wdhalgren

Being named the next offensive guru head coach at The University of Auburn
Beating Alabama in your season opener
Ruining Texas A&M's undefeated season
Being named the best driver on UGA's football roster
Getting the hell out of Mississippi
Winning the Champions of Life Award
Having a current winning streak against Vanderbilt

With Tolliver stepping in for Bobo, Glover's status in question and Greene constantly dealing with back problems, the extra time may be a big plus for the offense.

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I thought he didn’t want to coach while his son was at Vandy?

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To paraphrase Timbuk 3, $4 Mil a year'll buy a lot of beer.

Seems more likely related to the music than the video.

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How do we know Georgia doesn't have a top 10 payroll, or is it just a fun narrative to roll with?

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The fun narrative is rival fans speculating that Georgia's recruiting has dipped because Kirby can't outspend everyone now that paying players is legal. I've seen that from from fans of some of the dirtiest programs in college football, as if their programs weren't leading the pack in under the table money for decades. It's true that Georgia can't outspend everyone else, but we never did anyway. What's changed is that those erstwhile prolific cheaters can pay large sums to everyone now, apparently even big bucks to kids still in HS, without fear of getting slammed with penalties. When the incentives straight out of HS become life-changing, rivalling even some NFL rookie contracts, and agents/handlers/relatives are openly managing financial negotiations, money plays a larger role in the decision making process. The downside for the big spenders is that they end up with more mercenaries and that presents its own set of problems.

Plenty of numbers have been thrown around and the media consensus has been that Georgia is not one of the big spenders. Recruits have said they took a lower amount to sign with Georgia. I haven't seen any stories about Georgia recruits signing exorbitant deals, or about players getting (relatively) huge salaries. Recruiting service analysts have insinuated that Georgia's payroll is limited compared to the top tier of programs and that Georgia depends more on reputation and development to keep up. And, UGA has no obvious billionaire donors willing to blow massive sums on college football.

I think Georgia can afford to pay up for a few individuals they really want to keep, or for a player they really need from the transfer portal, but even then I don't believe they can outbid teams like Texas, TAMU, Miami, Michigan, USC, Ohio State for a player those teams really want. Even programs like Auburn, Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri, Ole Miss, FSU, stand a good chance of winning if money is the deciding factor, which is why we lose players like Damon Wilson, who was very likely to be a starter. Kirby has made a lot of hard choices about how to allocate money while keeping players from becoming disenchanted because their teammate is getting much bigger paychecks.

Odd coincidence or whatever, but I feel almost exactly the same way about Raiola and Curtis. I don't care that they went somewhere else, but I don't like them leading Georgia astray until the very last moment. If you're undecided, or something's changed, be honest with the coach. The way those two handled their business made me suspicious that they were never honest with Kirby from the start.

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I use self-checkout and bag my own groceries at the grocery store every time I shop. I even take my own bags, I have never failed to ring up any item. It is doubtful this was accidently failing to ring up items.

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Which of you downvoted my comment about doubting the incident was accidental? Don't hide from your actions.

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I haven't read the thread, so I missed your prior comments until I saw this last one. Not being one to "hide from my actions", I'll fall on my sword and admit that I just now downvoted your previous post (first comment above). The fact that you have never accidentally forgotten to ring up an item is irrelevant, because people do just that all the time. I've done it myself. People make mistakes doing serious things that get them killed, so obviously they make mistakes while fumbling around with their groceries, their wallet, some unfamiliar computer, all while talking to their companions, fiddling with their phone, or thinking about where they need to be in 15 minutes. Even the trained cashiers make glaring mistakes, so customers will obviously do it much more often. Without trying to estimate the amount of my doubt or lack thereof, two teenage males at the self-check station may well be at higher than average risk for mistakes.

I assume Kirby will keep an open mind, assess all the details, combine that with what he knows about the players' history, and make an informed decision. I can appreciate that kind of deliberation because, among other things, it prevents people who do make mistakes at the self-checkout from being subjected to unwarranted punishment.

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Probably a good time to get Tennessee off of the schedule every year.

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Too bad about Banks. Just last year the Vols and their media friends had him pegged as probably the best DC in college ball. Tim Banks was on fire, and now he's fired? I've been told that this season's troubles were all due to injuries; surely they wouldn't cut the best DC in America because players got hurt?

But, for Vol fans this is the silver lining in the cloud thats been hanging over over their football program for the last two decades. When you get knocked out of any meaningful postseason participation with a month left in the regular season, you can get an early start on the offseason hype for next year. New names and faces step into the void left by old names and faces that faded away with nothing to show for their moment of offseason glory. By mid-summer we'll be hearing about Heismans and #1 draft picks and 15 & 0. What's Faizon's nickname? We've had Nico the 8 Million dollar man (may he live in infamy), Merkslinger (very short lived), and Joey Football. Maybe just FAIZON; it'll become one of those names that stands on its own merits, like Elvis or Michael.

Good thing Penn State obliged by letting Knowles go, as did Ohio State after 2024. I think Campbell noticed that PSU's defense got worse and Ohio State's got better. But, on the bright side, Tennessee picked him up at a million dollar discount from what he was being paid at Penn State.

Interesting that prior to 2021, we played Tennessee in late September, early October and Auburn in mid November. Then Auburn begged for a switch to early season because they thought it would help their outcomes against Georgia. So Tennessee moved back and Auburn moved up.

From 2021 - 2024, we played Tennessee in mid November. Then the 2025 schedule was announced Dec 11, 2024, and for some reason UGA vs UTk had moved up to September 13, first SEC game for both teams. I wonder if somebody at UTk requested the UGA game be moved up again. Maybe they decided playing early at home in 2025 would give them a quarterback advantage, with Nico presumably returning and and Beck presumably not. If so, didn't work out as intended.

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Wasn't a huge part of their offense Kiffin making the presnap reads for Chambliss and then telling him what to do?

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I guess we'll find out. But it initially looked like their staff would be gutted. They're a lot better off having both coordinators and the main position coaches for the next few weeks. And since they've already prepared for and faced opponents one and two, that's a big boost in game prep. It allows them to minimize Tulane game prep and spend most of their time re-looking at Georgia.

Prior to the BIG championship game, ESPN seemed almost convinced that Ohio State and Indiana would remain #1 and #2 unless the game was a blowout. With Georgia sitting at #3, Ole Miss at #6, and Tulane ranked ahead of James Madison (by the committee, but nobody else for several weeks), the "tea leaves" have been pointing to Ole Miss vs Georgia in round two since the first of December. I just think Ole Miss will be a lot more prepared for Georgia than you'd expect from a team that lost their head coach. I think the committee may have given them an intentional assist, with round one at the very least.

I'm not sure that getting the winner of TAMU - Miami wouldn't have been a more favorable draw, because they have to prepare for and face a better, more physical opponent in game one. We could've spent the initial two week break (Dec 7th - 20th) focused on them, but they wouldn't have that luxury.

I'm never sure what to hope for anymore. If the starters return, that means you bleed talent from the underclassmen and may end up with less usable depth than you had this year. This system sucks.