Nevada Dawg

I have always been an admirer of Gonzaga's Mark Few, the one guy in contemporary college basketball that reminds me of UCLA's John Wooden, not in his overall level of success, but in the discipline and comportment with which his teams play. That showed big time in the Zags absolute first-half stomping of my young Dawgs in the game today. An earlier interview with a Zag guard indicated that Georgia would be hyped up and that Gonzaga would come out with all guns blazing to try to put Georgia in a deep hole. They executed that plan to perfection and it worked so well because they shot the lights out in the first 10 minutes of the first half. This same guard said in the interview that he and his teammates felt poised entering this game because they go to the tournament every year and are not overwhelmed by the stage that they are on. He intimated that Georgia, which had only one player who had ever played in a NCAA tournament game, might not display the came poise early on. I have a feeling that this guy, when his playing days are done, might well make a good coach himself. I wonder how much of this "vision" might not have come from Mark Few himself during the past few days of game preparation.

All other things being equal, Kirby prefers the in-state to the out-of-state guy for several reasons, not the least of which is that the in-state guy has often grown up as a Dawg fan and will likely be much less of a portal risk if it takes a while for them to get on the field. And it is worth noting that there is an abundance of well-coached high school talent in the state of Georgia. The thing that many casual observers don't understand sometimes is that the greater metro Atlanta, which contains half or more of Georgia's population, is far from exclusively a Dawg recruiting Mecca. Many residents have moved to the area from other regions for employment opportunities and hence, many metro football players have little if any connection and/or attachment to UGA. Not only that but the entire SEC heavily recruits the greater Atlanta area. So the Dawgs lose many kids playing high school ball in Georgia that Kirby would really like to have. Having said this, I heartily concur that Dan Lanning has done a stupendous job of recruiting in what many unknowledgeable folks would consider the backwoods hinterland of Eugene Oregon. It is mostly Lanning but Oregon does have the advantage of being know as a beautiful state and has attracted many, many Georgia prospects who may have never been West and will take a paid recruiting trip to check Oregon out. If you can get them on campus you always have a shot, and some kids find it nice to be so far away from Mom and Dad for for a couple or three years. But my hat is off to Dan for the job he has done putting together a top caliber roster.

Thanks to Charles and Jon for the information they have provided here. I was never concerned that Lanning would not have talent at his disposal and there is much to be optimistic about. I guess I need to read more articles and less comments. Hopefully this will be another great season for OBD. Given his past, I have some real concerns about Bear Alexander. I don't question his talent as much as his maturity and ability to be coached, and I won't get into specifics here. He is now at his third school and this is his last shot, so he better not blow it. By now he has hopefully learned that he is not God's gift to football. He can be a very good player if he digs in and works, but he has a high potential of becoming a distraction as well. Hopefully the coaches have this kid on a short leash. I suspect CDL has consulted closely on Bear with Kirby Smart who is probably telling Dan some of the same things I am telling you. He is definitely worth a trial at a new home and I am hoping Bear has grown up.

It is hard for this Duck fan to make any solid predictions about the 25 Ducks other than they are likely to be a very good team. I'd like you guys in the know to tell me how many offensive and defensive starters have moved on. I'm most interested in the status of the trench monsters on both sides of the ball as that is where titles are won or lost. Skill players are important, of course, but not nearly as important as the big uglies up front. Most of what I have been able to glean from posts here is about skill players and very little is said about the skills of the linemen, who is making moves and what the strengths and weaknesses are for those units. Interestingly, except for musings about QBs, most discussions of players center heavily on the offensive and defensive linemen when I read the Talk'n Dawgs blog, and the coaches on that outlet get down and dirty when evaluating these dudes. Thus, I feel like I have a handle on the trenches, (good or not so good) that I don't get OBD, and this information is what informs my opinion on the Dawgs' prognosis for the upcoming season. I don't mean my comments as a criticism. This is a great forum, but not one with the specific information that allow me to speak with confidence about the team's likely prognosis against the top talents of the B1G or other conferences.

Dawgs' last November nonleague game is always with Georgia Tech. They've beaten Ga Tech every year since 2016 but the game has been super competitive over the past three years. Playing these guys every year in a heated rivalry is certainly comparable to a 9th league game. But my unstated point in the earlier post was who needs a 9-game schedule in the SEC given the very few if any opportunities for breathers so readily apparent in other conferences. For the record, and I have stated this here many times, I strongly favor a 9-game conference schedule for the SEC. I'd be even more enthusiastic if the ratings of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee weighed strength of schedule as well as the simple 5th grade heuristic of simply counting up number of wins. The selection committee for NCAA basketball can and does do this with their NET index. So why not football?

I'm no sure what that heuristic for scheduling is. This home-and-home flipping of schedules in the SEC for 24 and 25 was pure laziness on the part of the SEC and schedules will look very different in the future when the league likely goes to 9 league games. I know almost everyone favors a heuristic that will enable all league teams to complete a home and home with every other league team every four year period. One problem with the BIG (and this will not be popular) is that schedules like those played by SEC teams are just about impossible in a league which has at best 4 or 5 top flight teams and a remaining cast, many of whom are not worthy of a Power-2 designation. The top B1G teams always seem to have several breathers in their schedules. That is not to say that all the SEC teams are powerhouses, but with the coming of NIL, there has been a noticeable broadening of elite high-school and portal talent across the SEC, to the extent that then shocking upsets like Vandy over Alabama will become far more common. The B1G has a long way to go in that regard. I mean who can imagine Northwestern beating Ohio State or Rutgers taking down the Ducks anytime soon?

Ducks are hot but I don't know. What else was Dana going to say? Nevertheless, it is March and interesting things can and often do happen in March. Go Ducks!

Charles, I don't know whether you watched the post-SEC Championship trophy presentation, but Kirby Smart made his feelings quite clear to Commissioner Greg Sanky about the schedule his Dawgs had to play in 2024 and said that he had never been prouder to hold up an SEC trophy in his life. He later mentioned in the formal post-game interviews that he may have had more talented squads than this one at Georgia, but he had never had a tougher team than the then current edition. Is it any wonder then why his players and his NFL alumni praise the guy so highly and consider him he ultimate players coach.

Good to great attendance, even for mediocre B1G teams is hardly surprising to me in the cold weather states in the Midwest. Often there was nothing better to do outside and basketball was THE winter sport for so many midwesterners, at least during the four years I lived in Ohio, Even the MAC schools usually filled or came close to filling their gyms in in January and February in Ohio.

Wow OBD does have a cake-y schedule in 25. Kinda reminds me of the soft-petal schedule the SEC doled out to Texas last year to welcome them to the SEC.

I couldn't agree more. I think the love of Texas stems in large part from the feeling (completely unfounded in my opinion) that Arch Manning will step up and play like a Heisman contender from day 1. I wonder who he will be throwing he ball to or handing off to for that matter. Texas does have talented dudes, but as of yet unproven ones. If the pre-season over/under for wins on the Horns is 10.5, I will be tempted to bet the under.

Nice article Jon. A couple of comments: Watch out for Sayin at OSU. The guy is extremely accurate flinging the football and, if anything, may be better than Will Howard (experience be damned) at hitting those talented receivers at OSU. A lot will ride on the skills of the OC at designing an offense that plays to his strengths however. I don't like the metric of rating teams based on returning production. To use the Georgia Bulldawgs , for example, they lose a bunch on offense including Carson Beck and four offensive linemen. But even with an inexperienced Gunnar Stockton, they replaced the pass-dropping WR corps with upgrades from the transfer portal and incoming freshmen that are very talented. I expect the offense to be more productive than they were this last year and the defense to be...well a Georgia defense. Bama will find a way to be very competitive with the talent in the QB room. They always do. Boy do I have my fingers crossed for the rapid development of Dante Moore. Being THE GUY in Spring and Summer camps gives us reason for hope. Go Ducks!!

I read an article today about Beck and the U. The gist was that Beck could have a rocky road there because to much of their offensive production had left the building for other parts (Transfers, NFL, etc.) Thus, my earlier recipe for Beck's possible success in South Florida may have evaporated. As Carson will be extremely well compensated, the saving grace is that he and his designer girlfriend can live the high life cruising around South Beach in his Lambo (if the police ever recover it). Actually I wish the guy well. But if the reported roster problems at the U are accurate, and with the receivers, both transfers and high schoolers, Georgia will have available in 2025, Beck may end up wishing he was back in Athens, cruising the unbelievably funky downtown and playing ball in Sanford again.

Undoubtedly! The strength of schedule metrics almost guarantee cannibalism in the conference if these metrics are to be believed.

Wow those poor Columbia Lions. And now the poor devils draw a 3-game series this week against the #6 ( I believe) Georgia Bulldawgs in Athens. By the way, in that 35-1 pasting by the Ducks, why was there no Run Rule? Has that been done away with?

Yeah Tez does have good game tape and I wish him all the best. But, and to a fault I believe, NFL draft position is based on perceived potential which, in turn, is most often assessed from measurables.

Who is going to step up at QB this year. I don't remember hearing about a high-visibility transfer so I am assuming it will be the transfer QB from UCLA? Any other insights? Whomever it is, that Dude needs to be one of Jon's top `10 step-ups for sure!

Raiders will go QB this draft I expect. I've heard buzz on Shedeur Sanders, but personally, I'd draft Jaxon Dart over him. Unfortunately Tez's 40 times may drop him I fear, but he will be drafted, maybe in the 3rd or 4th round I suspect.

B1G has sucked forever at baseball. When I lived in Ohio (1969-1973) the Big-10 baseball teams got smoked regularly by teams from the Mid-American Conference and occasionally but noticeably by D-2 and D-3 schools. Early in season, their games were usually on the road down South because it was too darn cold to be playing in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, etc. Eugene would have been considered a moderate climate by these schools.

I still remember predicting before the season started that the Ducks would go undefeated in the regular season given the schedule they played and that my only question mark was the OSU game. But I predicted the Ducks would win because the game was at Autzen. I got a little bit of pushback when I said the Bucks would win the rematch which I thought would come in the B1G title game. I thought that the Bucks had the deeper roster and that this would be the difference by the end of the season. That said, the Bucks also put it all together in the playoffs to the point that no one could beat them. I detest OSU but have to give them credit, from the coaching staff on down, for what they were able to accomplish.

Boy is this ever true. Georgia won the Natty in 1980 and it almost seemed that they would never win another one until they broke through in 2021. Things were bleak in Athens after Vince Dooley retired until Mark Richt entered the scene. He had several teams hat might have broken through had we had even a 4-team playoff during his tenure, but the main reason he got fired is that he would always have one inexplicable loss, even with his SEC Championship teams, that kept Georgia out of the Natty People got tired of that and knew that we could lure Kirby home from Bama as an alternative to Richt --who was a very good coach but not good enough.. I am aware that the Ducks have never won a Natty and that everyone in Eugene is pleading for Lanning to bring one home. Enjoy the ride for I am confident that Dan will get her done in the foreseeable future. Go Ducks!!

Charles it never crossed my mind that you or any of the posters meant their comments as a taunt or as a slight on my Georgia ties Really! I was simply giving what I saw as a best case scenario of Beck's prospects in South Beach and almost made a comment about hoping he didn't get held back like Herbert did by Mario in Eugene.

Beck will do really well at Miami IF: 1. they truly have a dynamic OL with elite pass pro skills, 2. They have above average WRs with a couple solid go-to guys, 3. The UCL injury heals well BUT, As a former baseball pitcher with a UCL injury, I expect some change in how passes come out of his hand. In my case, after healing for 9 months, I had every bit as much velocity as I ever had but lost a lot of movement on the ball. Baseball is different than football to be sure, but I can anticipate that his throws will be different in one or more respects than they were pre-injury.

Lots of Dawg fans do not realize how well the Dawgs did in 2024 with a totally banged up OL-- a season long problem--and a group of C- (for the SEC) receivers who had problems holding on to the ball. Under these circumstances, I am proud at what they were able to accomplish. SEC Championships don't grow on trees these days.

Of the three coaches cited above, the only one that surprises me is Ryan Day. The other two are mid and I guess Ryan feels left out after winning the Natty not having anything else to cry about. He might be better off shedding his tears over losing his coaching staff.