By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

The vision came pretty quickly.

For Halloween, Bryan Harsin should have walked around his neighborhood simply with a smile on his face as a man having been pushed out of a dumpster fire of football mismanagement and a leadership-free scared-of-money-morons administration.

Put the ego bruising aside, and enjoy the fact that some years were put back on your life with the early change. Harsin is out of an absolute mess, one he should have been more aware of.

Neither seemed to grasp this might not be a good fit. And man, people of any and all occupations have to start realizing that the bigger job isn’t always the better job, the money job isn’t always the better job. As a self-proclaimed wise man always says: Better to be late and right than early and wrong.

More often than not, those jobs bring on more headaches, more PRICS – people remarkably in charge sadly – who don’t know what they’re doing telling people what to do, and then are unable to fix things or make them better.

Sure, Auburn has a new AD and a new president, but the same buffoons with bucks sticking their noses in, as if they knew anything of what they spoke outside of the buttkissing or lucky birth that got them those bucks.

Thanks to Brentwood, Dublin, FPD, John Milledge, Jones County, and Northside for Friday night information, and Houston County and Lamar County on Saturday. Coaches, please have somebody email game information – general is fine – or a picture of stat sheets to @centralgasports@gmail.com by 2 a.m. after games.

Auburn is a clustertrain. Auburn is the rare case where a coach may actually deserve an obscene buyout, because there are so many egomaniacs involved in the sabotage and a coach there needs a knife-proof vest. And the school sure showed some class by not even mentioning Harsin in the release about cutting loose a guy the entire organization sabotaged.

Harsin had ideas, and is at least a decent coach. But it’s hard to sprint when you’ve stepped into a huge steaming pile, both feet, up to your shins, and the people who dumped the pile there won’t help you up.

Recruiting is going to be brutal: “You help them play for a national championship, and they meddle and fire the coach two years later. This time, they spend all offseason making stuff up, and the entire season sabotaging the team and recruiting. That’s what they do. You want to go there?”

And I kinda like Auburn a little, as much as I can like a program that has a fan base, and fan bases are inherently in the deep end. But it deserves the upcoming misery. Not necessarily the fans, certainly not the players, but the decision-mismakers sure do.

Does Hallmark have a combo condolences/congratulations card? Might want to come up with one for SEC Country, and for Harsin.

Last week’s upsets

It was pretty quiet on the upset front, as far as the Maxwell Ratings picks went. Gatewood was a 13-point favorite and lost to one-win Piedmont by 14.

Last week’s surprises

The enigma that is Baldwin was a 7-point favorite, lost by 21 to Westside.

Warner Robins pulled away from Jones County in what was supposed to be a four-quarter game.

Loughdmouthings

Memo: Atlanta has a matching record with or better record than New England, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Denver, Green Bay, Tampa Bay, New Orleans, San Fran, LA Rams, and Arizona.

Feel free to get over that. …

Of the four Houston County teams playing non-county teams last week, the margins of victory were 59, 24, and 33, with a 51-point margin in the inter-county game.

Overall, 11 teams scored at least 50 points, with seven cracking 60.

On the other hand, only eight games were decided by two possessions or less, and only four by single digits. …

As for Harsin’s successor, the number of reasons Deion Sanders isn’t a Power-5 candidate are plenty, and at a minimum, experience. Come on people, don’t be silly or mesmerized by celebrity.

At a minimum, and first things first, is simply experience: He has coached in 27 games (one win is a forfeit, 2020).

One has been against an FBS program (12-7 loss to Louisiana-Monroe in 2021). Only four have been against non-HBCU competition. The Division I FCS HBCU world consists of fewer than two dozen teams, only eight of whom had winning seasons last year.

That’s only the start of the many reasons why it’s fairly absurd.

Fast forwarding past the many other reasons leads to this: Frankly, I’d rather see him stay at Jackson State and work on improving the HBCU world (starting with simple things, like accurate rosters and inspiring much better financial management and hiring practices and raising standards and funds in general).

Staying and building instead of leaving for money (he doesn’t need) would be a remarkable and glorious legacy. …

As expected, there was huffing and puffing and being offended by a faction sent into a tizzy by Bo Nix’s observations about if Oregon played Georgia now.

“Now, if we played them again tomorrow, the game would be completely different, and everybody knows that,” he told CBS Sports.

And that’s a legitimate analysis. Doesn’t mean they would, but remember. Nobody expected that first game to go the way it went. And there are those harboring some skepticism about Georgia.

Note that it isn’t so much that Georgia has digressed, but that others have gotten better. See, they’re allowed to get better, just like Georgia has.

If your quarterback said something like that, you’d agree, and like the confidence. That the Duck would give Georgia a four-quarter game is no major reach, at all. …

I was very much against the Julio Jones trade. Maaaan, how wrong were those in that club. Wow.

A reminder that outsiders, including beat writers, don’t know what’s going on in the locker room or clubhouse. …

Biggest game at McConnell-Talbert in years is on Friday. Will it be overflow on the home team’s side for what would be the biggest win in years for Northside? …

Random Unrelated Thought: Please, people, stop with the hashtags. They’re irrelevant or redundant or useless. There are hundreds of Bears and Tigers and Lions, oh my, and hashtagging slogans – maaan, are some place around here sick with slogans – is a waste of time.

As if the world is thinking about specific slogans as hashtags. Plus, hashtags on Twitter take up characters, which are better used for useful information, like names and stats and schedules, etc.

Just too cheesy, and very outdated. …

It still goes, the preseason observation here that a semifinal berth would be a major accomplishment for Warner Robins. Such a thought was nonexistent a month ago, and now the Demons are the Demons again and can go longer in the playoffs than we thought a month ago. …

Remember, of course, that the first CFP ratings are pretty irrelevant, except for setting a general order. Way, way, way too much football left.

Georgia and Clemson has a favorable schedules (Georgia’s is stronger), Alabama does not, Tennessee does, don’t overlook Mississippi if it wins three straight. Ohio State/Michigan winner doesn’t have a strong schedule. And keep an eye on Oregon, maybe TCU. …

If you’re roaming around Friday night looking for a high school game: Thomas County Central and former Jones County head coach Justin Rogers and Northside at McConnell-Talbert, and Tattnall hosting John Milledge, which is going for a tie of the state record for consecutive wins. …

The Falcons are 4-4, alone in first in the division.

Rebuild. Rip up this crappy roster. Start the rookie quarterback whether he’s ready or not (because rookie quarterbacks always are). …

How full will the Shamrock Bowl be for a region championship game against the No. 2 team in the state when Dublin hosts Swainsboro? Among the biggest – and flat-out old-school – games in awhile, and good weather. …

For all the yammering from folks about throwing deep: Next Gen stats, as per a goofy graphic Sunday, tells us that the 67.4 yards in the air that the pass to Carolina’s DJ Moore traveled was the longest since 2016.

The vast majority of long pass plays are medium-length passes and a longer run. Every quarterback can heave it about the same distance, but those throw-it-65 plays aren’t called very often. …

Ya know, since most folks saw the game hours and hours and hours – or days – earlier, some postgame interview clips are a thought.

Or, well, perhaps not.

Polls

Division 1 (6A-5A-4A-3A, 13 teams)

1. Perry

2. Northside

3. Warner Robins

4. Houston County

5. Peach County

Division II (AA-A-GISA, 34 teams)

1. John Milledge

2. Dublin

3. Lamar County

4. Bleckley County

5. Northeast

6. Putnam County

7. Dodge County

8. ACE

9. Tattnall

10. Dooly County