Wow. That escalated quickly. I saw Jarvis Jones stab a Chanticleer with a trident. You've probably already read far more comprehensive analyses of the Bulldogs' 59-0 victory over the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers and you probably also have actual productive work to do after you finish that second cup of coffee, so allow me to be brief. When you play a team like Coastal Carolina you want the team to come out focused from the get-go, put the game away, and not let up even when you start inserting guys who nobody even recognizes and in some cases didn't make it into the media guide. Mission accomplished. It's a sign of some maturity that this team could do that.
Does that mean that all of our problems are solved? Hardly. There's a big difference between keeping your foot on the neck of an FCS opponent for 60 minutes and being able to get up off the carpet when an SEC contender has its collective foot bearing down on your adam's apple. They are two entirely different implements in the ole mental toolchest. What we saw on Saturday was a good step. It wasn't a panacea.
The next step for this team will be going on the road for the closest thing to a hostile environment we've seen all season: an 11:21 a.m. local time kickoff in Oxford, Mississippi against a team that just got throttled by Vandy. It's a baby step, to be sure. But then I've seen actual babies take baby steps and knock their own teeth out. So, yeah, let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet.
Before we move on to next week, however, let's take a look at the old business from the week that was in college football. We've got a lot to do around the palacial Dawg Sports headquarters here in scenic Flovilla, including:
1) Send FSU backup QB Clint Trickett some protein powder. The kid looks like my grandmother could outbenchpress him, and I halfway expected an Oklahoma defender to literally break him in half.
2) Ask Houston Nutt how it feels to be coaching against Mark Richt and still potentially be the guy on the hottest seat in the stadium. I'm sure the answer would be something along the lines of "I tell you what, bumscrappety Schopenhauer! Marzipan fiddlesticks! Enrique Davis!"
3) Clear schedule for the Alabama/LSU game, which may feature the two best defenses in America, neither of whom we have to face this season (Huzzah! SEC scheduling gnomes.)
5) Try to wrap brain around notion of West Virginia in the SEC. Have even harder time with that notion. That should keep us busy for a while. As always feel free to post your list in the comments. Until later . . . Go 'Dawgs!
4) Contemplate the possibility that the ACC and Big East will expand before the SEC due to the lack of a suitable 14th team. Find self unable to wrap brain around this notion.
Talk about expansion solely for expansion's sake. I think this is what my marketing professor called "brand dilution."
6) Take back some of those horrible things I said during the offseason about Oklahoma being overrated. The Sooners looked pretty good against FSU Saturday night.
I'm still not convinced they'd win a head-to-head matchup with LSU, Bama or Boise State, but I'm also not convinced they'd lose any of those matchups either. And there's really no one left on the schedule to stop them from seeing one of those schools in the BCS national championship game. Unless of course you count Bob Stoops' old nemesis the Oklahoma Sooners. They've done a damned good job of stopping themselves in recent years.
7) Hope that Hutson Mason can't bring himself to leave Athens. Because I continue to think he has a better chance of starting elsewhere than a lot of quarterbacks who've left bigtime programs to chase that dream. Unlike D.J. Shockley and Joe Cox before him, he does not currently have a year of separation from starter Aaron Murray, and therefore faces the very real specter of leaving Athens with no eligibility and no starts.
8) Put out an APB for Boo Malcome. Between his frustrated tweeting after the Boise State game and the fact that we saw more of walkons Brandon Harton and Wes Van Dyk than the former Southwest DeKalb standout, one has to wonder if there's more going on with him that a stubborn groin injury.