SB Nation - Logan Gray

Independence Bowl Preview: How the Georgia Bulldogs and the Texas A&M Aggies Each Fared Against the Oklahoma State Cowboys

T Kyle King — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 04:04:32 -0000

As I noted previously, the days leading up to the SEC championship game saw Team Speed Kills comparing the Alabama Crimson Tide’s and the Florida Gators’ common opponents, which I have begun to do for the Independence Bowl participants, the Georgia Bulldogs and the Texas A&M Aggies (while conceding the admitted limitations inherent to such an endeavor).

Georgia and Texas A&M had only two common opponents this season. Last night, we looked at the Arkansas Razorbacks. Tonight, we will examine how the Independence Bowl invitees each performed against the Oklahoma St. Cowboys:

Category	Georgia	Texas A&M
Game Number	1	5
Score	L 24-10	L 36-31
Passing Yards	162	273
Rushing Yards	95	109
Total Yards	257	382
Passing Yds. All.	135	279
Rushing Yds. All.	172	169
Total Defense	307	448
Third Downs	33.3% (4 of 12)	43.8% (7 of 16)
Third Down Defense	40.0% (6 of 15)	42.9% (6 of 14)
Turnover Margin	-3	Even

Once again, a cursory look at the statistics suggests that the outing in Shreveport very well could be defense-optional. Although the Bulldogs’ and the Aggies’ contests against the Razorbacks were more proximate in time than their respective games against the Pokes, Georgia’s and Texas A&M’s showdowns with Oklahoma State were more similar sorts of games.

The Cowboys held a three-point halftime lead on the Bulldogs in Stillwater on September 5 and they carried a one-point deficit into the locker room in College Station on October 10, which is about the difference you would figure, given that the Waddies were playing the former game at home and the latter on the road. Georgia and Texas A&M both trailed Oklahoma State by seven points at the end of three quarters.

Accordingly, it is unlikely that the game situations appreciably altered either squad’s approach, as both outings unfolded along similar lines. That being the case, the Aggies clearly made better adjustments against Oklahoma State in the final 45 minutes.

The Bulldogs led the Cowpokes 7-0 after one quarter of play, only to be outscored 24-3 the rest of the way. The Oklahomans led the Texans 7-0 after one quarter of play, only to be outscored 31-29 the rest of the way. Georgia began the autumn by receiving the opening kickoff in Boone Pickens Stadium and marching 80 yards in ten plays to score a touchdown on the season’s first drive. Joe Cox attempted just three passes, completing two of them, and the ‘Dawgs ran the ball on the other seven snaps. Richard Samuel (four rushes for 31 yards), Branden Smith (two rushes for nine yards), and Logan Gray (one rush for two yards) all contributed to the ground game on the initial series. It was a good start to 2009, but the game---the season, really---went straight downhill from there.

After forcing the Pokes to punt on their first possession, the Red and Black again were back in business; three snaps into their second series, the Athenians had picked up a first down on a pair of Richard Samuel rushes and an Oklahoma State penalty. Georgia’s next four plays were a trio of Joe Cox passes, two of which were broken up by Perrish Cox, and a Drew Butler punt.

The Bulldogs ran sixteen more plays in the balance of the first half. Nine of these were passes, of which four were incomplete and three of the other five picked up three or fewer yards. A Cowboy field goal with five seconds remaining until halftime staked Okie State to a 10-7 lead and Georgia never did more than threaten to climb back into the contest after that. Joe Cox finished with a 50 per cent completion rate for 162 yards and as many interceptions as touchdowns.

The ‘Dawgs trailed the Pokes by 50 yards of total offense, had fewer first downs, and held the ball for a little more than 26 minutes of clock time. The Aggies, by contrast, were a couple of minutes closer to even in time of possession and picked up five more first downs than their Big 12 South opponent in a loss. Texas A&M had little early success against Oklahoma State, as the Aggies ran the ball eight times in the opening quarter (discounting sacks) and never gained more than six feet on any of those rushes. The first five times Jerrod Johnson tried to pass, the results were completions of four and twelve yards to Uzoma Nwachukwu, a pair of incompletions, and a sack.

Trailing by a touchdown, Texas A&M came to life in the second stanza. An eight-play drive beginning in the first quarter and featuring two passes which together covered 42 yards of real estate went deep into Cowboy territory before Randy Bullock missed a 32-yard field goal that Sandra Bullock should have made. Undaunted, the Aggies launched touchdown drives of 57 and 51 yards, responded to the Pokes’ recovery of a Jerrod Johnson fumble at the Texans’ 37 yard line by picking off a Zac Robinson pass to reclaim possession, and drove 71 yards to the Oklahoma State one yard line before turning the ball over on downs just before intermission.

Again discounting sacks but including two-point conversion attempts, the Aggies ran the ball thirteen times in the second quarter, only twice gaining more than five yards in a single rushing attempt, but Texas A&M remained sufficiently dedicated to the run that it opened up the pass. With a balanced attack featuring 42 pass attempts and 41 rushing attempts, Jerrod Johnson threw for 273 yards, three touchdowns, and no picks.

If there is any encouragement to be taken from the Bulldogs’ and the Aggies’ comparable games against the Cowboys, it is this: Texas A&M played much better against Oklahoma State than Georgia did, but all the Maroon and White had to show for it was a more exciting loss. The Pokes beat the Aggies despite (1) playing at Kyle Field, (2) trailing in first downs, (3) offsetting their lone takeaway with a corresponding giveaway to even the turnover margin, and (4) incurring 118 yards’ worth of penalties to Texas A&M’s 30.

The Big 12 South battle went in favor of the visiting Okies because they outgained the hometown Texans by 60 yards on the ground and six yards through the air, averaging 11.2 yards per pass. Georgia was much more careless with the football than the Aggies, posting a minus-three turnover ratio against the Cowboys that would become disturbingly familiar to Bulldog fans over the course of the campaign, and the Classic City Canines partially offset the Pokes’ 106 penalty yards with 58 of their own.

Nevertheless, a fairly decent defensive effort by the ‘Dawgs limited Oklahoma State to 6.1 yards per pass and held the Cowboys to a rushing effort (3.7 yards per carry) comparable to the 3.5 yards per running play they averaged against the Aggies. Carelessness with the football was a large part of what doomed the Red and Black in Stillwater, and that would become a familiar and infuriating theme of the season, but that fact offers at least some cause for hope, for this reason: Georgia has won the turnover battle in two of its last three games. If the SEC representative in Shreveport can find a way to hang onto the pigskin, the Athenians have a chance.

Go ‘Dawgs!

Georgia Bulldogs 38, Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles 0: Yes, But . . .

T Kyle King — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:47:06 -0000

It was a sunny yet crisp day in Athens. The usual homecoming pushover allowed for a 1:00 kickoff and a relaxed atmosphere, which made it a good day for me to take my six-year-old son to the stadium. Having Thomas with me invariably colors my view of any outing for the better, so I probably came away from the experience feeling better than average, but, on the whole, I have to acknowledge in all candor that any extended review of yesterday’s triumph over Tennessee Tech would be much ado about not very much.

The best that can be said---and this is better than we usually are able to say in such circumstances---is that the Georgia Bulldogs performed like they were supposed to perform against a lesser opponent. Rather than letting an inferior visitor hang around for a fair portion of the afternoon, the Red and Black slammed the door at the outset and continued to hold it closed while generating enough offense early to put the team on cruise control in the second half and get some younger players some needed experience. Beyond that, any praises have to be qualified with, "But it was just Tennessee Tech . . ."

From where I sat, the crowd looked more numerous than I expected, although it was as lackluster as I anticipated. This is not necessarily a bad thing; I know I was not on my feet on every down and hollering like usual because I had my son with me. Logan Gray’s interception on an underthrown pass into the end zone caused me some concern (and made me wonder once again why we are so insistent upon protecting Aaron Murray’s redshirt at this stage of the season), but I am more bothered by the fact that the Bulldogs were unable to tally so much as a single takeaway when facing a Division I-AA opponent between the hedges.

Too much is being made of the penalties. Yes, it hurt that a first-quarter holding penalty nullified a Prince Miller punt return for a touchdown, but that was the only flag of the first fifteen minutes. The Georgia possession in question still ended in a touchdown. Likewise, Brandon Wood’s six-yard offsides penalty on third and nine came during a Golden Eagle drive that still ended in a punt, the false start on first and ten in Georgia’s ensuing drive did not prevent the ‘Dawgs from producing points on the series, and the false start on second and one didn’t stop the Red and Black from converting the first down. Those were the only four penalties of the first half. When a 31-0 halftime lead enables you to clear the bench after intermission, second-half penalties are more or less meaningless, and the coaching staff responded to them with an impressive level of severity.

Washaun Ealey is the future at tailback and, as David Hale noted in the postgame observations linked to above, there is a lot of young talent on this team that is going to make some noise in the SEC in the next couple or three years. However, several impediments are preventing those young men from reaching their full potential, and the top two roadblocks standing in their way are these:

Willie Martinez, who proved yesterday only that he would make a darned fine Division I-AA defensive coordinator, as long as he had substantially more talent at his disposal than the opposing coaches.

A ridiculous double standard regarding redshirting. Urban Meyer said a year or so ago that there was no longer such a thing as a redshirt year at Florida. He was right to say so, for two reasons. First of all, recruits are induced to come play for coaches who tell them their youth will not be held against them if they demonstrate sufficient dedication and ability. Secondly, when you’re recruiting at a high enough level, redshirting is counterproductive. Georgia gained nothing by redshirting Knowshon Rockwell Moreno, and Georgia is gaining nothing by redshirting Aaron Murray. That foolhardy decision virtually guarantees that we will be going through the same learning curve next year with Murray that we have had to go through this year with Joe Cox. That is a shame, considering that we all know that next year is A.J. Green’s last year in a Bulldog uniform. 2010 should be a banner year for the Red and Black, but obstinate decisionmaking regarding the Georgia quarterbacks makes it likely that it will not be.

At the end of the day, a 38-0 win over a Division I-AA opponent at homecoming is what it is, which is what it was supposed to be but nothing more than that. I got to spend the afternoon in Athens with my son, but he was a little worn out by the trip and the mild fever he had before we left worsened when we got home. I got to see a cousin I haven’t seen in a while, but that was only because, even though we missed each other inside the stadium, he called me on my cell phone while I was leaving town and told me his truck had been towed and he needed me to circle back and pick him up to take him to the wrecker service where his vehicle had been impounded.

There was a lot that was good that could be said of yesterday afternoon in Athens. Every good thing that could be said of it, however, has to be followed by a "but . . ." of one sort or another. It was that kind of day, I’m afraid.

Go ‘Dawgs! Auburna delenda est!

Florida Gators 41, Georgia Bulldogs 17: I Saw Her Today at the Cocktail Party, A Glass of Wine in Her Hand

T Kyle King — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:39:18 -0000

That, quite simply, was as bad as it possibly could have been.

All of our excuses were exposed as falsehoods and all of our hopes were reduced to dust. The open date is meaningless, as are the coincidences about defending national champions and 19-year cycles. Yes, the officiating was atrocious, as usual, but we know we’re not getting the benefit of any doubts and we keep making the same mistakes, anyway. Besides, I can’t claim with a clear conscience that blown calls by the referees have cost the Bulldogs a game since Jasper Sanks’s "fumble."

Georgia has gone 7-6 in the Bulldogs’ last thirteen games. These results keep recurring for reasons that continue to be repeated. This is where we are as a program. There is no explaining this away.

There were points at which it appeared that the Bulldogs at least would make a game of it. Coming back from fourteen points down to make it a four-point ballgame in the second quarter, then cutting the deficit to 31-17 in the third period and forcing a punt on Florida’s next series, gave cause for hope that the score would be respectable. This year, unlike last year, the Red and Black did not quit when they got behind.

Otherwise, though, it was a repeat of 2008. Last year, despite the final margins appearing on the scoreboard, Alabama outplayed Georgia to a much greater extent than Florida did. This year, the Bulldogs absorbed a much worse drubbing from the Volunteers than from the Gators. Nevertheless, the score was what it was, and its impact is what it is. "Closer than the score indicated" is not synonymous with "close."

During Steve Spurrier’s tenure in Gainesville, Georgia simply was outclassed by Florida, and the results showed up in the record book: 38-7, 45-13, 52-14, 52-17, 47-7, 38-7. Between 2002 and 2007, though, the ‘Dawgs claimed a pair of victories in Jacksonville and never lost to the Sunshine State Saurians by more than a touchdown. There was reason to believe the two programs were on more or less equal footing.

After back-to-back blowouts by 49-10 and 41-17 scores, though, no such cause for confidence exists. Every gain the Georgia program has made since 2001 has been lost. We are now where we were in the 1990s. The glory run is over and we are back to square one.

There was, though, one potential positive to getting run out of the building by the St. John’s River, but we likely will not even derive that one possible benefit. On the whole, the defense played a terrible game, giving up 374 yards (including 210 on the ground), allowing 22 first downs, and permitting the Gators to move the chains on almost 54 per cent of their third-down chances. While there were some positive signs on offense and special teams, there were few, if any, on defense.

Nevertheless, the Georgia defense was not as awful in the second half as in the first. Florida scored fewer points in the third quarter than in any other period, which provides grist for the Willie Martinez apologists to claim that our defensive coordinator is better able to make adjustments than his detractors give him credit for being. After all, they will argue, you can’t pin every bit of this on Willie. Consider:

Seven of Florida’s points were set up by a Joe Cox interception at the Bulldogs’ 19 yard line which produced a three-play touchdown drive.

Three of Florida’s points were set up by another Cox interception at the Bulldogs’ 29 yard line which produced a seven-play drive on which Georgia surrendered only a field goal.

Seven of Florida’s points came off of a Logan Gray interception returned for a touchdown.

Accordingly, if you’re in a mood to be charitable, you can claim that Willie Martinez’s defense was only really to blame for 24 of the Gators’ points. That tally is comparable to the 23 points apiece conceded to Florida by Tennessee and Arkansas, and it’s better than the 29 given up to the Evergladers by Mississippi State. If the offense hadn’t turned the ball over four times and the special teams had been able to return a punt, the defense would have had a much better day. In short, anyone who’s looking to provide cover for Coach Martinez can come up with a basis for making excuses on his behalf.

So, it was as bad as it possibly could have been. Georgia didn’t win, didn’t keep it close, and yet, despite losing a blowout, didn’t lose the type of blowout that would have assured the end of Willie Martinez’s tenure with the Bulldogs. It was bad, but not bad enough, which, paradoxically, is worse.

The saddest and most frustrating part of it is that these players have talent to burn, are playing with heart, and want to win, but their gifts are being squandered. A wealth of NFL-caliber ability is going to waste before our very eyes. We have been down this road before and, although everyone agrees we are on this road again, no one seems determined to slam on the brakes, turn the car around, or even make sure the driver has a valid license.

Edna St. Vincent Millay was quoted as saying, "It’s not true that life is one damn thing after another; it’s one damn thing over and over." Right now, Georgia football is four or five damn things over and over. Big-game collapses, personal foul penalties, multiple turnovers, letting second-rate offenses have breakout days, and player arrests for petty traffic offenses define the Bulldog football program at this moment, and the only solutions we seem to have involve seeing red articles of clothing and wanting to paint them black. As we shall see, we’re drawing our inspiration from the wrong Rolling Stones song.

In 1992, as I sat numb and dumbfounded in the passenger seat of my father’s car while we drove away from Jacksonville after seeing Ray Goff’s best team beaten by Steve Spurrier’s worst team, a realization dawned clearly and completely in my mind: No Ray Goff-coached team will ever beat a Steve Spurrier-coached team. None ever did.

Today, this realization came to me with equal clarity and certainty: The current Georgia coaching staff will never beat the current Florida coaching staff. One or the other must change before we will ever win in Jacksonville again. Given the career day Steve Addazio had today after previously doing a poor job as Dan Mullen’s successor, it probably is the case that even changes on the Gators’ staff wouldn’t do us any good, because Urban Meyer is enough of a perfectionist that he would insist upon replacing any current assistants with coaches of equal or greater ability. The brief Ron Zook interlude notwithstanding, the Gators do not trade down; Florida chooses coaches the way John Derek chose wives.

This is going to keep happening. If Gray’s performance in relief of Cox is any indication, we already are well on our way to losing every big game in 2010. As a program, we have been lapped by our coevals. Changes are needed, and, until those changes are made, we will continue falling farther behind programs that ought to be our equals and are now instead our superiors.

The systemic problems endemic to our program have reached the extreme levels they had reached in 1995, and the solutions to those problems must be as extreme now as they were then. I am no defender of Jim Donnan, but at least he did not tarry before sacking Kevin Ramsey. We are at---we are long past---that point.

At the time Coach Donnan was fired, I was the co-host of a local cable television program called "The Dawg Show." While the search for a new coach was ongoing, my co-host, Travis Rice, and I endorsed Mark Richt as the best of the available candidates, and, from literally the moment the Florida State offensive coordinator was hired, I bought in wholeheartedly to the notion that Coach Richt would retire as the winningest coach in Georgia football history. The Mark Richt Victory Watch began with his very first game on the Sanford Stadium sideline.

I do not doubt that Mark Richt can still surpass Vince Dooley to become the most successful coach in University of Georgia history, but today, for the first time, I am no longer sure he will. When my head hit the pillow on the night of December 26, 2000, I was sure Coach Richt would get to 202 victories during his tenure in Athens. When my head hit the pillow on the night of October 30, 2009, I remained sure of the inevitability of that milestone, as I had remained sure each night in between. Tonight, my head will hit the pillow clouded by doubt as to the certainty of that which I have believed without wavering for nearly nine uninterrupted years.

I do not want anyone other than Mark Richt to be our head coach, but I need someone other than Willie Martinez to be our defensive coordinator. I hope and believe Mark Richt is the head coach who will replace Willie Martinez with someone more competent to perform the vital duties which presently are so consistently being performed so poorly and so unsatisfactorily. I know, though, that the Georgia Bulldogs must be led by the head coach who will make what ought not to be a hard choice.

I am proud to call Mark Richt my head coach. I hope to be able to support him in that post for many years to come. If, however, I am forced to choose---if my head coach tells me, in effect, that he and his defensive coordinator are a package deal---then I am now prepared to give up what I personally would prefer in order to obtain that which is dictated by clear necessity.

I want Mark Richt to lead our program, in 2010 and beyond. I believe Mark Richt, like Vince Dooley in the mid-1970s, can make the necessary changes to restore the Georgia program to its proper lofty level. Much more fundamentally, though, I need days like this to quit happening with such appalling regularity, and I, like all of you, know damn good and well what it will take to make days like this stop. I also know that the Glimmer Twins were right . . . you can’t always get what you want, but, if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need.

Go ‘Dawgs.

Georgia Bulldogs 34, Vanderbilt Commodores 10

T Kyle King — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 01:24:26 -0000

My life, when it is written, will read better than it lived.

King Henry II
The Lion in Winter

So it is with the Georgia Bulldogs’ victory in chilly Nashville over the Vanderbilt Commodores earlier this afternoon. History records that the Red and Black amassed 19 first downs to their hosts’ 16 while moving the chains on seven of their 15 third-down snaps. The statistics show that the Classic City Canines picked up 173 rushing yards on 37 carries, well outpacing the 122 yards the Music City Sailors garnered on 36 running plays. Mike Bobo, calling the game from the sideline rather than from the booth, directed an offense that came three feet shy of picking up 400 yards as Joe Cox completed 16 of 31 passes for 226 yards and two touchdowns. His lone interception initially was called an incompletion and only became a turnover after review confirmed the spectacular play the defender had made. Even so, the ‘Dawgs took it away as often as they gave it away.

Willie Martinez’s defense held the Commies under 300 yards of total offense and stopped the opposition on 80 per cent of their third-down tries. Vandy’s only fourth-down conversion in three attempts came on a fake punt. Georgia held the ball for almost 33 minutes of clock time and seven Bulldogs not named Joe Cox contributed carries on the day, including leading rusher Washaun Ealey (13 carries for 71 yards).

On paper, the 34-10 effort in which the Athenians scored 17 first-half points and 17 second-half points on a Vanderbilt defense that was surrendering just 15.7 points per game, while giving up a single sustained drive on the Commodores’ opening possession of the second half, was a dominant performance over a gritty but ultimately inferior opponent. It just didn’t seem to be nearly as one-sided an affair as it looked on the final stat sheet.

It’s not that I’m deliberately curbing my enthusiasm over a win against a weak team after getting raked over the coals last week for urging an opposing fan base to curb its enthusiasm over a win against a weak team. There genuinely were problems that caused me to fret at the time; viz.:

The Georgia offense got off to the slowest of slow starts, either turning the ball over or going three and out on each of the Bulldogs’ first three drives. Aside from A.J. Green turning a short pass into a 65-yard touchdown reception, the Red and Black didn’t have a drive of more than 15 yards in the first quarter.

The running game was nonexistent for much of the contest. Long rushes by Washaun Ealey (33 yards), Carlton Thomas (10 yards), and Dontavious Jackson (15 and 19 yards), all in the fourth quarter and all after the ‘Dawgs had gone out in front by three scores, accounted for nearly 45 per cent of Georgia’s rushing yardage. Aside from those four long runs after the game was out of reach (two of which came on the final two plays of the contest), the Classic City Canines managed just 96 yards on the ground, which is disturbingly consistent with the 97.2 rushing yards per game the Bulldogs were averaging coming into the outing. Even with those four long runs, essentially all of which came in garbage time, Georgia still only did what everyone else has done on the ground against the Commodores: Vanderbilt was giving up 170.2 rushing yards per game entering the day. This was an average performance and nothing more.

Some of the choices made by the coaches still cause brows to furrow throughout Bulldog Nation. Fred Munzenmaier had as many receptions as A.J. Green. Logan Gray made some curious calls on punt returns, making it even more odd that the backup quarterback was out there in the first place after Prince Miller racked up 95 yards on a pair of punt returns.

Only the talent differential between the two schools enabled Georgia to put this game away in the end. This is a concern, since Tennessee Tech is the only team remaining on the schedule over which the Bulldogs have an edge in ability equal to the one they enjoy over the Commodores. There isn’t a Division I-A team left on the Red and Black’s slate that the Athenians can beat strictly on talent. Accordingly, the atrocious timing of Cox’s lone interception, the reality of 71 yards lost on eight penalties against the ‘Dawgs, and the fact that the defense conceded an eleven-play, 80-yard touchdown drive taking more than four minutes of clock time to let Vandy back in the game at the start of the third quarter all represent ongoing causes for concern.

In the end, it was a win, and, right now, I’ll take the W and be content with it. At the end of the day, though, all this victory proved was that Georgia has better players than Vanderbilt, a truth that was never in doubt.

If you’re looking for something good to take away from today’s victory, here it is: Georgia’s 24-point margin of victory over the Commodores was the largest since the Bulldogs beat Vanderbilt 33-3 in 2004 . . . a year in which the Red and Black went on to beat the Florida Gators. Given the vast gap in performance separating Ron Zook’s last Orange and Blue squad from the current edition of Urban Meyer’s Sunshine State Saurians, I think it’s fair to say that the foregoing parallel is a happenstance without significance. Therefore, it seems our best bet as a fan base is to say three things in summation of this win:

Any conference win on the road is a good win.
4-3 is better than 3-4.
Man, I’m glad we have an open date.

So . . . any conference win on the road is a good win. 4-3 is better than 3-4. Man, I’m glad we have an open date. Let’s leave it at that, shall we?

Go ‘Dawgs!

Georgia Bulldogs 20, Arizona State Sun Devils 17

T Kyle King — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 01:21:32 -0000

My father will not leave a sporting event early. This dates back to his boyhood, when he rode into town to see minor league baseball games in Cordele, Ga., with a local man who insisted upon leaving at the seventh-inning stretch in order to beat traffic. That is, in order to beat the sort of traffic one encountered when leaving a minor league baseball game in Cordele, Ga., in the 1950s.

Because of that experience, Dad insists upon getting his money’s worth out of a game. As a result, I have spent more than one summer afternoon under the overhang at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium watching rain pelt a tarp during an Atlanta Braves weather delay while thinking, If I were home, I’d be watching Andy Griffith right now. Although I do not quite have Dad’s fortitude in such matters---I left the 1996 Texas Tech game early; Dad stayed in Sanford Stadium to the very end---I have inherited much of his devotion to sticking it out while the game is being played.

Consequently, I was present for the entirety of last night’s game between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Arizona St. Sun Devils. I was drenched to the skin by the time the game began, and I hung around ‘til the final horn, teeth chattering and legs weary, while thinking, At least I’m not as wet and cold as I was at the 1993 Florida game.

In a not unrelated item, Doug Gillett and Orson Swindle are total wusses.

I was supposed to meet Doug at his usual tailgate spot at Tent City, and, while a good crowd was there, Doug was not. He had promised to bring Holly Anderson (whom I have never met face-to-face), but, since he didn’t come, she didn’t come, and he also had promised to bring Orson and The Conscience of a Nation, but, since he didn’t come, they didn’t come, either.

I know Holly and TCOAN are women of fortitude and substance who happily would have braved the elements, so I will not disparage them in the slightest, but Doug and Orson are buddies of mine, so I feel perfectly justified (in a good-natured locker room sort of way) in denouncing them as a couple of pansified nancy-boys who melt upon contact with water like witches in "The Wizard of Oz" or major league baseball players. Ignore what they have to say about college football and heed the words of a man who was fan enough (or a fan who was man enough) to stand out in it and shiver and cheer ‘til he was hoarse. These are those words:

My faith that there is symmetry to the universe is underscored by the fact that, on the Saturday following the 25th anniversary of Kevin Butler’s historic last-second field goal to beat Clemson, Georgia won on a last-second field goal in a game in which Drew Butler played well for the ‘Dawgs on special teams.

What appeared to be the case through much of the second quarter in Stillwater appeared to be the case through halftime this weekend: Georgia had the game well in hand, despite the relative closeness of the score, until the Bulldogs started coughing up the ball. Three giveaways a game in each of the first four weeks is inexcusable and will lead inevitably to ruin against teams in the Red and Black’s weight class. As it stands, the Athenians have won three straight nailbiters when, without the turnovers, they’d have won three straight comfortable victories, and maybe even three straight runaways.

Because the foregoing statement is true, it also is the case that you can’t hang this one on the defense. I have criticized the Georgia D’s failure to step up in sudden change situations, a shortcoming which was all too apparent against the Auburn Tigers and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets last year and against the Arkansas Razorbacks this year. Against the Sun Devils, though, the Classic City Canines at least showed some fight following Caleb King’s third quarter fumble. Arizona State took over at the home team’s 37 yard line and required eight plays (including two third down conversions) to score. I wish they hadn’t given up the touchdown, but at least they contested it even when placed in a tough spot. Obviously, the defense stepped up a second time after Jarrell Holman’s interception return to the Georgia 21. The ‘Dawgs pushed the Sun Devils backwards on the drive, which ended in a blocked field goal. The results of those efforts offer at least a glimmer of hope, as does the fact that the defense ultimately adjusted and appeared to figure out how to slow down Dimitri Nance.

Six penalties for 45 yards isn’t good, but I’ll take it. Likewise, while the special teams were far from flawless, they turned in their best performance of the season so far. Please, let it be "so far."

The young and talented Bulldogs are starting to shed the trappings of youth and demonstrate the fact of their talent. This week, Bacarri Rambo and Rantavious Wooten began to emerge from the cocoon of hype and enter the early stages of realizing their potential.

We in the South should abandon all usage of the phrase "SEC speed" in any manner which is other than ironic. That Pac-10 defense looked pretty doggone fast to me. In a related item, although Caleb King was an effective complement to Richard Samuel, this might have been a good game to give Carlton Thomas some carries, as his running style might have been better suited to getting through the Sun Devils' defense.

Sometimes, conventional wisdom gets to be conventional wisdom because it’s correct. Attempts to surprise the other team by handing off to the fullback only work when your frequent use of the fullback in short yardage situations on third down hasn’t caused everyone in the stadium to look for a handoff to the fullback. Georgia has a stable of talented running backs; they should be used in such situations. By the same token, the Bulldogs have to get Logan Gray in for whole drives at the time, not for one snap at a time for plays that are blown up immediately due to their predictability.

Going for it on fourth down was a bad call. It’s fourth and one in the fourth quarter of a low-scoring tie ballgame. You have the ball on the visitors’ 28 yard line, the wind at your back, and Blair Walsh standing on the sidelines. You kick the dadgum field goal.

That said, the final drive following the blocked field goal was well designed and well executed. Joe Cox, who earlier in the game had thrown the ball when he should have run it, picked up three yards when a play broke down and completed four out of five attempts before darting to the hash mark and kneeling to set up a field goal on the final play of the game. Facing overtime as the worst realistic scenario, the Bulldogs had a win virtually assured and made sure to do nothing that would give it away.

Georgia is living on the edge, which justifiably is causing considerable heartburn in Bulldog Nation, but the LSU Tigers look every bit as beatable as the Red and Black in an autumn in which almost every team appears riddled with imperfections. Even if our team doesn’t seem to be particularly good, it may be enough that no one else seems to be particularly good, either.

Go ‘Dawgs!

Georgia Bulldogs 41, South Carolina Gamecocks 37

T Kyle King — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:16:01 -0000

Vince Dooley once described the 1978 tilt between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets as one of the best spectator games he’d ever seen. What he meant by that was that, while the game lacked a great deal from a coach’s perspective, it was a fun game to watch because it had a little bit of just about everything. Saturday night’s showdown with the South Carolina Gamecocks was a lot like that.

If I’d told you beforehand that the Palmetto State Poultry would score 37 points on the Red and Black, you’d have told me Georgia would have gotten run out of the building. The reverse would have been true had I told you beforehand that the Classic City Canines would put up 41 points on the Big Chickens. Instead, what we got was a typical Georgia-South Carolina game in terms of margin of victory but an exceptional Georgia-South Carolina game in terms of how we arrived at the final result.

The funny thing is, though, both extreme outcomes came fairly close to occurring. When the Gamecocks went up by ten points with five minutes remaining in what seemed to be the longest first quarter in the recorded history of college football, a home team that had yet to score an offensive point and had barely run an offensive play appeared in danger of being trounced.

Later, when the ‘Dawgs took the opening kickoff of the second half and turned it into seven points to give the Red and Black a 15-point lead, a blowout win by the Bulldogs appeared probable. At every turn, we all should have known better. It was foreordained that the contest would go down to the wire, because, all odds to the contrary, it always does.

Georgia scored its most points against South Carolina since 1995? Fine; then South Carolina would score its most points against Georgia ever, to riddle the scoreboard for a combined 78 total ticks that eclipsed every tally since the two teams collectively put up 86 points in 1970.

Spencer Lanning overcame his placekicking woes to drill five field goals? Fine; then Blair Walsh would answer with a 50-yarder in the second stanza and what proved to be a game-sealing three-pointer in the final quarter. The Gamecocks would incur eleven penalties for 98 yards? Fine; then the Bulldogs would draw 13 flags for 108 yards. (The Athenians lost one more yard on penalties than they gained rushing.)

South Carolina would run the ball 30 times and average 3.8 yards per carry? Fine; then Georgia would run the ball 29 times and average 3.7 yards per carry. South Carolina would pick up 26 first downs to Georgia’s 16? Fine; then the ‘Dawgs would offset them by converting over half of their third downs while the ‘Cocks garnered the necessary yardage on just over a third of theirs.

The game had it all, from Brandon Boykin’s exhilarating 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to a crucial blocked extra point, from a successfully-executed fake punt to a bad snap that went out the back of the end zone for a safety. Heck, Branden Smith exhibited the highest of highs and the lowest of lows all by himself, from foolishly taking out a kickoff that was buried deep in the end zone and setting up a South Carolina score with a fumble to taking a reverse 61 yards for the go-ahead touchdown.

Those of us who wondered whether Joe Cox had it in him to be a starting quarterback at this level---and I must count myself among them---received our answer. Although Cox threw an ugly interception while locking on his primary receiver with telegraphed tunnel vision not seen between the hedges since the days of Greg Talley, he nevertheless connected on 17 of 24 aerial attempts for 201 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

Likewise, those of us who wondered whether it was worth it for Steve Spurrier to continue to tolerate Stephen Garcia’s shenanigans received our answer when the Gamecock quarterback completed 31 of 53 passes for 313 yards, two touchdowns, and one acrobatic Brandon Boykin interception. Had it not been for Garcia’s ability to extend plays---had the Evil Genius fielded literally any other quarterback who has ever played for him during his time in Columbia---the ‘Dawgs would have won in a rout.

Plus, in the midst of all that, the home crowd gave perhaps the loudest ovation ever offered up in response to a routine touchback on a kickoff. No wonder they played a Dave Matthews tribute at halftime; they needed to mellow us out after all the excitement . . . although the twirler tossing flaming batons didn’t exactly help the crowd calm down. This is a good thing, since the recurring images of Georgia players in the NFL flashed up on the scoreboard clearly indicated that recruits were in the house, and I’m sure they came away impressed by the atmosphere.

It’s also a good thing that Larry Munson retired last year, because, if he had been in the booth for this one, it likely would have caused the Georgia play-by-play announcer to suffer a fatal heart attack. Predictably, the game was decided on a fourth-down play in the final 30 seconds with the Gamecocks trailing by four points and holding the ball on the Bulldogs’ seven yard line when a Garcia pass was batted down by Carolina-killer Rennie Curran. (It’s no wonder Gamecock fans would trade with us to get him on their side!)

Other than being reminded that I have an unhealthy relationship with the quarterback sack (you should not stand too close to me after a Georgia defender has taken down an opposing quarterback behind the line, lest my wild celebratory gesticulations batter you senseless), I came away from this game with my thoughts and emotions as jumbled as you would expect them to be after I spent four hours standing on my feet outdoors on a sweltering late summer night and yelling like a maniac.

I regretted the fact that Logan Gray was a complete non-factor, yet I was glad to see our Cox beat their ‘Cocks. I regretted the fact that Caleb King was sidelined by injury, but I believe we have found our starting running back in Richard Samuel. I was entirely pleased by many aspects of the Red and Black’s special teams play and thoroughly discouraged by some others. I watched an opponent score 37 points on the ‘Dawgs and came away feeling that, despite several head-scratching substitution miscues, the defense actually didn’t perform half-badly, all things considered. (Against a quarterback less mobile than Garcia---and, aside from Tim Tebow, what other quarterback Georgia faces will be as mobile as Garcia?---the Bulldog D would have been something close to dominant.)

I haven’t the first clue how this team is going to perform in Fayetteville next Saturday. I haven’t the faintest notion what to make of the fact that the team that beat Georgia last Saturday turned right around and lost to Houston. I watched the game ebb and flow as the momentum shifted, the breaks broke both ways, and flukes, misjudgments, and lightning strikes eviscerated any claim by either team that whichever squad emerged victorious could have its win attributed to mere luck, all as a game that no one imagined was forthcoming ended exactly in the way we all knew it would.

It was utterly typical and completely abnormal. It was maddening and thrilling. It gave me flashbacks to Steve Taneyhill’s last-second touchdown in 1993 and fell just short of reminding me that 0-2 is twice as bad as 0-1, but it allowed in the sort of sliver of hope that can crowd out doubts and confirmed that 1-1 is only half as bad as 0-1.

The Georgia Bulldogs have a long way to go before they can claim to be a good football team, but it is now possible to believe they have a shot at getting there. It may be worth sticking it out for the 2009 season, after all.

Go ‘Dawgs!

Warm-Up Sprints Thinks Muscles Wasting Away Is Not Good // 09.12.09

cocknfire — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 11:48:34 -0000

More photos » by John Bazemore - AP

Just a muscle that's gone. No biggie.

Browse more photos »

A round-up of the pregame headlines ...

Is this as bad as it sounds?
Georgia QB Joe Cox on his mystery injury:

"One of the muscles that protects the rotator cuff has wasted away and that puts pressure on the rotator cuff." ...

Cox is also recovering from the flu, which affected him last week. Cox said he has lost nine pounds and only regained his appetite on Wednesday.

"I got the IV before the last game," Cox said. "I wasn't breathing well. I was weak. But I'm feeling better now."

So of course he's going to be Georgia's starter. Groo suspects, not without reason, that this explains "the talk of getting Logan Gray ready to lead the #1 offense."

You could waste a lot of time trying in vain to be original
Or, like the Senator, you could just own up to the fact that all South Carolina-Georgia previews are essentially the same thing you said last year in a slightly different fashion. Really, it's all you need to know about this game blahblahblahblahblah.

It'd be better than Vegas' prediction
The line on South Carolina-Georgia is 7.5. The over-under is 38.5.

So Troy will lose by just 40
Gators deal with defensive injuries.

Dr. Saturday has the pick of the week for Mississippi State-Auburn

Both teams looked vastly more competent on offense in their openers, for whatever it's worth, so I'll predict twice the explosion of points as in last year's classic in Starkville.

That's right, 6-4. So brilliant, I'm surprised I didn't think of it.

It will happen this way because computers always get it right
I won't completely spoil the ending, but I'm almost tempted to make my usual guarantee and say I'll sing "Rocky Top" if the Vols win by that much. Almost.

Erin Andrews' Oprah interview airs
She seems to contradict the public theory that the secret taping was a crime of opportunity.

"I do know that I am a victim of a stalker, because we know that this happened in at least two rooms," Andrews said. "I was getting ready to go work a college football game in at least one of the videos I was able to identify."

I'm not sure if this is less creepy because the alleged culprit might not have randomly taped women or more creepty because he or she didn't target one particular individual. You would think that even the looniest individual would recognize the difference between noting that Andrews is attractive in that girl next door sort of way and covertly recording her in a state of undress. Apparently not.

Too Much Information: Georgia Bulldogs v. South Carolina Gamecocks

T Kyle King — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:01:03 -0000

Last week’s edition of Too Much Information was brought to you by Manic Kyle, but Manic Kyle lives no more, having been gunned down by Pistol Pete in the third quarter last Saturday afternoon and buried in a shallow grave on the outskirts of Stillwater. From the time he bought into the ‘Dawgs as a national championship contender, Manic Kyle saw the Georgia Bulldogs go 10-4 while winning ugly and losing uglier. Manic Kyle will not be missed.

Depressive Kyle---or, if you prefer, Realistic Kyle---is on the job, and he will be dispensing knowledge neither with an eyedropper nor a thimble; rather, he will be dumping buckets of minutiae over your head. Delve into the data if you dare as Dawg Sports brings you . . . Too Much Information:

Odds and Ends:

It comes as no surprise to you, I am sure, that the Bulldogs are 0-1. That makes 2009 the eleventh season in the last five decades in which the Red and Black lost their opener to a team other than the South Carolina Gamecocks. In the previous ten such seasons, Georgia only once finished with more than seven wins, but the ‘Dawgs were 6-2-2 against the Palmetto State Poultry, including a 5-1 mark against the Big Chickens between the hedges.

South Carolina lost six games last season, which isn’t really much of an oddity in Columbia; the Gamecocks lost exactly six games 20 times between 1909 and 2007, and the Red and Black played the Garnet and Black in 17 of the seasons immediately following the campaigns in which USC dropped a half-dozen decisions. The Bulldogs posted a 13-3-1 mark against the Gamecocks in those 17 series meetings.

Along similar lines, 2008 was the 20th season in which the Red and Black suffered exactly three setbacks in a single fall. The ‘Dawgs crossed paths with the Big Chickens in twelve of the campaigns following those three-loss seasons, going 10-2 against South Carolina in those dozen series meetings.

Not long ago, I addressed the question whether Georgia and Clemson were still rivals, and some comparisons were drawn to the Bulldogs’ series with the Gamecocks. For whatever it might be worth, Georgia and Clemson have met on the gridiron 62 times, in spite of the fact that they have squared off just six times since 1987. On Saturday night, Georgia and South Carolina will meet on the gridiron for the 62nd time, in spite of the fact that they will have squared off in 34 of the 36 seasons between 1974 and 2009.

The Feel Good Stat of the Week:

Last year, Georgia beat South Carolina by a 14-7 margin, making 2008 the eighth time the Gamecocks scored exactly seven points against the Bulldogs.

The Palmetto State Poultry have never beaten the Classic City Canines in a season following one in which the South Carolinians scored exactly seven points on the Athenians. The Big Chickens are 0-6-1 in series meetings immediately subsequent to a seven-point output in the previous showdown.

The Bottom Line:

Any discussion of this series ultimately must come around to the fact that games between these border rivals almost always end up being low-scoring grind-it-out defensive struggles. Over 40 per cent of the clashes between these two teams (25 of 61) have been decided by margins of seven points or fewer. That number leaps to 50 per cent (9 of 18) for showdowns after the end of the Vince Dooley era, then jumps up again to 75 per cent (6 of 8) for games played during the Mark Richt era.

Given the performances of the respective clubs’ offensive and defensive units in their opening games, there appears to be no reason to doubt that Saturday’s clash will be true to form. Points are liable to be at a premium, and, with South Carolina’s defense likely holding the edge over Georgia’s, the Classic City Canines are helped by (1) the possible presence of Logan Gray in a greater role, which gives Georgia the opportunity to spring one or two big plays that could prove crucial; (2) the home field advantage afforded by a Sanford Stadium crowd that has had all day to engage in (ahem) pregame preparations; and (3) their clear superiority in the field goal-kicking department.

My Prediction: Georgia 13, South Carolina 10.

Go ‘Dawgs!

Sprints Thinks Joe Cox Will Certainly Probably Maybe Definitely Potentially Start // 09.11.09

cocknfire — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:23:11 -0000

More photos » by John Bazemore - AP

Will he start? The Georgia coaches say yes. The real answer?

Browse more photos »

Jogan Grox will start for Georgia on Saturday. Will Joe Cox or Logan Gray start for Georgia on Saturday? Yes. Thanks for asking.

Thursday morning, rumors emerged and quickly spread all over the Interwebs -- including here at Team Speed Kills -- that Gray would get the start against the Gamecocks. Apparently, the story started on Rivals and quickly spread to ESPN and elsewhere. Georgia coaches -- including Mark Richt -- quickly moved to quell the rumor. Sort of.

"No, Joe is the quarterback. ...

While unequivocal about Cox’s status as the starter, Richt said only this when asked if Cox has a sore arm or shoulder, as has been rumored:

"What we have been doing with Joe is giving him ... off Wednesday as far as throwing the ball. And then Thursday -- today -- he’ll work. But the guy has been here five years. He’s getting old.

"Nah, we want to make sure his arm is as fresh as it could be. And that’s why we do it. ... We want Joe to have as much pop as he can have."

So Logan Gray won't start because Joe Cox has a sore arm. Joe Cox will start despite having a sore arm? Groo points out that the latter possibility is not exactly encouraging.

If Belue is right and Cox is missing practice time to rest his shoulder, that’s not a positive angle to this story considering the problems in execution that plagued the offense last week. If Cox is going to start and play most of the game, the offense needs all of the practice time with him it can get.

Well, at least we know for a fact that Joe Cox will be the sta--

What's that you say, Mayor?

While I am not a journalist and I seldom even play one on the internet, I was able to reach out to someone I know inside the Georgia football program in an effort to clear up any lingering confusion. This individual's first inkling that something was up came by way of a text message from someone on the outside rather than through any internal word. "They haven't made a final decision," I was told. "But Logan is doing very well at practice I will say that."

One thing that does seem crystal clear is that Gray will get more playing time whether he starts or not.

But since we all seem to be speculating anyway, let me throw out another way to look at this. What if the practice rotations for Gray were not the smokescreen, but today's stringent denials from the coaching staff were? Sure, that would be a surprising move for Richt -- but any more surprising than an admittedly desperate Richt inciting his players to draw a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct?

At any rate, the Gamecocks say they're prepared to play whomever takes the field at whatever point in the game.

"We saw (Gray) last week run a couple little special plays," [South Carolina assistant head coach for defense Ellis] Johnson said. "The thing about Logan is you’ve still got to play your total package. He can throw it or run it. I think we’ll see him. And we’ve been kind of worrying about that and running some things that we were concerned about."

The Georgia coaches also have more fundamental questions to answer. Like whether it's better to have high kicks or low kicks and whether the aim of your kicking game should be to "challenge" itself.

CBS announcers chat. Apparently, the CBS broadcasters had a teleconference with some beat reporters Thursday and had choice words for those who would deny a second Heism@n to the Golden Tebow. Danielson, frighteningly, makes good points.

Gary Danielson, who stopped voting for the Heisman after Charles Woodson beat out Peyton Manning for the honor, took a shot at voters in a teleconference to promote CBS' coverage of the UT-UF game.

He called last year's voting "an embarrassment.''[para] Danielson noted that a large group of voters left Tim Tebow off ballots, to try to force him out of the running.

"Tim Tebow as the returning Heisman Trophy winner and out of 904 votes, 154 didn't have him as first, second or third,'' Danielson said of a group of voters mostly from the Southwest, that included Big 12 media (which includes Oklahoma's Sam Bradford and Texas's Colt McCoy). "Clearly people were trying to make their vote count twice by not voting for him and he lost by 151 votes. It's ridiculous.''

I think it's difficult to dispute that, when the player with the most first-place votes doesn't get the award, some people are intentionally docking him points for some reason. Whether it's a nefarious Big XII plot to make sure an SEC player doesn't get it, I don't know. But Tebow has an unlikely ally.

Former Tennessee coach Phil Fulmer, now an analyst on the CBS College Sports Network, chimed in:

"Don’t get me started on that subject because we could be here for a while. That was an injustice to Peyton Manning. Do I think it could happen again? Absolutely it could happen again.

"I think right now Tebow may have an advantage because he didn’t win it last year. He’s on the No. 1 ranked team. If he goes through the season, he’s clearly the guy who should win it. McCoy’s numbers were just as good as anybody’s, but right now Tebow would be awful hard to beat."

Meanwhile, Tim Brando's obsession with "flies in the ointment" raises a nightmare scenario for the BCS and potentially the SEC.

"It could come down to an unbeaten BYU vs. a one-loss SEC team. Who do you take? I'm going to tell you if BYU runs the table from this point forward, they have the schedule to give them the credibility that no other non-BCS school has had, not Utah (last year), not Boise, not Hawaii, none of them."

Borrowing trouble? Perhaps. But it's not like its a longshot at this point.

Grade inquiry draws some questions
The ACT flap over Ole Miss WR Patrick Patterson, when added to cases like Derrick Rose and Renardo Sidney (more on both of those below), makes you wonder if the NCAA has decided to launch some sort of crackdown. If they do, expect more ruffled feathers among families and coaches.

'Are The UCLA Bruins Lane Kiffin's Most Important Game?'
Rocky Top Talk's hooper says "yes." He makes some good points, but I'm not sure I agree with him. A good case can be made that Tennessee should have won the game last year, meaning a win this year would be more a statement about the team's luck than about its improvement. Second, I'm not sure a win over Western Kentucky team and a UCLA team of debatable quality "wold place the trend squarely on the path toward relevance again," though it couldn't hurt.

Here's another chance
South Carolina's struggle to get to .500 all-time continues.

Cable company, ESPN will broaden coverage of UK-Louisville
This really isn't significant outside of Kentucky, except that it shows one of the shortcomings of the ESPN-SEC deal: For those with basic cable, the new package is actually worse than the old way of doing things. LSU-Vanderbilt, for example, would almost certainly have been an ESPN, ESPN2 or JP/Lincoln/Raycom game in the past. Now you'll only see it if you have a digital cable package.

Jones, McNeil might play Saturday
WR Gerald Jones and C Josh McNeil could both see the field for Tennessee against UCLA.

LSU-North Carolina 2010 game now official
The only hang-up appears to be the replacement opponent for South Carolina. Anyone but N.C. State -- our nation does not need to face that tragedy again.

'Fortson could face disciplinary action'?
Arkansas' point guard tweeted about the reaction into a rape investigation involving some of the basketball team's players and followed it up with "lol." How exactly is discipline a possibility and not a certainty?

Renardo Sidney 'non-certified due to non-response'
I'm not even sure who's got a better case at this point. It's kind of hard to judge whether the NCAA has any reason to ask for these records when we don't know what their case is based on or whether it's based on anything at all. (No, I'm not taking Sidney's lawyer's word for it.)

'I know nothing'
~~Sgt. Schultz~~ John Calipari answers questions about the Derrick Rose controversy.

Will Joe Cox Start for Georgia?

cocknfire — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:37:35 -0000

UPDATE, 1:45 p.m. ET: Hale says yes. As does Mike Bobo via the AJC. (Twitter HT to an alert reader)

We'll try to sort this out in Sprints.

Maybe. Maybe not. Per Joe Schad:

A person close to sophomore quarterback Logan Gray had said earlier in the day that Gray was expected to start due to an arm issue that limited Cox's repetitions this week.

But the [Georgia] spokesperson said that while Gray has taken some first-team repetitions this week, Cox was still on schedule to start.

I'm not sure if you could call the potential loss of Joe Cox a crushing blow for the Dawgs, thought it isn't good to lose your starting QB a few days before the SEC opener regardless of his performance the previous week.

Stay tuned.