Ten Things JJ Thinks He Thinks

A lot to get to this week so lets jump right into it.


1. Georgia Thoughts
As was expected Richt on Wednesday made it official that defensive coaches Willie Martinez, Jon Fabris, and John Jancek will not return to Georgia next season. This basically leaves UGA without any defensive coaches for the bowl game which could be pretty interesting and a story for another time. Before I get into a list of names that intrigue me I will give some characteristics of what I want in UGA's next defensive coordinator.

1. An young and up and comer in the coaching profession. I want someone has a burning desire to be a head coach.While we might lose this person in a few years to a head coaching position, so be it we will then hire the next up and comer. Losing coaches to promotions are good things.

2.  Someone with an attack mentality. Someone that brings VIOLENCE and TEMPO back to our defense.It is the attack mentality that we have been missing the past few seasons. Any coincidence that the turnovers have been down the past few seasons as well. Also, with the attack mentality on defense may transfer over to different areas of the team.

3. A coach that believes in the value of recruiting. Should be self-explanatory.

4. A coach that believes in fundamentals not gimmicks. No Jerry Glanvillle types, etc.

5. NFL Experience

Here are some names that intrigue me.

1. Kirby Smart - He is currently the defensive coordinator at Alabama. He was an All Sec performer at UGA who also has is Master's degree from F$U. A mixture of  the Captain and the Coach. His wife was a former UGA basketball player, does she want to leave T-town and return to the classic city? Florida State will also make a play at Smart.

2. Kevin Steele- Current Clemson defensive coordinator. He has coached under former National Championship Head Coaches Tom Osborne, Nick Saban, Bobby Bowden and Johnny Majors. He might also be in the running for the Florida State job. Apparently broke his hand before the ACC Championship game while trying to fire up his team. I love this fact.

3. Travis Jones - Current Defensive Line Coach for the New Orleans Saints. Was a Georgia four year Letterman and graduate assistant. His college experience includes stops at Appalachian State, Kansas and LSU. At LSU he was defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator. The last five seasons he has been in the NFL including defensive ends, linebackers, and defensive line. He is definitely an off the radar candidate. 

2. Colts Thoughts
My good friend and Titans season ticket holder the Admiral may not want to read this recap but the Colts played one of the more complete games they have played this season. Not only did they move to 12-0 this season but they also tied the New England Patriots for 21 straight regular season games. In fact, Peyton Manning can't remember the last time he won 21 consecutive times at anything. "Usually you don't play that many games in a row in youth basketball or whatnot, so that's a lot of wins." While Manning was his typical awesome self completing 24 of 37 passes for 270 yards, the defense needs to earn some praise for limiting Chris Johnson. While he was still able to put up decent numbers of 113 yards in 27 carries, Johnson was not able to break a long run something  he was able to do the past few weeks. Not only did Manning extend the consecutive winning streak, his second-quarter scoring pass to Collie, extended his NFL record for consecutive seasons with at least 25 touchdown passes to 12.The Broncos visit Indy next week before a Thursday night visit to Jacksonville. Christmas week the Colts will play the Jets at home before closing the season at Buffalo. This teams focus is on the 2nd season and getting home field throughout. While getting 22 wins in a row at home is great the Colts know their is a bigger prize available. I love this mindset, itwill mean absolutely nothing unless the Colts win their last game this season, which linebacker Clint Session hopes will take place Feb. 7, at the Super Bowl in Miami. "It will mean a lot then, right now, it really means nothing to us."


3. Florida-Alabama
Not sure where to begin with this game but I will go with a quote from Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin, "Florida has better players while Alabama has better coaches." While I think it is clear that Alabama's coaches are better than Florida's, the Alabama players are close to the same level of Florida's. When I was thinking about this game last week I kept wondering how Alabama was going to score on Florida's defense.Well that turned out to not be a problem and Alabama QB Greg McElroy's performance was something special. McElroy went 12-of-18 for 239 yards and played flawlessly, allowing no turnovers. He averaged 13.3 yards per reception, more than double Tim Tebow's yards per completion. What is even more impressive was that Alabama's so called average offense decimated Florida's No. 1 defense for 490 yards. The Gators had only allowed 253 yards per game until they met McElroy, Ingram and company. What is even more scarier about this Alabama offense is that of the group of of McElroy, Ingram, Richardson, Maze, and Julio Jones, McElroy is the only junior among the group, with the rest being only sophomores.

Again the Alabama defense was awesome as they frustrated Tim Tebow all night. In fact, he was frustrated to the point of tears. Tebow finished the game 20-for-35 for 247 yards with a touchdown and an interception and 63 yards rushing on 10 carries. While these numbers are decent the Bama defense as a whole was outstanding. The Gators found the end zone just once and converted only 4 of 11 third downs. While I was watching this game I kept shaking my head as I did not realize that the Tide could just dominant the Gators the way that they did. Just absolutely amazing.


4. Bowl Thoughts-Non BCS

Sunday marked the announcement of all the Bowl Games that will dominate the sporting landscape over the Christmas/New Years Holidays and of course we get some interesting matchups and some less than steller matchups. I will start with the Dogs and while I am less than pleased with the Independence Bowl Texas A&M is more of an intriguing matchup than Iowa State. Plus downtown Shreveport looks lovely this time of year. The bowl that infuriates me the most is the Outback choosing Auburn over a host of other teams. Not only does Auburn have a worst conference record that Tennessee and Georgia, they have the same conference record as Kentucky which beat both Auburn and Georgia. This cost UGA to fall all the way down to the Independence instead of the Music City versus Clemson which would have been a lot of fun. In fact I am not going to eat at a Outback Steakhouse for a year because of this decision (No one loves a bloomin onion or Alice Springs Chicken more than me).

A couple of other games that intrigue me include the Gator matching up West Virginia and Florida State in Bobby Bowden's last game. The Emerald Bowl with Boston College versus USC could also be a lot of fun. Penn State versus LSU in the Capital One Bowl will also be interesting. Pittsburgh who finished two points from playing in the Sugar Bowl falls all the way down to the Car Care Bowl in Charlotte against UNC. This game is very intriguing as these are two good programs that should be BCS contenders in the next few seasons.

Two other match ups that are likely to grab my attention include Stanford-Oklahoma in the Sun Bowl and Miami-Wisconsin in the Champs Sports Bowl.  Let the bowl season begin.

5. MLB Thoughts - This week marks the start of baseball's winter meetings in Indianapolis. One thing to expect is a lot of rumors, another thing to expect is most of the rumors being false.
a. I do not expect Jason Bay or Matt Holliday to sign this week.
b. I do expect to hear Scott Boras complain about ownership collusion
c. I do not believe the Yankees will stick to their 190 million payroll if adding payroll means adding Roy Halladay.
d. Whatever happened to Fransisco Lirano?
e. The Brewers might be players at this year winter meetings with trade piece Mat Gamel and Corey Hart. By the way I am not a big Hart fan, he might have worse swing in MLB. Also, could the Brewers be looking to extend/trade Prince Fielder?

f. Where are the Mariners getting all this money. Lots of rumors have them as major players for Bay and Lackey. They pretty much have already locked up Chone Figgins. Should be interesting.
g. Thanks to my lawyer friend Dan for the link, he gives us a NY Times story on Bloomberg L.P. which has produced player-evaluation software for baseball teams. Interesting to see if any MLB team thinks this product is worthwhile.


6. What I read this week
Only one article this week and it discusses Elin Nordegren who is better known for Tiger Woods wife. The article comes from Sports Illustrated in September of 2004.  The article takes a look at Nordegren and how little we know about her and her relationship with Tiger. Very intriguing despite being 5 years old.



7. Football Thoughts of the week
a. How does Mac Brown almost let the clock run out when he has a timeout in his pocket?
b. If you are going to cry Tim Tebow, put your helmet on. It always does not have to be about you.
c. What doe it say about the Pac-10 when USC finishes the season 6th in conference. The conference as a whole has improved dramatically the past few seasons.
d. Pete Carroll has not forgotten how to coach or led a team. USC has been suffering from a "brain drain" the past few years. This is just a small sample of the assistants Carroll has seen leave, Lane Kiffin to Tennessee, Ed Orgeron to Ole Miss and now Tennessee, and Steve Sarkisian to Washington.
e. Speaking of Pete Carroll I wonder his response when he hears the allegations by Charlie Weis that he was living with a Grad Student in Malibu. This might be true for all I know but who are you Charlie to put another mans business on the street like that. This attitude Charlie is why you constantly receive criticism from the media. It is also called Karma, why create bad karma for yourself?
f. You serious Pittsburgh? How do you let Brad Gradkowsi drive down the field to win a football game at home in December?
g. Impressive win by John Farrell's Broncos in KC on Sunday. Not only did they drill the Chiefs but the 44 points was the most points the Broncos have ever scored in a game at Kansas City and the most they've scored in a road game since 1985.
h. The Skins-Saints game might have been the game of the day on Sunday. Here are some of the crazy things that happened in our Nation's capital on Sunday; the Skins actually played a close game and in fact should have won the game. Secondly both teams combined for 918 total yards, including 775 passing yards, and 53 first downs. Third, Garrett Hartley, who hadn't kicked for the Saints this season, hit four FGs including the game-winner in OT. As I always say a win is a win is a win.
i. Has their been a better player on a worst team than Stephen Jackson for the St. Louis Rams? I feel sorry for Mr. Jackson who rushed for his seventh 100-plus yard game this season. Not bad for a guy playing for a 1-11 team.
j. How crazy was the Dolphins win over the Patriots? New England lost consecutive games for the first time since Weeks 9-10 of the 2006 season. Furthermore, Tom Brady is now 0-3 in Dolphins Stadium in December games. Brady also threw two interceptions, giving him back to back games with two interceptions. The last time that happened was weeks 12-13 of the 2003 season. Even more troubling for this years Patriots team is that they have yet to win a game in an opponents stadium this season. Not good for a team that might have only one home game this postseason.
k. The Dolphins are now 5-0 under Tony Soprano Sparano in December. That is an amazing stat. The remaining schedule for the Fins include back to back road games at the Jaguars and at the Titans. This is followed by back to back home games to end the season against the Texans and Steelers. All of the games are against teams that are in the playoff chase with the Dolphins. Should be interesting.
l. Man do the Bengals continue to be impressive. Not only did they move to 3-0 against the NFC this season but with Cedric Benson rushing for 110 yards on Sunday he became the third different Bengal to rush for at least 100 yards in as many weeks (joining Bernard Scott and Larry Johnson).It should also be mentioned that Marvin Lewis tied Paul Brown for second in team history with his 55th victory. Only Sam Wyche (64) has more. How bad is your franchise history if Sam Wyche leads in all time wins?
m. The Jaguars continue to put themselves in line for a playoff birth with a win on Sunday against the Houston Texans (more on them later). The Jaguars now have home games against the Dolphins and Colts before closing at New England and Cleveland. Couple of questions; can the Jags go 3-1 to get to 10-6? Can they win at New England and at Cleveland in the cold?
n. Speaking of the Texans is their a more talented team in football that is 5-7? In my opinion the Texans are more talented than the Jaguars despite the fact the Jags are 2-0 against the Texans this season. I have watched the last three Texans games and they should be 3-0 in these games not 0-3, how does Kubiak explain this? I do not know if he can and Bill Cowher might be coaching in Houston next season.
o. Speaking of teams that are good in December, the Chargers have now won 15 straight games in December. Amazing. Interesting games the next two weeks against Dallas and Cincinnati. The Cincy game might be for a bye week and a home game in the playoffs. LaDainian Tomlinson continues to reach special milestones as he reached 150 TDs in his 137th game, 23 games faster than Emmitt Smith and 30 faster than Jerry Rice. They are the only three players with 150 TDs. He also passed Jim Brown for 8th on the ll-time rushing list with Brown in attendance. Pretty awesome if you ask me.
p. Has their been a team bookend Thursday night games on ESPN with such different results than Oregon did this season. This team looked lost, out of control and poorly coached week 1 against Boise only to improve every week and win the civil war game against Oregon St to clinch a Rose Bowl birth.
q. It should be mentioned that Defensive Coordinators with degrees from the University of Georgia went 2-0 on Saturday and were quite impressive as Texas held Nebraska to 106 yards and Alabama made Tim Tebow cry.
r. How do we know Texas is better than TCU? TCU has two wins over teams in the BCS final 25 while Texas only has one. TCU also has beaten Clemson at Clemson. I normally do not champion the cause of a non BCS team but we really do not know if Texas is better than TCU.
s. My man Case Keenum continues to do things that make me shake me shake my head. On Saturday he attempted 75 passes, yes 75. He completed 56 of those passes for 527 yards and 5 touchdowns. This guy is amazing.
t. The Cowboys continue to be choke artist in December. They are now 5-9 in their last 14 December games. They finish up with a home game against the Chargers next week before back to back road games against the Saints and Redskins before finishing up at home against the Eagles. I could easily see 1-3 and the 'Boys do not have the tiebreaker against the G-Men. I really hate it for Jerry Jones.
u. JJ Heisman Top 5
1. CJ Spiller -4 Td's and233 yards while running with a limp. Does Clemson win 7 games if he is not on the team?
2. Toby Gerhart - All he did was lead the NCAA in rushing and touchdowns. In his four games versus ranked opponents he averaged 184 yards per game.
3. Colt McCoy - It was his to lose on Saturday and he lost it.
4. Ndamukong Suh - Probably the most dominant player in the NCAA. How impressive was Suh Saturday night?
5. Mark Ingram - If he would have done anything against Auburn he might have been 1 or 2 on this list. I need my Heisman winner to have better performance in his rival game. He still was pretty special Saturday in the Georgia Dome.


8. College Top 5
1. Alabama - Can they make it four straight National Championships for SEC schools? No wonder the rest of the country hates the SEC.
2. TCU - Overall resume is better than Texas
3. Texas - Saved by an official review. (I thought call was right). To talented to let Nebraska hang around.
4. Cincinnati- Let the Notre Dame rumors start flying.
5. Florida - I wonder if Timmy will cry if he knows his Gators fell to 5 in my power 5.

9. NFL Top 5
1. Indianapolis Colts-Not only do they move to 12-0 but their cover on Sunday won me a Carver's lunch.
2. New Orleans Saints- A win is a win is a win especially when you clinch the division title.

3. San Diego Chargers - Can they keep LT healthy for post-season. Does he want to be healthy for the postseason.
4. Minnesota Vikings - Bad loss Sunday night. Still in position to play every playoff game in a dome whether in Minnesota or New Orleans.
5. Cincinnatti Bengals - Last time I had them in the top 5 they lost to the Raiders. Hopefully that does not happen this time.

10. Non football or baseball thoughts
a. I am looking forward to seeing Kentucky freshmen point guard John Wall play in person this Wednesday at Madison Square Garden. It will also be fun to watch my Dawgs play the Johnies inside the world's most famous arena.
b. Speaking of awesome sporting events that I will attend this week includes the Rock-n-Racquetes event inside Stegeman Coliseum on the beautiful campus of the University of Georgia this Saturday afternoon. The format for Saturday includes men's singles as John Isner takes on Sam Querrey. The women's singles features Serena Williams versus Melanie Oudin and mixed doubles as Isner and Serena team up to take on Querrey and Oudin. It should be a lot of fun.
c. My best friend Brice and myself will end this week of awesomeness by attending the Saints-Falcons on Sunday. By the way Brees is probably my 2nd favorite NFL player to watch behind Peyton Manning.
d. I am a little worried about making my connection on Wednesday as the forecast in St. Louis calls for Rain/Snow/Wind. The reason I am flying to St. Louis to get to NYC is that my flight is free on American Airlines and that is one of the only ways to get to NYC is through St. Louis. I fly through the second city on my way back Thursday afternoon. 
e. You can't see the line can you Russ
f. What was their not to like about this weeks final Amazing Race? It took place in Las Vegas, they had to count a million dollars in chips which turned out to be my favorite task of the race. Furthermore, performing acrobatics on the stage of the Cirque Du Soleil show Love was pretty amazing.
g. Pretty happy with the winners as I could not stand the brothers or the former Mrs. America who was a name I do not want to mention. It maybe a reason why I am single but all the hollering and screaming for no reason that Ericka did this season was not called for and I do not know how Brian is able deal with all the drama. I am glad he is married to her not me.
h. For all the realty tv fans who read this, their is rumor that stars from Big Brother are taking part in the Amazing Race 16.
i. Why do the Lexus December to Remember Sales Commercials make me feel like a schmuck that I can not give a Lexus this December and next December is not looking promising either.
j. I saw two pretty good concerts this weekend. Friday night in Athens, Ga was Brantley Gilbert at the 40 Watt. Saturday was Luke Bryan at Capital City in Milledgeville. It was an A-list crew that included the P.A.T. clique which includes Shep, Tmac and me as members and our #1 fan Diego Lee Smoak. Great group.
k. While Brantley Gilbert is not a household name yet he will be soon. His song G.R.I.T.S. is pretty good. He also covered some Steve Earle and Copperhead Road.
l. The highlight of the Athens trip was a post-concert visit to Sons of Italy and a lunch to Add Drugs in Five Points. It probably has been four years since I have visited Add Drug and I have missed it.
m. Milledgeville, Ga is very underrated. Solid little town and beautiful campus.
n. Luke Bryan was petty good. He sang all of his hits and covered some other country and rock songs that even included Metalica's Enter Sandman. He also sang Good Directions which he wrote even though Billy Currington released the single. Good Directions happens to be one of my favorite songs.Good read on Luke on how he fought to become a country star and even talks about his days at Georgia Southern.
o. By the way Luke Bryan stole the show when he commented at the very beginning how great it was to see Tebow cry earlier in the day. By the way Luke was as drunk as any other artist I have ever watched perform live. It took away a little from the performance but it was still a great show. By the way here is an awesome youtube of Luke at the Georgia Theatre performing "Fishin' in the Dark," "Shine," and "Hillbilly Deluxe."
p. I would be amiss if I did not mention Kristy Jo the fiddle player for Luke Bryan, she is very easy on the eyes and an amazing fiddle player.

q. It needs to be mentioned that Luke Bryan will open for Jason Aldean February 20 at James Brown Arena in Augusta, Georgia. This is a Saturday night. Just saying.

r. I know the roomdawg would not agree with me but The Office is not as good as it was a couple of years ago. In fact I do not remember laughing at all this past Thursday night. For my entertainment dollar Community and 30 Rock are much better than The Office.
s. I went to the Fox Theater for a show for the first time Wednesday night, they do not build buildings like that anymore. Amazing architecture.
t. Going to the new Matt Damon movie "Invictus" tonight. Look for a movie review in the next few days. Clint Eastwood directed the movie and that can only make it better. I also have an extra movie pass if anyone is interested.
u. Notice the lack of thoughts on Mr. Woods. I have my thoughts on what happened but I will keep them to my self. This Chinese news report does a reenactment of what they think happened.
v. For those of you in the Atlanta area on Saturday night we will be having a Christmakuh party this Saturday night starting at 800 pm. Everyone is welcome including all the non-Atlanta readers of this website. The only requirement is to bring gift valued around $10 for the yankee swap/dirty santa/nasty christmas/white elephant gift exchange.  The gift can literally be anything.We have also guaranteed a visit from Santa and because I was such a good boy this year they are sending an elf. Here is a picture of a party I was at last year when Santa and his Elf decided to show up.

 We need to teach Santa the look away!!!!

Quote of the week


"She gets a hall pass, its not like it was Zac Enfron it was Tony Gonzalez."

My quote on the way back from lunch when a friend was discussing how a girl he knew in college left her boyfriend for a fling with Mr. Gonzalez. Gonzalez was single at the time.

"Having a daughter is like going to the NBA All-Star game. It changes you."
The first of many hilarious lines by Tracey Jordan on this week's 30 Rock

Text of the week

From the Admiral to me, we had a Carver's lunch bet on the Colts-Titans game. I won. I agree with him on holding out to Country Fried Steak day. As long as cream corn is one of the sides I could care less when we go.

still not happy, but only Carvers can make me feel better. But we aren't going until Country Fried Steak day.


After re-reading the Ten Things for grammar mistakes (I know I did not catch them all) I noticed my tone of Tim Tebow crying might have been a little tough considering their were a couple of times I left the field crying after a football game and I find nothing wrong with that and my high school coach would not either. However, I always kept my helmet on and never made anything about me. No chance I do an interview with CBS minutes after losing if I was not into self promotion. I also happen to like myself more than Tebow is another reason I am picking on him.

As always we appreciate your feedback and look forward to hearing or reading it. As always visit www.captainandcoach.blogspot.com multiple times during the week for updates. In the future look for a Bowl pickem contest. No idea what the prize will be but I am sure we will think of something. Have a wonderful week and maybe I will start my Christmas shopping sometime this week or is it still to early?