It’s business decision time, Dawg fans.
Three key members of the Georgia football team have decided to opt-out of the Bulldogs’ upcoming bowl game to focus on their impending appearance in the Reeses’ Senior Bowl and upcoming NFL Draft, UGASports has learned.
Tight end Tre McKitty, linebacker Monty Rice and cornerback D.J. Daniel have all decided that they will not take part in the UGA bowl game, which will be announced Sunday afternoon.
Filed under Georgia Football, The NFL Is Your Friend.
This is something, alright.
Were I an Ole Miss fan who paid for that trash, think I’d be asking for my subscription fee back after reading that.
Filed under It's All Just Made Up And Flagellant
Trust me, you don’t want to read this Andy Staples post ($$).
Filed under Strategery And Mechanics
Seth Emerson’s inference ($$) from the pending departure of Jermaine Johnson is worth a note.
The snaps have in fact gone down for outside linebackers because of the prevalence of passing attacks in the SEC, necessitating more nickel and dime formations by Georgia.
Kirby Smart is having to reckon with the offensive revolution overtaking the conference on both sides of the ball. While he appears to be offloading the offensive restructuring onto Todd Monken’s shoulders, he and Dan Lanning have to face up to what that means on the defensive side. And it looks like that starts with personnel decisions.
But the Bulldogs and defensive coordinator Dan Lanning, who coaches the outside linebackers, may be selling recruits on the idea of playing without much regard to position.
Sorey, in a first-person account he provided for Treasure Coast Newspapers, said Georgia plans to use him at both inside and outside linebacker.
It’s pretty interesting watching a coach who’s been successful as both a coordinator and leading a program retool on the fly like this. We’d best hope he’s up to the task.
Filed under Georgia Football, Recruiting, Strategery And Mechanics
Food for thought from Brian Fremeau:
Selecting a playoff based on “most deserving” rather than “best” is obviously a judgment call, and one that I honestly don’t think is a terrible idea in concept. Since teams play very different schedules every year, there will always be valid arguments to be made around the selection margins, and we don’t have (and may never have) a particularly egalitarian set of playoff-qualifying standards in college football. It’s one of the sport’s enduring … charms. I’m also more in favor of a selection committee process than a computer formula (or combination of formulae) determining the field, so long as the committee can be trusted to be well-informed and reasonably consistent in its deliberations and selections. The committee has new representation every year, and they are by no means infallible, but I think they’ve done a fair job every season in meeting that well-informed and reasonably consistent standard, especially as it relates to the playoff field itself.
Perhaps it’s unfair then to harp on the apparent inconsistencies with the 2020 selection committee rankings. Given the extraordinary disruptions to the typical schedule, and the cancellation of all but a few decent non-conference games, can we fault the committee for applying a different standard than in previous seasons?
While it’s striking to hear that coming from an advanced stats guru (and a guy I really respect), I do get where he’s coming from in the specific context of 2020. The pandemic, along with the bumbling we’ve seen from some of the P5 conferences, has made a hash of scheduling this season and that’s certainly made the selection committee’s job more challenging. Maybe you can make a case that some of the harsh criticism that’s gone their way is unfair.
Then again…
All this being said, the term “most deserving” is a dicey one to use in a pandemic-plagued season, especially when teams were often not able to control whether they were able to play a given week, or even whether to start their season in August versus in late-October. I’m not really going to try to make an affirmative argument for Coastal Carolina to make a four-team playoff field over Ohio State, nor am I going to use 2020 data to make an argument for or against future playoff field expansion. I do think the committee’s primary faults are evidenced by their modest to severe suppression of the on-field achievements of Group of 5 teams. Wins against good teams, no matter how you define it, seem to matter more to the committee if they are won by Power 5 teams than if they are won by Group of 5 teams. The fact that the Big 12’s two-loss champion may squeeze into the playoff picture if chaos reigns this weekend, while the Sun Belt’s potentially undefeated champion will most certainly not, is the best evidence of this committee bias problem we’ve had in the playoff era.
This reinforces the point I made earlier this week. If anything, this season has only exacerbated the selection committee’s tendency — call it bias, if that makes you feel better — to favor the P5 over the mid-majors, because… well, you know why. But also, as I pointed out, that’s really played out in a way that doesn’t affect the bigger picture.
Chaos may yet reign this weekend, but we’re most likely to end up with a playoff field consisting of Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, and Notre Dame when the dust settles. If this comes to pass, there will be little dispute that the committee “got it right” and selected the four best teams. But we should be willing to admit that measuring “best” this year is based significantly on our prior assumptions about the relative strength of teams and conferences.
I still strongly believe it’s in the best interest of the CFP to come up with a delivery system that does a better job of eliminating, or at least strongly reducing, the appearance of bias and conflicts of interest. But I’m not going to hold my breath that’s coming any time soon.
Filed under BCS/Playoffs
Gotta admit I got a real chuckle out of StatCat’s dilemma.
At some point, you have to quit fighting the feeling.
Filed under Georgia Football, Stats Geek!
It’s just what college football needs, another opportunity for Kirk Herbstreit to lobby for the playoffs.
ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit believes the current playoff system needs a serious upgrade.
“Our postseason is as bad as there is,” Herbstreit said Wednesday on the Keyshawn, JWill & Zubin Show via College Football Live. “And we have got to figure out a system that opens up opportunities. The season ends Jan. 12, I can already tell you 2021 Ohio State’s coming out of the Big Ten, Clemson’s coming out of the ACC, Alabama’s coming out of the SEC. I can say in 2023, Ohio State is coming out of the Big Ten, Clemson’s coming out of the ACC and Alabama (in the SEC). … If that’s where we are is that right, is that healthy for the sport when 98 or 99 percent of the participants realize they don’t have a chance before the season starts? We’ve got to look at this 2020 year and realize that we have to tweak the system for the betterment of the sport. We’re at a fork in the road right now on a lot of levels and we’ve got to look at some potential changes.”
As long as those tweaks serve Mickey and Ohio State, I’m sure Herbie will be onboard. All for the greater good, you know…
Filed under BCS/Playoffs, ESPN Is The Devil
Looks like Javonte Gardner said fuck that noise.
I guess it turned out to be a mocked signing, Dan.
Filed under Gators, Gators..., Recruiting
If Arik Gilbert isn’t in Athens next year, it won’t be for lack of trying on Kirby Smart’s part.
Filed under Georgia Football, Transfers Are For Coaches.
Get The Picture 
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