Mississippi State traveled to Athens Saturday to take on Georgia in a clash of the SEC Bulldogs. Mike Leach traveled with only 49 scholarship players, but those 49 put in one heck of an effort and took the Georgia Dawgs to the limit before the canines from Athens secured the victory. In this Covid confused season, it would have been easy for Coach Leach to use the SEC's 53 man roster limit requirement and call off the game. But State wanted to play, and you could see the effort on the field throughout the game, as they played one of their best games of the season with a depleted roster. The 31-24 final score was indicative of how competitive the Maroon Bulldogs were all night. Heavily favored Georgia came away with the hard fought victory, but Mississippi State walked out of Sanford Stadium having earned a ton of respect for itself.
The 2020 Masters Tournament being played in November presented the perfect opportunity for College Game Day to host their show from the iconic Augusta National Golf Club. It was literally a once in a lifetime opportunity. It was also a great gesture on the part of ESPN to come up with a pair of cool Masters football helmets to highlight the front of the Game Day set. The helmets were an instant hit on social media, with golf/football fans wondering where a collector's item like the helmets could be purchased. So far, Riddell has produced a mini-helmet version, but they are already sold out!
Jake Scott, former Georgia Bulldog All-American Safety and Punt Returner, has died at the age of 75. Scott led the Dawgs to the 1968 SEC Championship, which also featured an undefeated regular season of 8-0-2, as well as an invitation to the Sugar Bowl. In both 1967 and 1968, he led the SEC in interceptions. Also in 1968, he led the conference in punt returns and punt return yardage. Scott still holds the SEC record for most interception returns for touchdowns in a single game with two against the Kentucky Wildcats in 1968. Scott of course, went on to a fantastic professional career with the Miami Dolphins, with saw him garner a Super Bowl MVP award, five consecutive Pro Bowls and three Super Bowls. However for me, I'll always remember him most as a tremendously gifted athlete wearing the Red and Black for the University of Georgia. Thanks for the thrills and the victories Number 13! God Speed Jacob E. Scott III.
Will Muschamp was fired yesterday as head coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks. In this, his fifth season leading the Carolina program, his record stands at 2-5. He is 28-30 for his tenure in Columbia. He was 28-21 at his previous stint as the head coach of the Florida Gators. Muschamp will take with him as he leaves the Carolina campus a hefty $13+ million buyout. His buyout upon leaving Florida was $6+ million, so this inept ex-head coach is being paid roughly $20 million not to coach. The Athletic Director's who agreed to these contract buyouts are equally inept, and both of them should have been kicked out of the door with Muschamp. Prior to his adventurous journey into the college head coaching world, Muschamp was the Defensive Coordinator at LSU, Texas and Auburn. With his defensive background, it's ironic that in his last game as a head coach, his Gamecock defense allowed a whopping 59 points to a struggling Ole Miss program. The experiment of trying to be a college head coach for Will Muschamp should be over at this point. He should be out of options in that role; he has proven he cannot handle that top position. He's a Defensive Coordinator. Period. Quit trying to put the square peg into the round hole.
The Arkansas Football Team's record at this point of the 2020 season is 2-2 (It should be 3-1 if the Auburn game had been officiated correctly). Going into this season, the Hogs schedule was thought by many to be the toughest schedule in all of college football. They were riding a 20 game SEC losing streak, and were believed to be a sure bet to top Vanderbilt's record streak of 23 straight conference defeats. Sam Pittman's Razorbacks have put that talk to rest, much to the dismay of the Commodores, by defeating Mississippi State in the second game of the season. Since then, Arkansas has added a win over Ole Miss and first year head coach Lane Kiffin. Pittman has put together a great coaching staff at Arkansas, he has the players buying in to his system, and they are going into every game believing they have a chance to win. The Hogs have a challenging closing stretch of six consecutive tough SEC opponents, the last of which is Alabama. Regardless of the outcome of these individual contests, Sam Pittman has already earned the consideration of being selected as the Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year. If he does indeed garner that award, he will be viewed by the entire conference as tremendously deserving. One would be hard pressed to find a dissenter in the group regarding the likable Sam Pittman. Woo Pig Sooie!
Auburn University has a 3-2 record at the half-way point of the SEC season. However, those 3 wins have been aided by critical officiating calls/no-calls by the inept SEC football officials. In their opening game against Kentucky, the Wildcats were not rewarded for a touchdown that they should have been credited for. This touchdown that wasn’t called a touchdown in the final seconds of the first half might have been the difference-maker in Kentucky’s 29-13 loss to the Tigers. In Auburn's second win against Arkansas, the Razorbacks owned a 28-27 lead late in the fourth quarter. The Tigers had worked their way into field goal range. The controversy came on a 3rd-and-1, when Auburn QB Bo Nix fumbled the snap, then spiked it into the turf in an attempt to stop the clock. However, Nix spiked the ball backwards and Arkansas fell on it, which should’ve been ruled a fumble. Instead, the officials ruled that the play was an incomplete pass with intentional grounding because ball didn’t reach the line of scrimmage. Auburn then kicked a game winning field goal with seven seconds left on the clock, denying Arkansas the chance to run out the clock and collect the win. Lastly, this past Saturday against Ole Miss, the Rebels recovered a ball in the end zone on a kickoff that the Tiger return man actually touched. But the officials on the field, as well as the replay officials, ruled that the ball was not touched by Auburn, thus denying Ole Miss the touchdown and awarding the ball to Auburn on the ruled touchback. The Tigers went on to win the game by a final score of 35-28. Auburn might have gone on to win the game against Kentucky in the second half even if Kentucky had been awarded the first half touchdown. We'll never know. Arkansas would definitely half defeated the Tigers with the correct ruling, and Ole Miss probably would have won the game Saturday if awarded the touchdown with the recovered ball in the end zone. With all of this in mind, I think it is realistic to infer that Auburn's record at this point should be 1-4 at best. Woulda, shoulda, coulda!
Marcell Ozuna's base running blunder in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series took away the momentum that his Atlanta Braves had built and flipped it into the dugout of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Braves had runners on second and third with one out in the bottom of the third, leading the Dodgers 2-0. Dansby Swanson lined a sinking fly ball to right field that Mookie Betts made a shoestring catch on. Ozuna went back to the bag to tag up but left early. Although he was called safe at the plate, review overturned to call and took the run off the books. The Braves failed to add to their two run lead. The first batter for Los Angeles in the top of the fourth, Corey Seager, hit a homerun to cut the lead in half. But with the base running blunder it was like a two run swing for the Dodgers. They were sky high and went on to win the game. Although the Braves still led the series 3-2, the damage was done. The Dodgers went on to win the next two games and advanced to the World Series. Ozuna's bone-headed play changed the complexion for the remainder of the series. His mistake is a huge reason the Braves are going home and the Dodgers are playing in another World Series.
Nothing like a little urination in public, be it real or staged. It really took some real class to pull off that stunt Elijah Moore. Not only did you cost your team a shot at a win versus your hated rival, you probably played a hand in getting your head coach fired from his job three days later. Not to mention the fact that no one will remember you for catching the touchdown pass at the end of a thrilling comeback drive down the field, because they will forever know you as the Ole Miss player who let his team, coaches, school and fan base down by literally pissing away a legitimate chance at victory. And you will always be associated with the naming of the game: "The Piss and Miss"! But I guess you now have a cemented legacy at Ole Miss. Hotty Toddy Mr. Moore. The last time I checked, there is no "I" in TEAM.
At the Ohio State press conference regarding the status of head football coach Urban Meyer, the head of the investigative team, Mary Jo White, stated that Meyer did not "deliberately lie". That term stood out to me above all the other colossal moments during that fiasco. A lie is the direct opposite of the truth, so if one chooses not to use the truth, isn't the lie automatically deliberate? However, in the end none of that matters in the least. When a coach returns a renowned program back to its glory days of winning football, he has a solid lock on his job. Urban Meyer owns Ohio State University. He holds the keys now. He knows he is untouchable by anyone at the administrative level above him. He doesn't have to ever be concerned by the actions, or lack thereof, of his despicable character. He can "look the other way" as much as he wants to now. His attention only has to be focused on winning football games, because a failure to do that is the ONLY thing that can put his job in jeopardy.
Ronald Acuna, Jr. was hit by the first pitch of Wednesday night's Braves-Marlins game. The pitch was thrown by Miami's Jose Urena, and it was thrown intentionally at Acuna. The 20 year old Brave has been the hottest and most electrifying player in the Major Leagues for the past two weeks. He has led off the past three games with a home run, has homered in five straight games, and has hit eight home runs in the past eight games. Evidently, Urena's way of pitching Acuna differently meant throwing at him with the very first pitch in the bottom half of the first inning. The pitch, which resulted in both benches clearing twice, was the fastest first-pitch of Urena's career. The act of throwing at Acuna with the first pitch was gutless, cheap, bush league, and unprofessional, even in a sport where brushing a hitter back off the plate has always been a part of the game. Going after a player with intent simply because he has been wearing your team's pitching out is not a part of baseball. Here's hoping Major League Baseball comes down heavy and hard on Jose Urena, both in fines and suspended starts.
Georgia is already in the 2017 SEC Championship Game. Their opposition for the title is yet to be determined. It will be, of course, either Alabama or Auburn. The Tide or the Tigers. If you are a UGA fan, who do you want to face on December 2nd? The Dawgs are just coming off of that devastating domination by Auburn last Saturday, and they have Kentucky and Georgia Tech remaining on the 2017 schedule. The two Alabama schools don't meet until November 25th, both having out-of-conference and easy opposition this Saturday. The pros and cons regarding the two possible match-ups are endless. Would Georgia want to face the same team that decimated them only two weeks earlier, or take on a 'Bama squad battling some key injuries and not playing up to Alabama standards at the present time? Some fans believe that Auburn could not play that good twice against the Dawgs, and conversely that Georgia couldn't play that bad again. Not to mention the fact that Auburn would be without that tremendous home field advantage at Jordan-Hare Stadium. There is also the opinion that Alabama's Nick Saban knows Georgia's Kirby Smart far too well after working with him all of those years, which would make it tough on the Dawgs to overcome the Tide. Thus, would Saban always be one step ahead of Smart? However, there is also the feeling that Alabama is the King of the SEC and a team needs to defeat them, not Auburn, to be truly considered the champion (Like Rick Flair said: "To be the man, you gotta beat the man"). After all, Alabama is still Alabama. The prevailing opinion of many Dawg fans is that there is an extreme hatred of Auburn, where there is only a strong dislike of Alabama. Therefore, it would be much more satisfying, not to mention redemptive, to defeat the Tigers when all the marbles are on the table. I, for what it's worth, want to see Georgia play Auburn on a neutral site field. I think the artificial turf at Mercedes Benz Stadium plays into Georgia's strength of team speed. It's really going to be fun seeing Mecole Hardman loose on that surface! If the offensive and defensive lines of the Dawgs can play at least a little better against Auburn a second time around, the result could be different. Also, Auburn coming off a victory in the Iron Bowl, and having already handled us easily, could enter the SEC Championship a little too sure of themselves. Not to mention UGA would have to go into that game as the underdog, and I like the way that would play into the psych of the game. Regardless of which team the Dawgs end up facing, it sure is good to see Georgia back in Atlanta in the Championship game again. It has been far too long since we were there, and here's hoping we become a fixture in this game for years to come.
In spite of an effort from "the powers that be" to have both Georgia and Florida wear their respective home jerseys, Georgia has elected to wear their white jerseys this year in Jacksonville. 2017 is in fact Florida's year to be the home team.The last year Georgia wore white jerseys was 2013. They were the visiting team that year and defeated Florida 23-20, just as they were in 2011 when a Dawg's win in white tops jump-started a three-year win streak for UGA.
