Week 6 Stock Report: Georgia finds offensive identity, Mario Cristobal, Jimbo Fisher can't change their stripes

Week 6 was like your favorite American bistro that has a little of bit of everything on the menu. Upsets, close calls, blowouts and baffling coaching decisions. 

Each Monday, I take note of whose stock — be it team, head coach, player, assistant, unit, Heisman candidacy, preseason narrative, etc. — is trending upward, whose is down and whose is holding.

Here’s the Week 6 Stock Report:

📈 Stock Up: Georgia’s offensive identity 

For years, Bulldogs fans loved to scream “Run the damn ball, Bobo!” but after six games in 2023, the battle cry sounds a little differently this season. 

“Keep chuckin’ it, Carson!”

After curb-stomping Kentucky 51-13, Georgia has seemed to settle on its offensive identity under Mike Bobo, who is back as OC, and first-year starting quarterback Carson Beck: Pass to run. 

With Beck surgically distributing the pill to the deep pool of UGA playmakers (headlined by star tight end Brock Bowers and the emergence of Mississippi State transfer Rara Thomas) for a career-high 385 yards and four touchdowns, the Bulldogs leaned in on its 2023 approach in the blowout over Kentucky. Beck completed his first 12 passes and hit deep shots on both play-action and standard drop-backs. UGA’s offensive line, which is missing right tackle Amarius Mims and has underperformed through the first month of the season, has performed better in pass protection and held up quite well against Kentucky’s solid DL (zero sacks allowed). 

In turn, Georgia ran the ball much more effectively Saturday, too, with top tailbacks Daijun Edwards and Kendall Milton both averaging 6.0 yards per carry. 

Despite some consternation from fans and media, Georgia’s offense looks more than capable of carrying the Bulldogs the rest of the season. It ranks 10th nationally in yards per play (7.14) and is Top 5 in passing yards per game.

📉 Stock Down: A Tiger can’t change his stripes 

Mario Cristobal is among the elite in December, February and every day of the fall that isn't Saturday.

— Jesse Simonton (@JesseReSimonton) October 8, 2023

Mario Cristobal and Jimbo Fisher are two of the highest-paid coaches in college football. Both are excellent recruiters with championship backgrounds. They are also two of the worst in-game coaches, handcuffing their talent advantages by routinely making poor game management decisions. 

Both had Scarlet Letter ‘F’ showings Saturday night, each dooming their team’s chances to win a conference game. Cristobal takes the cake for the speechless stupidity of refusing to have the Hurricanes take a knee to end the game against Georgia Tech. In a fit of unbelievable stubbornness, Cristobal called a designed run that resulted in a fumble, turning a would-be ugly 20-17 win into a 23-20 inexplicable loss two plays later after a pair of blown coverages. 

It was all-time buffoonery — only Cristobal has done this previously, losing a 2018 game at Oregon against Stanford where he also didn’t kneel out the clock. 

His explanation postgame Saturday made no sense — not that anything he said would’ve justified the decision anyway. 

“We were moving the pile and we had a pretty good drive going,” Cristobal said without a hint of irony. 

“I am not going to make an excuse for it and say we should have done this or that. Sometimes we can get carried away. But I should have just stepped in and said, ‘Hey, take a knee.’”

The fact he’s done this twice now shows it’s more than just “getting carried away.” Cristobal has a fetish for refusing to take a knee. Miami hasn’t kneeled out the clock in any of its four wins this season, and the decision to do so again Saturday cost the Hurricanes a victory where they had a 99% win probability. In an ACC with no division and three teams still undefeated, Miami might’ve choked away controlling its own destiny in the conference because of a decision by its head coach.

Amazingly, Fisher probably had a worse overall in-game coaching day than Cristobal — only it wasn’t a singular stupid decision that cost Texas A&M an upset over Alabama, but a collection of conservative calls that doomed the Aggies. 

Up 17-10 late in the first half, Fisher took his timeouts to the locker room and essentially allowed Alabama to run out the clock rather than try to steal an extra possession. At halftime, he told CBS that he was satisfied with a seven-point lead against the Tide. 

Satisfied? Gasp.

Well, Texas A&M found itself in a 17-17 game late in the third quarter with the football. The Aggies drove to Alabama’s 45-yard-line, but on 4th-and-1 in plus-territory, Fisher opted to punt the football. He said after the game that if it was under a yard he “probably” would’ve gone for it. 

Probably? Yikes.

The punt landed in the end zone for a touchback and Alabama marched down the field in five plays for the go-ahead touchdown. Then in the fourth quarter, Texas A&M again was in Alabama territory with a 4th-and-5 down by a touchdown and Fisher again chose to punt. 

Finally, down nine points with two minutes remaining, the Aggies chewed clock like they were up by two scores, burning a timeout due to indecisiveness. Fisher then opted to kick a field goal from the 2-yard line. 

None of this is new for a Jimbo Fisher-coached team. A tiger can’t change his stripes, and neither will Cristobal or Fisher.

📈 Stock Up: UCLA as a Pac-12 spoiler 

Spearheaded by another impressive defensive effort, the Bruins beat No. 13 Washington State on Saturday to move to 4-1 (1-1 in Pac-12 play). 

Chip Kelly is renowned for his offensive genius, and while UCLA did run over 90 plays in the win against the Cougars, it’s been the Bruins’ defense led by 33-year-old first-year DC D’Anton Lynn (a former Baltimore Ravens assistant) that’s carried them in 2023. 

Did you know they lead the nation in yards per play allowed at 3.7? UCLA is 8th nationally in scoring, allowing just 12.2 points per game. Laiatu Latu (8.5 TFLs, 5.0 sacks) headlines a defensive front that hounding opposing quarterbacks. They picked off Cameron Ward twice and sacked the Cougars’ star QB three times. 

Five-star freshman quarterback Dante Moore is too inconsistent for UCLA to truly win a Pac-12 championship this fall, but the Bruins can have a 10-win season and absolutely play spoiler in a conference of carnage with a Top 25 rushing attack (Carson Steele + T.J. Harden) and a Top 10 defense. 

📉 Stock Down: Arkansas 

I was dead wrong about the Razorbacks this season. I thought Sam Pittman and the Hogs would rebound from last season’s slide, upgrading the defensive staff and adding some impact transfers on both sides of the ball. 

Well, the situation has gone south so quickly in 2023 that Arkansas’ beloved head coach is under fire and deleted his Twitter account, while beleaguered first-year OC Dan Enos was caught emailing frustrated fans and students from his university account.

With the loss to Ole Miss on Saturday, Arkansas has dropped four straight and has Alabama on deck. The Hogs look in real danger of missing a bowl game with Pittman, who has a very unique contract buyout, potentially getting axed. The Hogs have actually been much-improved defensively, but quarterback KJ Jefferson has badly regressed under Enos (already a career-high six INTs) and tailback Raheim ‘Rocket’ Sanders has less than 100 yards all season.