Monday Morning Quarterback: The dizzying coaching carousel; Loughdmouthings-Friday's big wins (Northeast, Putnam County, FPD), FPD-Prince, upsets, Jones County, Northside, UGA/Tech
It’s getting dizzying, for a variety of reasons.
Like, good and/or successful coaches are getting canned.
Former Taylor County standout Gunnar Watson will have a new boss next year, Troy firing Chip Lindsey after less than three years. This year: one of six losses was by more than 13 points. Last year, two of six losses were by more than seven. Two years ago, three blowouts (one to the SEC) three by seven points or less.
Lindsey’s record 15-19 record isn’t great and isn’t bad, but it follows Neal Brown (now at West Virginia) following a 4-8 first year with a three-year mark of 31-8.
Another coach who won 69.4 percent of his games and 61.8 percent in the toughest conference in the land lost his job.
Yes, in general, Florida may have been early in canning Dan Mullen. Have always said that if you let somebody dig themselves a hole, you should give them a chance to climb out. In general, that still goes with Mullen, except, well, ya know, he just stopping inspiring his backers and employers with how he was handling how the Gators went into that hole.
A hole a program like Florida probably shouldn’t be in. If you go from almost beating the best program in the country to losing hard to Georgia and then hard to South Carolina and terrify your Nation against Samford and then lose at Missouri, and not publicly handle it all that well …
It’s a bad sign that the same players in uniform in a two-point loss to Alabama were the same players in uniform in a 23-point loss to South Carolina, whose four FBS wins by that point were by a total of 13 points, including to the looking-for-a-coach Troy by nine.
The writing on the wall involved wondering about a coach who couldn’t fix anything this year being able to fix it next year.
Remember some of that when Georgia Tech makes a decision in the coming weeks.
Loughdmouthings
It was overall a good Friday for Central Georgia’s GHSA teams, the area going 9-2, with one team upset and another team doing the upsetting.
The biggest program wins: Northeast and Putnam County, and maybe FPD.
Northeast is carrying the tattered Bibb County public schools banner, with the first second-round win by a county team since 2015 (Westside won 43-10 at Sonoraville) and only the eighth this century (Westside in 2015, 2009, 2008, 2003, 2002, 2001, and 2000).
Putnam County – and its multi-headed monster of Gerald and Jalon Kilgore, Cedrion Brundage, and Michael Crumbley – not just won, but came up clutch at the end to win in the final seconds.
The War Eagles were in an early hole against a program that had had only lost two first-round games dating back to 2005, and won the 2013 state title. And now they’re in their first quarterfinal since 1996 under Al Reaves, and the 21 wins the past two years is the best two-year stretch in program history, dating back to 1952, as per the Georgia High School Football Historians Association website.
FPD is now a program of defense, and shutting out Mount Vernon is pretty stellar. The Mustangs’ last skunking by A Private teams: 24-0 to No. 5 Wesleyan in last year’s first round, and 70-0 to powerhouse ELCA late in the 2017 season.
The Vikings’ last three-shutout season was also their last four-shutout season, in 2009 in the old GISA days (10-0 over George Walton, 63-0 over Trinity Christian-Dublin, 35-0 over Mount de Sales, and 41-0 over TCS-D in the playoffs).
Warner Robins? Pffft. Cartersville simply got Demonsed.
Jeez. Warner Robins had different players come up big all night, especially in the second half, and really on defense with the season and some legacy on the line.
The announcement will come at some point this week that you better be in line to get in at Jones County a little bit after lunch on Friday. Some food trucks might need to show up around dinner time. …
Mark Farriba should be the honorary captain for both Prince Avenue Christian and FPD on Friday.
His head coaching career started at FPD in 1985, ended in 1990, resumed in 1992 and ended in 1996. A decade and a year later and after four seasons leading Stratford, it moved to Prince Avenue, the only school of the three he hasn’t coached at twice, in his GHSA debut.
And then he returned to Stratford.
Farriba went 42-26-1 in six seasons at Prince Avenue with a semifinal and final trip.
His only meeting with Prince Avenue was in 2019, a 46-0 lss in the first round of the playoffs. He is 8-5 against FPD and 6-5 against Stratford.
Yeah, that’s kinda funky. …
As per the Georgia High School Football Daily’s Maxwell Ratings, there were two “upsets”/upsets involving Central Georgia teams last week.
Bleckley County’s 35-13 loss to Callaway was a turnaround, Callaway a 13-point underdog.
The whopper is a stunner: Peach County. The hunted was the hunter, and bagged huge game as a 25-point underdog to top-ranked and undefeated Monroe Area. …
Folks could consider re-thinking much of their thinking, especially when it’s knee-jerk and shortsighted and early in the season.
People whined about the Braves the first few weeks of the past two Aprils, and looked pretty stupid. No rings for April. Ever.
Last year, there were mumbles with Jones County’s 0-3 start, some from folks you assume can read and can perhaps comprehend the competition or remember the program a decade ago, B.R – Before Rogers.
This year, the mumbles were louder from those who, yessir, forget that games and teenagers are unpredictable and you get no rings for the first, well, for any part of the regular season, especially before region/conference/whatever play.
Jones County’s losses are to Class AA Northeast by five and Class 5A Veterans by one in overtime. Sure, Northeast is still alive in AA, but that’s a three-classification difference. And Veterans finished 2-9, its only other win over 0-9 Wayne County.
The Greyhounds’ 541 points are a program record by 60 points and in one less game, passing the 2014 Greyhounds of new up-n-coming head coach Justin Rogers in his first year …
An overlooked but impressive stat coming from McConnell-Talbert Stadium the past three weeks: Northside quarterbacks Cameran Brown and Damien Dee have combined to go 20 of 23 for 300 yards and no interceptions. And don’t look now, but the Eagles may have found some consistency that’s been missing this season. …
Yup, somebody in Thomaston has forgotten to update the GHSA’s standings for the “total” column, because it’s been updated all year. Not for the playoffs.
Won’t even go into the GISA website (except could somebody please move the Twitter feed out of the way?) …
The line on Tech-Georgia is 35. Need some money?
A prop bet: How many Bulldogs will play. Says here 64.
A prop bet: An objective estimation of the UGA-to-Tech ratio of fans at Bobby Dodd. Says here 62 percent.
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.
Alas, we’ll put the polls on ice until the end of the season. Then, multiple polls: a full Division I and full Division II poll, with all eligible teams based on division, and then a top 25 with everybody involved.
MMQBs
Nov. 10: The Bennett Bashing has to stop; polls; Loughdmouthings
Oct. 27: The playoff picture is clear and fuzzy; Central Georgia polls; Loughdmouthings
Aug. 30: High school, college, pros; Loughmouthings; area HS football polls