Narrative vs. stats

Tired:  Jermaine Burton left because he wants to play in an offense with a more dynamic passing attack.

Wired:

Taking a closer look at some PFF stats on CFB Playoff QBs.

Here are post-season (incl conf ship) numbers on passes thrown 20+ yards.

Stetson Bennett: 7-of-11 305 2TD 0INT
Bryce Young: 5-of-16 207 2TD 2INT
Cade McNamara: 4-of-5 128 0TD 0INT
Desmond Ridder: 4-of-10 117 2TD 0INT

— Trent Smallwood (@SmallwoodTrent) January 24, 2022

At least he’ll get to pad his stats during the next regular season before he turns pro.  😉

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Meanwhile, on offense…

Check out Anthony Dasher’s early look at what’s coming back on that side of the ball to get your blood pressure lowered after the Daniels and Burton news (or, if you’re that sort of fan, the Bennett news).

Tl;dr version:  there is a shit ton of talent coming back in 2022.  Here are a few bullet points for your consumption:

• Quarterback.  Even if Beck joins Daniels in a search for greener pastures, you’ve still got the nation’s number four passer rating, followed by a five-star and a four-star recruit (both of whom run better and throw better than does Bennett).
• Running back.  The top three are good and should help Georgia carry on.  My only question here is whether there’s a fourth coming in who steps up to make the rotation.
• Tight end.  I don’t get the whispers about Washington wanting to leave.  With Fitzpatrick’s departure, he’s going to see plenty of playing time in Monken’s offense.  (Assuming he stays healthy, that is.)
• Wide receiver.  The wild card is Arik Gilbert.  If he’s back, look out.
• Offensive line.  There are nineteen names on Dasher’s list.  Three of them — Ericson, McClendon and Van Pran — are returning starters.  A fourth, Broderick Jones, saw plenty of action when Salyer went down.  And a fifth, Ratledge, was in line to start until he was sidelined by injury for the season.  (What I saw of Ratledge at G-Day made me think he was the best pulling lineman on the roster, something that’s a big deal for Luke and Monken.)

All that’s before we find out if Kirby lands a player or two out of the transfer portal.  In short, there’s enough personnel there to expect the offense in 2022 to be pretty, pretty good.

Looks like they caught Kirby’s bag man.

Weiszer:  “Georgia reported three NCAA violations involving the football program for impermissible recruiting inducements between October and the end of December in its latest quarterly summary.”

Here’s the big one:

One violation resulted in football staff members being prohibited from going with recruits or their guests to the UGA bookstore.

That stemmed from am Oct. 17  violation when a non-coaching staff member gave a $50 loan to a recruit’s parent to complete a purchase. The parent said he would repay the loan but the staff member failed to collect the repayment when the family hurried to leave campus for a flight.

Georgia stopped recruiting the player and the staff member was barred from recruiting activities for 90 days.

Fitty dollah!  Wait ’til Gator fans get ahold of that one.

Siri, what’s the opposite of schadenfreude?

Assuming David Ubben’s take here ($$) comes true…

Georgia closed the season with a cathartic victory over Alabama that also will serve as major motivation for the Crimson Tide this offseason. There’s no need to play the video of that game in the team facility, but don’t be surprised if it makes an appearance at some point. It has been a while since Alabama had something to prove in an offseason, but that’s where it stands.

… I can’t help but wonder what Jermaine Burton’s reaction will be watching that.

Today, in gaps

You gotta love Seth Emerson’s lede this morning ($$).

Goodness, what an exodus of talent is hitting the Georgia defense: Three former five-star recruits, two more who were ranked in the top 100 of their class, and three more who were four-stars. And that doesn’t even include Jordan Davis.

That strips down the poor Georgia defense to only returning:

• 10 former five-star recruits

• Six more who were top-100 recruits

• 15 more who were four-star recruits

Kirby Smart’s cupboard, not very bare at all as it turns out.

Yeah, there’s some serious experience walking out the door, but that’s life in college football these days if yours is an elite program.  Better to have talent on hand to replace it than not.  And maybe there’s a transfer or two in the works, to boot.

I’ll take my chances with it, thank you very much.

Georgia’s 2022 schedule

Mike Griffith ranks this season’s schedule in order of difficulty:

1. Oregon (in Atlanta)
2. At Kentucky
3. At South Carolina
4. At Mississippi State
5. Florida (in Jacksonville)
6. Tennessee
7. Missouri
8. Auburn
9. Vanderbilt
10. Georgia Tech
11. Kent State
12. Samford

Quibble about the order some, if you like, but overall, that has the feel of a repeat of last season’s slate.  Yeah, as I said in the comments this morning, it’s a long way ’til September, but show me a single game there where you’d expect Georgia to go in as an underdog.  I sure don’t see one.

Nice touch, by the way, on ranking Tech below Vanderbilt, Mike.

Maybe, just maybe, the sky isn’t falling

Before you slit your wrists over Jermaine Burton’s departure for Alabama, remember this guy stepping up as a true freshman to stake a claim on being in the rotation is a reason for the departure.

Year 1 💍 , Year 2 loading .. 🧘🏾‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/SgW4QsYSkW

— Adonai Mitchell 5️⃣ (@MoCityMitch) January 24, 2022

When you recruit the way Georgia has under Smart, things are never as dire as they may seem.

Musical palate cleanser, ear worm edition

Man,  I heard this cover of a The Mamas & The Papas single and can’t get the damned thing out of my head.  From Autoliner’s 1999 album Life On Mars, here’s “Twelve Thirty”:

California sunshine just leaks out of that chorus, doesn’t it?