Fortune favors the anal.

Forget about spring practice and returning quarterbacks for a sec.  You know who really has the advantage this season?

The teams that adapt best will thrive, Smart said.

“I think I’m very comfortable with the fact that it’s not going to go perfect as planned,” Smart said. “Who can handle those adjustments? Whose team cannot get lost in worrying and concerning themselves with things they can’t control and really worrying about things they can.”

The control freaks.  The ones who have had their armies of analysts game out every COVID scenario and prepared accordingly.

It ain’t a coincidence that the best ones have roster depth on hand, either.

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UPDATE:  Along those lines, check out the SEC’s COVID guidelines to play.

SEC says a football game may be postponed if a team has less than 53 scholarship players or less than 7 OL, 1 center, 1 QB or 4 DL …. but the team can still play “if it elects to do so.” pic.twitter.com/IMkRjiQDbi

— Seth Emerson (@SethWEmerson) September 18, 2020

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Do the math

We are now up to 12 postponements of the 61 games in the first three weeks of the season (19.67%)

— Jerry Palm (@jppalmCBS) September 18, 2020

Applying that percentage to this season’s 70 scheduled SEC games gets you almost to 14 postponements (or worse).

Let’s hope the bye weeks cover that.

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UPDATE:  Holy shit.

SOURCE: tomorrow’s Baylor-Houston game has been postponed.

— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) September 18, 2020

They scheduled that game a week ago because Baylor’s first opponent couldn’t play.

Your Daily Gator is jealous. Again.

You want to know how obsessed our poor ol’ DG is?  Well, this question appeared in today’s The Athletic’s Florida mailbag ($$), which is, presumably about all matters Gator.

What is Georgia doing to dominate recruiting when it hasn’t had the recent success of the Gators? What sets the Dawgs apart? What is Kirby Smart willing to do that Dan Mullen isn’t? — Kevin S.

The answer is pretty great, especially this bit:  “Maybe you’re actually a Georgia fan who just conned me into spouting off some pro-Dawgs stats, in which case, that’s some pretty savvy mail-baggin’.”

Diving deeply into Monken

It’s several thousand or so words, and you should read them all if you want some understanding of what Georgia’s new offensive coordinator brings to the table, but honestly, they had me at this:

Since the beginning of his tenure, observers have speculated that Kirby Smart likes to insert himself into Georgia’s offensive play calling. How much influence will Smart have on Georgia’s offense in 2020? We don’t know, but that is the biggest variable to consider when trying to predict what shape the UGA offense will take in the coming months. Knowing that Monken left Cleveland due to a lack of autonomy over the Browns strategy and play calling, we don’t think it’s unfair to deduce that he was promised total control of the Georgia offense by Smart when he took the job…

Hell, if being fair is wrong, I don’t wanna be right.

Sometimes, you get the conference commissioner you deserve.

Big Ten presidents:  Watch us make a disaster out of a decision to play football!

Pac-12 presidents:  Hold our beers.

The Pac-12 presidents and chancellors’ unanimous decision last month to postpone all conference sports competition until at least Jan. 1 came after they saw a presentation that included erroneous statistics that overstated the prevalence of COVID-19 in several of the conference’s communities during the first week of August.

The most glaring incorrect metric listed the seven-day average positivity rate for tests in Los Angeles County as 19% — more than three times the 5.49% average listed by the L.A. County Department of Public Health.

It’s times like this that make you realize why they pay Larry Scott the big bucks.

[Ed. note:  It should go without saying that this post isn’t an invite to debate COVID stats, so don’t go there.]

We can’t have nice things in 2020.

Just because I don’t care for Auburn doesn’t mean I can’t feel a little sad about this:

To comply with the SEC policy of no live animals on the field, the eagle flight will not occur in Jordan-Hare Stadium on gamedays during the 2020 season. pic.twitter.com/ddNzMOJkan

— Andrew Hopkins (@AUeagleTrainer) September 17, 2020

I just don’t get the harm being prevented here.

Go ahead, take it personally

I’m going to date myself here, but back in 1976, when I was at UVa, the ACC basketball coaches snubbed the ‘Hoos’ Wally Walker by leaving him off their all-conference first team.  Walker took it personally and erupted with a brilliant ACC tourney performance that led Virginia, which came in as the eighth seed, to a conference title by knocking off three straight top-20 opponents.

All of that is to say I’m hoping for a case of history repeating with Azeez Ojulari.

Georgia has 10 players listed on the three preseason All-SEC teams per league coaches. It’s good for second in the conference behind Alabama’s 11. According to a statement released by UGA on Thursday, two Bulldogs are on the first team, seven on the second team, and one on the third team.

Junior nose tackle Jordan Davis and senior safety Richard LeCounte III are on the first team. Junior center Trey Hill, sophomore wideout George Pickens, senior defensive end Malik Herring, senior inside linebacker Monty Rice, sophomore inside linebacker Nakobe Dean, fourth-year junior cornerback Eric Stokes, and junior punter Jake Camarda are on the second team. Sophomore outside linebacker Nolan Smith is the lone third-team representative. One Bulldog noticeably absent is redshirt sophomore outside linebacker Azeez Ojulari. He led UGA in sacks a year ago with 5.5.

Pick up that chip and put it on your shoulder, big guy.

Alex, I’ll take “What a country!” for $200.

“Can Deion Sanders coach?”

Cade May(s)

Play.

The Cade Mays saga of 2020 has cleared a huge hurdle toward reaching a successful conclusion for the Tennessee Volunteers.

Mays, the former five-star offensive tackle from Knoxville Catholic who started his career at the University of Georgia before transferring back to Knoxville in January, had his appeal for immediate eligibility approved by the NCAA. Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt revealed the news Thursday night during a Zoom meeting that followed practice.

“This has always been a two-step process, and the next thing is the SEC,” Pruitt said. “It’s good that our governing body decided to allow him to play. Now we go to the SEC, and I’ve not really had a chance to talk to (SEC commissioner) Greg (Sankey) much about it.

“The SEC in the past has not allowed this, so this would obviously be a waiver through the SEC.”

As someone who thinks all players should have a one-time transfer waiver, daddy’s antics notwithstanding, I’m not offended Mays got clearance from the NCAA to play this season.  On the other hand, I’m not gonna deny something along these lines didn’t cross my mind upon hearing the news:

It is utterly insane that a guy who transferred because his dad is too stupid to operate a folding chair correctly gets a waiver but Luke Ford couldn’t get one despite having a sick grandparent. https://t.co/6S4eDSnhlG

— Georgia Fan Zone (@ugafanzone) September 18, 2020

Also, this.

So Cade Mays transfers from Georgia to division rival Tennessee and gets cleared to play. Otis Reese transferred from Georgia at the same time, still nothing. @NCAA what is the logic here? #FreeOtisReese https://t.co/GT0zJk55AM

— Fifth Quarter Ole Miss (@FQOleMiss) September 17, 2020

Expecting logic from the NCAA is your first mistake, friend.