Central Georgia Sports ReportComment

Monday Morning Quarterback: Whoopdeo do, the first college rankings are out, which means a big “soooo what”; Good stat stuff/surprises; Loughdmouthings

Central Georgia Sports ReportComment
Monday Morning Quarterback: Whoopdeo do, the first college rankings are out, which means a big “soooo what”; Good stat stuff/surprises; Loughdmouthings

By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com

          Congratulations if you were wise enough to skip the College Football Playoff show releasing the first, and least relevant, rankings of the year.

          Or were wise enough to peek in at the end and see the rankings and skip the redundant – because they’ve spent a week blathering on it for no reason and will spend another week blathering on it – blathering in the form of “analysis.”

          And congrats if you’re wise enough to change channels whenever the topic comes up on the airheadwaves for the ensuing five days.

          It’s not as absurd a waste of electricity and brain waves as bracketology and crock drafts, but it’s on the list.

          Why?

          Because it’ll change. Constantly. With every window of kickoffs on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

          Like, Friday, No. 19 Southern Cal plays a decent Northwestern team, and Tulane visits Memphis. The first wave on Saturday has No. 7 vs. No. 8, No. 2 vs. a preseason top 5. Then No. 9 vs. No. 20 and 3 vs. 22 in the middle of the afternoon, as well as the usual list of upset watches.

          If you like stretching a five-minute chat into a helium-filled 57-minute tail-chasing round-table after which you can’t recall anything you talked about, OK.

          But note: Georgia dropped nine spots after the first rankings a year ago. Miami? Five spots, en route to the yearly no-no-they’re-not-back slide. LSU fell seven spots and two teams went from unranked to ranked.

          In one week.

          BYU? From 9 to 6 to 14 to 19 to 16 to 17 by the time it was done.

          Overall, 32 teams were ranked in the CFP’s top 25.  This year, expect the same, or more.

          Yes, the rankings are relevant. Obviously. The rankings are the whole point, and now we have a guide. And that’s all we got. Period.

          Just win, and quite deciphering stuff.

          If you wasted time listening to or talking about first-round pairing, that’s too bad. Ditto potential home games. “Breaking friggin’ news: you might get a home game. Also breaking friggin’ news: ya might not. The only two options.

If you’ve stressed – or even worse, lost your mind enough to make the first travel plan, ouch – about matchups, that’s pretty scary. You should be under observation.

           Only Oregon stayed at one spot for all five six releases last year. Texas ranged from 3 to 5, Penn State from 3-6.

          It’ll be more unpredictable this year, and pretty much from here on out.

          So, enjoy the upsets of your rivals while sweating out your own Saturdays, and avoid for a month the nonsensical hyperbole on the rankings that has all the flavor of a bread sammich: none.

 

Surprises

          It shouldn’t be a surprise – well … - that Northside went up 30-0 on Veterans, and then sort of had to hold on, only because, well, it’s high school football. What is funny is that Veterans beat Northside last year to avoid a winless season that was a surprise, and Northeast beat Veterans to avoid a winless season that was a surprise.

          Jones County scrounging up only three points against Locust Grove was unexpected, considering a week or two earlier, that game set up as a chance for the Greyhounds to get the top seed.

          Windsor winning a playoff game at home was expected – after all, it was the pick here at the home of 80-percent accuracy, bygollydangit – but a 27-point win wasn’t on the bingo card.

Good stat stuff

          As per information submitted – or not submitted, for those uninterested in sharing such positive info - to MaxPreps, West Laurens’ Ty Cummings leads the state with 2,111 rushing yards and is third in scoring with 162 points.

          Houston County’s M.J. Mathis is 10th with 991 yards receiving, on 51 catches. ACE’s Williams Winters is fifth with 149 tackles and Windsor’s Hunter McGreggor 10th with 133.

          And Kortnei Wililams of Northeast is tied for second with seven interceptions with Bleckley County’s Joshua  Stanley in the next group with six.

Loughdmouthings

          Who’s got a shot to go to the dome?

          A few. But first, let’s look at a few of the early rounds with GHSA teams and the playoffs, with a little looking ahead.

          Houston County’s game against Thomas County Central can launch the Bears (whose home side should be standing room only next Friday, yes?).  The Rome-Lovejoy first-round game will be tight, and the Bears may get a break, but keep an eye on Houston County.

          How odd a season it is indeed when things will be pretty quiet in AAAA from the County of Houston. Warner Robins and Perry are both solid underdogs in the first round.

          A Peach County-West Laurens quarterfinal in AAA at the Shu would be fairly epic, but the Trojans have a tough first-round visit from Cherokee Bluff.

          We have a first-round rematch of a 2024 quarterfinal in A/I with Northeast hosting Fannin County. It’ll be a whole lot warmer, and just as tight. Swainsboro wants to beat Bacon County for another shot at Northeast, a 48-7 first-round winner last year.

          Remember that Washington County gave Dublin big trouble early in the season, a memory that’ll be brought up around the Shamrock Bowl a bit this and next week.

          It’s not a great year for the area in A/II, but Hawkinsville might be sneaky, and keep an eye on Macon County.

          We could see a Lamar County/Jasper County rematch in a quarterfinal, but Dodge County or Rabun County in the second round is a tough draw for second-seeded Lamar County.

          Central Georgia has a dozen higher seeds hosting games in the first round. The early line is that only one, possibly two, will lose. Of the 20 area games, look for six running clocks. …

          Among the more shocking developments was two Saturdays ago, when a college head coach actually took some time on an off week to attend a Hall of Fame ceremony during which he was inducted.

          It involved leaving town, driving about 75 minutes, attending and socializing while not watching film or stalking 18- or 21-year-olds, nor cringing at the advisors of those 18- and 21-year-olds. Nobody broke in an took playbooks, or dropped something in the water bottles.

          The facilities remained standing, and no player went NASCAR during those hours he was actually out of town and not on business.

          And his team won a week later.

          Stunning. …

          Dear GHSA: Why, for the love of God and all that makes sense to the rest of us, do y’all keep the private schools in the postseason rankings with the publics in AAA, AA, and A/I?

          Makes absolutely no sense. None.

          The rankings are relevant for those in competition for those spots. The private schools are not in competition for spots with the public schools, so why are they listed together, making it more difficult for people to grasp?

          As for listing, um, postseason rankings for the classifications that don’t use rankings for the postseason? Ditto. Not sure why. And more work for no reason.

          Sticking with the thread of inexplicables, why are the rankings invisible for three days? Shoot, Friday night, they were gone perhaps before games were done. Didn’t show back up until Tuesday.

          Can we pleeease have it the logical ways from here on out for the rest of football, and the rest of the year, and forever and ever? Amen. …

          We end the season with, unfortunately, four winless teams in Central Georgia: Central, Rutland, Twiggs County, Tattnall.

          Here’s a note. Most winless teams – or many one-win teams or teams that can’t muster up good seasons on any regular basis – have one thing in common, and it’s not subpar coaches or staffs or money or facilities or toys.

          It’s parents. Parents. Period. Parents and standards and discipline and expectations and discipline. Period. End of  story.

          If parents and/or the adults in charge fulfill their responsibilities, kids to better, be it in sports or in school.

          So when you look around – at say, some counties – and grumble, ask parents of their expectations of the kids first. Coaches and teachers can only put so much lipstick on, well, ya know, when they’re sabotaged by parents, relatives, and hangers-on. …

What they wrote

“If Haynes King, a man who once won a game of Connect 4 in two moves, cannot subdue the forces of ACC chaos, it is fair to assume the league's collective mediocrity might one day consume us all.”
          - David Hale, ESPN.com.