Mountain Dog

Atlanta native, UGA fan of 40-plus years. Mountaineering enthusiast, hence "Mountain Dog".

Recent Comments
Just one of Voltrain’s many aliases.
I have to admit, that Michigan D has impressed me these past two games. I was very curious to see how they’d perform outside the B1G, and they delivered. Completely flummoxed two of the top 6 Heisman finalists, and the Joe Moore award-winning O-Line. I think the bowl season reinforced that the B1G was, by and large, just horrible offensively this year. Michigan’s defensive unit, however, seems to be totally legit. They were not just coasting against weak offenses in the conference.
“Nick and Kirby are jokes (realize that this is sacriligious to SEC fans) that can only win with players who everyone knows are the best.” The former 3-star (and below) players Kirby has won national titles with is pretty dámn impressive. You can start with Stetson Bennett, then include Jordan Davis, DeVonte Wyatt, Ladd McConkey, etc. Some of the names you probably know best from UGA’s roster were not 5-star recruits, including Brock Bowers and Carson Beck. Carry on with your fantasy, though.
Will Howard with the 4th-best odds: a 59% career passer, with a 2-1 TD/INT ratio.
“ The sad irony of the 2023 season is that the Pac-12 was the deepest league in the country in its swan song, yet the Huskies conquered all challengers.” Does the narrative not change with games played? This was the chatter halfway through the season, then most of the PAC imploded. When the final AP poll comes out Tuesday, only 3 PAC teams will be there.
“However, he did not play in the team’s final four games of the season.” . . . due to a collarbone injury. Context is kinda important here.
When the last AP poll comes out next week, you’ll find that UGA played four of the final top ten teams. They soundly beat one (Mizzou), clobbered one (Ole Miss), and thoroughly annihilated one (FSU). They lost by 3 points to the fourth (Bama), despite winning the yardage battle while 5 impact starters were out or severely limited. There will also be a fourth final top-25 win (Tennessee), along with 3 more wins against bowl teams. In all likelihood UGA will finish a consensus #3 in both final polls. “Who did UGA actually beat?” Enough with the pre-season SOS bullshít narrative.
B1G and PAC fans (now mostly co-mingled into one amorphous group) have an incredibly skewed view of “their” bowl game. The sense of entitlement is astounding at times.
This game, like most, was won on the lines of scrimmage. The Michigan D-line absolutely bullied Bama’s O-line most of the afternoon. Milroe was under constant duress. Conversely, McCarthy seemed to have time when it counted, and the O-line was giving the backs room to run. You don’t see it often, but Bama got manhandled on the LOS. I still can’t quite believe it.
The SEC is now guaranteed to have 4 teams finish in the final AP top 10 (Bama, UGA, Mizzou, Ole Miss). Possibly even half of the final top 8. And two of those are not the traditional league legacy programs. If that’s “top-heavy”, what does that say about every other conference?
Strangely enough, yeah - I think I’ll stick with on-field performance in evaluating a team. It’s not 20/20, but it usually reveals more truths than any other method. Auburn gave Bama a tough(er) game as well. Funny how that happens with your two biggest rivals.
And let’s not forget this FSU team, fully intact, barely escaped with Ws against Boston College and a pedestrian Clemson. These was not a world-beating squad, even at full strength.
While admittedly not as egregious as FSU’s roster depletion, folks need to take a minute to realize that UGA’s roster was down about 20 portal-jumpers. Many of those were extremely talented backups, with plenty of recruiting stars behind their names and a significant amount of playing time accumulated over the course of the season. Also, the Dawgs’ two obvious first-round draft choices - Bowers and Mims - were on the sidelines the entire game. This was not a machine at full strength dominating a patchwork opponent, as so many apologists want to paint it. Kirby had plenty of holes to fill as well - he just did a much better job of preparing his guys.
Hayes writes a piece, I roll my eyes and say to myself, “Well, at least this guy can’t get any worse.” Then he writes the next one . . .
Les, it has to start at the top. UGA accepted mediocracy for years under the previous prez Michael Adams. Once he left and Jere Morehead became president, changes happened pretty quick. He was totally bought-in on the importance of having an elite football program in Athens. Kirby was hired within two years and the wet-dishrag AD was replaced not long after. Jere can often be seen on the field post-game, whooping it up with the players, coaches and AD.
Kiffen did billboards often in the Atlanta area when he was at UT. Somewhat understandable given the talent gold mine Atlanta is, but it still seems a bit too much.
Not that there was really any doubt, but all 27 of UGA’s commitments had signed their NLI by noon today. KJ’s flip was the only drama in Athens, and he’s supposed to have his NLI in by day’s end.
No, I’ve been conflicted for a while now. We’ve got a decent number of seemingly good-dude Gators on this site, and I do feel for them. It’s gotta hurt like hell. On the other hand, I remind myself of the way Spurrier joyfully smacked us around in the ‘90s, along with the unending grief we’ve had to take from Gator fans for years, and I feel a bit less empathy.
Even better, Kirby had the highest average rating per signee - 93.60 to Ohio State’s 92.92 and Alabama’s 92.59. Texas and Auburn round out the current top 5.
Dámn - UF has now slipped to 15th on the 247 composite. Even worse, now 8th in the SEC. Weren’t they top-5 just a couple of weeks ago? This is not going to be received well in Naperville.
Ironic as hell that Raiola spent the last 6 months recruiting KJ to Georgia.
SDS has really shít the bed on ESD. It’s 1:00 PM and exactly 6 news articles and zero pieces related to any recruiting news.
I’d love to see Brock for one more year wearing the G, but if there ever was a case for a Junior to declare, he’s it. No conceivable way he can develop much further by coming back, and he’s a slam-dunk top-ten pick. At this point, among all the draft-eligible players on Kirby’s roster, I think only Sedrick Van Pran has declared. Bowers, McConkey, Mims, Truss, Milton, Edwards, Bullard, Tykee Smith, Stackhouse, Logue, Brinson, Lassiter - no decisions yet that I’ve seen. And now, with Carson’s announcement last night . . . this is getting interesting.
Jeez - Bama’s gonna make them quit by the 4th quarter. This is 180 degrees the wrong approach to playing the Tide.
His other “reward” will be getting mauled behind a weak Nebraska O-line. Hard to develop NFL skills while constantly running for your life.
“Georgia native” Dylan Raiola - who moved to the state this past July to play big-boy football at Buford High, and has resided here for all of 6 months. Jeez, Louise . . .