So now we get to face the spread offense of Miss State-the offense of choice for Urban Meyer. Dan Mullen brought the spread with him from Florida when he took the job at state and has had some success-although I think have read, other than Ole Miss, has yet to be another opponent from the SECw. That means when he gets SEC wins they are against the SECe. Last season they were 4-4 in SEC play, wins over Ole Miss, UGA, Florida and Kentucky. So, after two early SEC losses this year to west teams Auburn and LSU, I am sure MSU probably feels like they have a great shot to win Saturday. Honestly, they DO have a shot to win, I mean they have already played on the road at AU and played a very good game there-almost went to OT with a chance to win it matter of fact. But, back to the spread, State has Chris Relf as QB and he is a Cam/Tebow type kid especially when it comes to size. He is 6-4 245, he ran all over us last year and is tough to bring down. He is not the best passing QB but he hurt us last year with the pass as well. If you look at the stats from last year, we actually had more first downs, more yards, course some of those yards were late when the game was already decided. We had crucial turnovers, the worst being the Ealey fumble at the goal line, I firmly believe if we score there, we win that game going away-that was a BIG turning point of that game. Miss State also has a big solid running back in Vic Ballard. Relf had 109 yards rushing against us last year, Ballard 64. So, 173 rushing yards, they only had 314 total yards against us last season.
I would suspect Miss State believes they can and will run the ball on us and they will start that early, in an attempt to set up some passes to torch us as the game goes along. They have a pretty explosive WR in Chad Bumpis, but to this point, the State passing game hasn't been that spectacular this season. We have been vulnerable to the outside run, everyone pointing out what Lattimore did to us. Well, I can see that point being made BUT I will also add, there is not a back left on our schedule BETTER than Lattimore. Bottom line is, I think our run defense-interior especially, is much improved this year because we have the big boys in the middle (coupled with State having some young guys up the middle on the OL). I think we have a player in Jarvis Jones that is going to be very effective in stoping this spread offense. Between he and Washington, I am pretty happy with our OLB. Getting hopefully Christian Robinson back in some capacity will also help a lot this week. I look for our D to continue its stellar work this season and hold this offense down to under 20. Here is a look at the State starting offense.
OT-James Carmon 6-7 320 SR
OG-Gabe Jackson 6-4 320 Soph
C-Dillion Day 6-4 295 FR
OG-Q Saulsberry 6-2 300 SR
OT-Addison Lawrence 6-4 300 SR
TE-Marcus Green 6-1 240 SR
WR-Chad Bumpis 5-11 200 JR
WR-Chris Smith 6-2 205 JR
WR-Arceto Clark 5-10 180 JR
RB-Vic Ballard 5-11 220 SR
QB-Chris Relf 6-4 245 SR
So as for my prediction on this game, I have to say this game provides those watching Coach Richt and thinking about his future, a great test. This is a game we SHOULD win, and we should win by double digits. Miss State is not a bad team, far from it, certainly a step up from Ole Miss. But, that being said, we are at home and we have far too many offensive weapons for this team. Our D has proven to me thus far, they can do the job for the most part. This Miss State offense is no where near the caliber of Boise or SCarolina. The D did allow some rushing yardage to Lattimore but he is a special back-and remember, it was the offensive turnovers and a fake punt that led to many of the SCarolina points. I probably will be wrong for making this prediction but here goes. This is a statement game for UGA and a game I feel propels us much like it did for Miss State last year. UGA should do a much better job controlling the lines of scrimmage this year, we have a better RB than a year ago, we have a stronger D, UGA wins this game 31-17.
I hope everyone has a great weekend. Some cool weather is coming in tonight and tomorrow in Athens will be very nice. I think high of no more than 70 degrees, with some wind gusts as strong as 20 mph. That could making our kicking game, already shaky, a little bit of a concern but I hope we are getting TD's this week instead of settling for FG's. The 7 year old Grayson Rams take on the Shiloh Generals tomorrow-yep, that is where David Pollack played his ball. A crucial division game that we need to win. SO, Go Dogs and Go Rams!
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