and musings:
- Word is that several weeks ago, Kirby told Muschamp, in effect, "Shcu and I will take Vandy and Florida. You've got Tennessee. Now get to work." Muschamp deserves a lot of credit for coming up with much of what you saw from our defense yesterday. And Schumann and Muschamp deserve a lot of credit for honing the scheme and working together to call a great game.
- During the bye week before Florida, we practiced on Tennessee for two days. We ran two scout offenses at our D as fast as we could. When one play ended and as the D was getting back to its feet, the next scout unit sprinted to the line of scrimmage already knowing the play and snapped the ball. We ran Tennessee literally faster than Tennessee runs Tennessee. Yesterday wasn't nearly the test it would've been otherwise.
- Also aiding in that was our elegantly simple game plan. Where Alabama couldn't pull off defending Tennessee with its base personnel, we could. Alabama opted to go Dime often in the second half because it was the only way they could have marginal success. Instead, we had the gall to send four off the line, crash one of our ILBs (Mondon was a crash dummy about 20 times) to stop the run, and, most importantly, the gall to split out a LB with a TE and sometimes even against a WR. Sometimes it was an ILB (Mondon) and sometimes an OLB (Chaz). When 11 streaked across the middle, he got redirected by a LB. We manned up on the outside and trusted our corners with whoever lined up against them. The corner and Star or Corner and LB switched defenders when the receivers out wide traded spots pre-snap, and we ran with them. Yes, they got behind us maybe four times. But it doesn't much matter when a rattled QB is having to heave the ball just before he gets hit. Ninety percent of the time, we were draped all over their receivers..
- I have not heard results of the X-rays on Beal. But it believed he is fine. The staff diagnosed a stinger before he left the field, and he jogged to the lockerroom. Fingers crossed that he is fine.
- Bullard and Starks are unreal. Starks will be the best safety in the country for the next two years. Bullard and 88 are our best pure football players, and that's saying something. Who lines up a 5-11, 180-pound gnat to run with 6-foot-6 TEs? Somebody who knows that gnat is really pure dawg.
- The development of 3 is something to behold. Our CB play yesterday was stellar.
- The non-reversal of the safety was beyond egregious. Kirby was told that there was no angle that clearly showed when the lineman lost the ball after recovering Hooker's fumble. That's irrelevant when there is clearly an angle showing not only his knee but his entire leg and hip on the ground while while he gripped the ball with both hands before even the tip of the ball crossed the goal line, much less the entirety of the ball, which is the rule. The public non-accountability of college referees is akin to a mafia racket. It was one of the worst non-reversals in football history at any level. (It has become a joke to SEC coaches to even send in film to the league office on Mondays; they know it's fruitless. The coaches' only recourse is to raise cain at them during a game to try to get some amount of redress during the game.)
- You may have noticed that at the height of the rainy madness, 22, 15, 13, and 7 were the ones wreaking havoc on the sacks. Sophomore, junior who will return, freshman, freshman.
- It is amazing how much UGA dominated UTjr despite UTjr almost exclusively getting all the breaks: The early fumble. Getting a fumble right back after committing a turnover that likely would've led to a complete blowout on the scoreboard. Their first FG came due to multiple penalties, one on third down. Their next FG came because of multiple penalties, including a poor call on Ringo for holding. An irrelevant facemask at the tail end of a scrum gave UTjr a first down after a sack on 4th-and-about-27. A perfect ball that went straight through Arian's arms inside the 10. Finally, UTjr's only TD came on what was easily the worst defensive call of UGA's day. We blitzed seven for no reason, bringing Chris from deep and vacating the very area where 11 caught a post on Starks despite really good coverage when the kid was totally alone.
- We got six sacks not only because we sent people but because the coverage behind it was ridiculously good in most cases.
- Words cannot adequately describe how loud our fans were. I've never, ever been in a louder environment. David Lee Roth with Steve Vai was close but not as loud. It wasn't just the decibels. It was the sustained levels. It was complete madness. The Notre Dame game was an excited kind of loud. Yesterday was a venomous loud. Our fans played pissed off.
- Having said that, I'll sign off with this: There wasn't even close to a Tennessee takeover of our stadium. Kudos to most fans for that. However, I've read repeatedly that there really wasn't that much orange in the stadium. But there still were more opposing fans than I've ever personally seen in and around Sanford. The North side especially had a lot of UTjr fans spread out in every section, lower and upper. There were 10,000 Vols in our house if there was one. And that is pathetic. Those of you who sold your tickets on Stub Hub should be ashamed. Even if a Vol didn't buy yours, you gave them the opportunity. If you brought a Vol family member or friend with you, shame on you. That's the wrong game to play nice. And if you're one of the handful who went over to the UTjr ticket board and offered your tickets, and you know who you are, what the frick were you thinking?
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