Pick your poison

Kirby signals a warning about Missouri’s run defense.

Missouri is 30th in the nation in rushing yards per attempt allowed at 3.17 and limited Auburn to 1.8 yards per carry.

“They’re really physical and big up front,” Smart said. “They did a good job of stopping the run last year versus us. Their size up front, athleticism up front, is really aggressive. They played Auburn really aggressive in term of the box count they were in. Some of the run stunts they run are some of the ones we run. They’re getting after it and challenging you to do something outside of that. They don’t have to have that many and they can still stop the run because they’re physical up front.”

Sounds formidable, until you remember the only SEC team with a lower passer rating than Auburn is Florida.  On top of that, their starter was out against Mizzou.  That won’t be the case this week, so if the Tigers want to get aggressive with the box count against Bennett, more power to ’em.

A good start

Well, here’s something… useful?

This bill would likely have the biggest impact on #NIL collectives, many of which have been promising donors that they will be able to write-off contributions. pic.twitter.com/Snwhd0x7Jb

— Darren Heitner (@DarrenHeitner) September 29, 2022

If that’s all that bill does, that’s good work.  And I never thought I’d say that about anything Congress might do in the area of NIL regulation.  After all, why should taxpayers subsidize booster payments to players?

Gettin’ ‘er fixed

Remember that Stetson Bennett thing we were all worried about last season?

#UGA's Stetson Bennett on 3rd/4th down:

'21 = 52.5 passing grade, 52% completion, 48% of throws past the sticks

'22 = 79.7 passing grade, 70% completion, 80% of throws past the sticks#GoodTrend

— Brent Rollins (@BrentRollinsPhD) September 28, 2022

It seems to be not so much of a thing now.

TFW the game is bigger than the fans

After running through a compelling home schedule to date full of cupcakes, Junior is concerned that the fans aren’t staying in the stadium for a full sixty minutes.

"When you come back out, run out of the tunnel and it looks like a high school game, you can't let that affect you. I've tried social media for two years but I'll worry about what I can control"

More from #OleMiss HC Lane Kiffin on fans leaving Saturday's Ole Miss game early: pic.twitter.com/s7dl92OlWL

— Jon Sokoloff (@JonSokoloff) September 27, 2022

Poor baby.

Attendance hasn’t exactly been great at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium through the first three home games of the season. With a capacity of 64,038, the Rebels have yet to exceed 61,000 in a game. According to the school, the attendance figures have been:

• Week 1 vs. Troy: 60,533
• Week 2 vs. Central Arkansas: 58,373
• Week 4 vs. Tulsa: 60,641

Tickets are expensive.  Concessions are expensive.  Combine that with an overload of cupcakes — gotta make sure that bowl eligibility issue is covered! — and what do you expect?

Unless you’re a football coach.  Then, the game isn’t entertainment for the fans.  It’s an obligation.

Eh, Kentucky comes calling this week.  Maybe the fans will stay.

Grounds for pessimism

Judging from the tone of this post at Rock M Nation, that loss to Auburn hit Mizzou fans hard.  I mean, “I don’t see anything in the Constitution that says we have to play this game”?  Oof.

For what it’s worth, here are the keys set forth in the post for Missouri to have a legit shot at a win:

• a 42% success rate through the air
• at least 7 explosive plays
• must average 6.5 points per opportunity
• defensively, a 35% success rate or lower against the pass
• A 35% havoc rate at a minimum is needed to win the day.

Okay, that’s not looking good, but…

The further adventures of run the damn ball, Georgia

Seth Emerson ($$) looks at Georgia’s running back stats, next to last in the conference in yards-after-contact per rush, coupled with a higher yards per rush than last season and then topped with double digit averages on yards after catch to conclude thusly:  “These tailbacks are good in space and not good between the tackles, or they’re not getting a push from the interior linemen.”  Or both, I might add.

While Smart counters with the valid point that it hasn’t stopped the offense from racking up tons of yardage this season, even he is a little concerned about one aspect of this.

He would like to see his team’s run game produce better when closer to the goal line.

“It goes back to the run game. When the field tightens up and shrinks, that’s where the run game is more glaring because the boxes are tighter,” Smart said. “They’re tighter to the box. There are less people in parts of the field, and they are in your front yard. You have to block them and run through them. Some of them are just misses.”

But it’s not just the run game that’s failing in the red zone, Smart noted.

“You go back to the Samford game where we struggled, and there were a couple times that we had guys open, and we just missed them. We have to do a better job. We’ve looked at it really hard. First down run percentage, second down run percentage,” Smart said. “Third down conversions in the red area are critical because they get you a new set of downs. We’ve been there a lot, but we haven’t converted as much as we need to. If it all had to boil down to one thing, I would say accuracy in the passing game, and then being effective at running the ball at the heavy boxes.”

Maybe it’s just me, but that sure seems like something that might justify trying a little 13-formation playcalling to see if it opens things up in both the running and passing games down by the goal line.

“The obvious answer is, don’t sub.”

Still laughing at this masterful substitution exchange by Kansas State.

Foolish decision by Oklahoma. Excellent slow jogging from both Nate Matlack and Cody Stufflebean. pic.twitter.com/CF0gajqzAJ

— Kellis Robinett (@KellisRobinett) September 26, 2022

It’s probably the asshole in me, but I love stuff like this.

The key moment in Kansas State’s 41-34 upset of then-No. 6 Oklahoma arguably occurred on a play that never even happened.

Trailing 24-20 in the middle of the third quarter, Oklahoma faced a 4th-and-5 from the K-State 43. Head coach Brent Venables opted to go for it, but in doing so the Sooners substituted, replacing running back Marcus Major with his backfield counterpart Eric Gray.

And that decision right there might have cost the Sooners the game.

Because Oklahoma substituted, K-State was allowed the opportunity to substitute. K-State head coach Chris Klieman noticed the substitution and shouted for his staff to send someone — anyone — on the field. Defensive line coach Buddy Wyatt send defensive end Nate Matlack to replace Cody Stufflebean, which required Matlack to run from his sideline over beyond the far hash.

Except instead of a run, it was more like a trot.

“We work on that,” Klieman told the Wichita Eagle. “It was a really sharp play by Coach Wyatt to get a defensive end for a defensive end. It would have been easy to just ship a corner out that was close to us, but we went defensive end for defensive end and we took our time.”

Because of the substitutions, Oklahoma didn’t get to snap the ball until four seconds were left on the game clock.  As a result, they never got the play off in time, took a delay of game penalty and punted.  Coaching genius, for the win!

Brutally efficient is brutal.

Brian Fremeau’s FEI metric tracks team efficiency, so this really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.

Top 3 FEI Game Ratings (opp-adjusted single-game drive efficiency) to date:
1. Georgia 49-3 over Oregon (42-3 in 12 non-garbage possessions)
2. Ohio St 52-21 over Wisconsin (45-7 in 18 ngp)
3. Georgia 48-7 over South Carolina (38-0 in 15 ngp)
Game Ratings: https://t.co/EAGttRrwrd

— Brian Fremeau (@bcfremeau) September 28, 2022

Good luck Saturday, Mizzou.