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It wasn’t the prettiest of efforts, but it was a solid win, cementing at least a tie for the SEC-East crown. In a season that has been so unpredictable, it was nice to see things go as expected for once. Order was somewhat restored in the UGA-UK rivalry. Now comes the big in-state battle. This is the game of the year for GT and their faithful. It could be for the coach’s job (seems like the same thing was said about Fulmer right before they trounced us). This game is almost always closer than you expect. It will be a battle.

About the UK game

Not much to say about that game. We were careless with the ball (-3 in turnover margin on the day), threw for under 100 yards and still managed to win handily. Earlier in the season I don’t know that we could’ve pulled that off. This team is playing on such an emotional high right now, I never really got that nervous Saturday. Sure I was worried, but I never really thought we were done. This team has come a long way and they’ve brought me along with them. I have a considerable amount of faith in these guys and it starts at the top.

In fact, I have more faith in this team now than I did before Saturday. I say that because I was VERY worried about UK’s offense against our defense as we haven’t played lights out on that side for a while. After Saturday I think my attitude towards the D has changed considerably. We held a strong, balanced UK offense to 13 points (3 in the 2nd half) despite giving up 4 turnovers. It was like watching the 2002 or 2003 defenses, coming up big on 3rd down stops against a big time QB who had lots of serious weapons at his disposal. The funny thing about our defensive resurgence is that, like our recent offensive outburst, it can largely be attributed to the emergence of a freshman. On offense it’s Knowshon. On defense, it is a little man named Rennie. Rennie Curran is quickly becoming a joy to watch. He’s everywhere. His stellar play (13 tackles on Saturday) has been a slowly developing story this season but it’s one that’s hard to miss right now. The defense suddenly has some serious bite against the run and it couldn’t come at any better time going into this matchup against the ACC’s rushing leader.

GT Offense

The GT offense has struggled this season in the wake of the departure of Calvin Johnson and his ridiculously good games against non-UGA opponents. They have a solid ground game again but the passing game has struggled to develop any type of consistency. For the season, their total offense output is hitting out around 392 yards (61st nationally), with 209 coming on the ground (18th nationally) and 183 coming through the air (100th nationally). Scoring wise, they’ve struggled to put points on the board with regularity, averaging nearly 27 points per game (64th nationally), a number buoyed significantly by totals scored against Samford (69 points), Duke (41 points) and Army (34 points). Just removing the Samford (that’s not the one in the Pac 10) game drops their average scoring (against D1 schools) to under 23 ppg, a number that would put them at 93rd in scoring offense.

Gone is Reggie Ball, one of the more polarizing figures in recent GA college history. Oddly enough, despite starting at GT for 4 years, he’s widely reviled by GT fans and beloved (with tongue-in-cheek) by UGA fans for his 4 consecutive losses to UGA. His replacement, Taylor Bennett, started his GT reign off in brilliant fashion in last year’s bowl game, proving that anyone (except for maybe Reggie Ball) could run a successful offense with Calvin Johnson on the field. Bennett has struggled this season, throwing only 5 TDs to 8 INTs, completing 50.5% of his passes and looking shaky regularly. Change of pace, hotshot freshman Josh Nesbitt has added a running aspect to the position but he’s struggled throwing the ball consistently, attempting only 4 passes on the year and only completing 4. He’s also had major issues with fumbles, especially snaps. The GT grad in our office said he couldn’t hit the broadside of O’Keefe gym (whatever that is). Look for him to pull off the Tebow “run up to the line like a running play, squat and then step back and chunk it” play. They’ve used that play at least twice this year out of his 10 passes and it’s hit once, for a TD. It would’ve hit the other time except he overthrew the guy.

At RB, GT has a great player in senior Tashard Choice. Choice is one of those GT players I can’t wait to see leave because he’s a really good kid and it’s just easier for him to move onto the NFL so I don’t have to worry about any conflicts of interest. He’s amassed big numbers again this year despite missing time in various games due to injury. For the year he’s got nearly 1,200 yards and is averaging 5.3 ypc and has 9 TDs. He had nearly 1,500 yards last year and is a gutsy, tough runner. He’s got the speed to get outside and is surprisingly physical for a 6-1, 205-pound back. He’s gone over 30 carries in a game 4 times this season including last week’s battle with UNC. He’s topped 135 yards in 6 of the 10 games he’s played in. The lead backup is freshman heir apparent Jonathan Dwyer, who is averaging 5.5 ypc and has speed to burn.

The GT WR corps from last year is in Detroit getting paid millions. In Johnson’s wake is a group of guys who are slowly developing and haven’t yet blossomed (partly due to Bennett). So. Greg Smith leads the team in catches and yards receiving but hadn’t scored a receiving TD until he found the endzone twice last week. Freshman Demaryius Thomas was billed as the next Calvin Johnson because of his size and speed, and he’s had a solid year (2nd in catches and yards, 1st in TDs with 3), but he’s no Calvin Johnson (who is?). Junior James Johnson is steady but hasn’t had the year many thought he would. He had 2 big drops in Athens last year. TE Colin Peek is a big target that has 22 catches on the year.

The GT OL features no freshmen (novel idea). The line is paced by Jr. LT Andrew Gardner and Sr OC Kevin Tuminello, both of whom are potential All-ACC OLs this season and both of whom have started 37 consecutive games in their career. Gardner is a 6-6, 298-pounder with the length you look for in OTs. LG Matt Rhodes is actually the most experienced guy on the line, with 45 career starts. The right side of the OL is pretty green, with both guys moving into the starting lineup in the last 4 or 5 games. They average right around 300 pounds a man and have done a decent job keeping Bennett upright (20 sacks allowed on the year) and any time you have a RB go for well over 1,000 yards in back-to-back seasons you’re obviously doing something right.

Bottom Line: GT’s offense is keyed off their ground game, with Choice being the heart of that unit. He’s missed all or parts of 4 games this season and in those games they went 1-3. His hamstring injury is one of those things that could easily flare back up at any time, but given this is his last shot at UGA, I imagine we’ll see a strong effort from him. You may recall he went for 146 yards on us last year. Basically I think we come up, try our best to stop the run and make Bennett beat us. He’s struggled to step up and take the offense over in the absence of Choice, and our defense seems to be playing better each week.

Key Matchup to watch when they have the ball: Just watch Rennie Curran. That kid seems to be everywhere. He’s really starting to show that nose for the football we’d heard about so much. Given the likelihood that GT will be riding Choice as often as possible, Curran will have more than enough opportunities to make some plays.

GT Defense

The GT defense is a pretty stout bunch statistically. They boast impressive numbers pretty much across the board: 9th nationally in rush defense, 37th in pass defense, 7th in total defense, 16th in scoring defense…pretty strong…that is until you look at who they’ve played. Of their 11 games to date, 10 have been against D1 teams. Of those 10, they’ve played 2 teams (BC at 25 and Clemson at 45) in the top 95 in total offense. That’s right, 8 of their 10 D1 opponents have been ranked from 96-119, including 6 of the bottom 20. They’ve played over half their schedule against the worst 20 offensive teams in the country. I would hope they’d have good stats. Scoring offense of those same opponents isn’t much better, as they only faced 3 opponents in the top 75 in scoring O, with 4 being in the bottom 20 and only 1 in the top 45. Don’t get me wrong, they do have an aggressive scheme that can cause some serious problems for any offense, especially if they get on a roll, but it’s important to keep some perspective on these things. For any Jackets that might stumble onto this and are still reading, for comparison’s sake, UGA has faced 4 of the top 32 teams by total offense and 5 of the top 31 scoring offenses to date (and are allowing 3 ppg more than GT).

The GT DL is nasty. Sr. Darrell Robertson is 3rd in the ACC in TFLs (you’ll hear that a lot with this D) with an impressive 16 and has 6.5 sacks on the season. Opposite him in running situations and early downs will be fellow senior Adamm Oliver, who is thought of as more of the run stopper but has mounted a nice all-around season with 8 TFLs and 4.5 sacks. The real threat though is freakish pass rush specialist Michael Johnson. The Jr. with the ridiculously long neck always seems to be in the backfield. In limited snaps he has 6 TFLs, 4 sacks and leads the team with 4 QB hurries. He had a big game against us last year in Athens. It doesn’t get much easier inside, where a pair of juniors have been having big years. Vance Walker is a smaller DT at 6-2, 275, but he’s quick enough to snag 13 TFLs and 8.5 sacks. Darryl Richard has had a productive season inside as well but also lacks the bulk you’d expect inside at 6-4, 285.

The GT LB corps is headed up by Sr. All-ACC candidate Phillip Wheeler, who ends up all over the field. He leads the team in tackles, has 6 sacks, 5 pass break-ups and is tied for the team lead in fumble recoveries. He’s flanked by Sr. Gary Guyton and So. Shane Bowen. Guyton is 2 tackles behind Wheeler on the year and is having a great season with 4 sacks to boot. Those 3 LBs have started every game together this season, something that is completely foreign for UGA. As often as GT blitzes, these sack totals from the LBs are pretty well expected.

The GT secondary has gone through some changes in the last 2 weeks, namely the move of stud freshman safety Morgan Burnett to CB. He’s a ballhawk and future star that leads the team in INTs (3) and is 6th in tackles despite not starting prior to last week. The staff felt he would be more of a benefit at CB, where GT has struggled some this season. Opposite him at the other CB is the bane of Larry Munson in Jahi Word-Daniels. The GT guy in the office assures me that if JWD is in position to make a play on the ball, don’t worry, it will in fact be completed as he struggles to make plays on the ball. He has managed two INTs on the year though. Those two players account for the totality of the GT season INTs. At Safety, Jamal Lewis and Djay Jones provide experience. Lewis is a solid player and is 2nd on the team in tackles. Jones has started every game but was spelled heavily by Burnett prior to his switch.

Bottom Line: I expect us to run right at GT. GT blitzes a lot and I fully expect Stafford to look to get us into the right running plays. GT is strong against the run, but so was AU and, before we played them, so was UF. I think we’ll try and establish the run early, rotating Moreno and Brown to stay fresh, allowing our play action passing to be that much more effective. Lately we’ve fallen into a pattern of going deep when we do pass, to mixed results. It worked very well in the AU and UF games, not so much against UK. Given the speed GT has up front and their knack for getting after the QB, I don’t know that we’ll have a ton of time to go deep. Quick slants to Massaquoi and Bailey and intermediate routes to Wilson and Chandler could be more effective. Chandler has been used sparingly in recent weeks and I keep expecting us to go to him. If they bring their safeties up, one of those skinny posts off play action could go the distance. The GT guy assures me that while GT leads the nation in sacks and tackles for loss, they are probably last in the country in tackles within the first 10 yards of the LOS. Basically it’s all or nothing.

Key matchup to watch when we have the ball: Given how much I think we’re going to try and establish the run, I’m going to go back to Southerland here. He’s impressive keeping folks out of plays. He’ll have his hands full with Wheeler, but he’s excelled all year. Of course, it helps having a guy as quick and sudden as Moreno behind you as he doesn’t need a whole lot of space.

The GT Game Overall

It’s Tech. It’s easy to say we’ve won 6 straight, we’re ranked in the top 6 in the country and they’ve struggled to a shaky record on the year so we should roll over them. That’s what you might think. According to that same logic, we’d never have beaten UF, we’d never win another game in Sanford Stadium against AU and UT certainly wouldn’t have plastered us in Knoxville, as we hadn’t lost there under Richt. No, this is Tech. Throw out the records. Throw out all of those stats I mentioned earlier. Those are essentially there for color or to make you sleep better or worse this week going into the game. Once the clock hits 3:30 Saturday afternoon, this will be the same closely fought battle it is nearly every time we tangle with this bunch.

Simply take a look at the games in this current streak. 2001 was close until late when Wansley picked off Godsey for a TD to seal it. 2002 and 2003 were handy wins. 2004 was a close one that needed a late Coutu FG to seal it in the rain and we still needed Reggie Ball to forget what down was 4th. 2005 was much closer than it should’ve been as DJ had to hit McClendon for a late TD and Jennings had to intercept Reggie Ball to seal the win. Last year we had to mount a late TD drive to take the lead only to have Reggie Ball throw an INT to close it out. Unfortunately for us this year, Reggie Ball is gone. With the exception of the 2002 and 2003 romps, this has been a VERY tight rivarly in recent years despite the fact UGA has typically come in with a pretty substantial talent and ranking advantage. I don’t expect this Saturday to be much different.

We’ve been playing with a tremendous amount of emotion and have largely used it to our complete advantage. In this game, we’ll be facing a team with as much or more motivation than we’ve encountered all season. This Tech team is quite possibly playing for their coach’s job. They’re playing to break the streak. They’re playing to avoid becoming the first team to ever lose 7 straight to UGA. As much as we have to play for (potential BCS bowl, way outside shot at the national title game), they’ll be wanting this game just as much. We focus on this game for one week a year. GT focuses on it for the whole year. Lose this game and you’ll know why.

Positional Notes

Sturdivant’s injury could have been lethal if it had been serious. It didn’t appear to be as he came back in and finished the game off.

Good to hear that redshirting freshman OL Chris Little is down to 330. Given the fact he reported at 380+, that’s tremendous news. He was as highly thought of a player as you’ll find after his junior year prior to ballooning to his peak weight. If he can get back down to his old playing weight he could be a big (literally and figuratively) player for us down the road.

Our use of Tony Wilson is certainly interesting. He’s got great speed but we rarely use him downfield. After that Vandy game I really thought we’d see him get involved more. Good to see him make that key 3rd down grab on Saturday though.

Continuing with WRs…Bailey and Massaquoi made some absolutely amazing catches this year. Those guys deserve a ton of credit for the way they’ve played.

After playing several series at DE Saturday, Brandon Miller has officially been moves to DE. That’s hard to believe. Many expected he’d always end up there but most assumed it wouldn’t be nearly 50 games into his career. I gotta give it to the kid. He came in with impossibly high expectations, played a ton of snaps at a position that in our scheme really doesn’t set itself up for gaining a ton of stats, had to listen to folks always claiming he was a bust, and just kept giving it his all. He’s a great kid and certainly has the measurables to get some pro scouts drooling next year.

Big round of applause for Kelin Johnson. He showed up big for his last game in Sanford, grabbing an INT and blocking a punt. He did it all while keeping his emotions in check too.

Random Thoughts

Following our final home game of the season, I think it’s important to note that nearly everything about the Gameday experience has been grade A this year. They dropped the one thing I thought was really annoying, that UGA race to Chic Fil A. It just took too long and was paced so poorly. I thought the pregame videos were spot on all year. I loved the top 10 plays of the year feature they did this year. I loved the use of music to get the crowd (and team) going but I think I loved even more the restraint they showed in using said music. They even dropped Journey from the halftime band performance.

It looks like Tim Tebow pretty much locked up the Heisman with the injury to Oregon’s Dennis Dixon. I can’t say that the kid doesn’t deserve it. He’s done some pretty amazing things this year. If he played anywhere else besides UF…OK, make that anywhere outside the SEC…and GT, I think I’d really enjoy watching him play. Of course I’d still get absolutely sick of the media fascination with him but my guess is it would take longer. The only way he loses it now is if he struggles against a pretty athletic FSU defense.

After the game on Saturday I spent some time with a few UK fans near our “tailgate” at the Holiday Inn. Turns out they don’t like UT…at all. After many reassurances that they would take care of UT, one of the gentlemen put down his corn-cob pipe (no kidding) and showed me his UK tattoo as proof that they would win. I can only trust him I suppose. I’ll be pulling for you from afar Mr. Corn-cob. It was pretty fun listening to them assess UGA though. A lot of “and he’s only a sophomore (or freshman)…they’re going to be good for a while”…we’ve been trying to tell folks that but for some reason it’s only started sinking in since that UF game.

I still have mixed feelings about going through this exercise as it might be misinterpreted, but here’s the 5-step plan to play for the national title (I promise I’m only doing this for fun and not that I expect it to happen). I put the probability of this series of events happening at well below 1%.

• Beat GT – absolutely imperative
• UK beats UT – need this for us to make the SECCG
• Beat a 1-loss LSU – assumes LSU handles bipolar, lame duck Arkansas
• OU or Tex win the Big XII – this removes the winner of the Kansas-Missouri game
• West Virginia lose to either ranked UConn or major rival Pitt

  If you want to add a 6th step it would be USC beating Arizona State to remove them from contention but I honestly think beating concensus #1 LSU as roughly a #4 would get us to #2.

  This scenario would have us playing Ohio State for all the marbles. Something tells me Ohio State doesn’t want to play another SEC school.

Rant time: A lot of folks complain about the lack of a NCAA playoff. You want to get one BIG step closer, make all the BCS conferences play a title game. Why on earth this hasn’t been done is beyond me. Les Miles ranted about the Pac 10 prior to this season but I don’t have too much of a problem with them as they each play every other conference foe. The Big 10 is a complete joke when it comes to this though. Yes, I know the NCAA inexplicably has a regulation that requires conferences to have 12 teams before developing a championship game, but to me, it’s just another major hurdle for schools from the ACC, SEC and Big XII. Should LSU lose in the SECCG and get it’s slot filled by Ohio State simply because OSU didn’t have to play an equivalent championship game that would be a complete travesty…unless of course they lost to UGA, in which case I would be completely fine with it.

Have a safe weekend,
Jody