Tag Archives: #themdawgsishell

Tuesday Refugee Roundtable: Offseason Sporting

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For today’s Roundtable, here’s something we can chat about…what’s your favorite sporting obsession when college football isn’t being played?

I’ll start:

I do watch some college stuff in between, to be sure, and I used to watch baseball until I couldn’t see the Braves anymore, but I do enjoy tuning in to Premier League Football. While I initially thought watching this was like watching paint dry, it wasn’t until I actually started to play soccer in college that I began to realize what a challenging and unique sport the game really is. Something, too, about an entire community coming together, chanting in unison, and, more importantly, no commercials for 45 consecutive minutes…and I eventually got hooked, slowly but surely.

How’s about you…do you have a second passion outside of college football? What is it and why?

Polling the Electorate

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So, in my half humorous attempt to say we were going to be a better competitor to Glory, Glory, it looks like I might have set off some interest in possible merchandising. I spoke with Otis and we’re in the exploratory phase of teasing out some early ideas for “merch” as the current cool kids call it.

Based on some of the feedback from the original designs, I made a couple of edits and thought I’d run them out here:

I included “Behave You Scamps” based on a reader suggestion, and I kind of like it. Not sure I’m on the Latin for “In the Senator We Trust”. I could replace that with GTP Refugees or the full Get the Picture Refugees, or something else. I’m open to design options.

Also heard a lot about a pocketed t-shirt or something?

The spacing and all is a little bold, but that’s the general picture. Or was it a pocketed polo?

Anyway, I’m a hoodie guy, so here’s another idea.

I think I’d prefer the GTP REFUGEES be all caps and black…

ChatGPT is pretty neat. I’ll keep taking some requests and generating ideas for y’all to discuss on here this week. It don’t cost nothin’ to generate these and there’s not a hell of a lot to talk about the sports world right now outside the Olympics. Stay tuned.

Maybe we could also do some of those fancy tshirts like you used to buy at the bookstore that include a vibrantly colored picture or cartoon…like this:

Stay Tuned.

DGD Doing DGD Things

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Gunner Stockton is still, officially, a Dawg.

Per the ON3 Report, it sounds like Gunner took less money so the program could acquire the proper talent to compete for a National Championship.

“Gunner did agree to a deal with UGA for the 2026 season,” his rep, Faryn Healy of ESM, told On3. “He did not feel an announcement was necessary as he is a player who would never consider transferring. He could have earned two to three times more by entering the portal, but Gunner bleeds red and black.

He wanted UGA to have the budget to retain and acquire the talent for the roster needed to compete for another championship. Gunner doesn’t play football at UGA for money. Leading that team is his lifelong dream.”

I’ll take it. Say what you will about mechanics and spotting the man downfield, but I’d imagine Jared Curtis wouldn’t have entertained this altruistic approach to NIL negotiations had he finally inked with the Bulldogs.

Your Wayback Machine Gameday Post

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Folks, I’m thirsting for college football. The Super Bowl is tomorrow. I could care less. So let me reintroduce a feature we did a couple years ago in which I tease out a Gameday Post with a descriptor and you take a guess at what game I’m referring to. I try to drop a few key hints for you to arrive at the mystery game, but I’m no good at riddles, so it might be too apparent and obvious. Plus I don’t work for the Hargrett Library, so it won’t be too archaic and obscure, so many of you should figure it out.

Ready to enter the Wayback Machine? Let’s go.

Say what you will about the tenets of the no-huddle spread offense, Mr. Peabody, but at least it’s an ethos.

Finally, it’s here. After a month of waiting for it to come, we finally get one last taste of Georgia football to close out the year. The opponent is steeped in tradition, a hard-nosed, blue-collar football team. A Blue Blood of college football. Coming off a tie with their arch rival in one of the biggest rivalries in college football, they’ll be hungry to finish the year on a good note.

Our Junkyard Dawgs are finally getting hot in the fourth year of our coach’s tenure, and we’re ranked in the Top 10 for the first time in a good long while. Is this where we turn the tide and return to Glory? Featuring a strong-armed freshman sophomore quarterback and a Heisman finalist running back, the Dawgs look to take a bite out of a team with a stubborn and spunky option senior quarterback and a running back that’s projected to go in the first round.

We’re 9-2 and only have two losses to the tune of five combined points. Our 3-4 defense is primed to put a cog in the Blue Blood’s offensive scheme, but we’ll need to be gritty, tough, and resilient to beat this team in the final game of the year.

It’s a showdown of running backs. An All Big-Ten running back versus an All-SEC running back and Heisman finalist. For the first time ever for the contest, the Big Ten and SEC will face off in this final game of the season. Will the no-huddle spread attack keep the Blue Bloods off the field, or are we in for a three yards and a cloud of dust kind of outcome?

The weather is here, wish you were beautiful, as the Floridians like to say to the tune of Jimmy Buffett.

Take your guess in the comments.

Under Pressure

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Sad.

Maybe it’s a change in offensive philosophy that we’re facing, as Georgia set the precedent of the team to beat in college football.

Or maybe we’re regressing to the norm.

Thoughts?

Defense Wins Championships

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One thing I noticed, while watching the CFP this year, is that for a team that everyone marveled over in Indiana, I couldn’t help but notice that they didn’t do anything “dazzling” on offense. But to be honest, maybe it’s because I never really watched them during the regular season, but I was expecting big plays, bombs, etc. Nah, we didn’t get that.

Instead, we got stout defense and efficient offense. Nothing fancy, but it works.

But was that Indiana alone? In all honesty, I don’t remember a lot of explosives for our guys this year, maybe only when we played someone else, like Tennessee. Also, the data guys keep insisting that Georgia is in the top 10 in offensive play efficiency but dang if it just doesn’t feel that way. Turns out, that not just a Bobo thing.

A few things at play – the 2023 clock change where the clock continues to churn after a first down, as well as transfer portal movement, could be contributors to the problem. A deeper dive into the post lead me to CFB Graphs by Parker Fleming, who did a data analysis on what’s been happening to the explosives as of late.

After reading through and processing his visualizations, he landed on a simple premise: the defenses have gotten better. Specifically, the biggest shot in the arm that prevented explosives was better first and ten defensive play. Seems like everything after that dictates whether more explosives can occur, so your first and ten situation is important…but defenses have that sniffed out.

Is this because of “see ball, get ball” reactivity of beefing up defenses through the portal while the new-look offense on the other side is still largely figuring out the playbook? Offenses seemed to be trending towards passing more on first and ten, as a result of 1st and ten yardage situations yielding little forward traction by running the ball first.

While this is all very Moneyball-ish, it could explain some of the decision making that makes us scratch our heads on Saturdays. Fleming ends on this note:

College football has largely trended towards the offenses in the 21st century, but it appears the pendulum is swinging back towards the defenses, at least in terms of explosive plays. Defenses have caught up. The big play isn’t dead, but it is much tougher to come by, and as a result, offenses need to push innovation, adjust their personnel preferences, and prioritize consistent success to provide more opportunities for the offense to get that big play.

On one hand, we’re in good hands with Kirby since defense is his forte…but that part of about offensive innovation might worry some readers when it comes to Mike Bobo. But if Georgia is one of the most efficient offenses in the country, then it would seem we’re meeting the call for consistent success in the latter part of that statement.

Oh, and personnel preferences…meaning, like, Cash Jones on 3rd down? That’s another conversation for another day.

Today, In Stupid Off-Season Hot Takes

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Only the Irish.

You probably asked yourself the same question…who is Jadarian Price?

Then the next immediate and more important question…who cares?

Spelling Contest

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The Dawgs have picked up the #1 running back in the 2027 recruiting class. Georgia also has a commitment from the #1 QB in the Class of 2028 in Jayden Wade.

He’s officially the highest rated RB to commit to Georgia, ever. Spell is a big kid, to say the least, and he’s also fast.

So the question is this…what’s the over/under on the number of months he’ll remain a Georgia commit before someone else offers him more for his services?

If we can actually land him come winter 2026, I’ll consider that impressive. Otherwise, consider me a little bit burned as of late in getting too hyped up about a big recruiting pickup when we’ve seen this show before.

Fingers crossed.

Yearly Reminder, The CFBHOF is a Farce

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All the talk this week has been about Belichick getting the shaft on his first HOF ballot. Apparently, Deflategate and other cheating scandals still haunt the someday HOF coach, but let’s not forget in all the ballyhooing that there’s a greater injustice out there that remains unresolved.

Granted, Leach passed away, but the point remains. Erk’s one of the greatest.