My Two Cents on a Playoff

This seems to be a popular topic floating around the blogs recently so I thought I'd add my two cents to the discussion.  I'm one of those fans that wants it both ways.  I would love to see a playoff in college football, but I'd hate to see the regular season devalued.  Here are three recent examples why I worry about a playoff being implemented in college football:

(1) 2008 Arizona Cardinals

(2) 2007 New York Giants

(3) 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers

The NFL to me is very similar to college basketball.  The whole point of the regular season is just to get into the tournament.  That's the exact reason I love college football so much more than its professional counterpart.  The regular season is its most valued treasure.  It's not about the team that gets hot for three weeks.

The Arizona Cardinals this year lost 56-35 to the New York Jets and 47-7 to the New England Patriots.  If this were a college team, there's no way we would be considering this team for national title contention (see the Georgia Bulldogs 2008 team for how two blowouts will affect your national championship hopes).  Nevertheless, this team is on the cusp of being crowned the "champions" of the NFL if they can win one more game.  Last year the New York Giants won a tight game against a team they were heavy underdogs and which they lost in the regular season.  In 2005 the Pittsburgh Steelers made the playoffs without even winning their division and got hot for three weeks leading to a "championship".  Does anyone honestly believe that had the Giants and Patriots played again a week later that the Giants would be favored?  Am I the only one that has an issue with this?

In my last post here, I voted Utah #1 in my final Mumme Poll.  This had nothing to do with my bias against the hated Gators as I explained that my true opinion was that Texas, Florida, and Utah all had an equal claim to the #1 spot in the land at season end.  Right now, college football has what amounts to a two-team playoff better known as the BCS Championship Game.  We essentially are splitting hairs between multiple one-loss teams to determine who we think is most worthy of the title.

Like I mentioned earlier, I don't want to see the regular season lose its value.  If we had a multiple team playoff, there's a solid chance that USC (the real one, not the Gamecocks) could be the 4 or 5 time defending national champions as they traditionally are playing their best football at the end of the season.  The problem is they seem to slip up during the regular season (see Oregon State/UCLA 2006, Stanford/Oregon 2007, and Oregon State 2008).  The argument I hate the most in college football is "Well, Team A could beat Team B right now at a neutral sight so we should rank them higher".  That argument is just silly.  Just because USC could obliterate the rest of the 118 teams in FBS on January 1st, 2009 didn't change the fact they lost to a 4-loss Oregon State in September.

Saurian Sagacity posted in 2007 (funny that this was the year after the Gators won a national title under the current system, apparently some Gators can see the flaws in a system that benefited them - shocking) a "modest proposal" for a playoff.  He prefaces the post by the fact that it is a "TOTALLY UNREALISTIC PLAN" that "WILL NEVER HAPPEN".  I do like the idea proposed.  I have a few concerns about whittling the teams down to 96, but I can see how that makes sense.

The concern that has been posted over at the Senator's site, and which he and I have an agreement on, is the concern for expansion.  One of mine and the Senator's most noted discussions concerns that of one Dennis Felton.  As we are both alums of the University of Georgia, we want to see our programs succeed.  He and I both agreed that if a playoff were instituted in college football and allowed to expand in size, we could see programs suffering under Felton-like regimes.  The only reason Dennis Felton is still coaching at UGA is because he got to the NCAA tournament last year with that tornado stricken, wild weekend in Atlanta.  Most rational UGA fans would notice that was fluky and not indicative of the Felton era as a whole.  The problem is that the casual UGA fan sees that UGA made the NCAA tourney therefore Felton should be allowed to stay around even though his record suggests otherwise.  This brings me to my biggest argument against the playoff because when money is involved we all know there is the inevitable expansion of eligible teams.  Hell, we already have 68 teams playing in bowls, who knows what the playoff number could be.

If we are going to have a playoff, there can only be 8-12 teams.  I prefer the 8 team answer because this eliminates the need for byes which would probably be based on human rankings anyways.  I do agree with Saurian Sagacity that we need 8 power conferences with 12 teams apiece (for those of you that majored in management/marketing, that's 96 teams).  For that to happen we will have to eliminate 23 teams in FBS (if you can't subtract 96 from 119, please stop reading).  The SEC, Big 12, ACC and MAC are already set up for this.  The easy solution for the Big Televen is to add Notre Dame (if NBC will allow it).  There would be a challenge with how to allocate Conference USA, WAC, MWC, and Pac-10, but I'm sure smart people could figure that out.

Once we get down to eight power conferences with 12 teams, we can split each conference in two divisions with a conference championship game.  The winners of the conference championships get in to the playoff, and we seed based on BCS (or whatever the system is at the time) rankings.  Therefore, in that first week 1 plays 8, 2 plays 7, and so on.   Currently, the last week of games for FBS schools is the first week of December.  We can play the first two weeks of the playoff during the middle of December, have a two week break for final exams and holidays, and play the championship game during the first week of January.  This way we don't interfere with school and at most we've added two games to the schedule (currently, conference champions in the 12-team conferences play 14 games a year including the bowl.  With a playoff they'd play 12 regular season, conference championship, and three playoff games if they made it all the way to the championship game for a total of 16 games).

By not interfering with final exams we throw out the critics that worry about conflicts with school.  The two extra games may be a stickler for the "too many games" critics, but I'm not concerned about continuing play through December.  I'd rather see my championship game in January with two fairly fresh teams than the two recent stinkers that Ohio State put up after being off since the Thanksgiving weekend.

Quite frankly, I don't ever see this happening as there is way too much money to be made in the arguing and bickering that is the BCS, but it would be nice.  As long as we, the college football fans, keep watching and attending games under the current system, nothing will change.  The only realistic chance for a playoff is for us to decide that we'd rather find new hobbies than watch college football on Saturdays (which ain't happening).  By having a conference championship game for every conference, we don't devalue the regular season as you have to make the conference championship to have a chance at the national championship.

Well, anyways, that's my two cents.  Let me know what you think.

My argument for Matthew Stafford

I posted this over at DawgSports, but I thought I'd share it with anyone that would like to read it here:


215 completions on 352 attempts for a 61.1% completion rate. 3,209 yards through 12 games for an average of 267.4/game, 9.12/attempt, and 14.9/completion. 22 TD's to only 9 INT's for a 2.4 TD/INT Ratio. An overall passer rating of 153.17 which places him 15th out of 119 passers, behind only Tim Tebow in the SEC.

Asides from the quantitative measures I mentioned above, have you guys seen the games he's kept us in this year? He played most of the second half of Alabama after getting his bell rung pretty good and helped make the score a little more respectable. He was the only player on the offense making plays in the South Carolina game. He was nearly flawless at Kentucky, at Arizona State, and against Georgia Tech. If he doesn't have the games he had at Kentucky or GA Tech, we get blown out of the water. He made huge throws in the LSU game. Dude is 20-5 the last two years, same as Tim Tebow.

My question to what seems like a growing faction of the Bulldawg Nation; Do you honestly believe yourself when you say we'll be better off next year without Matthew Stafford lining up behind center? That production is pretty difficult to replace (keep in mind he's done this behind one of the greenest and thinnest O-Lines I've ever seen). Imagine what next year could be like playing behind an offensive line that is more mature and stronger. I don't think we'll see it as the $$$ are pretty hard to pass up, but Stafford is Damn Good Dawg and anyone who thinks otherwise, please prove me wrong. Sure, he makes the mind-boggling throw every now and then, but tell me what QB doesn't that isn't Tim Tebow or Sam Bradford. Keep in mind the O-line issues when comparing those three. Of the Oklahoma games I've watched this season I don't think I've seen Bradford get touched and Tebow has a more than adequate line. Put those guys behind UGA's O-Line this year, and I have a sneaking suspicion their numbers wouldn't be so outrageous. His one bad game this year was Florida, but that was a case of him being the only player on the field that seemed to give a crap and tried to force things because no one else was.
Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Stafford may never win an SEC or national title, but it's not like it's all his fault or our problems are going to be magically solved if he leaves. If anything, we're going to regress on the offensive side of the ball and have to rely on the defense even more next year. And we all know how I feel about that...

Let me know what you think.

Bowling & Basketball

Whoo!!!  We're playing a bowl game in Florida.  What, that's not the one we wanted??  Aww, gee shucks, I'm just thankful we got some SEC wins this year.  (That was my best Mark Richt impression, BTW)  Hopefully the boys come out fired up and bring hell to Michigan State, but I have to agree with the good Senator.  I don't know what would be more frustrating; for the team to make a marked improvement showing they had the ability all year long, or the team to continue playing without a care in the world and showing that it's continued regression from the beginning of the season never stopped.  

With the basketball team's awesome show in Chicago yesterday, I'm real fired up about what I hope is the last year in the Felton regime.  The first post I made in this blog regarded Coach Felton, and I advocated he should be fired (granted, this was before the miracle run in Atlanta, but I was one of the few that felt he should still be out of a job).  While I attended UGA from 2002-2007, I worked as a basketball usher from 2004-2006, so I got to see a lot more basketball than the average UGA fan.  The typical Felton team has not changed one ounce from his first year.  Every game the team plays relatively solid defense, but seems to always go on a 10 minute scoring drought and still can't make a free throw if a gun were held to its head.  I don't expect much from our mens hoops team, but I think we can do better than cellar dweller.  Florida was a perennial joke in basketball until they made the effort to improve.  Unless Coach Felton gets this team to the NCAA tourney this year without needing some kind of miracle again, he should be shown the door at season's end.  If I weren't so adamantly against mid-season firings, I'd suggest he be shown the door now.  The program's talent level and stature within the SEC has not improved at all during his tenure.  We're now in year 6 and he's been free of the reduced scholarship burden long enough that the team should be at full strength.  Coach, I love your hard-nosed attitude, but sometimes the results have to match the effort, and I'm not seeing it with you.  In the end, wins are all that matters, and sadly there have been not enough wins to keep Coach around.

It's getting feisty over there...

This thing has certainly been interesting to watch. Hooray for hate week?? I thought that was when we played Florida. I don't hold the level of disdain for Auburn as many that commented on that post. I guess it just depends on what part of the fan base you run into. I've always experienced gracious winners (I played flip cup with a bunch of Auburn folks before and after the game in 2005) and gracious losers (many a fan shook my hand in 2002 and 2006 in Jordan-Hare Stadium). A lot of those responses seem to give credence to Buzz Bissinger's tirade this past year. Many post under the veil of Internet anonymity and leave rude comments and take shots that they would never be man, or woman, enough to say to that person's face. Here's to being cordial and acting like adults.

An early look at Auburn

Just some SEC rankings for fodder:

UGA - #1 in total offense, Auburn - #7 in total defense
UGA - #8 in total defense, Auburn - #8 in total offense
UGA - #2 in scoring offense, Auburn - #4 in scoring defense
UGA - #11 in scoring defense, Auburn - #10 in scoring offense
UGA - #5 in rushing offense, Auburn - #9 in rushing defense
UGA - #3 in rushing defense, Auburn - # 6 in rushing offense
UGA - #1 in passing offense, Auburn - # 4 in passing defense
UGA - #10 in passing defense, Auburn # 9 in passing offense

Don't know what these numbers really tell me. Looks like UGA's passing defense won't bite them in the butt this weekend as the forward pass is something that hasn't been seen in Auburn since 2005. Both teams are getting lit up on the scoreboard this year. Auburn is middling in all offensive categories while UGA is middle to bottom in all defensive categories except rushing defense. At the beginning of the year, Auburn was supposed to have the meanest D in the land, but the numbers don't seem to back that up. Right now, UGA's offense has been putting up some monster stats that aren't always translating to the scoreboard. More analysis to come later this week. The big stat that can't be mistaken is the fact that this is going to be the Raycom Sports game. Auburn tends to not wake up in time for those games as they start at 11:30, local time.

Georgia 42, Kentucky 38; Post Knee Jerk Reaction with some thought put into it

After taking a step back from my earlier position and doing some real thinking, I feel a little bit better about this weekend. I put a Fan Post up over at Dawg Sports that was ripe with emotion, but lacking logic. After reading some comment from others at Dawg Sports and some self-reflection, I've stepped back from my initial position. It doesn't help that Mark Richt makes it completely clear that he feels it's not the coaches' faults. There have been numerous breakdowns in Special Teams and untimely offensive turnovers that have contributed to the numerous points layed on this defense in the last two games. Thankfully, none of the turnovers against Kentucky came back to bite Georgia in the proverbial butt.

The Special Teams play was atrocious. A 96 yard kickoff return, a blocked punt, and a punt for 18 yards all set up scoring drives for Kentucky with the short field. It's hard to hold the short field against the defense, but I'd certainly be a little happier if those scoring drives were 3 points instead of 6. Maybe my post should have been titled "Fire Jon Fabris Now", instead of "Fire Willie Martinez Now".

Knowshon Moreno was singledhandedly a red-zone beast this weekend. Hard to believe that in all the years of Georgia football only he and some other guy you might have heard of are the only two RB's with back-to-back 1,000 yard seasons. As I mentioned post-game Saturday, I think Matthew Stafford must have forgotten he played in the SEC and thought he was playing for one of those Big 12 teams. He ended up throwing for a career-best 376 yards with 3 TD's and zero INT's. The offense in total rolled up 520 yards and 42 points. The offense was six for six in the red zone.

Demarcus Dobbs decided to pull his best Thomas Davis in 2002/Charles Johnson in 2006 impression and cause a last minute turnover that sealed the game for the Dawgs against inferior opposition. What scared me most about this weekend was the fact that Kentucky was running nothing more than a variation of the triple option and gashed the defense for over 220 rushing yards. I believe we play some team in a few weeks that is known for its option offense. Anyways, I hold hope that Coach Martinez can rally his troops and maybe they will magically start wrapping up tackles and stopping the run again.

I don't do this very often, but I do take exception to Coach Richt's comments regarding what he sees as likely the casual or uninformed fan. As a person that believes he knows a little about football, I'll go on record and say that my complaints aren't scheme based or lack of blitzing. My complaint is this team just doesn't have that killer instinct that defenses in the past have had, and it seems fundamentally undisciplined (see missed tackles, poor execution, etc.). Of all people, Coach Richt should know best that having a bad defense can get you run out of Athens. I may be wrong, but that's how Coach Richt got his current job. Now, I appreciate Coach Richt for taking this sleeping program and "blowing the lid" off it in 2002. It seems the program has a sense of complacency over it and isn't doing what it takes to get to that elite level. I just don't want to see the team become mired in mediocrity like FSU the last few years due to unwillingness to address needed change. I just ask that Coach Richt doesn't allow Coach Martinez to become our Jeff Bowden if it reaches that point.

We've got two more regular season games and a bowl game. This team can still reach 10 wins and achieve another top 10 ranking. The goal at this point has to be to send the senior out the right way. Three out of four versus Auburn, extending the streak to eight against Tech, playing in a third New Year's Day bowl, winning 10 games three out of four years, and finishing in the top 10 three out of four years. Certainly the setbacks have caused this season to be something of a disappointment, but we can still finish the season strong. Let's hunker down and GATA!

UGA 42 Kentucky 38; Initial kneejerk reaction with no thought put into it

Georgia wins today in Lexington. After last week, this game did not provide the soul soothing blowout that Georgia fans were looking for. The Dawgs have serious, serious problems on the defensive side of the ball. There's absolutely no reason an injury-depleted, freshman-laden Kentucky team should put up 38 points on the scoreboard. I've been a Willie Martinez apologist for a few years now, but this game was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. FIRE. WILLIE. MARTINEZ NOW. Not tomorrow, not at the end of the season, not in 30 minutes, I mean now! Special teams looked lackluster at best. The offense turned the ball over at untimely moments that allowed short field for Kentucky to work with. Sound familiar??? On the bright side, Mo Mass made up for two fumbles with a huge 77 yard reception to set up the final score. The defense did bail out Mo Mass's fumbles with two 3 and outs. Matt Stafford didn't turnover the ball once and looked like a Big 12 QB out there throwing for 376 yards with 3 TD's. Knowshon broke 100 and rushed for 3 TD's. I guess in the end, a win is a win, but I'm not inspired at all by this team's play. Many have said, but I'm now convinced that SEC referees are out to get UGA. I mean, how many momentum changing penalties can be called on one team?? I suppose it could be worse. You could be these guys. More on this game tomorrow. I'm too emotionally worn down for anything else.

Georgia vs. Kentucky, 11/8/2008

UGA at Kentucky, 12:30 PM, Raycom Sports; Lexington , KY

It's been a long week for the Bulldog nation following the hangover from last weekend, but it's time for us to stop feeling sorry for ourselves and get ready for Kentucky. Hopefully, nobody's forgotten what happened the last time we visited Lexington. It was at this point that the team hit the proverbial rock bottom. This was also the the most horrific game of Matt Stafford's career, last week not withstanding. I essentially see this game as the defining game of this team's season. It's time for us to take charge and send our seniors out the right way (by beating Auburn 3 out of 4 times, never losing to Tech, and going 3 of 4 in bowl games). On the note of seniors; we are going to really miss MoMass next year. The guy has been a warrior and he really stepped it up his senior year. I hope the rest of our young guys will grow into their roles as well as he has over the last few years. We're going to find out how they handle the adversity of having their goals absolutely demolished last weekend in Jacksonville. We're going to find out about the senior leadership, if any, on this team this weekend. At this point, the team can still win 10 games and go to a bowl in Florida to take on the second or third best team in the Big 10. Certainly, not the bowl game we originally wanted to attend in Florida, but 10 wins is nothing to sneeze at. It's certainly encouraging as a fan base to see the disappointment and hurt coming from the Bulldog nation. We now expect to contend for SEC and national championships on a yearly basis. That is a far cry from when I came of age as a fan during the early to mid 90's when we were just happy to win 6 or 7 games and have the occasional upset.

Here are some of my keys to the game:

-Short memory: The Dawgs need to forget what happened last week and move on. No doubt last week was an utter disappointment, but they need to make sure the same team doesn't beat them two weeks in a row. This team's playing for pride right now.

-Contain Randall Cobb: If you haven't heard of him, you will on Saturday. He's a freshman currently rotating with Mike Hartline at the QB position. He's also fifth on the team in rushing, active leader in receiving yards after the injured Dicky Lyons, and second on the team in punt returns. This guy can do it all. The defense has got to keep him from using his athleticism to beat them.

-Ball Control: Kentucky has a pretty atrocious offense up to this point in the season. If Georgia can hold the ball with healthy doses of Knowshon and Caleb King, they can keep the Kentucky defense (which is its strength??) and not give them a chance to ever get in this game.

-Turnovers!!?!?!: I only have one request for the Dawgs this weekend. Please hold onto the ball and throw it only to your teammates. Anyone that watched the game last week realizes that Florida was the better team out there. Were they 39 points better? I don't think so. You can win by 39 points if the team gives you the ball inside their 20 twice though. Turnovers at inopportune times have been the Dawgs Achilles heel this year. They've got to shore up the turnover/takeaway ratio or we could be in for a long game.

-I'm tired of repeating this, but will one more time for emphasis: Quit kicking field goals and turning the ball over in the red zone!! This has been painful to watch. It's been a combination of miscommunication, poor execution, predictable play calling, and a young offensive line all rolled into one. For whatever reason, the Dawgs can't seem to put it together once they get inside the 20. This has got to change as we need to put Kentucky away early and often.

What I think will really happen:
I'd like to be wrong, but I really think last week destroyed this team's will. They have nothing of major significance left to play for except to beat an average team in an average bowl. Sure, GA Tech is still a big game, but only for bragging rights. With all the expectations heaped on this team this year, anything short of the ultimate goal was going to be deemed a disappointment. I don't think Georgia will blow out this Kentucky team as many fans want to see. It will probably be a sloppy game that Georgia wins ultimately due to talent. Since the game's in Kentucky, Macondawg has provided a nice concoction for those so inclined. I suggest drinking it because this one is going to be ugly. I don't see Georgia going down in an upset, but I don't see them covering the 11 points either.

My prediction: Dawgs 21, Kentucky 17

Twas' Ugly

This was an ugly win. As was much of Saturday. The thoughts have been spread around thusfar, but since work is calling today, I'll get my thoughts up later.