“We’re moving forward.”

Sounds like it was not a good QBR day for the leading candidates to take up the reins from Jamie Newman after he dropped them.

Georgia scrimmaged Saturday four days after its leading contender for the job, Wake Forest graduate transfer Jamie Newman, changed everything by informing coach Kirby Smart on a day off from practices that he was opting out of the season, something that became public the next day.

That has offered an opportunity for redshirt freshman D’Wan Mathis to push Southern Cal transfer JT Daniels for the No. 1 job, but Mathis started slow in the second preseason scrimmage at Sanford Stadium by throwing a pair of interceptions.

Daniels didn’t zoom way ahead of Mathis either on a day when both worked with the No. 1 unit, according to Smart.

“It almost feels like you really want the guys to assume the lead, take the lead and that hasn’t happened yet,” Smart said. “You’re liable to have a great play or a great series and come back with a boneheaded mistake or a turnover. Nobody has really just taken charge and taken over. I wish I could say that.”

So do we all, Kirbs.  But there’s still time.

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Today, in Dawg porn: “you can literally trot out there their 23-34 and still say that’s an SEC elite defense right there”

Bud Elliott, with the sexy talk:

“I think the gap between Georgia and the second-best defense in the country might be as big as the gap between like number two and number 10,” Elliott said “I think we can agree they’re the most talented defense in the country. So they’re gonna overwhelm them with talent. They have excellent defensive coaching – Kirby Smart has been sort of the premier defensive coordinator/head coach in college football along with Saban. And of course, Venables at Clemson if you want to go just pure DC’s.

“I think you have, at every single position, the status is basically a guy with multi-years of experience for an elite Georgia defense or that guy in a position battle with a super talented redshirt sophomore, who is actually having a good enough camp to maybe beat him out.”

Elliott recently spoke to Rusty Mansell and asked him where the weakness was on Georgia’s defense.

“He said, ‘Man, I don’t know that there is one,'” Elliott said. “He said, ‘if Jordan (Jordan Davis) at nose guard, if he goes down. I think there is a drop off to, as far as the ability to get a pass rush on the interior from your nose guard position. If you lose your starter.’ Which is kind of a rich person’s concern.”

There’s plenty more where that came from, so indulge yourselves.  Maybe privately, though.

“We try to be as safe as we can, but there’s no guarantees, you know?”

Someone mentioned this in the comments yesterday, but Tennessee had to cancel a scrimmage because 44 players missed Saturday’s practice ($$).  More offensive players sat out (31) than participated (30).

Fortunately, the vast majority of them were quarantined as opposed to being actively infected, but missing is still missing.

Tennessee might have beaten Charlotte anyway if the two teams had faced off on Saturday, but Pruitt would have had a hard time finding enough players to do it. And in three weeks, when Tennessee travels to face South Carolina, Pruitt and the Vols will no longer be able to say: “Phew, good thing we didn’t have a game today, huh?”

Or, Georgia, two weeks after the SC game.

COVID is going to be the wild card all season.  But something something no spring practice…

Determination

This has got to be some sort of record.

The champion of this category is 7th-year Virginia Tech DE Justus Reed, who started at Florida in 2014 (!) , transferred to Youngstown State, was granted multiple medical hardships along the way and will apparently be eligible to come back in '21 for Year 8.

— Matt Hinton (@MattRHinton) September 6, 2020

I mean, the dude played for Boom.  At Florida.

He’s got you under his skin.

Just your normal presser in Jortsville…

The @CoachDanMullen Rule, coming this fall to a school near you. pic.twitter.com/0WPynqajTA

— Kassidy Hill (@KassidyGHill) September 5, 2020