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!
No comments:
Post a Comment