10 things I'm absolutely overreacting to after the SEC's bowl season
Thank goodness for Alabama? OK, but don’t forget Georgia, Kentucky, Ole Miss and Texas A&M.
Sure, Florida and Auburn opted to get their butts handed to them on national TV. Mississippi State opted to treat its Armed Forces bowl literally. And I sincerely hope Kirby Smart opted to do anything other than watch the Sugar Bowl.
But it’s hard to argue with the SEC’s 6-2 record against ranked teams. Though some certainly tried. Those are just some of the 10 things I’m absolutely overreacting to after the SEC’s better-than-you-think bowl showing.
10. This is so old, Joel …
The anti-SEC crowd was having itself a grand ol’ time Friday.
Right up until Georgia’s Jack Podlesny kicked those tired, ol’ “SEC is overrated” chants to the curb — along with Cincinnati — with a career-best 53-yard boot to win the Peach Bowl.
About midway through the game, when things looked bleak and Georgia looked lost, Big Ten spokesman Joel Klatt took to Twitter …
I guess we can all see why @AlabamaFTBL led the country in margin of victory at 30.3 PPG (only played SEC teams)
The SEC was exactly like the ACC has been for the last few years…A one team league
— Joel Klatt (@joelklatt) January 1, 2021
Oops.
Joel should know better. Georgia rallied — with multiple starters watching after opting out, mind you.
Then this stuff happened, too.
The "SEC is overrated" takes were flowing widely on this here app when Georgia went down early to Cincinnati. Since then
–Georgia beat best G5 team
–Alabama crushed Notre Dame
–4-5 Ole Miss beat B10's No. 2 team
–4-5 UK beat No. 23 NC St— John Talty (@JTalty) January 2, 2021
But here’s the biggest issue with this lame, annual, made-for-attention take:
The SEC is the only league that has had 3 programs make the Playoff. Klatt’s B1G has only had 2 — one of which didn’t even score.
Further, the SEC is the only league that has had multiple programs win a Playoff game. Three SEC programs have won a Playoff game. Heck, 3 SEC programs have reached the national title game.
Ohio State remains the only B1G team that has won a Playoff game. Clemson is the only ACC team that has won a Playoff game.
It’s fun and easy to take shots at the SEC.
But when you swing at the king, you best not miss.
9. Speaking of the king …
I know Bama had King Henry, but dare I say Najee Harris … might be even better?
https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1345124341478875136
Holy Saban. That’s ridiculous. It’s too bad the Heisman votes have been collected, because the hurdle-stiff arm was the single best Heisman moment of the season.
8. End of an error …
Bo Nix had to be helped off the field Friday. He returned … but I’m guessing that will be short-lived.
I don’t blame Nix for Auburn’s disappointing season or bowl performance. I blame the recruiting analysts who anointed him a 5-star savior. He’s a Group of 5 quarterback with a great last name.
7. Why, Dan Mullen, why?
Days before the game, I was chatting with our incredibly talented Florida columnist, Neil Blackmon about the Cotton Bowl. As the opt-outs were mounting, I told Neil if I were Dan Mullen, I’d give Kyle Trask 2 series, call a timeout, allow him to thank his teammates and then walk off to a celebratory handshake for a program resurrected.
And then I would turn the page to 2021 and finally find out whether Emory Jones is good enough to take down Georgia next year. Because that’s all the Cotton Bowl was: a primer for 2021.
Mullen obviously didn’t do that. Instead, Mullen put Trask in the worst possible position, throwing to inexperienced receivers he’d rarely worked with. The timing was off. The strategy was off. Trask was off.
None of it made sense. And that was before Mullen said after the game that the real 2020 Gators played their last game against Alabama in the SEC Championship Game.
Trask deserved better than that. Mullen should have protected his QB.
Even worse, I’m still not sure we know enough about Emory Jones to know whether he can take down Georgia next year in Jacksonville.
All of that momentum talk about the Gators dethroning Kirby and reclaiming the East for good?
I joked with Neil about that, too. I think I settled on Georgia 73, Florida 17 next year.
6. Why David Pollack is wrong about opt-outs …
David Pollack is an SEC legend. He earned the platform to say and think what he wants about players opting out. He doesn’t like it. He said he wouldn’t have done it.
I have no problem with that and no doubt Pollack would have wanted to still be on the field in the 4th quarter of a 40-point blowout.
Pollack took it a step further, however, and said “opting out to me = quitting. Not in my DNA.”
I have a huge problem with that.
Why? Nobody called Kirby Smart a quitter when he quit Alabama to become Georgia’s head coach.
Nobody ever calls coaches quitters when they quit, opt-out or transfer from one program to another.
This is a national issue, but because our focus obviously is on the SEC, it’s worth noting that 13 of the 14 head coaches all quit a job to take their current job. The only exception is Ed Orgeron. He was out of coaching when LSU hired him as an assistant. He moved up after Les Miles was fired. But Orgeron had quit other jobs to accept better ones earlier in his career. Heck, 7 of these guys quit jobs as head coaches to become (or continue to be, in Dan Mullen’s case) SEC head coaches!
Logically, you can’t question a player’s commitment or loyalty for doing the exact same thing every Power 5 coach has done at some point in his career.
5. We’ve seen enough of Notre Dame, right?
The ACC Championship blowout loss told us all we needed to know about Notre Dame’s chances in the Playoff semifinal against Alabama.
The Irish had none.
A predictable blowout ensued — one in which Alabama seemed destined to cover the largest point spread in Playoff history until the Irish scored a final minute TD, aided by Nick Saban penalty of all things.
Every year is different, but some things never change.
Is this good? pic.twitter.com/TMzRZmuiKb
— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) January 2, 2021
This is exactly why there was so much outrage about Notre Dame landing in the No. 4 spot.
4. Ease up on Dabo, a’ight?
Everybody jumped on the fact that Dabo Swinney ranked Ohio State No. 11 in his coaches poll.
It made for very simple and explosive headlines.
Nobody has time for context anymore, but Swinney provided plenty of it. He explained why he ranked Ohio State No. 11 and why it wasn’t a shot at Ohio State. He said he would have ranked any team that only played 6 games that low.
He also said this: Ohio State is good enough to beat us.
Nobody cared about that part of the statement because nobody listens anymore. They hear what they want to hear.
3. Ohio State is good enough to beat Alabama, too, but …
My only concern is: Teams usually only play 1 Super Bowl a year.
Ohio State just played its Super Bowl. A year’s worth of frustration over last season’s Playoff loss to Clemson, coupled with the persistent fight just to play this season and then fight through this stop-start-stop-start season. Dabo’s comments were just the final piece of cloth at the top of the bonfire.
It all added up to Ohio State’s best performance since 2014.
Now all the Buckeyes have to do is turn around and do it again in 8 days.
All that fury that was directed at Clemson fueled the semifinal blowout.
Can the Buckeyes produce that kind of effort and performance 2 weeks in a row?
I can’t wait to find out.
I’ll say this much: You already know about Justin Fields and Chris Olave. Trey Sermon is a problem. Ohio State’s edge rushers, particularly Jonathon Cooper, are most definitely a problem, which surprised me given the fact the Buckeyes had to replace an all-word edge rusher in Chase Young. I had forgotten Cooper was injured last year. Clemson’s o-line is younger and less talented than Alabama’s and OSU toyed with the Tigers, but OSU’s d-line will be the best the Tide have faced, too. Trevor Lawrence is a much, much more athletic quarterback than Mac Jones and he had no chance for most of the night.
2. Alabama hasn’t played its best game yet …
I said in the offseason and repeated throughout fall camp that Alabama wasn’t losing a game en route to the national title game.
I believed in Mac Jones last year and chuckled at the thought that hyped 5-star Bryce Young was going to win the job.
National media panicked when Jaylen Waddle went down. I noted that Alabama’s next man up was a 5-star recruit with early-round NFL talent, too.
Absolutely nothing about what Alabama has done thus far has surprised me.
Here’s the scary part, if you’re a Buckeyes fan: Everything Alabama has done on offense looks easy and repeatable. And here’s the key: complementary.
Load up the box to stop Najee Harris, you expose your DBs to Bama’s complex route forest. Alabama runs decoy routes more often and better than anybody in the country. Brother routes, they call them. I mean, the unselfishness in that program is mind-boggling. DeVonta Smith caught 3 TD passes Friday, but my favorite play was when he waved to John Metchie to follow his lead block after Metchie caught a crossing route.
You can’t teach love like that.
John Metchie with a nice 40-yard gain with DeVonta Smith leading the way on the block. pic.twitter.com/fyRRNkuoSx
— Alabama Crimson Tide | AL.com (@aldotcomTide) January 1, 2021
Drop 6 into coverage to double Smith and limit the big plays, then you expose LBs and DBs to Open Field Najee, part Olympic hurdler, part Herschel Walker.
There’s a reason this offense had 3 of the top 5 Heisman vote-getters. Ohio State won’t stop it. Its offense will have to match it.
As much fun as Alabama-Clemson V would have been, this game feels right.
It’s the SEC vs. the Big Ten.
The SEC won the preseason showdown to play football.
The B1G reluctantly re-engaged, legitimizing the entire season and national championship trophy in the process.
I’ve looked forward to every championship game, but if Ohio State can play like it did against Clemson, this one could be special.
1. Justin Fields, take a bow young man
Wow. What more can you say?
The guy led the fight to save Big Ten football. And now, after playing the game of his life, he gets a chance to take down almighty Alabama, a chance he would have gotten and should have gotten at Georgia.
Fields played so well against Clemson that he made Jake Fromm a trending topic on Twitter.
Kirby Smart is going to be 80 years old and still answering questions about that disastrous decision.
An interesting, well thought-out article. There will certainly be those who disagree with some (or maybe, all) of Wright’s points, but that’s what makes this site so darn enjoyable.
Nice job.
The writer of this article, Chris Wright, is a UF grad, although he tries to hide it. He has hired many other UF grads to write for this site. Their bias pro-UF and anti-UGA is displayed in virtually every article they post. Wright’s level of professionalism is a joke. Even though a writer my be extrememly loyal to their team, when you write as a professional you need to set that aside. But this UF homer and the army of other UF grads he has hired don’t do that. Pathetic.
I’m a UF graduate and it’s news to me that Chris Wright graduated from UF. How do you know this? And other than Neil Blackmon (who pretty much just writes about UF) and Matt Hayes (who I rarely agree with), who are the “many other UF grads” “he has hired” as writers? I’m genuinely curious.
He is a brain dead idiot.
6. Why David Pollack is wrong about opt-outs…..
Great player – Not so much a football analyst.
3. Ohio State is good enough to beat Alabama, too, but…
Yeah – Let’s hope they’re spent emotionally.
Amen to that.
The writer states that “Teams usually only play 1 Super Bowl a year.” OSU looked like they were more on a mission than a revenge game. At the end they weren’t celebrating like they won the SB.
If anyone can rally his guys it’s Nick Saban. Let’s hope he gets it done. I don’t want any b10 team to win a natty.
Agreed. It would be foolish to imagine that Ohio State is somehow satisfied or spent after winning their “SB” over Clemson. SB? Was it really even an upset? Yes, they played well and with purpose, as has Bama on multiple occasions this season. But, would Bama ever be satisfied with winning a semi-final game, or beating Auburn, or winning a conference championship, or can we imagine them being just too emotionally wiped out to be ready to go hard again in ten days? Ohio State may not win, but we all know they’ll bring it. Coach Saban & Co. understand this point & will be ready.
OSU should not be spent. They are the freshest team in the playoffs.
Bama needs to win this for the legitimacy of the title, if Ohio wins it then the 5 game difference will leave an asterisk in the mind of many. Bama beat A&M, UGA, UF, and ND, all ranked in the top 8. Ohio State only had to play Clemson. NW and Indiana are not elite teams, no where close.
Singling out Coach Smart is not surprising since your distain for UGA is legendary, but comparing coaches who complete their contracts and then take promotions and players who quit before all the games are played is bizarre.
What did you expect…them to call out Urban Meyer and his “Heart Trouble”
Didn’t Kirby finish the year at Bama’ after he was hired at Georgia?
Yes, Kirby stayed at Alabama through the 2015 title game.
He didn’t quit. He didn’t opt out.
Spurrier is the only coach I can think of that quit before the conclusion of the season.
True!
Right, Spurrier definitely opted-out. Maybe Kiffin at Tennessee.
I agree. That was an odd take.
I don’t have a problem with players opting out of a bowl. Those that opt out in midseason I think are quitters.
I can’t think of any Coach that quit midseason to take another job.
Spurrier quit midseason – to play golf.
If y’all puppies sniff even the slightest criticism y’all whine like a toddler. Stop being so sensitive, y’all talk trash about everyone yet can’t take even the smallest amount. Childish…
Hmm. Ok. Where’s the article on here that points out what a disaster season this was for UF and that Dork Gator regularly embarrassed his team and university both on and off the field. If Kirby had done or said any of the many jack-a$$ antics that Dork Gator has made this year he would have been completely ripped on this site. This website is run and written by UF grads who make no effort whatsoever to hide their bias.
The author Chris Wright is a poor writer that regularly misses the mark with his writing.
And yet here you Fleabags are spending your day reading that poor writer and anyone else who writes anything about the Gators (which most of this article was not). Who’s dumb and obsessed?
I know we ultimately lost by 17, but UGA led Alabama with five minutes left in the 3rd quarter, in Tuscaloosa, when they still had Waddle, with a former walk-on QB that was 4th string three weeks before the season started.
As this season progresses, that looks like a pretty nice accomplishment more and more.
Looking forward to 2021
Georgia still has QB issues. Daniels has trouble against elite defenses. Not a good foreshadowing.
Which elite defenses?
Has he even played an elite defense? Assuming that elite defenses even exist in today’s game.
redsox2004, The kid has only played something like 16-17 games. 4 in a new system. He just passed for just short of 400 yards, and finished the year in the top 12 for passing rating.
The only reason he had any trouble against Cincinnati, his line didn’t protect him, and he had no run support.
My only concern with Daniels is his lack of mobility. If the line can protect him, he’s capable against any defense.
Cincinnati had a pretty good defense. When you look at their games, you will see most QBs had their worst game of the year against them. I think that bc they are G5, no one wanted to give their D any credit, but Cincy was different than most G5 teams in that they had a good D and their O was just good. Usually, like Memphis last year, it’s a dynamic offense with zero D. Memphis scored more on Penn State than anyone all year, including ohio St. They just can’t stop anyone. Cincy reversed the formula. I think Daniels is gonna be very good. If he could have played earlier in the year, who knows what would have happened.
Daniels put up almost 400 yards against that defense that you say is pretty good.
Daniels couldn’t cut it in the PAC12 he sure as heck ain’t going to do it in the SEC. These GA boys are setting themselves up for a heartbreak.
You should be more worried about LSU. But then again the tigers are at rock-bottom so they can only go up.
poptiger.
Daniels only played 1 year in the Pac. And he did it a year early (Graduated a year early) from HS, and became the USC starter as a true freshman, when he should’ve been playing his Senior year of HS ball.
He got a knee injury in the first game of his second season.
He finished top 12 in CFB for passer rating this year. I do believe most of that was in the SEC…
Idk. Circumstances could be different. Burrow couldn’t make it in the B10 but did in the SEC, is that a bad comparison?
LSU showing up and talking smack. Hmmm. The 2019 NC could get annulled because your program was hiding sexual assaults. It’s a very real possibility. A trash program where any thing goes if the team is winning.
Dirty South, it may look like LSU is at rock bottom but I think there’s a good chance when the NCAA sanctions come down on both the football and basketball programs LSU will be thinking that 2020 was a pretty good year.
I looked for J.T. Daniels in the quarterback statistical rankings at ESPN.com, CFBStats.com and NCAA.com. He was not included in any of the rankings.
Statistical rankings? We don’t need no stinkin’ rankings.
JT for Heisman, first team all SEC QB and #1 overall draft pick. Move over memory of Jaime Newman, the real deal is Daniels, this time it’s gonna be different
I think Daniels is going to do well next year. He played really well against Cincinnati despite the lack of run support combined with some shaky offensive line play. With some more time in the system, I think he can lead Georgia to much more offensive production than they saw over the course of this season.
The Daniels hype train has left the station. Will he join Jamie Newman with a preseason Heisman and be named first team SEC QB as well?
Only in Athens
The top QB’s in the conference are leaving. I expect Daniels to be preseason first team. Who else is there?
Matt Corral at Ole Miss. And a few promising young guns.
The kid at Mizzou?
I forgot about Corral. He has ball security issues but could be the pick. Bazelak only had 7 TD passes all year. He won’t get much consideration.
You know he’s clueless, right?
Just trolling.
Corral
JTF this is not trolling, what I said happened last off-season and yet here we are.
Clueless is for you to forget or dismiss history
So, what’s the excuse for getting pounded by Florida?
None. Whats AU’s excuse for getting pounded by uga?
In 2018, Jake Fromm was not competing with 2020 Justin Fields. Fields was a true freshman. Fromm had just taken UGA to the very cusp of a national title.
2018 UGA had legitimate natty aspirations, and led Alabama deep into the 4th quarter of the SECCG.
That’s not the time to break in a freshman QB, even one as talented as Fields.
It’s unfortunate that Fields transferred, but I will always believe Smart made the right decision at the time.
For anyone who thinks Smart made the wrong decision, please enlighten me as to when he should have switched QB’s.
Like I said, UGA led Alabama deep into the 4th of the SECCG with a playoff berth in the line.
When, exactly, was Smart supposed to have made the switch?
It’s not only revisionist history, it’s stupid, quite frankly.
You are wasting your breath. These SDS “writers” will still be harping on this 5 years from now.
I agree that Smart made the best decision he could with the information he had on hand. Saban benched Jalen Hurts and put in a true Freshman Tua in a similar kind of position, though, and that ended pretty well. It’s hard to say how things would have ended had Fields been given legitimate playing time at UGA. Sometimes with players like that, it’s the snubs that they hold onto that fuels their moments of greatness.
These SDS writers are UF grads, including the edtor Chris Wright who wrote this article. UGA finished the season strong with a win over a top 10 team and an answer for the QB issue. UF did a complete choke job at the end of the season. These UF writers are hating life right now and taking it out on UGA. But they need to be called out on it. I do on a regular basis.
We will see. At this point Fields has managed to get as close as Fromm to a title.
Now I do live in the real world…Fields is clearly better, but what would he have done with last year’s “Throw it to Lawrence Cager oh crap, he’s hurt ah well, run it up the gut” offense. Fields is way better for sure, but Fromm wasn’t what was broken on the 2019 offense either and he wasn’t going to sit until this season which, yeah I feel like he’d have been nice to have around lol.
I will say, I think him going to that UGA practice is why the Big 10 played at all…he was going to be playing somewhere and they knew this.
I agree with you totally. The players around the qb need to be good as well. Mac Jones is a Heisman finalist. What if Matt Corral was starting at Bama? Would he be a finalist? What if Mac Jones were at Mizzou? Would the players there have given him a shot at the Heisman? Fromm’s cast his last season wasn’t as good so he suffered as well. Just my two cents.
I agree 100% with you. I think Smart getting blamed for not having QBs earlier in the year was not fair too. He made the right calls, just so many unexpected things happened. The only thing I have criticized Smart for was waiting to play Daniels, when it was obvious Mathis was a deer lost in headlights and Bennet had lost his mojo. It seemed like Smart did everything he could to not play Daniels, which baffled me. But he did nothing wrong with Fields and Fromme.
Smart’s mistake was not allowing fields to run more of the offense & play more.
I agree 100%. There was no reason to bench Fromm in 2018, especially when Georgia had barely lost the 2017 title to Alabama, and they were one win away from securing another playoff berth with Fromm at the helm. It’s easy to critique and criticize Kirby for that decision, but in the moment it was by far the most logical choice.
All good points except for the “bee one gee legitimizing the entire season”! They didn’t HAVE an entire season. They had a mission in the beginning to CANCEL the season and got their bluff called. They had way too restrictive lockdowns, as did the ACC with positive tests. The ACC then changed theirs to make sure The Dabo had a full team after seeing what their 14 days did to the taters! No, don’t give the bee one gee any credit for jumping in late and playing half a season when they could have been playing when we started a month late!
I agree wholeheartedly. This is easily one of Chris Wright’s worst takes ever. The BIG10 didn’t legitimize anything this year. Their conference was mediocre at best this season with Ohio State being the only great team and Northwestern being the only other above-average team in the entire conference. They attempted to cancel the football season, so giving them credit by saying they somehow legitimized the playoff race is confusing at best.
As a Gator fan I learned that 2021 does not look as promising as it was a few weeks ago. Backups on other teams that had opt outs came in and looked great! A&M a leading example. The Gators looked like they did not even want to play, and that is blamed directly on the coaching staff as well as the 2021 receivers and defensive backs who looked like Illinois instead of Florida! Now that is an insult!
Florida will be breaking in a lot of new guys filling very big shoes. They will look better than in the Cotton Bowl though…those QBs are different than Trask and an offense built around them that is also Mullen’s forte will make them look much better.
Defense? Well that’s like looking at our offense at the end of the 2019 season…it has to get better, right?
As much as I’d love for the Gators to collapse, there is too much talent for that. I see them with a couple losses, but not ugly and inexplicable like the ones this year.
Dang bro even a Georgia fan has a better perspective about your team than you do. Step off the ledge we will be fine
Some good points. I think 4 losses might be a good year for you guys in 2021.
How was A&M a good example? Yes NC’s backups looked great and very promising for them. A&M however did exactly what they were supposed to do and what they’ve done all season since week 3, wear opposing lines down and dominate the 4th quarter. Their 2021 looks every bit as promising as it did a few weeks ago, if anything even more so.
Big 12 goes 5-0 this bowl season.
One main reason was opt outs, and then scheduling. UF should not have to played OU. That should have been the Aggies or UGA. UF should have played UNC in the opt out bowl. OU didn’t make the playoffs, so all of their teams got down slotted a bowl so they all got easier matchups.
The Orange Bowl was the better bowl draw so, regardless of the situation with UNC, it was the best option for TAMU.
Better bowl draw? Not even close. The Orange is almost always the worst because you have to play the ACC runner up. Always a weak opponent.
The financial payout on the Orange Bowl has been far greater than the Cotton Bowl in recent history
UGA had 8 starters out and still got the job done. Mullet is the only one using missing players as an excuse. He didn’t have his guys prepared simple as that.
UGA had 8 starters out against UCF 2.0 and still barely won. With how UGA recruits you should’ve still blown them out. It’s funny how it wasn’t too long ago that Dawg fans were ragging on UCF and their schedule and putting up championship banners, but now Cincinnati is suddenly a legit top 10 team lol. Funny how that works. OU would’ve blown you guys out too, so don’t get too full of yourselves.
yeah, uga had 8 starters out and handled their business. uf had whatever # of starters and got their doors kicked in. you’re acting as if ou was some elite powerhouse. they lost 2 games in the reg season, have a 1st year starting qb and don’t have any projected players to go in the 1st rd in this upcoming draft. what’s so unstoppable about them other than your team’s defense? there’s absolutely zero substance to your proclamation that uga would get blown out by them. you’d like to think that just so you can sleep at night and have some optimism heading into next year. the gators came out flat and it’s obvious beyond obvious why. mullen. mullen. mullen.
also, why would you single out dawg fans for ‘ragging’ ucf for their claimed championship season? what does anything with uga have to do with that? uga finished ahead of them that year….in everyone’s eyes but ucf and i guess you…with your inexplicable reference.
ucf was a top 10 team that year….same as cincy this year. uf however won’t finish as a top 10 team this year.
Yeah, the UCF diatribe was strange.
LSU burst the UCF bubble. I was there to see it.
UF was a shell of the 2020 team vs OU. This season’s Gators were a great team with a really really good offense. All those opt outs destroyed any chance of beating OU. Too bad for Kyle Trask. He deserved better. Mullen didn’t make things easier with his post game comments.
6. Impractical comparison between coaches changing jobs & players opting out of bowl games. Bobby Petrine walking out on the falcons during the season is better comparison. Coaches taking jobs with other teams is more like players entering the transfer portal. And by the way, do coaches not often stay on to the end of the season, before they change teams? Sarkisian & Smart are 2 quick examples that come to mind.
I totally agree with the articles take on Mullen playing Trask over Jones.
Why would Mullen continue to risk Trask like that? Why would he not give Jones the majority of the snaps, thereby getting him ready for the future? But, despite decisions like that, the media continues to over-hype Mullen?
Trask was clearly distracted and not totally focused on the game. He was not seeing receivers who were open while forcing passes to another who was covered.
I think the answer is simple. Emory Jones is simply not ready, and Mullen didn’t want the rest of us to find that out. Jones is and will always be a good to great wildcat QB. After that, he can’t measure up.
Georgia now has a QB who can measure up. Pair that up with Grantham’s defense, and Florida losing 90% of their offense, and you have a predictable finish for who will be the SEC East champion in 2021.
Trask was a class act who showed up to play. How the heck do you not play him?
That was my thought. He earned the right to stay in that game as long as he wanted to by elevating the program and simply showing up to that game. Classy guy and I hope he finds success at the next level.
JTF, kirkm 1976, I agree that Trask was a stand up guy. He had nothing personally to gain by playing, yet he did for the whole game.
But, it wasn’t going well. Trask didn’t look good from the start. There was no run support, and no elite defense to bail the offense out. Mullen should’ve realized that and taken Trask out to protect him from injury.
Why wouldn’t you let Trask get the start, play a couple of series, then take a bow. Bring Jones in, who has very little meaningful playing time so he can get the experience, and get a jumpstart on the new offense for next year?
For all the opt outs, you have to hand it to Trask for staying. He knew it may make him look bad but he didn’t leave his team. Personally, I wish others had that mindset. You almost never see the QB opt out. They have a different mentality.
I don’t know Tim, but pulling him after his poor performance would have looked bad as well.
Tim I’m not sure what game you were watching, but Trask was in for 4 plays to open the second half and then was pulled for Jones and Richardson.
I was tempted to jump in and poo poo JT’s performance…he was overthrowing dudes all game, but looking back at the clips he had guys in his face pretty regularly.
Still, I think he is good but I don’t see him as a Heisman kind of guy unless he gets more accurate. He has a big arm but he misses a lot of throws.
The rebuilt O-Line had a bad game. As we saw with Trask any talk of the Heisman should be saved until the last game is over. Smith came in late and just blew everyone else away.
I think he missed more throws this game than his previous 3 starts. He seemed off from his previous level of play but still managed to throw for close to 400 yards and completed 5 of 7 on the game winning drive. That tells me a lot about a player when he can find a way to win against a good team even when he doesn’t have his best game.
Even if Florida has a down year, which is highly probable, does it matter? Jawja may well win the SEC East, they might beat Florida, but haven’t proven they can do anything with being top dawg in 40 years. So enjoy this optimism, worst case scenario for a Gators fan is we get to watch y’all screw the pooch yet again…
Worst case scenario for you guys, the President and major boosters get tired of Dork Gator making an a$$ of himself and the university and fire him.
Yeah Trask should have played a couple of series and then bowed out. However after throwing 3 picks it would have looked bad to remove him so it is what it is.
Disagree about your take on Emory Jones. We will find out soon enough but most Gator fans are confident with his ability and the guy behind him too. Much more than a wildcat guy as told byNFL scouts and others in the know, not just homers like me
TheRealjones, Like you say, we will see.
I just haven’t seen anything from Jones in the passing department. His stats against Oklahoma: 8 for 16 at 50% for 86 yards and 5.4 average per pass.
I know the lost receivers hurt, but that’s not impressive.
6. They are not quitters. The goal is the NFL, not the Cotton Bowl. How can we blame them, and even call them quitters, when the goal is right there in front of them, and they don’t want to risk losing it?
5. I like A&M, and I thought they should have been in the playoff. Now I’m not so sure. Against each of two common opponents, Notre Dame looked somewhat better than A&M, or at least just as good, considering North Carolina’s opt-outs. Maybe neither of them deserved the #4 spot, but who else deserved it? Maybe Oklahoma? Oklahoma had two losses, and their history in big games is every bit as pathetic as Notre Dame’s. Still, it would have been good to see A&M in the playoff, if only to inject some new blood into the mix.
3. I agree. After watching what they did to Clemson, I think Ohio State is good enough to beat Alabama. Looking forward to the game.
Several of our opt-outs had been playing hurt and wanted to heal up before NFL evaluation season. I can’t fault them for that.
I’d guess it’s a similar story with several other teams’ opt-outs.
If the goal is the NFL, then why are Harris, Jones, and Smith playing on Jan. 11th?
Same reason Burrow, CEH, and Justin Jefferson played to the end last year. Chance at a natty. There is a difference between a natty and a Cotton Bowl win.
Then the goal is not the NFL. It’s a Championship. And when it becomes clear you are not going to win one, you should just quit.
So UGA should just shut the program down…
I understand your argument. But I think the fans feel more let down than the teammates. You think Trask blames his teammates for opting out? I don’t think so. The players know their teammates and know the reasons their teammates have for opting out. They probably are much more understanding than the fans. What do we care about the NFL? Half of us are not NFL fans. We selfishly care about LSU, Georgia, or whatever team we pull for. These players have worked hard to get that paycheck. Why should they risk injury when they know they will be drafted?
I understand yours as well. I just think the future of the sport is in danger. The change in perception as well as the changes around NIL/Transfers, all being made for the few superstars, is going to hurt the majority of players long term.
Yes, why even play the regular season if you are a top 10 pick. Pull a Bosa and just leave the team. You can use the “we are here for the NFL” argument to an extreme level, which has already started happening. The players that are not there for the NFL? Who cares about them. Me first. If you are injured it’s one thing, but a healthy scratch to me is letting the team and teammates down. You didn’t get to this point alone, it takes many others to help develop you and look good. Who cares if the Florida WRs made Trask look horrible and he moved down a couple of spots in the draft. Gotta take care of me. This mentality is going to end up hurting the game itself. Btw, I agree with you, just went on a rant there.
I’m curious how that strategy plays out with Jamie Newman.
Who?
Exactly
Imagine the reactions in August if you had predicted Texas A&M to finish third in the CFP rankings. If Bama-OSU is a blowout, the Aggies might even sneak into second.
CHRIS WRIGHT, you just got called out! Are you man enough to defend your opinion. We’re waiting to find out…
Please tell us exactly when should Kirby have benched Fromm and gave the job to Fields? Or, are you just spreading Fake News?
Your take on Kirby Smart “quitting” when he finished out the season, before he left Alabama as the DC, for a promotion as the HC of Georgia is nothing short of bizarre, and totally lacks any logic.
Yes, not even a Georgia fan and he could have used so many other examples that were way more fitting. Not sure why he said Smart there. In fact, it’s extremely rare for an assistant to stay like Smart did, so even weirder he called out Kirby.
Urban Meyer and his “I have heart trouble” BS.
Sorry Chris. Instead of calling it an Opt Out List”, they need to call it what it is. An ‘I Quit List”. Yes, these players quit on their team and your analogy of Coaches leaving programs for a new job is “Apples & Oranges”. Coaches don’t leave prior to the end of the Season (for the most part). They generally finish the season (i.e Bama’s O Coordinator) Any coach who doesn’t finish the season, I have the same problem with them as I do the players that quit on their team. They’re teammates and coaches had a huge part in making them the player that they are.
Agree 100%. The me first mentality has invaded the team sport of football, based on so few cases I can count them on my hand. It hurts the game when these players quit. You abandon the people who put you in the position you are now by quitting. Football is the ultimate team game, so the culture switch of me first doesn’t go well with it. Most players are not there for the NFL, so they get punished for it. Hell, Trask may lose money bc of it. Notice the QB almost never opts out.
Most of the HCs that do not finish after accepting new jobs, are told that they can not by the schools they are leaving. The guy that wrote this would make a moron look like a Rhodes Scholar.
Re: 6 game national champion
Remember when the Dumb People were telling the Smart People that participation trophies were a really bad idea and the Smart People continued – and continue – to insist that there is no such thing as a slippery slope?
You should never tell people you’re scared. Never a good look.
Nah, not after a historic undefeated SEC schedule en route to the championship.
This is more of an observation on the societal shift towards lowering standards and accepting changing rules depending on the situation.
How’d your bowl game go, BTW?
We won the national championship in our last bowl game. Let’s hope Bama can do the same.
I have to admit that I’m worried about Alabama’s sharp drop off in ability after inevitably losing Heisman-level players and record breaking offensive line coaches after the playoffs are over.
Hopefully we’re bowl eligible next year.
We didn’t expect to win back to back titles. We are happy to have won last year. You being all upset about it is just a bonus.
We didn’t expect to win back to back titles.
–
We know.
We do.
Regardless, I don’t enjoy internet arguments once they’ve reached the ad hominem stage, and I’m not sure if your nic is one of the abundant Nagan-style trolls that I’ve fallen for, so please enjoy the final word.
Chris Wright is a moron comparing taken a promotion somewhere else is quitting. This guy probably hasn’t ever worked a proper job in his life to say something that asinine and stupid. He is the dabo of sds.
The coaches like Smart and Sark who went to take head coaching jobs yet stayed with the team for the rest of their season is completely different than players quitting mid season because their team isn’t playing well. The players from LSU who “opted out” mid season quit their team, and there’s nothing that will convince me otherwise.
I agree
I’d love to know if Dabo would rather his alma mater (and the place he won his first championship) win the title or if he’d prefer ohio state.
If I had to bet, I’d say Bama. (Assuming he cares either way).
coaches are different. They are not fans. I doubt he cares to be honest.
I definitely think Ohio St is talented enough to beat bama but if they win maybe there should be an asterisk added because they didn’t play as many games as everyone else. & as far as Fromm & Fields.. Georgia was winning with Fromm.. why would Kirby make a change ?..& no there is no such thing as an elite defense anymore.. we are all the big 12 now..
If Ohio State should have an asterisk for playing less games, shouldn’t Alabama get as asterisk for beating a team that played less games? The asterisk is coming either way. The champion won’t care.
None of this is going to matter next year.
Not sure Pollack is completely wrong. The opt outs midseason are quitters. I wouldn’t take one back to my team. That in my opinion is different than someone opting to not play in a bowl game that does absolutely nothing for the player while
Making a ton of money for everyone else.
I was surprised Marshall quit on LSU. He had been a very good leader up to that point. Gilbert being homesick is just sad and comical. Hopefully he grows up at some point as he is a talented player.
Sad yes. Comical no.
I mean Kirby changing from Fromm to Fields would have been about like bama changing from Jones to Young.. it ain’t broke.. why would you try to fix it ?
I hate the opt-outs, too. Bowl season has always been a great finish to the regular season. The matchup between conferences gives us games we’d rarely see otherwise. All the opt-outs renders these games as meaningless as some already thought they were.
I’m not going to think poorly about the players that go that route, though. The risk isn’t worth the reward if you’ve already secured a high draft spot and a lucrative payday.
It’s interesting though. The NFL was around 10 years ago and yet no one opted out. The money was there. Nothing has changed except the way society thinks.
McCaffrey was the first highly visible one that I remember doing it.
Didn’t OSU have a kid that sat out an entire season recently back in 2018 or so?
Bosa I believe
Thanks wde0012
Bosa is the player. He was injured earlier in the year and declined to play the last couple of games.
I would like to add my 2 cents worth here. Chris, don’t try to defend your stupid reference to comparing the opt-outs of players to coaches, especially Kirby. You’ll just be digging your hole deeper. Speaking of hole, a better comparison would be in the military, a soldier or Marine helps you dig a foxhole. If that team member quits it’s a Dishonorable Discharge and no one, I mean no one, brags about their Dishonorable Discharge. And THAT’S what these quitters should be given. Kirby did not quit. He was there for the championship game THEN took a promotion to HC at his alma mater. RTR!!!
I wouldn’t equate opting out with a dishonorable discharge. A dishonorable would be more akin to getting kicked off the team, embarrassing your teammates before a big game. Doing something that brings dishonor to your University, the uniform and everything you worked and trained for. Think Jameis and crab legs, or grab her by the #!$$/, or his timeshare fiasco. Jumbo and FSU defended him and kept him in uniform, but I would still call that more along the lines of dishonorable than opting out. Opting out would be more like not volunteering to go outside the wire when needed, if a CO makes it optional to go on some difficult and likely dangerous task. Its more cowardice, and self preservation than a servicemember who is simply a PoS.
Your take on opting out is ridiculous. Kirby Smart coached at Alabama for over ten years, helped them win multiple championships, then decided to stay on to help win them another championship prior to moving on to coach at his alma mater. How in the hell is that any way comparable to a player quitting on his team for the final game of the season? Opting out is quitting, just with a nicer connotation.
Y’all little puppies get so hurt by words, so easy. Y’all cant take a lick of criticism. The lack of self confidence, the inability to take any feedback says it all.
No slak, that’s more like your HC Dork Gator. He was in complete excuse mode this week on the criticisms he got. What a disaster season it turned out for UF. Really sorry about that. LMAO.
Most coaches who leave for other jobs are 95% of the time still under contract with their current teams. Most head coaches do not coach on a contract in its final year because they usually get extended with 2 years left so yes you can make a case they “quit” on the players and schools. I don’t see it that way neither do I see post season opt outs as quitting. I am not a fan of opting out during the season like some kids did.
Pollock should walk in these kids shoes first before labeling them quitters. Let him experience their financial background and then realize that come April, the signing bonus will be more money than anyone in the family has ever seen, IF you don’t get hurt. Is avoiding being labled a quitter by people who don’t financially support you more important than “securing the bag” for the people who do?
He literally did. He was a 1st round draft pick and played his bowl games. He didn’t quit on his team and he still got paid. He made it to the NFL and his body got ruined, now the thing he hangs his hat on is his allegiance to his alma mater. A lesson in there somewhere, and it blows my mind I’m defending a former uGa great to a puppy fan.
@Slak, I don’t know if Pollock came from the same financial background as a whole lot of the kids do who are choosing money over school loyalty. Christian McCaffrey didn’t play in Stanford’s bowl game and I don’t recall any talk of him quitting and he came from a wealthy family. Is it possible he saw to great of a risk to play in Stanford’s non-championship bowl game?
it’s such an ignorant take to criticize some of these kids who are opting out. have you ever been on a campus with these kids? i recognize that the majority on here have never played a team sport with kids from poverty-stricken backgrounds, but let me explain it to you very simply….a good number of these kids…particularly on college football teams come from beyond modest upbringings. their best clothes are the free gear that they receive from the college. they’re not wearing them around campus to brag…they’re wearing them because they’re the most presentable and they bond them with their teammates.
the vast majority don’t want to quit on their teammates…they’re simply just trying to get themselves a better life.
Extremely poor take. Not all players are eat dirt poor like you make them out to be. Playing 1 more game isn’t going to take food out of their mouths.
I never said all. i generalized and i specifically said ‘a good number’ come from low income situations. clearly you haven’t, or you wouldn’t have taken such offense to my comment and felt the need to continue to judge some of these kids.
you bring up one example, jaylon smith. would you want to be the next jaylon smith who lost out on millions on account of his injury? clearly, no one else wants to be next one either. is it commendable that smith played with his teammates? absolutely. it’s a commendable act by all players who play out their seasons with their teammates, but you’re ignorant to simply call all players that opt-out as quitters or selfish.
Name one player other than Jaylan Smith who got hurt in a bowl who dropped in the draft. They risked injury all year but the bowl game is more dangerous? I notice that after LaCounte and Sanders got hurt in car accidents that players didn’t stop driving. It is selfish and it’s quitting.
The one thing Chris Wright has made absundantly clear: He LOVES Sideshow Dan the Clown and doesn’t like Kirby Smart. At all.
Firstly, a-hole, Kirby Smart didn’t quit on Bama. He coached through their National Title Win against Clemson.
Secondly… IF YOU’RE TELLING ME YOU’RE GOING TO BENCH THE LITERAL THIRD BEST QB IN CFB, WHICH IS HOW JAKE FROMM FINISHED 2018, FOR A FRESHMAN, OR YOU’RE GOING TO HAND THE 2019 STARTING JOB TO FIELDS WITHOUT ANY COMPETITION AT ALL, THEN YOU ARE STUPID OR A LIAR.
You’re stupid or a liar, Chris Wright. Which one is it?
FIELDS LEFT BECAUSE HE DIDN’T WANT TO COMPETE FOR THE JOB. PERIOD. FIELDS LEFT. KIRBY TRIED TO KEEP HIM. HE PROMISED HIM A COMPETITION. THAT WAS IT.
God, you people are so incredibly stupid. Everything you accuse Joel Klatt of being YOU ARE.
Bruh… Chill on the diatribe, take a breath friend. Childish…
Hey ‘turd, worry about your own clownshow house run by your clownshow coach.
Lol, take valium chief.
I can’t tell if your deranged or just hateful. I’ll go with both.
The Dawg fans on this site get tired of the anti-UGA biased writing from editor Chris Wright and the other UF grads on this site. These unprofessional clowns need to be called out.
Try the decaf corch.
I am sick and tired of this a-hole’s b.s.
It’s been all freaking year. Even more, it was all last year, too, right up until the moment Kirby kurb-stomped Sideshow Dan again. This year it’s been worse.
We get it. He loves Cousin Eddie and thinks Kirby is a moron. Go write for Alligator Alley then.
Opinions are like….you get it.
It’s not required reading, you can always just go away
Fields has not gotten any further to a NCS than Fromm at this point. On the other hand OSU traded Joe Burrow for Fields….how did that work out?
Well, maybe Fields as a backup vs Burrow as a backup, but…Burrows lost the competition as starter to Dwayne Haskins. So he transferred.
Are you saying Dwayne Haskins > Jake Fromm? Very questionable at this point.
Dabo is the Les Myles of the ACC. He wins with a ton of talent and minimal competition in his state. Head coaches in CFB are like politicians, they have tons of money to work with and bloated staffs to make them look good.
Dabo really should know better in this era of media brainwashing and the sound byte.
This guy is dead wrong about Field’s. Smart is an excellent recruiter but has yet to develop a single player. They leave as they come. Look at Fromm. He didn’t get better as the years rolled by and in fact, in some ways he got worse. He can’t or won’t try and turn a 3 star into a 5 star and because of this Field’s would never have developed like he did at OSU. GA will win big as long as Smart recruits well. If he drops that recruiting ball for a few seasons his inability to coach up players will be exposed. It’s the only real issue I have with Smart. In every other way he is an excellent Dawg CEO.
This is the most hilarious and most easily disproven lie that the Floriduh ‘turds delude themselves about Kirby.
Tae Crowder – 2-star running back developed into an All-SEC LB and now NFL starter by Kirby
Deandre Baker – 3-star CB developed by Kirby into the literal best DB in CFB in three short years, first round draft pick
Eric Stokes – 3-star CB developed by Kirby into an All-SEC CB and future NFL draft pick
Rodrigo Blankenship – no star walk-on developed by Kirby into the literal best kicker in CFB and now one of the best kickers in the NFL already as a rookie
You want more, delusional liar? Because I can keep going.
I would suspect that all of those players that you mentioned were marginal academic qualifiers. And that is the reason for the low recruiting service ratings.
You’d be wrong. But anything you can do to keep up the line of b.s. about Kirby Smart “not developing” players to make you feel better about Sideshow Dan the Clown’s relatively bad recruiting, right?
All of those were defensive players under Smart. It remains to be seen what he can do on the offensive side. If you go by good kickers, Malzahn did a great job.
SECHomer, I realize it must be growing old watching Kirby recruit on an elite level every year, while the best Mullen can do is skirt the edges, but you need to take another look.
Nobody recruits on that level (every year) if they’re not developing players. Kirby has developed many players and at every position. That’s why so many of his players are in the NFL, and that’s why they keep coming to UGA.
Now, if you want to talk about a lack of development, we can take a look at the Florida defense and the Florida running backs…
Yeah 44-28.
If I am the coach and you choose to quit/opt out before a bowl game, fine, good luck in the NFL I hope you have a successful career and raise a great family.
Now go take your seat in the student section with everyone else, you won’t be on the sidelines with the players and coaches.
You are an idiot. Kirby Smart did not quit, he finished the season and won another NC. I find it typical of you brain dead idiots in the media with the way you choose to use words. You like to use opt out instead of quit, when opting out is before you start something, and quitting is when you fail to finish something. You can spout any Bull S you want but not playing in a bowl or games, by choice, is quitting. If they are not happy they can enter the transfer portal and not let the door hit them in the @ss. Now go play in the street and act all woke there.
He quit a job at Alabama to take one at Georgia. You’re arguing about when he quit, not whether he quit. Head coaches routinely quit before bowl games to take new jobs.
To me, that’s not why the argument fails. It’s that, by definition, to take a new job you must quit your old job, if you have one. I’m assuming Chris Wright probably quit an old job before taking the one he has now. This isn’t a moral failing, it’s just how jobs work.
What the eff is a “all-word edge rusher”?
Fun with numbers:
The team with the largest margin of victory in the national semifinals is 5-1 in the championship game, winning last five.
– 2014-15 Oregon beat FSU 59-20; Lost Championship to OSU
– 2015-16 Alabama beat MSU 38-0; Won Championship over Clemson
– 2016-17 Clemson beat OSU 31-0; Won Championship over Alabama
– 2017-18 Alabama beat Clemson 24-6; Won Championship over Georgia
– 2018-19 Clemson beat ND 30-3; Won Championship over Alabama
– 2019-20 LSU beat Oklahoma 63-28; Won Championship over Clemson
– 2020-21 OSU beat Clemson 49-29; Faces Alabama in Championship game
Other fun but meaningless fact:
– The Winner of the Rose Bowl game semi-final is 0-2 in the Championship game while the winner of the Sugar Bowl semi-final is 2-0 in the Championship game
last little tidbit:
– The playoff #1 seed has won one championship (LSU 2019-2020)
– The playoff #2 seed has won three championships (Bama in 2015-16, Clemson in 2016-17, and also 2018-2019
– The playoff #3 seed has not won the championship
– The playoff #4 seed has won one championship (OSU 2014-15)
This season Alabama is the #1 seed and OSU is the #3 seed in the championship game.
I’m not saying that Notre Dame has no place in big-time college football–anyone who wins their way in has a place there, IMO. The problem with Notre Dame is that they didn’t win their way in–they were squashed like a bug by the #2 team only a week prior.
To me, they were not as deserving as either Texas A&M or Cincinnati. Cincinnati was undefeated, and losing to Georgia doesn’t change the fact that they had run the table in the regular season and looked very good. And, while no one was super excited–particularly in the BCS committee–about A&M and Alabama getting a rematch, it’s hard to think that A&M (or Cincy, for that matter) wouldn’t have given Alabama at least as entertaining a game as an overmatched ND did.
In theory, in a 4-team playoff, the conference championships are assumed to be quarterfinals. But that doesn’t work in reality for two reasons: (a) Notre Dame as an independent basically short-circuits this logic; ignoring their performance this season in the ACC Championship Game showed why (1) the championship games have value and (2) what happens when you ignore those results; and (b) the current system works as a lockout to any G5 champion, regardless of worthiness, and as a practical lockout to anyone else not named Alabama, Ohio State, or Clemson.
Until Nix has a chance to play behind an offensive line that is more than a look out line, I don’t think any accurate assessment can be made about his talent.
We’ll see if Emery Jones can hold in his lunch playing UGA next year. Or will he puke all over the field during his first drive.
Fields played, in my view, much better after his ‘ injury ‘. I hope he gets 100% ( if he ever wasn’t ), I would hate for those intrepid Bucks to have yet another excuse, should they need one. Maybe they can bring their own refs.