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When No. 8 Florida faces fifth-ranked Georgia Saturday in the Worlds Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, all eyes will be on the Gators offensive attack against the UGA defense.

These are two of the best units in the country on their side of the ball, and they will meet as top-10 teams for the third consecutive year a first in the rivalrys history.

I think it's a chess match going back and forth, UF offensive coordinator Brian Johnson said. Trying to find what the best matchup is, how you can exploit certain looks that they provide. They have an excellent system and they recruit great players to go play in that system.

Three of those great players are unavailable for this game, with Georgia missing a trio of starters in safety Richard LeCounte (motorcycle accident) and defensive linemen Julian Rochester (ACL) and Jordan Davis (elbow). Nonetheless, this defense will still be Floridas toughest test yet.

The Bulldogs rank first in the SEC in six categories: opponent first downs, sacks, scoring defense, total defense, rushing defense and passing efficiency defense. They also boast the leagues third-best passing defense.

They play hard, and they have talent at every level of the defense, Florida coach Dan Mullen said. I dont want to say its just players. Kirby [Smart] has a great defensive scheme. They have answers to the questions. He knows it inside and out. They do a good job of putting their guys in great position to make plays, and theyre not afraid to tweak.

They can put big guys in the game to stop the run; they can put pass rushers in the game to get pressure; they can cover and play man coverage; they can try to confuse you with looks and a lot of different zones; they mix it up a lot. Theyre a very, very good defensive football team and its not one thing that makes them a great football team. Its every layer of it.

As good as Georgia is defensively, the Gators have been even more elite on offense. Theyre the best in the country at red-zone conversions and rank No. 2 in the SEC and top-10 nationally in five categories: yards per play, scoring offense, passing offense and passing offense efficiency.

UFs total offense also ranks 15th in the FBS behind quarterback Kyle Trask, who leads the league with 18 touchdown passes and is the only player in school history to throw four-plus TDs in four consecutive games. His offensive line, which also ranks second in the SEC in sacks allowed, must hold its own against Georgias front seven.

Every time you play against a Coach Mullen offense there's different strengths, whether it's Dak Prescott or it's an elite back or elite receivers. It's always something different, Smart said. You try to play to your strengths and not always to his. This year, it'll be different obviously because we have different players on defense in terms of our injuries, and they're not exactly the same as they were last year.

What hasnt changed is the Kyle-to-Kyle connection between Trask and tight end Kyle Pitts, who ranks in the top five nationally in receiving touchdowns (7) and tight end receiving yards per game (88.8). Pitts didnt score against the Bulldogs in 2019, but caught four passes for 78 yards.

He demands double coverages, and Smart is unable to assign one player to Pitts because of how much Mullen lines him up at different spots.

You gotta know where he's at, certainly, Smart said of Pitts. He's extremely talented. I mean, he was extremely talented last year. He's only gotten better. Seems like he's gotten a little bigger, a little more physical. Dan finds ways to use him in both the run game and pass game.

But, he's elite. He's first-round talent, there's no question about that. In a lot of my history in the SEC, I don't know that there's been a guy like that. He's a receiver/tight end in one.

In the 24-17 loss last season, Floridas offense only gained 278 total yards, converted just 2-of-9 third-down attempts and lost the time of possession battle (35:48 to 24:12) with only seven possessions. Johnson said first downs will be critical Saturday and his unit has to score touchdowns not field goals in the red zone.

We have some great players on offense, and they have great players on defense, Johnson said. We gotta do a great job of putting our guys at positions so they can go and make plays on a consistent basis.

I think the biggest thing is us going out there and playing at an extremely high level and doing what we do to go win the game.

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Florida-Georgia game will be 'chess match' between Mullen, Smart - GatorBait.net

By Michael Brown, CP Op-Ed Contributor | Saturday, November 07, 2020 Michael Brown holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University and has served as a professor at a number of seminaries. He is the author of 25 books and hosts the nationally syndicated, daily talk radio show, the Line of Fire.

As a boy, I remember watching the epic chess battle between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer. It was aired on channel 13, the PBS station in New York, and a bell would ring, announcing the latest move. This, in turn, would be posted on the screen, after which the experts would debate the reason for the move.

Sometimes, they would be utterly baffled. Why would Fischer do this? It makes no sense. What was Spassky thinking?

Then, after playing out a number of potential scenarios, sometimes a dozen or more moves ahead, they would realize the strategy. It was absolute genius.

When it come to the Lord, the one who inhabits eternity and who sees the end from the beginning (see Isaiah 57:15 and 46:10), He is always an infinite set of moves ahead. That should give us comfort and faith in the midst of the current crisis. (Make no mistake about it. No matter what side youre on, were in the midst of a national crisis.)

Think about it.

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The greatest crime ever committed by human beings was to crucify the Son of God. Yet that was the act God used to make salvation available to the world. And without the crucifixion, there would be no resurrection. Who saw this coming in advance? Only the Lord Himself.

The book of Genesis tells us how the sons of Jacob (also known as Israel) sold their younger brother Joseph into slavery in Egypt. They did it out of malice, plain and simple. They knew they would never see him again. They got rid of him for good.

Joseph then ended up in a dungeon in Egypt, falsely accused of a crime he never committed while serving as a slave. But it was there, in the dungeon, that he accurately interpreted the dreams of two fellow-inmates.

Sometime later, this resulted in Joseph being brought before Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, to interpret his dreams. And this, in turn, led to him becoming Pharaohs right-hand man. (Literally, he went from the dungeon to the throne.)

As a result of his position and the wisdom God gave him, Joseph ended up saving the region from famine, also saving the lives of his own brothers and their families.

Years later, when they were afraid he would retaliate against them, he said to them, You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives (Genesis 50:20). God used your bad plan to accomplish His great plan.

In point of fact, what the brothers did to Joseph was downright evil, also causing their aged father years of mourning and grief. Yet God used this to save countless thousands of lives.

John 11 tells us when Jesus was informed that His good friend Lazarus was sick, He waited a few days before going to see him. Why? The Lord wanted him to die so He could resurrect Him from the dead. This would bring greater glory to God.

Had the Lord simply healed Lazarus by speaking a word the moment He learned Lazarus was sick, people would not have realized that Jesus Himself was the resurrection and the life (see John 11:24-25). And the event would not even be recorded in Scripture.

The worst-case scenario led to the best case scenario, which is often how God works. Thats just who He is. Have you seen this happen in your own life as well?

In the last century, there was no greater horror than the horror of the Holocaust, the most devastating attack on the Jewish people in history. Yet it is out of the ashes of the Holocaust that the modern State of Israel was born. And, from a natural point of view, without the horrific evil of the Holocaust, it is unlikely that there would have been enough support in the United Nations to recognize a Jewish state.

This, of course, does not minimize the ghastly loss of life. It simply reminds us that God brings good out of evil and light out of darkness. That is who He is.

What does this have to do with the elections?

Lets say that there is massive corruption taking place in the presidential elections. Lets say the pollsters were intentionally biased. Lets say that Big Tech and Big Money really are working against Trump.

Then the mess we are in right now, one which puts us precariously near an all-out war on the streets, will lead to the exposure of corruption on a level we have never seen before. Let the light shine brightly! Let the darkness be exposed!

Conversely, if the corruption and darkness are being grossly exaggerated, the light will expose our gullibility, our willingness to believe almost anything, our propensity to be blinded by our biases. And for Christian Trump supporters who proclaimed him uniquely chosen by God and therefore called to a second term, the light would expose the degree to which we were seduced by a partisan political spirit.

I personally hope that the seemingly impossible happens, that Trump is proven to be the rightfully reelected president, and that the prophecies about him prove true.

But what if a Biden-Harris presidency was needed to reveal the dangerous radicality of the left, leading to greater spiritual desperation in the Church, leading to a spiritual awakening in the society? What if the worst-case scenario for tens of millions of conservative voters resulted in the transforming of even more millions of hearts in the years ahead?

I shared some of my thoughts on this on a Facebook livestream if youd like to hear more about the spiritual side of things. For the moment, though, I encourage you to put your faith in God to work out His best purposes in the midst of chaos and crisis.

Hysteria and frenzy are not fruits of the Spirit. Faith and peace are.

And so, while I am deeply concerned about the state of our nation and know that many lives are at stake, I have a great sense of anticipation as well.

The ultimate Grandmaster has a plan.

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Dr. Michael Brown(www.askdrbrown.org) is the host of the nationally syndicatedLine of Fireradio program. His latest book isEvangelicals at the Crossroads: Will We Pass the Trump Test?Connect with him onFacebook,Twitter, orYouTube.

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God, the elections, and 4-D chess - Christian Post

MADISON Madison City Chess League etched a new page in its history by hosting the first Halloween Chess Tournament, an outdoor contest on the new turf field of Madison City Schools Stadium.

In both rated and non-rated sections, 77 students registered to play. MCS Superintendent Dr. Ed Nichols opened the tournament declaring, Its chess time in Madison City!

Although a Quick Rating was established for many, the tournament itself was only one part of a joyful day for the entire chess family. Beautiful weather and music from Harry Potter greeted participants as they entered the stadium, MCCL Executive Director Ranae Bartlett said.

Contestants earned candy prizes and Halloween medals in special contests between each tournament round. The Halloween dance-off was a highlight and allowed us to see some impressive moves, Bartlett said. Kids also enjoyed running around in the end zone while families sat in lawn chairs on the fields edge.

Winners included these students:

* Rated K-3 section Kylie Zou, first; Isaac Kreusser, second; Esteban Jerez, third; Jacob Bluestone, fourth; Alice Zou, fifth; Andrew Tkach, sixth; Annabelle Hsu, seventh; Emory Howell, eighth; Daksh Sunil, ninth; Asher Allison, tenth; Cora Newberry, top female.

* Rated K-5 section Jethro Jones, first; Kate Meyer, second; Holland Lang, third; Noah Hsu, fourth; Samsara Rajbhandari, fifth; Tyce Crosswy, sixth; Asher Kovacs, seventh; Jaxon Kimberly, eighth; Anna Ai, ninth; Sophia Jerez, tenth; Christina Yang, top female.

* Rated K-8 section Marek Fries, first; Swetha Jakka, second; Whitney Wadsworth, third; Zachary Calinsky, fourth; Owen Lang, fifth; Landon Drummond, sixth; Jacob New, seventh; Conrado Jocson, eighth; Praneel Avula, ninth; Aaron Wiswesser, tenth.

* Rated K-12 section Xavier Bruni, first; Jenson Wilhelm, second; Sherwood Dong, third; Andrew Yang, fourth; Aadi Saxena, fifth; Eddie Xiao, sixth; Nirvana Rajbhandari, seventh; Edward Calinsky, eighth; Rachael Ehrman, ninth; Andrew Park, tenth.

* Non-Rated K-2 section Erin McCormick, first; Tyler Pysh, second; Greyson Harbert, third; Emilia Ng, fourth; Nitakalio Valerino, fifth; Graham Allison, consolation prize.

* Non-Rated K-5 section James Hootstra, first; Milan Malak, second; Caden Hott, third; Yudai Okazaki, fourth; Aerial McCormick, fifth; Victor Stephenson, Mason Hoogstra and Colin Readus-Thomas, consolation prize.

A panel of celebrity judges with Nichols, Assistant Superintendent Eric Terrell and District 2 City Councilwoman Connie Spears helped to select the Best Chess-Themed Costume. Queen Cora Newberry won the top prize among creative entries like Shark-Mate, Kings, Queens, Bishops and Knights.

Owen Lang as The Alien won Best Costume for all grade levels. Kate Meyer as Rey earned second place.

Chess parents surprised Bartlett with a basket full of treats, gifts and cards in appreciation of 10 years with Madison Board of Education and best wishes serving on Madison City Council. Bartlett will continue organizing chess activities with MCCL, including the State Scholastic Chess Championship in March 2021 at Bob Jones High School.

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Costumed players bring success for first Chess Halloween Tournament - The Madison Record - themadisonrecord.com

Gothic novels and adaptations of them are making a comeback this yeara trend that I wholeheartedly embrace. With the genres gloomy settings, antiheroes, and suspenseful plots, you would think it would be hard to go wrong, but Netflixs take on Daphne du Mauriers classic novel, Rebecca, proves that even when playing with great material, filmmakers can still produce a bland mess.

In Rebecca, a naive and wimpy ladies companion (Lily James) rushes into a marriage with a brooding but very rich and handsome widower, Maxim de Winter (Armie Hamer), who whisks her away to his familys estate, Manderley. Once there, the second Mrs. de Winter gets into conflict with the house manager, Mrs. Danvers (Kristin Scott Thomas), and struggles with the overwhelming legacy of the first Mrs. de Winter, Rebecca.

Listen, setting is a critical aspect of a Gothic story, but if the interior design and wardrobe are the best thing your movie has going for it, you have a problem. This adaptation of Rebecca feels so unnecessary given that Alfred Hitchcock did a great film of it, but I thought that maybe it could introduce du Maurier to a new generation. Instead, this movie somehow makes Armie Hamer boring. I spent more time wondering about his terrible yellow suit than I did about what happened to his first wife. A huge part of the problem with this adaptation, I think, is that it is so heavy handed. Alfred Hitchcock and Daphne du Maurier trusted their audiences with subtlety, suspense, and allusion. Netflixs version doesnt really seem to understand that its working with a mystery. It was somehow glamorous and very, very dull. I am impressed that they managed to create that combination, but thats all. Skip this soap opera and go back to the originals.

Rebecca was directed by Ben Wheatley and written by Jane Goldman, Joe Shrapnel, and Anna Waterhouse, based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier. It runs 2 hours 1 minute and is rated PG-13 for some sexual content, partial nudity, thematic elements and smoking.

So, if youre looking for a show that trusts its viewers intelligence, check out Netflixs The Queens Gambit. This miniseries follows the rise of Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) from learning to play chess from her orphanages janitor, Mr. Shaibel (Bill Camp), to playing in international chess tournaments.

It may sound improbable for a show about a thoughtful, quiet game like chess, but The Queens Gambit hooked me in so hard that I watched the whole series in one glorious day. The shows thrilling qualities come from strong character development and entrancing performances by Anya Taylor-Joy and Isla Johnston as Beth. I was fascinated by Beths relationship with her adoptive mother, Alma, played with awkward, frustrating sweetness by Marielle Heller. The two women are so wounded and tentative together that they turned their mother-daughter relationship into a suspenseful drama.

Although the finale does indulge in some pretty corny moments, what impressed me most about this story was how the writers commit to developing Beth as a cold, intense genius who is somehow, despite herself, endearing to those around her (maybe its that shes so pretty?). The development of the character gives the audience and the other characters in the story reason to root for Beth even when she is pretty awful. We do not often get portrayals of women as strong as this, especially outside the context of a romance. The characters all have their own evolving lives which makes the world of the story feel so big and alive. The 1960s-era sets and costumes are beautiful and fun to look at, but the strength of the characters and the ensemble of actors really propel this show. I cannot recommend it enough.

The Queens Gambit runs for 7 episodes and is rated TV-MA. It was created by Scott Frank, Scott Allan, and Allan Scott.

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'CHESS MINISERIES' MORE THRILLING THAN NETFLIX'S 'GOTHIC ROMANCE' - At The Movies With Kasey - The Waynedale News

If indeed Donald Trumps presidency has been cut short after just one term, then the next several months will be devoted to defining Trumpism and interpreting the countrys repudiation of it.

The theories will be diverse, but one to anticipate is that Joe Bidens victory suggests the rehabilitation of political centrism, which has sustained challenges by perceived outsiders of all stripes over the last decade. The window for experimental alternatives to sanctioned establishment politics represented in the minds of many moderates by Trump and Bernie Sanders alike, never mind the diametrically opposite politics of the Right and the Left will be declared closed.

That explanation is attractive in its simplicity, and especially seductive for anyone with a major stake in restoring popular confidence in the existing political elite. But it doesnt accurately reflect the nature of the race. Biden as the establishment versus Trump as the gate-crasher is a throwback to the last election, when Trump was a real estate mogul and reality television star with no political experience, not the incumbent presiding over a nightmarish series of interlocking crises.

This election was different. It was chiefly a referendum on which menace the American people wanted their leaders to focus on: the coronavirus and its associated economic catastrophe, or an assortment of left-wing bogeymen. In other words, it was less a contest between political insiders and outsiders than between main attractions and sideshows. The politically vacuous Biden campaign certainly failed to do justice to the main attractions, but when American voters chose him by a fraction they also chose to elect a leader who at least gave the impression of focusing on ending the pandemic rather than, say, alleged roaming bands of Antifa.

Reality in the United States is exceedingly grim, so Trumps primary campaign strategy was to deflect it. In particular, he sought to rile up his base about the fabricated threats of Democrat-run cities falling to anarchists and looters, cancel-culture totalitarianism perpetrated by evil people, and imaginary large-scale voter fraud, all while flattering fringe elements of his coalition like the Proud Boys, QAnon, and the right-wing militia movement. Bidens strategy, on the other hand, was to lay low, keep things simple and vague, and passively absorb support from anyone more concerned about the coronavirus pandemic and economic recession than Trumps culture-war melodrama.

On many questions, from climate to health care, Bidens ambitious promises regarding the crisis and recovery were not very specific and his specific promises were not very ambitious. But he at least cleared the low bar by acknowledging the severity of the nations situation, in which 230,000 have died, twelve million have lost their employer-sponsored health insurance, eight million have been pushed into poverty, and so on. That acknowledgment appears to have been sufficient to distinguish him from Trump, who routinely downplayed both the public health and economic dimensions of the present catastrophe.

Trumps apparent disregard for the gravity of the pandemic left plenty of people cold, including elements of his own base. Take the example of Arizona seniors, a crucial demographic in this race. In 2016, Trump won Arizona voters over the age of sixty-five by 13 percentage points, a level that he will not even come close to matching this time.

Why the reversal? One profile of voters in Maricopa Countyfeatured a steadfast Trump supporter living in a retirement community outside Phoenix who fretted about distant Black Lives Matter protests and the need to restore law and order, despite the fact that her own suburb of Peoria recently made a list of the fifteen safest cities in America. Another profile of Arizona seniors featured a man who had voted Republican all his life, but who was switching to Biden because Trump is not accepting responsibility for the coronavirus pandemic and doesnt talk about the vulnerability of people in our age, 65 and older, group, even though he is part of that group.

All evidence points to a situation in which those who abandoned the president were concerned about things that concretely threaten them, while the Trump holdouts were preoccupied with the phantasmic picture of apocalypse the president spent the campaign painting. In other words, those who stayed with Trump were stubbornly attached to a fantasy, while those who abandoned him were lured away by reality.

Theres an important lesson here, and it isnt that the path to electoral victory runs through centrism. Its that when push comes to shove, more people care about their material conditions than cultural shadowboxing.

Increasingly Americans are the captives of sprawling, convoluted, perpetually-evolving partisan storylines conservatives and liberals alike which colonize their minds and feed an intense political tribalism that disables all other modes of reasoning. Trump placed his bet on the idea that this type of cultural bogeyman politics would always be stronger than the allure of, for example, not dying of a deadly virus or not filing for bankruptcy after months of unemployment without relief. Yes, it was too close for comfort, and clearly plenty of people still bought what Trump was selling, but in the end Trumps instinct was wrong.

The crisis heightened peoples attention to their own uncertain well-being. Biden did the minimum required to take advantage of this. He predictably refused, for example, to run on a broad expansion of public health insurance, even during a public health crisis and when a supermajority of the nation supports it. Nor would it be accurate to suggest that the Democrats this time were never guilty of hysterically demonizing their opponents; per usual, there was plenty of paranoia and vilification to go around. But what mattered was that in the end, the pandemic was Bidens issue. Voters associated him, and not Trump, with attention to the crisis at hand.

On some level, this should encourage an otherwise fairly demoralized American left. After all, were the ones whose program consists of securing good health care, housing, education, infrastructure, and employment for everyone. While we didnt have a candidate in the race this week, we should interpret the result as smuggling in a small affirmation of the basic premise animating our political approach: that while ordinary people may have all kinds of perverse ideas and reactionary attitudes, direct appeals to what people need to survive and live decently have the power, on occasion, to dislodge delusions.

Now, imagine the kinds of margins wed have seen if Trumps opponent had actually campaigned on an ambitious platform that connected politics directly to peoples material conditions. Whatever else it accomplished, such a campaign would have helped to snap millions of people out of the fog of political hypnosis. For the Left, that is the first step toward victory.

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Trump's Culture Wars Were Meant to Distract From the Crisis. It Didn't Work. - Jacobin magazine