Another Friday rolls around, always a great day. Today I will take a look at the UT offense going against the UGA D. As we all know, we will be minus Cornelius Washington this week and next, that does hurt us especially this week, since CW was coming off his best game this season, with two sacks and we are playing probably the best passing attack we will see the rest of the season this week. The hope for UGA's D is that they can remain playing as much of a base D as possible and still have success. What this means, UGA can bring 4-5 guys and get adequate pressure on Bray to allow 6 guys back in coverage. Bray is a solid QB without question, but he has no mobility and is prone to mistakes if pressured. The key is whether UGA can get enough pressure to rattle him without leaving WR's wide open. The last time we played a QB that could really toss the ball around, he made us look pretty bad. What we have going for us this time though, UT does not have the OL that Boise did, UT does not have a QB as poised/confident/experienced at Kellen Moore, and UT does not have the WR's that Boise had-well, they have Da'rick or whatever Rogers who is plenty good but the injury suffered by their best WR, Hunter, against Florida really helps our cause. Back to Bray, he leads the SEC in passing yards, TD's and has only thrown two picks all year. Course those two picks came in his only tough game of the season, at UF. UT has had trouble running the ball this season but I would suspect they will try to mix some run in because they have to have a little balance. Also they have a starting RB from Ga in Tauren Poole who you know wants to have a great game. He has two games over 100 yards for the season, going for 101 against Cincy and again last week against Buffalo. Against UF though, he had 9 rushes for 18 yards. As for the UT OL, they have some big boys up front, all 5 starters tip the scales over 300lbs but 4 of the 5 starters are also sophs. All the reserve OL are either Soph's or FR. Point being, this is not a very experienced unit, our front 7 should be able to play well in this game. The key will come down to how much we can impact the throwing of Tyler Bray-if he has a good game, I think UT can hang with us but if we force him into a rough night, we should win this game going away, assuming we don't gift wrap TD's as we have in several games this year, especially SC. Let's take a look at the UT starting offense.
OT-Dallas Thomas 6-5 305 JR
OG-Alex Bullard 6-2 309 Soph
C-James Stone 6-3 308 Soph
OG-Zach Fulton 6-5 330 Soph
OT-Ju'Wuan James 6-6 324 Soph
TE-Mychal Rivera 6-3 254 JR
WR-Zach Rogers 6-0 180 JR
WR-Da'Rick Rogers 6-3 215 Soph
FB-Ben Bartholomew 6-2 251 JR
TB-Tauren Poole 5-10 215 SR
QB-Tyler Bray 6-6 210 Soph
I suspect we will put Boykin on Da'Rick and see if he can handle him, with maybe some safety help as well. It is pretty obvious looking at UT's numbers, he is their main target-he has 27 catches on year, next up is the TE Rivera with 14 (Hunter is actually second with 17 catches but of course he out for the year). I also look for Grantham to utilize the inside backers with some blitzes right up the gut this week as I would imagine the interior of the UT OL, although big, will have a hard time handling Jenkins and Geathers-force Bray to get the ball out quickly. I also suspect that UT will try to utilize a lot of screens to Poole or the other backs to counter the blitz so it will be very important that our guys tackle the ball carrier and not let them get yards after the catch.
I think getting off to a good start is vital to our chances tomorrow. Looking at our last two trips up there, also looking at how UT has peformed at home this year up until this point, they really like to jump to fast starts, it puts pressure on the opponent and gets that place extra loud. Their homes games this year, they have been up 28-7, 28-14, and 31-7 at the half. In their only road game and loss, they were down 16-7. I think anytime you face a team that is pass happy, you never truly feel like you are in the clear, however, if you can make a team one dimensional on offense, it makes playing D a lot easier. Getting off to a fast start will help us greatly, and with how our guys have been playing recently, I think it is quite obvious that is what our coaches are trying like crazy to have them do-play well early, get confidence and take control of the game.
The more I look at this game, look at how young UT is, the more I like our chances. That being said, Knoxville has been so unkind to us the last two trips, I can't say I have complete confidence we can win this game going away. I will say that if we don't self distruct, we will win this game 31-21.
My son's 7 year old team is playing an unbeaten Mill Creek team this week. Last week, after 3 plays from scrimmage we trailed Shiloh 7-0. Shiloh was a BIG physical team, much bigger than our team. At the half, score remained 7-0 but we got a couple big runs in the second half, forced a few turnovers and ended up winning 18-7. The first come from behind victory of the season. This Mill Creek team is 6-0, we are 4-2 and they look really good on film. Our boys will have to play a near perfect game to beat them as they have given up one TD all year-that on the last play of game 1. I am biased but I think we can really scare these guys and although I will not predict a win for us, I think the game will cause this team to sweat for the first time all year. They average winning each game about 20-0. So, in closing I say Go Dogs and Go Rams! Hope everyone has a nice weekend.
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