Oversigning opponents will soon underwhelm::

Turnovers? Penalties? Pocket problems? Piss-poor pass coverage? Those are all signs of undisciplined players. And the fact that those same players take the field week after week, making the same bone-headed mistakes proves just how thin Florida is.

Will Muschamp can’t effectively punish players for making mistakes because he doesn’t have a choice. The Gators only have 61 players left from their last four signing classes. On average, the four teams that beat Florida last month had 72 players remaining from those classes.

Looking at the 2008-11 signing classes, the Gators have lost 23 players before they exhausted all four years of eligibility. If that number seems high, it’s not. Those four teams that beat Florida in October, (those deeper teams) lost more athletes in the last four years than the Gators did.

Alabama, LSU, Auburn and Georgia have lost an average of 30.5 players early.

They oversigned, stockpiling recruits knowing full well those wild and crazy kids wouldn’t all cut it. Some transferred when they wanted more playing time. Some suffered career-ending injuries. Some decided to skip class or play baseball or simply quit.

 

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(By the way, pardon me for looking ahead to next week)

Jay at Track Em Tigers seems to think so:

As time expired Saturday night at Jordan-Hare Stadium, I realized something else - Gene Chizik is one of the top five coaches in the country. He may even be the best. Call me a homer. I don't care.

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Full disclosure: I have a degree from the University of Florida.  However, I have never rooted for any of their teams, worn any Gator paraphernalia, or done anything whatsoever to detract from my loyalty to my original alma mater, the University of Georgia, when it comes to athletics.

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I was one of the season ticket-holders who was moved from my seats (moved from section 144 to the East endzone this season), so I knew there was some realignment coming.  Still, I didn't know exactly what it would be.

I was very glad to see that we've finally moved our band.  For years, I've thought it was stupid that we had our band in an area where they were playing into the open end and a good chunk of the stadium couldn't hear them due to being above them.  Putting them in the center of the open endzone was a great move.  Kudos, Mr. McGarity.  He really does see the big picture when it comes to the little things, and he's enough of an insider from his previous life in Athens that he can get away with moving a few season tickets around for the sake of the stadium atmosphere.  Here's to hoping he puts some more student seating in the lower levels of Stegeman (e.g. how Maryland does it) while our season ticket base is still small.

The one thing that surprised me about the realignment was that they were going to put visitors in section 144, which is right next to our own students.  Was anyone near that area yesterday?  If so, how did it go?  Were there several dozen cops in the aisle in between to keep the peace?

We've got one more chance this week to rub things in for the jackets.  I'm planning on hanging some sort of sign from an I-75 overpass in northern FL that says something like:

"Good luck, nerds.  30-24"

I'll put it up on Friday afternoon in the hope that the most Tech fans get to see it on their way to Tampa before FHP or Alachua County takes it down.  I think it would be great if more of our fans could manage to do the same from South Fulton all the way to Tampa.  Let's do our part to make this one as painful as possible for our friends from North Avenue.

If any of you have ever wanted to go to this game, it looks like this year might be a great time to go.  Tickets are on sale to the general public (something I haven't ever seen before) right now at $54.  Also, the game is on December 12th, the week after the conference title games, so you won't miss any other football and won't have to worry about missing out on UGA if we somehow made it to the SECCG.

I went in 2006 and it was a blast.  If you're a big college football fan, you owe it to yourself to see this game once.  It is a completely different experience than what you're used to.

With college baseball season fast approaching, there are rumors floating around that the Diamond Dawgs are going to be using Easton instead of Nike bats.  I'd like to hear the story behind how this came to be; I assume the pressure coming from outside the program after the CWS finals must have had something to do with it.

Thanks, Kyle, for running with this story and keeping it visible beyond a day or two after the CWS.  I'm sure it helped in some little way.

About time somebody raised this issue:

Unfortunately this is probably going to sound like sour grapes, but this issue has been around since long before we even thought about Fresno State.  The AD has basically blown off every single person who tried to raise the issue.  I realize baseball is nowhere near as important in the grand scheme of things as football (basketball is arguable at a place like UGA), but that doesn't mean you should force your team to use inferior equipment.