Three Observations
3. Carson Beck levels up.
It wasn’t that long ago when images of a smiling Carson Beck at Ole Miss caused fans to dream about tossing him and his interception-throwin’ ass into the nearest wood-chipper. How could he grin or laugh when Georgia was getting worked like Warde Manuel’s refrigerator handle?
Kirby Smart had warned us. Beck was Mr. Even Keel. Never up. Never Down. He was the argon of quarterbacks, an inert gas found everywhere but not that interactive.
But somewhere after the first god-awful drives against Tennessee, Beck had enough. He found passion for something other than blondes, tattoos and cars. He stopped trying to be the hero he thought Georgia needed and instead became the leader his teammates wanted. You saw it happen in real time. Mr. Cerebral started having fun, playing with abandon and sacrificing himself like Captain Lawrence Oakes.
Beck didn’t get hurt, thank goodness, when he ran headlong into a Tennessee safety. But he changed. He stood up with a grin and a plan. The game (and maybe the season) changed on that one run. Welcome back, Mr. Beck.
2. The premature end of an era
Mark Twain said it best, “The report of my death was an exaggeration.” So too have been the pronouncements regarding the end of the Kirby Smart Era. With Smart’s second loss (gasp!) and subsequent screw job by the Playoff Committee, the overreactions were rampant. The garage-dwelling YouTube pundits declared Georgia’s dominance was over. “They won’t even make the playoffs!” was the cry of the Twitter coaches.
These incels declared Smart only won so many games because he stacked 5-star players at every position. Atilla the Hun would trade his Mongol horde for Georgia’s two deep, according to the TikTok experts.
While it is true that Georgia is not as talented as it was in 2021 or 2022, just look at the past game. Nine true freshmen played in the biggest must-win game of the year. Your sophomores were everywhere. The same transfer portal that saw you lose good players brought in playmakers who saved your bacon.
The Bulldogs are going to lose a ton of talent to the NFL. We may see 25+ players transfer. But Smart is still the nation’s best recruiter, and he’s going to field his Winged Hussars for years to come. It seems every year the pundits like to proclaim the end of the Nick Saban era. I guess they will do the same with Smart from here on out.
1. My way or the highway
Of all the stats, measurements, and analytical data we can chart, I wish we had a way to track buy-in. Many of these players resist doing things the way Smart wants them to and thus they don’t see the field. They can fight it. Call the coaches biased. Claim they are being overlooked. But eventually they either transfer or buy in.
Daniel Harris came in for Jullan Humprey after the latter was flagged for pass interference. Harris played well. So where has he been all year?
Per Smart: “We had a long meeting with him and told him that we needed to see him practice better…. He had really good practices, he competed, he gave great effort, he tackled better…. So, he's played more because of the way he's practiced.”
Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins was ready to transfer at one point. He thought he should be playing more. Now he’s a force on the defensive line. What changed?
Per Smart: “He had considered the portal at one time…. And I remind him every day that he's out there working because sometimes he needs a little motivation to work. …. And he gets a little more juice and practices a little harder. …He's played really good football this year because he had a great camp.”
Ben Yurosek was tossed around like a blow up doll at a Kiss concert when he first took the field for Georgia. Now he’s a starter. What changed?
"I think he's learned the speed and the way to approach practice here…it takes transfers a little bit sometimes. They'll say, 'Golly, I didn't really know what it was going to be like.'...[Now] he plays more physical. He practices more physical. He bought into the idea that, 'Oh, if I actually practice like a game, I'll play better in the game.’”
Oh Captain, My Captain.
Two Questions
2. Who is going to apologize?
Many of us owe apologies. And not just to the first girl who let us see that bow on the front of her underwear.
For me, it’s to Ben Yurosek. For others, they owe Chaz Chambliss an apology. A lot of us could probably delete our Facebook posts about Carson Beck, Daylen Everette and Oscar Delp.
This is not to say we won't be cussing them again versus Tech, but maybe we jumped to conclusions about ability or desire.
Personally, I started out well. I said folks were going to love Yurosek and that he would be TE1. Yurosek then proceeded to go out and play like a one-eyed, three-legged capybara. I wanted to tell Smart this is the SEC, not Make-a-Wish. But as the season progressed, so too did Yurosek. Now we are seeing what our sources told us he was like in fall camp.
Chambliss is tied for the team-lead in sacks. The previous accusations of “a slow white guy” are now harder to find than a Rhodes Scholar at Auburn. Delp, Beck, and Everette have shown us why the coaches stuck with them while many of us were screaming for their back ups.
So I’m sorry.
This never happens to me.
1. Who remembers Andy Isaballa?
Jim Donnan warned us in 2018 that UMass had a wide receiver who could pose problems for Georgia. I may or may not have scoffed, secure in my ignorance that UMass posed zero threat on either side of the ball. Isabella torched the Georgia defense for 219 yards on 15 catches. He scored two touchdowns. He’s still in the NFL. Nowadays we’d be watching to see if he wanted to transfer.
One Prediction
Tomorrow you are going to see the nucleus of the 2025 team show out. Enjoy the preview. Despite starting 45 minutes after the Ohio State-Indiana game, Georgia’s contest will be over first.
We just saw a quarterback prospect flip from LSU to Michigan for a supposed $10 million NIL deal. How can Georgia compete with that? Here’s one way. Try the Sample Pack from Bulldog Snacks. It makes a great gift. Proceeds from the sales of the bars and cookies go to Georgia's NIL efforts. The folks at Bulldog Snacks already sent Classic City Collective a giant check. If everyone changes their shopping habits just a bit, they can do it again.
Try it here.
3. Carson Beck levels up.
It wasn’t that long ago when images of a smiling Carson Beck at Ole Miss caused fans to dream about tossing him and his interception-throwin’ ass into the nearest wood-chipper. How could he grin or laugh when Georgia was getting worked like Warde Manuel’s refrigerator handle?
Kirby Smart had warned us. Beck was Mr. Even Keel. Never up. Never Down. He was the argon of quarterbacks, an inert gas found everywhere but not that interactive.
But somewhere after the first god-awful drives against Tennessee, Beck had enough. He found passion for something other than blondes, tattoos and cars. He stopped trying to be the hero he thought Georgia needed and instead became the leader his teammates wanted. You saw it happen in real time. Mr. Cerebral started having fun, playing with abandon and sacrificing himself like Captain Lawrence Oakes.
Beck didn’t get hurt, thank goodness, when he ran headlong into a Tennessee safety. But he changed. He stood up with a grin and a plan. The game (and maybe the season) changed on that one run. Welcome back, Mr. Beck.
2. The premature end of an era
Mark Twain said it best, “The report of my death was an exaggeration.” So too have been the pronouncements regarding the end of the Kirby Smart Era. With Smart’s second loss (gasp!) and subsequent screw job by the Playoff Committee, the overreactions were rampant. The garage-dwelling YouTube pundits declared Georgia’s dominance was over. “They won’t even make the playoffs!” was the cry of the Twitter coaches.
These incels declared Smart only won so many games because he stacked 5-star players at every position. Atilla the Hun would trade his Mongol horde for Georgia’s two deep, according to the TikTok experts.
While it is true that Georgia is not as talented as it was in 2021 or 2022, just look at the past game. Nine true freshmen played in the biggest must-win game of the year. Your sophomores were everywhere. The same transfer portal that saw you lose good players brought in playmakers who saved your bacon.
The Bulldogs are going to lose a ton of talent to the NFL. We may see 25+ players transfer. But Smart is still the nation’s best recruiter, and he’s going to field his Winged Hussars for years to come. It seems every year the pundits like to proclaim the end of the Nick Saban era. I guess they will do the same with Smart from here on out.
1. My way or the highway
Of all the stats, measurements, and analytical data we can chart, I wish we had a way to track buy-in. Many of these players resist doing things the way Smart wants them to and thus they don’t see the field. They can fight it. Call the coaches biased. Claim they are being overlooked. But eventually they either transfer or buy in.
Daniel Harris came in for Jullan Humprey after the latter was flagged for pass interference. Harris played well. So where has he been all year?
Per Smart: “We had a long meeting with him and told him that we needed to see him practice better…. He had really good practices, he competed, he gave great effort, he tackled better…. So, he's played more because of the way he's practiced.”
Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins was ready to transfer at one point. He thought he should be playing more. Now he’s a force on the defensive line. What changed?
Per Smart: “He had considered the portal at one time…. And I remind him every day that he's out there working because sometimes he needs a little motivation to work. …. And he gets a little more juice and practices a little harder. …He's played really good football this year because he had a great camp.”
Ben Yurosek was tossed around like a blow up doll at a Kiss concert when he first took the field for Georgia. Now he’s a starter. What changed?
"I think he's learned the speed and the way to approach practice here…it takes transfers a little bit sometimes. They'll say, 'Golly, I didn't really know what it was going to be like.'...[Now] he plays more physical. He practices more physical. He bought into the idea that, 'Oh, if I actually practice like a game, I'll play better in the game.’”
Oh Captain, My Captain.
Two Questions
2. Who is going to apologize?
Many of us owe apologies. And not just to the first girl who let us see that bow on the front of her underwear.
For me, it’s to Ben Yurosek. For others, they owe Chaz Chambliss an apology. A lot of us could probably delete our Facebook posts about Carson Beck, Daylen Everette and Oscar Delp.
This is not to say we won't be cussing them again versus Tech, but maybe we jumped to conclusions about ability or desire.
Personally, I started out well. I said folks were going to love Yurosek and that he would be TE1. Yurosek then proceeded to go out and play like a one-eyed, three-legged capybara. I wanted to tell Smart this is the SEC, not Make-a-Wish. But as the season progressed, so too did Yurosek. Now we are seeing what our sources told us he was like in fall camp.
Chambliss is tied for the team-lead in sacks. The previous accusations of “a slow white guy” are now harder to find than a Rhodes Scholar at Auburn. Delp, Beck, and Everette have shown us why the coaches stuck with them while many of us were screaming for their back ups.
So I’m sorry.
This never happens to me.
1. Who remembers Andy Isaballa?
Jim Donnan warned us in 2018 that UMass had a wide receiver who could pose problems for Georgia. I may or may not have scoffed, secure in my ignorance that UMass posed zero threat on either side of the ball. Isabella torched the Georgia defense for 219 yards on 15 catches. He scored two touchdowns. He’s still in the NFL. Nowadays we’d be watching to see if he wanted to transfer.
One Prediction
Tomorrow you are going to see the nucleus of the 2025 team show out. Enjoy the preview. Despite starting 45 minutes after the Ohio State-Indiana game, Georgia’s contest will be over first.
We just saw a quarterback prospect flip from LSU to Michigan for a supposed $10 million NIL deal. How can Georgia compete with that? Here’s one way. Try the Sample Pack from Bulldog Snacks. It makes a great gift. Proceeds from the sales of the bars and cookies go to Georgia's NIL efforts. The folks at Bulldog Snacks already sent Classic City Collective a giant check. If everyone changes their shopping habits just a bit, they can do it again.
Try it here.
