“They’ve got it dialed in, they’ve got it rolling.”

This is how you do the NFL combine:

The 14 players off the national champion Bulldog team is more than Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Texas, and Louisville combined, according to school-by-school figures compiled by SI.com.

“There’s a lot of good players at Georgia, that’s for sure,” Washington general manager Martin Mayhew said. “I wish I did a school visit there. I had an opportunity to see quite a few of those guys play in the playoffs and we got to spend some time with some of those guys as well. …They really had a good defensive front.”

That’s how they talk about Saban-coached teams.  Except they’re not talking about a Saban-coached team.

“When you look at the team and you walk out on the field, they all look like an NFL defense,” Panthers general manager Scott Fitterrer told the Banner-Herald. “Like, there’s NFL teams that don’t look that good. So I think they’ve done a heck of a job recruiting. It’s a great head coach that’s dialed in, knows exactly what to do and the campus is beautiful so there’s a lot of draw. It’s the SEC. They’ve got it dialed in, they’ve got it rolling.”

“Kirby and that whole staff, the whole building, they did a great job, building what they’ve built there,” Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot said. “It is kind of overwhelming when you look at all the players on that roster, particularly on defense but also on offense. They have some really good players….We’re excited about spending a lot of time with those Georgia players.”

They ought to clip and save that article and pass it out on the recruiting trail.  Hell, what am I talking about?  They’re already lining that up, amirite?

Just imagine what they could sell if Kirby were any good at player development.

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Steele projects the AP preseason top 10

Here you go:

(For shits and giggles, you can find how the AP finished out the 2021 season here.)

Three SEC teams in the top five, eh?  And look at Oregon, last year’s number 22.

Targeting targeting

Everybody hates the penalty format, but it’s not going anywhere, at least for now.  Why?  Because, lawsuits.

While officials this offseason are exploring adjustments to the foul’s penalty, a study released this winter provides a chilling reminder of why the targeting foul exists in the first place: to reduce the risk of concussions. A four-year study conducted by the Pac-12 over conference and non-conference games from 2016 to ’19, shows the risk of concussions from targeting plays was 37 times higher than on non-targeting plays and 49 times higher when the targeting play was upheld. Fifteen players were concussed in 141 plays in which targeting was called—a 10.6% chance of concussion. In all other plays (68,529), players experienced 198 concussions (0.3% chance).

“This study would indicate that what we’re calling ‘targeting’ is the most dangerous plays we need to get out of the game,” says Steve Shaw, the NCAA’s national coordinator of officials. “This reaffirms that the targeting rule itself is the right rule. We’re working to take head hits out of the game.”

The study, published last month in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, further signals why officials will be hesitant to significantly change the rule.

If officials soften the penalty and targeting increases in the aftermath — correlation vs. causation be damned — you know what’s gonna happen.  And so do the suits who would have to hire the defense lawyers.

There is hope, though.

“In the list of complaints about targeting, what I’ve not seen is an effective strategy of managing the same issue through different mechanisms,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey told SI in January. “Relative to targeting itself, it is a well-intended rule that is difficult to enforce and creates controversy and consternation when it is enforced. I’ve seen enough research that it does change behavior.”

In the NFL, the penalty for targeting is at the discretion of commissioner Roger Goodell and normally results in a financial penalty, not disqualification. College football does not have the ability to fine players and, thus, “Playing time is a direct way to assess accountability,” Sankey says.

And you thought you were opposed to player compensation.

ESPN and the Bennett narrative

Shot.

This might shock some folks, but what about Georgia’s Stetson Bennett? He’s the returning starter for the defending national champions, ranked fourth nationally in pass efficiency and third in total QBR, and will lead an extremely talented offense under the same coordinator (Todd Monken). I realize why Bennett is so easily written off, but should he be?

Chaser.

I like the bold suggestion of Bennett, but I struggle to see him posting the kind of eye-popping numbers typically associated with a Heisman-winning quarterback.

Yeah, aside from that whole “fourth nationally in pass efficiency and third in total QBR” thing, what has Stetson Bennett done for us lately?

What isn’t typically associated with Heisman-winning quarterbacks is being former fourth-stringers.

Recruiting bona fides

Shoot, man, that’s all you had to say…

For #UGA fans, new coach @FranBrownUGA stole Tyquan Thornton away from the #Gators. And #Baylor was coming off a 1-11 season. #recruiting

— Mike Farrell (@rivalsmike) March 4, 2022

That would be this Tyquan Thornton.