The dreaded vote of confidence

Buzz, buzz, baby ($$)!

… Edge rusher Jordan Domineck, the aspiring physical therapist who led the Jackets in sacks and quarterback hits in 2021, said nothing negative about Collins or the program on his way out the door, but he acknowledged players on the team are aware of Collins’ situation and some are looking for a change.

“I could say that happens everywhere you go,” Domineck told The Athletic. “Some people don’t buy in, some people do. I have nothing personally to say about the uncertainty of the program. But I will say some people don’t feel too sure. They just don’t feel too sure. Some people don’t have a vision of what GT can do next year.”

Oh, they’ve got a vision, alright.

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“Is football Vols’ talent good enough to match their dreams?”

Welp, you tell me.

And if this happens, it probably won’t be Heupel’s high-octane offense that ultimately proves the difference in turning last season’s respectable 7-6 record into something noticeably better this time around. Not to shortchange Heupel, but when your offense averaged the seventh-most points scored in the Football Bowl Subdivision last season (39.3), you probably don’t have much higher you can go in that category.

However, when your defense gives up 29.1 points a game — 90th out of 130 FBS programs — you have almost nowhere to go but up. And if you expect to finish much north of 7-6, such improvement will probably have to come on that side of the ball — especially when your average margin of victory against FBS foes was only 6.4 points, which ranked 40th.

Sounds promising.

… Since Georgia doesn’t face Alabama in the regular season — Georgia’s West opponents are Auburn and Mississippi State — the only likely route to the league championship game for the Vols is to win in Athens, with a loss to Alabama affordable if they beat the Bulldogs.

It’s unlikely, but the very fact that players are willing to bring it up publicly bodes well for their attitude if nothing else. Also, unlike last season, when Georgia’s defense was so stout and impenetrable that quarterback Stetson Bennett didn’t have to do much more than not turn it over, this newspaper’s 2022 Best of Preps speaker will likely have to manufacture some offense this time around for the Dawgs.

Bennett’s capable — just ask Alabama about the last eight minutes of the national championship game — but with UT’s offense expected to be at least as good as last year’s model and Georgia’s D falling back to earth a bit, a more competitive UT defense should give the Vols something of a puncher’s chance, especially with their trip to Athens one week after the Dawgs’ annual showdown with Florida in Jacksonville.

If nothing else, assuming the Vols can avoid losing to Florida and LSU, it should keep Big Orange Country dreaming big dreams into November.

One of the more amusing themes on the punditry front of late is the constant search for which East teams will be capable of tripping up Georgia.  Somehow, it’s something of a given that the Vols are going to be able to avoid the land mines that the Dawgs won’t.

Shaken, not stirred

Seems like a strange time for this, but I’m not Jimbo Fisher.

Some interesting moves were being theorized to be taking place among Texas A&M‘s offensive staff, and Jimbo Fisher has confirmed suspicions.

First, Billy Liucci of TexAgs got the ball rolling when he pointed out an interesting shakeup that was taking place at practice.

“Very interesting offensive shake-up at A&M practice today, where James Coley was working with the WRs, Dameyune Craig QBs and Darrell Dickey the TEs,” tweeted Liucci.

Now, Fisher put the new positions in stone, revealing the new duties of some of his offensive coaches.

“We’ve mixed it around in different ways than what we’ve had,” stated Fisher. “Coach Craig has been with us as quarterbacks coach, Dickey has moved over to tight ends, scripting and things. It allows him to do some things, but he’s been very experienced. He’s done that for many years. .. And Coley is working with receivers. Right now we’ve switched some guys around on offense.

“They’ve all done it before. Every one of them has coached them positions before. The dynamic of how we do things, and how we want to go.”

I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean.  Although I suppose you can’t invoke the Peter Principle if all you make are lateral moves.

Brenton Cox IS Your Daily Gator.

This has got to absolutely thrill Billy Napier.

Former Georgia Bulldog outside linebacker Brenton Cox, now on the opposite side of the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party rivalry matchup against Florida, had something to say for his old team on Twitter over the weekend. Cox, who spent one year at Georgia before transferring out of Athens prior to the 2019 season, quote tweeted the official Georgia Football account’s video of the Bulldogs in practice, telling his former teammates they “better get ready for me.” That sparked a feud between Cox and fans on social media Saturday night.

Yeah, that’s a good look.

Georgia fans immediately filled the responses of Cox’s tweet, including a video of him being outrun by Bulldog quarterback Stetson Bennett in last year’s 34-7 Georgia win. The Bulldogs would go on to win the National Championship while Florida finished with a losing record including a 2-6 mark in the SEC.

Cox took note of that and made it known that he had better stats than anybody on Georgia’s defense last season. Cox led the Gators with 14.5 tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks, more than the 10.5 tackle for loss (Nakobe Dean) and 6.5 sack (Robert Beal) marks that led Georgia in 2021.

“I had foot surgery 1 month before the season and still had more sacks and TFL’s than they WHOLE defense… not to be cocky, stating the stats and the facts. u Digg”

Twelve guys from Cox’ 2018 class are in the pros now, eight of whom were lower rated recruits.  Figure that’s eating at him a little bit?