Georgia Sports Blog: September 2008

September 30, 2008

College Football Bowl Projections for Week 5

The gurus have spoken, and they are leaning towards a trip to Orlando for Georgia. From the experts:

Cotton Bowl - UGA vs. Texas Tech (ESPN: Bruce Feldman)
Capital One Bowl - UGA vs. Wisconsin (ESPN: Mark Schlabach)
Capital One Bowl - UGA vs. Ohio State (Sporting News: Matt Hayes)
Capital One Bowl - UGA vs. Wisconsin (Sportsline.com)

I'm sick and tired of playing Wisconsin in bowls. I'd love to see us in the Cotton, but it's pretty apparent that it will never happen due to their natural bias towards SEC West teams and Tennessee.

Right now the focus for Georgia should be on the SEC Eastern Division title. It's very much within our grasp if we take care of business against UT, Vandy and UF...then we'd likely only need to split games against LSU and Auburn to win the East by virtue of tie breakers and the schedule that the other guys have to play.

PWD

College Football Pick 'em Leader Board

To paraphrase big John Coffey, "He was killed by his love." I had a bad, bad week going a staggering 7-6 and finishing a calamitous 416th place for the week in the Georgia Sports Blog College Football Pick''em.

Going 7-6 doesn't have to be a week killer. In fact, hundreds of you fared that poorly and "cubbot's picks" posted that number while finishing 7th for the week.

What makes my tally especially ~~whacker~~ bad, would be the max confidence points that I assigned to the Georgia vs. Alabama game. I had to represent my team...no? I was wrong on the 13, 11, 10, 6, 5 and 2 point picks. Brutal, thy name is Week 5.

The Overall Winner for September is "Cali_Dawg's picks." CaliDawg has won a UGA t-shirt from SportsCrack.com, and we're working with him currently to get that in his hands.

There's a lot of movement to be made going forward. So, get your picks in.

Here is the Leader Board:

Rank	Selection	W-L	Pts
Overall Standings Through Week 5
1	Cali_Dawg's picks	47-15	355
2	Percy Harvin's Gimpy Heel	48-14	354
3	DOTWU 's picks	49-13	353
4	Milton Dawg's picks	49-13	352
5	accsecblog's picks	46-16	351
5	jbh3rd's picks	49-13	351
7	dawgnotdog's picks	47-15	349
8	The Fightin Emarlos's picks	47-15	346
8	romebuzz's picks	48-14	346
8	onealmi1's picks	44-18	346

Rank	Selection	W-L	Pts
Standings for Week 5
1	accsecblog's picks	9-4	73
1	romebuzz's picks	9-4	73
3	The Fightin Emarlos's picks	9-4	71
4	SuwanneeRiverDAWG's picks	9-4	70
5	He's running over people	8-5	69
6	Dawgomatic,forthePeople's picks	8-5	68
7	P-Haynes 44's picks	9-4	67
7	cubbot's picks	7-6	67
7	macdaddy's picks	8-5	67
10	junkyards picks	8-5	65
10	LotharioDawg's picks	9-4	65
10	Cali_Dawg's picks	9-4	65
10	vens42's picks	9-4	65
10	DCDawg1124's picks	9-4	65

Get your picks in!

PWD

September 29, 2008

Another Huge Thanks to Our Readers

Over the weekend, the Georgia Sports Blog blew past 5 million page views for the site to date. In August, we served up 297,000 page views which topped our old one month record by 20,000 pages. In September, we've served up more than 350,000 page views. That's double the site traffic from the same period last year.

I especially appreciate Quinton McDawg, Dawgnoxious, Jim Hipple and all of you who keep reading the site. I keep posting these milestone posts because you keep coming back. And of course DAWGBONE.NET!!!

I've looked around to get a sense for how big the site has grown versus our peers, and I'm pretty sure that we're now one of the Top 5 independent, single team college football blogs on the Web in terms of page views per month.

I know MGoBlog is bigger, but we stack up favorably to most of the rest. Not that it's a competition, but it's nice to have your stuff read by others. Thanks again for visiting.

Paul Westerdawg

Bye Weeks and Bloggers

I won't be posting as much because I'll be covering the Ninja Parade
(Seen Above)
The players aren't the only guys in need of a bye week. I'm thrilled that there's no game this weekend. As part of my personal bye week celebration, I'm going to scale back the posts quite a bit. There will be some stuff, but nothing like the 4-5 articles per week day that we were rocking during August and September. Some of that is me being tired, and some of it is due to work related obligations.

Fairly normal posting will resume next week.

Speaking of next week, I'm going to be renaming the blog for a week as payment for a favor done for me by one of the readers. More on that later. You'll see the name change in the header graphic next week. Don't be alarmed. It won't be permanent.

PWD

It's Official: Kickoff Time for Georgia vs. Tennessee

As expected, kickoff time for the Oct. 11th Tennessee vs. Georgia game will be 3:30 pm on CBS. UGA has a 34-22-1 record on the network.

I'm expecting the networks to wait until Monday, Oct. 13th to announce the kickoff time for the Vanderbilt game on Oct. 18th.

PWD

Photos: UGA vs. Alabama 2008 (Part II)

All images by Jim Hipple. Click to enlarge any of these images from the '08 Bama game.

PWD

Photos: UGA vs. Alabama 2008 (Part I)

All images by Jim Hipple. Click to enlarge and view any of these images from the Georgia Bulldogs vs. Alabama Crimson Tide game from 2008.

Thanks to Jim for the photos.

PWD

Rennie Curran Feature on ESPN College Gameday

Incredible kid.

Uploaded by ugahairydawgs

September 28, 2008

Injury Updates for Moreno, Stafford, Ellerbe and More

DawgPost.com has the update.

Knowshon Moreno - "Questionable" for UT with an elbow injury. Article makes it sound a little better than the headline. (Update: Georgiadogs.com more optimistic language than AJC or DawgPost)
Dannell Ellerbe - "Hopeful" and "Questionable" were used to describe him playing against UT. Richt hopes he'll be back. AJC says "not as bad as originally thought."
Tripp Chandler - Will miss "a few weeks" with shoulder injury
Bruce Figgins - Will either have surgery before or after the UT game
Kris Durham - Ankle. Out for UT and probably a bit longer.
Matthew Stafford - Basically fine.
Brannon Southerland- Full speed for UT
Kiante Tripp - Moved to backup Tight End (WTF?)

Overall, I think it'll all sound better by this time next week. The one thing that I don't get is the Kiante Tripp situation. What on earth happened with him? I'm no expert, but it looks to my untrained eye like Justin Anderson is pretty far from the solution at starting tackle for the Dawgs right now. How did Tripp go from starting left tackle to tight end? I'd like to see a heap more written about that situation. Very hard to understand.

PWD

ESPN College Gameday Coming to Vandy

As HobnailBoot said in the comments earlier, the end is near. The world now cares about SEC East leader . . . Vanderbilt. ESPN College Gameday from Nashville.

PWD

AP and Coaches Polls are out. Dawgs #10 and #11

The Associated Press Poll and USAToday Coaches Poll have been released, and the Dawgs faired pretty well. AP has us at #11 and Coaches at #10 (tied with USF). Oklahoma is #1 in both polls.

Teams of note on our schedule:

Team	AP Poll	USAToday Poll
Alabama	2	4
LSU	3	2
Florida	12	13
Auburn	13	14
Vanderbilt	19	19

Others Receiving Votes
Kentucky	28	28
Georgia Tech	37	35

The most interesting things about the polls to me are the wild differences between the writers and coaches regarding Alabama. The AP writers gave the Crimson Tide 21 first place votes while the coaches only gave them two first place.

The other things that jump off the page to me are:

USC over UGA in the AP. As SquareBush said in the comments, we lost to a Top 10 team. The Trojans lost to an unranked team. How does that put us below them?
Ohio State over UF in the APCoaches - Will the Coaches ever learn?
The ACC - Their highest rated teams come in at #20 and #24 respectively.

What are your thoughts? Where would you rank Georgia?

PWD

(PS - I'm likely not doing any bowl projections this week, but I have tinkered with some things on a napkin. If UGA doesn't get its act together quickly, we'll be in Tampa for New Years facing Michigan State, Illinois or Northwestern. Or worse)

Pre-season...if I told you

If I told you that we'd play the #8 team in the country without the following preseason starters:

Do you think we win that game? In retrospect, I was either way overconfident about our ability to absorb those personnel loses or maybe I underestimated Bama. More likely a little of both.

Bama is good, and we got whipped up front.

Some of what happened to our offensive line was the payment of the bill that comes due when you go three years while recruiting and enrolling extremely few quality offensive linemen as Georgia did from '04-07 (2004 recruits like Chester Adams would've been a senior this year). Over those three years, Georgia recruited 8 kids, and only 1 contributed last night. Some of that is on Richt. Some on Garner, and some on Callaway.

Some of what happened on the DL was injuries and personnel. I said two weeks ago that Marcus Howard "ain't walking through that door." And our pass rush would have issues until we figured out that personnel problem. Not having Rod Battle back from his neck injury by now, isn't helping fix that.

Some of it was scheme. It wasn't a good a plan on either side of the ball. Someone on a message board said, "Why didn't Willie adjust?" I would've liked to have seen more blitzes just like you, but how do you "adjust" for losing your run stopping All-SEC middle linebacker on the third play of the game? That's not exactly the easiest thing in the world to adjust.

It was a whooping.

The Good News:

The East -- We can definitely still win the East. Florida has major problems offensively and defensively, and we match-up better against them and Auburn than we do Bama or LSU. Auburn, Tennessee, Vandy and Florida are all as flawed as we are. Just different kinds of flaws.
Ticket Prices -- Well, the price for Cocktail Party tickets probably just got a lot cheaper. I was really sweating landing that ticket before yesterday.
Injuries Heal - It sucks entering a bye week without momentum from a win; however, this banged up roster needs a rest.
The Crowd - The opening of that game was as unglued as Sanford has ever been, and it was up there with some of the great SEC crowds that I've experienced in 200 or so games attended in person. The fact that so few booed and so many stuck by the team during the 3rd quarter attempted rally says a lot about how far the program has come.

The Bad News:

Injuries - We don't know how severe things are yet.
LSU's OL and DL is better than Bama's. Ricky Jean Francois is licking his sizable chops.

There are worse things than losing a game, and having most of your goals still obtainable.

PWD

Thank You to Our Readers

I'll post on last night shortly. In the meantime, I want to thank you guys ... the readers. I had no idea what sort of comments I'd wake up to this morning. Overall, I think you (like me) are taking this ass whooping with as much dignity as possible (which ain't easy). For that I say thanks.

It wasn't one coach.
It wasn't one player.
It wasn't one part of the plan.
It wasn't any one thing.

It was everything. We just got absolutely spanked. Hats off to Bama. They are good. We have lots of things to fix. Please take a deep breath before posting today. I'm trying to do that too. It ain't easy though.

PWD

September 26, 2008

The Georgia Running Game

Matt Hinton (SundayMorningQB) now writes for Yahoo Sports, and he's taken the time to break down Georgia's running game NFL Match-Up Style. It's a good look at how UGA moves the ball, and how Bama will try to stop it.

PWD

Do yourself a favor: Car Pool to this Game

Athens is legitimately low on fuel. Having 120,000 extra fans in town all gassing up before going home just isn't going to work on Saturday. The Athens Police have warned that filling up on gas in Athens will be extremely difficult on Saturday.

My advice...Car Pool and get some fuel before you get into Athens. Be smart.

I've got a fever. And the only thing that can cure it is more Beaver

The national title race is now completely wide ass open. The Southern Cal strength of schedule is so weak that projections earlier in the week showed that an undefeated USC would finish below a 1 loss UGA in the computer polls. Now that USC and Ohio State each have a loss, it looks like they are both all but eliminated from consideration for the title game.

It's an SEC vs. Big 12 race for those two final slots. Saturday Night just got that much more ridiculous. (Update: Obviously, Penn State and Wisconsin are still in it from the Big 10. I sort of forgot about that conference in the hazy post-midnight victory smog.)

Insanity thy name is Blackout.

PWD

(BTW -- this loss means that Ohio State's best case scenario for their season is likely another trip to the Rose Bowl to catch another beating from Southern Cal. Now THAT is comedy.)

ESPN Gameday's Last Visit

The last time (above) ESPN College Gameday came to Athens was the 1998 Tennessee game. UGA fans were riding high coming off a road win over Top 10 LSU in Baton Rouge. We had a freshman QB who had just set the bayou on fire under the lights, and Champ Bailey was totally unstoppable on both sides of the ball.

Tennessee was playing the game without Peyton Manning, who was the Bulldog Anti-Christ for 4 years, and Jamal Lewis was out of the game with an injury suffered at Auburn the week before.
Gameday opened with WCW Champion Bill Goldberg looking into the camera and saying something like, "Tennessee...You're Next."

Things looked great...well...until the game started and Tennessee physically beat the ever living hell out of Georgia. The 22-3 score doesn't remotely begin to reveal the physical difference between the two teams. Today's underclassmen students were 8-9 years old on that painful day.

We've come a long way baby.

We enter the game tomorrow with superior or equal talent at every position except one (Left Tackle). Just as importantly, we have a world class coach who has instilled a work ethic that breeds success. Big wins aren't shocking anymore to Georgia fans.

On the other side of the field is Bama. This is NOT the Alabama program of the 60s, 70s and 80s. Not yet anyway. This is an Alabama team that lost to Louisiana-Monroe last year. This group of players has yet to face an elite SEC opponent in a game with this much build-up and come out the other side a winner. Dealing with that spotlight isn't easy.

All the intangibles favor Georgia.
Most of the personnel match-ups favors Georgia.
And it's a home game.

If Georgia protects the ball like it has all season and covers kicks at least as well as they did versus Arizona State, we're going to win this thing by 7 points or more.

In 2008, Georgia doesn't hope to win. Georgia expects to win. It's going to be a war, and Bama isn't going to roll over for us. But, I can't wait for Saturday.

PWD

September 25, 2008

Georgia vs. Alabama 2007 Highlights

From the BulldawgBlawg.com.

PWD

Evil Richt Pokes a Stick at Saban

Richt is clearly enjoying the build up to this game. Yesterday, he poked a stick at Saban, and on Tuesday he responded to Saban's blackout shenanigans. Tomorrow, I'm hoping that he comes to the press conference in a Miami Dolphins jersey.

PWD

Don't forget to submit your college football picks

Don't forget to submit your picks. The overall leader at the end of this week will receive a free t-shirt from SportsCrack.com's UGA t-shirt collection. The current leader is "DOTWU 's picks" ...he's the guy you have to beat out to win.

Again...that's the overall leader to date...not the best score of the week.

PWD

100,000 seats in Sanford Stadium part of UGA's New Gojillion Dollar Athletic Facilities Master Plan

If you were wondering what Georgia was going to do with the incremental $10 million or so per year in new SEC TV Revenue and the $20 million or so per year "surplus" that the athletic department has been pulling the last few years...here's your answer. (Image: one of several options for expanding Sanford Stadium. Click to enlarge.)

The Athletic Department debuted its new master plan for facilities which should guide the design, construction and later prioritization of facility enhancements for the next 10-15 years.

The plan is currently conceptual. It shows where new or renovated buildings would be located, and to what extent the facilities would change. UGA has not announced costs or stated which items would be prioritized first. This is the first step in a bigger journey.

Included in the plan:

Football - Indoor Practice Facility at South Milledge Complex
Football - Expansion of Sanford Stadium to 100,000+
Football - Reed Alley Renovation
Basketball - Overhaul to Stegeman's Facade, Concessions and Restrooms
Administration/Football - Butts-Mehre renovation (previously announced)
Baseball - New Baseball Stadium on current Foley Field Site
Track - New Track facility at South Milledge Complex
Soccer/Softball - Enhancements to the existing South Milledge Facilities
Green space - New pedestrian walk ways surrounding existing facilities
And much, much more

I think this is at least $150 million in new facilities, and it could easily be $200 million in new stuff. I'm basing that estimate on what UGA spent to renovate Gate 6, build the existing 600 level for Sanford Stadium, the cost of the new Gamecock Baseball stadium, estimates for indoor practice facilities at other schools, the sky rocketing cost of construction materials and the length of the "wish list."

It's too much to get into everything all at once. So I'll point you to two key PDF files on the Athens Banner Herald's Web Site. This is a 21 page overview of most facility enhancements. The second PDF looks specifically at the Butts-Mehre renovation.

My quick thoughts:

Indoor Practice Facility - The location and size of the facility suggest that it would not be the "Death Star" $35 million homage to football that had originally been discussed. It looks more functional than monumental. As a guy vehemently opposed to constructing an IPF, I could live with a modest facility. Although, I still think it's pissing away money. (Image: South Milledge Complex. The indoor practice facility is in the upper right corner. Click to enlarge)
Stegeman - It's exactly what Stegeman needs. Stegeman doesn't need to be enlarged. It needs to be modernized with 21st century restrooms, concessions and concourses, and it needs a look and feel similar to the new Practice Facility. This would get us there. (click to enlarge)
Sanford Expansions - The Reed Alley renovations look excellent. I actually think they were in the plans from 2003 or so, but they somehow got cut. Check out the PDF to see it. However, I think expanding the 600 level all the way around will be incredibly expensive, and I think those seats will SUCK. Luckily, I'm not going to sit in them...so what do I care.

More thoughts later. Check out the ABH article and then read this PDF.

It's interesting.

PWD

Saban's Defense: Where the Points Are

(Image: Dawgpost)

If you haven't read Smart Football's opus on Nick Saban's defense yet, you should. It breaks down Saban's most common defensive calls and gives insight into the way Saban coaches defense. As I read it, one thing really stuck out to me after seeing Richt's last few games against Saban. It starts with Chris's quote of Saban's LSU defensive playbook:

"In all situations, we will defend the inside or middle of the field first – defend inside to outside. Against the run, we will not allow the ball to be run inside. We want to force the ball outside. Against the pass, we will not allow the ball to be thrown deep down the middle or inside. We want to force the ball to be thrown short and/or outside."

The 2004 LSU game provided a perfect roadmap to counter the Saban defensive philosophy. As you will recall, David Greene threw for a school record five TDs that day. Three of them were on fly patterns down the sidelines as Reggie Brown and Fred Gibson got in single coverage against cornerbacks. The safety was either coming on a blitz or got looked off by Greene. Another of those touchdowns was on an out route in the red zone. All of these plays attacked the edges of the Saban defense instead of the interior, where Saban wants to defend at all costs.

Last year, on the first play of overtime, Richt and Bobo went right for the edge, hitting Mikey Henderson on a fly route down the sideline in man coverage. I'm convinced that the only reason we didn't see this more of those throws in Tuscaloosa was because the coaches were still uncertain about the ability of our offensive line to protect. That's also why we saw so many screens and quick slants in Tuscaloosa.

In short, the edges of Saban's defense are where the points are. Saban sets out to take the easy stuff off the table and force the other team to execute the most difficult runs and throws. In 2004, Greene was almost perfect on those throws and Gibson and Brown made great catches when Greene laid it out there. Look for the same thing Saturday, if the line can protect. In fact, I think Stafford is more capable of attacking the edges than Greene was. Staff has shown he can hit deep throws down the sidelines, but because of his arm strength, he can also hit a more difficult throw: the deep out. We've already thrown a number of these routes this year and I expect to see more Saturday. Again, attack the edges where Saban's defense is most vunerable. Stafford and the receivers just need to execute because the openings will be there.

As for the running game, I don't see us running right at the Bama front seven. I expect a number of screens of all variety in the first half because 1) they've worked well all year, 2) we'll need to slow down the pass rush, and 3) we need to move Terrence Cody and get him in space. Once those screens slow down the rush, look for those throws to the edge.

So there's a sketch of a game plan. What do you think?

Quinton

September 24, 2008

Get your fried chicken on

From Chick-Fil-A's PR folks (edited):

Chick-fil-A is the newest sponsor of ESPN’s College GameDay telecast and to celebrate its involvement, the chain is sending team members to Athens prior to the match-up versus the Alabama Crimson Tide to provide samples of some Chick-fil-A menu items. The product sampling will occur near the GameDay set this Saturday beginning at approximately 7:45 a.m. (til 8:45), while supplies last. In addition, the Chick-fil-A "Eat Mor Chikin" Cows will be on-hand to welcome fans to the game.

All that means...if you're there early for the Gameday show...Chick-Fil-A will do their best to feed you.

PWD

(PS - Chick-Fil-A isn't a sponsor of this site. Although, I'd be glad to have that change.)

Tuesday Press Conference Headlines

Just a couple that jumped out at me.

Great analogy: Walk-on's punt block vs. ASU

Blackout boosts local economy

Penalties not a concern for Richt

A little extra spice for this rivalry

Dawgs offer no response to Bama coach's rant

What can UGA do to honor Munson

Ben Jones: Bama Native

Battle of the Bluechip WRs

Bama's Jackson wants to show UGA what it missed

And unrelated, but you should check out LarryMunson.com some time. Good stuff over there.

PWD

Help the Redcoats

From KarateDawg at the Anti-Orange Page:

The Redcoat Band, along with the Auburn, Clemson, Florida, LSU, USC, and Texas bands, is competing in a "Battle of the Bands" contest hosted by ESPN and Paramount Pictures. Each participating band will be featured on ESPN's website starting on September 29th. The winning band will receive a $25,000 donation from Paramount and Lucasfilm Ltd.

To learn more click here. To vote click here.

TV and Kickoff Time Rumors: Vanderbilt at Georgia

When the Georgia Bulldogs and Vanderbilt Commodores tangle, it's usually a 12:30 pm start or untelevised at home. Occasionally, it gets picked up for an ESPN2 game when we're at their place, but I don't ever remember playing them after 1:00 pm in Athens.

This year looks to be an exception. The SEC slate of games for Oct. 18th includes:

Ole Miss at Alabama - Bama should have no worse than 1 loss heading into that game. However, the Rebels look to be sitting at 2-4 or 3-3 by then.
Vanderbilt at Georgia - The way that UGA is playing it looks like we should be no worse than 5-1. Vanderbilt is currently ranked #21 in the AP. They have reasonable shot to be 5-1 when they enter Athens. I could see CBS walking away from the game in favor of LSU vs. South Carolina due to the total number of games UGA may play on the network. That would put our game on ESPN/ESPN2...at night. Auburn at Vandy has been picked up for ESPN at 6:00 EST on Oct. 4th.
LSU at South Carolina - LSU could be undefeated entering this one pending the outcome of their game with Florida the prior week. If they have an unblemished record, I could see this one being televised on CBS regardless of SC's record.
Arkansas at Kentucky - Arkansas could enter this game with 5 losses. They are kryptonite to desirable TV time slots.
MSU at Tennessee - The Vols will have three or four losses and MSU could easily enter this game at 1-5. No TV for this one.

So what does all that mean? As long as Vandy beats Mississippi State, I like the Dawgs vs. Dores on ESPN2 at twilight....let's say 5 or 6 pm. A lot can happen before then, but that's what I'm leaning towards right now.

See Also:
-- Tickets: Georgia Bulldogs vs. Vanderbilt Commodores

PWD

September 23, 2008

ESPN College Gameday Selects Site in Athens

The ESPN College Gameday Crew has picked a location for its broadcast in Athens. They will set up at Myers Quad. I think it's the most logical location, and it's probably going to inconvience far fewer tailgates than North Campus.

There's a map of that part of campus above. Also, here's a google map.

PWD

SEC Power Poll Ballot

1. Georgia -Unveiled their first scary wideout since Andre Hastings by throwing to freshman A.J. Green for 159 yards. The offense still looks like a Ferrari in second gear, all the parts are there but they are held back somehow. Two things get figured out this weekend: Is the impenetrable run defense for real and can a patchwork offensive line hold against a legit defensive front?

2. Florida - Called UT quitters and then beat them down again. Percy must get more touches after averaging a first down every touch last week.

3. LSU - The Tigers won a huge, huge game toward the SEC West crown and may have found a solid quarterback. Could LSU repeat? The only tough road game left is at Florida. With the way their defense plays, it's not ridiculous to say they have a real shot to win in Gainesville.

4. Alabama - Did what a lot of teams are going to do to the Hawgs this year, destroy them.

5. Auburn - When we heard the halftime score sitting in the stands at ASU, no one around me could fathom the Aubs scoring 14 points on LSU. Each year of Tubs reign, they get things figured out around this point in the season. The only trouble this time is that they don't have the quarterback personel to run that offense correctly.

6. Vanderbilt - How brutal is the SEC East? Vandy is now a top 25 team after a miracle fumble in Oxford.

7. Ole Miss - They are 2-2, with losses to Wake and Vandy. Normally that would be embarrassing, but both of those teams are ranked. It gets no better this week when they head to the Swamp.

8. Tennessee -The Clawfense is befuddling Crompton, leading to a curious lack of production for an offense with lots of good players. If they lose to Auburn this weekend, which they should, they might have to battle to stay out of the East cellar.

9. Kentucky - Munching cupcakes and stuck here until October.

10. South Carolina-The Cocks have winnable games until LSU visits in mid-October.

11. Mississippi State - Looked silly against Georgia Tech. Will look sillier in Baton Rouge Saturday.

12. Arkansas -Took the first of many awful beatings to come.

Quinton

Back in Black Munson Mix

I originally put this together around 1999 or 2000. It includes highlights from '80 Tennessee, '99 LSU, '97 Florida, and '00 Tennessee.

To download it.

PWD

Larry Munson Tribute Articles

From Mainstream Media:

Munson Retiring, but Fans Saw it Coming

Time with Munson was unforgettable

Q&A with Damon Evans

Players React to Munson Retirement

Glory, Glory to Larry Munson

Herschel and Dooley and Munson

The Legend Retires

End of an Era

Munson retiring is sad for all

The Voice of Tradition

His greatest calls

Munson says he's done

Munson Announces retirement

There goes Larry

Favorite Moments with Munson

End of an era

From the Blogs:

Really is the end of an er

A hole in the hearts of many

Munson to retire immediately

The End of an era

PWD

Bowls: The Great SEC / Big 12 Squeeze Out

Among the many BCS Selection rules regarding at-large selections are these (over simplified)

Team must have won at least nine games, and be ranked in the Top 14.
Non-BCS Conference Champs with a final BCS standing of 12th or better are automatic qualifiers
No conference can have more than two teams in the BCS

There's a big problem in 2008 with limiting the selection pool for at-large teams to only the Top 14. This year, eight of those 14 teams are SEC or Big 12 squads (per the Coaches Poll).

There are only 10 total BCS bowl slots available, and six of those slots are allocated to BCS conference champs. That leaves four at-large places. However, a non-BCS Conference Champ (like BYU) will likely get one of those slots this year. That only leads three spots for six non-league champs from the SEC and Big 12 to fight over.

But wait...the Big 10 has landed two BCS slots almost year since the BCS was created. With the 5th Game, there is virtually no way that a Big 10 team will be left out.

In other words, six strong SEC and Big 12 teams will be fighting for those final two slots. It's very likely that the #4 and/or #5 teams in the country could be locked out of the BCS this year.

Yet, Stewart Mandel actually asked the question....Is this the year that multiple non-BCS conference teams crash the system? I think the answer to his question is "maybe it will happen, but it probably shouldn't."

I'm not a playoff proponent, but the current system still needs tremendous work.

PWD

Why Bama Coaches Think UGA is Wearing Black

"They're wearing black because
they are going to a mother f-ing funeral."

-- Bama Assistant Coach
Source: TideSports.com 1:04 mark in the video linked above

Turn your speakers up if you want to hear it from the horse's mouth. Turn your speakers down if you don't. I guess we'll see who buries who on Saturday.

I'm pretty sure Saban will force the Tuscaloosa News to take the video off TideSports.com pretty quickly. If you know how to capture the video, please send me a copy. (Let me know you're going to send it first so that I don't get multiple copies).

See Also:
-- Georgia vs. Alabama Tickets - Stubhub
-- Black Nike Coaches Sideline Polo - GSB Fan Store

PWD

September 22, 2008

When UGA didn't score on the goalline vs. ASU

It might have been because we were playing against 12 men.

Pac-10 Refs at their finest.

PWD

A Quick Munson Tribute

I'm sure Paul has a big and better piece coming on this, but I wanted to give a quick note on Larry Munson's retirement.

As some of you may know, I didn't grow up a Bulldog. I converted when I enrolled at UGA in the last throws of the Goff era. I didn't know much about Georgia football other than a vague knowledge of Herschel Walker. I had no idea who Larry Munson was. When I was buying books for my first quarter, I picked up the Munson's Greatest Calls VHS tape because I needed something to watch before my cable got installed. I ended up watching that tape for about a week straight.

Thus, I learned Georgia football almost exclusively through Larry's eyes. As a result, I think I've taken on his views toward the Dawgs: overly pessimistic and excitedly hyperbolic. If the other team was winning, it was because they were better. If the Dawgs were winning, God or Lady Luck were somehow helping them improbably overcome their obvious weaknesses. It made every game an epic struggle and it made winning exhilarating. Larry Munson grabbed me, a foreigner, and threw me into the Bulldog Nation.

We'll miss you, Larry.

Quinton

Larry Munson Retires Effective Immediately

Larry Munson is retiring effective immediately. WSB announced it on the air a bit earlier. Georgiadogs.com has the official announcement. More to follow shortly.

PWD

College Football Pick'em Leader Board Week 4

Four weeks into the season, the Georgia Sports Blog's College Football Pick 'em continues to heat up. Here are the standings for the week and standings to date.

Rank	Selection	W-L	Pts
Standings for Week 4
1	GaK9s's picks	11-1	76
1	Milton Dawg's picks	11-1	76
3	Redclayhound's picks	11-1	75
3	Cali_Dawg's picks	10-2	75
3	DOTWU 's picks	11-1	75
6	TXDawg's picks	10-2	74
6	strick9's picks	10-2	74
8	Percy Harvin's Gimpy Heel	10-2	73
8	randawg91's picks	11-1	73
8	dallasga6's picks	10-2	73
8	Nighthawk's picks	10-2	73
8	seayak's picks	10-2	73
8	InsideTheSprawl	10-2	73
8	PitDawg's picks	10-2	73

Rank	Selection	W-L	Pts
Overall Standings Through Week 4
1	DOTWU 's picks	42-7	303
2	Milton Dawg's picks	41-8	299
3	jbh3rd's picks	42-7	297
4	dawgnotdog's picks	40-9	294
5	PitDawg's picks	40-9	293
5	theolballsac's picks	41-8	293
5	StLouisDawg's picks	40-9	293
8	Percy Harvin's Gimpy Heel	40-9	291
8	RudyDamone's picks	40-9	291
8	Nighthawk's picks	39-10	291
8	ecdawg's picks	39-10	291
8	Finger Picking Good's picks	40-9	291

Other picks of note:

The pool has more than 476 members, and it looks like about 400 of you are still actively participating. Go ahead and get your picks in for this coming week. I have some good games selected.

PWD

Georgia in the Polls...very little movement

There was some question after the ASU game...did UGA win impressively enough to hold 3rd place. Obviously, the answer was yes.

I took a moment to compare poll points week over week and here's the results.

AP Poll:

Coaches Poll:

In the AP Poll, Georgia is only nine points behind #2 Oklahoma, and we're 36 points behind them in the Coaches Poll. This week, OU plays #24 TCU while we play Top 10 Alabama. A win of any margin could move us back into 2nd place overall.

PWD

Georgia vs. Alabama Rare Top 10 Match-Up in Athens

I mentioned this in passing last week, but I want to elaborate on how rare the game with Alabama really is. After researching this extensively last week, I have only found nine instances in the entire history of Georgia football where two Top 10 teams battled each other in Athens. (Image: AJC)

Top 10 vs. Top 10 Match-ups in Athens:

There were some other near misses like the 2004 LSU game. During that contest the Tigers came in at #13 while UGA was ranked #3. But I couldn't find any other games.

Like I said, I'm still not 100% sure that I exhausted all the possibilities. However, I worked with the UGA media guide and the online media guides from some of our opponents to search this.

What games am I missing? If you can post a link proving that I missed one, I'm more than happy to edit the post.

Update: Due to user emails and feedback, I added the '76 Bama game. I thought that was the season opener so I had originally missed it. I was mistaken. (The '42 Bama game was played in Atlanta).

See Also:
-- Georgia Bulldogs vs. Alabama Crimson Tide Tickets

PWD

*I used whichever poll had the Dawgs and/or their opponent rated higher. For instance the '82 Clemson game had Clemson ranked #9 in one poll and #11 in the other.

September 21, 2008

Blackout for Georgia vs. Alabama (ESPN College Gameday Also Coming)

Richt has called for the Blackout on Saturday, and he also announced that ESPN College Gameday is coming to Athens. Per Coach Richt:

“The seniors asked me on the plane ride home (from Tempe on Saturday night) if they could black this game out and I said sure,” said Richt. “When it’s dark outside and the stadium lights are on I think the players and the fans get more excited and I think with GameDay coming, I didn’t see any reason why we shouldn’t. I thought we had outstanding success with the blackout and the fans last year so we’ll be asking them to participate again.”

Also...several of you asked about Brannon Southerland's return. Richt says he'll be the personal protector on punts vs. Alabama. It sounds like he'll return to full speed after the bye week for the Tennessee game.

Also on the injury front:

Richt also addressed the minor neck injuries sustained by senior tight end Tripp Chandler and senior defensive end Jeremy Lomax.

“Ron (Courson) feels confident they’ll be able to go, although maybe not full-speed during Tuesday’s practice,” said Richt.

I've seen some hand wringing from Dawg fans about "wearing out the black jerseys." The Auburn Blackout was one of those absurd, ridiculously over the top college football moments that we can't "manufacture" going forward. Wearing black jerseys once a month, once a year or saving them for once a decade won't let us replicate the magic of that night.

We're not wearing them to help us win. We're wearing black jerseys because it's fun. Because the players love them. Because recruits love them. And because....why not. Those jerseys will be part of the regular rotation of UGA uniforms for many years going forward, and I'm glad. Why wouldn't you want to wear a bad ass looking uniform that kids and players love? Especially when your school colors are Red and Black.

See Also:
-- Details on the blackout - Ching's Blog
-- Gameday picks the Bama Game - AJC
-- Richt asks Fans to wear black - AJC
-- Dawgs to Blackout Bama - UGAsports
-- Weather for the Game - Weather.com (I know it's too early, but it looks amazing)

Tickets:
-- Georgia Bulldogs vs. Alabama Crimson Tide

PWD

Yeah...but it was a Dry Can of Whoop Ass

The only downside to the game is that the box score doesn't reflect the magnitude of the beating.

When you look at all the individual match-ups that were won and lost, ASU only seemed to find one that they could attack. They went after Bryan Evans pretty hard. Beyond that, here are some thoughts:

Offensive Line - We had a non-starter at every position; yet, we put up 461 yards of total offense. I'm not really worried about the lack of a goal line push. We get Brannon Southerland back very shortly, and he'll cure our 3rd and 1 problems as a ball carrier and blocker.
Offensive Skill Positions - Given the youth up front, we had some occasional hole creation problems. The goal line situation when we were up 24-10 was a bit of a debacle. Otherwise, they got the job done. Oh yeah...and AJ Green = Holy Crap.
The Defense - Domination. The front four finally got some pressure, and the LB blitzes (which were happening more than folks wanted to admit before Sat...just not working) worked as well. If the run defense continues to hold up like this, we'll only face one passing game good enough to beat us without some semblance of balance.
Coaching - When UNLV beat ASU, I was worried that our guys would take them lightly. You could tell from the opening jump that Georgia was ready to play. I loved that we attacked ASU from the opening whistle. The long bomb is a low percentage play, but it showed Bobo immediately that ASU couldn't cover AJ. Late, some guys around me were bitching about the toss sweep call on 3rd and 1 that resulted in a fumble. One of our best offensive plays is the Toss Sweep and most of Moreno's best runs were off the Toss Sweep. I wasn't thrilled that we went for the FG on the goal line up 24-10, but it was the right call. It effectively ended the game. I don't think Richt makes that call in the 3rd quarter.

As for the penalties, I'm not a big conspiracy theory guy. I usually don't think that SEC refs (Penn Wagers aside) "have it out for Georgia" as much as they simply aren't very good at their jobs. Having said all that...if the Sun Devils needed a big play last night, there was a guy in stripes there to make it for them. I'm still in Tempe, and I haven't seen the replay yet. But it looked to me like the biggest calls of the night were questionable. More on that later.

Overall:
Georgia has now won 11 games in a row. During that stretch, we have won 9 of the last 10 by ten or more points. To those that question whether or not the Bulldogs have been "dominating enough," chew on that last stat for a while.

BTW -- As for the commenters here and elsewhere that insist on posting "so and so sucks." We're ranked in the Top 3. Can you please take a deep breath before posting that stuff?

PWD

September 20, 2008

It's the subtle things that crack me up

Makers Mark and Gentleman Jack predictably sold out at liquor store on Mill Avenue. Yes....the brown water people are definitely here.

PWD

Public Service Announcement

Let's just say that hypothetically you were to run into a cute brunette with a polka dot skirt in Arizona tomorrow. And let's just hypothetically say that she were to tell you that *she* is Paul Westerdawg.

I'm telling ya. It's not true.

I'm not saying...I'm just saying.

Go Dawgs. lol

(Update: through the clearer lens of day light...this wasn't my finest post. lol)

September 19, 2008

We're here and we're everywhere

You can't throw a rock in Arizona without hitting a Dawg Fan. Everyone I talked to flew in on planes loaded with Dawgs. I've run into our people in Phoenix, Sedona and Williams, AZ. We're definitely representing ourselves well. Coolest thing I've seen so far was Montezuma's Castle on the way up to Sedona; although, sunset in Sedona was pretty amazing. The Canyon is next.

About the heat down in Phoenix today. Yes. It's hot. Damn. Hot. But it's not the miserable, sticky hot that we're used to. You can actually walk around in it without feeling like you're going to need hosing off afterwards. It's no where remotely close to as miserable as last Saturday in Columbia, SC.

This is my first trip to the Southwest desert, and I really didn't know what to make of the "dry heat" stuff before I got out here. I think it will be much easier for our guys to deal with this dry heat than it will be for ASU to deal with our humidity next season. As long as the players hydrate properly on Saturday, the heat issue shouldn't be a problem. Especially in the second half when the temps will drop about 10 degrees.

But hot is hot. All of you who have been asking me about tailgating in Tempe on Saturday...the answer....you won't want to do that. Mill Avenue is right there by the Stadium. Boozing indoors in front of big screen TVs is good times. Boozing on asphalt parking lots that are baking your feet is bad times.

The quasi-official party on Saturday is at Gordon Biersch on Mill Avenue. However, that place only holds 600-1,000, and there are 12,000 to 20,000 of us. The overall party will be all over Mill. You won't be able to miss your fellow Dawgs.

Have fun everybody. For now, I'm out. Gotta sleep.

PWD

September 18, 2008

Ideally, it'll look like this....

Uploaded by NHBI

PWD

Posting will be sporadic

All three of us are heading to the game. Other than some pre-baked stuff, I'm not sure how much we'll be posting.

My early thoughts....the OL shuffle makes me really nervous. I think Anderson and Vance are a downgrade over Tripp and Boling. We would essentially be playing our 3rd team left tackle against a quality DE in this game (Sturdivant ... then Tripp...then Vance). I'm also nervous about our own pass rush, and the "unknown" of how the team will react to the logistics.

I wish they were flying out earlier, but what do I know.

Things I'm not worried about

The "Gold Out" that ASU has planned for the game
The ASU running game
The loyalties of Mr. Truett Cathy.

Some dude emailed me asking me to boycott Chick-fil-a because they sponsored the "Bring on Georgia" signs at ASU a few weeks ago. Are you kidding me? I'd boycott my own ~~mother~~ blog before I'd boycott the blessed fried chicken creation of Mr. Cathy.

I like the Dawgs to cover the 6.5 , but I'll be happy with any win. Sorry for the weak week of posting, but this has been a chaos week for me. Plus, we're all hunkered down at our "real jobs" to get ready for 2 days out of the office this week.

Go Dawgs. See you out there.

See Also:
-- ASU must get past loss - USAToday
-- ASU notes - Blutarsky
-- Richt has right answers for UGA - AZ Republic

September 17, 2008

Football Picks are Due!

Get your picks into the Georgia Sports Blog College Football Pick 'Em. The picks lock early Thursday evening. One note...apparently, I selected the Louisville vs. Kansas State game as one of the options this week.

I have no idea why I did that. Specifically, I didn't know the game was scheduled for TONIGHT. That means the system "autopicked" that game at 9 points of confidence for the home team for everyone who didn't already have their picks in...which looks like a huge chunk of us. At the half, Louisville (home) is up 14-7...so it could be a lucky break for a bunch of us who got our picks in after the game started.

It shouldn't be that big a deal though because this week is going to be wild. All but a few of the games will be hard to slot this week so we should see considerable movement in the rankings.

Get your picks in. It's a long season.

PWD

BCS Standings Still Like Us

Even though we continue to drop in the AP and Coaches' Poll, the BCS simulator at BCSGuru.com moved us up to No. 2 after the Carolina game. The Dawgs and Oklahoma jumped an idle Florida squad. The standings are a simulation and there are a couple of big caveats, like two computers haven't released their data yet and the AP Poll is used instead of the Harris Poll. The most interesting thing is that the computers used love us. We've got the highest computer ranking by a good bit.

I think this tentatively confirms what Coach Richt has stated this week. The rankings will take care of themselves if the Dawgs keep winning. Forget about margin of victory. Just win the games. Even if the human polls give OU the second spot, the computers should give us an edge in the BCS standing.

Quinton

Chick-Fil-A awaits Dawg Fans in Tempe

Per a press release

The Phoenix-area Chick-fil-A restaurant franchise Operators would like to welcome University of Georgia football fans that will be traveling to Arizona for the Bulldogs’ match-up versus the Arizona State Devils. Fans in town for the game can enjoy “home-cooking” by eating Chick-fil-A prior to the game at the Devil’s Lair tailgating area beginning at 2 p.m. on game day, Sept. 20. The Chick-fil-A “Eat Mor Chikin®” Cow will be on-hand to welcome fans to the game.

The Devil's Lair is located just outside of the stadium.

PWD

Paul Westerdawg, Media Darling

Check out the quote from our own PWD on the Arizona Republic's site. The funny part is they think he was being facetious.

Paoloa Boivin's column also sometimes runs in the USA Today, but I couldn't find a link.

GATA

Dawgnoxious

Going West

In American history, heading West is a action of hope. Those settlers who could not carve out a prosperous spot for themselves or their families could simply pick up and move west for more open land, for hope of a better life, for Manifest Destiny. The West became an idealized place of opportunity that offered the chance to begin anew, despite past failures and shortcomings.

For SEC teams, however, the West should have a different connotation. It has been a place of ambush and scalping. Since the conference went to twelve teams in 1992, the SEC has a record of 3-7 in Pac-10 stadiums. Here are the numbers:

1994 - Tennessee loses at UCLA
1997 - Tennessee wins at UCLA
2000 - Alabama loses at UCLA
2002 - Auburn loses at (5) Southern Cal, Mississippi State loses at Oregon
2003 - LSU wins at Arizona
2005 - LSU wins at (15) Arizona State, Arkansas loses at (1) Southern Cal
2007 - Tennessee loses at (12) California
2008 - Tennessee loses at UCLA

I just bring this up to show that our brethern's wagon trains have been ambushed by natives in the past. In some of those games, the Southern boys were just clearly outmatched, like Arkansas getting smashed to a fine powder and blown into the Santa Ana winds by Southern Cal. But, you can't tell me that Alabama and Tennessee had any business losing some of those games to UCLA. I also note that in 2005 an LSU team bursting at the seams with NFL talent, needed a last second heave and controversial catch to hold off an Arizona State team that finished 7-5.

There all all sorts of possible explanations, but the one that's often brought up is the time change. Coach Richt doesn't think there's anything to this. The Dawgs are leaving on Friday instead of flying out Thursday for a brief acclimation period. Ron Courson agrees after talking to teams that headed into the desert. To us, it should feel like a night game, playing at eight eastern.

Time change or not, I think we have too many rifles and smallpox infested blankets for the natives to survive. Plus, Richt still has that freakish record at opponent's home stadiums. After last week, he's 26-4 on the road.

Quinton

September 16, 2008

Westerdawg Interviewed by Scout.com's ASU Site

The editor of DevilsDigest.com interviewed me on Sunday for an article on the UGA vs. ASU game. The article ran earlier today. I wish he had cleaned up some of my run on sentences and helped a brother out. lol.

The only thing I should've clarified better was the confidence I have in Asher Allen. I spoke negatively of my confidence level in the CBs, but it's really the other 2-3 guys that make me nervous. Not Asher.

If you have a Scout.com subscription, you can read it and make fun of me. If you don't...then you should just assume that it's the most brilliant piece of college football thought leadership in history.

Also on DevilsDigest.com, their readers put together a UGA Look a Like thread that's pretty funny. HT - Chip Towers.

PWD

SEC Power Poll Ballot

1. Georgia - Escaped Columbia with a win after their offense sputtered. The Dawgs don't have a pass rush yet, but that run defense has been impenetrable so far. Do the conference proud in the desert.

2. Florida - Prepping for the Vols this weekend.

3. LSU -Crushed one of the worst teams in the country. Yawn. Can the offense put up points against a real defense? We'll see Saturday.

4. Auburn -Three points was enough against State, but LSU can actually run an effective offensive play. Is there a quarterback anywhere on that team?

5. Alabama -Again, we won't know the trust about Bama until they visit Athens. Should slaughter the Hawgs this weekend.

6. Ole Miss -Must beat Vandy in Oxford to keep the congregation hopeful.

7. Vanderbilt - Pulled away from Rice in the second half. Win this weekend and could we see the Commodores in the Top 25?

8. Tennessee -I can't remember a less impressive blowout win. Time to either step up and redeem yourself or start debating Fulmer's future again.

9. Kentucky - Munching cupcakes and stuck here until October.

10. South Carolina-The defense looked good and the offense moved the ball, but gave up their normal choke job turnovers to let the Dawgs escape.

11. Mississippi State -Just punt it on first down and let the defense try to score. That offense is painful to watch.

12. Arkansas - Be glad the game was postponed, Hawgs.

Quinton

South Carolina's Open Tight End vs. Georgia

I'm no football coach or scheme guru, and I don't pretend to be one on this blog. However, here's my take on the issue of South Carolina's open tight end in the second half. After pondering this quite a bit, I really don't think we had a reasonable adjustment to make on him (beyond clobbering him at the line of scrimmage) given our personnel in that game.

Here's Why:
Spurrier went to a personnel alignment of 3 WRs, 1 TE and 1 RB. That line-up from a team like South Carolina means that Georgia is going to a nickel coverage. Our most effective nickel package appears to be the 3-3-5 look.

The 3-3-5 is what we used to terrorize Tim Tebow and Colt Brennan, and it's the look we showed when we sacked, hurried and late hit SC's QBs on Saturday. We got very little pressure from a 4-3-4 or 4-2-5 look on Saturday.

If SC is in that personnel grouping, we generally have that Nickelback over the 3rd WR.

So...What Were the Other Options for Adjustments:

Cover him with the Nickelback -- If we had put the nickel on SC's tight end (Cook), a linebacker would have to cover the 3rd wide receiver. A linebacker vs. a WR is an even worse match-up for us than a linebacker vs. a TE. Regardless, I'm pretty sure our Nickel is Prince Miller. At 5'-8" and 180 lbs, Miller is not physically who you want trying to handle a big tight end in the open field.
Cover him with 4th Cornerback -- If we move to 4 CBs, then a linebacker has to come off the field. I wouldn't trade any of our linebackers for Vance Cuff or Remarcus Brown right now. The 4th CB (6 total DBs) would've also opened up some interior runs. (Technically, we could've gone with 3 safeties and 3 CBs, but our 3rd safety is a walk-on. Drew Williams doesn't seem like a viable option on that one).
Cover him with a Safety -- I don't think CJ Byrd is physically large enough to quickly tackle or effectively jam a guy Cook's size. So that leaves Reshad Jones. Jones looks ideally suited to handle a big physical and fast guy like Cook. However, (to the best of my knowledge) he has never been asked to cover a TE like that in a game.

You can't "adjust" and ask Jones to do something that he hasn't YET been taught to do. That's my basic theory on it. The good news -- we've got a few weeks before we see our next big time TE (Bama) to teach RJ to play that coverage.

Spurrier is no dummy. He had an unusual weapon, and he knew how to use him. I guess Georgia could've tried jamming the big dude at the line of scrimmage, but I think they were afraid of him blowing past them deep.

Bottom Line:
South Carolina ran the ball for 18 yards on 16 carries, and they only scored 7 points. For them to even be in that game with us required their QB to play the game of his life...and he STILL couldn't create more than 7 points.

We left *at least* 11 points on the table due to sloppy play that can easily be fixed. SC left 7.

As JudgeDawg said on DawgRun, did you honestly think that Spurrier would only score 7 points? The defensive scheme wasn't the problem Saturday. The problems were defensive penalties and offensive miscues.

Am I way off? Agree or Disagree?

PWD

September 15, 2008

Georgia vs. Alabama Kickoff Time Set

As you probably saw earlier today, ESPN announced that the Georgia Bulldogs will kickoff against the Alabama Crimson Tide at 7:45 pm EST on Sept. 27th. Georgia's all-time record on ESPN is 25-23-1.

Completely unrelated, but did you catch Gary Danielson's comment at the end of the SC game? The Gamecocks have never won a regular season game on CBS. Damn.

Do you have any "extra" tailgate plans for next week?

See Also:
-- Tickets: Georgia Bulldogs vs. Alabama Crimson Tide

Chat with Ching

Join the Athens Banner Herald's live online chat with sports editor David Ching on Tuesday. Send your questions to David at sports@onlineathens.com and don't forget to log onto OnlineAthens.com at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday to chat with Ching.

David seems like a pretty good guy. Show up and ask him some good questions.

PWD

Gamecock Fan

You can't make this sort of stuff up.

SC Game: Offensive Miscues 2nd Half

If you take our gigantic miscues and their gigantic miscue (fumble on the goal line) out of it, the score looks more like 24-14. Like I said yesterday Sunday, most of our stuff is fixable. Below is a look at the offensive miscues from the 2nd half.

	1^st Drive
	1^st Drive Overall		6 plays and 4 yards net. Moreno got one touch. This drive was derailed because various members of the offensive line lost one on one battles at the line of scrimmage. Then a Matt Stafford pass was deflected into Kiante Tripp’s arms resulting in a huge loss. Not so much miscues as our guys getting beaten and a bad bounce on the deflection.
	2^nd Drive
	1^st and 10 SC 34		Incomplete pass Pass intended for Richard Samuel. This is an instance where Knowshon being a decoy actually made sense. Good play call, but Stafford just missed Samuel deep. 30 yard passes aren’t high percentage plays, but it’s a great gamble on 1^st down. No cost to this miss because the next play was a Stafford run for 30 yards. Followed by the awesome TD run by KM.
	2^nd Drive Overall		The play action bootleg play from Stafford to Goodman to start the drive was a helluva play call executed at a high level. Moreno touched the ball 3 of 7 plays on this drive, and he was a critical component to the zone read run by Stafford. When our offense flows through Moreno, great things happen.
	3^rd Drive
	2^nd and 7 UGA 17		Sack Stafford didn’t see the corner blitz, and Shaun Chapas completely ignored the on rushing defender. If Chapas picks up his block, there is no sack. He literally ran past the blitzing defender. They could've given each other high fives before the guy clobber Stafford. Cost – 2 plays later UGA punts.
	Drive 4
	1^st and 10 UGA 20		Incomplete pass Bobo called for the bomb to Massaquoi following the fumble. I loved this call because we are trying to win a national title AND the game. This could have been a "sweep the leg" moment. From our seats, you could tell that Massaquoi was wide open initially. Unfortunately, Stafford didn’t hit him fast enough. Instead it was double coverage by the time Stafford got the ball there.
	2^nd and 10 UGA 20		Stafford run for no yards. Stafford kept the ball on the zone read. The play had worked twice earlier. I’m playing arm chair QB here, but I think you give it to Moreno immediately after taking the big shot down field.
	3^rd and 10 UGA 20		Sack Vince Vance also called for holding. Penalty declined. It looked to me like Chris Davis lost his battle with an interior DL resulting in the sack.
	Drive 5
	Three and out		Our OL lost individual match-ups to their DL. Plain and simple. However, they did eat up almost two minutes which was critical to getting the victory.

If you take our gigantic miscues and their gigantic miscue (fumble on the goal line) out of it, the score looks more like 24-14. Like I said yesterday Sunday, most of our stuff is fixable.

PWD

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