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It looks like Chris Todd is back to his old, talentless self. Auburn had less than 150 yards of total offense vs. LSU until the final drive of the game quarterbacked by third team QB Neil Caudle. AuburnSports.com ($) says: “After throwing 12 touchdowns with only one interception the first five games, Todd has two interceptions and no TD passes in the last three — all Auburn losses.” Personnel changes appear to be forthcoming for the Tigers.

But it’s not just Todd’s fault. The entire offensive unit is a mess according to the Mobile Press Register. Also, Kevin Scarbinsky of the B’ham News wonders Who Drove the Gus Bus into the Ditch?

Auburn hosts Ole Miss at 11:21 am CST on Saturday. For Auburn’s sake, they better hope Tuberville didn’t leave his old alarm clock for Chizik’s office. The Aubies haven’t played worth a damn before 1 pm at home in a loooooooooooong time.

Speaking of Chizik, it’s worth noting that his former team is now 5-2 on the season after their big win at Nebraska. That means Iowa State’s new coach has caught Chizik on the Cyclones’ career win total in only 7 games.

Does all of this mean that we’ll beat the Tigers? Nah. But it’s fun poking a stick at others who have problems.

PWD

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The TV guys last night said that Tebow tied Herschel’s record for career rushing touchdowns in the SEC last night. That’s technically true, but it’s pretty misleading.

Herschel actually scored 5 more rushing TDs that aren’t counted in the record books because bowl stats didn’t start counting until about 10 years ago. He scored twice vs. Notre Dame, twice vs. Pitt and once vs. Penn State in the ‘81-’83 Sugar Bowls.

In other words, Tebow still has six more rushing TDs to go to break Walker’s REAL record. Also, Walker played in 36 total games including bowls. With the longer seasons today, Tebow has already started 34 games in two and a half seasons. Additionally, he has played in 48 total games so far. So it’s not an apples to apples comparison.

Nor did Herschel have any of the elite surrounding players that Tebow has played with.

That aside, Douche 3:16’s stats really are amazing, and I do think he’s one of the Top 3 SEC players in my lifetime alongside Herschel and Bo. I just have a problem with him getting that record under fairly uneven terms.

See Also:
– Tickets: Georgia vs. Florida
– Tebow very frustrated right now – Orlando Sentinel
– Tebow speechless after throwing 2 TDs to MSU players – ESPN
– Tebow is human – ESPN
– Tebow works for tips – Orlando Sentinel

PWD

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The Georgia Bulldogs have the day off, and, if you’re like me, you’re glad about that fact. Because the ‘Dawgs have an open date, we can all sit back, relax, and follow the day’s college football action without undue stress.

Feel free to share your thoughts on the day’s action in the comments below.

Go ‘Dawgs!

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Your patience is about to be rewarded, faithful reader. You have reviewed the national games of interest and followed me around the SEC, so just one stop remains on our tour of the weekend’s college football action. It is now time to take a look at tomorrow’s least compelling matchup, to which we here at Dawg Sports refer as the national game of disinterest.

It was tough to find this week’s least worthy contest. Dishonorable mention goes to the Indiana Hoosiers’ visit to the home of the Northwestern Wildcats for a game pitting a pair of 4-3 teams sporting 1-2 records in Big Ten play. Consideration was given to recognizing the Rutgers Scarlet Knights’ face-off with the Army Black Knights, which is going on even as I write and which does not feature jousting, despite the names of the contestants.

State University of New Jersey alumna Kristin Davis was not pleased by the preceding dig at her alma mater, but, as a professional actress, she was able to hide her outrage effectively.

At the end of the day, though, there could be only one choice for the national game of disinterest:

Florida Atlantic Owls at Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns

Honestly, this would be more intriguing if you took the college football teams out of it altogether and just went with the mascots. I was a “Twin Peaks” fan and I saw “Southern Comfort,” so I can tell you with absolute certainty that a fight between large fierce birds embodying evil spirits and rural Louisianans inebriated to the point of anger on homemade alcoholic beverages would be much more fun to watch than a Sun Belt Conference outing.

The real problem with this game, though, is that I, like 98 per cent of all college football fans, can’t tell either of these teams from their in-state rivals.

Be honest. If I’d just said it was the Owls, you wouldn’t have known for sure whether we were talking about FAU or FIU. At this very moment, you’re giving serious consideration to running a surreptitious Google search to see whether the Owls are the ones who are coached by Howard Schnellenberger.

Having one team like that in a game is bad enough, but you had the same reaction to the other competitor. If I’d just said it was the Ragin’ Cajuns, you wouldn’t have known for sure whether we were talking about Louisiana-Lafayette or Louisiana-Monroe. At this very moment, you’re giving serious consideration to running a surreptitious Google search to see whether the Ragin’ Cajuns are the ones who used to be the Indians until they changed their mascot to something more politically correct. (Hey, “Ragin’ Cajuns” is just as politically correct as “Warhawks,” which is to say, not.)

When knowledgeable college football fans don’t know for sure who either team is, you have all the ingredients of the national game of disinterest. All that’s missing, really, is pervasive doubt over whether either or both of these teams plays in the Atlantic or Coastal Divisions of the ACC.

Go ‘Dawgs!

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While you wait with bated breath for the announcement of the national game of disinterest, please take the time to click at least a few of the following links, all of which warrant your attention:

• I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but Dr. Saturday and Team Speed Kills are right that the rule denying coaches the right to criticize officials is a dumb one. For a coach to criticize an official may be as rude and unwise as a lawyer criticizing a judge, but, if it’s away from the field of play or outside the courtroom, it shouldn’t draw a reprimand, particularly if it’s reasonable and it’s right. Mike Slive may or may not be charting the proper course by attempting to limit coaches’ sniping at one another, but he is just plain wrong to muzzle his coaches when they have legitimate gripes with the zebras, particularly when the problem is ongoing.
• Urban Meyer can’t be all bad if he loves Herschel Walker and hates SpongeBob SquarePants. I’m a 40-year-old Georgia fan with two small children; if someone I dislike intensely wants to improve my opinion of him dramatically by uttering just two sentences, the two sentences most likely to do the trick would be “I love Herschel Walker” and “I hate SpongeBob SquarePants.”

I hate SpongeBob SquarePants.

• Sarcasm only works if the point you’re making is less stupid than the point you’re trying to rebut. Consequently, this attempt at sarcasm fails utterly. For those who have trouble drawing what are not terribly subtle distinctions, let me explain:

  Pat Summitt was photographed with a prospect by a newspaper reporter she did not know was there. This is qualitatively different from deliberate and premeditated demonstrations designed to influence recruits. (I have no problem even with the latter, but they’re plainly different.)

  Pat Summitt has been inducted into at least two halls of fame, has been named conference and national coach of the year seven times apiece, has finished first in the SEC fourteen times while winning thirteen league tournament titles, has captured eight NCAA championships, has a career 1,005-193 (.839) record, is unquestionably the best head coach in the history of women’s basketball, and arguably is the best head coach in the history of college basketball. Lane Kiffin has a famous father, a hot wife, and a career record of 8-18 (.308). One of these coaches has earned the benefit of the doubt concerning inadvertent miscues, while the other has done nothing to back up his big mouth.

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know . . . 45-19. You know what? Steve Spurrier beat a crappy Georgia team by more than 25 points in his first year in the league, too. You know what else Steve Spurrier did? He beat teams from major conferences that were actually good. This attempt to use Pat Summitt in defense of Lane Kiffin was way lame. Roll Tide!

• We’ve been over this before, but it bears repeating, because Matt Hinton and I evidently have very different definitions of the phrase “last-second loss.” This game did not produce a last-second loss. This game did. It’s only a last-second loss if one team loses it in (or appreciably near) the last second. If the team that was behind heading into that last second is still behind when the game is over, the team that was behind did not suffer a last-second loss. That team’s fate was determined by a score that happened prior to that last second, and the events of the last second merely confirmed the result.

  Accordingly, Notre Dame did not lose at the last second, because the Fighting Irish went into said last second trailing, and, after that second elapsed, they were still trailing. A final second that might have been determinative merely wasn’t. They failed to win it at the last second, but that is a very different thing from a last-second loss. Having the other team snatch victory from the jaws of defeat is distinguishable from stopping the opposition at gut-check time. Alabama made a goal-line stand in the Sugar Bowl to stave off a last-second loss by the Crimson Tide; Penn State didn’t suffer a last-second loss when the Nittany Lions were held out of the end zone.

  As for Matt’s larger point, I don’t care for the limitations on trickery, however much I might enjoy the declaration that Georgia Tech won a game on a play subsequently declared to be a violation of the rules. (It’s not the first time a Yellow Jacket victory has produced a rule clarification, as occurred in the wake of Wrong Way Riegels’s run to give the Golden Tornado a Rose Bowl victory.)

  Anyone who watched last night’s Florida State-North Carolina game knows the beauty of the trick play. Personally, I think you ought to be able to deceive the defense. I think you should be able to break the huddle with twelve men. It’s part of the gamesmanship that makes it all so interesting. Think about how cool it would have been to have been present for this play from the 1912 Georgia-Alabama game, as recounted by Dr. John Stegeman:
  

  In the dressing room the Georgia players got into their football suits – all except one. This was Alonzo Awtrey, a quarterback from LaGrange who, instead of donning his usual uniform, climbed into a pair of white overalls. The team took the field after winning the toss and lined up to receive. Ten Georgia men, conventionally dressed for combat, took their usual positions, while the eleventh, Awtrey, nonchalantly stood just inside the sideline on the right, holding a water bucket. When the kick-off came the mass of Georgia players swept to the left, the ball being returned fifteen yards. Awtrey, the water pail still in his hand, advanced a corresponding distance along the right boundary line, far from the action across the field. Georgia lined up quickly and as Timon Bowden faded back to pass, Awtrey dropped his bucket and sped straight upfield, catching the ball at the fifty yard line and racing thirty-five yards before being overtaken by a wild-eyed Alabama defender.

  Anyone who doesn’t think that’s cool is a killjoy.

The national game of disinterest will be along shortly. Stay tuned. . . .

Go ‘Dawgs!

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What with the bye week and all, I did things a little differently this time around, opening with the (nominal) national games of interest before turning to the various showdowns occurring around the SEC on Saturday. Last week’s 4-1 record boosted my season-long total to 42-6, so the collapse assuredly is imminent. Consequently, I must caution you: Don’t Bet On It!

Louisiana-Monroe Indians Warhawks at Kentucky Wildcats: ULM’s visit to UK is the only genuine stinker of the bunch this weekend; even though the Warhawks upended the Crimson Tide in 2007, Louisiana-Monroe hasn’t posted a season above .500 since making the jump to Division I-A in 1994. Thanks to last Saturday’s streak-snapping victory at Auburn, perhaps as much as ten per cent of Wildcat sports fans’ focus is on the gridiron rather than on the hardwood, which ought to be enough to get a few boosters to show up to see Randall Cobb lead Kentucky past ULM before he hops on his motorcycle and goes looking for Nathan Arizona, Jr.

Vanderbilt Commodores at South Carolina Gamecocks: If how a team fares against Georgia is an accurate measure of the merit of that team—and it isn’t, incidentally—then the Palmetto State Poultry must be a whole heap better than the Music City Sailors, unless you count the facts that the ‘Dawgs didn’t manhandle Vandy quite as badly as the final margin suggests and the ‘Cocks didn’t perform quite as well in Athens as the score indicates. Nevertheless, it is inconceivable that Steve Spurrier would ever lose three in a row to the ‘Dores, particularly in Columbia, so I’m going with South Carolina in a low-scoring competitive slugfest.

Arkansas Razorbacks at Ole Miss Rebels: The Grove will be buzzing, and not in that William Butler Yeats “bee-loud glade” way, either. Houston Nutt, whose sideline antics make him look like a combination of an over-the-top parody of a snake-handling itinerant preacher leading a tent revival by the river and Chevy Chase at the following juncture in “Modern Problems” . . .

. . . welcomes his old team to Oxford, so he should be good and motivated. Unfortunately for him, the Rebs were overrated, the Hogs are much improved, and it isn’t an upset if everyone sees it coming. I haven’t gone wrong picking against Ole Miss when the Rebels face legitimate competition so far this season, so I’m not going to change now. The Razorbacks will head home with a W.

Auburn Tigers at LSU Tigers: I’m going with the Tigers. (You’d think that joke would get old, but it never, ever does.) This is a tough one to figure, given the Plainsmen’s penchant for pulling off upsets against league rivals and the Bayou Bengals’ frequent displays of weakness in the first half of the autumn. I’m not about to side with an Auburn team coming off of a deflating setback and going into Death Valley to face a rested Louisiana State squad, though. I’m taking LSU to protect its turf.

Florida Gators at Mississippi St. Bulldogs: Oh, I so totally wish it were so. The Sunshine State Saurians historically have struggled in the Magnolia State. Dan Mullen has firsthand insights into Urban Meyer that no other head coach in the league possesses. MSU came exceptionally close to knocking off LSU, so the players know they can go toe-to-toe with the big boys. Those, though, are the reasons I’m confident it won’t happen. The Gators know all of those things, so they’ll be prepared heading into Starkville. I expect Florida to win this one handily . . . so handily, in fact, that the Gators will be flying high and feeling bulletproof heading into their next game. Anybody happen to know which team the Orange and Blue are facing next weekend?

Tennessee Volunteers at Alabama Crimson Tide: Despite his track record as a head coach (10-25 with no postseason appearances), Ed Orgeron is the finest recruiter in all of football. Despite his track record as a head coach (16-17 with no postseason appearances), Monte Kiffin is the finest defensive mind in all of football. Despite his track record as a head coach (8-18 with no postseason appearances), Lane Kiffin is the finest up-and-coming coach in all of football. At least, that’s what the Tennessee faithful tell me. An alternative view would be that Lane Kiffin is an immature little weasel dancing around his parents’ living room in his underwear and Nick Saban, who combines confidence with competence, is going to give him the pistol-whipping he so richly deserves. I like ’Bama by a bunch.

It ought to be a pretty wild weekend in the Southeastern Conference, which is all the more reason you should consider yourself forewarned that my abilities as a prognosticator are highly suspect. To put it bluntly, whatever you do . . . Don’t Bet On It

Coming Soon: National Game of Disinterest.

Go ‘Dawgs!

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My life, when it is written, will read better than it lived.

King Henry II
The Lion in Winter

So it is with the Georgia Bulldogs’ victory in chilly Nashville over the Vanderbilt Commodores earlier this afternoon. History records that the Red and Black amassed 19 first downs to their hosts’ 16 while moving the chains on seven of their 15 third-down snaps. The statistics show that the Classic City Canines picked up 173 rushing yards on 37 carries, well outpacing the 122 yards the Music City Sailors garnered on 36 running plays. Mike Bobo, calling the game from the sideline rather than from the booth, directed an offense that came three feet shy of picking up 400 yards as Joe Cox completed 16 of 31 passes for 226 yards and two touchdowns. His lone interception initially was called an incompletion and only became a turnover after review confirmed the spectacular play the defender had made. Even so, the ‘Dawgs took it away as often as they gave it away.

Willie Martinez’s defense held the Commies under 300 yards of total offense and stopped the opposition on 80 per cent of their third-down tries. Vandy’s only fourth-down conversion in three attempts came on a fake punt. Georgia held the ball for almost 33 minutes of clock time and seven Bulldogs not named Joe Cox contributed carries on the day, including leading rusher Washaun Ealey (13 carries for 71 yards).

On paper, the 34-10 effort in which the Athenians scored 17 first-half points and 17 second-half points on a Vanderbilt defense that was surrendering just 15.7 points per game, while giving up a single sustained drive on the Commodores’ opening possession of the second half, was a dominant performance over a gritty but ultimately inferior opponent. It just didn’t seem to be nearly as one-sided an affair as it looked on the final stat sheet.

It’s not that I’m deliberately curbing my enthusiasm over a win against a weak team after getting raked over the coals last week for urging an opposing fan base to curb its enthusiasm over a win against a weak team. There genuinely were problems that caused me to fret at the time; viz.:

• The Georgia offense got off to the slowest of slow starts, either turning the ball over or going three and out on each of the Bulldogs’ first three drives. Aside from A.J. Green turning a short pass into a 65-yard touchdown reception, the Red and Black didn’t have a drive of more than 15 yards in the first quarter.
• The running game was nonexistent for much of the contest. Long rushes by Washaun Ealey (33 yards), Carlton Thomas (10 yards), and Dontavious Jackson (15 and 19 yards), all in the fourth quarter and all after the ‘Dawgs had gone out in front by three scores, accounted for nearly 45 per cent of Georgia’s rushing yardage. Aside from those four long runs after the game was out of reach (two of which came on the final two plays of the contest), the Classic City Canines managed just 96 yards on the ground, which is disturbingly consistent with the 97.2 rushing yards per game the Bulldogs were averaging coming into the outing. Even with those four long runs, essentially all of which came in garbage time, Georgia still only did what everyone else has done on the ground against the Commodores: Vanderbilt was giving up 170.2 rushing yards per game entering the day. This was an average performance and nothing more.
• Some of the choices made by the coaches still cause brows to furrow throughout Bulldog Nation. Fred Munzenmaier had as many receptions as A.J. Green. Logan Gray made some curious calls on punt returns, making it even more odd that the backup quarterback was out there in the first place after Prince Miller racked up 95 yards on a pair of punt returns.
• Only the talent differential between the two schools enabled Georgia to put this game away in the end. This is a concern, since Tennessee Tech is the only team remaining on the schedule over which the Bulldogs have an edge in ability equal to the one they enjoy over the Commodores. There isn’t a Division I-A team left on the Red and Black’s slate that the Athenians can beat strictly on talent. Accordingly, the atrocious timing of Cox’s lone interception, the reality of 71 yards lost on eight penalties against the ‘Dawgs, and the fact that the defense conceded an eleven-play, 80-yard touchdown drive taking more than four minutes of clock time to let Vandy back in the game at the start of the third quarter all represent ongoing causes for concern.

In the end, it was a win, and, right now, I’ll take the W and be content with it. At the end of the day, though, all this victory proved was that Georgia has better players than Vanderbilt, a truth that was never in doubt.

If you’re looking for something good to take away from today’s victory, here it is: Georgia’s 24-point margin of victory over the Commodores was the largest since the Bulldogs beat Vanderbilt 33-3 in 2004 . . . a year in which the Red and Black went on to beat the Florida Gators. Given the vast gap in performance separating Ron Zook’s last Orange and Blue squad from the current edition of Urban Meyer’s Sunshine State Saurians, I think it’s fair to say that the foregoing parallel is a happenstance without significance. Therefore, it seems our best bet as a fan base is to say three things in summation of this win:

1. Any conference win on the road is a good win.
2. 4-3 is better than 3-4.
3. Man, I’m glad we have an open date.

So . . . any conference win on the road is a good win. 4-3 is better than 3-4. Man, I’m glad we have an open date. Let’s leave it at that, shall we?

Go ‘Dawgs!

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Quite independently of one another, MaconDawg and I each predicted that the Georgia Bulldogs and the Vanderbilt Commodores would combine for 44 points . . . we just happened to give the ‘Dawgs credit for one touchdown too few and the ‘Dores credit for one touchdown too many. We’ll take being wrong in that direction every day of the week and twice on Saturday.

Georgia and Vanderbilt put on a defensive struggle for much of the first half before the Bulldogs remembered A.J. Green was wearing silver britches, at which point the passing game began to click and the running game was opened up ever so slightly. The defense, in the meantime, let Vandy back into the game on the opening drive of the second half, but otherwise fairly well contained a Commodore offense that was, well, fairly well containable.

At the end of the day, though, it was a win, which brings us to the most pleasant part of any fall Saturday, the Mark Richt Victory Watch. The Mark Richt Victory Watch now stands at 86. Coach Richt needs 115 more victories to tie Vince Dooley for the all-time school wins record.

Mark Richt’s career record of 86-25 (.775) gives him the best ledger in program history after 111 games at Georgia. At the identical point in their respective careers, Vince Dooley (74-32-5, .689) and Wally Butts (81-27-3, .743) both trailed Coach Richt.

Go ‘Dawgs!

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Game day is upon us! You know (and are encouraged to finish) the drill . . . your thoughts, reflections, gripes, exhortations, incredulous questions, and (with any luck) joyous exclamations go in the comments below.

First snap. Last snap. Every snap.

Go ‘Dawgs!

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Now that we’ve completed the wailing, gnashing of teeth, collective hand-wringing and selection of new defensive coordinators (who’s in for bumper stickers?) it’s time to talk about what’s happening on the field today. I’ve avoided the 5 Things Preview recently for a couple of reasons. One, I’ve been exceptionally busy doing other things, and this is one feature whose brevity belies the effort involved in its creation. The other is, well, let’s be honest, predicting what you’ll see when this Bulldog squad takes the field is a fool’s errand. Seriously, there’s a reason I don’t play the lottery or gamble on sports. Predicting what this team will do carries some serious risk. They’re the Amy Winehouse of college football teams: everybody tells me there’s talent there, but all I see is weird hair, bad teeth and a poor imitation of a Joss Stone cover of a Diana Ross song.

All that being said, this team and its fanbase need some serious rehab. I’m not saying any of us wil get that, but I am saying we’ll get this:

1. Vandy QB Larry Smith on the bootleg. Every quarterback who has really torched our defense owes a huge debt of gratitude to Colorado’s Dan Hawkins. That’s because in 2006 Hawkins brought his underdog Buffaloes to Athens and very nearly pulled a stunning upset by doing nothing more than working the boot action on every play, including a wicked run/pass option that was unstoppable for most of the first half. It kept our talented defensive ends (Quentin Moses and Charles Johnson) from teeing off on the passer, and threw the whole defense into a sort of paralysis by analysis which we’ve now come to expect from Willie-ball.

A couple of weeks later, the Commodores from Nashville did the exact same thing in actually pulling off a 24-22 upset in Athens. We’ve now seen Stephen Garcia, Jordan Jefferson and Jon Crompton execute this gameplan with frightening results. The boot action passing game does two very valuable things for an offense. One, it allows you to attack defenses in much the same way a downfield option attack with a decent passing component does, freezing the secondary with play action fakes that take place at different points in the backfield. Two, when you have a quarterback who has trouble making decisions in a drop back setting, it narrows the field (essentially cutting it in half) and makes his decisions much easier. Jon Crompton, like most guys who get a scholarship to play quarterback at an SEC school, can hit a 12 yard out route on the run. If the only thing you ask him to do is a) look for the wide receiver on the out route, b) look to the tight end drag, then c) if neither is open tuck it and get what you can, he will accomplish that.

Ditto for Vandy’s Larry Smith. Smith is currently 94th in the nation in passing efficiency and completing just over 46% of his passes. But as we’ve learned this season there’s no guarantee that he won’t have a career game against Georgia.

2. The zone blitz. Ok, this is more of an aspirational statement than a prediction. One of the best ways to stop that boot action is to bring a zone blitz from the outside on occasion. Sure, sometimes you’ll blitz to the side away from the bootleg. But it helps make those simple QB reads a little more difficult. And if you guess right (or even better, if the offense somehow tips which way the action is going) you can totally disrupt that facet of the offense. I don’t believe we’ve totally disrupted an offense since the 2007 Sugar Bowl. Just thought I’d throw that in there.

3. Logan Gray. Nah. You won’t see Gray starting. But you will see him play his most significant snaps at quarterback on the season. Gray showed nothing in his duty during the Tennessee game to make this blogger think that Mike Bobo’s been playing the wrong guy all season. And I know Coach Bobo is worried about Gray going down with an injury and leaving us one snap away from starting a true freshman against the Gators in Jacksonville. But you have to take the shrink wrap off the punt returner who doesn’t actually return punts (shhhh!!! don’t tell the competition!!!) at some point, and our offense has to find a spark from somewhere.

4. Tavarres King. I believe King was sorely missed during the Tennessee game for two reasons. One, the absence of a second credible downfield threat allowed Tennessee to roll a safety over top of A.J. Green to stop the longball and occasionally drop one under him to limit short passes. Also, King is perhaps our most elusive receiver on underneath throws, creating yards after the catch (YAC, for short) with surprising consistency. I believe that some of the dink and dunk passes that Joe Cox was forced to throw would have gone for longer gains had they landed in Tavarres King’s hands. Having him back is huge for this offense, though not as huge as averaging 4.5 yards a rush would be.

5. UGA 27, Vandy 17. I think we’ll see a team with a bunker mentality, whose collective backs are against the wall, come out fighting. There are serious, systemic problems that need to be fixed, and this week will provide the first glimpse of how Mark Richt and his staff intend to conduct the repair. Vanderbilt has a blackout planned for this Homecoming matchup, and the thinking among the Vandy faithful is that this might be the win they need to get their young team on track. Of course, Vanderbilt fans also think that Malcolm Gladwell is entertaining though lax in his methodology, and that some of the better estate grown viogniers can rival California’s chardonnays in the battle of tailgate-friendly white wines. So take that with a grain of salt.

In summary, I predict a victory that will provide no hint that this team can prevail in Jacksonville against Florida, but will show that the situation isn’t quite as dire as many believe. If ,however, Vanderbilt comes out on top, you’ll find me in my basement breaking into those MRE’s I’ve been saving since Y2K for just such an occasion as a Bulldog squad staring 3-5 (and 2-4 in the SEC) square in the eye. Until the postgame . . .

Go ‘Dawgs!!!

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The past few weeks have been really crazy with work, being sick and travel. Time for this site was limited. Activity should pick up next week.

PWD

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Yesterday, MaconDawg did his part by restoring Cocktail Thursday to its proper place on the calendar. Today, I’m doing my part. “Too Little Information“? What was up with that? Yeah, that was totally weak. If I don’t do better this week, SB Nation should fire me and replace me with Sylvester Croom.

Here’s the deal, then: I’m not bringing you a little bit of information; I’m not bringing you just the right amount of information; I’m bringing you Too Much Information. Here goes:

Odds and Ends

This is the week that the resistible force meets the movable object. The Georgia Bulldogs rank last in the SEC in scoring defense, surrendering 30.7 points per game. The Vanderbilt Commodores rank last in the SEC in scoring offense, tallying 18.8 points per game. Something’s got to give . . . actually, the Vandy O and the Georgia D both give on a regular basis. Something’s got to do the opposite of give. Something’s got to stand up, maybe? Yeah, we’ll go with that.

Fortunately, the one thing the ‘Dawgs appear even passably good at is stopping the run, as the Red and Black allow only 128.2 rushing yards per game, good for fourth in the conference. Since the ‘Dores rank fifth in the league in rushing offense (189.2 yards per game on the ground), Georgia may actually have a chance to slow down the Commies, who have the SEC’s worst aerial attack (146.7 passing yards per game and a touchdowns-to-interceptions ratio of two to six). Unfortunately, the Classic City Canines’ rush defense is a bit of a chimera, as the Bulldogs give up 3.7 yards per carry (tied for the worst among the league’s top eight rush defenses) and have surrendered five rushing touchdowns (second-worst among the conference’s top seven rush defenses). Despite ranking eleventh in the SEC against the run (170.2 rushing yards per game allowed), Vanderbilt has given up the same number of rushing touchdowns as Georgia (5) and is only marginally worse in yards per carry allowed (3.9). That’s bending but not breaking.

A win tomorrow would give the Bulldogs their 50th series triumph over the Commodores. Georgia holds a commanding lead in the all-time standings against Vandy, especially since 1959, and the Red and Black are 22-7-1 in Vanderbilt Stadium. However, the series is snarled at 8-8-2 in games decided by seven or fewer points, and the ‘Dawgs have not beaten the ‘Dores by more than ten points since 2005.

One promising indicator that offers hope for the reversal of that trend is the fact that Georgia defeated a Pac-10 team between the hedges this year. The Bulldogs have beaten opponents from the West Coast BCS conference in Sanford Stadium in seven previous seasons (1971, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1981, 1983, and 1987), and, in those seven seasons, the Red and Black went 7-0 against the Commodores. That ledger includes a 5-0 mark against the Music City Sailors in Nashville, four games in which the ‘Dawgs scored 38 or more points on the Vandy defense, and five contests in which Georgia prevailed by eleven or more points.

Drew Butler should have a good day tomorrow. Georgia leads the SEC in punting, while Vanderbilt ranks eleventh in the league in punt returns.

If nothing else, the Bulldogs should have the Commodores exactly where they want them if Vandy makes it inside the Georgia 20 yard line. The ‘Dores have the worst red zone offense in the conference, coming away with points only 16 times in 24 trips into the shadow of the other team’s goal posts. Seven of those 16 scores were field goals and only one of the nine touchdowns came through the air. Sadly, though, the Red and Black have had fewer chances inside the 20 (15), fewer red zone scores (14), and fewer red zone touchdowns (7).

As disheartening as last week’s loss to the Tennessee Volunteers was, it didn’t hurt the Bulldogs’ chances of winning in Nashville. Georgia is 13-2 (.867) against Vanderbilt in years in which the ‘Dawgs lost to the Vols and 10-4 (.714) against the Commies in seasons in which the Red and Black defeated the Big Orange.

The Feel Good Stat of the Week

For the seventh time in school history, Georgia goes into the Vanderbilt game sporting exactly three losses in its ledger. The previous six such occasions were in 1970, 1979, 1989, 1990, 1995, and 1996. (Don’t think about the fact that the ‘Dawgs finished 5-5, 6-5, 6-6, 4-7, 6-6, and 5-6 in that sextet of seasons, or this will cease to be the feel good stat of the week . . . or, perhaps, become the feel good stat of the weak.)

In those six seasons, Georgia went 6-0 over Vanderbilt and scored more than 30 points against the ‘Dores four times.

The Bottom Line

Vanderbilt often has been a tougher out than the Commodores generally have been given credit for being, and the Georgia squad that performed so poorly in Knoxville last weekend cannot take any conference road game for granted. Three SEC quarterbacks have had career days against the Bulldog secondary so far this season, so I certainly cannot assume that any signal caller in the league lacks the ability to shred the Red and Black D.

That said, Ryan Mallett, Stephen Garcia, and Jonathan Crompton all rank in the top half of the SEC in passing yards per game, while the Commodore QB—honestly, you’re not going to make me look up his name, are you?—ranks in the bottom two in the conference in passing yards per game, total offense, and pass efficiency rating. No Commodore ranks in the top ten in the league in catches per contest or in receiving yards per outing. If ever there was an SEC passing game that could make the Georgia secondary look good, this is it.

That doesn’t mean the ‘Dawgs won’t need the same sort of last-second heroics they needed on their last trip to Nashville two years ago, of course, but, at this point, all that matters is the W. I’d like to think the Bulldogs will win by a lot, but I’ll be content with just winning at all.

My Prediction: Georgia 27, Vanderbilt 17.

Go ‘Dawgs!

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I find the UW fanbase’s bitterness towards ND to be hysterical. So much anger!

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Once we have gone around the SEC and examined the national games of interest, just one game remains for our examination, if only so we may dismiss it derisively as utterly undeserving of our attention.

At first blush, I thought Tuesday night’s tilt between Arkansas State and Louisiana-Monroe might qualify, but that actually turned out to be a good game. Likewise, I gave passing thought to Delaware State’s visit to the Big House before remembering that it is unwise to overlook Division I-AA teams facing the Michigan Wolverines in Ann Arbor.

Accordingly, there could be only one choice for the national game of disinterest:

USC Trojans at Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Don’t give me any nonsense about this being a storied intersectional rivalry. These two teams only started playing one another because Knute Rockne’s wife had the good sense to want to get the heck out of Indiana in November. Good for Mrs. Rockne for finagling a vacation in sunny Southern California, but mistaking a weekend getaway for something with staying power is how Jack Donaghy ended up with a time-share in Port Arthur, Texas.

There is also the small matter of 38-3, 38-0, 44-24, 34-31 on a field that looked like my back yard is going to look after all this rain, 41-10, 45-14, and 44-13. If someone in South Bend had sent up a prayer to St. Fiacre, the patron saint of gardeners and cab drivers, asking for a lawn mower, this series would have seen seven USC blowouts in a row. As it stands, the Trojans have posted a septet of consecutive victories, six of which were not competitive.

Don’t even try to tell me this year is going to be different. You don’t believe in Notre Dame. I don’t believe in Notre Dame. Doug Gillett doesn’t believe in Notre Dame. The Men of Troy don’t believe in Notre Dame, or they wouldn’t be spending time on the slip ‘n’ slide.

The most storied . . . oops, sorry, nodded off for a second there; most storied program . . . whoa, I keep dozing off for some reason; most storied program in the history of the sport is prepared to declare moral victory if the final score is anything closer than eleventy billion and twelve to negative-two. If that doesn’t make this game a total snore, I don’t know what does.

Go ‘Dawgs!

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It seems we have a consensus on our hands

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I know it’s international conflict resolution day and all, but I am not in the most conciliatory of moods, as Bulldog Nation is under siege from all sides, both within and without. All the signs are there. (Otherwise intelligent rival fans pretending not to understand the difference between being arrested and clearing up a speeding ticket by paying a fine? Check!)

Don’t get me wrong; I’m as mad about last Saturday’s loss as anyone. Nevertheless, the idea that Mark Richt is, or ought to be, on the hot seat—an idiotic notion that I debunked during the offseason—is preposterous.

Yet here we are, getting absurd comparisons to Phillip Fulmer, who posted losing seasons and missed out on bowl games twice in a four-year span. Coach Richt has never done either of those things, and (thanks partly to the SEC’s extensive assortment of postseason tie-ins) he is unlike to do either of them this season.

While I find Tommy Tuberville analogies almost as untenable—though Year2 provides some context for the comparison—I will grant Doug Gillett’s premise that changes must be made; I even suggested a few, as may have been noted by the handful of readers who didn’t get hung up on the word “suck.” The idea that we would even consider running off the most successful coach in our history over one sub-par season is worse than ludicrous, though.

Although I quibbled about his word choice, I did not miss Paul Westerdawg’s point, which was made succinctly and well:

Also, for those of you who absurdly think Richt needs to go and “he can’t turn this around.” Remember, that Vince Dooley was hung in effigy following the 1974 season. Two years later, he played Pitt in the Sugar Bowl for a share of the national title.

Anything can happen. It’s on Richt to make something happen.

Let’s start with that example, because it’s a good one. First of all, we could use a bit of context, which Loran Smith provided in his Georgia Bulldogs “vault” book:

The ignominy of losing to Tech’s wishbone in the rain and mud in Athens in 1974 was trumped by defeat in the Tangerine Bowl by Miami of Ohio, 21-10. The natives were restless. So restless, in fact, they were calling for Dooley’s head.

University president Fred Davison, a big fan who cheered robustly at every Bulldog success, shut all the critics up in late summer when he renewed Dooley’s contract for four more years. With one year left on his contract, Dooley had pointed out to Davison that, given the success of the program to date—including two SEC titles—it would be unfair to the staff and the program for him to work under a one-year contract, which would also cause negative media speculation. The two men would develop issues later on with regard to the athletic directorship, but seldom in college-football history has a president stood up for his football coach as Davison did for Dooley in preseason 1975.

What did Coach Dooley and his staff do with the extra time that extension bought them? Since the defense was the weakness of that 1974 season, it fell to Erk Russell to figure out how to fix what ailed the Red and Black. He did two things to correct the problem:

1. He created a rallying point for the Georgia defense by giving them the nickname “Junkyard Dogs” and arranging for the Redcoat Band to play Jim Croce’s “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” whenever the defense made a big play.
2. He scrapped a defensive scheme that wasn’t working and switched to one that did.

The latter point bears emphasizing with quotations from Coach Russell’s autobiography, Erk: Football, Fans & Friends. In the chapter covering the 1972 season, Coach Russell wrote: “I’ll have to take the responsibility because I started screwing around with our defense and got away from the ‘Split-Sixty’ defense and tried to do something that I didn’t know well.” Note the first six words of that passage.

In the following chapter, Coach Russell wrote: “In 1973, we made two bad mistakes. I discarded my beloved ‘Sixty’ defense in favor of the ‘Universal Five-Four.’ And for the first time since I had been at Georgia, we were beaten by Vanderbilt. That first mistake led to the second one.”

In the ensuing chapter, Coach Russell continued, “The ’74 season was a long one thanks to my decision to go with the ‘50’ defense.” Then, in 1975, after three straight sub-par seasons, Coach Russell stated: “The ‘Split-60’ defense was back and the Junkyard Dogs came on the scene.” Success followed, and, after two years of the Junkyard Dogs playing dominant defense, Coach Russell was able to write the following for Georgia’s 1977 summer manual:

We have used three basic alignments for many years. Except for the past two years, we played them with four down linemen. . . . We went to only two down linemen the past two years. . . .

Our present arrangement (only two down linemen) is better against the option game and probably not as good against the power game.

During the past two years, we have faced 13 Veer or split-back teams, six Wishbone teams, and five I-formation teams. Our record over the past two years is 19-5. Three of our losses have been to I teams. Our defense has been geared more to play against the Veer and Wishbone (with stopping the option a must) because we see those offenses so much. The I is coming back on our schedule and, frankly, it scares me to death.

Naturally, Coach Russell had no need to be scared; he adapted as necessary and designed his defenses to stop the offenses they would face. What is critical to a proper understanding of why Georgia was so successful for so long, though, is the fact that Erk Russell’s defenses were adaptable. Compare that to what Mark Richt said in defense of Willie Martinez:

It’s the same basic defensive scheme that we’ve had since we got here. You know, it’s not like a kind of philosophical issue. I mean, the philosophy of our defense hasn’t really changed hardly at all in eight years. And we’ve not been in this spot in the past. So that’s not the problem.

That was last year, and now we are in a spot we have been in before, and it is apparent why. It is not a point of pride that “the philosophy of our defense hasn’t really changed hardly at all in eight”—now nine—”years”; that is the source of the problem!

Erk Russell, who looked and sounded like a hidebound dinosaur, was a successful coach from the beginning of his career to the end because he was willing to make the changes that were necessary to confront changes in the game. Mark Richt is the dean of SEC coaches; literally every other team in the league has switched skippers at least once since his arrival in Athens in 2001, as has our in-state rival. The world has turned many times since then. We must keep up or be left behind.

Hoping to see Mark Richt run out of town on a rail is even more ridiculous than hanging Vince Dooley in effigy was in 1974, but Coach Richt should learn a lesson from the experience of the man who hired him. Coach Dooley’s contract gave him time, as Coach Richt’s contract gives him time, and Coach Dooley used that time to make the changes which were required to restore Georgia to relevance. As a result of those changes following a 1974 season which seems to be playing out all over again this year, the Bulldogs went undefeated in SEC play four times in the next nine years and lost only one conference game in four of the remaining five seasons.

The program has weathered this sort of storm before, and the program can weather it again. What is required is visionary leadership by a coach who is willing to admit error and make tough choices in the face of changed circumstances. Our defensive coordinator currently has our team set up to stop the offenses extant in the league at the turn of the century. What we need are schemes designed to face the reality of the world in which we now live.

We run a defense geared towards this year:

We need to run a defense geared towards this year:

Willie Martinez has demonstrated no degree of schematic adaptability comparable to that exhibited by Erk Russell; clearly, a new direction—and probably new blood—is needed. Coach Martinez has had time to change his system, and all we have gotten is more of the same, which we do not need.

Any aspirations we may have to calling Will Muschamp home are mere pipe dreams. Coach Muschamp is not only the defensive coordinator, but also the head coach in waiting, of the Texas Longhorns. He would only consider leaving Austin if offered a head coaching post, and he probably wouldn’t consider it even then. There probably aren’t five programs in the country that would win a bidding war with Georgia, but Texas is one of them.

Who, then, is the defensive coordinator who can save Mark Richt from becoming the next Tommy Tuberville? Would you believe . . . Tommy Tuberville?

Go ‘Dawgs!

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This week’s edition of Cocktail Thursday is brought to you by the letters S, A, R,C, A, S and also M.

Worst week ever to be a Bulldog fan? Nah. Worst in about 8 years? Possibly. And I know exactly why:

Cocktail Saturday. The worst idea in University of Georgia-themed potent potables since the invention of the Cherrishinski.

Cocktails are back where they belong, on Thursday, until further notice. Admittedly, Cocktail Thursday might not have prevented Vance Cuff from getting cuffed for the most benign sounding offense ever. i think Coach Richt said it best when he noted that Cuff  made a bad choice in the route he was traveling. Yeah, that’s not the first or last time one of our defensive backs has taken a bad route this season. As I noted in response to Vineyarddawg’s fanpost on the subject, Reshad Jones and Bryan Evans were only saved from confinement by the fact that, as usual, they were nowhere near the action. It should also be noted that Cuff was all set to run away from the officer at full speed, until the guy executed a play action fake on 3rd and 12, which guaranteed that the Georgia defensive back would come right back to him like a yo-yo.

In truth, this whole season has taken “a bad route”. And while you most certainly shouldn’t drink and drive (even on a scooter and even in an alley), drinking would be a perfectly rational response to 60 minutes of exposure to the Willie Martinez defense. In fact, I suggest that this Saturday you imbibe the cocktail which best sums up the zeitgeist of the Georgia defense at the moment:

The whiskey sour. You can find suggestions for how to make a better one all over the internet, just like suggestions on how to improve the patented Willie Martinez “bend but don’t break, then break and break and break again” defense. It’s light and a bit fruity and not the least bit harsh.  It’s been around forever, so every bartender in America knows exactly how it’s put together by now. While it contains enough alcohol to pack a slight punch, no one is really scared of it or takes it that seriously. In my unscientific study, it’s a lot less popular than it was several years ago. It’s Willie-ball in a glass.

Back tomorrow with football analysis of a slightly less tongue-in-cheek variety. Until then . . .

Go ‘Dawgs!!!

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This . . .

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Now that we have taken our weekly trek around the SEC, we may turn our attention to the noteworthy games around the country. I somehow managed to go 4-0 in last week’s national forecasts to improve my non-SEC ledger for the fall to 16-17. It should go without saying that, when even an undefeated week can’t boost my prognosticating record to .500, you need to take me seriously when I say: Don’t Bet On It!

The following games are scheduled to be played on Saturday, October 17, except where I have indicated otherwise:

Cincinnati Bearcats at South Florida Bulls (Oct. 15): After a knee injury cut short Matt Grothe’s senior season to end a college career that seemed longer than John Blutarsky’s . . .

. . . USF still managed to keep it together, but the Bearcats’ ability to maintain their position atop the Big East despite losing somewhere in the neighborhood of thirteen or fourteen defensive starters—all right, that’s an exaggeration, but you get my point—is one of the season’s more impressive feats. I’m not picking against Cincy until I’m given good reason to do so.

Pittsburgh Panthers at Rutgers Scarlet Knights (Oct. 16): I mentioned a moment ago that Cincinnati stood astride the Big East like a Midwestern Colossus, although that isn’t entirely true; technically, Pitt leads the league with a 2-0 ledger in conference play. The State University of New Jersey languishes at 0-1 in Big East outings, but the Scarlet Knights very quietly have put together a 4-1 record. However, those four wins have come against downtrodden Maryland, a Sun Belt squad with a name eye-rollingly reminiscent of an IHOP, Division I-AA Texas Southern (which isn’t the team from “Necessary Roughness“; it’s the team that lost to the team from “Necessary Roughness”), and some guy named Howard. I somehow doubt that 4-1 record is going to hold up against the Panthers.

(Obligatory photograph of Rutgers alumna Kristin Davis.)

Iowa Hawkeyes at Wisconsin Badgers: If you want to know why I make fun of the fact that every Big Ten game played after October 1 involves two teams duking it out over some worthless bizarre artifact someone unearthed in a fallow field or an abandoned mining camp or the ruins of a closed General Motors plant, this is why: Iowa and Wisconsin battle for custody of the Heartland Trophy, a brass bull that dates back to 2004. 2004?!?! Are you kidding me? The all-time series boasts more than a century of history and is tied 41-41-2, but we need to gussie this rivalry up with some weird flea-market knickknack (I mean, come on . . . a brass bull?) to make it a trophy game? That’s just ridiculous. When people try to make up this kind of foolishness here in the South, we ignore it, which is why, even though some dufus came up with some useless trophy to hand out at the end of the Georgia-Georgia Tech game, we in Bulldog Nation still hear the words “Governor’s Cup” and think the term refers to the piece of protective gear kept preserved in Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall in a glass case with Sonny Perdue’s jockstrap. Anyway, I’m picking the Hawkeyes to take a commanding 4-2 lead in the Heartland Trophy series.

Virginia Tech Hokies at Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets: How big a difference do you think the Ramblin’ Wreck’s home field advantage will make? Ha, ha . . . Georgia Tech’s home field advantage . . . I crack myself up. But, seriously, when two technical schools square off on the gridiron, always go with the one that lacks any sort of academic reputation as a training ground for actual engineers. You wouldn’t pick Cal Tech or MIT to beat an agricultural and mechanical school that doesn’t really teach anything about mechanics, would you? Well, that ought to tell you that what Virginia Tech lacks in the classroom will be made up on the scoreboard.

Oklahoma Sooners v. Texas Longhorns: In a stark departure from recent tradition, this year’s winner of the Red River Shootout will have the inside track to the Big 12 Championship Game. Bob Stoops’s troops come into this game with an 0-2 record against ranked opponents, which is worse even than the Longhorns’ 0-0 record against teams that could fight their way out of a paper bag. Everyone who thinks Mack Brown’s squad will win, say “aye.” Everyone who thinks the Sooners will pull off the upset, say “no.” It seems the ayes of Texas are above the nos of Oklahoma.

You should know by now that my predictions are offered strictly for their entertainment value—and, really, they only barely qualify even in that superficial category—so no disclaimer ought to be needed, but, just to be on the safe side, I’ll remind you once again . . . Don’t Bet On It!

Coming Soon: National Game of Disinterest.

Go ‘Dawgs!

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New SEC Power Poll released

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New BlogPoll released

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Ordinarily, I would be inclined to say that my 3-3 record in last week’s SEC prognostications sucks, but, fortunately, I have been enlightened this week regarding the new reality that 3-3 actually represents mere mediocrity with a heavy dose of positive progress! My season-long record for league forecasts now stands at 38-5, but last week’s lousy encouraging performance at least provides some suggestion that you should heed my usual advice: Don’t Bet On It!

Here is this week’s Southeastern Conference slate, which, alas, does not feature a game involving the Tennessee Volunteers, because, on the seventh Saturday, Lane Kiffin rested. Hey, a fellow deserves a break after a program-defining breakthrough triumph over the team ranked eleventh in the league in pass defense, eleventh in the league in total defense, and twelfth in the league in scoring defense. The rest of the SEC, however, will be taking part in the following contests this Saturday:

UAB Blazers at Mississippi Rebels: The last time someone tried to arrange a football game between the Blazers and the Rebels was at Berkeley in the 1960s, when, instead of taking the field against one another, the Rebels began protesting the gridiron ground-acquisition game as a militaristic metaphor for U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia and the Blazers got high and asked each other if they’d ever really looked at a football. This time, I’m pretty sure there will be a game and I’m pretty sure Ole Miss will win it.

Mississippi St. Bulldogs at Middle Tenn. St. Blue Raiders: Mississippi State, we need to talk. You’re a Southeastern Conference football program. You’ve just hired Dan Mullen, who has brought new energy and new credibility to your school. You’re trying to establish yourself as something other than a perennial bottom-feeder. You’re playing on the road . . . against a Sun Belt team . . . whose name was misspelled on page 64 of this year’s Lindy’s SEC preview magazine (I’m just saying; if they’d misspelled Florida, someone would have caught it) . . . and whose mascot looks like this:

Mississippi State, it is time to rethink your entire approach. We’ll talk more after the Bulldogs beat the Blue Raiders.

Kentucky Wildcats at Auburn Tigers: Did you know that Kentucky ranks ahead of Auburn in pass defense, total defense, scoring defense, and first downs allowed? The Wildcats had better be ready to play some defense, because the Plainsmen lead the league in total offense and trail only the Gators in scoring offense and rushing offense. If you know anything about college football, or if you learned how to spell while earning a sociology degree from the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, you know that there is more O in the Tigers than there is D in the Wildcats. I’m taking the home team. I hate Auburn.

Arkansas Razorbacks at Florida Gators: I’m guessing Bobby Petrino won’t be changing planes in Atlanta on the flight from Fayetteville to Gainesville. I don’t mean to take anything away from the Razorbacks, who clearly are on the upswing, but this game is going to be a basic National Geographic Channel documentary. If you send a drove of swine into a swamp to tangle with a congregation of alligators, well, you’re going to have some stuffed Gators lazing around after feasting on pork.

South Carolina Gamecocks at Alabama Crimson Tide: If this game were being played in Columbia, I might be temped to pick Steve Spurrier and the Palmetto State Poultry to sneak up on Nick Saban and spring a nasty surprise on the Tide. (I swear, Gamecock Man, I’m not setting you up for a fall!) In Tuscaloosa, though, there’s no chance of ‘Bama being upset by a solid but not superb South Carolina squad. There’s simply no way a chicken can hope to beat an elephant if the elephant has home field advantage. The Gamecocks will hang tough for three quarters and probably will give Alabama the best game the putative Western Division champions have gotten all season, but, in the end, the Tide will roll.

Feel free to find fault with my conference forecasts in the comments below, but please be sure to heed my usual warning. Whatever you do . . . Don’t Bet On It!

Coming Soon: National Games of Interest.

Go ‘Dawgs!

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Let’s start with a solid balanced look at the Dawgs from Matt Hinton at Dr. Saturday. (ht – DawgSports.com)

Then we can move on to a stats oriented overview of the Dawg season so far from SicemDawgs.com. The stats are harsh, but they are what they are.

I only thing I don’t like from his post is the comparison of the numbers of Van Gorder’s defenses to those from Willie Martinez. I think that’s somewhat unfair or misleading due to the apples to orange nature of the statistical comparison.

The SEC is a much tougher league today, and Willie doesn’t have some of the horses that BVG had…many of whom neither recruited.

That’s not to disparage what Van Gorder did (or SicemDawg’s post for that matter). BVG was an excellent coordinator for us, and the product on the field was clearly better. It’s just that the SEC today is tougher and more explosive offensively and defensively because coaching has been upgraded around us which makes the stats part of the conversation misleading:

• Bama traded Coach Fran and Mike Shula for Nick Saban = Upgrade
• Florida traded Ron Zook for Urban Meyer = Upgrade
• South Carolina traded Lou Holtz for Steve Spurrier = Upgrade
• LSU swapped Nick Saban for Les Milses and the results are the same or better

Personally, I don’t care about our recent defenses vs. our past defenses. My concern is our current defense vs. our current competition. And that’s pretty visible in the other stats on Sicemdawgs’ site. It’s also visible from ignoring the stats and just watching the tape.

PWD

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Good balanced look at the Dawgs. (ht – DawgSports.com)

PWD

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Richt’s reassuring quotation and Westerdawg’s good point