Analysis with Mettenberger a waste of time: it's about football

            The night in the bar in Valdosta in 2010?

            Irrelevant.

            Mom working in the football office?

            Meaningless.

            Growing up as a fan and now on the opposite sideline?

            Trivial.

            All the yapping the past week about Zach Mettenberger playing at Georgia has been exhausting because it offers absolutely nothing important about the Georgia-LSU game. TVcompoops yammer about it, and fans follow, wasting time and energy and precious - reeeeeally precious for most - brain cells on a topic that can't be less relevant than which shoe he'll tie first.

            Mettenberger will be more nervous before the game than usual, but good players are always nervous.

            It's a road game. He'll be harassed.

            This is the SEC. This is not new. He's played at Auburn, at Florida, at College Station. You know, on the road in the SEC. It's mostly interchangeable.

            And there's more pressure starting at home - especially with some baggage - and getting home fans behind you than playing on the road after having established yourself and gotten those home fans behind you.

            Players do what TVcompoops and fans never do: move on. Mettenberger is a Tiger, and a pretty good quarterback. Living in Baton Rouge as a good LSU quarterback ain't a bad life.

            He's thinking more about winning a game so LSU can stay alive for a national championship. Period. Before the game and after the game, he'll think some about the opponent, the colors, the stadium, and the greenery, and that'll be about it.

            The stuff people think players and coaches worry about is hysterical.

            Mettenberger is worried about football. Reads. Not getting picked off.

            If he struggles, it will have nothing to do with the other stuff, it'll be because A) he's human; B) Georgia made adjustments. Period.

            The winner does so because of fewer mistakes, and not compounding mistakes. Anybody gets a decent lead, can't let up for a second.

            This is like the UGA-Clemson game: two top-10 teams that are pretty even overall, with strengths and weaknesses. Georgia miiiight be better, but LSU can win by more.

            But whatever happens has nothing to do with a bar in Valdosta, a mom in the football office and growing up in Watkinsville.

 

LOUGHDMOUTHINGS

 

            Folks wouldn't hurt themselves to be less, oh, whiny and juvenile and offended and whatever by the accomplishments of a team that they've never been on.

            Good gawd, people, grow up. It's not the sign of a small one to offer or admit respect.

            You don't have to go crazy, but, hell, grow up a little bit.

            It's like the simpletons who spaz out because David Pollack is, ya know, an adult and professional and takes his job seriously and says things that aren't ignorantly glowing about where he went to college.

            He, you know, got older and all.

            Calling him a traitor is about as immature as a hissy fit because you can't watch cartoons. Actually, it's more  immature, because we expect hissy fits from 4 year olds. ...

            Today's picks, version 1: What the hell has happened to West Virginia in the past 11.5 months? Oklahoma State 54, WVU 30. (Update: pick was at kickoff, WVU is playing big).

            What the hell happened to South Florida? The Bulls are 0-1 against the Southland Conference. Miami 47, South Florida 24.

            Oklahoma is 1-9 against Notre Dame, which is really an odd record among national powers. It'll get a little better. Oklahoma 27, Notre Dame 20. ...

            ESPN sure does love them some Urban Meyer, who's really good at, um, what it is that he does when ESPN loves him. I kinda think a few hunnert people in Gainesville laugh/smirk/regurge when they watch some of this.

            Of course, then they get misty-eyed for the old days of, uh, four years ago. ...

            As of 12:30, ESPN's schedule shows 563 tickets remain for Troy at Duke. In football. Only 563? Are they playing in Cameron? ...

            Duck Dynasty and a golfer on the Gameday set for predictions. This November: Miley Cyrus and The Three Tenors. ...

            Am still waiting for actual evidence of Mark May's obsession with Georgia, which has one national championship and one Heisman winner in the modern era.

            Taking ESPN so seriously is pretty idiotic. ...

            The best shots of Saturday's are the aerial views of a campus, especially when it's sunny and blue-skied, like today. Couple shots of Athens are mighty nice. ...

            It's likely to be ugly at Mercer in the Pioneer Football League debut.

            The weather's nice, so no Southern advantage there. And finally, the Bears play somebody above NCAA Division III.

            Now that Mercer is playing on its level, the physicality will start making a difference the rest of the year. Instead of being just nicked up and a little sore after playing other startup programs - most of whom will be fairly regular opponents - the Bears will be sore throughout the week and players will miss practice.

            Then depth - an issue for century-old teams - comes into play, and Mercer doesn't have much.

            The Sagarin spread is about 30 points, and that's pretty reasonable.

            Mercer is the lowest-ranked PFL team, and next-to-last in Division I. The PFL has six of the bottom 10 teams. ...

            Today's picks, version II:

            I'm smelling the same thing that leads people to believe Ole Miss will give Alabama some trouble. The Tide aren't as good this year, but still No. 1. Let's not be surprised when they're humanized. Still, Alabama 27-21.

            The PFL gets its first automatic playoff bid this year. Drake is a contender. It won't take it easy on Mercer. Drake 47, Mercer 21.

            Again, Mettenberger's connections and history don't matter in the least. He's played in front of large crowds on the road. Players don't hear crap from fans or see signs. A fundamental play or two is the difference and there will be some ugly play.

            Georgia 38, LSU 35. ...

            High on the list after winning a lottery:

            Buying Chris Berman's contract out, and instilling a no-blathering-on-air clause for 800 months. Lou Holtz's contract is right after that. ...

            And the grief continues for Jacksonville's NFL entry, as per Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel:

            Texas Senator Ted Cruz spoke nonstop for 21 hours and 19 minutes in an effort to block Obamacare. This is believed to be the biggest waste of time since the last Jaguars game.

I shall return

            Absurdly so, this hasn't been touched since early January.

            That will change. And there's a chance that this will become a general offering, not just sports, and maybe with a schedule, like twice a week automatically.

            Sometimes, things happen that hammer one's desire to write, and sometimes, one must just ignore that and move on and write. Maybe it's time, for the venting to grow past just sports.

            As it is, right now, there's way too much logic missing in discussions about the NSA, Paula Deen, Dept of Transportation, George Zimmerman, IRS, Macon politics, all sorts of -isms, college football, the idiocy of people in charge (oh dear God, that's the problem), hypocrites that God laughs at,  commerce, and so many things.

            We'll see about coming up with a re-introduction within a day or two. The venting can only help my health.

Tuesday felt like a great Saturday in the fall

            There were a few Saturdays during the fall that were just exquisite.

            Tuesday pretty much matched it for the average college football fan, and it served as a reminder for less blanket grumbling about the bowl system in general, one that save for one or two games, never has impacted the national championship picture and never will.

            You'd be hard-pressed, through all of these years, to find anybody - fans or teams, unless they were just idiots in the first place - who had a bad bowl experience, outside of losing or having a general travel snafu. While the bowl process is more complex than people think, yes, a few bowls need to go so we have fewer 6-6 teams in and no 9-3 teams like Louisiana Tech get left out.

            It gives us the matchups we don't otherwise get, like Georgia-Nebraska, South Carolina-Michigan and LSU-Clemson this year, and Michigan-Virginia Tech and Oregon Wisconsin last year, and so on.

            We get to travel a little bit, courtesy of the Chamber of Commerce fillers offered by the networks during games people promise on Dec. 8 to ignore and end up watching a bit of.

            The open-minded enjoy broadening horizons, watching other teams play, recognize that there is ability and wisdom outside of the local conference and home team.

            It gives the SEC fans their desired chance to gloat about success, because if we didn't have the bowl system, there'd be less to gloat about (like how many teams go bowling, and being No. 1 in bowl appearances and winning percentage).

            It no doubt needs some work, but what doesn't? As it is, we ended one year and began another with a buffet of entertainment.

            New Year's Eve gave us Vanderbilt and uber-energetic head coach James Franklin finishing off a 9-4 season - a nine-win season at Vanderbilt - by pulling away from N.C. State.

            And then Georgia Tech thrilled SEC fans with an in-your-face performance against Lane Kiffin and Southern Cal, which for all of its whining, will spend the offseason explaining seven points and 205 yards to a defense that gave up 510 yards and 49 points to Middle Tennessee State, and played the bowl with an interim coordinator.

            Yeah, that's the problem with being arrogant at bowl season. If you fail to put up, you'll hear about it throughout the offseason, and the Trojans' ears will burn.

            The Liberty Bowl killed some time before the glorious Chick-fil-A bowl, which was again a beauty, with Clemson and LSU turning in a buzzer-beater.

            Shoot, even blowouts in the Chick-fil-A somehow seem better than other blowouts.

            Three of Tuesday's five games gave "Jan. 1 bowl game" a little cache again.

            Northwestern's first bowl win since 1949 brought tears to the eyes of head coach Pat Fitzgerald, and Oklahoma State hazed Purdue by 44 points. Then it got good.

            Anybody who saw Jadeveon Clowney's nasty hit on Michigan running back Vincent Smith - it was a figurative de-cleater, and an actual de-helmeter - that changed the game might have suffered from their own phantom rib pains afterward. And there were South Carolina's quarterbacks, hobbling around like a pair of Fred Sanfords, leading the way to final-minute win.

            Georgia fans were nearing the ledge when Nebraska took a halftime lead, and the impatient knee-jerk crowd was frazzled until, well, the better team started playing like the better team and in fact did not wear down.

            Aaron Murray had a monster day, as did several teammates on offense, and an unsettled defense settled down against a squirrelly offense that was fun - and dizzying - to watch.

            Stanford and Wisconsin engaged in the expected slobber-knocker, quality viewing for purists, and then Florida State took care of business against Northern Illinois.

            Let's not get too dismissive of Northern Illinois. Entering Thursday, eight other bowls had spreads of 21 or more - and Florida is lucky not to have made it nine - and NIU's underdogs certainly gave a better account of themselves than other stronger programs did (hello, Purdue).

            BCS games aren't all nailbiters. Remember last year's Orange (70-33), and the Orange (40-12) and Fiesta (48-20) in '10, and Sugar (51-24) in 09. So don't dump on the Huskies too much.

            There have been blowouts all months, like there always are, and were back before the Bowl Coalition and then the College Football Association and then the Bowl Alliance.

            We also go into Thursday night with 12 games decided by single digits and seven by a field goal or less.

            With the NCAA's increasing involvement in postseason college football, the bowl system may finally be up for review, and that's good. But don't wish for too much change. Do we really want less college football?

            Didn't think so.

 

LOUGHDMOUTHINGS

            (Some are a few weeks old. December will do that).

            Talk about contrasts, that little Capital One Bowl.

            Georgia fans want Mark Richt to get fired up. Nebraska fans want Bo Pelini to calm down.

            Pelini, on Saturdays, seems like a grumpy man undergoing a full-time prostrate exam. ...

            Every time we go through realignment crap, I'll remind you of my plan offered here waaaaay back when:

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1353267302583901477#editor/target=post;postID=8265677137364073065

 

            It was posted here on Sept. 18, 2011. Only insanity has followed. ...

            The coaching circus each early December is entertaining and annoying at the same time.

            Every misguided fan base - our redundancy of the day - thinks everybody should be lining up for their job: PLEASE STOP PINING FOR JON GRUDEN, COLLEGE FANS. And it's pretty idiotic, another topic where fans lose the so-to-speak minds they work and live with each day.

            There is no lock. And fans being basically uninformed outside of their bubble, they know little about coaches that they don't hear on the Stalkng Network.

            This "make a splash" concern is, bluntly, absurd. The splash comes when you win. Every hiring press conference gets splashy coverage, and people talk about a hire all off-season.

            The splash comes when you play. Ditto signing day - talk about a convention of nincomtwits - and draft weekend.

            Tennessee got its, what, fifth choice? And Tennessee will be fine. As your faithful correspondent has said for years, it takes longer to dig out of a hole than it does to fall into one, but UT didn't fall to Chattanooga talent. Derek Dooley did many good things for the program, but he didn't win, and progress in that regard had stopped.

            Butch Jones will be the beneficiary of all that. Worth noting: Brian Kelly was 55-22 (seven D-I seasons) before his big promotion. Jones is 50-27 (six D-I seasons) as he gets his.

            Other silly stuff: how will Bret Bielema recruit at Arkansas?

            For one, a school's name and reputation recruit. For another, Bielema has done nothing but win. For another, he's smart enough to adjust, like good coaches do. And really, isn't the SEC fairly hard nosed? Hasn't a hard-nosed team been in the national title game a few times? Aren't LSU and Alabama fairly hard-nosed?

            Bielema will bring some non-SEC air into the SEC, which isn't a bad thing. And Arkansas has identity issues: it's still Southwest Conference, but in the SEC, but as close to a few Big Ten schools as it is SEC schools.

            Kids want to be on TV, have a chance to go pro, win and play in front of a lot of people, pretty much in that order. Arkansas, like about 40 or so programs, has all that, and Bielema has rings.

            Kids are less confused about all this than the brilliant adults in the stands and on message boards.

            Silly, II: Can Butch Jones handle the pressure at Tennessee?

            Let's see: money, fan base, facilities, tradition, talent. There's more pressure to win at Cincy.

            And again, Jones has won and been around winning.

            People overcomplicate things. ...

            More this weekend on bowls and firings and hirings, with this note: the job of "recruiting coordinator" does not involve neeeeeeeearly as much as civilians think, so Georgia will not be hurt by Rodney Garner's departure (especially when thinking of Crowell and Ealey and King, oh my).

            From Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel at the Sugar Bowl:

            "It seems the Gators took a cue from their fans in this game and failed to show up. The crowd of 54,178 was the smallest at the Sugar Bowl since 1939. Because Louisville fans so badly outnumbered UF fans during bowl week, the locals began referring to their city as Lou-Orleans.'"

            Ouch. ...

            (From Dec. 7) It would appear that Georgia men's hoops coach Mark Fox is on the clock.

            He has gone 14-17, 21-12 and 15-17, and is 2-6, giving him a 52-52 mark at Georgia.

            The Bulldogs have five straight home games - Iona, Mercer, Southern Cal, Florida A&M and George Washington - against a group that is 17-23, and only one opponent is in a BCS conference.

            Then SEC play opens.

            Georgia goes two ways: the non-conference schedule adequately prepares the Bulldogs for the SEC, and they improve when it counts; or: not.

            If it's the latter, Fox enters next season with it likely to be his last.

            Update: UGA lost to Iona and then won three straight, with one of true quality, Southern California. But three straight is three straight, and it might be that aforementioned start toward progress with a young team. ...

            In general, it's unwise to encourage a lawsuit, but it's hard to argue with the state of Pa. filing one against the NCAA, which became a poster child for overstepping bounds with the Sandusky mess.

            Saner heads tend to wait for at least some part of the legal process to take course, or at least wait for those in charge of the violating institution to take some measure of punishment and repair. When was the last time the NCAA jumped the gun at all, let alone so severely?

            Hopefully, they'll come to an agreement so we don't wonder if some NCAA higher-ups are watching too many old movies about strong-arm governments in European countries, because the NCAA pretty much ignored a lot of the standards of America. ...

            Muhammad Ali was at the Sugar Bowl coin toss, noted more than once by Bianchi, who paid tribute:

            "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.

            "The 'Ville just put a Big East whuppin' on the big, bad SEC!"