Happy Monday, first day in full pads for the Dogs today

Back to blogging today, first day of pads for the Dogs (and first day of school for my kids) and that is truly when coaches can make better guesses on depth charts for the season-especially in regards to new players. It is one thing to look great in helmets, shorts, shoulder pads but when you go full pads, and the true hitting starts, it separates the men from the boys. As good as our young FR class might be, today I feel sure will be learning experience for them as they prepare to get ready for the 2012 season. See below for some great articles from the Columbus Ledger-Herald newspaper. I like to provide links to papers I personally think cover UGA athletics much better than the AJC does-

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/bulldogs-blog/


There are some interesting articles within the above link. I think the most interesting topics would include the OL rotation, the TB's, the three OLB's that Grantham really likes-one DL that he seems to basically indicate will redshirt, also a star recruit moving to a position that may or may not be a surprise.

First of all the offense line, which is a position of concern. We lost three starters from last year, all 3 got drafted in the NFL and the 3 helped formed the famous, "largest OL in the country, college of pro football" in terms of height/weight. Now, I do think Cordy Glenn and Ben Jones will be missed greatly but I was never a big fan of Bean Anderson. He got his NFL shot to me based on one thing, he is MAMMOTH and as such, an NFL team says hey, maybe we can work with this kid and make him a star. I mean you can't coach size for an OL, that is something he is blessed with or some could say cursed with. Kind of like speed, you can't coach speed, a person either has it or doesn't. You can help to make a person faster, you can help to make a person stronger, but you can't make someone grow taller or get that much bigger-as in OL bigger. A guy at 6'5" simply can hold more weight on him than a guy 6'0". So, as for the OL this year, I actually think in time it might end up being BETTER than last year. They key will be how well David Andrews can handle center-he struggled a bit during spring ball. That being said, he has the advantage or disadvantage of going against two of the best NT in the country every day in practice, and of course in GDay. He will be given every opportunity to win that starting C job, because then it allows our G's to stay where they are in Burnette and Lee. Right now Gates and Dantzler/Theus are working at tackle. I hold out hope that Kolton Houston will soon be allowed to play (read the article in the link I provided about Houston's situation), then you also have JUCO transfer Beard, along with the Long brothers Austin and Hunter to provide depth. Bottom line with this OL is it seems they might not have as much experience but we have more game ready depth this year, which I hope translates into have a good and productive OL.

Course those guys up front will be blocking for one of 4 possible backs this season in Samuel, Malcome, Marshall and Gurley. We know what the first two can do, unfortunately Marshall was hurt in the spring and we didn't get to see him but coaches raved about his play, and of course the famous video of him racing Malcolm Mitchell and beating him. I am not a big fan of RB by committee but that might be the case at least early on this season, until someone simply takes the job based on game performance-it could happen in the scrimmages but just have to wait and see. I think Samuel and Malcome have the edge now because they have actually done it previously but I look for one or both of the new kids to have a major impact on the running game this year. The fact we have a pretty young/less experience OL, these RB's might be more involved in the passing game than maybe Crowell was last year for example-although he did catch some passes last year. Marshall in particular, even though he has bulked up to nearly 220 from what I have heard, is a guy we need to get in space and let him use that speed. Gurley is a bigger/thicker back so he might be more in line with the two we already have-Marshall appears the more change of pace back.

Coach Grantham is already raving about the OLB Freshman class of Jordan Jenkins, Josh Dawson and James Deloach. Course Jenkins was VERY highly regarded and heavily recruited, more so than the other two, and I admit I personally thought both the others might very well redshirt this year but that does not appear to be the case. If you look at our OLB depth chart, considering Chase Vasser is out for two games to start the season, we have Jarvis Jones and Ramik Wilson as starters but behind that you have TJ Stripling, Reuben Faloughi, and Dexter Morant so I think it is pretty clear these three guys have a legit shot to get a lot of snaps this fall. I look for Jordan Jenkins to get the most PT this year, I think he is going to be superstar before all is said and done. One surprise to me is that Jonathan Taylor seems headed for a redshirt. The reason this surprises me is because we know John Jenkins is gone after this year, we don't know about Geathers but of course family history dictates there is at least a 50-50 shot he leaves after this year. I would have thought they would throw Taylor in there to get a few reps late in games but perhaps he is just not ready to contribute and thus they want to get him up to speed this fall so that by spring he can be a player.

Finally, Josh Harvey-Clemons seems to have found a home at safety. Course with Rambo possibly out for a few games, with us not signing any other safety help in this class, I can see where he would fit at this spot. We have two seniors in Williams and Rambo but after that we have Corey Moore and then Connor Norman on the depth chart. Harvey-Clemons is still too skinny to move to LB but he has GREAT ball skills, I got to see him play in person last fall against Grayson, the kid was all over the field-he will hit you but what stood out to me was the way he could catch the ball, his speed as well. He was a very impressive kid to watch on the HS level. I have no doubt he can help us at safety and if his body allows him to add more weight to go on 6'5" frame, he could eventually move to the LB spot, like Ogletree did but this year I think safety is great for him-and I would put him some at WR in the redzone-throw it up to him and let him get it-he has great hands and speed.


On the recruiting front, the latest verbal pledge is from OT Trenton Brown from GMC, he will hopefully enroll early and provide even more quality depth on the OL for next season. Kid is HUGE at 6'8" and 350lbs, I am always happy taking more and more OL. That is now 4 OL in this class, I am hoping for at least one more, I think OL and DL we need to always try to get 4-5 every year personally. Line of scrimmage is so important in football and let's face it, UGA never seems to have a lot of issues find skill offensive players, LB's or saftey/corners, where we have the biggest problems is having enough talent along the LOS.

All for now, hope you all have a great week. I will probably blog again late this week. Go Dogs!