Bishop Media Sports Network
Jason Bishop Show w Kipp Branch January 4
You Can’t Spell Sugar Without UGA
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The 5th ranked Georgia Bulldogs playing shorthanded at key positions and out hustled, out hit, out coached and out played the 7th ranked Baylor Bears in a 26-14 victory in the 86th annual Allstate Sugar Bowl.
The Dawgs led 19-0 at the half, but Baylor came out and scored a couple of second half TD’s. However, as they have most of the season, the UGA defense took over the contest in the 4th quarter and Georgia finished off the Bears to finish 12-2 on the season.
The UGA senior class finishes their career with a 44-12 record which ties for most wins in school history with an SEC Championship, 3 straight SEC East Titles, wins in the Liberty, Rose, and Sugar Bowl, a college football playoff appearance, and a national title game appearance.
Observations from the Sugar Bowl win over Baylor:
1.George Pickens is a superstar in the making.
The freshman WR tied a Georgia record for receptions in a bowl game with 12 for 175 yards and a TD.
Pickens gave the Baylor secondary fits all night long pumped some much needed life into the UGA passing game.
Pickens now will be the leader of a talented wide receiver group going into 2020 that goes from a weakness in 2019 to a team strength in 2020.
Remember this point next fall when you hear teams like Florida making excuses because they lost their top 4 wide receivers from 2019.
2.The UGA coaching staff out-coached the Baylor staff.
The naysayers criticize Kirby Smart’s coaching abilities, by hurling veiled back handed compliments lauding Smart’s recruiting abilities, but saying he is not a good game day coach.
Georgia was better prepared and better motivated than a Baylor squad that has a head coach linked to current NFL openings.
Kirby Smart is now 8-4 against top 10 teams in his 4 years at UGA.
You don’t just throw 4-5 star recruits on the field and say just freelance and conquer. You have to coach them up. Give Kirby Smart some credit for being an all-around pretty good football coach.
3.The 2019 UGA football team became the fifth team in school history to win 12 games or more in a season.
Kirby Smart has coached two of those five teams in four years. Never let facts stand in your way on a good internet troll attempt, right?
4.You got a pretty good sneak peek at the 2020 defense in the Sugar Bowl. Did you like what you saw? The rest of the SEC did not, and trust me they were watching.
5.Zamir White, once fully recovered from back to back ACL injuries, will be in beast mode in 2020.
6.Georgia arrived in New Orleans missing 12 players that started a game at one time or another in 2019. Including three starting offensive lineman, two All-SEC players on defense and did not seem to miss a beat against an 11-win Baylor team.
Recruiting and roster management is an essential component in being a quality football coach.
UGA is now, annually, a legitimate contender for a spot in the college football playoff.
The 2019 Georgia Bulldogs won’t be remembered for style points during this 12-2 season. They will be remembered as a tough, physical football team that beat Notre Dame at Sanford Stadium, got upset at home by South Carolina, lost the SEC title game to a generational QB in Joe Burrow and LSU, won the SEC East and beat Florida for the third straight year, while holding them to 21 yards rushing, and last but not least the 2019 Dawgs will be remembered as your 2020 Sugar Bowl Champions.
Always remember you can’t spell sugar without UGA.
Flying To Mountain Top?
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
For most of the last four seasons, the book on Georgia Southern men’s basketball has been the same.
The Eagles are an athletic team with plenty of talent and – injury permitting – a lot of depth.
They’ve consistently out-performed preseason predictions and have been a mainstay near the top of the Sun Belt standings and have earned one of the top four seeds in the conference tournament in four of the last five seasons.
But for all that success, the Eagles have never quite been able to reach the top of the mountain.
Shooting woes and a difficulty in winning road games have popped up at the worst times and the Eagles have seemed to be on the wrong end of most ‘must-win’ games.
The result is still a solid Georgia Southern squad – but one that is now closing in on 30 years without an appearance in the NCAA tournament.
So, while this season’s team has all the looks of a possible contender, it will be battling nearly three decades of demons along with the rest of the Sun Belt.
To be fair, the deck is stacked against the Eagles, as well as most other programs not fortunate enough to play in one of the power conferences.
Despite the Sun Belt quickly improving its overall statistics as a league and pulling off a pair of first round NCAA victories in recent history, the postseason continues to take more and more power conference teams with at-large bids.
So, while the Sun Belt has a handful of viable league title contenders this season and the ability to make some noise on the national stage, it’s already written in stone that only the league’s tournament champion will get an invitation, regardless of the resumes of the others.
In a way, that makes things a bit easier for Georgia Southern. To paraphrase the all-time classic movie ‘Major League’, “There’s only one thing left to do… Win the whole thing.”
That’s much easier said than done, but it’s an attainable goal for this season’s Eagles and one they’d do well to set their minds on right now.
Of course, coach speak rules the day in any sport. No amount of success or struggle will get GS coach Mark Byington to talk about a conference title in December – or in January or February, for that matter.
But the truth of the matter is that if the Eagles want to make the big dance in March, they need to start putting themselves in position for it right now.
The team has taken the first steps with a pair of wins in its’ first two Sun Belt games. A good conference tournament seed will likely net a more favorable run of opponents during the must-win games.
As the season goes on, the team also needs to consider rest for players, as everyone will have to be prepared for what could be three or four straight days of single elimination play.
Expansion
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
We need to expand the College Football Playoffs to eight teams, they say. We need to acknowledge the conference champions and provide access to more deserving teams.
Maybe it is time to relax and ask the important question: Do we want to expand?
The Oklahoma – LSU game looks bad and has many armed chair quarterbacks questioning the teams that deserve to be in the playoffs.
Oklahoma earned the spot during the regular season and with the Big 12 championship. Oklahoma had the best resume.
It is certainly possible that the Playoff Committee made a mistake in selecting the Sooners this year.
Could Alabama or Georgia put up a better fight against LSU? LSU beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa on November 9th 46-41. Then Alabama suffered their second loss of the season in the Iron Bowl 48-45 to Auburn.
Georgia was boat raced out of the Georgia Dome by LSU in the SEC championship game 37-10. Plus, Georgia had a huge wart on their resume with a 20-17 loss to a four-win South Carolina team.
This is not an argument for expansion, because expanding to six or eight teams would increase the blowouts.
This season there were 3 elite teams in college football: Ohio State, Clemson and LSU.
Since the playoffs have started, we have experienced some classic National Championship games, but only a couple semifinals have lived up to expectations.
The four team playoff is an improvement over the BCS. I know today’s society wants everything bigger and better. Expanding to eight teams would open things up for each of the Power 5 Conferences to be represented.
The hunger to expand to an eight team playoff is slowly, but surely taking over the sport and when it happens, many will cheer. An expanded playoff means the gap between the quality of opponents is going to get even bigger not smaller.
If the goal is to get better games then surely expansion is not the answer. If the goal is to increase revenue to the Power 5 Conferences than expansion will happen. “Follow the Money”
There is no ideal way to determine a national champion in college football. Limit the field and you run the risk of not seeing the best teams compete for a title.
Expand the field and fans are watching more watered down games. As a college football fan, who may complain now with 4 teams, will complaints stop after we add another 4?
College football fans love watching classic games. The Clemson 29-23 win over Ohio State, which sent the Tigers to the College Football Playoff Championship game was one. This game was an instant classic and drama at the highest level.
It was a grueling battle between two elite college football teams filled with comebacks, instant replay overturned and late game, gut wrenching drama.
In many cases, more college football is a good thing, but blowouts are not good for anyone.
Expanding the playoffs is a way that makes more money for the Elite Power 5 Conferences, whose only priority is to increase revenue. Expanding the playoff will dilute the quality of the games.
That is why the upcoming Championship game is so attractive.
Fields Or Fromm?
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Refer to it however you would like: Armchair Expert, Monday Morning Quarterback.
As fans, it’s easy to look back and judge a coach or an organization on personnel moves or play calls and claim we would’ve done something different.
For one, we’re not held accountable when it goes awry, so we can choose to gamble.
Also, most of these coaches are being paid millions of dollars to correctly make those difficult decisions, so I get the expectations. It doesn’t make those choices any easier though.
When you look back at this past year, I imagine most Georgia fans feel as though their season would’ve been more successful had Justin Fields been under center, rather than Jake Fromm, with most directing their displeasure towards Kirby Smart.
In almost all the major categories we use to gauge the success of a quarterback, Fields out performed Fromm, so it would make sense for fans to feel that way. Like with most things though, it’s not quite that simple.
For one, you have to consider the conference Fields plays in. Most SEC fans, and media for that matter, like to scream from the mountain tops about how difficult the SEC is, and how much more dominant it is over every other conference.
For the record, I’m not disagreeing, but if the criteria we’re going by is based on SEC superiority, then it makes sense that Fields numbers wouldn’t be the same had he stayed in Athens.
If you were to take away one touchdown and add 0.5 interceptions per conference game, something that is realistic if Fields were to have played in the SEC, his numbers aren’t far off from Fromm. And that’s with Fromm having under-achieved this year, compared to last season.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Fromm actually had the better season, just trying to put things into perspective.
The other thing to keep in mind is where the program was at this point last season. Even though Georgia lost to Texas, Fromm had led the Bulldogs to their second consecutive SEC Championship game appearance, while improving on his stats from the year before.
Fields had shown flashes of what he could do in limited playing time, but not enough to make it obvious he should be the starter.
One of the things I hear and read from Georgia fans is how they respect the fact Smart doesn’t promise playing time to any players, they have to earn it.
I don’t claim to know the inner workings of the Georgia program, but I imagine Fields was looking for a guarantee that Smart wouldn’t give.
If he had, and Fields produced similar numbers to what Fromm did during his sophomore campaign, how would the fan base feel?
Would they be ok with that kind of production or would they clamoring for Fromm, upset that Smart went with potential over the proven commodity? Based off his two seasons in Athens, and the expectation Fromm had going into his Junior year, he was the logical choice; at least enough to give him a shot to keep his job.
I know this is all hypothetical, but that’s kind of the point. As fans, we have the luxury of playing in this “what if” world, where we don’t have to commit to any particular decision because we’re not accountable for it.
Coaches, no matter how much money they’re paid, don’t have that option.
A Brave Decade
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The calendar turns over in just a couple of days, as December becomes January and one year becomes the next. This coming New Year’s Day also shifts the passage of time from one decade into another. The 2010s will become the 2020s and children born in the next few years will actually have memories of the decade in which they joined the world; something I, being born in 1988, can’t claim.
The next decade will define itself and be remembered for things we probably can’t even fathom, the way the 1920s is remembered for being the “Roaring Twenties” and the 1960s is remembered for counterculture.
But as the decade ends and we all look to the future, let’s take a moment to look back at the decade that was for the Atlanta Braves.
Looking back on it now, this decade seems clearly divided into 3 distinct periods: endings, rebuilding, and beginnings.
2010 launched with the announcement of Bobby Cox’s retirement after one last season. The stalwart skipper had coached the team for 21 years, (plus another four during the late 80s/early 70s) with 14 straight division championships, 5 National League pennants, and a World Series to his name.
He was legend and the team celebrated his legacy with one final playoff appearance; a Wild Card berth earned after a wild season full of scrappy play and incredible come backs (note: the 2010 squad still holds in my heart the spot of favorite ever team).
Two years later Chipper Jones announced he would be retiring after one final season. The 2012 campaign was another rousing one as the Braves snatched another Wild Card spot, playing in the first-ever Wild Card game, which ended Chipper’s playing career on a sour note with the infamous “Infield Fly” call.
These two retirements, the last two members of the legendary 90s teams, closed the book on an entire era for Atlanta.
The following season saw the Braves take an all or nothing approach, exciting the fan base with the acquisitions of the Upton brothers to go along with Jason Heyward, Dan Uggla, and eventual breakout star Evan Gattis. It was a lineup full of hitters who loved swinging for the fences. It paid off in 2013 with a NL East crown, but diminishing returns the next season jumpstarted the next major era for Atlanta in the 2010s: the rebuilding years.
The next few seasons were lean years, with the Braves finishing dead last in 2016 and seeing Brian Snitker ascend to the position of manager. First, as a mid-season replacement for outgoing skipper Fredi Gonzalez, then getting the full time job the next year.
Snit was followed shortly thereafter by many of the young prospects that Atlanta had been collecting during the rebuild, such as Dansby Swanson and Ozzie Albies.
Ironically, John Coppolella, the General Manager who had done much of the legwork in stocking the farm system, (Albies was a Frank Wren signing, mind you) would see none of his work bear fruit after baseball handed him a lifetime ban for cheating the international free agent system.
The setbacks wouldn’t stop the march of progress, as the next major era, beginnings started in Atlanta.
Along with Swanson and Albies came Mike Foltynewicz, Mike Soroka, and of course Ronald Acuna, Jr., who helped lead the Braves to consecutive division titles to close out the decade. Those stars give Atlanta a bright future on the horizon for the next ten years.
The start of the 2020s is shaping up to be the opposite of what the start of the 2010s was: the dawning of an era.
And, just because I inexplicably haven’t mentioned him yet, let’s not forget the constant and consistent contributions of the one player who has played for the Braves in every single year of this waning decade: Freddie Freeman.
Freeman has been through a lot with this team over the past ten years, and with the team that surrounds him now, it’s nearly time to cash in.
20 For 2020
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a great 2019.
Here are my 20 sports wishes for 2020.
1.The Brunswick High Pirates win a minimum of 8 regular season games, break that six-game losing streak to Glynn Academy and win a region football championship.
Also, both Frederica and Glynn have fine football seasons in 2020.
Sean Pender’s Pirates are about to go on a nice run over the next 3-4 years.
- Jake Fromm returns for his senior season and leads the Georgia Bulldogs to a 12-0 regular season, a SEC title win over Auburn, and a National Championship win over Ohio State in the College Football Playoff.
- The Atlanta Braves win the World Series in 2020, and pick up a top line starter by the trading deadline.
This team is on the cusp of being really good for a long time.
- Ronald Acuna Jr. wins the National League MVP and hits 50 HR’s in the process.
This kid is a generational type player that will be the face of the franchise for the next decade.
- Local Glynn County High School basketball teams make deep runs in the state playoffs.
Pirate nation, you better appreciate what you have in head coach Chris Turner.
- Deep playoff runs for BHS, Frederica Academy, and Glynn Academy baseball squads next spring.
- The UGA baseball team makes it into a Super Regional in 2020.
- The UGA basketball team earns a bid to the big dance March Madness.
- Georgia Tech football team winning 6-7 games in 2020 and going to a bowl game.
- Clemson, Oklahoma, and Texas join the SEC, while the conference boots Missouri. Then Auburn makes a permanent move to the SEC East and the conference moves to 9 conference games per season to eliminate at least one cupcake game per season.
- UCF and South Florida join the ACC.
- Florida State becomes Florida State again and Florida continues to improve under Dan Mullen.
- The Atlanta Falcons draft Derrick Brown to improve that defense and spend 15 million per season to get Nick Saban as their new head coach.
Falcon press conferences with Saban at the helm would be must see TV.
- The Jacksonville Jaguars trade for Matthew Stafford at QB and bring in an offensive minded head coach.
Stafford with that defense would be a winning combination in Jacksonville and fill the damn stadium.
- Jason Bishop improves his overall sports knowledge. That will be a tough one. I know I’m asking a lot on this wish.
- The Miami Dolphins draft Tua. He can’t wear #13 though because Marino’s number is retired.
- The Atlanta Hawks winning 30 games. The Hawks are bad. Did I say the Hawks are very bad?
- UGA hiring Hugh Freeze as the new Offensive Coordinator but keep a close watch on cell phone usage. The entire SEC would be very afraid.
- Gus Malzahn is given a lifetime contract at Auburn. One could only hope right?
- And finally, Kirby Smart continues to be known as The Gator Daddy!
Have a great 2020 all!
Happy Anniversary
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Happy Holidays everyone, as we approach 2020, let’s take a sleigh ride down memory lane. 2020 happens to be a huge anniversary year for the University of Georgia.
It is the 40th Anniversary of the Bulldogs last national championship. The 40th Anniversary is the Rudy Anniversary. Wow-it has been that long!
Let’s take a look at the 1980 Georgia Bulldog season. We will look at three key games that led to the National Championship.
Georgia opened the season in Knoxville, this was the Herschel Walker’s coming out party.
After falling behind 15-0, Herschel put the Bulldogs on his back. The key play was a simple pitch play, Walker took the pitch and proceeded to run over Bill Bates on his way to the end zone.
November 8th, according to most, is the most memorable football play in Georgia football history. “Run, Lindsay, Run” as the Bulldogs beat the Gators 26-21.
January 1, 1981, The Bulldogs jumped on Herschel Walker’s back to capture the National Championship. I remember the players carrying Vince Dooley off the field on their shoulders, Georgia fans storming the field and the smiling face of Herschel.
Players like Buck Belue, Lindsay Scott, Amp Arnold, Eddie “Meat Cleaver” Weaver, Tim Crowe Scott Woemer, Freddie Gilbert and many others made the 1980 season a once in a lifetime championship run for the Georgia Bulldogs.
It’s nice to sit back and reminisce about the glory days of Georgia football. That memory has remained once in a lifetime, at least after 40 seasons.
Yes, Georgia has come close a couple times to capturing another National Championship. The most recent was January 8, 2018.
Georgia played Alabama in the College Football Playoff Championship game in Atlanta; this game was an instant classic. The Bulldogs dominated the first three quarters of the game and led 20-10 entering the final period.
Alabama forced overtime by scoring 10 unanswered points in the fourth quarter.
Georgia’s offense stalled on their overtime possession and Rodrigo Blankenship kicked a 51-yard field goal to give the Bulldogs a 23-20 lead.
On the first play of overtime, Jonathan Ledbetter and Devin Bellamy sacked freshman quarterback Tua Tagovailoa for a 16-yard loss. The Georgia fans were celebrating.
On the next play, Tagovailoa found freshman DeVonta Smith for a 41-yard touchdown. Alabama captured yet another National Championship.
The victory was an Alabama triumph as much as it was a Georgia collapse.
Let’s take a stroll down that 40 year memory lane: Star Wars V; The Empire Strikes Back was the box office smash, Dallas and “who shot JR” was TV’s most popular program, Kenny Rogers “Lady” and Blondie “Call Me” were chart toppers, Jimmy Carter was President and the chants of USA, USA and “do you believe in miracles” rang through home in America as the USA Olympic Hockey team won the gold medal.
Kirby Smart has raised the bar for Georgia and it doesn’t surprise me that Georgia should push for the playoffs every season.
Vince Dooley, Herschel Walker, Buck Belue and company, let’s get together and Celebrate Your 40th Anniversary!
Tis’ The Season
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
As we find ourselves in the midst of the holiday season, and with the NFL regular season winding down, I figured I’d put on my giving hat and pass out what I hope each NFC South team is able to treat themselves to this offseason.
And much like the holidays, each team may not be getting exactly what they want, but they need to remember it’s the thought that counts.
For the Carolina Panthers, I bring them a new offensive line. The Panthers history of drafting or signing offensive linemen in free agency is like our experiences in Target or Wal-Mart.
We visit either store with the mindset of buying just one thing, but ultimately leave with our hands full of crap we don’t need. In the case of the Panthers they either don’t buy the one thing they want, or they wind up buying the generic version that’s cheaply made because they spent half their budget on those other items.
It doesn’t matter if they have Cam Newton, Kyle Allen, or Ronnie “Sunshine” Bass from Remember the Titans under center, if they don’t improve their offensive line, they won’t be Super Bowl bound anytime soon.
It may not be the area they need the most improvement in, but there’s a new running back under the tree for the Atlanta Falcons.
Look, I get what they’ve tried to do with Devonta Freeman and he’s had some success, but he’s not the answer in the backfield.
Realistic expectations for Freeman are caught somewhere between Darren Sproles and Christian McCaffrey, which is great when you need a change of pace, but not when he’s your featured back.
Sure, the Falcons could use a new head coach and some help on the defensive side of the ball, but a running back will help take some pressure off Matt Ryan, while possibly helping him extend his career a bit.
I’m not gifting anything to the Saints team, as much as I am one player; Drew Brees. And for Brees I’m giving him the chalice, and never-ending life, from “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”.
Tom Brady is receiving a lot of attention for his level of play at 42 years old, but Brees is only 2 years younger, has sustained more injuries, and I’d argue is playing at a higher level.
New Orleans proved they were still one of the NFL’s top teams with Teddy Bridgewater at quarterback, but there’s no substitute for what Brees means to that team.
More than likely, Brees only has a few more good years left, and I imagine Saints fans would do anything they could to keep him playing.
As for Tampa Bay, they’ll find a map in their stocking to help them figure out where the hell they’re going as an organization.
The Buccaneers have gone through head coaches this past decade like they’re a top tier, mid-major football program, only they’re firing them instead of losing them to better jobs.
It’s a toss-up as to whether or not their quarterback will throw for 400 yards or 4 interceptions in a game and there’s a distinct possibility both will happen.
The defense is inconsistent and basically, they are a team without an identity. The only downside is that most of the players in the NFL are too young to have ever had to use a map, so it may not quite have the desired result it was originally intended to have.
And like any good present, just in case they don’t like it, I’ll make sure to leave the receipt.
Turn The Page?
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
There are really only two things that a fanbase can discuss at the water cooler when their pro football team is having a miserable season: potential upcoming draft picks and whether or not the coach should be able to keep his job.
That’s been the hot topic since it became clear that the Falcons weren’t going to turn their abysmal start into anything noteworthy: should Dan Quinn be fired?
The answer seems to have complicated itself as the Atlanta Falcons have managed to win back-to-back games again, bringing their win total over the past six games up to four (and, consequently, their draft pick slot number is rising). The main hole of the season and, really, of the last several years has been the defense.
They’ve seemingly righted their ship, helping Atlanta score road wins against the two best teams in the NFC in the Saints and the 49ers.
Maybe the players realized that they’d be subjected to a new head coach and coaching staff if they continued to tank for the rest of the season. Quinn has surely been on the hot seat for more than just this past season: his track record post-Super Bowl has been quite a disappointment.
This season may have just been the peak of how bad things could get for the Falcons.
The start of the season saw Matt Ryan get decimated and then culminated in a blocked punt, of all things.
Since then it’s been a parade of sloppy play and stupid penalties and post-game interviews about their rough start.
All of a sudden, the Atlanta Falcons, who have Ryan and Julio Jones and a host of other incredibly talented footballs players, were 1-7 to start the 2019 season. The team knew they weren’t making the playoffs before turkey was served at the end of November.
Is that Dan Quinn’s fault? The beginning of the season saw the both of Atlanta’s first round draft picks go down with injuries and after the defense coordination was reshuffled, they began to play at a significantly higher level.
Offensive coordinator, Dirk Koetter and his ineffective and sterile offense can be fixed; and it’s clear enough that the Falcons roster likes playing for their current regime.
Is that enough to justify keeping Quinn around for at least another year – another attempt to recapture that 2017 glory?
The thing is even with the cold start and the hot streak over the past six weeks, things haven’t looked all that different from the previous years of Quinn running the show and calling the shots.
The Falcons have always been streaky under him, dating back to his first season at the helm. The team started off hot as hell (going 4-0 to begin the campaign) but went 4-8 the rest of the way to finish at .500 in 2015.
Even their Super Bowl season in 2016 was streaky. The Falcons didn’t see a win streak longer than 4 games at any point (playoffs, obviously, excluded).
So, while wining 4 out of the last 6 may seem to indicate that things have turned around for the Falcons, it’s really more indicative of the same old, same old and that hasn’t gotten winning results lately.
Dan Quinn and Falcons had to have come into this season knowing that Quinn’s job was on the line.
Frankly, it’s a miracle he wasn’t fired midseason, after that dreadful 1-7 start. But just because he wasn’t doesn’t mean that a chance won’t be made once the season wraps up here shortly. And despite his successes and his reputation in the locker room – maybe it’s time.
