Nevada Dawg

I wouldn't necessarily say Georgia is better with Gunner playing, but they are far from appreciably worse. A bit of background on Gunner. as a 5-star recruit in his junior year, Gunner was penalized by the rating agencies for focusing on his team in the off season rather than attending all those ratings camps out there that have so much with 'seeding' high school QBs. He didn't care about that nonsense--he knew he would be playing at a high caliber program. Then he proceeded to break all the passing records of in-state National Championship QBS DeShawn Watson and Trevor Lawrence, both of Clemson University. Gunner had the reputation of a cool customer who seemed to play with ice water in his veins. And he certainly played that way when thrust into the limelight during the second half of the SEC Championship game. I'd never seen Gunner in a game at Georgia that really mattered. Why? Because he hadn't been in one. Yet, he gave a darn good account of himself, and his teammates certainly had confidence in him. It is impossible to know exactly how Gunner will perform in these playoffs, but it certainly doesn't seem that the stage is likely to be too big for him. And having this month to practice and to be the guy taking first-team reps. I'd expect that he is likely to be even more in command of the situation than he had been at the SEC game. Unless Gunner were to be injured, I am not worried about the QB position going forward. Now if only the WRs will hold on to the damn ball when it is thrown to them! (Insider note: this group led the nation in drops this season).

Until you reminded me of the pathetic performance against Michigan, I would have said OSU would win this game. I still lean that way. But Tennessee could surprise in this one. I also don't believe that OSU has the best defense in America necessarily. Defensive performance is largely a function of whom you play and the B1G , save OBD, has an abundance of low-octane offenses. When Tennessee is "on" they are anything but a low-octane offense. So this one is definitely a game in which I wouldn't have much confidence either way were I to lay a bet on it.

Anyone know how many of the Bobcat starters are eligible to return next season? Could be an interesting opener for OBD.

Yep! That means a 9 A.M.for me!

Me too. FUMMBBLLLLE!

Slight addendum to Charles's post: Georgia Bulldawgs have won four games against CFP PARTICIPANTS: Clemson, Tennessee, Texas (twice). You bet I am counting that second win against highly rated Texas!! And they may have to do it three times to get to the Natty.

I'll just add (without knowing the full extent of Beck's elbow injury) that this damage is hard to recover from, even if not severe enough to require surgery. I know because I suffered the same injury while playing youth baseball and was immediately done as a pitcher. They didn't have Tommy John surgery in those days. And the injury also prevented me from making the throws as a shortstop as well. As I was semi-ambidextrous, I became a right-fielder (not much action out there in PONY League) and worked hard to hit the cut-off man throwing left-handed. I also became a switch hitter and ended up hitting for more power and a higher average from the left side of the plate--totally unexpected. Beck's injury will eventually heal without surgery, but he is not going to feel good throwing the ball anytime soon even if the injury does not require surgery. I know his draft projections are bottom of the first round at present but it may drop if he cannot throw painlessly for the pro scouts at the combine. This is potentially a tough setback which makes me wonder if he may not pull a Bo Nix and use his last remaining year of eligibility next season.

At this point, I'll say that Stockton is reliable and better than serviceable, He will get a ton of Reps over the next three week and the Georgia offense will change noticeably to accommodate his strengths. Of course, I'd rather have a healthy Beck and said the same thing when J.T. Daniels was Georgia's injured starter and Stetson Bennet was our backup. And we all saw what happened and how much I knew as a prognosticator, lol. Despite his lack of game experience, the Georgia players say Gunner is a cool customer and seem perfectly willing to go to war with him. And he will get better over the next three and a half weeks. I obviously can't say for sure what will transpire and the playoffs are a h--l of a baptism of fire for any QB. But I am far from panicked about having Gunner under center for the Dawgs.

He was a 3-star recruit and so had some talent. My guess is that OSU did not offer chase a scholarship and Michigan did,. If so, the offer of a scholarship would prove to be immensely significant for the troll value of the commitment alone on hated rival Ohio State.

I 100% agree with Charles's premise and was essentially sayin this last year before the PAC-12 collapsed. Anybody who has followed my posts may remember that I argued the B1G and its predecessor has, for the past quarter century, been the most overrated conference of them all for both of them all for both football and basketball. Think about how shockingly few men's title the conference has won in the past 25 years in either sport, and don't count the PAC-12 successes in this total because THEY WERE NOT IN THE LEAGUE BACK THEN!! IMHO, there is no question that the addition of the four Pacific schools represents a massive upgrade for the B1G. But at the moment I still think it is clearly overrated. Get rid of about 8 of the weak sisters and you have something--addition by subtraction.

Hearty congrats to OBD and all my Duck buddies for a great win tonite. After my Dawgs fought back to win a game that, once again, no one(except Pat MacAfee) on Gameday gave them much chance of winning, and the Ducks gut out a tough win as well, I, with the aid of a couple small glasses of sippin bourbon, am feeling quite mellow this fine evening. As for who can beat whom, I hear a lot of postgame hubris trying to make cross-game comparisons that may like comparing apples and oranges. That said, In the weeks to come, we will all get to sit back and settle all these arguments according to the only criteria that matter: WHAT HAPPENS BETWEEN THE LINES!! And I'll guarantee you that whomever survives the grinder to come over the next month will be one of the most deserving National Champions ever.

Truth be what I think it might be, despite their warts, I think the Dawgs have the far more battle-tested resume and the better team for facing a big game. Of course, I've been wrong before. It may all depend on which Bulldawg team shows up tomorrow afternoon in Atlanta. Truth be known, the only team the Dawgs have had trouble with in the Benz is (for them) the dreaded Crimson Tide.

I'll take one of the 7,700 simulations thank you!

Get used to reasonably sizable portal losses in the future. In fact, many such losses will be encouraged by the coaching staff after determining that the likelihood of those players ever being meaningful two-deep contributors is slim (or none). But it is true that some players, infatuated with their high-school star rankings, do become disgruntled and feel that they have been overlooked. Georgia has lost a couple dozen such players over the past four years, including a current 10-game starter in the defensive backfield who got beat out in week 10-11 and subsequently quit on his team to enter the portal in championship week. I'm told that when first meeting with his incoming high school recruits, Kirby tells them that he cares not how many "stars" they were granted as prep players. He says here you are all 0-Stars and you will have to grind to even get onto the field as freshmen. Some embrace the grind; others never do and are usually gone by the end of year two. Knowing Lanning's pedigree, I suspect he embraces a similar viewpoint and that he is shedding few tears over his portal losses.

You wonder where he would find an acceptable home. Reports from the Oklahoma partisans I know is that he left Norman because he wanted no part of the SEC. Of course the Trojans throwing in a lengthy big-money contract had a lot to do with it. The offense-happy character of the PAC-12 had to be attractive as well. But he soon learned that even out West it is hard to win with a crappy defense.

As for ND, I thought the comparisons involving the Trojans were compelling at pointing to how overrated ND is. I don't know if it is possible, but I'd love to see a first round matchup of ND and Indiana. The passion in the Hoosier state would almost have to be off the scale. I've always said to anyone who would listen that ND looked so good on defense because they hadn't played anyone. I think that Boise State might run them out of the stadium wherever that game took place. I think that the Ducks handle the Lions on Championship Saturday, but this is really the first Power Team OBD has faced away from the friendly confines of Autzen and the game could end up being uncomfortably close. But even if the Ducks get punched in the mouth early, I'm confident that they will prevail if they shake off he early adversity and just keep grinding.

Having lived in Ohio for three and a half years and watching the OSU fan base, I know how impatient and intolerant they can be. So the demands to fire Day are to be expected, In fact, I predicted in an earlier post after the loss to Oregon that Day's seat was warming and would be red hot if he somehow managed to lose to Michigan a fourth time. It is all now playing out, and at a bad time I might add, for Ohio State players who will soon start prepping as a lower seed for the playoffs.

You know I watched Notre Dame play and win today and thought that I may have badly underestimated them in my above quote. Then it dawned on me whom they were playing. ND is definitely in he playoffs, deserves to be, and I predict may even win a game. Win two and I'd be shocked.

It really doesn't really matter where either ND or Miami are ranked. Neither will be around long when the playoffs kick off next month.

Let me state up front that I'm behind the Ducks 110% in the upcoming B1G Championship Game. But I won't be surprised if OSU wins this game. In fact, I predicted such a reversal earlier in the year. Here's why. Oregon has not played a truly good team away from Autzen this year and it is not crystal clear how they will handle adversity away from home. I'm certainly not expecting them to fold, only that we can't know for certain how they will respond to a situation they are yet to face this year. Sorry to be a bit of a cautionary Cus at this time of rejoicing among festive OBD fans, but just thought I should point out something that is very uncertain as far as I am concerned. And even were the Ducks to lose, they'd still be the number 5 seed, a position that many analysts say is just about as good as having a bye in the format we will be playing under for this and next season until adjustments are made. Imagine some poor 12 seed having to play in a wild playoff atmosphere at Autzen!

I'm not getting into this. I'll just say this: y'all are quite proud of the home atmosphere Duck fans can put on in Autzen. And you should be because it creates a great home field advantage. But Autzen is especially notable in that regard. I've been to B1G games at the Shoe, the Big House, and Happy Valley over the years and the only one that came close to Autzen for home atmosphere was Penn State during a White Out. Having said that, the reason that that SEC road games are a pain is that the vast majority of home SEC crowds can flat out make playing there a colossal pain for the visitors. Even Mississippi State with those damn cow bells can be a real problem if State is playing well and the visitor is a ranked team. I've never been to Auburn where Jordan-Hare was not rocking for the War Eagles, and South Carolina always has a rabid and lively crowd. I could go on about each locale, but suffice to say there aren't many tea and crumpet fan bases in the SEC. So while the SEC may indeed have to play on a B1G home field in the first round of this year's playoff, I doubt that they will be the least bit intimidated by the opponent's home atmosphere. That is just standard fare for them in the regular season.

Trust me guys, Indiana will not miss out on the playoffs at the expense of having to include Alabama. I see no path for the Tide to sniff the promised land this year. I've thought all year that this was the most erratic Georgia team of the past five years, but Alabama is far more extreme in this regard than the Dawgs. I have been very critical of Indiana's SOS and still am, but they can't help that the B1G has a bunch of really mediocre teams, and they played well enough at the 'Shoe to convince me that they are a lock for the playoffs with a win over Purdue, hardly a formidable challenge. My opinion on critics of the SEC playing 8 league games is that you might want to see whom SEC teams are playing OOC before labeling these opponents "cupcakes". Two of Georgia's cupcakes this year are Clemson (still in the playoff picture) and Georgia Tech, whom you may remember hung a long overdue loss on Miami. Come play an SEC schedule and see how you fare before throwing barbs. I posted just such a suggestion a couple days ago on the forum here for cross-fertilization between the SEC and B1G that I'd really like to see actually happen (but won't). Too bad IMHO.

As for a 4-loss A&M, not even these CFP numbskulls would do that much overlooking.

I agree with you on seeing how teams from different conferences match up and have a suggestion (that will never happen unfortunately)that would generate a lot of interest. Suppose say the B1G and SEC agreed to a five-year or so experiment where five randomly selected SEC and BIG teams switched conferences each year, with Georgia, say playing a B1G schedule and Oregon playing an SEC schedule. Home games would be played at home and road games on the road in the new conference. This would generate the kind of interest that was a huge hit when interleague play came to the major leagues in Baseball and should be a treat for fans who would get to see their teams play 4-5 teams from anther top conference. And we'd have a lot better data over a 5-year period on how the two leagues match up. Thoughts anyone?

What a weekend in the SEC. My head hurts thinking about all of this. I'll add one more complication in the form of a supposition, What if UGA loses to rival Georgia Tech on Friday night? They are still going to the SEC championship game, win or lose, I believe. and should they win there (nothing is a shoo-in this year) you'll not only have a 3-loss team in the playoffs but one who earns a bye and plays in the Sugar Bowl. Now who could have ever imagined such a scenario even two weeks ago. "Not I" said the little red hen! Charles, you might care to post a new prediction thread seeing who can come closest to predicting the CFP Committee rankings for teams 1-12 that will come out on Tuesday evening. Should be most interesting.