No pdf this week, still working some stuff out.  Typed this bad boy in Notepad so I feel like I’m typing an old college paper and trying to figure out how to stretch it out.  Hint: Courier New font as large as allowed and double spaced and you can turn a paragraph into a page in a hurry.  Back to the football.

UK Game -

Good: We beat a pretty darn good UK team that had given lots of folks more trouble than what we faced.  We continued our string of forcing turnovers.  Let’s keep that up for at least one more week.  Ealey ran with some serious conviction.

Bad: 3rd down defense was once again awful.  Ealey got banged up pretty good.  I had to hear the name Chris Doering again.  We executed about the worst onside kick defense I’ve ever seen.

Interesting: This really is nitpicking, but as much as I enjoyed the drubbing of UK in a game that most thought was going to be much closer, I still feel like we lack a bit of killer instinct.  The late TD we gave up in the first half allowed UK to battle back to the exact same score as they had the week before when they came back to beat SC.  There were so many opportunties in that game to really drop the hammer on the Cats yet we managed to turn a romp into something way more interesting and I don’t think it was necessary.  Against a team better than UK, we’d have been in real trouble.

UF offense:

Overall – These aren’t numbers you expect to see for the “Mighty” Gators: 10th in the SEC in rushing offense, 8th in passing, 9th in total offense and 9th in scoring offense.  That’s still out of 12 teams.  It used to be those were their national rankings.  They haven’t sniffed any kind of rhythm all year and have struggled mightily.  After putting up 31 or more in their opening 4 games (all wins), they haven’t put up 30 in the 3 games since (all losses) and failed to score more than a TD twice.

QB – In the absence of the all-world Tim Tebow, UF fans were assured that John Brantley was going to yield just as productive an offense, just in a different look.  7 games into their season, I think they’re still waiting for that production from him.  He’s got all the measureables you want but he’s kind of the anti-Tebow in the motivation department, where Brantley is much more reserved, etc.  He’s more a pocket passer than Tebow was and doesn’t run the ball nearly as much.  He’s got a great arm but the results haven’t been there yet, where he’s only managed 6 TDs to 5 INTs and barely 6 yards per attempt (compare that to Murray at over 9, which is exceptional).  WR Trey Burton is the x-factor, where he runs more of the Tebow offense and you’ll see a good bit of option and straight runs while he’s taking snaps.  He’s the guy who had 6 TDs (1 receiving and 5 rushing) against UK this year.

RB – A bit of a question mark, Tebow was as much a RB as anyone else and with Brantley being more of a QB only you’re looking at a position that’s trying to define itself a bit in this offense.  Jeff Demps is the dangerous one.  He legitametly lays claim to the fastest man in college football title after winning the 100m title in a nasty sub 10.00 effort.  He’s a dangerous man with the football in his hands and can take it the distance although injuries have slowed him a bit.  Moody is more of a traditional RB, as is sophomore Mike Gillislee, but all 3 of their top guys have battled injuries a bit this year.  All eyes will be on Chris Rainey, who is eligible to return after spending some time away from the team following a poorly thought out text message.  Rainey is as dangerous as Demps and while he’s actually listed as a slot receiver he could see time at RB this week.  He’s nearly as fast as Demps and when the two of them are on the field together they can cause all kinds of issues as they’ll line up in the slot, in the backfield, split out, etc.

WR – With the departure of Riley Cooper and Aaron Hernandez, it was expected that any one of the seemingly dozens of HS all-American WR recruits would emerge as the star of the Gator passing attack.  To date that hasn’t really happened yet.  No Gator has caught more than 1 TD on the season and none is averaging 4 catches per game.  Heck, only 1, Deonte Thompson, is averaging 3 per game.  To their credit, the absence of Rainey has hurt them a good deal as he’s the kind of guy who catches a quick pass and takes it 70 yards.  In addition to Thompson, Carl Moore is a threat and Burton gets a lot of touches but they are typically underneath type things.  In a decidedly un-Gator stat, UF has only completed 2 passes over 30 yards all season, and one of those was Trey Burton’s only completion of the season.  By comparison, Murray has completed a pass of at least 33 yards in every game this season.

OL – The Gator OL is a beastly looking bunch.  They average 320+ across their front 5 and start 4 seniors (only So RT Xavier Nixon isn’t a senior).  They’ve got great size and experience, so you have to wonder why they’ve struggled as much as they have.  One very large reason has been the play of OC Mike Pouncey who slid over to replace his twin brother Maurkice who was drafted last year.  Twin brothers should have similar skillsets but apparently Maurkice was the one gifted with the ability to snap the ball as Mike has struggled massively with snaps this year.  Their rushing yardage has dropped significantly, from over 220 per game last year down to 142.  That’s lower than Meyer’s first year with the immobile Chris Leak at QB.  They’ve done a solid job of protecting Brantley though, as he’s only been sacked 10 times through 7 games.

Overall – Our defense has really come on lately and all of a sudden we find ourselves in pretty heady territory in terms of defensive stats.  12th nationally in rushing defense was a stat I would’ve thought impossible after the debacle in Columbia, but as Grantham’s scheme has started to settle in, we seem to be more at home.  The secondary is still surrendering too many yards (over 200 per game) and 3rd down conversion percentage allowed has to improve (last in the SEC).  This UF offense isn’t like any we’ve faced this season though.  They have more team speed than anyone we’ve seen and Brantley has far more talent than he’s shown to date.  They are waiting to bust out in a big way at some point.  I think.  I just hope it isn’t this week.  I expect Meyer to line it up and try to gash us running the ball with Demps and a lot of Burton lined up at QB, exploiting the interior of the 3-4 with his massive OL, then as we wear down he’ll unleash Brantley.  It’s similar to the approach Miss State used against us.  Where we’re most vulnerable (downfield in the secondary) isn’t an ideal place for them to attack as that opens them up to Houston off the edge and the fact they’ve struggled throwing the deep ball.

Matchup to Watch- Justin Houston has been on an absolute tear these last few games.  UF has so much speed at RB, they’ll try to isolate our OLBs on wheel routes (have we successfully defended one of those this year?) and the like to try and slow the pass rush.  If we can slow UF down and force them into passing situations, I love Houston going against just about anyone.

UF D

Overall – I was anxious to see what the UF defense looked like in the post-Charlie Strong era and it’s largely been a mixed bag.  To their credit, most folks would struggle losing the talent they did, putting a ton of All-SEC guys into the NFL.  Haden, Dunlap, Spikes, etc.  They had top shelf talent at every level.  The talent is still there it just didn’t see the field as much and the new scheme is a bit slower to adapt.  They still probably have double digits in guys who will play in the NFL so it’s not like the cupboard is bare.  They just don’t have the Charlie Strong mind control over us anymore.  I hope Charlie didn’t leave like a notebook about that or something.

DL – The Gator DL is solid.  It’s a bit banged up but still dangerous.  They’ve really got some serious talent, specifically in this past signing class but it’s going to be a year or two before they take over.  True frosh DE Ronald Powell is already making a mark.  DE Justin Trattou is a playmaker on the edge but hasn’t been much of a pass-rush threat, he just seems to find the ball.  Inside, Jaye Howard is the dominant player, tied for the team lead in TFLs and leading the team in sacks from his DT spot is an impressive stat.

LB – Jelani Jenkins was the star of the UF recruiting class (not an easy position to attain) a few years back and he’s cracked the starting rotation as a RFr.  Fast and smart, he’s a gamebreaker that is 2nd on the team in tackles.  A.J. Jones and Jon Bostic round out a starting LB corps that’s as good as any in the SEC.

DB – UF sports a deep safety rotation with several 5-star athletes.  Will Hill was as highly rated as they come and while he hasn’t quite lived up to the considerable hype, he’s been pretty darn solid.  At the other safety spot, What Ahmad Black lacks in size he makes up for in instincts, with nearly double the tackles of the 2nd guy on the team.  His 3 INTs are tied for the team lead and he’s also managed to force and recover a fumble on the year.  At CB, starters Janoris Jenkins and Jeremy Brown are both good players but the depth is all true freshmen.  Jenkins is a top 15 pick according to ESPN.  What sets these guys apart is their knack for INTs, with 5 INTs so far amongst the two starting CBs and another 3 from Black.  Murray will be put to the test this week.

Overall Defense – Florida’s been pretty solid on defense this year, and like our recent turnaround, much of it has been turnover driven. In their first 4 games they racked up 12 INTs.  In their last 3 losses they’ve only managed 1.  We’ve been the exact opposite of that.  Most teams’ defenses tend to play better when the opposition hands them the ball, see last week’s UGA-UK matchup for evidence.  I think UF will try and figure out a way to shake Murray.  The kid is good, but can we really expect him to not throw an INT the rest of the year?  Odds are he throws one this week, Lord knows we’ve had more experienced guys do it down there.  I think Stafford threw as many Gator TDs as he did UGA ones down there.  The key will be how we as a team (including the coaching staff) responds.  As the coaches have opened the offense up with AJ’s return, Murray has really blossomed.  If they get a bit gunshy, how will we respond?  I imagine UF will throw all they’ve got in terms of new looks at Murray, the question is can he respond as well as he has all year.  I’ve seen nothing to date that says he can’t.

Matchup to watch – Sooner or later our TEs are going to make an impact and I’d love to see us use them on drag routes with Murray on a bootleg or sprintout.  Charles and White are both such great weapons and with teams keying on Green and now Ealey and King, I’d like to think they’ll produce soon.  I have visions of Leonard Pope catching two TDs from Greene early in a Florida game and just gashing the UF defense before they knew what happened.  The more likely key though will be the success of Ealey/King and our OL against the Gator front.  The OL has started to come around some finally after being pretty bad to start the season.  Our last win against UF saw us dominate on the ground early to set the mood. I’m up for that again.

Overall Thoughts -

This is such a weird game.  UF has dominated us the last two decades and you’d figure that fact coupled with a .500 record through 8 games could never result in UGA being favored, but guess what?  We are.  It seemingly defies all logic and reason, but while some in the SEC (and many in Georgia) are still skeptical because the current winning streak has been against the weak sisters of the East (yes, that menas you Tennessee), Vegas apparently thinks either we’re good enough or Florida is bad enough to install us as a FG favorite.  I never thought I’d see the day.  Honestly though, it makes sense.  We both lost to Miss State, we just managed not to do it at home.

There’s just no point in rehashing the issues we’ve faced down there with turnovers, dumb penalties and bad decisions (red facemasks? really?).  This UF team isn’t as good as ones we’ve faced in past years but they are still dangerous because of who they have on the sideline.  If we can get Urban making the Urban face early, jacking his belt up to his armpits and wearing his headset like a headband then I like our chances.  This Gator team isn’t so good that we have to play mistake free to win, but I do think the team that makes fewer mistakes wins, and both teams have shown they can play some pretty mistake-heavy football this year.

In looking back to Florida’s last game, the UF defense got run over by MSU in a game where Mullen attempted 1 pass the entire 2nd half and that was completed for a loss of 5.  Miss State essentially just ground them down.  That was without threat of the pass at all.  That’s the thing I keep looking to and thinking maybe we come out a la 2007 and just pound it now that we’ve shown what AJ and company are capable of.

Positional Notes:

-It was so nice to see Kiante Tripp start to produce last weekend.  Having him be productive at that DE spot is a huge benefit.  He’s certainly ideally suited for that role.  If Grantham can get similar results out of some other guys who have seemingly been buried on the depth chart, I’ll be thrilled.

-We get King back, which is great from a depth standpoint if nothing else.  My one concern with Ealey has always been blitz pickup (see the Arkansas game) and the fumbling thing but he’s really come on in both departments.  King was really hitting his stride prior to his suspension so I’m anxious to see if he comes in with a fire.

-While AJ will certainly garner all the publicity (and rightly so), Kris Durham could have a big game.  UF will likely put Jenkins on Green and while he’s not huge (5’11″), he’s still taller than Brown (5’10″).  That’s a great matchup for Durham.

-It’s a great thing that Commings is playing well at CB now because Vance Cuff is struggling.  Getting back Branden Smith might push Cuff further down the list there.

-Alec Ogletree is going to be as good a safety as we’ve had here under Richt before he leaves. He already looks like an upperclassman and I love how we’ve worked him into special teams and allowed him to ease into more playing time, which is great because we’ve had some hiccups back there also.

-I’m anxious to see Branden Smith back, especially if he can add something to our punt return game.  He won’t likely get a chance though as UF has the nation’s best net punting and rarely allow a return at all.

-I’m going to go ahead and assume that whatever was going on with Blair Walsh last week was an isolated incident but he’s missed several FGs now and frankly, I’m starting to not consider him the lock he once was.

Random Thoughts

-If you remove the ULL game from the stats (let’s just focus on the BCS teams here) and count the 2nd half of the Colorado game as being without AJ (he was hurt, remember? I certainly do) then we’ve played 14 quarters with AJ and 14 quarters without AJ this season.  Without AJ we manage 3.71 points per quarter.  With AJ we average 10.35 per quarter.  That’s per quarter.  The guy is worth nearly a TD per quarter?  I knew he was good, just not that good.  He’s certainly not scoring 28 points per game but I think this points out the impact he has on the rest of the offense.  I have to give credit to Jim Garland for that stat.

-Chris Doering was a horrible choice as it just got all the UGA fans even more ready for this weekend ahead of schedule.  As soon as I heard his name mentioned I started looking ahead to UF.  Actually, I threw up, then I started looking past UK.  I was surprised they didn’t have Travis McGriff as a sideline reporter.  I was also surprised Doering wasn’t wearing jean shorts although I don’t think I ever saw a waist-down shot.  It looked a little chilly there, maybe some zubaz were in effect.  Are they just trying to find the most hated guys in the SEC?  Maybe get Steve Taneyhill and Kelley Washington in the rotation.

-Umm, Cameron Newton looks pretty good.  That guy just glides along like it’s nothing.  If Auburn’s luck goes like ours though, he’ll get hurt prior to either our game or the Bama game a la DJ Shockley in 2005 going down and missing the UF game.  Whenever one guy is that much of your offense you have to worry (if you’re them).  Seriously, how different would their team be without him right now?  How much better would UF be with him running their offense right now?

-OK, based on the way college football luck works, Ohio State will somehow get a shot to play for the national title.  No idea how they move up from 11 to 2 but watch, it’ll happen.  They always work it out like that.  In fact, I’ll go on record as saying in the year of the upset, the two teams with crazy luck will play for it all.  You heard it hear first: Ohio State vs. LSU.

-If you look back at our schedule, the only loss that looks particularly bad is Colorado and I really don’t know what happened there.  SC is much better (although clearly still SC). Arkansas is dangerous and Miss State is ranked for the first time in a while (actually all three of those teams are ranked).  We’ve still lost 4 games, but you know what?  We’re still in the thick of the East race and I don’t want to hear crap about it being down if we win.  If SC wins the East then it’s down.

-Let’s get up on them early, and on the ground apparently.  Under Meyer, FLorida is 46-1 when they score first.  They are also 54-3 when leading at the half but a pedestrian 7-10 when tied or trailing.  In games where the opponent scores 20 or fewer, Meyer is 51-3.  If the opponent is held to less than 100 yards rushing they are 43-1.  If Florida outrushes their opponent they are 59-5 under Meyer but merely 2-8 when outrushed.

Sorry guys, no writeup this week, having some computer problems that aren’t going to let me get to it, so here’s the quick and dirty…

Kentucky’s got a pretty good offense, with Cobb being the main weapon. That makes it all the more inexplicable that SC elected not to cover him on the game-winning TD last weekend. They get their star RB back this week in the super-fast Derrick Locke. Hartline at QB is having a great year.

On defense they haven’t been all that great but they’ve done really well in the 2nd half battling back against both Auburn and SC at home. They’re a much better team than you’d expect from the typical UK teams. They’ve got a lot of fight in ‘em. Hopefully we can maintain that roll we’re on. Yeah, I know it was UT and Vandy, but we’ve taken much better teams against much worse Vandy teams and not looked anywhere near that good. There’s a reason we’re a 4-pt favorite this week despite UK having just knocked off the 10th ranked team in the country and us having a losing record.

Download the pdf version here: Vandy Writeup pdf

Week 7

Opponent:  Vanderbilt Commodores

Kickoff:  12:21 PM

TV: SEC Network

Hip, hip, hooray, we’re off the snide and we knocked off a hated rival to boot.  All in all a great day of football…for once.

About the Tennessee game…

I can’t recall a team needing a solid outing like that anymore than we did.  Much needed.  The challenge now becomes grounding this team again so they’ll focus and give that effort or more each week.  It shouldn’t be too hard as we can just point to our shiny 2-4 record as motivation.

The Good:  Aaron Murray just continues to get better.  The defense completely stuffed a UT running game that had been able to have some success at times.  We decisively won a turnover battle which happens about once every 2 years for us.  The breaks went our way for once and the results were less what you expect and more what you hope for.  Trinton Sturdivant played essentially the whole game at OT which is the first time that’s happened since 2007.  Great for him.

The Bad:  The defense still gave up big plays in the passing game.  UT exploited an inability of our safeties to get coverage on the deep boundary and did it multiple times.  Our running game struggled to really dominate.  It was effective late running out the clock but UT was pretty well gassed at that point.  That’s pretty much it really.

The Interesting:  How much better does the playcalling look when we execute?  In all seriousness, I’ve been begging for us to throw more early in order to try and open up the running game later.  Not that we did it for me but that’s what we did and it worked tremendously.  Maybe Bobo is getting more comfortable calling plays with Murray, maybe we finally blocked things up better, maybe AJ really does give our offense that much pep, whatever happened I like it and I want more of it.

VU Offense

• Vandy’s offense probably most closely resembles Mississippi State’s.  Before you freak out, remember we largely held MSU in check that night despite an offense that couldn’t move the ball at all.  Very balanced in terms of yardage rushing/passing (172/179 yards per game respectively).  Nothing spectacular though.  It’s Vandy, and Cutler ain’t there.
• Jr. Larry Smith mans the QB spot.  His 5 TDs on the season have already eclipsed his entire year last year.  None of his TDs (and consequently none of his 3 INTs) have come in SEC play.  In fact, Vandy gets considerably more conservative in SEC play where he’s yet to attempt 20 passes in a game this year while outside of conference play he’s attempted at least 25 per game.  In SEC play he’s completing exactly 50% of his passes, which normally wouldn’t be good but is a step up from his 46.7% completion numbers last year.  He’s very mobile though, which is something we’ve struggled with this year at the QB position.
• Warren Norman returns from his freshman of the year honors last year and is averaging over 6 ypc on the season.  He’s also averaging over a reception per game.  Backup Zac Stacy is averaging 7 carries per game and nearly 7 ypc so is clearly talented.
• The WR spot for Vandy doesn’t feature anyone explosive, more of a solid group.  Sophomore John Cole leads the WRs in catches and through 5 games, is the only WR to average over 2 grabs per game.  TE Brandon Barden leads the team in catches, yards and TDs, so watch him closely.  Arkansas had success against us with the TE and I suspect we’ll see a fair number of drags and crosses featuring this guy.
• The Vandy OL is pretty young, or was coming into the season (thanks for not providing an updated depth chart Mr. Vandy SID).  Their slated starting group featured only one returning starter (LG Kyle Fischer) and only 2 upperclassmen.  Despite only surrendering 20 sacks of Smith all year last year they’ve already given up 13 this season.
• Bottom Line: This isn’t a great offense by any means.  They can run the ball some though and they have a mobile QB which is always nice to keep drives going.  Unfortunately for them the mobile QB isn’t particularly effective as a passer.  I think I wrote the exact same thing for MSU though and they moved the ball against us at key points.  The Grantham D has shown a tendency to get burned all season and even this past week, in probably our best outing all season, they gave up big plays several times.  I think you’ll see a similar approach to what we saw last week with stopping the run being the #1 priority, and Grantham baiting Vandy into passing situations where our pass rush should wreak havoc.  Hopefully that works as planned, I’ve just yet to see this pass rush I was expecting.
• Key Matchup to watch when they have the ball: 3^rd down conversions will be key to this game.  Against MSU we managed to give just enough yardage seemingly every 3^rd down to allow them to sustain their drives.  Big shocker there as we’re 89^th nationally in 3^rd down defense.  We’ve got to get better there.

VU Defense

• Vandy is actually very stout against the pass (15^th in yardage allowed and 38^th in pass efficiency D).  They give up the funk against the run though, to the tune of over 180 ypg allowed.  They are pretty inconsistent, giving up only 14 points to Ole Miss (who promptly turned around and hung 55 on Fresno State and 42 on Kentucky) yet giving up 40 to UConn the very next week.
• Not much to say about Vandy’s front 4.  They lost Sr. Adam Smotherman in the spring, their only starter inside from last year.  His replacement, So. Rob Lohr, has been exceptional though, leading all DL in tackles and tackles-for-loss.  This group doesn’t get a lot of sacks.  No one on the team has more than 1.5.
• MLB Chris Marve is very, very good.  A close 2^nd on the team in tackles, Marve is a squatty, side-to-side bowling ball that could easily play at the next level a la former Vandy LB Jamie Winborn.  SLB John Stokes is very solid as well and is a load at 6-5, 235.
• The secondary lost playmaker Myron Lewis last year after losing DJ Moore the year before.  Jr. Casey Heyward has filled that role nicely, with 4 INTs on the young season.  Despite his stellar play, Vandy’s best DB on the season could very well be SS Sean Richardson who leads the team in tackles and tackles-for-loss.  The LB-sized Richardson blossomed last year and has been steady this season as well.
• Bottom Line: Vandy isn’t a great defense, but they aren’t bad.  They aren’t very good against the run (11^th in the SEC) yet they lead the conference in tackles for loss per game (that’s a mouthful).  They’re great against the pass yet they have very few sacks (10^th in the SEC).  If our TB depth were otherwise, I’d be tempted to try and go back to the running game, but without King and possibly without Thomas, I think we have to stick with the pass.  Against a pretty stingy pass defense, this might be a real test for Murray.  Murray’s played extremely well to date and if that continues, we should be fine offensively.
• Key matchup to watch when we have the ball: I’m going to pay close attention to Murray this week.  I think we’re going to put even more of the offense on his shoulders with the absence of Caleb King this week.  We might see some more designed short passes and more work to the TEs.  Murray still has a lot of work to do in terms of speeding up his progressions and not locking onto 1 guy, but he’s still much better than I was expecting at this point.  I hope to see that maturation continue Saturday.

The VU Game Overall

Last weekend was awesome and all, but at the end of the day we’re still 2-4 and looking up at the better part of the SEC from a ways back.  Sure we finally put a solid effort together on both sides of the ball, but UT helped that out a lot by turning the ball over 3 times and generally playing like a bunch of orange-clad morons (my personal favorite UT scheme).  We played smart football, got the ball to our talent, and allowed UT to self-destruct.  Sure, we could’ve scored a ton more points Saturday but UT did everything they could to hand us the ball in ideal field position, over and over.

We can’t expect that string to continue.  Richt’s good teams have always been characterized by their solid turnover ratios.  Despite the current positive TO ratio, this is not a good Richt football team (not yet anyway…still 2-4 remember?).  With AJ back, the OL changes making some progress there and the defense looking like they’re starting to learn, we have the potential to be a good team and, again, we still have to face 3 of our biggest rivals in huge games.  Vandy isn’t one of those, but if you think for a second this isn’t a huge game, you’re crazy.  Last year’s game was a bit of an anomaly in recent UGA-Vandy contests as we won handily.  It’s time for us to continue on the return to respectability and frankly, I think the team we face this week does more for that than the one we faced last week (my how the Vols have fallen).

Positional Notes

• Thank you Caleb King for the sobering reminder that this season is completely snake-bit.  In case you were living under a rock this week, Caleb was arrested for a bench warrant or some such for failing to appear in court over a speeding ticket.  The way he got arrested is even crazier as he was going to drive his car home from where his brother was getting arrested for driving without a license (a popular offense these days apparently).  When he got there to pick up the car, the cops ran his license.  OK, it’s dumb to not pay the fine, municipalities don’t just wipe those things away, but when I went to pick up a friend under similar circumstances, the cops sure as heck didn’t run my license.  Maybe it was because Caleb was the owner of the car, but they ran both Caleb’s and Brandon Wood’s (who drove Caleb to get the car) licenses to assure they were clean.  They sure as heck didn’t with me.  Whatever.  He’s out for 2 games and will be back against Florida, assuming he doesn’t do anything else between now and then.
• Congrats to Kenarious Gates for his start last week as a true frosh on the OL.  That was much needed.  Even bigger congrats to Sturdivant who made it through his first game in 2 years without injuring himself.
• I liked the look of Alec Ogletree.  That kid certainly looks the part of a big-time safety.  We just so happen to need a big-time safety as we’ve gotten very spotty play from Rambo and Hamilton.  Hamilton finally got benched in favor of Shawn Williams last week.
• Cornelius Washington will apparently return to action this week.  So will Marlon Brown.  That’s two positions where we could seriously use the depth.
• Umm, I suppose we should be glad that Ogletree slightly missed the block on that down-the-line running block that he did on offense on Saturday.  The guy turned at the last second, otherwise ‘Tree might’ve killed him.

Random Thoughts

• Achim’s K-Bob has apparently changed names and is now KEBA grill or some such.  I never knew K-bob was referring to a kebob.  I was putting the emphasis on the K.  I suppose that was obvious to everyone else?  It is apparently still the same sandwich, which I had at least 5 people tell me they couldn’t remember accurately either.  Perhaps that’s more a statement as to the state of mind my friends and I were in during my college years.  I definitely remember the pepperoni rolls and pokey stix from Gumby’s though.  How the heck could these college kids let that place go?  What am I supposed to eat in Athens at 3 AM now?
• I forgot to talk about this last week.  Seriously, how big of a moron is Les Miles?  The crap he pulls at the end of games is so far beyond lunacy I don’t know what to call it.  Richt’s first year as a head coach he caught flack for some late game clock management issues and that was largely one bad call (Auburn) and one questionable call (Boston College).  Miles has been a head coach for around 10 years now and still has no idea what the clock rules are or how to manage his time.  Somehow, some way though he manages to win the large majority of these “brain cramp” games.  Flash forward a week and not only does he call for the fake FG, he Miles-es it up a notch by having the holder bounce it to the kicker.  I assume it was accidental but with Miles you honestly never know.  It was the most absurd late game call I’ve seen since that Michigan State coach called for the fake against Notre Dame, and that one at least gave the guy a heart attack.  Miles is like that lucky guy you play in playstation that goes for it on every 4^th down and throws the Hail Mary on half his play calls just because he figures he might connect.
• Bama not only lost, they got trounced by South Carolina.  What shocked me even more was looking through the SEC stats and seeing Bama last in the conference in sacks.  Last.  At exactly 1 per game.
• UGA VIII takes over the Saturday.  Russ was an OK mascot and certainly had a strong 2009 campaign but he had a severe Sophomore slump, and just looked lethargic.  I’m glad he was able to go out on a win though.  Hey, he’ll always be able to say he was undefeated against Tennessee and Florida.  The new fella looks pretty sharp though.
• The voters are going to have their hands full picking the All-SEC WR spots this year.  You’ve got AJ, who might not make it because he missed a third of the season but likely gets in because he’s still freakishly good.  You’ve got Darvin Adams at Auburn who is essentially their whole passing attack.  You’ve got Julio Jones, who is like AJ only with far more hype and less production.  You’ve got Terrance Tolliver at LSU who makes big play after big play whenever I’ve watched them this year (actually on 2^nd inspection he hasn’t been that dominant).  On top of all of those guys you’ve also got Alshon Jeffrey at SC, who is putting together an absolutely monster year.  At this point, I’d probably go Adams and Jeffrey but with a full year of production I’d probably say Green and Jeffrey.  It’s going to be hard to keep Green off if he keeps this up.
• A special congrats to Urban Meyer for finally confirming to all of those people who were waffling about whether he was a good guy or not that he’s actually a complete scumbag.  In case you missed it, he allowed Chris Rainey back on the team despite sending a text to his girlfriend about a month ago that “It’s time to die, b**ch.”  I loved the article that asked the question of how Urban would respond if that text had been sent to his daughter, reminding folks that Urban employed the whole “these are my kids” angle when he went after the report for supposedly misquoting one of his players (he didn’t).  Thanks Urban.  Timmy Tebow would be disgusted with you too.

As always,

Have a safe weekend,

Jody

Viewfrom336.com

Download the pdf version of the Writeup here…UT Writeup pdf version

Week 6

Opponent:  Tennessee Volunteers

Kickoff:  12:21 PM

TV: SEC Network

Once again, the nightmare continues…man, this is getting old in a hurry.

About the Colorado game…

We showed signs of life, then reached over and pulled our own plug.  We successfully executed our gameplan of keeping an overmatched opponent in the game by letting them get up early and after completely turning the game around we managed a meager 3 points in the 2^nd half. If it wasn’t on the heels of such an abysmal performance I’d be disgusted, as it stands I’m merely disappointed.

The Good:  AJ Green is even better than I thought he was, which is saying something.  Too bad he couldn’t play by the rules this offseason or we might be 3-2 or so right now, maybe better.  CU couldn’t cover him.  Good lord, I’m wishing we were 3-2, what has happened to us?

The Bad:  What’s up with the Jekyl & Hyde defense?  I’ve never seen a defense have more 3 and outs and more sustained drives against them in my life.  It just makes no sense.  On offense, when AJ got injured, we went in a complete funk.  We have more talent than that.  When you have two RBs average over 8 ypc and one average under 2, I don’t understand why the 1 continues to get the bulk of the carries.

The Interesting:  Not much, other than AJ Green being a human highlight reel.  That catch he made on his first TD was literally jaw-dropping.

UT Offense

• There’s something to be said for having a balanced offense.  UT is currently ranked exactly 78^th nationally in both rushing and passing offense (they’re also ranked exactly 78^th in total defense, which is weird).  While that means balance, it doesn’t mean they are good.  The little I’ve been able to watch them I would’ve guessed they are a better running team than passing but they are actually 11^th in the SEC running the ball and 8^th passing.  In their 3 games against BCS opponents they’ve managed to average under 15 ppg, with their 17 against UF being their high.
• Matt Simms starts at QB for UT which has to be weird after his brother Chris spurned the Vols to play for the other UT (in Austin) way back many moons ago.  He’s not nearly as physically gifted as his older brother, but he’s played better than expected behind a makeshift OL.  6/3 TD/INT ratio isn’t too bad although 4 of his TDs and none of his INTs came against UAB and Tenn-Martin.  957 yards through 5 games isn’t great but he’s not killing the offense and has shown a knack for making plays when his OL can keep him upright.
• Georgia native Tauren Poole returns to Athens as a starter after spending years behind some pretty talented backs.  Averaging over 5 ypc and racking up 4 TDs on the young season, Poole has been a bright spot on a rough offensive season.  The thick junior has shown surprising burst and earned the starting nod over the much more heralded David Oku who will get some touches as well.
• DeNarius Moore has had a breakout season this year, with 16 catches for 240 yards but most importantly 4 of Simms’ TD catches.  He’s bookended by fellow senior Gerald Jones, who has been an explosive player for UT for years.  Most UGA fans will want to follow the play of defector Da’Rick Rogers closely in his return to Georgia.  So far this season he’s had nearly as many rushes (2) as catches (3).  TE Luke Stocker is as good a TE as you’ll find.  A huge target at 6-6, 253, he reminds you of former Vol TE Jason Witten, mainly because he’s big, white and catches passes.
• The UT OL is about the youngest OL you’ll see this side of the 2003 UGA line that featured no upperclassmen and 3 freshmen.  They’ve given up 19 sacks through 5 games.  They’ve got pretty good size but they are very, very young.  Two freshmen, two sophomores and a senior make up the first 5.  The 2^nd unit consists of 3 freshmen and 2 sophomores.  The youngsters aren’t necessarily playing because they are that good, they’re playing because if they don’t, it’d be someone that young in their place.
• Bottom Line: Honestly, this is the weakest offense we’ve played since the opener.  They aren’t spectacular at anything really and it all starts at the OL (if anyone knows that, we do).  This bunch is gritty and they’re doing better than I thought they would but it’s tough for them to string together effective drives.  They aren’t physical enough to assert themselves in the running game.  They struggle keeping Simms protected in passing situations, with UAB causing them considerable grief.  Couple that with the fact that Simms is a JUCO transfer that’s still getting comfortable playing in big games and it’s a wonder they’ve been as moderately productive as they have.  This is a team we should be able to stop, but so was MSU.  Our defense hasn’t shown an ability to dominate an opponent yet and our trend of allowing opening drive TDs to 4 straight opponents seriously needs to end this week.
• Key Matchup to watch when they have the ball: We have to control the LOS.  UT doesn’t feel good enough about their passing game (protection and actual passing) to try and throw it and will want to establish the ground game with Poole.  They have a particularly methodical approach on offense.  Our defense has struggled to develop an identity as well but without a mobile QB or the threat of a Mallett-style passing attack, we might just see a stout run defense this weekend.  Please?

UT Defense

• Back to the consistency thing, UT is 75^th nationally in rush defense (157 ypg) and 73^rd against the pass (220 ypg). Total defense is 78^th and scoring defense is 70^th.  I’ve never seen a team with a closer dispersion of those basic stats.  It’s weird.  They’re 11^th in the SEC in total D.  They lost some talent last year, namely Eric Berry, and got hit by injuries and legal trouble, so this isn’t quite the stout UT defenses that they trotted out every year under Fulmer or last year under Monte Kiffin.
• Not much depth along the DL, especially at DT where grades and injuries hit hard.  Montori Hughes is a player at NT with serious size and strength.  Neither of the two starting DEs has recorded a sack on the season.
• LB is the strength of the D.  MLB Nick Reveiz is a solid, hard-nosed LB, but at 5-10, 224 isn’t the biggest in the world.  He’s still leading the team in tackles by a large margin though.  SLB LaMarcus Thompson is 3^rd on the team in tackles and solid all over the field.  The unit is good, but doesn’t have the Kevin Simon, Al Wilson, kinda guy that always made the big plays.
• The secondary took a hit when Eric Berry declared for the NFL.  It took another one when Darren Myles (projected starter at safety), struck an officer in that whole weird club fight that ended with a policeman in the hospital.  Myles was removed from the team.  Current starting safety Janzen Jackson was involved in the club fight as well as last year’s armed robbery but has managed to stay on the team and is probably the most talented DB they’ve got.  Jr. Art Evans will likely draw the task of trying to cover AJ this week.  I don’t envy him.
• Bottom Line: This offense is a whole world of different with AJ Green on the field.  He draws double teams and keeps safeties out of the box.  He doesn’t have to touch the ball to make an impact but I think it’s safe to say we prefer him to be touching it.  Once we established that Murray could get the ball to him, our whole offense opened up.  It’s what we wanted all year.  We’ve just managed to get it for half a game after suspensions and injury.  If we can get Green established early, then Bobo’s running game will have a much easier time getting on track.
• Key matchup to watch when we have the ball: I’m going to be watching AJ Green’s hamstring all game long.  They said cramps in Colorado which shouldn’t carry over but if he tweaked his hamstring that could linger for a while.  If he pulls up at all our firepower goes down big time.

The UT Game Overall

What is there to say?  We’re 1-4.  We need a win in a bad way.  So do they.  Last year, Kiffin embarrassed us in Knoxville in a game that he said after the fact they had circled all offseason (that was convenient).  Dooley still needs his defining win.  He nearly had it last week in Baton Rouge but  got caught up in Les Miles’ late game madness.  Given as poorly as our season has gone so far no one knows what to expect from us but Vegas certainly thinks UGA is ready to get right, installing us as 12 point favorites on some lines.  As poorly as we’ve played, UT has been just as bad.  I wouldn’t care if we had played well to this point though, after the throttling we were handed last year we’ve got all the motivation we need to come out fighting.

This game used to be one of the biggest games of the year for us because we could never quite get over the hump against them.  They were at the top and were, along with Florida, the block we couldn’t get past.  Once Donnan finally broke through against UT in 2000 there was a run there where it seemed we couldn’t help but beat them, including Richt’s defining win against them in Knoxville in his inaugural season.  We passed them for a stretch there, then faltered.  It’s been back and forth over the last six years, with the Dawgs dropping 4 of the 6.  Now we find both programs in a rut, a combined 3-7 on the season.  A game that was once a lock for the CBS 3:30 slot has now been bumped all the way to the 12:21 SEC Network slot.  The national media views this game as an afterthought.  I sure as hell don’t.  I spent the better part of my undergrad years watching Peyton Manning prance around untouched, watching Reynoch Thompson cheap-shot Michael Greer, watching Jamal Lewis and Deion Grant celebrate another win…  The euphoria of P-44 Haynes went a long way towards healing those wounds, but the first time I hear Rocky Top Saturday they might reopen and I don’t think I can handle another loss at their hands.  Not after last year with that smug punk Kiffin (even Vol fans can admit that now) gloating.  Saturday might not mean a whole lot in terms of conference chases but don’t for a second think this game doesn’t mean anything.

Positional Notes

• Interesting news on the OL where Kenarious Gates, the OL we offered last minute when Da’Rick Rogers backed out, is apparently slated to start at one of the OG spots along with Trinton Sturdivant manning one of the OT spots.  Interesting.  Gates must have been impressive to supplant Strickland inside.  Is that ironic that Gates will be starting against the guy whose scholarship he took?  Ironic gets way overused and as a result I’m particularly hesitant to do so.
• AJ comes back and the rest of the WR corps falls apart.  Durham is now 50/50 and Marlon Brown, who caught his first career TD pass in Boulder, is out.  Maybe now Wooten will get more action than just end-arounds.  I still want to see AJ, Tavares and Durham all healthy together.  They can stretch the field a lot.
• Going to be interesting to see who gets the nod at RB this week.  Thomas was largely ineffective and missed at least one key blitz pickup Saturday.  Sure, Ealey and King have both had huge fumbles this year but to me it’s a no-brainer for King to get the nod.  Ealey hasn’t shown the ability to consistently protect the QB and King showed a burst last week that reminded me of last year’s GT game…which was nice.
• Nick Williams must be horrible in coverage if he’s still not getting any snaps at safety given the play of Rambo and Hamilton.
• With Branden Smith suffering his 2^nd concussion of the year (or close to it) he’s probably one away from being done for the season.  Scary stuff.  With him out, I’d hope that Logan Gray would get a shot returning punts as he seems to have a knack for it, but it looks like Carlton Thomas will get the first shot.
• I know Garner sees Geathers every day in practice and feels like he hasn’t earned more PT based off of his practice results but good grief it seems like that guy just makes plays when he gets in there.
• We had a TE sighting in Colorado.  Maybe we can see them again this side of the Mississippi.

Random Thoughts

• I guess UGA still has some clout.  Colorado stormed the field after knocking off a 1-3 team.  Man Colorado is awful…and we just lost to them.
• So apparently Satruday will be Russ’ last game as interim mascot.  After coming out of the gates hot in wins over GT and A&M last year, Russ has really struggled this season.  I blame Russ and I’ve hardly heard him mentioned as an excuse.
• Denard Robinson is one of the more explosive players in college football and he certainly seems perfectly suited to play the QB spot in Rich Rodriguez’ offense.  It’s just weird seeing it at Michigan though, home of so many future NFL QBs.  Tom Brady, Elvis Grbac, Jim Harbaugh, Chad Henne, etc.  Now you see a highlight and you see this short, fast guy with predator hair running around like, dare I say, Armanti Edwards (the QB for App St that knocked off UM in the Big House).  My how times change.
• I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m really enjoying Boardwalk Empire on HBO.  Since the UGA season hit the crapper particularly early this year I’ve been able to broaden my fall horizons a bit.
• Is Boise State really shocked that they got leap-frogged by an Oregon team that has run roughshod over everyone they’ve faced this year, especially when that list is considerably stouter than VT and Oregon State?  Oregon has looked as dominant as anyone to date, excepting the first half against UT.
• Is Achim K-bob’s still open in Athens?  That was a unique place.  I can’t remember if I liked it though.  I think I did.  I know I liked the fries and I think I liked some (most) of the sauces.  I remember the sandwich was some sort of stuffed thing…I think.  Kind of like if you jammed a gyro into a pita slice.  There was a time in my life where I didn’t think I could forget stuff like that.  Is this what getting old feels like?
• Speaking of Athens establishments, now that Sons of Italy is closed (sorry, the 5-points location), Allen’s, Guthrie’s, etc, it’s getting harder and harder to go back and see anything just the way it was when I was there.  I left Athens in 2001, so it’s not like I was up there pre-Dooley.  As shocking as the closure of Harry Bissette’s was, I was even more floored to discover that Gumby’s is no more. What?  Is the economy that bad that a place that makes $8 pizzas that can’t fit through a door and can’t be pronounced in front of children goes under?  Really?  The only late-night pizza delivery place in Athens now is apparently Papa John’s, at least according to the front desk at the Hilton Garden Inn.  Wow.

As always,

Have a safe weekend,

Jody

Viewfrom336.com