#1 On the Field and in the Depth Chart

Coach Richt has announced that Isaiah Crowell will be the #1 tailback against Coastal Carolina. Why he wasn't first string already is beyond me, but hopefully this means more carries in the coming weeks. Actually, I hope it means less carries this week since the Dawgs should be able to beat Coastal Carolina with a backfield consisting of only guys shorter than 5'8'' (Thomas and Harton).

The reason for the change was on field performance in addition to some injuries for Samuel. And supposedly Carlton Thomas will move to #2 if Samuel can't go. My question is, what the hell happened to Boo Malcome? Wasn't so impressive in practice last season that the coaches considered burning his red shirt when Ealey and King struggled. Now, he can't even take over the third string spot for little Carlton Thomas. Something just doesn't seem right.

Hopefully this is a permanent change. Getting 25 touches for Crowell a game could spell huge dividends for a Georgia team that appears to pass the ball much better out of play action than out of the shotgun.

Go Greek at Alabama...or not.

White girls trying to rap. Horrible. This is easily worse than "Party in the UGA".

The Effort Was There, Now We Need Results

What a tough game for a Georgia fan to watch. Saturday's 45-42 defeat at the hands of the South Carolina Gamecocks may be one of the most gut wrenching games I have seen at Georgia. There have been bad losses and close losses, but this is one game where I felt the team played pretty well, yet still ended up on the losing side. There are not many times can you say that 3 plays in a game make the difference between a loss and a blowout victory. The effort put forth by the team on Saturday was such a seismic difference from week 1 that I felt Georgia just deserved to win. But that didn't happen.

So let's start with what went wrong:

• Three turnovers lead to three touchdowns (including 2 defensive scores). Couple this with the fake punt and that is how the Dawgs lost the game. We can't lose the turnover battle. This felt a lot like a game from the 2009 season, in that respect.
• The passing game was almost non-existent in the first half. Murray was constantly on the run and receivers were not getting open. As a matter of fact, I think there were only two completions to receivers the entire first half. The interception was horrible, with Murray throwing it directly into a blanketed man. Murray's numbers look pretty good this year, but he has not been up to par with last season.
• The offensive line is still not providing proper protection. I know the play that ended with Clowney causing the Murray fumble was a screen, but you at least need to try and block a little bit. Justin Anderson still looks lost on pass coverage.
  
• The running game may have had a nice day, but why are we running out of the shotgun on 3rd and 1?!?
• Jordon Love's pass interference may be the play that cost the Dawgs the game. We got good pressure and it was a bad pass from Garcia. There was no need to hop on the guy's back. It gave Carolina new life and Lattimore scored just a few plays later.
• What is up with Walsh? The chip shot field goal he missed ended up being the difference in the final score!
• No receptions for Orson Charles. REALLY?!?
  

On the flip side, this game was filled with a ton of positives:

• Brandon Boykin is the best player we have right now. Solid on defense, makes things happen on offense, and is just amazing on kick offs.
• Rambo and Cummings had great games. It made me feel that we really missed Rambo against Boise. Garcia was basically a non-factor with the exception of the touchdown to Jeffrey.
• The receivers showed up in the second half and looked like they may be a good bunch. I said it last week and I'll say it again, Malcolm Mitchell should be starting.
• The defense overall played a hell of a game. Lattimore racked a ton of yards on a few carries in the 4th, but other than that the Dawgs did a much better job tackling him than they did last year. Garcia was held in check and we even got some sacks. It is a shame when a defensive effort like that was wasted with turnovers. If you take out the fake punt, the defense allowed 335 yards. Pretty damn good against a team with a senior quarterback and All-Americans at receiver and running back.
• The coaching was better. Definitely not perfect. Allowing the fake punt was all on the coaches. I mean, it was Spurrier after all.
• Michael Bennett has good hands. He may be the slot guy we are looking for.
• Marlon Brown and TK have talent, we just need to get them the ball.
• Isaiah Crowell showed on Saturday why he was the #1 running back recruit in the country. 158 total yards on just 18 touches and two scores. We have to get him the ball 25 times a game. His running on Saturday reminded me a lot of Knowshon Moreno. A number of times he got hit right at the line of scrimmage, but somehow ended up with a 3 yard gain. And if you watch the game, look for a play in the first half when a SC defender blows him up about 10 yards into a carry, he shrugs it off and picks up another 15 or so. The kid is that good, we just need to use him. (added video)

At the end of the day, this game should have been a victory. The team I saw on Saturday looked nothing like the one we saw in the Dome last week. If they cut just a few of the mistakes, they could begin to play great football. We should get an easy win on Saturday against Coastal Carolina and it would not surprise me to see us follow that with four more wins. The talent is there.

GO DAWGS!!!

This is the coach of the team we play next week

WOW.

At one point, we all fall

Image courtesy of the AJC

"Every man at some point in his life is going to lose a battle. He is going to fight and he is going to lose. But what makes him a man is at the midst of that battle he does not lose himself. This game is not over, this battle is not over." - Coach Taylor, Friday Night Lights

I find this quote amazingly appropriate for the game this weekend. The irony is it appeared on the television screen spoken by Kyle Chandler, who attended the University of Georgia before becoming an actor.

GATA! Let's go Dawgs!

Quick Hits

- The special on Herschel Walker on ESPN last night was pretty awesome. I had never heard the story about his difficulties with bullying in middle school and how he chose to transform himself. Pretty moving stuff. And watching the highlights again, I can honestly say there has never been another running back since Herschel that had the combination of speed and strength he had. The dude was just amazing.

- Everyone is frustrated. The fans, the players, the media, and Mark Richt. Coach Richt asked the reporters if they wanted to see him blow up and start throwing things. My first response was, hell yes.

- The Dawgs will be an underdog at home this weekend. That is a very rare occurrence (I believe I read this is only the 3rd or 4th time since 2000). That is pretty amazing.

- Going into last year, Mark Richt had only lost 4 non-conference games in his first 9 seasons at Georgia. He has now lost 3 of his last 6. That's not good.

- South Carolina is a good football team, but they are not unbeatable. East Carolina had them on the ropes last week. If the Dawgs can find a way to keep the score low, I think we win. My god, a man can hope.

- I predicted a loss last week with the caveat that we would win this week. Despite the poor performance against Boise State, my feelings remain the same.

Georgia 30, South Carolina 24

We got Bucked!

Damn Boise. Damn line play. Damn secondary. Damn coaching. Just DAMN.

That's how I feel about Saturday's game. All this talk about renewed focus and better conditioning resulted in 35 Boise State points and exactly zero chance of winning the game. Even Brandon Boykin's amazing 80 yard run looks kind of bad since Boykin was dehydrated and had to miss plays afterwards. The defense was actually playing very well despite being on their side of the field the whole first half...until the last five minutes of the second quarter. And that was the turning point.

Boise State scored just before half to go up 7 and then immediately put 7 more on the board to start the second half. At that point, you knew the defense could not stop them anymore. The offense certainly did them now favors.

Why the hell was Bobo trying to have us run the spread??? We are not a spread offense. Running out of the shotgun on third and 1 at the Boise 25 was about the worst play call I have seen in my 12 plus years as a Dawg fan. If we would have scored there (even the damn chip shot field goal) I honestly feel the game is much closer.

Crowell will be good, if we ever give him some blocks. The kid can't do it all himself. "Tampa" Mitchell is scary fast and, in my opinion, should be starting next week. (It won't happen)

Jarvis Jones = bad ass. It is really going to suck not having Ogletree for the next 6 weeks.

Overall, a great day of tailgating was ruined by a piss poor effort. I have been positive in the face of the lunatics, but maybe it is just time for Coach Richt to move on. I did predict a loss, but not a domination in the veins of Alabama 2008. I love my Dawgs and I pray we get it together this weekend against Cackalacky.

Game On

When the Georgia Bulldogs take the field at the Georgia Dome tomorrow night, it will have been 8 months and 4 days since their last game. The horrible ending to the 2010 campaign left a bad taste in the mouth of Bulldog Nation. An excellent recruiting class mixed with an apparent change in attitude in Athens has given us hope. Now we find out if things are really changing.

But let me clarify. Should the Dawgs lose tomorrow, it does not mean that the season is over and nothing has changed. Let's not take anything away from Boise State who has come a long way for the team that the Dawgs crushed in Athens in 2005. If the Dawgs stay competitive, don't appear to tire, and don't make many of the stupid mistakes that have plagued them in the past, then I think things will be headed in the right direction.

As for my prediction, this is a really tough one to call. I think the Dawgs will split this tough two game set to open the season, but I am not sure which game will be the win and which one will be the loss. I feel Boise State with their crazy formations and Heisman candidate quarterback are a steep challenge for the Georgia defense. I can honestly see this one close late into the game. If I have to pick, I think the Dawgs win game 2 at home against Carolina more than I think they will win tomorrow.

It will be a close game, but I think the Dawgs are going to come up just short. It pains me to write this.

Boise State 31, Georgia 27

Longing for a special moment

I don't know about most Georgia fans, but for me, it has been way too long since the Dawgs experienced a truly special moment. The 2009 victory over eventual ACC Champion Georgia Tech comes close, but that was more of a surprise that salvaged a bad season as opposed to something truly good for the program. Honestly, I think I have to go back to early October of 2008 when the Dawgs dismantled LSU in Death Valley, and that was only special becasue we hung 50 on them and everyone got mustache rides (inside joke). It has been a bad few years since then.

Special moments seemed to be the norm for Dawgs under Mark Richt until recently. I can think of something special that happened during every season until 2008.

2001 - The Hobnail Boot game
2002 - The win at Auburn and the SEC Championship
2003 - Shutting out Clemson to open the season
2004 - Beating Florida!
2005 - Destroying Boise, SEC Champions
2006 - Massacre on the Plains, Stafford to Massaquoi
2007 - The celebration, The Blackout and lots of dancing

But since then, it has been slim pickings. That does not mean there haven't been great plays, but just not something I would consider special. Hopefully all that changes in the Dome on Saturday night.

10 Things I Think

With just a few days til kickoff, here's what's on my mind.

1. The SEC Classic Games event that has been running on FS South the last few days has been awesome. I have watched some great Georgia moments, including the entire hobnail boot game from 2011. They should do this every year.

2. Texas A&M is coming. I haven't said much on the conversation of SEC expansion, but with A&M telling the Big XII they are leaving yesterday, it seems like a foregone conclusion. My preference for the 14th team would be North Carolina. They have a decent football program with the proper booster backing plus a tremendous basketball program that would be an instant rival for Kentucky. i would much rather pick up the Tar Heels than FSU, Virginia Tech, or Clemson.

3. Bacarri Rambo has to be suspended, but the question is for how long. It seems amazing that the Dawgs will begin the season without the two players (Rambo and Hamilton) who were listed atop the safety depth chart after spring and no one really seems that worried.

4. I like Brandon Boykin's challenge to Chris Peterson on Twitter. Yes, Boise will be favored but that doesn't mean the Dawgs should go into the game without any confidence. Hopefully, the Broncos honor the request and we see Boykin take one back for 100+ again.

5. I have much more confidence in the running back trio of Crowell, Samuel, and Malcome than I did in King, Ealey, and Thomas heading into last year. Between King and Ealey, I can think of at least 4 crucial fumbles that they had in the last two years that were the difference in close games (Kentucky 2009, Miss State 2010, South Carolina 2010, Colorado 2010).

6. Tavarres King and Marlon Brown will be solid receivers this year. The last time we entered a season without a standout at receiver was 2005. I seem to remember us picking up an SEC title with Bryan McClendon, Sean Bailey, and a freshman Mohammed Massaquoi.

7. I am excited that Kwame Geathers has performed well enough to keep the starting job at NT. Big boys like Geathers and Jenkins cannot play every down, so having two dominating forces in the middle will be a great advantage.

8. Since ESPN has decided to be in Arlington on Sunday instead of Atlanta, our game has almost become the big game that isn't important to them. I have heard countless reports on LSU-Oregon, but very little on the Georgia-BSU matchup. Granted, our game is not a clash of two top 5 teams, however, it is one of the only games this week that matches two rank opponents.

9. When will the hammer drop of Miami and Ohio State? Right, it looks like they will be able to take the field this fall without any fear of bowl banishment. That means they can still compete for conference championships and reap all the benefits from playing in bowl games. Seems pretty ass-backwards that the NCAA suspended AJ Green for 4 games for selling one jersey but won't step up and punish cheaters that included the coaching staffs at the universities.

10. And lastly....

FOOTBALL, FOOTBALL, FOOTBALL! Finally! It is time to make 2010 a distant memory and right the ship in Athens.

GO DAWGS!!!!