You have to watch this clip. It’s fabulous.
Auburn in the urinals. Poetic.
Monthly Archives: November 2022
If at first you don’t succeed, spend, spend again.
Via Erik Evans (!), this is one helluva data point.
Auburn has now paid more money in buyouts to football coaches than Nick Saban has earned at the University of Alabama.
On the Plains, ROI is just a myth.
Filed under General Idiocy, It's Just Bidness, Auburn's Cast of Thousands
Another SECCG tidbit to consider
The Bulldogs have reverted more to a ground-and-pound identity in the final third of the season, running the ball 60.7 percent of the time in the last four games vs. 48.4 percent in the first eight. But playing indoors against an LSU defense that ranks 11th in the SEC in passes surrendered of 20 yards or longer (40) and 30 yards or longer (17), Stetson Bennett may get a few more chances to air it out.
Does Monken revert to “take what the defense gives you” mode? Does he have the horses to do so?
Filed under Georgia Football, Stats Geek!, Strategery And Mechanics
Troll, Tide, troll
LOL.
‘Bama trolling is real and it’s spectacular.
Filed under Alabama, Georgia Football
It’s how you finish that counts.
Georgia, depending on where you look, is around a 17-point favorite in the SECCG, but shouldn’t be, according to the SEC Network’s Cole Cubelic.
“If you can physically match up with them up front, it’s kind of why I think the SEC Championship Game is going to be closer than people think, I think the LSU defensive line physically is going to be able to hold up,” he said. “That front 7 will hold up. Georgia does not just play bully ball out of the gate.”
The “If” there in the first sentence is doing a shit ton of heavy lifting, methinks. Over the course of an entire game, is there a single defensive front that’s managed to physically match up with Georgia this season? Now, if you want to criticize the Dawgs for slow starts, that’s a stronger argument, but still, last time I looked it’s a four-quarter game.
Filed under Georgia Football
2022 Mumme Poll, Week 13
Turnout bumped back up to 293 voters this week. The average number of teams appearing on a ballot dropped to 4.1, which again makes sense as we approach the end of the regular season. A total of 39 teams received votes.
Here’s how things look:
Two Tier One (90+%) teams, with TCU close by. And only one other team appearing on over half the ballots cast. The gap between four and five increased significantly. (Although I am sort of curious how many folks would pick USC to beat Ohio State on a neutral field.)
Let’s see how the selection committee’s top 22 looks.
Identical through the top six, and really, if you ignore the joke vote for Michigan State, the only real difference between the two rankings in the top ten is Penn State’s placement. (I think we’ve got them pegged more accurately than the selection committee, for what it’s worth.)
Well, there’s also this real difference:
With the Ohio State loss, conference affiliation essentially evened out this week.
Georgia voters comprised 61.4% of the total pool this week, a slight rise.
Bonus question results:
No votes for Valentine’s Day, so I guess we’re not a bunch of hopeless romantics.
Next week, after the championship games, will be the last Mumme Poll vote for the 2022 season. Don’t miss it!
Filed under Mumme Poll
Say anything, CFP edition
Stewart Mandel ($$) is here to clue us in on why playoff expansion is a real need.
But the impetus for a 12-team Playoff has very little to do with crowning a national champion. It is attempting to solve for:
• The fact that Ohio State could make the Rose Bowl and its deflated fans won’t likely care enough to travel to Pasadena. In a 12-team CFP, it’d be hosting a first-round Playoff game at The Horseshoe.
• The fact that Saturday’s Clemson-UNC ACC championship is meaningless to anyone outside the ACC. In a 12-team CFP, it’s for an automatic bid.
• The fact that Tulane possibly reaching a New Year’s Six bowl is being met with a collective yawn. In a 12-team CFP, it’s Tulane making the Playoff.
• And that instead of watching great players like Alabama’s Bryce Young and Will Anderson or Tennessee’s Jalin Hyatt play at least one more meaningful college game, we’ll likely be watching their backups play in a New Year’s Six bowl instead.
Amazing how he can compile a list like that without a single mention of money. Although I suppose I should give him credit for not claiming it’ll cure cancer as well.
College football has both the best regular season in sports and the most anticlimactic postseason in sports. Many disagree, but I personally believe a more inclusive Playoff system will benefit both.
Well, shit, I guess he sort of did.
Filed under BCS/Playoffs, Media Punditry/Foibles
Outsourcing, Auburn style
You sort of have to admire the efficiency of this:
Although, they could just go all in and name Sexton an assistant AD for football matters and be done with it.
Observations from the armchair, the return of COFH edition
Well, Kirby warned us he gets a little nervous about not having control of team prep during Thanksgiving week and his charges set out immediately to prove his concerns valid, allowing their first first-quarter touchdown of the season. I don’t know if the cause was turkey hangover, the noon start or simply taking Tech way too lightly after Coach 404’s departure or (probably) a combination of all three, but it was disappointing to watch, especially the nine-yard touchdown run by Tech’s designated running quarterback that came in the wake of Lassiter and Chambliss getting sucked into the middle and completely losing contain.
The rest of the first half was a bit of a slog, as the teams combined for six punts afterwards as the Dawgs ground out a 10-7 lead at the half.
Somebody flipped a switch during halftime, though. Here’s how Tech’s first five possessions of the second half went:
- Turnover on downs — 6 plays, -8 yards
- Fumble — 1 play, 0 yards
- Punt — 6 plays, 9 yards
- Turnover on downs — 4 plays, 1 yard
- Punt — 5 plays, -4 yards
Add it all up, and you’ve got 22 plays that netted a grand total of minus-2 yards. When the dust settled, the scoreboard read 37-7. It was as dominant a stretch of football as the team played all season. When they get up a head of steam, they really are hell on wheels.
And now, bullet points.
- The offensive line had a major comeback from their disappearing act last week against Kentucky. The guard play, in particular, was much improved. The week off appeared to benefit Ratledge significantly, as Georgia was able to run the ball up the middle as effectively as they had all season. Van Pran also had a solid game. Aside from the running game averaging better than seven yards a clip before garbage time, the line allowed zero sacks and only two tackle for loss against a Tech front that was actually respectable in both departments coming in.
- The running game benefited immensely from that. McIntosh, Edwards and Milton all gained 50+ yards on the day, and frequently did so in sizable chunks. McIntosh has really been coming on in the season’s second half; in addition to his rushing yardage, he led the team in receiving yards, largely driven by a monster 83-yard reception on the wheel route. Milton is another one who looks like he’s getting healthy. He’s noticeably quicker.
- The line played well, the running backs were effective, so you’d think the passing game would have clicked as a result. Wrong, bacon breath. Part of that was simply due to tactics, as Bennett attempted less than 20 throws since the running game was picking up chunks of yards, but part of it was due to a rather shocking lack of effectiveness from the wideouts getting separation from the Jackets’ secondary. There were only three catches of 10 yards or more for the day. (Tech had seven. Tell me you saw that coming.) If there’s a concern from the way the game played out, that would be it.
- That being said, both touchdown catches were clutch. Rosemy-Jacksaint ran a fantastic route and made a great catch. Bowers did a remarkable job bailing Bennett out on a poor throw by snatching it off the turf (barely).
- Ladd McConkey without a single reception? Hmmm…
- Weird day from Stetson. He didn’t really make many ill-advised throws (partly because he didn’t make many throws, period), but his mechanics were inconsistent, most apparently on the aforementioned touchdown throw to Bowers. He wasn’t pressured in the pocket and Bowers was open, but Bennett failed to put the ball in an easy place to catch it. That being said, his big play toss to McIntosh was the result of seeing that Tech tried to cover Kenny with an edge defender at the snap and taking advantage of it.
- Maybe it’s just me, but the recent string of games when it’s taken Georgia longer to put things away seems to have had a negative impact on Beck, who looked rusty and off, with one bad throw that should have been an easy completion, but instead came close to being picked, as well as a fumble.
- After a shaky opening drive, the defensive line showed up and played well. Jalen Carter was, well, Jalen Carter. Stackhouse made plays. I liked what I saw out of Williams and Alexander, who are going to be big time players with more seasoning.
- The ILBs kicked ass, as usual. Mondon may have turned into the most improved player on defense over the course of the season. He and Dumas-Johnson make a great pair and Marshall ain’t too shabby, either (in fact, I’d say Marshall’s the best of the three in pass coverage).
- The outside linebackers, on the other hand… well, let’s just start by saying Nolan Smith is missed. Beal played well, but I’m having a hard time seeing why Chambliss is getting as much time on the field as he does. I don’t recall him making a single tackle on the day and he can’t set an edge to save his life. I know they’re very young behind him, but it’s a concern.
- The secondary had a mixed day. It seemed like just about every DB took a turn getting burned early — Bullard, Starks, Ringo, even Chris Smith gave up plays to a pretty crappy offense coming in. To their credit, they did start settling in after the initial couple of series. Ringo, in particular, broke up several passes once he got his bearings. Tykee Smith turned in one of his best games of the season.
- Aside from giving up one healthy kickoff return, special teams contributed. Good punt returns from McConkey and Mews (boy, is he quick!), two Thorson punts that weren’t returned, Podlesny making all his kicks, including a 50-yarder all added up to a solid day.
- Monken appears to have kept the offense dialed back for yet another week, although this week can’t be attributed to the weather. It wasn’t ineffective, but I can’t help but have a nagging worry about how easy it’s going to be to switch attack mode back on if it’s needed in the coming weeks.
- Defensively, the game plan was fine, once the execution caught up to it.
- As for Kirby, he did a good job staying the course as the team fought through a sluggish start. And he clearly got them playing at a much higher level when they came out for the second half.
All in all, they went out and took care of business against a Tech team that was more motivated and better coached than we’ve seen in a while. They’re 12-0 and are making all the right noises about taking an SECCG against a three-loss opponent seriously. I hope this time next week we’re all thinking this bunch looks like it’s peaking at the right time.
Filed under Georgia Football
Praise the Lord!
Man, the SEC recruiting trail is gonna be something over the next few years, ain’t it?
Filed under Auburn's Cast of Thousands
Get The Picture 
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