I know some folks don't like the off weeks, but I am one that loves it when we have the week off. I can just watch games and not have to worry or get anxious about UGA for a week. I think this year, the off week comes at a great time, mid year is always a very good time I believe. Also, since UF always seems to have the week off before playing us, it is good to have the same week off.
This week has brought both good and bad news. Good news is that Cornelius Washington and Alec Ogletree will be back for the Gators, bad news is that Kwame Geathers and Shawn Williams must sit out the first half of the game. I am ok with the punishment for both players, although I say I can't blame Kwame for doing what he did. In the case of Shawn Williams, he played like a fool against Vandy and because of his attitude and dirty play, he got what he deserved. I have no problem with a player being agresssive and hitting hard, but I have no patience for kids taking late hits on the opponent, running their mouth after a game, hopping and skipping around all night, I think Mark Richt was 100% justified in calling him a dumb a** to Coach Franklin. Now, I have issues with Franklin feeling the need to tell three of our coaches about #36 as he said, that speaks of being a cry baby and I am sure Coach Franklin IS indeed a cry baby after his performance Saturday night. Coach Richt could have come up to him and said, hey your center tried to end the career of my nose tackle, your guys were chop blocking my guys on nearly every play, but he didn't feel the need to cry and complain. I think Franklin's speech after the game about we are not going to take it anymore, well, what you better watch out for coach is that people start taking Vandy more seriously-as in, this team plays dirty, this team talks trash, maybe we need to prepare and play Vandy a little more intense than we have in the past-which is going to spell more losses for that program. I give the guy credit for trying to build the program up, he has come into Ga in his helicopter trying to sell Vandy to Georgia kids-well, if the game on Saturday is any indication of what he is selling, he has problems. That stadium holds I think a tad under 40K, they didn't have 37K in there for the UGA game, and from what I have heard, probably 10-15K were dressed in red. If Franklin does have a little success, look for him to hit the road ASAP to a better football program.
With this week off, hopefully our coaches are working on a few things that could really benefit us as we finish out this season. First and foremost, special teams. We have had 3 faked punts on us this year, we just had a punt blocked against Vandy that nearly lost us the game, had a KO return where the return guy was not touched at all. Blair Walsh did make 4 of 6 FG's but he missed two more FG's, he is now 12 of 20 on the season. This from a kid that barely missed the last few years, but the fact we have to settle for 3 so often is not a good thing-and in fact, with his struggles kicking the ball, it makes you wonder about our play calling when we get into the redzone. We no longer can say we have an automatic 3 points, so I think we need to play more for 6 instead of 3 as that got us beat once already against SCarolina-the first half we settled for FG's and Walsh missed the EASY 33 yard FG, sure enough we lost by 3. Granted, the turnovers and fake punt really did us in but you don't expect any FG kicker to miss a 33 yarder, certainly not one like Walsh has been during his career. I think another thing we need to work on is not letting the QB run on us like Vandy's QB did. Wow, a 40 yard scramble?? Are you kidding me. That should not happen unless the QB is named Vick or Young. This was a big problem last year, and UF certainly burned us big time with Burton running wild-I suspect they will look at what Rodgers did to us and start to slobber, especially with Brantley not being 100%-although I do expect him to play some against us.
As for this week in the conference, half of the SEC east takes the week off, with us, UF and SCarolina off. UT plays Bama, Vandy plays Army, and UK plays Jax State-keep an eye on this one as Washaun Ealey goes back to Lexington again, he scored 5 TD's for us against them last year. SEC west showdown this week, AU at LSU, even with 3 key players suspended, LSU should roll. Ole Miss hosts Arkansas. Miss State is off this week. All signs point toward easy wins for Bama and LSU, although both games could be closer than many think-at least for a half. Those two will take next week off before squaring off on November 5th.
Last note, the 7 year old Grayson Rams take on the Buford Wolves on Saturday, this will be a big test for our team, Buford was 6-2 in the regular season, they have some talent. We had a great week of practice, we put in some new wrinkles on offense, our D has give up only 20 points the last 3 weeks, I think we can slow them down enough if the offense comes to play. If we can survive Buford, we likely get #3 seed Dacula next week, as every game gets tougher and tougher. Regardless of the result tomorrow, this has been a lot of fun to be involved with-my first football coaching experience. I predict the Rams will win but I am biased of course. 20-13 final.
No comments:
Post a Comment