Enjoy viewing Georgia Southern as ‘that little school with minor league championships’ while you can, they’re moving to the Sunbelt.
In all honesty, I’m not sure how much of a step up this is with all the Sunbelt-level teams moving up the conferences like Conference USA. But hey, at least the gang in Statesboro can shoot for the St. Petersburg Bowl or the New Orleans Bowl.
All of that said, having more schools in the state on the same playing level of division is a good thing.
As we’ve documented a time or two here on TGT, having a weak in-state rival is a tremendous enabler of the college football program. It’s not a fluke that Urban Meyer elevated the Florida program at the same time that Florida State’s fortunes slumped.
Here in the Peach State, Georgia Tech, for various reasons, is sticking for our good ole fish frying pal, Paul Johnson and his bass-ackwards offense that works great if you are Georgia Southern but not so well when you face top-caliber athletes on defense each week and referees that have the gonads to call cut-block penalties.
The fact of it is that if you are a top-line offensive player, the last place you want to go is Georgia Tech. It does little, if anything to prepare you for the NFL. Remember Jonathan Dwyer and how great he made CPJ look? Playing in that offense was so impressive that he was drafted in the sixth round.
The national and regional media in addition to the Jerry Springer rejects on Paul Finebaum would have us believe that nothing bad ever happens with Alabama’s program, that no players ever, ever run afoul of the law, because when you play for the great Nick Saban, you just don’t want to even think about doing anything close to breaking the rules.
I pity the lowly student assistant who had to break the news to Saban…I can imagine a scene from Star Wars of Darth Vader using the force to neck-choke someone.
As we know all too well in Athens, you can instill all of the good things in 18-22 year olds you want, but at the end of the day they are just that, 18-22 year olds.
I’m waiting on outlets like the AJC to plaster across the front of their home page that Alabama players have been arrested and for columnists decrying the like of control of the program under Nick Saban, and accusations that the program is nothing but thugs running wild out of the control.
On paper, Georgia brought in a solid class. Good, but not spectacular – at least for now. What will make this group spectacular won’t be known for at least a year. All the four and five star rankings are great, and all. But for every Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall, there are also some guys like Marquise Elmore and Darius Swain.
At least in the short term, one of the biggest keys to this signing class may very well be Chris Mayes. Georgia’s defensive line depth, especially in the middle is a mixture of raw, inexperienced and unproven. Sure, there is potential with a handful of freshmen or sophomores, but that potential is about as useful as toilet paper.
And then there’s Mayes. As far as experience goes, he’s further along thanks to time within the JUCO ranks. And with his 6-4, 315 pound frame, he could be the key in Georgia’s rebuilt defense being great rather than so-so. Montravius Adams would have been a nice get, but if he’s intent on playing for Rodney Garner, more power to him (it’s debatable whether or not he’d have gotten into UGA anyway).
As we saw with Todd Grantham’s arrival, strong play in the middle of the defensive line makes this 3-4 defense go.
The case can be made that as defensive tackles develop, so goes this team’s defense.
And Chris Mayes is right there in the midst of it.
The SEC has made it clear that it’s very concerned about player safety…depending upon who you are.
The decision by the SEC office to not suspend Quinton Dial for his hit on Aaron Murray in the SEC championship once again emphasizes that the conference office is all about sending a message and concern for player safety….as long as said player is not on a team playing for a national title.
It was bad enough two years ago when Auburn’s straight up thug defensive end was allowed to, multiple times throughout the season, deliberately try to injure QBs and the league office did NOTHING.
So it should come as absolutely no surprise that it once again chooses to protect teams playing for a national title instead of being advocates for player safety.
Personally, I would not blame Aaron Murray for wanting to play in the NFL, where the safety of quarterbacks on all team is taken seriously.
It wasn’t surprising what we heard out of Athens earlier this week, that Aaron Murray is still replaying the end of the SEC title game in his head.
All of us can certainly relate. The mere thought of it all still makes me sick to my stomach and likely will for a very long time. Yours truly wasn’t in a very talkative mood the Monday after the game at work, lets put it that way.
If it’s that hard for us to get out of our collective heads as the Bulldog Nation, I can’t imagine what it’s like for DGDs like Murray, Chris Conley and Tavarres King.
Which leads me to why I’m worried about the Capital One Bowl. Many times, the winner of a bowl game isn’t about who’s the better team, but rather who is more motivated.
Look, I’d much rather be in Miami in January. We all would. But this team isn’t. Hopefully, this Georgia team doesn’t tarnish its season by letting Alabama beat it again on New Years Day.
Personally, I can’t wait to be in Orlando Jan. 1 to give this team’s seniors…and a few others…one final sendoff of thanks for one of the funnest seasons in Athens in quite some time.
The more I think about it, we are in the golden age of Georgia football.
Not only is being a top five program not a goal, but the expectation, but some of our biggest rivals and so inept that it to a point becomes entertaining.
It’s kind of like Clark Griswold’s Christmas Bonus
“That it is Edward, that is is indeed…”
Auburn was beyond bad this year, and the NATS is the laughingstock of college football by having a losing record but still playing in a bowl game.
Those two, however, are well surpassed by the folks at Good Ole Rocky Slop.
Seriously, Tennessee AD Dave Hart ran a clinic the past two weeks on how NOT to conduct a coaching search,
It all started with the ridiculous Jon Gruden talk. Yea, Jon Gruden is going to leave a job where all he does is watch film and work one day a week. If you think a guy like Gruden, or as he would say, ‘this guy,’ would give that up to deal with coaching in the toughest conference in the land, then I have some oceanfront property in Colquitt County for you. The only people who believed Gruden would come to UT I think were inside the state of Tennessee itself.
Then there was the pursuit of Mike Gundy, who probably could have kept his same wardrobe color. Tennessee, though looked like a darn fool. Like Gruden, Gundy was never serious about coming to Knoxville. Gundy’s a man. He’s probably getting a contract extension.
Enter Charlie Strong. Honestly, this is the coach I feared Tennessee hiring the most. He’s done quite well as a coordinator against Georgia and probably should have gotten a ‘big boy’ SEC job a long time ago. What does it say about how far Tennessee has fallen that a coach chooses to stay at a basketball school instead of coaching in Knoxville.
So finally, Tennessee winds up with Butch Jones. He’s an average coach, maybe a tad above. Hey, you can’t spell Buttchugging without Butch. He’s an upgrade over Derek Dooley, although that does not say a lot. Jones, however, may be condemning his own fate before it begins.
His defensive hires have Mike Bobo salivating. Not only is Teflon Willie Martinez joining the staff, but John Jancek, Jones’ defensive coordinator at Cincy is coming with him. Seriously, how dad gum many incriminating photos can one assistant coach have?! Here’s a guy who should have been at least demoted from defensive coordinator after the 2006 season and somehow stuck around through 2009. Then he inexplicably winds up at Oklahoma and Auburn, two major, big-time programs.
Can’t touch this…
All I know is that if you are facing Tennessee and its third and 19, the odds are pretty good in your favor.
But back to Jancek…
Yes, the same John Jancek who was the worst coaching hire by Georgia since Kevin Ramsey. One only needs to look at how bad the linebacker play at Georgia was once Jancek arrived.
The sun came up today, but it sure didn’t feel like it.
It still feels like a nightmare, a bad dream that you can’[t believe happened. To me, the loss doesn’t bother me. It’s the fear that this was Georgia’s best chance at a MNC, and you never know when it’ll happen again.
I felt like I was watching the end of the Friday Night Lights movie.
This is certain – Aaron Murray was one play from being a Georgia legend, maybe bigger than Herschel – and the Falcons would have needed a new stadium right away, because the Georgia Dome would have been destroyed by a bedlam of fans.
Unfortunately it was not to be, another chapter in possibly the most snakebit football program in SEC history.
Losing hurts, anyone who questions the intensity of this team or coaching staff’s showing yesterday is welcome to exit stage right. This team was counted out by most everyone, including a former UGA legend on ESPN and was a tipped pass away from shocking Alabama and the college football world. If you want someone’s head on a platter after that, there’s a Falcons bandwagon waiting for you.
I’m not sure how long it’ll take to get over this loss. I can’t imagine how much harder it’ll be for Georgia’s players – let’s hope it occurs before a bowl game.
