Friday, September 3, 2010

A (sort of) preview for the opener, and some other random thoughts

I gotta be honest, I know next to nothing about Louisiana-Lafayette...I can't even keep up with whether or not we're supposed to drop the Lafayette from their name or not.

Here are the two things that stood out for me in my very limited "research" (research=reading Jody's writeup at View from 336):

- Holy crap, they have an offensive lineman who is 6'7, 350 lb? He has to be a fat tub of goo, right? You would think that if he had ANY athletic ability at all, he would be in Baton Rouge instead of Lafayette? I mean, even if he's too dumb to get into LSU (a stretch, I know), then at least Mississippi State would be on the table. I'm going with my first instinct...he has to be a fat tub of goo.

- I think this is a perfect opponent for us to play the first week:

1) Their offense is not all that impressive, but one thing they DO have is a play-making tight end who they like to get the ball to over the middle. This is an area that the Dawgs defense has struggled MIGHTILY in for the last few seasons, so this may be a good indication of some of the strides we are making under Coach Grantham.

2) On defense, they are very small up front, so we should be able to run at will (Jody points out that the DL lining up from Cordy Glenn is 5'11, 287 lb. Cordy may eat him by accident on the first play and poop him out sometime in the 3rd quarter). At the same time, they have a very opportunistic secondary that picked off 16 passes last year, so we may get a good idea of how well Murray is doing at this point of valuing the football.

I never know how these games are going to go, other than that we will win handily, but not as handily as a lot of our fan base would like. I'm going with a 34-13 prediction, but I would not be at all surprised to see us beat them worse than that.


Couple of other random thoughts...

- Those of you who follow me on Twitter have seen several variations of this rant from me over the last few days, but it's driving me crazy that the media keeps making it seem that A.J. Green's status for the opener (or any other game) is somehow in question. They keep bringing up the point that we haven't heard anything from the NCAA, and that Coach Richt and A.J. are not allowed to comment. Well, what exactly are you expecting to "hear" from the NCAA? They have not ONCE mentioned A.J. to the press...the only reason we know that the inquiry was centered around him was that the UGA SID office and A.J. himself told us so. So, if they are not the ones who put his name out there in the first place, why is it up to them to "clear" him?

Every reputable source I have read says that the inquiry was specifically related to the infamous agent party in Miami, and whether or not A.J. knew anything about it, not even whether or not he went (since that hasn't been in question a single time since the story broke). Richt, A.J., and everybody else has been instructed not to say anything to the media because there is an ongoing investigation into that incident that is still happening. Why is that so hard for certain media members to understand?

I honestly don't expect to EVER hear anything from the NCAA that says A.J. is "clear". The fact that he is going to suit up and play every week will be the only evidence we get, and it's the only evidence we need.

- The other "story" that is going around this week that is driving me crazy is this notion that Coach Richt and Coach Bobo are still undecided as to how they are going to handle Hutson Mason, specifically whether or not he is going to play this weekend.

Let me make it simple: Yes. Hutson will play on Saturday.

Bobo and Coach Richt both explicitly said that Hutson is our #2 QB, and in any situation where the #2 QB will play, it will be Hutson. How much more definitive do they need to be? The only thing they didn't say was that we are going to put Hutson in WHEN we are up by four touchdowns on Saturday...but they're not going to say that, because those type words really come back to bite you if someone manages to pull an Appalachian State on you.

Again...Mason is going to play on Saturday. Does it give me heartburn to know that this true freshman is one twisted knee away from being our starting quarterback? Yep...but that doesn't mean it's not true.

- Yeah, I watched South Carolina last night. No, I ain't scared. We're not Southern Miss. It was the home opener, night game, against a mediocre C-USA team. The 'Cocks did exactly what I would expect them to do.

I also saw an SC offensive line that had a real problem keeping pressure off of their quarterback, and a secondary that actually appeared overmatched at times.

Let them go into next week all "cocky"...I'd rather that than the opposite.

~~~~~UPDATE~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yes, I saw the Alec Ogletree news, and I'm going to continue my tradition of not commenting too much on these matters (especially since we know so few details right now), other than to say this...people who say that UGA is becoming "Thug U" are either disingenuous or have a much different definition of the word "thug" than I do.

All right, I'm out...going to spend the rest of the day jamming to my Redcoat Band CD and counting the minutes until I am sitting in the best place on earth...Sanford Stadium for another Saturday Between the Hedges!

GO DAWGS!!!

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