Impact of the Thomas Flowers Suspension

Tuesday night I was driving home from work, and I was listening to Chuck Oliver's night time show on 790theZone. Chuck's the type of guy that will make a really lucid comment, but explain his reasoning using theories that ignore reality and depth charts in favor of cliche's and hunches. The type of guy that sometimes gets to the right answer, but you have no idea why or how.

Such was the case Tuesday. Chuck was talking about the UGA vs. South Carolina game, and the impact of the Thomas Flowers suspension. He argued (correctly) that losing Flowers would have a large impact on the punt return game for UGA. Fair enough.


Thomas Flowers vs. UT
He also argued that losing Flowers as the starting cornerback was a devasting blow. Huh?

By Chuck's own admission, Flowers had only seven tackles all of last year. All seven came against ULM, Vandy, UK and Boise State. He rarely played a meaningful snap at CB last year against a quality opponent. Yet, losing him is a painful loss when UGA has many highly recruited, fast kids at CB in the wings including Asher Allen, Remarcus Brown and Bryan Evans.

Chuck went on to explain his reasoning by stating that South Carolina's receiving corps is deadly as he threw out names like Sidney Rice, Noah Whiteside, Syvelle Newton, and MatthewCarlos Thomas (I think he included him). His reasoning, (paraphrase): "Spurrier's mastermind passing game with all of those WRs presents a real problem for UGA's DBs with the Flowers injury."

A look at the Gamecock WRs:

• Sidney Rice - It's no question that Rice is a beast, and UGA will more than likely put Paul Oliver on him all night. Our best vs. their best. Flowers injury doesn't affect that matchup one way or the other.
  
  
• Noah Whiteside has been suspended for the first three games of the season. So he's not a factor.
  
  
• Syvelle Newton is trying to recover from an Achilles injury that caused him to miss most much of the 2005 season. Newton has been working to come back from the injury, although Spurrier called him out in the summer for missing voluntary workouts with the team. It usually takes a year to recover fully from an injury like that.
  
  
• MatthewCarlos Thomas is an incredibly talented kid, but with the Gamecocks lack of depth at CB, he's starting the season as a DB. Spurrier will probably play him some on both sides of the ball vs. UGA. But not an every down WR.
  
  
• Other guys like Kenny McKinley might be players, but they aren't gamebreakers.

So let me just ask....with Spurrier's #2 WR out for the game...his #3 WR is coming off a devasting achilles injury...and one of his top playmakers at DB....are we to seriously believe that South Carolina's 5 and 6 best healthy WRs are better than UGA's #3 best CB?

Spurrier is a great coach, but there is a large talent gap in that matchup.

If you want to talk about why UGA will struggle in Columbia, talk about the offensive line. Ken Shackleford is at one OT, and he really hasn't done anything of note in his 3+ years while Michael Turner has done less in his four years. Although both have potential. With Inman out, we've got real issues up front.

I'm willing to concede the point that UGA may struggle with the Gamecocks because we always do. But the loss of Flowers at CB won't be the reason.

Besides, UGA had the #2 passing defense in the SEC last year. Sure, we lost three DBs, but we ALWAYS have a top ranked passing defense with Martinez. Our problem last year was stopping the run. Not the pass. Just ask Kenny Irons or West Virginia.

pwd

BTW -- the Gamecocks lost Clarence Bailey a JUCO Offensive Tackle signee who was being counted on to start along the OL. Bailey was ruled ineligible. So it's not like they don't have their own problems.


The Great Syvelle Newton vs. UGA. (Image: OnlineAthens.com)

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