I’m not sure which surprises me more, AD Mitchell throwing — yes, I said throwing — a successful 2-point conversion pass, or watching the defense give up more than 500 yards en route to a 20-point win.
Definitely not your typical Georgia game.
Daily Archives: December 3, 2022
Game day post, SECCG edition
I think I’ve noted before that three-loss teams haven’t fared well in the SECCG. Statistically, it’s hard to see how LSU breaks that trend today. In terms of offensive ypp, Georgia has had only one game this season when it’s failed to clear six yards per play (Kentucky, 5.58). LSU has fallen short of six yards per play seven times. Defensively, it’s a similar story. Georgia has never allowed an opponent to average at least six yards per play and has only allowed more than five yards per play in four games. LSU has yielded over six yards per play four times, with three more games over five yards per play.
Brian Kelly’s done a good job. At season’s start, nobody expected LSU to represent the West today. One reason for the low expectations was that he had to reconstruct the roster after the coaching change. He did pretty well there, but this is not your typically deep Tiger squad and a few cracks in the facade have shown as a result. LSU has given up 41 sacks, next to last in the SEC. They’re middle of the pack in defensive passer rating, an area where they normally excel.
That isn’t to say they’re bereft of talent. They’ve got good receivers and running backs. They’ve got a few studs on the defensive front, as well. They just don’t have the usual number of them.
Throw in the health concerns about Jalen Daniels’ ankle and it’s hard to see how they pull today off without some major weirdness going on. I suppose if Georgia does its thing about not showing up for a quarter, and tosses in a couple of turnovers, it could get dicey. LSU is a better team than either Missouri or Kentucky, true. I just think that’s not a likely happening today. For one, there are no weather concerns in a dome. For another, I do think they’ll show up, because, like us, the message about winning the conference title resonates with the team. Bottom line, if an unfocused Georgia has remained undefeated this season, a focused Georgia is very tough to beat. And I don’t think LSU has the horses to overcome that.
Have at it in the comments.
Filed under Georgia Football
This too shall pass.
What can I say? When you gotta shtick, you gotta shtick.
Filed under BCS/Playoffs, Media Punditry/Foibles
Greg Sankey’s plan for Hugh Freeze
Basically, it boils down to this:
Filed under Freeze!, SEC Football
Your (non-Dawg) game day post
Today’s menu…
It’s college football, so, yeah, I’ll be watching, but I have to admit this isn’t the most compelling offering I could imagine.
What about you?
Filed under College Football
Must have been the academics
Shot.
Another narrative that irked Johnson was that coaches on Collins’ staff were making recruiting visits to metro Atlanta high schools that had been passed over by Johnson’s staff. Johnson said that every spring, he had his assistant coaches visit every high school in the state, whether it had potential prospects or not. And then after making the visit, the coaches were required to call in to report in.
“And then we sent a letter out the next day from me thanking the schools for hosting them and having them by,” Johnson said. “Now, do you really think that, over that timeframe, if nobody went to those schools and they kept getting those letters from me, somebody wouldn’t have picked up the phone and called me and said, ‘Hey, Coach, we haven’t seen anybody from your staff’?”
Of the coaches surveyed, three in metro Atlanta – one in the city itself – told the AJC that their teams had been overlooked.
“I definitely feel as though recruiting of this area could be better,” Stephenson High coach Marcus Jelks wrote. “In the past three years, I have sat down with a Georgia Tech coach one time.”
Said one coach of a team in the Atlanta Public School system, “I have not seen a coach from GT at our place since before the pandemic.”
Another coach in the Fulton County Schools system wrote that in the spring, coaches from Georgia, Clemson and other top programs stopped by his school to talk with him about his players. The day after the visits from Georgia and Clemson, a Tech coach dropped off a packet without stopping to talk, according to the coach, who understandably was not happy.
“I know we don’t have too many kids with stars or power-five (scholarship) offers, but we will one day,” he wrote.
Well, what do you know? I’m beginning to think Coach 404 wasn’t all that as a head coach. Sure could brand like a sumbitch, though.
Filed under Georgia Tech Football, Recruiting
Humble yourself.
Andy Staples ($$) has some advice for Lincoln Riley.
But perhaps Riley should call Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart this offseason. Because former wunderkind offensive coordinator Riley is in the inverse of the position that former wunderkind defensive coordinator Smart was after losing to LSU in the 2019 SEC Championship Game.
Yeah, so?
What did Smart do? He cut loose coordinator James Coley and hired Todd Monken. He empowered Monken to be aggressive as a play caller when necessary. What emerged was a Georgia program just as capable of winning shootouts as rock fights. And last season, the Bulldogs won the national title that had eluded them for 41 years. They’re currently No. 1 in the CFP rankings. Smart didn’t completely sell out on style, either. He and Monken recruited and designed an offense that fit Georgia’s desired personality while still being capable of being dynamic when the Bulldogs faced an opponent that could stress their defense.
There is a certain tinge of irony in that, given how much questioning Smart took last season about whether teams playing great defense had become obsolete dinosaurs in terms of being capable of winning a national championship in an era when offensive teams ruled the roost. You know, like Oklahoma’s.
Filed under Georgia Football, Pac-12 Football, Strategery And Mechanics
The power of shame
Well, look who grew a pair… or at least claims to have.
Wherever Mizzou winds up for the bowl game, Drink’s press conference ought to be a real hoot.
Filed under SEC Football
Wake up!
You don’t want Nick and Sony coming after your ass if you don’t get moving this morning.
Filed under Georgia Football
47-24
National pundit: The Pac-12 championship game is proof — proof, I tells ‘ya! — that college football needs a 12-team playoff.
Me: The Pac-12 championship is proof there aren’t four elite teams in college football this season.
Filed under BCS/Playoffs
Get The Picture 
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