Here’s a little factual tidbit for you:
Hard to imagine a Smart-coached team bucking that trend, but that’s why the play the games, I guess.
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UPDATE: Here’s one more for ‘ya.
Daily Archives: October 27, 2023
Whither Graham Mertz?
Florida’s starting quarterback is starting to get a little buzz, based on his play in the South Carolina game, when he took charge and led the Gators on a fourth quarter comeback that erased a 10-point deficit.
Mertz leads the SEC and is third in the nation with a 76.2 percent completion percentage.
“You can tell he’s got a lot of confidence in their offense and their system,” Smart said. “He makes a lot good run checks for them. Has done a really nice job of not putting them harm’s way in his decision making process. So they’re playing at a really high level right now and doing a great job with it.”
Ironically, while the end results were impressive, the South Carolina game wasn’t Mertz’ best from a passer rating standpoint, mainly because his completion percentage was significantly below his season’s average. Combine that with it being the South Carolina pass defense’s worst showing of the season, and you wonder who deserves the most credit for Florida’s comeback.
What I’m really fascinated by, though, is how little Mertz is asked to throw the deep ball. The Gators are fourth in the conference in completions of 10+ yards, but watch what happens as you track longer passing plays:
- 20+ yards: 9th
- 30+ yards: 14th
- 40+ yards: 10th
Florida has one completion of fifty or more yards this season.
Chicks may dig the deep ball, but Billy Napier doesn’t, at least when Mertz is the triggerman. Combine that with Florida’s inability to convert on third down consistently and it feels like this is a quarterback they don’t want to rely on to push the ball downfield. If Georgia tackles well tomorrow, don’t count on the Gators’ passing attack to bail them out.
Filed under Gators, Gators..., Stats Geek!
“Carson is playing at an ultra-high level right now.”
Matt Hayes, of all people, is sky high on Carson Beck right now.
If Georgia wins a 3rd straight national championship, it will be because of quarterback Carson Beck. Not if Brock Bowers makes it back from an ankle injury.
“It’s something I dreamed of my whole life,” Beck said earlier this month.
An injury to a tight end isn’t going to derail it.
He notes that the offense really hasn’t missed a beat so far this season, even with the changes at quarterback and offensive coordinators.
It’s not like Georgia has been struggling at the most important position on the field this season, anyway. The offense under former-turned-new offensive coordinator Mike Bobo is eerily similar to what it was under former OC Todd Monken.
The points per game (40.1) are a tick under 2022 (41.7), but the long plays from scrimmage (10+ yards) are a smidge over (18.2 per game) from 2022 (18.1). More intriguing, 3rd-down conversion rate has significantly increased from 51% to a whopping 57.1 — meaning, nearly 6 out of 10 times the offense is facing 3rd down, it converts.
You’re going to win a lot of games with those numbers, and maybe even a historic 3rd consecutive national championship.
And there is this underlying point, too.
You don’t have a roster full of 4- and 5-star recruits who desperately want to play and show out — and suddenly panic about losing 1 player.
Especially when the guy leading the offense is primed for a huge 2nd half of the season.
Let’s hope his optimism is justified.
Filed under Georgia Football
Kirby the fan
Smart tells a pretty good story about his first Cocktail Party experience as a fan.
Smart told the story after a young boy named Palmer in the show audience told the coach he was going to his first Georgia-Florida game this weekend and asked if Smart had gone before as a fan.
“I had never been to a Georgia-Florida game in my life,” Smart said. “I had been as a player, I had been as a coach and I wanted to go as a fan. I flew from Miami to Jacksonville, went to the game and I had recruited a lot of the players that had been playing for Georgia. I enjoyed it a lot. It was a really, really great atmosphere. Just be careful because there’s a lot of Gators walking around, OK.”
The Dolphins had an off week after starting 1-6 en route to a 6-10 season.
Host Scott Howard asked Smart if he partook in activities in the parking lot “and all that festiveness going on out there,” in a game that became known as the “World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.”
Smart’s response: “That will remain unknown.”
Heh.
The best part:
“It was different, I’ll just say that,” Smart said Thursday night on the “Bulldogs Live” radio show. “I realized a lot of the people around me didn’t know what the hell they were talking about. I swore I’d never go back.”
If that bothered him, let’s just hope he never has to sit in Sanford Stadium as a fan.
Filed under Georgia Football
Can Arian Smith rebound?
I don’t think it’s a shock to say Arian Smith has been a disappointment so far this season. Fully healthy for once, big things were expected for someone who’s been adept at taking the top off opposing secondaries with his blazing speed. Instead, he’s got four catches for a (for him, anyway) pedestrian 16.75 yards per reception and has recently been plagued by a series of drops. He hasn’t had a reception since the UAB game.
So, with five games left in the regular season, can he turn it around? Evidently he’s trying hard to do so.
“He’s been actually tremendous. He’s been getting JUGS before and after practice. He’s been going up to the coaches, asking what can he do better on and off the field,” Lovett said. “The whole receiving corps kind of told him that nobody’s perfect. Everybody’s going to drop balls. Sometimes you drop the easy ones. You’ve just got to have the next-play mentality and just not let it have a snowball effect.
“In practice he’s been getting JUGS, he’s been catching the ball, making sure he catches it with his eyes and not just his hands. I feel like he’s getting back to himself, and I feel like he’s going to be alright.”
We’ll see. It’s not like they can’t use his skill set.
Filed under Georgia Football
Name that caption, reliving old times edition
I’d like to think they’re discussing Mark Richt’s record at Bobby Dodd Stadium. It’s the romantic in me.
Have at it in the comments.
Filed under Name That Caption
Big talk, Gator man.
So did Utah and Kentucky, brah. How did that work out for them?
Filed under Blowing Smoke, Gators, Gators...
Get The Picture 