The problem with making sure your broadcast partner is kept happier than your fans…
“… some weird one-off because it’s a Thursday” isn’t a bug for the BTN, my friend. It’s a feature.
Daily Archives: August 30, 2021
Ticket bleg
Looking for decent tickets for the opener? Well, NCDawg is here to help.
I have two UGA/Clemson available last week. Instead of selling to a stranger on Ticketmaster, thought I could offer them to a blog reader at cost. They are lower level, section 1339, 30 yard line.
My cost was $270 each.
If you are interested, indicate that in the comments and include an email address to which she can respond.
(And, before you ask, no, I’m not taking a broker fee.) 😉
Filed under GTP Stuff
Welcome South, brother.
Culture shock.
I’m a little surprised he didn’t hear any barking.
Filed under Georgia Football
Return of the walking wounded
Today is the day for one of Kirby’s “day to day” crew.
Hope the rest of the week is sprinkled with similar good news.
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UPDATE: As far as the rest of them go, the situation remains unchanged.
Georgia remains without LSU wide receiver/tight end transfer Arik Gilbert who has been away from the team to deal with personal issues.
“No update other than Arik’s not currently with us still,” coach Kirby Smart said Monday. “We’re praying for him each and every day that he’ll come back healthy.”
Tight end Darnell Washington and nickel back Tykee Smith (each with a foot injury) are expected to miss early season games, but Smart didn’t say for sure they are out for Saturday’s 7:30 p.m. game in Charlotte when asked about them. Practices have been closed to the media all preseason.
“Each one of them are doing great,” Smart said. “They’re moving around now and hopeful that both of those guys will be healthy soon.”
Projected starting center Warren Ericson missed time with a hand injury, opening the door for redshirt freshman Sedrick Van Pran-Granger to start but Smart said Ericson has practiced the last two weeks
“We feel good about him,” Smart said. “We feel like those guys are healthy and available and excited to see them go play.”
Filed under Georgia Football
Seriously, this is fan friendly.
Good news on the way for one side of the stadium:
Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks is set to unveil the Athletic Association’s plans for facilities for the next three to four years at the fall board of directors’ meeting on Sept. 10.
Brooks provided some more details Monday morning to the board’s facilities and development committee for projects including those coming up at Sanford Stadium.
The renovation of the 100 level south concourse will begin construction starting after the 2022 season. The concourse would go from 10 feet wide to 23 feet in width and new restrooms and concessions would be built in the Gate 6 and 9 areas.
“Moving those outward but opening up that concourse,” Brooks told the committee. “At that same time, we would increase the restroom count, increase the point of sales to our concessions and make improvement to our ADA wheelchair seating. …That’s going to be a massive improvement for our fans that sit there.”
You had me at “increase the restroom count”, Josh. Well done.
Filed under Georgia Football
Fitty-fitty
JT Daniels says there’s a method to his madness.
Georgia quarterback JT Daniels explained why he puts so much arc on his deep throws during an appearance on Trevor Matich’s Virtual CFB Tour show on Saturday on ESPN…
“That’s something I learned when I was a freshman in high school,” said Daniels, who started training with renowned NFL QB coach Jordan Palmer about that time.
“Overthrowing a really good receiver guarantees he won’t catch the ball,” Daniels said. “But if you give them a chance, a 50-50 … “
Georgia coach Kirby Smart sat beside Daniels as he spoke during the interview, completely bought into his quarterback with the No. 5-ranked Bulldogs season-opening game against No. 3 Clemson on deck at 7:30 p.m. next Saturday in Charlotte, N.C.
“I think the biggest thing if you are in a situation where you are in a one-on-one (coverage), and you can give the receiver a chance, never guarantee those 7 points are off the board by overthrowing it,” Daniels said.
That works well, if you’re good at reading coverages. Which JT is. It also helps if your offensive coordinator’s play design is good at getting receivers open. Which Todd Monken’s is.
Filed under Georgia Football
Pick ’em PSA
As of this morning, I’ve got 163 sign ups for the Fabris Pool. It’s not too late to join. Just click here to get started.
Filed under GTP Stuff
Finally, it’s Game Week.
So let’s start by looking back at the last four games of last season. Georgia went 4-0 and JT Daniels compiled a passer rating of 178.50, which, had he done that over the course of the entire season, would have been top ten nationally.
The criticism of Daniels’ performance, such as it’s been, has generally focused on the quality of the defenses he’s faced.
Graham offers a rebuttal of that criticism.
So does Josh.
There’s a good case to be made there, but I also think there is an argument to be made regarding context. Mississippi State’s roster was depleted. Georgia faced South Carolina after Boom was canned and a major portion of the secondary elected to opt out of playing.
That being said, I think there’s a decent possibility we’re overemphasizing Georgia’s passing game. Why do I say that? Because the two closest games Georgia played in those four were against two defenses that elected to sell out to shut down the run. And it worked, too! MSU held Georgia to eight yards rushing (0.35 ypa); Cinci held Georgia to 45 yards rushing (1.88 ypa). The Dawgs won both games, but only by seven and three points, respectively.
And here’s the thing: last season’s Clemson’s offense (43.5 ppg) was better than Mississippi State’s (21.4 ppg) and Cincinnati’s (37.5 ppg).
Forget the sign stealing; if I’m Venables, I’m going to be sorely tempted to follow a similar game plan in an attempt to make Georgia’s offense one-dimensional. Then again, if I’m Monken, I have to think that’s something Venables is considering and look to scheme around that, which means throwing the ball on early downs to open up the run game. Wheels within wheels…
“That’s drying up inventory for kickoff games.”
Stokan has lined up a Georgia-Oregon battle for next season and Georgia-Clemson for 2024, but Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs have home-and-home series with UCLA in 2025-26 and Florida State in 2027-28 in addition to their season-ending rivalry with Georgia Tech.
“It’s tougher and tougher to do it, but we’ve done it through 2025, so we’re in good shape,” said Stokan, who announced last month that Tennessee and Syracuse would be part of the 2025 Chick-fil-A Kickoff menu. “ADs are scheduling more intersectional nonconference games with big teams primarily because they want to keep a relevancy to their season ticket base. People are tired of sitting in 100-degree temperatures in a game that’s 50-0 at halftime. They don’t want to go to those games anymore, and I think ADs are scheduling these games to keep their season ticket base whole and keep that revenue coming in.
“The ADs also believe there is also going to be expansion to the playoff, so if you lose a tough nonconference game and lose a conference game, you could potentially get an at-large bid in a 12-team playoff.”
It’s a long way down from Georgia-Clemson to Tennessee-Syracuse, that’s for sure.
Filed under College Football
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