The wheels, they are coming off the wagon.

Ay caramba.

Texas A&M cornerback Denver Harris, wide receiver Chris Marshall and offensive lineman PJ Williams have been suspended indefinitely as a result of a locker room incident at South Carolina, a source confirmed to The Athletic on Tuesday. The Aggies lost to South Carolina 30-24 on Oct. 22.

The freshmen were part of Texas A&M’s top-ranked Class of 2022 recruiting class.

It’s amazing how many people got sucked into the narrative that Jimbo’s last recruiting class elevated Texas A&M into the ranks of the elite.

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Down for the count

Well, shit.  This ain’t right.

Reported this to our @DawgsCentral_ subscribers earlier today… Dan Jackson has suffered a stress fracture in his foot and will have surgery soon. He is out for the rest of the season. Losing his experience/depth is a blow as UGA preps for the toughest part of its schedule

— Graham Coffey (@DawgOutWest) October 25, 2022

I thought we were supposed to be getting guys back during the bye week.

Of drives, distances and narratives

Graham’s got a good post up about how perceptions drive our ideas about the top teams ($$).  They’re not always accurate.

For example,

Georgia’s not getting a bunch of cheap scores this season, even as they’re eighth nationally in scoring.

Look at Georgia… The Bulldogs have the longest average drive distance of any of college football’s current top contenders by a wide margin. The Bulldogs average drive (51.6 YDS) is longer than anyone else by nearly 5 yards. Against opponents who are top 25 in total defense UGA’s average drive is over 9 yards longer than anyone buy Clemson. UGA also has the longest average scoring drive distance against all P5 opponents (67.1 YDS) and against top 25 defenses (65 YDS). The only team who is anywhere close is Tennessee with 64.5 yards/scoring drive versus top 25 defenses.

So what does this tell us? Well, the public identity of the Georgia program has been its defense ever since Kirby Smart took over. Many people see UGA put up 55 on Vandy and assume the offense was given a bunch of short fields. 2022 Georgia isn’t doing business that way. This offense’s average scoring drive is 67.5 yards. In fact, the UGA offense has been protecting the UGA defense much more than the other way around. UGA’s average drive distance of 51.6 yards means the Georgia defense is rarely having to defend short fields if the offense fails to score. [Emphasis added.]

Kirby told us that running more plays than the opponent is a big key for Georgia’s success.  Control the ball and still score a lot of points seems like an effective strategy to me.

Another Amelia Island PSA

Readers know I think a lot of friend of the blog Hamp Tanner’s Mocama Beer Company, situated in beautiful Fernandina Beach, Florida.  It’s a great way to spend your pre-game time (in my case, that’s Thursday and Friday).

Hamp has sent me an email about what you can expect if you drop by Mocama this week:

And if for some reason you’re down there, but don’t have plans to go to the game…

Drop in.  Hamp’s a DGD and the beer is damned good, too.

Bracket buster

Dan Wolken points out the obvious.

On one hand, had Oregon indeed scheduled Montana State on Sept. 3 instead of traveling three time zones to play the defending national champions, the Ducks would almost be in a position to control their own destiny. (More on that in a moment.) At the same time, you can’t simply ignore the impact of one game in a relatively short season, especially when that result suggested such a wide gap between Oregon and another playoff caliber team.

But this is why the committee exists in the first place, to balance those ideas and debate what one loss in a difficult season opener says about a team that has clearly improved week by week.

It would be foolish to simply write Oregon off because of the Georgia game. Not only were the Ducks up against it in terms of opponent and venue, it was the first game for 36-year old Dan Lanning, Oregon’s third head coach in the past six seasons. That isn’t an excuse, but it has to be a factor in how Oregon’s total season is viewed.

If we already had a 12-team playoff, it wouldn’t matter at all. As long as the Ducks won the Pac-12, they’d be in. But the standards to get in the four-team playoff are much higher.

Since its inception in 2014, only two teams have gotten in with a loss by two touchdowns or more. One of them was Ohio State, which recovered from an early season 35-21 loss at home to Virginia Tech. The other was Georgia in 2017, which got rolled at Auburn 40-17 but was able to turn the tables on the Tigers a few weeks later in the SEC Championship Game.  [Emphasis added.]

That is another example of how playoff expansion waters down the impact of the regular season.  Again, that may not matter to those who prefer a larger CFP field, but that doesn’t mean it ain’t true.

My Week 8 Mumme Poll ballot

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

• Georgia
• Ohio State

Your stat of the day wears orange and blue.

This is a helluva thing.

He’s only 8 starts into his career, but for whatever reason, he’s not producing in an age of the vertical passing game where rules favor the offense. Vanderbilt’s 2 quarterbacks — true freshman quarterback AJ Swann and sophomore Mike Wright — have combined to throw 15 TDs and 2 INTs, and complete 59 percent of their passes.

Richardson, against a similar schedule, has 6 TDs and 7 INTs and is completing 56 percent of his passes.

Somehow, Matt Hayes manages to get from that to this in a few paragraphs:

Even if everything turns in November, and it all starts to look natural and proficient for Richardson, does he stay at Florida or leave for the NFL, where many NFL scouts believe he will be picked in the first round.

Richardson will have one helluva resume for the NFL, for sure.

The comedic stylings of Stetson Bennett

Timing is the secret to comedy.

While Washington was utilized primarily as a blocker in previous seasons, Bennett is increasingly targeting “Big O” in the passing game. Why?

“Because he usually comes down with them,” Bennett cracked. “It’s like throwing into the Pacific Ocean.”

He’ll be here all week, folks.  Try the veal, and don’t forget to tip your server.

Your Daily Gator is the best 90’s version of us.

Man, dress this up in red and black and it sounds just like us, circa 1996.

#Florida fans are hyped for the game against #Georgia this week! pic.twitter.com/pUGYAbt8Ys

— Message Board Geniuses (@BoardGeniuses) October 24, 2022

You hate to see that, but then again…

Missing Mitchell

Seth Emerson ($$) has an informative piece up about how AD Mitchell’s absence has affected Georgia’s offense.  It’s certainly noticeable, as this chart indicates:

Georgia passing with/without AD Mitchell

STAT	WITH	WITHOUT
Dropbacks	285	432
Yards per attempt	10.4	8.2
Pass efficiency	180.5	151.8
Air yards per attempt	9.9	8.3
Percentage throws 20-plus yards	14.3	9.7
Percentage throws 15-plus yards	27.2	21.3
Note:  past two seasons

No wonder Stetson feels like this:

He’s one of the best receivers in the country, if not the best,” Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett said Monday. “I’ve got immense trust in him.”

It’s not as if Georgia’s offense isn’t operating at a high level without Mitchell.  But his absence appears to have affected the way the offense can stretch the field, and that’s something that’s been apparent in the way opposing defenses have played the Dawgs over the past few weeks.

In other words, get well soon, AD.