The SEC sent out memos this week clarifying things like marking the spot of a kick and also reminding schools of the restrictions on piped-in noise and music used during games.

In other news, Florida travels to Mississippi State this weekend where artificial noisemakers are a proud tradition and central to the program’s identity.

One thing in new coach Mark Fox’s favor is that expectations can’t get any lower in his first season.

Georgia came in 6th in the SEC East in the media’s preseason voting this week. That wasn’t a surprise, but the vote was unanimous: Georgia was in last place on each of the 25 ballots.

Kentucky was the clear favorite to win the division and conference, and Mississippi State was the media’s pick to win the West. Florida was projected 5th in the East, so they start the year already on the bubble after last year’s flop.

Kentucky’s Patrick Patterson is the preseason Player of the Year. Patterson is joined on the preseason all-conference teams by freshman phenom John Wall who is already second team based on pure hype. Georgia had no players on the preseason all-conference teams.

The news was a good deal better for the Lady Dogs who were projected to finish third in the conference. A return to the top of the conference would be welcome after last year’s disappointing 7th place finish, but I wonder whether the media had time to process the impact of Christy Marshall’s injury.

The Lady Dogs were the only team with two players on the first team all-conference squad: seniors Ashley Houts and Angel Robinson. That the Lady Dogs have two first-teamers but weren’t close to being picked to win the conference illustrates the perceived lack of firepower behind those two stars. Georgia will be counting on a half-dozen newcomers to fill in the gaps this year, and the media seems to think that the young team will go as far as their senior leaders Houts and Robinson will carry them.

By the reaction to Mike Bobo’s move from the box down to the sideline, you’d have thought it led to the sharpest performance by the Georgia offense since he took over playcalling duties in 2006. Instead, the running game continued to have its problems until the 4th quarter, the offense managed just two first downs in the first quarter, and Joe Cox was around 50% for the game. If they say it was a sound move, I’d hate to imagine what the offense would have looked like against a poor Vanderbilt team had Bobo stayed upstairs.

The reason for the move, according to Bobo, was “to look into their eyes and try to get a feel for how we’re doing and hopefully relax a little better.” Reviews from the players as well as Bobo and Richt were positive, so at this point there might be some placeo effect. If it takes the offensive coordinator getting down on the sideline to get the offense going, so be it. Interestingly some fans were suggesting a week ago that the defensive coordinator might be more effective by doing the opposite and going from the sideline to the box.

Bobo admitted that it was “a little more difficult to see the play unfold” from the sideline, but Vanderbilt’s defense was pretty straightforward. “They were going to play two deep to our base personal,” Bobo told David Hale. With the strategic advantage of sitting up in the box less important, the decision to move down to the sideline was made. Will that be the case in two weeks? Florida has one of the nation’s most effective and talented defenses and will certainly do more than sit in two deep coverage all day. The indication seems to be that Bobo will return to the sideline for the Florida game, but will the Dawgs get the kind of input and analysis they need against a sophisticated Florida defense with Tony Ball the only offensive coach in the press box?

Florida’s offense turned the ball over four times and lurched its way to 23 points to beat Arkansas. Given a repeat performance in Jacksonville, could Georgia take advantage? The Dawgs have scored at least 24 points against Florida only 3 times since 1994. Not coincidentally, Georgia won each of those games.

Geno Atkins hadn’t made a lot of noise this year until Saturday, and he’s been named the SEC’s Defensive Lineman of the Week as a result. Geno was pushed for a starting job by Kade Weston, but to his credit he’s fighting back. The trio of senior defensive tackles was supposed to be a strength this year, and they might just be coming around. With continued improvement from the tackles and more solid play from Justin Houston, a strong defensive front could be one of Georgia’s few defensive advantages down the stretch.

Comcast steps up. I’ve complained before about Comcast not offering Atlanta customers the Peachtree TV HD feed for the SEC Network game of the week. I’m happy to report that they’ve had the games in HD on channel 802 for the last two weeks. I don’t know if that was just because Georgia was playing or if they’ll continue the arrangement. Unfortunately all was not perfect – it seems that no guide information was updated to reflect the change, so recording the games with a DVR or Tivo was very difficult.

While the SEC prepares its weekly form letter acknowledging another officiating mistake, conspiracy theories abound. Still, football is light years ahead of basketball where “Jordan rules” and favorable treatment for stars is considered a way of life.

Auburn’s losses to Arkansas and Kentucky have them at 2-2 in the SEC with LSU, Ole Miss, Georgia, and Alabama remaining. They’ll have to find a way to win a night game in Baton Rouge to avoid their third consecutive loss. Ignoring the fact that their offense managed just 14 points at home, how did they give up 21 points to a quarterback-less Kentucky team? On the other hand, the Wildcats seem headed for bowl eligibility again. They’re just 3-3 now and 1-3 in the SEC, but they won’t face another ranked team. Yet another bowl bid would represent a level of consistency that many didn’t expect to continue after the Woodson years and seemed out of reach just four or five years ago.

Finally, congrats to Georgia Tech for a big win and a solid season so far, but always remember that celebrating on the field is no time to forget your inhaler.

The most popular punditry game this week has been pin-the-failed-coach-on Mark Richt. So far he’s been portrayed as:

• Phil Fulmer
• Tommy Tuberville
• …and even contrasted with Paul Johnson

I’m surprised even more people haven’t jumped on the Bobby Bowden decline given Richt’s coaching pedigree.

The comparisons with coaches who pulled out of a nosedive are much more difficult to find although there’s one within our own program. Is that because it’s relatively rare for successful coaches to recover from this position? With more dollars at stake and the pressure to produce right away, is it becoming unreasonable to expect that coaches at major programs will be given much time or latitude to see if they can turn it around?

At Georgia it seems as if the market has already corrected itself to some coaching changes after the season. That is to say that the inevitability of change is so universally accepted among fans that future expectations already take those changes into account. The resulting mood isn’t great, but it is a good more upbeat than it was on, say, Monday. There is enough faith left in Mark Richt to see how he’ll respond and see whether he’ll be able to get back the championship culture that’s been eroding for a few years.

Georgia’s defensive coordinator has become a punch line this week, but you know it’s getting over the top when South Carolina partisans start piling on.

If Georgia has to play South Carolina every year with Martinez as defensive coordinator …
Willie Martinez should absolutely remain defensive coordinator at Georgia as long as he wants.

If Georgia’s defense played other teams as they have South Carolina, Martinez would be named Georgia’s coach-in-waiting. The Gamecocks have averaged just over 13 PPG against Georgia since Richt took over in 2001 and just 15 PPG since Martinez was named coordinator for the 2005 season. Those averages include this year’s 37 points (which itself includes a safety and a pick-six that has nothing to do with the defense). Martinez was also the man behind the shutout in 2006 and the defense that held South Carolina to just 7 points a year ago in a series that has come to be defined by defensive struggles.

We’ve had to learn to laugh at ourselves this week, but you’d think South Carolina fans would be among the first to celebrate the idea of a regime change for the Georgia defense.

1. How close is the Georgia offense to qualifying for 501(c)3 status as a charitable organization?

2. Would you rather be a Cal or Miami fan this week? If there’s one thing to be said for Georgia’s opening game loss, it got the disillusionment out of the way quickly.

3. Does Arizona State have another formation on offense besides the three-wide shotgun or another running play that doesn’t go off-tackle? The reverse off that running play was a nice wrinkle late in the game, but credit to Georgia’s defense for staying mostly at home and turning a potential big play into a gain of just four yards.

4. What’s happened to the fullback position? Yes, Munzenmaier scored Georgia’s second touchdown, but that’s been the highlight of production from the group so far. Chapas and Munzenmaier have a combined 8 yards rushing, and Chapas has a total of 25 receiving yards. The position is never going to be a source of gaudy stats, but it has been a lot more visible in recent years. It’s a bit out of character for the fullbacks to be noted more for getting stuffed in short yardage situations.

While we’re at it, Chapas has been a bit of a lightning rod this year with problems on kickoff returns. It’s his job to tell returners to bring the ball out of the endzone. Communication was also an issue against Arizona State with two shaky results on kickoffs, one of which allowed the ball to bounce before it was fielded. I’m not putting all of the kickoff communication issues on Chapas – clearly Boykin needs to scream like a centerfielder if he’s going to field the kick.

5. Is the Iron Bowl shaping up to be one of the most interesting games in the SEC this year? Not to knock LSU or Ole Miss, but tell me you’re not getting more and more curious about seeing the Auburn offense collide with the Alabama defense. (Of course we said the same thing about the Arkansas offense heading into last weekend.) Auburn will have their chance to claim the title of top contender with back-to-back games against Ole Miss and LSU at the end of October.

6. Speaking of Auburn, is anyone still upset that Chizik got the nod over someone like, say, Turner Gill?

7. Were we spoiled by Stacy Searels? That Georgia was even able to field a competent line in 2007 was a miracle. Last year was mostly a wash due to the significant injuries, but the offense was still very productive. There was always a question how good Stafford and Moreno made the line look, but nearly every preseason preview of the 2009 Bulldogs listed the offensive line as a strength that would help the new quarterback and tailback find their way.

The pass blocking has been mostly adequate though Cox has taken several big hits. Run blocking has been a little less successful, and that shows up in Georgia’s relatively poor rushing numbers. “This game in particular wasn’t one of the best ones of the year (for the offensive line),” said Mark Richt after the Arizona St. game. They’re trying different alignments with Glenn lined up at left tackle in place of the injured Sturdivant, but even reliable linemen like Jones and Boling have had their issues this year.

9. So a turnover doesn’t automatically have to lead to a score? Georgia’s first turnover left the Sun Devils with only about 40 yards to go for their first score. Though the Bulldog defense faced a short field, they twice had a chance to stop ASU on third down but didn’t. It has to be deflating to keep getting put in those situations, but I don’t recall many, if any, instances where the Bulldog defense held their own after a bad break. The Oklahoma State field goal before halftime is the only one I can think of. On one hand, you had to grant that the defense was being put in tough spots. On the other hand, geez, guys, make a stop every now and then.

That’s what makes the fourth quarter defense all the more impressive. ASU started two drives in Georgia territory – one as the result of a punt return and the other of course after Cox’s second interception. Both drives resulted in three-and-outs. Neither led to points. The two drives combined led to a net of three yards, and ASU even went backwards on their final drive. Though they’ve deservedly been put through plenty of criticism this year, whether at the end of the South Carolina game, the fourth quarter at Arkansas, or the fourth quarter Saturday night, the defense has stepped up when they’ve absolutely had to.

10. For whom should Mark Bradley make the case to fire this week?

Georgia’s October 10th game at Tennessee is one of four games being held for a six-day selection. The networks will have until next Monday (Oct. 5th) to sort out the schedule.

As expected, CBS chose to put the Florida @ LSU game in the prime time 8:00 p.m. start. The four possibilities for Georgia’s game time involve the usual 3:30 CBS slot and a trio of broadcasts starting around noon:

• CBS: 3:30 ET
• ESPN: Noon ET
• ESPNU: 12:30 ET
• SEC Network: 12:21 ET

The other games that will fall into three of those slots are Alabama at Ole Miss, Auburn at Arkansas, and Houston at Mississippi State. The Alabama-Ole Miss game especially looks like a strong challenger for the coveted 3:30 spot.

One of the small pleasures of the football season is watching the typically unpredictable nature of every season turn the conventional wisdom on its head. The power polls, bombastic predictions, Heisman candidates, and what-if scenarios get blown up and regenerated every week. The lesson every time is to let the season play out, but what’s the fun in that? It was especially enjoyable to watch Tommy Tuberville get taught that lesson. In October of 2006 Tuberville, with Auburn undefeated and ranked #2, got caught up in worrying about the BCS and promptly got blown out by Arkansas. Georgia would do their part to keep Auburn out of the BCS a few weeks later. Damn, that was fun.

On to this year. We’ve already seen BCS-buster and Oklahoma slayer BYU go from favorite to forgotten. Now it’s Ole Miss’s turn. The ink was barely dry on this Glenn Guilbeau article in the Shreveport Times talking about the high rankings enjoyed by the SEC and the SEC West in particular when Ole Miss laid their egg in Columbia last night. I guess the SEC West *had* three teams ranked in the top 10.

It was always unrealistic to expect the SEC West to finish with three teams in the Top 10 (hindsight is great!) when they all play each other. No matter how good LSU, Ole Miss, and Alabama are, there are three losses to be had when those teams play the round-robin divisional schedule. Even that ignores LSU’s games with Florida and Georgia and, as it turns out, Ole Miss’s game at South Carolina. Throw in a resurgent Auburn team, and the difficulty of remaining unblemished and highly ranked is that much tougher. The polls might exalt the SEC and the SEC West right now, but the reality of the conference schedule has yet to hit.

About Ole Miss…they’re getting killed this morning, and it’s for good reason. They just didn’t play well and made some strange coaching decisions. That said, a lot of the reaction is predictably overboard. They still have the pieces to be a quality team and the schedule to finish with a record that gets them back to a New Year’s Day bowl. It’ll show a lot about them whether they realize they still have a lot to play for and are able to regroup. The best thing about the loss is that it comes against an SEC East team, so they’ll still be able to determine their own fate in the SEC West.

That said, I have to pile on left tackle Bradley Sowell’s comments.

“I’m glad it’s gone,” Rebels left tackle Bradley Sowell said of the high-intensity spotlight, “so we can just get back to basics and win ballgames.”

I don’t think you’ll hear that from an LSU or Alabama player if they lose. Unfortunately I did hear a lot of that sentiment from Georgia players and fans in the aftermath of the 2008 season. That’s just not a winning attitude.

It was announced with some fanfare over the summer that Peachtree TV would be Atlanta’s affiliate in the new SEC Network.

For Comcast’s Atlanta customers, this deal has been a loser and a step backwards. The SEC Network on Peachtree TV has only been showing up in standard definition. A lot of people are wondering what’s going on. Peachtree TV has apparently been bombarded with enough questions about this topic that they’ve put up an FAQ about it:

SEC games are shot and aired in native 1080i high definition. Not all providers carry Peachtree TV in HD. You will need to check with your cable or satellite provider to see if it is available to you. Please note: Comcast airs Peachtree TV in HD only during Primetime hours for Braves games coverage.

From the information Peachtree TV has given, the ball is completely in Comcast’s court. And it’s true, Comcast does activate an HD feed of Peachtree TV for Braves games (channel 802 in my area). Channel 802 is nothing but a test pattern on Saturday afternoons.

It’s an especially swift kick in the groin knowing that I can change channels and find good old Jefferson-Pilot broadcasts of ACC football in glorious HD. Regional broadcasts of SEC games along the Jefferson-Pilot / Lincoln Financial network were in HD last year. The return of the games to standard def, new-and-improved branding and all, isn’t a move in the right direction.

Again, this isn’t a matter of limited HD capacity which keeps channels like ESPNU-HD unavailable. Comcast is converting much of the Atlanta area during the fall over to a digital signal which will allow for greater capacity and additional HD channels very soon (better late than never). But in the case of Peachtree TV, the capacity is already there on channel 802.

Considering the ads Comcast is running touting the most SEC coverage available, this halfhearted effort to carry the SEC Network isn’t acceptable. If you’re a Comcast customer in Atlanta, consider contacting them through any of these methods.

PS…the AJC warns us that this weekend’s game with Arizona State won’t be on basic Comcast cable. ESPNU is part of the Sports and Entertainment package which, I must admit, is well worth the $5 per month. Fork it over even if ESPNU won’t be in HD yet.

Yes, it’s kind of late for postgame thoughts, and most everything has been said. We’ve been dealing with a little bit of rain over the past couple of days, but we’ll go ahead and wrap this up.

1: What kind of a weekend was it where a 10-point loss is a triumph, and a double-digit win by a road underdog leaves the victors grumbling?

2: Is everyone who was waiting for the Arkansas game to provide some clarity satisfied? What if, all along, the identity of this year’s Georgia team was there in the first two games? The only twist has been the health of Joe Cox in the opener. At this rate, I almost expect to head to Jacksonville and find at least one article proclaiming that now, finally, we’ll get a chance to see what this Georgia team is made of.

3: How many preseason assumptions have been shaken? Are the offensive line and defensive tackles the strengths they were supposed to be? Is Joe Cox able to do anything beyond the dreaded “manage the game”? Are the kicking woes sorted now after signing a Californian with a big leg?

4: Was anyone else surprised that Arkansas chose the field goal in the 4th quarter? The strategy was sound; it brought the game back to a one-possession defecit for the Razorbacks. Put the decision in the context of this post last week from the Senator. Petrino has a track record of not only going for it on 4th down but getting a fair number of his touchdowns on those attempts. Mallett, ridiculous whining about a late hit aside, had scrambled to put Arkansas in a 4th and 4 situation from the Georgia 6 with nearly 8 minutes left.

5: Was Miami or LSU the bigger beneficiary from the weekend’s biggest upsets? Miami, doing just fine on their own, looks even better after FSU’s drubbing of BYU. LSU’s struggles at Washington in the season opener raised a few eyebrows, but the Huskies handed Southern Cal the Trojans’ annual upset loss. Washington isn’t turning the clock back yet to 1991 (or even 2000), but a tough win over the Trojans makes a competitive showing against an SEC school seem like much less of a fluke or as big of a red flag for the Tigers.

6: How big were Richard Samuel and Caleb King in pass protection? It gets a little lost in the offense’s fireworks and the results they had carrying the ball, but several times the Georgia tailbacks stood their ground as the last line of defense for Joe Cox. The line, again, didn’t have its best day (and we’re not just talking penalties), but some big blocks from the running backs helped to ensure that Cox often had enough time to make his reads and throws.

7: Is “pooch kickoff specialist” now a scholarship position at Georgia?

8: Was there a more overblown play from the weekend than Eric Berry’s impact with Tim Tebow? Everyone else calls them “tackles”. It was the solid kind of hit you’d expect from an all-American safety. It wasn’t a decleater or anything that would leave Tebow or anyone else eating through a straw. From the reaction you’d have thought the collision produced antimatter, and the world can now enjoy free and limitless energy thanks to a T. Boone Pickens consortium founded to harvest the results of the play. Berry’s interception was a much tougher and more impressive play.

9: What did Georgia do differently on defense in the 4th quarter? It might’ve been an odd quirk that Arkansas was kept from scoring in the second quarter, but Mallett and the Arkansas offense in general were much less effective towards the end. Certainly Georgia had an advantage of an opponent in come-from-behind mode, and that meant even more passing. Whether it was the effect of Arkansas pressing, conditioning, or even Georgia being more battle-tested, the Dawgs were able to get more pressure. The sequence of Butler’s punt, a sack, and a three-and-out put Georgia in position to seal the win. We’ve seen plenty of examples, even from this game, of the offense, defense, and special teams combining for spectacular meltdowns. That set of events late in the game was an example of what can happen when it all goes right. It was a nice change and a great way to end the game.

10: Was that the upper bound for “Fluless Joe” Cox? TSK has some thoughts about Cox’s progression and concludes that the efficient performance against South Carolina is probably more in line with what we can expect from Cox. One thing that has helped Cox and the offense in general is the emergence of a diverse set of options beyond A.J. Green. Michael Moore has proven that his strong finish to 2008 was no fluke. King adds a speedy option to stretch defenses. Now the tight ends are getting in on the scoring. The backs aren’t as involved in the passing game, and there are depth concerns behind the trio of Green, Moore, and King, but those are quibbles at this point with what has become an effective passing game.

Joe Cox is in for one heck of a welcome from the home fans this weekend.

New Georgia basketball coach Mark Fox has done a lot of things right since arriving in Athens. He’s reached out to fans. He’s hired a staff that makes sense. He’s kept attrition to a minimum and convinced the team’s best player to remain on board. Leading up to his first season he’s done everything a reasonable fan could ask to get fans interested in the program.

But even Fox is not immune from the biggest stumbling block plaguing Georgia basketball coaches for decades: convincing the talent-rich state’s best players to play in Athens. Fox recognized this imperative right away, and his staff reflects it. The job of changing perceptions and preferences isn’t an overnight job though, and early results are proving how difficult the task will be. On Wednesday Fox lost one of his first high-profile recruiting battles as McEachern’s Trae Golden picked SEC foe Tennessee over the in-state Bulldogs.

Golden, a guard, is the nation’s #55 player according to Rivals.com. He originally committed to Ohio State but started to look around earlier this year. It didn’t hurt Tennessee that Golden’s AAU teammate Jordan McRae was already a Tennessee commitment.

Is Golden’s commitment a cause for alarm? Of course not. Golden wasn’t a make or break recruit, and the Dawgs have other point guard options coming in this year. It is a reminder though that the job of turning around the Georgia program is, at least in the short term, going to be an arduous and occasionally disappointing process even for someone making all of the right moves.

Thankfully the week’s biggest tempest in a teapot has ended with the correct outcome: there will be no pregame handshake between Georgia and Oklahoma State.

Shaking hands after the game is fine. Some teams even meet at midfield for a postgame prayer. Hand out orange slices, shout “2! 4! 6! 8!” all you like, and tip your cap to the other guy for a game well played. But leave the pregame mingling to the captains.

Joe Cox, not surprisingly, gets it:

“I don’t think it’s necessary. I think you prepare all week to play an opponent, you play, and then you show sportsmanship at the end of the game…The last thing you want to really do before a physical game like football is go shake hands with everybody.”

Mixing 150+ testosterone-dripping college students at the height of emotion and preparation before a violent game like football has never seemed like the best idea to me. But in the interest of fairness, we have this compelling logic from the NCAA’s Marta Lawrence:

Perhaps if there was a pregame handshake before last year’s game against Boise State, (Oregon QB Jeremiah) Masoli might not have suffered a concussion on a late hit in the heartbreaking 37-32 loss to the Broncos.

How can one argue with that?

…you’ll love how the Boise State stadium will look on Thursday night. As if the blue turf wasn’t enough. Kudos to them if they pull off anything closely resembling this.

All 12 SEC teams will be in action this weekend, and all 12 games will be televised in some form.  This is mostly a note-to-self, but someone else might find it useful.  Or we could all just bookmark this page.

Thursday:

 7:00:  South Carolina at N.C. State (ESPN-HD)

That’s right – the SEC and ACC are the opening acts for the west coast headliners.  South Carolina has enjoyed this opening Thursday slot several times lately, but it’s usually been some ugly football.  No matter…hook up the IV and let the football drip…drip…drip…

 10:15 PM:  Oregon @ Boise State (ESPN-HD)

Few teams have as much on the line this weekend as the Broncos.  The national title game is out of the picture regardless, but a win here could still be their gateway to another BCS bowl.

Saturday:

10:00 AM:  College Gameday (ESPN-HD)

Everything about the show is beyond parody now, but you’ll still watch it.  The crappy intro, cartoonish hosts, predictable storylines, crowd trying too hard, and of course the obligatory Tebow human interest story – it’ll all be there, but we’ll all be tuned in.  I can’t think of another major sport that has a single  this kind of hold on the sport’s collective conscious.   The Gameday intro, whether performed by Bubba Sparxxx, Kenny Chesney, or the Wiggles, is the shrill factory whistle letting us all know that it’s business time.  You’ll be too busy watching for milliseconds of your team’s highlights in the opening montage anyway. 

Noon:  Kentucky vs. Miami of Ohio (ESPNU-HD)

Not much reason to watch other than it’s the first SEC game of the day.

 12:21 PM:  Western Kentucky @ Tennessee (ESPN Regional / SEC Network – HD)

Two debuts here:  Kiffin’s debut against WKU is all well and good, but it’s also the first broadcast on the new ESPN Regional network that will be taking the place of the weekly Jefferson Pilot game.  Tune in to see how the broadcast survives with only one Dave.

 3:30 PM:  Georgia @ Oklahoma State (ABC-HD)

3:30 PM:  Jackson State @ Mississippi State (ESPNU-HD)

Um…OK.  If you’re at a bar with 700 TVs, you might ask to turn one to Dan Mullen’s debut in Starkville and peek at it between commercials.

 7:00 PM:  BYU vs. Oklahoma (ESPN-HD)

You can tune in to see if college punters can get as much elevation as their NFL counterparts, but the game itself features two teams looking for a bit of legitimacy.  An Oklahoma loss would do a lot of damage to their chances of producing consecutive BCS and Heisman finalists.  BYU has an outside shot at playing for the national title if they run the table, but none of that happens without a win here.

7:00 PM:  Charleston Southern @ Florida (FSS / Sun – HD)

If this game loses your interest after, say, the first minute, you can always stay on the lookout for the elusive I-formation.

7:00 PM:  Louisiana Tech @ Auburn (ESPNU-HD)

Two more debuts:  the Chizik experiment and ESPNU’s Saturday evening SEC game.  Make it a game:  will there be more Florida touchdowns or Auburn completed passes?

7:00 PM:  Missouri State @ Arkansas (PPV/Gameplan)

Realize that this is Arkansas’ only game until Georgia visits in a few weeks.

7:30 PM:  Western Carolina at Vanderbilt (CSS)

Don’t mistake this for a repeat of the high school game CSS shows on Friday evenings.

 8:00 PM:  Alabama vs. Virginia Tech (ABC-HD)

Bama launched their 2008 season with a win over an ACC team in Atlanta.  Their most recent trip to the Dome wasn’t as pleasant.

 10:30 PM:  LSU @ Washington (ESPN-HD)

Lookit!  SEC!  Travel!  West coast!  Distance!  Will they finally love us?  I know…I’ll probably be asleep by then too.

Sunday:

 3:30 PM:  Ole Miss @ Memphis (ESPN-HD)

The Snead Stampede gets going with a rivalry game.  It’s Sunday, the NFL won’t start for another week, so you’ll watch.

Monday:

4:00 PM:  Cincinnati @ Rutgers (ESPN-HD)

Rutgers seems to be as good of a choice to win the Big East as anyone.  Fortunately we’re past the point where that comes with national title hopes.  Still, they’re at a critical stage of building a program:  the first wave of program-changing talent has moved through.  Now do they regress back to historical results or can the next wave of players sustain and improve on what they have?

 8:00 PM:  Miami @ FSU (ESPN-HD)

I think “pity” is now the default frame of mind in which to watch this game.

Here we are on the eve of the 2009 season and we just can’t let go of 2008 yet. We’ve looked at the hard numbers. We’ve looked at the hidden numbers. At this point it takes something out of the ordinary to take our focus off of the game just five days away and go back over the tired corpse of 2008, but Year2 over at Team Speed Kills has one last post about 2008 worth reading.

He takes on the statistic of scoring defense which blindly counts any opponent points against the defense, and he “corrects” the numbers by removing things like opponents’ defensive and special teams scores. (It’s like an ERA for football defense.) You can argue whether or not it’s appropriate to discount drives that start on the defense’s side of the field, but he does it. It’s stats-heavy stuff for sure, but taking apart a stat like scoring defense has implications for the entire team.

Read the whole post for context and how the adjustment applies to the rest of the SEC. The relevant bit for Georgia:

The Bulldogs gave up an average of 24.83 points per game as a team. However, their adjusted points per game allowed was 15.58, a full 9.25 points lower than its team average. That to me suggests that there is a grain of truth in the claim that Georgia might be better off without Matthew Stafford if Joe Cox throws a lot fewer picks. I’m not saying that’s 100% true, just that there’s at least one piece of evidence to back it up. In total, UGA’s defense gave up 20+ adjusted points five times. Against the top six SEC defenses, Georgia scored 21.40 a game and an adjusted 19.60 a game for a difference of 1.8 points per. That shows that for all that the Bulldogs gave up in the way of non-standard points, they were almost completely unable to get some back via big special teams and defensive plays themselves.

No one is excusing the defense from some pretty rancid play at times last year. They still “gave up 20+ adjusted points five times.” It’s also the defense’s job, as Coach Martinez has admitted several times, to respond when placed in a tough situation like having the opponent start a drive on your half of the field. That said, those numbers put a point value on what PWD likes to call “team meltdowns”. You see it all there – turnover margin, kickoff problems, the short field, and, yes, the defense…it all added up to nearly a 10 PPG swing, and it truly took a team effort.

There’s another side to the numbers. As Year2 notes, “(Georgia was) almost completely unable to get some (points) back via big special teams and defensive plays.” Aside from Prince Miller’s punt return against Alabama or the glorious interception returns at LSU, the Georgia defense and special teams were typically not able to create points or set up the offense. We went much of the season with the defensive line recording more interceptions than the secondary. It’s not enough for the offense to avoid turnovers or hope Joe Cox throws fewer interceptions. Generating points is a team effort also.

If you had to point to the defining moment of Florida’s 2008 championship season, I’d bet that most would say Tim Tebow’s promise. They have the monument to prove it after all. But Florida’s offensive stats weren’t a great deal better in 2008 than they were the year before. There was a slight shift in balance from passing to rushing, but that’s about it. Giveaways dropped from 15 to 13. To be sure, it was a high level of performance in both years. But what turned Florida from a 4-loss team to a national champion?

The defense improved across the board. 35 takeaways fueled a +22 turnover margin. Opponent trips into the red zone decreased by over 60%! Opponent points per game were cut nearly in half, and that’s before Year2’s adjustments. Back over to Year2 to put a point value on those defensive improvements. Combine Florida’s insane number of takeaways with great special teams play, and you get this:

Everyone knew that Florida’s opportunistic defense and special teams were good, but against the best defensive teams in the conference, they were worth an entire extra two touchdowns per game.

That’s right: last year Florida’s defense and special teams spotted Florida’s already-potent offense an additional 13 points against the SEC’s top defenses. Not to take away from the accomplishments and contributions of Tebow and his teammates on offense or the potency of the spread option, but what Florida’s defense and special teams were able to accomplish takes hidden yardage and points to the extreme.

Think life would be easier for Cox and company with anything approaching that level of contribution from the defense and special teams?

(The quote in the title comes from a Warren Buffet letter to shareholders.)