Monday Morning ‘Dawg Bites: It’s better (and worse) than you think.

Welcome to the first day of the rest of your college football season. After a day of mourning in Bulldog Nation, it’s time to get back to the business of winning football games and not turning the ball over four times to obliterate one of the nation’s longest home winning streaks. Not that we’re bitter or anything.

Anyhow, here’s what passes for news on this Monday morning.

South Carolina is apologizing for the low rent spectacle of their players and coaches, including Georgia alumnus Will Muschamp, tearing off pieces of the hedges. Look, this is vandalism, and as our Editor Emeritus has argues persuasively, those who do it should be prosecuted for it. We’d only have to do it once and it would stop.

But at the same time, one good way to not have to make such weighty Law & Order decisions would be to not lose at home to 20+ point underdogs. Beating Georgia at home is a big deal, and teams treat it that way. Welcome to life at the top of the college football heap.

Speaking of which, Georgia opens as a 27 point favorite against Kentucky. It’s certainly tempting to believe that these Bulldogs are a broken team that will never recover from this past weekend’s loss. That’s preposterous. You heard it here first, the Bulldogs will cover that spread easily in a statement game that, if we’re being honest, still doesn’t really tell us much about how good they really are.

While we’re trying to quantify such things, our good buddy Bill C. has the ‘Dawgs at #7 in SP+, with Ohio State installed as the new #1. Georgia is still getting some help from playing in the SEC and having a quality win over Notre Dame, which SP+ doesn’t particularly like (they’re #21), but remain a better resume builder than many have.

Finally, if you’re on Twitter I can’t recommend enough that you follow @Dawg_Stats, who does both some great statistical work and excellent film breakdowns. In the latter category is this thread which makes the point that some of what appeared to be ham-handed playcalling probably works if it’s executed as well consistently as it was sporadically, especially late. No one has been more scornful of James Coley’s unimaginative play sheet. But the truth remains that Georgia was probably a Fromm pick six and a bobbled snap away from winning this one in regulation.

We needed a lot of things to go badly all at once to lose this one. They all did. And that’s on the heads of a lot of people in and around Butts-Mehre going forward. Sadly, it’s redemption time once again on the banks of the Oconee. An October tradition like no other. Until later...

Go ‘Dawgs!!!