There’s nothing better than watching Florida lose to a G5 team… well, except for watching Florida lose to a G5 team and then get in an on-field scrum after the loss.
The Gator Standard, circa 2021.
Billy Napier should send Dan Mullen a thank you note for setting as low a bar as he could.
Filed under Gators, Gators...
This NSFW message is sponsored by the Gasparilla Bowl.
Somebody really needs a girlfriend.
Filed under Gators, Gators...
Sitting Tyler Badie probably reinforced the team’s attitude, but it’s got to be embarrassing to lose to an Army team that just got beat by a subpar Navy squad.
This has to be even more embarrassing:
Filed under SEC Football
PFF is far from perfect, but I think these two tweets nail the essence of Stetson Bennett:
“MUG looks” are when the opposing defenses walk their LBs up into the A-gaps around the center. It’s a high pressure look, in other words. Get Bennett in obvious passing situations and show pressure and his game recedes significantly. Generally speaking, that’s what ‘Bama has done.
To be fair, though, it takes a village to put Stetson in that spot.
That’s as good a way to describe Kirby’s problem as you can. The rest of the team has to keep Stetson in the game. If they can, he’s no worse than serviceable. If they can’t…
Filed under Georgia Football, Stats Geek!, Strategery And Mechanics
I tell you what — this is some rabbit hole David Hale fell into.
This is why disproving momentum is so difficult. Ask 100 people to define it and you’ll likely get 100 different answers, but absolutely everyone who has spent any time around sports innately understands the sensation. Show people all the data you want — and there is a lot of it (here, here and here, for example) — and it won’t compare with that tingling sensation in their gut, that adrenaline rush as a team marches down the field for a winning TD, that absolute certainty that destiny is on their side. To paraphrase Justice Potter Stewart, you know momentum when you feel it.
“There’s an electricity to the thing,” Mississippi State football coach Mike Leach said. “And guys are so tuned in on the sideline, it’s like everybody can finish everybody else’s sentences.”
In the end, he’s no closer to an answer than when he started, but it’s a fun read along the way.
Filed under Science Marches Onward
Ross Dellenger has a good piece about how college sports are struggling to deal with the real, but very different, issues presented by the omicron variant of COVID.
Filed under The Body Is A Temple
Here’s a classic “causation or correlation?” statistic for you:
That 2019 Carolina game was definitely a case of causation. I’ll leave it to you to pass judgment on the rest.
In any event, it would seem to behoove the Dawgs not to lose the turnover battle in their next game.
Filed under Georgia Football, Stats Geek!
First,
Shit, COVID is undefeated, even against the GOAT. Seriously, if the program you’d have to think has taken the most serious approach to protocols can’t stop the spread, you’ve got to start worrying about the possibility that the CFP field as a whole is going to be impacted. Hope that’s not the case, but it’s something to keep an eye on.
This ain’t the CFP, but still, it ain’t good, either.
Next, Graham shares some good news.
As good as that is for Pickens, I hope it’s even better news with regard to team spread. All we can do is wait and see.
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UPDATE: Yikes.
I wonder what that does to Jimbo’s bowl game bonus.
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UPDATE #2: In case you were wondering…
Filed under Alabama, BCS/Playoffs, Georgia Football, The Body Is A Temple
I mean, given that Michigan State is the only team to pin a loss on Michigan, you’d think Smart would want to cover all bases, especially since MSU did a good job handling one of the Wolverines’ strong suits this season.
Michigan State defeated the Wolverines 37-33 back on Oct. 30.
In that game, the Spartans did a good job against the Wolverines’ talented running game, limiting leading rusher Hassan Haskins to 59 yards on 14 carries and held Michigan without a rushing touchdown.
Bulldog defenders definitely took notice.
“I have watched some film from that game where they beat Michigan,” defensive end Travon Walker said. “I’m not sure how much the coaches have talked to Coach Tucker, but I have watched that game.”
Just wonderin’.
Filed under Georgia Football, Strategery And Mechanics
This Georgia analysis ($$) from The Athletic’s Michigan beat writer is very complimentary about the Dawgs… well, except for one thing.
You see all this talent and ask yourself: Shouldn’t Georgia have one of the best pass offenses in the country and not the sixth-most productive unit in the SEC? Well … maybe. It doesn’t, though, and the quarterback situation is one reason why.
Saban showed the way, as is usually the case.
Michigan’s best path defensively is to borrow Alabama’s: Find ways to cloud the picture for the quarterback through coverage and blitz disguise/variance.
… This, for Michigan, has to be the blueprint. Win situations. Find ways to clog windows in obvious throwing downs, especially in the red zone, and make whichever quarterback Georgia starts have to think about a lot more than he wants to. And when either Bennett or JT Daniels (both do this) offer up opportunities, Michigan has to pounce.
He seems to think that Daniels is slower making his post-snap reads than is Bennett, a take I find puzzling, to say the least.
In any event, he seems to believe that’s where the game will be decided.
The only unsettled spot on the field for Kirby Smart and Georgia is at quarterback. That’s a problem.
The formula to stump Georgia offensively has been clear since the opener: play soft coverage so that Monken can’t call anything to beat you over the top and hope your defensive line is sturdy enough to limit Georgia’s running game without needing to bring extra numbers on a regular basis. Does Michigan have enough game to do just that?
Filed under Georgia Football, Strategery And Mechanics
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