They’ll follow you anywhere.

Neutral site games — they’re not just for college football anymore!

The NFL has also talked internally about playing games in other cities in the U.S. which do not have pro teams, with some buzz about playing a game at Notre Dame or Alabama, as well as Hawaii and cities in Canada. It is viewed as a unique and profound way to grow the game globally and extend the reach of sales, merchandising and broadcast rights around the globe, with there only so much more room for growth within America.

Well, if I’m an NFL player with a choice of a game in Hawaii or Tuscaloosa, I know where I’d prefer to go.

Honestly, I can’t really imagine ‘Bama fans are going to be as taken with the Dolphins coming to town as they are with Nick’s team.  Can you?

(h/t)

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“I understand that people want a quick and easy fix.”

Well, that’s one thing you’ll never get at Vanderbilt.

Today, in totally unrelated matters

Yeah, uhh hunh.

LSU linebacker Michael Divinity returned to practice on Monday, two weeks after leaving the team for what coach Ed Orgeron described at the time as personal reasons…

Divinity’s return comes on the heels of an LSU win over Ole Miss in which the defense gave up some 600 yards of offense, including more than 200 yards and four touchdowns from quarterback John Rhys Plumlee.

At the time Divinity left the team, before the Alabama game, he had 23 tackles in eight games and led the team with three sacks.

Man, what are the odds on that happening?  Must be astronomical…

TFW the work comes first

This is impressive.

For those of you asking if I got “the” shot, here it is!! The last thing my camera & I saw before being tackled. @brianherrienn, I hope you LOVE this photo!! ❤️🏈📷 #godawgs pic.twitter.com/mxWfyWhcUU

— Chamberlain Smith (@ChamberlainSmit) November 19, 2019

You go, girl.

Believe your lying eyes.

In yesterday’s comments, Bill Glennon brought up this quote from Smart at his Auburn post-game presser:

On what Auburn was able to do differently in the fourth quarter…

“They just got hot, got on a rhythm. It’s not like we went conservative. We didn’t call different calls. We were ‘bend-but-don’t-break.’ They hit some plays. They went tempo. I thought Bo (Nix) got a little more confident. We had a couple of busts and when you combine those things, guys get hot. It wasn’t like they didn’t move it earlier, because they moved it earlier, we just had some really big stops. We didn’t have really big stops on the later drives. We didn’t get behind the sticks. They did a good job of personelling, Gus did a good job of searching till he found something. We didn’t have enough answers to what they were doing. Earlier in the game, we did and we kind of didn’t have enough answers when we needed it most. But I’ll say this, they went out there the last time and came up with some big stops.”  [Emphasis added.]

Now, wait a minute.  I’m no coaching genius — I’m no coach, period — but I can recognize a soft zone when I see one.  And I’m not the only one.  I watched the replay last night and Gary Danielson made the same observation.

You know who else did?  Seth Williams, Auburn’s leading receiver in the game ($$).

There are two sides to every football game, and Auburn’s offensive surge in the fourth quarter can’t be fully explained without pointing out what Georgia was doing on defense.

According to Williams, Georgia ran a lot of man coverage in the first three quarters of the game. That resulted in a heavier diet of slants and other man-beating routes for Williams, who finished with 13 catches on 20 targets.

That changed in the fourth quarter, when the Bulldogs decided to drop into more zone coverage — trying to prevent one mistake from turning into a huge play. Auburn’s second touchdown drive featured back-to-back first-down completions to Williams against zone coverage.

Pretty obvious, in other words.  But I guess Mr. Impose Your Will would rather have people criticize his choice of language than question his fourth quarter defensive strategy.

Here’s a comparison I didn’t see coming.

First of all, because it’s coming from Kirk Herbstreit.

“I think Georgia’s a team that’s not going to win any style points, but because of the way they’re playing defense, it’s hard not to recognize them as a team that deserves to be up where they are,” Herbstreit said. “I think, in this era of flash and dash and scoring 45 and where’s the big-play ability, Georgia … they do it in an old-school way.”

Herbstreit compared Georgia to the 2002 national championship team at Ohio State.

The Buckeyes went 14-0 and 7-0 in Big Ten play with narrow wins over Cincinnati (23-19, Sept. 21), Northwestern (27-16, Oct. 5), Wisconsin (19-14, Oct. 19), Penn State (13-7, Oct. 26), Purdue (10-6, Nov. 9), Illinois (23-16, Nov. 16) and Michigan (14-9, Nov. 23).

Jan. 3, 2003, culminated the Buckeyes’ close calls with Ohio State’s 31-24 win over Miami in the national championship game — the point being, according to Herbstreit, that Georgia can get the job done despite the lack of the Bulldogs’ firepower.

“I remember when Ohio State — in 2002, they had a team that they would win every game by a touchdown or three points,” Herbstreit said. “It was close, wasn’t pretty and they ended up getting all the way to the national championship against Miami and they ended up playing well. You could argue at the end there whether that (was a) pass interference or not, but the point is they went toe to toe with the Miami Hurricanes in that national championship, ended up winning it. But if you looked at their regular season, there’s so many people that rolled their eyes and said, ‘Ah, they’re not that good. What are we doing here?’

“Georgia’s kind of that team. And if you look at the wins, they’ve got a couple wins to offset that embarrassing loss to South Carolina. And at the end of the day, for Georgia, it’s really not a subjective analysis to break them down. What they’ve done at this point — knocking off Notre Dame (23-17, Sept. 21), knocking off Florida — now they knock off Auburn on the road in a good game. They still have a chance to go to the SEC championship and play LSU. And if they beat LSU, there’s no arguing with Georgia, right?

“It might not be pretty, but it’s effective with the way they play defense, control the ball got a great back in (junior running back D’Andre) Swift, got a veteran quarterback in (junior Jake)Fromm and the receivers are making just enough plays. So … that to me is — they’re an interesting team, but I just love that they’re not going to get caught up in a ‘do they deserve it or not’ discussion because they’ve got, more than likely, LSU in that SEC Championship Game.”

Secondly, because I’m not sure that’s a particularly relevant comparison, given how much the world of college football offense has changed since 2002.  One quick example:  Boise State’s nationally leading 6.9 ypp that season would only rank eleventh currently, almost two yards per play behind Oklahoma.

Still, considering the source, it’s a nice thought.

(h/t)

My Week 12 Mumme Poll ballot

Last week, I pondered Alabama’s place in the college football world.  This week, my navel gazing centered on Georgia.  Again, I couldn’t quite pull the trigger.  Yes, the Dawgs’ defense is elite, but so are Clemson’s and Ohio State’s, and they’ve both got offenses more productive than Georgia’s.

End result is the same ballot I posted the prior two weeks.  All in all, it took about ten minutes to get there.

• Clemson
• LSU
• Ohio State

Maybe next week.  How ’bout y’all?

Old school, and loving it

Three things can happen when you throw the ball, and two of them are bad. — Darrell Royal

Georgia is sixth nationally in turnovers lost.  Jake Fromm has only thrown an interception in one game this season.

Also, this.

Been asked a bunch about #UGA offense and their inconsistency.

Two big picture issues that must change:

1 – Their run % on 2nd & 7-plus is 3rd highest in FBS

2 – Their % play-action is 114th in FBS

The first one is understandable, the second one is truly unbelievable.

— Brent Rollins (@PFF_Brent) November 19, 2019

If you don’t throw the ball on second and long, you can’t get picked.

Of the many things I don’t understand about Georgia’s offense this season, ignoring play action tops the list.  Maybe that’s just never-been-in-the-arena me.

Vote of confidence is confident.

This is what a snafu sounds like… well, except in Columbia, South Carolina, where it merely sounds like business as usual.

University of South Carolina President Robert Caslen said Monday he has not asked Florida State how it came up with money to fire football coach Willie Taggart earlier this month and pay him a buyout worth a little more than $18 million.

“No, but our athletic director (Ray Tanner) has,” Caslen said during an interview session at the Morning News. “And they’ve got a whole lot more money in their athletic endowment than we do. I know that, for a fact.

“Listen, for the record, (South Carolina football coach Will Muschamp) is my coach, period. And he’ll remain my coach, just for the record. If you look at the athletic director’s statement (Saturday, supporting Muschamp before his team’s 30-6 loss to Texas A&M), that’s the same that I endorse.”

Several hours later…

Okay, cool.  But what about this?

Caslen, the university’s president since August, was then asked what Muschamp’s fate would be if Clemson wins by a large margin on Nov. 30 at Williams-Brice Stadium.

“If we’re totally imploding and no one shows up, I’d say we’ll have a discussion,” Caslen said. “But there’s no desire intended to make a change.”

And this?

“Coach Muschamp is my coach. That’s the message. He will be my coach through the end of the season,” The Greenville News attributed to Caslen. “And then, just like any other coach that’s out there, whether it’s a soccer coach, whether it’s the equestrian coach, whatever, they’re going to do an end-of-year assessment, the athletic director does. Then, we’ll see what’s up.”

Caslen, on Monday, then gave his version of what happened.

“I did not say that,” Caslen said. “Those were three-minute-apart statements. I said, ‘Coach is my coach.’ Three minutes later, we had a discussion about what happens at the end of every athletic team’s season. A common practice that has gone on forever is that you assess. Frankly, I’m assessing my role: How can I as the president help his program? I have leadership responsibilities, too. Season assessment is important.

“You take THAT statement, and you take the statement, ‘He’s my coach until the end of the season,’ and then they twisted my words, and it … me off to no end. How clear can I make it? He’s my coach. He’s the university’s coach. And the statement by Ray Tanner last week is the same that I support 100 percent.”

Dude sure seems to contradict himself. A lot.  Maybe he’s just confused, which is understandable at South Carolina.

Then he gets profound.

Earlier in the interview, Caslen referred to South Carolina’s 20-17 upset over Georgia, now the nation’s fourth-ranked team.

“That just shows we have the potential to be halfway decent,” Caslen said.

That may be the best mashup of Will Muschamp’s career and South Carolina’s place in the world you’ll ever see.  It’s inspiring.

By all means, keep Boom.  Hell, sign him to an extension while you can.  Y’all clearly deserve each other.

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

UPDATE:  Yep, this is going well.

AUDIO: In a story yesterday from the @VoiceOfPeeDee, @UofSC President @Bob_Caslen said The @GreenvilleNews "twisted my words" in a story last week about football @CoachWMuschamp. Here's the recording of exactly what he said to reporter @_ManieRobinson. https://t.co/ni459ulFtb

— The Greenville News (@GreenvilleNews) November 19, 2019

They must not teach the First Rule of Holes at South Carolina.