Taking From Your Neighbor's Plate

There are two stats that don't mean anything (or, actually, "less and less" is more accurate) in today's football- regardless of level...

Time of possession and yards allowed...

Hear me out...

In the days of power football, you wanted to keep the other guy off the field since he ran (literally) the same offense you did. If you kept the other guy's running game off the field, and you capitalized on your drives with points, the other guy simply didn't have the opportunity to score.

Today, I dare you to tell me how the streetball/basketball on grass/spread offenses really give a you-know-what about time of possession. In the college game, we've seen Baylor, UCF, Clemson, Ohio State, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Northern Illinois, and any other pass happy-five wide outfit not care and cover the field from one end to the other in a few minutes.

Auburn's offense is the same way...

And it took the shortening of the playbook and familiarizing yourself with an athlete's talents that has put Auburn one game away from an improbable title- probably, the most shocking one of them all in the BCS era...

“It wasn’t something I was used to,” he told Ryan Black of the Macon Telegraph. “… In high school we ran the spread. But as I got here, they sat me down and taught me how the offense worked and (I) studied on film and watched what we do. It went from there and I got better as the weeks went.”

In that state title game for Wilcox County's Patriots broadcast on GPB, you could see Marshall had the arm to ad lib when he needed to and had the speed to make something out of less than nothing...
((HT: GPB/GHSA))

 

Auburn Undercover's Philip Marshall caught up with Wilcox County Head Coach Mark Ledford to talk about Nick's development and success in this incredible season on the Plains...

 

But look deeper... and the invasion by Rodney Garner in taking Georgia talent away from his old boss has shone out...

The defensive front is young with Gabe Wright (Carver-Columbus), Carl Lawson (Milton), and Montravious Adams (Dooly County)...

CJ Uzomah (North Gwinnett) has finally found a home as a tall wide out that gives match-up problems on the outside...

And the upcoming recruiting classes include QB Tyler Queen (North Cobb) in 2015, and Kal Bessent a DB from Camden County, Myron Burton an ATH from Peachtree Ridge, Dontavious Russell a DT from Carrollton, and Stanton Truitt a QB from Monroe Area High who will be ATH'd in college...

And one of the largest flaws in Georgia's approach to winning in the Ess-E-Cee has given their neighbors their best shot of one of the best turnarounds in Division I history...

And that should be a big red flag to the folks in Athens...