Mark Richt has a boilerplate response to any/all Todd Gurley questions. “I can’t answer that,” he says, and if Georgia’s coach can’t, who among us can?
Ummm … me?
What follows shouldn’t be construed as, ahem, knowledge. If anyone really knows anything regarding Gurley’s status, he/she isn’t talking. These are guesses. If you don’t care to be subjected to speculation, cease and desist reading. But what better things do you have to do while sitting around wondering about TG II?
1. Will Gurley play again this season?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Friday that a source familiar with the evidence believes Gurley might not be cleared to return. But let’s think about that: The NCAA’s stated maximum penalty for impermissible benefits of $700 or more — and “more” presumably could run to $7,000,000,000,000 — is one-third of the player’s scheduled games, which in this case would be four. For Gurley to miss the remainder of the regular season would mark a docking of seven games, or nearly twice the max.
Even if we suppose the NCAA would have the discretion to increase the penalty in an egregious case — if, say, Gurley was driving a Rolls-Royce supplied by a booster and he autographed its fender and sold it — does the NCAA really want to pick this fight? Already Gurley has sat twice as long as Johnny Manziel. Cam Newton and Jameis Winston were allowed to play on and win championships and Heismans without missing a play. (Granted, those respective allegations were different.) Does an organization low on political capital dare to spend it all on one Georgia Bulldog?
I’m thinking it doesn’t. I’m thinking Gurley will be back soon.
2. How soon? Arkansas-in-Little-Rock-on-Saturday soon?
Not that soon. A.J. Green — another Bulldog — got four games in 2010, but the NCAA was fuller of itself then. I’m thinking Gurley gets two, one of which has already been missed. I’m thinking he’ll be back for Florida on Nov. 1.
Which leads us to this: Minus Gurley, Georgia made Missouri look pedestrian. This week Mizzou plays Florida in Gainesville. Last week the Gators fell to LSU, which likewise isn’t very good, in a game that was almost impossible to lose. Should they drop another home game to fall to 3-3, would Jeremy Foley deep-six the overmatched Will Muschamp? Wouldn’t it be something if Gurley made it to Jacksonville but Coach Boom didn’t?
3. That’s it? Two games? Is that punishment enough?
Who am I, Socrates? Manziel got a half against Rice. Two games would mean Gurley misses one-sixth of the season and one-fourth of the SEC schedule. That’s not nothing. (Then again, he’d also be missing two trips to the Central Time Zone, which some might see as an excessive benefit.)
4. Is there any way Georgia profits — word used advisedly — from being without Gurley? It already has. After both the Tennessee and the Vanderbilt games, an Atlanta writer (blush) used the phrase "one-man team" to describe the Bulldogs. Nobody was saying that after Georgia boat-raced Missouri in Columbia West. Every other Bulldog shone brighter that day, for two reasons: First, because they had to; second, because they were no longer a supporting cast. They were a real team.
This cannot help but benefit Georgia in the long run. On Saturday, Hutson Mason and the defense made plays they hadn’t made and Nick Chubb ran like the greatest backup Bulldog since Herschel Walker. (Who was, for the first game of his Georgia career, the No. 3 tailback behind Donnie McMickens and Carnie Norris. Then Herschel trampled Bill Bates.)
The point being: If Richt wanted the non-Gurley elements of his team to grow up in a hurry, his wish has been granted. Georgia proved it has a roster beyond the great No. 3, and No. 27 (Chubb) will enter 2015 as Alabama’s Mark Ingram entered 2009 — as a former understudy, Ingram having played behind Glen Coffee in 2008, primed for a Heisman run of his own.
5. Speaking of the Heisman: Can Gurley still win it?
Yep. If the season’s first half has taught us anything, it’s that Gurley looks like the nation’s best player. He just needs the stats to back him up. He’ll need major numbers from here on and a banner performance against one of the Mississippi teams in the Georgia Dome on Dec. 6, and he’s capable. Some will hold missing two games against him, but if he plays 11 of 13, he could still win. If he’s out for four games, he can’t.
6. You just referenced the SEC championship game. Are you suggesting Georgia will play in it?
I am indeed. With Missouri already beaten and with South Carolina having lost three SEC games and with nobody else in the East looking half as good as the Bulldogs, the division is Georgia’s to lose. Missouri still has to play at Texas A&M, meaning Georgia could take the division even with a home loss to Auburn.
Yet again, this all presumes Gurley will play again soon. I’m reasonably confident he will. But what do I know?
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