able to substitute during drives, which is where their depth comes in, and when they do that the defense by rule has to be able to answer with substitutions. [Emphasis added.]
So, they know pace works, they know how it affects the opposing defense, but they don’t want to commit to it too much because it limits the playcalling (you get one guess about that) and they like substituting.
Then there’s this about play design and throwing over the middle:
There is also the idea of throwing more balls to the middle of the field. Woerner pointed out that South Carolina played a lot of one-high safety and cover 3.
“It takes away a lot of the middle, definitely,” Woerner said. “But a lot of that, they’re doing because they’re trying to take away our run game, and loading the box. That’s why a lot of the middle is gone.”
Now, there are ways to deal with that — and, to be fair, Coley did call more five-wide, empty backfield sets against South Carolina than I’d seen previously this season. The problem is that most of that came when the Dawgs were in scramble mode, trying to claw back in the game, rather than as a way to attack the defensive scheme. And that’s because Georgia plays as Kirby wants Georgia to play.
Take it from the horse’s mouth: “We’ve never lost a game when we were efficient in the run game…”
And that’s fine, to an extent. But can’t Georgia have another answer on offense when it’s inefficient running the ball? Or maybe the better question is why can’t Georgia scheme ways to promote efficiency in the ground game other than by imposing its will?
Again, unless Georgia’s hemorrhaging turnovers, those aren’t questions that are likely to need answers Saturday night. But we all know there are times coming up when Tyler Simmons’ blocking skills aren’t going to be enough to carry the day by themselves. It might be prudent to consider other ways to skin the cat. Just sayin’.
Filed under Georgia Football, Strategery And Mechanics
Normally, this would sound clichéd…
SUDGE: What will it take for Kentucky to pull an upset in Athens?
MOORE: There has only been one game where Kentucky didn’t find itself in a hole in the first quarter. They can’t let that happen against Georgia and let it get out of hand fast. Kentucky also has 16 turnovers this season if you count turnovers on downs, and they have to win the turnover battle.
They have to try and do what they did against Arkansas. Georgia’s running backs are a totally different animal in terms of depth, but I think they need to keep the explosive plays to a minimum. I think Georgia will run all over them, but it’s about containing the big bursts. Kentucky has to try to shorten the game in order to have its best shot.
… but after last week, it sounds like a credible game plan. It’s up to the home team to make that revert to mere wishful thinking.
That being said, it’s a little weird for both teams to share a goal of shortening the game. If you’re Kirby Smart, dominating time of possession is nice until it isn’t.
Filed under Georgia Football, Strategery And Mechanics
I’m not gonna lie to you. Every time I watch LSU’s offense this year, I grow a little more jealous.
Turns out LSU has been doing it wrong all these years. For more than 100 years, the minds behind LSU’s offense told us that if we just run it a few more times, the passing game would open up. Just one more toss dive they said. Just one more battering run into a loaded box. It’ll make it easier on the quarterback! Just one more run, baby! Just. One. More. Run.
We have been hoodwinked, bamboozled, run amok and flat-out deceived!
The run does not set up the pass. The pass sets up the run. LSU’s 2019 offense is proof of what the nerds have been saying for a few years now at the professional level. Passing is king, play action works no matter what and you should throw on early downs.
It’s not that Georgia lacks the personnel to do those things. It’s not even that Georgia doesn’t do those things. Play action is a staple. The Dawgs threw as often as they ran on first down against South Carolina.
What Georgia lacks is a commitment to fully incorporate that mindset into its offensive scheme. Sure, executing better than it did last Saturday is bound to make things better, but ask yourself if you think this team has the slightest possibility of scoring 42 points on 48 offensive plays against Florida in a few weeks.
You can stop chuckling now. We return you to our regularly scheduled manball, already in progress.
Filed under Georgia Football, Strategery And Mechanics
Fun times in the trenches, perhaps.
Georgia’s offensive line vs. Kentucky’s defensive line: The Wildcats aren’t all that deep up front but they are massive. Nose tackle Quinton Bohanna tips the scales at over 350 pounds and is an impressive athlete. Defensive tackle Calvin Taylor is as freakish as they come at 6-foot-9, 310 pounds. He has gotten better with each year in Lexington and has four tackles for a loss and three sacks this season. He’s one of the most underrated defenders in the conference. Josh Paschal and T.J. Carter are also really good players. Georgia’s offensive line has been up and down in recent weeks and it’s also banged up. Cade Mays is in line to make his first career start at left guard. It’ll be the fourth position he has started at since arriving at UGA in January of 2018. Ben Cleveland is dealing with some minor injuries as well. The Bulldogs will need to be cohesive up front and put forth a better overall effort than it did against South Carolina.
Yes, that would be nice.
Question: if Mays is installed at left guard, who steps up as the sixth offensive lineman to fill in at tight end in the newish jumbo formation?
Filed under Georgia Football
Let me see if I’ve got this straight:
You know what comes next, right?
The Big 12 issued a $25,000 fine and a public reprimand to Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt on Wednesday after he released a statement about an officiating error in the Red Raiders‘ loss at Baylor on Saturday…
The Big 12 said Hocutt violated league policy by speaking out publicly about officiating.
“It is vital that senior administration officials, especially the directors of athletics, adhere explicitly to these policies,” league commissioner Bob Bowlsby said in a prepared statement. “It is very difficult to balance support for an institution’s teams while fully complying with the imperative created by schools acting together to manage athletics competition. On this occasion, the required discipline was not exercised. Kirby Hocutt is one of the very best athletics administrators in the nation, and I am grateful for his assistance and support in resolving this matter.”
In an email sent Monday to Bowlsby, obtained by 247Sports through a Freedom of Information Act request, Hocutt wrote that he did not violate the league’s policy on commenting about officiating but “rather provided a factual clarification to bring closure to this issue.”
“We simply stated the the facts in regards to the communication with the conference staff, the decision on the field, and that the play is not reviewable,” Hocutt wrote to Bowlsby.
And the conferences wonder why fans get so pissed off about officiating.
Filed under Big 12 Football
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