Three Observations
3. “And the mule they came in on”
Kirby Smart does not like Florida. He hates Florida like Steve Spurrier hates Georgia. Front to back, soup to nuts. Like my passion for Salma Hayek, his hatred burns bright and is not affected by age. Spurrier takes digs at Georgia all the time. Hell, he predicted an upset this weekend. Smart won’t do stuff like that publicly, but behind the scenes, he’s just as focused. It’s a one-game season for Smart every year. Ask the players. Off the record, they’ll tell you this week is different.
I was reminded of a story from a couple of years ago. During a team meeting, Smart was showing part of a Dan Mullen press conference. Halfway through he yelled to turn it off, saying he couldn’t stand Florida and had some words about their coach/program. The team went nuts. Remember, this is the same Kirby Smart who was standing on the goal line as a freshman when Florida scored on a pass with two minutes to go as Spurrier hung half a hundred on UGA.
You can also be fairly confident that Georgia alums Mike Bobo, Bryan McClendon, and Todd Hartley feel likewise. Will it matter in the end? I don’t know. But it can’t hurt. It won’t be long before Smart is a four-letter word among Florida fans.
2. The lack of sacks
Georgia is the second-to-worst team in the SEC when it comes to sacks. The only team with fewer sacks than Georgia’s 12 is Florida with 11. These two quarterbacks could remain as untouched as fat-free mac and cheese.
And I’ve heard people say sacks are down everywhere. Well, Texas A&M has almost 30. Two teams on Georgia’s remaining schedule, Tennessee and Ole Miss, have 25 or more. Opposing quarterbacks go down faster than an Auburn gender-studies major.
On the other hand, Georgia has only given up six sacks through seven games. That’s impressive. Florida, meanwhile, has given up 19. Maybe this is the game for Georgia to rattle Graham Mertz.
1. If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.
Is it wrong that I am enjoying the Michigan signal-stealing drama so damn much? It’s like the greatest slow-motion car crash, wrapped up in a Tom Clancy spy thriller, then lovingly dipped into a vat of buttery schadenfreude.
As a journalist, it’s better than one of your dad’s blue pills. Every day there’s a new chapter. Monday’s denials are destroyed with Tuesday’s reporting. Tuesday’s justifications are obliterated with a video released on Wednesday. Conspiracy theories are floated and then proven to be true. And to cap it off, TCU used the whole system against the Wolverines. Glorious. The 30-for-30 on this will be a blast.
But who else is doing it? There’s no way Michigan is the only school that sends scouts.
As for the SEC, there was an interesting text that was sent out this week to equipment staffs all over the SEC. The conference wanted to know who each team used as headset providers, and if those providers had given the staff a cost of putting a “coach to player” device in the helmets. The SEC wanted to know if schools had concerns about it or had discussed “wearable technology.”
There were multiple concerns raised. First, it’s expensive. Most schools use CoachComm based out of Auburn, but some, like Georgia, use MV Sport (Marvac) out of California. The NFL uses an “in-house” system not available outside the league. So this isn’t a copy/paste scenario. That will cost more. Second, there are also competitive issues. Playing out of conference would mean you can use it in some games but not others, depending on which conferences adopt possible changes. Finally, helmet manufacturers are all saying adding the technology would violate their helmet warranties, thus making the schools solely liable in case of injury,
Two Questions
2. Who can play?
If Amarius Mims, Xavier Truss, Rod Robinson and Kendall Milton are all healthy enough to play, this could be a fun game. To be fair, Smart would have told us Joe Theismann “could’ve gone back in,” so I’ll take his optimistic injury reports with a grain of salt.
Ladd McConkey and Milton are ready to go, but I doubt Mims and Truss are.
It would be wild to see true freshman Monroe Freeling get his first career start in Jacksonville. Freshmen tackles for Georgia? I’d be as nervous as Jim Harbaugh’s agent.
All the focus has been on the loss of Brock Bowers. It should be. He killed the Gators last year. I suspect we could see the emergence of Lawson Luckie this week. If anybody grew up knowing what this game was about, it’s Mike Luckie’s kid. Still, that would be a lot to put on him just as he’s returning.
I bet we do see a lot more from Julian Humphrey, though.
1. How many games are left in Jacksonville?
A year or two ago I wrote that this game was going to be moved out of Jacksonville. Well, like year seven of your marriage, things have changed. Not even Smart is as adamant about moving the game as he once was. And while no one can say with absolute certainty what will happen, I suspect the game will be in Jax for the foreseeable future.
Speaking to folks in the know, the stadium upgrade will be one determining factor. And both schools make more money by having the game in Jacksonville. Mainly they receive revenue every year versus zero when the game is away. That’s a delta of about 5 million every two years. Plus the City of Jacksonville makes payments directly to each school which they use to keep the costs of tickets down compared to other neutral site games. Or so I am told. I can’t afford them regardless. The point is, I think we will see this game in Jacksonville unless the SEC schedule changes the calculus.
One Prediction
When I predict a blowout this season, Georgia struggles. When I predict a closer game, the Dawgs beat their opponents into oblivion. So don’t listen to me. Rather, listen to what one of our Georgia insiders predicted.
“We are going to rout them like Kentucky.”
I’ll believe it when I see it. But it’s good to know people with a lot more football knowledge than you or I are confident.
3. “And the mule they came in on”
Kirby Smart does not like Florida. He hates Florida like Steve Spurrier hates Georgia. Front to back, soup to nuts. Like my passion for Salma Hayek, his hatred burns bright and is not affected by age. Spurrier takes digs at Georgia all the time. Hell, he predicted an upset this weekend. Smart won’t do stuff like that publicly, but behind the scenes, he’s just as focused. It’s a one-game season for Smart every year. Ask the players. Off the record, they’ll tell you this week is different.
I was reminded of a story from a couple of years ago. During a team meeting, Smart was showing part of a Dan Mullen press conference. Halfway through he yelled to turn it off, saying he couldn’t stand Florida and had some words about their coach/program. The team went nuts. Remember, this is the same Kirby Smart who was standing on the goal line as a freshman when Florida scored on a pass with two minutes to go as Spurrier hung half a hundred on UGA.
You can also be fairly confident that Georgia alums Mike Bobo, Bryan McClendon, and Todd Hartley feel likewise. Will it matter in the end? I don’t know. But it can’t hurt. It won’t be long before Smart is a four-letter word among Florida fans.
2. The lack of sacks
Georgia is the second-to-worst team in the SEC when it comes to sacks. The only team with fewer sacks than Georgia’s 12 is Florida with 11. These two quarterbacks could remain as untouched as fat-free mac and cheese.
And I’ve heard people say sacks are down everywhere. Well, Texas A&M has almost 30. Two teams on Georgia’s remaining schedule, Tennessee and Ole Miss, have 25 or more. Opposing quarterbacks go down faster than an Auburn gender-studies major.
On the other hand, Georgia has only given up six sacks through seven games. That’s impressive. Florida, meanwhile, has given up 19. Maybe this is the game for Georgia to rattle Graham Mertz.
1. If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.
Is it wrong that I am enjoying the Michigan signal-stealing drama so damn much? It’s like the greatest slow-motion car crash, wrapped up in a Tom Clancy spy thriller, then lovingly dipped into a vat of buttery schadenfreude.
As a journalist, it’s better than one of your dad’s blue pills. Every day there’s a new chapter. Monday’s denials are destroyed with Tuesday’s reporting. Tuesday’s justifications are obliterated with a video released on Wednesday. Conspiracy theories are floated and then proven to be true. And to cap it off, TCU used the whole system against the Wolverines. Glorious. The 30-for-30 on this will be a blast.
But who else is doing it? There’s no way Michigan is the only school that sends scouts.
As for the SEC, there was an interesting text that was sent out this week to equipment staffs all over the SEC. The conference wanted to know who each team used as headset providers, and if those providers had given the staff a cost of putting a “coach to player” device in the helmets. The SEC wanted to know if schools had concerns about it or had discussed “wearable technology.”
There were multiple concerns raised. First, it’s expensive. Most schools use CoachComm based out of Auburn, but some, like Georgia, use MV Sport (Marvac) out of California. The NFL uses an “in-house” system not available outside the league. So this isn’t a copy/paste scenario. That will cost more. Second, there are also competitive issues. Playing out of conference would mean you can use it in some games but not others, depending on which conferences adopt possible changes. Finally, helmet manufacturers are all saying adding the technology would violate their helmet warranties, thus making the schools solely liable in case of injury,
Two Questions
2. Who can play?
If Amarius Mims, Xavier Truss, Rod Robinson and Kendall Milton are all healthy enough to play, this could be a fun game. To be fair, Smart would have told us Joe Theismann “could’ve gone back in,” so I’ll take his optimistic injury reports with a grain of salt.
Ladd McConkey and Milton are ready to go, but I doubt Mims and Truss are.
It would be wild to see true freshman Monroe Freeling get his first career start in Jacksonville. Freshmen tackles for Georgia? I’d be as nervous as Jim Harbaugh’s agent.
All the focus has been on the loss of Brock Bowers. It should be. He killed the Gators last year. I suspect we could see the emergence of Lawson Luckie this week. If anybody grew up knowing what this game was about, it’s Mike Luckie’s kid. Still, that would be a lot to put on him just as he’s returning.
I bet we do see a lot more from Julian Humphrey, though.
1. How many games are left in Jacksonville?
A year or two ago I wrote that this game was going to be moved out of Jacksonville. Well, like year seven of your marriage, things have changed. Not even Smart is as adamant about moving the game as he once was. And while no one can say with absolute certainty what will happen, I suspect the game will be in Jax for the foreseeable future.
Speaking to folks in the know, the stadium upgrade will be one determining factor. And both schools make more money by having the game in Jacksonville. Mainly they receive revenue every year versus zero when the game is away. That’s a delta of about 5 million every two years. Plus the City of Jacksonville makes payments directly to each school which they use to keep the costs of tickets down compared to other neutral site games. Or so I am told. I can’t afford them regardless. The point is, I think we will see this game in Jacksonville unless the SEC schedule changes the calculus.
One Prediction
When I predict a blowout this season, Georgia struggles. When I predict a closer game, the Dawgs beat their opponents into oblivion. So don’t listen to me. Rather, listen to what one of our Georgia insiders predicted.
“We are going to rout them like Kentucky.”
I’ll believe it when I see it. But it’s good to know people with a lot more football knowledge than you or I are confident.
