G-Day comin’.

Coming Soon 👀🗓️#ATD #GoDawgs pic.twitter.com/r0Nenc3zPH

— Georgia Football (@GeorgiaFootball) January 28, 2020

And spring practice starts in less than two months.

“I don’t know,” he laughs, “if that’s good or bad.”

I don’t know which is a greater indication of the mediocrity of college athletic directors, that Charlie Weis kept getting paid absurd amounts of money for little production, or this.

A factoid, and an analysis

Just throwing a couple of things out here…

For the first time in Kirby Smart's time as head coach, #UGA will return its leading receiver in 2020.

2015: Malcolm Mitchell (grad)
2016: Isaiah McKenze (left early)
2017: Javon Wims (grad)
2018: Riley Ridley (left early)

— Jake Rowe (@Rowe247) January 28, 2020

Returning experience on the offensive line doesn’t have nearly the statistical impact that we expect. But with more data in the bank — and a new set of tweaks to S&P+ that I’ve been unveiling at Football Study Hall — we can see there’s a little correlation.

The higher the number, the more likely returning production in these areas is to coincide with strong offense:

• Receiving yards correlation: 0.324
• Passing yards correlation: 0.234
• Rushing yards correlation: 0.168
• Offensive line starts correlation: 0.153

With more data, the offensive line correlations have begun to grow stronger, which makes sense, but the conclusion remains: continuity in the passing game matters a hell of a lot, and continuity in the run game doesn’t have as strong an impact.

No, in and of itself, I don’t think Pickens’ return marks a return to greatness for Georgia’s passing game.  But it sure as hell beats where they were going into last season.

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Coaching = acquiring + developing talent?

Chart worth looking at here:

No wonder ‘Bama and Ohio State are two of three teams with single-digit losses in that time span.  And then there’s Clemson, certainly good on talent, but not on the level of the other two — but sporting even fewer losses than those two.

This chart is going to get very interesting to look at in a couple of years, as Richt’s last class and Kirby’s transitional class drop off and Clemson’s 2020 and 2021 classes kick in.  Even as it is now, though, look at the gap between the Dawgs and the Gators.  Mullen’s got to do a lot of great coaching to make up for that.

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UPDATE:  Bottom 15 here.  Yes, Georgia Tech is on the list, but, no, it’s not the worst.

You’re gonna need a bigger Waffle House.

#GaTech comes in at 1000/1 odds to win a National Championship in College Football in 2020.

— Kelly Quinlan (@Kelly_Quinlan) January 28, 2020

Looks like Vegas is still a wee bit skeptical about that rebuild on the Flats.

Getting a start on that 2020 narrative

ESPN’s Alex Scarborough tells Kirby how to do his job in 2020.

6. Georgia Bulldogs

Quarterback Jamie Newman needs to be a wake-up call for a far-too-conservative Bulldogs offense. Jake Fromm did all he could in his three seasons as the team’s starting quarterback, but he couldn’t change the plays that were called. Maybe Newman, a transfer from Wake Forest with true dual-threat ability, will force that change and finally bring this offense into the 21st century. If he does and George Pickens gets some help around him at receiver, then we know the defense is good enough to take it from there and carry this team back to playoff contention. —Scarborough

Gawd, I can almost hear Herbstreit’s take from here.

It’s gonna be a looooong preseason.  Have I mentioned that before?

Today, in morons

Two questions after reading what will likely go down as the most unfortunate Q & A of 2020:

KV: So you graduated from Drury with a degree in History, you’re a history guy. If you could have dinner with three historical figures, living or dead, who would they be? And I’m ruling out football figures.

MB: This is probably not going to get a good review, but I’m going to say Adolf Hitler. It was obviously very sad and he had bad motives, but the way he was able to lead was second-to-none. How he rallied a group and a following, I want to know how he did that. Bad intentions of course, but you can’t deny he wasn’t a great leader.

(1)  At what point do you figure Berger’s brain caught up to what his mouth was doing and thought, “oh, shit, not a good look here”?

(2) At what point do you figure Kellen Voss thought, “oh, shit, this is going viral”?  I’m guessing right after “This is probably not going to get a good review”.

Berger has been suspended by Grand Valley State, in case you were wondering.