Thursday Night Game in the Pool

Tech plays Virginia Tech tonight, so besides missing out on some awesome Thursday night #MACtion, we also have a game to pick that will close tonight just before kickoff.  The rest of your picks are due around noon on Saturday.

Get your picks in.

TD

Joe Pa Gone. It is His Fault He's Gone. I am Sad He Didn't Do the Right Thing.

(h/t Blutarsky, from Pre-Snap Read)

I've debated writing this post for four days.  On Monday, I wrote the only thing I could without getting preachy and devolving into parentyell. Now, I believe the title sums up how I feel pretty accurately.

For those out there that say his contributions, his wins, his spotless now forever tarnished program should grant him more dignity than a phone call or hand delivered letter firing, I say bullshit.  At the minimum, he facilitated and allowed a pedophile's continued access to Penn State's athletic department. That access was Jerry Sandusky's candy.  At worst (and this is speculation based on the known facts), he knew that Sandusky was doing this, took his promise to not do it anymore, and blissfully ignored the rest.

Either way, anything short of doing the morally right thing when he found out what happened is enough to justify his firing.  The liability exposure alone is. That this involves kids being raped at Penn State facilities is enough to let him find out from the press conference, in my opinion.

If you think whatever good Paterno has done for Penn State and the local area trumps what he didn't do for the past decade, well, we'll just have to disagree.  If you think 409 wins somehow over shadows what happened over that decade, we'll definitely have to disagree. I am very sad for how it all ended for Coach Paterno, but that sadness is about his failure to do the right thing, not that it ended on someone else's terms with a phone call or letter.

And for those that think Paterno couldn't have changed the course of events, I call double bullshit.  If he is so revered that students took to the streets, that folks are actually trying to defend his actions, that the local media literally took an accusatory tone with the Board of Trustees in the press conference during the announcement, then Joe Paterno had the power to stop Jerry Sandusky from buggering children, especially on Penn State's campus.  That cannot be in dispute.

The bottom line is this:  Joe Paterno let his relationship, his friendship, with Sandusky trump the welfare of the vulnerable.  That is why he was fired. That is what his legacy will forever be, at least to those of us that are objective about these things.

TD

Further Reading:
-Paterno failed his biggest decision (Mark Schlach)
-Doyel's report from the ground (Gregg Doyel)

The Ole Miss Coaching Search

After reading Blutarsky's outstanding headline regarding the Ole Miss search, I did a little early morning reading about candidates for the job.

It's not that Ole Miss has never made a good hire. It's just they can't get out of their own way.

David Cutcliffe was a well tenured offensive coordinator for Tennessee going into the National Title game in 1998 with ties to the Manning family. It was a logical hire that worked until Cutcliffe's recruiting fell apart. Tommy Tuberville was a tenured Defensive Coordinator for Miami with 3 national title rings, and he was a DC at Texas A&M when they went 10-0-1 in 1994. The hire worked for them until a better offer came along.

Ed Orgeron had a national title ring, but he had never even been a coordinator...and he had a checkered past. Houston Nutt was being run out of his last job on a rail. And the other 5 coaches following Vaught's retirement were just bad.

Who will they hire? Athlon has a very comprehensive list which includes everyone except Terry Bowden (Pictured above). My only issue with the Athlon list is that it lists Mike Leech as a riskier hire than coaches at Southern Miss and Florida International.

If I were running their search, my top 3 candidates would be Leach, Malzahn and Rodriguez. Malzahn's resume is closest to their prior successes...a proven coordinator with a national title. Rodriguez was a horrific fit at Michigan, but winning at West Virginia without an in state recruiting base is a major accomplishment. Leach put forth a consistent winner despite major recruiting, facility and logistical drawbacks.

Would Leach help Ole Miss pass Bama and LSU in the West? No. But there's no coach in America who could do that and not leave them for a bigger job. Leach could build a program that would consistently beat MSU, Texas A&M, the non-conference tomato cans OM schedules, Vandy, Kentucky and Missouri. He could also put them on equal footing with South Carolina and Arkansas. That's enough to build a consistent 8 win program which Ole Miss hasn't been since desegregation.

Having said all of that...my real hope is they hire Terry Bowden. The comedic potential is better.

PWD

From Hunter to Hunted

Smith scores vs. NMSU (Image: Hipple)
Just a quick observation, it feels good to be the hunted again. We go into this weekend with something to win, as opposed to playing spoiler. Much can be made about the mind set of playing when you are playing for something, rather than playing to ruin something for someone else. Now, don't get me wrong, beating Auburn, Florida and Tech always feels good. But for the past few seasons, it has seemed we are 'playing for pride' or looking to knock them off.

Now, they'll be looking to knock us off.

It feels good to play for something more tangible again, to have a late season game that means more to us to win than it hurts someone else to lose. Amiright?

The problem with an 8 game SEC schedule

I think it was Tony Barnhart who originally said a year or two ago that a 14 team league playing 8 conference games wasn't really a conference at all. It was two federations with a title game.

By going with a 6-1-1 rotation where we keep the Auburn game alive every year, Georgia would play Alabama twice every 12 years. We'd only get them at home once over that period.

Consider our series with Clemson. In 1987, Georgia stopped playing Clemson on an annual basis. We booked two year deals with them in '90-'91, '94-'95, '02-'03 and '13-14. Let's ignore the future dates for a moment.

From 1988-2011, we faced Clemson six times (3 at home) over a 24 year period. Applying the 14 team, 8 league game model to the past would mean that we would have faced Alabama 4 times during that same period. Only twice at home. Same with LSU.

Rotational Models:

• 5-2-1: Used by the SEC from '92-'01 while at 12 teams. This model meant your four non-permanent opponents only came to Athens once every 8 years.
  
• 5-1-2: Used by the SEC from '02-Today. Your five non-permanent opponents come to Athens once every five years.
  
• 6-1-1: Proposed model for a 14 team league playing 8 games. You get the 6 non-permanent opponents at home once every 12 years.
  
• 6-1-2: A 14 team model that brings non-permanent opponents to Athens once every six years. Not noticeably different than today.

PWD

SEC saying it will stick to 8 league games

The SEC's PR folks said today there has been no discussion about moving to nine conference games. You can take from that one of three things:

A. The SEC really doesn't want to schedule tougher games and South Carolina's president didn't know what he was talking about when he said 9 games was the end destination.

B. The SEC wants to push for 8 games and give the 9th game up in contract renegotiation with its TV partners. Basically, the talk is just negotiation tactics.

C. Option B is true, and the SEC will end up at 9. However, it wants 8 games for the next two years to lessen the buyout requirements for future previously scheduled future games.

I'm going with option B. If we play 8 league games next year, we're almost definitely dropping Bama for a road game at Missouri. The only way that wouldn't happen would be as part of a larger reshuffling which moves our "home" game vs. UF to odd numbered years from its current even numbered years. That sounds easy, but it's a change that would involve more than just UGA and UF.

PWD

New Mexico State Review

Conley with a catch (Image:Hipple)

Took me an extra day to watch the replay.

The Good:

• I know it was New Mexico State, but the run blocking was the best it had been all season.
• The wide receivers.  Raise your hand if you thought they'd be a strength this season.  We might not have the talent at the top of the list we had last year, but with Conley and Bennett's development, it is safe to say we are deeper this year, especially with Mitchell healthy.
• Working Boykin and Smith into the offense.
• Harton and Karempelis stepping up big time.
• Seeing what can happen when you do that.
• Richt calling a timeout to allow another 2nd Q score.
• Spreading the love on TDs.
• No let downs or looking aheads.

The Bad:

• No sacks? Really?
• Inconsistent kickoff coverage.  It was far better than we've seen, so there is that.

The Ugly:

• Wheel Routes. 

There isn't a whole lot more I can add.  On one hand, Saturday was a product of the competition.  On the other, this is what good teams do in games against that competition.

TD