SEC Power Poll, Week Fourteen

Another regular season in the books — we laughed, we cried, we marveled at Alabama’s march to relative irrelevancy.

Just a note:  As I usually do with the last one of these, I include each team’s net yardage per game number in a crude attempt to offer some context on the conference’s over- and under- achievers.  Take it for what it’s worth.

1. LSU (+214.5).  As message sending goes, seal clubbing a respectable TAMU squad to finish out speaks loud and clear.
2. Georgia (+163.6).  We’re about to find out how far a dominating defense takes you in this day and age.
3. Alabama (+194.8).  Are they even allowed to have a football playoff without Alabama?
4. Florida (+121.7).  As a Dawg fan, I’d be totally fine with the Gators combining ten-win seasons with second place divisional finishes for the rest of my life.
5. Auburn (+97.2).  Does a nine-win, third place finish in the division with an Iron Bowl win, season get you a raise and a contract extension?  Asking for an agent.
6. Texas A&M (+58).  Finished without a single win over a ranked team.
7. Tennessee (+27.7).  5-3 in the conference with a minus-26 points differential.  The Vols are back, baby!
8. Kentucky (+69.9).  After the Georgia shutout, the ‘Cats rushed for almost 2,000 yards in their last five games.
9. Mississippi State (+13).  Best rivalry game finish ever.
10. Missouri (+62.3).  Odom’s firing is proof of the meaninglessness of a win over Arkansas.
11. Ole Miss (+28.5).  Matt Luke’s head coaching tenure was pissed away.
12. South Carolina (-21.4).  If the Georgia win was what made the difference in Agent Muschamp keeping his job for another season, that Kirby Smart is one devious SOB.
13. Vanderbilt (-139.9).  The streak is over.  Sigh.
14. Arkansas (-110.6).  The only career advice I have for the Hogs’ next head coach is to hire Jimmy Sexton as his agent.

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A familiar position

No surprise here.

#UGA opens as a 4-point underdog to LSU in the #SECCG, which would mark the 7th time in 8 @SEC title games the Bulldogs were not the favorite:

’02- UGA -8 Ark
’03- UGA +3 LSU
’05- UGA +1 LSU
’11- UGA +13’ LSU
’12- UGA +9’ Ala
’17- UGA Even Aub
’18- UGA +12’ Ala pic.twitter.com/jqMJT6bANI

— Patrick Garbin (@patrickgarbin) December 1, 2019

Just remember, Dawgs, it’s not where Vegas sets the line, but where you finish the game that matters.

Best 10-2 team ever, PAWWWLLL!!!

Man, listening to the Alabama fan base whine, “but the advanced stats say” all offseason is gonna be awesome.

If pounding your head into a wall is wrong, I don’t wanna be right.

still laughing pic.twitter.com/FXeyBVWe1b

— charles (ronald) mcdonald (@FourVerts) December 1, 2019

I’m not defending what Pickens did there — he certainly has to learn how to keep his composure when there’s so much at stake.

But I’m not pretending I don’t understand why he did it.

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

UPDATE:  Next time, maybe George should wait until after the game to start rumbling.  (Warning:  Some NSFW language.)

Best video I’ve seen of the fight. Appears Nevada’s Austin Arnold threw the first punch (a punch from behind on UNLV’s quarterback). Kenyon Obland might have said something to spark it, but that punch led to the brawl.
pic.twitter.com/U88JMYIabH

— Chris Murray (@MurrayNSN) December 1, 2019

Can’t be thrown out of a game if there’s no game anymore, amirite?

Name that caption, everybody’s happy edition

Goodmorning 😂 #52-7 pic.twitter.com/rXy38kSq7D

— Richard LeCounte III (@LilEasy_35) December 1, 2019

Good morning, indeedy.  Have at it in the comments.

Mumme Poll Week 14 ballot link

Go and get you some here.

Meanwhile, while no one was paying attention…

Before the season started, did anyone see Kentucky’s Lynn Bowden Jr.’s finishing first in the SEC in yards per rush and second in rushing yardage coming?

Given Joe Burrow’s remarkable year sucking all the oxygen out of the tent, Bowden’s efforts may go down as the most under the radar season in SEC history.  Amazing.

A victim of manball

I have to admit this blows my mind, probably more than it should, but still…

It was just one touchdown in a game that Georgia scored seven of them, but you might’ve thought Charlie Woerner’s against Georgia Tech on Saturday clinched a championship for the way the Bulldogs celebrated it.

The fact is, the 20-yard touchdown catch in the second quarter was the first of Woerner’s career. That it came in the 12th game of his senior season, let’s just say it came with more than a little anticipation.

“I didn’t realize that was his first. Awesome!” coach Kirby Smart said after the Bulldogs’ 52-7 victory.

I don’t know what gets me more, that they wasted a career’s worth of talent, or that Smart didn’t know it was Woerner’s first TD reception.

Kirby’s epitaph for Charlie’s career doesn’t surprise me in the least, though: “Think about how many blocks that guy’s had to one touchdown. You think about it.”

I have.  That’s what depresses me about it.

“It’s players challenging players…”

Jeff Schultz ($$) relays an interesting story from the Georgia locker room at halftime yesterday:

… Georgia’s defense, its strength all season, limited the Jackets to three first downs and 75 yards in nine possessions in the first half. But the Dogs led only 17-7. Nobody was happy.

Why did it turn out to be a good thing for Georgia? Because the defense’s leaders took it upon themselves to vent their anger at offensive players during the intermission.

“They definitely expressed their frustration in the offense,” said wide receiver Tyler Simmons, who had a second-half touchdown catch. “We haven’t really been living up to our expectations. We haven’t been putting up as many points as we want to. We haven’t been converting as many third downs as we want to. We haven’t been scoring in the red zone like we want to. The defense expressed their frustrations and we took the time to listen.”

What did they say?

“Well … uh,” Simmons said, “some words of motivation.”

My first thought upon reading that was what the hell took you so long, defense?  After all, yesterday was hardly new.  Georgia’s offense has been on-again, off-again pretty much all season.  In this case, after suddenly catching fire on their last two series of the first quarter to take a 17-0 lead, the offense went into a funk for the entirety of the second.  (Worse, the funk appeared to be contagious, as special teams play nosedived, too.)  Motivating a few weeks ago might have been useful.

Still, I can’t complain too much, as the message must have gotten through:  the offense woke up and put the game away for good in the third quarter.

Maybe the defense ought to think about laying into their offensive brethren in the locker room before the SECCG kickoff.  Just sayin’.

TFW you think the ref’s got your back

WTF was this about?

Georgia Tech head coach Geoff Collins fist bumping the ref at the half. Normal. pic.twitter.com/etRCvYknlY

— Andrew Hall (@DudeYouCrazy) November 30, 2019