thadec

You are going to wait a long time because it isn't going to happen.

So, it is Bill O'Brien's fault that Alabama had 3 subpar players on the OL, no TE capable of playing the position and no WRs with breakaway speed? It is O'Brien's fault that Alabama gave up 56 points and 30 points to Tennessee teams that UGA effectively shut out?

Hall of Fame membership is based on excellent play, not having the best personal story.

Lost to Vanderbilt. Was clearly outplayed by the Vanderbilt QB in epic fashion. The Vandy QB not only had more passing yards than Levis in that game, but he also had more rushing yards than Levis had passing! Maybe these scouts should rate the Vandy QB #1 overall instead.

Bryce Young was sacked 39 times in 2021 and was arguably one play - a dropped TD in the end zone by Cam Latu - from winning a national title. And he would have been sacked even more times if it weren't for his awareness in the pocket, mobility and quick release. A guy in consideration for being the #1 overall pick should be able to elevate a mediocre college cast. As it was, Levis led Kentucky to a 3 way tie for 4th in the SEC East. And this was one of the weakest SEC East fields in memory: Tennessee and South Carolina were both rebuilding with 2nd year coaches, Florida had a disastrous campaign with a 1st year coach, Missouri did just well enough to forestall the inevitable firing of their head coach by another year. The SEC East was so bad that a Vandy team that got killed by Wake Forest and barely got by the likes of Elon and Northern Illinois was able to snag 2 games and came close against Kentucky from getting a third to make themselves bowl eligible. One of the teams that Vandy upset? Why Will Levis and Kentucky. Levis was decisively outplayed by Vandy's Mike Wright AND Levis wasted a 162 yard rushing day by Chris Rodriguez (why they didn't give him and the backup McClain more chances WHEN THEY WERE BOTH GETTING 9 YARDS PER CARRY needs to be explained ... but instead they allowed Levis to handle the ball 30 times and only complete 11 passes, throw a pick and have 6 plays go for negative gain). Sorry, but why people see Levis as a franchise QB needs to be explained. Now I have been wrong before. Looks like I was EVENTUALLY wrong about Daniel Jones. But these franchises do need to play the percentages. Remember: Chicago chose Mitch Trubisky over Pat Mahomes and Deshaun Watson, potentially costing themselves a Super Bowl. (The Bears had receivers, an OL and a great defense back then.) Cleveland chose to grab a DE in the first round in order to take a QB in the second, only to wind up having to waste a #1 overall draft pick on Baker Mayfield and to trade still more draft picks to pick up one of the QBs that they passed up. I don't know why Carolina or anyone else would want to emulate those teams.

Bennett was better than Greg McElroy. There were times such as the infamous Tennessee game where Alabama won in spite of McElroy rather than because of him. Mark Ingram became the first Alabama player AND the rare RB in this era to win a Heisman because they were able to use him in the wildcat on third down and goal line plays, and thereby get McElroy off the field. Bennett had 300 yards passing and 3 TDs in his first title game (against Bama) and 6 TDs in his second title game (against a Texas team). McElroy was 6-11 for 58 yards. Bennett outplayed future 1st round picks Bryce Young and CJ Stroud. McElroy lost a massive 1st half lead to Cam Newton. Granted, McElroy DID get the ball downfield to Julio Jones, which Bennett can't do. Otherwise, Bennett had a better college career and the comparison isn't close.

Make a case for Stetson Bennett IV being in the Hall of Fame that can't also be made for AJ McCarron.

No, don't blame Monken. Monken is UGA's 3rd OC. No WR put up big numbers or got drafted high (without being a prodigy like Pickens or running a 4.3 like Hardman) either. The only constant here is Kirby Smart, and we can conclude that Smart doesn't prioritize developing WRs for the NFL or putting them in position to be high draft picks. While the OLs, DLs, LBs, DBs and RBs who played under Kirby are doing great, the WRs are doing terrible. Hardman is a bust, and all the other WRs who played under Kirby except Isaiah McKenzie (who has hung around as a 4th/5th WR and return specialist) are out of the league. Until Kirby improves this track record, top 100 WRs are rarely going to commit there, and guys are going to keep leaving after 2-3 years of getting 15 catches for 300 yards, if that.

No, Ladd McConkey was going to be the #1 WR. And McConkey, who had the best season for any WR under Kirby Smart, only had 762 yards in 15 games, or about 51 yards a game. The #2 WR had 350 yards. The #3 WR had 320 yards and has decided to take his degree and move on (maybe the Falcons will grab him in the 7th round to appease UGA fans). The #4 WR, a rare 5 star WR recruit for UGA, had 200 yards and hit the portal. It would be different if this was year 1 or 2, but Smart has been at UGA for 6 years and is on his 3rd offensive coordinator. And WRs who leave UGA at times do in fact put up better numbers elsewhere. Matt Landers had 900 yards for Arkansas last year in 13 games despite the starting QB missing 2 games due to injury. (And the #2 WR had 700 yards). And for all the bashing that Jermaine Burton got, his numbers actually did increase from 26 catches for 497 yards and 5 TDs (again in 15 games) to 40 catches for 677 yards and 7 TDs. Yes, Burton had more yards per game than McConkey did, and this was despite the complete mess that Bama was on offense with the injury to Young, the OL issues and the lack of a vertical threat at WR or a functional TE (seriously what has been going on with Alabama's recruiting on offense, DL and ILB the last 3 years?). I repeat: 7 years under Kirby Smart and the only WRs to get taken in the first 4 rounds were the brother of a 1st round pick (Riley Ridley), a guy who ran a 4.3 (Mecole Hardman) and a guy who had rare natural ability that even a ton of 1st round pick WRs don't have (George Pickens). Which means that based on all available evidence, Mitchell and the other guys who split weren't going to get drafted higher than round 5 either.

"Staying with a team seems to give a better option with the draft." With all due respect, what on earth makes you say this? Under Kirby Smart, no WR who doesn't run a 4.3 40 (Hardman) or have ridiculous athletic ability (Pickens) or isn't the brother of a 1st round pick (Ridley) has gotten drafted in th the first 4 rounds. If you look at the numbers that the 2-4 WRs Jacksaint, Jackson and Blaylock put up last season - 350 yards or less - they weren't either. It absolutely makes sense for guys like Burton, Mitchell etc. to leave a program that has no record of - or inclination to - develop WRs for the NFL in favor of programs and coaches that do. As I mentioned just now on Dawgnation, Steve Sarkisian had 4 future #1 draft picks at WR on his 2020 team, and it would have been 5 had Metchie not torn up his knee in the title game 4 months before the draft (and he still went in the 2nd round). And no, those 5 guys generally did not have Pickens' athletic ability or Hardman's speed. They just got to catch plenty of balls in college to showcase and develop their skills. By contrast, Hardman despite his 4.3 speed did not do this, and as a result he is a bust. He has Pat Mahomes getting him the ball and can't reach 700 receiving yards in a single season. By contrast Devonta Smith had almost 1000 yards his rookie season when Jalen Hurts was struggling with the concept of an NFL forward pass and has 1200 yards this year despite sharing the load with AJ Brown and Hurts missing 2 games due to injury. Yes, Justin Fields, who was a 1st round pick and is an NFL starter, made the right decision to leave because there is absolutely no evidence that he would have become those things at UGA. And your Bo Nix thing is hilarious ... the guy was a Heisman candidate until his coach cost them the Washington and Oregon State games with bizarre gameday coaching (even the announcers were questioning why Lanning kept going for it on 4th down and either turning down easy field goals or handing the opposing team the ball in great field position). Nix had 3600 yards and 30 TDs and 72% passing where at Auburn he never surpassed 2500 yards, 16 TDs or 61%. With another strong year - and better coaching - Nix will be a 1st or 2nd round draft pick, especially if the WRs that Lanning has been stockpiling - a 4 star guy in 2022 that redshirted last season and a pair more 4 star WRs in this class - contribute next season.

You don't know what you are talking about. The truth is that Burton set career highs in catches, yards and TDs at Alabama and did so by some margin. Meanwhile the #2 WR at Georgia, Jacksaint, had half the receiving yards that Burton did despite playing in 2 more games. Burton didn't put up good enough numbers to jump to the NFL this season as he intended, but he certainly put up better numbers than he would have had he remained in Athens. And in case you didn't notice, Ladd McConkey didn't put up good enough numbers to enter the NFL either. McConkey's receiving yards per game were actually LESS than Burton's.

It makes plenty of success. Ladd McConkey has the most receiving yards ever under Kirby Smart, and that was only 760 yards - 50 a game - in a 15 game season. The #2, #3 and #4 WRs only had 300 and 200 yards, including Kearis Jackson, who entered the draft because he knew there was no point in returning and Dominick Blaylock who transferred. UGA's system doesn't allow WRs to put up the numbers necessary to become anything more than 6th round draft picks and undrafted free agents in the NFL. The only exception are guys who can run a 4.3 40 like Mecole Hardman or who have super elite ability like George Pickens. So what do you expect WRs who have the talent to do more to do?

Huh? You are being bizarre considering that the ACC has dealt 3 of the last 4 losses of SEC teams in playoff/title games (FSU over Auburn, Clemson over Alabama, Clemson over Alabama). Take away the ACC and the rest of college football combined has 1 such win - Ohio State over Alabama - and even that was due to Lane Kiffin's deciding to have a former RB/DB turned QB throw the ball 40 times instead of just handing it off (which is what Ohio State did). Even just last year, we had FSU - who didn't even win their division - beat the SEC West champs LSU, and unlike UGA, FSU played a healthy Jayden Daniels. Also, putting up video game numbers in the SEC will require having a QB, which Tech hasn't since Joe Hamilton. Well, that isn't fair ... they've had some decent guys, but it is amazing how they went from having the most interesting dual threat guys in the southeast (even Charlie Ward went to FSU because he didn't academically qualify ... he originally planned to go to Georgia Tech) from the late 80s through the late 90s to going on 20 years of being unable to consistently manage a forward pass.

Plenty of people wanted to play an Alabama that had a bad OL, no vertical threats among their WRs, a TE with hands of stone that defenses left open on purpose, tons of penalties and absolutely no playmakers in the middle of their defense. Alabama was the #4 team in the SEC this year. They lost to #2 and #3 head to head and would have gotten slaughtered by #1. They won 3 other 1 score games against pedestrian teams, but two of them required very questionable officiating, especially the no-call of the safety against a Texas team playing its 2nd best QB (but also the no-call in pass interference in the end zone against a 5-7 Texas A&M playing its 2nd best QB). Yes, they blew out Kansas State, but Kansas State was the #2 team in the Big 12 and you saw what UGA did to the #1 team. Also, Bama's players chose not to opt out of that game, mainly because they knew that the risk of injury was low (if it was a bowl game against a Big 10 or big time ACC team they would have sat out). If you give Alabama's resume to Michigan State or Arizona State, people would say that they are maybe a top 10 team. No one would call them a title contender.

@RonMexico: In what universe? UGA can claim that they didn't want the QB. But they absolutely did want the #1 safety in the country and the #1 RB in the country (a legacy of a fondly remembered player, the son of the "hobnail boot" call RB). UGA immediately started recruiting other guys after those 2 signed with Bama.

Smart should surpass Saban's accomplishments at Alabama. Saban early on had to contend with Florida (2008 title, 2009 #2), LSU (2007 title, 2011 #2), Auburn (2010 title, 2013 #2) to a lesser extent UGA (2012 #2). There isn't anything like that in the SEC right now. Alabama's run is over. Next season they are going to have 2 new coordinators for the first time. Their QB will either be Ty Simpson - 4 career passing yards - or Jalen Milroe, who isn't a passer. But even if Simpson or Milroe was the next Mac Jones, it wouldn't matter. Bama has nothing but average players at best at WR, TE and RB, and their OL is going to be even worse. Who else is there? I will believe in a Big 12 style team when they actually win a game that matters. OK fine ... TCU beat Michigan. But UGA completely defenstrated both Tennessee and TCU. The Vols aren't a threat until Heupel hires an OC that runs an offense that works in this conference. Florida and Auburn are massive rebuilding jobs. That leaves LSU, except there is no evidence that Kelly can recruit there like Saban and Miles did. Nationally, who is there, really? Texas and USC have helped UGA out by hiring a pair of proven losers. Clemson is on their third OC in 3 years. Michigan appears to be in trouble with the NCAA somehow. Ohio State I guess? I am not picking UGA next season, because with the latest guys to announce they are entering the draft, UGA could actually have 27 guys drafted in 2 years. But don't be shocked if they don't follow the dip next year with going back-to-back the 2 seasons right after. If Monken leaves all bets are off. (Though nothing to stop UGA from hiring his understudy back from Georgia Tech.) But that is about the only thing that can stop them right now.

This left out that Jeff Scott, fired from USF, is back as offensive analyst and recruiting coordinator. He probably can't take on an official co-coordinator role because that would have prevented Riley from coming, but he is definitely going to be one of the cooks in the kitchen. Clemson is fascinating. They got better results when they mostly relied on 3 star players from Florida, Georgia, Alabama and the Carolinas and added to that an occasional blue chip (usually at QB or WR). But since winning the pair of national titles, they have ditched the regional recruiting thing for national recruiting and in the process have landed a bunch of 4 and 5 star players from all over the place that have either been just average, not fit their system or just flat out not panned out. They haven't been nearly as good on offense since, and on defense they have a bunch of very talented guys that make individual plays but don't mesh as a unit behind a common strategy. I think that when they were doing regional recruiting and getting a lot of 3 star and even the occasional 2 star, they were relying more on their own in-person evaluation and film study. They also landed a lot of "blue collar" - for lack of a better term - guys who were thrilled to get a shot playing major college football or were actual fans of Clemson instead of guys just using it as a 3 year way station to the NFL. Those guys were far more willing to wait their turn on the bench, switch positions, be role-players etc. and seemed to have more grit. A good example of this was Wayne Gallman. He was a 3 star because his high school chose an "RB by committee approach" on a loaded team that won the state title. Even though it ruined his stats and recruiting rankings, he didn't complain. He set the all-time NCAA rushing record at Clemson and is now in his 6th NFL season. Meanwhile a lot of the 5 star RBs that Clemson has recruited since have hit the transfer portal because they didn't get the ball as true freshmen.

Yeah. I am sad for not believing that 2 guys who weren't top 100 recruits and a redshirt freshman 5 star who played small high school ball, none of whom have a single college start to their name, is "the best QB room in the country" just because some UGA fan says that it is. Pardon me, but in 2017 the Alabama QB room included THREE QBS WHO WOULD TAKE NFL TEAMS TO THE PLAYOFFS (1st round picks Tua and Mac Jones and NFL MVP Jalen Hurts) and the Ohio State QB room was so stacked that Joe Burrow had to transfer out for playing time! Yet I am supposed to believe that UGA has the best QB room in the country because ... you say so.

Dude, compare your own QB room to UGA's and you will understand why I say this.

OK. Tell me what I said wasn't true. This guy claims that Carson Beck, Brock Vandagriff and Gunner Stockton are "the best QB room in the country" when they have completed 30 passes between them and only has a single top 150 recruit. Meanwhile, the Texas QB room is going to have Quinn Ewers, Arch Manning plus Maalik Murphy (6'4" dual threat QB with a cannon arm) who while 4 star was a higher rated recruit AND a better athlete than either Stockton or Beck. There is also the Oregon QB room which includes Bo Nix (5 star in his 5th year), Ty Thompson (5 star in his 3rd year) and Austin Novosad (4 star top 100 guy from Texas who - see this pattern here? - is taller and has a stronger arm than Vandagriff and Stockton). We can also talk about the QB rooms at Michigan. Ohio State. UCLA. USC. Clemson. LSU. And a bunch of other places that have more than a single top 100 recruit on their QB depth chart AND guys on their depth chart that have thrown more than 60 college passes. So either I am salty ... or you know nothing about college football other than your own team. Considering your handle it is likely the latter.

"They may have the best trio in the country." And this is based on ...? I would imagine that a ton of QB rooms have two 4 star recruits and a 5 star, with 2 of them in-state guys and the 3rd from a border state. Bonus points for the fact that the 2 in state guys played for rural high schools at lower classifications that don't produce very many FBS prospects.

Fine then. Tony Elliot and Jeff Scott. Hired in 2015.

You should be. There are tons of guys out there who would be just as good at coaching UGA's immense talent AND who would be more help on the recruiting trail.

Bowers is a true sophomore. He does. Also, I can't imagine Kearis Jackson and Dominick Blaylock jumping to the NFL unless they are itching to become undrafted free agents, which pays worse than UGA's NIL collective will.

This is absurd. How many of these guys were more important than BRENT VENABLES AT CLEMSON? Answer: none of them. Ryan Day? ZERO NATIONAL TITLES. As a head coach or coordinator. Are you mistaking him for Tom Herman maybe? Those are just the two most egregious. Continuing ... Joe Brady was important ... for one year. Lane Kiffin: won 1 title in 3 tries and everyone treats him as if he is Bill Walsh. Sarkisian: even less than Kiffin. Took over a system that was already in place and coached a bunch of players that the previous staff developed, won 1 title and was out in 2 years. No more important than Locksley and Daboll. Probably less. And ... pretty much no one on this list is more important than Will Muschamp, who is UGA's co-defensive coordinator (who served in this role without the title in 2021 and was officially named as such this season).

Not sure why LSU and Tennessee are ranked lower than Alabama. Both those teams have fewer questions marks than Bama, who will have a new QB, replace 3 of 5 members of their already suspect OL, 3 of their 4 guys in the secondary, their best pass rusher in a decade and 3 of their 4 best RBs. And while they will have a new offensive coordinator, unfortunately they won't have a new defensive one.

No one predicted that a team with a championship coaching staff and a dozen guys who will be taken in 2022 draft (presuming that guys like Kendall Milton, Dom Blaylock and Sed Van Pran enter it instead of returning to improve their stock) would lose 5 games. At most people predicted that they might lose 2 games between Tennessee, Kentucky and the rematch(es) against Alabama that everyone expected but we never got thanks to Bill O'Brien choosing to call plays as if Alabama had the 2020 personnel instead of the 2012 personnel that they actually did have. I wish they would drop this inferiority complex. It is almost as if they think that they deserve credit for actually beating Alabama in 2017 and 2018 or something. Never mind that Alabama wasn't even the best team in 2018 (Clemson was, by a mile, and they would have crushed UGA) and that UGA should stop pretending as if their bad 2019 and even worse 2020 didn't happen. Or as if even this year, UGA was a combination of a vicious hit (and sketchy no call) by Bullard on Marvin Harrison (a guy they couldn't cover), bad play-calling by Ryan Day on that final drive AND a kicker with a case of nerves from disaster. And then there was the Missouri game ...

Nah. There have been plenty of title game blowouts that were as bad or worse. Notre Dame-Alabama was 28-0 at halftime. Saban called off the dogs. That was the game that created the playoff, remember? Another one: Miami vs Alabama. The final score was only 34-13 because the folks in Tuscaloosa didn't believe in offensive football back then but if I recall Alabama scored more points on defense in that game than Miami did on offense. It is the only title game that I can remember where one team was actually physically afraid of the other, which to their credit did not describe TCU, who kept trying to get back up and make plays whenever the bigger, stronger, faster and deeper UGA knocked them down ... TCU showed more resilience than Tennessee did in a much closer game. Speaking of the Vols, there was Tennessee-Nebraska. The score LOOKED respectable at 42-17, but the Vols only managed field goals for the first 3 quarters. When Peyton Manning was mercifully benched, Tee Martin came in and Nebraska was like "whatevs" and allowed him to drive the Vols down the field and put up a TD and 2 point conversion with less than a minute left. Martin was sarcastically given an applause. Little that anyone know that it was the beginning of something that would be epic ... until Phil Fulmer and Randy Sanders derailed it (they were the only ones capable of doing so). Finally, there was Oklahoma-USC. Oklahoma actually scored the first TD - similar to TCU making it 7-7 early in the first - but then it was 55-3 the rest of the way. And this was with USC spending the entire second half bored and going through the motions. Similar to Nebraska-Tennessee, the Trojans gave up a safety and a TD late in the 4th quarter because the postgame party couldn't start fast enough. UGA-TCU may have looked worse than those games, but they actually weren't.

Nah, he is right. If you are going to judge a team based on a single game instead of an entire season, then for UGA that game should be needing a 4th quarter comeback to beat 6-7 Missouri. Tennessee beat ACC champs Clemson, #5 Alabama and SEC West champs LSU. Alabama by contrast beat Kansas State, the 2nd best team in the Big 12. They lost to Tennessee head to head and they lost to a team that the Vols beat in LSU. The Vols beatdown of LSU was more impressive than UGA's. That game took place in Baton Rouge plus the LSU QB was actually healthy in that game, not hobbling around on one foot when UGA got him. And Kirby Smart didn't call off the Dogs. UGA actually didn't have much going on in that game on offense. UGA's defense dominated the Tennessee's offense. But that was one of the MANY games where UGA's offense was "meh" during the regular season. UGA fans want to pretend as if the offense that we saw against Oregon, South Carolina, LSU, Ohio State and TCU was the same one all season. Were that the case, SB IV wins the Heisman going away. In reality, there were 4 games this season where Bennett didn't have a TD pass, and a 5th where he only had 1. Take away the scores set up by the UGA defense and that 27-13 tally is a lot closer.

Some context: 3 of the 7 were conference title game plus playoff, which means that any title team would play the same. 2 more were 5 loss Mississippi State and South Carolina teams. That makes Oregon and Tennessee the only impressive "regular" wins for UGA. And Oregon was at best the #4 team in the Pac-12 this season after Utah, USC and Washington. And a strong case can be made that they are also #5 behind ... the Oregon State team that beat them head to had and has the same record. Now I give UGA all the credit in the world for going undefeated and winning back-to-back national titles. But the road to winning the first title, which involved playing Alabama twice as well as a Michigan team that actually was better than the TCU team that UGA just played and that was just the postseason - was way tougher than the second, where a rebuilding Tennessee and an injury-riddled Ohio State actually were the best teams that UGA played this year.