SEC Power Poll, Week 15 - Finality

Last poll of the season.

1. Auburn Tigers, 109 points (5 first-place votes)
2. Missouri Tigers, 104 (3)
3. Alabama Crimson Tide, 99
4. South Carolina Gamecocks, 86
5. LSU Tigers, 81
6. Texas A&M Aggies, 70
7. Georgia Bulldogs, 65
8. Vanderbilt Commodores, 58
9. Mississippi Rebels, 43
9. Mississippi St. Bulldogs, 43
11. Tennessee Volunteers, 30
12. Florida Gators, 28
13. Arkansas Razorbacks, 16
14. Kentucky Wildcats, 8

Full poll here.
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SEC Power Poll, Week Omega

1. Missouri - Gary Pinkel is very much doing Gary Pinkel things. The surprising thing is how good their defense is.
2. Auburn - I seriously believe Gus Malzahn also plays the blues like nobodies business, but he'll have hell to pay for it later.
3. Alabama - A fluke play still can't fix the fact that The Process didn't account for something.
4. South Carolina - The best 10 win team in the nation.
5. LSU - I don't know how you nearly lose to Arkansas if you are LSU. 
6. Georgia - Nothing against Georgia Tech, but bwahahahahahaa.
7. Texas A&M - Texas A&M is just Georgia, but never had all the offensive talent in the first place.
8. Vandy - What Franklin has done at Vandy is quite impressive. He needs to look at Jim Grobe and how he handled his career after peaking. 
9. Mississippi State - I struggled with putting them above Ole Miss, despite the win. Then I considered Dan Mullen's coaching job Thursday night and decided I had no choice.
10. Ole Miss - Hugh Freeze got out coached. Dr. Bo didn't help.
11. Florida - I'm surprised only two coaches got booted.
12. Tennessee - Not to put too fine a point on this, but the Vols are definitely where they should be.
13. Arkansas - Showed a shocking amount of pluck against LSU. 
14. Kentucky - Kentucky is better coached than they used to be. They are also still very out talented.

It has gotten easier, but it still isn't easy. Many thanks to Brandon Larabee at Garnet and Black Attack for hosting and all his work on the poll this season.

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Florida's next offensive coordinator

While Brent Pease is off to get his shinny new head coaching job like Weis and Adazio did, Muschamp is out looking for an offensive coordinator. He's got his work cut out for him.

Think about it:

• The job has been a revolving door under Muschamp.
• Unless you come in and make marked statistical improvements, your boss and the rest of the staff will likely be gone after one year. That is even with 'turnaround' year of 7-9 wins in 2014.
• You will likely be using wide receivers by committee. Your best two running backs can't stay healthy. Your best offensive weapon will be playing on Sundays next season. 
• Unless you can bring an 'exciting' philosophy with you (read: plenty of flash and pizzazz), the fan base isn't going to like you.
• Despite all the aforementioned reasons, the fan base isn't likely to like you anyway unless you are currently coaching in a conference championship game because that is how they are.

Kind of limits your list doesn't it?

Except there is one guy that fits in ok. He isn't going to win the minds of Florida fans with his name, but he could win the press conference. He's currently the OC for a team with a dynamic offense. His name is synonymous with throwing the ball. He's recruited the Southeastern Conference, and Florida specifically. He has great hair.

Hal Mumme. 

He's been around. He's not afraid of a one year stint, based on his subscription to the Brian Van Gorder career management newsletter. He's utterly confident in his offensive prowess. His offenses are the opposite of what Florida has seen the past two seasons. 

Just a hunch, but don't be surprised if it happens.

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Georgia's Bowl

ESPN has us in the Gator. Can't argue with that. Here's how it'll shake out:

SEC Champ and Alabama in BCS
Loser of SEC Championship Game in CapOne
LSU in Cotton Bowl
South Carolina in Outback

Now there are three 8-4 teams for the league to match up with Bowl Partners. Texas A&M, Georgia, and Vandy. Throw in Ole Miss, despite losing to Mississippi State on Thanksgiving night. Georgia is 5-3 in the conference. I think we stand a better than even shot at the CFA bowl. Part of that is match up. For my money, I'd rather get Michigan in the Gator than the presumptive ACC runner up Duke in Atlanta, but still there is an matter of prestige.

It'd be hard to see CFA and Gator grabbing Ole Miss or Vandy over Georgia and Texas A&M, so basically it is the Aggies and the Dawgs for those two. I think the CFA will want UGA fans to fill up Georgia Dome since Duke won't travel. If Duke pulls the upset over FSU, no way Georgia makes the CFA, as the ACC will have two BCS teams and Clemson will face A&M.

But, the CFA might throw it down to get Johnny Football in his last college football game if it is Duke.
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10 model sexy

dollar sexy

dollar held

All too often when we find ourselves in need of a doctor, a lawyer, a dentist, or a financial advisor we turn to the least qualified people for guidance; our family, friends and our other advisers. The fact is that in today's world the playing field of medicine, law, and finance is changing so fast that the professional who has the good old boy reputation is not the most qualified provider of advice.
In many cases the best is not the guy with the big office and the large staffs with years experience but instead the hard worker with the most current education and information. Having spent my career in the world of finance it became evident to me that continuing education was as important as years of experience. As we have seen in the past year investment derivatives has drastically changed the world of investments. If your broker was not well schooled and well read you sat with him or her and saw your portfolio shrink on a daily basis while being advised that our banking system is strong and this down turn will not last. Yet if your advisor had read The Trillion Dollar Meltdown by Charles R. Morris published February, 2008, he could have given you a day by day description of what was going to happen to the investment markets over the following months. Since then the S&P 500 has lost over 35% of it value, City Group has gone from $29.00 to $4.00 per share and AIG has gone from $56.00 per share to $1.00 per share. You and your investment advisor would have understood Credit Default Swaps and how they compounded the problems of the Sub-Prime mess. You could have chosen not to participate in the past years crises.
Thankfully I did read Charles Morris's book but got caught by a series of unqualified and uneducated doctor's years earlier resulting in the amputation of my daughters left foot because for fifteen years her doctors misdiagnosed a cancerous tumor in her foot. The lesson to be learned is to research your professional advice providers.
Do they have professional designations, are they in good standing with their professional organizations, do they teach within their profession? In short are they current with the latest information within their field?
I was motivated by my daughter's question: "Dad why did this happen to me, I'm a good person?" Since my retirement in June 2004 I have worked to find reason for what happened to her. I designed and built a website BestofUS in an effort to help other people avoid the mistake that we made and give some level of guidance on where to look for the best professional in the United States. We as consumers have to take on some level responsibility for our health, our wealth, and our wellbeing. If we don't we will continue to be victims.

Dollar China

 This is a moot question and there is no firm answer to this at this point of time. China has gradually started reducing its exposure to the US dollar and it may just be paring its risk, given the uncertainty of the US economic conditions or it may be strategically embattled in dethroning the US dollar as the world reserve currency.
China reduced its US Treasuries holdings substantially in June this year in the face of falling returns on the instruments. Further, China seems to be investing in government paper of Europe, Korea and Japan. As per a US government report, China reduced its holding of long term US Treasuries by $ 21.2 billion in June to $ 839.7 billion. China reportedly has purchased over $ 20 billion more of Japanese debt than it has sold. China has also reportedly doubled its debt exposure in Korea. China's move to increase its exposure in Asia appears to be aimed towards creating a more diversified investment portfolio given the uncertainty in both the US and Euro zone economies.
China's move coincides with its other strategic move to remove the peg between the Yuan and the dollar in June this year. The Chinese currency has appreciated by 0.5% since then. At the same time, the Chinese central bank has allowed foreign central banks to increase their investments in the Chinese inter bond market. The three actions when read together, suggest that China is trying to offer its currency as an alternative to the US dollar as an investment option and a reserve currency. However, the Chinese move of selling US Treasuries may simply be its strategy to book profits due to an appreciation in the investments, with the US buying its own treasuries to keep interest rates low.
With China holding the largest dollar reserves, any move by the nation to dilute its holdings could have an impact on the demand for the dollar and its exchange rate. This is a double edged sword for China as a loss in the dollar's value also results in the loss in the dollar holdings for China. As China has massive reserves of dollars, it cannot afford to let the dollar fall drastically or else it will experience erosion in the value of its dollar holdings.
While one can speculate on what China will do with its dollar holdings and how that can impact the long term value of the dollar, as of now, the dollar continues to be the dominant reserve currency as well the choice as the hedge currency. Any weakness in economic data is likely to make investors take cover in the safety of the US dollar and such a move will lead the dollar to appreciate. With the latest US housing data suggesting that the US economy is on a weak wicket, the US dollar immediately moved up and demonstrated its strength as the currency of choice in times of economic uncertainty. Existing home sales in the US fell 27.7% in July, suggesting the US economy was losing steam again. This led investors pulling out of risky securities including stock markets across the globe and running to the safe haven of the US dollar, which displayed the tendency to appreciate.
Thus, in the immediate future the US dollar continues to be king, with its long term trend depending upon a variety of factors like the performance of the US economy and moves by nations like China in relation to their massive dollar holdings amongst other factors

dollar held by a small

We thought that it would be a good time to review what is happening to the US dollar. To us the biggest problem for the dollar is the amount of the US trade deficit. For 2006 we will see this deficit top out at about $700 billion.

The real problem with a deficit this size is that that the dollars are no longer in the US and held buy Americans. What it means is that the US has bought $700 billion more of goods than it has sold, resulting in those dollars being held overseas. Once these dollars have changed hands, the
holders of them are free to do with them what they please. If they decide to re-invest them into the US, either through the stock market (which has been happening until recently) or in keeping the money in US accounts to gain interest, then there is no negative effect because the dollars stay in the US.

The problem starts when these holders of US dollars decide that they do not want to keep US dollars and prefer to buy or invest into something else, such as exchanging the dollars for euros or some other currency, or gold. As more and more holders of the US dollar decide to reduce their US dollar holdings and invest them into other currencies, the result is a reduction of liquidity in the US.

While there is a great deal of US dollars being held by foreign investors, the biggest holders are foreign central banks. It is these central banks that we believe will start to reduce their holdings of the US dollar to diversify away from one main foreign reserve holding. And we believe that this
move away from the US dollar has already begun. Many of these banks have been sending out the word that this is exactly their intention. It is a real juggling act because no country wants to the dollar collapse, especially since most of the central banks still hold a huge percentage of their
foreign reserve in the US dollar.

They all want to reduce their exposure to the dollar, but do not want any other central bank to panic and have a run on the dollar. But they are certainly giving us plenty of hints to suggest that many of these central banks want to reduce their holdings of the US dollar and diversify into other
currencies and gold. Some examples:

o Nov 9/06 - China announces plans to diversify out of the dollar. From Bloomberg: Gold in New York gained the most since June on speculation China will boost purchases of the precious metal to diversify its foreign-exchange reserves. "All central banks are trying to diversify," People's
Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said at a conference in Frankfurt. "We have had a very clear diversification plan for several years."

o November 17/06 - United Arab Emirates Governor speculates Euro will over take US dollar. From Bloomberg: "United Arab Emirates Central Bank Governor Sultan Bin Nasser al-Suwaidi comments on the outlook for the euro overtaking the U.S. dollar as the dominant reserve currency for international trade... 'I would say the euro will definitely grow to dominate trade outside the euro area. I expect the euro to become the currency of international trade within 10 years. It will surpass the dollar by 2015.

My issue with Todd Grantham

I just don't agree with or understand what he wants to do from a base philosophical level.  It's not play calling or technique that I can't wrap my head around.  It's not even our inability to tackle that drives me crazy.  It's the intrinsic way he goes about his business that baffles me.

Tyler has alluded to some of this earlier in the year.  Across the board, he surrenders our natural competitive recruiting / depth advantages due to the systemic way he goes about his business.

• He surrenders some of our competitive advantage of depth to smaller schools because of his unwillingness to substitute at LB or DB. 
• He surrenders some of our speed advantages by creating a system that is so complex that guys are thinking on every play instead of reacting on instinct.
• He also puts himself in an inescapable youth spiral because he doesn't substitute during the season.

Against peer schools, all of those problems can be magnified.

Yes, UGA was young on defense this year, and that was a massive contributing factor in the 30 pts/game allowed defensively.  But how much more experienced would we have been in 2013 if guys like Sheldon Dawson, Corey Moore and Josh Harvey-Clemons would have seen meaningful minutes in 2012?  In 2012, we won the following games by 3+ TDs:

• Missouri 21 pts
• FAU 36 pts
• Vandy 45 pts
• Ole Miss 27 pts
• Auburn 38 pts
• GSU 31 pts
• GT 32 pts

Obviously, UGA pulled away late in some of those games, but we had our starting DL and DBs in for almost all the snaps even in massive blowouts.


You want more head scratchers?

How is Ramik Wilson is good enough to lead the SEC in tackles in 2013.... and good enough to almost never come out of a game in 2013; however, he wasn't good enough to get any meaningful snaps last year at any of the 4 LB spots?  How does that make sense?

How was Brandon Langley so promising in Games 1-2 that he never came off the field, but he is now so inept or incorrigible that he hasn't seen the field in 2 months?  I don't get it.

What Grantham wants to do with player utilization is so nonsensical to me that is appears to be basic dumbassery.  I don't get it.  Hopefully, he will find employment elsewhere this off season because Richt clearly isn't going to fire the guy.  Unfortunately, I don't see it happening.  No NFL team is going to hire him as a DC, and OLB coaches in the NFL don't make $750,000 a year.

There is a gravy train in Athens, and he's on it.

PWD

That should end the Grantham rumors

Richt is very up front:

"Everybody should be back," Richt said, answering a question specifically about Grantham. "I mean, everybody's got to do what they've got to do as far as if they have opportunities and all that kind of thing. We have some things we've certainly got to get better at, but continuity is a good thing for Georgia."

So, we'll just chalk it up to youth and move on.

Big bet for Coach Richt, because as good as our team might be next year, this won't do in the context of an SEC Championship season.
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