Signing Day Thoughts

Just a quick note for my thoughts on Signing Day.

Overall, I am satisfied with this class.  I understand why some people are complaining, we definitely missed out on more of the top in-state talent this year than usual, but I can honestly say the only prospect I'm really bummed about losing was Tunsil (who wasn't even an in-state prospect).  I think that was a huge loss, he seems like as close to a sure-fire prospect as you can get, as long as he stays healthy, and there just aren't too many of those elite-level tackles out there. So when you have the chance to get one, it hurts to lose them. 

Don't get me wrong, I would have LOVED to land Kamara and/or Adams as well, but losing them doesn't strike me as being as big a loss as Tunsil.  Of course, if we end up with a stretch next year where both Gurley and Marshall are injured, I will be singing a different tune.  But, we still got 32 guys and like most other things in life, recruiting is largely a numbers game, so hopefully we get a fair amount of future star players out of this class.

The Grantham news will be interesting to follow.  If he really did get on the phone with Davin Bellamy and assure Bellamy that he would be staying, it would look terrible to do a 180.  My gut tells me that Grantham fully intends on staying, but may go do an interview or two to test out what his market value is for future/current negotiations.  But.............we'll see.

-Rev.

For The Other Soccer Fans Out There - Gus Johnson the Voice of US Soccer?

I know, I know, signing day is tomorrow and nobody is thinking about soccer.  But since there seems to be very little (good) news for recruits making their decisions tomorrow on the UGA front, this caught my eye.

Richard Deitsch over at Sports Illustrated has an article up today saying that Fox is grooming Gus Johnson to be the voice of soccer in the US for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.  Now I like Gus, I know some people think he's over the top but I actually find him to be pretty entertaining.  I was suspicious about his move to college football but  I think he has handled the move pretty well.  And if there is an American voice out there that could match the energy of a  "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!" call like we hear from the Latin American/South American leagues, Gus is certainly the guy.

But really, I just don't think ANY American voice should be "the" voice for coverage in the US.  It's a tried and true method............hire one guy with a British accent, another guy with a Scottish accent, and let them call the games.  Whether discussing the condition of the "pitch", the "lovely" touch on a through ball, a "magical" effort, or whatever other soccer lingo, it just sounds so right with an accent from the United Kingdom, and so wrong with an accent from the United States.  Studio analysts are a different story, I enjoy Wynalda, Lalas,etc with their halftime and pregame stuff, but the guys calling the game need to speak properly, and in this case properly wasn't born/raised in the US.

Am I right?

(Also, going back to signing day, hopefully we pick up one or two more, but I'm still excited about this signing class.  Tunsil is a huge loss, he would have been great to have the next 3 or 4 years, but other than that it's a great class that addresses our needs).

-Rev

Clowney Hit - Mortal Kombat style

More genius from LSUFreek.  He truly is the .gif master!

I thought it was bad when Clowney tossed Murray around like a rag doll last year, but this was as powerful a hit as you'll ever see.

As LC just said, if Murray decides to go ahead and turn pro, I kinda understand.

-Rev.

Capital One Thoughts

When this matchup was announced, I felt really good about it.  I've only seen Nebraska play here and there this year, but with both sides of the ball starting to click for us in the second half of the season, it seemed like we were in good shape.  But losing Jenkins for this game has me really worried.  Even though the conditioning has clearly been better this year, there have definitely been a couple of times where it seemed like our defensive front wore down late in the game.  Obviously the SECCG jumps to mind, but even the Florida game jumps to my mind as well...........Florida had actually driven the ball down the field pretty easily on us on that last drive, we were just fortunate that Jarvis was able to get in there and make a great play to knock the ball loose at the goal line.  But we were getting no push from the line at the end.

So, for me, I'd love to see us come out and jump on them early.  If we can put 21 points on the board by the early part of the 2nd quarter without giving up much, I like us going away.  But if it is still close going into the 4th quarter, we're gonna have a mess on our hands, and it will probably be up to the offense to win the game for us (this is the scenario I think is more likely).  I think they'll be able to move the ball on our defense, but I'm banking on our defense being opportunistic and making 2 or 3 big plays to give us a couple of extra possessions in the game and hopefully close the game out at the end. 

I'm going to say we win 38-31, with Jarvis making the biggest opportunistic play of the day, a sack on the game's final play to (A) seal the victory and (B) break Pollack's record.  How fitting of an ending would that be to his UGA career? 

This game is very big for the perception of UGA nationally.  Lose to Nebraska after the way they got blown out against Wisconsin, and all the doubters in the media are going to be right back where they were after the SC game.  The UF victory and playing 'Bama to a near standstill have pushed us in the right direction, now it's time to build on that with a solid out of conference victory.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.  And GO DAWGS!

-Rev.

SECCG fence riding thoughts

Looking back through the season, it's hard to get a strong feeling either way.  All phases have had ups and downs throughout the season, playing lights out some games and other times looking like the lights weren’t on (both result in being in the dark but have interestingly different meanings).

Last year’s SECCG went as expected and I walked out of the Dome thinking that if one thing doesn’t change, the championship drought will continue .  That one thing is Aaron making critically bad decisions in big games.  There were some bad drops in last year’s game but 16 for 40 with 2 picks and 163 yards usually won’t result in a W.  If you have that many attempts, you're either behind or in a shootout and if it's a shootout, you better have more completions and yards then that.  By all indications, he is one of the hardest working guys on the team, has been studying football for a long time, and been lucky enough to spend time with some NFL greats during his football life but has so far proven that he struggles in big games.  Listen, he’s solely responsible for a few wins over his 3 years but he’s also played a huge role in most of the loses by not protecting the ball. 

I left the South Carolina game in disgust of both Aaron and the defense.  It’s almost impossible for a player with his talent to have 31 attempts and only 11 completions for 109 yards.  Add in another terrible game against Florida (3 picks, 50% completion, and 150 yards) and it is cause for concern.  7 interceptions  in 3 games versus Florida (2 wins).  In recent years, the Dawgs have proven they can win some shootouts if the defense doesn’t play well but securing victories without the offense playing well is a rare occurrence. I'm not trying to kill Aaron here but simply stating that the fate in Saturday's game is literally in his hands and he must prove that all his hard work and skill can show up in a huge game. 

Winning this game comes down to 2 things: 

1.  the offense can’t GIVE UP points (that includes turnovers starting Bama inside our 40) and
2. special teams must be close to even, looking right at you Morgan

Bottom Line…We CAN win this game if the defense plays poorly but there’s no chance if the offense does. 

BTW - dawgs getting love on The Dan Patrick Show this week.  Tony Dungy gave high praise to Aaron on Monday, Andy Staples did the same today with Jarvis, and CMR is scheduled to be on the show tomorrow (11/29).  All interviews are on the show page. 

-Simple

Stats, Stats, Stats....Stats, Stats,Stats

Curious where we rank in stats, check out the SEC page.  Looking through both the team and individual stats, the only thing that sticks out is just how mediocre we are statistically speaking. 

I think this speaks to our inconsistency in all phases.  The big spikes in each direction throughout the season create average numbers.  There's no doubt that if we ever put it all together in a complete game, we can dominate good teams and be an elite team. 

One truth that is concerning is that the offense played poorly in the 2 games against borderline great defenses generating well under 300 yards of total offense in both games.  Assuming we take care of business this weekend, we'll see the best defense in the country and the only chance we have of winning that game is for the offense to play better.  The defense has been inconsistent too this year but they've shown the capability to shut down good teams at times over recent years.  It's been a while since the offense exploded against a great defense.  I'm not saying we have to score 30 on Bama to win but Aaron can't have multiple turnovers and we have to convert some 3rd downs.

Very happy to be playing such meaningful games this late in the season but still humbled by the beating we took in Columbia.   Remember that was only 4 games ago.  3 games ago the defense gave up 200 yards of rushing and 24 points to a team ranked over a 100 nationally in all offensive categories, didn't score against Vanderbilt or Florida, lost by 42 to Arkansas, and got beat by Western Kentucky.  We're in a great position considering how we've played at times this year.  Let's hope this team is starting to get everything cooking at the right time like last year's NY Giants or the Packers from 2 years ago. 

-Simple

Backing In...or Plowing Ahead

If the Gators beat the Cocks this Saturday (3:30 on CBS) and we beat the Gators the following Saturday (ditto, of course), we will be in the driver's seat for the SEC East crown.
After the Cocks deflowered us on prime time TV last week, I will freely admit I had no interest in backing into the SECCG.  (I also had a lot of other strong feelings about the program, but we won't get into that now.)
Last night was a very sobering reminder that we aren't (or simply haven't shown that we are) on SC's level based on how tough they looked vs. LSU.  That was a helluva game no matter who you were pulling for, but the SC loss obviously benefits us.
I honestly don't think UF can beat SC, but it is in The Swamp and it is SC.  I don't expect it, but it wouldn't surprise me, either.

Having said all that, if the Gators win and we beat them, are you just as fired up to get to face either Bama or LSU in the SECCG or are you still on the "we didn't earn it" side of the fence?

What will change my outlook is if we throttle UK (and look nasty and pissed off doing so) and then play extremely well vs. UF. 
If we look shaky vs. UF, that will give me pause.

Thoughts?