Or, in other words, GiT's new Paul Johnson offense. Look, their most consistent receiver quit the team. Looks like its down to 3 receivers on scholly. That's really normal for a D-1 program. Given the departure of Taylor Bennett and receivers ad infinitum, there can be little doubt what PJ's new offense will look like. I distinctly remember SSDawg assuring posters on the DawgRun that PJ passed everywhere he went - including Hawaii - a lot! At this point, I would have to disagree with that prediction.
UGA won't have to "worry" about anything like this for awhile.
My question is: what does this do to to their defense? Sen. Blutarsky has a theory that the spread option makes a lot of teams softer because the defense doesn't have to battle it out in the trenches during practice. I'm not sure I buy that completely - you are still going to have to offensive linemen (albeit likely smaller) and good running backs (albeit not downhill bruisers), such that your scout team can still provide a reasonable facsimile of a traditional offense. In my totally uneducated opinion. But to me it seems like it would be nearly impossible to replicate passing teams if you are a pure run option team, ala GiT now. For one, you probably don't have quality passers. But secondly, and most importantly, can your starting secondary really expect to get good work in if your scout team has zero scholarship players? Tech's corners simply are not going to be challenged on a daily basis.
Does this theory have any basis? Let's look at Navy, PJ's team last year. They gave up 262 yards per game through the air last year, good for 106th place. I know, they have smaller linemen, and nothing but scrappy white people, or something like that. I would list another team, but I doubt any other offenses are reverting back to the triple option. Would Arkansas be comparable? Have they thrown a pass in the past 3 years? If so, why? Arky was pretty solid with pass D (23rd).
. . . That's more than $100,000 from the wallets of fans who don't like Georgia or Georgia Tech. Rep. Fleming introduced legislation that would require a reciprocal tag in any other state with a university that has a vanity license plate in the state of Georgia.
I've heard of legislators who spend the people's money like drunken sailors. I don't recall hearing of legislators who work to shut off money from the people. What's worse, the Georgia House passed the legislation, 142-10.
As the song says, "Glory, glory to old Georgia."
Wow, hard to argue with any of that. This year's State budget was approximately $20 billion. For those of you keeping score at home, that's approximately 1/2 millionth (?) of the budget. He must not know that the Georgia Legislature is trying to end taxes altogether. Georgia will make that $100K back in one day from gambling Alabama rednecks on the border who would rather send governors to the federal pokey than vote for their lottery proposals.
Ivan Maisel: Learned College Football Writer/Political Commentator/Zip-Cardigan Model
Listen, I have no real opinion on this one way or the other, and its one of those issues that make me glad my preferred party is nowhere near power. But Mandel's self-righteousness is petulant. If his argument is that no legislature should refuse tax monies of any kind, why doesn't he call for all of Georgia's neighboring states (ahem, Alabama) to sell other state's university tags? Imagine his guffawing if he heard that Georgia allowed Gator tags: "Georgians must be desperate for money- they sell their civic pride $25 at a time!"
Ivan, I understand, if my native state was the epicenter of Redneck America, I would be looking to make illogical cracks on other states as well.
And who can blame them? I guess the Vick disaster was fun for a while and it was nice everyone got to mug it up on ESPN, but I'm sure its got to be easier for everyone to cover a winner. Their latest effort involves a blitzkrieg against Matty Ice, whom an astounding number of pundits think is the slam-dunk savior franchise QB for the Birds. Today on the ajc.com Falcons page, they had a huge pic of Brian Brohm - remember him?- he was supposed to be the Falcons' #1 pick for like ten months. "Brohm Intrigues Falcons" they say, and then link to an article from an outside website. In all my years of sports internet obsession, I cannot remember the AJC doing this, particularly as the lead story on a section. Wow - who the hell is "Big C" anyway? Good god, that's about as shocking as the South's biggest paper linking to this craptastic site. Anyway, the outside link is very complimentary of Brohm - he's not Matt Ryan - woohoo! He ran a 4.6 forty - woohoo! That's almost as fast as Vick! Aaannd...he's not Matt Ryan- Who has onions!
Feel the Chill... Of "Matty Ice" (Boston Hrld.)
And right beside it is the headline "Dorsey Pro Day Impressive." Guess what- links to another outside site. Knock, knock, Mr. Wyche? Are you home? This kind of cracked me up because not everyone thought that highly of Dorsey's workout. Don't think its an open campaign against the IceMan? The poll underneath all these stories (since removed) asked: If the Falcons pass on Matt Ryan, who should the Falcons draft as their next quarterback? So while this open advocacy might risk the AJC's sterling reputation for objective journalism, um, never mind. I, for one, am loving it. There are a hundred reasons why this makes no sense to me. Thanks AJC!
Ah, for the days of Spring Break. This time of year reminds me that my life is indeed over. Well, I do love wearing a suit every day, commuting, and petty office squabbles. Maybe its not all lost. On that note, the AJC had an interesting piece the other day highlighting, among other things, various players Spring Break plans. Full article in the link, but here are the relevant snippets:
Curran: "Heading to Savannah with my girl." Translation: "I'll be drinking outside for like 12 hours straight standing up. I'm getting so wasted I will be pissing in green fountains in plain view. I will literally be drunk out of my mind. There is a 50% chance I will be arrested or comatose. "
If the water's already green...
Ellerbe: "Going home to sit in front of the TV and get fat." Translation: "TV. Munchies. You figure it out."
Jones: "Going home and hanging out." Translation" "See Ellerbe, Danell."
DT Jeff Owens: "Taking a little road trip. Going with Josh Davis to Mississippi. Then we're thinking about going to Houston for Big 12 [basketball] championship, and we might drop by LSU to see some buddies of mine. Heading west." Translation: "We've seen some crazy LSU bitches on Youtube. Gonna hit that shit up. Houston? I just love me some driving. Why wouldn't I? I'm a giant and riding in cars is comfortable to me."
These are what I would call nontraditional Spring Breakers. Me, I'd prefer to just some old school wet t contests at PCB, fratting it up at Key West, or helping to give Sin City its name. Let's hope Saint Richt is able to get some sleep this week.
Furman Bisher gets the same idea I had last year. I'd wager he had to dust off the 4 years of dust on it since he wrote it though. The article basically talks about how Brett "Fov" drank, then pissed away his opportunity with the Falcons. It's amazing how circumstances can define a person. The NFL should send the Falcons a gift basket for getting rid of him before the ATL broke Brett's ass-slapping spirit. I wonder where the Vickster would be if he latched on with a competent franchise?
Sure, he could booze, but could he make it to the federal pen?
The real reasons to read Furman's column are the enlightening comments afterward. Furman really draws the vitriol out for some reason. I don't understand it; frankly I'm impressed at how lucid he is. Good for him. But, I just wanted to point out one comment in particular. I should make this a running documentary on 4WFS just to preserve the utter stupidity of AJC.com readers for posterity. [As I'm writing this, I discovered that the ajc.com took down what was the be the featured quote. Thank God they do this now. I was going to cut and paste a comment by "Bob" who basically said "yepper, Buckhead used to be great but blacks ruined and the Mexicans are doing it to Sandy Springs now." Um, ok. I bet Bob loves the Hawks commentary on this blog. The thread also devolved into anti-Bob and pro-Bob camps. Pro-Bobbers expanded on his logic for even broader social commentary and argued against the northern expansion of MARTA. Way to keep it on topic, Bobby. How embarrassing. For your family.]
Typical Bisher! The greatest QB of all time retires and all he can do is liken him to some former QBs that couldn’t hold Favre’s jock and then spotlight the low points of the most wonderful career ever. Can Bisher ever say anything good about anyone without dwelling on the negative. I hope that when Furman retires all anyone writes about is his reprehensible behavior when he maligned, libeled and slandered Bear Bryant and Wally Butts back in the 1960s. Is it not time we washed our hands of this sorry charlatan!"
Again, I don't get the Bisher hate. And LAS must have the longest memory ever.
The Falcons, as usual, made a big splash in free agency. Even Terence Moore is impressed. Call me jaded, but most of these splashes have turned out to be more like water plops. The newest big thing for the Birds is Michael Turner. I get this reasoning. Why draft the next great offensive playmaker (McDadden) when you can have the current one's backup? This is a classic Billy Knight move. Remember he thought it would be better to sign Chris Paul's understudy, Speedy Claxton, instead of drafting the man himself. That didn't work so well, for the Hawks anyway. This is taking Saccharin over sugar, Jamie Foxx over Ray Charles, or strip clubs over hookers.
Come on Dimitroff. Go for the real thing. There is a reason Turner backed up LT- because he's not the generational weapon that LT is. And I got news for you, McFaddy Daddy is better than LT. And here's another free tip to you Dimitroff, just for riding the Pettifogging express: Get Vick back next year. There are 3 simple steps to NFL domination. Step one: Draft McFaddyDaddy. Step two: smuggle clean urine into VickDog's drug rehab cell. Step three : In 2009, run the Wildcat offense on every single play. Let's see those two freaks of nature bring the wood on every play. Think about it.
VickDog and McFaddyDaddy in the same backfield. I just want to be entertained.
Oh, you have a better option at QB? That's right, I forgot you've got Matty Ice (who positively torched a down ACC this year. hint: check out the completion % and INTs. For a Senior! Are you kidding?) and Chris "Good Hands" Redman.
God, you're right, the Vickster offed a few of his lazier pit bulls. But you know, this is America, and people forgive a lot worse shit than that. Hell, just look at our fair state's history. Herman Talmadge was elected to the Senate for decades after he ran on a platform for a white primary. We still all drink 8 Cokes a day even though they tried to make everyone crackheads. Richard Jewell tried to save some lives at the Olympics, was fat, and died (well, maybe Jewell doesn't fit here, but cut some slack; how could we forgive such a portly man for not doing something that was done which we all wanted him to have done? chew on that for a sec). Scheurholz got to run the Braves for a decade and a half after he traded the Murph. Vince Dooley's name gets priority over both Butts and Mehre and he hired Ray Friggin' Goff. Obviously, all these are much less forgivable affronts to mankind, and we Georgians learned to revere them over time.
Of course, no one listens to Pettifogger. It's a given that the Falcons won't draft McDadden. That's alright, what's not to love about that strategy? Signing career backup RBs sure has worked wonders for Al Davis (hopefully Turner at least will not allegedly urinate himself while driving). I guess the practical side of me can somewhat maybe kinda sorta understand drafting line help, but God help the Georgia Dome if they draft Ryan. If I'm ever in downtown ATL, I will totally pull a Rhodes on it.
UGA won't have to "worry" about anything like this for awhile.
