By Chris Marler
Talking season means we talk about way too much. Mainly about stuff that doesn’t matter. That’s why it’s shocking to me that we aren’t talking enough about these particular things.
- LSU WR Aaron Anderson
It makes sense that Anderson gets overlooked. After all, he is only 5-foot-8. That being said, someone needs to explain to me why the kid who finished last season with 61 receptions, 884 yards and five touchdowns is nowhere to be found in preseason magazines, All-conference teams, or let alone a single awards list in any of these magazines and previews.
Anderson is the second leading receiver in every one of the aforementioned stats, minus touchdowns. He also put up those numbers while his teammate Kyren Lacy caught 58 passes for 866 yards and nine touchdowns. Talk about eating into potential production.
I don’t think Anderson is going to all the sudden increase those numbers or become the next 1,000 yard receiver at LSU. Not with what is possibly the deepest WR room in the conference, if not the country. But a player with that level of production, in an offense that throws it all over the field, and a 10.7 100 meter dash to boot deserves a little more recognition.
- Oklahoma RB Jadyn Ott
I’ll take the blame for this one. Like a Microsoft Teams password, I feel like once a month I forget Jadyn Ott is no longer at Cal and is now at Oklahoma. Ott didn’t have a great 2024 in Berkley, but the production he’s had throughout his career can’t be overlooked. His sophomore season he finished with over 1,300 yards rushing, 1,600 all purpose yards and 15 total touchdowns including one in the return game.
Ott is a home run threat every time he touches the ball. He has 31 career touchdowns and did most of his damage behind an offensive line that almost certainly has less blue chip talent than what he’ll have in Norman. Transfer QB John Mateer has gotten all the offseason hype, but for him to be most effective as a true dual threat QB, he’ll at the very least need a RB that defenses respect when he puts the ball in their belly during an RPO. Ott is that and a whole lot more.
- The Sanford Stadium disrespect is insane
How many more of these “Top 10 Toughest Places to Play” lists are going to surface before Georgia’s Sanford Stadium gets any respect? If I’ve said this once, I’ve said it a million times, so let me say it once more. If we are going to talk about college football, we are going to talk about it with logic and factual information.
Georgia has lost one game in Sanford Stadium since 2016. One. That was in double overtime after their All-American kicker missed a field goal, but that’s besides the point. They are 49-1 in their last 50 games between the hedges. They are 14-1 against ranked opponents under Kirby Smart there with the only loss coming in year one of his tenure on a Hail Mary to No. 11 Tennessee in 2016.
Georgia has dominated at home. Since 2020, they are 17-0 against the SEC winning by an average of 23.8 points per game and only two of those 17 games being by single digits. They set decibel records at over 130 DB in games that were noon kickoffs against Arkansas. They’ve beaten top ten team after top ten team, and they’ve beaten them like a drum.
Outside, aesthetically the stadium is perfect. Tucked away in the trees of one of the most beautiful campuses in America. They just happen to play some pretty good football inside it too.
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