An SECCG look from the other side

Presented without comment (almost) for your reading pleasure…

Welcome to another Roll ‘Bama Roll Roundtable: this time, a beefy, girthy edition for the 2023 SEC Championship. Most pundits are giving ‘Bama absolutely no shot, with many even predicting an outright blowout for the ‘Dawgs. Is that pessimism warranted? Do the Tide have enough weapons to give the puppies pause? Indeed, is Alabama being #disrespected? Or, is the disparity just that great?

Let’s find out. Erik is your interlocutor, with (most of) the crew providing their thoughtful responses.

To answer your first and most obvious question, no, they haven’t watched as much Georgia football as they try to come off sounding like.  Enjoy!

Moar SECCG stats

What’s particularly striking about tomorrow’s game is how, unlike before typically, there are so many similarities between the two teams.  The most obvious of those are the stakes:  only the winner can count on making the four-team CFP field (yes, ‘Bama is in with a win).  But right behind that are things like a 29-game winning streak and a shot at a virtually unprecedented threepeat of the national title on Georgia’s side and avoiding a three-game stretch of not winning a national title on Alabama’s.  There’s a lot on the line for both programs.

Both teams have enjoyed similar arcs this season.  Both started slowly, but have played their best football over the past month — until their last regular season games.  Both teams play good defense, but not as good as they have in preceding seasons.  And both have quarterback-centric offenses.

Of course, similar doesn’t mean identical.  For once, it feels like Georgia rolls into this meeting with the better offense.

I mention all this as a prelude to what I’ve been doing a fair amount of this week, scouring the stats for both teams to see what kind of edges for each can be gleaned.  I’ve posted a lot of that stuff already, but I’ve got a couple more things to share in the post.

One reason ‘Bama has started rolling in the second half of the season is turnovers.  In their first seven games, they posted a turnover margin of +2.  In their last four, their turnover margin is +5.  One big reason for that is Milroe has only thrown one interception over those four games.  Meanwhile, while Georgia has 12 interceptions on the season, only three of those have come over the last five games.

One area of difference that may have an impact tomorrow is at running back.  Alabama’s top rusher, Jace McClellan, has been ruled out due to injury.  Meanwhile, Georgia’s seen a resurgence at the position due to Kendal Milton’s return to health.  And while we’re all painfully aware of the Dawgs’ shortcomings in run defense, especially on the edge, it’s worth noting that the Tide hasn’t been all that stout against the run lately, having given up more than 200 yards on the ground in two of their last four games.

Sure seems like we’re about to get a good back and forth game, at least for a while.

The evolution of Mike Bobo

Interesting quote from Aaron Murray:

“They have more shifts and motions in one game then I had in four years playing football at Georgia,” Murray said. “We just lined up and played. Now it seems like every play is a shift and motion and moving guys around and creating matchups.”

Call that the Todd Monken Effect.

That said, what should we make of the fact that the Georgia record for offensive scoring remains from Bobo’s first stint, during the era of “lined up and played”?

Today, in just askin’

Two random questions that crept into my brain last night:

• Does Kirby try to use the national media’s chaos fetish as a way to motivate his team?  Or is that too esoteric?
• For all the talk about what a great meeting the SECCG will be, what happens if we get last game of the regular season versions of Georgia and Alabama?

Just another game now

Idiots.

SEC commish Greg Sankey says there will be a 2:30 p.m. Central SEC game on ABC starting in 2024.

However, that might not necessarily be the No. 1 game that weekend. The top game could be in primetime on ABC, he said.

— Creg Stephenson the First (@CregStephenson) November 30, 2023

You spend years building a brand — the 3:30 game on CBS is the SEC — only to throw it away with the new broadcast deal.  It’ll just be another slot on the schedule.

I know this wasn’t Sankey’s idea, but ESPN’s.  No matter, when you climb in bed with Mickey, this is what you get.

Spreading the wealth

Pretty cool stat here…

Georgia has seven players who have 20 or more receptions this season. They are the only team in the SEC with that many.

Alabama: 2
Arkansas: 2
Auburn: 2
Florida: 5
Tennessee: 4
Missouri: 4
Kentucky: 4
Miss State: 4
LSU: 4
South Carolina: 6
Ole Miss: 5
Vanderbilt: 5
Texas A&M: 6

— Jonathan Williams (@Dr_JWill) November 30, 2023

That puts me in mind of something Gary Danielson said during the broadcast of the Georgia-Tennessee game — noting that the Dawgs’ multitude of receiving options makes it almost impossible to key in on particular player on a given play.

By the way, note which team is on the other end of that measuring stick.

All hands on deck

You buying this?

Smart adds that it bothers him a lot that people said they "sat" them out vs. Ga. Tech because he's still not even sure if they're going to be able to go Saturday. "It's unfortunate to be without four starters on offense."

— Brandon Zimmerman (@BZSEC) November 30, 2023

Bless his heart.  It’ll be a major upset if any one of those four don’t see the field tomorrow.

South Carolina’s 2024 Bataan Death March

Man, whom did the Gamecocks piss off to be saddled with a schedule like this?

Look at this gauntlet South Carolina has to play in 2024. pic.twitter.com/zuEXCH5yYv

— Adam Luckett (@AdamLuckettKSR) November 30, 2023

And that’s after the SEC did them the favor of keeping Georgia off that schedule.

I fear for Shane Beamer’s other foot.

Musical palate cleanser, “I was good at writing” edition

Ah.

Shane MacGowan, the brilliant but chaotic songwriter who as frontman for the Pogues reinvigorated interest in Irish music in the 1980s by harnessing it to the propulsive power of punk rock, died on Thursday. He was 65.

Mr. MacGowan’s wife, Victoria Mary Clarke, said the cause was pneumonia but did not say where he died.

Mr. MacGowan emerged from London’s punk scene in the late 1970s and spent nine tumultuous years with the initial incarnation of the Pogues. Rising from North London pubs, the band was performing in stadiums by the late 1980s, before Mr. MacGowan’s drug and alcohol problems and his mental and physical deterioration forced the band to fire him. He later founded Shane MacGowan & the Popes, with whom he recorded and toured in the 1990s.

Along the way, Mr. MacGowan earned twin reputations as a titanically destructive personality and a master songsmith whose lyrics painted vivid portraits of the underbelly of Irish immigrant life. His best-known are the opening lines of his biggest hit, an alcoholics’ lament turned unlikely Christmas classic entitled “Fairytale of New York”:

“It was Christmas Eve babe/In the drunk tank/An old man said to me, won’t see another one.”

If you sing it often enough, eventually it’ll come true.

“Fairytale” is a masterpiece, of course, but for my money, this is the quintessential Pogues song:

Whatever else they can say about you, Shane, you were one of a kind.  Rest in peace, brother.