Newcomer Dawg porn

A few noteworthy observations from Jake Rowe’s updated offensive depth chart projections:

• “We’ve already heard a little positive buzz about McIntosh, who is silky smooth in the passing game and especially for a 6-foot, 220-pound back.”
• “Holding off Pickens, however, won’t be easy. The former five-star prospect is another player who has created some buzz in his short time on campus and he’s going to get opportunities early on in the year to show what he can do.”
• “Based on what we heard over the weekend, Cager is going to be able to help this team and maybe a lot. The former Miami wide receiver is a really smooth athlete with a ton of experience under his belt.”
• “We’re sticking with our May projection here but keep an eye on Blaylock as the year goes on. Robertson and Jackson are extremely talented players and will factor prominently into the offense, but based on what we’ve heard about Blaylock thus far, he has the goods. A lightning quick athlete who plays the game the right way, Blaylock has impressed those who’ve interacted with him with his maturity and focus. He’s going to get better with more reps.”

I’m feeling a little lightheaded now.  If you don’t mind excusing me…

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Welcome to the club

I wanted to highlight a couple of comments from whb209 that you may not have seen, regarding an experience with his Georgia-Florida tickets.

Here’s the first:

A strange call from the UGa ticket office last Friday. They asked if I would like
to exchange 4 of my tickets to the GA-Fl game for 4 Club level seats. Has the game lost interest or are people and Corps. just not buying the expensive
Club level tickets (maybe the same thing). When the Gator bowl was repaired in 1996 (I think that was the year), I was in the Club level for 2 years and was then kicked out because I would not pay a dumbass amount to remain in club seats and now they are calling me asking if I would please go back to that level without an increase in payment.. Interesting…

And, in response to a question for me about why they reached out like that, the second:

I called the ticket office and they called me back today (6/14/19). This was there statement: We have cut the number of Club tickets to each person or corp. from 8 to 4. This gives more Club tickets that can go to a greater number of people, therefore if you have 60,000+ points you are given the opportunity to purchase 4 Club tickets for $40.00 per ticket when you exchange 4 of your off club tickets. The total number of tickets (club + off club) is set at 8. Only 4 maybe on club.

I have a hard time believing this is exactly true because I am sure that a few individuals and a few Corps. have paid a shit load of money and they will not be bothered by this new 4 Club limit. This is still what they told me and it is all I know about the new GA-FL Club seat deal.

My reaction to that is it seems to run counter to what they did when Georgia went to Notre Dame and the Magill Society folks were allowed to load up on tickets.  So I found it interesting to see this Q&A in yesterday’s Bill King column.

My wife and I have been contributors to the Hartman Fund since we returned to Georgia in 1987. … Our seats have gone from the attic to the lower club end zone, which we prefer. In 2018, we suffered a double shafting, the IRS changed the rules on deductions for college teams from 80% to 0, and UGA implemented UGA Magill Society privileges. At Georgia-Florida we went from eight seats together in club in 2017 to eight in club two by two, behind each other, in 2018, to only allowed four in club and four elsewhere. Parking went from near the stadium to a location … far away. We are a middle-income family living on our retirement here in Athens and the one real pleasure outside of our kids and grandkids is being slowly eroded.

— Armand L. Chapeau

I’ve heard quite a few stories like yours concerning game parking and Florida tickets. I also know it’s the big donors who largely fund Georgia’s participation in the facility arms race, so I understand the emphasis on attracting and keeping them. Still, I hope UGA’s athletics brain trust doesn’t wait until attendance starts falling before they begin thinking more about the average fan.

My first impression is that it sounds like Butts-Mehre is trying to clear space to let newer Magill Society contributors gain access to club level seating for the Cocktail Party, but whb209 doesn’t sound like somebody who’s making a MS contribution — which makes the offer to him a bit curious.  I’m sure it’s got something to do with the money, because that’s how Butts-Mehre rolls these days.  Anybody out there have a clue what’s going on here?

“Kirby knows what he’s doing, they’re going to be primed and ready.”

2019 presents yet another way Kirby Smart will try to emulate his mentor.

The heightened expectations surrounding the Georgia football program haven’t changed even after the departures of a pair of coordinators who helped the Bulldogs reach the national title game in 2017 and came close to a return to the College Football Playoff in 2018.

Kirby Smart’s team this season is widely pegged to reach the final four. If the Bulldogs do, they’ll be the rare team in the playoff era to accomplish that after losing both coordinators from the previous year.

Of the 20 teams to reach the playoff in the five years of the system, only Alabama last year did so after a turnover in both its offensive and defensive coordinators.

Georgia will try to join the Crimson Tide this season with James Coley replacing Jim Chaney as offensive coordinator and Dan Lanning stepping up as defensive coordinator to succeed Mel Tucker.

Ironically, Nick Saban finds himself doing the same thing again in 2019.

“When it comes to analyzing Florida’s class ranking and potential, a lot of nuance is involved.”

Nuance ($$):

… It wasn’t as if Florida was attracting a large amount of blue-chip talent before Mullen’s arrival. In Jim McElwain’s classes, blue-chip prospects (four and five stars) made up 34.3 percent of Florida’s signees. That number is at 58.5 percent under Mullen, counting attrition and the 2020 class so far. The problem is an alarming one: Georgia is at 87.3 percent in the same time frame.  [Emphasis added.]

Yeah, that’s a problem.

Steele previews Steele’s Preview

The mag isn’t in the stores quite yet, but Phil Steele is already out there on the promo trail.  If you’re a Georgia fan, sounds like he’s calling for more of the same.

Meanwhile, the Georgia Bulldogs will crash the party as the SEC second invitee.

“SEC Country is OK with it, but the rest of the country is like, ‘Oh my goodness,’ but I’m picking two SEC teams this year. When you look at Georgia, they are loaded both offensively and defensively. They’re a better team than they were last year. And last year, they gave Alabama everything they wanted in the SEC Championship Game.

“I think you have an undefeated Georgia and an undefeated Alabama battling for the SEC title game. I still think the loser makes the playoffs.”

Steele picks ‘Bama to avenge last year’s defeat to Clemson in the national title game.  Sigh.

All in all, not a bad effort

Found this posted on Instagram:

Check out those play action stats.  That’s what an effective ground game will do for an already good quarterback.

The shrinking gap

My early 2019 power ratings for all 130 college football teams:

1. Alabama 99.8
2. Clemson 98.7
3. Georgia 93.9
4. LSU 91.4
5. Oklahoma 90.5
6. Michigan 89.7
7. Ohio St 88.9
8. Florida 88.2
9. Auburn 87.3
10. Notre Dame 86.9https://t.co/nHiSOOqzyW pic.twitter.com/aWtkZE59zl

— Brad Powers (@BradPowers7) June 12, 2019

According to his Twitter bio, Powers once worked with Phil Steele and his specialty is devising power ratings.  He describes his methodology as follows:

This early set of power ratings takes into consideration the amount of returning production, the number of returning starters and other key factors (turnovers, close wins/losses, recruiting, etc).

The interesting thing to me about his 2019 list isn’t that there are five SEC teams in his top ten.  What’s interesting to me is how his ratings have moved, year-to-year.

Rome wasn’t built in a day and Georgia catching Alabama for the long haul wasn’t something I expected to occur overnight, no matter how much sleeping giant talk we’ve heard about the program Kirby Smart took over.  Progress, though, seems undeniable.  Georgia has managed to cut the gap between it and the defending national champs essentially in half, as shown by Powers’ numbers, and come close to doing the same with ‘Bama.

Obviously, there’s still work to be done, but it’s nice to see third-party confirmation like this.  I’ll be curious to see if Steele tracks this as well when his preview mag hits the stands in the next couple of weeks.