Bishop Media Sports Network
Georgia Bulldogs v. Auburn Tigers Preview
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Georgia Bulldog’s season got off to a bummy but ultimately successful start on Saturday with a 37-1 win over the Arkansas Razorbacks.
The Auburn Tigers took care of business by beating the Kentucky Wildcats 29-13 to open the SEC football season.
Now the Bulldogs and Tigers will renew one of the oldest rivalries in the SEC on Saturday in Athens.
The top 10 matchup provides a steep test for both teams and plenty of questions after the season opener.
Georgia opens as a 7-point favorite.
There is no question who will be the starting quarterback for Auburn.
Since he arrived on campus, as a star-studded true freshman, Bo Nix has been the starter for the Tigers.
To kick off his second season as Auburn’s leader under center, Nix completed 16-27 for 233 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Nix will need a similarly stellar showing this Saturday at #4 Georgia if the Tigers are going to have a chance to beat the Bulldogs.
Saturday’s season opener provided little clarity in Georgia’s quarterback situation.
Redshirt freshman D’Wan Mathis got the start but he struggled early and was benched for junior Stetson Bennett IV.
Bennett played well in relief completing 20-29 passes for 211 and 2 touchdowns. Bennett showed an understanding of the offense and delivered the ball to his playmakers.
Georgia doesn’t have a quarterback controversy right now. It is more like a quarterback muddle with prize transfer JT Daniels being cleared to play this Saturday.
Daniels, a five-star transfer from USC who was granted immediate eligibility, will throw his helmet into the ring.
Once Kirby Smart made the announcement on Monday, the reaction of Georgia fans was ”We have a new starter!”
Auburn’s Offense vs Georgia’s Defense: The Tigers had their struggles moving the ball against a stout Kentucky defense on Saturday.
Auburn’s weapons on the offensive side of the ball are receivers Seth Williams, Eli Stove and Anthony Schwartz.
But Georgia has the best secondary in the country with Richard LeCounte, Eric Stokes, Lewis Cine and Tyson Campbell.
Players to watch: Anthony Schwartz vs Tyson Campbell (former high school teammates).
Georgia’s offense vs Auburn’s Defense: The Bulldogs must get the ball in the hands of George Pickens. Pickens is the Bulldogs’ most explosive weapon on offense.
Last Saturday, he was targeted just six times with four catches and one touchdown.
Rewatching the game, Pickens had separation on a number of plays but the quarterback could not get him the ball.
My biggest concern for the Bulldogs is the players on their offensive line.
The line got little to no push against an undersized Arkansas defensive line and Trey Hill, All-SEC center, struggled with his snapping. Auburn’s defensive line is nursing some injuries with Big Kat Bryant playing just a couple plays in the second half, Jay Hardy and Dre Butler did not dress due to injuries.
Players to watch: Whoever Georgia runs out at quarterback vs Roger McCreary.
Georgia has won the past three meetings, dating back to Auburn’s regular season win in 2017 and has won eight of the past 10 meetings.
A sold-out limited capacity crowd of some 23,000 on hand, so I can throw home field out the window.
This game comes down to quarterback play. Can Bo Nix handle the Georgia defense? Can Georgia get a full game of quality quarterback play?
Georgia will get game management quarterback play out of Bennett and the JUNKYARD DAWGS DEFENSE will smother Bo Nix! Georgia 31 Auburn 13
Collapsible
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Some things in life are guarantees. For instance, death and taxes are something we all know is inevitable. Well in the sports world we can add a new guarantee; the Atlanta Falcons blowing a second half lead.
Dan Quinn took over as head coach before the 2015 season and he had his most successful season early on. In his second season the Falcons were 11 – 5 and advanced to Super Bowl LI.
As you all know they held a 28 – 3 lead over New England with 3 minutes left in the third quarter.
They collapsed and lost the game. I believe all of the momentum was sucked out of the team at that moment. They were 10 – 6 the following year and made a playoff appearance. The last two seasons, they were 7 – 9.
Week 2 at Dallas looked promising. The Falcons were flying high and jumped out to a 20 – 0 lead over the Cowboys. They went to halftime up 29 – 10. With 5 minutes left in the game they were up by 15. I’m sure it didn’t cross anyone’s mind that the game was in jeopardy.
Well, the Atlanta defense can make just about anybody look good. When they face a player with talent it only gets magnified.
Dak Prescott became the first quarterback in the NFL’s 101-year history to pass for over 400 yards and rush for 3 touchdowns.
The Cowboys recovered an onside kick where the Falcons players looked at the ball and inexplicably just waited for it to roll at least 10 yards. The Cowboys recovered it and scored to give Dallas a 40 – 39 win.
Surely that kind of debacle can’t take place again under Quinn’s watch.
Enter Week 3, a home game against Chicago. Atlanta has a 16-point fourth quarter lead with 6 minutes remaining in the game.
Chicago replaced a struggling Mitch Trubisky with Nick Foles. Like something out of a movie Foles threw for 3 touchdowns and the Bears won, 30 -26.
What did Dan Quinn have to say after the loss? “Obviously really two disappointing endings over the last two weeks. I told you earlier we’ve got to find our way to finish. We’ll hit the road a week from tomorrow and make sure that result has to be different at the end of the game. That’s where we’re at.”
Now the team is 0 – 3 and Quinn’s overall record is 43 – 40. That seems very mediocre to me.
Quinn was the defensive coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks before coming to Atlanta.
The Falcons defense has never been good with him as the coach.
Currently their 27th in total defense, giving up an average of 419 yards per game. The next game will be a Monday night showdown with 3 – 0 Green Bay.
It would be a major upset for Atlanta to win this game.
On the bright side Atlanta won’t get an opportunity to blow a fourth quarter lead in this game.
The Packers will win convincingly. Then we all have to wonder when will Arthur Blank remove Quinn as the coach. Right now, it looks like that will never happen.
McIntosh County Academy Buccaneers Coach’s Show w Bradley Warren
The Hunt For A Brave October
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Atlanta Braves won their third straight NL East title and are into the playoffs.
Now this isn’t an unexpected development, as the Braves were the favorites to win the East going into the season, but in practice it took a lot more work than many would have thought. The road to the playoffs was a different route than it maybe should have been.
In any case, the Braves will face off against the seventh seeded team at Truist Park, with ace Max Fried taking the mound, and thank god for that.
Fried, who will be the wily veteran of the team’s postseason rotation with about a year and a half of being a rotation mainstay under his belt, left his last start of the regular season after the first inning because he twisted his ankle fielding a ball.
If you happened to feel a shockwave reverberated anywhere in the Southeastern United States last week, that was the collective gasp/groan/heart palpitations of the entirety of Braves Country.
Mercifully, he was only taken out due to precautionary measures (the Braves had clinched the East already). The Braves Cy Young candidate, the undefeated Fried will prevent Brian Snitker from having to run a rookie with only five career starts out for Game 1 of the playoffs.
That being said, let’s look at the rest of the rotation.
For four innings a week and a half ago, it seemed like Cole Hamels would be taking the mound for a postseason start, but after making his one and only appearance for the Braves this season, Hamels went right back to the Injured List and that was that.
So instead, Ian Anderson is likely to start Game 2. He’s looked great in his short time in Atlanta and there’s nothing inherently concerning about having someone that inexperienced start in a playoff game, but we also can’t pretend that we know what to expect.
And really any concern about Anderson starting is compacted with the fact that Game 3, if necessary, will be started by Kyle Wright. He’s been consistently good for fewer starts (three, to be exact).
One of those two young pitchers would probably not garner much of a second thought as the postseason begins but the fact that the Braves are relying on two such pitchers along with their ace barely being out of his own rookie season and nary a veteran in sight is cause for concern.
Sure, the pitchers all have excellent stuff and are capable of shutting down any other team’s offense but with such small sample sizes, they’re simply still unknown quantities.
Which means Atlanta will be leaning on its historically good offense, its exceptional defense, and it’s excellent bullpen to help them win their first postseason series in nearly two decades and advance deep into the playoffs.
And those elements are all terrific. If Atlanta had made it through 2020 with the rotation they’d hoped for way back in February, they might be unstoppable favorites to win the World Series.
As it stands right now, they’re a team with question marks at the most important place when it comes to the postseason.
The Return
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
I’m sure at some point over the past six months, most of us reached that moment where we had watched everything we were interested in and started binge watching television shows or movies we had no desire to see, just to pass the time.
(Personally, I began a weekend watching the first Police Academy and finished it with Mission to Moscow; something I’m both proud of, yet less than impressed with.)
If I may stick with the entertainment theme for just a minute longer, when the college football season started a few weeks ago it felt like watching “The Office” after Steve Carell left; the cast of characters and storylines were enough to keep watching, but it just wasn’t the same.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed watching some of the lesser known schools get their time in the national spotlight, but when the two best conferences in college football aren’t on the schedule the whole thing is a little underwhelming.
With the SEC beginning their season, it not only felt like another step towards some sense of normalcy, but there was a feeling of excitement about watching the games because of who was playing and not just because a game was being played.
I have to admit, even with it being the first games of the season for SEC teams, they did not disappoint, obviously with Mississippi State and Florida garnering a lot of the praise.
Speaking of the Bulldogs, me trying to find any redeemable quality in Mike Leach is like trying to find a pack of Skittles in the ball pit at Chuck E. Cheese.
However, what KJ Costello and the MSU offense was able to do to LSU forces me to begrudgingly give Leach credit.
I still think LSU will finish the season as the better team and I doubt the Bulldog offense will put up those type numbers again, but for right now Leach is deserving of the credit that’s come his way.
I also have to confess, I kind of like this schedule, where teams basically just play within their conference. I know we’re missing out on some of the big out of conference games we’ve started to see more of lately, but we’re also not having to be subjected to Alabama playing the Flying Griffindors of Hogwarts University, either.
I realize when you’ve got a new head coach, or new players at prime positions, like LSU and even Georgia to a certain extent, it’s nice to have easier games for everyone to get acclimated to each other.
On the other hand, it’s a nice change to essentially throw all the teams into the deep end and see who learns to swim first.
This isn’t to say the first few weeks of the season were rough to watch, they weren’t by any stretch. And there have been some really good storylines we’ve seen emerge that may not have otherwise gotten the attention. (A perfect example are the Miami Hurricanes. Imagine how much of the hype going to Mississippi State would be going to Miami after their annihilation of Florida State.)
Still, it’s nice to turn on a football game and see some of the major teams and players back in the field; it’s one of the reasons we love it so much.
I mean, we’re not watching Cobra Kai because it has the return of Daniel LaRusso’s mother, are we?
Jason Bishop Show w Kipp Branch September 26
Frederica Academy Knights Coach’s Show w Brandon Derrick September 23
Brunswick High Pirates Coach’s Show w Sean Pender September 23
Glynn Academy Red Terrors Coach’s Show w Rocky Hidalgo September 23
SEC Saturday
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
We are two weeks into the 2020 college football season.
As you know everything has been altered due to the global pandemic. The SEC begins the season this Saturday and we are going to preview these games.
#5 Florida @ Ole Miss: Kyle Trask enters the season as the starting QB for the Gators. He was given the job in the Kentucky game after Feleipe Franks got hurt.
He led Florida to a comeback win and he never looked back. I expect him to be much better and have more confidence this season.
Ole Miss was 4-8 in 2019 so we don’t expect much from them.
QB John Rhys Plumlee is the epitome of a dual threat. He rushed for 1,023 yards and 12 touchdowns last year, while averaging 6.6 yards per carry.
The Gators should still win by 14 points.
#23 Kentucky @ #8 Auburn: This season home teams won’t have the advantage of crowd noise.
That will not make a difference for Auburn though. Last season true freshman quarterback Bo Nix passed for 2,542 yards, 16 scores and 6 interceptions.
He also ran for 313 yards and 7 TD’s. As expected, he made some head scratching plays due to his inexperience.
He should be much more consistent and protect the football better going into his sophomore season.
Kentucky has been a solid team over the last few years. The Wildcats were 8-5 in 2019. In a battle of jungle cats that Joe Exotic would appreciate, I give the edge to the Tigers by 10 points.
Miss St @ #6 LSU: The Tigers are the defending champs, but they lost so much talent from that team.
Heisman Trophy winning QB Joe Burrow was the top pick in the draft. Running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire was also a first-round pick.
The elite programs reload with talent, but I think that’s unrealistic for LSU.
The Bulldogs senior RB Kylin Hill ran for 1,350 yards and 10 scores in 2019. I think this will be a close game but LSU should win by a touchdown.
#4 Georgia @ Arkansas: UGA had Wake Forest transfer QB Jamie Newman as the expected starter but he opted out of the season a few weeks ago.
USC transfer JT Daniels is now the starter and I think he’ll do well. RB D’Andre Swift left for the NFL but Zamir White, James Cook and Kenny McIntosh will step up.
Arkansas is a bad football team, going 2-10 last year and winless in conference games.
The lone bright spot is Last Chance U star Rakeem Boyd who ran for 1,133 yards and 8 scores in 2019.
The Hogs have added Florida transfer quarterback Feleipe Franks and he easily won the starting job. Yikes. UGA wins by 27 and Franks will assist with three turnovers.
#2 Alabama @ Mizzou: I hate to say it but Missouri has no chance.
Mac Jones has been named the starter for Bama. The Crimson Tide have too much talent at every position and this will be a blow out.
Vanderbilt @ #10 Texas A&M: I think the Aggies are ranked way too high, especially with Kellen Mond at quarterback.
That won’t matter in this game because Vandy is outmatched.
That’s the case for the Commodores in the majority of their conference games. Give me A&M by 20 points.
#16 Tennessee @ South Carolina: The Vols got off to a rocky start (1-4) last year but finished 8-5 and won the Gator Bowl.
South Carolina battled injuries to quarterbacks last season. I think the Gamecocks pull the upset in Week 1.
