If you’ve won Mark Bradley…

My intent this week was to alternate optimistic and pessimistic takes on the Georgia-Florida game.  Today was going to be one on the plus side.

But then I saw that Mark Bradley, of all people, has already gone there with this.

This isn’t exactly a revelation, given that I made the prediction nearly five months ago, but here, for late tuners-in, it is: I like Georgia over Florida. Believe it or not, I’m not alone.

The many men of Scouts Inc. — Todd McShay, Steve Muench and Kevin Weidl – have declared on ESPN Insider (link requires registration) that the Bulldogs will beat the Gators 26-23. Their reasoning, conveniently enough, dovetails with what I’m now thinking. Back in May, I was thinking Georgia would simply be the better team. It hasn’t been to date, which doesn’t mean it can’t be Saturday.

From the Scouts Inc. preview:

Signs can’t always be trusted, especially in rivalry games. So don’t be surprised when Georgia turns in its most emotionally charged effort of the year. For 60 minutes, all the elite individual talent on Georgia’s defense will work together as a unit, and it will be enough to hand the Gators their first loss of the season.

So now I don’t know what to think.

Bradley does make a good point.  Season-wise, the least statistically productive unit that will step on the field Saturday is the Gator offense.  The catch is that Florida’s play on defense and special teams has been more than good enough to offset that.

But I sure would love to see what would happen if Florida was forced to turn to the pass to win the game.

Back in the (college) saddle again

Judging from the comments I see here, David Hale’s been clearly missed as a beat writer for Georgia athletics since he took himself off to cover the Phillies.  As a reader service, I thought I’d let you know he’s back covering college ball again.  Unfortunately for us, it’s Florida State athletics that he’ll be reporting.  For ESPN.

It must be a good gig, because they’ve got him living in Tallahassee.

Why I ♥ the Intertubes.

Travis fisks Bill King’s latest AJ-C effort at trolling the gullible masses post so I don’t have to.

Do programs get the fan base they deserve?  I hope not.

Thursday morning buffet

Cecil Newton wanted his buffet comped.  Mike Slive didn’t have a problem with it.

• Paul Myerberg has a very nice obit for one of the touchstone games of my life, Oklahoma and Nebraska.  There’s just something not right about its demise.
• Another year, another recruiting class, another math problem for Nick Saban.  Nothing he can’t handle, though.
• Like I said, Jon Gruden to Da ‘U is a pipe dream.  His heart in in the pros.
• Which means they’re starting to freak out in Starkville.
• Bill Buckner, Kyle Brotzman and Boise, Idaho.  Small world, ain’t it?
• Paul has some thoughts about Aaron Murray’s remarkable freshman season.
• Local teams are good business for lesser bowls.
• More angst from Gainesville.  Good.
• Pretty hypocritical call by Virginia Tech here.  And a very good point about how blurred the lines have become between traditional media and new media.
• Heisman Pundit shovels a little dirt on the grave of the I-formation, pro-style passer.
• Junior expresses admiration for Bruce Pearl’s intellect:  “Bruce is really smart,” Kiffin says. “I can understand why he wouldn’t want to talk about not being able to coach and violations, so he mentions Lane Kiffin. And everyone claps.”

Bleacher Report and the Washington Post: boobtastic!

David Hale alerted me to this sad story:

… Today, Bleacher Report announced yet another content sharing agreement, this time with the Washington Post.

The Washington Post is now populating their website with Bleacher Report content. Let that wash over you for a moment. Woodward. Bernstein. The 20 Most Boobtastic Athletes of All time. Together, as one, as the overseers of journalistic integrity always imagined it.

(I left the link to the BR post in… go on, you know you want to click on it.)

It’s some marriage they’ve cooked up.

… So now the Washington Post, of all places, not only has a blog written by the fans, for the fans, but they’ve teamed up with a content sharing network populated by fans as well. They’ll still have the same great reporting — though far less of it than ever before — but the Post is one of the growing number of newspapers that have become so concerned with staying afloat that they’ve managed to marginalize their product to the point where they may not be the news outlet of record in their market any longer. Then what do they have? Cheap labor? Fans writing for them? It’s a brilliant model for Bleacher Report, to pray prey on the desperate. I wish I had thought of it.

What’s that you say about journalism standards?  Oy.

I will admit to a certain amount of amusement over BR and John Feinstein sharing the same masthead, though.

Monday afternoon buffet

Here are a few things to nibble on:

• A regression to the mean reference from the honeymooning Mr. Hale.
• Rome wasn’t built in a day, and MaconDawg warns us that Grantham’s defense isn’t likely to be built that quickly either.
• It’s not nice to keep Mr. Pickens waiting.
• Here’s a helluva job:  at least one SEC school has an employee who keeps track of the Facebook walls of recruits.
• Best message board rumor of the month so far.  I’m just disappointed nobody bit on it.
• Another Tennessee writer muses that Damon Evans’ departure is bad news for Mark Richt.