Well…that sure sucked a lot. Count me among the Dawg fans convinced we were peaking at the right time and ready to make a deep run in the CFP. Going into the game, my high level assumption was we beat Ole Miss earlier in the year and our defense has improved considerably since that game…ipso facto, Dawgs win. Glad I don’t wager on Dawgs football. Let’s get this depressing exercise over with. On to the grades…

Quarterback: B

• I thought about going lower on this grade, but settled here. I don’t know if the 4 batted balls (what I counted anyway) are all on Gunner, but it seems there is a high correlation of batted balls and Gunner throwing them. There were a couple of important downs where Gunner could/should have kept it on the read option where there was a lot of room for him to run, but he gave to a RB who got smothered. In our last three games, Gunner has been very quick to tuck and run after a quick read. I don’t know if all receivers are covered in those situations, but as fast as the decision is being made, I’m guessing he’s taking off when the first option isn’t open. If he’s picking up 5-7 yards on those plays, no problem on my end…but that was not the case in this game. Why didn’t I go lower on this grade? Because Gunner made a couple of big plays that eventually resulted in scoring drives, and he took some MASSIVE hits in the process. It’s almost becoming cliché, but Gunner Stockton might be the toughest football player in America. Paul Blake took less punishment against the Texas Colts than Gunner took in the Sugar Bowl. For whatever shortcomings Gunner may have, we never have to worry about his desire and will to win. I need to keep reminding myself that this was his first year as a starter…he’s not supposed to be a perfect, finished product at this point. Playing behind an inconsistent OL (I think that’s fair to say), he still finished 7^th in the Heisman race, showed up huge in some clutch moments all season, and brought home 12 wins and an SEC Championship. If we see some improvement from Gunner in the downfield passing game next year, the offense should go to another level.            

Running Back: B

• Nate Frazier came to play and was abusing the Ole Miss defense in the running game as well as passing game, especially in the first half. He finished the season as the clear #1 RB, just short of 1000 yards rushing and a very solid 5.5 YPC. Cash Jones showed up big on his 4 touches in the game…happy he was able to finish his UGA career with a nice performance. Chauncey Bowens didn’t have a lot of room to run on his carries, so not a lot of production. His late season injury seemed to change the direction of his season. Here’s to hoping he can get back to 100% and return to his 2025 mid-season form. Josh McCray wasn’t able to make an impression on the game with a couple of carries for -3 yards on the evening. Just one man’s opinion, I don’t think our coaches knew how they wanted to use McCray. I was puzzled when McCray would get in before Bowens on a couple of occasions. He looked to be pigeon holed into the “short yardage” guy earlier in the season, but he broke a couple of important runs (Auburn game comes to mind) and showed a little versatility. I don’t want to call it a wasted season for McCray, but I doubt he transferred in to amass 135 rushing yards in total. I’ll give him this, he finished off Tennessee and converted a huge 4^th down against Ole Miss in the regular season to keep hope alive in that game. No Dwight Phillips sightings, which just makes me sad.      

Offensive Line – C-

• The OL did not pick a great game to play some of their worst ball. Ole Miss sacked Gunner twice and totaled 9 TFL’s on the evening. Let’s not forget, the Ole Miss defense was not exactly the strength of their team this season. We reverted back to our slow starting ways before the OL looked dominant on our first TD drive…Frazier had holes to run through and I thought we’d be in for a fun evening at that point. Our follow up TD drive didn’t really feel very OL dominant…just a couple of great individual efforts from Branch, Jones, Frazier. After 14-12 with about 4 minutes remaining in the first half, the running game was effectively shut down and we couldn’t move the ball at all until midway through the 4^th quarter after going down 34-24. Maybe Ole Miss deserves some credit for an improving DL and/or out scheming our OL…it’s certainly possible. Playing without Drew Bobo wasn’t good for the cause (and he probably doesn’t snap the ball on that 4^th and 2) and maybe the 26 day layoff hurt some continuity. There are more than enough maybe’s and if’s to go around, but outside of a couple of drives, the OL got outplayed by their counterparts and was the biggest reason we continued to put ourselves in 3^rd and long situations to kill drive opportunities.     

Receivers (WR’s + TE’s) – B

• Another classic example of having a small sample to work with for this game. Only 3 WR’s caught passes and 2 TE’s caught passes…so not a lot to work with. Branch did what we’ve come to expect and was solely responsible for keeping our second TD drive alive by slipping a sure tackle around the LOS and turning it into a big gain on 3^rd and long. He also caught the 4^th quarter TD to get us back in the game. On behalf of the rest of Dawg Nation, list whatever demands you may require and please come back in 2026. Colbie Young picked right up where he left off making an insane grab after a long injury layoff. Delp opened the game with a nice catch and run, which turned out to be the last reception of his UGA career…hope he gets a good opportunity to play on Sundays because he’s been a DGD. Lawson converted the fake punt catch and did a great job securing the ball before getting tackled immediately after he turned his head upfield…it’s the little things. Landon Roldan delivered the ball on the money to Lawson, so want to give him credit for perfect execution. Dillon Bell was quiet all game, same with Noah Thomas, London Humphreys and Elyiss Williams. No drops that I can remember and receivers did a good job with the opportunities provided.     

Defensive Line – B

• This group was coming off their best performance of the year against Alabama. Unfortunately, they were not able to sustain that same level against Ole Miss. Christen Miller was able to deliver a TFL and Griffin was credited with the forced fumble that was returned for a touchdown (I really thought that would kill the Ole Miss spirit). Lacy was a little more productive than I would have preferred and he was able to hit the edge on a couple of runs for big gains that moved the sticks (Officials missed the hold on his TD run). I hate that Gabe Harris wasn’t able to go after his super disruptive performance against the Tide…feel like he could have made an impact, but JJA looks like a player on the rise that will be counted on in 2026. The stop on the Ole Miss 4^th down attempt was huge, but the offense didn’t do enough with it. As stated in previous columns this season, our defense generally goes as far as this unit will allow. I don’t think the DL played as poorly as their 37 offensive points would suggest, but missed some opportunities to kill Ole Miss drives…and a lot of credit to Chambliss for making some positively ridiculous plays in those situations. I think this is a unit to buy some stock in for 2026…lots of talent to work with even with Miller departing for the NFL draft.

Linebackers – B         

• Are you sensing a theme here with the grades? This wasn’t their best performance of the year, but similar to the defensive line, not as bad as 37 offensive points allowed would indicate. The usual 3 suspects (Allen, Cole, Wilson) all chipped in and made plays. Justin Williams has all the potential in the world once he sees the field more, but only 12 snaps in the Sugar Bowl to record a single tackle. Quintavious Johnson recorded 2 batted passes, continuing his great play in the second half of the season. How about Elo Modozie getting 19 snaps and chipping in with a few tackles…surely didn’t meet the production levels many expected of him this season, but he does have another year assuming he sticks around. For the second time against Ole Miss, Georgia did not record any sacks on Chambliss. Many Georgia blitzes were picked up well by the Ole Miss OL, and the ones they could not pick up, Chambliss was able to escape and/or pull off a couple of miracle plays reminiscent of Patrick Mahomes…thought Sean McDonough was going to require a change of pants on a couple of those plays…this was the same level glazing Gary Danielson gave Tim Tebow back in the day.  

Defensive Backs – B-

• Some might want to go harder on these guys and I wouldn’t argue the point. I guess my thought is a lot of the explosives were a result of Chambliss doing a great job of scrambling and extending a play, or throwing a perfect ball when coverage was good. The most damaging play of the night was obviously Demello getting beat for the 40 yarder that set up the game winning field goal. It’s easy for me to armchair that play, but we had an opportunity to get off the field, maybe get a big punt return, hit a play or two and go for a game winning field goal ourselves. I would not have guessed they would be so ballsy to throw downfield in that situation, and Chambliss put it right on the money. Hate it for Demello, but brighter days ahead for him. Ellis gave up a big explosive, but remember it being a bit of a scramble drill…other than that, think he looks like an All American player in 2026. Everette had an up and down day…gave up some big plays in coverage, missed an opportunity to get Chambliss for a huge sack, but also had a couple of PBU’s, 9 tackles and returned the forced fumble for a touchdown…he does have a knack for making impact plays in big games. KJ Bolden took home honors for most tackles with 10 and added a PBU to his stat sheet…could have sworn he separated his shoulder on that hit, but he returned to the game shortly afterward. Jacorey Thomas received the targeting ejection and I guess by letter of the law that was warranted, but I don’t know what a Safety is supposed to do when he’s leading with his shoulder and the player’s head drops to the legal strike zone area so quickly. Sure it looks bad when you play it in slow motion, but that’s happening in less than a second for Thomas and his job is to bring the receiver down. Zion Branch delivered a huge hit to break up a pass, unfortunately Chambliss hit Stribling on the very next play. I’ll stick with the theme, not as bad as the score suggests…giving a lot of credit to Chambliss for making spectacular plays.

Special Teams – B+

• Thorpedo had 4 punts for 154 yards and no returns…going to miss the Aussie. The fake punt was beautifully designed and executed. Woodring didn’t have any kicks returned, went 2/3 on FG attempts…yes, it would have been awfully nice to hit that 55 yarder, but not the easiest kick in the world. Branch returned a couple of punts for some positive yardage to help field position. I could be talked into an A- if needed, but the missed 55 yarder had a direct effect on the outcome going to the bad guys. Woodring has the leg to make that kick, just hit it a little fat.

Offensive Coaching – C

• I could go on a long-winded rant when it comes to the offensive coaching in this game. Bobo and his charges delivered 27 offensive points…not too bad for a playoff game.  But, I’d argue the devil is in the details. We started slow on offense, we had three different series that resulted in three and out, had to rely on a successful fake punt to generate a FG, needed a highly unlikely tackle break from Branch to keep a TD drive going, etc. We had a great opportunity to deflate Ole Miss with some points on the board to end the 1st half and didn’t do jack shit with it. We got the ball to start the 2^nd half and didn’t do jack shit with it. Other than a couple of drives, it looked like we had a very difficult time moving the ball for large stretches of this game. Two more thoughts on this…is it me, or does it feel like so many of our passing plays are super slow developing? Do we not have anything in that 5-7 yard range (not talking about WR screens) to put us in makable 3^rd down situations? Asking for a friend. And lastly, I have a theory on Bobo. Like any OC, Bobo puts together some sort of game plan for every game and I’m sure his DC counterpart on the other side is making assumptions on what Bobo will be doing. If the opposing DC makes incorrect assumptions, Bobo looks pretty good. When the opposing DC makes correct assumptions and is defending our game plan well, it doesn’t look like Bobo has a “Plan B”…we just continue to work “Plan A” and hope we can out talent the other side. Again, I’m not a Bobo hater nor apologist, but our YPP went from 5^th in the country in 2023 (Monken was 4^th in 2022) to 50^th and 71^st the past two years. Our plays of 20+ yards went from 6^th in the country in 2023 (Monken was 1st in 2022) to 29^th and 52^nd the past two years. Just some things to consider.

Defensive Coaching – B

• Could we have played better? Of course. I’d say the defense played well in the first half by holding Ole Miss to long FG’s and the one touchdown. We had Ole Miss all but stopped on three occasions on their go ahead touchdown drive, but Chambliss went video game on us. We gave them a super short field on their final touchdown when we botched whatever we were doing on 4^th and 2. From what I could see, the defense was playing aggressive, they were playing with effort and they were making some plays. I think we lost because the coaches put the defense in a couple of bad positions and Ole Miss simply made some great plays in big moments. I wasn’t near as frustrated with our defense in this game compared to the first Ole Miss contest when they had all day to throw and we were playing super soft coverage…that was infuriating. I’ll repeat an earlier point…the 26 day layoff probably did this unit no favors in terms of maintaining a lot of their momentum to finish the regular season.   

Sean McDonough – F+

• Could you have at least tried to act like you weren’t cheering for Ole Miss. I get that Chambliss was making some incredible plays, but was the screaming and celebrating in the booth that necessary? Officials in Cameron Indoor Stadium have shown less bias than Sean McDonough calling this year’s Sugar Bowl.           

Not the ending any of us wanted, but my thoughts on the season in totality. I think Gunner outplayed expectations of most media pundits (looking at you Finebaum). No clue where our season would have gone without the addition of Branch. Great to see the defense show big gains from the start of the season to finish. The OL was a box of chocolates all season. Overall, just really inconsistent from week to week…not a lot of complete games where both offense and defense played great at the same time. If you look at the makeup of our roster and how young we were as a team with contributing players, would you say we overachieved, underachieved or met expectations? I’m somewhere in between met expectations and overachieved. As a team, we escaped some close calls on more than a few occasions…needed a missed FG to escape Tennessee, came up with a miracle play on the goal line at Auburn to turn the momentum of that game, the Josh McCray second effort run (when he looked to be stopped cold) to keep us in the Ole Miss regular season game, and got a 4^th down stop against the Gators when we were down in the 4^th quarter. It’s almost improbable we didn’t slip up in at least one of those four games. It’s hard to cheat death that many times in a season and not get killed…death finally came to collect in the Sugar Bowl.   

Fun season and looking forward to a big 2026! Go Dawgs!           

Yep, that was full release. A couple of weeks ago I said I wanted another shot at Bama in the SECCG. I admit, it did seem unnecessary and a little naïve considering we had exactly 2 wins against Bama in 20 years. But, I’m beyond glad I got my wish. Beating teams like LSU and Texas to win the SEC Championship felt great, but this was on another level…and to do it in such an overwhelming and decisive manner made it feel euphoric. To make matters even better, I think we had more upside (on offense anyway). On to the grades…

Quarterback: A-

• Great rebound game for Rabun County’s finest. How should we characterize Gunner’s performance…extremely efficient? 20-26 for 156 and 3 TD’s, no INT’s…rushed for another 39 yards on 13 carries. The statistics aren’t going to remind anyone of Joe Burrow’s 2019 season, but the stats don’t tell the whole story of his game IMO. I’d venture to say Kirby and company assessed Alabama’s most recent offensive performances and felt pretty confident in our defense’s ability to stop/limit them. If that was the logic, no reason to ask Gunner to push the ball downfield and play too much high risk, high reward football. It was going to be a run first approach, with conservative passing plays, where check downs are your friend. Gunner did a great job picking up a couple of drive extending first downs, or creating better down and distance situations with his feet…love how he always dives forward to get those extra 2 to 3 yards instead of sliding…those yards make a difference. I’m not trying to throw shade at Carson Beck when I say this, but Gunner’s ability and willingness to run and pick up some tough yards when things break down are the biggest difference in QB play compared to last year. If Beck is playing QB in some of those situations, maybe drives stall and we have to settle for FG’s or punt more. The TD throw to Bell was a bullet and nice ball to Luckie to get us inside the 10 on a scoring drive. Gunner did exactly what he was asked to do and did it well…first UGA QB to defeat Alabama in the SECCG.      

Running Back: B+

• We knew how tough Gunner was, but Nate Frazier deserves every bit as much appreciation in the toughness category. Gunner threw a couple of balls that put Nate in a position where he might take a big shot, and damn if he didn’t. For a minute there, I thought Gunner must have caught Nate pissing on Gunner’s 1984 F-150 earlier this week. Regardless, Nate kept coming all game and was willing to run into the teeth of some stacked lines and fight for every yard. Awesome to see him get a touchdown going untouched to increase the lead to 21-0. He’s a very easy player to love. McCray picked up a very important 4^th and short, so nice contribution in his limited carries. How about Robinson catching our first TD pass…playing as a fullback no less. Chauncey didn’t have a ton of reps, but he made his last one count with a 19 yarder to ensure Bama wasn’t getting the ball back to put up a trash touchdown to make the game look closer than it was…word is he’s going to be fine after leaving the field hurt. Cash Jones caught a couple of balls for 21 yards…pretty typical line for him this year. Not an overwhelming statistical day from this group (41 for 141 and 1 TD), but effective enough and generally came through on the most important downs.

Offensive Line – B+

• I don’t think we can call it a dominant performance when you look at our total offensive production, but there’s something to be said for the production we achieved when we all but announced our game plan was to emphasize a physical running game. Not to mention, we started a RS Freshman at Center who probably had less than 75 snaps in his career. So I’m grading this on a bit of a curve…sue me. I’m sure Alabama fans will tell you LT Overton’s absence would have made a huge difference and our OL would have been more exposed…but, DILLIGAS (you figure out the acronym)? We just trotted out 3 freshmen OL to start the SECCG and won 28-7. Much like the RB’s, they showed up big after the punt block, and Everette’s interception, helped us go 2/2 in 4^th down situations and were the more physical team. Screw it…these guys deserve an A.  

Receivers (WR’s + TE’s) – A-

• This has been a common theme for other games this year…not an overwhelming day statistically, but how well did they do their job when called upon? Branch did what Branch does…maximized the opportunity when he got the ball with a little bit of space. He also had a big punt return giving us great field position to begin our third scoring drive. Dillon Bell probably had his best game of the season with 69 total yards on 8 touches…some very important gains on jet sweeps, a 19 yard reception on 2^nd and long (finished the catch and run with bad intentions) to put us inside the 5 yard line, and obviously the big touchdown catch on 3^rd down to put us up 14-0…great game for a loyal DGD. Quiet day for the TE’s on the receiving front, but loved the Luckie catch on a well designed play from Bobo and Delp made an important 1^st down catch following a Bama score to chew some clock and get a fresh series. It’s a broken record, but this crew always blocks their ass off and have to give a call to Humphreys for the big block to spring Frazier’s TD run, and also impressed with Reddell getting a lot of PT and showing some blocking chops on a few plays.   

Defensive Line – A+

• Been waiting to get to the defense…this is going to be fun. Said the same thing last week…go watch one of our first games of the season and take a look at the DL, then compare it to what we saw against Alabama. It’s not even close how much better this group is playing. There isn’t a player on the DL who isn’t playing at a much higher level than they started the season. Guys like JJA, McLeod, Griffin, Gabe Harris and even Miller look noticeably better than the early part of the season. Really loved the Gabe Harris hit when Simpson kept the ball on a read option…set the tone in a big way for what kind of game Bama was in for. The stats aren’t going to jump off the page individually…but the pressure they’re generating now is obvious, opposing QB’s have less time and rhythm…the entire defense has raised their level because of these guys starting things up front. I’ll leave you with this…Alabama had -3 yards rushing…and no, I don’t care if sack yardage is included in that figure. These guys are absolutely ballin’ right now.

Linebackers – A+       

• I’m not going to overthink it for the defensive groups…what more could the LB’s have done? Tackle Godzilla? Quintavious Johnson has become a difference maker and disruptor. We have the best group of ILB’s in the country…Allen posted 5 tackles and delivered a bone crushing hit that forced a 4^th down, Raylen Wilson chipped in with another 5 tackles and was all over the field, Chris Cole continues to look like a player created in an Xbox game, Justin Williams did a great job recovering the punt and helped pressure Simpson on that 4^th down desperation pass to the endzone…and Zayden Walker has forced his way onto the field as resident speed demon pass rushing extraordinaire. Again…Alabama had -3 yards rushing on the day…some serious BTA from this group.

Defensive Backs – A

• The only reason this isn’t an A+ is because Bolden dropped one interception…maybe two, if you want to count Simpson’s endzone desperation throw (but he did get a hand on it to alter the flight of the ball so it was a moot point anyway). The only other reason is because Demello didn’t stay composed getting a 15 yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct right after a sack that would’ve probably killed Bama’s eventual touchdown drive…and not a great job wrapping up Williams on a catch and run in the 1^st half. I’m a little more forgiving of the DPI he got on the TD drive because he had good coverage and the ball was underthrown…that’s hard as hell to avoid. Side note…I would love a world where DPI was called a lot less on underthrown balls…it almost encourages QB’s to throw bad balls and have receivers jump into DB’s…that wasn’t the case on the Demello play, just felt the need to express that opinion. How about Jacorey Thomas producing his best career game on a pretty damn important stage? Good on you dude. And…Resean Dinkins…stepping up like a boss with Aguero out. I don’t say this to knock Aguero, but did anyone else feel like Dinkins earned the starting spot moving forward with his play on Saturday? Oh yeah, Daylen Everette once again showed up huge in the SECCG with a great pick and return (mostly negated due to the facemask…but who gives a damn?). In other Bama games, that’s the kind of play we almost make and it ends up hitting the ground…but not on Saturday damnit! Oh yeah…Ellis Robinson continues to look like a shutdown corner…don’t think he gave up any catches where he was targeted, had great coverage and contested anything thrown his way…also showed some serious physicality on Bama’s first drive, stopping the ball carrier cold with a monster hit on 3^rd and short. Not sure this is even a hot take with the way he’s been playing, but calling Ellis to win the Thorpe award in 2026.

Special Teams – A+

• Easiest grade of the game…the Cole Speer blocked punt is one of those that will be remembered for a while and couldn’t have happened to a more loyal, hard working dude on our team. He put our offense in a great position to capitalize, and they rewarded his play with a big score a few plays later. Could that play be remembered as the play that changed the course of the UGA/Bama series moving forward? I know that’s very provocative…but just consider the possibility when you have a second. Branch had the big punt return that was the catalyst to our 3^rd touchdown of the game. Thorpedo was magnificent when called upon and Woodring was perfect on XP’s. Bama wasn’t able to return any punts (unless you count the muffed attempt) and their lone kickoff return went for all of 10 yards. Dominant special teams performance.       

Offensive Coaching – A-

• It’s not like we went for 500+ yards and 40+ points, but there was some genius in the game plan IMO. Like I said before, I think our coaches liked how our newfound badass defense matched up against Bama’s offense and opted for a conservative, high floor type of offensive game plan. I wouldn’t even say we methodically picked them apart, but I would say Bobo knew exactly when to hit the gas and he dialed up some great calls in critical moments. I admit, I wasn’t thrilled with our first two offensive series…felt like we were pulling the classic, “play to not lose” against Bama. But once we got the punt block, Bobo hit the right buttons at the right times. The play call on Robinson’s TD catch from the FB spot was perfect…reminded me of something we did in the 2007 Gator game with Brannan Southerland way back when. The 4^th down QB sneak where Freeling went in motion to the right side and gave Gunner a wide open path on the left side worked perfectly. The fake screen to Branch to hit Luckie on an explosive was a beauty and the execution on Nate’s untouched TD run was perfect. Bobo’s had some great games this year and a couple of head scratchers (as recently as last week) and on the head scratchers, I’ve mostly been critical of play calling that doesn’t seem to fit the situation at hand. Once we got up 14-0, I thought he called a great game based on the situation…didn’t get cute with play calls, kept delivering body blows with physical runs, picked his spots when we had short fields, didn’t risk turnovers and controlled the clock. I’m sure there will be a time in the playoff where we’ll need to be more explosive, but I thought Bobo and company managed the game very well.

Defensive Coaching – A+

• Whoever put the spirit of Buddy Ryan into Glenn Schumann beginning in the 4^th quarter of the Ole Miss game, we appreciate it. We went from a “keep everything in front of us, lots of outside cushion, bend but don’t break” type of philosophy, to a “kill anyone with the other uniform on every snap” type of philosophy. Simpson didn’t have the luxury of time on nearly every passing play. We’re sending blitzes from all over the place with great results. Look at our 3^rd down defense compared to where we were for the first half of the season. We haven’t given up more than 10 points in our last 4 games. I’ll do it one more time because it’s fun…Bama had -3 yards rushing…I don’t recall our 2021 defense even boasting that type of a stat. We held Bama to 7 total points and a little over 200 yards total offense…and those 7 points came on a drive we probably would have stopped them were it not for an unsportsmanlike penalty. Complete domination and they seem to get better every week…my compliments to you Schumann and company, you’ve more than earned it.  

CFP Drama – A+

• I’m one of those guys who didn’t want a 12 team playoff…I was fine with 4 teams, and I was cool with the idea of 6 teams…12 teams was a bridge too far for me, but we are where we are. That said, someone deserving as one of the 12 best teams was going to be left out of the mix and looks like Notre Dame got that (dis)honor. My take, I never thought it made sense that 5 conference champions had to be represented in the playoff…that’s how you end up with teams like JMU and Tulane in the playoff. I couldn’t care less about Notre Dame being left out of the playoff, but I’m more than convinced Notre Dame would smash either JMU or Tulane on any field. As much as I don’t like Alabama, I don’t think any team should be penalized (i.e. should not get removed from the CFP…but I’m open to adjusting seeds based on conference championship performances) for having to play a conference championship game, and they made that clear with Bama moving absolutely zero spots after a thorough a** kicking…wish they would have used that same logic in 2023 when Washington and Texas got the nod over us…man Bama has a golden horseshoe up their ass. I’ve not been overly impressed with Miami, but they at least beat Notre Dame in a H2H with the same win/loss record at the end of the season…so I get it. In summation, nobody should be at all surprised with the drama. It’s going to be a sh*t show every year and there will always be a handful of teams who feel they were worthy and got disrespected. What’s so awful about the whole thing is the best conference in America just played a conference championship game and what happened…absolutely nothing! Georgia came in as a #3 seed and left in the same spot after crushing Alabama. Alabama came in as a #9 seed, got smoked and guess what…they’re the #9 seed! That’s the kind of thing that’s going to convince decision makers that conference championship games should be eliminated…and that sucks for all of us.         

I don’t think anything will ever top 1/10/22 for me…but Saturday felt pretty damn great didn’t it? It’s not often you get a chance to avenge a defeat in the same season, and when you get that opportunity, you better take advantage…and Kirby made damn sure to do so. We’re one of the few teams that seems to be playing our best football at the end of the year. We have a few weeks to get a little healthier and all goals are still in front of us. We’ll see you in New Orleans! Go Dawgs!

OK, we wanted annihilation and only got a closely fought victory. Winning by fifty or winning by seven all counts the same in the win column, but close battles give keyboard warriors like myself something to get all worked up about before the next game against our version of the 800-pound gorilla. Most importantly, that’s EIGHT straight games over the Tri-Lambs (would be nine if they didn’t run away during the COVID year) and they’re losing approximately 90% of their offensive production with Haynes King’s exhausted eligibility following 13 years of college football. On to the grades…

Quarterback: D+

• I hate doing it, but that was not Gunner’s finest hour. When Kirby Smart publicly says, “It obviously wasn’t very good…” about Gunner’s performance, that’s very telling. I’m willing to bet there were some things Bobo could have done to put Gunner in better positions (more on that later), but that was tough to watch after seeing Gunner play so well in other big games this year. His first drive looked promising with a couple of runs for first downs, but the interception was of the really bad variety and things never improved from there. 11/21 for 70 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT is a bad line by any standards…but against one of the worst P4 defenses we played all year, that’s not going to get it done in tougher games. I don’t know if the pick got in his head and he played tight the rest of the game, but he seemed to be seeing ghosts out there for the final three quarters. He’s given us a big enough sample of great games over the course of the season, so I’m not going to believe he’s only as good as his last game. Let’s call this game an exception to the rule and he’s ready to ball out against the Tide this week.         

Running Back: B

• It was a tale of two halves. We got “Mississippi State” Frazier in the first half and he looked poised to put up about 200 yards for the day. McCray even had a couple of decent totes in the first half. Then, Bobo went down and the ground game went down with it. Maybe it was a perfect storm for Tech’s defense…they saw Gunner was off his game, we’re already one dimensional before our Center goes down, so play a run heavy defense…just a theory. We got almost nothing outside of Frazier and McCray…save one Cash Jones carry that barely eeked out an important first down. Biggest takeaway I have is that Frazier is looking like an All SEC back when he gets a little blocking. I’m a little disappointed (not surprised) that we didn’t throw in 2-3 special package plays for Dwight Lightning against a bad Tech defense…feels like he could have hit on an explosive or two.             

Offensive Line – C-

• See above on a tale of two halves. The running game looked good to great in the first half and Gunner had some time to throw (even if he wasn’t playing great). I won’t put the missed first half scoring opportunities on the OL, so solid effort there. Once Bobo went down, the entire complexion changed. There was no room to run and we couldn’t move the ball through the air. This Georgia Tech defense should have never had 7 TFL’s and 2 Sacks, yet they did. I’ll give Toliver a little less criticism due to lack of experience and playing time in big games, but it is what it is. I believe it was Gaston who completely missed an assignment that resulted in one of Tech’s sacks. Couple of false start penalties that hurt down and distance…just a bad effort in the second half. I’d bet Bobo is a no go for the rest of the year, so they’ll need to solve this puzzle…very quickly.   

Receivers (WR’s + TE’s) – Incomplete

• I don’t like doing this and know it’s a copout, but I couldn’t tell you how this group performed because they were seldom involved from a statistical production standpoint. Tight ends caught zero passes (one target?) and WR’s caught all of 7 balls on the afternoon with 5 of those going to Branch and 2 to Bell. I don’t have good enough game footage to know if we had receivers running open that Gunner wasn’t hitting, or if these guys were not getting separation. I’m generally not concerned about the blocking efforts of this group, they’re generally strong in this area. It felt like the first half gameplan was to beat Tech on the ground and the defense was allowing that, but when that was taken away in the second half, Gunner couldn’t elevate this group’s production. Credit to Sacovie White for a nice 15 yard punt return…he seems like he’ll be a good option for this when Branch is no longer with us (insert sad face emoji).    

Defensive Line – A

• Candidate for most improved position group from the beginning of the year to present. Gabe Harris was phenomenal and looked like Travon Walker on Tech’s first series…explosive as hell and made two big plays in a row (that was a Safety that didn’t get called). Christen Miller was winning battles, getting pressure and earned a sack on the afternoon. JJA seems to get better every game and has been a disruptive influence…same can be said of Elijah Griffin. Guys like McLeod have been steady and Ogboko seems to have carved out some solid playing time. I think the most important thing with this group is to look at one of the games from earlier in the season (e.g. Tennessee or Bama) and compare it to Texas or Georgia Tech…looks like a completely different group. They’re consistently getting pressure and being disruptive…can’t be a coincidence that our secondary play has also improved as the DL has picked up performance.    

Linebackers – A         

• This group has been a consistent force the past several weeks. Quintavious Johnson would be a candidate for most improved player on the team from the beginning of the season to present…physical as hell and having a bigger impact on games both in statistical and non-statistical fashion. Raylen Wilson had an important shoestring tackle on a Haynes King run and HUGE solo tackle to force Tech into a FG attempt in the first half. Another productive day for Chris Cole making tackles and assisting on a TFL. Credit to CJ Allen for being tougher than Mick Foley for starting a game less than two weeks removed from surgery. Bottom line, no touchdowns allowed on the day against one of the best offenses in the country…hard to do a lot better than that.       

Defensive Backs – A

• Yep, the entire defense balled out on Saturday. The highlight had to be the Ellis Robinson interception…is he turning into a shutdown corner? Great post from fellow GTP Refugee teammate eethomaswfnc yesterday showing how great Ellis has been following the tough outings against Tennessee and Alabama…essentially the most efficient CB in the conference since those games. We got word that Daniel Harris will be entering the portal (seriously, best of luck to him and hope he plays great wherever he lands) and I don’t think anyone would second guess that decision based on the play of Ellis and Demello…should we pull a “Gurshall” with these guys next year and just call them Demellis? KJ Bolden had a huge statistical day and Jacorey/Branch held down the other Safety spot adequately. If I want to nitpick…giving up a 30-yard completion on 3^rd and long with Tech backed up on their goal line, that pissed me off a little (especially considering it was Seither) and think it was KJ who got caught out of position on that one. The Aguero DPI call was frustrating as hell and he just never seems comfortable in one-on-one coverage situations…still not sure it was DPI because the contact looked very light and don’t think it influenced anything, but close call either way. I’m not going to overthink it…these dudes are playing their best ball as a unit and like the LB group, not a touchdown allowed all day to a damn good offense with a damn good quarterback…great day.      

Special Teams – A+

• Woodring is more Automatic than Weaver D’s. 3/3 on FG attempts and every single one of them mattered a lot…especially the 50 yarder that pushed it back to a two score game when our offense was looking awful. He has missed all of ONE FG this year…and SEVEN in three years as our starting kicker. He’s a certified badass…and no kickoffs out of bounds either. Thorpedo got his mojo back with 4 punts that averaged 51 yards, with a long of 61 and no punts were returned…good to have the Aussie back on his game going into the postseason. I mentioned Sacovie’s solid punt return, and the lone Tech kickoff return attempt was botched for a mere 2-yard gain. Can’t do better than that.     

Offensive Coaching – C- (or D+)

• I’ve stated before that I’m neither a Bobo hater, nor a Bobo apologist. He’s put together some great games this year, and he’s missed the mark on some games this year. Chalk this one up to the latter. I’ll give some leniency to Bobo in that Gunner was off his game and his offspring was out in the 2^nd half. But, Georgia Tech’s defense has been lousy for the last several games. NC State put up 48 points against this defense…hell, Boston College put up 36 against this defense. News flash, our offense is better than either of those squads. Let’s get to the list of grievances. The 2-minute drive play calls and clock management was abysmal. When something was working (like Frazier slaughtering Tech in the first half), we don’t stick with it until they stop it, or we sub out the hot hand, or get cute with some sort of reverse that goes for nothing. If we’re ever in 3^rd and long inside our 30-yard line, every defense can plan on one of two plays…inside run or WR screen…and they know it’s coming…can we at least try a different risk averse play? Another frustration (just my observation), this is at least the third game of the season where our offense has looked bad and Kirby has said, “They were playing a lot of Drop 8…” Do we not have any kind of solution for a “Drop 8” defensive game plan? Surely, we must have something in the playbook that can take advantage of that defensive approach? And finally, is it me, or do a lot of Bobo’s play calls seem to be very long developing and depend heavily on the OL providing protection for longer than normal? I don’t know this for sure…maybe some of this is on Gunner not playing confidently, maybe it really is on Bobo. What I do know is we could only produce 260 yards and 16 points against a very bad defense…and had early opportunities to bust the game wide open and didn’t.     

Defensive Coaching – A

• Take a look at everything above for the offensive coaching and go the exact opposite way. For all of Tech’s faults on defense, their offense is damn good and Schumann and company absolutely shut them down. No touchdowns, only 9 points and 250 total yards surrendered. Whatever light turned on for the DL, the entire defense has kicked ass since that moment. The pressure on Haynes was consistent, we shut down their running game, gave up only a few explosives, grabbed a highlight interception…basically cut Tech’s offense almost in half from their normal yardage output, and way under their average PPG. If we can keep up this kind of defensive performance in the postseason, I would not want to play Georgia.

Lane Kiffin Drama – A+

• Do I really need to go into detail here? Whatever security detail they’re planning for Lane Kiffin on that trip to Ole Miss next year…just go ahead and double it.       

I said a couple of weeks ago that I wanted another shot at Bama in the SECCG…knowing it was a little bit insane/delusional to wish that. Well, looks like I got my wish. I’m not so bold as to make a prediction (yet) on this one because they do seem to have some sort of voodoo curse against us (save the 1/10/2022 National Championship game…or as I like to call it, the greatest night of my life). What I will offer is our team is better than they were in late September. Our offense (while it sucked against Tech) has improved and shown what they’re capable of in big games (Ole Miss, MSU, Texas). Our defense has been peaking these past few games and Simpson has shown some vulnerability when pressured. I get those who argue it would have been better for us to avoid the SECCG…but any week with a big Georgia game isn’t a bad week, right? We’ve eventually gotta beat these a**holes, right? Might as well be this Saturday!

Go Dawgs!

What a night! Game atmosphere was world class and Kirby added another Top 10 victory to his impressive coaching resume. This was definitely a game where the Dawgs played in spurts, but the end result was a 25-point a** whippin’ that all but eliminated Wooderson’s favorite team. The eyes of Texas…are bruised and filled with tears. On to the grades…   

Quarterback: A-

• Gunner was flirting with another A+ until the 3^rd quarter pick. Let’s get that piece out of the way really quickly. I don’t think anyone will claim the throw was a good decision, but credit to the UT linebacker for making a great play on the ball and fooling Gunner with how he dropped in coverage. Beyond that…is there any Dawg fan who wants another QB leading this team? I sure as hell don’t. For the second time this season, Gunner accounted for as many TD’s as incomplete passes he threw…insane stat. His resiliency is on another level. Some of my favorite Gunner moments from Saturday night…his read option keep on our second offensive play (completely fooled the Texas defense) and ripped off a 20 yarder, the 3^rd down sideline rope to Dillon Bell that extended our first drive, the TD throw to Humphreys to match the Texas TD on the previous drive, and his TD run and ensuing celebration. Take a look at his play in the Marshall game and compare it to what we saw on Saturday night…the development is noticeable. He’s making better decisions overall, he trusts himself more on downfield throws, he knows when to rip it and when to put a little more touch on the ball…he’s made himself and the Georgia offense much harder to defend. He’s as deserving as any other player to be in the Heisman conversation.      

Running Back: C+

• If you look at the overall production from this unit, nothing to write home about…27 carries for 87 yards, and 6 receptions for 39 yards. Let’s credit Texas with having a strong defense and capable individual players. They were clearly focused on stopping our running game and taking their chances on Stockton beating them through the air…which we did. It wasn’t all bad for the RB group…the accumulation of those runs that weren’t very effective most of the game paid some dividends in the 4^th quarter as the Texas defense began to wilt physically and mentally. Frazier hit them for a couple of big gainers that were not available in the first three quarters, and you could tell the white flag was out. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the Cash Jones onside kick recovery…you will not find a more perfectly executed onside kick.          

Offensive Line – B-

• I could be talked into a C+ based on some of the overall running game production and some of the stat sheet issues…Texas got 2 sacks and 8 TFL’s. The 2^nd and 3^rd quarters were pretty forgettable, but the 1^st and 4^th quarters looked excellent. Again, this Texas defense was not from the state of Mississippi…they’re talented and they came to play. I’ll attribute some of the 2^nd and 3^rd quarter issues to going conservative on offense when we saw Texas having a hard time moving the ball against a much-improved Dawgs defense (more on that in a moment). I still think we’re in a much better place with this group than we were earlier in the year when we were working around injuries and figuring out who our best options were on the right side. We appear to have found a 6-man rotation we’re comfortable with and we’re no longer seeing completely blown pass protection assignments like the Tennessee game.         

Receivers (WR’s + TE’s) – A-

• This group put up 190 receiving yards on 18 receptions and produced 4 TD’s. I don’t recall any drops on the evening (Can you imagine saying that in 2024?). Dillon Bell chipped in with a couple of carries for 12 yards. The blocking from Delp and Luckie continues to be on point and difference making. We tried to get Elyiss involved on a shot play, but it fell incomplete…someone’s going to have to explain to me how a defender putting two hands on a receiver and pushing him out of bounds during his route is not some sort of penalty…but I digress. I think this group was a product of the game plan and play calling we employed…they did what was asked of them at a high level, and that’s all you can really judge them on. Maybe not a lot of spectacular grabs or highlight plays, but execution was excellent. I do want to give a call to Branch for a great individual effort on his catch and run where he hit the jets to beat a couple of Texas defenders to the sideline for a 30-yard gain…love that dude.  

Defensive Line – A

• Didn’t have this one on my bingo card. For my money, it was the best performance from our DL all season. I saw a lot more push and pressure from this group. Elijah didn’t light up the stat sheet, but definitely had an impact on the game winning some one on one battles, including a batted pass and drawing a holding penalty. Same could be said for JJA and Christen Miller…not overwhelming on the stat sheet, but were impacting the game and winning one on one battles. Gabe Harris had the best statistical performance with a sack and 1.5 TFL’s on the evening…has come on well the last couple of games. I’m definitely of the belief that our defensive success/failure hinges on this group. When they play well like Saturday night, our LB’s and DB’s jobs become easier and are able to make more plays. Great to see some of these key players in the rotation getting better as we get deeper in the year.  

Linebackers – A+       

• Hated to see CJ limp to the locker room…so hoping he’ll use this week to get right and be ready in time to hurt the Bees. Aside from that unfortunate circumstance, this group was outstanding. Chris Cole stepped up in a big way when CJ Allen went out…dude looks like a guided missile when he sniffs out a play. Raylen Wilson’s TFL sent a shockwave through the stadium. Justin Williams was very productive, and Zayden Walker got his first sack and forced fumble. But, want to give a special callout to Quintavious Johnson…something has clicked for this guy in the past couple of weeks and he looks like a different dude from the beginning of the season. He’s always had that “first guy off the bus” look, now he’s making a big impact on the game, getting pressure, setting edges, getting off blocks…and making plays when he gets opportunities. Awesome to see him stepping up in the OLB role that wasn’t having a big impact on the game at the beginning of the season. As a whole, LB’s accounted for 2 sacks and 5 TFL’s…elite stuff on the evening.      

Defensive Backs – A-

• They couldn’t run at all, but this group still held Texas to 10 total points and 7 of those points came on a short field. Demello probably had his best game as a Dawg with a PBU, half a TFL, 4 total tackles, set the edge for Raylen Wilson to make a highlight TFL and put together his own highlight scoop slam. Ellis Robinson has been quietly playing very well the past few games and that rough Tennessee game feels well in the rearview mirror right now. Daylen Everette put in another workmanlike effort and totaled 5 tackles on the evening…they tested him a couple of times, but never got beat for an explosive. KJ Bolden was alert enough to grab another pick to kill a Texas possession that could/should have ended in points. Only negative was Zion Branch getting called for DPI on third down to extend a Texas drive that resulted in their only touchdown. Like the DL, this group seems to be getting better as the regular season comes to a close. When we get pressure on opposing team’s QB’s, the DB’s are holding up their end of the bargain.    

Special Teams – B

• Woodring had a quiet evening…perfect on XP’s, no FGA’s, and Texas was not able to do any damage on kick returns (and no kicks out of bounds!). Branch returned a few punts, but fair caught one in the 2^nd quarter that I’m sure he wishes he would have made a go at returning…had a lot of room to work. On the other hand, Branch put together his best kick return of the year with a 44 yarder…so more good than bad on returns. Mentioned earlier, but about as perfect execution as one could ever get for an onside kick…just beautiful. Alright, let’s get to it…Thorpedo’s night sucked, easily his worst game as a Dawg. I know their punt returner is extremely scary, but too many punts that put Texas in favorable field position and put our defense in bad positions. Makes me wonder if Kirby going for it on those 4^th downs in the 3^rd quarter were because Thorpedo wasn’t feeling it?

Offensive Coaching – B

• If it’s just the 1^st and 4^th quarters, this is an easy A. The 2^nd quarter was a lost cause and the 3^rd quarter only picked up at the end. Bobo was totally unpredictable in the 1^st quarter, especially on that first drive where we passed every down, except Gunner’s keep. I love it when we don’t force things that aren’t there…balance for balance’s sake is ridiculous…take what the defense is giving you. Bobo went to the WR screen well a little too much in my opinion, especially when Texas was stopping it without issue. The play calling went way too conservative in the 2^nd quarter when we had an opportunity to put up a 21-3 or 24-3 type of lead. I know we won 35-10, but the game was 14-10 deep in the 3^rd quarter…so playing it too safe in the 2^nd quarter could have come back to bite us…same kind of thing happened against Tennessee in the 3^rd quarter. But, credit to Bobo for getting the offensive momentum going again in the 4^th quarter and taking total advantage of our stolen possession.

Defensive Coaching – A-

• I’ll keep this short and sweet…best game Schumann has called all year. Love that we’re bringing more pressure and forcing QB’s to make throws under duress. We look like a completely different/better defense when we’re not playing soft zone with lots of cushion. The concern was we would give up more big plays with this philosophy, but not sure that’s been the case. I would have to get the data, but I think we’ve had less DPI’s and less explosives given up since the 4^th quarter of the Ole Miss game. Only gave up one long drive to open the game (which is just what we do and I’ve accepted it) and stopped Texas on a couple of shorter fields. All this success AFTER Texas had an off week to prepare. Congratulations Schumann…you’ve earned the right to call me a dumbass this week!

Bama Letdown Games Against Teams Not Named Georgia – A+

• Wouldn’t it be nice if Bama gave their C+ game when they played Georgia? I think they put the ball on the ground about 27 times against Oklahoma. I know the Sooners play good defense, but winning a game with a little over 200 yards offense is absurd. If we put up a little over 200 yards offense against Alabama, we’d lose 48-2. I’m happy Oklahoma got it done because I love watching Bama lose, but I’d be less than honest if I said I wasn’t a little pissed Oklahoma got the benefit of playing the Bama team that played FSU. Maybe I’m out of my mind for saying this, but I’d love to see A&M lose to Texas so we can get another shot at Bama. Anyone else?      

Week 13 cupcake approaching…let’s jump on them early and make it the Puglisi show in the second half. Time to get as healthy as possible before COFH and remind them that last year’s close call was an aberration.   

Go Dawgs!           

We’re entering the final quarter of the season and time is running out for schools to make moves in the SEC Power Poll. I missed the Week 10 update due to some outside obligations, so time to shuffle the deck as needed. Enjoy!

1. Texas A&M – I continue to underestimate these dudes. They’ve caught a couple of breaks with conference scheduling, but credit to them for taking care of business and seemingly getting better the past couple of games. Only one major hurdle left on their schedule playing in Austin to close the season, but 12-0 is certainly in play for these guys.
2. Alabama – Bama has been pushed the past couple of games. They got through South Carolina with a little good fortune, and LSU pushed them hard in Tuscaloosa in a very physical game. Can’t believe a 4-5 FSU team is their lone defeat. I don’t care what it would mean for us…I’d like for Bama to lose Oklahoma this weekend and Auburn to close the year. Can’t stand ‘em.
3. Georgia – We looked better this weekend, but can’t put us ahead of Alabama when they beat us at home. If we get the Georgia team that played MSU the rest of the way, we’re a very tough out. If the MSU game was some sort of a tease and we revert back to the “Stomach Ulcer” Dawgs…let’s just not think about it right now.
4. Ole Miss – Beat the crap out of Citadel…and had some fun doing it. Did you see Lane photo bomb the newly engaged couple during a timeout? I know he’s a fun guy to beat, but damnit, the Laner is the most entertaining side show of any coach in America right now. College Football is much more interesting with him involved.
5. Texas – I said it a few weeks ago…this team just won’t die. I did not want these dudes coming to Athens with anything left to play for, and that’s exactly what we’re going to get…with an off week to prepare no less. Credit to them for finding more ways to survive than 1983 NC State Basketball, but let’s do America a favor this weekend and take care of Wooderson’s favorite team.
6. Oklahoma – Somehow these guys are still hanging around in contention for the CFP. Didn’t see the win over Tennessee in Knoxville happening, but here we are. Make or break weekend for the Sooners going to Tuscaloosa…but they are coming off a bye week and playing a Bama team that just went to war with LSU. Stranger things have happened.
7. Vanderbilt – Anytime Vanderbilt sits at 8-2, that deserves recognition. But these guys are looking shakier than tone deaf karaoke singers. Auburn had them dead to rights and blew it. They’ll probably get through Kentucky, but will Tennessee have enough state pride to end the dream on the final week?
8. Tennessee – What could’ve been. The Oklahoma loss is still puzzling me. They’re effectively out of the CFP barring some really crazy things happening. They can still salvage 9-3 if they take care of business against a Florida team that has decided football isn’t for them the rest of the season, as well as caring enough about ruining Vanderbilt’s dream season…which I bet they will. If you can’t achieve your own goals, make sure you ruin someone else’s.
9. Missouri – I never bought into these dudes and feel a little validated that they’re sitting 2-3 in conference play. They’ve come up short in every major game they’ve had this year and are now out of CFP consideration. They still have zero ranked wins on the season.
10. Kentucky – I might catch some hell for this, but it’s a Power Poll, and recent play is a part of the ranking equation. Kentucky has just as many conference wins as LSU, Florida and Missouri…and more than the bottom four teams in the conference. They figured out a way to beat Auburn on the road and completely thumped a Florida team who took apathy to new levels. Congratulations Wildcats…you’re no longer the most embarrassing team in the conference!
11. LSU – They’ve dropped 3 in a row…but the competition was strong, to quite strong. Without Brian Kelly to hold them back, they gave Alabama more of a game than I would’ve predicted. If they would’ve cashed in on a couple of opportunities, that game would’ve been very interesting. That said…they still lost and the best I can do is #11 for this week.
12. Auburn – This is where things get really tough. These last five teams are maddeningly inconsistent and there is no rhyme or reason to their results, so I’m going with some recency bias for this week’s poll. Auburn pulled another coulda woulda shoulda this week…and found a new, exciting way to lose another game. I’ll give them credit for taking a Top 20 team to OT on the road…when they have very little to play for…but still grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory.   
13. Mississippi State – I’ll stand by my statements in other columns…these guys are not that bad. They had been in every tough game except A&M and ran into a great version of Georgia this past week. Bad timing for MSU, but opportunity to close strong with a couple of big games ahead. I don’t see them stopping Ole Miss very much in the Egg Bowl…but can Ole Miss stop them? Over/Under for that game needs to be in the 90’s.
14. Florida – It would have been fun to put them last, but I don’t want to let a couple of idle teams jump them…trust me, there’s still time. That said, Florida’s level of disinterest in Lexington was unbelievable. Getting beat by 31 points to a 3 win Kentucky team is nothing more than, “Put us out of our misery” play. When these guys mail it in, they leave no stone unturned. Starting to wonder if their pregame meal was weed brownies.
15. South Carolina – Awesome! We get to play A&M in College Station this week!
16. Arkansas – Never before has an upcoming game in Baton Rouge looked so winnable.

Go Dawgs!

Gotta admit…didn’t see that coming. Before any non-SEC football fans say, “It was just Mississippi State…” take a look at their results. They should’ve beaten Florida, should’ve beaten Texas and could’ve beaten Tennessee. This is a team that scores points and has been in every game they’ve played outside of Texas A&M. If I were an unbiased man (which I’m not), I would’ve bet MSU to cover the spread and would’ve bet someone else’s farm that we’d be in another 4^th quarter war. Damn I’m happy when I can be wrong and it feels so good. The most complete game we’ve played all year (the only?), and I really hope I’m not jinxing it…but was this a game where we turned a corner? On to the grades…   

Quarterback: A

• Stockton was great and love to see him getting the national recognition he 100% deserves. Nearly 300 yards of total offense, 3 passing TD’s and made his runs count. If I want to find needless things to bitch about, he threw a pretty scary ball on our first drive that could’ve been picked, and could’ve thrown a little more accurate ball to Branch to extend our first drive…but can’t find too much fault in his overall performance. You can see how much more confident he is now compared to the beginning of the season. He’s making good decisions, finding second and third options, didn’t take any sacks, turning potentially bad plays into break even or better plays, etc. Puglisi got some time and wasn’t asked to do too much, but good to see him get more live game reps. Love where we’re at with the QB position at this point in the season.    

Running Back: A

• Straight Outta Compton…Nate Frazier finally delivered the game I envisioned he was capable of! I was his biggest supporter coming into the season, got a little down on him after the Bama fumble, was a little critical of him last week for not busting any big runs all year…and then he goes 12 for 181 and a TD! His vision was great, he was breaking tackles, made decisive cuts and got upfield…and showed some impressive top end speed we had not yet seen. I really hope this gives him a shot of confidence and we get this version of #3 the remainder of the year. Chauncey looked very solid on his carries and also found the endzone. McCray didn’t do very much in garbage time, but Bo Walker made the most of his carries when the game was already decided. Dwight Lightning had some attempts, which I was glad to see, but went backwards on a couple to kill his YPC average. On the day, over 250 yards for the RB’s and a couple of TD’s…and finally some major explosives. Loved it!    

Offensive Line – A+

• I’m sensing an overall offensive theme here. I’ve been tough on the OL for a number of games this year, but I’m man enough to admit when they’ve proven me wrong for a game. This unit was outstanding on Saturday and paved the way for over 300 yards rushing. There have been some games where I felt they weren’t creating enough space for the Running Backs, but Saturday was a completely different story…they were creating more holes than the plotline of Timecop. Take a look at some of Frazier’s explosive runs…the OL absolutely did their job and Frazier took full advantage. They gave Gunner plenty of time to make his reads and fire accordingly…no sacks taken on the day, and 264 yards passing. In total, 7.6 YPP for the Dawgs. Had Kirby decided to pour it on and not pull the 1^st teamers, we’re looking at a 600+ yard day. Third straight game with the same starting lineup…is continuity the key?      

Receivers (WR’s + TE’s) – A-

• I’m really not trying to be boring with these grades, but I can’t find a lot to criticize on offense. The highlight for me was the Noah Thomas catch and run…took what could have been a 20-yard gain and turned it into a 64-yard touchdown. His vision and knowing when to change direction were elite on that effort…had no idea he had that kind of acceleration/speed. Branch did Branch things…God help our opponents when he gets the ball in space with a little bit of blocking. Catch of the day goes to Elyiss Williams…critical moment in the game and made me yell “Holy Sh*t” while watching on my phone at a youth Cross Country meet. You will find zero complaints from me any time we are trying to get Elyiss the ball…oh by the way, he is capable of knocking people on their ass with his blocking. Delp was great on his catches, awesome to see him get into the endzone, blocked his ass of like always…hope he gets a good opportunity to play on Sundays. Humphreys had a big grab on a very well designed play…but credit to him for getting about 10 additional yards after contact. Thoughts go out to Luckie…that hit was scary as hell and hearing that he wanted to go back into the game makes him a certified badass…I felt concussed just watching it. Kudos to MSU defender who made sure to shake Luckie’s hand as he exited the field…sportsmanship is never a bad thing. The only fault I can find on the day was Dillon Bell’s fumble on the goal line…those kind of things can get you beat in close games. I know it was a close call and some saw it as a non-fumble (I personally thought it was too close to say either way and you have to stick with the call on the field).       

Defensive Line – B+

• Some group had to break the streak. It’s not like they played bad or anything, just wouldn’t describe it as a dominating performance. There were a handful of 10+ yard runs we gave up, which is not typical of our run defense. We had our standard first defensive series woes giving up several 3^rd downs and an eventual touchdown. Other than that, good to see a member of the DL get a sack (2^nd of the season?) and Gabe Harris will be directly responsible for whatever new color pee Blake Shapen will be seeing this week…that has to be every DL’s dream…free run at the QB’s blind side. Very nice contributions from the regular DL rotation against an offense that has been very competent this year.

Linebackers – A         

• Raylen Wilson gets an honor that doesn’t occur very often…a LB who had a more impressive day than CJ Allen…6 tackles (4 solo) and 1.5 sacks. Wilson looked like a missile getting into the backfield on a couple of occasions and was close to delivering a big sack on the first play of the game. CJ didn’t have the huge stat day we’ve seen the past few games, but still made an impact and chipped in with another 6 tackles (think he’s still leading the SEC in total tackles). The Cole/Williams combo were productive with identical 5 tackle stat sheets, Williams getting a TFL mixed in there. How about Zayden Walker getting some reps in the first half…and looking pretty damn good when he was out there. It’s crazy that we have FIVE 5* ILB’s on our roster…that’s just insane. Let me give a call to Quintavious Johnson as well…very impressive tackle early in the game where he took on a block then took the ball carrier down with a solo tackle…phenomenal play. He also delivered the big hit that caused the MSU fumble to help us recapture some momentum after our fumble on the previous drive. Big day for the LB group.       

Defensive Backs – B+

• I thought this unit played one of their best games of the year. They gave up 173 yards passing, but a good amount of that was when we had called the dogs off and the game was no longer in doubt. We had our typical first defensive drive issues, but when the game was still close, nobody was getting abused. KJ Bolden did have a defensive holding, but smart play because he was absolutely beat on a good double move. Tackling from this group was sharp and I didn’t hear Ellis Robinson’s name a whole lot…and I mean that in a good way. With Demello not playing, Harris got back into the rotation…but didn’t think he did anything to earn playing time over Robinson or Demello when he returns (was the victim of MSU’s longest play from scrimmage)…just one man’s opinion. Again, this was not an opponent who can’t score…they’ve been a very good offensive team in most of their games. Stock looking up for this group.         

Special Teams – B+

• Woodring was his reliable self and knocked down both of his 40+ yard attempts without breaking a sweat. That guy is more reliable than my dog running away from a hard surface to vomit on a rug. Only points I’ll take away from Woodring was the kickoff out of bounds…no bueno. Thorpedo was used sparingly, but downed both of his attempts inside the 20. Sacovie had a nice punt return while Branch didn’t do a lot with his two punt/kick return attempts. No returns allowed for MSU…very solid day.                

Offensive Coaching – A+

• For the second time in three games, gotta give it to Bobo for absolutely dealing on Saturday. He mixed up his pitches beautifully and hit all the right buttons. I think he knew MSU’s defense wasn’t going to scare us too much, but credit to him for dialing up a great game plan to take advantage. He didn’t fall in love with the WR screen…only used the one time that I recall, and it went for a TD. The fake WR screen to Branch and hitting Humphreys up the sideline was a thing of beauty…and should make teams a little wary of selling out on the WR screen in the future. Running off the punt team to go for it on 4^th down (before and after the timeout) worked to perfection without ever having to take a snap…icing on the cake type of stuff. When you’re on the road in the SEC and putting up 41 points and 564 yards with your starters pulled early in the 4th quarter, you’ve done your job.

Defensive Coaching – B+

• Maybe I could be a bigger person and bump them up, but the first drive issues are still problematic for me and there were more than a few 3^rd and long situations when we should have been off the field. We also got some help with MSU shooting themselves in the foot with penalties. Beyond that, great to see us get after the QB more and produce a lot of TFL’s on the day. It seems like the last two games, we’ve made a conscious decision to make teams earn yards on offense, less bend but don’t break philosophy. I’m all for it and I think we’ve been a better team for it. Good challenge this week with a talented Texas team coming to town with an extra week to prepare.

Not Having Anything To Bitch About This Week – A+

• Who doesn’t love to piss and moan a little bit following a week of college football? This week, I find myself unusually calm and serene with everything. Georgia played their most complete game of the year, we’ve got a night game against Texas approaching, we’re in a great position to earn a CFP berth, team seems to be getting better…life feels pretty good this week. Surely, something has to be wrong in the Dawgnation, right? Help me out Refugees!     

Great opportunity coming up this week against Texas, who has backed their way back into the Top 10. Under the lights at Sanford Stadium will be a great atmosphere on Saturday night! Can’t wait to get there!

Go Dawgs!

Tell me if you’ve heard this story before…Georgia plays rival conference opponent extremely close, makes a couple more plays in the 4^th quarter and wins another heart stopper. Sound pretty familiar? The only thing that would surprise me in our remaining games (outside of Charlotte) is a game not in doubt going into the 4^th quarter. I feel like every broadcast of 2025 Georgia Football should have a warning, “If you suffer from stomach ulcers, watching the 2025 Georgia Football team can produce dangerous abdominal discomfort, and even death in extreme cases.” I guess this is just what we’re going to do every game. On to the grades…   

Quarterback: B-

• How can I describe Gunner’s day? Uneven? I thought he was in line for a big day following our first drive, but things cooled off a lot…for a while. I think Gunner owns 50% of the blame for the interception…definitely not the most accurate throw in the world, but Thomas is good enough to catch that ball. The deep ball to Roldan (that’s right…Roldan) looked like it was there to be had with an accurate throw. There was an inaccurate throw to Delp that was going to be a major explosive…at a time we really could’ve used the momentum. In general, not Gunner’s most accurate day and didn’t give me vibes of “Ole Miss Gunner.” Also, saw some signs of early season Gunner where he looked tentative to pull the trigger. Last thing…anyone else notice that Gunner almost always rolls right when he feels pressure? I can recall one spin to the left that produced an easy catch and gain to Elyiss…but that’s it. As far as the good…made just enough plays in the second half to get some scores, and produced a game winning drive in the 4^th quarter. According to Kirby, Gunner made a check at the line for Chauncey’s go-ahead touchdown run…so credit to him for that. Gunner did enough to win…but not much more.     

Running Back: B-

• This group produced 112 yards on 23 carries…not a terrible average, but nothing that makes me want to stomp my feet and light a match. Frazier can’t seem to break any run for more than 8 yards and was very much contained overall. Chauncey had the best day and produced the game winner on an excellent run…great vision and made all the right cuts to take it to the house. McCray curiously had zero touches. We had a Dwight Phillips sighting for two early carries…never to be heard from again. For an offense that struggles to produce explosives, I have zero clue why the fastest guy on the team (and a player who showed effectiveness early in the season) is being used less than Cameron’s dad’s Ferrari. And finally, we’ve got to talk a little Cash Jones. I said it earlier in the year and I’ll say it again…I have nothing but respect for this dude. I just don’t understand why he would get 22 snaps (31% of our total)…more than Bowens, McCray and Phillips combined. Are the coaches just overthinking player usage based on a given week (2 weeks in this case) of practice? All those snaps to produce five yards on two receptions (to be fair, he did have a nice gain wiped out by a holding penalty)…I really don’t get it.    

Offensive Line – C

• Common theme…did not evoke memories of the Ole Miss game. Like the rest of the team, this group is game to game. Florida was able to get pressure on Gunner more than I would have preferred. We gave up 2 sacks and 4 TFL’s. Outside of the Bowens big run, the OL wasn’t giving the RB’s a lot of room to make plays, and from what I remember, our first down runs were not putting us in favorable down and distance situations. A bad first down snap completely wasted a possession. This was supposed to be as healthy as this group has been all season…just not a lot to show for it when you look at the game in totality. Question…is the musical chairs approach a good thing or a bad thing? I couldn’t tell you. I do know if we want to hang our hat on being a physical offensive team with a strong running game as the foundation, this group needs to play at higher level than Saturday.   

Receivers (WR’s + TE’s) – B

• For non-QB’s, Branch has to be the MVP of this team…guessing there will not be a lot of pushback on that comment. He’s quick, he can make people miss, he’s got acceleration to burn and plenty of top speed…been completely as advertised and we lose this game without him. Thomas atoned for his part in the interception by catching a touchdown pass in the 3^rd quarter. Dillon Bell made his catches count and snagged our first touchdown…which looked unbelievably easy. Lawson Luckie got the McCray treatment and didn’t have any touches, following a 3 TD performance against Ole Miss. Elyiss continues to make at least one contribution per game…and would love to see us scheme more plays his way. Delp had a nice 20-yard reception and positively destroyed Cormani McClain on Bowen’s drive extending 3^rd down run…pretty sure Kirby felt full release watching that block.     

Defensive Line – B

• Super bummer losing Jordan Hall on the opening drive…not sure what the prognosis is, but we need him back at 100% for this unit to be at its best. Good to see Ogboko out there beginning to make more plays…going to need that if Hall is out for a while. Baugh only ripped off one explosive run on the day, which isn’t too bad. I don’t put the long Lagway run on the DL…thought it was just a good play call in that situation that caught us completely off guard. Still not getting a lot of pressure from this group, which is disappointing. I was worried as hell when Florida was up 20-17 and driving…but our DL stepped up HUGE with a monster 4^th down stop…completely changed the momentum of the game. Better effort compared to the last time we saw this group against Ole Miss.

Linebackers – A-        

• CJ Allen has been playing his ass off and was a tackling machine on Saturday (13 total tackles)…team MVP on defense and not really close. Raylen Wilson chipped in with a big game of his own (8 total tackles…1/2 TFL), outside of a DPI call…which was a tough matchup for him to cover. Cole was hurt (hopefully nothing serious) and went out early. Quiet-ish days for Justin Williams and Quintavious Johnson…but didn’t do anything to hurt us from what I was seeing. Bottom line…contained the run, limited their passing game and played infinitely better on 3^rd down than we have for most of the year. I’ll take it.    

Defensive Backs – C+ (maybe a B-)

• This is one of those where the defensive stats don’t tell the whole story. We only gave up 166 yards passing, so you’d think a better grade is warranted. But, complete coverage bust on Florida’s first touchdown. Complete coverage bust on the infamous “was it a drop, or was it a catch” 3^rd down play on Florida’s final offensive possession (more in a minute). DPI in the endzone on Zion Branch to give Florida an eventual gimme TD. We lost our best Safety to a targeting call…and I think the officials got that one right according to the rule interpretation. Why am I open to a B-? I loved our final defensive play where we sent Aguero on a blitz and Ellis made a great individual, instinctive play to break up that pass (would’ve been cool if he turned it into a Pick 6)…really hope he’s feeling comfortable because you can see the ability. Also, I am a little sympathetic to the group for managing around injuries and having to play without KJ, Kyron and Demello at the end of the game…certainly wasn’t the disaster that was Ole Miss.         

Special Teams – B-

• Thorpedo picked a bad time to execute the worst punt of his career…led directly to a Florida TD right afterwards. To be fair, the rest of his punts were in the good to great range. Woodring nailed his only FG attempt, and it was an important one to get us to even going into the half. We did allow a semi-long Florida kick return, which is not fun to see when we are capable of touchbacks in almost every situation. Branch didn’t do much with his two kickoff return attempts. Not our best game of the year, but didn’t cost us a win either.                

Offensive Coaching – C+

• Not sure where everyone else is, but didn’t love it. I loved the first drive…beautifully scripted and put together some plays that allowed us to move the ball without having to rely on incredible individual efforts. The first drive of the second half was mostly a big play by Branch, but loved the design on the Thomas touchdown pass. Obviously, the game-winning drive was exciting and the coaches deserve credit for that as well. Here’s where I have issues…it felt WAY too hard for us to move the ball most of the game. We were a little stubborn and predictable with the running game…same can be said for Bobo falling back in love with the WR screen a little too much for my liking. It feels like we’re super content executing plays that have limited upside, but low risk. That leads to long drives and a lot of reliance on winning 3^rd down. We haven’t been great at long downfield shots this year, but we have seen glimpses of a good intermediate passing game…not sure why we don’t incorporate that more in these games. I don’t know…I just think our offensive philosophy gives us little margin for error, and requires perfect execution for 12-14 plays if we need to get into the endzone…just one man’s opinion. Case in point…we had the bad first down snap and were looking at 2^nd and 21…we hit them with an incredibly vanilla run that everyone saw coming and lose another yard…surely there was something over the middle they were giving us that could’ve generated 10+ yards and put us in a more manageable 3^rd down situation. Alright…now I’m just bitching.   

Defensive Coaching – B

• Major improvement from Ole Miss, right? We had some busts and penalties that helped them out, but for the most part, we made them earn the yards they got. After the Ole Miss disaster for 3 quarters, I said I would take a higher risk approach to get more stops, instead of playing soft and watching teams easily move the ball up and down the field…and I meant it. I didn’t see Lagway picking us apart and hitting wide open guys on the outside all afternoon. I didn’t see Florida hitting shallow crossing routes all afternoon. I’d love to see us figure out a way to get more pressure on QB’s, but our best pass rusher was unavailable for most of the game. I’m not crazy about coverage busts, but we were down our best Safety for most of the game and the other Safeties we have are not exactly 3-year starters. Let’s build off this and look to take another step forward next week.

Selective Officiating Outrage – A+

• For those outside of Bulldog nation, get over yourselves. All of you sound like a bunch of self-righteous jackasses. I thought all the bitching about the Auburn goal line fumble was bad enough…by the way, CJ punched the ball loose and the QB did not have control when the ball crossed the goal line. But all the outrage about the officials calling Sturdivant’s catch attempt as hitting the ground…it’s getting out of hand. Like others, I was at the game on Saturday and I can’t tell you why the broadcast didn’t show the best view of the replay, but it really wasn’t that big of a deal. When they showed a good front view of the replay on the scoreboard, I didn’t even worry about the call being overturned…completely clear that the ball bounced. Jesus, their coach even said he didn’t think it was a catch after the game (unless I’m getting fooled by some AI thing). Every college football media pundit with an X account believes Georgia gets favorable calls. Allow me to interject…we get called for more DPI than any team on earth. According to officials, our defensive line almost never gets held in 2025…seems a little curious. Cash Jones hits a chunk play and it gets wiped out by a Dillon Bell holding call…watch the play and explain those physics to me. Look, officials aren’t perfect and they’ll make some bad calls…some help us and some hurt us. Each favorable/unfavorable call affects the game in some way…regardless of when it occurs. Trust me, ask any Georgia fan how they feel about the Sanks “fumble” against Georgia Tech, ask them how they feel about Tyler Simmons being called offsides, ask them how they feel about the 2023 SECCG Bond “catch” on 4^th down. I promise, officials are the furthest thing from Dawg fans.   

Look forward to MSU this weekend…that’s a game we can easily lose if we don’t play well. Hope we can come out firing and get out to a comfortable early lead…but who the hell are we kidding?

Go Dawgs!   

Well, that was entertaining! Who knew an off week could be that much fun? Definitely going to be some shakeups in this week’s Power Poll, so let’s get to it.

1. Texas A&M – Every man has to admit when they’re wrong and time for me to pay up. I called for LSU to pull the upset over A&M and looks like I was incorrect. OK, incorrect is not nearly strong enough to categorize that pick. It was dumber than Garth Brooks creating an alter ego named Chris Gaines. I think it’s fair to say I’ve underestimated A&M and they deserve to be on top of the mountain this week. LSU was good enough for a half, but A&M was clearly better the final 30 minutes and coasted to victory in a place that’s usually a tough environment to win. Still a couple more obstacles on their schedule but sitting pretty for SECCG appearance and a spot in the CFP.
2. Alabama – Why can’t Alabama give that kind of effort when they play Georgia? I thought that game could be tricky, but I didn’t expect Bama to be losing by 8 points deep into the 4^th quarter. But, God’s favorite team found a way to escape, yet again. They’re in great position to close out the year with home games against the remains of LSU, a completely deflated Oklahoma, some horrendous OOC team and the Iron Bowl. Out of all those, I could see Auburn giving them some hell in Jordan-Hare. Won’t matter much either way, these guys are a near lock for the SECCG and CFP.
3. Georgia – Enjoyed a well-deserved off week. I can only imagine we are scheming up new and exciting ways to make DJ Lagway look like the best QB in the country on Florida’s first two drives of the game.
4. Ole Miss – They just made our win over them look a hell of a lot better. Left no doubt who was the better team on Saturday. Hard to believe an SEC team with such a vulnerable defense is going to likely be 11-1 and cruise into the CFP…but this is the new world we live in. The Lane Kiffin coaching sweepstakes is in full swing and one thing is for sure…Lane Kiffin will be significantly richer wherever he is coaching next year.
5. Vanderbilt – They just keep winning. Raise your hand if you predicted at the beginning of the season Vanderbilt would roll into Austin as a +1.5 underdog. Between their Texas and Tennessee games on the road, I don’t see them coming out unscathed…but would one win and a 10-2 season be enough to secure a CFP birth?
6. Tennessee – Beat the crap out of a bad Kentucky team, but gave up a lot of points to a bad Kentucky team. I’m starting to sense there will be a lot of 2 loss SEC teams all claiming to be the most deserving of a CFP birth.
7. Missouri – They’ve played two ranked teams and have lost both of them. Huge opportunity to stay in the conversation with a home game against A&M this weekend. I’ve learned my lesson about calling upsets against A&M this season…just know that it’s on my mind.
8. Texas – To quote Commodus, “You simply won’t…die.” In the past two weeks, they’ve compiled two of the least impressive SEC road wins you’ll ever see. We do not want them coming to Athens with anything to play for. I repeat, we do not want them coming to Athens with anything to play for. The past couple of years, we have made a lot of QB’s look like #1 draft picks and it would be all too appropriate for Manning to find his form against Georgia. Prove me wrong Glenn Schumann…I frickin’ dare you.
9. Oklahoma – The party is officially over. They’re not that good and they could drop…gasp…three more games on their schedule. Seriously backloaded schedule for the Sooners and a once promising year could end up looking very Venables-ish when all is said and done.
10. LSU – Well, that escalated very quickly. I can’t believe I had them #1 in the Power Poll after the first week. I don’t remember a time when I’ve called for an upset and been that wrong, so I’m not feeling too proud of myself right now. Now that Brian Kelly has officially been ousted (shocker), there’s at least a couple more losses to finish the year. Going to need odds on what kind of accent Brian Kelly will be utilizing before next season.
11. Auburn – Somebody had to win that game and Auburn wanted to lose a little less. Will Hugh Freeze survive? Realistically speaking, they’re not an awful team. None of their losses were lopsided and one could argue they could easily have two more conference wins to their name. Good opportunities to pad their resume with games against Vanderbilt and Alabama remaining…will be interesting to see how Auburn handles this one.
12. Florida – Off week following the inevitable Napier release. I’m already mentally prepared for Florida to show us the most innovative offensive performance we’ve seen in decades to open the game. I don’t want anyone to worry, we’ll play a good 30 yards off the line of scrimmage and keep everything in front of us.
13. South Carolina – When you go to the Hall of Fame for painful losses, the Gamecocks probably have their own wing. They had no business being competitive with Alabama, yet they were. They had no business holding a late 4^th quarter lead, yet they did. They had no business driving the field for a game winning field goal with less than 2 minutes remaining, yet they…wait, they didn’t. Instead, after an extremely gritty performance all game, their best player fumbles with the game tied, their defense wilts and Alabama scores the game winning touchdown with less than a minute remaining. Damn, that is the most South Carolina thing ever.
14. Mississippi State – I’ll see your Gamecock painful loss and raise you a blown 17-point lead in the 4^th quarter. When will people realize you can’t punt to that dude? I learned Jean Van De Velde was watching this game and said, “That’s the worst choke job I’ve ever seen.”
15. Arkansas – Why the hell can’t we play Kentucky?
16. Kentucky – We’ll always have Toledo and Eastern Michigan.

Go Dawgs!

We’re officially past the halfway point of the season and things are starting to take more shape. I think we have a little better idea of who these teams are, but an awful lot can still happen the second half of the season. Through 8 weeks, we have EIGHT teams with only one conference loss or less. A lot of this will work itself out with some key head to head matchups on the way…some this coming weekend. It’s been a couple of weeks since we’ve put together the Power Poll (sorry, had some travel obligations), so time to re-rack everyone and see where things stand. Enjoy!  

1. Alabama – Yep, they’re still on top and look to be hitting their stride. Like Georgia, this isn’t the typical Bama juggernaut that beats teams a week before kickoff…there are a handful of teams in the conference that can beat Bama on a good day. Unfortunately, Tennessee gave Bama a 14-point swing gift at the end of the first half and that was that. Take a look at the final score and consider that 14-point swing…game could’ve looked a lot different. Doesn’t matter…they’ve been the best team in the conference since their trip to Athens.     
2. Georgia – If we were doing the “Most Entertaining” power poll, Georgia is #1 without question. Our games are starting to resemble a 15 round Rocky vs. Drago fight. We may not be dominant and I don’t know if we’ll ever put together a complete game (you know, those things when both the offense and defense play well in the same contest…we used to be pretty good at it), but we seem to keep winning and have a couple of impressive scalps to our credit. Good time for an off week.  
3. Texas A&M – How is the lone undefeated team in the conference only #3 in this poll. After all, they’re #3 in the entire country. Maybe I’m an idiot…my wife would substantiate this claim. Or, maybe Texas A&M has had all the stars align thus far? Let’s take a look at their season. The Notre Dame win on the road is now aging nicely. My only issue with A&M is all their conference wins were at home…until this weekend when they barely got by a 2-5 (0-3) Arkansas team on the road. But that’s all good, they can make me look like an idiot by beating LSU on the road this weekend. I’m going to go ahead and call the upset…A&M drops one to the Tigers this weekend.    
4. Ole Miss – That offense is legit and the Laner is a great coach. Though Spurrier will never be replaced as the most fun coach to beat, Lane Kiffin shares some of those same Spurrier qualities and traits that make beating his teams a hell of a lot of fun. Another tough road trip to Oklahoma this weekend, but if they get through that one…the road to the CFP looks very promising. They might want to thing about getting at least some sort of a run defense, but maybe this is just how they choose to roll.
5. Vanderbilt – The pimps from Nashville continue to hang around the upper echelon of the conference. The LSU win last week is the brightest spot on their resume so far. Big showdown with Missouri this weekend, which feels like a CFP elimination game, and Gameday will be on hand. Let me say that again…Week 9 Gameday will be in Nashville for Vanderbilt/Missouri and there are CFP implications on the line. Strange things are afoot at the Circle K.
6. Missouri – Very similar resume to Vanderbilt…home loss to Bama and some solid wins, but nothing against a ranked opponent (Vandy has the LSU win and they are still in the Top 25…so they got the nod). Barely survived against Auburn on the road, probably should have lost…but hey, that’s what Auburn does. If I had to put money on it, I think Missouri goes down this weekend, but should be a close one.   
7. Oklahoma – Considering how bad Texas looked against Kentucky, that loss in the Red River Shootout is not doing them any favors. Nice rebound with a solid win over a Gamecock team that gets worse every hour. Will be a very interesting game this week against Ole Miss. Does Ole Miss respond to their first loss and play well on the road? Does Oklahoma have enough offensive fire power to keep up with Ole Miss offense? Can’t believe they gave Oklahoma a 12:00 p.m. kickoff for this game…would be very pissed if I were a Sooners fan.
8. Tennessee – What could’ve been for the Vols. Looked like they would go into halftime down only 2 points…throw a Pick 6 to end the half and down 16 points. They still have opportunities on the schedule to improve their resume…Oklahoma and Vanderbilt both at home. No more margin for error if they want to make the CFP. I could see the Florida game in Gainesville being a tricky contest that might surprise them. These guys are hell at home, purgatory-ish on the road.
9. LSU – It’s “do it” time for Brian Kelly. Absolutely have to win this weekend at home against the Aggies, or the season gets completely derailed…that’s why I’m calling the LSU victory. That said, they follow that up with a trip to Bama…tough draw. Final game of the regular season is at Oklahoma…I guess I’m saying LSU has a couple more losses on that schedule. In retrospect, can LSU claim a proud victory at this point in the season? It’s not Clemson. It’s not South Carolina. It’s not Florida. I’m going to need a money line on Brian Kelly’s potential firing at the conclusion of this season.   
10. Texas – How these guys only have 2 losses is amazing. The Oklahoma win was a bit of a surprise, but the performance against Kentucky was as ugly of a win as you’ll ever see. I’d love to see them dump one to MSU this weekend to completely kill hope for their season…don’t want them to have any confidence or anything to play for when they come to Athens. Did anyone’s bingo card have Texas as the 10^th best team in the conference at the midseason point?      
11. Florida – Could have easily lost to MSU this weekend, but MSU copied Miami and gagged away an opportunity to win the game…imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. How telling is it that Florida fans were booing Napier for winning a conference game? Well, they got their wish with Napier being released. How the mighty have fallen. We’re living in some pretty special times when Vanderbilt is competing for a spot in the CFP while the Florida program feels completely lost in the bottom half of the conference…and searching for a new head coach in the middle of the season.    
12. Mississippi State – The 0-3 conference record should merit a worse place on this list, but a close Tennessee loss, combined with games on the road against A&M and Florida is a pretty tough slate, no? They had every opportunity to beat the Gators on the road and pissed it away. These guys are not a bad team…they’re a tough out. Could easily see them beating Texas this weekend at home.
13. Arkansas – They’re 0-3 in the conference and have only won 2 games this season…why are they the best of the bottom quartile? Have you seen who they’ve had to play? The Notre Dame loss was bad…OK, total ass kicking. But, the 3 conference losses have been to Ole Miss, Tennessee and A&M…all by a total of 12 points. These guys don’t suck, they just can’t finish.       
14. Auburn – See above…I don’t think Auburn is a bad team…they just can’t play a complete game and finish off an opponent. The defense is very good, maybe great. The offense is, well…less than desired. All of their conference losses were very close, and to excellent competition. I almost feel sorry for them…almost.   
15. South Carolina – These guys are pretty much a mess…and the next three games can only be classified as BRUTAL. The Gamecocks are flirting with a 4 win season after being a Top 15 preseason team. If Dylan Stewart wants to hit the portal, I know a spot for him.
16. Kentucky – Is it basketball season yet?

Go Dawgs!

Apologies for no posts following the Auburn contest…my boys were on Fall Break for school last week and we took a quick family vacation. Ready to get back to the grind!

Say what you will about the 2025 Georgia Football team (and I will below in just a moment), but nobody can deny the entertainment value of this team…we make for some seriously compelling television! The games in the first season of Friday Night Lights were less dramatic than our weekly conference matchups. Who needs a comfortable, stress-free victory anyway? Warning, there are going to be some polarizing grades below…buckle up and let’s have some fun!

Quarterback: A+

• Welcome to the first A+ grade of the season for any position group. If we want to get nitpicky, Gunner missed on a couple of throws in the 1^st quarter and there were a couple of plays where Gunner didn’t find a receiver running open for a potentially explosive play. News flash…playing QB in the SEC is difficult. But let’s look big picture, Gunner played his a** off Saturday and deserves his accolades. When you have as many TD’s accounted for as incompletions against a Top 5 team (let that sink in), you’re playing at a very high level. We scored on every possession (not including victory formation to end the game) and Gunner was a big reason why. His TD run was a thing of beauty and he dropped one in the bucket to Dillon Bell on our final scoring drive…enormous play to flip the field and take more time off the clock. Did I mention Gunner is still the toughest SOB on the planet? I think he’s approaching levels reserved for Walter Payton…after the Auburn game I thought we would rename Gunner Stockton to Scott Sterling (YouTube it…funny stuff). Awesome leadership, awesome execution, clutch as hell…would not trade him for any other QB in the country.    

Running Back: B+

• Thought the RB room was excellent on Saturday. Over 160 yards on the ground for this group, as well as a TD reception for Frazier. I think Frazier is starting to get his groove back a little bit following the Bama fumble episode…didn’t rip off any explosives, but a whole lot of 5+ yard gains and helped us get into good down and distance situations. You can tell he’s still very conscious of the fumbles the way he wraps up when contact is coming. Bowens was very productive with his touches and seems to be good for at least one 15+ yard carry every week…loved the 3^rd and long run to convert a first down. McCray didn’t have a monster statistical day, but he seems to be pigeonholed into the short yardage guy role and difficult to tear off big runs in those situations. Most importantly, he managed to convert a 4^th and 1 when he looked to be stopped cold (one of the only play calls I didn’t like on the day). If we get stopped on that play, I think we lose the game. Why not an A grade? Cash Jones has got to get rid of the ball on that halfback pass, rather than take a big loss…that could have really come back to haunt us. Also, would have liked to see another couple of 10+ yard runs…the blocking looked to be there on some opportunities. Still, great day for the RB room when we needed every one of our 34 first downs.

Offensive Line – A-

• I’m trying to keep everything in perspective because that Ole Miss defense doesn’t evoke memories of the 2000 Ravens. That said, I’m probably not going out on a limb if I think this was their best performance of the season. It looks like we had our Fall camp starting five all lined up to begin the game, and from what I could see, Earnest Greene held up pretty well in his return. If we can use the off week to get further healthy and maintain some continuity for this group, it’s possible they’ll be a team strength…would have not said that even two weeks ago. It wasn’t a perfect performance…there were some TFL’s, but they gave Gunner time and the RB’s had enough room to get positive yardage on first and second downs. McCray did have to bail them out on the big 4^th down play because he had zero blocking, and would have loved to see us ice the game on our final drive, but couldn’t get 3 yards on Frazier’s final carry…so some things to nitpick, but when you get over 500 yards of total offense and score on every possession, it’s hard to find too much fault in their performance. Overall great effort from this group.  

Receivers (WR’s + TE’s) – A

• I cashed in big when I predicted Lawson Luckie would have 3 TD receptions in this game…wait, nobody on earth said that before the game. Great to see #7 get that level of statistical production in such an important game…dude brings maximum effort every week even if he isn’t catching balls. Delp was also productive chipping in with 40+ yards on 4 catches. I’ve mentioned before that I don’t really care who makes plays on a week-to-week basis, as long as the offense is successful…but it does seem we are more successful when the TE’s are more involved in the pass catching arena. Even Elyiss got a target that resulted in a DPI…that’s as good as a 15-yard reception. As for the WR’s, major bummer about Colbie Young after making a huge play on the opening drive, he was having a great year and looked like a monster on the field…opportunity for Thomas and Wiley to step up and make some plays. Branch did what Branch does…feels like we’re going to consistently get somewhere between 60-80 yards from him every week, with some drive extending conversions. Humphreys snagged a couple of passes, and of course Dillon Bell with a monster grab to deflate the hell out of the Ole Miss defense on our final drive…to the officiating crew, if you’re going to call DPI on us for nearly every 1:1 contested throw, you have to call it on Ole Miss on that Dillon Bell reception as well. Defender had him by the shoulder pads and covered his arms before the ball got there…phenomenal catch. Bell also chipped in with a well blocked 17 yard run to keep momentum going in the 4^th quarter. Like the rest of the offense…phenomenal day for this group.    

   Defensive Line – C+

• This is where the grades will begin to change. Let’s get to the good…this group showed up better on the final 3 drives and made some key plays by getting pressure and batting balls…absolutely crucial. The Ole Miss rushing attack was not terribly effective with 88 yards on 24 carries…but they did convert some key drive extenders on some runs and QB escapes. For as good as things went in the 4^th quarter, I can’t say all is well when our opponent scored 5 TD’s on their first 5 possessions, and we didn’t have even 1 TFL all game. I hear all the platitudes about “they showed up when it mattered” and “we’re a 4^th quarter team” and that’s all fine and well. I get what people are saying and I understand the idea…but it doesn’t mean the 4^th quarter counts more than the others. Last I checked, TD’s in the first 3 quarters count just as much, yards are the same distance the entire game and defensive stops are valuable whenever they occur. I guess my point is this, if a unit plays well the entire game, we won’t HAVE to rely on being a 4^th quarter team. One thing I’ll concede is it’s hard to get pressure when Ole Miss is getting rid of the ball as quickly as they do, but that pocket looked awfully clean for the first 3 quarters. Just one man’s opinion.   

Linebackers – C-        

• Coming off a tough night game in Auburn and turning around to play a great Ole Miss offense the next week is a difficult ask…and it showed. This unit looked a step slower than I’m accustomed to seeing, some bad angles were taken and more than a few missed tackles on the day. I love Chris Cole, but he’s now missed out on multiple sacks this year by over running the QB when he’s completely unblocked. I’m not sure we’ve covered a shallow cross the entire year…correct me if I’m wrong. Quintavious made a couple of great plays on those 4^th quarter stops, so kudos to him…he seems to get better the later the game gets. These guys have me confused because I feel like they should be the towering strength of the team…but they don’t seem to cover very well, they haven’t gotten home very often on blitzes, they’ve put a lot of bad angles and poor tackling on tape this year…doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.    

Defensive Backs – D

• This was not pretty. I’ll start with the good…Demello had a crucial pass breakup to kill one Ole Miss third down attempt, and Daylen Everette had great coverage on our first defensive stop. Other than that, pretty rough day for this group. I’m a big believer that officials are way too quick to throw the flag for DPI, but it is what it is…and we get a lot of them. I can’t imagine our coaches aren’t teaching these guys to turn their heads in these 1:1 battles…but I don’t see it happening in the game and it makes it easy for officials to throw yellow on the field. Aguero had a coverage bust that resulted in an explosive play for Ole Miss and set them up with goal to go. Very little went right for this group on Saturday. One caveat to this and I’m not sure I’ll ever know the true answer…how much of this is on the coaches? When we gave them cushion, they happily took the 8-10 yard throws, so I’m not sure what the players are supposed to do if they’re told to give cushion. Everette got victimized on that long TD reception, but the entire secondary was playing 15 yards off the LOS…it was an incredibly easy throw and it’s a tough 1:1 tackle to make if you’re Everette. I think we’re in an era where OC’s are great at scheming ways to move the ball against soft coverage, and good QB’s are too accurate and skilled to count on them missing open guys. Again, just one man’s opinion.       

Special Teams – B

• Thorpedo had a clean uniform to start and finish the game…never a bad sign! No punt returns other than fair catches and no kickoff returns…all going to come down to Woodring. The good…Woodring was perfect on all XP’s and all 3 FG attempts with a long of 51 yards…can’t do a lot better than that. The bad…WTF was up with back-to-back kickoffs going out of bounds? We know you can kick the ball out of the back of the endzone, and we know you’re an accurate kicker…just kick the ball straight and out of the back of the endzone. Why flirt with the sideline? We’re just giving them a first down to start a drive. Our defense is having enough problems to start games, we don’t need to stick our finger in that bullet wound. Maybe it wouldn’t have made a difference at all with how well Ole Miss was moving the ball, but would have been nice to see.              

Offensive Coaching – A+

• Going to break this up into offensive and defensive coaching. First things first…I’ve said it before and I’ll say it till I’m blue in the face…things are rarely as bad as they seem and things are rarely as good as they seem. In this case, Bobo and team threw a near perfect game. 500+ yards of offense and scored on every possession. We threw out some new wrinkles, great game plan, completely prepared…no complaints (other than that halfback pass in goal to go, felt like overkill and it backfired…and didn’t love the 4^th and 1 call that McCray had to bail us out). Aside from the grade, I’m going to keep some perspective…we were playing a rather porous Ole Miss defense. I’m not going to proclaim our offense is ready to go on a tear the remainder of the season and we’re suddenly fixed…even if I hope that’s the case. We’re not that far removed from the first half of the Auburn game, so I’ll still hold on the offense stock till I see a similar performance against Florida. I’m neither a Bobo apologist, nor a Bobo hater…I think he’s had some great games as OC for Georgia (dating back to Richt tenure), and I think he’s had some bad games. If he’s able to hit on all cylinders now that he’s got a healthier OL and a QB who’s playing great as he gets more starts…that’s awesome. If we play ultra vanilla offense against Florida and struggle to move the ball…I’m not going to be completely shocked. I think everything is in play.

Defensive Coaching – D+

• To recap, for 3 straight quarters, Ole Miss scored a TD every time they touched the ball. Truth be told, it didn’t look like they were having much trouble doing it…no spectacular plays or unbelievable individual efforts (aside from one amazing catch where Demello got flagged for DPI). They methodically moved the ball and were scoring with relative ease. We’ve played 5 conference games and in 4 of those games…our defense has been SHREDDED to start the game. I can’t think of anywhere else to pin the blame than on the defensive coaching staff. When you look at Tennessee, Bama, Auburn and Ole Miss, they aren’t coming out scoring touchdowns on every possession to start games against other opponents…this seems to be a Georgia issue. Here’s where I’ll give them some credit…they seemed to switch to more press man in the 4^th quarter and we obviously had more success getting stops. If that’s what we need to do to get some stops, I can live with the occasional big play and DPI. Curious where others are on this?

Sanford Crowd – A+

• I know we’re a spoiled bunch and don’t necessarily show up big for out of conference games where competition is vastly inferior. But, having to watch this one from home, the crowd seemed absolutely electric to start the game. More importantly, after Ole Miss was scoring touchdown after touchdown, it’s really easy for a home crowd to get deflated and make less noise on later defensive possessions. When we were down 35-33 and had Ole Miss in 3^rd and long, you could feel the stadium shaking through the TV before the play and after the pass breakup. That same energy was delivered on the next Ole Miss possession and another three and out. There are other tough places to play in America, but I’ll put a crazy Sanford crowd against anyone for a big game atmosphere. Well done!

Let’s enjoy an off week, get some dudes healthier and enjoy the stretch run!

Go Dawgs!