Mountain Dog

The big uglies ain't feeling the love.

There's a lot of debate going on in DawgNation about the prospect of redshirting Fromm. Certainly, the upside is that you get another potential year from him. If Eason enters the draft after the 2018 season as everyone seems to think (I'm not completely sold on that, but it's the prevailing wisdom), Jake would have the controls theoretically the next three years through the 2021 season. Given what Fromm has shown so far, that's all upside.The fly in the ointment is that Kirby is making a concerted effort to change the offense's future to more spread/RPO. He's heavily recruiting DT QBs. Some see an opportunity to come in and play soon, being the only DT in a pro-style QB room. Others are cautious, seeing UGA's QB position possibly locked up for the next 5 years while Kirby rides out his pro-style stable. The other consideration is that Fromm may just be too damn good to redshirt. The kid really has all the tools, plus the "it" factor that other kids rally around. He's truly special, and if Eason doesn't show serious progress this season it wouldn't surprise me one bit to see Kirby use him. Ramsey has a cannon for an arm, but his in-game decisions are questionable and his reads are slow. Kirby knows he's gotta win 10 this year, at a minimum. If Eason continues to be squirrelly, or gets hurt, he can't expect Brice to carry the team to that level.

The only SDS article of substance I can recall going back and reading completely through a second time. Lots of stuff to ponder. The dynamics of TV, cable, millennial preferences, internet, smart devices (including TVs) will undoubtedly change the CFB landscape in the years to come. The shrinking revenue pool is already becoming apparent in some ways, and this is an intriguing glimpse of the future if the status quo erosion continues. Plenty of food for thought here.P5 schools are clinically addicted to the current TV cash flow. G5 and some FCS schools have also become dependent on P5 paydays. If that flow does slow dramatically as predicted, there's no forecasting how the sport will react. Just like a tweaker desperate for his next fix, school presidents and ADs could be completely unpredictable in the lengths they might go to in fighting for their share of a shrinking pool. Stadium naming rights are already beginning to bubble up in CFB, something I thought I'd never see in such a traditionalistic game. Bowls are insanely out of control. It's all about money.Even if some of the scenarios above never come to pass, this is still an article with ramifications worth thinking long and hard about. Thanks, Ty - nicely done. SDS - this is the type of writing with real meat that you should make a regular feature on the site. The quick-hit focus on quantity vs. quality needs to change. The real focus of this site in fan engagement, but I believe you'd see more of it if article standards were raised to a higher level. Just my two cents.

As a lifelong Bulldog, it's incumbent on me to be a Gator Hater. However, in McElwain's first season he seriously jacked up one of his players on the sideline for attempting to humiliate a kid on the opposing team. I said right then, "That's my kinda coach!"

I wasn't aware six consecutive starting QBs had transferred. That is a stunning stat! That's got be a record of some kind. Imagine if only one had been consistently good and stuck around . . .

Not to be salty or anything, but OM has perennially been a 4/5-win team before "suddenly" having a few quasi-successful seasons. Last year was more like the OM we're used to seeing, so . . .Personally, I think you'll go over. But 6 may be the ceiling.

What jumped out at me was that three of those were thought to be UGA leans at different points last year (Stevens, Williams, Bryant). We had an awesome recruiting class, but just imagine . . .

Still one of my favorite sideline moments of all time. Right up there with Woody Hayes trying to clock that Clemson player who intercepted his QB.

Wyoming at Boise State. Seriously?

Eaglebuc, now THAT'S an example of intense off-season thinking. You've even delved into the post-season quagmire of not having enough eligible teams for bowls, and who fills out the slate with graduation rates (Missouri). Nicely done, and as valid as anyone else's opinion at this point. I'm not sold on Oklahoma State to this degree, and Arky seems awfully optimistic given Williams situation, but whatever - the off-season is all about opinions.Two other thoughts. If this were to play out, (1) we'd be waving goodbye to Sumlin in December, and (2) the NCG would be without a team from the south for only the second time since 2005.

Sabah has definitely earned the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise.

I never thought I'd say this but, here in the doldrums of the off-season, I almost miss good ole Rebel_Landsharks. He/she would be posting some very entertaining stuff on these OM articles. If, that is, he/she hadn't completely disappeared when it became obvious the Rebs' 2016 season was swirling down the drain.I suspect the COI may be a bit harsher with whatever penalties they hand OM since there are no titles of any kind to vacate. The fact that Freeze had good compliance training in place may work against the school. Having this degree of stuff happen in what is ostensibly a "controlled" environment could be viewed as worse than in one with poor controls in place. The argument could be made that the controlled environment was just for show while shenanigans went on knowingly behind the scenes. "I didn't know" just doesn't fly in this era.

And your order of finish would be?

Another example of why the NCAA needs to update the transfer policies. This needs to be taken out of the hands of the conferences and coaches and applied consistently across CFB. The prevailing thinking that you don't want a former player on the opposing sideline is just outdated BS. If you're an undergrad, you sit out a year to transfer to another FBS campus. Post-grads play immediately. No restricting of destinations if you qualify academically. Period.I had issues with Mark Richt his last few years at UGA, but I fully supported his wide-open, no-restrictions transfer policy. Hell, he even cut a running back loose to play for Georgia Tech. Once a player is not feeling the fit, buried in the depth chart, or soured on a program, restricting where he can transfer to is just petty revenge. The only exception I can see is maybe a one-year restriction on following a departed coach (a la, Peterson to Washington, Richt to Miami, Herman to Texas, etc.). Some may call it collegiate "free agency", but the restriction to sit a year is a pretty powerful incentive to stay put unless things are intolerable.

Unfortunately, play action was pretty weak for Eason last year. I think that was his lowest completion-percentage formation. It seemed to me that, as a high school quarterback that always played from the gun or pistol, he had real difficulty adjusting to routes and coverage after turning his back to the field of play for a second or two. If he can get comfortable passing out of the PA, he'll skyrocket statistically. If not, Chaney needs to quit banging his head against the wall and utilize him in a pistol as often as possible to get a similar PA effect. The job is to win games, not prepare a QB for the NFL at the expense of team goals.

I believe the best shot in the arm for UGA's running game, aside from better O-line play and scheming from Chaney, will be upping the effectiveness of the intermediate passing game. The only way to back off that extra DB in the box is to make them fear plays going over their heads. It doesn't have to be the 40-yard bomb, which Eason was not particularly adept at yet - just enough 15-yarders to instill a real sense of conflict in opposing defenses.

That's really sad. We all have jerks in our fan bases, but there's a line as a human you just can't cross - especially over a game. While it would be easy to pile on UT over this, all fans need to remember it could happen at our school. I've been disappointed and embarrassed at the actions and words of some UGA fans in the past and, if you're honest with yourself, you probably have been too.

In circles like AA, Marshall would be considered an enabler. And I can immediately think of 50 players who far surpass Beckham for that title. He's good, but he's the classic poster child for the hubristic, prima donna WR.

As a high school junior, Owen in already 6' 6.5" and 305. His dad is over 6' 9". He has the potential to go 6' 8" and 350. I also expect he'll pick up that 4th star before NSD. Pittman is building a massive O-line. The 2018 starting unit should average well over 330 - and maybe a lot higher if we nab the 400-pound, uber-athletic Aussie kid everyone's going nuts over.The trenches bore a lot of fans, but this is where you ultimately win or lose. Kirby knows that and has made the lines his top priority in recruiting. If Richt had the same philosophy, he might still be in Athens. Smaller, athletic linemen, which he seemed to love, can only get you so far in the SEC.

The fade route to the corner of the end zone looks suicidal.

The NCAA cares who's FBS and who's FCS. The 6-win eligibility standard to qualify for a bowl can only include 1 win over an FCS opponent. You beat two FCS teams, you only get credit for one win in determining bowl eligibility. If you have 7 wins or better, you're likely good - but there's a danger for mid-tier P5 teams scheduling more than one FCS opponent.And yeah, UMass is awful, and would likely get creamed by several FCS teams. I was just pointing out that scheduling a very weak FBS OOC team is smarter overall than going the FCS route. Michigan and Florida can attest to that.

At least UMass is an FBS school - all the rest in the full list are FCS schools. Even then, it's not a guaranteed thing. Georgia struggled mightily against Nicholls State last year, and there were plenty of other examples of P5 schools having difficulty with, or actually losing to, FCS opponents. Washington State won 8 games last year, including destroying Stanford, but was beaten by Eastern Washington.So, which is worse: playing a quality OOC opponent or two each year and filling the corners with softer cupcakes, or just loading up on middling cupcakes for all 4 OOC games?

That really counted as an article?

You could throw in the 2012 SECCG. That was a high-stakes classic, as much as I hated the result.

I'd gladly take that combination of good/bad the past 3 years. Having 40 on the board, but not getting 50, sure beats losing to teams hanging 28 or 30 on us.

"Given that portions of the fan base were critical of Mike Bobo when the team averaged more than 30 points per game . . ."Hell, some were trying to run him off when the Dawgs were averaging over 40 a game. I never understood the Bobo-bashing, especially when the defense was putrid. One of Richt's biggest mistakes was blowing the choice to replace Bobo when he left.

I suspect that by season's end we may see the names of Mecole Hardman and Richard LeCounte somewhere on the official lists. I fully understand that they have no body of work to speak of yet, but I'm expecting both to have big first years (Hardman was all but redshirted last year, so this will really be his introductory season). Terry Godwin may be another Bulldog looking to break out. Hardman and Godwin will depend on Eason having the type of year 2 many expect. If Jacob ends the year as an All-Conference QB, there will likely be a couple of UGA receivers there as well.

Exactly what I was going to post. An ungodly number of blue-chippers rolled into Athens this week. We are now three-deep in scholarship QBs. No one is questionable or out for pre-season practice. Hanging a Five Worst tag on UGA for next year's fluid recruiting class and Trent Thompson's mostly-resolved health - that's a reach.

That jumped out at me too.

It was proposed in SC a few years ago from fear that realignment might endanger the Clemson-SC game. It didn't pass, but if it had and the governor signed it, it would have been law that the two teams play each year. If there was ever a nutty enough scenario that truly endangered the Iron Bowl, I have no doubt every politician in Alabama and the Gov would enact legislation to preserve the game. The conference would have to adhere or challenge it in Federal court as unconstitutional somehow.No one in the league office (or a university president) is stupid enough to allow this concept to surface seriously. Just click-bait speculation during the slow season.