Wednesday morning buffet

It’s a virtual buffet, peeps, so don’t worry about exposure to the virus.

• The Pirate gets a commitment out of a four-star QB from Texas.
• Here’s the transcript from Smart’s conference call yesterday.
• The SEC cancelled its spring meeting in Destin.
• Athlon’s preseason top 25 list has Florida ahead of Georgia.
• Two Rivals pundits think Jamie Newman will be the real deal this season.
• “Using ESPN’s way-too-early preseason Top 25 as a guide, 247Sports national analysts Bud Elliott and Brad Crawford take a stab at which teams are overrated and underrated ahead of the 2020 season.”  Elliott thinks Georgia’s number four ranking is right; Brad Crawford continues to pump the brakes.
• NCAA President Mark Emmert and members of the association’s senior management are taking pay cuts.  I wonder if that will comfort the athletic directors out there irritated about the significant drop in funds being paid out by the NCAA.
• Spurrier, on Finebaum, about spring practice: “Most all coaches would tell you that the staffs that have been there for 2, 3, 4 years or more that it’s not that big a deal not having spring football,” Spurrier said. “Maybe if you had competition at quarterback or some other positions, it would be important, but preseason, if you can get a month in before you play, I certainly think everyone would be capable of playing — maybe not quite their best, but pretty close to playing the best they can. 

TFW clickbait works

Honestly, even after I read this, I have no idea what Jeff Sentell is getting at with the comparison, but I’ll always check out an article when the header invokes the immortal name of Fred G. Sanford.

You ol’ heathen.

Forget it, Jake. It’s March without sports.

“At least,” he said to himself as he saw Barrett Sallee tweet that Georgia is no longer the favorite to win the SEC East, “Sallee’s not trying to push Tennessee’s chances.”

Looking Forward: Tennessee rolled into the offseason, but now has to sit around until fall camp. How much does that hurt? Are the Volunteers darkhorse contenders in the SEC East? Yessir! https://t.co/pBMmrfahsE

— Barrett Sallee (@BarrettSallee) March 28, 2020

Somebody’s got way too much time on his hands.

Meet the new meme

I’ve been waiting for something to drop and it’s finally here — the reason to doubt Georgia wins the SEC East.

Blame it on no spring practice, kids.  Here’s Barrett Sallee leading off.

Looking Forward: How big was the cancelation of spring practice for Georgia? Should the Bulldogs even be the favorites in the SEC East? No. https://t.co/qwpJqRdujq

— Barrett Sallee (@BarrettSallee) March 28, 2020

Following him in the lineup is Pete Fiutak.

The Bulldog talent level isn’t a problem after years of phenomenal recruiting, but there’s still a whole lot of work to do with ten players showing off at the NFL Combine, and with at least 13 starters expected to be off the Sugar Bowl-winning team.

And that’s the problem everyone has to deal with – there’s no spring football to figure out all of the parts of the puzzle that have to fit.

Pete does a lot of “every other program would be jealous of Georgia’s talent level” offsetting, but then he gives the game away with this:

They miss LSU and Texas A&M from the West, but they have to face Auburn in their annual showdown and they get what should be improved Missouri, South Carolina and Kentucky teams on the road.

South Carolina’s revamped its offensive staff and Missouri’s breaking in an entirely new coaching staff (along with a new quarterback), but somehow both should be improved against the likes of a Georgia team with far better depth and talent?  Sure, Pete.

I’m not minimizing the work Monken has ahead of him, but you know what every other program should be jealous of about Georgia?  The defense.  There isn’t a team in the division that returns as much experience and talent as the Dawgs do.  You can cover a whole lot of figuring out what to do on offense with that.

Manball crosses the final frontier.

Yep, it’s Mandel’s Mailbag ($$).

Georgia is the harder one to read. Kirby Smart is no doubt feeling urgency to get away from old-school “man ball,” as Dawgs fans began to call his old scheme, and modernize the offense.

I have no worlds left to conquer.

That’s not how he would do it.

“AJC.com Atlanta Falcons beat writer D. Orlando Ledbetter” has some serious advice for Kirby Smart.

“I think there’s a problem at Georgia, I think some of these kids are coming out too early…”

“I don’t know how they (Georgia) are handling this, assistant coaches or the agents, but they are over-gassing these guys up and not giving them good reads on where they will go in the NFL Draft,”Ledbetter said.

“This is the second year in a row the Bulldogs could have kept some of that talent and made a run at a national title again, as opposed to guys going up to Carolina as a practice squad player (Holyfield),” he said. “I don’t know if the kids don’t like school, don’t want to study, or what the situation is, but they have to figure out a way …to keep some of their talent that’s leaving early than they should be.”

Sure.  And while they’re at it, maybe the coaches can figure out a way for these kids to avoid underage drinking, smoking weed or losing control of their tempers in public.  Easy peasy!

I think we’ll have to settle for Kirby’s good sense.

“It is a trend, and I think it will continue to be a trend in college football for every team to deal with, and every team deals with it differently,” Smart said last March. “Our answer is to make sure we have good players in our program so that we’re not having to play true freshmen, but because of the way it is, you’re going to have a young team all the time, there’s not a lot you can do.”

Smart said every case is indeed different.

“Some of that stuff is out of your control, how well does a kid play as a junior, what kind of grades does he get, what kind of choices does he have to make for his family, so everybody is in a different situation and you manage every one differently,” he said.

“You just do the best job you can to handle it, and then you move on, and that’s what we do.”

And you wonder why Smart gets curt with the media sometimes.

A little Dawg porn for a Thursday morning

Bruce Feldman, who’s a pretty sober pundit as things go, is fairly positive about a certain team from Athens, Georgia ($$).

The hunch here is Georgia may be primed for a national title run with the addition of offensive coordinator Todd Monken (I’m high on that move) and Wake Forest transfer QB Jamie Newman in a year when both Alabama and LSU have to replace their star quarterbacks.

I’m down with that.