Gritty Gators
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
It’s crazy to think that Florida has not been a national title contender in quite some time.
The last time the Gators won the national championship was 2008. The following year, they finished the regular season undefeated but lost to Alabama in the SEC Championship game. Somehow, their decline coincided with Nick Saban taking over in Tuscaloosa.
After Urban Meyer left in 2010 there has been a revolving door of head coaches. Billy Napier was hired in 2022 and so far, his record is just above .500. He is only in his second season but some fans are wondering if he is the right man for the job.
I actually think he is. I also think it would create a bigger problem for the program if he were fired after this season.
A coach needs some time to establish a winning culture and recruit. Napier coached at Louisiana for four seasons prior to arriving in Gainesville and his record was 40 – 12. He had double-digit wins the last three seasons.
It is tough to watch rival Georgia in the same division win back-to-back national championships while UF is struggling to be bowl eligible.
So far, I think the season has gone well for the Gators. They are 5 – 2 heading into the Georgia game so they are on track to have a good season. They have a chance to upset some teams the last half of the season, starting with UGA.
Coach Napier spoke about some of these things during the bye week. He was asked about how Georgia tight end Brock Bowers’ ankle injury will affect Florida’s preparation:
“Yeah, we’re in the middle of the open date now. We’re working on ourselves. We’re obviously right in the middle of evaluating what we do well and the things we need to do better. We’ll start commenting on Georgia and work on Georgia later in the week.”
Running back Montrell Johnson played for Coach Napier at Louisiana and was named Sun Belt Freshman of the Year (2021). He transferred to Florida last season once Napier took the job and he is one of the best players on offense. He leads the team in rushing and he is averaging 5.2 yards per carry.
Coach Napier spoke about Johnson’s progression:
“Montrell is one of the more impressive young men we have. Obviously he’s physically talented. More importantly, he’s got really good practice habits. He’s tough, he’s durable, he’s smart. He can catch, he can protect. He’s been very productive. The guy’s over 2,000 yards now in his career. He’s been with us, this will be Year 3. I think Montrell wants to please; he wants to have success; he works as hard as anybody; and he’s a selfless guy. So anytime we ask him to block he does a fantastic job. I think one of the things you gotta do is try to get the ball to your players that are explosive and capable. Sometimes that will require the running back to be a blocker and Montrell has done that really well.”
Trevor Etienne is right behind him in rushing and he’s averaging 5.9 yards per carry.
Florida is outmatched against Georgia but I think they will play hard and make it a close game. Their final three games of the season are at #19 LSU, at #20 Mizzou and #4 Florida State. I think they will beat at least one of those teams.
Shot Callers
By: Colin Lacy
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Georgia/Florida game (or Florida/Georgia depending on which side you’re on), has been riddled with outstanding individual performances.
Many of these come from the quarterback from either side, so with that in mind, since both sides have a starting QB in their first year starting at their school, let’s dive into the signal callers for both sides.
Carson Beck: Georgia
Although Beck is not an unfamiliar name to Dawg fans, he is in his debut year as QB1 for the red and black.
Beck served as the backup for the last 2 years on the National Championship Georgia squads behind Stetson Bennett.
The Jacksonville, FL native will return home to start his first Geogia/Florida game after making twelve appearances from 2020 to 2022.
Through some competition in the pre-season with Brock Vandagriff and Gunner Stockton, Beck came out of the 2023 pre-season camp with the starting nod from Head Coach Kirby Smart and hasn’t looked back.
Beck has accounted for at least 261 yards through the air in every game this year (season low of 261 coming his last outing against Vanderbilt) and topping the year with 389 passing yards in the dominant 51-13 victory against Kentucky.
Beck, the former Mandarin High School Mustang, will be playing just 20 miles north of his high school football stadium where he garnered a 4-star ranking from ESPN, and was named the Florida Offensive Player of the Year as a senior.
Big games and big moments have never been a problem for Beck, who most recently completed two of three passes in the National Championship game against TCU to cap off the back-to-back titles for UGA.
In his high school career, Carson led Mandarin to the first state championship in school history and just the second title by a Duval County public school when he threw for 329 yds and 5 touchdowns (one shy of a FHSAA record in a title game).
At the end of the day, through some scrutiny, Beck has led the Dawgs to remain #1 in the country and to a perfect 7-0 record (4-0 SEC) entering the “World’s Largest Cocktail Party”.
Graham Mertz: Florida
There are a lot of similarities between Carson Beck and Graham Mertz.
Mertz is also following a quarterback that is now on an NFL roster (Anthony Richardson served as the Indianapolis Colts starting quarterback before a shoulder injury has recently forced him out for the remainder of the year).
Both have worked through a ton of scrutiny at times from the outside noise.
There also is one glaring difference between the two…EXPERIENCE.
Gram Mertz transferred into Billy Napier’s Gators after four years at Wisconsin.
Mertz started every game for the Badgers for three years straight (32 consecutive starts from 2020-2022). He racked up over 5,400 yards through the air and 46 touchdowns for Wisconsin before former Head Coach Paul Chryst was let go.
Before heading to Madison in 2019, Mertz set the Kansas state high school record with 51 passing touchdowns as a senior in 2018.
This year, Mertz has tried to silence some of the nay-sayers with almost 2,000 passing yards, and an impressive 423 yards with 3 touchdowns through the air on the road in a much-needed victory over South Carolina last time out.
The Mertz family is no stranger to college athletics. It began with his father Ron playing for the Minnesota Golden Gophers from 1989-92. Then the legacy was passed to his two sisters who both played college hoops as Lauren took her talents to Kansas State and Mya laced up on the hardwood for Drake.
So, what does all this mean? First and foremost, you’ve got two big time competitors meeting in arguably the best rivalry in college football.
As it is in every college football game, the quarterback is going to be key in this Georgia/Florida (yes, again maybe Florida/Georgia depending on your side).
Especially with Brock Bowers out for this game for the Dawgs, and Florida riding the high of the victory over the Gamecocks, quarterbacks are going to be huge in this matchup.
History Lesson
By: Colin Lacy
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
“The World’s Largest Cocktail Party”, is it the Georgia/Florida game or the Florida/Georgia game, one thing that everyone can agree on.
This game is one of, if not the single, greatest rivalry in college sports. The game between these two goes WAY back into the history books (how deep is a point of contention…. we’ll get to that), so let’s dive into what this game has been!
Where do we start? Well… it depends on who you ask. For the Georgia contingency, the first Georgia/Florida match-up took place in Macon, Georgia way back in 1904. Georgia ended up with the victory with a final score of 52-0.
The point of contention comes that the fact that the University of Florida Athletic Association doesn’t recognize that game because technically the team that Georgia defeated was officially named Florida Agricultural College.
The following year, the state legislature officially made the name change to what we know as University of Florida, but it took another year until 1906 that Florida officially says the football program began.
Either way, the first mutually agreed upon meeting took place in Jacksonville one mid-October afternoon in 1915, where Georgia handled Florida 37-0.
It took thirteen years for Florida to notch their first victory in the budding rivalry, defeating Georgia 26-6 in 1928.
Although the first mutually agreed game was in Jacksonville, it wasn’t until 1933 when the city became the official home for the game and has been the home for all but two (1994 and 1995) since that 1933 meeting.
We’ll fast forward in time to 1942 when everybody on the field in Red and Black was a “Damn Good Dawg” as Georgia obliterated Florida 75-0 in a game where Florida completed more passes to Georgia defenders (7) than their own receivers (6).
Jump ahead nearly 40 years when everybody tuning into the Georgia Bulldogs Radio Network heard the Legendary Larry Munson urged Lindsay Nelson to “Run Lindsay Run” 92 yards down the sideline to score to take the late lead over Florida. The Dawgs held on to the win thanks to a Mike Fisher interception after Munson broke his metal chair.
The mid-1990s saw the first on campus matchups (1994 in Gainesville, 1995 at Sanford Stadium in Athens) since the early 1930s. We saw Florida score ‘half a hundred’ on UGA at Sanford Stadium, which had never been done.
The two-year hiatus was a necessity because the then named Jacksonville Municipal Stadium was being built to accommodate the expansion franchise of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
One that will live in celebration or infamy (depending on the side of the fence you’re on) comes in 2007. What some call “the celebration game,” Georgia defeats the Gators 42-30.
This broke a streak where Florida won 15 of 17 meetings from 1990-2006.
It gets the name because on the first touchdown scored by the Dawgs’ Knowshon Moreno, the entire Georgia Bench floods on the field to celebrate as a team.
Head Coach Mark Richt admitted after the game that he had told the team before the game that “it was going to be a team celebration not an individual celebration.” He would go on to clarify, “I was expecting the 11 players on the field to be doing the celebrating, not for the bench to clear as it did.”
Like many “rivalries” have evolved, now there is a trophy to play for in the Georgia/Florida border war.
In 2009, the rivalry winner began taking home the Okefenokee Oar. The Gators would win the inaugural Oar with a 41-17 victory, taking home the 10-foot-long Oar, which had been carved from a 1,000-year-old cypress tree taken out of the Okefenokee Swamp which runs along the Georgia/Florida border.
In recent years there have been some classics. Whether it’s Aaron Murray leading the comeback in 2011, or the Dawgs shocking the #2 Gators in 2012, or maybe Florida causing five Dawg turnovers in 2015 for the 27-3 win.
Either way, the series has only gained momentum since it began in 1904 (or 1915…) the 2023 meeting sets up to be a classic with half the stadium in red, half in blue per usual.
Take The Money And Run?
By: Joe Delaney
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Well, I wanted to be writing this article about Brock Bowers and his push to win a Heisman Trophy. The big, fast Georgia Tight End had all the parts in place to be the first true Heisman candidate in decades and the first Tight End to win the award since Leon Hart in 1949.
Brock’s statistics are off the chart. He is the reigning Mackey Award winner and his team is ranked #1 and coming off 2 National Championships. Pretty heady stuff.
Add in that he has been putting up award winning stats since he walked on the field as a freshman and the rising junior was definitely in the mix with all the QBs and RBs.
I mentioned in my last article about Bowers that barring injury, he had a real shot. All that changed in Nashville, Tennessee on October 14th against the Vanderbilt Commodores when that injury happened.
An ankle sprain that required a follow up surgery will sideline the Georgia great for 4 to 8 weeks. That could take Brock out for the remainder of the regular season or maybe the entire year. There is also a possibility that the Bulldog Nation has seen Brock Bowers in Red and Black for the last time.
Georgia will still have one of the best TE groups in the country. Oscar Delp would start for 90 per cent of the teams Georgia play. He will step into the starting position with speed, athletic ability and experience. He is very good. But he aint Brock.
Pearce Spurlin and Lawson Luckie back him up and are solid young pups that are coming on. Some pundits have compared the young Luckie in many ways to Brock.
Some going as far as calling him Brock 2.0. Very high praise but they aint Brock.
Add in the upgrades, experience and athleticism of the current Georgia wide receivers and Carson Beck will have plenty of options to throw to. He and the Georgia offense will continue to have success. But he aint got Brock Bowers.
In Georgias first 7 games Brock had 41 receptions for 567 yards and 4 scores for a 13.8 YPC. Add in 6 carries for 28 yards and a touchdown.
Then take into account that in some of those games he rarely played in the second half and you get the picture what Georgia is losing.
The inevitable question is where do we go from here. The best scenario is Brock is back for the playoffs, not missing a beat, helping and leading Georgia to a “3 in 23”. The other end of that is that he is done as a Dawg.
Brock Bowers was and is still a lock as a first round pick in the 2024 NFL draft. Some have listed him as a “generational talent” and expect him to go top 5.
Either way he is looking at a payday for life as a first round NFL pick. With all he has done for the University of Georgia and the Bulldog nation, should he even think about coming back? He will.
He will think long and hard about it and try his best to rehabilitate that ankle. That’s the type of young man he is.
Kirby Smart has long said that Brock Bowers is the hardest working Dawg around. Bowers has a deep love for the school, his teammates, coaches and the Bulldog Nation.
If he can comeback and it makes sense then he will. He has all the support he needs and Kirby will shoot him straight. If he dons the Red and Black again it will be for the right reasons.
I lean toward him not coming back. My heart says yeah he’ll be back but my mind says no.
He has the opportunity to set himself and his family up for life. To jeopardize that and get reinjured would be the worst thing imaginable.
Brock Bowers has done everything he can for his University. He is the best tight end and one of the top 5 players to ever play for the Dawgs. He has done his part. I hope I’m wrong on this, but it may be time for Brock to take the money……and when he can…RUN.
Kirby Hates Florida
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Kirby Smart Hates Florida. He hates them with the fire of a thousand suns.
He gives the media plenty of coach speak about how Florida is another game, and all league games are important. He tells the cameras that he and his staff must prepare the same every week.
He says that great talent exists across college football, and anyone can beat you any day of the week. Despite all of that talk, Kirby Smart lives to beat Florida.
He has made beating the Gators a priority and celebrated the last two victories over Florida with a level of expression that ‘Stern Smart’ rarely shows.
At this point, it’s well known that Smart was a safety at Georgia from 1995-1998. He recorded 13 interceptions for the Bulldogs and was an All-SEC selection his Senior year. Smart’s time wearing silver britches also coincided with some of the worst beatings in the history of the Florida-Georgia rivalry.
Smart’s teams lost to the Gators 52-17 in 1995, 47-7 in 1996 and 38-7 in 1998. Kirby and the Dawgs did get to taste victory in 1997, when they pulled a 37-17 upset over the Gators. It would be Georgia’s only victory out of 14 meetings against the Gators.
Steve Spurrier hated Georgia for beating him in his senior season of 1966 when the Dawgs upset the Gators 27-10. The loss cost UF their first SEC Championship, and Spurrier never forgot. That loss kept him from becoming a champion. Needless to say, Spurrier made beating Georgia a priority throughout his coaching career.
For years UGA had a lovely habit of beating Florida anytime the Gators had a good season, and that ownership created the monster that ended Georgia’s dominance in the rivalry.
Let’s go back to the infamous 1995 game against the Gators. Georgia and Florida played in Sanford Stadium due to the old Gator Bowl being renovated, and prior to the game Steve Spurrier found out that no opponent had ever scored 50 points between the hedges.
With the game out of reach late in the fourth quarter, and the Gators leading 45-17, Spurrier continued to call passing plays for backup quarterback Eric Kresser.
The Gators ran a flea-flicker, at one point on their final drive and moved the ball down to Georgia’s 10-yard line instead of running out the clock. With 1:10 remaining Kresser threw a touchdown on a slant to Travis McGriff.
I found something fascinating watching the end of that game on YouTube. Do you know who McGriff jogged past right after he caught that final touchdown?
True freshman safety, Kirby Smart.
The Gators ran the score up to embarrass the Dawgs, and that’s when Spurrier passed the flaming torch of revenge to Smart.
A little over 24 years ago, Steve Spurrier created the man who would bring Spurrier-style vitriol and hatred to the Bulldogs’ side of the rivalry. That man is Kirby Smart.
Bowers-less Bulldogs
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
It’s not often that the best offensive player on a college football team is the tight end.
The last time we saw that was in 2020 when Kyle Pitts was at Florida.
That is also the case for the Georgia Bulldogs. Junior tight end Brock Bowers is a two-time All-American and he’s a projected top five pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Bowers suffered a high-ankle sprain in the first half against Vanderbilt.
After being helped off the field and attended to in the medical tent on Georgia’s sideline, Bowers was escorted out of the stadium and taken for a magnetic resonance imaging, MRI exam. The Bulldogs knew what they were dealing with before their plane left Nashville.
He will have surgery on his ankle and that raises several questions. Will he return this season or is his college career over?
Bowers could choose to come back for a College Football Playoff run for the two-time defending national champion Bulldogs. Due to his on-field success and numerous Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) opportunities over the last two seasons, he is represented by a considerable management team. Along with Bowers and his parents, that group ultimately will decide whether he will continue his collegiate career.
The tight-rope surgery to repair a high-ankle sprain requires on average a recovery time of four to six weeks. Starting right tackle Amarius Mims underwent the same surgery on Sept. 18 and has yet to return.
Freshman tight end Lawson Luckie also had this procedure in mid-August and recently returned to the field.
Bowers has been the centerpiece of Georgia’s offense this season. He leads the team with 41 catches for 567 yards and has 4 touchdowns. He had more than 100 receiving yards in each of the past three games.
“Next man up,” quarterback Carson Beck said after the game. “That’s what we’re all about here at Georgia.”
With Bowers sidelined, Georgia will turn to sophomore Oscar Delp, freshmen Pearce Spurlin III and Luckie.
“I was proud of them,” head coach Kirby Smart said. “… Those guys practice every day. They take all of the same reps. I thought our guys did a great job.”
As it stands, Bowers would finish his Georgia career fifth in receiving with 2,395 yards, sixth in receptions with 160 and second in touchdown catches with 24. He would leave unchallenged as the greatest tight end ever to play for the Bulldogs.
It’s never a good time to have a star player injured but UGA is getting to the toughest part of their schedule.
That starts with playing rival Florida in Jacksonville on Oct. 28. Then the Bulldogs play home games against No. 20 Mizzou on Nov. 4 and No. 13 Ole Miss the next week before going to No. 17 Tennessee on Nov. 18.
Georgia is clearly not as good as they have been over the last couple of years, so they might struggle without Bowers. The SEC is not as strong as it has been in previous years so that will help. We will see what playmakers step up in his absence.
Betting On Beck
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
We’re halfway through with the 2023 Georgia football season, and Carson Beck is the big man on campus in Athens, Georgia.
He is the QB on the number one team in the country that is currently riding a 23-game winning streak. Beck’s stats at the halfway point look like this:
144-of-196 passes (73.5-percent)
1,886 yards
13 total touchdowns; 11 passing touchdowns
9.6 yards per attempt
Two comeback victories in SEC play
SEC Co-Offensive Player of the Week, October 7
His head coach has all the confidence in his abilities and offered this about his QB recently on how he can improve: “Mobility. Getting in and out of the pocket decisions, when to tuck it down and run versus stand in and throw,” Kirby Smart said. “Some designed runs probably wouldn’t hurt him around the red area and things that he can do. He’s a good athlete.” Smart is always coaching his kids up.
After all, Beck has some big shoes to fill. His predecessor as Georgia’s starting quarterback was Stetson Bennett, who led the Bulldogs to consecutive national championships and was always at his best in the biggest games.
Now, after three years spent watching mostly from the sidelines, Beck is finally getting his chance to lead the No. 1 Bulldogs and he is making the most of that opportunity.
During both the South Carolina and Auburn games I thought “UGA just had 2 national championship years. It must end somehow and I’m going to be ok with this”. I still want to see UGA go undefeated every single year. Seeing UGA win back-to-back titles and witnessing generational greatness related to UGA football fills the fulfillment tank. At least, for a while. I’ll start to get aggravated again when UGA starts going 8-4 with an unexplainable loss or two thrown in there again.
When things looked bleak at Auburn a few weeks ago Beck’s play won the UGA fan base over. He won me over.
I feel more confident now about him in pressure situations than ever before. He won in a very tough environment.
Auburn ran the ball all over the UGA defense for the entire game and UGA turned it over numerous times. For Beck to stand in there and lead those last 3 drives, that was impressive.
The national media gave most of the credit to Brock Bowers, who is the best tight end in college football history, but Carson Beck was the one delivering those passes. The man is just cool under pressure.
Carson Beck has more pass attempts than any other QB in the SEC at the halfway point of the season. Not saying this is a good or bad thing, but halfway through the season I think it is safe to say this isn’t a run-run-pass offense as the Mike Bobo critics shouted to the heavens during the summer. Kirby Smart has unleashed Carson Beck and is going to ride on his arm in 2023.
UGA is 39-1 since the loss to Florida in 2020. UGA could be 48-1 if they can run the table for the 3-peat.
The statistics, records, and accomplishments from this run will easily be used as one of the standards for modern college football dynasties.
Alabama set the standard with 6 titles in 12 years, but Kirby has built something at UGA that is special.
I remember the 43-4-1 run from 1980-83 and thought nothing would ever top that at UGA. Well, I was wrong these are unequaled times in Athens, Georgia.
Carson Beck has a chance to make his own legacy at UGA. He is off to a great start.
Carson Beck is a kid who grew up in the Jacksonville area and he will get his opportunity to make his mark in the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party right in his own backyard. This young man is a baller.
Killing Time
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Here is the main question in my mind and it is one that Florida does not have a great track record of.
Will Florida be patient and allow Billy Napier to build the Florida program the right way?
Florida was one of the founding members of the SEC in 1933. It took the Gators 58 years to win their first SEC Football Championship in 1991. UF has won 8 SEC Football Championships overall and none since 2008.
It has been 15 years since Florida has won anything of significance in football. In the same time frame the Gators have had 5 head football coaches. Doing the math Florida hires and fires head football coaches every three years.
Billy Napier inherited a culture problem at UF that he has been working to improve since he walked on campus.
SEC coaches privately tell reporters that Florida has consistently been one of the most undisciplined teams in the conference over the past 5 seasons.
Napier has addressed the culture issue, and a sample size of results are known. The Tennessee win at home earlier this season was a huge positive for the program.
The Kentucky and Utah games were nightmares that show that the culture Napier is developing still struggles with dealing with adversity.
Florida is still a work in progress. Look at UGA early in Kirby’s tenure with ugly losses at home against Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech, and an ugly road loss to Ole Miss. Recruiting will fix all of that.
I heard Steve Spurrier say recently that Florida needed to recruit their way out the current situation they are in. Billy Napier is tearing it up on the recruiting trail. Florida’s 2024 recruiting class is currently ranked 4th in the country.
The 2024 recruiting class has addressed the following positions to date:
BY POSITION:
Quarterback (1)
Running Back (1)
Receiver (4)
Offensive Line (4)
Defensive Line (4)
Linebacker (3)
Defensive Back (4)
Florida is recruiting on a national level with committed recruits from 8 states. UF is a national brand and Napier knows this and is using it to his advantage.
Moving forward the Gators must lock down the state of Florida better moving forward as only seven of the Gators 21 commits come from the Sunshine State.
The glaring weakness of Florida right now is on the lines of scrimmage. The SEC is an inside out conference meaning you build your team along the lines of scrimmage.
Kentucky exposed that when Florida traveled to Lexington. Napier knows his long-term success in Gainesville will depend on how he recruits and develops offensive and defensive linemen.
Florida whipped Tennessee on both fronts in that big win. Just the opposite with Kentucky. The Utah loss was a fluke in my eyes. Florida fans are loud and vocal bunch on social media after ugly losses like the one against Kentucky.
The Gator fanbase is a passionate bunch and the toxicity of social media doesn’t help on the recruiting side of things.
Florida expects SEC and National Titles. Things got off track over the past 15 years, and now Billy Napier is on track to fix it.
He is recruiting well, and that will fix a multitude of issues. Napier says winning is hard in media sessions. Winning is hard at Florida when you have a train track littered with poor coaching hires.
Now Napier is fixing the recruiting woes, and the Gator nation just needs to be patient for about two more recruiting cycles and Florida will be back among the elites of college football.
Time is a precious commodity, and patience and trust in Billy Napier will reap championship benefits for the Florida Gators. Time and patience Gator fans. Will you allow it?
80 Million Dollar Mistake?
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
None of the given explanations made sense. Nothing would have.
Mario Cristobal blew it.
Miami lost a game they shouldn’t have, in stunningly idiotic fashion.
If quarterback Tyler Van Dyke was ordered to take a knee on a third-and-10 with a running clock at under 40 seconds, the Hurricanes would be 5-0; talking about how they escaped with an ugly 20-17 win over Georgia Tech.
Instead, the sports world is scratching their heads wondering why he handed the ball off to Don Chaney Jr.
The Yellow Jackets ran out of timeouts, and that led to the fumble that set up the Yellow Jackets’ miracle comeback.
Chaney was closing in on his first 100-yard rushing game of his career. He was sitting on 99 yards when he carried it for the final time.
When asked directly about why he called the run play, Cristobal denied that the 100yd milestone was the reason. At the end of the game, Miami’s official stats later reflected that Chaney finished with 106 yards, but in real-time Miami’s official stats listed him at 99 yds before his final carry.
Why did Miami not take a knee and take the W?
Hurricane fans, how does this unimaginable and embarrassing loss take place?
It’s a mistake you’d think every coach would avoid. Cristobal, though, has fallen victim to running an unnecessary play in a clock-killing situation twice now. It happened to his team at Oregon in 2018.
The Ducks led Stanford 31-28 late, and quarterback Justin Herbert could have knelt to run the clock down to 16 or fewer seconds and set up a punt near midfield.
Instead, Oregon running back CJ Verdell ran it on second-and-2 and fumbled. The Cardinal took over with 51 seconds remaining, forced overtime and went on to beat the Ducks 38-31.
Cristobal’s explanation about Saturday’s clock management strategy on the final drive didn’t make much sense.
Why would any coach in their right mind run it on third-and-10 with 33 seconds left in the game after Georgia Tech had used its final timeout two plays earlier?
What were the final 26 seconds like for the guy in charge on the other sideline? Well, Georgia Tech coach Brent Key was stunned Miami didn’t take a knee either.
Surprise turned to elation when his team pounced on its opportunity, as Haynes King connected with Christian Leary on the game-winning 44-yard touchdown pass with only two seconds left.
Miami has not won an ACC home game under Cristobal. They’re 0-5 in league play at Hard Rock Stadium since December 2021. Cristobal is looking a lot like the 10-year 80 dollar mistake.
He blew a huge opportunity Saturday to prove Miami was past its bye-week blues and capable of handling a three-touchdown underdog.
The Hurricanes may redeem themselves by beating a Tar Heels team they’ve lost four consecutive games to, followed by a Clemson squad that has beaten them by a combined score of 178-30 in their last four meetings.
It’s not impossible. Nothing in this article says this Miami team is untalented.
Dumber things have happened. Coaches have an infinite potential of stupidity.
I’m not sure we’ll see anything dumber than what we saw this Saturday for quite some time. Where were you while Hurricane history was taking place?
Chop On!
By: Colin Lacy
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Everything that the Braves have heard for 6 months is that “if the Braves have to rely on pitching, they’re in trouble.” What did the Bravos do? Only churn out the best record in baseball and prepare for a NL Division Series match-up against NL East rival Philadelphia Phillies that will serve as a re-match of the 2022 NLDS.
The Braves rang out a record of 104-58 and joined only the Orioles and Dodgers as the only three teams in MLB with 100 wins. A big part has been the best offense in baseball scoring the most, and the biggest run differential in MLB this year.
A big question for Atlanta has been the ace of the staff Max Fried, who has been dealing with a blister on his pitching hand.
In the downtime between the end of the regular season and the Saturday beginning of the Phillies series, the Braves had 3 days of simulated games between current players and minor-leaguers split into two teams.
In the Tuesday intersquad game, Fried threw with a band-aid on the pitching hand in question just for a little precaution. All indications after the outing from Manager Brian Snitker and Braves personnel point to Fried being a go for the NLDS roster, and potentially starting game 2 on Monday. Signs would lead Braves fans to expect the series opening nod to go to right-hander Spencer Strider.
As much as Braves fans enjoyed the down years for the Phillies (just one year over .500 from 2012-2022), it’s good to have the Braves-Phillies rivalry back to it’s best. This year in the 13 games head-to-head, the Braves hold the 8-5 lead as the two look to the best of 5 game NLDS.
With the best record in Baseball, the Braves have locked up home field advantage all the way through to the World Series.
Atlanta will host game one on Saturday at Truist Park with a 6:07 first pitch.
Game two from Atlanta will come Monday at the same time before the series shifts to Philadelphia for games 3 and (if necessary) 4 at Citizen’s Bank Park.
If the series goes the distance, the deciding game 5 will return to Cobb County in metro-Atlanta.
The Phillies come into the series with a 90-72 record in the regular season and finished 14 games back of the Braves in the NL East.
After sweeping the Marlins in a best-of-three series in the Wild Card round, the Phillies come into Atlanta behind an offense led by Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos, who each drove in over 100 runs, and Bryce Harper, who missed just shy of 40 games earlier in the year with injury.
On the mound, the Phanatics are led by the duo of Aaron Nola and Zack Weeler who both threw over 190 innings and fanned 200 hitters.
Outside of Jeff Hoffman (the only Phillies reliever with a sub-3.00 ERA), the bullpen for the Phils is familiar to Atlanta fans. Craig Kimbrel capped off 23 saves to the tune of a 3.26 ERA while fighting off some nagging injuries.
So, what’s different this postseason for the Braves, who look to get the bad taste of the 2022 NLDS that the Phillies won 3-1?
A big key is the pure health of the squad. Going into the postseason last year, off the top, they were without infielder Ozzie Albies who only played 64 games last year because of a broken right pinky and broken left foot.
Spencer Strider was trying to fend off an oblique injury that pushed him to a game 3 start. He threw 2 strong innings before the 3rd seeing him only recording 1 out.
This postseason, the Braves franchise have adopted the mantra “As One” to symbolize that the Braves “team” isn’t just the players on the field, but also coaches, staff, front office, and even the fans.
So “As One” it’s time to Chop On Braves Country!
