Last night kicked off the college football season, happy days are here again. I LOVE the start of college football season, not only to watch UGA but just to watch football games that MATTER. The NFL has 4 exhibition games that don't matter, what a bore. Granted in my house, football has been going on since July with my son's team, and we have already opened our season, but last night kicked off my favorite sport of them all, college football. There were several games on last night but I found myself glued to one game in particular because it involved two divisonal rivals from the SECe, South Carolina and Vanderbilt. The game was like many first game of the years end up being, sloppy offense, pretty decent defense, mistakes, penalties, and yes, even the refs make glaring mistakes as well-ok, SEC officials make mistakes consistently throughtout the season but last night late in the game, WOW. Credit to the South Carolina defender for getting away with it-thing is, he made the right decision-he was beat and rather than give up a TD pass, grab the WR's arm and keep him from making the catch. Worst case, 15 yard penalty, best case the ref doesn't see it and game is over.
My take on that game last night is that SCarolina is going to need to find a better passing game or they will be in some serious trouble. Lattimore is a fantastic RB, I love watching him play-except against UGA. He looked pretty darn good last night, even though I do not believe he was at 100%. Shaw is a QB that has good wheels and you have to account for his running ability, but I am not overly impressed with him passing and SCarolina does NOT have a Jeffrey on their roster this year-who was the closest thing SC had to AJ Green. Vandy I thought did a pretty good job of shutting down the SCarolina offense, they applied a lot of pressure to Shaw, they held Lattimore in check MOST of the time. On the flip side, Vandy's QB Rodgers is pretty good, but certainly not great. The Vandy OL I believe got tired as the game went along because at the end, they were having a very hard time containing the SC DL. Granted the strength of the SC defense without question is the DL, especially their DE's. The secondary did NOT look very good to me, the LB's pretty average but the DL is very good. Vandy is not a pushover any longer, and I think they proved that with close losses last year to us and Arky-especially at home you can no longer expect to walk into Nashville and collect and easy win. SCarolina found a way to get the W and they survive and move on. A loss in that game, considering the schedule they still face, would have been deadly for them.
This weekend features a few games of interest to me personally. First is tonight with NCST playing UT. The reason this one is interesting to me is because UT is in our division and many think Derek Dooley is on the hot seat. NCST is supposed to be a pretty darn good team for ACC standards, but this is a game that Dooley really needs to win to get this season off to a good start in Knoxville. This is also a SEC-ACC matchup of course and this game combined with my next game of interest-CLEM vs. AUB, will be interesting for the fans of both conferences to look at. On one hand, UT and AUB are NOT expected to be contenders for the SEC title this year, while the two ACC teams, especially Clemson is a potential champ of the ACC this year. I personally hope both SEC schools win the games at the dome but those games are both toss ups in my mind. I think if UT can get any sort of running game going, with Bray and his wideouts (yes even missing Da'rick, Vols have a good pass game), UT can beat the Pack. As for Clem-AU game, Van Gorder is back in the SEC along with Free Willie Martinez-when they last worked TOGETHER, they put a very good D on the field in Athens. That being said, I think Clemson has more offense than does AU, even without Sammy Watkins playing for Clemson. I still think Auburn can win this game because I expect them to be more physical than Clemson but this is really a toss up for sure.
Tomorrow night of course is the Alabama-Michigan game. I do NOT like either team and certainly the SEC pride in me comes out with this one-that being said, I really can't stand Bama right now. There are too many Bama fans around me on a day to day basis, of course I can't stand Nick Saban nor Kirby Smart, so I would not mind in the least if Bama got beat, I just wish the opponent was say Oregon or USC or even say Oklahoma/Texas, because I really don't like Michigan at all. But, I think I will be a maze and blue fan on Sat night.
On Monday night, the battle of the Tech's up in Blacksburg. This figures to be a very interesting game because GT has the oddball offense but VT is bringing back almost their entire D. Meanwhile, VT lost their top RB and several top WR's but still have the big QB that beat up the Insects last year. Also, the Tech defense still remains a mystery, they have not been good in years and it doesn't matter who the DC is. Also keep in mind, typically teams that have a LOT of time to prepare for the gimmicky Tech offense tend to stop that offense much better than teams that only have one week to prepare. This is why Tech under Johnson, aka the offensive genius, has never won a bowl game. Teams that have time to go over how to defend this option crap, if they have the atheletes, can and will stop it. VT has plenty and thus them playing at home I see them winnnig this game by 10-14 points.
Finally of course the UGA game. The depth chart came out earlier this week and maybe there were a few surprises, but not really to me. The starting FB is Merrit Hall-I admit I don't remember the kid from the spring game but sounds like he can do the job. Of course on the OL, Theus starts his first game as a true FR-he sounds a lot like Sturdivant to me in that regard, on defense Ramik Wilson earns a start and also Mitchell is starting ahead of Swann at CB. I think everyone is interested in seeing the two FR backs, Gurley and Marshall. I also think everyone is interested in seeing some of the new kids on defense-Jordan Jenkins, Josh Harvey Clemons, also in getting a look at the new punter and kicker. It is really hard to get a read on the OL going against Buffalo, but you HOPE that they are paving the way for our backs in this game, if not there is a cause for concern as we move into next week. Also of course you really hope to get out of this game without serious injury. One more interesting thing to keep an eye on is will Rambo or Ogletree play. I don't believe either will play, but I am very hopeful that at least 'Tree will be back for Missouri. I keep reading Chip Towers and others say this is Tree's second drug test failed, but I am not following that. It is the second for Rambo from what I can remember, last year he missed the Boise game because supposedly he was with someone that had drugs on them-again just what I have heard. Tree did have the bike helmet deal back before his FR year, but that would not be the same as a drug related issue-in that case, Tree would sit out ONE game and be back for Missouri. Anyway, only time will tell for the suspensions, we will have Branden Smith but Commings and Vasser are both out.
Also, it was announced yesterday I believe that Russ will no longer be the fill in mascot, he will officially become UGA IX during a pregame ceremony in two weeks. I am very happy this happened. I do hate that Russ is already 8 years old, and the life expectancy for Bulldogs is not probably much more than 8-10 years, but Russ has always been one of my favorite dogs. He just has a great look about him and he is featured at the top of my blog page. He will help bridge the gap the next couple years and give the Seiler family more time to get the next UGA ready for the job. Congrats to Russ, and great job by UGA for doing what many fans have been saying for a while, giving the permanent gig to Russ who started as a replacement but did a fine job filling in and "earned" the spot. He was like a walkon player that earns a scholarship, Russ truly earned his title and great for the folks at UGA for giving him the gig.
Ok, and to close an update on the 8 year old Grayson Rams. We enjoyed our off week last Sat with a trip to the Ga Dome to watch the HS Rams. Tonight I will be at Grayson to watch them play against a very highly regard team out of the sunshine state, Miami-Central HS. Miami-Central is nationally ranked as is Grayson, should be a great game and one of the ESPN networks is broadcasting. As for our 8 year old team, we carry our 1-0 record into a game with the Shiloh Generals tomorrow. Yep, David Pollack was once a Shiloh General. Shiloh enters the game with a 2-0 record, they have shut out both opponents on the season but have yet to face a powerhouse offense like we will throw at them. Also, our D pitched a shutout in our first game, and as good as our offense is, our D might be better. Yes, I am a confident assistant coach but I see the Grayson 8's rolling to an easy victory tomorrow, I will say 26-6.
Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend, as always Go Dogs and Rams!!
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