A thought that always brings a smile

Check out @CFBHome 's Top 3️⃣QB's that were beloved by their rivals fanbase ⤵️

Do you have a rival QB that you love?https://t.co/eCMQjwhfZl

— Fifth Quarter (@FifthQuarter) August 1, 2021

I wouldn’t exactly say I love Reggie, but I’ll always honor his memory.

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Meanwhile, on defense

Georgia’s fall practice starts later this week.  (And there was much rejoicing.)  Here’s hoping that it will herald a time when we can get back to some degree of normalcy at the blog and focus way less on conference realignment.

In that spirit, Seth Emerson has taken a stab at a defensive depth chart here ($$).  I wouldn’t say it’s full of surprising developments (the first name on the list is Jordan Davis at nose tackle); rather, it reinforces the general perception of the front seven’s stability and the secondary’s… uh… not so much stability.

More than that, though, what really comes across is the depth across the board, even in the backfield.  The vast majority of it is home grown, but make no mistake about Kendrick’s and Smith’s arrivals.  Maybe there’s a question about their starting chances (like Seth, I don’t believe that’s really in doubt), but there’s no question that Smart has done a good job of shoring up the number of bodies who can legitimately contribute in pass coverage.

Thoughts?

Another 2020 stat

Matt Melton breaks down the SEC’s 2020 season by a metric of his creation, first half points differential, which he defines as follows:

It is the number of points by which a team outscores its opponent in the first half of a game. The theory behind using it being that consistently relying on second half comebacks is not a good long term strategy and can potentially help us identify regression candidates. Similarly, teams that rack up solid first half differentials, but ultimately wind up losing more game than we might expect actually have the bones of a solid team and might be a good candidate to bounce back the next season.

Now, with the understanding that 2020 was the mother of all statistical outliers in mind, here’s the SEC’s picture:

My goodness, Alabama.  That’s obscene.  The combined total for the other five teams with positive differentials is +21.9.

Take the numbers as seriously as you choose.  That being said, this seems like a fine epitaph for Jeremy Pruitt’s finale in Knoxville:

… Finally, in a shocking turn of events, Tennessee was actually kind of mediocre in 2020 instead of plain bad. The Vols were winning or tied at the half in six of their ten conference games, but lost half of them (which includes blowing a double digit lead against Arkansas) to finish 3-7.

He’ll be missed.