College Football
It Just Means More?
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The shots came from the north, the west and all over social media: The vaunted SEC, dominator of college football, had been humbled.
Michigan player Braiden McGcegor spoke for many: “In the SEC they say it just means more. That should be ours now.” Somewhere commissioner Greg Sankey read that and grimaced.
For the first time in nine years the SEC will not be represented in the national championship game. There’s a cruel irony in that for Sankey, who helped usher in the 12-team College Football Playoff despite his conference dominating the four-team era.
Why change a beneficial status quo? Because Sankey knew college football would be better if more regions and more conferences were invested and engaged. Sankey also wanted expansion this year, which, should it have happened, would have created an opening for at least one more of his teams to make a run.
Ah, well, a good humbling every now and then is healthy in the long run. The SEC sees clearly that it is in an even competition with the newly constituted Big Ten. But it’s also not a dire picture: Alabama losing to Michigan in overtime on a neutral field is not itself a confirmation of inferiority for SEC detractors.
Vice versa, Tennessee stomping Iowa and Missouri beating Ohio State are also not satisfactory evidence of total conference superiority for SEC defenders because well, bowl games in this era.
It’s just a kick in the butt collectively to the SEC to know it is no longer just in competition with itself. That change can be good. It can be fun.
But this edition of the vibes doesn’t look back. It looks forward, which is why it includes the two coming entrants to the league.
And the vibes, for those whom may be new or forgetful, are not a pure ranking from best to worst; it’s who’s feeling the best to who’s feeling the worst which is why these rankings will look funky.
This takes into account expectations, performance, and just generally the optimism, or lack thereof, heading into the 2024 season.
Even when I adjust for the normal postseason optimism, a look at the top of the SEC shows this is still going to be the best conference, but the Big Ten is not that far behind.
The SECs tagline of “it just means more” carries a little more weight now, as the additions of Texas and Oklahoma make the league a super conference in 2024.
I feel good about 4 to 5 SEC teams’ chances of making it into a 12-team playoff next season.
The SEC will not play for this year’s championship but they are still the top conference in college football.
Hungry Panthers?
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
I am not sure if we can call Georgia State’s 2023 football season a success.
The Panthers did go 6 – 6, which is good enough for bowl eligibility. That is an improvement on the 2022 season where they finished 4 – 8. Georgia State U did go 8 – 5 in 2021 and I expected them to have similar success this season.
They got off to a 4 – 0 start and they looked like they were going to cruise through the season.
The highlight was against Coastal Carolina. They played a Thursday night game on ESPN. Coastal Carolina has been one of the most high profile members of the Sun Belt Conference over the last few years. The Panthers beat them on national television, 30 – 17.
Darren Grainger was 15 of 26 for 191 yards and kept the ball 13 times for 47 yards to help the Panthers (4-0) extend their best start in school history. Marcus Carroll carried 29 times for 150 yards and a score.
Georgia State leads the series 4-3 with the visiting team winning every time and Grainger, a Conway, South Carolina native, has two of the wins.
The next game they lost to Troy at home, 28 – 7. The Panthers rebounded and won their next two games against Marshall and Louisiana. At this point their record was 6 – 1.
I’m not sure if the team relaxed at this point but they lost the next five games. The first game of this losing streak was at Georgia Southern, 44 – 27.
They lost the next two home games to James Madison and Appalachian State by the same score, 42 – 14.
Then they had to travel to Death Valley to play No. 15 LSU. The Tigers needed an easy win, GSU needed the money, and everything worked out perfectly. LSU won, 56 – 14.
The final game of the season was at Old Dominion in Norfolk, Virginia. The Panthers had a 21 – 0 halftime lead. They gave up 18 fourth quarter points and lost to the Monarch, 25 – 24.
One of the bright spots on offense was running back Marcus Carroll. He rushed for 1,350 yards. 13 touchdowns and he averaged 4.9 yards per carry.
QB Darren Grainger is GSU’s career leader in total offense, touchdown passes and touchdown responsibility while ranking second in passing yards and fourth in rushing yards. This season he had 2,364 yards passing, 17 TD’s, 7 interceptions and he completed 67% of his passes.
Playing in its third bowl game in the last four seasons and sixth in nine seasons, Georgia State faces Utah State (6 – 6) on Saturday, Dec. 23 at Albertsons Stadium in Boise. The game kicks off at 3:30 p.m. ET and will be nationally televised on ESPN.
“I wish it would snow a foot,” head coach Shawn Elliott said about his team’s bowl game.
Georgia State is 3-2 in bowl games, including wins in its last two bowls, the 2021 TaxAct Camellia Bowl and 2020 LendingTree Bowl.
“We’re in the day and age of the transfer portal, and everyone is aware of who we’ve lost in the portal, and what we have to do, so this preparation time has been very important to us,” Elliott said. “We have some new tackles, running backs, secondary guys. But that’s college football. You can’t complain about it, you have to engage and make the most of it, and that’s what we’ve done.”
We will have to wait and see if Georgia State can snap their losing streak in the bowl game.
Saves The Dates
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
2024 is upon us. The college football playoff landscape expands to a 12-team beauty contest moving forward.
The SEC officially released next year’s schedules recently. Not enough space to go through them all, but I will go through the historical SEC programs and Oklahoma and Texas.
Alabama
Aug. 31: vs. Western Kentucky
Sept. 7: vs. USF
Sept. 14: at Wisconsin
Sept. 21: BYE
Sept. 28: vs. Georgia
Oct. 5: at Vanderbilt
Oct. 12: vs. South Carolina
Oct. 19: at Tennessee
Oct. 26: vs. Missouri
Nov. 2: BYE
Nov. 9: at LSU
Nov. 16: vs. Mercer
Nov. 23: at Oklahoma
Nov. 30: vs. Auburn
First Glance: Bye weeks before Georgia and LSU. @Tennessee, @LSU, and @ Oklahoma the week before the Iron Bowl. The Tide will be road warriors in 2024.
Auburn
Aug. 31: vs. Alabama A&M
Sept. 7: vs. California
Sept. 14: vs. New Mexico
Sept. 21: vs. Arkansas
Sept. 28: vs. Oklahoma
Oct. 5: at Georgia
Oct. 12: BYE
Oct. 19: at Missouri
Oct. 26: at Kentucky
Nov. 2: vs. Vanderbilt
Nov. 9: BYE
Nov. 16: vs. Louisiana-Monroe
Nov. 23: vs. Texas A&M
Nov. 30: at Alabama
First glance: No road game until October. @ UGA and @ Alabama. Nice slate for Hugh Freeze to get Auburn back on track.
Florida
Aug. 31: vs. Miami (FL)
Sept. 7: vs. Samford
Sept. 14: vs. Texas A&M
Sept. 21: at Mississippi St.
Sept. 28: BYE
Oct. 5: vs. UCF
Oct. 12: at Tennessee
Oct. 19: vs. Kentucky
Oct. 26: BYE
Nov. 2: vs. Georgia (in Jacksonville, FL)
Nov. 9: at Texas
Nov. 16: vs. LSU
Nov. 23: vs. Ole Miss
Nov. 30: at Florida State
First glance: The last five games are brutal. Will Billy Napier still be employed by November? Only one cupcake on the slate.
Georgia
Aug. 31: vs. Clemson (in Atlanta, GA)
Sept. 7: vs. Tennessee Tech
Sept. 14: at Kentucky
Sept. 21: BYE
Sept. 28: at Alabama
Oct. 5: vs Auburn
Oct. 12: vs Mississippi State
Oct. 19: at Texas
Oct. 26: BYE
Nov. 2: vs Florida (Jacksonville, Fl.)
Nov. 9: at Ole Miss
Nov. 16: vs Tennessee
Nov. 23: vs UMass
Nov. 30: vs Georgia Tech
First glance: Clemson in Atlanta, @ Texas and @Alabama, and a trap game @Ole Miss sandwiched between Florida and Tennessee.
LSU
Sept. 1: vs. Southern Cal (Las Vegas, NV)
Sept. 7: vs. Nicholls
Sept. 14: at South Carolina
Sept. 21: vs. UCLA
Sept. 28: vs. South Alabama
Oct. 5: BYE
Oct. 12: vs. Ole Miss
Oct. 19: at Arkansas
Oct. 26: at Texas A&M
Nov. 2: BYE
Nov. 9: vs. Alabama
Nov. 16 — at Florida
Nov. 23: vs. Vanderbilt
Nov. 30: vs. Oklahoma
First glance: USC and UCLA from the Big 10, and the best SEC slate of all the SEC contenders from a management standpoint.
Oklahoma
Aug. 31: vs. Temple
Sep. 7: vs. Houston
Sep. 14: vs. Tulane
Sep. 21: vs. Tennessee
Sep. 28: at Auburn
Oct. 5: BYE
Oct. 12: vs. Texas (at Cotton Bowl in Dallas, TX)
Oct. 19: vs. South Carolina
Oct. 26: at Ole Miss
Nov. 2: vs. Maine
Nov. 9: at Missouri
Nov. 16: BYE
Nov. 23: vs. Alabama
Nov. 30: at LSU
First Glance: @ Auburn welcome to Jordan Hare Sooners where dreams go to die. Alabama and @ LSU to close the regular season. Are you sure you wanted this Oklahoma?
Tennessee
Aug. 31: vs. Chattanooga
Sept. 7: vs. NC State (in Charlotte, NC)
Sept. 14: vs. Kent State
Sept. 21: at Oklahoma
Sept. 28: BYE
Oct. 5: at Arkansas
Oct. 12: vs. Florida
Oct. 19: vs. Alabama
Oct. 26: BYE
Nov. 2: vs. Kentucky
Nov. 9: vs. Mississippi State
Nov. 16: at Georgia
Nov. 23: vs. UTEP
Nov. 30: at Vanderbilt
First glance: @ Oklahoma and @ Georgia who the Vols have lost seven straight to. Alabama lost the last time they came to Neyland.
Texas
Aug. 31: vs. Colorado State
Sept. 7: at Michigan
Sept. 14: vs. UTSA
Sept. 21: vs. Louisiana-Monroe
Sept. 28: vs. Mississippi State
Oct. 5: BYE
Oct. 12: vs. Oklahoma (Cotton Bowl – Dallas, TX)
Oct. 19: vs. Georgia
Oct. 26: at Vanderbilt
Nov. 2: BYE
Nov. 9: vs. Florida
Nov. 16: at Arkansas
Nov. 23: vs. Kentucky
Nov. 30: at Texas A&M
First glance: @Michigan, Oklahoma, and Georgia back-to-back, and a Thanksgiving trip to Aggieland. SEC was kind to Texas with the road slate to State, Vandy, and Arkansas who all are terrible now.
Whoever wins the SEC in 2024 will be tested for a deep playoff run.
Not A Big Deal?
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The University of Georgia is on the verge of losing a five-star quarterback, who is the biggest name in his recruiting class. And the reaction from the program is … meh?
Maybe Dylan Raiola bailing on Georgia will prove laughable. Maybe Raiola will end up being a great quarterback who dearly costs the Bulldogs. Maybe this will become part of a problem with the would-be dynasty Georgia program. As they begin to lose power on and then off the field after coming up short of the top 4.
Right now, it seems like a bigger recruiting story than it is a Georgia story.
Of course, Georgia wants to keep Raiola. That’s why Kirby Smart, Mike Bobo and this staff pursued him so heavily in the first place, even when they already had and liked another quarterback in the same class. That’s why as of this writing the staff is still working to keep him with the knowledge that Raiola will be visiting Nebraska, per sources close to the program.,
With signing day next week, this does not bode well. Losing any big-time prospect, especially a quarterback, would sting.
On the other hand, it’s hard to think of this as a major, program-changing event .Not when Georgia just won two national championships with a former walk-on at QB1. Not when the same program just had another unbeaten regular season with a former four-star, who ranked No. 250 overall in 2020.
Georgia is a program that keeps trying to score an elite quarterback recruit, and after they wind up with an underdog from the scrap pile, they win games anyway.
Enough about the high school to college jump- In the past two years, Georgia has had eight players go in the first round of the NFL Draft. Zero were quarterbacks.
With 25 players drafted overall, Bennett is the only quarterback: taken in the fourth round. For UGA, the quarterback position is critical, but it’s not the position the Bulldogs revolve around.
With that being said, Beck returning for 2024 would be paramount. Looking at the way Beck played this year and the way Bennett played before Beck, after they developed they utilized the talent beaming around them.
One might argue — because some are — that Raiola, or a great quarterback prospect like him, could take the offense to another level. Like, say, top five nationally in passing offense?
Well, don’t worry, that was Georgia this year. Or top 10 in scoring and total offense? Well, that was Georgia in each of their past three years without their fancy five-star quarterback.
If Georgia can do all that with Bennett and Beck, it can do it with Ryan Puglisi, another quarterback commit in the 2024 class.
Puglisi is a four-star from Connecticut, committed to Georgia in October 2022. When Georgia pursued and landed Raiola eight months later, many speculated Puglisi’s decommitment would follow.
The first priority for Georgia is holding on to Beck for 2024, then turning the reins over to Gunner Stockton, Puglisi or whoever is added eventually via the portal or recruiting in the always bright future of a championship contending program.
Stockton, the top-50 overall recruit in the 2022 class, the third-string quarterback the past two years, figures to be No. 2 in 2024 and could end up being the next Beck. He could be the quarterback who sticks around, learns, and develops, and leaves with a ring.
Georgia doing that with two consecutive starters at a time when every quarterback seems to be a transfer would be a sentimental nod to a seemingly bygone era of farming championship talent rather than shopping for it.
Raiola is very good. But this flip, if it happens, would hurt Georgia less than it would help Nebraska. In fact, one could argue it would be better for college football (looking at you TV execs).
That doesn’t mean Georgia should just stand aside and let it happen. Smart didn’t get to three national championship games with an “oh well” mentality. The inability to hold on to elite quarterbacks has been frustrating for Georgia fans.
Maybe QB1 still ends up being Raiola, maybe if Georgia can pull off a last-ditch effort to keep him. If not, it’s setting up Puglisi or Stockton to be the next underdog story at quarterback.
Can you understand Georgia’s reaction (or lack of one)? They still have a plan. Bennett, Beck, and Fromm can say with a straight face: Meh, it’s not a big deal.
Jekyll And Hyde
By: Colin Lacy
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The 2023 football season in Statesboro has been a year out of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Year two for the Georgia Southern Eagles in Statesboro for Clay Helton has seen highs of capping off a 6-2 start with a Thursday night 44-27 victory over rival Georgia State, and devastating lows of finishing the regular season by falling in the final four games including 55-27 in Boone, NC to App State.
Despite the downhill slide in the back half of the year, the Eagles finish the regular season with a 6-6 record and earned an invitation to the Myrtle Beach Bowl to face Ohio from the MAC. So how did we get to this point?
The Eagles began the season taking care of business to the tune of 2-0 with an opening game win over The Citadel and a revenge victory over the Blazers of UAB 49-35.
Helton’s crew then soared to Big Ten country to take on Wisconsin. Although a good showing early, 6 turnovers (including 5 interceptions) got the best of the Blue Birds and saw the Badgers pull away late 35-14.
Georgia Southern would respond the next week on the road at Ball State with 530 yards of total offense and pick up a road win in Muncie 40-3.
After falling to a rolling and undefeated James Madison 41-13 on the road, the blue and white would rattle off 2 straight wins at the prettiest little stadium in America. A come from behind victory against ULM 38-28 at Paulson set up a 5-2 Georgia Southern hosting a 6-1 Georgia State team on ESPN 2 the Thursday prior to Halloween.
Georgia Southern dominated the Panthers from the word go, racking up almost 300 yards rushing, and knocking off the in-state rival 44-27.
That’s when the Jekyll turned to Hyde for GSU with a tough final 4 games of the year and 3 of those on the road.
It began with a 45-24 Texas State victory deep in the heart of Texas to a much-improved Bobcat team under first year head coach GJ Kinne.
Next, Marshall would get the best of the Eagles 38-33 on an emotional weekend in Huntington, WV as the Thundering Herd remembered the 30-year anniversary of the Marshall plane crash.
The Blue and White would return home to try and get off the spiral against Old Dominion but wouldn’t go the way for the Eagles. ODU led in this game 17-10 in the 4th quarter, Georgia Southern tied the game at 17-17 on a Davis Brinn TD pass to Jjay Mcafee with 1:25 remaining.
It appeared that the game would be heading to overtime, but Monarch QB Grant Wilson ran for 28 yards up the middle to the 5-yard line to set up the Ethan Sanchez 22-yard field goal as time expired to snatch the win away from GS 20-17.
The season would wrap up at the Rock against Appalachian State in-front of a sold-out crowd at Kidd Brewer Stadium.
Georgia Southern would take a 14-3 first quarter lead, but App State would score the next 6 touchdowns and take a 48-17 lead thanks to 4 Eagle turnovers. The Mountaineers would finish off the regular season finale 55-27 over the Eagles.
It’s not only been a Jekyll and Hyde Season for the team as a whole, but for some individuals as well. Quarterback Davis Brin has seen highs of throwing for over 300 yards 6 times this year including a high of 383 at Wisconsin, but also the lows of multiple interceptions in 4 games with the high of 5 also coming against the Badgers.
OJ Arnold, who has been hampered by injuries this year, has shown what the future at running back can look like with 405 yards and 4 scores in just 9 games played. Jalen White racked up just shy of 900 yards on the ground and 10 total TDs.
Now the Eagles head to the postseason in a familiar spot. The Eagles were invited to the Myrtle Beach Bowl to face the MAC’s Ohio at Brooks Stadium (home of Coastal Carolina) on December 16th.
Will it be Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde at the beach?
Something Smells Fishy
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
“If somebody in that committee room doesn’t think Georgia’s one of the four best teams in the country, I don’t know if they’re in the right profession,” UGA head coach Kirby Smart after the team’s SEC championship game loss.
Forget about who got in and just look objectively at Georgia’s resume heading last Saturday’s game
– Won last 2 national championships.
– Won an SEC record 29 straight games, three straight 12-0 regular seasons.
– No. 1 in the country 24 straight weeks heading into Saturday in AP and Coaches poll.
– Hadn’t lost a game in 727 days.
– Has dominated college football and the SEC, the toughest conference in CFB, for two years.
– Lost first game Saturday in more than 2 years by just 3 points and its two best offensive players were playing injured.
If you look objectively at the facts, there is no way UGA is not one of the top 4 teams in the country.
I don’t care who you cheer for, there is no way a team that has basically dominated college football for the last two years can lose one game by 3 points and drop out of the playoffs.
How do you go from being the overwhelming No. 1 team in the country for the previous 24 weeks and lose a championship game by just three points – with two of your best offensive players injured – and completely fall out of the playoff picture. There is no doubt Georgia is easily one of the best four teams in the country and should have been included in the playoff.
Now on to Florida State. Florida State should bolt from the ACC now after the 13-0 ACC champion got left out of the playoffs.
The precedent has been set now and it’s clear they should bolt to a more respected conference like the SEC or even the Big 10.
The committee had FSU in the playoffs after Ohio State lost to Michigan only to drop them out a week later after they won the ACC.
If Georgia would have beat Alabama, the committee was still going to put Texas in over FSU. FSU winning without their top 2 QB’s stirred up the controversy but the plan was already in motion.
FSU was one of the best teams in the country prior to the Jordan Travis injury. The Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl a few years ago with a back-up quarterback and beat Tom Brady and the Patriots in that game. Brady is the recognized GOAT at the QB position.
The ACC let you down FSU. You would have never been left out if you were in the SEC. It’s time to get your lawyers working to find a way to exit the ACC.
The problem with this playoff committee is the messaging they use, and then have the ESPN talking heads spin it to drive viewership.
Greg McElroy had the nerve to say that “no team could ever overcome sub-par QB play and win a National Championship”. Well Greg Alabama did it in 2009 with McElroy at QB. He passed for 58 yards in the title game win against Texas.
As of today, the best four teams are: Alabama, Georgia, Florida State, and Texas. Cheaters like Michigan did not deserve to go at all.
The gutless NCAA gave them a slap on the wrist. Ohio State lost to Michigan, and FSU has a championship defense. The Chicago Bears won a Super Bowl with a Championship defense and average QB.
The four most deserving teams are: Alabama, Florida State, Texas, and Washington.
Too much subjectivity in the only major sport in the entire country that does not have a true playoff system.
Also, ESPN is ruining college football. Guess who has the SEC TV rights starting in 2024? That’s right ESPN. The same ESPN that revealed the rankings live last week with the same talking heads that said FSU did not deserve a spot. Coincidence?
You better believe they strong armed this committee into Alabama. Go back prior to the reveal and look how Herbstreit had his helmets aligned in the background.
Enough is enough.
Shafted Seminoles
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
All this College Football Playoff arguing will be moot with the CFP expanding to 12 teams next year.
Arguing over 3- 5 is very different than 10-13. You lose your benefit of the doubt when you lose games. Even in the SEC.
But this year is still a four-team field, and with so many variables factoring into the decision, there is a lot to dissect. And to state it plainly: the College Football Playoff committee got it wrong.
College football has, or at least it used to have up until right now, the best regular season in sports because the games mattered most. We have a smaller sample size in this sport than any other.
To leave out an undefeated 13-0 Florida State in a Power 5 ACC was the wrong decision.
Michigan and Washington, both undefeated with top-10 wins, were the easy ones. The problem for the College Football Playoff committee was that there were three teams with legitimate arguments for the final two slots.
Sorry, Georgia. You didn’t win your conference title, and in this format, that has to count for something.
Alabama and the SEC are the proverbial elephant in this room. Nick Saban is the greatest coach of all time, and to me, this year was the greatest coaching job he’s ever done.
His team got whipped at home by Texas in Week 2 and didn’t look any better struggling with South Florida the following week.
But Jalen Milroe kept making big strides and when it mattered most, the Tide made enough plays to knock off a Bulldog team that wasn’t anywhere near as dominant in their previous two title seasons.
The problem for Alabama and the SEC is Texas. They beat Alabama convincingly in Tuscaloosa. That happened, and there was nothing fluky about it.
The Longhorns went 12-1, but there wasn’t a second-best team in the Big 12 this year. Here’s how it broke down: Oklahoma State beat Oklahoma, and Texas unsurprisingly hammered OSU Saturday.
Remember, this was an Oklahoma State team that went 9-3 and had lost by a combined score of 78-10 against South Alabama and UCF. That wasn’t going to help Texas’ cause.
With that, do we forget that a week ago Alabama barely escaped against Auburn? Auburn got blown out at home the week before by New Mexico State, 31-10.
The bigger issue this year was Florida State, at 13-0 from the ACC. As we all know, FSU’s star quarterback Jordan Travis received a season ending injury near the end of the season. The Seminoles’ backup Tate Rodemaker didn’t look great at arch-rival Florida. He also sustained a concussion.
FSU’s third-stringer, Brock Glenn, had a shaky outing in the ACC Championship Game, but their defense was dominant.
Braden Fiske and Jaden Verse led the Seminoles with 14 TFLs and 7 sacks. Not so coincidentally, that same FSU defense began the year by dominating LSU and the SEC’s biggest star, Jayden Daniels. Florida State held the nation’s No. 1 offense to its worst performance of the season.
FSU was the only team that held Daniels under 60 percent passing in a game. Daniels ran for almost 100 yards less (99) against the Noles than when he played the Crimson Tide.
I get it. The SEC has been the most dominant conference in college football for the past two decades. But this year is not like those other years. Have you been paying attention?
It’s a down year for the SEC. The ACC actually went 6-4 against the SEC in 2023. If this was a one-loss FSU, I’d say they didn’t earn their way in, but they won, so they did.
In the same argument, Texas should not have been left out for a team they beat.
What’s the point of winning if the CFP will rationalize them away?
Old Nemesis
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
This is just another SEC Championship Game. The argument will be made here, probably determining whether Georgia wins their third national championship in a row.
UGA has yet to beat Alabama in the SEC championship or at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
If Georgia beats Alabama on Saturday, they have national champion written all over them.
If Georgia loses to Alabama, there is no College Football Playoff.
Feel free to take those statements and throw them back at me next month. Say it: I’m SEC biased, or too dependent on recent history.
Georgia’s biggest hurdle awaits them Saturday. The main reason is talent..
The most talented team in the country, per the 247Sports team talent composite, is Alabama. The third-most talented team is Ohio State.
Class, who is the last team to beat Georgia? That would be Alabama two years ago, in the SEC championship. Which team since then has come the closest? Ohio State, in last year’s CFP semifinal.
The Crimson Tide are still in the Bulldogs’ way. By Smart’s own admission, quarterbacks who can run and throw have given Georgia’s defense problems, and you might have noticed that Jalen Milroe can run and throw.
He has multiple receivers who can make plays Jermaine Burton, playing against his former team for the first time, and Isaiah Bond, the man who caught fourth-and-31 to win the Iron Bowl.
No, Georgia is not doomed. It’s a modest favorite (4.5 points) for the right reasons, and the temptation in this space would be to take Georgia to cover. But it is a mere temptation, because Alabama, Saban and his talented unit are going to be a tough out.
First, of course, they need to make the Playoff, and at this point, the SEC Championship looks like win-and-in, lose-and-out.
That wasn’t the case for Georgia the past two years, but this year there are too many viable candidates in other conferences. There are only four spots, and if Alabama beats Georgia it would get one of them. The Pac-12 championship will get another. The chaos scenario thus requires two of the following three: Michigan losing to Iowa, Florida State losing to Louisville, Texas losing to Oklahoma State.
We’ve been waiting for the chaos, and the chaos hasn’t occurred yet, so it’s probably time to stop waiting.
We could also get into a scenario in which Georgia loses on a late field goal or disputed call, and two of the three win in the same fashion. That’s maybe when the committee finds a way to jam Georgia in.
This is a committee made of human beings who apparently think a lot of Georgia, and might also appreciate the three-peat storyline. If it’s close, that would help Georgia. But it’s harder and harder to see the close scenario. It’s setting up to be fairly clear choices for the committee.
If someone is going to stop Georgia from a three-peat, the most likely team is the one that for the longest time was its nemesis, and could still be again.
Is The Tide Coming In Or Going Out?
By: Jason Bishop
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The year was 1895 and none of us were here yet. That is the first year that Alabama and Georgia played for the very first time. That game was played in Columbus, GA and the Bulldogs came out on top 30-6 over the Crimson Tide.
Georgia has not fared very well against Bama since that inaugural meeting. The two teams have met a total of 72 times with Alabama winning 42 of those. That is a 58% winning percentage. There are 4 ties to be mentioned.
In fact, Alabama owns the biggest point differential in a win, 36-0 and they did it twice; 1905 and 1923.
Alabama also owns the longest winning streak between the two of seven games. That streak is pretty recent, it ranges from 2008 through 2021.
It hasn’t been all Bama dominance; Georgia did win five straight games against the Tide from 1910 through 1916. And then three in a row from 2002 through 2007. The 2007 loss for Alabama was the last time Bama lost to Georgia until Stetson Bennett went Stetson Bennett in the 4th quarter of the 2021/2022 National Championship game leading UGA to a 33-18 win and their first National Title since 1980.
That win ended most of the Hershel Walker jokes administered to UGA fans. The Dawgs went on to win another national title the very next year, granted Alabama was not in the equation for that run for UGA. The Crimson Tide lost 2 games and just missed making the College Football Playoff.
The sobering truth is even the great Kirby Smart has not had a ton of success beating Nick Saban and Alabama. Kirby showed up in 2016 and had the Dawgs in a National Title game just a short two years later. That was the first of four straight losses Kirby had to Saban.
Kirby is 1-4 against Nick Saban with that one coming in the 2022 National Title Game.
Over the course of the last two seasons, you have heard a national media narrative that Georgia has replaced Alabama as the premier program in College Football despite only beating the Tide once since the Bulldogs program rose to National Title Contenders annually.
To be fair, this version of the Alabama Crimson Tide football may be as powerful as some of its’ predecessors. Bama’s defense is above average but not dominant. There are still some questions about QB Jalen Milroe’s ability to throw the ball, especially down field. Not to mention, Alabama does not have a dynamic receiver who can consistently stretch defenses vertically.
Georgia’s defense has struggled this season with dual threat quarterbacks this season. Milroe is a dual threat QB. However, UGA’s secondary is elite and Alabama doesn’t have a receiver on the roster that can consistently challenge that group. With that being said it will Georgia to ‘spy’ and bring blitzes from the front to neutralize Milroe’s ability to make big plays with his legs.
Alabama has dominated this rivalry, but the SEC Title game will continue yield the same results as every other game has yielded for Georgia. Georgia wins and vaults itself into the College Football Playoff.
28-17 Georgia.
Fixed Wreck?
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
This is the first full season for Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key.
He took over as the interim head coach last season after Geoff Collins was fired. The Yellow Jackets started the 2022 season 1 – 3 before Collins was relieved of his duties. Once Key took over he went 4 – 4.
It looks like that momentum has carried over to this season. Tech is bowl eligible for the first time since 2018, which was Paul Johnson’s final season.
Key is a Georgia Tech alumnus and football letter winner. It is impressive that he lead this team to a bowl game because it did not look possible about halfway through the season.
They were 2 – 3 at the end of September. They suffered an embarrassing home loss to Bowling Green and it looks like that was the turning point.
The next game was at No. 17 Miami and they pulled off an improbable win that turned the season around. The Hurricanes should have taken a knee in the final minute of the game but they ran a play and fumbled. Tech recovered and Haynes King threw a 44-yard touchdown pass to Christian Leary with two seconds remaining to win, 23 – 20.
“We should have taken a knee,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal said.
Said coach Key: “We kind of thought they were taking a knee.”
Miami outgained GT 454-250 and had 23 first downs to the Yellow Jackets’ 12 but it did not matter.
They beat Syracuse 31 – 22 at Bobby Dodd Stadium to become bowl eligible. As a result, Orangeman head coach Dino Babers was fired after coaching there for 8 years.
The defense played well and held Syracuse to 94 yards at halftime.
“With them coming out in that Wildcat offense and running the ball a bit more it kind of allowed us to showcase our talents as a linebacker group and show that we can actually stop the run,” linebacker Paul Moala said.
Syracuse ran for almost 400 yards the previous week in a win over Pittsburgh. The Jackets contained the Orange to half that total.
“We really simplified things in this game, ran some simplified things within the plan, allowed the big guys up front to be able to do what they do,” Key said. “Good plan put together by the defensive guys in being able to do that and came up with some key turnovers at some key times.”
Quarterback Haynes King has played better than expected. He was at Texas A&M for 3 seasons and he did not do much before transferring to Georgia Tech. King has passed for 2,597 yards, 26 touchdowns, 15 interceptions and he’s completing 62% of his passes. He’s also the second leading rusher with 624 yards, 7 TD’s and he averages 6.4 yards per carry.
Running back Jamal Haynes is the leading rusher with 850 yards, 7 scores and he averages 6 YPC.
I think the program is taking a step in the right direction to be a solid winning program that can expect to play in a bowl game each season.
