"Catching" King

Great break down by Tavarres King on his Outback Bowl performance. As Tyler mentioned, can easily see King climb into Terrance Edwards' territory this season. Would love to see #12 slice and dice through the Mizzou secondary in a couple weeks.

Seven days!

Take it away Larry...

"Glory, Glory to ole Georgia...as we prepare for another meeting between the hedges, let all the Bulldog faithful rally behind the men who now wear the RED and BLACK with two words...two simple words that express the sentiments of the entire Bulldog Nation...GO DAWGS!!!"

Come back baby, rock n roll never forgets

Turns out that once this year wasn't enough. I have a need to stand just outside of reaching distance of Cooley's handle of Maker's again.

I've got one last weekend before college football starts and I'm one belt loop from making Sunday night's news. For you non-Truckers, this means I'm Athens bound a week early to soak in another Rock Show at the Georgia Theater. If there's anything that can get me just as excited about heading east on 316, it's this.

All that to say the posting will be somewhat limited here until Monday. I've got some more YouTube magic in the queue and a wrap up post on the Olympics and Athens GA I forgot to hit publish on. Plus I hope to have the first installment of the sequel to Around the Tailgate on Sunday. 

But in between here and there...take me piece by piece...

I swear, that's like my own acclamation. So if you're around Lumpkin St. tonight let's raise a glass to the night's that gone too far.

The Lakatos Way

Perhaps it's just the stark contrast to his predecessor as the secondary coach, but Scott Lakatos' development of his players continues to be the brightest spot from the defensive overhaul from a couple years ago. Well, maybe that's a tie considering how Coach Jancek put our linebackers into the days just after the Earth cooled. But my point is that our defensive backs have made a complete turnaround..

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...as in turning around and actually playing the ball. As in having the confidence and ability to jam receivers, recover into position to make a play and be more than warm bodies roaming aimlessly downfield.

That's why this piece on Devin Bowman strikes a chord with me.

Listed behind Commings and Mitchell on the depth chart, Bowman readily appreciates the experience he is getting in learning from those two. Commings has had 103 tackles, 15 pass deflections and five interceptions in 42 career games with the Bulldogs, while Mitchell was rated by Rivals.com as the No. 1 cornerback prospect in the 2011 signing class.

Lakatos insists that determining playing time for Bowman is still a ways off simply because the Bulldogs remain in the early stages of implementing game plans for Buffalo on Sept. 1 and the trip to Missouri the following week.

"He's a guy who I think is going to have some sort of role," Lakatos said. "We're still developing him, but he's making progress that we're happy with."

A few years ago I have little doubt that the defensive back out of Ridgeland Highschool would be playing. If he wasn't needed as a starter he at least be thrown out there to cover a slot. But Lakatos has raised the bar. He's recruiting bigger, more physical guys. When Bowman was signed there wasn't much doubt about his speed, but his backpedal and physicality at the line of scrimmage needed development. And despite finishing the "package installation for the third time" Bowman's not quite ready to crack the cornerback rotation in front of guys like Swann, Smith and Mitchell. 

If there's someone that can get Devin Bowman ready, I think it's Coach Lakatos.

Losing control of Jules

You've all seen the pictures from practice yesterday. Some are worried about snakes. Some just lost the control to give a good quote. But here, you get the real story. Top notch, premium insider info. Cuz Coach Richt has lost control of Jules.

Word is Grantham showed SLJ a picture of the Vandy douche Jimmy Franklin, and Jackson promptly gave Grantham his marching orders.

NSFW

Big John, how much you've grown!

This interview ($) with John Jenkins really dives deep into the JUCO ranks that both Jenkins emerged from and Coach Richt has tried so hard to avoid. Perhaps this piece sums up both sides:

How hard was it to make that transition?  Last year, I had a tough camp and passed out or whatever, but I was still trying to fight even though everybody was laughing and Coach [Rodney] Garner was on me, but that still didn’t stop me from fighting. There were times where I was like, ‘This is not for me,’ but deep down in my heart, I knew it was for me. I just had to find a way to overcome it. [Mark] Beard is the same way. He’s working hard, trying to adjust to the speed of the game, but he’s hungry. He’s my roommate and I know he’s hungry. 

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Final scrimmage a real barn burner!

Georgia won its final scrimmage, albeit against the scout team. Given (literally) a 35-0 halftime lead, the scout team wasted it and lost 49-48 in OT. Only real news though was that Richt expects Malcome to start against Buffalo. Proving one if two things: 1) these stats we've been given (where Gurley has clearly been the star) are completely worthless, and/or 2) the head coach is still a sucker for seniority.

Scrimmage stats:  

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Passing: Aaron Murray 20-25 253 yards 2 TD, Christian LeMay 3-5 42, Hutson Mason 2-4 24 TD 

Rushing: Todd Gurley 6-54 TD, Ken Malcome 6-50, Keith Marshall 3-17, Richard Samuel 3-10.      

Receiving: Marlon Brown 7-98, Rantavious Wooten 3-37, Arthur Lynch 2-36, Chris Conley 3-29, Michael Bennett 2-26 TD, Tavarres King 2-24, Rhett McGowan 3-23 TD, Keith Marshall 1-23 TD, Ken Malcome 1-18, Merritt Hall 1-5.

Tackles: Mike Gilliard 4, Malcolm Mitchell 3, John Jenkins 3, Jarvis Jones 3, Amarlo Herrera 3, Connor Norman 3, Jordan Jenkins 2, Cornelius Washington 2, Sheldon Dawson 1, Garrison Smith 1, Shawn Williams 1, Damian Swann 1, Abry Jones 1, Christian Robinson 1, Ramik Wilson 1.

Sack: John Jenkins.

Tackles for loss: John Jenkins,Jarvis Jones,JordanJenkins, Cornelius Washington, Garrison Smith.

Pass break-ups: Damian Swann 2, Washington, Branden Smith, Williams.

Int: Herrera 23-yard return for touchdown.

FG: 57-yarder missed. Richt didn’t say but I am assuming it was Marshall Morgan with the attempt.

Notable: Keith Marshall had impressive moves on the way to his touchdown catch from Murray. No stats for Ogletree or Rambo. Read into that, if you dare. Richt obviously testing the kid Marshall's leg some. Other than that the QB lines stand out to me the most. They clearly rebounded after being called out by Richt last week. Over 300 yards, 3 TDs and no interceptions.

Thursday Hilarity - Dogs in Heaven

This was too damn funny to wait for the next humpday. I'd hate to be a confused dog that lived on this street, where two churches that face each other had a very spiritual debate. 

 

 

 

h/t Mac

Don't Presbyterians read Lewis Grizzard too? Everyone knows Catfish is in Heaven.

The Parker Welch-Malcolm Mitchell connection

Ching and Nabulsi just started a new video series called "Making the Play". And they begin with none other than Malcolm Mitchell, highlighting his breakout game against Tennessee.

Click Here for the video.

For those of you still upset with Mitchell's partial move to secondary, you either just puffed your chest out a bit or sighed deeply. Maybe both. I just hope Parker Welch comes up with a new signal. Because you know Mama Dooley has already sent this link to baby boy.

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Humpday Hilarity - Baby got back!

YouTube can be such a rabbithole sometimes. Please don't ask how I landed on this video. 1) I probably couldn't remember, and 2) we may not want to know.

Regardless, if you're a fan of movies in general you'll enjoy some of the big screen's best characters all coming together to recreate this Sir Mix-A-Lot classic.

via dondrapersayswhat

Erk, Confucius and Coach Mrvos

From his calendar Erk Russell imparts some of Samito Mrvoto's wisdom, as filtered through what appears to be a fortune cookie.

RIP Coach Mrvos.

Murray's big stand

Bobo has mentioned that Aaron Murray is completing passes at an impressive rate this summer. As a result of that efficiency, the offensive coordinator increased his expectations for the RS Junior quarterback from an expected 62% completion percentage in 2012 to 65%. For comparisons sake, that's almost six points higher than last season.

When we compared Murray to David Greene back in May we noted that the protection and the rushing totals have a large effect on the quarterback's stats. This undoubtedly has been the case ever since Steve Spurrier invented the forward pass in Gainesville in the early 1990s.

In all seriousness, the "how talented is Murray" debate bounces between both ridiculous and understandable. I'm willing to bet that Murray is at the front of the line in terms of wanting more yards, big time wins and less turnovers. When push comes to shove and when the game is on the line, big time quarterbacks make big time decisions. Sometimes that's a check down for the tight end on a seam route. And other times its a ball thrown away (into the sideline's reserves) and living to punt the ball.

Recently, Seth Emerson broke down Murray's game performances against ranked opponents. You can see the article here and the statistical summary here. It all bears the point that Murray is but one player and it's the team that wins or loses. However, the quarterback is the one player that has the greatest opportunity to directly affect the outcome. Which is presumably why Bobo raised the bar. 


To round out the whole argument, if Murray is to reach that level of efficiency then we should see:

• protection. And a top 5 SEC running game.
• better footwork. Murray can appear quite polished and in good rhythm early in a play's development. But too often, when time is needed, he either bogs down in his reads or has trouble deciding if he should run. Better footwork will deliver the ball more effectively while allowing for fewer negative plays.
• better decisions under pressure. His reads will be easier and the decisions to chunk the ball away will exceed those that end in costly turnovers.
• more designed runs. One way to slow down those linebackers is to give them more to think about after the ball is snapped. With greater depth at QB than in the previous two years we shouldn't be afraid to let Murray loose with his legs more often.
• a top 5 SEC running game. And protection.

Perhaps Corbindawg summarizes it best in saying that like the coach, a quarterback enjoys too much of the accolades in victory while shouldering too much of the blame in defeat. Here's hoping plenty of accolades are being thrown Aaron Murray's way this season.

Looking more closely at #6

So Georgia will start its 2012 campaign ranked sixth in both polls. The teams ahead of us are LSU, Bama, USC, Oklahoma, and Oregon. Teams rounding out the top ten behind us are FSU, Michigan, South Carolina, and Arkansas. So at the quick glance, we're only guaranteed to play one top ten team. Which makes the game in ColaEast even bigger.

Why are we ranked so high? Could be any one or a combination of many factors, most notably:

1. Returning starters. From Murray under center to a stacked defense that decided together to come back another season, Georgia is loaded with experience.
2. Schedule. No Bama, LSU or Arkansas. Then again, Steve Spurrier probably already made you aware of that.

More importantly, how do we hold onto the upper echelon status? That has to start with Murray. I'll focus in a little deeper later this week, but if Murray has gained valuable experience from the Manning camp and learned from his past mistakes then we should see a lot less of the incredibly awful bad decisions in the heat of the moment. Basically, as nice as the 35 TDs were last season, I'd love to see more of him chucking it into the stands.

Also, quality depth (especially along the offensive front) has to be built. And quickly. A depleted roster nearing FCS levels isn't going to hurt until there's a line for the training table.

Beyond that I would add avoid having to "love" players into partial and full game suspensions, kicking teams in the chin when you have them down and a couple (near or in the vicinity of) 1000 yard rushers. Those things give us more than a fighting chance.

To finish this post off, should a gun be held to my head and I were forced to cast a vote in August instead of waiting until October when it is a more reasonable practice, I would put us closer to the Arkansas, West VA, Wisconsin grouping. So somewhere south of 9th and north of 13th. Hopefully I'll feel even better once it's time to vote in the Mumme Poll.

Looking more closely at the rankings

Funny how most college football fans agree that any rankings should wait and be released at least a few games into the season. Yet I guess it's nice to have something to pore over and analyze other than depth charts and practice reports.

So...I was looking over the rankings and evaluating them through Pollspeak.com yesterday. Here's how Georgia came to be #6:

Summary for Georgia
Week 1 (Preseason): Aug. 18, 2012
Last updated: Aug. 18, 2012 -- 11:31 AM

Best Ranking	3
Worst Ranking	13
Most Common Ranking (16 times)	6, 7
Average	7.55

You can see which writers voted Georgia where by clicking here. Most of them had us at either 6 or 7, aka the mode. Another thing you can do through the site is see how each voter does against the field, ie. which rankings were "extreme" or close to it compared to their peers'. If you think that evaluation holds its weight well, then Chris Fowler is a pretty damn good pollster.

The most interesting thing to me about the AP preseason rankings is LSU's Honey Badger Factor. Along with most writers I think LSU is the best team in the country, right now. If I had a vote I wouldn't consider putting them any lower than #3. Yet Les Miles' squad had some outlier votes at 8 and 10. So I wonder how much the Mathieu dismissal affected things. Personally, the dismissal only stands to help the Tigers defensively. Mathieu was at best an average defender and often undersized. Yet his impact as a returner is unmistakable. And he was a Heisman finalist.

Anyway. The rankings are here, like em or not. Might as well have some fun with them.

Flashback - 1982 Clemson

I've already established that Coach Magill is the greatest Dawg. If you disagree with that, please excuse yourself forthwith. This is a great highlight video for these reasons:

1. Magill opens it up and sets the frame like none other.
2. Munson waxes poetic like none other.
3. Clempson fails, like none other.

Good news for Akeem Dent

If you follow the Falcons at all you know that former Dawg Akeem Dent is the prospective starting middle linebacker for Atlanta. He was injured in the first preseason game and has been progressing through the NFL's concussion protocol. Yesterday he returned to the non-contact portion of practice.

It’s still in precautionary stages, but Akeem Dent took a big step toward returning to the lineup at middle linebacker for the Falcons on Saturday.

Head coach Mike Smith said Dent took part in the non-contact aspects of Saturday’s practice and he would get tested before practice begins Sunday to determine his status. Dent was injured in the first preseason game while covering a punt. He spent the last week going through the NFL’s concussion protocol.

“We have to get him cleared finally tonight, so he will be cleared tonight and be back to full participation tomorrow in practice,” Smith said.

Dent spent the week recovering from his concussion symptoms, but was on the field watching practice every day. He also was in meetings as the defense continues to learn the ins and outs of coordinator Mike Nolan’s scheme. The second-year linebacker didn’t feel like he missed much other than Thursday’s game action because so much of the defense was installed during OTAs and minicamp.