David Hale gets all charts and graphy in today's post about the returning experience in the SEC. Phil Steele would be proud of him; although, I'm sure the Man of Steele would suggest a smaller font size and removing the excessive white space.One of his best points relates to examining offensive stats without recognizing the changes in offensive line. His point being the offensive line at UGA should improve enough to support an overall increase in production at UGA. While a team like Ole Miss may miss a beat without bruisers like Michael Oher securing Snead in a snuggly, womb-like cocoon of safety.
It's good reading. And while I'm on the topic of returning starters, I have to say I agree with a comment Buck Belue made a few weeks ago about Joe Cox. He's not Matthew Stafford, but right now I'd take him as the third best returning QB in the SEC. Most years....that's good enough.
PWD
6 comments:
Very excited about seeing this O-line. Just hope everybody can stay relatively healthy. Would love to see a group like the 2002 hog mollies we had.
all charts and graphy cracked me up.
unfortunately i think it's gonna be a cherry terrishenski type of year. just my gut.
i predict we suffer through 4 maybe 5 losses.
boehm
Cox has his limitations. But he's more talented than JT3.
Yes, if we had a good defense I woudl agree Cox would be good enough. However . . . . .
Just wanted to hit on this real quick...great point on the o-line and good stuff on the graphs.
The thing that bothers me is that it really doesn't tell you anything except 2008 stats. For example, Ole Miss would have looked pretty poor after losing Green-Ellis et. al from the 2007 team, yet they performed very well in 2008. Alabama lost DJ Hall from 2007 to 2008. Look at the Georgia team with Shockley that lost not only D. Greene, but also Gibson and Brown at the WR position. The 2008 LSU team lost JaMarcus Russell, Buster Davis, Dwane Bowe, and Broussard.
If anything, I think it is these type of stats that end up giving us an inaccurate picture of what to expect in the upcoming year. It is these stats that were the exact reason the Dawgs were preseason #1 last year.
The common denominator on all of those teams? You had some nasty and experienced linemen on both sides of the ball...(certainly you had underclassmen talent waiting in the wings, but think about the fact that guys like Dorsey, Jackson, A. Smith, M. Oher, G. Hardy, D. Caldwell were all returning. The 2005 UGA team was loaded with experience/depth despite losing Pollack in Golston, Jean-Gilis, Tanner, Inman, G. Anderson, Gant and Q. Moses.
That's why I like this year's Dawgs. Owens, Atkins, and Weston are some bad dudes up front. I'd rather the O-Line have more upperclassmen, but Sturdivant, Bolling, Jones, Strickland, Glenn etc. have all been through the grind. I'm just worried we waste all the talent we have in the middle of the Defense by providing no rush from the ends, but taking up double teams with your DTs makes all the difference in the word with your pass rush.
Why is everyone making the comments about Cox as if he is just slightly better than Joe T3?
Joe Cox was an Elite 11 QB - who never lost a game in high school.
As a Redshirt freshman, Cox lost the position battle to another freshman. Albeit this other freshman was predicted to be the first QB taken in the NFL draft when he opted to enter the NFL draft. 3 years later the prediction came true - how often has that happened?
Guys ... Cox is going to be good. Does he have the same physical skills as Stafford? No - but Cox did not make the Elite 11 because he was a stiff.
In fact all the scholarship QB's on our roster were Elite 11 QB's - not many schools have that luxury.
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