A Promise Kept - Georgia Wins the National Championship

Hey.

Yes, I still have access to this account. Back in Fall of 2018, I decided Waitn' Since Last Saturday provided the much needed outlet blogging previously provided, Twitter is actually much easier for me, and I suck at writing.

Mostly, though, it was because I didn't have anything new to add. After ten years of blogging and 3+ of podcasting, it felt well worn.  

Because it was.

When Kirby was hired, I promised myself I'd write a post when Georgia won the National Championship, one in which I'd formally retire from this blog. It is said that you can't really retire when you aren't working, but I've always admired folks like Spencer Hall or Kyle King that could openly and publicly say they were done. Honestly, I expected to see the post that had been languishing in drafts since January 2019 after the Texas Sugar Bowl loss, the one in which I said I was done. It never became a post because I figured UGA would get a bigger stage and one that I'd feel good about doing a last post on. I never considered that for the Sugar Bowl last year, not because of the opponent or anything like that, but because I'd totally forgot I still had access to a blog.

But then they actually went and won it. 

So, there you are. Georgia won the National Championship. I was there. It happened.  

It was a blast doing this. I appreciate Westerdawg (Quint and Dawgnoxious, too) for letting me play in the sandbox they built. Who knows, I may end up unretiring one of these days and get back to turning out multiple posts a day.

But a promise is a promise, and God kept promises last Monday night in Indy, so I'm out.

Go Dawgs and see you around. 

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Ray Guy Award

You know, around the @WSLSPodcast, we think Brice Ramsey, unironically, should have been up for the Ray Guy Award, given annually to the best punter in college football. I personally believe, given a full season to do so, he'd have been in New York last night as a finalist.

However, after hearing the winner, Utah punter Tom Hackett, explain why he is a punter in the United States, instead of a professional Aussie Rules Footballer, I fully support the Augusta Sports Council for who they settled on for this years winner. 

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Why I don't leave games early

A bit cornball, but here it is:

It was sobering to hear that. For me, my first SEC game was an edifying, thrilling experience. But for these very lucky players and the fans who adore them, it was just another Saturday, and they get to do it all over again week after week.

This past Saturday, I had three former students come into town for the game. One is an Alabama fan. He gets it. One is a Texas fan that now lives in Chicago. The other is a Southern Cal fan that lives in LA. While both of them understand the passion, the Longhorn and the Trojan wanted to experience a live and up close SEC game day.

Think about that. Both of those programs have won national titles in the Mark Richt era. Both have seen their teams win national championships as students. Both have lived through a season without suffering a loss. Both felt like they were missing something if they didn't experience a game day done right at Georgia.

I've been lucky to get to do some cool stuff in my life. I've ridden in a limo with one of the Baldwin brothers. I've hung out with rock bands. I've chatted foreign policy with Edmund Muskie and Václav Havel. I have three awesome children and the love of a woman who loves sports and drinks good bourbon on the rocks. I am blessed beyond compare.

Outside of my wedding day and the day each my children were born, there is nothing that compares to how I feel when the University of Georgia takes the field (the same is true for all sports, actually). Words hardly describe it.

So that is why I stay until the end of games. Even blowouts in the rain. It is my thing. If you want to leave, that's cool. Don't expect me to understand. I don't expect you to understand why I stay.
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It's Game Day in Athens

We have made it yet again through another walk in the wilderness of college basketball, horse racing, and media days. Now let's all gather again in Athens to bask in the reverence of spirit that we share as members of Dawgnation.

Or something.

Someone bring the cooler. We've got a game at noon.

Go Dawgs!
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Brace yourself: 1980 UGA was the worst national champion of the last 35 years

I wonder how folks on the Dawgvent will find a way to blame Mark Richt for this.

The funny thing is that I can't argue with their logic, except they downplayed that year's Notre Dame team as only ranked 9th. They came in ranked that low due to recency bias, having tied a terrible Georgia Tech the same weekend UGA beat Florida and lost to a good Southern Cal team to end the regular season. Still, it is hard to argue with

One of the great things about college football's structure is that a "season-long playoff" is supposed to prevent an underqualified team from claiming No. 1. It might've failed in 1980, as it crowned a Georgia team that didn't play a ranked opponent until November, missed playing the other best team in the SEC (Alabama) and then drew final AP No. 9 Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl instead of more challenging opponents. Dawg fans should be grateful that they drew the Irish instead of a more talented version of the Pitt team that would beat Georgia in the Sugar Bowl one year later.

But, by that metric, I'd expect to see 1984 BYU mentioned somewhere. I guess when BYU wins the title, playing a 6-5 team on December 21st in their bowl game, the CFB season was probably a stinker.
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Football Writers Association of America 75th Anniversary All-America Team

Save you a click if you only care about UGA selections: Herschel and Butler are 1st team at RB and K. Champ is second team at CB.

Here it is, the #FWAA's 75th Anniversary All-America Team http://t.co/9zT6y7F7qf

— FWAA (@TheFWAA) August 20, 2015

Nebraska and Pitt have the most players selected. If you ever wanted proof of how the SEC hasn't always been the best confeOMG!1!rence, the Big10 and ACC have more selections, though Nebraska and Pitt are really skewing those numbers. If Nebraska were still in the Big12, they'd have more than the SEC. I didn't bother looking at the Big East/Metro/Independents.

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NFL experimenting with narrower goal post

SI is reporting that the NFL will experiment with narrower goal post in the Pro Bowl, which is funny because Pro Bowl offenses score touchdowns on approximately 99% of all drives. None the less, they are going from 18 feet 6 inches to 15 feet, in an effort to make 4th down more interesting.

Someone in the NFL should hire Les Miles.

I support this change, even for NCAA games, because I am against always kicking field goals on 4th and one. Mark Richt disagrees.
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Lewis Grizzard's letter to his son

I'm not posting all of "Great moments in a would be father's life" because I don't want to be accused of living in glory years from 30 years ago, but it fits with my current mind set. My favorite passage is

I hugged perfect strangers and kissed a fat lady on the mouth. Grown men wept. Lightening flashed. Thunder rolled. Stars fell, and joy swept through, fetched by a hurricane of unleashed emotions.

Grizzard was an unmatched poet when it comes to capturing a moment that all of us can relate to, even if you weren't alive in 1984. He hated Clemson the proper way, lustily and with vigor. Actaully, he hated everyone UGA played in the same way. 

Here's hoping folks have a few more names to add to their boy names list after tonight. It is game day folks.

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ONE WEEK

GET EXCITED BITCHES.
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Relegation

I'm not the first one with the idea, but for nearly 15 years, I've bantered the idea of relegation in major college football with friends and family. I'll freely admit I don't understand how professional soccer around the world determines who is demoted or promoted leagues, but I know it is done and generally works.

Thankfully, the world has Bill Connelly who is one of the world's nation's Missouri's foremost experts on major world football. And American college football.

Why would I support relegation? Take it away, Bill:

Promotion and relegation would bring an extra layer of drama and excitement to a sport already full of it. You want conference battles to matter more? You want directionless legacy programs to be punished for playing awful football for years on end? You want better, more deserving programs to fill the spots of the legacies? You want the top tier of college football to be nearly free of dead weight? Promotion and relegation are for you.

If you want to see what relegation would look like in American college football, read his post. My favorite? His prediction that North Dakota State would have likely played in the CapitalOne Bowl, and remain competitive in the B1.5G Of course, Connelly has a dose of reality:

But after two more years of this experiment, I'm no less sure that a) this would be an incredible thing for college football, in terms of excitement, competitiveness, drama, etc., and b) it would never, ever, ever, ever happen. It would reward currently powerless entities, and it would give entrenched, struggling programs no reason to say yes. But it's February; it's the time in the offseason where we can all do a little dreaming.

Preach on, Bill. Preach on.
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The In Game Experience

Welp.

While I am all for anything that shuts them up from playing Rocky Top for achievements like getting a play off successfully, I am empathetic to the band director's plight. I am sure part of Dave Hart's issues revolve around how much folks that are actually showing up for the games are interested in hearing the same stuff over and over versus how much they want to feel like there is a lively atmosphere.

I know where I stand on it, but as an AD seeing a stadium that isn't sold out and facing a deficit to pay for the sins of your predecessor, I can see where he'd want a loud stadium, even if he has to pump in some Pit Bull sometimes. As an aside, I think we get it right at UGA with the mixture of on video screen/loudspeaker entertainment vs. Red Coat Band. I am especially thankful that the powers that be let the Red Coats carry the house at pivotal points and late in the 4th quarter.

Plus, 

The band has a large and passionate alumni base, but in my experience picking a fight with athletics is always a losing battle.

Yeah, that is about right.

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A few nuggets from Bruce Feldman's time with Texas A&M

While I don't think there is anything particularly earth shattering about his article, there were a few nuggets I found very interesting.

• Youth on defense. We've spent a lot of time hand wringing over Georgia's young defense, but one thing that kept coming back to me during the Alabama-TAMU game was how both defenses looked out of sorts. Admittedly, it is due to laziness, but I had no idea the Aggies' defense has more freshmen on their two deep than Georgia does. Let that sink in. That is on a defense that was 9th in the conference in total D last year. That leads me to the inevitable questions: Did the media/coaches think their offense was so much better that they'd just super outscore everyone and do you think Texas A&M would beat Clemson?
• But seriously, they had way more suspensions than Georgia in their defense. Would this game be the game of the century if they'd played Clemson (or another quality opponent) in their season opener?
• They looked at the Georgia loss to Clemson to get the Aggies to focus on the 'what if' question. I could make the argument that not playing in your conference championship game changes the math, but someone, somewhere would just tell me how much I hate America for not wanting an Alabama-Texas A&M rematch.
• Texas A&M's offense is all about balance. Mike Bobo nods approvingly. 
• Rick Ross at practice. Rick. Ross.
• It might be for show (or this particular article), but the 'Sumlin hates Manziel' narrative gets killed pretty good.
• Sumlin is a good coach. He is a far better leader.

Oh, and Sumlin is completely the anti-Saban, at least as far as approach goes. Can you imagine Saban allowing a reporter not named Finebaum sitting in His Staff Meetings?

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Weekend observations

The cool part of a bye weekend is you can put your energy on pure hate, rather than use it on hope for a Georgia win.

So, what did we learn this weekend?

• OMG Georgia Tech can throw the football!!!! Before we get all worked up over Vlad Lee's 4 TD pass performance, keep in mind they didn't throw the ball but 16 times the whole game. Three of the four TDs came on 3rd and long. That sort of situation won't be optimal against a defense more competent than Duke's. Last year, they had 3 of their twelve passing TDs against Duke, with two each against Presbyterian and USC.
• Tennessee isn't ready. You think Bobo looked at all those open receivers Oregon had on play action passes and didn't grin a little?
• Florida State looks very ready. They consistently kept Nevada's offense from finding any rhythm. 
• Oh, Mack. You are so fired. 
• Wow. South Carolina needed way more to hold off Vandy than I thought they would have. Give them props for the goal line stand and ensuing long game killing drive, but Spurrier can't be happy over giving up 15 unanswered 4th Q points.
• B1.5G going 1-3 against the Pac-12. While there was only one match-up that was actually compelling (Wisconsin vs. Arizona State), the UCLA blow out of Nebraska had to hurt.
• Hey, Auburn won a conference game. Extension time for Malzahn.

What'd you enjoy?

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Rankings

Dawgs are 9th in the AP and 10th in the Coaches' Poll. I'm not too worried over these things yet, as there is plenty of football to be played.  However, it is important to note how close Georgia is to number 7 Louisville in the Coaches' Poll. 100 points separate the Dawgs from Louisville.

In between is LSU and Florida State. Right in front of Louisville is Texas A&M.

Right now, the only thing we can do is take care of business. If the last few years have taught us anything, other stuff will happen. We just have to make sure it doesn't happen to us.
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Saturday morning tailgate thoughts

It is a lovely morning in Athens. If you aren't here yet, get here soon; we need to fill up the stadium early. I'm looking at you, alumni that don't want to get caught in traffic and students that will wait until the end of the first, 'cause this keg ain't gonna float itself. Ice that baby down and get here.

*The crowd seems boisterous, at least here.
*I can hear the Redcoats practicing. It is glorious.
*One thought I had about the game is that Shaw's long pass play came off a play action where the UNC guy was alone with the receiver. Think we'll see that play a time or two?
*What is the over/under?
*Any chance those guys tailgating beside us can play Dream Weaver? I miss that.

Did I mention you need to get here?
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How I chose to remember 2012

And this is the last thing from 2012 I'll watch. http://t.co/vkPlknnchJ
— Tyler Dawgden (@TylerDawgden) August 28, 2013

Now. On to Clemson.
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Quayvon Hicks: Master of Dawg Porn

The face mask isn't the scariest part of looking up to see him.
(photo: Ethan Burch, from the ABH)

Clemson will be the first opponent to see Hicks’ new face mask, but he doesn’t care if it intimidates them or not. He just wants the Tigers to know he’s coming for them.
“I just want them to feel me,” Hicks said. “With or without the face mask I’m still going to bring it.”

I'm all goose bumpy. Go Damn Dawgs!
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Possible Hurry Up Offense Solutions (and the End of the SEC Championship Game)

I've been pretty quiet on the hurry up offense thing for several reasons. I think it is grousing by coaches who aren't comfortable with change. Why?

1. Football is a sport where 300+lbs men run into each other. A lot. There will be injuries.
2. Any coach saying hurry up offenses are an injury concern is doing so because it advantages their particular philosophy, not because they are concerned about injuries, because
3. If they were concerned about injuries, they'd corner kick, take touch backs or fair catch kickoffs and punts when they could, as a start.

Oh, and they'd be crowing about the lack of advances in head gear, too many full contact practices, concussion treatment protocol, and uniformity in drug testing, all of which are far more important to the health and safety of their players than if an offense gets a play off when you are trying to get set or runs too many plays. And if you are concerned about hurry up, why not lump in no count/quick count snaps? Wouldn't those be injurious, too?

Once you step on the football field, the ball might be in play. Deal with it.

But Ellis Johnson has ideas, such as a short count off after the ball is set before the offense can snap it

Besides, if everything was equal, Johnson said there would be a rule in place regulating the amount of time between each snap. 

“I’d want a minimum of five seconds, three seconds, whatever,” he said. “When that ball is put on the ground, you will not snap it for five seconds. If you can’t get lined up by then, then tough.”

This does mirror some of what Mark Richt said at media days about being organized on defense and whatnot. And that is another post in the making.

Here's the thing, I thought this was why the official stood over the ball for a beat before whistling the ball in play. I don't take Johnson's 'it ain't football' view. In fact, it is football and very much so. In the same way folks complained in supper clubs, Union Halls, and burlesque theaters in the 1910s about the forward pass being dangerous, I view this as folks not liking hurry up offenses challenging their own personal philosophy of football, and I say this as a former defensive player and one who loves to see great defenses play.

And I love #MACtion as much as the next guy. If teams can't stop each other, then they can't stop each other. And now I'm having a flashback to the 4th quarter of the 2006 Tennessee game.

One last thought, while I'm at it:
If there were a 3 to 5 second count after setting the ball down, how many people would think spiking the ball at the end of the SECCG is the right call?

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ESPNU to show top games of 2012

They've already selected #6-25, presented below:

25. Nebraska vs. Northwestern (game highlight)

24. BYU vs. Utah (game highlight)

23. Stanford vs. Arizona

22. Ole Miss vs. LSU (post game presser – Les Miles)

21. Texas vs. Oklahoma State

20. North Carolina State vs. Miami (game highlight)

19. Gildan New Mexico Bowl:  Nevada vs.  Arizona  (game highlight)

18. Oklahoma vs. West Virginia

17. Florida State vs. North Carolina State (game highlight)

16. Nebraska vs. Michigan State (game highlight)

15. Oklahoma State vs. Oklahoma (game highlight)

14. Cincinnati vs. Louisville

13. Louisiana-Monroe vs. Arkansas (game highlight)

12. Northwestern vs. Michigan

11. West Virginia vs. Baylor

10. Purdue vs. Ohio State (game highlight)

9.    Notre Dame vs. Stanford 

8.    Texas A&M vs. Louisiana Tech (game highlight)

7.    Notre Dame vs. Pittsburgh

6.    Chick-Fil-a Bowl: Clemson vs. LSU   (game highlight)

The candidates for top 5 include the SECCG. I'm honestly torn about this. One, as a college football fan, it was a terrific football game. Probably top 2 or 3 of games I've seen in person in my life. However, I'm a Georgia fan and the thought of that game being the top game with all the heart ripping out and whatnot is hard to take.

Anyway, if you are so inclined, go vote here.

ESPNU will show the games in reverse order starting on July 17th. The 5th and 4th games will air on July 27th, with the top three airing on the 28th.

As of right now, Texas A&M vs. Alabama is slightly leading the SECCG for first place.

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PS. I voted objectively and put the SECCG first, as tough as that was to do.

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Georgia Athletics FAIL

Not cool cancelling Football 101. Easily one of the best things UGA football does to help engage the ladies and get them on board. I realize June is when the summer camps/recruiting heats up, but a few hours on Saturday isn't that much when you consider the very good will built by having that kind of access to future players moms, sisters and cousins. And my wife.

I guess without Rodney Garner around to get outrun to the endzone on a pick, there was no reason to hold it.

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