One thing all SEC fans can agree on-besides UT fans, we all hate ROCKY TOP. Why, because when you play the Volunteers, you hear that song so many times it just makes you sick to your stomach. If you have ever been to a game involving UT live, you really do grow to hate the song. Anyway, this week is a BIG game because it is another SEC game, and of course an SECe game on top of that, also because of what happened last weekend where Auburn beat SCarolina in Columbia, and Bama killed UF in Gainesville. So, now you have three schools tied for the east lead at 2-1, UGA, UF, and SC. Course SC still owns the tiebreaker over us but still, a lot more hope this week than last and that hope can continue to grow this week if we can do something we have not done since 2005, win in Knoxville, Tennessee. The last two trips up there have been UGLY, which goes along with the color UT wears. Those two games left me so disgusted that I really had to take a step back from the ledge. I can take a loss but I can't take a loss where the players look to have quit-I was glad to hear Mark Richt make that comment this week-that UT basically took the fight out of us and that should NEVER happen. We have had some bad losses to UF during the Mark Richt regime but I think the last two trips to Neyland Stadium have perhaps been the worst two losses in the Mark Richt era in Athens.
Of course another piece of news this week, Cornelius Washingto has been suspended for two games for getting a DUI early Sunday morning. He is very lucky he only got two games, as last year there was a ZERO tolerance policy in place because of all the arrests dealing with alcohol. Of course my question, why was CW out driving over 90mph on a Sat night/Sun morning, maybe he went home and was on his way back but don't drink son until you get back to campus-if you must drink. He was coming off a great game against Miss State as well. Now, it looks like Chase Vasser, Reuben Faloughi and of course the highly touted Ray Drew, will all get their chance to get some PT. I look for Drew to take this chance and run with it but it has been reported Drew is more of the pass rusher while Vasser is better in coverage. Of course the LB position has been hit hard this year, Ogletree, Robinson and now Washington. I can't say enough good about the replacements at MLB, Mike Gilliard and Herrera the freshman, those guys have really stepped up and I have hope the outside guys will do likewise. We need a good pass rush this week going against a top passing team.
A few quick thoughts about the Miss State game, the team came out fast and took care of business-thanks to special teams-punt return, horrible punt by Miss State, gave the offense two shorts fields and two quick TD's. From there it just seemed Bobo/Richt put the game on autopilot because our D was just so dominant, you never really had a fear that Miss State could get anything going against our D. Same was the case two weeks ago against Ole Miss. VERY conservative once we got the lead, although we still did throw some including Murray's INT that was returned for Miss State's only TD of the day. Murray has been streaky this year. At times he looks great but at times he looks really bad. Simply put, he has got to get more consistent, his line needs to continue to give him better protection and then he has to do a better job with his accuracy. He does tend to stare down his target too much, and also he seems more reluctant to take the ball and run this year when the play is not there. He either needs to run more or just throw more balls away. He is just a soph but he can certianly make improvements as he continues to grow into an all SEC caliber QB. Second week in a row Crowell has been excellent in the first half and then basically been held in check the second half. Some of that might be because early in games he is fresh obviously and also our offense is much more balanced (second half teams figure we are going to run, stack the box to stop the run), part of it might be that he is just not as well conditioned yet as he needs to be. Bottom line, we need to keep giving him carries and let him give us a dangerous ground threat to go along with a pretty good passing attack. Mitchell continues to impress me at receiver, between MM, TK, and OC, I like our ability to move the ball throught the air-and we also can throw in there Bennett and Aron White. Today I will look at the UT D against our offense.
It is quite possible UT is the youngest defense, in terms of experience, UGA has played this year. If you look at their starters and reserves, you see a lot of FR and SOPH listed on the two deep. They also don't have a lot of size on the DL. This is a defense that we SHOULD be able to move the ball against. I think once again the use of Orson Charles or Aron White will play big dividends, to go along with our running game and vertical passing game. Because UT has young LB's, I also suspect more passes to our backs this week to take advantage of lack of experience (UF did this well with Rainey). If you look at the only game UT lost this year, which happened to be against the only quality opponent they have played to this point, UF was able to rush for about 150 yards a game, while throwing for over 200 yards. Rushing average per attempt was pretty low for UF as was the total yards but I believe our offense can have more success than did UF, assuming Murray throws the ball to the guys in white and not in orange. UT only has one INT on the season. Let's take a look at the starters-
DE Ben Martin 6-4 265 SR
DT Malik Jackson 6-5 270 SR
DT Daniel Hood 6-4 293 Soph
DE Jacques Smith 6-2 255 Soph
LB-Curt Maggitt 6-3 215 FR
LB-AJ Johnson 6-3 245 FR
LB-Austin Johnson 6-2 240 SR
CB-Izauea Lanier 6-1 190 JR
S-Brent Brewer 6-1 215 Soph
S-Prentiss Waggner 6-2 185 JR
CB-Marsalis Teague 5-10 185 JR
As you see, two FR playing LB, two Soph's playing on the DL, that going against a BIG and mostly experienced OL, TE's, that should work to our advantage. They run a basic 4-3 defense, nothing spectacular about it. Their DC worked at Boise before coming to Knoxville, where he did a good job of getting the Boise D to a higher level-he worked with many of those Boise defenders we went against in week 1 and I feel sure he has been in contact with his old friends at Boise to figure out what they did to really slow our attack down. Of course game one was before we put Crowell in the lineup and gave him carries, before Mitchell had established himself as a go to WR-he did have a nice long catch against Boise late in the second half of course. Bottom line, Boise's D was loaded with SR's, while this D is not. Now, these guys are young and undersized but they are quick and fast. So again, our mammoth OL is going to have to take care of these guys up front with pure strength and if not, these guys can make our offense struggle. It is really hard to know exactly how good this team is because of a Georgia Tech type schedule. Minus UF at the swamp, Montana, Cincy and Buffalo at home-WOW. I know we have only beaten Coastal, Miss, and Miss State but the later two SEC schools would easily take care of Montana and Buffalo, probably both would beat Cincy at home as well. We are a better team but will that translate to a win on Saturday, good question. We beat them badly last year in Athens, but they helped us with 3 turnovers to our none. We jumped them early, much like we did against Miss State last week, up 17-0 after one quarter, up 27-7 at the half. Needless to say, we need a good start offensively on Saturday because our last two trips to Knox, UGLY. Check this out-2007, we were down 28-0 at the half, losing that one 35-14. In 2009, the Crompton for Heisman game, it was 21-12 at the half, with 7 of our 12 points coming off a Boykin kickoff return. Then UT exploded in the 3rd outscoring us 17-7 to put the game away. Considering how big/loud that stadium is, we need to have a good start and keep it rolling. This win would give Richt 100 and it obviously would be a big team win, going to 3-1 in conference. Lose this week, it basically ruins all the good feelings from our rivals losing the week before.
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