Man in a hurry

Okay, those of you who engaged in hair splitting over Jarvis Jones’ arrest — when is 20 miles per hour over the speed limit a big deal and when isn’t it? — how do you parse this?

At 10:40 p.m. Friday, Jarvis Jones was driving west down Atlanta Highway in a 1984 Buick Regal when Athens-Clarke County police clocked him traveling at 86 mph in a 40 mph zone.

That’s according to a police report released to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday.

Observations from the armchair, ’23 season opener edition

If there’s one lesson I’ve learned watching over forty seasons of Georgia football, it’s not to draw any serious conclusions from a home opener against a cupcake.  Saturday’s game is no exception to that rule.  I get that some folks aren’t happy about the slow start, but if you’re among them, ask yourself how long you allowed yourself to be troubled by last year’s home opener against Samford.

Yeah, that’s what I thought.

All of which is not to say there isn’t anything worth taking note of.  Sure there is, as long as you don’t allow yourself to get carried away and draw some big picture conclusions from what went down.  Honestly, it’s a waste of time for now.

And with that said… on to the bullet points.

• The offensive line pulled off a Jekyll and Hyde act — great in pass pro, not so great in run blocking.  (Although, like most everything else on offense, the run blocking did improve somewhat in the second half.)  It was disappointing, to say the least, to see how little push the supposed best line in the country got against an FCS team’s front, even when that front was stacked.  (In particular, the left side of the line.)  At the end of the day, the Dawgs did exceed five yards per rush, so it wasn’t exactly a disaster, but I suspect some asses are going to be seriously challenged in this week’s practice.
• Not that the line got a great deal of help from the backs, who were largely unable to shake tackles at the line of scrimmage and gain extra yardage.  Take out Milton’s one big outside run and he managed a paltry 16 yards on 8 carries; Robinson was only slightly better when you take out his outside run for good yardage.  In that regard, Edwards was missed.  Will this team find a running back with at least some home run potential this season?  We’ll see.
• Cash Jones, while I wasn’t particularly impressed with his running, did show some real potential as a receiving option out of the backfield.
• In Bowers We Trust.  To nobody’s surprise, Brock led the team in receptions and receiving yardage and threw in a rushing touchdown to boot.  More importantly, he was the rock Beck went to whenever it seemed like the offense was stalling.
• Oscar Delp’s blocking has improved markedly from last season, although nobody is going to mistake him for Darnell Washington.  (Unfair, I know.)  He also showed good athleticism on his touchdown catch.
• I think it’s safe to say that McConkey and Rosemy-Jacksaint were missed, particularly with regard to downfield blocking.  That’s got to be another area of focus this week.  There were a lot of new faces out there being incorporated into the offense and that was noticeable at times.  There were certainly communication issues on route running, most noticeably between Lovett and Beck.  That is something hopefully cleaned up with time and practice.
• Say hello to a healthy C.J. Smith, who looks noticeably bigger, while still looking fast.  He’s going to be a contributor this season.
• So is Mekhi Mews, amazingly enough, who looks like he’s going to be the rare bird who emerges from being an out of the blue G-Day star into a contributor.
• Nice catch from Rara Thomas, who is still feeling his way around.  Give him time.
• Lovett is somebody they’re counting on, so the drops — especially the one in the end zone — were disappointing, to say the least.
• Arian Smith is going to have to learn to be more physical when the refs aren’t calling pass interference.
• Seems like I’m missing somebody on offense… oh, yeah, Carson Beck!  Overall, I thought he acquitted himself well.  He clearly had a case of the jitters early on, but even with that, I think he only threw one pass that I would consider perilous.  His decision making was fairly solid, though I thought he could have taken more time in the pocket than he did on occasion.  He looked like he felt pressured when the blitz came, even though he never was any real jeopardy.  But my guess is that Smart was the happiest about that part of his game.  His throwing, on the other hand, especially downfield, was a bit sketchy.  He overthrew Arian Smith on a deep ball (!).  He whiffed on a slant to Lovett.  He’s definitely got work to do with regard to timing and his receivers, which shouldn’t be a surprise.  (I felt like they could have left him in for another series or two in the second half to get more reps.)  That said, when it all clicked, he did deliver some beautiful passes.  And his touchdown run was pretty nifty.
• Brock Vandagriff shocked the hell out of me.  Not his physical talent — we’ve all known about that since he stepped on campus.  But his composure, compared with what I saw at G-Day, has improved by leaps and bounds.  I don’t know whether to chalk it up to maturity, the competition at the position or Bobo’s work as his position coach, but something has started clicking there.  Can he keep showing that?
• Stockton didn’t get the same opportunity, but didn’t look bad.  He’s definitely got some wheels.
• The defensive front had so many folks being shuffled in and out, it was hard to see anyone in particular shine, although Mykel Williams flashed big time on Georgia’s only sack of the game.  The first/second string did a good job in run defense, with the glaring exception of losing contain on some quarterback runs.
• Pretty quiet game from the ILBs, too.  I didn’t hear Dumas-Johnson’s name called much at all.  I did love seeing Mondon come in for one play, make the tackle and then leave.  Just wanted to show us he’s still got it, injury or no injury.  I admit to being excited over C.J. Allen’s prospects, though.  He played a helluva lot for a true freshman, made some true freshman mistakes, but is loaded with talent.
• And let’s hear it for Kyron Jones’ pick six!
• The secondary, though — that group had a great game.  Starks looks he’s building on an impressive freshman year.  He was particularly stellar in run support.  They don’t look like they’re missing a beat at the star position, where Tykee Smith has taken over for Bullard.  Bullard looked good at the other safety spot.  I don’t think UT-Martin completed a single deep pass attempt all game.  I’ll take that.
• Special teams?  Both new kickers looked good.  So does Thorson.  Mews looks sufficiently shifty as the return specialist.  I have a feeling he’s going to take something to the house this season.
• Speaking of special teams, that UT-Martin punter?  Holy mother of crap!
• Schuman and Muschamp had the job of running a vanilla defense while getting tons of players meaningful snaps.  Mission accomplished.  That said, I bet Kirby has a bone to pick about the lack of havoc plays.  And he’s right about that.
• As far as Bobo goes, to me it feels like a lot of the resistance is baked in.  That’s a shame.  Despite running a vanilla scheme with a new starting quarterback, a limited set of running backs and a receiving corps missing its two most experienced members, Bobo managed to guide the offense to an average of 7.99 yards per play.  That’s a figure that Monken, Bennett and Company only managed to exceed four times in fifteen games last season.  Maybe you ought to think about cutting the guy a little slack.
• As far as Kirby goes, I kinda, sorta joked the other day that this was the kind of win only he could love, but the truth is not too far off from that.  There’s plenty to work with and there’s plenty of things that can use improvement.  I expect it’s going to be a busy, productive week between now and Saturday.

So there you have it.  Next, Ball State, losers by 30 points to Kentucky, comes to town.  It’ll be a noon start, but even with that, I will be disappointed if the team doesn’t show improvement from Week 1.  That’s just what I expect from a Smart-coached bunch.

The long arm of the law

The latest and greatest from Congress, on potential NIL legislation:

The latest college sports congressional legislation would require collectives managing name, image and likeness (NIL) money to submit contact details for school donors who contribute, or risk “perjury.”

An updated discussion draft of Rep. Gus Bilirakis’ NIL bill, obtained by Yahoo Sports, prohibits collectives from entering into NIL deals with athletes until they are enrolled in school for 90 days, outlaws tampering with other teams’ athletes and creates a public-facing database of figures from NIL deals across college sports.

In maybe the most interesting and unique section of the FAIR College Sports Act, the draft targets collectives, requiring them to register with an independent third party responsible for overseeing NIL called the United States Intercollegiate Athletic Committee (USIAC). As part of the registration process, collectives would have to disclose their registry of donors.

Under penalty of perjury, the draft states, collectives are expected to provide the following in the application process with the USIAC: “The name and contact information of any donor who contributed to the fund.”

Criminalizing behavior the NCAA wants to regulate?  Sure.  I mean, what could go wrong?

Have to say I’m amused that they think it’s more important to identify the people giving to collectives than the people making political contributions.  I wonder why…

Fabris Pool results, Week 1

This season doesn’t start out with a tiebreaker.

Congrats to Dashlok!

With Week 2, the schedule returns to normal, with nothing but Saturday games. Have at it…

Tuesday ticket exchange

Need to buy or sell tickets for the Ball State game?  Have at it in the comments.

Again, please be as specific with your needs as possible and include contact information.  Thanks!

2023 SEC Net YPP, Week 1

It’s time for everybody’s favorite advanced stat.  (If you need a refresher on why I track net ypp, here you go.)

Yes, it’s a little early to glean a lot of meaning from it, but we’ve got to start somewhere.  Here’s how the conference stacks up at the moment:

1. Ole Miss:  +5.55 (9.01 o; 3.46 d)
2. Mississippi State:  +3.87 (7.72 o; 3.85 d)
3. Georgia +3.86 (7.99 o; 4.13 d)
4. Missouri +3.39 (6.62 o; 3.23 d)
5. Alabama +3.32 (6.78 o; 3.46 d)
6. Kentucky +2.85 (7.00 o; 4.15 d)
7. Texas A&M +2.76 (6.52 o; 3.76 d)
8. Tennessee +2.73 (5.87 o; 3.14 d)
9. Arkansas +2.05 (6.21 o; 4.16 d)
10. Auburn +1.23 (7.13 o; 5.90 d)
11. Vanderbilt +0.99 (6.26 o; 5.27 d)
12. Florida +0.23 (5.32 o; 5.09 d)
13. LSU -0.29 (7.19 o; 7.48 d)
14. South Carolina -1.14 (5.01 o; 6.15 d)

Turnover margin:

• +5:  Arkansas
• +2:  Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, South Carolina
• +1:  Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt
• -1:  Florida, LSU, Missouri, Tennessee

Thoughts and random observations:

• Average offensive ypp:  6.73
• Average defensive ypp:  4.29
• Lane Kiffin sure knows how to get off to a good start, doesn’t he?  Let’s see where they stand after a few games in conference play.
• Mike Bobo sucks so badly he’s got the offense with the second ranked offensive ypp this week.
• Nobody told me Bo Pelini was back at LSU!

Postponing the inevitable

As much contempt for George Kliavkoff and the departing members of the Pac-12 as I have, I would pay good money to watch this unfold, if only to see some heads explode:

Oh, this has become my new favorite Pac-12 Survival Scenario lol https://t.co/IH9w57sM9n pic.twitter.com/I3nfSUoeCq

— Dugar, Michael-Shawn (@MikeDugar) September 3, 2023

Go outlaw, OSU and WSU!  And while you’re at it, schedule a conference championship game.  In for a penny, in for a pound, as they say…

2023 SEC Power Poll, Week One

SEC teams faced so many cupcakes last weekend that I worry the conference will succumb to a mass case of diabetes.  On the downside, the three schools that ventured forth to face ranked opposition all took it on the chin.  Not great, obviously, but it’s early.

That said, here’s my first power poll of the ’23 season.

1. Georgia.  Seriously, you think the Dawgs should be dinged over a *** checks notes *** 41-point victory?  Get real.
2. Alabama. And just like that, Jalen Milroe is the answer to the Tide’s questions at quarterback?  Ho-kay, fine.
3. Tennessee.  It took a little work early on, but the Vols ground a shitty Virginia team into dust, just as expected.
4. Texas A&M.  For a week, the Jimbo-Petrino relationship worked.  And by “worked”, I mean “didn’t blow up in their faces”.
5. Ole Miss.  Junior can stomp a cupcake into a mudhole with the best of ’em.
6. LSU.  Somebody on that coaching staff decided it would be a great idea to play Harold Perkins, Jr. in coverage a whopping 28 snaps.  Talk about outsmarting yourself.
7. Kentucky.  The ‘Cats beat Georgia’s next opponent by 30.  Nah, we won’t be comparing margins of victory after next week, will we?  (That’s a rhetorical question.)
8. Arkansas.  Another cupcake stomped into a mudhole.
9. Mississippi State.  The Bulldogs ran for over 300 yards.  Mike Leach is spinning in his grave.
10. Auburn.  The Hugh Freeze era kicks off with a bang.  At least that’s one way to look at it.  The other would be seeing another cupcake stomped into a mudhole.
11. Missouri.  So many cupcakes.  So many mudholes.
12. Vanderbilt.  Hey, I know it won’t last, but the ‘Dores are the SEC’s only 2-0 team right now.  That’s gotta count for something, right?
13. Florida.  The good thing is that the gap between Florida and Vanderbilt isn’t that large.
14. South Carolina.  Rattler was sacked an astounding nine times.  I seem to recall somebody here at the blog writing that the ‘Cocks don’t have the lines of scrimmage to hold up in the SEC.  Nor in the ACC, it seems.

***************************************************************************

UPDATE:  When it comes to hot takes about Georgia, nobody’s hotter than Erik Evans.  Ranking Georgia behind Alabama in his blog poll, he adds, “What on earth happened to the Georgia offensive line and running game. Except for some big gainers (mostly on 1D), the ground game was meh. Was it really Monken after all?”  Hey, he’s just askin’!

And now, a word from our sponsors

Jesus, this is worse than I thought.

A reader crunched the numbers, hope you enjoyed last night’s event that included 131 ads and also some pretty great football in between. pic.twitter.com/y0TEAxw1Fd

— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) September 4, 2023

Almost a third of the total broadcast time was commercials?

Obviously, the solution is to take a few more plays out of the games.