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!
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