It’s time for the coaches on rules committees – because rules do kind of start with coaches – to address targeting.

          Not targeting itself as a rule, but the punishment and some of the interpretations.

          For one, not all targeting is created equal, like facemask calls. Leaving your feet or keeping your head down for five yards? Yup. You’re done.

          But so many are sort of mis-called because the offensive player tucks and covers or lowers his head, creating a situation where it’s impossible for helmets not to pop each other.

          Plus just because a defender looks like he’s leading with his head doesn’t mean he is. Actual proper fundamentals do have the head down while a player is intending to drive a shoulder into the offensive player’s midsection.

          Of course, fundamental tackling is a lost art.

          Also, keeping one’s head up is misleading, but in reality, tackling high is bad tackling in the first place, so players shouldn’t too much put themselves in position for a targeting call.

          Still, the entire rule needs some refining that would be easy for officials to adjust to.

          The ejection is just too much too often, when a football play is just a football play, whether it’s with a quarterback or other skill player. Sometimes, helmet-to-helmet is the offensive player’s “fault.”

          Yes, you can have an ejection. Can have two levels of ejection: the serious and intentional hits can merit the current rule of ejection and for the next half; the quasi-circumstantial – and much more typical - can simply be for a quarter, from the time of the infraction to that time of the next quarter.

          That’s not an undue burden on officials – just takes some writing down. And for games with officials in the booth, they can buzz down that a player returns to eligibility in a minute or two.

          Remember: there aren’t multiple targeting calls/decisions in every game, so it’s doable.

          And, of course, as should be the case with all video replays in all sports, the studio reviewer should not be watching/listening to the game, and should be summoned when needed, or when it’s clear a review is coming.

          The review official should not know what the call was, helping to eliminate paranoia and conspiracies a whole lot – and that’s saying something. If the perception of officials covering officials’ butts is mostly eliminated, it takes pressure off all, and then most folks can handle most calls.

          Sometimes even when one goes against one’s team.

          Sometimes.

 

Loughdmouthings

          When Lamar Jackson is on – and he was almost beyond on Monday night – he’s as mesmerizing a player as there is in the game. Even when off, he’s in the top 10. …

          Rick Neuheisel doing the CBS 3:30 p.m. SEC game was atrocious. Hopefully CBS will put him on Mountain West games from here on out. …

          As per the Georgia High School Football Daily, true upsets with Central Georgia teams were few and far between last week.

          But sometimes the point spread when an underdog wins gets your attention, like 7-point underdog Dublin hammering Wilcox County 49-0.

          FPD, a 6-point underdog, earns a mention by shutting out Tattnall, and 6-point underdog Crisp County winning by 13 at Peach County is sure notable. …

          How dare Aaron Murray be insightful and grown-up and objective and professional while doing color last Saturday. …

          The announced attendance for last week’s Georgia Tech-Duke game was 11,849. That would have ranked about 37th in Texas high school attendance the night before.

Ouch. …

Dear Friday night gamecasters: If you have three people doing a game and none of the three “saw what happened,” be embarrassed a little bit and quit trying to impress each other. You can do that at home in the living room for free. Pay attention to the actual players and tell us what’s going on. …

          Alumni Update: Peach County’s Mitchell Fineran is 9 of 10 on field goals for Purdue, 5 of 6 from 30-39 yards and 1 for 1 from 40-49 yards. …

          UGA had given up 903 yards in five games, gave up 318 yards Saturday, 35.2 percent of the total.

          Kentucky and Tennessee are – probably – not the walkovers people expect and want. And they’ll be, because of recent history, slightly easy for players to take less eriously, especially since the Auburn margin was 24 points. …

          The NCAA should be barraged with email and calls to eliminate the one-time transfer rule, starting with the 2022-23 year. It’s absurd, and leads to things getting out of control.

          And it sure doesn’t teach dealing with adversity. For all sports, not just football …

          Rick Neuheisel and Dan Orlovsky in the same football booth could do wonders for bowling ratings. …

          Alumni Update: Bleckley County’s Willie Taylor has played in six games for Washington State and has six tackles, and 1.5 sacks for minus 11 yards.

          His head coach says the numbers are very deceiving. …

          Auburn’s passing game was fine Saturday. The catching game, on the other hand, was not. Could’ve made things mighty interesting. …

          Dear Friday night gamecasters: Dear beloved FridayNightGamecasters: It's not about you, it's about them. Not y'all, them. The participants and the parents and the people outside of the booth. So: accuracy, knowledge, fairness, less screaming, and some professionalism. ... Please.

          AND YOU SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT WHEN YOU SCREAM AT EVERYTHING DECENT.

*Deep breath* …

          Alumni Update: Dublin’s do-everything JaQues Evans has played in five games at Western Kentucky, and has 11 tackles. The freshman end, now at 6-2 and 245, has a pass breakup, too. …

          Boy, if poor little ol' Stetson could throw more than a screen pass ...

          Many media folks are a lot dumber and less funny on Twitter on game day than they are in real life. Makes one’s Twitter feed – pretty much all just media of some sort – exhausting.

          Not as exhausting as several college and pro teams, whose Twitter feeds on a game day are almost embarrassing. …

          Hallmark doesn’t make any kind of card for it, so Urban Meyer will simply have to send Jon Gruden a thank-you text message, along with “see ya soon.”

 

Polls

          Reminder that we split up the polls into divisions, because, well, it makes sense. A so-so record by a bigger school against better competition likely means deserving a higher ranking in an overall poll than a smaller school with a better record.

          One game is one game. Polls are big-picture items. Who would beat who right now? If they played 10 times, who’d win more? Tis mere reality.

          This is more fair, allows for more teams to be ranked. And there are many more 3A, 2A, and A programs in Central Georgia than larger programs, so they deserve more rankings.

Division I (6A, 5A, 4A)

1. Warner Robins
          Teams do like it when the Demons have the week off. Alas, Warner Robins is back in action at Ware County.

3. Jones County
          The Greyhounds all but won the region title with the comeback – love the Ragins-to-Richter call on the two-point conversion – win over Ola, which should finish strong based on the performance in a loss.

3. Baldwin

          The gap between Jones County and Baldwin is pretty small. The Braves are versatile and fast.

4. Perry

          The gap between Jones County and Baldwin and Perry is pretty small. The Panthers’ win over Washington County was a quality one, and having to come back in the fourth quarter at home against a AA team – nobody’s thinking about classifications in any third quarters – should provide focus down the stretch.

5. Northside

          The Eagles are still a bit of an enigma. Take care of business one week, thumped the next. This week with Valdosta is kind of burly, even with the Wildcats ineligible for anything.

Division II (3A, AA, A, GISA)

1. Peach County
          Even with the stunning loss by double digits at home to a team from the same classification – fingers almost had spasms typing such an unusual sentence connected to the Trojans – Peach County stays No. 1 in this division. But the gap is a little less than before. Somebody is missing out on a butt-whuppin’, because Peach County is off this week.

2. Macon County
          The Bulldogs won a shootout in a battle of 5-A Public contenders, and they get a chance to do it again soon.

3. John Milledge
          The Rams have the odd two-week break in the middle of the season. Just what opponents need: A rested collection of Trojans dying to play a game.

4. Bleckley County

          Perfect through seven games for the first time since head coach Von Lassiter was making his debut in the world (late 1970s).

5. Northeast

          The Raiders are rolling along, taking care of business in quality fashion since that home loss. Remember that? Seems like longer ago than it actually is.

6. Mary Persons
          The Bulldogs bounced nicely with a TCOB win over Pike County by the same score Crisp County laid on Mary Persons a week earlier.

7. Washington County

          The Golden Hawks need to finish, because they’ve let two straight quality wins slip away in the fourth quarter. It won’t keep them out of the playoffs, but could end the season prematurely.

8. Putnam County

          The War Eagles have a week off before the region championship game with Jefferson County. Which won last year’s meeting of undefeateds 50-12.

9. Dodge County

          Just like last year, Dodge County is sort of lingering while folks talk about other region teams a little more.

10. FPD

          Beating Tattnall wasn’t necessarily a shock, but getting a shutout was impressive for the Vikings.