In praise of Todd Monken

Yesterday, Tennessee came out playing the type of defense that I thought would give Stetson Bennett trouble — not selling out to stop the run/playing to prevent the deep pass — and, to some extent, it worked.  Stetson wasn’t great, as his 131.7 passer rating would indicate, but he wasn’t bad, either.  He rushed 8 times for 40 yards and a touchdown and his feet kept him out of trouble on a couple of occasions, although the Vols did manage a couple of sacks.  Most importantly, he didn’t turn the ball over once.  All in all, the harshest I can be about it would be to call his day inconsistent.

Yeah, to some extent, that didn’t matter because defense.  But I’d argue the reason Georgia prospered on offense to the tune of 41 points and 487 yards was a bigger cause for it not mattering.  Todd Monken continues to be the best Georgia offensive coordinator of my lifetime because he gets one thing better than anybody.

Stetson Bennett, profound quarterback:

"I don't know how you quantify taking what they give you. But if they give you something, I'll take it."

— Seth Emerson (@SethWEmerson) November 14, 2021

In this case, Tennessee gave Georgia the opportunity to run the ball and Todd Monken took what was offered to the tune of 41 carries for 274 yards, a 6.1 average.  Which is not to say the passing game was ignored.  Bennett had 29 pass attempts, a season high for him.

When the dust settled, Georgia wound up averaging 6.96 yards per play, just a tick about their season average (6.90), which, by the way, ranks eighth nationally.  Not bad for an offense that doesn’t have a superstar.

Lanning is going to get the lion’s share of the attention for Georgia’s assistants, and when you’re directing that defense, it’s certainly understandable why.  But the job Monken’s done this season shouldn’t be minimized.  He may not be cutting edge, but he knows how to put his offense in position to succeed.  He’s why I don’t care about the quarterback debate, because, week after week, he’s shown he’ll figure out the best way to go.

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Week 11 Mumme Poll ballot link

It’s been a crazy week, but approval voting can handle what’s thrown at it.  Cast your ballot here.  And do it by tomorrow night!

Quote of the day

Tell me you’ve lost your football team without saying you’ve lost your football team.

Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian was asked if players have tuned him out. Sarkisian said, "I don't know. You'd have to ask them that question."

— Anwar Richardson (@AnwarRichardson) November 14, 2021

Texas is on its first five-game losing streak since 1956.  Sark is in his first contract year, so I seriously doubt his job is in jeopardy, but when you’ve got money and a willingness to burn it — remember, it just cost the school $24 million in buyouts to get rid of Herman — I should never say never.

Have some cheese with that whine.

Lincoln Riley wants you to know he strongly objected to Dave Aranda calling a time out with three seconds left in the game to kick a field goal with Baylor already up by ten on Oklahoma.  Strongly:

“I know why Dave tried to kick the field goal. I don’t agree with it. And I still think above all else, there’s a code of sportsmanship that I believe in. I wouldn’t have done it. But that’s his decision, that’s his football team. How the officials don’t enforce a 15-yard penalty when you probably got 5,000 people on the field is unbelievable to me. It is what it is. That’s his decision. That’s the officials’ decision. I don’t agree with it.”

Did I mention he strongly objected?

Riley said he saw OU linebacker David Ugwoegbu “just get bum-rushed by three guys” and sent Oklahoma’s team to the locker room during the delay. He said he considered telling all the players to leave without having any on the field for a final play.

“I did tell them that, and I don’t know, maybe I should have done it,” Riley said. “You know, I just I don’t believe this situation was handled well by a lot of people. Doing it with class is important to me. And at the end of the day, that’s why we decided to bring 11 guys out even though deep down I damn sure didn’t want to.”

Class?  In college football?  Is that still a thing?

After the game, Aranda said he thought Riley was “upset”.  Well, it’s certainly a convenient way to deflect from his team losing a game that knocked them out of CFP consideration.

The further adventures of always be ‘crootin’.

And by “always”, I mean always:

On talking with Peyton Manning before the game…
“I got a chance to talk to Peyton before the game but it was more about his son. He wants me to recruit his son. He had me worried because he said he was going to play quarterback today. I was getting even more nervous.”

Peyton’s son is only ten, but the baller move would have been to offer on the spot, Kirbs.  You know Junior would have.

“Good” and “fine”: the grudging sounds of moral victory

Wes Rucker:

Tennessee was fine. Georgia was fine. What we saw was an appropriate result for both of those teams being fine.

Vegas told us three scores should have separated these teams in this game, and three scores ultimately separated these teams in this game. Neither team was great. Neither team was terrible. Both teams were more or less themselves.

Velus Jones, UT wide receiver:

“They (Georgia) are a good football team, but we’re a good football team as well,” said Jones, who caught eight passes for 44 yards and a touchdown. “That just shows how close we are to putting the whole thing together.”

It’s always impressive to see what a meaningless score in garbage time does for a team’s confidence.

Eight-and-oh, bitchez!

Whoomp, there it is:

Unparalleled game coverage – news, analysis, videos, opinion

All right here: https://t.co/XAXjqiQZMO pic.twitter.com/SNyXO2tbjZ

— UGASports.com (@UGASportscom) November 14, 2021

So much for that “Georgia’s gonna Georgia one game” narrative this season.  Way to go, Kirbs.

How did we get here, anyway?

Keen, piercing analysis from the head coach of the team currently mired in last place in the SEC West:

Orgeron was asked if he meant offensively in reference to needing to put the team in better position:

"We gotta call better plays. We've gotta do better things. It's obvious." #Lsu

— Brody Miller (@BrodyAMiller) November 14, 2021

One day, we’re either going to look back at LSU’s 2019 natty — less than two years ago! — as an utterly inexplicable occurrence, or else athletic directors of major college football powers are going to weaponize Orgeron’s fleeting, improbable success against their head coaches with a “if Coach O could win a national championship, how come you can’t?”.  Or both, maybe.

College football romance

So, this happened yesterday.

AS CALLED ON KANSAS JAYHAWKS RADIO: pic.twitter.com/np3vb9EGih

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) November 14, 2021

Just a reminder that, while it’s run by idiots capable of incredibly petty and stupid behavior who have no problem crapping on loyal fans when it suits them financially, college football is still capable of moments like this to remind us why we love this friggin’ sport so much.

Envy and jealousy, disrespectful edition

It’s getting to the point where I may need to rename this category after David Hale.  Here’s this week’s sampler:

“Calling a win disappointing is disrespectful to the game,” Mullen said without commenting on how disrespectful it might be to surrender 52 points at home to an FCS opponent with a losing record.

Well, never let it be said we’re disrespectful to the game here, so let’s start from the top.

Saturday marked a critical turning point for plucky upstart Florida. Losers of four straight (very unfair) games, the Gators were at a significant disadvantage because of all the booing from the (home) fans but still managed to beat a national championship-winning coach (Samford’s Chris Hatcher, who won the Division II title in 2004). Hatcher also once employed Kirby Smart on his staff at Valdosta State, so technically, this also was like getting a win over Georgia. And Florida’s performance made history by allowing the most points in the first half in program history. Remember, all records are, by definition, difficult to accomplish. And what’s more, Florida did this despite firing defensive coordinator Todd Grantham last week. It’s even tougher to be really bad on defense without Grantham. Finally, let’s not forget that, as Florida mounted its heroic comeback against mighty Samford, Oklahoma was busy losing to Baylor. So, you know, go be mad at Lincoln Riley. Have you seen how he’s handled his QBs? What a mess! Nothing to see here, though, so just move along.

Admittedly, Dan Mullen is a target rich environment, but still, that’s good snark.