There haven't been the upsets or shockers like a seven days ago, but still, it's been a pretty quality week of football.
And Rivalry Day is here.
One feeling has stuck all week regarding The COFH Bowl - Clean Old Fashioned Hate - in Atlanta:
That after a sluggish first quarter, Georgia starts to roll. And should that happen, it'll get a little testy.
Georgia has to play to win, next week notwithstanding. It's always bad to take a week less than seriously because of having clinched something. Momentum and confidence.
To note:
Tech has the No. 2 rushing offense in the nation, Georgia has the No. 2 rushing defense in the nation.
Tech has the No. 6 pass efficiency offense in the nation, Georgia has the No. 6 pass efficiency defense in the nation.
Georgia has the No. 4 total defense, Tech the No. 16 total offense.
Oh, it’ll be interesting, at least for awhile.
A fairly sizable farce in the dissection of Georgia's season regards the defense.
On one hand, people bellyache that Georgia hasn't beaten anybody good, which is true. Seconds later, they rave about the defense.
Wait, isn't the defense playing bad teams, too? Yes.
The defense is better, but overrated.
Of Georgia's I-A opponents, only four rush offenses are in the top half nationally. Three passing offenses and three in pass efficiency are in the top 60, and only two in total offense.
The average rankings of the opponents in those categories: rushing, 68.2, passing, 76.9; passing efficiency, 69.6; total defense, 84.2.
There you go. That's not exactly a challenging collection of offenses.
So let's avoid comparing Grantham to Erk, or even Brian VanGorder just yet. The numbers this season don't really back that up, certainly not against even decent offenses.
As it is, Georgia has beaten two bowl-eligible teams, and three others who can reach that status today.
Nope, that's still not overly impressive.
Tech's three losses are to bowl teams: Virginia, Miami, and Virginia Tech, and it has that sizzling romp over Clemson.
The Yellow Jackets were fortunate to escape against North Carolina, N.C. State and a bad Maryland team.
So as it turns out, Tech is about where most normal people expected, on the verge of 8-4. Contrary to the belief of its head coach and assorted apologists, that's where most of us figured the Jackets would end up.
A win today is a big ol' batch of icing for Tech, a loss doesn't really tarnish the season, on paper. But it leaves a 364-day bruise nonetheless.
A loss for Georgia really takes some oomph out. It breaks the nine-game winning streak, and don't think it won't be brought up all week before the SEC title game.
That saps energy from a team.
That need for momentum, for energy, for confidence is why Georgia plays with a little more juice.
And wins 34-24.
QUIETED
Plenty has been offered on the life of Larry Munson, and while some has been a bit much, most of it is pretty spot on.
He was unique in his delivery and observations, and loved by his constituents, as have a couple dozen or so of his colleagues. There aren't many of the old-school announcers left.
And no, most Georgia players know little or nothing of Munson. College players didn't quite grow up listening to radio of college football, so I'd guess a fair number of players only knew of Munson when an older person referenced him. There are few old-school players on 2011 rosters.
Most every sports fan has grown up with A Voice. Mine was Chuck Thompson, play-by-play man for the Baltimore Orioles. Those who don't listen to their team and their Voice on the radio have no idea what they're missing.
Technology does have its faults.
No, Munson wasn't much of a sportscaster, but he was a marvelous presenter of what he saw and felt. And for all the subpar "broadcasting" he offered - you know, details and information and identities - a game was more enjoyable than most of the failed attempts at personality of our current crop.
No, I don't really buy that he had no idea what a hobnailed boot was when he blurted out the gem at Tennessee. Munson was much smarter than people gave him credit for.
Nevertheless, we remember them not for their proper syntax or smoothness, but for their ability to involve us as well as simply tell us what they saw and thought.
College football, not just Georgia, lost a whole lot of flavor.
ALMOST GONE?
Are there only three games left in Mark Richt's career at Georgia?
The folks at gamingtoday.com think so.
Some folks at MrSEC.com think it's silly.
I can see Richt leaving for one clear reason:
He remains unembraced by Bulldog Nation as much as perhaps he should be. It often seems like Richt is surprised to catch as much grief as he does, that winning two SEC championships and being roundly praised for his personality and beliefs should be enough.
He has to be smarter in that area - as well as with opening his mind regarding his offense.
The delusional part of the fan base, the one that thinks its program is better than it is - OK, that's all fan bases - thinks Georgia should be much better. Of course, they also think that nobody else is working on being good, and that because of three years in the 80s, there should be genuflection to the G.
The delusional part can't handle the truths of college football: teams go through rough stretches; this era of the game has oodles more talent and challenges and competition than it did 30 years ago (like being honest in how a program is run, being one).
I can see him being tired of the grief, ready to embark on another chapter. I'm guessing he's saved a fair amount of money, and could do any of the things people think he might do: make the world better than it is (and sometimes deserves).
I can see Richt staying for one or two more years, and then leaving on his own, if things go the way they could.
First, look at the depth chart. It will look very similar in a year.
Of the 26 players listed on this week's offensive depth chart, Georgia loses only Cordy Glenn, Ben Jones, Justin Anderson, Aron White and Israel Troupe.
Replacing Jones is huge, Glenn not as much, White a decent bit. And that's it. If junior Orson Charles goes early, that's a hit.
The defensive two-deep has two seniors: DeAngelo Tyson and Brandon Boykin.
That's it.
But Georgia's special teams will have a major overhaul, losing Blair Walsh, Drew Butler, Brandon Bogotay and Boykin.
Georgia in 2012 will be more loaded with experience than it was during that ill-fated preseason No. 1 stint in 2008. All of the Dream Teamers will be in the rotation somewhere.
Georgia in 2013, those Dream Teamers will be juniors.
Of course, Georgia has had talent before. If Richt doesn't open up his offensive philosophy, though, the Bulldogs will again be only a fringe big-time team.
Then again, they'll still be ahead of the rest of the East,
Apparently, for many, that's still not enough.
As I've said, I'd like him to have a monster year and bolt just to piss some people off. The grass isn't always greener. Or something like that.
And he deserves to leave Georgia on good terms, because short-sightedness aside, he has raised the program's respectability on and off the field, misperceptions of the "problems" aside.
For those whose horizons do expand to heights that have nothing to do with fall Saturdays, he's still somebody for your kid to play for. Better to play for Richt and not get a ring than play for many other coaches and get one.
Perspective is a lonely philosophy in that world.
LOOKING AHEAD
Alabama will win by 13, LSU by 10 or 11, and Arkansas by five.
That's what Todd Furhman of Ceasar's said a week or so ago.
Georgia was basically a 6.5-point underdog leading up to the 2005 SEC title game, but the line dropped to 2 or 2.5.
We can cross two of them off of that list, and the spread for LSU will grow.
LOUGHDMOUTHINGS
How could people think LSU can overlook Arkansas?
Sure, the spread is big by betting standards, but not much by football standards.
And those who can read should check out the polls and standings. You don't overlook the No. 3 team in the country. You don't overlook the team that can knock you from the top of your division, from the conference championship game, from the national championship game.
I thought it would be a more entertaining game than LSU-Bama was, since it pitted a good offense against a good defense. There was actually a matchup; the teams aren't mirror images.
As it was, LSU made football fans in Georgia happy by spanking, thoroughly, one Bobby Petrino. ...
I'll type slow for some in the audience.
The BCS isn't people who "want" this or that matchup, it's a process that involves humans and computers. When each week is said and done, no group of people has any extraordinary power to alter things a certain way.
This is not a complex situation.
The BCS title game comes down to the two teams the process - humans and computers - deems as the top two teams. For the most part, the majority of the people in the Harris poll wear no colors. The coaches, of course, do.
But the coaches can't really mess around with their polls or they'll get called on it.
So it's not about the best TV game, the best game for simpletons who also watch four reality shows. The goal is to match 1 vs. 2.
And, of course, when that playoff comes, we'll hear about its imperfection the first time No. 8 beats No. 1, how that was the wrong matchup or we had too many guys injured or whatever.
Lack of understanding doesn't mean that LSU and Alabama aren't the two best teams.
Why can't folks get the "record isn't the end-all" clarity? Houston is undefeated, should it be No. 2? Doesn't one have to still rank teams that have the same record? Go in alphabetical order?
Funny thing: all the losses of the past two weeks mean the BCS process is going to work.
Agaaaain. ...
Dear ESPN, please, when doing rivalry stories or whatever, stop with the announcers screeching "touchdownnnnn _______." Because it's nothing. It's not personality, it's not a shtick, it's not creative, it's not unique, it's nothing. Find better. …
Watched Petrino's postgame meeting with Les Miles after the hazing. Watched Petrino apparently point to the LSU sideline when it was 41-18.
Petrino needs some memory medicine.
52-21 over Army, 59-7 over East Carolina, 55-7 over TCU, 70-7 over Cincinnati, and so on. Petrino is where he is from running it up while he was at Louisville, for all of four seasons.
Yeah, on Saturdays, Bobby's all class.
Petrino snubbing Miles makes you like Les more.
Long live the Hatter, baby. ...
Feel free to bookmark this page. ...
Mr. Suh, your prescription is ready. Please pick it up before destroying your reputation and soon enough your career.
N. Suh's claim that he did nothing wrong against the Packers - the Suh stomp? - just about qualifies him to join a Republican presidential debate. ...
No, Isaiah Crowell isn't the second coming, by any stretch.
Well, maybe, but he's more Jasper than Herschel.
Yes, Georgia must try to snag another top-flight tailback for that reason. And the staff must recruit more integrity than talent, because it's still getting some dingbats.
Carlton Thomas' career is now in the "who knows?" file, since he's another character mistake in Georgia recruiting. The Dawgs miss Richard Samuel more than people expect, or admit, but it was pointed out here that Samuel and Thomas would be of bigger impact than most thought.
Now that one is gone and the other one hardly there, that's more evident. ...
How many bowl games are praying not to get Penn State? Every single one that has a chance. Nothing like having football and the matchup be the last topic on the list the week before the game. ...
Two gifts from Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel:
"Hey, did you hear Gator fans have started a new protest organization? It's called Occupy Charlie Weis's Offense!"
And:
"New cheer for college and NFL fans in our once-proud pigskin peninsula: "Two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar! Football fans in Florida are wallowing in squalor!"
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