Dawg Sports

Don't Bet On It!: National Games of Interest

2009-11-11T09:00:21Z

The comments left after my initial BlogPoll ballot draft made up in quality what they lacked in quantity, so I was persuaded to inch the LSU Tigers ahead of the USC Trojans (hopefully without reigniting any billboard wars over the 2003 national championship!), rank the Auburn Tigers (in spite of the fact that I hate Auburn), and take a chance on the Stanford Cardinal. I will confess to being a bit leery of the folks on the Farm, but I’ll give them a whirl for a week, and, while I’m convinced the Plainsmen are a bit too high, I couldn’t very well elevate them past West Virginia without also letting them leapfrog South Florida. Consequently, the revised final draft of my top 25 looks like so:

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Alabama	1
2	Texas	1
3	Florida
4	Cincinnati	3
5	Boise State	3
6	TCU
7	Iowa	3
8	Oregon	3
9	Ohio State	7
10	Pittsburgh	1
11	Houston	4
12	Georgia Tech	2
13	Miami (Florida)
14	LSU	5
15	Southern Cal	3
16	Oklahoma State	2
17	Penn State	3
18	Arizona	3
19	Wisconsin
20	Auburn
21	South Florida	4
22	West Virginia
23	Utah
24	Brigham Young	1
25	Stanford
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Rutgers (#20), Notre Dame (#22), California (#24).

I am much obliged to everyone who took the time to offer constructive criticisms.

Now, to the business at hand. It’s Auburn week here at Dawg Sports (and I hate Auburn), so we’re going to mix it up a little, both because that sometimes works when the Plainsmen are on the slate and because, now that I’ve distracted you with the final version of my BlogPoll ballot, you may overlook the fact that I went 0-4 in last week’s non-SEC picks when I turn to this week’s national games of interest. Please bear in mind that I am 24-28 in such outings this season, because that’s really all the reminder you need to remember this rule of thumb: Don’t Bet On It!

Each of the following contests will take place on Saturday, November 14, in the absence of an explicit indication to the contrary:

South Florida Bulls at Rutgers Scarlet Knights (Thurs., Nov. 12): ESPN’s annual Weeknight Round-Robin Pick-a-Champion-Any-Champion Big-East-a-Thon gets underway tomorrow evening when the student-athletes of USF travel from the University of South Florida campus in west central Florida to the home field of the flagship university of the Garden State, where there likely are neither gardens nor lumberjacks. I have seldom gone right reposing even a scintilla of faith in either of these teams, so, since the Bulls are the more highly-positioned of the two contenders, I’m going with the Scarlet Knights instead.

West Virginia Mountaineers at Cincinnati Bearcats (Fri., Nov. 13): Far be it from me to invoke the most annoying anthem in all of intercollegiate athletics---memo to the Tennessee band: learn a second song!---but "Rocky Top" seems strangely appropriate as the background music to this ~~hoedown~~ showdown. The description of mountain life (particularly the Snuffy Smith-style verse about revenuers going up in the hills in search of an illegal distillery and ending up somewhere they’ll never be found) conforms closely to our stereotypes about rural West Virginians, while the Cincinnati mascot appears to have been inspired by the genuinely disturbing lyrics about a romantic interlude with a girl who was "half bear" and "the other half cat." Particularly since most of the Volunteer fans who prefer 9-0 and dignified to 5-4 and loudmouthed wanted Chip Kelly rather than Lane Kiffin, anyway, I think it would be appropriate for the band to play "Rocky Top" after Cincinnati wins.

Utah Utes at TCU Horned Frogs: Anyone who doubts the ability of deserving teams from leagues whose champions do not qualify automatically for major bowl berths to establish themselves as permanent fixtures in the college football firmament need look no farther than Salt Lake City. The Utes, the original "BCS busters," have gone undefeated twice in the last five seasons, so we have become accustomed to the notion that Utah is perennially good. Consequently, when the Utes leap out to an 8-1 start, we hardly bother to ask whether it matters that seven of their eight victims are below .500, including such sad sacks as UNLV (4-6), Louisville (3-6), Colorado State (3-7), Utah State (2-7), San Jose State (1-7), and New Mexico (0-9). Honestly, Utah has done nothing this year except lose a close one to a team that Boise State beat handily. When Texas Christian wins at home because the Horned Frogs are the better team, we’ll see whether the Ute faithful grouse about wanting to break up the Bowl Championship Series after their club was given the benefit of the doubt heading into a clash with a TCU squad that gets only token respect despite having spent 73 of the last 87 seasons playing in a major conference and beaten an ACC division frontrunner earlier this autumn.

Iowa Hawkeyes at Ohio St. Buckeyes: Don’t even ask. No, there’s not one. There’s no pail, cuspidor, hatchet, amphora, carillon, carving, commemoration of the Morrill Act, or other oddity associated with emerging victorious from the field of play in this one, which is strange, since it’s glaringly obvious that Mike Leach should be dressed up in pirate garb, bronzed, fastened to a wooden pedestal, and presented to the winner as the "Eye-Eye Captain." (Hey, it isn’t any dumber than Illy Illibuck.) I’m going to go out on a limb here and pick the home team with a quarterback to beat the visiting team without a quarterback. Much to the chagrin of everyone outside of the greater Columbus area, Ohio State takes another giant step towards clinching another dadgum Big Ten title.

By now, you know better than to put any stock whatsoever in my skills as a prognosticator, but it never hurts to reinforce first principles through repetition, so, please, whatever you do . . . Don’t Bet On It!

Also, today is Veterans Day (or---as my paternal grandfather, a World War I veteran, would have noted---Armistice Day), so be sure to take the time to express your gratitude to any soldiers or sailors you see, and take a moment to send up a prayer for the safety of the brave Americans wearing the uniform of their country, wherever they may be stationed in the world.

Coming Soon: Around the SEC.

Go ‘Dawgs! Auburna delenda est!

This Parody Isn't Perfect . . .

2009-11-11T03:21:06Z

This Parody Isn't Perfect . . .

. . . because it doesn't mention Homer Rice.

Otherwise, though, it's scarily, hilariously accurate.

(Hat tip: kleph.)

Go 'Dawgs! Auburna delenda est!

Life In The Fastlane: Why Gus Malzahn's Auburn Offense Is Willie Martinez's Worst Nightmare.

2009-11-11T01:58:57Z

In 2007, I set the Georgia/Auburn game up as a referendum on Willie Martinez's coordination of the University of Georgia defense. Then the question was whether Martinez would outscheme UGA alum and Auburn defensive coordinator Will Muschamp. That game turned out fairly well, though things have been mostly downhill defensively from there. Which leads us to the 2009 UGA/Auburn showdown.

This year Coach Martinez is again facing questions going into the matchup with the Plainsmen, more questions than in the previous two seasons. And his latest adversary, new Auburn offensive guru Gus Malzahn is perhaps his most formidable to date.

Chris Brown over at Smart Football can tell you everything you could want to know about Malzahn's warp speed offense. For my money Chris is the best X's and O's blogger out there, and he's done a good job of explaining Malzahn's exceptionally unique approach. It's interesting to consider that Malzahn was coaching at Arkansas's Springdale High School as recently as 2005. Now he's being hailed as one of the most innovative offensive minds in all of football. Like former Texas high school coach Bum Phillips (one of the early innovators of zone blocking schemes, and reputed to be one of the first to number the gaps along the line of scrimmage), Malzahn is the type of original you can spot from a mile away.

I've hinted for some time that Malzahn's offense worries me silly. However I haven't talked about why that's the case until now. Bottomline, this offense exhibits several features uniquely suited to beating the pants off our defense, including:

Play action. Yes, our old hobgoblin. Malzahn's offense employs the same bootleg action that Tennessee absolutely eviscerated us with and the read-option look that Florida shredded us with under Dan Mullen. One wrinkle is that they will sometimes bootleg the QB one way then throw a screen back the other way. The result is a game of gridiron three card monte that I have no confidence in our ability to stop.
Tempo. As Chris notes, Malzahn's offensive playbook isn't that revolutionary. Auburn runs counters, bubble screens and other plays that everybody has been running everywhere for years. The main difference is that Malzahn's Tulsa offenses ran over a thousand plays a year. Auburn may not quite be on track to do that, but they do fly up to the ball on every snap. There's no standing around checking and motioning and otherwise burning time. This has two marked effects. One is that defenses do not have time to make adjustments to the set that Auburn lines up in. The ball will generally be snapped within 5 seconds of being whistled into play, so there's no time to communicate. You have to play using the calls you come out of the huddle with. Defenders, even smart defenders, wind up out of position. Things just fall apart. Second, the offense just wears defenses down. 80+ snaps a game is a lot of plays. Auburn has been practicing that grind all season. We haven't, and have looked a little out of shape against less demanding offenses. I envision lots of winded Georgia defenders. And of course fatigue generally contributes to our other old friend, missed tackles.
Chris Todd. I know, Todd is not a unique aspect of Malzahn's offense. But Malzahn's offense has done something unique for Todd. He's thrown 17 touchdowns this season versus only 3 interceptions. While Todd is only completing 58.6% of his passes, Malzahn's offense doesn't ask him to take a lot of downfield shots, and it doesn't ask him to make a lot of post-snap reads. In other words, Auburn's offense helps protect the kind of quarterbacks who've had career games against us this season. Coach Richt has talked about how this defense's biggest problem has probably been its inability to create turnovers. I doubt this Auburn offense will do them any favors in hat department.
The Wildcat. We haven't seen a lot of the ubiquitous Wild____ formation this season. Malzahn of course is credited with bringing the concept to the front of the national football consciousness at Arkansas with Darren McFadden and Felix Jones. He has less heralded but solid group of tailbacks and receivers at Auburn who are capable of running the wildcat, which is designed to get playmakers out in space against defenders. Can anyone think of any area in which Georgia's defense has struggled more of late than tackling shifty skill players in the open field? Yeah, me neither.

Of course, Auburn has also given up a ton of points this season as well, including 31 to LSU and 44 to Arkansas. Perhaps we'll have similar luck and win in a shootout. And perhaps I'm treating a chihuahua like a pit bull just because this season has turned me into a rampant pessimist. But I simply can't shake the impression that whatever else happens Saturday won't be a good day for Willie Martinez. Until Thursday . . .

Go 'Dawgs!!!

SEC Power Poll Ballot: Week Ten

2009-11-11T01:00:30Z

I’m still soliciting comments on my BlogPoll ballot draft, but there are deadlines to be observed in the interim, one of which concerns my SEC Power Poll ranking of the twelve teams in the league. The strength of the Southeastern Conference is as follows, in descending order:

1. Alabama Crimson Tide (9-0): Against a significantly better class of competition than that faced by the Sunshine State Saurians on Saturday, ‘Bama trailed 7-3 at the break yet outscored the Bayou Bengals 21-8 in the second half. The Red Elephants do what good teams do to win.

2. Florida Gators (9-0): Urban Meyer’s outfit still has a solid shot at becoming the first Florida club of the modern era to go unbeaten, but these Gators aren’t remotely as fear-inducing as the 1995, 1996, and 2008 Orange and Blue teams that made it to the national championship game. The Gators are good, but they’re less than the sum of their parts. They’ll end the regular season unscathed, but, right now, I wouldn’t pick Florida to beat either Alabama or Texas.

3. LSU Tigers (7-2): Louisiana State showed that the gap separating the top two teams in the SEC from the next ten teams was not quite as large as we thought, but it’s still large enough to be notable. This year, that gets you ranked third in the league. I’m thinking we may want to lay off on the "toughest conference in college football" talk for a little bit.

4. Auburn Tigers (7-3): Yes, the Plainsmen gave up 31 points to Furman, but they scored 63 and 28 of the Paladins’ points came in the second half, after Auburn had built up a 42-3 halftime lead. Something tells me Saturday night’s showdown between the hedges will not feature a scintillating display of rock-ribbed defensive prowess. Oh, goody . . . because high-scoring games against the Tigers in Athens worked out so well for the Bulldogs in 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, and 2005! (I hate Auburn.)

5. Mississippi Rebels (6-3): I can’t fault Ole Miss for scoring 38 points on a Division I-AA opponent at home. I can fault the Rebs for surrendering 14 points in the first half. I’m guessing the Northern Arizona players felt right at home in the Grove, what with all those trees, ‘cause there are a boatload of trees in the Flagstaff area. Just so you’ll know.

6. Tennessee Volunteers (5-4): Monte Kiffin’s defense is good, but Lane Kiffin’s timing is better. There has never been a better year to be a rookie head coach in the Southeastern Conference. When, prior to 2009, could a 2-3 record in SEC play be considered success? Is it fair to say Tommy West has just been Kiffined?

7. Arkansas Razorbacks (5-4): Will the real Hogs please stand? Please? Just when you thought it was safe to write off Arkansas, the Razorbacks wallop South Carolina to prove that all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

8. South Carolina Gamecocks (6-4): Steve Spurrier may coach another three or four years in Columbia, but the mystique of the Evil Genius is officially a thing of the past. Another promising season is circling the drain for the Palmetto State Poultry, once again diminishing the value of the Bulldogs’ tough tussle with South Carolina. Thanks for nothing, Gamecocks.

9. Georgia Bulldogs (5-4): The Red and Black did what they were supposed to do against a Division I-AA opponent, which is something they haven’t done since facing the Hawaii Warriors in the 2008 Sugar Bowl. (Oh, stop. The Aloha State parvenus deserved that and you know it.)

10. Mississippi St. Bulldogs (4-5): It’s unfortunate that the NCAA requires a team to win six games to qualify for postseason play, because I’d like to see a bowl game pitting Mississippi State against Connecticut to settle the question of which is the best 4-5 team in America.

11. Kentucky Wildcats (5-4): When does the UK formula for reaching a bowl game start to include beating good teams?

12. Vanderbilt Commodores (2-8): The SEC school known for its smarts is 0-6 in league play and continues to be the doormat of the conference. Maybe foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of big minds, too.

If you have any arguments against any of that, well, frankly, it’s too late for me to change it even if you convince me that I’m wrong, but feel free to register your quarrel with my logic in the comments, anyway. It will make you feel better to get it off your chest, even if it has no impact whatsoever, so have at it.

Go ‘Dawgs! Auburna delenda est!

Georgia Bulldogs in Running for Possible Bowl Berth Versus ACC

2009-11-10T21:45:40Z

Georgia Bulldogs in Running for Possible Bowl Berth Versus ACC

David Hale links to a few bowl projection postings, which indicate that the Red and Black may be in the running for the Chick-fil-A Bowl (best case scenario) or the Music City Bowl (more likely scenario), either of which would pit the 'Dawgs against an ACC opponent.

In other news, Clemson is doing well, which may give the Tigers' fans reason to panic. I have to say, renewing the rivalry with Clemson in a bowl game would sure take some of the sting out of a disappointing season.

Go 'Dawgs! Auburna delenda est!

Happy Birthday to Damon Evans and Aaron Murray, Two Damn Good 'Dawgs!

2009-11-10T05:15:24Z

For me, at least, today is a busy day in what is going to be a busy week, so I can't afford to take Tuesday off, but, if you're a loyal booster of the Georgia Bulldogs and you're in a position to call in sick today, I strongly encourage you to do so, for today is an appropriate occasion for all loyal denizens of Bulldog Nation to take a holiday in celebration. (I really didn't mean to make that rhyme.)

On November 10, 1969, former Bulldog receiver and current Georgia athletic director Damon Evans was born. Anyone wishing to send appropriate "lordy, lordy, Damon's 40" birthday wishes to Evans may e-mail him here. (No, don't write him to tell him to fire Willie Martinez. It's the man's birthday; just write him to say happy birthday.)

On November 10, 1990, redshirt freshman quarterback Aaron Murray was born, as well, so all of us here at Dawg Sports send our best birthday wishes to a couple of damn good 'Dawgs.

Go 'Dawgs! Auburna delenda est!

Week Ten BlogPoll Ballot Draft

2009-11-10T02:56:34Z

I’m not sure whether to call 2009 "The Year of the Mid-Major" (Boise State and Texas Christian are in the top six; Houston, Utah, Brigham Young, and Central Michigan all are ranked, as well) or "The Year of the Little Brother" (Pittsburgh is ranked higher than Penn State; Georgia Tech is ranked and Georgia isn’t; Oklahoma State is ranked and Oklahoma isn’t; Arizona is ranked and Arizona State isn’t; South Florida is ranked and Florida State isn’t), but, in any case, I sat down with a clean white piece of paper (so ignore the arrows) and, much to my chagrin, came up with this as the draft of my BlogPoll ballot:

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Alabama	1
2	Texas	1
3	Florida
4	Cincinnati	3
5	Boise State	3
6	TCU
7	Iowa	3
8	Oregon	3
9	Ohio State	7
10	Pittsburgh	1
11	Houston	4
12	Georgia Tech	2
13	Miami (Florida)
14	Southern Cal	2
15	LSU	6
16	Oklahoma State	2
17	Penn State	3
18	Arizona	3
19	Wisconsin
20	South Florida	3
21	West Virginia
22	Utah	1
23	Brigham Young	2
24	Rutgers	4
25	Central Michigan
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Notre Dame (#22), California (#24).

I wrestled with placing the Alabama Crimson Tide (9-0) in the No. 1 spot since ‘Bama has beaten a pair of 2-7 teams (Florida International and North Texas) and since three of the Red Elephants’ seven victories over Division I-A opponents with winning records were carded against a trio of 5-4 clubs (Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee). However, the Tide have not tussled with a Division I-AA team and their best wins (over No. 15 LSU, Virginia Tech, and South Carolina) are superior to those of the next two contenders.

The Texas Longhorns (9-0) edged out the Florida Gators (9-0) in a close race for the No. 2 ranking due to a variety of factors. Both have six wins over Division I-A teams with winning records and both earned four of those victories over 5-4 outfits. The Longhorns’ only narrow escape was in a neutral site fight over the Oklahoma Sooners (5-4), which is slightly better than the Gators’ narrow escape in a home win over the Arkansas Razorbacks (5-4). While Florida’s best win (over the No. 15 LSU Tigers) is slightly superior to Texas’s best win (over the No. 16 Oklahoma St. Cowboys), the Longhorns’ second- and third-best victories (over Texas Tech and Oklahoma) outpace the Gators’ second- and third-best victories (over Troy and Tennessee). This was a close call, though.

The Cincinnati Bearcats (9-0) have notched respectable victories over the No. 20 South Florida Bulls and the No. 24 Rutgers Scarlet Knights, as well as over the Oregon St. Beavers, but Cincy’s resume was dragged down by the presence of triumphs over Division I-AA Southeast Missouri State and a quartet of Division I-A teams with losing ledgers, including a pair of 3-6 conference opponents (Louisville and Syracuse) and a 1-9 Miami (Ohio) squad. A narrow win over the Connecticut Huskies (4-5) didn’t hurt the Bearcats because everyone who has beaten UConn has done so by the slimmest of margins.

I went back and forth over whether to rank the Boise St. Broncos (9-0) or the TCU Horned Frogs (9-0) fifth. Ultimately, I went with Boise State, even though six of the Broncos’ wins were over teams below .500 (including one-win Miami (Ohio) and San Jose State clubs and 3-6 Hawaii and Louisiana Tech outfits), because Boise State’s best win (over the eighth-ranked Oregon Ducks) still trumps the Horned Frogs’ best win (over the 23rd-ranked BYU Cougars).

The Iowa Hawkeyes (9-1) checked in as the nation’s highest-ranked once-beaten team on the strength of wins over No. 17 Penn State, No. 18 Arizona, and No. 19 Wisconsin, none of which came by a narrow margin. Despite having two losses, Oregon still nailed down the No. 8 ranking by virtue of victories against the 14th-ranked USC Trojans and the 22nd-ranked Utah Utes, as well as the California Golden Bears. The Ohio St. Buckeyes (8-2) lost to a Southern California team the Ducks defeated and OSU’s loss to the Purdue Boilermakers (4-6) was more embarrassing than Oregon’s loss to the Stanford Cardinal (6-3), but the Buckeyes remained high with wins over Penn State, Wisconsin, and Navy.

The Pittsburgh Panthers (8-1), like both Oregon and Ohio State, boast three wins over Division I-A teams with winning records and four wins over Division I-A teams with losing records. However, unlike the Ducks and the Bucks, Pitt also has a Division I-AA conquest in its resume, and the Panthers’ wins over the Bulls, the Scarlet Knights, and the Midshipmen were not enough to outweigh Pittsburgh’s three wins over 3-6 outfits (Buffalo, Louisville, and Syracuse) and its inexplicable loss to the N.C. State Wolfpack (4-5).

I gave the Houston Cougars (8-1) the nod over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (9-1) for several reasons. Both notched three of their wins over a Division I-AA team and a pair of 4-5 squads, and both won four of their games by a touchdown or less, but five of Georgia Tech’s triumphs came against Division I-A teams with losing records (including 2-8 Vanderbilt) and only three of Houston’s victories were over squads below .500. The Cougars’ four wins over teams with winning marks include wins over Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, while the Golden Tornado’s three wins over teams with winning ledgers were highlighted by narrow escapes over Clemson and Virginia Tech. The fact that Houston beat the only 7-2 team it has faced and Georgia Tech lost to the only 7-2 team it has faced was enough to offset the Cougs’ embarrassing setback to UTEP.

Speaking of that 7-2 team that beat the Engineers, the Miami Hurricanes rode that quality victory to the No. 13 spot in the rankings. The ‘Canes, like the No. 14 Men of Troy, are 7-2 and carded three wins by close margins, and USC’s best win (over Ohio State) is superior to Miami’s best win (over Georgia Tech), but two of the Trojans’ victories came against one-win San Jose State and Washington State squads. Moreover, the Hurricanes’ close loss was to a 6-3 team (Clemson) and Southern California’s close loss was to a 3-6 team (Washington).

The Bayou Bengals failed to keep pace with Miami and USC, despite their identical 7-2 records, because Louisiana State had no quality victory worthy of being set alongside the Hurricanes’ and the Trojans’ aforementioned "best wins." Two of the Fighting Tigers’ three triumphs over teams with winning records were against opponents with 5-4 ledgers (Louisiana-Lafayette and Georgia), but both of LSU’s losses were to 9-0 teams, and, although neither contest was especially close, the Tigers didn’t get blown out in either outing.

Oklahoma State had the same 7-2 record as the Bayou Bengals, but the Pokes trailed Louisiana State for four reasons. First of all, LSU lost to my No. 1 and No. 3 teams, whereas OSU lost to my No. 2 and No. 11 teams, and the Cowboys were less competitive overall in their losses. Secondly, the Tigers have beaten a team with a record better than 5-4 and Oklahoma State hasn’t. Thirdly, the Waddies’ strength of schedule was dragged down by Division I-AA Grambling and winless Rice. Finally, the Georgia Bulldogs were the Cowboys’ best victim but LSU’s second-best victim.

The Penn St. Nittany Lions (8-2) ended up behind Oklahoma State for similar reasons. Joe Paterno’s club lost games that were not close to the teams I have ranked No. 7 and No. 9. Half of Penn State’s eight wins came against Illinois (3-6), Syracuse (also 3-6), Akron (2-7), and Division I-AA Eastern Illinois. The Lions’ best win was over Temple.

While the Arizona Wildcats’ best win (over Central Michigan) was slightly better than Penn State’s, triumphs over one-win Washington State and Division I-AA Northern Arizona (which, by the way, is the site of many, many trees), along with a loss to three-win Washington, mar the Pac-10 squad’s 6-2 ledger. The closest thing the Wisconsin Badgers (7-2) have to a quality victory is over Fresno State and half of Wiscy’s six wins over Division I-A teams were nailbiters. Like Penn State, the Badgers were not competitive in losses to the Hawkeyes and the Buckeyes.

Five of South Florida’s six wins were over four-win Florida State, three-win Syracuse, winless Western Kentucky, Division I-AA Charleston Southern, and Division I-AA Wofford, but the Bulls beat the Mountaineers, so USF is ranked a notch ahead of a West Virginia outfit with no wins better than East Carolina and Marshall (both 5-4). WVU still has a more impressive resume than the Utes, whose 8-1 ledger features four wins over teams with seven or more losses. A close loss to Oregon is the best aspect of Utah’s season.

Nevertheless, the Utes boasted the best resume in the Beehive State by virtue of the fact that BYU’s only victory over a team with a winning ledger was a narrow escape over a 5-4 club with an injured quarterback in the season opener. The two blowout losses in the Cougars’ 7-2 record include a setback suffered at the hands of a 4-5 team.

Rutgers built its 6-2 resume on a pair of wins over Division I-AA opponents and a pair of teams sporting 2-7 records, but the Knights carded a nominal quality loss to Pitt. The Central Michigan Chippewas (7-2) edged out the Temple Owls (7-2) for the No. 25 slot in spite of triumphs over Division I-AA Alcorn State, winless Eastern Michigan, and two-win Akron because the Chippewas beat a .500 Big Ten team and Temple lost to Division I-AA Villanova.

Clearly, there is no defense for the bottom six or seven spots on that ballot, so I am openly soliciting your suggestions for three-loss teams from BCS conferences to plug into my top 25 in place of these middling mid-majors and unaccomplished Big East also-rans. For what it’s worth, I watched most of Bowling Green-Buffalo on Tuesday, East Carolina-Virginia Tech on Thursday, and Boise State-Louisiana Tech on Friday. On Saturday, I attended the Georgia-Tennessee Tech game and watched most of the Clemson-Florida State contest upon my return.

As always, your feedback is not only welcome, it is invited. I’m fully prepared to drop any team from about 19 on down in favor of a suitably accomplished thrice-beaten team. Your suggestions are appreciated.

Go ‘Dawgs! Auburna delenda est!

Postings Like This One Make It Hard to Hate Auburn . . .

2009-11-09T14:39:37Z

Postings Like This One Make It Hard to Hate Auburn . . .

. . . but I'll still manage somehow.

I hate Auburn.

Go 'Dawgs! Auburna delenda est!

Georgia Bulldogs 38, Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles 0: Yes, But . . .

2009-11-08T21:47:06Z

It was a sunny yet crisp day in Athens. The usual homecoming pushover allowed for a 1:00 kickoff and a relaxed atmosphere, which made it a good day for me to take my six-year-old son to the stadium. Having Thomas with me invariably colors my view of any outing for the better, so I probably came away from the experience feeling better than average, but, on the whole, I have to acknowledge in all candor that any extended review of yesterday’s triumph over Tennessee Tech would be much ado about not very much.

The best that can be said---and this is better than we usually are able to say in such circumstances---is that the Georgia Bulldogs performed like they were supposed to perform against a lesser opponent. Rather than letting an inferior visitor hang around for a fair portion of the afternoon, the Red and Black slammed the door at the outset and continued to hold it closed while generating enough offense early to put the team on cruise control in the second half and get some younger players some needed experience. Beyond that, any praises have to be qualified with, "But it was just Tennessee Tech . . ."

From where I sat, the crowd looked more numerous than I expected, although it was as lackluster as I anticipated. This is not necessarily a bad thing; I know I was not on my feet on every down and hollering like usual because I had my son with me. Logan Gray’s interception on an underthrown pass into the end zone caused me some concern (and made me wonder once again why we are so insistent upon protecting Aaron Murray’s redshirt at this stage of the season), but I am more bothered by the fact that the Bulldogs were unable to tally so much as a single takeaway when facing a Division I-AA opponent between the hedges.

Too much is being made of the penalties. Yes, it hurt that a first-quarter holding penalty nullified a Prince Miller punt return for a touchdown, but that was the only flag of the first fifteen minutes. The Georgia possession in question still ended in a touchdown. Likewise, Brandon Wood’s six-yard offsides penalty on third and nine came during a Golden Eagle drive that still ended in a punt, the false start on first and ten in Georgia’s ensuing drive did not prevent the ‘Dawgs from producing points on the series, and the false start on second and one didn’t stop the Red and Black from converting the first down. Those were the only four penalties of the first half. When a 31-0 halftime lead enables you to clear the bench after intermission, second-half penalties are more or less meaningless, and the coaching staff responded to them with an impressive level of severity.

Washaun Ealey is the future at tailback and, as David Hale noted in the postgame observations linked to above, there is a lot of young talent on this team that is going to make some noise in the SEC in the next couple or three years. However, several impediments are preventing those young men from reaching their full potential, and the top two roadblocks standing in their way are these:

Willie Martinez, who proved yesterday only that he would make a darned fine Division I-AA defensive coordinator, as long as he had substantially more talent at his disposal than the opposing coaches.

A ridiculous double standard regarding redshirting. Urban Meyer said a year or so ago that there was no longer such a thing as a redshirt year at Florida. He was right to say so, for two reasons. First of all, recruits are induced to come play for coaches who tell them their youth will not be held against them if they demonstrate sufficient dedication and ability. Secondly, when you’re recruiting at a high enough level, redshirting is counterproductive. Georgia gained nothing by redshirting Knowshon Rockwell Moreno, and Georgia is gaining nothing by redshirting Aaron Murray. That foolhardy decision virtually guarantees that we will be going through the same learning curve next year with Murray that we have had to go through this year with Joe Cox. That is a shame, considering that we all know that next year is A.J. Green’s last year in a Bulldog uniform. 2010 should be a banner year for the Red and Black, but obstinate decisionmaking regarding the Georgia quarterbacks makes it likely that it will not be.

At the end of the day, a 38-0 win over a Division I-AA opponent at homecoming is what it is, which is what it was supposed to be but nothing more than that. I got to spend the afternoon in Athens with my son, but he was a little worn out by the trip and the mild fever he had before we left worsened when we got home. I got to see a cousin I haven’t seen in a while, but that was only because, even though we missed each other inside the stadium, he called me on my cell phone while I was leaving town and told me his truck had been towed and he needed me to circle back and pick him up to take him to the wrecker service where his vehicle had been impounded.

There was a lot that was good that could be said of yesterday afternoon in Athens. Every good thing that could be said of it, however, has to be followed by a "but . . ." of one sort or another. It was that kind of day, I’m afraid.

Go ‘Dawgs! Auburna delenda est!

The Mark Richt Victory Watch

2009-11-08T01:31:43Z

It was just Tennessee Tech, so you don’t want to read too much into it, but this one largely went the way it was supposed to go. Even with a couple of key players absent from the lineup, Georgia scored on its first five drives, the defense pitched a shutout, and the first team didn’t have to spend 60 minutes on the field.

Due to the combination of those factors, the Mark Richt Victory Watch now stands at 87. With 113 games under his belt, Mark Richt now trails Vince Dooley by 114 victories.

Despite his teams’ recent struggles, Mark Richt has the best career record after 113 games of any coach in Georgia Bulldogs history. His all-time .770 winning percentage (87-26) surpasses Vince Dooley’s .686 (75-33-5) and Wally Butts’s .730 (81-29-3) after the same number of games as the head man in the Classic City.

Go ‘Dawgs!

Georgia Bulldogs v. Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles Game Day Open Comment Thread

2009-11-07T16:45:15Z

Finally, it's here! It's the game to which we all have been looking forward all season long! It's the Tennessee Tech game . . . they're like Tennessee and Tech combined!

All right, so it's a 1:00 kickoff against a Division I-AA opponent being televised on pay-per-view. It's still Georgia football, and it likely will give me this sorry season's penultimate (or---gulp!---perhaps even ultimate) opportunity to update the Mark Richt Victory Watch, so let's savor this one while we can . . . unless it goes badly, which is too terrible to contemplate.

Yet contemplate it we shall, and, if you are inclined to take part in the conversation, please feel free to share your reactions and remarks for the good of the order in the comments below.

Go 'Dawgs!

5 Things: Tennessee Tech Edition.

2009-11-07T14:20:27Z

1) Brandon Boykin. The Tennessee Tech kick return units have been pretty solid this season, averaging 23 yards per return on kickoffs and 10.7 yards on punt returns. However, they've also given up some return yardage, including 2 kicks returned for touchdowns against Kansas State. I'm guessing Boykin takes advantage of the Golden Eagle special teams for at least one big return. For all the early grumbling over special teams this season (including from yours truly) it's become clear that Boykin is a weapon with the ball in his hands, Blair Walsh is as good a placekicker as we could hope for (especially now that he's being allowed to kick it in the endzone) and Drew Butler has the ability to flip the field on punts (assuming we don't turn the ball over before getting to fourth down). At this point I'll take my bright spots wherever I can find them.

2) Marlon Brown. With Rantavious Wooten starting in place of the injured A.J. Green, Brown moves up a slot in the rotation. I'm thinking either the freshman from Memphis or the recently MIA Israel Troupe gets at least two catches. I'm betting on Brown, who I believe is just too talented not to have an impact at some point.

3) Logan Gray. Mike Bobo double-pinky swears that we will see Logan Gray, maybe during the first half. This should provide a lesson in perception for the astute observer. If Gray shines, we'll have a reinvigorated quarterback controversy, and questions about why we didn't see more of him earlier. If he lands with a thud, there will be much grumbling regarding the quarterback situation for 2010. Oh, the power of rampant group negativity.

4) Watson Brown's buddy the cowboy plumber/trainer/manager. Thanks, Paul. I've been waiting two years to link to this.

5) UGA 34, TTU 10. I expect a fairly flat performance that is nevertheless good enough to beat a team that's not only a 1-AA squad, but not a particularly good one at that (the Golden Eagles are 5-3, 4-2 in the Ohio Valley Conference). Here's hoping the 'Dawgs take care of business early heading into next week's showdown with Auburn that will go a long way toward defining the last third of this season. I'll see you in the open comment thread in a few hours. Until then . . .

Go 'Dawgs!!!

Too Much Information: Georgia Bulldogs v. Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles

2009-11-07T02:22:25Z

If it’s Friday evening, that means the bar is open and it’s time for Too Much Information here at Dawg Sports . . . except that, well, the Georgia Bulldogs are playing the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles. Granted, tomorrow’s visiting team boasts better records than the host squad, both overall (5-3 to the Bulldogs’ 4-4) and in league action (4-2 to Georgia’s 3-3), but the Golden Eagles tee it up in the Division I-AA Ohio Valley Conference.

Accordingly, there’s not a whole lot to say that hasn’t been said already, either by Doug or by Lindsey. Nevertheless, I will do my best to bring you not a pinch of perspective or a dash of data, but, rather, to load you up with . . . Too Much Information:

Odds and Ends

Andy Landers, the head basketball coach of the Lady Bulldogs, is a Tennessee Tech alum. Watson Brown, the head football coach of the Golden Eagles, played for the Vanderbilt Commodores (1969-1972) and was the head coach both at his alma mater (1986-1990) and at UAB (1995-2006). During those 21 seasons, Coach Brown was 0-11 against the Red and Black.

The Golden Eagles have been outscored 52-19 in the third quarter this season. The Bulldogs have been outscored 74-42 in the third quarter this season, making the first 15 minutes following the break the Classic City Canines’ worst quarter, both offensively and defensively.

This will be the second series meeting between Georgia and Tennessee Tech. The first came in 1943, a year in which the ‘Dawgs were coming off of back-to-back New Year’s Day bowl wins yet stumbled to a six-win season featuring a close loss to the LSU Tigers and a lopsided defeat suffered at the hands of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in Atlanta. Sound familiar? (All right, I’m projecting ahead a little bit on the six-win season and the lopsided loss to the Engineers at Grant Field, but, come on, does anyone doubt the inevitability of both of those outcomes this year?) Gridiron historians have blamed the Bulldogs’ 1943 stumble on the fact that World War II cost the Classic City Canines all of their 1942 starters and forced the Red and Black to field a club made up of freshmen too young for the draft and players who were ineligible to serve in the armed forces because they were declared 4-F, but it’s starting to look more likely that scheduling Tennessee Tech is just plain bad luck. (Along similar lines, any season in which Georgia plays Georgia Southern while expecting to contend for a national championship will end in horrible disappointment for the ‘Dawgs!)

How weak is Georgia’s rushing attack? Fullback Fred Munzenmaier has the same number of rushing touchdowns as leading rusher Richard Samuel. In fact, Munzenmaier has as many rushing touchdowns as Washaun Ealey, Caleb King, and Branden Smith combined. On the plus side, the Bulldogs give what they get where the ground game is concerned: Georgia averages 3.6 yards per carry and has scored six rushing touchdowns, but the Red and Black allow 3.8 yards per carry and have surrendered seven rushing touchdowns.

The last time Tennessee Tech took on an SEC squad, the Eagles lost at Auburn by a 35-3 margin in 2007. The last time Tennessee Tech took on a Division I-A opponent, the Eagles lost at Kansas State by a 49-7 margin on September 26.

A 1998 episode of "Sports Night" was entitled "The Six Southern Gentlemen of Tennessee Tech." This installment of the show was about a fictitious football team in the Volunteer State, and, despite the episode’s title, the make-believe school referred to by the characters was "Tennessee Western University," which supposedly was located in Chattanooga, which is in the southeastern portion of the state, near the northern border of Georgia. When the tenth anniversary DVD box set was released, the episode title had been changed to "The Six Southern Gentlemen of Tennessee," but, if you own the original DVD release (as I do), you know the original title. Presumably, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (a brilliant playwright and scriptwriter, but also a man whose laughable ignorance concerning the South causes his characters from below the Mason-Dixon line to be caricatures more often than characters, the delightful Ainsley Hayes notably excepted) originally wrote the episode thinking Tennessee Tech was his fictional creation and changed it after someone pointed out to him that such a school actually exists.

The Feel ~~Good~~ Bad Stat of the Week

Where, you may ask, is the Feel Good Stat of the Week? There is no Feel Good Stat of the Week. I’m trying something new. Call it the power of negative thinking.

Positive thinking has gotten us nowhere lately. I was upbeat heading into last season, and look at what a disaster that turned out to be. I let all of you talk me into letting Manic Kyle out of the box before previewing the season opener against the Oklahoma St. Cowboys, and that didn’t work out for us. I went against my better judgment and put a positive spin on the stats before the Bulldogs took on the Tennessee Volunteers, and that game was a total train wreck. Finally, I believed a win in Jacksonville was inevitable, only to have the Florida Gators deal the ‘Dawgs a soul-crushing, program-altering beatdown.

No more. The era of good feelings is at an end. It is time to be dour, dejected, depressed, and dispirited. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here as you note well the Feel Bad Stat of the Week:

2009 represents the twelfth season in Georgia history in which the Bulldogs have posted a 4-4 record through eight games. The previous eleven such occasions were in 1925, 1928, 1929, 1936, 1939, 1951, 1955, 1970, 1979, 1990, and 1993. In the ninth contests of those respective seasons, the Red and Black went 4-6-1.

When you expect the worst, your only options are to be proven correct or pleasantly surprised.

The Bottom Line

You know, I know, and the American people know exactly how this game is going to go. The ‘Dawgs are going to play sloppy, lackluster, disinterested football while building up a solid but not overwhelming lead on big plays made by virtue of superior talent rather than sharp execution. The Golden Eagles will give the Bulldogs a few nervous moments in the third quarter, when the home team gets lazy, the home crowd goes quiet, and the visitors make a special teams gambit pay off with a fake punt, blocked punt, fake field goal, surprise onside kick, or big return using a freaky formation.

How do I know this? Because I’ve seen this game every single time a Sun Belt squad or Division I-AA opponent has played between the hedges for the last decade or so. We’ve seen this movie before, and we know how it ends.

My Prediction: Georgia 38, Tennessee Tech 17.

Go ‘Dawgs!

Cocktail Friday: BYOB Edition.

2009-11-07T01:44:18Z

I tried. I really did. I labored exceptionally hard to think of an appropriate pregame cocktail for this game against the Tennessee Tech . . .

{Stops. Looks down at notes] . . .

Golden Eagles. My home wet bar looks like Dr. Frankenstein and 'Lil Wayne opened a bartending school. So many wacky experiments in potent potables and wordplay. All for nothing. The Washaun Ale-y didn't quite work. The Rumtavious Wooten seemed a little derivative.The Vodka Martinez (shaken, not stirred) was only really appropriate if it was set on fire like the UGA defense, which seemed a tad dangerous. Like dropping 8 into coverage on 3rd down against Florida and watching Tim Tebow run unmolested down the field. Not that I'm holding any sort of grudge.

So we're going open bar. Feel free to leave your beverage choices for the day in the comments, along with your nonbeverage plans for the day. I'm going with Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale, but you should feel free to go with the early kickoff, Homecoming game beverage of your choice. I'll be back tomorrow with something preview-like. Until then . . .

Go 'Dawgs!!!

Don't Bet On It!: National Game of Disinterest

2009-11-06T12:53:44Z

This week’s SEC action has been covered and I have made a good faith effort to locate national games of nominal interest. The struggle to find qualifying contests for the latter category made the selection of this week’s national game of disinterest particularly challenging, since, frankly, all of the games being played this weekend seemed to be in contention for the honor.

In the end, though, there could be only one:

Oklahoma Sooners at Nebraska Cornhuskers

You can go on and on about the history and tradition of this rivalry all you like, but, at the end of the day, it’s still a 5-3 also-ran taking on a 5-3 also-ran.

Oklahoma comes into this game having beaten Idaho State, Tulsa, Baylor, Kansas, and Kansas State. Nebraska comes into this game having carded victories over Florida Atlantic, Arkansas State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Missouri, and Baylor.

The only thing this game has to offer is conclusive proof that all the folks who criticize the non-conference schedules of SEC teams have no room to talk. I’m not picking it because I don’t care which of these teams wins the Sun Belt championship.

Coming Soon: Too Much Information.

Go ‘Dawgs!

Don't Bet On It!: National Games of Interest

2009-11-06T02:03:58Z

Yesterday, I made a joke about the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks. Multiple commenters corrected me on my apparent misapprehensions concerning the presence of trees in that portion of the Grand Canyon State, and I also received a cordial and professionally worded e-mail from Steve Shaff, the assistant athletic director for media relations at NAU, acquainting me with the history and topography of the region.

I wrote Steve back to explain that my predictions postings routinely contained good-natured jests---I even made a joke at the expense of my own team in the same posting---and his reply essentially said "no harm, no foul" . . . but he ended with: "Go Gators!" It turns out that Steve Shaff spent eight years as an assistant sports information director at the University of Florida. This should give you some idea of just exactly how lousy my luck has been lately.

That, plus the fact that I went 1-4 in last week’s national forecasts to fall to 24-24 for the year, should be all the reason you would ever need to heed my weekly disclaimer: Don’t Bet On It!

The following games were the best I could come up with as national games of nominal interest on a truly terrible weekend of intercollegiate gridiron matchups:

Kansas Jayhawks at Kansas St. Wildcats: You know it’s a crummy weekend of football when a Sunflower State showdown between a visiting team that’s tied for last place in the weaker division of the Big 12 with a 1-3 conference mark and a home team that sits at 5-4 overall despite being first in line for a beatdown in the league title tilt makes the cut. Nevertheless, it is an in-state rivalry game being played prior to Thanksgiving, so I feel it is my duty to remind Bulldog Nation at every opportunity that, yes, it can be done. There’s no reason in the world why we ought to provide the Yellow Jackets pride of place at the end of our slate and we would do well to follow the lead of such local foes as the Jayhawks and the Wildcats. As for which one will win this game, oh, heck, let’s say . . . Kansas. If I’m wrong, I’ll just say I accidentally left off the "State."

Northwestern Wildcats at Iowa Hawkeyes: While I have, from time to time, been put out with our Big Ten brethren, I have tried to bury the hatchet between our respective conferences, and, while I am not above mocking the Midwestern league’s ersatz trophy traditions (in fact, I’ll probably do so before reaching the end of this posting), I do not have a knee-jerk negative reaction to the Big Ten. Earlier in the season, I had the Hawkeyes ranked No. 1 and I think the notion that Ohio State’s struggles in national championship games can be held against Iowa is as nonsensical as the suggestion that the Oklahoma Sooners’ BCS title tilt faceplants at the end of the 2003 and 2004 campaigns ought to have kept the Texas Longhorns out of contention in 2005. That said, I do find it odd that Hawkeye fans quote "West Wing" episodes quoting "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" rather than just, you know, quoting "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." In any case, if you’re looking at the Hawkeyes and wondering, "Who are those guys?" you need not be concerned . . . as long as Northwestern doesn’t show up wearing white straw hats, Iowa ought to be all right this weekend.

Navy Midshipmen at Notre Dame Fighting Irish: Seriously, do we even have to play this game? We all know what’s going to happen. The brave young fighting men of the United States Naval Academy will do Annapolis proud by battling valiantly right down to the wire and faring just well enough for just long enough to make us believe, before the accursed Golden Domers find a way to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in the most heart-wrenching manner imaginable. I almost can’t bear the thought of watching this one unfold, because I’ll be rooting for Navy like every patriotic American, but, if the Mids can’t get by the Irish in places like Baltimore and Philadelphia, they surely aren’t going to escape South Bend with a win over Notre Dame.

Ohio St. Buckeyes at Penn St. Nittany Lions: Believe it or not, there’s nothing on the line in this one. There’s no Sweet Sioux Tomahawk, Old Oaken Bucket, Old Brass Spittoon, Little Brown Jug, Paul Bunyan Trophy, Paul Bunyan’s Axe, Pecos Bill’s Rattlesnake Lasso, Antique Moldy Doodad, Freeform Partially Melted Yard Sale Nick-Nack, Leaky Burlap Bag of Loose Dirt From an Abandoned Mine, or Steaming Pile of Monkey Dung in a Corrugated Cardboard Box at stake. No one gets a slab of bacon, a statue of a pig, a gold pants charm, a handful of leftover Halloween candy, an incomplete set of chess pieces that have been gnawed on by stray dogs while sitting half-buried in the dirt in the yard of a collapsed farmhouse, or a random array of unrelated useless products shoplifted by Jim Delany from the ten-cent bin of the local drug store for winning this game. How will Penn State find a reason to eke out a victory at home with nothing more hanging in the balance than a conference win? The mind reels.

Those are this week’s national picks, with respect to which I would remind you once again . . . Don’t Bet On It! (As long as I’m offering disclaimers, it probably would be prudent of me to mention that I did not genuinely accuse the Big Ten commissioner of shoplifting. The fact that I’m not particularly funny doesn’t change the fact that I’m joking.)

Coming Soon: National Game of Disinterest.

Go ‘Dawgs!

Don't Bet On It!: Around the SEC

2009-11-05T02:24:23Z

I knew I was going to regret picking Ole Miss to beat Auburn, but I did it, anyway, so I wound up going 4-2 in last week’s SEC picks to strand me at 51-9 for the autumn. Do I even have to say it anymore? Don’t Bet On It!

Here is this week’s Southeastern Conference slate of games, about which you should try to contain your unbridled enthusiasm:

Northern Arizona Lumberjacks at Mississippi Rebels: The Northern Arizona Lumberjacks? Arizona is located in a dadgum desert! There are no trees there! Where there are no trees, there are no lumberjacks! "Northern Arizona Lumberjacks" ranks right up there with "Utah Jazz" and "L.A. Lakers" on the list of the stupidest mascot names ever! Games like this make me get in touch with my inner Sam Kinison. The Rebels will win; let’s move along. . . .

Furman Paladins at Auburn Tigers: As a Georgia fan, I find myself torn by this choice. On the one hand, the home team is the Bulldogs’ oldest and (I would argue) most bitter rival. (I hate Auburn.) On the other hand, the visiting invader is a 147-year-old newspaper hack who had a hand in the hatchet job on Wally Butts that got the Saturday Evening Post sued out of existence. Oh, wait . . . Furman Paladins, not Furman Bisher? Well, then, the Plainsmen ought to have that one in the bag.

Memphis Tigers at Tennessee Volunteers: Somewhere, Peyton Manning just felt a shiver go up his spine at the thought of this matchup. Not to worry, though, Peyt; Tommy West has driven this program straight into the ground, then backed up, driven it into the ground some more, gotten out of the car, dug down deeper with a shovel, driven it even farther into the ground, climbed on top of the back end of it, and jumped up and down until it plummeted to the core of liquid hot magma at the center of the earth. The Big Orange’s unquestioned supremacy of a state without so much as a single solid Division I-A squad continues unchallenged.

Eastern Kentucky Colonels at Kentucky Wildcats: November is upon us, which means it’s time once again for the yearly Bluegrass State battle for local bragging rights as the ‘Cats take on their bitter in-state rivals from . . . no, wait, hang on, I’m thinking of the Louisville Cardinals. All right, so who are these guys? Generally speaking, when University of State hosts University of Subsection of State, University of State wins, and, as always, the rule applies: if I have to Google your team to find out your mascot, you’re not beating an SEC team. Kentucky beats a school it probably will face in the round of 32 in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

Vanderbilt Commodores at Florida Gators: When a bad team that’s tanking travels to take on a good team that’s peaking, the result is a contest that will make you want to gouge out your own eyes . . . and you’ll have to do it yourself, because Brandon Spikes is taking the week off, the lazy bum. Something tells me it won’t matter as the Gators pile-drive the ‘Dores.

South Carolina Gamecocks at Arkansas Razorbacks: The annual Battle of the Barnyard goes down in Fayetteville and/or Little Rock this weekend as the Gamecocks---and, let’s face it, a Gamecock is just a chicken---take on the Razorbacks---and, let’s face it, a Razorback is just a pig---in a scuffle straight out of Animal Farm. South Carolina typically struggles down the stretch, partly because the Gamecocks’ slate is backloaded with annual games against Tennessee, Florida, and Clemson and partly because the recruiting challenges faced by the Palmetto State Poultry hamper their depth and, accordingly, make them more susceptible to injury-induced late-autumn fades. I have a hunch, though, that Steve Spurrier will come through in the clutch against the Hogs. If he doesn’t, his tenure in Columbia will not be at an end, but the mystique of the Evil Genius officially will be a thing of the past. Against my better judgment, I’m siding with South Carolina.

LSU Tigers at Alabama Crimson Tide: If only because ESPN would have wanted all its money back if the SEC had actually served up a weekend slate as crappy as the previous six games plus the Georgia-Tennessee Tech tilt, Nick Saban’s former team and Nick Saban’s current team are contractually obligated to go at it this Saturday. The Bayou Bengals look like they’re hitting their stride, but something tells me Coach Saban used the ‘Bama bye week for something other than spray-painting the Red Elephants’ helmets. I’m not picking against a rested (and cresting) Tide at home.

On a weekend with as many conference clunkers as this one features, I ought to go 7-0, but I’m sure my faulty prognosticating ability will cause me to louse up at least a couple of those calls, so, no matter how tempting it might be to take a walk on the wild side, please heed my weekly warning: Don’t Bet On It!

Coming Soon: National Games of Interest (such as they are).

Go ‘Dawgs!

Mark Richt: Why I Want to Believe a Nice Guy Can Finish First

2009-11-04T05:30:27Z

I don't think one fan has brought up something that we haven't thought of. We think about all these things. We're trying to make the best decisions that we can make. It gets down to a couple things: One is your focus, and you must focus on what's important now, and that's what we're doing. We're focused on getting ready for this next ball game. That's what we have to do. That's what we're called to do. That's what we were hired to do. Then we try not to watch or listen or any of that type of thing because the bottom line is, I want to do things that give us the best chance to have success at this particular moment. . . .

I'm not going to try to control the things I can't control. I don't know what's going to happen. I wouldn't underestimate our fan base. They do love the Dawgs, you can tell by their passion, and I'm sure they want to support our young men. And we want the fans to handle adversity well, too. I can understand their feelings of being upset or being curious or whatever it might be, but we're all still Bulldogs, and we all still want to support these young men. So I think our fan base will do a good job. . . .

We've done pretty well. This year, we have not. So we were averaging 10 wins a year, have won the SEC twice, and we hadn't won one in 20 years. So it's not like we've just been floundering around. This year we have been. Let's face it. And I don't like it. People that know me well or the team or the coaches, they know that I've got another edge to me that maybe I don't show publicly all the time. Maybe that's what the public wants to see. But if you're going to be accused of something, being accused of being a nice guy is not the worst thing to be accused of.

Mark Richt (November 3, 2009)

Reading the comments from Coach Richt related to us by David Hale and quoted above, I was reminded how much it means to me, and how much it ought to mean to all of us, not to have to root for head coaches who make us write such things as these in their defense:

Don’t look at us: there’s little deep emotional bonding with Urban Meyer, since his relationship with the Florida fanbase is like that of a mob boss with his prize assassin. We pay him to eliminate people in cold cash. He does that. We exchange Christmas cards and formal handshakes. Urban Meyer is not a cuddler with anyone, as far as we know, and only prizes the sweet embrace of victory and cold vengeance.

Ask Mark Richt about that. Mark Richt is the nicest human being on the planet, a man who takes in the stray children of the world, bonds with his players in teary team meetings, and probably always leaves too much money in the Starbucks’ tip jar even though the barista simply turned, poured coffee, and then presented said coffee to you. Mark Richt is a saint walking among us . . .

It is important that the man who leads my alma mater’s football program has not so thoroughly distorted my sense of values that I would ever write anything as morally warped as this:

Antiquated ideas like "class," "standards" and even "sportsmanship" are nothing more than tools—words with no real meaning that are used as weapons when someone doesn’t like what someone else is doing.

Winning matters. It’s the only objective measure of success.

Mark Richt is a good man. That counts for a lot. It counts for more, even, than having the highest winning percentage of any football coach in school history, although he has that, too.

I stand by what I wrote Saturday night. This program is in need of major changes, including staff changes which must at a minimum involve the replacement of our present defensive coordinator, and, while I want Mark Richt to remain at the helm, I now am at the point at which what I need as a fan outweighs what I want as a fan. Every year, Damon Evans sends me an annual report as though I were a shareholder in University of Georgia athletics, which, in a sense, I am, and the program has failed of late to give me an acceptable rate of return on my investments, financial and otherwise. I take no joy in arriving at that juncture, but this is the crossroads at which we find ourselves.

I still hold out hope that we can replace Willie Martinez without also having to replace Mark Richt. In his screenplay for the movie "American Graffiti," George Lucas described Curt Henderson as a hopeless romantic who liked to think of himself as the town cynic; that characterization probably applies to me. Like Coach Richt, I can think of worse accusations to which I could be subjected.

On Saturday, I will be taking my son to Sanford Stadium to see Georgia play Tennessee Tech. At some point, I will spot Mark Richt on the sideline and point him out to the six-year-old boy sitting beside me. I know that, by taking my son to college football games, I am sending a signal that he will see there things worthy of emulation. I will feel no twinge of conscience at the thought that I am tacitly endorsing my son’s adoption of Mark Richt as a role model. If my son is going to grow up admiring a football coach, he would be hard-pressed to pick a better one than Mark Richt. Certainly, the man even rival fans call "the nicest human being on the planet" would be far preferable to the man whose supporters describe him as their "prize assassin."

Damn it, Mark, one of us has to make a decision we don’t want to make. We all wish this decision didn’t have to be made, but we all know it does. This isn’t some knee-jerk reaction; I wanted Willie Martinez fired three years ago, then I talked myself out of it, then I arrived at a firm conviction and I did so without passion or prejudice.

I know he’s your friend. I know he’s a good man. I know he has a wife, Kim, and three children, Christina, Ashley, and William. I take no pleasure in telling them it’s time for them to pull up stakes, find a new job, and start over somewhere else.

It’s not fair, but that’s life. That, as they say, is why you make the big bucks. I pray that you will make your decision, Mark, so that we don’t have to make ours. Please.

Go ‘Dawgs!

On This Date in Georgia Bulldogs History

2009-11-03T09:00:22Z

Today, November 3, is an important date here in Bulldog Nation, as it marks the anniversary of two momentous events in the history of the Georgia football program and a third occurrence which, while lacking the importance of the former two, nevertheless has some small measure of significance in this tiny corner of Red and Black fandom.

Exactly 89 years ago today, on November 3, 1920, the following words from the pen of sportswriter Morgan Blake appeared in The Atlanta Journal:

We now have in the south three teams with the nickname of "Wildcats." They are Kentucky State, Davidson and Georgia. . . . Football teams evidently are stuck on nicknames depicting feline characteristics, for there are many teams with nicknames of "Tigers." In the south we have the Auburn Tigers, the Sewanee Tigers and the Clemson Tigers and maybe some more. I had hoped that Georgia would adopt some original nickname that would stand out. . . . The "Georgia Bulldogs" would sound good, because there is a certain dignity about a bulldog as well as ferocity, and the name is not as common as "Wildcats" and "Tigers." Yale is about the only team I recall right now that has the name.

The following Saturday, Herman Stegeman’s unbeaten Georgia Wildcats tied Virginia in Charlottesville, and Cliff Wheatley referred to the Red and Black eleven as the "Bulldogs" five times in his Atlanta Constitution postgame report. The nickname Blake pinned on the Athenians on this date in 1920 stuck . . . so you Arkansas fans can bite me!

Exactly 64 years ago today, on November 3, 1945, the Georgia Bulldogs, led by returning star Charley Trippi following his discharge from the armed forces after the end of World War II, snapped a two-game losing skid with a 34-7 road win over Chattanooga. The Red and Black followed that up with a 34-0 win over Florida in Jacksonville, a 35-0 win over Auburn in Columbus, and a 33-0 win over Georgia Tech in Atlanta. The victory over Chattanooga on this date in the first postwar season of college football marked the start of a 17-game winning streak, which remains to this day the longest winning streak in the history of Georgia football.

Finally, albeit less significantly, exactly 41 years ago today, on November 3, 1968, I was born.

I want to thank Willie Martinez for his attempt to pay tribute to my birthday last Saturday, when he did his part to allow the Gators to score 41 points on the Bulldogs. I’d like to give our beleaguered defensive coordinator two big thumbs up for that kindhearted gesture, and I hope to return the favor in January, when I send him a going-away gift.

Anyway, I’m taking the day off . . . from blogging, I mean; I’ll be going to work and all. I don’t take my own birthday off from work. It’s not like it’s Herschel’s birthday or anything!

I’ll be back tomorrow to take you around the SEC in the first installment of this week’s "Don’t Bet On It!"

Go ‘Dawgs!

Looking Back, Looking Forward.

2009-11-03T02:00:34Z

First things first. I’m really not as upset about this loss as I should be. I knew it was coming, I steeled myself for it over the course of a week, and I’ve already moved on from it. We have four games remaining, and will be heavily favored in exactly one of them. If we win three out of four, then a bowl game, we’ll have something to build on for 2010. As Vamoultrie Dawg points out there are some reasons for optimism next season. But right now it is desperately important that the seniors on this team not give up because they won’t play for an SEC Championship. Because 6-6 may see the Bulldogs home for bowl season for the first time since the beginning of the Jim Donnan era. That would make for an incredibly long offseason.

Mississippi State and Arkansas provided a pretty good roadmap for how to shut down the Florida offense. Chris Brown highlighted it on one of the most widely read college football blogs on the planet (and easily the most widely read blog penned by a Southern Miss fan). Willie Martinez ignored this model in favor of the softest soft zone he’s played in all of 2009.

They say that the late converts are always the most zealous. I was certainly a late convert to the fire Willie Martinez cause, but I’m now 100% certain it’s the thing to do. I hate that, because I don’t want anyone to lose his job. It really is something that I don’t think I’ve ever seriously campaigned for, even in the worst days of the Dennis Felton basketball era. But the defense that trotted onto the field at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium on Saturday played like a troupe of hungover circus makaks for most of the first quarter, setting the tone for the rest of the day. The fact that they turned in this effort with a week off to prepare only makes it more obvious that Willie Martinez is no longer capable of effectively leading our defense. If Auburn puts up less than 35 in two weeks, I’ll be shocked beyond belief. Because Gus Malzahn does this crazy "adjustment" thing we’ve been hearing about . . .

Sure, Willie Two Thumbs can’t be blamed for Joe Cox’s interceptions (more on those shortly). And as we saw this time last year, I’m usually the first to defend a defense which plays the whole day with its back against its own goalline. But at a certain point a championship level defense has to make championship level stops. Every so often, a quality defense needs to be able to force a three-and-out after being dealt a bad hand. By analogy, if Kyle and I only won the easy cases, we wouldn’t be very good attorneys. If a surgeon were only capable of saving people who hit the operating table with paper cuts and hangnails, he wouldn’t be very good at his job. This Georgia defense needed to come out and set the tone for the day early. Instead, they gave up two hot knife through butter touchdown drives. From that point forward, the game was never seriously out of hand for the Gators.

About Joe Cox. All indications are that Joe Cox is a wonderful young man. He is a good student, a polite kid, and all of us who have children would be very lucky if they grew up like Joe Cox. He is what Urban Meyer would call "the top 1% of the top 1%."

That being said, Joe Cox has as much business quarterbacking an SEC football team as I have running for President of Uganda. Sure, the tipped pass interception by A.J. Jones was a great defensive play. But Joe Cox had no business trying to throw that ball over him. Sure, the interception downfield on the ball tipped by A.J. Green was another great defensive play. But it was one of a handful of throws into triple or quadruple coverage that had no business being made. As I’ve said before, when Joe Cox is trying to win a football game he presses. I now believe he presses more than any Georgia quarterback I’ve ever seen. If he were a redshirt junior I think he might learn his lesson and be much better next season. But there is no next season for Joe Cox.

This is why starting a redshirt senior quarterback for the first time as a redshirt senior is an exercise in failure. There’s just no substitute for going out and actually throwing dumb interceptions and holding onto the ball too long and failing to check down to the tailback. But Joe Cox will never have the chance to apply the lessons he’s picking up now. There’s no payoff for this football team in Joe Cox’s current failures. Joe Cox may take the lessons he’s learning and use them to excel in his chosen career. But as things stand now whoever replaces him will be making the same mistakes next year.

Of course, Logan Gray once again showed that Mike Bobo has not necessarily been starting the wrong guy. Gray looked as bug-eyed and terrified as any quarterback I’ve ever seen during his two drive march to oblivion late in the game. The only recent example of similar concentrated futility that I can think of was D.J. Shockley’s disasterous relief work against Georgia Tech in 2004. Of course, he came back from it and turned out OK.

Which brings me to what I believe must happen this Saturday on Homecoming in Athens. Joe Cox should still be the starter, and he will be. There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s our best quarterback (even if he may or may not be all that good) and gives us our best chance to win (even if that chance appears disturbingly slim on a weekly basis). But Logan Gray needs to play the second half. He needs to fumble some snaps and hold onto the ball too long and miss some open receivers. He needs to make some great throws and take off running for a big gain and hit Tavarres King in stride for a touchdown. He needs to take a sack and then get up and dust himself off. Because sitting in the film room watching Joe Cox’s mistakes is not making Logan Gray any better. It's time for Logan Gray to make some mistakes of his own.

Next year this Georgia offense will return ten of eleven starters, but the one newby is going to be at the most important position on the field. This may be our only chance this season to get Gray some quality reps, and if Mark Richt and Mike Bobo don’t take the chance they are missing a very important opportunity. They did not play Joe Cox enough the past two seasons, and it has shown. Let’s hope they don’t make the same mistake again.

Miscellaneous Wardrobe Malfunctions and Party Fouls

Brandon Spikes’s eye gouge: Not the worst thing I’ve seen done on a football field by a longshot. Dirty? Yes. Classless? Sure. But that sort of thing goes on two dozen or more times in any given college football game. I’m more outraged that at the age of 47 Brandon Spikes is still faster than any linebacker we have. The guy looks like he should be drawing Social Security by now.

The uniforms: As soon as I saw them I knew it was over. Because if you need a pretty new helmet to get jacked up for this game, or if as a coach you believe that your team needs that to get jacked up for this game, then it’s already over. If Mark Richt really wants to make a uniform statement he should strip the "G" stickers off the helmets and play with plain red headgear. And he should tell his football team that they’ll be doing so until they prove to his satisfaction that they deserve to wear the "G". This won’t happen, but that just makes it item #87,920 on MaconDawg’s list of things that should be but aren’t. It’s right behind "if you go through the drivethrough window at the bank with more than 2 separate transactions, you should have to split whatever is in your account with the people waiting impatiently behind you."

Hope. It Comes In A Thousand Forms: Florida could easily lose as many as 6 starters from both their offense and defense after this season depending on how many juniors choose to head to the NFL. Which means that Tennessee and South Carolina may be battling for the top spot in the East. And there went that ember of hope I was nursing.

Speaking of losing people, watching Bryan Evans lose sight of Tim Tebow on his second touchdown run was pretty much an encapsulation of the season, wasn’t it? I sometimes wonder if Evans was the basis for that new alien abduction movie. On occasion I think scientists from planet Zartxap snatch #3's brain while he’s running down the field, only to return it at the end of the play, leaving Evans dazed, confused and walking kind of funny, with no idea what happened. More Bacarri Rambo, please. This may be the rare Georgia squad that is truly improved by graduation.

If forced to identify a bright spot from this game I would have to point to the running game. Washaun Ealey looks like a slightly less quick Knowshon at this point, which is actually quite a compliment. The holes were there to break some runs against a defense that has been among the nation’s best this season, and in the end the offense turned out 121 rushing yards. Ealey led the team with 70 yards and averaged 4.1 per carry. It would be interesting to see what the outcome of the LSU game would have been had we been able to run the ball like that in the first half. Of course, if my Aunt Fanny had a beard she’d be my Uncle Fred. Or maybe Brandon Spikes.

Until later . . .

Go 'Dawgs!!!