Mailbag 10/25

DressHerInWhiteAndGold: If you were the GT AD and DIDN’T have a huge deficit, what would be your top three projects for Athletics?

Jack: The Bobby Dodd Stadium renovations as are under way. Build a soccer field, add a women’s soccer team.

GT_Jason: Did Notre Dame run into our punter three(ish) times and never get flagged for it? From the stands, it looked very much like that is what happened. If true, how does science explain this?

Chris: It definite looked like it on TV too. It’s a penalty that I don’t think gets enforced very evenly - I think in some cases the refs make a judgement call on whether they think a 5 yard penalty would change what the offense does or not, and in other cases they might just be willing to let “running into” slide more often than the more obvious “roughing”.

Frodo Swagginz: Genuine question: Using EPA, would it be better if we simply did not attempt a field goal for the remainder of the season? Is there a point on the field where punts also shouldn’t be considered and where is that in relation to the average team?

Chris: I’ll let the smart folks discuss the EPA part of this specifically, but I do think it’s worth us more seriously considering going for it instead of kicking. Obviously there are concrete situations where a FG attempt is the right move (short kicks, down by 1 late, etc.), but I’d say in the normal flow of the game if the offense is performing fine we should go for more. One issue though is that several of our FG attempts have been on 4th and longs - especially without King, it’s a tall ask for our offense to gain 7+ yards. Re: not considering punts, it’s very situational but I’d say broadly don’t punt within the 40ish (allowing for special situations like 4th and long very late in the game with a lead and a good defense or something). Some teams have elite punters that can drop the ball on the 5, but most teams don’t and just end up getting touchbacks on short field punts anyways.

gtbadcarma: Having seen more than our fair share of lack of sportsmanship by the their (editor’s note: we’re assuming this is referring to UGA) schools fans and biased calls by referees for the other school do you feel its a bit of karma and whining or are they justified? Also do you feel it fair or foul for a school to get fined for the behavior of people in the stands?

Jack: I just straight up don’t believe in karma, but it’s always nice to see a heavy dose of reality hit them in the face. Lord knows we’ve faced more than enough of that for our liking. On your second question: I think in a perfect world, you fine each person who demonstrate behavior unruly to a sporting event and leave it at that. But, that’s not exactly an easy task and I don’t think teams want to implement a full fledged spying tech rig in their buildings to do enforcement on things like that, so the only other easy way to disincentivize that is to penalize the team. Instead of fining the team, I’d rather see literal points deducted. The fans won’t see those fines come out of their pockets, but they can directly threatened with a loss. Football is one of the easier sports to do this with too considering the volume of points that accumulate in a game. It’s different say in baseball or soccer where taking off one goal or run could easily sway a game.

Chris: I think they’re justified in making a complaint - the letter of the law is that the called penalty isn’t able to be reviewed and it’s very frustrating to be on the receiving end of a process-based error. Where they lose me though is insinuating that the refs made the overturn because of the trash throwing; I think that’s an absolutely ridiculous assertion to make. I also think the sentiment of “we won but they tried to take it from us, no one wants us to win” is ridiculous and cringey coming from the undisputed best program over the last 5 or so years - it was one play and you won by multiple scores (not to mention that the call on the field was absolutely wrong so it’s more that you were prevented from getting away with screwing the other team rather than got screwed yourself). You lose the right to “woe is us, we’re just constantly victims here, no one thinks we can win, poor lil’ georgia” when you win two national championships in a row and haven’t lost more than two games in a season since 2018. On the topic of punishing schools, yes, I think fining the school is a perfectly fine though obviously not perfect solution (as Jack explained). Throwing flags for the spectators I think is also fair game - seeing your team get a 15 yard personal foul is a good deterrent.

GreenMountainJacket: Zach Pyron...is he alright? That kid took a hell of a beating against ND and was obviously in a lot of pain at the end of the game. Was it just “hurt” pain, or did he cross the threshold over to “injured”?

Jack: Yeah he seems to be fine considering Key has indicated Pyron is highly likely to be the starter tomorrow. They won’t tell us to what degree he was hurt or in pain, but considering it’s not his throwing arm that got hurt, I imagine there’s more flexibility for him to play or not with whatever the injury was.

Chris: We’ve seen no indication from the staff that he isn’t fine but yeah, he got absolutely punished in the last two minutes against ND. He’s proven that he’s a tough kid, but I still want to less instances of him seeking out contact and us running him straight into 5 defenders.