Cocktail...Friday? : Arkansas Edition.

So Thursday afternoon is our customary cocktail time in these parts. However, as you know, yesterday afternoon word came down that Athletic Director Greg McGarity would be making a statement regarding....GurlPocalypse. So we all stood back and waited for the news. And there really was none. So there you go.

If it's Friday, you spent your Thursday waiting in vain for some definite news about Todd Gurley, and you don't know where Todd Gurley is ( but you know this afternoon he's unlikely to be on a plane bound for Arkansas) then you probably need a drink. Allow me to help.

You could have polled every one of the millions of self-proclaimed Georgia Bulldog fans in the great wide world and not found more than a handful who would have predicted a 34-0 road thrashing of the Missouri Tigers. And assuming you did find this handful of intrepid souls, you wouldn't have believed them. Really, only the most over the top, out of control, detached from reality "Disney Dawgs" would have predicted the sort of curb stomping the Bulldogs laid on the Tigers.

And it would take someone of equally heedless optimism to predict that it will happen again versus Arkansas in Little Rock. This game, like most every other Bulldog contest, worries me on at least three different levels. One is the logistical. Taking a second road trip to a relatively unfamiliar venue in as many weeks is taxing on players, staff, coaches, and the intrepid fans who're going (seriously, if you made it to Mizzou and will be in Little Rock this weekend and don't own a Gulfstream let us know in the comments so we may laud you appropriately).

Second, there's the emotional level. It became pretty clear in post-game interviews that the players were juiced up with a lot of emotion in Columbia. Mark Richt teams have played some of their best football after being told that they had no chance, so the effort last Saturday makes some sense. The problem is my absolute lack of faith in our ability to stay up two weeks in a row. That's asking an awful lot, especially against a team like Arkansas that plays such a physical brand of football.

Which brings me to my third worry, the schematic one. I'm immensely worried about Brandon Allen giving us a taste of our own medicine, using a powerful running game to create some holes in the secondary. As much as Bret Bielema has a reputation for ruthlessly pounding the rock, he allowed Allen to throw the ball 40 times against Alabama last week. While Allen only completed 21 of those passes for a total of 246 yards, it was enough to keep the Crimson Tide defense a little off balance, but not enough to secure the 15 points required to win that game.

But ask yourself, how much more confident are you in the Bulldog secondary than the Alabama secondary? I think a lot of the answer turns on how much stock you put in the performance of the Georgia secondary last week. I can't really tell you how to construe that. On the one hand, four interceptions is an impressive total. On the other hand, Maty Mauk and his receivers really helped inflate that total. On the one hand, there were some plays on which Mauk was sacked or forced to throw it away because of ironclad coverage. On the other, he missed some receivers who were, to use a technical term, wide ass open. All of which is to say that I am still concerned about the Bulldog defense's predilection for making average quarterbacks look outstanding.

It's all got me completely mixed up. So mixed up I'm going to need to mix a drink. Not a girly drink, but a Gurley drink. The Gurliest of drinks. And I'm calling it the #FreeGurley. Here's the setup (not a Bryan Allen-type setup, but a mixologist's setup). Start with 6 ounces of hard apple cider. I like Angry Orchard's ginger cider for this particular preparation. To that add 1 and 1/2 ounces of Fireball whiskey, and a splash of lemon juice (sounds weird I know, but the citric acid cuts some of the sweetness and heat). Serve over ice garnished with a cinnamon stick.

Knock back about three of these and you'll forget anything you knew about Todd Gurley's current status, which let's face it, wasn't much to begin with. Until later...

Go 'Dawgs!!!