Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

I have to give Bruce Feldman credit for consistency.  In his preseason Top 25 ($$), he’s got Michigan, USC and LSU all ahead of Georgia (and Ohio State and Alabama, for that matter), for one big reason.

Ohio State was up two touchdowns on Georgia going into the fourth quarter and came within a field goal of knocking the Dawgs out of the Playoff. I get that Georgia is still loaded, and people I trust inside that program believe their defense actually will be better this year, but I do think they’ll really miss Stetson Bennett’s wheels at some point this season. In a tough spot, I’ll say that’ll be the difference. In four CFP games, Bennett accounted for 15 TDs and just one INT. Carson Beck is very bright and knows the extensive system the Dawgs staff wants, but he isn’t the same kind of weapon Bennett was.

Beck’s got a lot to work with in terms of a superb O-line with three of the five preseason first-team All-SEC picks, and lots of receivers including the great Brock Bowers. Still, I think they come up short of pulling off the three-peat.

Yeah, quarterback is the most important position on the field.  I get it.  It’s just that I still find it hilarious to read serious arguments about how the Dawgs are going to have a difficult time replacing Stetson Bennett, after reading all the comments a year ago from the pundit class questioning whether Bennett would be a liability in Georgia’s quest to win a second national title in a row.  It’s always something, amirite?

Okay, so maybe they aren’t going 7-5 this season.

Jeff Schultz ($$):

…  First, a question about what measures he takes so players don’t feel some sense of entitlement after two championships.

“I worry about complacency every day,” he said. “You look for it, and you look for signs of it. It’s like a fire. You try to stomp it out. You don’t allow it to happen if you can help it. What prevents that from happening? Competition is the first way. The second way is acknowledging it and confronting it. The third way is mentally making sure they understand that you’re not going to get the same team week in and week out that you might have gotten had you not won two. We try to visually paint a picture for our players to see that, and we tell them the biggest threat and opponent we have the entire year is Georgia.”

When asked if he ever lies or skews the truth, Smart distanced himself from Smith’s 7-5 comment and somewhat threaded the needle with his response: “If I ever thought we were going 7-5, they need to check me into a psychiatric ward. I never thought that. I never said that. But these players read more stuff on Twitter and social media than I do. I think there was a level of disrespect before maybe one game or two games but not a season. I don’t think that works when you’re Georgia. What works is: What are we doing this week against this opponent to be better than them? I’m a lot more passionate and adamant about what we’re doing over what we’re selling, what the outside world might say, or you need this narrative of the world against us. I think we may have had that once or twice last year. But that’s not something that we’re painting the whole time.”

Josh Heupel may bullshit the media about his team fighting complacency — which probably tells you a lot about his Vols, when you think about it — but it’s a real issue Smart has to deal with every day.  He’s done it so far.  I think it’s an underrated part of his coaching game.

Erik Evans, still showing the love

From his “Giving Away Money:  2023 Season” post:

Best Odds to Make the Playoffs

Georgia $220 — Yep. These f’n guys. No matter how much the East is improving around them, the talent gap is glaring. Carson Beck will essentially do the same thing that Honky McCrackerson did the last 17 years: hand off to a deep stable of backs, get the pass to McConklin and Bowers PDQ, a few YOLO shots a game, and not make mistakes. He will make them, sure. But look on the schedule and tell me where you see even a likely loss? I don’t see a single one. There are few “maybes,” but that could be hope more than anything. And certainly there’s not a gimme L in the regular season.

This team will sleepwalk into the playoffs. Divisionless football is going to be a rude, rude awakening.

Uh hunh.  For him, maybe.

A fan’s gotta know his limitations.

Gator grad makes 10 bold predictions for Florida’s season, and one of those is definitely not an upset in the Cocktail Party.

Now you know the difference between bold and insane.

Surprise, surprise

Well, I’ll be.

LSU star defensive tackle Maason Smith will not play in the Tigers’ season opener Sept. 3 against Florida State because of a one-game NCAA suspension, multiple sources with knowledge of the situation told The Advocate on Wednesday.

The NCAA determined Smith received an improper benefit, sources said. Although Smith cooperated with an investigation, sources said, the NCAA ruled him out for the first game. He can return Week 2 for the home opener against Grambling.

There’s still such a thing as an improper benefit?  Who knew?

Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, ‘Horns.

I dislike Texas as much as the next guy, but this seems, I dunno… a little obnoxious?

Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark today: “Coach (Joey McGuire), I’m not going to put any pressure on you, but I’m going to be in Austin on Thanksgiving. And you better take care of business like you did right here in Lubbock last year.” pic.twitter.com/KRDohHn288

— Joe Cook (@josephcook89) August 23, 2023

I mean, you’re the Big 12 commissioner, right?  And Texas is still part of the Big 12, last time I checked, right?

It would serve Yormark right if the ‘Horms won the conference championship in their last season there and he had to present the trophy to them.

Holier than thou

This guy, I swear…

Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick tells @dpshow it’s “a complete disaster” what’s happened in college athletics. “Everybody in the industry has to take responsibility here I'm not excluding myself from that. I think the decision making lost its way in terms on the focus of the student…

— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) August 23, 2023

In a profession full of “do as I say, not as I do” folks, Swarbrick has to be the acknowledged master of the genre.  First, he’s the AD of a school that refuses to join the ACC as a full member (something that would immediately settle the conference’s future), who has no problem urging other ACC schools to take on two programs in Cal and Stanford that bring little value (and in Cal’s case, is an financial basketcase) as full blown members.

Now, he’s wagging his finger at his peers for chasing money instead of keeping concerns about college athletes at the forefront.  Bully for him not excluding himself, but he’s also got the luxury of running an athletic program with a national profile big enough to demand (and get!) a large broadcast contract.  Not every school is as fortunately situated in that regard as is Notre Dame.  For that matter, not any school.  So it’s easy for him to pretend to have a conscience.  Screw that, Jack.