Photo by John David Mercer, USA TODAY Sports [Typical disclaimer: Only the opinions of an ordinary Bulldog fan and alumnus are being expressed here. I've never met or spoken with Coach Kirby Smart. I'm not authorized to speak on his behalf, nor on the behalf of the University of Georgia.] There is no whining in college football. Conventional wisdom called for the most conservative, safest strategy: instead of continuing to play to win, now try to extend play and avoid losing during the final three minutes of regulation. The only problem was, that strategy failed miserably in the national championship game less twelve months ago, with a superior, more experienced Georgia defense. True, this Georgia defense has terrific young talent, but it is no longer anchored at key positions by the likes of Roquan Smith, Lorenzo Carter, or Davin Bellamy. Asking these freshmen and sophomores to stop an Alabama team from scoring that had beaten every regular season opponent by an average of three touchdowns and every prior SEC opponent by an astonishing average of almost 33 points per game would probably be asking too much of them. Talk about deja vu. Twice in one year, to lead the vaunted, favored Crimson Tide by double digits late in the second half, and to lose the game only because Alabama scored on their final possession? That would be a very bitter pill to swallow. So Kirby Smart faced a difficult decision with 4th and 11 for Georgia's offense at midfield, with 3:11 left in the fourth quarter of a tied SEC championship game. The "smart" play would be … [Read more...]
Bulldog pride
There are 365 days in a year, except leap years. Normally I'm proud to be a Georgia Bulldog fan (and alumnus) for at least 350 of them, I'm guessing on average. As for those other days, well, the problem isn't my alma mater. Nor has it been the football team, the basketball team, swim team, or tennis team that embarrassed me. Instead, the problem tends to be a minority of others who also call themselves Bulldog fans, but fail to understand the concept of winning with integrity and losing with dignity. In the spirit of full disclosure, I will confess that I haven't actually watched the LSU game yet because my oldest nephew's wedding was in California last Sunday. While Georgia was on the field in Baton Rouge, I was flying coast to coast from Atlanta to L.A. for the rehearsal dinner. Even so, I don't need to watch the replay to know most of what happened: turnovers, mistakes, a couple of bad calls by the officials, perhaps a key injury or two, penalties, and missed opportunities. Of course, that also pretty much describes every agonizing Bulldog loss that I've watched over the course of my lifetime. By the time I'd landed in L.A., a friend of mine had killed the battery on my cell phone with text messages giving me score updates as I navigated my way from LAX to Malibu. So without watching the replay I already know we stopped LSU on fourth down but the home team got the call. But no matter how you try to spin the tale, that one bad call didn't make the difference in a game lost by three touchdowns. These days, it seems that without any rules or restrictions, any idiot … [Read more...]
Five Reasons Why Georgia Should Beat Alabama
I don't bet on college football games. Most of the time it's hard enough to decide which team will win without trying to factor in the point spread, and it's easier to enjoy the game without a financial stake in the outcome. However, I usually try to figure out which team will win in advance because I consider it an exercise of the same analytical skills I use to write my detective novels as "Rocky Leonard", and specifically the ability to apply logic and reason to problem-solving, especially if I care about the outcome of the game. As a Georgia Bulldog alumnus and football fan, I care about the outcome of the 2018 national championship game, and I'm aware that the bookies in Las Vegas have installed Alabama as a four point favorite. The prognosticators and pundits have also spoken: Colin Cowherd decreed that Georgia has absolutely no chance to beat Alabama, and according to him the Crimson Tide are "best team in football" who only lost a nail-biter to Auburn, (by "nail-biter", Cowherd apparently means losing the game by only 12 points as opposed to a 23 point margin.) UGA fans who have been upset by Cowherd's prediction that Alabama will thrash our Bulldogs in the National Championship game should note that this same "expert" analyst also predicted Oklahoma would defeat both Georgia and Alabama and win the national championship. Remember, the "experts" forecast Hillary Clinton would be President today, not Donald Trump. In other words, as my late Dad used to say, opinions are like a-holes. Everybody has one. Almost every writer at Sports Illustrated also picked … [Read more...]
Georgia’s next defensive coordinator
First of all, let's get something straight up front. I have no special access to insider knowledge. I don't have a mole inside the UGA athletic department. No little bird has been whispering in my ear. Nobody who knows anything has told me anything that no one is supposed to know. In other words, take my analysis with a grain of salt, if not the whole shaker. I've been blessed with the God-given ability to use my brain to think like a private detective, which coincidentally comes in quite handy because my day "job" is to write detective novels. I use the pseudonym Rocky Leonard to differentiate the novels from my nonfiction writing. Kirby Smart does not have my number on speed dial. Nobody has divulged any Georgia Bulldog secrets to me. I'm a writer, not a sports journalist. Like Sergeant Schultz from the old television show Hogan's Heroes, I hear nothing. I know NOTHING! But I think I know who Kirby Smart might be planning to hire as his defensive coordinator, given only the fact that he didn't retain former UGA defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt. Coach Smart's hires for the offensive side of the ball seem to be excellent choices, especially considering the overwhelmingly positive reaction that came from the experts in sports journalism and the fact the new offensive coordinator and offensive line coach have experience working together. Nothing has been said about the defense, though. If we have confidence that the (soon-to-be) former defensive coordinator at Alabama has a clear plan in mind for the Georgia defense, we should assume that Coach … [Read more...]
