College FB: A pretty peachy Saturday
On the road, Georgia won by 41.
At home, Georgia Tech won by 26.
At home, Mercer won by 35.
No doubt Georgia State and Georgia Southern wish they'd played, so nice was the karma, and weather. Shoot, even their conference racked up a huge soon-to-be-job-changing win with Troy flattening LSU 24-21.
Georgia put the employment clock on Tennessee head coach Butch Jones with a 41-0 win in a game that was in doubt for only the first few minutes, even though Georgia settled for a field goal after Peach County's Tyrique McGhee intercepted a pass on UT's first play.
High school coaches will no doubt point out to players this week what Kirby Smart said Saturday after a game that lasted only 3:11.
"I really thought we had a good week of practice," he told reporters. "I thought we had a good practice Tuesday and Wednesday, the firs time that I've really felt comfortable that we were ready to play."
Of course, in the other postgame press conference ...
"I thought we had a great week of preparation," Jones said. "I thought the kids were ready to play. I think it's an accumulation effect when you have opportunities to make a play relatively early in the game and you don't. You lose those opportunities."
Georgia came in with momentum, and Tennessee none, after blowing the Florida game on the final play and muddling through a four-point win over winless Massachusetts a week later.
The stunning stat was that it was Tennessee's first home shutout since 1994. The Vols were averaging 30.2 points a game, right behind Georgia's 31.0 average. They averaged only eight fewer yards in total offense.
The Vols had only seven first downs, two by penalty. And they could do nothing on a day when the Bulldogs were all of 7 for 17 for 84 yards passing. Jake Fromm's head-turning plays came on runs, including touchdowns of 9 and 4 yards.
The most dramatic part of the game, if there was one, was the return of quarterback Jacob Eason late. He threw one incomplete pass.
Smart threw some suspense into the conversation by not naming Fromm the starter for the Vanderbilt game (noon, Saturday) although it's doubtful the Bulldogs will make a change. Smart praised offensive coordinator Jim Chaney while offering some criticism for Fromm.
“Jim called a good game for him, some zone reads where he was able to get a first down or a touchdown," Smart said. "Those were good calls and good decisions by him. But we have to be more consistent with that.
"And there’s some throws in there where I don’t know what he’s thinking or what he’s doing; he shouldn’t do that. He knows that. And he knows he can correct those.”
Playmaker John Kelly was held to 44 rushing yards and four catches for 47 yards.
A huge plus for Georgia was only six flags for 65 yards in a road game in front of - at least for the first half - of 102, 455.
Georgia Tech 33, North Carolina 7
The Yellow Jackets were pretty clinical on offense, going 18 plays and 17 plays for scoring drives in the first half alone.
That will break a defense's spirit, and did. When you're as shorthanded as UNC was, it's worse. The Heels have lost 13 players for the season.
"I thought that for the most part our defense played really well again and on offense we made enough plays," Tech head coach Paul Johnson told reporters. "It wasn't pretty but we made some plays and I guess if you can rush the ball for 400 yards you usually win most of the games."
The Jackets ran only eight more plays than the Tar Heels, but had the ball for 38 minutes.
This was the first time under Paul Johnson that the Jackets had at least two drives of 17 plays that led to points. The 18-play drive tied for ninth-longest at Tech.
UNC was stuffed for seven three-and-outs in 12 possessions. Former Washington County standout A.J. Gray had two interceptions, doubling his career total at Tech.
"I told somebody walking in, I thought A.J. probably played as well as he has played," Johnson said. "Some of their run-pass stuff, he was right on cue with it. He stepped underneath the slants and got a couple picks and it was good to see him make plays because he has got a lot of ability. Plus he made a couple nice plays in open field on tackles.
"I'm proud of A.J., I thought he played well."
Tech is on a nifty roll, with nine wins in the last 11 games.
The Yellow Jackets are off this week and visit Miami at 8 p.m. on Oct. 14, an ESPN game.
Mercer 49, VMI 14
There was expected to be little suspense, and there was: little suspense.
That came early, when VMI took a 7-0 lead and held it for the whole first quarter.
Three touchdowns in the second quarter was more of the norm, the Bears jumpstarting things en route to 575 yards, second-most in program history.
"I give VMI credit; they gave us a lot of stuff on defense early but we made some great adjustments at halftime and settled down in the second half," Mercer head coach Bobby Lamb said afterward. "I was really proud of our offensive line for taking control in the second half. That's what got us over the hump on offense. Defensively, we were able to stop the run and had a solid day overall."
Stephen Houzah had two interceptions, and Travonte' Easley ran one back for a score.
Mercer more than doubled VMI in yards, 575-225, was 2-1 in first downs and was a nice 7 of 13 on third downs.
CJ Leggett and Tee Mitchell teamed for 235 all-purpose yards, and Alex Lakes' 46 yards rushing put him atop Mercer's all-time rushing list.
Mercer broke a three-game losing streak - by a total of 18 points - and goes for two straight at The Citadel on Saturday.
Around the state
Somebody in Baton Rouge had a decent night, and it was Southern, which beat Fort Valley State 31-14.
Southern, an FCS team, has been banged up and lost running back Devon Benn early, but replacement Herb Edwards ran for 141 yards.
The Jaguars got rolling early, with two touchdowns in barely a half-dozen plays. But the Wildcats battled back and could have made it more interesting had Jamari Clark not fumbled trying to leap into the end zone.
Alas, the Jags punted from the end zone and Lorenzo Smothers - an overlooked high school star at Marion County - took it 42 yards for the score as FVSU trailed 21-14 at halftime.
FVSU missed one field goal and had notehr blocked in the second half.
The 1-3 Wildcats, who had a five-minute edge on time of possession and were outgained 373-256, visit Clark Atlanta at 2 p.m. Saturday.
GMC made the grads happy with a 45-28 win over ASA Miami on Alumni Day in Milledgeville.
The Bulldogs entered the game ranked 14th in the National Junior College Athletic Association poll, and improved to 4-1 with their fourth straight win. Up next is a trip to Austin Peay on Oct. 8 to play Hocking College.
Other scores: West Georgia 37, North Alabama 23; Grambling 31, Clark Atlanta 20; Kennesaw State 38, North Greenville 34; Albany State 34, Miles 9; Morehouse 31, Kentucky State 21; West Alabama 62, Shorter 0; Reinhardt 62, Point 28.
Saturday Night Fever
Troy 24, LSU 21
A Sun Belt team averaged 4.9 yards a rush on the road at an SEC home against a team expected to be better than average on defense.
That Sun Belt team didn't throw an interception, and picked off two passes. Top RB ran 30 times - 30! - for 191 yards and a touchdown.
LSU had a 49-game winning streak in non-conference home games broken despite outgaining the opposition 428-363 and committing only four penalties while getting five more first downs.
Stunning stat 1: Troy was 10 for 18 on third down, LSU 0 for 8.
No. 2: Troy had the time of possession edge, and by a chunk, 34:44 to 25:16, oddly despite the fewer first downs.
"We didn't just start playing football tonight," Troy head coach Neal Brown said. "We've been playing for along time."
Indeed. The upset may have been inevitable: Troy led in the fourth quarter of the first two meetings, losing 24-20 in 2004 and 40-31 in 2008.
Troy won Division II national championships in 1984 and 1987, plus the NAIA title in 1968.
Brown's resume includes offensive coordinator stops at Kentucky and Texas Tech - after the same job at Troy - plus Delaware, Sacred Heart and UMass. He's young, 37.
He was the Trojans' OC when they converted a 31-3 lead over LSU into the 40-31 loss in 2008.
Now the heat hits LSU hard. There was plenty of criticism at the hiring of Ed Orgeron in the first place. Undoubtedly, some of the 99,879 at Tiger Stadium wondered if they were watching a former LSU coach play a future LSU coach.
FYI 1: Troy has some Georgia connections on its staff.
Strength coach Rafael Horton graduated from Fort Valley State in 2008, QB/WR coach Sean Reagan from North Georgia - which doesn't play football - in 2008 (and at Monroe, Chestatee and Rockdale as an assistant) and co-offensive coordinator Matt Moore from Valdosta State in 1995 and Cherokee High before that, head coach at North Gwinnett after that.
Horton is from Barnesville and graduated from Lamar County.
FYI 2: Troy has 16 Georgians on the roster - including Kyle and Kevin Nixon from Peach County - 59 from Alabama and 21 from Florida. Plus one from Jersey.
FYI: Troy has played plenty of big boys, including Mississippi State five times, Arkansas and Nebraska four times, and South Carolina, LSU and Missouri three times.
Georgia has beaten Troy 44-34 in 2007 and 66-0 in 2014. The Trojans got about $85,000 for that 2014 beatdown than they got to embarrass LSU.
Information compiled from school releases, websites, and any cited media reports.