Two days later, and I’m still grateful, I’m still laughing. Kinda.
Let’s make it a little better. The Hillbillies weren’t convinced they didn’t realize their kicker missed.
To hell with lucky. This one hurts…for these jackaces who deserve it so, so very much.
From a Dawg fan in the 90s, let me say any sympathy is for the devil, because these folks earned this misery. And hopefully, years more of it.
Go Dawgs, and to hell with Tennessee.
Trying something a little different for Sunday posting, so thought I’d give this a try. The concept is pretty simple, from a fan’s perspective, and to steal a line from James, from a fan who never played football at any credible level, here’s the things I Loved and the things I Loved Not from yesterday’s game.
I Love You – Raylen Wilson
Finished third in tackles with nine, but I have to think Aguilar might’ve thought about some business decisions after this hit here:
To be fair, unlike other Tennessee quarterbacks, Aguilar didn’t succumb to the pop and kept balling. But man, that’s the way you tackle. Didn’t see a lot of that last season.
I Love You Not – Ellis Robinson
I get it, he’s still young, and Kirby likes to put his CBs on an island, but Ellis look young and lost at sea. The first of two haunting bad plays on an under thrown ball from Aguilar lead to a very familiar feeling of Williams and Humphries at Alabama last year.
I’m sure he’ll improve as time goes on, but a costly DPI on a third and long swung the game and allowed Tennessee to build their lead to 14.
I Love You – Joenel Aguero
Interception aside, Aguero played violent, and I’m here for it.
Three solo tackles, two deflections, and a pick. Not a bad day at the office.
I Love You Not – Earnest Greene
To be fair, Freeling wasn’t looking all that great much of the day either, but something about Greene comes across as just, well, lazy and soft.
It’s not just yesterday, but has been a seeming pattern with Greene, especially in situations where he has to kick out and clear and outside defender and just “ole’” the guy and allows a stop.
I Love You – Bo Hughley
Where Greene faltered Hughley stepped up. The emotions showed after the game, too.
I Love You Not – Conservative Play calling with a Lead
Georgia goes up three points. Granted we were leaking yards in defense like a sieve, but suddenly we go back to runs into the middle and predictable play calling. Is it Kirby? is it Bobo? Who knows, but if the offense is humming, step on the throat and keep making them pay.
I Love You – Death Marches and Everyone Runs the Ball
With momentum at their backs, Georgia opened the second half on a 14 play, 13 run, nearly 8 minute 75 yard scoring drive ending with a McCray touchdown. Maybe that was the reason behind conservative play calling, as Manball made a second half appearance again. Would’ve loved to see the next drive open with another deep ball to a receiver.
I’ll also mention here I’m loving Frazier’s seeming second level he’s hit, running fast and violent to set up the overtime score. Jesus, it’s like he sees the running back room by committee (eight Bulldogs registered a carry on Saturday) approach to man ball and wants to let everyone know he’s RB1.
I Love You Not – Noah Thomas
This is less about Thomas and more about why did we even get the guy in the first place if we’re not going to use him. It was my understanding that he was going to the long, rangy threat for short field situations who could go up and get it. Where is he?
I Love You – Gunner Stockton
The guy has four starts under his belt and already has two memorable wins against Texas and now Tennessee. I’ve seen Beck rattled, Fromm rattled, and even Bennett a time or two, but to be in Kneeland with what was reported a 143 decibel level distracted or in the background, I never got the sense he ever gave a shit and seems dialed in throughout.
4th and 7 and he was calm as a Hindu cow. And clutch.
I Love You – Kirby Smart
Heupel is going to catch hell for a long long while until he can see Georgia again (SECCG?) for mismanaging the game in the final seconds of regulation. Kirby, on the other hand, put on a clinic. From gutsy fourth down conversions to great clock management, it’s easy to see Kirby is truly the best in the business.
I Love You Not – Getting Bailed Out by Kickers
Trust when I say I’m happy the kid missed the field goal. But if that doesn’t happen and, likewise, doesn’t happen with Ohio State a couple years back, and the resume looks different. The defense seemed to be the biggest problem on the day, and not the offense, and it’s a troubling trend to see our DBs getting burned like they are. What’s more troubling is that Connor’s best with a Davis and Carter on the DL, and we just don’t have those guys there. We’ve got two weeks to get that figured out, or Ryan Williams is going to be dancing and spinning in Sanford Stadium.
Later this afternoon, the Dawgs take on Tennessee on the banks of the river in what is likely the last annual game the 2 programs will play. We would like to extend a streak of dominance to 9 games while the other side would like to throw the goal posts into that river (similar to toilet paper, that just seems dumb, but then again, who are we talking about).
Let’s get to the preview.
When Georgia has the ball
The question for today is how will Gunner Stockton handle his first true road start. Can he conjure up a game like David Greene did in a similar situation in 2001? Stockton admits he didn’t have a lot of confidence last week (I don’t understand that at all against a team of guys who all who likely be walk-ons at best). While I don’t believe Stockton has to win the game, he can’t be the reason the Dawgs lose.
Can he play within the offense and pass for 250 yards and earn another 40-50 on the ground without making the backbreaking turnover? If so, I think there will be a lot of people in red & black who are happy.
By the way, it looks like Earnest Greene will play, and it’s possible Juan Gaston could be available.
When Tennessee has the ball
Tennessee is going to try to test a Georgia secondary that hasn’t really been tested through 2 games. In particular, I’m guessing they are going to test whoever plays opposite Daylen Everette and the star (Aguero or others). The real key to stopping the Bobby Hill offense is to stop the run without committing safeties to help with the run game. Also, do t be surprised if we see more designed QB run than we have seen from Tennessee recently.
Tackling in space … do it well, Dawgs.
What will happen
I don’t think this game is going to go like others have in Knoxville where the orange and white fans vacate the erector set in the 3rd quarter, and the Dawgs fans move into those seats to give the Dawgs extra support. This game is going into the 4th with the game in doubt.
Defense travels … Dawgs get it done with complementary football.
Final score: Georgia 31, Tennessee 24
Well they’re doing it.
Today’s fodder…so this going to be same song, ninth dance? Has Kirby been playing possum? Or are we in for it this weekend?
Have at it in the comments, scamps, and let’s keep the vitriol stored up for Tennessee.
Shot:
Chaser:
I’m not sure how any of them honestly afford it. $350 is more than the lot rental and HOA dues at the Greater Maryville Mobile Cottages Association, so I don’t know how Junior and LuLu can possibly swing the cost.
That’s a lot of orange all in one post, so let this serve as a reminder that we’re playing an orange team this weekend, and it’s time to start to direct our anger at the appropriate pack of assholes to the north.
Go ‘Dawgs.
2016 aside, it’s safe to say that Kirby has owned the Vols as the Dawgs head coach. I wonder why he has such an appetite for sticking it to the Hillbillies?
I was at that one as a junior at UGA, and that damned kick landed right on us from where we were sitting, among a sea of orange. Horrible feeling, horrible end to a game that I’ve rehashed here too many times to count. Robert Edwards, what could’ve been…Edwards was averaging ten yards per carry before he went down with a foot injury. A Kirby Smart interception late gave us a chance to win until Brice Hunter dropped a Mike Bobo pass late, Langley missed a long attempt, and the rest is history.
Several of you posted already, but the mission this weekend is clear – (1) win and (2) no Kneeland turf-related injuries, please.
Oh, and hitting nine in a row, a series-longest win streak, would be lovely as well. Send those jagoffs home crying, one more time, from their own house.
For likely the last time, Georgia and Tennessee meet in Ob-Knoxville on Saturday as yearly SEC rivals. Before 1992, there really was no rivalry as the 2 programs only met when the planets aligned to the point where you wouldn’t be called dumb to think they weren’t in the same conference for football. That quickly changed as Tennessee dominated the 1990s, but since 2001, the Dawgs have owned the series. Let’s get to the first look.
Series record
Georgia leads 29-23-2 and owns an 8-game winning streak in the rivalry.
Last meeting
Georgia spotted Tennessee a 10-0 lead before roaring back to win 31-17 as Carson Beck played one of his best games at Georgia and the defense took over the game. The defense rang up 5 sacks of Nico and completely controlled the Vowels’ passing game in a result that wasn’t as close as the score indicated.
Gambling degenerate facts
After opening as a 6.5 point favorite, the Dawgs still are a 3.5 point favorite with a 49.5 point total. Georgia is a -290 favorite on the money line.
Interesting statistic: 13 (average points scored by Tennessee during this winning streak)
Can the Dawgs defense which has not been tested to date hold Tennessee to 13? Probably not. Can the defense keep the Vols at 20 or less? If they play well and get any help with the offense possessing the ball, I see that as a reasonable goal. That’s definitely a path to victory.
Early outlook
This game comes down to the lines of scrimmage. If the Georgia offensive line plays like they did this past Saturday, it’s going to be difficult to pull out a win. If the Georgia defensive front 7 plays as they have the last 2 weeks, they are going to be tough to beat without help from the Georgia offense.
Right now, nothing would surprise me other than a Tennessee blowout win, and that’s because Tennessee hasn’t handled the Georgia front consistently since 2017. The Dawgs have won handily the last 2 years without a dominant player in the front 7.
Right now, I’m leaning to the good guys to get it done again. Kirby needs to show video of the Kneeland crowd throwing the goal post into the water after Alabama game 3 years ago.
You don’t want that on Saturday.
Couldn’t agree more with the sentiments around the broadcast team from the Austin Peay game. I wished the Skycast version that I watched for the Clemson/LSU game had been available, but I watched the AP game on mute anyway. With a bunch of girls in the house I have little choice in the matter, so it wa what it was.
Anyway, your prayers (or nightmares) have been answered:
I’m happier because I believe I can watch it from the Skycast View, at least. If you enjoy the noise, you’ll have Rece Chris, Holly, and Kirk to prattle about during the Hillbillies tilt. Yay.
Take a gander at this.
Was he drunk? Not paying attention to results on the field? Allow Connelly to explain:
Gauging overall performance is easy enough. You could simply look at win percentage, and it would tell you quite a bit. From 2015 to 2024, the active coaches with the best FBS win percentages (minimum 30 games) were Day (.870), Lanning (.854), Swinney (.850) and Smart (.847). All ranked high in the May rankings. I tend to want to get fancy and use my SP+ ratings whenever possible, and they tell a similar tale. Looking at average SP+ ratings for the past decade, the top active coaches are Day (30.4), Smart (27.0), Lanning (22.3), Swinney (21.9), Franklin (20.3) and Freeman (19.0). They’re all in the May top 10 too.
Again, though, all of those coaches are employed by college football royalty. (Granted, Swinney gets bonus points for helping Clemson turn into college football royalty, but still.) Isn’t it more impressive to win 11 regular-season games at Indiana, as Curt Cignetti did in 2024, than to go 10-4 like Swinney did? Isn’t it probably harder to finish 12th in SP+ at SMU, as Rhett Lashlee did in 2024, than to finish fifth like Franklin did?
I’ve begun to incorporate teams’ performance against long-term averages into my preseason SP+ projections, and it seems we could use a very similar concept to evaluate coach performances. For each year someone is a head coach, we could compare his team’s SP+ rating for that season to the school’s average from the 20 previous years. (If the school is newer to FBS and doesn’t have a 20-year average, we can use whatever average exists to date. And for a program’s first FBS season, we can simply compare the team’s SP+ rating to the overall average for first-year programs.)
By this method, the 10 best single-season coaching performances of the past 20 years include Art Briles at Baylor in 2013-14, Jim Harbaugh at Stanford in 2010, Mark Mangino at Kansas in 2007, Bobby Petrino at Louisville in 2006, Greg Schiano at Rutgers in 2006 and Jamey Chadwell at Coastal Carolina in 2020 — legendary seasons of overachievement — plus perhaps lesser-remembered performances such as Gary Andersen at Utah State in 2012, Matt Wells at Utah State in 2018 and Brian Kelly at Cincinnati in 2007.
As far as single-season overachievement goes, that’s a pretty good list. And if we look at a longer-term sample — coaches who have led FBS programs for at least nine of the past 20 years — here are the 15 best performance versus baseline averages.
So Heupel is doing more with less, is what I’m reading here. Still, I have to posit the question: would Georgia have won two national championships with Bobby Hill as the head coach instead of Smart?
Curious for your thoughts.
Well, you know the rest. It’s kind of becoming a series of posts lately.
My favorite comment in the thread:
It sounds like a challenge and a desperate plea for mercy in the same breath. Isn’t that what Auburn football is all about, anyway?