Category Archives: Kentucky: Is It Basketball Season Yet?

The weekend that was at MBG – week 6 edition

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You just lost to John Mateer.

Saturday was glorious. I hope the pollsters find some reason to continue to disrespect us and move Notre Dame to #1. Anyway, on a day like this the message boards once again didn’t disappoint and our geniuses didn’t show up even when it felt the game may be slipping away.

Let’s start today’s trip in Louisville on Friday night for Mike Norvell’s throwing away all of his goodwill from the week before away with 1 play call.

On the road up 14 and instead of going up by 3 scores, Norvell decides to go for it on the 2 yard line and then calls a play where the ball gets thrown behind the line of scrimmage. I don’t know if a field goal there changes the eventual outcome, but it allowed the floodgates to open on the next play from scrimmage when Louisville has a 97 yard run to cut the lead in half. If you’re going to go for it there, either line up and run or make sure you throw the ball into the end zone.

Norvell is a dead man walking at this point. The question is whether they can raise the money to buy out his contract plus his assistants.

Ouch.

Let’s move on to Hogtown where it hasn’t taken long for the Handbags’ season to start free fallin’.

-3 turnover margin gets you beat most Saturdays, and, most of the time, that team gets run out of the building. Giving up 10 of 16 3rd downs is not a good look for a Handbag defense that has multiple loseable games on the schedule left on the schedule. I wonder what the ticket market for the Cocktail Party on the Gator side of MBS is like right now as they get ready to head to Austin for a date with Texas who deep down knows their faceplant in Hogtown last fall was the reason they weren’t in the CFP.

Jonny Boy is finding out really quickly how fickle Handbags are. At this point, the Florida-FSU game may end up on the ACC Network+.

Let’s head to CoMo to check on the mental state of Drink’s latest beatdown victim … Texas 8&4.

That first post is truly genius worthy, or maybe a T-sip posing as an Aggie pulls a great troll.

Could the Missouri game in November end up as the biggest home game of the year? After the last 2 weeks, that appears likely now. Texas A&M is officially on tilt after their defense gets shredded for 252 rushing yards.

On the other side, this stat line is horrible.

Yikes.

At 3-3, it could get ugly for Elko because the Aggie oilmen are more than happy to pay another buyout.

Speaking of little brothers, let’s look in on the Greater Opelika Cow College’s preparation for the DSOR (Dawgs, be loud on Saturday … no letdown).

Auburn fans are as bad as Tech nerds over their never-ending obsession with all things Bama. I’m not going to watch the Sa(t)an documentary for many reasons, but seeing a Barner call any program a bunch of cheaters is rich.

Let’s head to the west coast where the preseason national champions’ season is going up in smoke.

7 turnovers. 20:00 of time of possession. 73 yards rushing. 1 for 12 on 3rd down. Damn, just damn, Dan.

If Kirby decided he has had enough, Lanning would no longer be on my list of coaches I would want to pursue. He has every advantage a first time head coach would want, yet he finds ways to lose games where his team is more talented.

Let’s head to Dallas to check on the status of “Texas is back!” after Sark and Arch fail yet again.

To the genius that fires a stray at Kirby, I’m sure Kirby is worried about your opinion. Texas gets exposed by Oklahoma’s defense, and the Archduke is officially out of the Heisman race after throwing 2 backbreaking picks in the 4th quarter. Steve Sarkisian has to be looking at the fine print in his contract after this one. Oklahoma was dreadful on offense again, but Mateer makes 2 throws that make all the difference in crunch time.

That “best team money can buy” strategy appears to be exploding in Texass’s face. Speaking of programs overspending on NIL …

Let’s head back to horse/bourbon country to check in with the Corn Dogs after losing to Kentucky.

I know a lot of LSU fans aren’t that smart, but that genius doesn’t understand the basics of what $19 million really means. A quick Google search mentioned the following: A waterfront mansion in Ft. Lauderdale, a super-yacht, or a portfolio that generates $760k a year (conservatively without touching the principal).

On to the game itself, Kentucky goes for the win in the first overtime for the 2nd week in a row and lives to tell about it. If this keeps up Will Stein may be in line for SEC CotY. There isn’t a game left on the schedule that Kentucky can’t win starting on Saturday night in Norman where they open as a 6.5 point underdog.

On the other side, LSU is fortunate the game went to overtime after 2 turnovers in their own territory both resulted in no points. The Cajuns adored Kiffin in December and are now turning on him in October. They still have upcoming games against Texas and Alabama which I’m sure Disney will put at night in Death Valley.

This will hurt:

Let’s move on to our last spot of the night … west Alabama where the Dawgs win with a flair for the dramatic.

There’s been plenty of cloud storage used over the 36 hours about the officiating and the embarrassment of Fowler and Herbstreit. Dawg in Austin’s observations post from yesterday is a tour de force in analysis if you haven’t yet read it.

My take on Saturday night is that this was a win for the culture and values of the program as created by Kirby Smart. I have said for 10 years now that Kirby took the Process of Saban and put a human face on it.

Connection – Even when Sacovie muffed the punt (thank goodness for Blake Stewart), Kirby and some players made it clear that they were behind him. He made a clear fair catch of the next one.

Composure – It would have been easy for the team to lose their composure as Alabama turned the game in the 2nd quarter, but clearly the team did not leave the field for halftime discouraged.

Resilience – The first drive of the 2nd half was resilience in action. That was coming off the mat and pulling up the defense after the late 2nd quarter drive.

Physicality – The drive chart of the 2nd half was a beauty to behold: 8 plays, 75 yards, 4:22 (TD); 11 plays, 69 yards, 6:20 (Missed FG); 10 plays, 84 yards, 5:19 (FG); and 8 plays, 40 yards, 3:10 (End of game).

G.A.T.A.

What did you see this weekend that made you laugh out loud? Let us know in the comments.

SEC Football, In a Picture

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Ladies and gentlemen, hang it in the Louvre.

It almost feels like a “Where’s Waldo” of football emotions, and it makes me so happy to see it.

In the picture:

  • Two Kentucky fans, consoling each other
  • A child wearing a shirt, proudly, with the F word
  • Twin sisters, wearing Kentucky shirts of the most opposing way
  • A pretty young woman, who hasn’t been found by the broadcast cameras, presumably
  • A guy in a weathered shirt, no buttons affixed, and a wrinkled ball cap, I can only assume is drunk or on drugs
  • A security guard, unamused by it all
  • A grown man, about to say something regrettable in front of the child with words worse than what he’ll say on her shirt
  • Towels bring waves in front of an opposing fans face
  • Someone’s grandma
  • Someone’s great grandma
  • A guy wearing store bought swag, as a chain
  • Obese people getting their heart rate to indescribable levels
  • Kentucky fans wondering when basketball season starts

It almost feels like hearing the hidden verse in a David Alan Coe song or something.

Maybe, just maybe, college football ain’t dead, we’re just jaded.

Long live college football.

Tenured

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And just like that…Kirby is now the elder among SEC coaches make that the eldest.

Among all SEC coaches, only three can claim appearances in the SECCG…Sark, DeBoer, and Kirby. Difference is, Kirby’s been there eight times.

Life comes at you fast…and, to think, the hottest commodity in college football right now is Lane “Never Won a Thing” Kiffin? Hmph.

The weekend that was at MBG – week 6 edition

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How did I get outcoached by that guy?

A couple of big road upsets occur on what was supposed to be a boring Saturday of college football. Needless to say, the message boards lit up across the fruited plain as usual on a Saturday. Before we start our trip, take a quick look at this (remember most of these teams have beaten a ranked opponent at the time of the game).

Just leaving this here for Mumme Poll voters.

Let’s get started this morning this morning in the Classic City where it’s clear BBN isn’t happy with basketball season starting the first week of October.

Kentucky is probably the best job for a coach looking for stability while being the worst for maintaining consistency and acquiring talent. It’s the exact opposite of their men’s basketball coaching job. The problem is their fans are starting to expect close to the same performance from their football program that they expect from their basketball program.

Stoops is probably now a dead man walking unless he finds a way to beat Tennessee to save his job. I’m guessing Kirby told him after the game that he has a spot in his coaching rehab program when the time is right.

On to the game, I don’t understand why Kirby doesn’t coach this game in Lexington the same way he does in Athens. Turn the superior athletes loose and let them make plays. Kudos to Stoops for hitting the over for his buddies in Youngstown by leaving his starters in while Georgia was emptying the bench. I was surprised he didn’t try an onside kick to get a field goal to cover the spread.

Let’s move on to Tobacco Road to check in on the Bill Belichick Experience.

Before the season no one would be surprised that Clemson was going to beat North Carolina. I’m not even sure I would have been surprised to see the Tiggers beat the Heels convincingly.

I am surprised at how quickly things have gotten sideways with Belichick. I thought it was a dumb hire for a Kentucky type of program (football at a basketball school) to attempt to short-cut their way to national relevance, but this has gone worse than I thought it would.

Does Bill have the class to step down and go play golf after 1 year in Chapel Hill? We’ll see.

Let’s stay in the ACC to check in on Seminole Nation.

Yes, the final score was only by 6. -3 turnover margin gets you beat, and many times gets you run out of the building. Down 28-3, the Noles scramble to score 19 in the 4th quarter.

After the Alabama game, I thought Norvell had probably saved himself. His buyout is probably the only thing saving him now as the Noles season is officially on the brink. Trips to Clemson, Raleigh and Hogtown loom for the Tribe.

Is it just me, or does the new Doak just not have the same degree of home field advantage as the old one?

Now, we head to the 2 places you’ve been waiting for this week. Let’s start out at the land of the Big Bang Theory … Pasadena, California … to see how the Lions are doing this morning.

James Franklin has made a lot of money in Happy Valley by beating teams his team is supposed to beat. They went out and hired Jim Knowles away from the hated Buckeyes and threw a bunch of NIL money at players hoping to replicate what anOSU did to win a title.

Instead, now the season is close to half over, and they allowed Oregon to beat them twice. UCLA is one of the worst Power 4 teams in the country, and they controlled much of the game with Nico I accounting for 5 TDs and outplaying the preseason #1 overall pick in the Yankee Cade Klubnik.

I think it’s safe to say that Franklin is quickly wearing out his welcome and a trip to Columbus looms.

Let’s end today’s trip in Hogtown not for the reason we thought at the start of the weekend.

You ain’t wrong, collin12345. But we all think you’re a “laughing stock” because no one wanted you.

In the name of a meteor game, the north central, meth lab geniuses aren’t getting a pass this week.

Where’s F-bum today as Arch Manning’s Heisman campaign, after his moment against (checks notes) Sam Houston, crashes and burns in The Swamp? Watching this Texas offense has to be making the Shorthorns wonder where is the Sark who is supposed to be an offensive genius. The problem on Saturday was they sucked on defense as well.

To the Handbags, congratulations on keeping the Sun Belt Billy farewell tour going for another week. A trip to College Station to face an AgCult team who is now taking on the toughness of its coach probably isn’t going to end well for you.

That’s what I saw this week. Share your well wishes to Texas and Penn State in the comments.

Midnight Madness – Kentucky preview

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https://youtu.be/NZNRkRX4LYU?si=zCsUhDggGr0hSZ63

It’s October, so it’s time for Kentucky fans to start looking to the start of basketball season. This axiom has particularly been true after the Wildcats visit Sanford Stadium. Both teams are coming off losses last week … Kentucky to South Carolina and Georgia to Alabama. The Cats have back-to-back games on the road and are looking to their open date next week before hosting Texas.

Let’s get to the preview.

When Georgia has the ball

Kentucky’s defense has been shredded in SEC play. Ole Miss rushed over 200 yards while South Carolina used ground out 180 on almost 50 attempts. Those 2 teams combined for 6 rushing TDs against the Wildcats. Against the pass they may be worse, Kentucky has given up over 10 yards per attempt in SEC play so far, but they did get 2 interceptions against Ole Miss.

Given how the Kentucky defense has fared, this is a game where the Dawgs need to take what the Cats are willing to give. If they want to protect their secondary, crank up on the league’s best running games. More likely, they are going to stack the box and force Stockton to throw. Gunner should have opportunities to create explosives in the passing game.

Final thought … stay away from turnovers.

When Kentucky has the ball

Kentucky is last in the conference by a fair margin throwing the ball. That includes games against the defensive stalwarts of Toledo and Eastern Michigan. Mark Stoops is going to try to shorten the game by running the ball and milking the clock. If there was a time to commit the front 6 to run stopping, today is that game. The Dawgs defense has been difficult to run consistently against, and I expect that to continue on this afternoon.

Get the Cats behind the chains and keep them there, Dawgs.

What will happen

Will Kirby try to out manball Stoops? If so, expect a game that doesn’t reflect the superior athleticism we have over Kentucky. If Kirby coaches this game as we have seen in Kentucky’s past games in Athens, this game could get out of hand. It would be a sight for sore eyes to see this team get off to a fast start on both sides of the ball and end all hope of a massive upset early.

I think this game ends up somewhere between those extremes.

Dawgs win by a final score that doesn’t reflect game control.

Final Score: Georgia 38, Kentucky 17

Special Affects

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That’s not a grammatical error.

“We’ve got to affect the quarterback,” Smart said after the game. “We’ve got to do a better job of affecting the quarterback. I mean, we’ve got more packages than the man in the moon to affect the quarterback, but we’ve got to do it. We’ve got to do it, and we’ve got to go out there and execute and be able to do it.” 

Interesting statement, as I’ve seen in more than one place in the socials and in comments that it seemed as though Alabama knew exactly what we were going to do throughout the entire first half of Saturday’s game.

That sounds like someone has some top flight analysts right there. Whatever bag of tricks Kirby and Schumann might have, they need to pull it out in the first half instead of “adjusting” in the second half. Perhaps some film study of the opposing offense might tighten that up, but I’m sure they’re doing that. Aren’t they?

Also from Weiszer’s article:

“I think we’ve put together some really good game plans,” coach Kirby Smart said on Monday Sept. 29. “I don’t know that we’ve executed them all the time well. There’s a line between execution responsibility, me, coaches, players, everybody’s involved in that. But I mean, the same calls that we called in the first half, we called in the second half. We got some stops, and we made some plays. It’s not about just calls. It’s about execution, putting people in a good position. Sometimes it’s playing with confidence, and we got to do a better job doing that.

Georgia has given up 45 points total in the first half the last two games. It allowed 65 points in the first half the entire 2021 season. Alabama had 24 of those in the SEC championship game in a 41-24 win.”

Before fire, passion, and energy, all the talk was about being “elite”. Might be time to re-engage an old refrain, or at least coach them up to that level. While execution is certainly a key component of the game, you also had two weeks to prepare for Alabama and likewise saw some glaring issues that Tennessee exposed that needed shoring up. While we didn’t have secondary players flailing to the ground while a receiver moonwalks into the endzone, the secondary was still picked apart and the affect on the quarterback was nearly non-existent in the first half.

Still, to be fair, someone was executing at a high level, and it was Simpson, who was getting the ball out quickly which I can only attribute to Grubb knowing what Georgia was going to show and exposing the gaps there to get quick hits and nice gains. Alabama was rarely in a position of playing from behind the sticks or in third and longs throughout the first half. That’s excellence in game planning and execution, combined, but sounds like some of the planning was better in one coaching room and maybe less in another. Whatever happened in the second halves of the Tennessee and Alabama games, I’d at least imagine, shouldn’t be rocket science to Smart and Company to recall what and why adjustments were made, though Kirby insists they dialed up the same looks and they worked (note – Alabama fans insist that DeBoer “took his foot off the gas” in the second half, which is laughable considering Alabama nearly lost the game last year, so they’re likewise insisting Kalen is a slow learner).

Why things work better in the second half instead of the first, though, is the thing the staff needs to figure out, and in short order. As Weiszer stated, we are in the NIL era and simply “outmanning” our opposition isn’t going to be ethos for the Bulldogs any longer.

Affect the quarterback, yes. Playing with your ass on fire from the opening whistle to the end seems to be a bigger priority for the team. A noon snoozer sandwiched between the Tide and the Tigers against the Wildcats awaits. If Kentucky is still a ballgame in the third quarter this weekend, we could be in for a long season.

First look at Kentucky

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Dawgs and Cats face off between the hedges on Saturday at high noon in what could be Mark Stoops’s last visit to Sanford as Kentucky’s head coach. Our Dawgs look to keep Alabama from beating them twice. In the meantime, Kentucky has lost their 2 conference games and look for a way to claw to bowl eligibility. Let’s get to the first look.

Series record

Georgia has dominated the series throughout with a record of 64-12-2. The Dawgs have won 15 in a row.

Last meeting

Georgia wins a tight game in Lexington 13-12. The Dawgs play a terrible game offensively and enable Kentucky to play keep away with the ball on offense. In a classic game in Lexington, Kirby is more than happy to play the game close to the vest. This game was what could happen when Kirby decides not to use his decided talent advantage … thank goodness we didn’t get burned.

Gambling degenerate facts

The Dawgs are currently a 20.5 point favorite with a 48.5 point total. The Dawgs are a -1800 favorite on the money line.

Interesting statistic 106.27 – team passer rating

Considering Kentucky has played 2 cupcakes, this statistic is downright awful. If the Cats can’t find some consistent passing game, they really have no chance to move the ball consistently against the Dawgs’ defense.

Early outlook

Without creating cheap field position with turnovers or special teams, Kentucky has a very narrow path to victory. Stoops must shorten the game to have a chance to pull the upset. Will Kirby try to out physical Kentucky and continue to run into stacked fronts, or will he allow the passing game to get athletes into space to create explosive play opportunities?

Is it too much to ask for this team not to play around and make this much more difficult than it needs to be?

What’s your thoughts on a Wednesday morning? Let us know in the comments below.

Three and Out?

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Interesting stat from Saturday’s game.

To say that that figure is simply concerning is an understatement. Allowing Simpson to sit in clean pockets certainly didn’t help, as I can remember too many situations where Simpson could comfortably check down and find wide open options to make for easy conversions. Given that our defensive linemen aren’t named Carter or Davis, some form of adjustment from Schumann et al would suggest bringing more pressure from linebackers could certainly help. Georgia has amassed, to date, five sacks in four games, all of which came from linebackers. No sacks from DLs or DBs is a strange stat to behold.

But all hope isn’t lost, as they say. The defense certainly adjusted in the second half, though one has to wonder how are serving as analysts and what is happening in film study that leads to such a slow start on defense. It’s not as if Alabama didn’t have any film or that they were throwing many nuanced wrinkles at us (seriously, when you see an offensive linemen shift to receiver, what the hell are you expecting to happen?). Whatever is happening, the finger wagging is shifting from offense to defense, which is something I never thought I’d be saying about a Kirby Smart coached squad.

It was obviously brutal on the social yesterday, but one common refrain across many platforms was back on Kirby’s choice of his coaching staff…great recruiters, but not great coaches. We aren’t built to simply outlast and overwhelm with talent as we used to be, so coaching up what we’ve got is becoming a greater priority than just getting talent on campus. But that’s also a part of college football discourse, as much as it ever has been.

So what are our odds to finish out…maybe compete for an SECCG?

Hey, at least it’s not zero. Missing out on the SECCG wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if Georgia can make the CFP, but it’s still a goal that is in sight.

So how will Kirby and Co. respond? We get Kentucky this weekend, which could either be a sacrificial lamb to the slaughter or could be another disappointing slog fest of a game where Manball (hey, we are running better, so there’s that) rules the day and a listless and likely sleepy and distracted – it’s Homecoming – noon home crowd won’t do us many favors.

One thing’s for sure…what’s happening on the defensive side of the ball will be under greater scrutiny than on the offensive side of the ball. Will the bitter taste of another loss to Alabama deflate or will we rise to the challenge and respond? The team’s not out…but how down will we collectively be?

We Have Ourselves a Nooner

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Just a PSA for those of you ticket holders out there.

Kind of seems appropriate. I hope we aren’t sleep walking after Alabama and before the Auburn tilt, because Kentucky can be a tough out. Plus a noon game where crowd energy could be low…