Monday Morning Quarterback: It was a rough second round for Central Georgia Loughdmouthings (Bennett, Kiffin, Atlanta, GIAA playoffs, Tech’s Key, more)
Goodness, wherere to start.
As per the Maxwell computer ratings, the Central Georgia favorites that lost were Northside, Perry, and Peach County.
The biggest surprise, on paper and in reality, was Perry’s loss to Wayne County. And that the Panthers, a 15-point favorite, were held to seven points. It’s stunning that Wayne County controlled the ball so well, and Perry’s defense couldn’t get off the field.
Few saw that coming.
The next biggest surprise was Peach County losing to a team, at home, to a team that last year competed in GHSA Class A Private, and lost 28-21 to Tattnall in the first round, and hadn’t gotten past the second round in Class A – which didn’t have the same number of teams in Public and Private brackets – in awhile.
The oddity for Peach County, other than that loss, is that the Trojans scored seven points in three losses and six in the other. And other than that odd 8-6 loss to Carver-Atlanta, another oddity is that two of the other three losses were by the same 35-7 score (to Houston County teams Perry and Warner Robins).
Northside, an 8-point Maxwell favorite, was a coin flip, since we’re still figuring the Eagles out some. That, and maybe some wishful thinking.
Dooly County was an 18-point underdog, and won, thanks to a missed PAT in overtime. Wow. Gatewood was only a 3-point underdog, and topped Augusta Prep.
Bleckley County and Houston County did as expected, the 6-point favorite Royals winning by 10 and the 20-point favorite Bears winning by 10.
A year ago in the quarters, we still had Northside, Warner Robins, Jones County, Perry, Peach County, Northeast, Putnam County, Macon County, and FPD.
It was in the quarterfinal round last year that the area took the big hit, when everybody except Warner Robins lost.
But fitting, in a year where most every Friday night left one scratching one’s head for one or eight games’ results.
Loughdmouthings
When you watch a team run some plays with exceptional players, like a Deebo Samuel, remember: Everybody can run those plays. Whether they have a Deebo Samuel or not. …
Dear Lane Kiffin, don’t go. Keep making fun of the teevee guy. Show some stick-to-it-iveness. Let Auburn continue to muddle.
You can keep tweaking Nick from Oxford, without the cluster of mismanagement and meddling that is Auburn. And right now, you’re a couple years closer to the playoff than Auburn is.
Come on, Laney, do the right thing and stay. Stay. Just a little bit longerrrr. …
Typing very slowly for a large portion of folks:
Stetson Bennett, in basically 2.5 years of starting, is seventh at Georgia in pass attempts (will finish sixth), sixth in completions (will finish fourth), sixth in yards (will finish fourth), fifth in TD passes (will stay there), sixth in total offense (will finish fifth, outside shot at fourth), fifth in TD responsibility (could finish fourth), second in completion percentage (will stay there), and is likely to finish first in average gain per pass attempt.
And – hunt-and-peck typing now – he is 25-3 as the starting quarterback. In less than three full seasons as a starter, he has more wins as a college quarterback than Drew Brees, Eli Manning, Troy Aikman, and Steve Spurrier, to name few.
Georgia is 3-5 all-time vs. No. 1. Bennett is 2-0
His winning percentage of 89.29 percent, in the SEC, with two different offensive coordinators, few consistent huge wide receiver threats, while atop the mountain and playing the team in front of Georgia on the mountain, isn’t enough.
His TD-Interception ratio the past two seasons of 43-13. That’s a little better than Aaron Murray, a little behind Jake Fromm, way better than Matthew Stafford.
Just saying. Go ahead and misguidedly keep grousing about the consecutive undefeated SEC seasons, if it makes you feel better. …
The Participation Trophy Invitational championship is next Thursday and Friday at Mercer, with A and AAA *sigh* on Thursday and AA and AAAA *sigh* on Friday.
The teams playing for the right to get mowed down by John Milledge in AAA *sigh* are Brookwood and Deerfield-Windsor.
The semifinalists in AAAA *sigh* are all pretty even, St. Anne Pacelli and Brookstone on one side and Stratford and Tattnall on the other.
Three of the four AA teams are from Central Georgia: Brentwood (vs. Briarwood) and Central Fellowship vs. Gatewood. …
We don’t know who’s on the list, or who wants the job, but Georgia Tech would be wise to take Brent Key’s candidacy very, very seriously.
Don’t worry about splashes or all that crap. Improving and winning are the best recruiting tools. A lack of clownlike BS – as per the predecessor – helps. Good ol’ straight-up ball-coaching is mighty good, too.
Hires for splashes kind of end up trickling down … one’s leg. Hires for substance don’t. …
Are you enjoying Rivalry Week? You better, because college administrators choking on greed and ego – starting with the ol’ SEC office – are going to water down Rivalry Week, and all the stuff that makes the sport great real soon. We have maybe two more years of sanity and normalcy – relatively speaking – before the continuing national acceptance of greed as a positive – accompanied by late arguing after it screws something up – became a convenient norm. …
Wonder if all the hyperventilators and hyperbole pushers who wasted brains cells on the first few weeks of the College Football Playoff rankings feel as silly as they should.
Alas, nope, they don’t. Their kind never do. They’ll tell us how irrelevant the first few polls are and spent an hour breaking it down – redundantly – and grousing. …
In reality – sorry – Bennett should get the longest ovation during Senior Day in awhile, with some “We are sor-ry, clapclap clapclapclap, we are sor-ry” chants in there.
And early in the fourth quarter, when he comes out for good, one half of the stadium should offer “Stet-son Ben-net” and the other side should answer “Damn good Dawg.”
If Erk Russell could’ve ever fathered a quarterback, it’d be Bennett.
Polls
Here are the final regular-season polls. The next poll will come out after all Central Georgia teams are done, followed by the top 10 in Division I and the top 20 – maybe the top 25, we’ll see – in Division II.
Division 1 (6A-5A-4A-3A, 13 teams)
1. Perry
2. Warner Robins
3. Northside
4. Houston County
5. Peach County
Division II (AA-A-GISA, 34 teams)
1. John Milledge
2. Lamar County
3. Dublin
4. Bleckley County
5. Northeast
6. Putnam County
7. Dodge County
8. Tattnall
9. Stratford
10. Dooly County