We’re not sending our best and brightest to Congress, that’s for sure.
Then again, Mark Emmert’s probably kicking himself for not coming up with that first.
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UPDATE: Dude’s not afraid to name names.
Filed under Political Wankery, The NCAA
A masterpiece of its kind, from “The Curious Case of Big Game Georgia” (thanks, W.H.):
If you think I’m tilting at windmills, Google “Georgia doesn’t win big games”. You’ll find countless articles detailing the Dawg’s inability to win when it matters most.
He heard it on the Internet, so it must be true.
There are even many of them from less than a month ago, from just before Georgia faced Clemson in the season opener. They all had a similar tone; this is Georgia’s chance to prove they can finally win the big one. Guess what? They did. Georgia took down the second-ranked Clemson Tigers, and they got their big win. Or did they?
A day after the game, everyone was convinced that the Dawgs had overcome that obstacle, but three games later, that game looks like a stain on Georgia’s record. Clemson has looked abysmal following that game, barely scrapping by a .500 Georgia Tech team and then losing to NC State. Clemson doesn’t look like the team it’s been for the last half-decade of football, and Georgia’s narrow victory now casts doubt on them as a team.
You can’t defeat the narrative, Dawgs. Don’t even try.
Filed under Georgia Football
Looks like something’s gotta give Saturday.
Filed under Arkansas Is Kind Of A Big Deal, Georgia Football, Stats Geek!
I have seen more than a few folks suggest this week that Saturday’s game reminds them of two previous Georgia games, the 2017 Mississippi State game and the 2015 one against Alabama. Apparently, Arkansas is like MSU in the former and Georgia in the latter.
Honestly, I’m not feeling it. That 2017 Mississippi State team’s rep coming in was built on a whipping of an LSU team that lost a couple of weeks later to Troy and finished 9-4. Arkansas’ resume already has two wins over top-20 teams. In 2015, Georgia actually found itself as the favorite in several quarters; nobody in Vegas sees the Hogs in a similar light.
But the real reason I’m not seeing it is because there’s been a complete absence of cockiness and trash talk emanating from Fayetteville this week. Sam Pittman isn’t Dan Mullen. And I doubt his team makes a pre-game effort to stare down the Dawgs, as Georgia tried with ‘Bama. (Yeah, that worked well.)
Some of that — probably a lot of that — is because of the personal relationship Pittman and Smart share. There’s too much respect flowing both ways for either to let their teams show their ass.
But there’s another factor that I think is in play here. Arkansas under Pittman is an impressive 11-3 against the spread. And, if anything, that’s intensified in 2021. The topper is that, per Bill Connelly ($$), Georgia’s been overachieving, too.
Georgia Bulldogs: 75% vs. the spread, +14.4 points per game. The only time the Bulldogs didn’t cover this year was when they allowed South Carolina (+31.5) a garbage-time touchdown to turn a 40-6 cover into a 40-13 loss. The Dawgs have been rampant and just passed Alabama for No. 1 in both SP+ and ESPN’s FPI.
Arkansas Razorbacks: 100% vs. the spread, +13.3 points per game. The Hogs were projected to improve, but they’ve done more than that — they’ve already taken down both Texas and Texas A&M, and they’re 4-0 for the first time in 18 years. Now they get a shot at fellow overachiever Georgia.
Georgia’s already beaten the spread by more than 25 points in two games this season and the Dawgs have absolutely trashed Connelly’s SP+ as a predictor, missing Georgia games by an average of 16.4.
Both of these teams are way beyond living up to expectations so far this season. Trash talking that kind of effort seems pretty silly. In other words, save the comparisons for another time.
Those of you looking at yesterday’s NLRB announcement and assuming that it’s all about the money may not be right, at least not to start with. I have the feeling that if anyone takes this particular ball and starts running with it, it’ll be about working conditions.
Winter says athletes right now could begin organizing, by team or school or conference, to make demands about working conditions if their regional labor board approves unionization. They don’t like their meals on campus? They don’t like the way in which their program travels to games? They don’t like their coach’s practice schedule? Under the National Labor Relations Act, they would have the right to voice such complaints—even go on strike—while under protection of the law from their company, in this case the university.
There are also matters like insurance and post-college health care. Or, to hit college football even harder, what if there’s an organized objection to playoff expansion?
None of this is about amateurism. It’s about having more say so in how college athletes are asked to work or enhance the educational experience or whatever euphemism you’re comfortable using to describe what they do. It won’t sit well with the control freaks who coach them, that’s for sure.
Filed under Look For The Union Label
You know, this ain’t too shabby.
Even if you throw the Clemson stats in there, Daniels has a 185.38 passer rating on third down. That’s good for second in the conference.
Filed under Georgia Football, Stats Geek!
Georgia’s gotten off to a good start this season. The defense has only allowed six points in the four first quarters it’s played. Guess what, though? Arkansas has been even better.
If you combine what UGA and Arkansas have done this season in the first quarter, you get a score of 104-6. Georgia has given up all six of those points while scoring 70. Arkansas has hung 34 first-quarter points on its opponents this season while giving up zero.
Not only that, but, as Brian Fremeau points out, the Arkansas defense has been damned good in the second half.
The Razorbacks defense has been particularly suffocating in the second half this season. On 20 non-garbage opponent second-half possessions, Arkansas has surrendered only three touchdowns. Only one of the other 17 drives in that non-garbage second-half set managed to cross midfield, a turnover on downs forced against Rice in Week 1. After tying the game up on the next possession against the Owls, Arkansas has not trailed in the first or second half of a game since. Last weekend, the Razorbacks allowed one 67-yard Isaiah Spiller touchdown run in the third quarter, but surrendered less than 50 yards combined on all other second-half possessions against the Aggies.
He goes on to say this about the game, though:
… For their part, the Bulldogs have the most impressive team efficiency metrics by far this season, and they would be a clear FEI No. 1 team this week if they were not also held back somewhat by more modest preseason projection numbers. FEI projects Georgia to win by 18.8 points over Arkansas, consistent with the performance expectations of an elite team against a merely good team.
Maybe that’s the case on the spread, but it sure seems like everything points to taking the under Saturday, which is something like 48.5.
Filed under Arkansas Is Kind Of A Big Deal, Georgia Football, Stats Geek!
Talk about your futile and stupid gestures…
Richard Burr, one of two former scholarship college athletes in the U.S. Senate, promised to introduce legislation if athletes were able to profit off their name, image and likeness.
Now, with college athletes signing deals with companies big and small, the North Carolina Republican has followed through, introducing the NIL Scholarship Tax Act.
“If a student chooses to monetize their name, image, and likeness based on their connection to their school — in some cases earning them $1 million or more a year — their scholarship should be subject to federal income taxation,” said Burr, who played football at Wake Forest University in the 1970s.
“It’s critical that we help protect the successful collegiate sports model that has provided students with educational and professional opportunities for more than a century.”
Skip past the complete unlikelihood that this bill would ever come close to passing. What exactly would it do to protect the amateurism model? Would a kid turn down a million dollar NIL promotional deal because he’d have to pay tax on, say, a $50,000 scholly? Not bloody likely.
There’s also the problem that students on scholarship who aren’t athletes, but receive outside income, don’t have their scholarship benefits taxed. How could you treat them differently under the law?
The game is kind of given away with this:
Burr’s legislation would only impact athletes who receive more than $20,000 from outside compensation. Those who earn more would be required to include their scholarship as income for federal taxes. Athletes pay taxes on any outside compensation already.
Apparently, a little bit pregnant is okay with Burr.
Filed under It's Just Bidness, Political Wankery
Don’t know if you heard the news yesterday, but Smart let it slip that JT Daniels has been affected by another injury, although he’s still expected to start against Arkansas.
“His oblique is fine; he’s been having a little bit of a lat issue,” Smart said. “It bothered him some last week, and it bothered him some this week. But he’s done a good job, he’s sharp, watches all his tape, gets his reps and he does a good job, so we’re hoping he can stay that way.”
The latissimus dorsi muscles, commonly known as lats, are the V-shaped muscles that connect the arms to the vertebrae column.
Meanwhile, speaking of playing Saturday, somebody sounds like he’s chomping at the bit to get out on the field.
Go get ’em, Tykee.
Filed under Georgia Football, The Body Is A Temple
That’s been the rallying cry of many an Internet Arky fan this week. There’s only one little thing about that:
Arkansas at Georgia: This will mark the eighth top-10 opponent the Bulldogs have faced in their past 17 games, a streak that began with the 2019 loss to LSU in the SEC title game.
No, they haven’t all resulted in wins. Nor is that a guarantee of victory on Saturday. But that’s not the point. This team’s been battle tested, as much as some would like to pretend otherwise.
Filed under Georgia Football
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