Final Feelings: Everyone Is Freaking Out
Dylan’s Final Feelings:
Other than the religion test that I’m pretty sure I bombed on Monday, another solid week here in the Classic City.
We got practice Monday and Tuesday, but not Wednesday (Maybe they were working on screens, and didn’t want us to see). You can tell this team is focused. They know what is on the line in this game and they know they have to be on their best. During drills the intensity was high, coaches were fired up but also straightforward in what each position needed to accomplish. Like Tray Scott, who in those two practices hammered home the point of staying low, good hand placement and creating separation. Against LSU, the D-line couldn’t get that done, and it showed very clearly.
In player interviews, the guys threw out lines echo Kirby’s “treat every game the same” philosphy. Still, people like Isaac Nauta were very candid. He said that in all honesty, this game does mean more. Not only because of what is at stake but because Georgia just doesn’t “like these guys that much,” to put it lightly.
If Georgia wants to win this game, they’re going to have to show what they couldn’t against LSU. Domination on both lines of scrimmage is crucial. I doubt Kirby and Chaney will shy away from running the ball this week as they did in Baton Rouge, so the offensive line will need to explode quickly and create holes early in this game. Georgia needs to get back to Kirby’s offensive strategy of making teams tired late in the game by running the ball down their throat. I don’t think it will look pretty, but I’m betting that Georgia will get on that track and beat Florida 21-17.
Horns and Aggie talk:
Texas has done a really good job of getting everyone’s hopes up, myself included. And it’s been an awesome ride, but No. 6? We’re getting a little ahead of ourselves. This team lost to Maryland (!) not too long ago. It’s about time for a humbling loss, and what better than one in Stillwater against Mike Gundy and a subpar Oklahoma State team. Texas is getting back to being the Texas of old, but they still haven’t escaped the Texas of new completely.
At Mississippi State won’t be an easy one for the clown... I mean Aggies, sorry. That being said, Jimbo has got them steamrolling right now. I would bet that A&M loses two more games before the season ends, but this won’t be one of ‘em. Aggies scrape by.
Wow, I just picked against Texas and for A&M. I’d like to think I’m just being rational, but maybe… No… I’m not… becoming one, am I? This whole time, I thought I liked the Horns but I keep writing somewhat negatively about them, and I’ve picked the Aggies the past few weeks. What am I turning into?
Psych. College Station sucks and is a fraction of Austin. I’ll die before I wear maroon as ugly as that. Hook ‘em.
Matt’s Final Feelings
After an insanely stressful week at the DeBary house, I’m excited to cover one of the best rivalries in college sports this weekend.
It’s Georgia/Florida week, folks. Nothing else matters this weekend. This is one of the biggest rivalries in college football, and there's nothing like it in the sport.
Yes, Texas/Oklahoma is similar, but even that doesn’t compare to Georgia/Florida. This neutral site game isn’t played at some lame state fair. It’s home to the largest cocktail party in the world. Nothing can compare to this, and this particular game is the biggest one since 2012.
So how does Georgia win?
Well, they’ve got to have better QB play than they did against LSU. This is a solid Florida team whose only loss came to Kentucky who is currently ranked 12th in the country. That looked like an embarrassing loss at the time, but not so much today.
Florida’s defense is stout. That we can all agree on. They’re going to bring tons of pressure on Fromm, and the sophomore better be ready. Georgia will get their yardage on the ground as long as they don’t abandon the run. The one thing they can’t do is turn the ball over, especially in the air. If Georgia can get off to a fast start and establish the run, they’ll win the game.
Justin Fields needs to play a lot in this game and throw the ball. He can’t just go in for a random zone-read and come out of the game. It’s time he gets a full series or two in the first half of a meaningful game. This is still Jake Fromm’s team, but this is the biggest game of the year. If he doesn’t play well out the gate, Fields needs to have an opportunity. It’s not rocket science.
I might be stating the obvious here, but whoever has more rushing yards will win the game. Each turnover will be huge. Every big offensive play will be huge. I’m expecting a low-scoring game, with Georgia coming out on top 24-20.
As much as I enjoyed driving down to Jacksonville last year with Wes, I’ll be flying down with the girlfriend this year. Her sister, an old high school friend of mine, has a place in Jacksonville, and we will be crashing at her place. That means I’ll be having a good time at one of the local breweries down there on Friday night.
On Sunday I’ll be starting Nick Chubb in fantasy football and couldn’t be more excited. I was laughed at during the draft for picking him, but I know Nick Chubb can be one of the best backs in the league. Nick Chubb will have over 100 yards and two touchdowns on Sunday. After that performance, he will become the face of the Browns. It won't be Baker’s team after Sunday. It will be Nick Chubb and the rest of the Cleveland Browns.
As I’ve said multiple times, I’m not an NBA guy. I follow the Hawks, but I don’t keep up with them like I do my Braves and Birds. All I ask of the Hawks is to become a fun team to watch. I was disappointed with the Trae Young pick, but as it turns out, he might actually be a damn good player. If he can make the Hawks fun to watch, I will gladly say I was wrong on him. We will see.
Going back to the NFL, my Birds are 3-4, but they've still been fun to watch. The Matt Ryan haters have run back into the woods. Julio Jones is still one of the best players in the world. If the defense was healthy, this would be a playoff team. Unfortunately, nobody can seem to beat those damn New Orleans Saints. The luckiest team in football. If the Saints make it to the Super Bowl in Atlanta this year I will lose my damn mind.
Also, I love Halloween as much as the next guy, but I’ve never been excited to get all dressed up. It’s just not my style. But since I have a girlfriend now, I think I’m supposed to play along and dress up. She wants to do a couples thing, and since I’m a pushover, I will go along with it. We’re supposed to go to a party with some of her teacher friends next Wednesday night. She wants to go as Daenerys Targaryen, but if I can’t find a Jon Snow costume by then,
Anyway, Dawgs win this weekend 24-20. Get ready to party, Dawg Posters. It’s going to be a fun weekend.
Dean’s Final Feelings
First things first, I’ve got the Dawgs winning, but I will take the Gators and the points. I think the Gators score late to make the game within the margin of error as it relates to the line. If this game is about Florida, which everyone is making it out to be, that’s fine. This event has always been Florida-centric.
I have been going since 1997, and from that day forward I’ve always known where I was when these two kicked off, and it is certainly not being played in Georgia. This decade has been a marked change for the series from the previous two decades when the Gators won three national titles and were one of the top programs in the country.
Florida has been sputtering since - trying to find itself and a QB the entire time. Needless to say, the Gators did have NFL-level quarterbacks on their rosters in that time, Will Grier and Bengals backup Jeff Driskel, but they never really figured out how to effectively use them - or time up majorly winning with them.
And so the series started flopping back and forth. Aaron Murray went 3-1 against the Gators, losing in overtime and pulling off an upset in the biggest game of this series this decade with the 2012 win.
The Gators returned the upset favor in 2014 - stunning Georgia by simply running the ball forward. Jeremy Pruitt’s defenses struggled in Jacksonville. Meanwhile, Todd Grantham returns. I have to say I don’t get folks really ridiculing him. Grantham was a means to an end… and end that nearly worked out at Georgia in 2012.
When he’s got players, Grantham is good. He “always” has pass rushers - good or not.
One thing to note here is that Georgia’s offense, which is the No. 18 scoring offense in the country, is much more powerful than anyone the Gators have faced yet. Georgia’s 39 points a game is noticeably more productive than No. 58 LSU (30.4 ppg), No. 79 Kentucky (27.1 ppg), No. 81 Mississippi State (27 ppg), No. 88 Tennessee (25.9 ppg), No. 95 Colorado State (25 ppg) and
No. 112 Vanderbilt (23.1 ppg).
Again, the Gators are obviously better than they were last year. So much so that they inhabit the Top Ten for the first time in some time. But can they hold up to four quarters of a rushing attack Georgia is capable of? Can anyone in college football?
LSU maybe? That Georgia stopped running the ball isn’t the same as LSU stopping Georgia from running the ball. That these Dawgs have to run the ball more should be understood at this point. As I talked about earlier in the week, the Gators seem to be particularly vulnerable on the perimeter in the run game. Now, once the ball has gotten to the perimeter you are usually in trouble. I guess what I am trying to point out is that the ball got there a lot against the Gators in games against LSU, Kentucky and Vanderbilt. It was noticeable.
And while the focus of the UGA fanbase will be on the ability to run, it is important to realize just how good Jake Fromm is on first and second down throwing the ball. He’s getting about ten yards a completion on first and second down. This offense is clicking when it is doing both. Fromm played his best game of the season the week before the loss at LSU. Don’t be surprised if and when he returns back to form.
Having watched all of Florida’s snaps (except the second half against the Vols), these Gators are getting the most out of what they’ve got. But what they’ve got shouldn’t beat Georgia on Saturday. It just shouldn’t. And before everyone hyperventilates themselves into a frenzy, the betting markets show UGA as a 6.5-point favorite to win the game. They also show Georgia as a consensus a consensus -270 money line favorite, which means you would have to bet $270 dollars on Georgia to win $100 dollars. A $100 bet on the Gators, on the other hand, would get you $230 should they win.
The point spread translates to the Dawgs having a 67.7% chance to win. The money line odds are at about 73%, so a little higher. If you are betting on UGA winning that’s about a like rolling a dice and expecting a number that isn’t five or six to show up.
So Georgia would be in the same boat with teams like Wisconsin (-6 at Northwestern), USC (-6.5 vs. Arizona State) or Southern Cootlumbia (-7.5 vs. the Vols). That Northwestern, Arizona State or Tennessee could win isn’t the same as they should win.
This game isn’t as tight as Texas (-3.5 at Oklahoma State) or Miami (-3.5 at Boston College), where the game is closer to a 60-40 advantage for the favorite, but it is tight enough that UGA could lose. That it would lose in back-to-back weeks as not only a favorite, but a significant favorite would be odd and speak to a problem Kirby Smart would need to adjust.
All that math said, I’ve got the Dawgs to win.
I finally got the chance to watch the final episodes of Big Brother. A lot to digest there at the end. I would have take JC to the end had I been either of the two finalists, but that’s me. If you are going to play a Machiavellian game you have to take advice from him.
“If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.”
In other words: Tell the person you have a deal with that you’ve got a final-two deal until you don’t don’t need the final-two deal any more and get rid of that person. Being loyal in that game is great - expect when it makes sense to not be loyal. Tyler cost himself $500,000, and Kaycee nearly did as well.
In addition… Swaggy C, who he had been in the Big Brother house for 23 days, proposed marriage to Bayleigh, who accepted.
Um...
I’m not saying she’s not a catch - because she an attractive, smart girl who gets fired up sometimes - she seems to be a catch. What I’m saying is that at 23 years old we tend to get a little caught up in things… and asking someone to marry you 23 days into knowing them is a little… aggressive.
God bless them. I hope they are happy.
Speaking of aggressive - I went to two birthday parties this week. One for someone who turned 70, and one for a five-year old. I need new friends. The 70-year old party was about being happy to be there.
WE AIN'T DEAD YET!
The five-year old party was the equivalent to looking for hookers and cocaine on Bourbon Street.
WHERE IS THE PARTY AT? RIGHT HERE? GIVE ME MY BALLOONS RIGHT NOW, OR I WILL CUT YOU.
Aggressive. Very aggressive. I am going to need the five-year old to tone it down a little.
Man in the High Castle?
People are out here dying everywhere. The American Nazis are trying to get rid of all American history. The Japanese know they had better do something quick, or they are going to get run over on the West Coast.
People are coming back from the dead. People are getting killed with ashtrays. I don’t ever seem to see anyone eating. Maybe after the Germans and Japanese won World War II they figured out how to just take pills instead of ingesting food.
I don’t know.
Half the time I turn on the TV I feel like we are getting a Man in the High Castle-style flashback to the 1960s - a country in peril. Also, when is the stock market going to start pulling back a little. Is this thing going to run for 15 years? We are ten years into this run. I’m not a market guy, but I know enough to know that we are not going on forever.
No french fries since August. It has made no difference. I’ve not gained weight, but I’ve not lost a ton, either. I guess the point was just to not eat them. Also, having been to two birthday parties of late, I have to say that cake is overrated, but icing is undefeated.
Never serve non-moist cake. In Man in the High Castle terms, that’s totally un-American. It would be akin to, what, not having macaroni and cheese at Thanksgiving? What is this? Are we expected to drink Pepsi next?
Speaking of which, I am least looking forward to the pre-game in Jacksonville. Nah, I’m good. I will pass on the dried up hamburger.