Another one of those “but they lost five players in the first round of the NFL Draft!” stats for you

Not missing a beat:

Georgia has routinely stood up to the task of stopping opponents in the red zone in 2022, and as a result the Bulldogs are among the nation’s best in that area of the game. Georgia stands third nationally having allowed scores on only 66.7% of red zone trips this year, trailing only San Diego State (65.6%) and UCF (65.9%). Perhaps more impressively, Georgia leads the country by allowing touchdowns on only 28.6% of red zone trips, nearly 8 percentage points better than second-place Boise State.

By comparison, Georgia’s 2021 defense led the nation by both allowing scores on only 62.5% of red zone trips and allowing touchdowns on only 28.1% of those trips.

The red zone?  More like the dead zone.

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UPDATE:  Speaking of red zone scoring, this doesn’t sound good.

Scangarello’s words tell you what happened, but exactly why is Kentucky struggling in the red zone? One of those redshirt freshman wide receivers, Dekel Crowdus, has a theory.

“Probably — I would have to say the play-caller, because we were down in the red zone and just couldn’t get it,” Crowdus said. “That’s pretty much all I can say.”

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To dream the impossible dream

Marc Weiszer asks a question.

Path to beat Georgia from Kelly Quinlan who covers Georgia Tech for JacketsOnline.com: On paper, it looks like an impossible path for Georgia Tech to beat Georgia, especially with the injuries at quarterback to both Jeff Sims and freshman Zach Pyron limiting the offense. The path to a win for the Jackets would involve the defense forcing Stetson Bennett into throwing downfield and Tech creating turnovers and short-field situations and a low-scoring game.

Kelly, there aren’t enough ifs in the world to allow you to answer that question with a straight face.  Then again, the Jackets did beat Pitt without going to overtime, something America’s Greatest Team in Urnge couldn’t accomplish…

2022 Mumme Poll, Week 11

Turnout this week was still quite good, if not quite at the level of Week 10.

Our top 22 looks like this:

Or, as I refer to it, “our top 21 plus the Michigan State trolling”.

Ohio State climbed back into the top (over 90% of all ballots) tier and TCU slipped past Michigan into third place this week.  Other than that, not much changed in our top ten.

Looking at the selection committee’s latest vote,

… really, much the same could be said about it.  Significant overlap remains the rule, although we did not give in to Irish-itis and list Notre Dame in our top 22 as the committee did.

As usual, we were extremely efficient with our time, unlike certain folks we could name.

In terms of conference affiliation, the SEC is no longer at the top of the heap.

Voters from Georgia climbed to 63% of the total pool.

This week’s question saw Kirby Smart capture a whopping 94% of the vote.  Not a big surprise, considering.

Aside from signing five-star recruits, what has Kirby Smart ever done for us?

Seth Emerson ($$) has an excellent piece up about Georgia’s 2021 signing class, which wound up ranking fourth in the 247Sports Composite.  (FWIW, Alabama lapped the field in 2021.  But I digress.)  Anyway, what’s been notable about that class, which so far is 24-1 and has a national championship ring in its wardrobe, is that its major contributors haven’t come from its top.

But the three highest-ranked players in that class — tackle Amarius Mims, quarterback Brock Vandagriff and inside linebacker Xavian Sorey — aren’t starting yet, and neither are seven of the top eight.

Instead, they’ve emerged from players who were outside the top 100 recruits, like:

• Brock Bowers (105)
• Jamon Dumas-Johnson (198)
• Javon Bullard (634)
• Kamari Lassiter (239)
• AD Mitchell (383)

A common thread throughout those players is staff evaluation in a COVID setting.  As Emerson describes it,

It’s because of the relatively unheralded members of the 2021 class, and why they were overlooked has a lot to do with what was happening during their senior years of high school: COVID-19 and its impact on recruiting.

There were no official visits. Recruiting camps were severely cut back. And many players, including Dumas-Johnson and Bowers, didn’t have a high school season.

“I would venture to say — I don’t know this for fact, this is just my opinion — that everything would be off for that year,” Kirby Smart said. “Because there was no true evaluation. What are you evaluating it on, what are you basing that on?”

Whatever it was, Kirby ain’t telling.

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UPDATE:  Skip the first of Bud Elliott’s explanation for why this year’s transfer portal market may be wilder than ever and focus on his second point.

2 reasons why this transfer portal cycle might be the wildest we've seen. pic.twitter.com/7jI2Fa6Fbe

— Bud Elliott (@BudElliott3) November 16, 2022

Then ask yourself whether it’s likely Kirby does any portal dipping this year.

Zach Arnett knows how to shut down a running game.

#UGA Rush offense the last 3 yrs:

Vs. #MissState (2 gms)
– YPA = 3.9
– Y before contact/att = 0.7
– Stuff rate (% of runs for no gain) = 15.4%
– Run block grade = 55.6

Vs. Everyone else (33 gms)
– YPA = 5.7
– YBCo/att = 2.3
– Stuff rate = 6.5%
– Run block grade = 88.3

— Brent Rollins (@BrentRollinsPhD) November 15, 2022

Too bad he doesn’t know how to shut down Todd Monken from scoring.  Georgia averaged 38 ppg in those two games.

Crowd noise is the new Metchie and Williams.

When last we heard from Rick Neuheisel, he was butchering Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint’s name.  I suppose that gives him special insight into Georgia’s football program.  You know, like this:

Rick Neuheisel said he believes Tennessee would beat Georgia if the teams had a rematch in the College Football Playoffs.

“I will be picking Tennessee to win that game,’’ the CBS analyst said at the Knoxville Quarterback Club on Monday. “I looked at the film. The film gives all sorts of opportunities for a guy over there by the name of Josh Heupel and he will have a plan that you’ll be excited about.

“Now that doesn’t mean Georgia isn’t fantastic. But they had a home crowd that made it confusing.’’

Tennessee was so confused, it had seven pre-snap penalties and allowed six sacks at Georgia in a 27-13 loss that was more one-sided that the score indicates.

Neuheisel said some sacks were coverage sacks when quarterback Hendon Hooker couldn’t check into a run play due to the crowd noise.

“That will all get fixed,’’ Neuheisel said. “And I can’t wait to watch that game. And I believe you’re going to get to that game. I really do.’’

If the football gods have a sense of humor, Tennessee won’t make the CFP field, but will instead face off against Alabama in a rematch — at a neutral site without crowd noise as a factor.

Pressure at your own risk

Stetson Bennett is the SEC's only quarterback with a positive ratio of +1 to -1 EPA plays (Boom-Bust ratio) pic.twitter.com/TS0ivC5Taa

— CFB Film Room (@CFBFilmRoom) November 15, 2022

That which does not sack Stetson makes him stronger.