I know we have bigger fish to fry but man, it NEVER gets old beating the Insects from North Avenue. Especially now with Paul Johnson in place. That guy, well, I am really surprised he gets ANYONE to play for him the way he cusses out his players when they come to the sideline. He is just a total jerk and idiot as well. There is no doubt he is very confident in himself as offense coordinator but yet if you look at his record at GT against his biggest rivals, unfortunately for Paul he can only play Clemson one time a year-well, he won his ACC title by getting to play them twice. He is 4-1 against them, but against UGA, Miami and VaTech, a total of 3-9. Of course it is easy to figure out why that is-those three teams have great athletes on defense and also on offense-so despite the scheme used by GT, those teams have figured it out and then use superior athletes to get it done. Oh and might I add, great coaching as well. I wonder if Mark Bradley is not having second thoughts about calling Paul Johnson a genius, using Chan Gailey's recruited talent to win an ACC title (well no longer as it was stripped) during his second year in 2009. The only win he has against us was in 2008, a game we had a big lead but fell apart and only lost by 3 points. The common theme in all the games, Tech has ZERO defense and our D while not great the first 3 years-Willie's last stand was a pretty impressive D performance in 2009, but this year we totally dominated the Tech offense. I KNEW Johnson was worried when he started doing the inside counter runs with his A-backs. That meant he was fully aware he could NOT run up the middle on us with his B-back consisently, he witnessed our speed on the edges and figured his best bet was to run those plays that honestly, I have not seen them run all year. He furthered panicked when he started throwing the ball to start the second half-and you could tell Tevin Washington was SCARED to death of our D with how he threw the ball. To the credit of Mike Bobo, he knew that GT could NOT stop our pass game, even with our lack of running game so he stuck with it. When the game was sealed, he then turned to the run game and we iced it. Ken Malcome, I thought did a pretty good job and needs to get more reps-more than Carlton Thomas-yes, the kid had a great game against Auburn but it is pretty obvious the AU run defense is pretty bad-Bama ran all over them this past Saturday.
One encouraging sign we have noticed time and time again this year, when injury happens, someone steps up and plays maybe even better than the starter. When Ogletree got hurt, Herrera and Gillard stepped up-even more so when Robinson went down. When Gates got hurt early, Dallas Lee stepped him and did a great job. When Crowell has been hurt, several backs have stepped in to fill the void, when Lee got hurt, Gates came back in and did outstanding-in fact, he might now be our best blocker on the team. Likewise, when Tyson went out on the second play against GT, Garrison Smith stepped in and yesterday won DL of the week for the SEC. He had the crucial stop on 3rd and goal at our two on Tech's first scoring drive-held them to a FG which really did set the tone for the game. So now, when you think about next year, assuming our JR's stay, we have our replacement for one of our two SR's we lose on the defense in Tyson. With Boykin, we have several candidates to choose from. Bottom line, the quality/depth we are starting to build is what championship teams do, RELOAD.
Speaking of championships, we have a shot at one this Saturday afternoon. Yes, EVERYONE is aware just how good LSU is. Just watch ESPN at any time of the day and you will find out just how dominating and good both LSU and Bama truly are. At this point, it really seems as if the SEC title game has no implications on the national title game-LSU is assured a spot in the game. What is bothersome to me, Bama appears locked in there as well even without playing for the SEC title. I just think it is totally wrong for a rematch to happen, regardless of whether Bama is the best team left to play LSU-LSU BEAT THEM at home, they should not have to beat them again. That gives Bama a second shot at a title, when they had their shot and blew it. Course the BCS system is flawed anyway so what is new. I am hopeful that Oklahoma State beats OU by 2 touchdowns this week. I also hope VaTech beats Clemson by two TD's in the ACC title game. Now, the Cowboys lost to an average at best Iowa State team but it was on the road and in OT. VaTech lost at home by 20 points to Clemson, a team that has lost 3 of its last 4. So, to me if Oklahoma State beats OU on Saturday, they would be the most likely to jump over Bama. Despite what the ESPN "experts" want, I think there are enough voters that HATE the SEC looking to move ANYONE above Bama so their is not a rematch. I hope it happens because I just don't honestly think Bama deserves that shot and if they do get it, I will be a HUGE LSU fan that night.
On the recruiting trail, December 6th is decision day for Keith Marshall-one of the top ranked running backs in the nation, out of Raleigh, NC Millbrook HS. All my sources are saying he is a UGA lock at this point, let's hope that is the case. It is apparent Isaiah Crowell is a talent back, but it is also apparent he is not durable enough to be our only elite RB. We are in the lead for Marshall and also most believe for his friend and fellow North Carolina product, Todd Gurley. Let's hope the Marshall commitment helps kick off the 2012 class, a class that so far is not ranked all that high but also a class that has about 10-12 spots left to fill. The season we have had, Coach Richt being safely off the hot seat, I think Marshall will get the ball rolling nicely.
One final thought on the SEC title game, I really believe that the major difference between the two teams coming into Saturday-DEPTH, especially at RB, and also OL. We have no depth at either position and I will be honest, our OL really concerns me in this game-mostly Bean Anderson. He has not been as good as I had hoped this year, he seems to have slow feet at times. We must have some sort of run game to mix in with the pass against this talented and deep defense. From all indications, Crowell will be back this week and he needs to be 100%. Also, hopefully Tyson can play, we need depth on the DL and LB's because LSU wants to run power football-and if we can slow that down, putting the ball in Jefferson's hands, or Lee if he comes in, I will take my chances. Both have shown tendencies to throw picks if you get a little rush on them. Course as Jefferson showed last week, he does have the ability to run which is another weapon that Lee does not offer. Regardless, I look at this game as a survival game-meaning, the longer we survive and hang, the better our chances will be. Other than Bama, no team has been able to really survive and make a game of it with LSU in the second half. We have been in tight games a lot more than they have. Let's force it to a 4th quarter game and then take our chances.
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