What they're saying in Georgia about Alabama's SEC Championship Game opponent (Friday links)-al.comThe big game is only one day away.
What they're saying in Georgia about Alabama's SEC Championship Game opponent (Friday links)-al.comThe big game is only one day away.
With Florida locked into BCS bowl, loser of Alabama-Georgia faces unclear path (SEC Championship 2012)-al.comCapital One Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Outback Bowl and Chick-fil-A Bowl are all possibilities for the team that comes up short in Atlanta.
Maybe this year, in the second half of the season, that's been the biggest change in No. 3 Georgia (11-1). It helps, of course, when you get to beat up on Ole Miss, Auburn, Georgia Southern and Georgia Tech in your last four games. It also helps when the defense with its all-star cast plays like one and quarterback Aaron Murray acts like he's the top-rated quarterback in the 2014 NFL Draft, according to nfldraftscout.com. Saturday in the Georgia Dome, we find out a lot more about Georgia because No. 2 Alabama (11-1) isn't like most of the gimmees the Bulldogs have played this season and it knows about high stakes games.
Three questions for second-ranked Alabama (11-1, 7-1) as it heads into Saturday's meeting (3 p.m. CT/CBS) with No. 3 Georgia (11-1, 7-1) in the SEC Championship Game
Quarterbacks will be key in SEC Championship game-Dothan EagleAlabama coach Nick Saban isn’t really a stats guy. But all he needs to know about the quarterbacking in Saturday’s SEC Championship game is that the two most efficient signal-callers in the nation – Georgia’s Aaron Murray and the Crimson Tide’s AJ McCarron – are going head-to-head.
The Alabama Crimson Tide and Georgia Bulldogs square off Saturday afternoon in Atlanta for the SEC Championship. The time for talk is almost over, and the teams will take the field with more a conference title on the line. The winner of the game will go on to face Notre Dame for the BCS Championship. We’ve already gone over the reasons Alabama…
The Alabama Crimson Tide dismantled rival Auburn 49-0 on Saturday to clinch the Western Division crown and set up an SEC Championship Game with the Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday in the Georgia Dome. This…
For the past five years we’ve tried to bring you sets of numbers and statistics that provide a different glimpse into the world of SEC football. One of the most telling stats we’ve come up with is what we call our Quick Strike measure. Obviously, the goal in football is to put up as many points as possible. The fewer snaps it takes a team to do that, the less chance for errors like penalties and turnovers. Quick Strike provides a simple look at how many points each offensive snap is worth to a given team. Literally, it reveals the number of points scored per offensive play run. But Quick Strike is not just an offensive measure. Special teams scores and long returns can speed up how quickly a team piles up points. Turnovers can provide short fields for offenses. Defensive touchdowns are even more valuable as a team does not even need to run an offensive play and risk a turnover or penalty in order to put points on the scoreboard.
What’s the opposite of a Quick Strike team that piles up points in the blink of an eye? A defense-first club that forces its opponents to slowly grind out points over a large number of plays. Thus… our Slow Grind measure. Over the past five years we’ve found that a very efficient way of predicting a team’s success is to look at the number of plays said team forces its foes to run in order to score touchdowns. This is not the exact opposite of our Quick Strike number (basically: points per offensive snap), but a totally different measurement (defensive snaps run for every defensive touchdown allowed). Simply: How many plays must an offense run — on average — to score a touchdown against a specific defense? We do not count special teams scores or interception/fumble returns in this equation. This is strictly a look at touchdowns — not total points — allowed by a team as compared to how many snaps a defensive unit was on the field. Still, however, special teams and offensive production do factor in overall. A good special teams unit will pin an opponent deep in its own end, forcing it to string together multiple plays to score (and with each additional snap run, there’s a greater chance for a turnover). Steady, grind-it-out offenses can also eat up clock and limit a foe’s time of possession.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press got Tennessee fans all a-Twitter yesterday with a late night story claiming that ESPN analyst Jon Gruden — the Vols’ great white whale — had a contract offer in hand and was mulling a serious job offer from Tennessee. And yes, this story has officially become the thing that wouldn’t leave.The paper claimed sources (plural) had confirmed that Gruden was indeed back in play for UT: “‘Right now, the money is there for him (Gruden), but they aren’t as close as he would like for his assistants,’ one source said. ‘It could happen as soon as this weekend or go into next week, but he’s pretty firm where he is and has already spoken with guys he wants to be on the staff with him.’ According to a different source, ‘He’s told them they aren’t close enough on money for the staff. He’s very interested, but if they don’t come up with what they need for the assistants, he’s told them he’s out.”