Wait. He’s not gonna discuss how to ignore it?
Does having Huntley Johnson on speed dial count as fixing it?
Daily Archives: January 12, 2021
Trading one shade of orange for another
There are so many ways to speculate about this move that I don’t know where to start.
But, hey, don’t let me stop you.
Filed under Because Nothing Sucks Like A Big Orange
No pressure, fellas.
Like the swallows returning to Capistrano, you can count on every Tom, Dick and college football pundit to crank out a way too early 2021 top ten list. Here are a few I’ve seen.
- Joel Klatt (who spent much of the 2020 season knocking the Dawgs): 1st
- Erick Smith: 2nd
- Brett McMurphy: 3rd
- 247Sports: 4th
- Stewart Mandel: 4th
- Mark Schlabach: 4th
- Matt Murschel: 5th
And, just for yucks, here are the first odds I’ve seen posted for 2021, from Caesars Sportsbook by William Hill:
I would assume those odds reflect Georgia having to run through Alabama and Clemson in the regular season just to get to the CFP, which certainly makes sense.
Anyway, those are some seriously high expectations for this next Georgia team, which, for all the strength it will show on offense, is going to have to perform a serious rebuild of its secondary. It’s a good thing passing offenses aren’t that big a deal in college football these days… oh, wait.
So, what do you think? Is this team up for the challenge?
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UPDATE: One more, from Jon Wilner.
1. Georgia: Assuming good health, quarterback JT Daniels makes the Bulldogs complete — they have five consecutive top-three recruiting classes — and fulfills his destiny 3,000 miles from home. It’s time, finally, for Georgia to break through.
Filed under Georgia Football
Shall we play a game?, redux
And here’s the contest:
Pick the winner and for the tiebreaker, predict the difference in QBR between Fields and Jones. Closest guess wins.
Alabama won the game. Jones finished with a QBR of 98.0, Fields with 87.2, which made for a difference of 10.8.
And with that, here’s our contest winner.
Congrats, ant. I’ll send your email to Spur21 and leave it for you two to make the necessary arrangements.
Filed under GTP Stuff
SEC Power Poll, final edition
Yeah, I get it. I’m just not sure how much weight I put on it, though, other than recognizing that Alabama is head and shoulders above every team in college football this season. One thing I am comfortable saying is that the conference didn’t embarrass itself in the postseason by mailing in a bunch of disappointing efforts.
Did I mention how effing good ‘Bama is? Oh, yeah, I guess I did.
- Alabama. So which team is better, 2020 Alabama or 2019 LSU?
- Georgia. I’m not being a homer. Really. The JT Daniels version of Georgia deserves to be ranked second. Shoot me for saying that, if you want.
- Texas A&M. Give Jimbo credit for being handed an easier schedule this season and not screwing it up.
- Florida. The best four-loss team in the country, bitchez.
- Auburn. Even on a three-game losing streak to finish the season, Florida’s season was still miles better than Auburn’s.
- LSU. I suspect if LSU had played in a bowl game, it would have surpassed Auburn in this Power Poll.
- Ole Miss. They managed to finish at .500. It may not have been pretty, but it was entertaining.
- Kentucky. The ‘Cats sort of wheezed their way to a bowl win, but a win’s a win, after all.
- Missouri. The way the Tigers faded down the stretch, it’s probably a good thing they didn’t play in a bowl game.
- Mississippi State. Sure, they ended 4-7, but they beat LSU and finished on a winning note, which is more than you can say for Florida.
- Arkansas. Shame they didn’t get a crack at a bowl game, but the program’s got a lot more momentum than it did at the end of the 2019 season.
- Tennessee. Momentum? What’s that?
- South Carolina. I don’t think we’ll be hearing any cannon shots coming from the direction of Columbia for a while.
- Vanderbilt. The mother of all rebuilding jobs.
Filed under SEC Football
Greg Sankey’s triumphant finish
Is it just me who finds Greg Sankey’s sanctimonious posturing a wee bit distasteful?
Apparently not.
Now Brian’s an unabashed SEC hater, but he’s not wrong there. Sankey took a gamble, just like every P5 commissioner did (or, more precisely, every president of a P5 school did). Yeah, sure, you can mock the Big Ten for its about face if that makes you feel superior, but Brian’s point about Johnson should sting, assuming Sankey gives a shit about anything besides the bottom line.
Anyway, what I find troubling about Sankey’s comments is stooping to use a horror show of a year as a reason to work the refs in order to force every other commissioner to march in lockstep with the lowest common denominator. Not that my opinion is gonna change anything, at least as long as the checks keep rolling in.
Filed under BCS/Playoffs, SEC Football, The Body Is A Temple
Are we guilty of Dawgrading the 2020 Georgia team?
Hear me out for a second. Georgia is the only team on Alabama’s schedule this season to hold a second half lead on the Tide. Georgia took an early 14-0 lead on Florida in Jacksonville.
Yes, I know. Things unraveled in both of those games, due to a sort of negative feedback loop caused by a defense that couldn’t control the passing game and quarterback play that cracked under the pressure of trying to keep up.
But it’s a team that still managed eight wins against an SEC schedule and a top ten NY6 opponent, despite starting the season with its fourth-string quarterback running the offense for the first seven of those games. It’s a team that managed to finish seventh in the final AP Poll. Sagarin has them fifth. ESPN’s FPI does, too.
No, Georgia didn’t reach the CFP this season, or even the SECCG. And I won’t deny that’s a little disappointing, especially in light of the program being a recruiting monster under Smart. But as I said in a comment the other day, Kirby’s had two specific problems to deal with this season, Alabama and stability at quarterback. (COVID’s a problem, sure, but it’s one every program had to face.) The former isn’t something he can control and the latter, hopefully, has been addressed. And maybe in doing so, that will make dealing the the first problem a little easier in 2021, if it comes to that. (Which it probably will.)
Anyway, I’m inclined to give the program a little slack. How about you?
Filed under Georgia Football
About last night
Confession time: I changed my pick in the Fabris Pool at the last minute and went with ‘Bama to cover, because I saw a cryptic Kirk Herbstreit quote that Ohio State had a fairly serious injury situation it was dealing with at game time. It did turn out that two starters on the defensive line were out, along with the starting kicker, but the main thing was Justin Fields was obviously nowhere in the vicinity of 100% healthy.
That all being said, the biggest issue of the night had nothing to do with health. It was Ohio State’s complete inability to cover DaVonta Smith. It’s not like they didn’t know what they were dealing with, either.
Someone posted a comment to the effect that on defense this season, the Buckeyes pretty much played in their base set all the time, counting on being able to out-athlete the opposition. That may have worked before, but facing a team with NFL-level talent at the skill position and an NFL offensive coordinator, it wasn’t the best way to approach last night. Sarkisian did a brilliant job getting his best player open time and time again and OSU never adjusted.
This play in particular made me shake my head in admiration:
Weirdly enough, and maybe it’s just me, but it reminded me of this play call of Jim Chaney’s, in the 2018 Tech game. Yeah, I know, but I have to think Mac Jones’ eyes must have lit up the exact same way Jake Fromm’s did when he saw the alignment of a linebacker on a fast receiver in the slot.
Anyway, there was nothing cheap about that win and I won’t be sorry to see guys like Smith, Harris and Jones plying their wares in the NFL next season.
Filed under Alabama, Strategery And Mechanics
Fabris Bowl Pool results
Alas, all good things must come to an end, and such is the case with this season’s Fabris Pool.
The bowl pick ’em definitely limped to the finish, as we wound up with only 26 bowl games. Reduced numbers or not, we still wound up with a clear winner: mackeraldreams, who finished with an impressive 18-8 record. Congrats to you!
Back again in eight and a half months, or so…
Filed under GTP Stuff
GOAT
Whether you love Nick Saban or hate him, you’ve still got to respect a track record like this:
Jeebus.
Filed under Nick Saban Rules
Get The Picture 
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