Do you believe in the Madden curse?
DressHerInWhiteAndGold: Barves. Thoughts for postseason?
Ben: I don’t follow baseball quite as much anymore, but from what little I’ve seen, it’s a miracle they even made it this far given all of the injuries they dealt with the entire year.
Logan: I’m just glad they made it to the playoffs after the season they just had. I feel pretty optimistic going into next year if we can avoid injuries. We have a lot to figure out this offseason regarding contracts so we will see who comes back next year.
Jack: It was a miracle we even got to San Diego, and we were one Chris Sale back spasm away from maybe stealing game 1 out there. Just as long as none of the Mets or Phillies get to the world series, I’m happy.
DressHerInWhiteAndGold: Ere’body ok from storm? Our Generator ran for 36 hours, but GA Power is back. Lots of neighbors without unfortunately. Waiting on WiFi/steady cell service. 1st world problems.
Ben: We are all good down here in the Boro. Had some damage to the house and my truck, but my poor chicken run got demolished. Don’t worry, though, the chickens are okay! And it gave me an excuse to build a new enclosure for them that’s a definite upgrade.
Logan: I was in Raleigh and thankfully we only ended up with a bunch of rain. West of us is struggling though.
Jack: Atlanta was thankfully unscathed beyond some trees coming down, but that happens anytime a big storm rolls through.
Frodo Swagginz: If Haynes King continues on his current trajectory or even slightly improves, maybe enough to top Godsey’s single season record, does he stay for one more year or is he off to the NFL?
Ben: I won’t say it’s impossible, but I don’t know that it’s likely. King is a good quarterback, but I don’t know that he’ll be a good NFL quarterback, meaning that I don’t know that it would be worth it for him to go for the draft this year. I’m not an NFL scout, though, so take what I say with a grain of salt. He may get some interest, and that could spur him to go. I don’t expect to have a better idea before the end of the year, though.
Logan: There are 2 factors I would consider if I were Haynes King.
1) What is the market for QBs in the NFL right now? If you’re King you are a good QB, but are you good enough to be drafted above the other contenders currently getting hype from the national media? Currently it seems like King is not going to be a top 5 pick with names like Jalen Milroe, Jaxson Dart, Shadeur Sanders, Quinn Ewers, Cam Ward, and others being floated above King. The question would then be are there enough teams looking for QBs that you have an outside chance at becoming a starter? Right now there are a few teams looking for starters, but most teams either have their guy for the short term or are trying younger QBs who will likely get another year by default. So, it doesn’t seem likely for King to be a top 5 QB pick, his most likely scenario is to be picked in a later round as a backup, and that would not be ideal for a future career in the NFL.
2) With NIL King is currently getting paid to play for us. Is King more comfortable taking the Georgia Tech money or risking that money to get an NFL contract? As stated above, if you become a backup in the NFL, you aren’t really getting paid big money. I don’t know what King is being paid to play for us, but that money is guaranteed whereas King has to hope he gets drafted early if he wants to make a big contract in the NFL.
Based on where King is in the national talks, I don’t think he is at a point where he would get drafted early. We have plenty of games left where King can prove himself, and things can develop to King’s benefit depending on what happens to QBs in the NFL, but at this point in the season I don’t think this year is ideal for King to declare for the draft.
Chris: Agreed with Ben and Logan, he’s not really a big “name” yet that people are talking about at the top and its hard to see the upside for him to getting drafted in the sixth round as opposed to staying another year. Unless he all of a sudden starts setting everyone on fire and gets a ton of new interest I think he’d stay and try to get in the conversation for 2025. Logan did a good job talking through it – I think as a QB there are a lot of market considerations when making this decision, way more than most other positions where it probably benefits you more to just get to the league as fast as possible.
GTSMURF: Saturday will mark the halfway point in our schedule. While many things in the second half of the season may dictate a change of course, particularly injuries, which true freshmen and other non-redshirted players are on track to be redshirted this year?
Ben: Check out pp. 20-21 of the stats guide on RamblinWreck.com. It has a full game-by-game participation list.
GTalbatross: Choose a stance and debate why this is good or not for volleyball:
The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved allowing women’s volleyball players to contact the ball more than once with any part of the body in a single attempt on a team’s second contact when the ball is played to a teammate.
Ben: So, if I understand this correctly, it’s saying that as part of the second hit on one side, a player can hit the ball multiple times with different body parts. I don’t know enough about the minutiae of volleyball to have an informed opinion, but this seems like it makes the game easier.
Chris: I know nothing about volleyball so I can’t really answer intelligently, but I am curious: how often does this come up in play? I read “in a single attempt” as “as long as I swing my arm in one motion, the ball can quickly ricochet off my hand and bounce off my wrist and that’s fine”? It sounds analogous to tennis where you’re allowed to make contact with the ball multiple times as long as its in one fluid swing (and it’s not intentional) and in my 15ish years of competitive playing it might’ve come up once or twice across a zillion matches. I’d guess with the larger ball in volleyball that it happens more often there?
Jack: Basically, this rule was implemented to get rid of the inadvertent double touches by the setter that generally didn’t affect the ball all that much, and if so usually negatively. The problem is though is that they only defined it for when it happens and not how, so there’s a huge loophole for what the second player can do with the ball (as we saw against Pitt). As a whole, this is fine for volleyball because it’s not going to completely change how teams play and gives more grace for a very minor mistake.
Jellopacket98: Do you believe in the Madden curse? Christian McCaffrey graced the cover this year.
Ben: Yes and no. It’s not nearly as prevalent as it used to be (https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/does-madden-nfl-cover-curse-still-exist-a-look-back-at-25-years-of-covers-after-christian-mccaffrey-nod/), but it’s not totally done away with either.