Rivals' Georgia preview
They've got the Dawgs at #2, so you figure it's pretty favorable. And it is.
The major knock is… wait on it… the schedule.
Fun factoid:
Georgia is the only Division I-A team in the nation that ranked in the top 40 in all five special-teams categories (net punting, punt returns, kickoff returns, punt-return defense and kickoff-return defense) last season.
Today's "you supply the caption" contest
The once and future GPOOEs™, perhaps. Only Urban Meyer knows, and he ain't tellin'.
Filed under Gators, Gators..., Name That Caption
Sleeper pick
You might want to take a sec to read David Hale's post about his interview with Richt at last night's Bulldog Club meeting in Columbus. There's more there than Hale lets on.
One thing in particular that caught my attention:
— He named three guys people aren't talking about who might have big years: DE Justin Houston, K Drew Butler, and RB Carlton Thomas.
This isn't the first time Richt's dropped Carlton Thomas' name into the conversation about potential incoming contributors. I get the feeling he's really intrigued by this kid. Thomas certainly brings a different skill set to the table than the rest of the backs do. Whether that's enough to get him on the field in '08 is something we'll have to watch for starting next week.
Res ipsa loquitur.
All I can say is that any list like this that includes Woody McCorvey (at #40!) and omits Stacey Searels isn't worth the bandwidth it consumes.
Filed under The Blogosphere
Sack story
Sometimes you can look at statistics in a different way and gain some new insight about a team's performance that you may not have considered before. Along those lines, here's something to ponder from outsidethesidelines at Roll 'Bama Roll:
Basically, despite all of the hype, defensive sacks created on its own is a pretty meaningless number, and only takes on real meaning when you put it into the context of pass attempts. Long story short, a team that piles up a lot of sacks can be a relatively poor pass rushing team, and a team that has only a relatively few sacks can in fact be a good pass rushing team, depending on how many passes they have thrown against them.
So, what I have done is taken the total number of sacks created by a particular team in SEC play in 2007, and divided that by the total number of pass attempts against the same team. That division yields a percentage of passing plays that I call Adjusted Sack Rate, which of course is the percentage of passes that resulted in a sack. Bottom line, by looking at rates instead of raw numbers, we get a more accurate picture of which teams actually rushed the passer the best in 2007.
Georgia, which led the SEC in total sacks, also winds up first in the conference under this metric. The Dawgs were third in the conference in average yards lost per sack.
But here's the really interesting part. If you're looking for a reason you hadn't thought of before as to what changed mid-season to set Georgia on its seven game winning streak, there's this:
… The interesting thing about the Dawgs, however, is that they are the ultimate tale of two seasons. In the first four SEC games, they couldn't get to the quarterback at all, getting only four sacks on 124 passing attempts (3.2% ASR). In the final four conference games, however, UGA went on an absolute tear, racking up 17 sacks on only 108 passing attempts, giving them a whopping ASR of over 15%. And then, of course, they racked up 13 more sacks against Georgia Tech and Hawai'i on only 89 passing attempts. Bottom line, the way that we (sic) UGA rushed the quarterback in the second half of the season was simply done at a level that I have not seen before.
My math says that's 30 sacks on 197 passing attempts – an ASR of 15.23%. For comparison's sake, consider that Georgia Tech, last year's national leader in sacks under blitz maven Jon Tenuta, had 48 sacks on 389 passing attempts, for an ASR of 12.34%.
That's pretty impressive stuff, especially considering that Martinez isn't exactly known for being a blitz happy defensive coordinator.
Of course, we all know how differently this would have turned out if the GPOOE™ hadn't been injured in J'ville.
Filed under Georgia Football, Stats Geek!
It is, brothers and sisters!
Stephen Garcia could return sooner than expected! Praise the Lord Evil Genius!
Never underestimate the power of prayer, repentence and clean living in Columbia, South Carolina, friends. And Tommy Beecher – don't get too comfortable.
You tell me if a picture is worth a thousand words. (Photo courtesy Tom Hauck/Getty Images)
UPDATE: Evidently it's possible to repent without being modest.
UPDATE #2: Good publicity, bad publicity. At least you hope they spell his name right. (h/t The Wizard of Odds)
Filed under The Evil Genius
Mack Brown's new math
I had no idea an eight team D-1 playoff would be this much of a money gusher:
"We're leaving money on the table," Brown said. "Only 16 schools made money in the athletic departments with Division IA football teams last year. That means 104 had to get money reimbursed from the university to have an athletic program. So we're going to have to find more money…"
So the goal is to get 104 athletic programs out of the red with a football playoff. Good luck with that one, Mack.
Then again, that might actually make more sense than this.
"And I'd like to have fans who are excited about the FInal Four, excited about the NFL playoffs and excited about high school playoffs to be excited about the BCS playoffs instead of just having two teams who might have won a conference with eight wins show up in a BCS game…"
I have no clue what he's getting at there. Ol' Mack might want to go back and count the number of regular season games the reigning Super Bowl champs lost, though.
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