Whatever blows your skirt up.

After looking at GTP‘s traffic numbers for the first quarter of this year, one thing’s obvious: changing defensive coordinators sure is good for business.  2013 was a record year for hits, but this year’s numbers are almost 400,000 ahead of last year at the same time.  It’s the offseason and traffic usually declines, so that’s a ridiculous bump.  It’s not like I’m doing anything differently (i.e., recruiting, which usually gets more attention than anything this time of year), either.

And it’s very similar to what I experienced in 2010, when Grantham was hired.  (From a percentage standpoint, the 2010 increase was bigger than 2014.)

I’ll give you guys credit for consistency.

A grateful blogger thanks you.

I’ve mentioned to you guys before that there’s a pretty predictable pattern to visitor traffic here.  February is typically the month when things drop off and stay that way until fall practice gears up.  And while there was a drop in hits last month from January, it was still by far the strongest February in the history of GTP – up almost 50% from the next best February.  (If that’s a gauge of everyone’s interest in the program, Richt and McGarity ought to be psyched.)

Even better, though, last month generated the most ad revenue I’ve ever earned.  And I just wanted to say how much I appreciate that.  I blog for fun, so in a sense, what I receive feels like found money (although I find it spends the same as any other type of green).  But it’s still nice.  So thanks for visiting and clicking.

Life intrudes.

Home internet access crash + trip to watch my old alma mater whip Tech in basketball = no posting today.

I’ll see if I can whip something up.  Don’t take it personally.

Getting your attention

It’s kind of funny – the top two months for traffic at the blog are last September (501,830 hits) and last month (498,805 hits).  One’s all about beating two top ten teams in the space of a couple of weeks and the other’s about replacing an underperforming defensive staff.

In other words, it’s all about hope, ain’t it?

Fabris Invitational Bowl Pool results

Congrats to Evil Mark Richt Turf Monster, who squeaked out a narrow tiebreaker win over two others sporting a 23-12 mark for the bowls.

STANDINGS for WEEK 1

Rank	Selection Name	Standings Adjustment	W-L	Pts	Tie Breaker Game 34-31
1	Evil Mark Richt Turf Monster	Adj	23-12	23	38-32**
1	gt22	Adj	23-12	23	35-42
1	SouthGaDawg10	Adj	23-12	23	45-38

Until next year, folks.

GTP: 2013 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

About 1,000,000 people visit the Seattle Space Needle every year. This blog was viewed about 4,100,000 times in 2013. If it were the Space Needle, it would take about 4 years for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

New, improved commenting (maybe)

In response to some reader requests, I’ve dug around at WordPress and activated something new for commenting.  It’s called Markdown and you can read about how to use it here.  The short version is that it should enable you to italicize, bold, quote, etc. in comments fairly easily (at least that’s what I’m hoping).

Play around with it and let me know if it’s worth leaving it in place for you guys.

Why we’re here.

Every once in a while, it really hits me why I enjoy this blog so much.  Certainly it’s nice to have a public outlet to express myself and it’s gratifying when I get a public response to my opinions.  It’s no secret that I enjoy the give-and-take of a good debate as much as anybody and I’ve had plenty of those with you guys in the comments.

But the best part of the GTP experience for me, hands down, comes every time I’m reminded what’s at the core of why you and I have a special feeling about college football, which, after all, is just a game.  And that core isn’t statistics or playoff formats or whether this coach or that one is the right man for the job… and it sure as hell isn’t money.

It’s community.  It’s being part of a group of people who bind together, both face to face on a few special Saturdays every fall and by sharing something of themselves in a virtual sense the rest of the year, over a common passion.  You know the pain and pleasure, the highs and lows that everyone feels, even if those sometimes are expressed very differently.

I’ve been lucky in both ways.  I’ve celebrated the fall with a close group of friends for more than thirty years now.  We’ve watched each other get older, seen our kids grow up, had our laughs and our share of tears.  And on the blogging side of things, I’ve been the recipient of a steady stream of e-mails that start with something like “I’ve been a long time reader of your blog and wanted to share this with you”… and then they do.  And I honestly marvel every time I see that how this shared experience matters.

Where I’m getting to with this is that somebody e-mailed me yesterday about a video that’s posted on YouTube.  It struck a chord.  I’ll let the author describe it:

I made this film to profile my father’s tailgate. I’ve been going to University of Georgia football games since I was 6 years old. I wanted to share with everyone what our tailgate experience is all about. Family, love, and compassion are just a few words to describe what these people mean to me.

Watch it.  I hope you get as much out of it as I did.

There’s something I try to say every time somebody reaches out to me with an e-mail like that.  And I hope you understand that when I say it, it’s not offered as some automatic gesture of politeness.  It’s sincere.  So I’ll say it now in that spirit, Jon.

Thanks for sharing.

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

UPDATE:  The NFL, on the other hand…

Fabris Invitational Bowl Pool

I just set it up.  Those of you who played during the regular season should be getting an invite by e-mail.  Those who didn’t play before, but want to sign up now should click here.

The format is unchanged from the regular season pool.  That means you’re picking games against the spread.  The pool spreads won’t be locked in until the 17th, so keep that in mind if you’re just dying to make your picks as early as possible.

The first bowl game will be played on the 21st.  However, because of the length of the bowl season, I’ve set it up so that you have until noon on Christmas day to make all your picks final.  So if you want, you can make your choices for the first few games and have a couple of extra days to set the rest of them down.

I have changed one thing with regard to the tiebreaker.  Instead of winning team score being the deciding factor, it’s now total score for both teams, so think about the over/under when you set your tiebreaker.

I think that covers everything, but if I’ve missed something, just let me know in the comments.

Fabris Invitational results, Week 15

The last week of the season brings us an undisputed weekly champ.

STANDINGS for WEEK 15

Rank	Selection Name	Standings Adjustment	W-L	Pts	Tie Breaker Game 42-59
1	Bone	Adj	9-1	9	28-35
2	jadams4148	Adj	8-2	8	37-45**
2	CoastToCoast	Adj	8-2	8	31-35
2	econodawg	Adj	8-2	8	28-35
2	Biggen	Adj	8-2	8	28-35
2	uganewt	Adj	8-2	8	27-31
2	Dilemma	Adj	8-2	8	24-31
2	CallingtheDawgs	Adj	8-2	8	38-34

Congrats to Bone, for pulling in the last W of the regular season.

And now, it’s time to crown our champ for the 2013 season.

SEASON STANDINGS through Week 15

Rank	Selection Name	W-L	Pts
1	Trbodawg	95-55	95
2	ShockleyforHeisman	93-57	93
3	Sundiata	92-58	92
3	ParrishWalton	92-58	92
3	BosnianDawg	92-58	92

Trbodawg hangs on and wins by a comfortable 2-game margin! Plus-forty on the season… too bad if you didn’t monetize that in Vegas. Congratulations.  Take a lap.

Just so you know, just like last year, there will be a bowl pool for everyone to jump in.  I’ll have the info on that in the next few days.