Thursday Morning Dawg Bites

Here’s a little something different. STATS!

I’m not a huge stats guy. I took statistics at UGA and actually earned a solid “B.” Now, I’ve pretty much forgotten over the eons why a Bell curve is important, but I can tell you that - because of my instructor - I am still fluent in Chinese. 去狗！

Heading into Week #6, here’s a snapshot of Georgia’s football numbers from cfbstats:

Scoring points/game: 42.8
Points allowed/game: 10.8

‘Sakerlina is scoring 30.6 per game,
Points allowed/game: 24.4

Now, if you remove two blowouts from each team: Georgia’s 63 points vs. Murray State and South Carolina’s 72 vs. Charleston Southern, the adjusted points/game are:
UGA: 37.8
USCe: 20.25.

Georgia’s drop-off isn’t that much. South Carolina’s drop is a bit more precipitous.

Another interesting stat: The Dawgs are converting on 3rd down at a 44.9% clip. South Carolina is really struggling here, only converting at 33.82%. We are 1 for 3 on 4th down conversion attempts. Yuck.

No matter what the numbers say, South Carolina is going to try to stop the run first as this is their forte and probably take their chances defending the pass while trying to do what no one really has been able to accomplish all year: Pressure Jake Fromm and maybe get a few turnovers (Georgia is ahead in this category, too: Dawgs have turned it over 4 times, the ‘Cocks 8).

Anyway, on to some newsy notes and tiddly bits...

Here’s a nice wrap-up from UGASports on Wednesday’s events.

Rodrigo Blankenship has been named a semi-finalist for the Campbell Trophy. That’ll be a nice complimentary trophy to his inevitable Heisman, methinks.

Will Muschamp is very complimentary of Jake Fromm (although he probably thinks Jake suffers from the same “insanity” that he did by attending UGA in the first place).

He does a fantastic job...I hate to use the word manage...he does a phenomenal job of managing their football team. - Will Muschamp on Jake Fromm.

Georgia defensive lineman Justin Young, who is having an impact this season, is very happy he didn’t transfer although he came close ($$).

Georgia respects what big Gamecock defensive lineman Javon Kindlaw brings to the table. The Red and Black has a piece on Ben Cleveland, who will be tasked to block Kinlaw.

South Carolina had success running the ball against Kentucky a couple of weeks ago. They’d like to duplicate that on Saturday.

The Gamecocks, after the bye week, might be getting healthier headed into Saturday’s tilt.

Yesterday, DawgOutWest went all nostalgic with a look back at the 2002 Georgia-South Carolina game. That was a tough game in typically sweltering Columbia heat with a weather delay that didn’t help matters much.

I’ve been to quite a few Georgia-South Carolina games in my day. I saw Ronnie Bass (From Remember The Titans fame) when he played in Sanford Stadium for ‘Sakerlina in 1974 and Georgia absolutely blew the Gamecocks off the field 52-14 with a very young Ray Goff having his coming out party that day. I was in the 7th grade. The stuff I remember from a lifetime ago boggles my mind.

But it was the 1980 game, when I was a freshman, that will stick with me until my dying day. Herschel’s run is at the 52.47 mark. It’s still may be the very best run I’ve ever witnessed. No doubt you all have seen this clip many times. It never fails to impress, does it?

I’m gettin’ old.

Have a great morning, everyone. For those of you going on Saturday the weather looks okay with only a chance of a quick shower. It’s still warmish for October, but the forecast high of 83 is tolerable.

Oh, and one more stat: We’re 5-0. They’re 2-3. Let’s Go!

As Always,

GO DAWGS!