I don’t know if y’all saw it yesterday, but The Athletic’s national writers made their CFP picks ($$). Georgia made five of the seven lists (Andy Staples picked the Dawgs to win the natty, FWIW), but, for once, that wasn’t what I found most significant.
Of those seven, one, Bruce Feldman, made a comment about team depth, when he wrote about Clemson, “I think the gap between the Tigers and the rest of the ACC is large enough for them to overcome any unexpected strains on depth that could arise over the course of the season” and another, Max Olsen, talked about Alabama’s “program infrastructure”.
I don’t know if they’re assuming COVID is going to avoid the playoff contenders, or if all of them have sufficient depth to weather whatever storms may come their way (a strange assumption to make in the case of UCF, which one writer picked to make the playoff field), but it seems like a gap in analysis to ignore it, especially when I see that Feldman, in picking Florida to make the playoff field, bases his call in part on “(m)ost of the rest of the top teams in the SEC have had some level of turnover either at the coordinator level or in their quarterback room, which figures to be a much bigger concern than usual given how the pandemic affected the offseason.”
Maybe I’m missing something here, but it seems like roster management is going to be huge in 2020. (Which is why I tend to agree with Olsen that ‘Bama is the most likely team to win it all.)
Get The Picture 
I find this idea of roster management nightmares — and which teams stand the best chance to manage them — to be the most intriguing advance storyline of this year’s potential season.
And, like you, I tend to think Bama is the most likely winner if all hell breaks loose.
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Bringing the “D” word to the sidelines, the bammers and clempson have shown that participating regularly in the college football championship game will have really good recruits signing on the “D”otted line…….
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Um, didn’t we win the division last year with 2 new coordinators? Reporters twist themselves into knots trying to justify lousy picks.
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Yes, but that can be explained by spring practice. 😉
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I’ll take our depth and Kirby’s roster management over anyone. I do think it comes down to depth and I think we have a great shot because of it.
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I’ll take our depth in QB this season over previous years…and we will need it running an all SEC gauntlet. CKS has proven himself as a roster management grand champion…oh and, I truly hope the wheels fall off of FU…I hate those jort wearing dumpster divers
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Same here…at least equal to Bama. Better than Clemson…
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Re Clempson, big advantage for them playing in the ACC..their depth is superior there…almost guarantees a playoff spot…then all bets are off..can ND be the monkey wrench?
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This is what I am hoping for. Finally, a competitive ACC championship that would at least make the Clemson team a bit sore after the game. Most of their games the starters dont even break a sweat.
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Feldman just has a hard-on for Sideshow Dan the Clown, so that’s probably how he can justify saying Clemson’s quality depth can overcome their entire conference while ignoring Floriduh’s continued lack of quality depth compared to Georgia.
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Not sure I buy the “how the pandemic affected the offseason” argument – if we were kicking off this weekend, the lack of spring practice and typical summer workouts would be a lot more of a concern. But with games starting at the end of September, the coaches will have had almost 2 months straight with the guys prior to the first game, which should be a sufficient amount of time to get prepped, install new systems/plays, and figure out who the best players are. August has basically been spring and summer compressed, and now we are into “normal” August pre-season prep, in early/mid-September. One way to look at it is that there is actually a benefit to a single continuum, namely that there’s no opportunity for plays to get forgotten between spring and summer, or for rhythms to lapse.
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I kind of agree. The coaches definitely get more time before the season than normal, it just comes down to what amount of that time is used on football and what amount is of no use due to COVID related issues. I think the absence of spring ball hurts regarding the roster as it is usually a time where players see the “writing on the wall” and transfer.
I am really hopeful that we get to have a season and the closer we get to 9-27-20 the more forlorn I will be if the season does not happen.
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27SEP20 is the day I turn 50. My “can’t wait for the day” is a mixed feeling.
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Sorry the day should have been 26 Sep 2020 and you’ll still be young.
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Luck is going to play an even bigger role than usual this season. That never bodes well for Georgia. Hopefully Gus misplaced his rabbit foot. The only thing worse than a weird season during a pandemic with a huge asterisk next to it is a weird season during a pandemic with a huge asterisk next to it where Auburn or Florida win the natty.
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I’m kinda thinking if Kirby is looking for an invitation to take a Valium and let Todd Monken make the offense rip, may as well do it in 2020. (a) the whole asterisk thing, the year is FUBAR. It’s like year zero for every coach–ain’t nobody buying anybody out for a while after all this financial mess (b) you get jamie newman for exactly 1 year. It wouldn’t be fair to him and it would look very bad for recruiting if you kept that guy in a lockbox and (c) there ain’t no discounts with a 10 game SEC schedule. Let’r Rip !
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I love “Let ‘r Rip!”
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I agree that Alabama is the best bet, Saban is the most organized, methodological, and obsessed coach out there. He’s probably been gaming every scenario since the Vid hit. Kirby is equally obsessed, but if you want to be the man……(you know the rest!!). I like our depth compared to anybody, I just hope Saban isn’t the difference.
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I thought we agreed that we would call it the ‘Rona. Was there a board meeting I missed? 🙂
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My bad, I missed the memo.
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I just actually read the Athletic piece. Man, that’s a lot of Georgia love. My best-case scenario would be sneaking up on Bama on October 16, and then beating LSU in the SECCG. It’s hard to see an undefeated season – there are many potential L’s with a 10-game conference schedule. I would expect this year’s champion to have a winning percentage more in line with what we see in the NFL. Except for Clemson, for obvious reasons (Almost Competitive Conference).
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Somebody might need to readjust their pick
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