I assume some of y’all are chomping at the bit to discuss last night’s debate. Before you get there, I just had to share this:
I gotta say, from “Anarchy in the UK” to MAGA is a helluva journey.
And with that, the floor is yours.
Monthly Archives: September 2020
“The atmosphere is not here.”
It will probably come as no surprise to you, but at its current pace, home field advantage is at its lowest level in fifteen years.
Home-field advantage has been altered — at least reduced — for sure in 2020. Four weeks into the season, home teams are winning only 59.5% of their games (47-32). If that number holds, it would mark the worst winning percentage by home teams since 2005 (59.3%).
Ironically, the year following that (2004) marked the best home winning mark of all-time (65.3%), according to the NCAA, which has kept the statistic since 1966. In fact, home-field advantage has improved this century with the top 10 all-time coming since 2000.
Filed under College Football
“The Gator Standard”
If you’re looking for a fairly sober-minded analysis of the Florida defensive effort last Saturday from a Gator partisan, David Wunderlich’s piece is a good place to start.
First off, he acknowledges that it was historically bad.
Florida lost every game listed there, except for Saturday’s. That should give you some indication of how well the Gator offense played, and it’s a fair point that David makes in his conclusion about that:
The Rebels have a good offense. It has some obvious future NFL talent with guys like Corral and Moore. It has one of the better offensive schemers as head coach. It had the element of surprise since that head coach and his bright new offensive coordinator had never worked before.
Florida held the Rebels to 21 points through three quarters before allowing a pair of touchdowns after it built up a 23-point lead with under 13 minutes to go. John Rhys Plumlee was basically a non-factor.
It was not up to The Gator Standard, believe me. However we also saw a ton of guys hit the field, some of whom were far from the top line of the depth chart. If the UF offense hadn’t been nigh unstoppable, I’m sure we would’ve seen fewer experiments and guys out there just to get experience.
It will get better from here, but there is work to be done to ensure that it does.
They’ll find out this week. South Carolina rolls in, averaging about 2.5 yards less per play than did Ole Miss. However, the ‘Cocks have an offensive coordinator who is somewhat familiar with Todd Grantham. We’ll see what kind of week two improvements they have up their sleeves for each other.
Filed under Gators, Gators..., Stats Geek!, Strategery And Mechanics
Georgia-Auburn: it’s show time
It’s the SEC’s first game of the season matching top ten teams, and while I wasn’t overly impressed with Nix last Saturday, Auburn’s receiving corps was another story.
Auburn’s receivers were the difference in last Saturday’s 29-13 win over Kentucky, which had the experience edge up front on both sides of the ball. Stove, Schwartz and Williams combined on 13 receptions for 207 yards and three touchdowns, with Williams inflicting the most damage with six catches for 112 yards and two scores.
Stove and Schwartz — the 2018 Gatorade national boys’ track and field athlete of the year — provide the speed for sophomore quarterback Bo Nix, veteran coach Gus Malzahn and first-year offensive coordinator Chad Morris, while the 6-foot-3, 211-pound Williams is often a physical mismatch for opponents.
“Those guys seem like they’ve been playing there forever,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “Seth is one of the best there is. Stove has been there forever, and we know how fast Schwartz is. They’ve got a lot of good wideouts.”
Kentucky had no answer for Williams, in particular. That bunch will present a challenge for Georgia’s secondary. Fortunately, Georgia doesn’t lack for quality depth back there.
Georgia’s secondary was no match for LSU last December in the SEC championship game, but the Bulldogs did lead the nation last season in fewest points allowed (12.6 per game) and fewest yards per completion (9.88). Yards per completion was a factor in Georgia’s 21-14 win at Jordan-Hare Stadium last November as Schwartz, Stove and Williams combined on 23 receptions for 189 yards, which translated to 8.2 yards per catch.
Schwartz never got loose, totaling 48 receiving yards and averaging 6.9 a catch.
Chad Morris does know something about designing a competent passing attack, but even so, what I saw from Auburn last week didn’t exactly resemble the 2019 LSU offense.
Auburn rushed for less than 100 yards against Kentucky (3.03 ypc) and the Tigers’ offensive line wasn’t particularly strong in run blocking. On top of that, Nix was the leading rusher, with 5 carries for 34 yards. I would assume Job One for Smart and Lanning is making Auburn one-dimensional on offense.
Just like Kevin Steele intends to do. Which defensive coordinator does the better job of imposing his will Saturday?
Filed under Auburn's Cast of Thousands, Georgia Football
“I forgot to tell you my favorite story about running up the score.”
I’m really torn here. Is Steve Spurrier an asshole when Georgia Tech is the butt of his mockery ($$)?
“So we’re playing Georgia Tech the next week, and we’re going up and down the field like we did against almost everybody and we threw the ball, stayed in four wides on the 1- and 2-yard line. They didn’t know what was going on. One time they didn’t even cover our wide receiver. I heard the public address announcer, ‘Steve Slayden has just tied the ACC record for touchdowns in a game with five,’ and there were seven minutes left.”
Spurrier went to Slayden on the sideline and told him he was going to get that record.
The following Monday, a reporter from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution called Duke athletics director Tom Butters.
“He said, ‘Mr. Butters, you’re a sportsman, you believe in fair play and treating people right. What do you think about your coach running up the score on Georgia Tech last week?’ (Butters) said, ‘Let me tell you how I feel about that. I have been the athletic director at Duke for 22 years now and this is the first time anyone has ever accused my football coach of running up the score and to tell you the truth, I sort of like it.’ That was a good one.”
(Why do I have the feeling Furman Bisher was the reporter? Ah, but I digress.)
I think I’m just relieved his favorite story doesn’t involve the Dawgs.
Filed under Georgia Tech Football, The Evil Genius
Barrett Sallee’s cognitive dissonance
Man, you could get a serious case of whiplash trying to keep up with this:
Main course: Florida for real, Georgia in trouble
It’s one game, so it’s a little early to make snap judgements on teams.
You don’t say. Or maybe you do say. Hell, I can’t keep up.
Filed under Gators, Gators..., Georgia Football, Media Punditry/Foibles
“… but DBU didn’t show up today.”
“LSU DBs kept telling us `We’re so tired, we’re so tired’,” Mitchell said. “We were laughing it off, but Coach (Leach) came up to us (during LSU’s timeout). He saw they (LSU) were tired. He knew all of us were in good shape, so he wanted to take a shot. A perfect ball and I ran a good route.”
Yeah, I know Stingley was out and LSU was thin in the defensive backfield, but, still, to hear that Mississippi State was physically wearing anyone out is a little surprising — that it was LSU, even a little jarring.
Filed under SEC Football
Mike Bianchi takes a victory lap.
Might as well turn in, Georgia fans. It’s all over.
After Florida’s record-breaking 51-35 season-opening victory over Ole Miss Saturday, this should be the Gators’ new fight song.
Move it on over, Georgia.
Every dog has his day, but your day is done.
That’s a take that wouldn’t be out of place on a Gators message board. I had no idea a sixteen-point win over a team that will be lucky to win more than three games this season was so titanic.
Filed under Gators, Gators..., Media Punditry/Foibles
Kirbs doesn’t care for Auburn.
The tone here is something.
I’m not gonna say that borders on contempt (although I think you can see the border from there), but it’s definitely got an element of Saban-esque “I don’t have time for that shit” to it.
Oh, and bonus points for using “coachspeak” in its proper context.
Filed under Auburn's Cast of Thousands, Blowing Smoke, Georgia Football
This is what quality depth looks like.
Shot.
Chaser.
Lawdy.
Always. Be. ‘Cruitin’.
Filed under Georgia Football, Stats Geek!
Get The Picture 
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