So here it is, the final two games of the season approaching. Up next, a game against #2 Alabama, win that and we get #1 Notre Dame. In this era of everyone wanting a playoff in college football, this year comes pretty close to offering just that. Granted, I myself would rather see a 16 team tourney, with conference champs the top 8 seeds and then 8 at large-which could include champs of smaller conferences-but in my mind the SEC, Pac12, Big12, Big10, ACC, BigEast, and then maybe Mtn West and then best Independent, those would be top 8, then have 8 at large-that would be the ideal system becuase it would allow more SEC teams which I think is what needs to happen-this year is yet another example of that. But, I am sure people could poke holes in my thought process so I will not waste time going any further. Back to what I was saying before, first up is #2 Bama, then if we win, #1 Irish.
I am one that firmly believes UGA has a great shot to win tomorrow. I am fully aware that Bama is a very good team, not only that, but they played and won a national title last year-some could argue though they should have NOT received that second chance to play LSU. But, for some reason, maybe because I bleed red and black, I just think we match up well against Bama. Our former QB Zach Mettenberger a few weeks back nearly threw for 300 yards on them, Johnny Manzell, or Johnny football, threw for over 250 yards on them. I think our QB passing wise, is better than those two, I also believe our backs, WR's and the emergence of our TE combo, all are better than LSU or Texas A&M. I also believe our defense is better than those two schools, so I guess I am drinking the kool-aid but honestly, I think UGA can and will win the SEC title. This game reminds me a lot of the game this year in Jax, both teams we are facing were/are ranked #2, very few give us a chance to win the game, but yet we did win that game and when you go back and look at that game and remember all the HUGE plays in that game, to see how we have played since the Rambo pick of Driskel right before half, you just see a dominant team. Rambo picks that ball off, if not we are looking to be down 9-7 at the half, instead we remain up 7-6. In the second half, Murray throws zero picks, is an efficient 10-16 for just over 100 yards, throws a TD pass, and we win the game. You look at the pass INT called rightfully on UF to keep a drive alive, Mitchell catching passes on the TD drive, including the TD grab itself in which he split defenders and then outran the UF defenders to the endzone. Then you have the Jarvis Jones play to clinch it, ever since that game this team looks much like that 2007 team that we all hoped would get a chance for the title but didn't, reason being because we didn't play in the SEC title game that year.
The key to this game to me will be the play of the OL, along with Aaron Murray. The OL did a good job against UF for the most part, after struggling against SCarolina. But remember, against SC, we were down 21-0 and the offense had only run 5 plays, one of which was a tipped Murray pass that was picked off. Down 21-0, that TOTALLY changes your gameplan and of course it allows SC DE's who happen to be two of the best in the nation, to know what you are doing most plays, throw the ball. Also keep in mind, that was the week we lost Michael Bennett who to that point had been Murray's security blanket. Bama has a STRONG front 7 but I personally don't believe their front 7 is any better than the two tough oppponents we have played thus far in SC and UF. I think Bama has shown to be suspect in the secondary, and again, if Murray has time to throw and doesn't turn the ball over as has been his norm in big games, he can and WILL pick Bama apart. Also of course, we need Gurley and/or Marshall to give the offense just enough balance with the run game to keep Bama guessing. We have to avoid crucial penalties and turnovers obviously as that always goes without saying.
Our defense will go from facing the option two weeks in a row back to a normal pro style offense with a high emphasis on the power run game. The way Jarvis Jones, Alec Olgetree and Bacarri Rambo typically play in BIG football games, I feel comfident they can stop Bama. Bama also just lost their most experienced WR, they will rely on a FR WR to provide them balance on offense, I just see our D playing a very solid and complete football game. We have so much talent and leadership on that side of the ball, I just think we can hold Bama to around 20 points.
Prediction, I say UGA 24-20. I was 11 years old when UGA last won a national title, little did I know I would have to wait until I was 43 to potentially see the next title. We played for a title in 1982 against Penn State, so I was really 13 the last time UGA played for a title, but that would still make it 30 years for me. For all the Dog fans that have never experienced this, it is a special time to be a Dog fan. My 8 year old son attended his first game this year, how cool for UGA to win the title the year he first attends a game. There are just so many reasons to be excited about the CHANCE. If we fall short, it will be disappointing, because we have waited so long. But, we can at least say we finally go the shot again. I personally think we will win, and then go beat the Irish and claim the title. I just have a feeling and I hope that feeling turns out to be what actually happens. Time will tell now, as I type this, we are nearly 27 hours until the biggest game for UGA football in 30 years. I can't wait to see how it turns out, win or lose, always a Dog fan. Hope you all have a great weekend. GOOOOOO DOGS!!!
Friday, November 30, 2012
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
We must protect the house, win the state title before we start talking BCS titles
As I sat home last Saturday night, flipping back and forth between Kansas State-Baylor, and Oregon-Stanford, I thought wow, there is no way both these teams will lose tonight. Now, I did feel like Stanford had a team that could give Oregon fits, but figured with the game at Oregon, the Ducks would win. I had watched Stanford against Notre Dame and also against Southern Cal and come away impressed with how they play. I believe Stanford plays football in their conference as close to the way an SEC team would play in that conference, solid run game, good defense and steady play at QB. As I watched that game, I kept thinking, this game IS going the way the Cardinal want it to go, low scoring, and that defense is having its way with the high powered offense. Flipping back to KST, I knew Baylor came into the game with a high powered offense but a HORRIBLE defense. I also knew that they were 4-5, 1-5 in their conference but they were at least playing at home. Still, KST had played a pretty good schedule and although they had Texas the next week, surely they could beat Baylor, I mean RG3 is not QB at Baylor this year. After I watched half of that game, I figured it was as good as over. It was just one of those games where you sensed it was Baylor's night, reminded me of our game with SCarolina this year, just seems there are sometimes a game or two where everything goes against you, while all goes right for the other team. KST experienced that against Baylor. So, knowing that BCS #1 and 2 had lost, while #3 Notre Dame had won as well as #4 Bama and #5 UGA, it left me wondering, WILL we move ahead of those two and be #3-sure enough Sunday night that did happen. What that means of course is simple, we win against GTU and Bama (assuming Bama beats Auburn), UGA WILL play for a national title in Miami on January 7th. Yes, the same UGA team that got embarrassed in Columbia, SC, 35-7 on October 6th, 3 months almost to the day could play for a national title.
First things first, we have to beat the pesky insects, inside Sanford Stadium this Saturday. Now, GTU comes into this game on a 3 game winning steak. They have whipped Maryland, North Carolina and Duke after suffering their 5th loss of the season against BYU. Now, while they have been rolling up points and wins against those three ACC teams, we need to also realize, Maryland is 4-7 on the year, 2-5 in ACC play. Their wins this year, against William and Mary 7-6, Temple 36-27, Wake 19-14, and Virginia 27-20. Their offense has scored more than 20 points only 4 times in 11 games this year, course Tech faced a converted LB playing QB against them. UNC, they are 7-4, 4-3 in the ACC. Wins against Elon, East Carolina, Idaho, VT, Miami, NCST and Virgina, losses against Wake, Louisville, Duke, and GT. Duke, they are bowl eligible, but look at their wins-Florida International, NC Central, Memphis, Wake, Virginia, and NC. Losses to Stanford 50-13, VT 41-20, FSU 48-7, Clemson 56-20, and GT 42-24. Can you say NO DEFENSE for the Blue Devils, WOW!! Not like we have played powerful teams down the stretch-but UF, Ole Miss, even AU, and GSU, would have a fighting chance against those three ACC powers. Tech will also play for their conference title, with a 5-3 record since Miami self imposed no bowls this year, VT is having a dreadful year, UNC also can't go to a bowl, that basically leaves that division up to GT and Duke and GT beat Duke last weekend to essentially win that division-again, WOW!
I am concerned about this GT game though because of all the BCS talk. We can't afford to come out and ASSume a victory against this group. While they are not the most talented team Paul Johnson has brought to Sanford, that would be his 2008 team that beat a very talented UGA team I might add, this team IS good enough to beat UGA if we don't take this game seriously, commit turnovers and penalties. All we have to do is look at just one week ago, the game I mentioned above-KST against Baylor. Course that game was at Baylor while we host the Nerds, but still, it proves that a team that has an offense and gets rolling, can cause a team problems. Once things start going bad against this option style offense, you can get in trouble. Why, because this offense is designed to chip away the clock, essentially play keep away. You have to make stops and get your offense back on the field. All this being said, I can't help but think that us playing a similar offense in Ga Southern last week will at least help a little bit in controlling this offense. Let's face it, we have as close to an NFL defense as just about any team in college football. Just take a look at our starters for a minute on the defensive side of the ball-
DE Garrison Smith-will be an NFL player IMO
NT John Jenkins-potential to be 1st rounder
DE Cornelius Washington-pro potential
OLB Jarvis Jones-potential #1 overall pick
OLB Jordan Jenkins-will be a #1 pick IMO
ILB-Tree-will be a 1st round pick
ILB-Hererra-has NFL future
CB-Swann-has NFL future
CB-Smith-COULD make NFL roster
S-Shawn Williams-NFL player
S-Bacarri Rambo-NFL player
Also, Kwame will play pro ball and so might Abry Jones, as well as a few others that are not getting major reps yet.
You would have to figure if this group can just focus on doing their jobs, we can stop that offense enough to win the game. Our offense, if Murray is on passing, we should be able to score 30+ on the Tech D, considering we have scored 30+ in every game since UF, and the Tech defense is not any better than Ole Miss, AU or Ga. Southern. This is where Murray's leadership needs to come into play, and the OL needs to block and give him protection as well as give our backs some running lanes. Murray needs to play like he has from the second half against UF up until now.
One thing I have noticed over the past several games, with AU being the lone exception, we are not playing great football in the first half-that has really been an issue for much of 2012. That being said, we play VERY well after the break. The thing about this week is, we have to play solid from the start, build a lead and make them try to play catch up, which that offense is not designed to do. I will be curious to see if Johnson tries to throw the ball more having Vad Lee this year, a kid that Techies have been drooling about for two years now. He is a better pure passer I have been told than is Washington but still doesn't run the triple option as well as Washington. I expect they will go with Lee pretty quickly against us figuring the only shot they have is to be more verstile on offense, if we prove to be shutting down the option that is. It all comes down to execution though, we are more talented but that doesn't matter if our guys don't do their jobs on defense-I think they will.
Assuming we get the win against Tech, of course no one will give us any chance against Bama, but I do think we have a good shot, if Murray is given time and doesn't wet the bed. But I will discuss that next week. I hope our guys have learned a valuable lesson from watching these top teams get beat-first it was Bama two weeks ago at home, then KST on the road, finally Oregon at home, you have to be ready to play at all times or you can and will get beat. GTU would love nothing more than to ruin our season, we were very similar to them in 2009, they were 10-1 at home and we were 6-5, we went over to Atlanta and beat those guys. It can be done if our guys don't prepare and play football how our coaches are teaching them. I am worried but also confident our boys know how much is at stake, they will fight the good fight and beat the Nerds on Saturday.
My prediction this week is based on a few things-first, the Tech defense is not very good. Second, our defense will be the most talented group Tech has faced this year, and the games where they have faced a decent defense, they have had trouble. BYU statisticially would probably be the best D they have faced this year until our game, they lost at home 41-17. Get this, they only had 157 total yards in that game-117 rushing. VT they lost with only 288 total yards. Also if you look at Tech's passing game, it is really amazing-Washington and Lee are a combined 82-143 for 1,505 yards, 10 TD's and 4 INTs. That is an average of 137 yards per game passing, which is actually higher than I thought it would be but still very low. Add to that the health of Tech's best back-both rushing and receiving in Orwin Smith-he is scheduled to play but he has an ankle injury-he might play a few plays and tweak it, plus they do have bigger fish to fry the next week so they might hold him out. Anyway, I just believe we have a HUGE talent gap across the board this year, I actually think our talent gap on them continues to grow as long as Paul Johnson hangs around, so I just think we will win this game and be right there along where the spread is set, maybe a tad higher. These games have been close during Richt's tenure, we have had a few blowout wins but most are within a TD or 10 points. I think this year we score 38 and Tech scores 21.
I hope you all have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING, next week I will post about the upcoming SEC title game and might throw in something about the mens hoop team. I have some opinions there so might take the time to write next week or just wait until after the SEC title. Anyway, hope everyone has a great holiday with family and friends. GO DOGS!!
First things first, we have to beat the pesky insects, inside Sanford Stadium this Saturday. Now, GTU comes into this game on a 3 game winning steak. They have whipped Maryland, North Carolina and Duke after suffering their 5th loss of the season against BYU. Now, while they have been rolling up points and wins against those three ACC teams, we need to also realize, Maryland is 4-7 on the year, 2-5 in ACC play. Their wins this year, against William and Mary 7-6, Temple 36-27, Wake 19-14, and Virginia 27-20. Their offense has scored more than 20 points only 4 times in 11 games this year, course Tech faced a converted LB playing QB against them. UNC, they are 7-4, 4-3 in the ACC. Wins against Elon, East Carolina, Idaho, VT, Miami, NCST and Virgina, losses against Wake, Louisville, Duke, and GT. Duke, they are bowl eligible, but look at their wins-Florida International, NC Central, Memphis, Wake, Virginia, and NC. Losses to Stanford 50-13, VT 41-20, FSU 48-7, Clemson 56-20, and GT 42-24. Can you say NO DEFENSE for the Blue Devils, WOW!! Not like we have played powerful teams down the stretch-but UF, Ole Miss, even AU, and GSU, would have a fighting chance against those three ACC powers. Tech will also play for their conference title, with a 5-3 record since Miami self imposed no bowls this year, VT is having a dreadful year, UNC also can't go to a bowl, that basically leaves that division up to GT and Duke and GT beat Duke last weekend to essentially win that division-again, WOW!
I am concerned about this GT game though because of all the BCS talk. We can't afford to come out and ASSume a victory against this group. While they are not the most talented team Paul Johnson has brought to Sanford, that would be his 2008 team that beat a very talented UGA team I might add, this team IS good enough to beat UGA if we don't take this game seriously, commit turnovers and penalties. All we have to do is look at just one week ago, the game I mentioned above-KST against Baylor. Course that game was at Baylor while we host the Nerds, but still, it proves that a team that has an offense and gets rolling, can cause a team problems. Once things start going bad against this option style offense, you can get in trouble. Why, because this offense is designed to chip away the clock, essentially play keep away. You have to make stops and get your offense back on the field. All this being said, I can't help but think that us playing a similar offense in Ga Southern last week will at least help a little bit in controlling this offense. Let's face it, we have as close to an NFL defense as just about any team in college football. Just take a look at our starters for a minute on the defensive side of the ball-
DE Garrison Smith-will be an NFL player IMO
NT John Jenkins-potential to be 1st rounder
DE Cornelius Washington-pro potential
OLB Jarvis Jones-potential #1 overall pick
OLB Jordan Jenkins-will be a #1 pick IMO
ILB-Tree-will be a 1st round pick
ILB-Hererra-has NFL future
CB-Swann-has NFL future
CB-Smith-COULD make NFL roster
S-Shawn Williams-NFL player
S-Bacarri Rambo-NFL player
Also, Kwame will play pro ball and so might Abry Jones, as well as a few others that are not getting major reps yet.
You would have to figure if this group can just focus on doing their jobs, we can stop that offense enough to win the game. Our offense, if Murray is on passing, we should be able to score 30+ on the Tech D, considering we have scored 30+ in every game since UF, and the Tech defense is not any better than Ole Miss, AU or Ga. Southern. This is where Murray's leadership needs to come into play, and the OL needs to block and give him protection as well as give our backs some running lanes. Murray needs to play like he has from the second half against UF up until now.
One thing I have noticed over the past several games, with AU being the lone exception, we are not playing great football in the first half-that has really been an issue for much of 2012. That being said, we play VERY well after the break. The thing about this week is, we have to play solid from the start, build a lead and make them try to play catch up, which that offense is not designed to do. I will be curious to see if Johnson tries to throw the ball more having Vad Lee this year, a kid that Techies have been drooling about for two years now. He is a better pure passer I have been told than is Washington but still doesn't run the triple option as well as Washington. I expect they will go with Lee pretty quickly against us figuring the only shot they have is to be more verstile on offense, if we prove to be shutting down the option that is. It all comes down to execution though, we are more talented but that doesn't matter if our guys don't do their jobs on defense-I think they will.
Assuming we get the win against Tech, of course no one will give us any chance against Bama, but I do think we have a good shot, if Murray is given time and doesn't wet the bed. But I will discuss that next week. I hope our guys have learned a valuable lesson from watching these top teams get beat-first it was Bama two weeks ago at home, then KST on the road, finally Oregon at home, you have to be ready to play at all times or you can and will get beat. GTU would love nothing more than to ruin our season, we were very similar to them in 2009, they were 10-1 at home and we were 6-5, we went over to Atlanta and beat those guys. It can be done if our guys don't prepare and play football how our coaches are teaching them. I am worried but also confident our boys know how much is at stake, they will fight the good fight and beat the Nerds on Saturday.
My prediction this week is based on a few things-first, the Tech defense is not very good. Second, our defense will be the most talented group Tech has faced this year, and the games where they have faced a decent defense, they have had trouble. BYU statisticially would probably be the best D they have faced this year until our game, they lost at home 41-17. Get this, they only had 157 total yards in that game-117 rushing. VT they lost with only 288 total yards. Also if you look at Tech's passing game, it is really amazing-Washington and Lee are a combined 82-143 for 1,505 yards, 10 TD's and 4 INTs. That is an average of 137 yards per game passing, which is actually higher than I thought it would be but still very low. Add to that the health of Tech's best back-both rushing and receiving in Orwin Smith-he is scheduled to play but he has an ankle injury-he might play a few plays and tweak it, plus they do have bigger fish to fry the next week so they might hold him out. Anyway, I just believe we have a HUGE talent gap across the board this year, I actually think our talent gap on them continues to grow as long as Paul Johnson hangs around, so I just think we will win this game and be right there along where the spread is set, maybe a tad higher. These games have been close during Richt's tenure, we have had a few blowout wins but most are within a TD or 10 points. I think this year we score 38 and Tech scores 21.
I hope you all have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING, next week I will post about the upcoming SEC title game and might throw in something about the mens hoop team. I have some opinions there so might take the time to write next week or just wait until after the SEC title. Anyway, hope everyone has a great holiday with family and friends. GO DOGS!!
Monday, November 12, 2012
SEC Eastern Champs once again
Wow, didn't even blog before the big Auburn game, guess that is what happens when you enter an Auburn game in a year where Auburn is winless in the conference. I expected a win but didn't expect it to be over basically after the first quarter. It is always nice to beat the folks from Auburn and I still remember very well two years ago, with Cam the Scam playing QB and blowing kisses, Fairley spearing Aaron Murray while Troopah Taylor celebrated with him, waving his towel and acting like the total JOKE that he is. So therefore, I do NOT feel one bit sorry for that team, for those coaches, for that school. They cheated two years ago, got away with it and I feel this year is payback for all of that.
Along with the win on Saturday, Bama lost to Texas A&M, which is a bit of a surprise based on the fact Bama was playing at home and everyone just thinks so highly of the Tide. They really were outplayed and got lucky to beat LSU the week before, so it was not a shock to me to be honest. It was a potential letdown game coming off the LSU game, and A&M has a good team this year, especially the QB. I think the past two weeks have shown that good balance, a solid D, and limiting turnovers, can lead to a competitive game against Bama and they ARE beatable for sure. I just hope that Murray can make smart decisions against them and our D continues to play to the level they have the past three games, ever since Shawn Williams made his comments about the D being soft, they have turned the corner.
The next two games for UGA are ground oriented, triple option offenses, so they both will be tests for our defense. What I like though is that we have BIG boys in the middle to blow those plays up, we have speed on the ends and outside LB's to contain the plays, and then we have two safeties that can flat out tackle folks themselves, which is crucial going against this style offense-we all remember too well the last time UGA lost to Tech, the missed tackles were critical to that loss. Our guys will have to again remember to stick to their assignments and I think we will be ok. I don't think either Southern or GT can stop our offense, so I can see us scoring at least 30, probably in the 40's both games. It will just be a matter of whether the D can hold them under 20 points. Both games are kicking off early, GS at 1:30, GT was just announced at noon. I honestly like those times better because the SEC title game will be at 4 on December 1st, so I am glad especially the GT game is noon, get that game over with and then start turning attention to Bama.
I now go back to the Ole Miss game, the game in which I took my son to his very first UGA game. We had a bday party to attend at 11:30, so we left Gwinnett around 12:30 or so heading to Athens. From my house in Lawrencville to Athens is around 35 miles, and I live very close to Sugarloaf pkway which extends to 316, so a very easy drive, exception being missing a lot of the traffic lights along the way. I headed to the East Campus parking area, which is where I had parked for years when attending UGA games-problem though, since we got there around 1:30, lots were full. SO, we ended up parking at the intramural fields and that was not a bad thing at all. Like the East Campus lots, they offer a shuttle to the stadium, and we took advantage. Our seats were great and we got there in time to see the guys warm up without pads, which is interesting because you truly get to see how big some of these guys are-pads of course make them all look big, but without the pads, you can see how muscled up these guys are. The game started out pretty bad, 10-0 before the big David Greene fake play that worked yet again to Marlon Brown. From there the Dogs got the HUGE TD to King right beforeh the half and the just kept it going in the 3rd. It was a great way to spend the afternoon with my son, the weather was PERFECT, although we looked into the sun the first half and it was actually hot, but just hated that Marlon Brown got hurt. He was having a very good season and a GREAT game, just really a shame. Also a shame was the drunk couple behind me. I have no problem with social drinking for a football game, but I DO have a problem with drunk and obnoxious people acting like a fool around me, and especially around my 8 year old son. I know it comes with the territory of taking children to a big time sporting event, but this couple behind me were just total idiots. First of all, the drunk lady was busying mixing up her drink behind me, poured what I think was vodka in my son's sprite-I had pushed it under my seat to keep the ice from melting in the son and to keep us from kicking it over. She was pouring her drink out and poured it into his drink. I told her THANK YOU for ruining my son's drink, she pleaded she had nothing but sprite, but you could obviously SMELL that was not all she had. Her drunk husband was smarting off to me and the guy next to me, TRYING to start a fight. I just decided to ignore them and sure enough about 10 minutes later they staggered off. All the folks around me were very happy, several made a point to apologize for the couples behavior, one nice lady said she reported them to security, which I would have done if my son had not been there. Bottom line I wanted it to be a special day for him and for us, and when those two idiots left, is right about the time UGA started coming back in the game, so it was VERY NICE!!
One final note, my son's team will be playing in there tourney this week and it will be the last 3-4 games he will play until next fall. He has made such strides this year, it really makes this Dad proud. My daughter completed her cheer season this past Saturday and now is on to middle school basketball cheering before moving to HS cheering next year. I am really proud of my kids, it is always a pleasure to go watch them in their activities, I miss some UGA games in the process but I truly do believe, going to the activities, watching my kids grow up is much more important than watching UGA football. Yes, I love the Dogs and want them to win every game they play, in every sport, but I love my kids so much more. I believe more of these "fans" that are so quick to bash and so quick to judge need to step back and realize what is truly important in life-which is your belief in God, your love of family and friends, your health, and then, just then might be the Dogs. I am thankful that we have a football coach in Athens that sees the big picture and actually conducts his business the way it SHOULD BE conducted.
I might blog again later this week but if not, GO DOGS, beat Southern!!
Along with the win on Saturday, Bama lost to Texas A&M, which is a bit of a surprise based on the fact Bama was playing at home and everyone just thinks so highly of the Tide. They really were outplayed and got lucky to beat LSU the week before, so it was not a shock to me to be honest. It was a potential letdown game coming off the LSU game, and A&M has a good team this year, especially the QB. I think the past two weeks have shown that good balance, a solid D, and limiting turnovers, can lead to a competitive game against Bama and they ARE beatable for sure. I just hope that Murray can make smart decisions against them and our D continues to play to the level they have the past three games, ever since Shawn Williams made his comments about the D being soft, they have turned the corner.
The next two games for UGA are ground oriented, triple option offenses, so they both will be tests for our defense. What I like though is that we have BIG boys in the middle to blow those plays up, we have speed on the ends and outside LB's to contain the plays, and then we have two safeties that can flat out tackle folks themselves, which is crucial going against this style offense-we all remember too well the last time UGA lost to Tech, the missed tackles were critical to that loss. Our guys will have to again remember to stick to their assignments and I think we will be ok. I don't think either Southern or GT can stop our offense, so I can see us scoring at least 30, probably in the 40's both games. It will just be a matter of whether the D can hold them under 20 points. Both games are kicking off early, GS at 1:30, GT was just announced at noon. I honestly like those times better because the SEC title game will be at 4 on December 1st, so I am glad especially the GT game is noon, get that game over with and then start turning attention to Bama.
I now go back to the Ole Miss game, the game in which I took my son to his very first UGA game. We had a bday party to attend at 11:30, so we left Gwinnett around 12:30 or so heading to Athens. From my house in Lawrencville to Athens is around 35 miles, and I live very close to Sugarloaf pkway which extends to 316, so a very easy drive, exception being missing a lot of the traffic lights along the way. I headed to the East Campus parking area, which is where I had parked for years when attending UGA games-problem though, since we got there around 1:30, lots were full. SO, we ended up parking at the intramural fields and that was not a bad thing at all. Like the East Campus lots, they offer a shuttle to the stadium, and we took advantage. Our seats were great and we got there in time to see the guys warm up without pads, which is interesting because you truly get to see how big some of these guys are-pads of course make them all look big, but without the pads, you can see how muscled up these guys are. The game started out pretty bad, 10-0 before the big David Greene fake play that worked yet again to Marlon Brown. From there the Dogs got the HUGE TD to King right beforeh the half and the just kept it going in the 3rd. It was a great way to spend the afternoon with my son, the weather was PERFECT, although we looked into the sun the first half and it was actually hot, but just hated that Marlon Brown got hurt. He was having a very good season and a GREAT game, just really a shame. Also a shame was the drunk couple behind me. I have no problem with social drinking for a football game, but I DO have a problem with drunk and obnoxious people acting like a fool around me, and especially around my 8 year old son. I know it comes with the territory of taking children to a big time sporting event, but this couple behind me were just total idiots. First of all, the drunk lady was busying mixing up her drink behind me, poured what I think was vodka in my son's sprite-I had pushed it under my seat to keep the ice from melting in the son and to keep us from kicking it over. She was pouring her drink out and poured it into his drink. I told her THANK YOU for ruining my son's drink, she pleaded she had nothing but sprite, but you could obviously SMELL that was not all she had. Her drunk husband was smarting off to me and the guy next to me, TRYING to start a fight. I just decided to ignore them and sure enough about 10 minutes later they staggered off. All the folks around me were very happy, several made a point to apologize for the couples behavior, one nice lady said she reported them to security, which I would have done if my son had not been there. Bottom line I wanted it to be a special day for him and for us, and when those two idiots left, is right about the time UGA started coming back in the game, so it was VERY NICE!!
One final note, my son's team will be playing in there tourney this week and it will be the last 3-4 games he will play until next fall. He has made such strides this year, it really makes this Dad proud. My daughter completed her cheer season this past Saturday and now is on to middle school basketball cheering before moving to HS cheering next year. I am really proud of my kids, it is always a pleasure to go watch them in their activities, I miss some UGA games in the process but I truly do believe, going to the activities, watching my kids grow up is much more important than watching UGA football. Yes, I love the Dogs and want them to win every game they play, in every sport, but I love my kids so much more. I believe more of these "fans" that are so quick to bash and so quick to judge need to step back and realize what is truly important in life-which is your belief in God, your love of family and friends, your health, and then, just then might be the Dogs. I am thankful that we have a football coach in Athens that sees the big picture and actually conducts his business the way it SHOULD BE conducted.
I might blog again later this week but if not, GO DOGS, beat Southern!!
Friday, November 2, 2012
BIG WIN, now avoid the letdown
I blogged last week that I really did have a gut feeling UGA would beat UF last week. I am no expert on college football but I did know enough to think all the love for UF was a little too much. Yes, they beat South Carolina badly, but when you really looked at South Carolina for that game, did you really expect Florida to NOT win. The game was at the swamp, SCarolina had just played UGA and LSU back to back, with LSU also being on the road. Marcus Lattimore was not 100% and in fact played very little in this game-and I hate to see what happened to him against Tenn last Saturday. The kid is a GREAT player and seems like an equally great young man, I hope he is able to come back and play again. Back to that game, you couple those factors I mentioned with the fact SCarolina also had three quick turnovers-not just turnovers but giving the ball up twice inside their own 5, you are asking for trouble. They get behind by 21 points and just as what happened with us against SCarolina, it totally changes the gameplan and the confidence level of the team behind-you are behind by 21 points on the road, against a tough defense, good luck with that.
I also had a sneaky feeling the defense would come to play, and getting Jarvis Jones back in itself improves that defense big time. Also, it appears Grantham got my memo wanting Jarvis and Jordan Jenkins in the game at the same time. I really like Jenkins, he will take over for Jarvis next year, he is a great young player. It also helped that UF, despite all the hype, was just not a great offensive team. They don't have what I consider a great OL, backs or QB, certainly not WR's either. This is not to say they don't have talent, just that if I were to look at our offense and compare to UF it would go like this-OL even, TE-advantage UF with Reed, WR's UGA, RB's UGA, QB UGA. Driskel is a pretty good runner but not a great passer-we hit him early and often and got in his head. They could NEVER establish a run game against us, they only gained 81 yards on the ground and UGA out rushed them 123-81. The UGA defense sacked Driskel 5 times, while Murray was not sacked. Of course the big story line was the turnovers, 6 for UF and 3 for UGA. Both defenses really did hold up strong despite the turnovers and quite possible the biggest one of the game, along with Jarvis strip of Reed at the 3 yard line, was the Bacarri Rambo INT just before the half, when UF was probably one play away from taking their first lead of the game into halftime.
I had no idea Aaron Murray would struggle so badly, with his 3 INT's, but to his credit, he did a MUCH better job in the second half-and I think you have to credit that to Murray himself being an experienced kid and a smart one on top of that, and also Coach Richt and Bobo. Both those guys are former QB's and could certainly personally relate to what Murray was feeling, and both being QB's, I am sure could probably see something that Murray was doing causing him to make the mistakes. Murray this week admitted to make some poor decisions with checking down-Richt mentioned that at the half, also his footwork was off as well. Something not metioned but I do think WAS a factor in the passing game, the wind. I believe the win did have a factor in the passing game, maybe not a huge impact but enough to mention. This game just continued to fuel the, Murray can't play against top level defenses. What I do believe this is showing Murray and probably for sure NFL scouts, he needs to stay for one more year. Reason I say that, if he is having trouble dealing with top defenses in college, what does that say for his prospects playing in the NFL with even better talented defenses and defensive coaches. Like I mentioned though, you have to give him credit for how he played down the stretch, and the fact our coaches had the confidence in him to call the pass plays in a game that was 10-9 mid 4th qtr.
If you go back and look at that drive that gave us for the moment at least, a little breathing room, a critical play was a defensive holding play on 3rd and 10. Check out the drive chart courtesy of ESPN website-
There you see it, if not for that holding penalty-which was a very legit/good call, we are punting from our 25 only up by 1. You see what happened in this drive though, 7 out of 8 plays were pass plays. So, Aaron Murray after a horrible first half, with all the negativity surrounding him as far as winning big games, I think this drive SHOULD put that to bed. Sure, he still needs to play an entire 4 quarters of strong, mistake free football against the better teams but this says a lot about the trust of our coaches to put the ball in the hands of your leader and let him lead you.
This week presents a challenge in trying to put what was a HUGE victory, as mentioned before, the first time since Dooley last coached and Goff was just starting that UGA has beaten UF two years in a row. We now play what was preason picked to be a BAD football team. Ole Miss went 2-10 last year, 0-8 in conference play. They now sit at 5-3 on the season and are 2-2 in conference play. If you look at who they have played and where they have played, you get the sense that this team is one that is getting better and better as the season has played out. They started out with two non conference wins, before getting run over by the Texas Longhorns, 66-31. Now, it is hard to give up 66 points in a game, and that one was in Oxford as well. they also gave up 676 total yards including 350 on the ground. Next up was non conferene Tulane and another win, so they are 3-1 entering SEC play. Their first two conference games, at Bama and home vs. Texas A&M. Yes Bama beat them but the score was only 33-14, they followed that up with a 30-27 loss to A&M, a game Ole Miss lead 27-17 in the 4th quarter only to let A&M rally for the victory. Up next they hosted Auburn, yes, Auburn is awful this year but still, this was Ole Miss that had lost 14 straight conference games, they beat up AU 41-20, and then last week went on the road to Arkansas and got a road SEC win 30-27. I think one common element exists in all the losses for Ole Miss this year, it is turnovers, especially INT's. Their QB is JUCO transfer Bo Wallace, he has 10 TD's on the season but also 9 INT's, and in the three losses, he has thrown 2 INT's in all 3 games. This is a fast paced, spread offense that we are going to have to get off the field and a good way to do that is ball control on offense, and then play good solid D and force 3 and outs. This offense does have a nice RB in Jeff Scott, and some really talented WR's, especially Moncrief, so we will face a much different style of offense than the week before against UF. If our D is back to where we all hoped, they need to set the tone early by getting pressure on Wallace and having a player like Rambo make a quick INT and maybe even scoring. I truly believe this is one of those weeks where the Dogs need to come out FAST and make a statement early, or leave a team that is gaining more and more confidence hang around, and risk losing a game you really shouldn't lose.
I really do like our offense against this Ole Miss D. They are smaller and have less depth, we should be able to move the ball and score on them. It then becomes about our D and if they can play as intense and aggressive as last week. I also think the fact the game is at home-it has been a LONG time since UGA had a home game, NONE in October, and a 3:30 kick will help out. I expect the fans (and I will be there with my 8 year son attending his first ever UGA football game) to be loud and give the guys a needed energy boost. Bottom line and the players have said as much this week, yeah the UF win was nice but if the team doesn't win the next two games, the UF game will not matter nearly as much. I see the Dogs coming out and continuing the momentum built up last week, Ole Miss might score on us but I think we score to much for them to win. I see it UGA 38 Ole Miss 24.
Finally an update on the 8 year old Rams-as I just mentioned, my son and I will be going to the UGA game this Saturday which of course means we lost last weekend. The Dacula team was amazing, size, speed, you name it, they had it. Course that is what happens when you have an all star team-stacked and players coming from other areas of the county to play on one super team. They are really good and we just couldn't keep up, they won 33-13, but hey we scored the most points on them than anyone, with two TD's, they had give up 12 points before but one of those TD's was a KO return. We are the first team to score two rushing TD's on them all year, our boys fought hard but just didn't have enough. 7-3 to finish is a great season and we will be back for more next year. Next up for most of our players, the Abigail Grace Memorial Charity tourney, held locally in Gwinnett to benefit benefit the Dream House for Medically Fragile Children, located inLilburn , Ga.
This tourney is a weekend tourney November 15-18th, with each team guaranteed 3 games. We did this last year and there is nothing like game experience for young boys learning football. Last year we lost our final game in OT when a boy picked off a pass and returned it for the games only TD, 6-0 loss for us. If we had won that, we would have played the next day to make 4 games in 3 days as we had to double up on the Saturday (which of course I think had a big impact on us losing that second game of the day 6-0). It should be a lot of fun and we have already started practice. I will make one final 8 year old update after that tourney and then turn my attention to basketball season.
Everyone have a great weekend, and as usual, GO DOGS!!
I also had a sneaky feeling the defense would come to play, and getting Jarvis Jones back in itself improves that defense big time. Also, it appears Grantham got my memo wanting Jarvis and Jordan Jenkins in the game at the same time. I really like Jenkins, he will take over for Jarvis next year, he is a great young player. It also helped that UF, despite all the hype, was just not a great offensive team. They don't have what I consider a great OL, backs or QB, certainly not WR's either. This is not to say they don't have talent, just that if I were to look at our offense and compare to UF it would go like this-OL even, TE-advantage UF with Reed, WR's UGA, RB's UGA, QB UGA. Driskel is a pretty good runner but not a great passer-we hit him early and often and got in his head. They could NEVER establish a run game against us, they only gained 81 yards on the ground and UGA out rushed them 123-81. The UGA defense sacked Driskel 5 times, while Murray was not sacked. Of course the big story line was the turnovers, 6 for UF and 3 for UGA. Both defenses really did hold up strong despite the turnovers and quite possible the biggest one of the game, along with Jarvis strip of Reed at the 3 yard line, was the Bacarri Rambo INT just before the half, when UF was probably one play away from taking their first lead of the game into halftime.
I had no idea Aaron Murray would struggle so badly, with his 3 INT's, but to his credit, he did a MUCH better job in the second half-and I think you have to credit that to Murray himself being an experienced kid and a smart one on top of that, and also Coach Richt and Bobo. Both those guys are former QB's and could certainly personally relate to what Murray was feeling, and both being QB's, I am sure could probably see something that Murray was doing causing him to make the mistakes. Murray this week admitted to make some poor decisions with checking down-Richt mentioned that at the half, also his footwork was off as well. Something not metioned but I do think WAS a factor in the passing game, the wind. I believe the win did have a factor in the passing game, maybe not a huge impact but enough to mention. This game just continued to fuel the, Murray can't play against top level defenses. What I do believe this is showing Murray and probably for sure NFL scouts, he needs to stay for one more year. Reason I say that, if he is having trouble dealing with top defenses in college, what does that say for his prospects playing in the NFL with even better talented defenses and defensive coaches. Like I mentioned though, you have to give him credit for how he played down the stretch, and the fact our coaches had the confidence in him to call the pass plays in a game that was 10-9 mid 4th qtr.
If you go back and look at that drive that gave us for the moment at least, a little breathing room, a critical play was a defensive holding play on 3rd and 10. Check out the drive chart courtesy of ESPN website-
| 1st and 10 at UGA 25 | Aaron Murray pass incomplete to Marlon Brown. | 9 | 10 | |
| 2nd and 10 at UGA 25 | Todd Gurley rush for no gain to the Geo 25. | |||
| 3rd and 10 at UGA 25 | FLORIDA penalty 10 yard Holding on Dominique Easley accepted, no play. | |||
| 1st and 10 at UGA 35 | Aaron Murray pass complete to Marlon Brown for 18 yards to the Fla 47 for a 1ST down. | |||
| 1st and 10 at FLA 47 | Aaron Murray pass complete to Malcolm Mitchell for 12 yards to the Fla 35 for a 1ST down. | |||
| 1st and 10 at FLA 35 | GEORGIA penalty 15 yard Unsportsmanlike Conduct on Malcolm Mitchell accepted. | |||
| 1st and 10 at UGA 50 | Aaron Murray pass incomplete to Tavarres King. | |||
| 2nd and 10 at UGA 50 | Aaron Murray pass complete to Malcolm Mitchell for 5 yards to the Fla 45. | |||
| 3rd and 5 at FLA 4 | Aaron Murray pass complete to Malcolm Mitchell for 45 yards for a TOUCHDOWN. | |||
There you see it, if not for that holding penalty-which was a very legit/good call, we are punting from our 25 only up by 1. You see what happened in this drive though, 7 out of 8 plays were pass plays. So, Aaron Murray after a horrible first half, with all the negativity surrounding him as far as winning big games, I think this drive SHOULD put that to bed. Sure, he still needs to play an entire 4 quarters of strong, mistake free football against the better teams but this says a lot about the trust of our coaches to put the ball in the hands of your leader and let him lead you.
This week presents a challenge in trying to put what was a HUGE victory, as mentioned before, the first time since Dooley last coached and Goff was just starting that UGA has beaten UF two years in a row. We now play what was preason picked to be a BAD football team. Ole Miss went 2-10 last year, 0-8 in conference play. They now sit at 5-3 on the season and are 2-2 in conference play. If you look at who they have played and where they have played, you get the sense that this team is one that is getting better and better as the season has played out. They started out with two non conference wins, before getting run over by the Texas Longhorns, 66-31. Now, it is hard to give up 66 points in a game, and that one was in Oxford as well. they also gave up 676 total yards including 350 on the ground. Next up was non conferene Tulane and another win, so they are 3-1 entering SEC play. Their first two conference games, at Bama and home vs. Texas A&M. Yes Bama beat them but the score was only 33-14, they followed that up with a 30-27 loss to A&M, a game Ole Miss lead 27-17 in the 4th quarter only to let A&M rally for the victory. Up next they hosted Auburn, yes, Auburn is awful this year but still, this was Ole Miss that had lost 14 straight conference games, they beat up AU 41-20, and then last week went on the road to Arkansas and got a road SEC win 30-27. I think one common element exists in all the losses for Ole Miss this year, it is turnovers, especially INT's. Their QB is JUCO transfer Bo Wallace, he has 10 TD's on the season but also 9 INT's, and in the three losses, he has thrown 2 INT's in all 3 games. This is a fast paced, spread offense that we are going to have to get off the field and a good way to do that is ball control on offense, and then play good solid D and force 3 and outs. This offense does have a nice RB in Jeff Scott, and some really talented WR's, especially Moncrief, so we will face a much different style of offense than the week before against UF. If our D is back to where we all hoped, they need to set the tone early by getting pressure on Wallace and having a player like Rambo make a quick INT and maybe even scoring. I truly believe this is one of those weeks where the Dogs need to come out FAST and make a statement early, or leave a team that is gaining more and more confidence hang around, and risk losing a game you really shouldn't lose.
I really do like our offense against this Ole Miss D. They are smaller and have less depth, we should be able to move the ball and score on them. It then becomes about our D and if they can play as intense and aggressive as last week. I also think the fact the game is at home-it has been a LONG time since UGA had a home game, NONE in October, and a 3:30 kick will help out. I expect the fans (and I will be there with my 8 year son attending his first ever UGA football game) to be loud and give the guys a needed energy boost. Bottom line and the players have said as much this week, yeah the UF win was nice but if the team doesn't win the next two games, the UF game will not matter nearly as much. I see the Dogs coming out and continuing the momentum built up last week, Ole Miss might score on us but I think we score to much for them to win. I see it UGA 38 Ole Miss 24.
Finally an update on the 8 year old Rams-as I just mentioned, my son and I will be going to the UGA game this Saturday which of course means we lost last weekend. The Dacula team was amazing, size, speed, you name it, they had it. Course that is what happens when you have an all star team-stacked and players coming from other areas of the county to play on one super team. They are really good and we just couldn't keep up, they won 33-13, but hey we scored the most points on them than anyone, with two TD's, they had give up 12 points before but one of those TD's was a KO return. We are the first team to score two rushing TD's on them all year, our boys fought hard but just didn't have enough. 7-3 to finish is a great season and we will be back for more next year. Next up for most of our players, the Abigail Grace Memorial Charity tourney, held locally in Gwinnett to benefit benefit the Dream House for Medically Fragile Children, located in
This tourney is a weekend tourney November 15-18th, with each team guaranteed 3 games. We did this last year and there is nothing like game experience for young boys learning football. Last year we lost our final game in OT when a boy picked off a pass and returned it for the games only TD, 6-0 loss for us. If we had won that, we would have played the next day to make 4 games in 3 days as we had to double up on the Saturday (which of course I think had a big impact on us losing that second game of the day 6-0). It should be a lot of fun and we have already started practice. I will make one final 8 year old update after that tourney and then turn my attention to basketball season.
Everyone have a great weekend, and as usual, GO DOGS!!
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