The all-time ledger between Andy Landers’ Lady Dogs program and Georgia Tech is a lopsided 30-4 in favor of Georgia. Recent history hasn’t been nearly as one-sided. Since Georgia won the first 24 contests, the Lady Dogs have only enjoyed a 5-4 edge in the series entering Sunday’s annual meeting. In fact, the Lady Dogs had to win on Sunday for its senior class to avoid the ignominy of being the first at Georgia to finish with a losing record against their rival.

Georgia got the win. The 74-68 triumph moved the Lady Dogs to 7-1 on the year and preserved an umblemished home record in the series with Tech.

The game was every bit as close as you’d expect from two teams that have had a lot in common with each other lately. Tech has joined Georgia as a regular participant in the NCAA Tournament, and the Jackets have been just outside the upper tier of the ACC for several seasons. With a team featuring five seniors, you’d expect them to give Georgia a fight, and they did. A year after a poor showing in Atlanta, Georgia was up to the challenge this year.

Forward Jasmine Hassell led the way for Georgia with a career-high 24 points. Hassell was engaged in battle for most of the game with Tech’s
imposing 6’5″ center Sasha Goodlett. The Lady Dogs had good success double-teaming Goodlett in the high post, but the Tech senior still finished with 19 points. Jasmine James and Meredith Mitchell also scored in double-figures for Georgia, and James notched a game-high five steals.

Both teams built small first half advantages, and a little Georgia run at the end of the first half tied things at 33 going into halftime. The Lady Dogs built another small lead early in the second half and kept Tech at arm’s length before another spurt with about 7 minutes to go punctuated by a Khaalidah Miller three-pointer opened up a 12-point Georgia advantage. Some missed foul shots and timely outside shooting from the visitors got Tech back to within three points inside of a minute left, but Georgia rediscovered their free throw shooting and iced the game from the line.

If there was one thing that put Georgia over the top, it was Georgia’s ability to create more turnovers than they committed. The Jackets rely on full-court pressure and tight on-ball defense to create transition opportunites on offense. Georgia occasionally struggled with this pressure, especially when Anne Marie Armstrong had to sit during the first half with foul trouble. But much more often than not the Lady Dogs were able to work it up the court and get into their halfcourt offense. Thanks in large part to the successful traps of Goodlett, the Lady Dogs forced 20 Tech turnovers and created their own opportunities to run.

The remainder of Georgia’s nonconference slate is highlighted by a Las Vegas holiday tournament in a couple of weeks which includes a game against Gonzaga. The Zags were one of the surprises of last season’s NCAA Tournament and have another quality team this year. If they can get past that game, the Lady Dogs stand a good chance of entering conference play on January 1st with a 12-1 record.

We can dismiss any notion that LSU will be overlooking the game with their place in the BCS Championship a virtual lock. Despite the opinion that this game is now somehow without meaning, playing for an SEC title means quite a bit to anyone who puts on a uniform. Georgia’s absence from this game since 2005 has been noted, but LSU has experienced a lesser drought of their own. Few on the team were around in 2007, and everyone else has watched either Alabama or Auburn represent the West for the past three seasons. They’re about as likely to make light of their opportunity to be champions of the conference as Georgia was to overlook Tech last week.

In one of the more puzzling statements after the loss to Boise, the Dawgs claimed to have been rattled by the crowd noise in what was more or less a home game. Just so we’re all clear on this: LSU will have more fans on Saturday than Boise had. LSU fans are known for being a little loud. Hopefully the Dawgs will be more prepared this time.

We know both teams have a good defense. With that in mind, individual matchups are more interesting. Is Georgia well-seasoned enough up front to deal with LSU’s tailback rotation and pounding running game? Can they keep Jordan Jefferson’s mobility from being a factor? Rueben Randle is a beast, but only two LSU receivers have over 20 catches on the year. Can Georgia afford to cheat a little on Randle and Beckham?

When LSU gets into its power running game mode, they like to do it from one-back ace formations with two TE or from two-back sets. Against Arkansas it was noted that the Tigers often split out a third receiver instead of using that second tight end or blocking back. Because Arkansas wasn’t especially strong up front, LSU could get away with spreading the field without betraying their running game. The spread field opened up additional opportunities with the passing game and the occasional option play.

Georgia is certainly much stronger up front than Arkansas, so LSU will be faced with a few choices. The running game is still their bread and butter, so we could expect to see more power formations in order to establish the run against a good defensive front. At the same time, they’d forego the spread formation that made them more versatile and explosive against Arkansas. All of that depends on Georgia’s front playing as expected. If LSU can have early success running the ball, they’ll be able to spread out and put a lot of pressure on Georgia’s back seven or eight in pass coverage.

All sorts of things come to mind when Georgia has the ball. Can the Georgia offensive line that’s been so good in pass protection this month deal with a pure speed rusher like Mingo? Will the tight end be less of an option in the passing game if he’s needed to shore up the edge? Murray’s been much more efficient lately, but accuracy has never been his calling card. Can he get away with that against such a good secondary? Does that secondary lead Georgia to lean more on shorter passes, and can guys like Figgins or Charles be productive?

Can any tailback be counted on enough to develop a rushing strategy for this game? Will LSU’s Eric Reid be back? It looks that way. He’ll give them a more physical defensive backfield and make it tougher to run.

Will Georgia try their hurry-up? It was a train wreck in the season opener, but they’ve used it with more success during the year. It’s a reach to compare Georgia’s higher-tempo offense with Oregon, but the Ducks were able to put up yards on LSU. Just not points.

Turnovers and big special teams plays might seem like random events, but LSU has relied so consistently on them this year that they’re just about as reliable as 100 yards from a good tailback. We’ve seen everything from the fake punt against Florida to the kickoff return at West Virginia to a pivotal interception and punt at Alabama to the punt return against Arkansas. LSU can afford to get outgained in traditional yardage because it’s been so good at the margins. You don’t have to drive 80 yards when you’ve flipped field position with an interception or a long punt.

The challenge for Georgia isn’t just winning turnovers or avoiding special teams mistakes, though that matters. It’s doing those things in a way that create, if not points outright, an advantage that leads to points or changes how the opponent operates. That’s what LSU has done so well this year. Like a good defensive basketball team depends on a press to create easier transition chances, LSU effectively uses defense and special teams to score in spurts that bury an opponent.

Georgia has blocked a punt in both of Mark Richt’s SEC Championships. With Georgia retreating into a punt-safe shell after a couple of successful fakes, we’ll probably have to see if the Dawgs can win a title without a blocked kick. The Dawgs do at least look solid in the other areas of special teams. This is what I was just talking about though – it’s not enough to play neutral with few mistakes. Georgia needs those positive and point-producing plays from its defense and special teams to have success against an opponent of this quality.

If you look over the LSU schedule, the one game that gives more reason for hope than any other is the Mississippi State game. I don’t like comparisons using games from months ago – both Georgia and LSU are different and improved teams since then. That game though is the formula that gives Georgia its best chance to win. Play solid defense, don’t give up scores on big plays, make it a game of field goals, and do your best to get to the 4th quarter. Of course every other team has seen that film, and only Alabama was able to duplicate it.

Echoing what Travis had to say about Mark Bradley’s latest, one question pops to mind:

Can we expect a similar column the next time the ACC and SEC basketball tournaments come to Atlanta?

I mean – it’s arguable whether the football SEC Championship game matters in this season’s national title picture. It probably won’t, but there’s an outside chance that the margin might affect the final polls. Whatever. But every few years the city hosts basketball conference championship games where the only bigger thing at stake is whether or not some bubble team can get 2 or 3 wins to sneak into the NCAA Tournament. There is no greater set of moot exhibition games than during conference championship week in March.

Bradley can mock the fact that LSU’s outcome on Saturday probably won’t change much about their place in the BCS or where they’ll end up in January. Yes, that’s the case in this exceptional season. If it’s an example of a flaw in the BCS, it’s also a sign of things to come in a post-BCS world. If you want to see a football conference championship really become a meaningless exhibition, make it so that the favored participant is already assured a place in your postseason football tournament.

This is some pretty damning stuff about the insular culture at Penn State under Joe Paterno. In the context of the past month, it provides an understanding (though certainly not an excuse) of why even the gravest of crimes and behavior would be handled behind closed doors.

Much of the rationale behind the Penn State culture probably doesn’t sound all that foreign to fans of college athletics. Here are a few de-personalized excerpts:

The cops would call me, and I used to put them in bed in my house and run their rear ends off the next day. Nobody knew about it. That’s the way we handled it.

“(The football coach) would rather we NOT inform the public when a football player is found responsible for committing a serious violation of the law and/or our student code despite any moral or legal obligation to do so.”

(The football coach) felt that “it should be his call if someone should practice and play in athletics.” He said (the coach) felt the school had “overreacted” by deciding to allow reporting of off-campus incidents, and that the NCAA had gone “overboard” with new rules on academic-eligibility requirements.

You won’t have to look far to find support for those positions around your favorite team and its fans. Are the local cops overbearing? Would this all be better settled with a few 5 a.m. sessions of running stadiums? Is it time to draw the line on admissions committees and higher entrance standards?

It might look like a stretch to go from internalizing traffic tickets and tattoos to the kinds of things alleged at Penn State. Michael Elkon had an interesting piece a couple of weeks ago pointing out that it might not be that far of a leap. He suggests “that athletic departments at major universities are places where the default response to any wrongdoing is to try to handle it in-house and to avoid reporting it to the appropriate authorities.”

That’s probably true of a lot of organizations, especially those with a cult of personality where those charged with oversight have a stake in that cult. College athletics, argues Elkon, are particularly susceptible to “ignoring reality” because they’re already so adept at rationalizing the hypocrisies of amateurism and academic standards.

To that end, it helps if the decision-making can be decentralized to remove or reduce the temptation to abuse authority. Georgia is as at-risk as anyone for falling victim to this culture; just look at Damon Evans’ reaction to getting pulled over last year. Jan Kemp is no fan favorite, and the fallout from her case took years to overcome. It’s often a point of contention among fans, but many decisions have, by design, been taken out of the coach’s hands at Georgia. We’ve lost NFL-quality players to the admissions committee. Discipline for drug/alcohol-related incidents are mandated by the university and the athletic department.

There’s always a risk for those controls and systems to break down, especially if pressure can be brought from powerful coaches, boosters, or administrators. Often those left to make the decisions are villified, and it’s reasonable to expect that anyone who blew the whistle at Penn State might have been run out of town. We might not like the (relative) transparency and its short-term consequences, but operating that way does do a little to stave off bigger – and in the extreme case of Penn State, tragic – problems.

A South Carolina fan ventured over to a Kentucky board to try to give the Big Blue Nation a little self-serving pep talk. It wasn’t received quite the way he expected.

Some of our favorite Kentucky responses:

If you were in an elevator and went 20 flights up and the doors opened up to Hell……that would be UK Football right now.

Truth be told, I believe most of us would rather see Georgia win the East than Steve Superior.

I would never take pleasure in a UK loss but the fact that losing to UofG would ensure Visor Boy and USC wouldnt win the East would take some sting out of the loss. I absolute abhore Visor Boy. I enjoy anything that takes that smug smirk off of his face.

So many directions we could go after such a complete and enjoyable win Saturday. We’ll let others guide our thoughts…

“We’ll see how Georgia plays when they know they have to win. I have a feeling something good is going to happen to us.”
– Steve Spurrier, following South Carolina’s win over Florida

Spurrier was right and wrong. Yes, his team’s win earlier in the day and their solid 6-2 SEC record meant that Georgia absolutely had to win its final two conference games in order to advance to the SEC Championship. They would get no more help from the Gamecocks. But what Spurrier missed was that Georgia has played knowing it must win ever since that disappointing night in early September. The program and its coach have been in a must-win situation for almost a year now.

“We all knew how important this game was; we hear what everyone says…You can say you’re not thinking about it, but deep down you know what’s at stake.”
– Aaron Murray after the win over Florida

So if Spurrier was trying to apply the screws, he’s late to the party. Pressure is the normal condition for any major program, but the urgency at Georgia has been especially intense since the disappointing 2010 season ended on a stormy day in Memphis. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. The survival instinct that kicked in led the staff to make some difficult but unavoidable changes behind the scenes. As Georgia imposed their will in the second half, I couldn’t help but think about the choices made and the work done in the offseason.

“We’re OK on the run game…”
– Gene Chizik, discussing his defense in his interview heading into halftime

Chizik was pleased with his run defense after the first half, but he lamented Georgia’s success on the downfield passes to the outside. True enough, Georgia struck often in the first half on back shoulder routes to the outside that were almost stop routes. Georgia hit one of these routes at the end of the Florida game, and they served Murray well again. Auburn almost always over-ran the routes even when, as illustrated by the CBS crew, there was another layer of coverage over the top.

Chizik’s confidence in his run defense was short-lived. The Bulldogs were successful running the ball right from their first possession of the second half. As a result, Auburn was limited to four drives in the second half. That’s not a good place to be when you’re down four scores to begin with. Georgia’s success on the ground meant that every Auburn drive had to produce points, and of course not one of them did.

The gold standard for soul-crushing drives remains the 11-minute monster that ended the 2002 Ole Miss game, but this weekend gave us something even better: three drives – all 10 plays or more and averaging nearly six and half minutes each. The Dawgs held the ball for over 21 of the 30 minutes of the second half. It might’ve been more entertaining to put up 50 or 60 points, but the act of watching Georgia run over and over for the entire half was thoroughly satisfying.

“I thought I went deaf for a second there.”
– Bacarri Rambo describing the noise following his interception returned for a touchdown

I was trying to think of a moment when I’ve heard Sanford Stadium louder. It’s tough. We can debate decibels, but it was one of those electrifying moments we’ve only had a couple of times in the past few years. There was no uniform gimmick. There was no coordinated celebration, just a spontaneous moment of enthusiasm after Rambo’s score.

It was a similar scene last year when Justin Houston scooped up a Tech fumble and scored. Houston’s score opened up a 14-point margin on the Yellow Jackets, and Sanford was rocking. But Georgia couldn’t maintain the momentum, and we were soon back in a one-point game. It was a similar scene against South Carolina earlier this year. Every good play was matched with a catastrophic turnover or breakdown that led to points and, ultimately, to the loss.

I won’t declare all that in the past because we’re only a couple of weeks removed from some pretty big momentum-killers against Vandy and Florida. For one night at least Georgia not only took advantage of opportunities to gain momentum; they also responded on those few occasions when momentum might be lost or even shifted back to Auburn. It started early with a strong response to Auburn’s lone touchdown. Murray was at his best, engineering a drive on which he went 5-for-5. His third down completion to a tightly-covered Orson Charles was placed perfectly, and the touchdown pass to Bennett was as good of a throw and catch as you’ll see.

Georgia remained stingy with what they allowed Auburn. There were no kickoff returns of note – itself a noteworthy accomplishment. Auburn didn’t have a chance at an onside kick after the first quarter. Georgia abandoned any notion of returning punts and gaining field position with their punt-safe defense, but that was the trade-off for closing the door on any potential fake punt. The Georgia defense also held firm after Crowell’s fumbles. Georgia scored 14 points after Auburn turnovers; Georgia’s turnovers turned out to be nothing more than speed bumps.

“You’ve got to make plays on defense this day and age. You’ve got to go stop people. To do that, you’ve got to attack them, be relentless in your effort and prepare during the week. If you do that, you have a chance to go make plays.”
– Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham

In a game full of so many big moments, you can’t really say the game turned on any one of them. Some are subtle: a favorable spot on Georgia’s very first series kept the opening scoring drive alive. Others are obvious: Rambo’s interception broke the game open. Though the game was already 35-7 at this point, I really liked what happened just before and just after halftime. If you go back to last year, this was the point in the game where Auburn flipped things in their favor. Trailing 21-14, they tied it up inside of a minute left in the second quarter. The Tigers executed and recovered an onside kick to start the second half, and soon Georgia was the team playing from behind. It was a huge 14-point swing that turned the game.

Late in the first half on Saturday, Drew Butler shanked a punt into the Georgia sideline (‘sup wid dat?). Auburn suddenly had their best field position since their scoring drive and an opportunity to grab a shred of momentum before regrouping at halftime. As Grantham exhorted, Georgia’s defense got the stop and didn’t even yield a first down. The Dawgs also held on the other side of halftime. The kickoff was a touchback. Auburn got 17 yards on one of Dyer’s few productive runs of the night, but Auburn’s attempt to open the second half with a score ended there. Georgia forced a punt and began to dictate exactly how the second half would go. Though Georgia’s drive stalled and ended with a short field goal, the Dawgs made it clear that there would be no huge swing of momentum in Auburn’s favor this year.

“We’ll hold out a little hope, but Georgia is playing awfully well now. You always have some hope. That’s a game we have no control over, so we’re not going to worry about it.”
– Steve Spurrier, on his team depending on a Kentucky win over Georgia

We’ll be magnanimous and let Coach Spurrier have the final word. He’s right: Georgia’s job is unfinished. Kentucky might be the SEC equivalent of a two-foot putt, but it’s still a shot that has to be made. It wasn’t nearly against the same odds, but two years ago Kentucky left Athens with their first win at Georgia since 1977. Part of my enjoyment Saturday night was the realization that Spurrier had to sit there and watch it, and hopefully he’ll have an equally-enjoyable viewing experience this Saturday.

Just a few mid-week thoughts about the game…

Get healthy. Both Georgia and Florida enjoyed bye weeks last week, and both expect some key contributors to return from the list of the injured. Georgia fans are nervously watching every tidbit about Malcom Mitchell’s hamstring, and Florida plans to have their first-string quarterback. The Dawgs should be as healthy as they’ve been in a while, and they welcome back a first-string linebacker. The big question though is how the healed players will hold up. Will Brantley’s ankle survive a couple of hits? Will Mitchell be able to trust his hamstring at full speed on his deep routes? Can Crowell make it through a game?

Get a hold of yourself. The takeway from the Vandy game wasn’t what happened postgame. It’s that the team, and the defense in particular, couldn’t keep its composure against Vanderbilt. Georgia hasn’t even faced their three biggest rivals. The Dawgs will be poked and prodded for the rest of the season to see if those opponents can’t gain the same edge that Vanderbilt realized. We want the defense to play with emotion, get fired up, and even be a little angry. It’s a fine line – the Dawgs were on the right side of it after the pre-game barking with Mississippi State. It went a little differently at Vanderbilt. The Florida game brings its own emotions and tension. Whether you’re talking about frustration over the streak or digging up indignation over an eye gouge or dancing in the endzone, there’s no shortage of potential powder kegs. It starts with the coaches: Grantham’s fire needs to have a laser focus. He doesn’t have to match the other sideline in the unhinged department.

There’s another angle on composure, and it’s summed up well in this post. Aaron Murray still struggles with slow starts, and that continued with a 3-for-9 start at Vanderbilt before the offense got humming. Murray recovered to throw for 313 yards and lead Georgia’s comeback, but the slow start meant that the Bulldogs played from behind for much of the game. He was a freshman making his first start in his home state, so it’s reasonable that he was overexcited. Offense has come at a premium for Georgia in this series, and they’ll need Murray to be at his best out of the gate. Florida is dead-last in the SEC in turnover margin, but Bulldog turnovers have been one of the bigger stories in the past three meetings. If the beards live on for another week, the Dawgs should be in good shape.

Get in the endzone. We’ve pounded on the lack of offense in Jacksonville for years. Last year was a rarity in the series: Georgia managed to put a fair number of points on the board and still lost. Georgia has scored at least 20 points in every SEC game this year, but Florida will be one of the better defenses they’ve faced. Even in these lean years, Georgia has done well when scoring at least 24 points in Jacksonville. Key will be finishing scoring opportunities. Settling for early field goals has left Georgia with some uncomfortably close finishes against South Carolina, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt. A windy forecast on Saturday is just one more reason to hope that the Dawgs have better results getting 7 instead of 3.

Get rid of the excuses. Bernie has a good point here. Of course it matters in terms of preparation and strategy who Florida puts under center. But almost every year Georgia fans cling to some sort of talisman that will reverse the trend in Jacksonville. Just wait ’til {Lito | Taylor | Wuerffel | Spurrier | Tebow | Urban} is gone. It’s the nature of lopsided rivalries – we’ll take any perceived hope we can get. Now it’s Brantley. Forget about it, and just play ball.

Georgia won the game with two things: field position and defense. At the end of the first quarter, both teams had 83 yards of total offense. The score was 14-3 in Georgia’s favor. The (Georgia) Bulldogs had two short scoring drives totaling 55 yards thanks to Boykin’s brilliant punt return and a shank on another MSU punt. The visitors had to drive 56 yards in a single possession just to get into range for a field goal. Georgia’s scoring drive of any length was the 8-play, 81-yard drive to close the first half. With the exception of the late second-quarter drive that was ended by Commmings’ interception, MSU didn’t have a drive start with better field position than their own 37.

Georgia’s special teams got attention after last week’s problems, and you could tell. Returns were sharper, and Boykin had an instant impact on punt returns. It was also interesting to see the defense remain on the field for more than a couple of 4th downs – even when distance and field position made the odds of a fake nearly zero. There’s not much to say about Walsh. I’ll buy that he has the yips because I’m not informed enough to spot mechanics issues. I do wonder if he’s overkicking – he’s knocking balls through the endzone on kickoffs more than ever this year, and sometimes greater power comes at the expense of accuracy. The most important consequence is that the coaches, at least in the short-term, should not call plays inside the opponent’s 35 assuming they have three points in their pocket.

And the defense. As Munson once put it, “the beautiful defense.” MSU took a lot of heat for nearly losing to Louisiana Tech, but this was still the same team that ran all over Auburn. We knew what MSU does well – run the spread option and burn you with play-action after you bite on the run. We knew what MSU doesn’t do well – throw the ball in obvious passing situations.

A year ago, MSU was an efficient 7-of-13 on third down against Georgia. They were able to sustain drives, control field position, and pick their moments while the Georgia offense worked uphill. That story was reversed on Saturday. Georgia held the visitors to just 4-of-15 on third down, and a lot of Georgia’s success had to do with their play on first and second down. 10 of MSU’s 15 3rd downs were 6 yards or longer. They converted only one of those – a 3rd and 9 on their first-quarter field goal drive. Otherwise, the Georgia defense did exactly what it had to do – contain the running game on the first two downs and force Relf (and Favre) into uncomfortable third-and-long situations. The average MSU third down was 3rd and 7.5 to go.

My enjoyment in watching the defense is why I had a problem with the second-half offense. The offense was given field position, momentum, and a tired defense put back on the field after numerous short MSU drives and did little with it after intermission. I’m fine with being conservative in that situation, but I’m not so sure that’s what was going on. It’s just that, short of returning a few of those dropped interceptions for scores, the defense couldn’t have done more for their counterparts on offense. It’s not just the lack of production by the offense, it’s the feeling of a wasted gift.

(There is something good to say about the second-half offense. There was still plenty of time left when MSU got their pick-six. A three-and-out and an average punt return could have set MSU up with momentum and the game very much in doubt. Though the offense, and ultimately Walsh, failed to put more points on the board, they at least responded with a nice 9-play drive that ate up 5:32 and let a lot of air out of whatever lift MSU got from their defensive score. Thomas deserves recognition for his role in that drive. In fact, that drive (nine plays, 5:32) and the one before it (seven plays, 4:08) that ended on Murray’s interception ate more clock than all but one of Georgia’s drives. Some points would have been nice, but those drives did their job. We have a much bigger problem with the 3rd quarter offense that failed to eat clock OR move the ball for more than a total of 24 net yards.)

I had to remind myself a few times after the game that this was a one-sided double-digit revenge win over a team that started the year ranked above Georgia. This was a possible trap game. MSU’s offense is about as far as you can get from pro-style, and Todd Grantham’s ability to scheme against the nontraditional offense was still up in the air. I was among several wondering if MSU could make things difficult by attacking Georgia on the edge. Memories of Georgia’s struggles getting in the endzone in Starkville were erased three minutes into the game.

There’s a couple of problems with leaving things at “a win is a win”:

1 – The opportunity to develop the reserves against an SEC opponent was lost. As Brandon Boykin went down with just a couple of minutes left, my second thought – after initial concern for his well-being – was frustration at the fact that he was in the game to begin with. Georgia, though it had dominated the game, still had to worry about the remote possibility of an Auburn/Utah State scenario, and so a fair number of starters were left in to close the game. With Cornelius Washington on the shelf for a while, it would have been nice for Faloughi and Drew to see more action. Of course playing reserves is subordinate to protecting the lead and winning the game. There can be greater value in a game though than just getting the win. Georgia missed a good opportunity to realize that value.

2 – It would be one thing if the second half were really about trying to kill the clock, but I think we’re letting the offense off easy by putting their awful third quarter on ultra-conservative playcalling. Almost a third of Murray’s pass attempts (8 of 25) came during the third quarter in which Georgia managed a grand total of 24 yards. Another pass play broke down. Only two of those pass attempts were completed. The same people were in the game. The offense wasn’t particularly risky in the first half, either – the plays just stopped working after halftime. Georgia’s offense was more successful in the fourth quarter when they really *were* trying to run clock.

With the program placing so much emphasis on finishing games this year, it’s not out of bounds to ask questions of the second half offense in the past two games. The defense has embraced the challenge – they’ve pitched two, make that three, straight shutouts after halftime. The offense has a couple of things working against them:

• Their best option at tailback, though insanely talented, is still building his endurance.
• The offensive line depth is razor thin. I’m not sure Georgia substituted on the offensive line, and that would make two consecutive games that these five have played all snaps. I understand why that is a neccesity, and hopefully Burnette can be back soon. You also don’t rotate offensive linemen like you might defensive linemen or tailbacks. But a waning Crowell and a line that can’t afford even a series off isn’t the hallmark of an offense built to finish games.

That’s quite a problem to have, isn’t it? Why is Georgia only winning by 14 instead of 24? It’s one of the #firstworldproblems of college football.

There’s no question that the realignment underway in college sports is driven by football. But the SEC has had strong programs in many other sports, and its newest member will more than pull its weight after bowl season. As a major state school, A&M funds most of the sports you’d expect. What you might not expect is how established competition already is between A&M and current SEC powers in their respective sports.

The Aggies do not (currently) participate in gymnastics, but they do field one of the nation’s best equestrian programs. In 2011, A&M placed third at the national championships behind Auburn and Georgia. In 2010, the Aggies came in second behind only Georgia. In fact, A&M will face off against Georgia on October 8th.

Texas A&M’s athletics program placed eighth in the 2010-11 Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup. That was tops among Big 12 schools and second only to Florida among SEC schools. How did they get there? Though football, basketball, and baseball are all good programs, A&M is a track school.

How good is Texas A&M track? They’re the reigning men’s national champion. Oh…reigning women’s national champion, too. Want more? Aggie track and field has won both the men’s and women’s national title for three years running. Forget the football matchups – between A&M, Arkansas, LSU, and Florida, the SEC Track and Field championships will just about be the Olympics.

Here’s how A&M looks in some of the more major sports.

Men’s hoops:

Texas A&M comes into the SEC as an above-average basketball program. If you had to place them put them somewhere just below the good recent Florida or Tennessee teams. They might be considered a little “new money.” They’ve played in six straight NCAA Tournaments, but their 2006 appearance broke a dry spell that went back to 1987.

Billy Gillispie is a punchline in the SEC for his belly flop at Kentucky. But Gillispie is the coach that took A&M from a pretty bad place and laid the foundation for their current level of play. Gillispie took the program from 6–24 in 2002–2003 to 24–8 in 2003–2004. The bid to the 2004 NIT was A&M’s first postseason play of any kind in over a decade. Gillispie’s apex was in 2007 when the team earned a #3 seed for the NCAA Tournament – their highest seed ever. 2007 also saw the first top-ten ranking for the program, and their appearence in the 2007 Sweet 16 was only the third in program history and its first since 1980. That strong 2007 season was enough to get Kentucky’s attention, and Gillispie headed to the SEC to be replaced by Mark Turgeon.

There wasn’t much drop-off with Turgeon. The team was right back in the 2008 NCAA Tournament and has returned every year since. What Turgeon didn’t do was get A&M quite back to that 2007 high water mark. The team was decent, competent, and dangerous enough to be an occasional threat to the stronger Big 12 teams, but titles and greater glory eluded them. A&M most recently finished 24-9, earned a #7 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and was bounced in the first round by FSU.

The Aggies are currently in a state of transition. Turgeon was hired by Maryland during the offseason. A&M went into the mid-major ranks for their new head coach, hiring former A&M assistant and recent Murray State head coach Billy Kennedy. Kennedy’s last two teams at Murray State went 54-14 and won consecutive OVC titles.

Despite Turgeon’s relative success, his time in College Station was occasionally rocky. Fans were a bit spoiled by 2007 and grumbled about Turgeon’s inability to get the team back to that level. For Turgeon’s part, he made it clear that he was unhappy with lukewarm and inconsistent fan support. SEC hoops fans and coaches can probably relate. Turgeon’s background in basketball-mad Kansas made it tough to be happy in a football-first climate. He won’t really have that problem at Maryland.

The Aggies play at Reed Arena with a capacity of 12,500 – about middle of the road for the SEC.

Women’s hoops:

What does A&M women’s basketball bring to the SEC? Oh, nothing – just the defending national champs. The Aggies didn’t get nearly the press of UConn and Baylor with their mega-stars, but A&M caught fire in the 2011 NCAA Tournament, finally got past their local nemesis Baylor, and followed MVP Danielle Adams to a thrilling national title win over Notre Dame. The SEC is familiar turf for A&M head coach Gary Blair who led Arkansas from 1993–2003 before leaving for College Station.

Their system is a little unique in that they have a designated “defensive coordinator”, Vic Schaefer, whose sole job it is to break down opponents and develop the Aggies’ defensive approach. If you saw Georgia’s Sweet 16 humiliation at the hands of the Aggies, you know how effective this approach can be. Blair’s current team doesn’t figure to be as strong with heavy senior losses, but he’s a good coach who will have a quality team most every year. Kelsey Bone, a freshman star and rebounding machine at South Carolina, transfered to A&M to be closer to home but will be right back into SEC play in a year.

Baseball:

The Aggies are coming off the program’s fifth trip to Omaha and the College World Series. They’ve made the NCAA Tournament for five consecutive seasons and have won either the Big 12 regular season or tournament title in four of the past five seasons. Rob Childress took over the program in 2006 and has since been named Big 12 Coach of the Year while building the program into a contender.

Many of the SEC’s best baseball programs are used to having strong local non-conference rivals. Florida has FSU, Georgia has Tech, and South Carolina has Clemson. A&M’s rivalries with nearby baseball powerhouses Texas and Rice will only add to the conference’s national slate.

Two games this weekend will give Georgia a look at three of their next four opponents. One took place last night, and one will be the early game on Saturday.

The Mississippi State offense doesn’t look that different from what we saw in Starkville last year, but they did look more comfortable in what they do (as much as one can against LSU). Our challenges will be similar – stopping the option while paying attention to shots taken downfield. I doubt we can count on Georgia’s defensive front to be as disruptive as LSU’s was, but the goal is the same: get into the backfield to make the read difficult, and put the Bulldogs into longer-yardage situations where they become much more predictable and vulnerable. LSU and a few MSU injuries along the offensive line made that look a lot easier than it is.

On the other side of the ball, MSU looked tough on defense. LSU was effective in pounding the ball with a series of wrecking balls at tailback, and the MSU defense gradually softened. I don’t know that Georgia has the kind of running back that LSU used to good effect last night – Samuel is probably the closest. Crowell isn’t slight – any more than Hearst was – but he’s not going to be confused for a power back. That said, it’s not as if Crowell won’t have opportunities. MSU looked tough at home, but this was the same defense that yielded 150 yards to Michael Dyer a week ago.

LSU did provide a useful lesson in the way they used their passing game. Though much of their approach had to do with Lee’s capabilities, they were efficient, patient, and effective with short passes. Georgia found similar success against South Carolina in the second half. Those slants and screens will be there, and the tight ends will have big opportunities.

One other game worth watching, or at least following up on, this weekend is Mississippi’s trip to Vanderbilt. This is the 12:21 SEC Network game, so those of us at the Georgia game won’t be able to see much of it. Two of Georgia’s next four opponents will play their SEC opener, and we’ll get a better idea of the relative threat of these teams. Ole Miss struggled on offense in their opener, but they were in a position to beat BYU. They got a bit of a scare from FCS team Southern Illinois a week ago but avoided a repeat of the Jacksonville St. debacle of a year ago. Vandy, with a win, would move to 3-0 on the season. They’ve already notched a win over a weak UConn team.

It was our first game back in Sanford Stadium since the Dawgs sent Tech home with a loss last November. What did you think?

The Scene

Traffic wasn’t bad around town even at 11 AM. Though central campus was pretty thick with tents, we were still able to navigate down Milledge and Lumpkin without much standstill. We must’ve been between the early arrivers and the last-minute crowd. Postgame traffic wasn’t terrible after an hour or so. Downtown was packed since the ~8:00 finish allowed for things to move right into a full evening of Athens nightlife. I saw a lot more charter buses than I remember in the past, and they didn’t help things move through downtown.

It was unfortunate to find the Visual Arts building blocked off for renovation. The College of Environmental Design will benefit from the refurbished building, but it will affect some nice tailgating spaces on the eastern edge of North Campus. Otherwise, I didn’t see many problems in and around North Campus. It was a perfect day for a tailgate and a nice change from the typical blast furnace of a Georgia-South Carolina game.

Scoreboard

I liked the new scoreboard. At a cost of $1.4 million, I hope you did too. The display was crisp, the animations popped, and no one in our eastern perch had a problem seeing anything. The board looked great when it went full-screen. I had to remember to look at the scoreboards rimming the upper deck to see time as well as down and distance when the main display went full-screen, but that’s not a problem. Some constructive criticisms:

• If you’re going to run scores, keep them updated. I think there are still 7 minutes left in the Auburn/MSU game. Those running the show must’ve realized the problem because we started seeing the sides of the scoreboard increasingly used for stats, and I prefer that anyway. You have this large screen with its best feature being the dynamic repurposing of areas of the display. Some individual stats mixed in would’ve been nice, too.
• The live video on the board was cropped too closely. I tried to watch a bit of the 3rd quarter on the board since it required less looking directly into the sun, but it was difficult with the shot so tightly zoomed in on the QB. Pull it back a bit and let us see the play.
• There’s a fine line between augmenting the game with the videos and music and going into ACC territory. I’m not even talking about the blatent ads that pay the bills. Keep Zombie Nation out of our stadium.

Redcoats

I have mixed feelings about moving the band to the west stands. The point was to project their sound to more of the stadium, and that worked. Of course the sound isn’t going to be as strong in my part of the stadium as when they sat three sections over from me, but I think they project well to all corners now. It’s not an ideal arrangement with the visitor’s band so close – the result more often than not was just indistiguishable noise.

Another problem was the separation of the band from the cheerleaders and main block of students. You lose a bit of punch there without the cheerleaders, band, and students in the same corner – coordination starting and sustaining cheers was tough on Saturday.

The new pregame was a welcome refresh. The only hiccup was the attempt to start a GEORGIA-BULLDOGS cheer, but that will work itself out as fans get used to what’s going on. It’s necessary but not good that the band has to exit the field in the east endzone and hoof it along the track all the way back to the west stands. I think it was the midpoint of the first quarter and several series into the game before they were able to play much of anything from the stands. You can only do so much with the congestion of that narrow track corridor, but the pace of getting them back into the stands after pregame has to pick up.

This was a great touch:

The Crowd

For the most part, the back-and-forth flow of the game led to an involved and supportive crowd. Of course there were people around who were overserved or had their minds made up about players and coaches a long time ago (easily identified with the clever and original nicknames they used like “Booboo”.) I can only speak for myself, but a lot of the optimism with which I left the stadium despite the loss came from observing how the people around me handled the events and outcome of the game. If the tone after the Boise game (from those who even bothered to stay) was one of torches and pitchforks, the tone Saturday was one of disappointment tempered by anticipation of what this team and its young stars can become.

Georgia’s September 21st at Ole Miss game will be the early SEC Network game and will kick off at 12:21 p.m. ET (11:21 a.m. local time). Enjoy your dusty brunch at the Grove.

For Atlanta viewers, you’ll find the game on Peachtree TV as before.

I’m ticked to have to be writing about this during a game week, but it’s pretty much unavoidable. I’m not especially concerned with the mechanics and drama, but it seems inevitable that the SEC has opened the door to expansion. I won’t pretend to guess where it will stop, but I doubt that 13 is the magic number. I’m a lot more concerned with what it will mean for Georgia. What will their division and schedule look like in the coming years?

Divisional Lineup

The structure of the SEC’s divisions depends of course on whether the SEC stops at 13 teams, adds a 14th team, or goes all the way to 16 teams. The extent of realignment will also depend on which team(s) get added. If you add an eastern school such as West Virginia, no one would have to change divisions. If the 14th team is another former Big XII member, the conference would be unbalanced to the west, and you’d expect a school like Auburn to be moved to the SEC East. That wouldn’t affect the Auburn-Alabama rivalry (or even Florida-LSU) as long as the “permanent rival” system remains a part of the scheduling.

If Auburn moves to the East, that would require Georgia to take on a new permanent rival. To cause the least amount of disruption, that new opponent would probably be the new school, Texas A&M. Trips to College Station every other year?

How many conference games?

Coaches are predisposed against a ninth conference game, and with good reason. It takes away a certain amount of freedom in scheduling, and it by definition would spread more losses around a conference. If other conferences don’t follow suit, you’re at a relative disadvantage. Mark Richt put it this way: “As far as I’m concerned, you can add more teams, but I just don’t want to play any more league games.” It’s not just a question of bowl eligibility for a number of borderline teams, though that’s certainly a factor. BCS bids can also be torpedoed by those extra games.

A nine-game schedule is almost unavoidable if you go to 16 teams, especially if the permanent rival is maintained. You’d never play anyone else from the other division otherwise. But let’s assume a 16-member SEC and a nine-game conference schedule. Under the current SEC system of a divisonal round-robin, a permanent opponent, and a rotating cross-divisional schedule, it might be over a decade between trips to places like Baton Rouge, Oxford, and Fayetteville.

Why? Here’s a sample 9-game SEC schedule against a 16-team league. Assume for now that Auburn stays in the West.

• Year 1: 7 games against the division. 1 against permanent rival (vs. Auburn). 1 other cross-divisional game (@ Ole Miss)
• Year 2: 7 games against the division. 1 against permanent rival (@ Auburn). 1 other cross-divisional game (vs. Ole Miss)
• Year 3: 7 games against the division. 1 against permanent rival (vs. Auburn). 1 other cross-divisional game (@ Alabama)
• Year 4: 7 games against the division. 1 against permanent rival (@ Auburn). 1 other cross-divisional game (vs. Alabama)

Under that model, it would be Year 15 before you saw Ole Miss again as you rotate home-and-home through the other 6 teams in the West. The only way around that is 1) Increase the number of conference games to 10. Good luck with that. 2) Eliminate the permanent rival and add another rotating cross-divisional opponent. Possible, but you’d kill some of the conference’s oldest rivalries (UT-Bama, UGA-Auburn). 3) Don’t play a true round-robin against the division. That would free up a cross-divisional game or two, but it would kind of defeat the point of having divisions and divisional champions.

The Division as Entity

This is a side-effect of expansion we talked about a bit last summer. As conferences become larger and more abstract, the identites of the individual division becomes stronger.

The larger megaconference is just an administrative abstraction between its divisions. It exists for revenue-sharing purposes and for the clout it brings negotiating for collective deals and postseason positions.

Look at our schedule example above – a school you play twice a decade isn’t much different than Clemson or some regional rival from another conference. The only bond is that the paycheck comes from the same address, and you bump into each other in the buffet line at the spring meeting.

Consider an SEC West of the current members plus Texas A&M and Missouri. That’s a pretty good 8-team league unto its own. It wouldn’t be a stretch to rate it above the Big East and, in many years, the ACC. The idea of the Pac-16 pushing for two BCS automatic bids gave us a good chuckle last summer, but many of these eight-team divisions will have the membership and mass of what we’ve heretofore considered power conferences. I don’t suggest you’ll see the SEC East Network any time soon – the SEC is still the brand, and the conference will still do the negotiating and finance. But I do think we’ll come to look at divisions, even more than we already do, as more or less distinct entities that begin to take on identites of their own.

Who knows – in 15 years, we might be talking about the decentralization of the megaconferences as the divisions start to chart their own courses.

By this time a lot of us already have ways to watch games via satellite at our tailgates. If you don’t, or if you’re tired of aiming a dish and want a way to simplify your setup, DISH Network has a new product aimed at us: the Tailgater Portable HDTV System.

(Note: this isn’t an ad or a review. I’m not being compensated for this post, I’m not a DISH subscriber, and I don’t have this product.)

For $499, you get an HD receiver and the “Portable Antenna” which is basically a satellite dish mounted inside a plastic weather-resistant bubble. You set the antenna on the ground as much as 50 ft from the receiver, and it will automatically lock in on the satellite.

You’ll still need a TV and a power source – either an inverter or generator will do. You’ll also have to pay for programming of course. Current DISH subscribers can piggy-back on their current subscription. If you have a certain model of DISH receiver, the portable antenna itself is $350. If you’re not a DISH subscriber, they do a very cool thing and allow month-to-month subscriptions. You can activate it from September-December and then cut it off until the next football season comes around.

Earlier this year we heard about NFL teams considering replacing their ponderous paper playbooks with tablet versions. That’s become a reality: Tampa Bay has gone paperless and issued iPads with playbooks to each of their players.

The Bucs were smart and went beyond just a straight up playbook alternative. The iPad platform allows the team to offer players access to “video files of games, and practice and situational videos of any NFL team.” As a player studies the playbook, he can call up a practice video to see how that play is executed. He can also pull up a clip of how an opponent defends a certain formation.

The iPads also come with a security advantage. Once a paper playbook gets shared or stolen, it’s gone. iPads can be remotely wiped by the owner.

We’re still waiting for this technology to make it onto the field and look forward to specialized applications to help coaches with real-time decision making. It won’t be long.

Tablets are also making it into college programs, though on a much smaller scale. We’ve talked about their use in recruiting. Nebraska alum Ndamukong Suh outfitted the Huskers’ locker room with 123 built-in Apple iPads. Due to compliance concerns, the tablets are mounted and can’t be removed. That takes away a lot of the advantage, so players can’t use them for personal use or even film study outside of the locker room. In that capacity, they’ll be used mostly for communication between players, coaches, and academic personnel.

That’s unfortunate, because the portability and convenience of the tablet is perfectly suited for the student-athlete who might only have a few minutes on some remote part of campus to study a play or a video clip. I understand the compliance concern (Hey! Here’s an $800 piece of electronic equipment for you.) This is something that’s just going to have to evolve over time as the NCAA and colleges become more familiar with and smarter about the technology.