This is some deep shit, Yoda.
In English: Coaches are control freaks. Coaches can’t control the coronavirus. Coaches are frustrated.
Finis.
Daily Archives: April 7, 2020
Bud’s bold
Here’s something fun — Bud Elliott’s made a list comprised of what he (or maybe his editor) calls one bold prediction for each SEC team’s 2020 season. Reading through them convinces me of one thing. There’s bold and then there’s bold.
So I thought I’d rate his degree of boldness for each, with zero being “the sun will rise in the east tomorrow” bold and ten being “ZOMG!!! that’s insane” bold.
Hey, it’s April. Here’s goes nothin’.
- Bud’s bold prediction: Mississippi State finishes strong. GTP take: I give that one a 5 on the bold meter, as MSU’s last five games involve only one ranked team, Auburn, and that one’s in Starkville. So, yeah, I can see Leach finishing on a roll.
- Bud’s bold prediction: Mizzou won’t get to a bowl game. GTP take: 7.0. Mizzou won six games last year while on NCAA suspension and, with only two ranked teams on it, this year’s schedule looks tissue soft to me.
- Bud’s bold prediction: Ole Miss will average scoring and allowing 30 or more points in conference games en route to a bowl appearance. GTP take: 6.5. There are four obvious losses to SEC West teams and one of the crossover games is against Florida, so this boils down to the Rebel Bear Landsharks only losing one more game.
- Bud’s bold prediction: Vanderbilt will go winless in SEC play. GTP take: 0.5. And that’s only because of the Any Given Saturday factor. The ‘Dores aren’t going to be good.
- Bud’s bold prediction: Arkansas’ offense will win three non-conference games. GTP take: 4.0. Those three games are against Nevada, Charleston Southern, and Louisiana Monroe, so, yeah, if Pittman and staff are even a slight improvement over Chad Morris, that should be doable.
- Bud’s bold prediction: South Carolina will miss a bowl game. GTP take: 2.5. True ‘dat, Bud.
- Bud’s bold prediction: The Aggies will win six SEC games for first time since 2012. GTP take: 6.5. Considering that TAMU will have to beat Auburn, LSU, or Alabama to notch six wins and that only LSU is a home game, it’s a little bold, as A&M didn’t really look good against any of them in 2019.
- Bud’s bold prediction: Kentucky will win eight games. GTP take: 5.0. There are four tough games on the schedule and the ‘Cats best player is gone, so there’s no margin for error there, but Stoops is an underrated coach.
- Bud’s bold prediction: Auburn’s offense will not look much different under Chad Morris. GTP take: 0. The biggest duh on Bud’s list. The only question is whether we hear Gus vow to take back playcalling in 2021.
- Bud’s bold prediction: Florida’s rushing attack will improve. GTP take: 2.5. It could hardly be worse and the offensive line should be better.
- Bud’s bold prediction: LSU will emerge as a 2021 national title favorite by the end of 2020. GTP take: 2.5. LSU recruits well and pundits now take Orgeron seriously.
- Bud’s bold prediction: Vols will improve, but might not show in win column. GTP take: 2.5. It’s not your daddy’s November anymore, Vols.
- Bud’s bold prediction: Alabama will have its best defense since 2017. GTP take: 5.5. I actually think this one’s a little spicy, because of all the back and forth on personnel. Oh, the Tide’s D will be good, but who’s gonna be that dominant stud in the middle that made the ’17 version so formidable?
- Bud’s bold prediction: Georgia’s defense will be so good, it won’t matter that Jamie Newman did not get a spring practice with new OC Todd Monken. GTP take: 1.5. Gawd, I hope so.
And your thoughts?
Filed under SEC Football
Does Jamie Newman need to be The Man for UGA?
So, I saw this David Hale tweet yesterday…
… and my first thought was, no, Georgia Newman doesn’t need to be Georgia’s savior in order for the Dawgs to succeed this season.
But then I paused and thought about how success will be defined in 2020. Winning the SEC East? Yeah, Newman doesn’t have to be a savior, because there isn’t a dominant quarterback in the division. Conference championship? Probably the same and for the same reason.
But come the CFP, the level of quarterback play is going to step up significantly. If Georgia indeed reaches the semis, what kind of play from Newman will it take to win then? Let’s face it — a game manager only got the Dawgs so far in the last three seasons.
What say y’all?
Filed under Georgia Football
Unique, alright
Six months ago, who could have seen this coming? (Hell, six weeks ago, for that matter.)
On Monday came the announcement from the PGA Tour that its major championships would be rescheduled to this fall due to the ongoing COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) pandemic. That included The Masters, now set to be played November 9-15. That change brought an interesting proposal from ESPN commentator and former basketball coach Dan Dakich.
Dakich floated the idea of ESPN’s College Gameday coming to Augusta to College GameDay host Kirk Herbstreit and he appears to be all in.
“Love this!!” Herbstreit responded, tagging College GameDay producer Lee Fitting as a potential programming nudge.
That could make for an interesting atmosphere, as Georgia is scheduled to host SEC rival Tennessee that weekend if the 2020 college football season goes unaltered. With CBS having television rights to both the Masters and the SEC on CBS game of the week, that could result in the Dawgs and Volunteers playing in Athens at night as the CBS broadcast. It is a truly unique scenario that might never happen again…
“Might”? Gawd, let’s hope not. I don’t think I could take another pandemic meltdown like the one we’re going through, interesting atmosphere or otherwise.
Although it does make you wonder who Mickey would get as the GameDay guest picker…
Filed under ESPN Is The Devil, Georgia Football
Your Daily Gator nurses a grudge.
I mean, life is so unfair.
Maybe the most frustrating issue that people see in favor of the change is the inconsistencies that the NCAA has had with allocating who should win appeals for playing right away and those that haven’t won those appeals. Georgia quarterback Justin Fields transferred from UGA to Ohio State last season and was allowed to play right away and nobody knows why. The Gators also got a transfer in Brenton Cox from Georgia last year (the same year) and he had to miss the 2019 season.
Both likely had different reasons for their moves, but not many can explain why Cox’s reasons were any less worthy of winning the appeal than Fields.
Look at it from Florida’s point of view: both players were fleeing from that shithole program in Athens, so why does it matter that Cox didn’t have somebody throwing racial comments his way, but was only leaving because he was buried on the depth chart?
Filed under Gators, Gators...
Job security
If you’d like to know why Greg McGarity has the AD job as long as he wants it, here you go:
The University of Georgia Athletic Association’s revenue has increased 68% in the past five fiscal years. Expenses shot up 55% in the same time period. UGAAA has seen more growth in revenue and expenses between 2014 and 2019 than all but two public SEC schools, Texas A&M and Mississippi State. Vanderbilt, a private university, doesn’t have publicly available data.
Georgia’s financial growth enabled it to upgrade football facilities and spend more money on recruiting football players from across the nation. The football team’s success in turn helps support 17 other Georgia teams, as men’s basketball is the only other team to turn a profit from as far back as the 2016 fiscal year.
The rise in revenue and expenses coincided with two events. One was the creation of the Magill Society by UGAAA in September 2015 to help boost contributions. Each member of the Magill Society, a group of about 1,200 donors, must pay a minimum donation of $25,000, which is often paid over the course of five years.
Subsequently, head football coach Kirby Smart was hired in December 2015, which was a move that helped Georgia football enter a period of sustained success.
You can argue that Smart’s hire was more fortuitous than anything, but I doubt McGarity does. And he certainly deserves credit for coming up with the Magill Society as a financial lever for the more well-endowed members of the fan base.
Although it’s probably the case that nobody talks much about life before 2015.
UGAAA was at a standstill in the 2014 fiscal year. Football ticket prices hadn’t changed in five years, and contributions were consistently hovering around $30 million per year. Georgia ranked seventh out of the 13 public SEC programs in revenue.
On the football field, Georgia hadn’t won an SEC championship since 2005. Since former head coach Mark Richt started in 2001, the Bulldogs averaged less than 10 wins a season and made the top five of the final Associated Press poll three times in 13 seasons.
Their facilities were also behind the times. Georgia was the last SEC school without an indoor football practice facility longer than 50 yards.
UGAAA declined to spend exorbitant amounts of money on new facilities without added revenue, McGarity said. It didn’t want long-term debt to rise.
“You would have to provide a way to pay for [new facilities],” McGarity said. “The only way you’d be able to pay for that would be to increase costs and donations that would revolve around football.”
All in the past now. Butts-Mehre has the money making machine cranked up. At least it did until the coronavirus showed up. We’ll see how it weathers the crisis.
Filed under Georgia Football, It's Just Bidness
“… a productive, but turbulent career”
Interesting way to describe Todd Gurley’s time at Georgia, doncha think?
Filed under Georgia Football
Get The Picture 