Hard to believe we will have already completed one third of the football season after Saturday. The weather is getting cooler (thankfully) and we are now starting to get full force into the conference battles, week in and week out. Many good games around the SEC this weekend, the best probably being the Arkansas at Alabama game. LSU plays a non conference game at West Virginia, Florida plays at Kentucky and Vandy plays at South Carolina. Few other non conference games, Fla Atlantic at AU, and our opponent next week Miss State hosts La Tech.
Yesterday when I was talking UGA offense, I failed to mention the health of the OL. It now appears Kenarious Gates will return to action this week, but Chris Burnette "tweaked" his knee in practice on Wed, he is making the trip but how much he is able to play remains up in the air. Kolton Houston continues to be held out due to "NCAA issues"??? I am more than curious to know what a reserve lineman could be involved with that would be a NCAA rules violation, hopefully this situation will be resolved soon. We could use a little more depth. The two FR lineman, Andrews and Dantzler got some snaps last week so it does appear they will be able to at least provide a little depth. Considering we lose Jones, Anderson and Glenn after this season, I think it is important that we find some playing time for Dantzler, Andrews, Austin Long (if he can stay healthy), Hunter Long (I am surprised he is not redshirting honestly) and Houston if he regains his eligibility. Of course the big boy from Bolles that is already committed to us, Theus, is likely to have a shot to start right away, just as Sturdivant did when he arrived-only difference, Sturdy was an early enrollee. Still, considering the QB, RB, and WR's we will have next fall, the OL will be a HUGE issue for us in 2012-in fact I believe if that unit can play well, next year could be a nice year for us as we have so many folks coming back on both sides of the ball.
As I mentioned yesterday, as bad the Miss D is, the offense might be worse. Ole Miss is last in total offense in the conference, they average 252 yards a game-keeping in mind who they have played, that is NOT impressive at all. They are 11th in both passing and rushing offense, averaging 143 and 109 respectively. In contrast, our offense is 5th in the SEC, we average 426 yards per game, 3rd in passing, 7th in rushing. Our D is also 5th in total yards. We are second in passing yard allowed per game, 150, and 7th against the run, 148 yards. Let's take a look at the starters for Ole Miss on offense, the power I.
OT Bradley Sowell 6-7 315 SR
OG Patrick Junen 6-8 300 Soph
C AJ Hawkins 6-4 305 JR
OG Matt Hall 6-9 321 Soph
OT Bobbie Massie 6-6 310 JR
TE Ferbia Allen 6-4 245 JR
WR Donte Moncrief 6-2 217 FR
WR Ja-Mes Logan 6-2 195 Soph
FB HR Greer 5-11 225 JR
TB Brandon Bolden 5-11 215 SR or Enrique Davis 6-0 220 SR
QB Zack Stoudt 6-5 220 JR or Randall Mackey 6-0 190 JR
Wow, talk about a BIG OL, that might the one of the biggest you will see-especially in height-4 of the 5 guys are 6'6" or taller. Are you kidding me. From the size of this line, coupled with the talent of their running backs and inexperience at the wideout positions, certainly it would appear this is a team that would like to run the football on us. With us being depleted of our two inside backers, that is EXACLTY what I would expect them to do. Stoudt threw FIVE interceptions last week for goodness sakes. The other QB is not a passing threat, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what the Ole Miss gameplan will be this week. They have to figure our offense, after watching us the past two weeks is going to present them a tough task in outscoring us, so ball control is the name of the game. The only problem is, both Bolden and Davis have been injured early in the season and it is possible Davis will not see action against us-he didn't play last week against Vandy. Now, as big as the OL is, they are not the most athletic group on the world and that is a big part of why they have struggled so much. I would imagine our DT's and OLB are going to present some issues for those tackles, and then hopefully between Geathers and Jenkins, the NT will be able to close/fill that gap in the middle. A key weapon for them could be the TE Allen. He has been a part of their offensive gameplan each week this season, he is basically the size of Orson Charles-in other words, can be a bigtime matchup problem for our LB or safety. I would expect because Ole Miss is not as much a threat to pass, Nutt will try to use some play action to use this TE a lot to keep the chains moving. I think that is going to be the Ole Miss thought process, keep the chains moving, dink dunk etc much like Boise-course they don't have Kellen Moore so I don't expect them to have that much success.
I really do believe this game is going to be close for a good while. I think UGA coaches KNOW they have a big talent advantage and should win this game easily, but I also think they realize this team is still growing and we need to start in a more conservative mode-see what Miss is doing and, if you can believe it, adjust accordingly. What I mean is I believe Grantham will run the base D a lot early and just see what they are doing-and certianly if the offense jumps ahead, he might start turning the D loose. On offense, I would suspect that we might very well come out throwing the ball to get Murray going-also because the Ole Miss DC is known to like to blitz frequently. Because they have had so much trouble stopping the run thus far, he will try to shut down our running game and force Murray into some bad decisions. Turnovers on the road are killers-well, they are at home as well but if you turn it over on the road, you are really in trouble with the crowd getting fired up etc.
In the end I think UGA wins this game in the range of 28-17 or 31-20, maybe 31-17. I think as the game progresses, we will simply overmatch them on both sides and get the W. But, it might not be as pretty as many UGA faithful hope for and it could end up being a tight ball game. We have done quite well in Oxford, last loss over there was in 1995, we have won 4 in a row over there since, and have actually won 8 in a row in the series overall. So, this is a school we have enjoyed a lot of success and I look for that to continue this Saturday. So, in closing I say Go Dogs and Go Rams!! My son's 7 year old Grayson Rams look to improve to 3-2 on the season tomorrow!!
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