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Week 5

Opponent:  Mississippi State Bulldogs

Kickoff:  12:00 PM

TV: ESPN

2 TD road win in the SEC?  I’ll take it every time.  Now we play the other team from round those parts and hopefully we get to exact a little revenge from last year.  Another week, another SEC battle.

About the Ole Miss game…­­­­­­

I loved that game.  Not even close to perfect, it gave the coaches plenty of things to work on moving forward but as fans it was plainly obvious that this UGA team was really close to being good, maybe really good.  The defense played incredibly well all game, constantly rising to the occasion and smothering repeated attempts by the Rebels to seize momentum.  When I began to feel comfortable was when they flat stoned the Rebels after that onside kick when you just had that feeling the game was starting to slip away.  They stepped up and the rest was history.  The offense showed some balance and at times looked downright nasty.

Clearly the most worrisome part of that game was the play of Blair Walsh.  Normally a model of consistency, in this game he was just consistently bad.  3 missed FGs was just completely unexpected and frankly shocking.  Coupled with his previous misses, we’re staring down the barrel of old Mr. Reliable turning into a huge question.  Maybe it makes Richt less inclined to play for the FG.  On that line of thinking, I firmly believe that late in the 2^nd half, when it was clear that Ole Miss wasn’t capable of much on offense and we were trying to kill the clock with the run game that Richt decided to settle for a couple of FGs to give Walsh a chance to get back in rhythm.  It just took a while.

MSU Offense

• Running the Meyer spread, Mullen uses a balanced attack of run and pass with a lot of motion guys factoring into the play.  You see a lot of option type stuff that makes the D play assignment football but with enough other things in there to keep a defense honest.  His offense puts considerable pressure on the DEs to figure out if it’s a jet sweep or a straight run or a pass or who knows what.  While they won’t go trick play as often as Nutt, there’s plenty of misdirection.
• At QB, Chris Relf reminds me a lot of former GT QB Josh Nesbitt, only bigger.  He’s hard to take down and he’s tough as nails, getting hit a lot and just continuing to go.  Like Nesbitt, he’s not a particularly gifted passer but his team’s running game allows him to succeed by putting him in good positions.  On the year he’s completing a good number of passes (58%) but has only thrown 4 TDs to 3 INTs.  Oddly enough his worst game of the year rating-wise was last week against Louisiana Tech where he completed less than 50% of his passes.  He killed us last year, rushing for 109 yards on 20 carries to go with an efficient 9-14 passing night for 148 yards.
• Vick Ballard gets the bulk of the non-Relf carries.  Looking at his sporty 7 ypc average, you see why.  He’s not a small back at 215 pounds and is a threat on the bane of our defense, the wheel route.  His 8 receptions actually leads the team.  He’s got 5 TDs on the young season already and is averaging over 100 ypg.  LaDarius Perkins is the smaller, quicker change of pace back.  This will tell you all you need to know about their ground game.  They rushed for 333 on the road at Auburn.  OK, maybe that says more about Auburn.
• At WR they don’t have anyone with more than 7 catches.  Chad Bumphis is an established threat in both the passing and running games. He’s only third on the team in terms of receiving yards though.  Slight freshman Jameon Lewis started out strong but has slowed considerably, only catching two passes the last 3 weeks.  The impact of the WRs is felt more than just in their numbers as they decoy a lot on that motion for the jet sweep.
• The MSU OL will return probably its best OL this week in LT James Carmon who’s a beast at 6-7, 330.  This line isn’t nearly as large as the one we faced last week, but most aren’t.  They start 3 seniors like us and also like us they have a lot of freshmen on the 2-deep.  They’re giving up less than 2 sacks per game despite losing Carmon in the AU game.  They’ve run-blocked well too, leading the 26^th ranked rushing offense.
• Bottom Line:   MSU is an interesting group.  They put up 34 against Auburn (whose D looks increasingly questionable) including 24 in the first half.  This after opening the season with 59 against Memphis.  They then struggled, only scoring 6 against a stout LSU defense and only breaking 20 against La Tech once they got to OT last week.  They’re not turning the ball over a ton, they just haven’t clicked yet after roaring out of the gates.  Last year they flat dominated us, mainly with Relf on the ground but we seem to be much more capable against the run this year, especially on 3^rd down, where we really struggled (and Relf succeeded) last year.  Look for a ton of screens, jet sweeps and misdirection, stuff that typically kills us and puts massive pressure on playing responsible, under control football but doing it at a pretty darn quick pace.
• Key matchup to watch when they have the ball:  That end around jet sweep thing to Bumphis worries me.  He gets the ball at full speed and while Boykin and Commings are both sure tacklers at CB, I worry about them getting sucked up to play that and giving up a big play over the top.  They had a ton of success with that play against Auburn with different guys and it really looked like Auburn struggled in containment, letting their CB get blocked inside by the play side WR.  Once those speedy guys hit that outside corner, they’ll rip off 10 yards in a hurry.

MSU Defense

• Just like the offense, the MSU defense has been pretty hit or miss.  They gave up 41 to Auburn then turned around the next week and held what’s apparently a pretty decent LSU offense to 19.  Statistically speaking they aren’t that great against the run, the pass or the scoreboard, ranking outside the top 50 nationally in all 3 and no better than 8^th in the SEC.  I thought their stats would’ve been skewed a bit because of the Auburn debacle where they seemed to give up a ton of big plays but they “only” gave up 381 yards that day (compared to the 531 they gained).
• This might be the first straight up 4-3 we’ve played all year.  Gone to Texas is last year’s one-year whiz kid Manny Diaz.  They haven’t gotten much production out of their front 4, with none having more than 1 sack and none cracking the top 9 in tackles.  They lost a beast edge rusher in Pernell McPhee from last year’s unit and replaced him with a freshman who’s nearly as large as their DTs.  No wonder their pass rush stats have dropped.
• The entire MSU LB corps from last year is gone.  The group is generally undersized, averaging in the 220 range.  Cameron Lawrence and Brandon Wilson are 2^nd and 3^rd on the team in tackles and have looked good at times on the year, but none of this unit has shown themselves to be a real dynamic force.
• Giving up right at 200 yards passing per game, the MSU secondary hasn’t been the dominating unit they expected after returning all 4 starters.  A pair of junior CBs with some serious talent have started parts of the last 3 years.  Both are experienced with a combined 16 INTs between them coming into the season.  A 3-man safety rotation of 2 seniors and a sophomore who started last year rounds out this experienced safety unit.
• Bottom Line:  With their front 7 struggling a bit against the run, the safeties have started creeping up to make plays, which you can do with CBs as good as they have but it opens you up to the TE and RBs in the passing game down the middle.  These guys aren’t the biggest defense we’ll play by a long shot and I really think after the way they flat manhandled us on this side of the ball last year that we’ll try and prove we’re man enough to handle them this year, asserting the run game early and often, giving Crowell every opportunity to take over.  Auburn gashed them for over 200 yards from their top 2 RBs, with Dyer and McCalebb both getting yards in chunks.  On the other aspect of our offense, we simply have to do a better job of protecting Murray.  Ole Miss got to him way too easily.  We just have to do a better job there.  If he’s getting hit like that all year by the Ole Misses of the world, when we play Florida, he might not make it.
• Key matchup to watch when we have the ball:  After seeing the tale of two halves that was Isaiah Crowell last week in Oxford, I’m really curious to see how he responds to the 2^nd half this week.  I’m not convinced it was conditioning as I think his sore ribs contributed to it but we’ll see as he’ll likely get as much as he can shoulder.  If it really was conditioning, look for him to get fewer carries early as we try and save him for late.

The MSU Game Overall

These guys are a noticeable step up in talent from the other Mississippi team but they’re awfully, awfully inconsistent.  They played toe-to-toe with Louisiana State for 3 quarters but they also played toe-to-toe with Louisiana Tech for a whole game.  You just don’t know who you’ll get with these guys.  Their loss to Auburn was similar to our loss to South Carolina in that they dominated the stat sheet but some fluke plays set them back.  While they limp in at 2-2 on the season, they lost one to the #1 team in the country and another when they got stuffed at the 1 on the last play of the game.  I just can’t figure out which MSU team we’ll see.

In the end, if nothing else gets this UGA team going, maybe some pride will.  The MSU loss last year was the one that sent our season into a spiral.  The losses to SC and Arkansas while tough were against pretty darn good teams.  While MSU turned out to be pretty darn good, we didn’t know it at the time.  It wasn’t just the loss, but the way we lost.  We got dominated.  MSU simply manned up and ran it on us when they had the ball and we had it, we couldn’t do anything against their front 4.  This game will be something of an opportunity for payback, some bit of retribution for the embarrassment of last year’s loss.  How we respond will tell me (and you) a lot about this team.

Positional Notes

• Carlton Thomas versus Richard Samuel.  After what I saw last week, I don’t think there’s any question as to who is the more functional backup.  I’d start cross training Samuel at FB right now as he’s built for that and he’s obviously trying as hard as he can but he just really struggles with balance or something.  I can’t put my finger on it but it’s almost like he’s in too big a hurry and his feet can’t keep up.  Thomas on the other hand has blossomed into the shifty threat I so hoped he’d be back when we signed him.  He’s quick and looks faster this year.  He seems to have more burst.
• Christian Robinson might be able to make it back this week.  That would be absolutely huge but I don’t want him to rush anything in his return.  If he’s ready to go, then by all means go but if he’s questionable, based on what I’ve seen from Gilliard and Herrera, I’d rather see him get back to 100% rather than risk him missing more time because he tweaked it.
• Bacarri Rambo had a whale of a game with his 2 INTs but after finding out he played in the wake of some serious personal tragedy he shot up my respect meter.  That couldn’t have been easy.
• Since no one knows what’s going on with Kolton Houston and Chris Burnette is banged up, we’re down to 5 OL.  I honestly don’t know what would happen if someone went down there.  I don’t want to think about it really.
• I’ll go ahead and say what you’re all thinking.  Branden Smith scares me returning punts.

Random Thoughts

• Reader shoutout to Mr. Hobbs for pointing out that hearing Tony Schiavone on the post-game radio show really makes you think back to the glory days of wrestling, when I’m pretty sure it was real.  Back when Dusty Rhodes and the original 4 Horsemen were working the ring. His interviews with Ric Flair were simply legendary, at least in my mind.
  
• LSU’s defense is confusing.  On the one hand they are loaded with talented playmakers and fly to the football.  On the other hand, Geno Smith threw for like 600 yards against them.  I know WVU has a pretty good offense and Smith is a talented QB but they seriously gave up some yards and points in that game.  Either way, that LSU-Bama game is going to be a war.
• I probably shouldn’t get too far ahead of myself as this week’s Florida-Bama game could easily go Florida’s way based on what I’ve seen out of them this year.  Demps and Rainey seem to have readily adapted to the Weis offense even though their pro-style QB hasn’t.  That should be a very, very interesting one to watch and I don’t see any reason with our noon kickoff that I won’t be able to make it back in time to catch it.  Man I love this time of year.
• As I’m typing this the Braves are in the midst of blowing a 9^th inning lead in the 162^nd game of the year to try and complete an epic 2^nd half collapse.  I hate it for them because they really did fight through a ton of issues this year but this has been so painful lately that I’m almost ready to just put them down.  If we make it to the playoffs we’re going to get run through worse than Auburn’s D.
• You know how they say some guys just always avoid the big hit?  Guys that just seem to turn their bodies just the right way to deflect the brunt of the blow?  Carlton Thomas is the opposite of that.  I don’t know if it’s because he’s the smallest guy on the field by a good bit or what but he seems to get drilled every time he gets hit.

As always,

Have a safe weekend,

Jody

Viewfrom336.com

Alright…trying to get back in the groove here…

Download Ole Miss Wiretup as a PDF

Week 4

Opponent:  Ole Miss Rebels

Kickoff:  12:20 PM

TV: SEC Game of the Week

Alright…off the schnide.  This game should tell us a good bit about where we stand going forward.  Are we the team that laid down against Boise State or are we the team that showed so much promise against South Carolina.  We’ll know more Saturday, as we face the worst team in the SEC.

About the CC game…­­­­­­

Let’s not over-analyze this one, OK?  Against an overmatched opponent we dropped the hammer and looked dominant on both sides of the ball.  The team did what they were supposed to do.  Not much more to ask for.  I will say the play of Shawn Williams at LB was highly reassuring and that game was huge for him as he got to see time there in live action.  While it’s certainly not an SEC road game, it’s a far cry from just doing it in practice.  Getting that live experience is a big deal since we’ll be waltzing him into far tougher challenges in the coming two weeks until Christian Robinson returns.

Ole Miss Offense

• These guys are scraping on offense pretty bad.  98^th in rushing offense (11^th in the SEC), 109^th in passing offense…115^th in total offense?  That’s really bad.  Against a schedule consisting of BYU, Vandy and a FCS team, they’ve only managed these stats?  This is the worst the Ole Miss offense has looked in a long, long time.
• The Ole Miss QB situation isn’t great.  A pair of JUCO transfers are splitting the load back there, one (Stoudt) the pocket passer, the other (Mackey) is more of a running threat.  Neither has been particularly effective, guiding an offense that’s pretty subpar by most metrics and flat awful by all others.  Stoudt’s completing just over 50% of his passes but for barely 130 ypg and his 2-5 TD-INT ratio is pretty bad on the early season considering they’ve yet to hit the meat of the schedule.
• To Ole Miss’ credit, they are facing some injury issues at RB.  Sr Brandon Bolden has been banged up and only has 12 carries on the year.  He was the team’s leading rusher last year and averaged 6 ypc so he’s got some talent.  Former Auburn super commitment Enrique Davis has battled injuries and has never lived up to his hype at this spot to help offset the load.  Smallish sophomore Jeff Scott has helped shoulder the load but at 5-7, 175 he’s not a real workhorse.  He carried it 15 times last week for only 43 yards.
• The Rebel WR group is young, with two underclassmen slated to start this week in Sophomore James Logan and freshman Donte Moncrief.  Both have good size.  They spread the ball around a good bit but this group is still developing.  Over half of Moncrief’s 82 yards on the season came on a 47-yd TD in the last few minutes against Vandy.
• The Ole Miss OL has done a great job of protecting the QB, ranking 2^nd in the SEC in sacks allowed.  They’re a massive lot, with the smallest guy being 311.  Former UGA recruiting target Bobby Massie anchors the RT spot and is somehow only a junior.  Seems like we recruited him a LONG time ago.
• Bottom Line:   This offense has struggled mightily this year although this early in the season it’s still really hard to get a feel for how much of that is them being horrible and how much could just be that they haven’t gelled yet.  They don’t seem to really have the pieces you look for though as QB is a real question mark.  With their injury issues at RB, I don’t really see them being able to just run it down our throats but our issues at MLB certainly seem to indicate they’d go at us there.  While Geathers and Jenkins certainly have the heft up front, one of their big uglies releasing to the 2^nd level to take on the smaller Gilliard/ Williams MLB duo we’ll be sporting doesn’t work that well for us.  In obvious passing situations, I don’t know that we need a ton of pressure as they’ve shown all year that they can play pretty poorly in the passing game without much help.
• Key matchup to watch when we have the ball:  Gilliard and Williams played great last week manning the two MLB spots.  Now let’s see how they do against an offense with a pulse.  A slight one for sure, but a pulse nonetheless.  I don’t expect to see us coming after the QB a ton as we’ll likely make them show us they can execute all the way down the field, something they’ve struggled with.  Containment and sure tackling will be big keys defensively.

Ole Miss Defense

• The Ole Miss D has struggled against the run this season but has been better against the pass.  They lost a ton off of last year’s group so it was to be expected I suppose.  With Tyrone Nix as DC, this is the same base 4-2-5 defense that he ran at SC back a few years ago.
• The OM DL lost the heart of their D with the departure of the massive Jerrell Powe and the underrated Ted Laurent.  Without those 2 they’ve struggled to slow the running games they’ve faced.  Vandy rushed for over 280 against them.  On the edge, a pair of seniors stands guard in Wayne Dorsey and Kentrell Lockett.  Lockett has struggled with injuries and is coming off a torn ACL last year but if healthy, he’s a beast.  Not Clowney level, but solid.
• At LB, Mike Marry has played great inside, leading the team in tackles.  At 6-2, 250 the guy certainly has the build to play the position.  He’s 3^rd in the SEC in tackles, which means their defense is on the field a fair amount.  Like most programs these days with the further advent of the spread, Ole Miss plays the nickel formation as much as they do a base 4-3, so Marry is typically flanked by the somewhat undersized Joel Kight (5-9, 225).  Again, with Nix’ 4-2-5, they have a hybrid safety/LB spot that will play in the box a lot but he’s really more of a DB.
• The Rebel secondary returns half of its starters from last season.  CB Marcus Temple’s 15 career starts pace the unit.  After SS Damien Jackson’s 11 starts, no other Rebel DB has more than 3 career starts.  They aren’t a particularly big group but they’ve played pretty well to open the season.  28^th in pass defense and 26^th in pass efficiency defense are pretty solid stats although BYU is the best passing team they’ve played this year by a long shot and they aren’t their typical air raid offense this year.
• Bottom Line:  It’s got to be tempting to just line it up and run at these guys as it’s safer and the sooner we get Crowell used to 25 carries a game, the quicker our offense becomes that much more dynamic and the more experienced Crowell gets at pass protection.  The problem with that line of thinking is that Crowell’s got some sore ribs and I don’t know that we want to wear him down that much more.  Ideally we establish the run, then go to play action once the safeties step up.  Seems simple and that’s our typical approach, but I could actually see it working this week.  No huddle could cause some issues since Ole Miss isn’t the deepest team.
• Key matchup to watch when we have the ball:  Discounting the CC game, I’m anxious to see our WRs get separation against CBs.  Until we show that we can do that, we’re going to see a lot of 8-man fronts to try and run against.    I’ve been impressed with Bennett’s ability find holes and he seems to be on the same page as Murray with the hands you want too.  Mitchell is a blazer and doesn’t seem to mind contact, I’d love to see some skinny posts with him.  Probably about time to get Orson back fired up too.

The Ole Miss Game Overall

You could really see this game going one of two ways.  One, Ole Miss comes out ticked off about the Vandy debacle and fights like a cornered black bear, rallying around their coach.  Two, they just lay down.  Knowing the fact Lady Luck hasn’t smiled on us in a while, I’m betting we see closer to option 1.  I fully expect Ole Miss to play better than they have all year.  The bottom line is we’re still just a 1-2 team.  Sure, we’re dangerous on offense and have a defense that shows potential, but on the flip side, we’re still a team that has occasionally looked really lost on offense and defensively we’re ranked 74^th in the nation in scoring D.  I just don’t know that I can say with any certainty that we win going away and frankly, based on my memory of recent trips to Oxford, I don’t recall anything at all that points to us winning even remotely convincingly.  Remember the Joe Cox debacle start in Oxford back in 2006?

Ole Miss could just as easily show up, decide they want to scrap what they’ve been doing on offense and discover that their pas protection is good enough to try and throw the ball on us since we’ve struggled to generate sacks.  If they manage to develop a passing game and control the ball, their defense probably starts to feed off of them and all of a sudden, we’ve got an angry, motivated team on our hands.

I’d like to see us come out, score early, make a stop on defense and grab this game by the throat quickly.  This game is an 11:20 local start, against a team that was getting beat by Vandy 30-0 late in the 4^th quarter.  Their fans are ready to turn on their coach.  The crowd will likely be late arriving.  If we go up early, we could completely neutralize their home field advantage, something that is key, as this is our first road game of the year.  Remember how much trouble we had on offense with the “noise” in the Dome in the opener?  That was from 10,000 BSU fans.  We keep Ole Miss in this one and by halftime we’ve got 60,000 Ole Miss Rebels, who’ve been waiting for a while to cheer about something, believing they can win.  We don’t want that.  Ole Miss might literally be the only fanbase in the conference that’s more frustrated with their team than us.  The last thing we want to give them is hope.  Sorry Rebs, it’s the truth.  We need this more than you do…I think. You know you want your coach gone, we’re still trying to work that out.

Positional Notes

• Carlton Thomas looked good last week.  Maybe it was playing against guys more his size/speed but he showed more burst than he has in years past.  He got to the corner a few times.  Maybe it was that we weren’t running him solely between the tackles on draws.
• Ray Drew got some PT last week and was productive.  He missed some key time with that scooter injury.  I know the coaches talk about how well Cornelius Washington is playing but I’d still like to see what the Pastor of Disaster is capable of coming off the edge.  He’s certainly already got the build for it.
• Kudos to Scott Lakatos at DB coach.  We’ve suffered a few injuries and a few position swaps already and he’s just rolling on along, swapping Commings over to safety, getting Swann and Marshall ready as true frosh and a unit I was really concerned about from a depth perspective, all of a sudden is capable of legitimately allowing Boykin more snaps on offense.  Our CB depth chart is looking bright for the future.
• Speaking of Boykin, that guy is just electric.  Such a great balance of speed, quicks and strength.  He’s perfect for returns but he’s also ideal in a Percy Harvin type role although we really don’t seem to use him in the deep passing game.
• I’m so excited to hear that Gates isn’t a lock to start due to the play of Dallas Lee at the LG spot.  That’s tremendous from a depth perspective.  Hopefully we can get Kolton Houston off whatever mystery NCAA issue he has and see what he’s capable of since these guys will all be playing a lot next year.  The fact he’s got NCAA issues significantly increases the chances he’s going to be really good.  When’s the last time anyone that wasn’t worth a crap had NCAA issues?  Austin Long is quickly approaching Mudcat urban legend status.

Random Thoughts

• OK, I have no idea what’s going on in the SEC expansion.  Yes, TAMU is coming in and apparently they are now a top 10 team.  Perhaps preliminary SEC bias?  Somehow ACC fans will claim it.  Apparently we declined WVU, which I’m cool with as UT remains “the hillbilly team” of the SEC.  I won’t UT looking down on no one.  If Missouri comes in, I’m going to need someone to really spend some time explaining how the conference/division/rivalry games are going to play out.  I’m at around about 50 different scenarios and it’s making my head hurt.  If they don’t come in, we’re obviously not going with 13.
• So through 2 weeks of the fantasy football season I’m in 1^st place in 2 leagues and 1-1 in my other league.  Special thanks to AJ Green, who the experts still have ranked behind Julio Jones in projected points this week for the 3^rd straight week.  Based on past history, when AJ’s going into the HOF, they’ll go ahead and list Julio ahead of him on the ballot just because.
• So I’m getting my new TV delivered either today or tomorrow and as if I couldn’t get more excited about college football I add that?  Saturday could be a special day.  Of course another UGA egg and there might be a bottle-sized hole in that new Samsung.
• So Auburn finally lost.  Did anyone notice that their defense is giving up well over 500 ypg?  Congrats to Clemson on the win but something tells me they might look back on this and wonder why they stormed the field for this one.  Kinda like when Colorado did it to us last year.
• OK, the Braves are going through an epic collapse right now and could very well miss the playoffs.  At this rate, they could very well finish 3^rd in the wildcard.  If this swoon had happened a month ago I’d be reeling.  As it stands, with football back on, it sadly rates at about a 3 on my interest level.  Now, if the tables were turned and they were charging, I’d be fired up.  As it is, I can feign disinterest.  I think UGA’s struggled have embittered me to the whole sports world.
• Alas R.E.M. is broken up.  I’d be lying if I said I still went out and bought every album of theirs like I did back in the day but that group was the soundtrack to my HS years and their music holds up remarkably well.  Murmur is still one of my favorite albums and songs like 7 Chinese Brothers, Pretty Persuasion and pretty much anything on Eponymous still take me back.  Thanks for the memories guys.

As always,

Have a safe weekend,

Jody

Viewfrom336.com

Given the opponent this week, I hope you’ll all excuse the lack of a formal writeup.  Yes we’re 0-2, but if we need a full breakdown of a FCS team then we’ve fallen way farther than I’m willing to admit.  So I’ll take this opportunity to just riff on the state of UGA football.  This will be for me as much as for you.  It’s like therapy.

Look, let me say right off the bat that I’m in no way pleased that we’re 0-2 right now.  I don’t know anyone that is, but I don’t know how anyone could watch that team last week and not get a little excited about what this team could develop into.  I won’t rehash all the mistakes and fluke plays that led to the bulk of the South Carolina points but it really is rare to say that despite giving up 45 points the defense played well…and mean it.  Sure they gave up the late TD drive and couldn’t bow up to get off the field in the 2-minute D, but looking at the game in total, our defense came to play and showed a lot of new wrinkles that really worked.  I wasn’t sure how much the return of Rambo would help but it was much larger than I was expecting because it allowed Commings to be that big bodied CB for us.  Given our injury issues at CB at times Saturday we very much needed him there too.  Once we get Ogletree back inside (and Robinson too for that matter) this group could be really, really good.  Our DL is so much stronger as compared to last year it’s not even close.  Jarvis Jones is as nasty as we hoped he’d be.  We’re getting solid play from our secondary.  I’m seriously intrigued by this bunch and think that once they get healthy they can be one of the best units we’ve had in Athens in recent memory.

On offense I think we’re still trying to find our identity.  We ran the ball well early, then kinda got away from it.  It’s clear that Crowell is the dynamic talent we’ve been looking for since Moreno left.  Based on some of his blocking miscues early, I completely understand him splitting time until he gets more comfortable.  That being said, these next two weeks are going to be huge in that regard as he’ll need to get adept at that part of the game so that we can maintain balance.  The more dangerous he is, the more dangerous Murray becomes…and vice versa.  Staying on Murray, it’s hard to fault a guy that throws for 250 yards, 4 TDs (to only 1 INT) and rushes for another few key pickups, but he had the same brain cramp instances that have plagued most UGA QBs facing Sc defenses.  SC seems to score as many defensive TDs against us as offensive ones.  Murray has always done an admirable job of protecting the football so I’m not going to harp on it, but it certainly hurt.  Badly.

I loved the signs of life I saw from our WR corps in the 2nd half.  We struggled mightily to get anything going early and seemed content to keep our TE in to block, effectively removing our top receivers from the passing game but I honestly think it was the emergence of Crowell in the passing game, something that was noticeably lacking in week 1, that pulled back some of the pressure on our WRs.  As Bennett, Mitchell and some of our new guys continue to develop then our whole offense could open up quite nicely.  At that point it will of course come down to the OL.  Do we get the one from week 1 that couldn’t do much of anything right or the one from week 2 that played light years better despite the loss of a key ingredient?  If the OL continues to develop we could be good on O.  If they regress back, it’s going to be a long season.

I’m not going to go into whether or not Richt is in lame duck status.  It does no good whatsoever and is above my pay grade.  I frankly can’t fathom any circumstance of discussing it in a public forum prior to an actual announcement.  McGarity will make that call and I’m confident he’ll make a good one.

Abbreviated Random Thoughts:

• I wish Bobo would take a page from the New England play book on a couple of levels.  If you watched that game, you saw them incorporate several TEs, none of which are really the traditional in-line blocker types.  They work them into the passing game and make them weapons and the NE offense looks like few others in the NFL because of it.  We have those weapons.  Secondly, we could learn a thing or two about how to run the no-huddle from them.  Sure, Brady is arguably the best in the game, maybe the best ever, but he’s in complete control the whole time and if he sees the D is not ready, he’s running a play.  We missed that opportunity several times Saturday.  If Murray starts throwing for 500+ each week I’d be pleased too.
• Saturday could be one of those epic days of college football.  OU-FSU, AU-Clemson, UF-UT, Miami-Ohio St (the Inelligi-Bowl)…wow.  UGA-Coastal Carolina?  Eh.  I guess we need the win.
• Whatever cosmic karma bank Auburn is currently in cahoots with is going to be total hell when it comes time to pay up.  I’ve never seen a team get by in more fluky ways each week.
• The Dawgs are 0-2.  The Braves are falling apart.  If Chelsea get mauled by ManU on Sunday my fall sports calendar might be clearing up very quickly.
• I just noticed “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” is back on…that made my night.
• I’m sure you’ve all seen it, but if not, this is the coach we’ll be facing Saturday…

Need more Dogs

These are much harder to write after demoralizing losses like that…but here you go…

Download SC Writeup as PDF

Week 2

Opponent:  South Carolina Gamecocks

Kickoff:  4:30 PM

TV: ESPN

OK, can I convince myself that the real season starts now and that that game meant nothing?  Didn’t think so.  That hurt.  Either Boise is really, really good or this is going to be a really, really long farewell season for Mark Richt.  Let’s think positively and move ahead…

About the BSU game…­­­­­­

What can you say about that game?  Well, let me say that upon further viewing it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought initially.  Our defense came to play and due to a variety of factors (primary one being the loss of Ogletree) faded and couldn’t keep up.  So many things we struggled with last year, namely 3^rd down defensive efficiency, were far better.  Jarvis Jones looked like the player we all hoped he could be.  Our DL was stout against the run and largely kept them bottled up until their backup ripped off a few late.  We gave up some drives, but we were fighting a losing field position battle all night.

Offense was a different story.  They showed zero flexibility.  Whatever we were doing wasn’t working so our plan was to keep doing it, I guess figuring it would pay off eventually.  Um, not so much.  Our OL got completely abused all night and gave our RBs zero chance (Murray either for that matter).  Murray struggled a bit but hit on enough passes to keep us in it.  There were some bright spots for sure, namely Malcolm Mitchell and Orson Charles and Crowell showed glimpses of his prodigious talent, but the whole thing seemed disjointed.  I can only hope that it improves this week.  That makes sense, right, to seek improvement against a defense that’s probably better all around and traditionally plays you tougher than just about anyone else?

SC Offense

• The SC Offense is of course led by the inimitable Steve Spurrier.  While his offenses at SC have never approached the level they were at UF, he’s slowly assembled more and more talent and now has two of the premier offensive weapons not only in the SEC but also the country at RB and WR.  They’re a balanced unit with a mobile, tough QB.  The last time they came to Athens they put 37 on the board and sport considerably more talent now.  Add in the fact Spurrier’s had an undying hatred for all things red & black since the 60s and you’ve got cause for alarm.
• At QB, Stephen Garcia returns for his senior year.  A bit of a wildcard, Garcia has considerable talent but doesn’t always make use of it.  He’s been a challenge for Spurrier his whole career.  He’s capable of brilliance, as shown against Bama last year, but he’s also capable of the occasional bone-headed move that drives his coach nuts.  His 30 starts are the most on the team.  He’s a very capable runner as well and was more effective last week on the ground.  Benched last week for the 1^st quarter, he ultimately sparked the offense to 56 points, but he completed less than 50% of his passes and relied more on his legs (over 10 ypc last week).
• RB Marcus Lattimore burst onto the scene last year against UGA in a 182-yard performance that saw him get 2 key TDs amongst his 37 carries.  Strong as an ox, he averaged right at 4.8 ypc last season on 249 carries.  A true workhorse, he’s built low to the ground and as we saw last year is incredibly hard to tackle.  He’s not the fastest back in the SEC but he’s fast enough to score 17 TDs last year.  Spurrier has morphed his offense to its strengths and is perfectly content to give Lattimore the rock over and over.  He was also their 3^rd leading receiver last year.
• Alshon Jeffery is as big a WR as you’re going to see.  He’s listed at 6-4, 229 but I think both are likely below his actual numbers.  He looks 6-6, 250, and based on some of the offseason pictures I’ve seen, that 250 might not be high enough.  He’s fast and physical and knows how to use his size and leaping ability to make plays.  He caught half of the team’s completions last week and reeled in 92 yards.  Should he equal last year’s impressive numbers, he’ll finish as SC’s all-time leading WR in terms of catches, in only 3 years.  Impressive.  Flanking him are a string of guys that haven’t done much to distinguish themselves.  The slight Ace Sanders is a threat in the slot though as a super shifty, fast guy.  He’s also dangerous in the return game.
• The SC OL returns 3 starters from last year but 4 of the 5 have 14 or more career starts, so they’re a pretty experienced lot.  They’re not overly large, with 3 listed under 300 pounds but they’re a physical bunch.  Their center handled us last year with the zone read all game, washing our NG (Tyson at the time) whichever way he wanted to go, allowing Lattimore to make the read and have an open lane.  Hopefully in the year since that game we’ve developed a gameplan for that.
• Bottom Line:   SC has 2 balanced weapons in Lattimore and Jeffery.  As great a talent as Jeffery is, you have to try and shut down Lattimore if you’re going to stop their offense.  Last year he ran amuck and we paid dearly.  With the more massive Geathers and Jenkins in the middle, I don’t see SC having the success they did with our front last year.  Abry and Tyson at DE round out a far more formidable DL than the one we took into Columbia last year.  The loss of Ogletree is huge for this game as he’d be one of my keys to slowing the SC ground game.  Jarvis Jones will play a large role as he did against BSU but I’m anxious to see how the combination of Gilliard and true freshman Amarlo Herrera respond to being thrust into the limelight.  If one of those guys can step up and pair well with Robinson then we should be better against the run than we were last year.  What worries me the most about Spurrier isn’t Jeffery or Lattimore, it’s those passes that he uses so well in the middle of the field, the ones that BSU used so well against us, where he has a slot WR covered by a LB or safety and it’s just a bad matchup.  We struggled with that after ‘Tree went down Saturday.  I’m hoping we come better prepared this week.
• Key matchup to watch when we have the ball:  Gilliard/Herrera will have a lot of pressure on them given the way Lattimore ran all over us last year.  Up the middle we’ll have to be significantly better than we were last year.  Geathers and Jenkins certainly bring a different element.  I’m anxious to see how our MLBs respond to getting off blocks and getting after Lattimore.  He’s a beast.

SC Defense

• The SC defense is pretty stout.  Certainly stouter than they showed last weekend against ECU, when they gave up 24 in the first half and 37 in the game.  They have some serious talent at every level and always play us tougher than just about any defense we face.  For some reason I always think their D is way better than it actually is because they always play us so tough.  Their D was actually pretty pedestrian last year, strong against the run (12^th nationally) but 87^th in pass efficiency D and 97^th in pass D.
• The SC DL is one of the strongest in the SEC, which means it’s one of the strongest in the country despite losing 2 starters. They were already going to be good even before they added the concensus top player in the country, DE JaDaveon Clowney.  The strength of the DL is at the DE spot, where JR Devin Taylor is a load at 6-7, 260.  Opposite him is Melvin Ingram, who at 6-2, 276 is a whole different kind of load.  The future of the SC D is clearly Clowney though, who as a 6-6, 255 pound freshman combines the speed, strength and quickness that makes NFL scouts drool.  As strong as they are on the perimeter, the interior isn’t exactly chopped liver.  Travian Robertson is an excellent DT and Aldrick Fordham, though undersized, is solid.
• Like Boise, SC plays a 4-2-5 hybrid but their Spur position plays in the box more.  MLB Shaq Wilson returns from a year off due to injury.  He’s not the biggest LB we’ll face but he’ll play all over the field.  Antonio Allen gets the nod over converted safety Devonte Holloman at Spur, but both have plenty of starting experience.  Reginald Bowers got his first start last week at WLB.  They have some depth here although as a unit they aren’t as big as SC LB groups of the past that sported Norwood and Brinkley, et al.
• The SC secondary has talent as well, led by two outstanding CBs in Stephon Gilmore and Akeem Auguste.  Gilmore in particular is an outstanding athlete with great speed, size and coverage skills.  At safety, DJ Swearinger was a part-time starter last year and is joined by sophomore Jimmy Legree.  Neither of the safeties are particularly large at 5-10, 208 and 5-11, 185 respectively.
• Bottom Line:  Our OL struggled with BSUs experienced DL.  That doesn’t make me optimistic about facing SC’s bunch, which, while not nearly as experienced, has more overall talent.  Luckily for us, we clearly won’t come in with the same gameplan of just running over this bunch, for two reasons…1) we probably expect SC to be much more physically gifted and 2) it didn’t work.  I expect our offense to look a lot different this week.  I don’t expect we’ll see no huddle stuff until we pick up a first down but I also think we open up the offense a little more for Murray.  Murray had 2 clear drops by Tavares King that hurt but in all he didn’t have his usual accuracy.  If he has a little more time to see, I think our TEs are an excellent matchup against their LBs and safeties.  I’m not thrilled about our WRs getting open against their CBs if we couldn’t against BSU’s, but my guess is we’ll see a lot of man coverage.  That could mean big things deep for Malcolm Mitchell, as he has the pure speed to stretch the field.  King too but he looked really shaky.  As to running the ball, I hope our OL comes out pissed off about the struggles they had last weekend and decides to open some holes.  I think we’ll see Crowell get some touches on swing passes and screens as he’s certainly got the speed to make any of those plays a big one.
• Key matchup to watch when we have the ball:  Hard to say, but I think the key to the game is going to be how much time Murray has.  If he’s getting drilled all day it’s not going to be pretty.  That’s why the play of our OTs (Glenn and Anderson) is HUGE.  If their DEs start getting consistent penetration, we’ll have to keep a TE or RB in to help and that’s one less weapon Murray has to look to.

The SC Game Overall

How does this team respond?  That’s what I want to know.  They came into the opener and got pushed around on both sides of the ball.  Sure they played well early on D but they gave up 35 points and looked gassed.  How they respond this week will tell me a lot about how this season unfolds.  We knew going in that BSU was an unknown.  They’ve knocked off big programs before and will again.  SC is far more of a known commodity.  We’ll know for sure where we stand after this week.

Looking at this one it’s tough to really see much in the way of matchups I feel like we can exploit.  We struggled to pressure Moore last week, but teams have struggled to pressure him for years.  Garcia isn’t quite the cerebral guy that Moore is but he’s got more talent around him.  If we go all game without sacking him, it could be a long day.  If we can get him off his rhythm then we’ve got a chance.  If he goes for 80% like Moore did, the calls for Richt’s head are going to be deafening.

I will say that in our effort against SC last year it was clear we went in with a mindset of not letting Murray lose the game for us.  It was before we had AJ Green back and the playcalling was completely conservative to the point of being way, way oversimplified.  I think we’ll see more openness this week.  I certainly hope so.

I will go ahead and say that if Lattimore runs all over us again then our defense just doesn’t get it.  They got run over on national TV by a freshman last year and got physically manhandled.  They’re bigger, and more prepared this year, so by all accounts the results should be better.  I don’t think even the most ardent SC fan expects Lattimore to go for 180+ again but I’m thinking it should be our DLs mission to hold him to half that.  Several teams did it last year.  In fact, he surprisingly only went over 100 yards rushing in 4 games (us, TN, UF and Troy).  Let’s take our names off that list this year.

Positional Notes

• Geathers will apparently play, which is huge, both literally and figuratively.  He’ll be a key to our efforts Saturday.
• The return of Rambo is interesting.  This game last year was probably the worst of his career, as Lattimore “posterized” him several times just running over him.  He’s our most experienced safety and his return can only help.  I like the idea of Commings, our biggest CB, being able to slide back out to CB on occasion to help with some of SC’s bigger WRs.
• I knew Mitchell was fast, but he looked like he was moving at a completely different speed than everyone else when he caught his TD pass.  Heck, even on his reverse he looked explosive.

Random Thoughts

• So, the Dome experience wasn’t all I hoped it would be, and the loss ain’t what I’m talking about.  First, the game was played in a vacuum.  They showed not one score from other games the entire time.  After about the first quarter, they seemed to refuse to show replays.  Most of the replays were super zoomed in so you couldn’t really see anything.  The upper deck got humid and hot with no discernable breeze, yeah I know it’s a dome, I just figured the air would kick on.  I never could get a data signal on my phone (Verizon, which is odd) so I couldn’t find out any score.  I guess that’s what football was like in the 80s.  Couple all of that with an uninspired loss and you’ve got the recipe for a disappointing opening season.
• As for the uniforms, they looked completely different in the dome to me than they did on TV when I rewatched it.  In person, they looked dusty and a slightly faded.  On TV they couldn’t have looked more vibrant red.  Weird.  Was the dome just that hazy?
• Speaking of uniforms, I’d be remiss to not mention the Maryland ones from this past week.  They warmed up in the tortoise shell helmets then came out in a weird split uniform motif that paid homage to the state flag.  It looked odd, but I loved the fact it was the state flag.  Our odd uniforms just looked like a HS team, a boring one.
• After Saturday, I’d really like to see Boise play more teams this year.  Not so I can watch them get beat up on.  I’m genuinely curious if they’re that good.  They simply didn’t miss anything all night hardly.  I’d love to see them line up against one of the elite SEC teams just to see what happened.
• Um, someone might want to tell Nike that their helmets don’t fit guys with dreadlocks.  Or maybe guys from Carver HS.  Jarvis Jones and Crowell struggled keeping theirs on all day.  I was glad to hear Jarvis say his usual helmet never comes off in practice.  I mean, it’s not like the guy had a career threatening neck injury or anything.
• I have to say I didn’t really like the look of Murray looking over to the sidelines to get his play call from them.  Selfishly I’ve always liked the fact that our players could handle that themselves because they were so well prepared.  Greene and Shockley and Stafford all were up the task.  Now Murray looks like one of those QBs at Troy.

As always,

Have a safe weekend,

Jody

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