Your Daily Gator gets a little dramatic.

Many thanks to @ThomasGoldkamp for joining @1010XL and breaking down all things #Gators: “It’s now or never" for Dan Mullen and Gators vs. #UGA. Listen on demand at https://t.co/3WTdXVZCMu.

— Matt Hayes (@MattHayesCFB) August 26, 2020

“It’s now or never” — promises, promises.

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My work here really *is* done.

In explaining why Todd Monken is the best new offensive coordinator hire of the offseason in today’s Mailbag ($$), Stewart Mandel used the term “man ball”.

As a college football blogger, all I can say is if I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.

Boom!

Stats of hope, courtesy of Mr. Emerson ($$):

Another factor that Monken will probably be evaluating is which quarterback can help the team create more explosive plays. That’s an emphasis for Georgia after struggling in that category last year. And it’s always been an emphasis for Monken.

Mullens, in Monken’s last year at Southern Miss in 2015, was first in the nation in explosive plays. (He had 75 passes of 20-plus yards, tied with the quarterback at Western Kentucky, and had 36 passes of 30 yards or more, fifth most in the nation.)

Weeden, in his one year with Monken, was second in the nation in long passing plays (20 yards or more), with 63, behind only Houston’s Case Keenum.

Ooh, baby.

I know he said yesterday it’s an open competition, but Newman’s big arm has to be making Monken drool about the possibilities just a little.

Almost a meme

Shot.

#GoDawgs from Montana @beyndmybrwneyes @slmandel @MummePoll pic.twitter.com/wQmWJ1WmXR

— Chris Dooney (@Chris_Dooney) August 25, 2020

Chaser.

My work here is just about done.

Your 8.26.20 Playpen

Can’t wait for Herschel to show up as a subject in the @MummePoll playpen this week

— ben (@luckie_reubs) August 25, 2020

I don’t normally do requests, but it turned out I had already found the perfect fodder for this week’s post.  And I do mean perfect.

I’m still laughing.

Your time in the comments starts now.

Nailing the interview

Here’s the Monken presser from yesterday:

There’s a guy who’s answered a whole lot of questions during his career and is no longer fazed by anything he gets tossed his way in his area of expertise.

Which makes me wonder again what his initial job interview with Smart was like, not just in terms of how he presented himself to his prospective employer, but also what he was told Smart was looking for.

Kirby Smart’s expectations …

“Scoring points and not turning it over. I know that’s really simple, but … when we spoke about his vision of the offense, it was certainly what every coach wants. It’s taking advantage of your personnel and the players that you can recruit here at the University of Georgia and doing a great job of utilizing those people and putting them in the best position to be successful. As coaches, we’re paid to maximize our players’ measurable skill sets. That’s probably first and foremost. The talent that we get here, finding a way every day to develop those players and then utilize their skill set to the best of their ability. Obviously the most important part is moving the football and scoring points, whether that’s running the football or throwing the ball. Be explosive and don’t turn the ball over. It’s a pretty simple game.

Left unsaid, but clearly implied, was knowing what the hell you’re doing.  Monken exudes that.  I’ve got a feeling that Smart was as impressed by that as I am.

“He said the word ‘Explosive’ anywhere from 10 – 500,000 times.”

In Athens, apparently, Explosive is the new Black.

And Todd Monken came here to paint.  (I’ve been waiting for years to abuse that Bobby Petrino quote.)

Todd Monken's definition of an explosive play:

"A 12-yard run or a 16-yard throw… You want to be explosive one out of every eight plays." #Dawgs pic.twitter.com/n8SWnGdCLP

— Wes Blankenship (@Wes_nship) August 25, 2020

"How do you get explosive plays? First off, your ability to run the football, put the defense in run-pass conflicts.

The next part is how do you get skill players in space? I think we have those guys to do it."

– #UGA offensive coordinator Todd Monken pic.twitter.com/AY8UQGR2s7

— Wes Blankenship (@Wes_nship) August 25, 2020

Damn, I surely do hope we get a 2020 football season.

Stout

@Dawg_Stats (using the amazing @CFB_Data) put together some graphics on returning Def. production across the SEC. Let's take a look them now. First up, passes defensed and QB Hurries: pic.twitter.com/2ae1beinzw

— Chapel Bell Curve (@ChapelBellCurve) August 25, 2020

You know, I think Georgia’s secondary is gonna be alright this season.

LBU

So, David Hale looks at which college programs do the best job of producing NFL-level talent in the BCS era by position group here.  Georgia pops up here and there, but absolutely dominates one.

Linebacker U

1. Georgia
2. Alabama
3. Ohio State
4. USC
5. Penn State
6. Oklahoma
7. Michigan
8. Miami
9. Clemson
10. Florida

No team comes close to producing the NFL talent at linebacker that Georgia has since 1998. In our weighted scale of NFL value, Georgia leads No. 4 USC by a margin that’s as big as the difference between USC and No. 11 Florida State. The litany of stars, including six All-America nods, is impressive: Roquan Smith, Leonard Floyd, Jarvis Jones and Alec Ogletree were all first-round selections, but the roll call also includes Will Witherspoon, Kendrell Bell, Boss Bailey, Odell Thurman, Rennie Curran and Lorenzo Carter.

Judging from the 2020 roster, that ain’t slowing down any time soon, either.