“You just try to make the best decision you can to give your team an opportunity to win.”

Chip Towers summarizes the hand Kirby Smart currently holds at the quarterback position.

• Junior Stetson Bennett, who started the last five games, did not practice last week due to a sprained AC joint in his throwing shoulder. The time off this past weekend might facilitate a comeback. But, besides that, he has thrown six interceptions in Georgia’s last three games (against 3 TDs) while completing only 46 percent of his throws.
• Redshirt freshman D’Wan Mathis has struggled even more, completing just 40 percent of his passes for 38 yards with three interceptions and one TD.
• The 6-foot-3, 210-pound Daniels, who started 12 games at Southern Cal, has taken first-team snaps in practice for the first time in the past week.
• True freshman Carson Beck continues to practice with the scout team.

As well as key offensive stats.

The Bulldogs enter the seventh game of this 10-game regular season ranked 60th in scoring (29 ppg), 76th in total offense (382 ypg) and 80th in passing (209.3 ypg).

None of those represent much of an improvement over 2019, if at all.  And that’s with an upgrade at offensive coordinator.  That should give you a good idea of how great the lack of production has been at the quarterback position.  Worse, that’s been in a state of decline since the Tennessee game.  Georgia’s passer rating in its last three games:  102.99, 114.32 and (gulp!) 65.54.  (What stings particularly about that last number is that it came against a mediocre Florida secondary.)

Obviously, that isn’t sustainable.  And while Kirby is saying all the right things to avoid throwing any of his kids under the bus, there’s only so far he can go without looking like an idiot.

While Daniels is getting first team reps for the first time this season, I don’t want to pretend that means anything more than making sure he’s ready to go into a game if other options aren’t productive.  There has to be a reason it’s taken the time it has to give Daniels the chance to work with the first team.  That also means we should expect some issues with timing and communication that come with being the new kid on the block.

That being said, if Bennett remains the starter, honestly, I will be depressed.  Not because I don’t like the kid, but because I can only surmise that means Smart and Monken have determined he remains the best choice for Georgia to win, and what that says about what they have in the quarterback room.

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TFW you’re asked to help rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic

If the AD tells you it’s a throwaway year, who are you to argue?

I told em it was my turn… I’m guessing that the time here. All Luv! #Chosen1 #SEATBELT pic.twitter.com/dSwkIFz2JB

— Jaycee Horn (@jayceehorn_10) November 16, 2020

“My turn”.  LOL.

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UPDATE:  Another member of the secondary’s turn.

To God be the glory ❤️🙏🏾 #thankyou pic.twitter.com/53gA8m20hx

— Izzy 🇨🇩 (@IsraelMukuamu) November 17, 2020

If this keeps up, Kirby’s gonna feel comfortable starting Bennett against South Carolina.

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UPDATE #2:  It’s a full blown exodus.

Safety R.J. Roderick and defensive lineman Makius Scott also are opting out at South Carolina.

— Josh Kendall (@JoshTheAthletic) November 17, 2020

The truth is out there.

“When you have the things that have been written about us in our program, myself and our future, very unfounded articles that state opinion as fact, that state unnamed sources as being factual, that’s very hard to defend against,” Herman said. “Because if I’m a competing recruiter, what do you do? You press print and you say, ‘Look, this is true, it must be true. It’s on so-and-so orangefans.com, right? It must be true.'”

“And you know that is the really, really hard part in recruiting because these 16-year-old kids are very impressionable.”

Man, if Tom Herman is thin-skinned enough that he’s whining about negative recruiting at Texas, there’s no way he could have survived as a head coach in the SEC.

The (triumphant?) return of George Pickens

For three sentences, there’s a lot to unpack in this quote:

“George practiced last week,” coach Kirby Smart said Monday. “I think he is going to be able to play. Thought he was going to be able to play last week.”

If he’d said “assume” instead of “thought”, I could have come back with the snark about what happens when you assume.  Instead, we’ll just note that Kirbs sounds a mite bit frustrated there.

I don’t know what the story is there, but there’s little doubt this team could have used George’s services against Florida, assuming there was a quarterback who was able to throw something in his general vicinity.

Oops, there’s that “assume” again.

Birth of a meme

This Mandel tweet…

Lane Kiffin wants to make sure everyone realizes that's not a clipboard that he's tossing. pic.twitter.com/HRbC8ciYTb

— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) November 16, 2020

… suddenly made me realize that Boom is the first coach to have been Kiffin’ed.  (And, yeah, I imagine this just got a little awkward.)

I haven’t seen anyone else use the expression yet, so I hereby claim the trademark in the name of Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain, or something like that.

By the way, ain’t it just like Junior to take a gratuitous shot at Malzahn while celebrating?  Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

Making bank in a time of transition

Remember as universities cut faculty, staff, and whole programs while pleading "austerity" that South Carolina just managed to come up with $13 million to fire a football coach and will have to pay probably that much again to hire a replacement and staff.

— Seth Wilson (@SethWish) November 16, 2020

Andy Staples ($$) recounts the events leading to Jimmy Sexton hosing South Carolina South Carolina AD Ray Tanner making the decision to reward Will Muschamp with a significant contract extension because he’d just led the ‘Cocks to a national title SEC title divisional title bowl game comeback over Michigan.

The date is Jan. 1, 2018. The town is Tampa, Fla. Michigan is playing South Carolina in the Outback Bowl. This is not the Outback Bowl where Jadeveon Clowney hit Vincent Smith so hard that his helmet popped off and then Clowney cradled the ball with one hand like a mama dragon cradling one of her eggs. This is the Outback Bowl that took place five years later, the one you probably half paid attention to while you waited to watch Oklahoma and Georgia tee it up in the Rose Bowl. In that Michigan-South Carolina Outback Bowl, the Wolverines lead 19-3 until South Carolina scores on a 17-yard Rico Dowdle run with 2:25 remaining in the third quarter.

This sparks a blistering stretch during which the Gamecocks outscore Michigan 20-0 in about six minutes. South Carolina adds a field goal late to cap a 26-19 win that runs the Gamecocks’ record to 9-4 for the 2017 season. The Gamecocks have won six of their final eight — losing only to College Football Playoff participants Georgia and Clemson. Of course, three of those six wins (Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida) are against teams that fired their coaches during the 2017 season…

… Muschamp was hired at South Carolina in December 2015 on a five-year deal that started at $3 million a year and included a $100,000 raise each subsequent year. If Muschamp had been on this deal when he got fired, South Carolina would owe him about $300,000. (Which, lest we get too carried away by the figures, is still a considerable sum.)

But Tanner and company got very excited about that furious close to Muschamp’s second season, a season which ran his record at South Carolina to 15-13 overall and 8-8 in the SEC. They also may have been scared that Muschamp might depart for — where?— Arkansas? Tennessee? There were quite a few jobs open during that hiring cycle, but Muschamp didn’t seem a fit for any of them. And even if he was, couldn’t Tanner just find someone else at that price point to go .500 in the SEC?

Apparently not. Muschamp, who already made $3.2 million a year, received a $1 million a year raise. He also was extended through 2023. The buyout remained 70 percent of the amount remaining on the contract.

And here’s the thing.  The reason athletic directors like Tanner routinely get used by agents like Sexton is because there’s so much excess money in the system at the P5 level, since nobody has to pay the hired help anything close to real world wages.  That money has to go somewhere and you can only spend so much on waterfalls and barber shops in facilities.

Sure, it’s wasteful, but Tanner’s peers are doing the same thing and why not?  It’s not like the money’s gonna run out… er, wait.

The pandemic may be a once in a lifetime event — at least we hope so — but you know what’s not?  The possibility, which grows ever stronger, that college athletes are going to get a piece of the pie.  And should that happen, people like Tanner are going to be faced with all these ridiculous ticking time bomb coaching contracts that were made in a different economic setting than the one they’ll be facing.

It’s kind of analogous to what Georgia Tech has had to deal with in replacing a head coach who ran the triple option, a lot of short term pain because the personnel infrastructure left behind is wholly unsuited for the new circumstances.  Except in this case, instead of wins and losses, you’re looking at profits and losses.

This is why the NCAA and its member schools are fighting player compensation, even third-party NIL compensation, tooth and nail.  Once the idea of college athletes receiving payment for their services becomes accepted in the public’s mind, it’s not far at all to realize that the source of such payment will become normalized, too.  And the number of athletic departments built to sustain that in the short run can probably be counted on one hand.  With a finger or two left over.

Musical palate cleanser, bring your own lampshade edition

How ’bout a little introspective ‘Mats this morning?

“If bein’ wrong’s a crime, I’m serving forever” is one of Westerberg’s best lines ever.