It is still hard for me to believe that Vince Dooley's son is the head coach at the University of Tennessee. As much as this rivarly has really been one sided one direction or another, make no mistake this is a rivalry. The two schools rarely played each other when I was growing up-the Herschel Walker debut game in Knoxville in 1980, then the Vols return visit, that as it. Of course all that changed when the SEC divided into E and W, and the the Vols became a yearly opponent. From 1989-1999, UGA lost EVERY game of the series to UT. Then, from 2000-2003, 4 years in a row, UGA. In fact, since 2000, UGA has won 8 and lost 4. The past two games, in which Derek Dooley has coached the Vols against Mark Richt (of course hired by Derek's dad at UGA), the scores have been 41-14 and 20-12. This year I expect a result somewhere in the middle of those two scores to be honest.
UT comes into this game 3-1, with wins over NCST, Ga State, and Akron. Two weeks ago, they lost their conference opener at home against the Gators, 37-20. They led that game early but then fell apart. What everyone knows about the Vols is that they have a very good passing attack. What others might not know is that they have a very poor pass defense, really a pretty poor defense overall, ranking 11th in both pass and run defense in the 14 team SEC. They rank dead last in SEC in redzone defense. So, logic would tell you that UGA should score points in this game. Now, as for the Georgia D, this year has not gone exactly as I thought. Teams HAVE been able to dink and dunk on the defense, we have given up quite a few big yardage gains as well-think about the Missouri WR burning Bowman for the long TD pass, think about the FAU RB sprinting 44 yards for a TD basically untouched. Now, UT does not have a great running game but my guess is that they are going to try to get some sort of a running game established early in the game because IF they can do that, it will open up the passing game even more than it already will be opened up. IF UGA is successful in shutting down the run, they become much easier to stop and the QB Bray will be under a LOT of pressure. He injured his finger hitting Christian Robinson's helmet last year, I am sure is looking forward to another chance against us. Also of interest will be how the insertion of Rambo and Ogletree impacts our defense. Many will argue that they will be rusty and thus are worried about them coming back against an offense like this one. I have a different train of thought, Rambo will be certainly needed against this passing attack and he has a knack of being in the right place at the right time when it comes to picks. Tree is just a freak, and I can remember just how well he played last year against the Gators after sitting out 5 games I believe it was recovering from injury. I think both those guys are going to be READY to go and will play well. I honestly believe them coming back will inspire this team even more than they already are after the big win over Vandy last week.
Speaking of that, I was impressed with the win last week, although I somewhat expected the result. After the Grantham/Franklin situation the year before, I just had strong feeling we would run them over easily. Aaron Murray was on fire, hitting his first 12 passes, of course both FR RB's were in top form, I think of Marlon Brown playing this year like you see a lot of pro athletes play in the last year of their contract. He knows this is it for him, this is his time to show what he has to the NFL scouts, and so far how could you say anything but positive-he looks outstanding, his hands look strong, he can get yards after the catch as well because the kid is well put together-slightly slower than AJ Green but much thicker/stronger than AJ, not the overall talent of AJ but I have no doubt he is paving the way to the NFL with this season-and the NFL for now seem to LOVE the big/physical WR's. The OL continues to play really well, I have to admit I was a bit worried about that unit before the season started but they are really protecting Murray well and also paving the way for the backs-who are showing they don't need a lot of help, they can do a lot on their own. The defense played well, still had a few drives where Vandy seemed to move at ease but I keep thinking, maybe the D is playing better than I believe they are, I just have such high expectations. Course now that everyone is finally back, I really DO have high expecations.
For the game this week, I can see UT getting off to a pretty quick start as that seems to be there pattern as the season has started-they jumped NCST early, they were ahead of UF early. I just honestly don't think they can stay ahead of us very long though, we just have too strong of a defense and our offense is just a machine right now. I will be surprised if this game is in doubt entering the 4th qtr. I sure hope it is not because I will be listening to the game on radio for the most part Saturday, when games are tight, you REALLY are dying to see a TV screen to actually watch what is going on. I will say this game will be pretty high scoring, for Georgia that is. UT might come out and score a quick TD, maybe two in the first half but I believe the final score will be in the range of 35-42 points for UGA, and 17-24 points for the Vols. I am not stupid enough to say there is no way we lose this game, I remember all to well that team in 2004 being in a similar situation and letting a UT team that had NO BUSINESS winning, come to Athens and get the W. Still, this team really does seem to have a lot of chemistry, a lot of belief/confidence in themselves, I just feel really good about this one. Next week, well, that is a different story but this week I feel good. Here is a great article about Jarvis Jones in case the few that read my blog have not seen it yet.
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/page/football-120926Schlabach/college-football-georgia-bulldogs-lb-jarvis-jones-overcomes-family-tragedy-star-field
Finally, my weekly update on the 8 year old Grayson Rams. Last week we went on the road for the first time, about 5 miles down the road to Archer. As we have done all season, we went out and pretty much dominated our opponent, winning 20-0. It was our 5th win in 5 games, also our 5th shutout. Up this week is Mill Creek, an association that has so many boys, they actually field 3 very competitive and talented 8 year old teams. Grayson has two btw for our age group. Mill Creek is very much like our own team in that they have a lot of talent and are well coached. This will be the best team we have faced all year, but I have confidence that we can get the W. I think this team has the greatest potential to break our shutout streak but until that happens, I just can't predict it. I will say we take this one 18-0.
I hope everyone has a great weekend. I am looking forward to taking my son to Chipper Jones night tomorrow at Turner Field, my son's favorite player is Chipper and I have always been a fan. I sometimes get irritiated with him being hurt quite often, but you have to respect the way he plays the game and what a great baseball player he is. I look forward to sharing that experience with my son, it should be great. As always, GO Dogs and Rams, and GO Chipper!
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Friday, September 21, 2012
A QUICK Friday blog
The week got away from me and I have not had the chance to give my two cents on last weeks game against FAU or this weeks game against Vandy. So, with that in mind and knowing I don't have much time today, I will give a very condensed version of my thoughts and for those of you that really like my long winded opinions, you will just have to be disappointed.
First of all the game against FAU-a lot of talk about the defense looked bad again etc etc, I didn't see the game live but DID go back and watch it and I would agree, our defense did NOT look good in the first half last Saturday. The short passing game has killed us against both the lesser opponents, the 44 yard TD run should NEVER happen to our defense even with starters out. I will just say, at least the D has come to play in the second half, it is almost as if Grantham is not sure how to plan for these smaller schools, he just plays a real vanilla scheme early on and hopes his guys are so good they can stop it. After the halftime adjustments are made, the D looks MUCH better. Also we have to keep in mind, we are getting a LOT of reps for our younger guys on defense in these games which I think is totally by design because in case you have not noticed, we likely lose basically our entire starting D from this year, that assuming Jarvis and Tree both go pro. I guess maybe Swann could be the only starter back when I look at it-both DE's, NT, all the LB's unless you count Vasser or Herrera, the entire secondary if you put Commings at corner. Bottom line, we NEED our younger kids to get reps and mission accomplished there. Jordan Jenkins even got a start in place of Jarvis who didn't play-SMART move I think.
Offensively, Murray played VERY well except for the one pass to the fullback that was INT in the endzone-he should have just thrown that away because it would have been a nearly impossible catch even if the DB doesn't grab it. Gurley and Marshall both went over 100 as I had predicted, Bennett had a great night as did Arthur Lynch-except his fumble, Mitchell even made a nice catch as did Justin Scott Wesley. All in all a very productive night for the offense-713 total yards, a new school record. I am curious to see what Bama does to this same FAU tomorrow. We didn't cover the 43, will Bama cover the 49? I bet they do-not sure why but we never seem to cover large spreads but Bama does.
As for the Vandy game this Saturday, I say Dogs win BIG. My Dad who is very pessimistic by nature is worried about this game, but I just have a good feeling that we are going break out a can of whoop a** on Franklin and those boys from Vandy. I think typically Vandy is a team UGA has had trouble getting up for but not this year and I think that is why I have so much confidence (last years Grantham-Franklin situation has UGA ready to go this year). Seems Vandy might be starting a new QB, he played two years at Wyoming but this will be his first true road test, I think the Dog defense will come to play tomorrow. I look for the offense to move the ball pretty effectively with balance-say what you want about Vandy and Franklin but this team plays a MUCH more physical brand of football than in previous years. So, I fully expect they will give us everything they got but we will take care of them easily. I predict a score of 31-10.
Finally, the 8 year old Grayson Ram report. Last week we play a fiesty group of Bulldogs from North Gwinnett. We struggled to move the ball, as usual the defense was ready to play thankfully. We scored two touchdowns in the final 1:30 of the first half to take a 12-0 lead at the half and then added another TD in the second half to win 18-0. It was a solid win and we move to 4-0, we still have not given up a single point on the season and are the only team in our age bracket in Gwinnett county that can say that. This week we play our first road game, although it is only about 5 miles down the road at Archer. Archer is a BIG team but not a lot of speed. We had a BAD week of practice, I think our boys might be getting a little too cocky for their own good. That being said, we should be able to handle Archer this week but next week we will meet a true test in Mill Creek and that could be our 1st loss if we can't get our boys prepared. For this week though, after watching Archer on film and last week in person, I just feel we have too much for them on both sides of the ball. I think we will win this week by the score of 26-0.
Hope you all have a great weekend and as always, Go Dogs and Rams!
First of all the game against FAU-a lot of talk about the defense looked bad again etc etc, I didn't see the game live but DID go back and watch it and I would agree, our defense did NOT look good in the first half last Saturday. The short passing game has killed us against both the lesser opponents, the 44 yard TD run should NEVER happen to our defense even with starters out. I will just say, at least the D has come to play in the second half, it is almost as if Grantham is not sure how to plan for these smaller schools, he just plays a real vanilla scheme early on and hopes his guys are so good they can stop it. After the halftime adjustments are made, the D looks MUCH better. Also we have to keep in mind, we are getting a LOT of reps for our younger guys on defense in these games which I think is totally by design because in case you have not noticed, we likely lose basically our entire starting D from this year, that assuming Jarvis and Tree both go pro. I guess maybe Swann could be the only starter back when I look at it-both DE's, NT, all the LB's unless you count Vasser or Herrera, the entire secondary if you put Commings at corner. Bottom line, we NEED our younger kids to get reps and mission accomplished there. Jordan Jenkins even got a start in place of Jarvis who didn't play-SMART move I think.
Offensively, Murray played VERY well except for the one pass to the fullback that was INT in the endzone-he should have just thrown that away because it would have been a nearly impossible catch even if the DB doesn't grab it. Gurley and Marshall both went over 100 as I had predicted, Bennett had a great night as did Arthur Lynch-except his fumble, Mitchell even made a nice catch as did Justin Scott Wesley. All in all a very productive night for the offense-713 total yards, a new school record. I am curious to see what Bama does to this same FAU tomorrow. We didn't cover the 43, will Bama cover the 49? I bet they do-not sure why but we never seem to cover large spreads but Bama does.
As for the Vandy game this Saturday, I say Dogs win BIG. My Dad who is very pessimistic by nature is worried about this game, but I just have a good feeling that we are going break out a can of whoop a** on Franklin and those boys from Vandy. I think typically Vandy is a team UGA has had trouble getting up for but not this year and I think that is why I have so much confidence (last years Grantham-Franklin situation has UGA ready to go this year). Seems Vandy might be starting a new QB, he played two years at Wyoming but this will be his first true road test, I think the Dog defense will come to play tomorrow. I look for the offense to move the ball pretty effectively with balance-say what you want about Vandy and Franklin but this team plays a MUCH more physical brand of football than in previous years. So, I fully expect they will give us everything they got but we will take care of them easily. I predict a score of 31-10.
Finally, the 8 year old Grayson Ram report. Last week we play a fiesty group of Bulldogs from North Gwinnett. We struggled to move the ball, as usual the defense was ready to play thankfully. We scored two touchdowns in the final 1:30 of the first half to take a 12-0 lead at the half and then added another TD in the second half to win 18-0. It was a solid win and we move to 4-0, we still have not given up a single point on the season and are the only team in our age bracket in Gwinnett county that can say that. This week we play our first road game, although it is only about 5 miles down the road at Archer. Archer is a BIG team but not a lot of speed. We had a BAD week of practice, I think our boys might be getting a little too cocky for their own good. That being said, we should be able to handle Archer this week but next week we will meet a true test in Mill Creek and that could be our 1st loss if we can't get our boys prepared. For this week though, after watching Archer on film and last week in person, I just feel we have too much for them on both sides of the ball. I think we will win this week by the score of 26-0.
Hope you all have a great weekend and as always, Go Dogs and Rams!
Friday, September 14, 2012
Friday, time to blog again
So this week is a big letdown compared to last week. The opponent is Florida Atlantic University, located in Boca Raton, Florida-right down the street from where Coach Mark Richt grew up. The Owls have had some fairly recent success under the leadership of Richt's old college coach Howard Schnellenberger, he led them to bowl games in the 2007 and 2008 seasons, winning both the Motor City bowl in '07 and the New Orleans bowl in '08. Since that time though, times have been tough for FAU, as last year in Howard's last year, they went 1-11. This season they are currently 1-1 with a win over Wagner 7-3 and a loss to Middle Tenn State, 31-17, their new coach is Carl Pelini, the brother of Nebraska's head coach. I have never heard of Wagner College but looking at their game last week against MTSU, they gave up 320 yards rushing, 480 total yards. MTSU had two backs go over 100 yards, I would bet that we see two backs also go over the century mark, my bet is that Keith Marshall gets his first 100 yard day as a UGA RB and Gurley probably gets his second, it will just depend on number of carries each back gets. The main thing for all UGA fans is to escape this game without injury and I believe any player that has a nagging injury entering the game probably should NOT play-this would include Jarvis Jones, Cornelius Washington, to name two. We do get Sanders Commings back this week as well as Chase Vasser. Still up in the air is Rambo and Ogletree but even if they can come back-very doubful for either, especially Rambo, I would rather have them back for the next three weeks when we play Vandy, UT and South Carolina.
Speaking of Vandy, it was announced this week that the game against the Commodores will be a 7:45 kick and be televised on ESPN2. That game to me was already going to be intense based on what happened last year when Grantham and Franklin got into their shouting match, now you let 90K+ have all day to drink and think about it, it could be the most intense atmosphere EVER in Athens for a Vandy game. Vandy is off to an 0-2 start, after dropping the SCarolina game, a game they probably should have won-or at least was in position to win, last week they dropped a game to Northwestern. This week they will get their first win as they play Presbyterian, of course that great opponent the Nerds took down last week 59-3. Interesting when you look at who are opponents play leading into our game, Vandy I mentioned already. UT plays UF this week of course but the week before playing us, they play the Akron Zips. SCarolina will play at Kentucky before playing us. I would suspect that if UT beats UF on Saturday, and assuming we don't pull an Arkansas and lose to FAU, the game with the Vols will be the CBS 3:30 kickoff on the 29th. From what I can see, the only other decent looking SEC matchup that day is Arkansas-Texas A&M, and with Arkansas losing last week to ULM and likely losing to Bama this week, A&M losing to UF last weekend, seems very unlikely CBS is going to bypass the UGA/UT, in fact even if UT loses to UF they might still select our game that particular week.
Jarvis Jones played a game to remember last Saturday, made even more incredible knowing he was playing with a groin injury suffered in practice last week. I just listened to an interview of Jarvis this morning, what a soft-spoken, humble kid he is. He plays with a lot of confidence and has incredible ability but he just comes across as a very sincere kid that loves playing football, loves his teammates and coaches and loves UGA. We all need to enjoy having him this one last season, he will be a top 5 NFL pick next April and I will be very happy for him.
Getting Commings back this week is good news, just for the fact he can play safety. Not that big a deal against FAU but a big deal for Vandy. Connor Norman tries his best but the kid is just not a starting safety in the SEC-which scares me that Corey Moore can't beat him out. Anyway, Commings can play one safety spot, while Shawn Williams of course plays the other. This allows Swann and Smith to play corner, also allows Mitchell to play there as well BUT should allow him the chance to go back and run some plays at WR. I have gone on the record as saying I think Mitchell can be a 1st round draft pick as a corner-this after just watching him play ONE game at that position-he just has great size, speed/acceleration, and great hands. He is a very good WR but his skillset on defense is hard to beat and I really think corner is his position to earn his living-but of course I could be wrong. As much as we need him at corner this year, we likely need him there more next year when Smith is gone, Commings is gone as are both our starting safeties. But Mitchell at WR does give us a deep ball threat-along with TK, that is proven. I think in time Justin Scott-Wesley will be a deep threat, and also you have to remember Wooten is back this year and he can fly-he just doesn't have the size that Mitchell does.
All for now, finally as usually in closing is the Grayson Ram 8 year old update. We did beat South Gwinnett last Saturday 26-0. My son who plays LT at a whopping 65lbs, and corner, also got his first carry of his career, he needs to get another one and gain a yard so that he is back 0 again. One carry, -1 yard!! He was clueless on what to do at RB. But, when you get a 26-0 lead after only 12 minutes of action, and you recognize that you could score EVERY time you have the ball, you have to let everyone get a carry. What I was most proud of for my son was he made his first tackle, last week he made his first strip when a kid ran his way, he also snapped shot gun for our second string offense the entire second half and did an outstanding job. He starts at LT on 1st string and center on second string-one thing my boy can do is block, even being one of the smaller boys out there, he has great technique and gets the job done-very proud of him. This week presents us with our biggest challenge of the season to this point, as we play the North Gwinnett Bulldogs. This team is a well coached team, they beat us last year and they have some talent. Still, we have more speed and with our defense is playing, I can't see us losing this game. Until someone scores on us, I will have to give props to our defense and say we win tomorrow 20-0. As usual, hope all my readers have a great weekend, GO Dogs and Go Rams!
Speaking of Vandy, it was announced this week that the game against the Commodores will be a 7:45 kick and be televised on ESPN2. That game to me was already going to be intense based on what happened last year when Grantham and Franklin got into their shouting match, now you let 90K+ have all day to drink and think about it, it could be the most intense atmosphere EVER in Athens for a Vandy game. Vandy is off to an 0-2 start, after dropping the SCarolina game, a game they probably should have won-or at least was in position to win, last week they dropped a game to Northwestern. This week they will get their first win as they play Presbyterian, of course that great opponent the Nerds took down last week 59-3. Interesting when you look at who are opponents play leading into our game, Vandy I mentioned already. UT plays UF this week of course but the week before playing us, they play the Akron Zips. SCarolina will play at Kentucky before playing us. I would suspect that if UT beats UF on Saturday, and assuming we don't pull an Arkansas and lose to FAU, the game with the Vols will be the CBS 3:30 kickoff on the 29th. From what I can see, the only other decent looking SEC matchup that day is Arkansas-Texas A&M, and with Arkansas losing last week to ULM and likely losing to Bama this week, A&M losing to UF last weekend, seems very unlikely CBS is going to bypass the UGA/UT, in fact even if UT loses to UF they might still select our game that particular week.
Jarvis Jones played a game to remember last Saturday, made even more incredible knowing he was playing with a groin injury suffered in practice last week. I just listened to an interview of Jarvis this morning, what a soft-spoken, humble kid he is. He plays with a lot of confidence and has incredible ability but he just comes across as a very sincere kid that loves playing football, loves his teammates and coaches and loves UGA. We all need to enjoy having him this one last season, he will be a top 5 NFL pick next April and I will be very happy for him.
Getting Commings back this week is good news, just for the fact he can play safety. Not that big a deal against FAU but a big deal for Vandy. Connor Norman tries his best but the kid is just not a starting safety in the SEC-which scares me that Corey Moore can't beat him out. Anyway, Commings can play one safety spot, while Shawn Williams of course plays the other. This allows Swann and Smith to play corner, also allows Mitchell to play there as well BUT should allow him the chance to go back and run some plays at WR. I have gone on the record as saying I think Mitchell can be a 1st round draft pick as a corner-this after just watching him play ONE game at that position-he just has great size, speed/acceleration, and great hands. He is a very good WR but his skillset on defense is hard to beat and I really think corner is his position to earn his living-but of course I could be wrong. As much as we need him at corner this year, we likely need him there more next year when Smith is gone, Commings is gone as are both our starting safeties. But Mitchell at WR does give us a deep ball threat-along with TK, that is proven. I think in time Justin Scott-Wesley will be a deep threat, and also you have to remember Wooten is back this year and he can fly-he just doesn't have the size that Mitchell does.
All for now, finally as usually in closing is the Grayson Ram 8 year old update. We did beat South Gwinnett last Saturday 26-0. My son who plays LT at a whopping 65lbs, and corner, also got his first carry of his career, he needs to get another one and gain a yard so that he is back 0 again. One carry, -1 yard!! He was clueless on what to do at RB. But, when you get a 26-0 lead after only 12 minutes of action, and you recognize that you could score EVERY time you have the ball, you have to let everyone get a carry. What I was most proud of for my son was he made his first tackle, last week he made his first strip when a kid ran his way, he also snapped shot gun for our second string offense the entire second half and did an outstanding job. He starts at LT on 1st string and center on second string-one thing my boy can do is block, even being one of the smaller boys out there, he has great technique and gets the job done-very proud of him. This week presents us with our biggest challenge of the season to this point, as we play the North Gwinnett Bulldogs. This team is a well coached team, they beat us last year and they have some talent. Still, we have more speed and with our defense is playing, I can't see us losing this game. Until someone scores on us, I will have to give props to our defense and say we win tomorrow 20-0. As usual, hope all my readers have a great weekend, GO Dogs and Go Rams!
Monday, September 10, 2012
Big win on the road, my thoughts
First of all, I thought Missouri represented itself very well in its first game of SEC play, likewise for Texas A&M. I think both schools brought a lot of passion/excitement to what is already by far the best college football conference in America.
My thoughts on this game are just as the game itself played out. I thought early on the offense looked really bad. Aaron Murray looked very similar to the way he looked early against Buffalo-everything seemed off target, high for example-which usually can be attributed to nerves/excitement at the start of a game. I guess I just have higher expectations of Murray with this being his third full year starting. I expect he should have played enough games by now that he comes out razor sharp but so far this season, that has not been the case. I was happy to see he looked much better in the second half, he actually got it going late first half when Missouri scored and he marched us right down the field and we scored, only to have Marshall Morgan miss the PAT-which he came dangerously close to doing in week 1 as well. He did look MUCH better on his PAT's in the second half. The defense I thought did a mostly solid job against Missouri's high octane offense. They did break a few TD's on us, one late in the first half, one in the third qtr, but overall the D did a pretty decent job with an offense that I personally think is going to give a lot of SEC teams some problems this year. So, let me just single out some players, performances that I feel are worthy.
Jarvis Jones-what can you say about JJ. He started out on fire, he made himself known early and often, then it seemed he disappeared for about a quarter-he was still playing hard but to Mizzou's credit, he was not a factor during much of the third. In the 4th, just as the announcers were saying, big players make big plays when the game is on the line, Jarvis picks off a pass and scored a TD-it was VERY close and of course the refs and the review booth said he was down on the 1 but I thought it was close enough for him to get credit for that TD. Moments later he rushed in off the left side, hit Franklin just before he could throw the ball, and Jordan Jenkins recovered at the 5-great hustle play by Jenkins I might add. 3 plays later a game that had been Missouri 20-17 late in the 3rd was 41-20 with UGA scoring the last 24 points of the game-Jarvis proved he is one of those elite players that can personally take over a football game last Saturday night.
Richard Samuel-I focus on him because he is a SR that has been through so much, position changes, lack of PT, redshirting after 2 years of playing, the kid has been the ultimate team player and last Saturday night, he made what to me was one of the biggest plays of the night. All UGA fans can remember the SC fake punt last year that went for a TD and broke our back really, this time Mizzou tried to fake a punt and Samuel was the ONLY guy left that could save the punter from getting a first down. They had two guys trying to block Richard but he fought off the blocks and made the play. I think we all got to see how special a kid he is and how special a play he made when Mark Richt immediately went over and gave him a big bear hug after that great play.
Marlon Brown-after missing last week, and having a career that has had a few ups but mostly just average moments, the SR from Memphis made a big splash against Missouri. He had two touchdown catches, made several other strong catches and runs after contact, he was a real difference maker on Saturday. It is always good to see when a kid is in his last year and the light finally turns on for him. I think Marlon will be a big force for us this upcoming year. Remember, he was supposed to be the next AJ Green when he arrived-to me he looks more like Julio Jones when it comes to size-Marlon is a big strong kid.
Marshall Morgan-he missed the PAT which should NOT happen but you have to be encouraged that a kid playing his first SEC road game, at night and on national TV can hit two crucial field goals-the first one being 52 yards. He is also doing a pretty good job on kickoffs when he kicks, certainly it is a VERY good sign for a young kicker to mentally get off to a good start like Morgan has to the this point.
John Jenkins-the big man totally controlled the LOS against Missouri-and you can just see by watching him that he can MOVE to be so big. He blew up the line several times and chased down the QB/RB for the Tigers and made the play behind the line. You have to give credit to Jenkins as well as Washington and Abry Jones because our front DL, along with Jarvis coming off the edge was able to pressure the QB and also basically minus one run, shut down the run game for Missouri and let 7 guys drop in coverage.
Malcolm Mitchell-I thought he looked VERY good in his first game at corner. He came close to getting a few INT's, he seemed to be really good in coverage and also made some nice tackles. I do think our offense will need him some as the season progresses and we get all our players back from suspension but there is no doubt after watching Mitchell play on Saturday, he CAN play corner really well and we might need him over there next year as well.
Todd Gurley-minus the first offensive play of the game where he bobbled the pitch from Murray, he played well. The HUGE 44-45 yard run when Missouri had us pinned at the 7 was a huge play in the ballgame. This kid just really looks special to me, he looks like he has a very bright future. 4 TD's in 2 games is not bad.
Aaron Murray-I save him for last because I was VERY frustrated with him at halftime, as I mentioned before, I think I just have such high expectations for him this year, if he is not perfect I am not happy. I know that crowd and that team was new to him and all our players but he just didn't seem sharp in the first half. He rebounded nicely in the second half and even late first half so that is promising. The INT he threw was REALLY bad and thankfully the D held them to a FG. I thought his WR's didn't help him a few times but there is still room for improvement for Aaron. Still, after two games he has 6 TD passes to only 1 INT, he has not fumbled the ball yet, so I have to say I am happy with him.
I would also like to say I thought the OL did a pretty decent job. Missouri's front 7 were CONSTANTLY moving around prior to the snap, the stadium was loud (Gates and Theus had some trouble as they jumped early 2-3x each during the game). Still, considering the youth of our OL, overall I thought they did a pretty good job in protecting Murray and giving our backs a little bit of space. As the announcers said during the game, the good news is this young line is only going to get better and better.
One player off the top of my head that really seem to struggle Sat night was Michael Bennett. He had 3 drops I think of off the top of my head, he is SOOO sure handed it is always a shock to see him drop a single pass, much less three. Still, he caught the two point conversion and he always does the little things like blocking down field that will win you games.
Next up is Florida Atlantic, which should be another game to get the young guys some valuable experience-course I think after Arkansas losing to La-Monroe, every big school needs to learn that you have to take care of business EARLY and often against teams you should beat, you can't let up either. Arky had a 28-7 lead and didn't score again until kicking a FG in OT to briefly taket the lead. I hope our boys can get focused enough to come ready to play.
Course we KNOW that Sanders Commings and Chase Vasser will be back for the game this week. We still have no idea about Rambo and Ogletree. I would guess at this point, both are serving a 4 game suspension although Ogletree I think would stand the best shot of maybe being able to play this week. We shouldn't need either player this week but I think missing 4 starters and still holding Mizzou to 20 points at their place is a job well done by Grantham and our defense for sure.
Updated on the 8 year old Rams, we beat South 26-0 on Saturday. In the Gwinnett football league, if you beat a team by more than 32 points, the head coach has to pay a BIG fine, up to $500 I have heard but don't know if that is true. We were up 26-0 with nearly 9 minutes to go in the second quarter, yes, 4 TD's scored in about 11 minutes!! So, needless to say we called off the dogs and just had some fun rather than even get the one more touchdown we could have scored without getting a fine-the game was decided and it was time to just let all our boys get a lot of playing time-always good to let the reserves get a lot of quality playing time. Out of 28 teams in our 8 year old age bracket, we are one of only two teams that have shutout every opponent we have faced so far this year. The test will get MUCH tougher this week, we play a North Gwinnett Bulldog team that will probably be the best offense we have played to this point. We shall see if our shutout streak can continue.
My thoughts on this game are just as the game itself played out. I thought early on the offense looked really bad. Aaron Murray looked very similar to the way he looked early against Buffalo-everything seemed off target, high for example-which usually can be attributed to nerves/excitement at the start of a game. I guess I just have higher expectations of Murray with this being his third full year starting. I expect he should have played enough games by now that he comes out razor sharp but so far this season, that has not been the case. I was happy to see he looked much better in the second half, he actually got it going late first half when Missouri scored and he marched us right down the field and we scored, only to have Marshall Morgan miss the PAT-which he came dangerously close to doing in week 1 as well. He did look MUCH better on his PAT's in the second half. The defense I thought did a mostly solid job against Missouri's high octane offense. They did break a few TD's on us, one late in the first half, one in the third qtr, but overall the D did a pretty decent job with an offense that I personally think is going to give a lot of SEC teams some problems this year. So, let me just single out some players, performances that I feel are worthy.
Jarvis Jones-what can you say about JJ. He started out on fire, he made himself known early and often, then it seemed he disappeared for about a quarter-he was still playing hard but to Mizzou's credit, he was not a factor during much of the third. In the 4th, just as the announcers were saying, big players make big plays when the game is on the line, Jarvis picks off a pass and scored a TD-it was VERY close and of course the refs and the review booth said he was down on the 1 but I thought it was close enough for him to get credit for that TD. Moments later he rushed in off the left side, hit Franklin just before he could throw the ball, and Jordan Jenkins recovered at the 5-great hustle play by Jenkins I might add. 3 plays later a game that had been Missouri 20-17 late in the 3rd was 41-20 with UGA scoring the last 24 points of the game-Jarvis proved he is one of those elite players that can personally take over a football game last Saturday night.
Richard Samuel-I focus on him because he is a SR that has been through so much, position changes, lack of PT, redshirting after 2 years of playing, the kid has been the ultimate team player and last Saturday night, he made what to me was one of the biggest plays of the night. All UGA fans can remember the SC fake punt last year that went for a TD and broke our back really, this time Mizzou tried to fake a punt and Samuel was the ONLY guy left that could save the punter from getting a first down. They had two guys trying to block Richard but he fought off the blocks and made the play. I think we all got to see how special a kid he is and how special a play he made when Mark Richt immediately went over and gave him a big bear hug after that great play.
Marlon Brown-after missing last week, and having a career that has had a few ups but mostly just average moments, the SR from Memphis made a big splash against Missouri. He had two touchdown catches, made several other strong catches and runs after contact, he was a real difference maker on Saturday. It is always good to see when a kid is in his last year and the light finally turns on for him. I think Marlon will be a big force for us this upcoming year. Remember, he was supposed to be the next AJ Green when he arrived-to me he looks more like Julio Jones when it comes to size-Marlon is a big strong kid.
Marshall Morgan-he missed the PAT which should NOT happen but you have to be encouraged that a kid playing his first SEC road game, at night and on national TV can hit two crucial field goals-the first one being 52 yards. He is also doing a pretty good job on kickoffs when he kicks, certainly it is a VERY good sign for a young kicker to mentally get off to a good start like Morgan has to the this point.
John Jenkins-the big man totally controlled the LOS against Missouri-and you can just see by watching him that he can MOVE to be so big. He blew up the line several times and chased down the QB/RB for the Tigers and made the play behind the line. You have to give credit to Jenkins as well as Washington and Abry Jones because our front DL, along with Jarvis coming off the edge was able to pressure the QB and also basically minus one run, shut down the run game for Missouri and let 7 guys drop in coverage.
Malcolm Mitchell-I thought he looked VERY good in his first game at corner. He came close to getting a few INT's, he seemed to be really good in coverage and also made some nice tackles. I do think our offense will need him some as the season progresses and we get all our players back from suspension but there is no doubt after watching Mitchell play on Saturday, he CAN play corner really well and we might need him over there next year as well.
Todd Gurley-minus the first offensive play of the game where he bobbled the pitch from Murray, he played well. The HUGE 44-45 yard run when Missouri had us pinned at the 7 was a huge play in the ballgame. This kid just really looks special to me, he looks like he has a very bright future. 4 TD's in 2 games is not bad.
Aaron Murray-I save him for last because I was VERY frustrated with him at halftime, as I mentioned before, I think I just have such high expectations for him this year, if he is not perfect I am not happy. I know that crowd and that team was new to him and all our players but he just didn't seem sharp in the first half. He rebounded nicely in the second half and even late first half so that is promising. The INT he threw was REALLY bad and thankfully the D held them to a FG. I thought his WR's didn't help him a few times but there is still room for improvement for Aaron. Still, after two games he has 6 TD passes to only 1 INT, he has not fumbled the ball yet, so I have to say I am happy with him.
I would also like to say I thought the OL did a pretty decent job. Missouri's front 7 were CONSTANTLY moving around prior to the snap, the stadium was loud (Gates and Theus had some trouble as they jumped early 2-3x each during the game). Still, considering the youth of our OL, overall I thought they did a pretty good job in protecting Murray and giving our backs a little bit of space. As the announcers said during the game, the good news is this young line is only going to get better and better.
One player off the top of my head that really seem to struggle Sat night was Michael Bennett. He had 3 drops I think of off the top of my head, he is SOOO sure handed it is always a shock to see him drop a single pass, much less three. Still, he caught the two point conversion and he always does the little things like blocking down field that will win you games.
Next up is Florida Atlantic, which should be another game to get the young guys some valuable experience-course I think after Arkansas losing to La-Monroe, every big school needs to learn that you have to take care of business EARLY and often against teams you should beat, you can't let up either. Arky had a 28-7 lead and didn't score again until kicking a FG in OT to briefly taket the lead. I hope our boys can get focused enough to come ready to play.
Course we KNOW that Sanders Commings and Chase Vasser will be back for the game this week. We still have no idea about Rambo and Ogletree. I would guess at this point, both are serving a 4 game suspension although Ogletree I think would stand the best shot of maybe being able to play this week. We shouldn't need either player this week but I think missing 4 starters and still holding Mizzou to 20 points at their place is a job well done by Grantham and our defense for sure.
Updated on the 8 year old Rams, we beat South 26-0 on Saturday. In the Gwinnett football league, if you beat a team by more than 32 points, the head coach has to pay a BIG fine, up to $500 I have heard but don't know if that is true. We were up 26-0 with nearly 9 minutes to go in the second quarter, yes, 4 TD's scored in about 11 minutes!! So, needless to say we called off the dogs and just had some fun rather than even get the one more touchdown we could have scored without getting a fine-the game was decided and it was time to just let all our boys get a lot of playing time-always good to let the reserves get a lot of quality playing time. Out of 28 teams in our 8 year old age bracket, we are one of only two teams that have shutout every opponent we have faced so far this year. The test will get MUCH tougher this week, we play a North Gwinnett Bulldog team that will probably be the best offense we have played to this point. We shall see if our shutout streak can continue.
Friday, September 7, 2012
Looking back and looking ahead
I have not blogged since last Friday, meaning since our first game against the Buffalo Bills. Yeah, that is who we played and thus why we only won by 22 points. Hey, I guess the fact we only beat a non NFL playoff team by 22 points justifies us being dropped from 6 to 7 in the polls?? Anyway, we actually did play the Buffalo Bulls and for a half, made them look a LOT better than they really are. Why is that, well I have a few thoughts on that. First, I blame it on the opponent-they were a bad team last year and as such, are not expected to be much better this year. We have a big game tomorrow, that game really meant next to nothing to our players but it meant a lot to Buffalo. It was a chance for them to come out and play big boy football, try to gain confidence for their season and I believe we gave them that confidence-certainly in the first half. Also, it was HOT and HUMID-yeah, cry me a river but let's be honest, playing an opponent you KNOW you are going to beat, in front a crowd that knows you are going to beat this team, just not a lot of excitement in the air and that heat really was bad last week-I was coaching 8 year olds at noon on field turf, so I know it was indeed hot-and also this August really, we have not had a lot of that extreme heat that we typically will get where you can barely catch your breath-we had a lot of actually comfortable practice days in August. Still there is NO EXCUSE in that game being 24-16 at the half, could have been losing at half from what I have heard-I still have not watched the first half. I know Gurley had a nice KO return after Buffalo had tied us at 7, I also know that Penn Wages and company that called the game, maybe were not in mid season form as well-I saw a picture of Jarvis Jones being tackled-OL had one arm around his neck, one around his waist-and a hold was not called. Again though, if we are indeed a top ranked team in the nation, we should have come out and put that game out of reach from the first quarter to halftime, so Christian LeMay is playing in the 3rd quarter instead of midway into the 4th. It was a win, Todd Gurley looked INCREDIBLE, I thought Keith Marshall also looked good, I thought Michael Bennett continues to be a great player for us-he just does it all, blocking, making the tough, sure handed plays. TK and Wooten also looked good with their catches. The OL I thought did a good job providing running lanes for our backs and protecting Murray-who had a pretty decent but not great afternoon. What concerns me after week one, the defense. We allowed Buffalo to run and throw on us, especially in the first half, second half other than the last drive of the game, the D looked really good. What concerns me about this effort is that we are about to play an offense that is MUCH better than Buffalo so I am hoping the D performance was more about not being motivated, more than we are missing serveral starters and our backups are just nowhere near as dependable and good as those starters.
Moving on to this week, course still waiting to hear if those starters will be back this week. What I have read and know to be fact is the following-
Bacarri Rambo was in a car last summer with someone, and drugs were found. What I don't know is if Rambo failed a drug test, otherwise this would appear to be similar to the Branden Smith deal this year, where he was in a car with drugs but it was not his and he did not fail the drug test after the fact-and he played last week missing no games. Whatever the case, Rambo DID miss the Boise game last year, serving a one game suspension-you have to assume then he failed a drug test OR the UGA policy has changed this year which allowed Smith to play under the same circumstances. It is known that Rambo ate some brownies during spring break that contained marijuana, he then failed a drug test when he got back from spring break. At that point, his high school coach confirmed the story and said Rambo was appealing because he did not know the brownies had pot in them and he was upfront with coaches when he took his blood test about what happened. That being said, he would miss 4 games unless the appeal reduced the number of games. Again though, the question remains did Rambo fail the drug test LAST year, and if not, seems he would have a one game suspension and thus be back this week. At this point, I do NOT think there is any chance Rambo makes the trip and plays this week.
Alec Ogletree, he missed last week due to suspension, same as Rambo-Richt confirmed as much. Now, this is even a bigger mystery to me. Tree missed his very first college game in 2010 because he stole a bike helmet from another student. I am NOT aware of him sitting out any other games due to suspensions. He started last season against Boise but broke his foot early in that game. He came back against the Gators-now, is it possible he failed a test while he was injured and thus HAD to wait until the UF game to come back and they masked that suspension by the injury-possible yes. Otherwise, if Tree also ate the brownies and also failed the drug test, he should be sitting ONE game which was last week. Unless Richt/McGarity are holding his other suspension his freshman year against him-otherwise based on what I know and many others, he SHOULD be playing tomorrow against Missouri.
Sanders Commings, there are rumors swirling that he appealed his two game suspension and could be playing on Saturday. Rumors swirling that he has been working in Rambo's safety spot, but that could be because Rambo is out 4 weeks and thus Commings is getting ready to next week and then against Vandy as well. Commings suspension was over an assault charge involving a shoving match between he and his girlfriend. Witnesses at the scene said Sanders pushed her as basically self defense as the girlfriend was going crazy on him. Do I support a guy ever hitting a woman, ABSOLUTELY not but if a mad woman is beating on your, slapping on you, I don't think you have any choice but to try to restrain her in some way. I simply can't imagine though that Commings has any chance to play this week. His suspension was made public by Mark Richt, thus I simply can't see that being reduced especially since Commings situation involved him being arrested.
On the injury front, all the practice and work put in by Malcolm Mitchell this spring and summer to get ready to play both ways, in a walk through practice he lands on someones foot and sprains his ankle-hard to believe. Last Saturday he was in a walking boot with crutches, people thought the worst but these days, they tend to do that to make sure a kid can't move/walk on his ankle. Kids can and will be stupid, they have a slight sprain and think they are ok, they go do something stupid like celebrate a TD with a teammate, do a dance move, you name it and suddenly the slight sprain is more severe. From the sounds of it, Mitchell has been running at practice this week, Mark Richt is pretty optmistic. My thought, he tweaked his ankle and we were playing Buffalo, do not take any chances and boot him up just to make sure he does NOT move on that ankle. Mitchell will play tomorrow I feel sure.
John Theus hurt his ankle in the second half against Buffalo. He is a BIG man and when a guy that size hurts his ankle, there is cause for concern. But, it appears Theus has been testing his ankle this week at practice and again, I believe he will play. Watts Dantzler also hurt his ankle but again, I feel sure he will play as well if needed.
Let' face it, this is a big game for us in the SECe and next week we have another Buffalo type game. I fully expect that any injury player we have WILL play this week. I am not sure about the suspended players of course but I feel sure those kids with minor injuries are going to play.
Now, let's talk aboutMissouri
Our offense needs to help the D by playing ball control, smash mouth football with a nice balance of run/pass to keep them honest. I have read that this defense has played better against the traditional as one of their DL said, "old man" football formations. Well, that might be true but we have to keep our D rested and fresh because when they are on the field they are going to be busy. The best way to do that is with a power run game and I truly believe we might have found our power run game in the name of Todd Gurley. Sure it was one game but the kid has been doing it all preseason in scrimmages as well against our defenders. That stiff arm is a thing of beauty and the kid is rock solid/thick, always moving forward with his runs and also when he sees green grass, he can MOVE. One thing he has to get better at is pass protection as he whiffed on a block against Buffalo which led to a sack of Murray. Marshall looked like he tripped on his feet and that of the OL several times where if he kept his feet, he likely would have been gone. Malcome and Samuel likely are going to see fewer and fewer carries as this season goes along, that is just how talented I think these two backs are. Our offense I feel like needs to score points early, we need to put some pressure on Missouri, take the crowd down a notch and give our D a little confidence. This will mean Murray needs to be on in this game, not turning the ball over, not over throwing his passes, just playing smart football and leading our team the way a QB with his experience and talent should. For those that want to check out Missouri's depth chart, I did a copy/paste from the Rivals site. Of course the QB Franklin gets a lot of attention but the RB Lawrence 10 carries for 121 last week against SE Louisiana, PR Murphy who is second string RB returned two punts for TD's, one for 70 and the other for 72 yards. Missouri also had two defensive scores, a fumble recovery for TD and INT return for TD. The also have the top recruit in the nation from last years class, WR Dorial Green-Beckman who is 6-6 and 220, keep an eye on him. My prediction for this game is that UGA will come out and try to establish the run, might struggle to do so with Missouri's D but eventually the run game will set up some play action, Murray will have some success throwing the ball, which then will open up the run game as the game progresses. Missouri will spread the field and do what they do-I suspect we might struggle early with this spread but I think as the game wears on, our depth, size and speed on our D will be too much for Missouri. I think UGA wins this game 28-24, could be 35-24 range, but I don't see us winning this game by more than 10-12 points honestly. Missouri is at home, they have some talent and based on our struggles recently out of the game in big games, I think it foolish to expect any sort of blowout in this game. I hope the game is NOT close but I have strong feeling it will be tight for a good while come tomorrow night.
Final note about my Grayson 8's, last week we struggled a bit against the Shiloh Generals. Shiloh is a BIG physical bunch, we knew that from playing them at 7, they also have some speed that helped neutralize our speed. Our D was stellar though, only 3 first downs the entire game against us, forced 4 fumbles, recoved 3 of them-my little guy made a strip playing at corner, but we didn't recove that one. We won the game 12-0, it was a nice win even if we didn't put the game away until we scored our second TD of the game in the 4th qtr-we scored our first TD on our first drive of the game, a win is a win and we move forward to this week when we take on South Gwinnett-the old stomping grounds of David Greene, also my wife once was a South Gwinnett 3rd grade cheerleader and graduated from South Gwinnett HS. So, we play the 0-3 Comets this week. This is a team that only has 14 players, they are not nearly as big as our last two opponents, but they do have some speed. IF we play to our ability, this game should be over early and final should be in the 25-32 to 0 score range. We need to play well this week, starting next week our schedule gets tougher so we need some confidence and I think we get it. I will say 28-0, in the GFL if you beat a team by more than 32 points, you must pay a fine, so even if we could score more, we will not. I hope all that read this blog have a great weekend, as usual Go Dogs and Rams!
Moving on to this week, course still waiting to hear if those starters will be back this week. What I have read and know to be fact is the following-
Bacarri Rambo was in a car last summer with someone, and drugs were found. What I don't know is if Rambo failed a drug test, otherwise this would appear to be similar to the Branden Smith deal this year, where he was in a car with drugs but it was not his and he did not fail the drug test after the fact-and he played last week missing no games. Whatever the case, Rambo DID miss the Boise game last year, serving a one game suspension-you have to assume then he failed a drug test OR the UGA policy has changed this year which allowed Smith to play under the same circumstances. It is known that Rambo ate some brownies during spring break that contained marijuana, he then failed a drug test when he got back from spring break. At that point, his high school coach confirmed the story and said Rambo was appealing because he did not know the brownies had pot in them and he was upfront with coaches when he took his blood test about what happened. That being said, he would miss 4 games unless the appeal reduced the number of games. Again though, the question remains did Rambo fail the drug test LAST year, and if not, seems he would have a one game suspension and thus be back this week. At this point, I do NOT think there is any chance Rambo makes the trip and plays this week.
Alec Ogletree, he missed last week due to suspension, same as Rambo-Richt confirmed as much. Now, this is even a bigger mystery to me. Tree missed his very first college game in 2010 because he stole a bike helmet from another student. I am NOT aware of him sitting out any other games due to suspensions. He started last season against Boise but broke his foot early in that game. He came back against the Gators-now, is it possible he failed a test while he was injured and thus HAD to wait until the UF game to come back and they masked that suspension by the injury-possible yes. Otherwise, if Tree also ate the brownies and also failed the drug test, he should be sitting ONE game which was last week. Unless Richt/McGarity are holding his other suspension his freshman year against him-otherwise based on what I know and many others, he SHOULD be playing tomorrow against Missouri.
Sanders Commings, there are rumors swirling that he appealed his two game suspension and could be playing on Saturday. Rumors swirling that he has been working in Rambo's safety spot, but that could be because Rambo is out 4 weeks and thus Commings is getting ready to next week and then against Vandy as well. Commings suspension was over an assault charge involving a shoving match between he and his girlfriend. Witnesses at the scene said Sanders pushed her as basically self defense as the girlfriend was going crazy on him. Do I support a guy ever hitting a woman, ABSOLUTELY not but if a mad woman is beating on your, slapping on you, I don't think you have any choice but to try to restrain her in some way. I simply can't imagine though that Commings has any chance to play this week. His suspension was made public by Mark Richt, thus I simply can't see that being reduced especially since Commings situation involved him being arrested.
On the injury front, all the practice and work put in by Malcolm Mitchell this spring and summer to get ready to play both ways, in a walk through practice he lands on someones foot and sprains his ankle-hard to believe. Last Saturday he was in a walking boot with crutches, people thought the worst but these days, they tend to do that to make sure a kid can't move/walk on his ankle. Kids can and will be stupid, they have a slight sprain and think they are ok, they go do something stupid like celebrate a TD with a teammate, do a dance move, you name it and suddenly the slight sprain is more severe. From the sounds of it, Mitchell has been running at practice this week, Mark Richt is pretty optmistic. My thought, he tweaked his ankle and we were playing Buffalo, do not take any chances and boot him up just to make sure he does NOT move on that ankle. Mitchell will play tomorrow I feel sure.
John Theus hurt his ankle in the second half against Buffalo. He is a BIG man and when a guy that size hurts his ankle, there is cause for concern. But, it appears Theus has been testing his ankle this week at practice and again, I believe he will play. Watts Dantzler also hurt his ankle but again, I feel sure he will play as well if needed.
Let' face it, this is a big game for us in the SECe and next week we have another Buffalo type game. I fully expect that any injury player we have WILL play this week. I am not sure about the suspended players of course but I feel sure those kids with minor injuries are going to play.
Now, let's talk about
Our offense needs to help the D by playing ball control, smash mouth football with a nice balance of run/pass to keep them honest. I have read that this defense has played better against the traditional as one of their DL said, "old man" football formations. Well, that might be true but we have to keep our D rested and fresh because when they are on the field they are going to be busy. The best way to do that is with a power run game and I truly believe we might have found our power run game in the name of Todd Gurley. Sure it was one game but the kid has been doing it all preseason in scrimmages as well against our defenders. That stiff arm is a thing of beauty and the kid is rock solid/thick, always moving forward with his runs and also when he sees green grass, he can MOVE. One thing he has to get better at is pass protection as he whiffed on a block against Buffalo which led to a sack of Murray. Marshall looked like he tripped on his feet and that of the OL several times where if he kept his feet, he likely would have been gone. Malcome and Samuel likely are going to see fewer and fewer carries as this season goes along, that is just how talented I think these two backs are. Our offense I feel like needs to score points early, we need to put some pressure on Missouri, take the crowd down a notch and give our D a little confidence. This will mean Murray needs to be on in this game, not turning the ball over, not over throwing his passes, just playing smart football and leading our team the way a QB with his experience and talent should. For those that want to check out Missouri's depth chart, I did a copy/paste from the Rivals site. Of course the QB Franklin gets a lot of attention but the RB Lawrence 10 carries for 121 last week against SE Louisiana, PR Murphy who is second string RB returned two punts for TD's, one for 70 and the other for 72 yards. Missouri also had two defensive scores, a fumble recovery for TD and INT return for TD. The also have the top recruit in the nation from last years class, WR Dorial Green-Beckman who is 6-6 and 220, keep an eye on him. My prediction for this game is that UGA will come out and try to establish the run, might struggle to do so with Missouri's D but eventually the run game will set up some play action, Murray will have some success throwing the ball, which then will open up the run game as the game progresses. Missouri will spread the field and do what they do-I suspect we might struggle early with this spread but I think as the game wears on, our depth, size and speed on our D will be too much for Missouri. I think UGA wins this game 28-24, could be 35-24 range, but I don't see us winning this game by more than 10-12 points honestly. Missouri is at home, they have some talent and based on our struggles recently out of the game in big games, I think it foolish to expect any sort of blowout in this game. I hope the game is NOT close but I have strong feeling it will be tight for a good while come tomorrow night.
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Final note about my Grayson 8's, last week we struggled a bit against the Shiloh Generals. Shiloh is a BIG physical bunch, we knew that from playing them at 7, they also have some speed that helped neutralize our speed. Our D was stellar though, only 3 first downs the entire game against us, forced 4 fumbles, recoved 3 of them-my little guy made a strip playing at corner, but we didn't recove that one. We won the game 12-0, it was a nice win even if we didn't put the game away until we scored our second TD of the game in the 4th qtr-we scored our first TD on our first drive of the game, a win is a win and we move forward to this week when we take on South Gwinnett-the old stomping grounds of David Greene, also my wife once was a South Gwinnett 3rd grade cheerleader and graduated from South Gwinnett HS. So, we play the 0-3 Comets this week. This is a team that only has 14 players, they are not nearly as big as our last two opponents, but they do have some speed. IF we play to our ability, this game should be over early and final should be in the 25-32 to 0 score range. We need to play well this week, starting next week our schedule gets tougher so we need some confidence and I think we get it. I will say 28-0, in the GFL if you beat a team by more than 32 points, you must pay a fine, so even if we could score more, we will not. I hope all that read this blog have a great weekend, as usual Go Dogs and Rams!
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