Recap - Vanderbilt

I’ve decided I like a more free-flowing, stream-of-consciousness approach to my recaps rather than the “Great-Good-Bad-Ugly” thing I was doing earlier…unfortunately for you, that probably means I’ll be even more long-winded and rambling than normal.

My assorted thoughts from Saturday…

- I’m as guilty of the “it’s just Vandy” meme as anybody else, but regardless…that was a solid effort on both sides of the ball, and maybe the most complete game that the Dawgs have played in over a year. No matter the competition, it was exactly the kind of performance we HAD to have at this point in the season.

Can you imagine if, God forbid, we had lost that game, or even pulled out an ugly win a la ASU or South Carolina? This would have been a LONG two weeks leading up to Jacksonville. Instead, both the team and the fanbase get to feel a little better about things, which I think will help in the ramp-up to the Cocktail Party.

- Speaking of Jacksonville…the Gators sure looked beatable on Saturday, at least until the officiating crew decided to make it 11 on 16. They have not been able to establish any kind of consistent running game, and the only reliable receivers they have are Cooper and Hernandez. Call me crazy, but I ain’t skeered…more on that game coming in the next couple of weeks.

As for the officiating in that Gators-Hawgs game… I almost said “unbelievable” to describe that debacle, but the sad part is that it is all too believable. It’s like I have said for a while now...I’ve been watching SEC football in particular and football in general for most of my life. I don’t think SEC refs are crooked. I think they are too stupid to be crooked. I think that at least one or two times in every game they are going to COMPLETELY screw something up. You just hope that it doesn’t affect the outcome of the game, like it did to us against LSU or against the Hawgs on Saturday. The personal foul call against Arkansas during Florida’s last drive was just egregiously putrid. Basically, the Arky lineman was penalized 15 yards for being blocked, 25 yards away from the play.

The problem with incompetent officials is not that they are intentionally biased…it is that they are far too easily swayed by influences such as homefield advantage and which team is “supposed” to win.

One more point on the officials, and then I’ll move on...something has to be done about the “unsportsmanlike conduct/excessive celebration” rule before next year. If they are not going to take it out completely, then they have to find a way to make the rule less open for interpretation. Apparently, the Dawgs can’t even fart after a play without being called for unsportsmanlike conduct, but the Dores defensive lineman can rip Joe C’s towel off his waist and throw it in the air after a sack with no call. And don’t even get me started on Saint Timmy…if the rule is supposed to prevent players from calling attention to themselves after a play, why is Tebow allowed to stalk 8-10 yards away from everybody else and practically do a rain dance every time he runs the ball for a first down?

Moving on…

- It’s blatantly obvious what all of us have been saying for the past couple of years…a dominating defensive end is absolutely essential for a Willie Martinez defense to be effective. Justin Houston has been a difference maker ever since he came back from suspension, and he continued his great play on Saturday.

Tennessee was able to lessen his impact by rolling Crompton away from him, and we (of course) were either unable or uninterested in making any adjustments.

Other obvious observations (the only kind I’m really good at) about our defense:

• Bryan Evans, God love him, should not be taking ANY playing time away from Bacarri Rambo. Rambo continues to make plays every time he is on the field, while Evans continues to show up on my television screen trying to chase somebody down from behind who has just burned him in pass coverage.

• For everything great about Rennie Curran (and there are TONS of great things), there is also this…his weakness is in pass coverage. Way too many of the open tight ends we have seen this year have been his responsibility, at least as best as I can tell…some of them have been so wide open that it is impossible to tell who had responsibility, if anybody.

- A.J. Green. Good grief. What is left to say? That 65 yard TD was a thing of beauty, and the amazing thing about was it didn’t even look like he was trying all that hard.

I’ve said it before…I think he is well on his way to becoming the 2nd greatest football player we have ever had. Feel free to give your own nominations in the comments, and maybe I’ll pull together a list we can go over during the bye week.

- Add me to the list of people who loved seeing Coach Bobo on the sideline. Even when I first heard about it, before we were able to see what effect, if any, it would have on the gameplan or playcalling, I loved the move for one simple reason: It was an acknowledgement that SOMETHING needed to change, that what had happened to this point was not acceptable and something needed to be done about it. Very comforting to see that the coaching staff is willing to change things up.

I have no idea if it helped the playcalling or not, but I do know that I loved seeing the energy that Bobo brought to the sidelines that we never get to see from him in the booth. I also think that it helped to be able to speak one-on-one with Joe and the other players when things weren’t going so well in the first half. Plus, I think it may have helped him get more of a “feel” for what was working and what wasn’t, being down there with the guys.
Whatever…I enjoyed seeing it, and the results seemed to follow, so I would definitely expect to see it again in Jacksonville.

- On the flip side, when it comes to coaching…the fake punt. Ugh. The reasons that was so disgusting:

• Down-and-distance and field position dictated that it was the perfect opportunity for the Dores to call the fake, and yet we were totally unprepared…AGAIN. I know it’s “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me”…what about “Fool me a dozen times”? Is there a folksy little saying to describe that? How about “I’m so stupid I’m surprised I manage to walk upright”?

• Even worse…we called a timeout right before it happened. What exactly did our staff and players discuss during that timeout, if not the possibility of a fake?

Ugh.

- Blair Walsh is MONEY. Drew Butler is a MACHINE. Never thought I would say this, but thank God for our kickers.

- Prince Miller is a very good punt returner. Logan Gray is not. You would think that would factor into our personnel decisions on punt return. You would be incorrect.

- Brandon Boykin is a true weapon on kick return, and he continues to improve in pass coverage as well.

- Washaun Ealy and Caleb King should be our primary running backs, and we should continue to try and get the ball to Carlton Thomas IN SPACE (NOT BETWEEN THE TACKLES…HE IS BUILT LIKE A SMALL CHILD, FOR GOD’S SAKE! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL HIM?)

- Welcome back to the linebacker position, Richard Samuel.

I don’t honestly think that’s going to happen, but it’s what I would do. Yet another inexcusable fumble in this game, even though we did recover it. He wasn’t even hit that hard…the ball just came out.

Overall, this was exactly the kind of game we needed at exactly the right time.

My schedule is lightening up a little, so I may be posting a little more often. Try to contain your excitement.

Since it’s a bye week, I may even throw in a few thoughts on the fall TV season to date.

GO DAWGS!!

LSU recap - sort of

OK, I've been putting this off for three days now...

I still can't really talk about this game rationally. Every time I try to discuss it, the conversation dissolves into a rambling, incoherent ranting session that ends with me in a borderline state of depression.

So, I still don't have it in me to do an organized "Great-good-bad-ugly" post...this will be more of a stream of consciousness thing.

And, yes, I know that I am probably plagiarizing about 50 other bloggers at this point, as surely everything that can be said about this game has been said by now. I apologize in advance.

Maybe it will be cathartic...

- A.J. Green is one of the top 5 players we have ever had, at least in my 30 years of watching this team. Joe Cox would probably have at least 3-4 more interceptions, including the touchdown catch at the end, were it not for AJ bailing him out. Thank God we have him for another year.

- The celebration penalty...oof. That was just absurd. Actually, the whole idea of being penalized for "excessively celebrating" is pretty stupid, especially in a case like that, when you've just scored a touchdown in the last minute of the game to take the lead over the #4 team in the country.

What's happening with things like this and the idiotic rule changes we are seeing at both the college and NFL level (regarding how hard you can hit people, and you can only hit people when they are expecting it, and you can only be happy under certain circumstances, etc...) is that these Rules Committees get together every year and so they feel like they have to do something in order to justify their existence. So every year we get a new rule or a new point of emphasis, whatever. They can't very well get together for a week and then come out and say afterwards, "We couldn't come up with anything...we decided the game is pretty good as it is."

Trust me, from personal experience (and many of you can testify to this as well)...there are few better factories for stupid than "committees".

However...that penalty is not why we lost the game. We lost the game when we managed 49 yards in the first half. And one first down.

- Coach Fabris is a great defensive ends coach. I don't think that can be argued.

But, good grief, we can't seriously consider keeping him on kickoff coverage, can we? Check this out if you haven't, from David Hale's blog. Two years worth of putrid kickoff coverage that just sucked momentum out of the team, either at the beginning of a half or following a Dawgs score.

And yet...we KEEP DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

(By the way...it's usually at this point that my discussion of last week's game dissolves into bitter, spittle-flying rage. Just a warning)

Take another look at that David Hale article...how is this acceptable? Why is this OK? We are supposedly a top tier team, right? How is it that we have one aspect of our team that is consistently, disgustingly awful, and rather than trying to fix it or hold anybody accountable, we get excuses and condescension and more of the same old crap?

Then we get former players that say Coach Fabris likes to do it this way because he likes the challenge.

COME AGAIN?!?!?!

Dude, if you want a challenge, take up sudoku. Learn a second language. Run a triathlon. STOP SCREWING WITH MY FOOTBALL TEAM.

OH!!! And THEN!!! On the MOST CRUCIAL kickoff of the season so far, we decide to get cute and run that stupid bunch formation kickoff, and then we not only fail to cover the kickoff properly (of freaking COURSE), but then we also get a penalty that puts the Tigers in field goal range because we didn't line up properly.

ARRRRGGGHHH.

I ask again....how is this OK? Is it me? Am I missing something?

Moving on...

- Joe Cox is not the problem, and even if he was there is nothing we can do about it right now.

- If you had told me two months ago that our offensive line would not be able to get guys off the line enough for us to have anything resembling a productive running game, I would have laughed at you.

I'm not laughing anymore.

- The difference in the defense now and the first three games is Justin Houston.

- Rennie Curran. There aren't enough words to talk about how much I love this guy.

- The missed tackles that led to Charles Scott's touchdown was probably a blessing in disguise. If we do stop him in the backfield, LSU probably runs the clock out and kicks a field goal to win and we don't even get the ball back. Not that it mattered, obviously.

- I am not counting the interception that Joe threw, since it was a desperation pass that he probably (hopefully) never would have thrown in a normal situation, so we basically had a turnover-free game. Progress.

- I know the reasons that Washaun is not playing more (pass blocking, lack of knowledge of the playbook)...but to me, he looked more like an SEC running back in his eight carries than anything we've seen all season.

Also, did you notice that Coach Richt called out the running backs a little after the game? I don't remember the exact quote, and I'm too lazy to go look it up, but he basically said that our running backs are only getting as far as the blocking and that our guys need to do a better job of doing like Charles Scott did, which is make somebody miss or break a tackle. Make a play, in other words.

Were it not for the broken jaw that Caleb King suffered last week, I would guess that quote would signify the possible end of the Richard Samuel era. As it is, we'll undoubtedly see more of Washaun this week.

And if somebody could put an APB out for Carlton Thomas, that would be nice, too.

- OK, I guess that's all for now. Bottom line is that we lost in the last minute to the #4 team in the country, and we should have a very good chance at being 5-2 going into the bye week before The Cocktail Party. Anybody remember what happened the last time we were in that situation?




I know that this is a totally different team...but I also remember how I felt after the disaster in Neyland in 2007. I'm not saying that the same thing is going to happen for this team, but at the same time I never could have foreseen what was to come the rest of that year...only the most enjoyable season of my lifetime.

GO DAWGS!!!

Recap - South Carolina

Wow. That game was exhausting as a FAN. I can't imagine what it must have been like on the field. I don't remember a game with such WIDE swings of momentum and emotion. The Dawgs and Gamecocks always seem to play nail biters...this one was only an exception in that both teams put points up at a Big 12 level.

By the way...there is a reason why there are all of those big beautiful buildings in Las Vegas. Before the game I would have told you there was no safer bet on the board than the under on this game...it was at 39. We surpassed that about halfway through the second quarter.

THE GREAT:
- Rennie Curran. As if his on-the-field exploits were not enough, David Hale reports that Rennie gave his own version of "The Promise" in a pregame speech to his teammates, promising to give every ounce of energy and heart that he has. And, as usual, he delivered...15 tackles, flying around the field, and for the second year in a row he makes the game saving play at the goal line to beat the Gamecocks. This guy is rapidly moving into my Top 5 Favorite Dawgs of All Time list.

- A.J. Green. Wow. Thank God we played this guy as a true freshman last year, because that's the only reason we're getting three years out of him...he's ready for the Show right now. Last night he made at least three plays that just set him apart: the hang-in-the-air-5-feet-off-the-ground catch he made off the pass that Cox threw into double coverage early, the touchdown catch where he elevated over two guys, made a great catch and was able to tap the left foot before falling out of bounds, and the utter physicality of the play where he broke one tackle, stiff-armed another guy all the way to Winder, and almost took it to the house (and should have had more yards...how was THAT play not a penalty, but when Reshad does the exact same thing at the other end it gets called?). As a matter of fact, don't just take my word for it...



Awesome.

- Speed, speed, speed. I mentioned in my post the week of the opener that one of the things I liked about this team was that it may be the fastest we have ever had. Well, we got a couple of examples of that last night. Brandon Boykin and Branden Smith can FLY, and they are game changers. We are adding more playmakers every year, and it is incumbent on the coaching staff to find ways to take advantage of them.

- Special teams. I struggled with how to rank the special teams in this game...so I'm going to cheat a little and mention them a couple of times. But there is no doubt that the special teams made some huge plays in this game. The kickoff return team was so dominant that Spurrier eventually stopped kicking to them. Team records in total return yards, and the longest KO return in school history by Boykin, at a time when the team DESPERATELY needed something good to happen. Blair Walsh continues to put last year behind him and drilled yet another field goal of 50+. And, of course, DeAngelo Tyson made what may have been the most important play of the game by blocking the PAT after the pick-6....without that play, the Cocks only need a FG to tie on that last drive rather than having to go for the TD.

And FINALLY...we started kicking the ball deep on kickoffs, with mostly great results. The Cocks returned one for a long return, which means of course that Coach Richt had to mention after the game as an example of why kicking it deep is so dangerous. WHATEVER. I would buy that argument a lot more if the other strategy was actually working, but the numbers tell me that we are actually MORE likely to give up a big return on the short directional kick.

THE GOOD:
- Joe Cox. Joe was tons more effective this week, so maybe the flu was the problem after all...that or the fact that he was starting his first game in three years on the road against a quality opponent (well...sort of quality). But whatever the difference, I feel a lot more confident in Joe now than I did this time last week. Only the pick-6 (which was horrendous) and a costly fumble kept him from being qualified as "great" this week.

And the fumble was his fault...he has to recognize that blitz at the line of scrimmage (since we didn't have enough protection on that side to account for it), or at least do a better job of ball security.

- Richard Samuel. He showed just as much improvement over last week as Joe, in my opinion. He ran HARD, breaking tackles and running through guys. Still needs to show the ability to break the long run, and I think that's coming...hopefully soon.

As a side note, where was he in the second quarter? After running so effectively on the drive where he scored the touchdown, he basically disappeared until late in the half. Anybody hear any reason for that, or was that just another weird personnel decision by our coaching staff?

- The O-line. For most of the night, this group gave Cox plenty of time to throw and did a nice job opening running lanes against a very good defensive front 7. They did give up a couple of sacks, and they had WAY too many penalties (more on that later).

THE BAD:
- The Defense. Ugh...felt like late 2008 all over again. First of all, there were WAY too many missed tackles. I'm willing to cut them a LITTLE slack on that, since the problem seemed especially egregious late in both halves, when the D had been on the field for what seemed like hours. But...at least part of the blame for that goes on them, because if they could have made some stops they wouldn't have been out there so long.

We also struggled (again) getting to the quarterback. In this game, though, we actually got pretty consistent pressure...Garcia did a nice job escaping pressure, and there were a couple of times that guys just spun the wrong way and ended up missing him.

The biggest problem I had with the defense was this: the problems we had in the first half (middle of the field was WIDE OPEN all night, allowing Wesley Saunders to turn into Tony Gonzalez for a night) were the EXACT SAME problems we had in the second half. Now, I'm not enough of a football expert to tell you exactly what caused those problems...I can only tell you that we apparently did not make any adjustments at halftime to take away what was killing us in the first half.

My friends and I used to always say when VanGorder was here...whatever is working for the other team in the first half, they will need to find something else in the second half because VanGorder is going to shut that down. I have no such faith in this coaching staff.

- The Logan Gray experiment. If you're only going to bring him in for one random snap a game for him to run the QB zone read, don't bother. The only reason it makes sense is to give the opposing team something else to plan for. Right now, I don't think opposing defensive coaches are staying up late wondering how they are going to shut down Logan Gray for one snap a game.

Along the same lines...Marlon Brown and Rantavious Wooten made it on the field for a combined three snaps last night. Now that we have burned their redshirt years, we better find a way to get production out of them or those years are just wasted.

- Special Teams. Told you I was cheating with this one. For all the good that these units did, there was also this: fumbled kickoff return that led to a SC field goal, a botched snap over the punter's head for a safety, and a fake field goal by USC that brought back nightmares of the Sugar Bowl against West Virginia. So, yes, the special teams might very well be the reason we won this game...but they were also largely responsible for keeping the Cocks in the game at all.

By the way, I've decided Branden Smith is our own version of Forrest Gump...he's now returned THREE kicks from over 5 yards deep in the end zone, which suggests a possible mental deficiency...but, boy, when he does get to run he is FAST. Maybe we need one of those big STOP signs like they used for Forrest to use whenever he fields one deep in the end zone.

THE UGLY:
- PENALTIES. Speaking of 2008 flashbacks...13 penalties for 108 yards is absolutely unacceptable. This was a problem last year that manifested itself early on and just never got fixed. After all the talk in the offseason about how much more disciplined we were going to be, this was disheartening. Especially since so many of them were just penalties of stupidity...false starts, offsides, blatant holding. This has to stop NOW.

Bottom line:
This was one of the most exciting games I have ever seen, but it wasn't particularly well played by either side. But one of the aspects of this season that I was looking forward to the most was this...NO STYLE POINTS. I will enjoy every win this year, no matter the opponent or the margin of victory. We still have a long way to go, but if we can somehow combine last week's defense with this week's offense and cut out some of the stupidity, this could still be a surprisingly good year.

1-0 in the SEC...I'll take it.

GO DAWGS!!!

WHEW!!!

I'll be later (hopefully today) with the full recap, but for now, this will do (and be sure to pay attention to the police officers in the background)...



Oh, and Rennie Curran? Still my biggest man crush.

Defense - revisited

Continued from yesterday...going back and looking at my position-by-position breakdown that I did in March to see if my impressions have changed...yesterday was the offense, today is the defense.

Bold = Projected starters (in my opinion)
italics = incoming freshmen
italics*= incoming freshmen whom I project to be a redshirt in '09

Defensive End:

WHAT I SAID IN MARCH:

Roderick Battle, Demarcus Dobbs, Kiante Tripp, Justin Houston, Neland Ball, Jeremy Longo, Cornelius Washington, Montez Robinson*

OUTLOOK: No question, this group has a TON of pressure on it. One of the big weaknesses in a defense that underperformed in a major way last year was the lack of QB pressure from the DE position, which is a MUST in a Brian VanGorder/Willie Martinez defense. Rod Battle is a solid piece on one side, but he is really more of a run-stopping defensive end, which is fine as long as you can get consistent pressure from whomever lines up opposite of him. Cornelius Washington is a RS freshman who was touted as just what we need...a fast DE who can consistently get pressure on the QB, so look for him to get early opportunities once he's healthy (By the way, the injury bug continues to rear its ugly head...the only healthy DEs we have in spring are Dobbs Houston, Tripp, and Longo).

Tripp may be the wild card here...he's changed positions more often than most people change their oil, but DE is where he really wants to be, and it appears to be where he has settled. Dude is 290 LBs and runs a 4.7 40. Why can we not find a place to effectively use him?

GRADE: C+

WHAT I SAY NOW:
Battle and Dobbs are still the starters to begin the season. Justin Houston had a huge spring, but is suspended for the first two games of the season…when he comes back, I think he will challenge Dobbs. Battle has had great performances in the fall scrimmages, albeit against reserve offensive linemen.

The coaches also made a move that I wholeheartedly support when they moved Marcus Washington from LB to DE. This is what I wish we would have done with Brandon Miller earlier in his career, and I think Marcus has the combination of size and quickness that he can be a factor on passing downs.

I still think Cornelius Washington may be a dark horse impact player.

I focus a lot on QB pressure when looking at the DE position, but these guys have to show that they are able to stop the run on a consistent basis, as well. With our strength up the middle, teams are going to have to pressure the edges of our defense with their run game.

My grade remains the same, until we see if these guys can improve on the mediocre performance we got out of them last year. But the more I think about last year, in comparison to all of the other years under Coach Fabris and Coach Martinez, the more I think that last year may have just been the aberration, not the new trend. Let’s hope so.

Defensive Tackle:

WHAT I SAID IN MARCH:

Jeff Owens, Geno Atkins, Kade Weston, DeAngelo Tyson, Rico Crawford, Brandon Wood, Abry Jones*, Derrick Lott*

OUTLOOK: And we go from one of the unsure areas of the team to probably the strongest part of the team. I challenge anybody to come up with a better 4 man rotation than Owens-Atkins-Weston-Tyson. Losing Owens really hurt last year, both on the field and off...he is definitely one of the strongest leaders on this team, and I can't wait to get him back, hopefully fully healthy.

GRADE: A+ if Owens is 100%, A- if he's not

WHAT I SAY NOW:
A+++. Owens is apparently back and 100% healthy, and that means TONS for this defense. He and Geno will be the best DT tandem in the SEC and maybe in the country, and Weston-Tyson could be the starting DT tandem for most teams in the conference. Also, Abry Jones has apparently played so well that Coach Garner is having a hard time redshirting him. Running up the middle against these guys should be a futile effort.

Penetration from the DT position will go a LONG way in helping our DE be more effective.

Linebacker:

WHAT I SAID THEN:

Rennie Curran, Darryl Gamble, Akeem Dent, Darius Dewberry, Marcus Washington, Akeem Hebron, Marcus Dowtin, Charles White, Nick Williams, Christian Robinson, Chase Vasser*, Michael Gilliard*

Speed, speed, and more speed. This is a deep, athletic group led by The Liberian Nightmare (and my biggest man-crush) Rennie Curran. Rennie has taken a much more vocal leadership role in the offseason, going so far as to call it "MY defense." Good. Nobody better to lead this team than this guy.

Losing Dexter Moody from the '09 class hurt, but this group has depth and I thought that Gilliard was the better pick-up anyway.

GRADE: A

WHAT I SAY NOW:

Not much has changed, other than Dewberry has at least temporarily jumped Dent into the starting lineup, but that is in part due to Dent missing some time during fall camp with a hamstring injury. Also, as discussed earlier, Marcus Washington moved from LB to DE. There is still a ton of quality depth at this position, and I think we are at LEAST two deep with SEC caliber players at all three LB spots.

And Rennie Curran is still the man.

Cornerback:

WHAT I SAID IN MARCH:

Prince Miller, Brandon Boykin, Sanders Commings, Vance Cuff, Jordan Love, Branden Smith

OUTLOOK: This group scares me. Prince Miller is really the only guy with a lot of experience...Boykin played some at nickel last year, Cuff was mainly a special teams guy, and Commings was a redshirt who was originally slotted at safety. You would love to RS one of the freshmen, but I don't think we can afford to when we're this thin. Losing Asher unexpectedly has really hurt us, and the sad part is that Asher is probably not even going to get drafted on the first day of the draft.

There is a lot of athletic talent here, but virtually all of it is unproven. These guys are going to be tested early and often, starting week 1 at Oklahoma State, and their ability to handle it is going to go a long way towards determining what this defense is going to be.

GRADE: C-

WHAT I SAY NOW:

Pretty much the same thing I said then, unfortunately. I think Prince Miller is a solid corner, but he is a downgrade from Asher. I am encouraged by the practice reports about Boykin and Smith, but we can’t know what we have until they actually get on the field. Any injuries to the top two here and we are in huge trouble, I think. We could pull Makiri Pugh over from the safety position, but we would still be in a tough spot.

Safety:

WHAT I SAID IN MARCH:

Reshad Jones, Bryan Evans, Quentin Banks, John Knox, Makiri Pugh, Bacarri Rambo, Shawn Williams*

OUTLOOK: This position is an enigma wrapped in a mystery. There is enough talent here that it should be a strength of the team...so why does this position make me so nervous? Probably because Reshad Jones seems to be (at best) not making any improvement or (at worst) REGRESSING since entering the program as the #1 player in the state. His tackling has become a punchline with no punch, and he seems to have an attitude problem as well. Also, Bryan Evans was converted to safety after not playing very well at corner in the early part of last year. Like Jones, he has tremendous physical ability...unlike Jones, he actually improved as the year went on last year.

Both of these guys will be pushed by talented youngsters...Evans, in particular will have to hold off Quentin Banks at FS, after Quentin struggled with injuries most of last year.

GRADE: B-

WHAT I SAY NOW:

I feel a little better about this group than I did, but Reshad is still going to have to prove on the field that he understands what it takes to be great. I think the move to FS is a perfect one for Evans…it allows him to use his speed and instincts without having to play a lot of man coverage on WRs, which is where he really struggled.

Knox has left the team, and Quentin Banks still can’t seem to stay healthy, but Bacarri Rambo has gotten positive reviews to go along with probably the coolest name on the team.

OVERALL:
In March, my biggest concerns were DE, CB, and safety…I feel marginally better about the DE and safety groups, but the corners still scare me.

Three more days till we find out!!

GO DAWGS!!!

What do I know?

As I have said before, I am more uncertain than I have ever been leading into a Dawgs season opener. Usually by this point, I at least feel like I have a good idea of what kind of team we have…even if that idea sometimes turns out to be wrong (cf. 1997 and 2007). This year, I just have so many questions about such critical aspects of this team that I am no longer sure WHAT I think.

So, to help me sort it out, I decided to try and lay out what I feel like I DO know going into this season, as well as the factors that are causing me to flip-flop like a Democratic Senator.

THE KNOWNS:

- AJ Green is the truth. The most physically gifted receiver we have ever had, at least as far back as I can remember. Has supposedly put on an additional 10-15 pounds while not losing any speed. This guy will demand double teams and still put up big time numbers.

- Offensive line should be a position of strength. Sturdivant appears to be back to 100%, as does Vince Vance. The starting lineup of Sturdivant, Davis, Jones, Glenn, and Boling stacks up with anybody, plus some pretty good quality depth with Bean and Vince Vance as the first two reserves. A lot of versatility, as well, since so many of these guys have been forced to play different positions due to injury.

- Nobody should be able to run up the middle on us with any kind of success. Owens, Atkins, Weston and Tyson comprise a truly impressive rotation at defensive tackle, and Abry Jones may be too good to redshirt as well. Put Darryl Gamble, Rennie Curran, and a rejuvenated Darius Dewberry behind them, and you’ve got an extremely stout core to build around.

- We will be fast. Years of recruiting the best athletes in the country mean that this team will be the fastest I can ever remember us fielding. AJ Green, Michael Moore, and Tavarres King at WR. Orson Charles and Aron White at TE. Richard Samuel (who Bobo recently named as the fastest RB he can remember us having at UGA in his time there) and Carlton Thomas at RB. Rennie Curran, Darryl Gamble, Akeem Dent, and others at LB. Prince Miller and Brandon Boykin (not to mention Branden Smith) at CB. Bryan Evans (believed by many to be the fastest guy on the team) and Reshad Jones at safety. Cornelius Washington (my dark horse impact player candidate) at DE. Speed, speed, speed. Of course, I often say that if you’re not disciplined enough (as we obviously weren’t on defense last year), that much speed only means you get can get out of position REALLY quickly, but I don’t see us being “out-athlete-ed” at any point this year, and that includes the mighty Gators.

Now for the scary part…

THE UNKNOWNS:

- The schedule. I almost put this in the “Known” category, just because it is so widely recognized as being brutal. But, really, nobody knows at this point. Remember, at this time last year, we all thought that beating Arizona State on the road would really mean something. So, in the midst of all the hand wringing about the schedule, I just wanted to make this point…you really can’t judge a schedule’s strength until the season is over. Injuries, new coaching schemes, unknown new players (either freshmen or guys who are getting their first shot at playing time)…all of these factors could turn a game against, say, Georgia Tech from a tough task to a relatively easy week, or vice versa.

- Joe Cox. Let me reiterate…I love this guy. I love his attitude, his leadership, his ginger complexion…I love it all. But we have no idea what he is going to be like as the starting QB for this team. We’ve seen him start one game, against Ole Miss three years ago, and see significant playing time in only one other game, the great comeback against a terrible Colorado team the same year. I would love to think that his leadership, throwing accuracy, and knowledge of the offense will be enough to compensate for any other physical shortcomings. For that matter, I don’t think his physical tools are as lacking as a lot of people seem to…but we have no way of knowing until the bullets start flying.

- Can we get AJ Green some help? Because we know that AJ Green is a freak, we also know this…whomever the WR is that lines up opposite him, they are going to see tons of one-on-one coverage. Teams are going to scheme specifically to stop AJ, especially early on. The onus falls on somebody to take advantage of this. Michael Moore seems to be the solid #2. He played very well at the end of the year last year, culminating in probably his best game of the year in the Citrus Bowl. He also caught a couple of TDs in the spring game, if memory serves correctly. If he can take advantage of the one-on-one he is going to see a lot of, there will be plays to be made. We can also hope that T. King, Orson Charles, Aron White, et. al will find some additional room to roam over the middle. The point is, there will be opportunities to make defenses pay for paying too much attention to AJ…do we have anyone willing and able to step up and exploit them?

- Do we have enough at running back? Kind of an addendum to the last point. Our running game has to be enough to give teams something else to worry about. The offensive scheme favored by Bobo relies heavily on a successful running game to get in favorable down and distance and set up the play action. This will be especially important this year, now that we no longer have Matt Stafford’s canon arm to bail us out of bad situations at times. The O-line should certainly be providing room to run. Who is going to step into Knowshon’s huge shoes? Richard Samuel has apparently locked up the #1 spot for now, but how much of that was his performance and how much was the fact that Caleb King couldn’t stay healthy? Samuel showed flashes last year, but had well-publicized problems holding on to the ball. Supposedly, that has improved during fall camp, and as I mentioned earlier, Bobo speaks very highly of him. The one aspect of his game that apparently still needs work is his pass-catching, which is certainly not unexpected from a converted linebacker. Definitely look for Carlton Thomas and Caleb King to be called on to make plays in the passing game. The hope is that, between the three of them, we have enough to adequately replace what we’ve lost in Moreno, as well as just be the force that Bobo’s offense needs in order to be successful.

- Where’s the pass rush? Just like Bobo’s offense needs a dominant rushing attack to succeed, Coach Martinez’s defense needs ferocious pass-rushing defensive ends. This point was made PAINFULLY obvious last year. This one I truly have no idea about. Justin Houston supposedly had a great spring, but he’s out for the first two games due to stupidity. Roderick Battle has been unstoppable in scrimmages after being hurt much of last year, but he’s going against backups, and the QB hasn’t actually been live. I’ve mentioned before that I think Cornelius Washington could be a real factor…he was a beast in high school, and has supposedly put on around 30 pounds of muscle while still maintaining his speed. But, obviously, he has never done anything at this level. This may be the most crucial question mark for a defense that needs desperately to bounce back.

- The secondary. This area still scares me, too. At cornerback, we have one guy coming back with any kind of experience at all, Prince Miller. Outside of him, we are relying on young players with virtually no game experience. I have high hopes for Boykin and Branden Smith, but they are still extremely green. At safety, we have one converted cornerback (Bryan Evans) and one all-world athlete who has not yet shown the ability to transform athletic ability into football skills. Couple the inexperience and question marks in the secondary with an inability to get consistent pressure on the quarterback, and…well, you get the picture.


So, you see my problem…on one hand, I have always been what many message board vets would classify as a “Disney Dawg”…I am generally optimistic, I tend to give players/coaches the benefit of the doubt, etc. On the other hand, there is a lot about this team that I just truly can’t get a good handle on, and at some crucial areas. If it all breaks correctly…if Joe Cox turns out to have physical skills that match his mental fortitude, if the defensive end production returns to the level to which we have become accustomed, if Richard Samuel becomes more Robert Edwards and less Petey Jones, if Reshad Jones finally lives up to his massive potential, if, if, if….well, if all of that, or even MOST of that happens, then I don’t see anybody I’m skurred of, even (::GASP::) those Mighty Gators.

But since ifs and buts AREN’T candy and nuts, I don’t know that our Christmas will be completely merry. I’m going to chicken out, show no guts whatsoever, and predict 9-3, just like everybody else…

You know what? NO. Screw it. We go 11-1, including an immensely satisfying upset in Jacksonville, beat LSU (again) in the SECCG, and go on to beat Texas to win the MNC.

“Disney Dawg”, my butt.

GO DAWGS!!!

My mostest favoritest parts of the practice reports so far

I'm sure that by now most of you have read through all of the practice reports that you can find, so I'm certainly not going to be able to add anything new to that...but here are my favorite tidbits that I have heard so far:

- Coach Richt saying that a lot of the freshmen will play on special teams this year rather than take a redshirt. The goal there is to get a lot quicker and more athletic on the kickoff and punt coverage teams. This is a very positive development, in my opinion. I mean, I enjoy the whole "feel-good" story of our hard working scout team guys and walk-ons getting a chance to get on the field, but our coverage teams have been a little too.....pale for my liking. I guess that's the most P.C. way of saying it.

- Reading Dimitri Cassini's opinion pieces on UGASports. These are subscription only, but they may be worth the price of admission. Dimitri is an intern for the site, and I truly admire the kid's enthusiasm...but he kind of reminds me of the old Chicago Sports Guys skit on SNL. Reading his impressions of our offense and defense would lead you to believe that NOBODY could ever even come close to being able to hang with the Dawgs...not even a team of mini-Ditkas.

- Orson Charles, Orson Charles, Orson Charles. I think that every single report I've read has singled him out as being an absolute freak with a motor that doesn't stop. I can not WAIT to see this guy take the field.

- The vocal leadership of guys like Rennie Curran, Jeff Owens, Michael Moore, and several other upperclassmen. It sounds like these guys have really taken it on themselves to not wait on the coaches to motivate/encourage/keep guys in line. I always think leadership is more effective when it is either provided by or reinforced by peers rather than only coming down from above. Hopefully it will translate to a more focused and disciplined team on the field.

- Coach Searles in his sweatshirt, showing solidarity with his linemen. Love it.


From all reports, it was a great first day...in years past when that has happened, the coaches have usually not been as happy with the 2nd day, at least not publicly. I think they just don't want guys to get too full of themselves this early. So I'm trying to take everything I hear out of these first few sessions with a few healthy grains of salt...I think the first true meaningful milestone will be the first scrimmage next week. By then, I think we'll be getting a real picture of what the coaching staff thinks we have.

The only negative report I have heard from yesterday is that Quentin Banks still doesn't seem to be 100% healthy...that will be something to keep an eye on. We're not real deep in the secondary already and we need him to provide quality depth.

GO DAWGS!!!

Happy Rennie Curran Day!!!

Can you believe it's only FIVE WEEKS to kickoff???!??!??





GO DAWGS!!!!

Weekend/random thoughts

- First things first...SEC Media Days start TOMORROW!!! WOOT!!

Like David Hale said earlier this week, that's our equivalent to pitchers and catchers reporting for spring training...there's no real activity yet, but it's the first sign of life since Signing Day.

This year's festivities should be fun...it's Lane Kiffen's first year, for one thing, so we get to hear 100 different variations on whether it's true that A) All of this making a public fool of himself is some sort of master plan; and B) All publicity is good publicity.

No Phat Phil this year, so the possibility of subpoenas drops drastically.

I'm personally really looking forward to the quotes from the two Dawg representatives, Joe Cox and Jeff Owens. Pretty much everything these guys say fires me up to the point of wanting to run through a wall, and they were definitely the perfect choices as our representatives, despite what Pat Forde says...he seems to think that the reps should be the biggest "stars" on the team, so he wanted AJ Green and Rennie. I think it should be as Richt has always done it, with two senior leaders going to speak for the team, and these two definitely fit the bill.

- Dawgs recruiting is continuing to roll...two more huge commitments over the last couple of days:

• Garrison Smith, DT out of Atlanta: We need DT's desperately this year (we lose three of our top 4 to graduation after this year), which made this guy pretty much a must-have. He's 6-4 250 right now, and he is so athletic that he actually plays mostly at DE in high school.

• Nickell Roby, CB/ATH out of Frostproof, FL: If the name of that city looks familiar, it should...it's also the hometown of his cousin and future teammate, Carlton Thomas. This guy is a burner, and ESPN.com's scouting report just raved about him. He's also 5-8 and 165 pounds, which means he'll wear #23 when he arrives on campus. I'm convinced that we had a special tiny jersey made for Tim Jennings when he showed up at school, and rather than throw it away, we just sign another diminutive corner every four years and just pass the jersey down. He's a little guy, obviously, but runs a 4.4, and at 165 has max lifts of 285 at the bench and 445 squat listed...that's nearing Thomas Brown territory.

This makes 17 commitments, which means I only seeing us taking about 3-4 more...if I had my wish it would be one more DT, one more WR, and then whomever we can get out of Mack Brown (highly rated running back) and TJ Stripling (pass rushing DE).

- Braves continue to be on a roll...unfortunately, it's too little, too late. This team had a chance to make noise earlier in the season when nobody in the NL East could seem to win any games...now the Phillies are on a monster roll (9 game winning streak, 12 out of their last 13), and even though the Braves are playing much better baseball over the last couple of weeks they are actually losing ground in the standings and are now 6.5 games back. We are only 4 games out of the wild card, however, so that's a possibility....but I'm not getting my hopes up. We're swinging some hot bats right now (especially the middle of the order), but I'm not sold that we can maintain that level of success...this is still the same team who, not too long ago, was losing series while only scoring 3-4 runs over a three game span pretty consistently.

And if the offense DOES fall off, we're in even bigger trouble, because Bobby is working this bullpen like crazy. Just about all of our top guys are near the league lead in appearances, which shouldn't be the case...number one, we haven't won enough games to have used our setup and closer that often, and number two, our starters have been extremely effective for the most part. The problem is that Bobby rarely lets anybody pitch past the 7th inning, no matter how effective they've been. The other night, Vasquez was throwing a gem and was lifted after the 7th having thrown only 101 pitches...we should have gotten at LEAST another inning out of him.

One more Braves note...Nate McLouth may be my new favorite player, even though he can't hit his way out of a paper bag right now. I just like saying his name really loudly with a thick Scottish accent. Try it sometime...it always puts me in a better mood.

- Doc Jensen at EW.com continues to put out pretty good LOST content, even in the long hiatus. This week, he looks at 15 reader-submitted mysteries that "must" be solved before next year's series finale.

Hate to break it to him and his readers, but some of those ain't gonna happen...I think we've seen the last of Libby, for example, and I also think we've received all of the explanation we're going to get on the numbers (try researching the Valenzetti Equation).

- And I'm about 9 games into my first season on NCAA 10 from EA...like I mentioned before, I have a PlayStation 2. The only game I play is this one, and I can't talk myself (or more importantly, my wife) into ponying up the cash for a PlayStation 3 for just one game. Apparently EA is also not ponying up any more money for improvements to games on the PlayStation 2 platform, because this one is EXACTLY the same as last year. Only updates are to the rosters. I literally can not tell any difference in the game play, and there have only been minor font changes to the overall appearance.

As for the rosters, there are the usual interesting screw-ups (Vince Vance is white, for example), and I wasn't too happy with some of the player rankings, but those were rectified pretty quickly (how is Michael Moore a higher rated WR than AJ Green? Did his mother help with the programming?).

If you've never bought the game before, I would give it an A-. It's still the best as far as gameplay and overall enjoyment. But if you have bought the game in recent years, it's only worth it if you want the roster updates.


OK, that's enough worthless stuff for now!

46 DAYS TO KICKOFF!!!

GO DAWGS!!!

Saying the right things

UGASports subscription site has an article up today in which Willie Martinez pretty much accepts the full responsibility for the defensive shortcomings of last year's team. Pretty much a 100% "mea culpa," with only a short little reference to the injury problems, which he immediately says is not an excuse...it's the coaching staff's job to get people ready to play, injuries or no injuries.

It's another example of UGA players and coaches saying all of the right things, and furthers my hopes that we may actually sneak up on some folks this year, if we tighten up on the myriad of mistakes that we saw last year, especially on the defensive side of the ball.

Not going to link or post, since it's a subscriber site, but here is a small excerpt, featuring The Liberian Nightmare:

Linebacker Rennie Curran said the defense is more determined than he's ever seen.
"Nobody liked what happened to us last year," he said. "It was embarrassing. We haven't forgotten that."

Martinez said [they] won't.

"I hope they take it personal. It was us. We want to do a better job,"
Martinez said. "It's like anything any year, you're trying to build off the
positives but also learn from your mistakes, why they happened. A lot of times
too, guys didn't make plays when they were in position to make plays, but we've
got to do a better job. We've got to do a better job of finishing games. We
didn't put 60 minutes together in games. We should have and we're doing
everything in our power to make [sure] that doesn't happen again."

GO DAWGS!!

Defense preview

Slightly delayed, so let's get to it...

In case you forgot:

Bold= Projected starters (in my opinion)
italics=incoming freshmen
italics*=incoming freshmen whom I project to be a redshirt in '09

Defensive End:
Roderick Battle, Demarcus Dobbs, Kiante Tripp, Justin Houston, Neland Ball, Jeremy Longo, Cornelius Washington, Montez Robinson*

OUTLOOK: No question, this group has a TON of pressure on it. One of the big weaknesses in a defense that underperformed in a major way last year was the lack of QB pressure from the DE position, which is a MUST in a Brian VanGorder/Willie Martinez defense. Rod Battle is a solid piece on one side, but he is really more of a run-stopping defensive end, which is fine as long as you can get consistent pressure from whomever lines up opposite of him. Cornelius Washington is a RS freshman who was touted as just what we need...a fast DE who can consistently get pressure on the QB, so look for him to get early opportunities once he's healthy (By the way, the injury bug continues to rear its ugly head...the only healthy DEs we have in spring are Dobbs Houston, Tripp, and Longo).

Tripp may be the wild card here...he's changed positions more often than most people change their oil, but DE is where he really wants to be, and it appears to be where he has settled. Dude is 290 LBs and runs a 4.7 40. Why can we not find a place to effectively use him?

GRADE: C+

Defensive Tackle:
Jeff Owens, Geno Atkins, Kade Weston, DeAngelo Tyson, Rico Crawford, Brandon Wood, Abry Jones*, Derrick Lott*

OUTLOOK: And we go from one of the unsure areas of the team to probably the strongest part of the team. I challenge anybody to come up with a better 4 man rotation than Owens-Atkins-Weston-Tyson. Losing Owens really hurt last year, both on the field and off...he is definitely one of the strongest leaders on this team, and I can't wait to get him back, hopefully fully healthy.

GRADE: A+ if Owens is 100%, A- if he's not

Linebacker:
Rennie Curran, Darryl Gamble, Akeem Dent, Darius Dewberry, Marcus Washington, Akeem Hebron, Marcus Dowtin, Charles White, Nick Williams, Christian Robinson, Chase Vasser*, Michael Gilliard*

Speed, speed, and more speed. This is a deep, athletic group led by The Liberian Nightmare (and my biggest man-crush) Rennie Curran. Rennie has taken a much more vocal leadership role in the offseason, going so far as to call it "MY defense." Good. Nobody better to lead this team than this guy.

Losing Dexter Moody from the '09 class hurt, but this group has depth and I thought that Gilliard was the better pick-up anyway.

GRADE: A

Cornerback:
Prince Miller, Brandon Boykin, Sanders Commings, Vance Cuff, Jordan Love, Branden Smith

OUTLOOK: This group scares me. Prince Miller is really the only guy with a lot of experience...Boykin played some at nickel last year, Cuff was mainly a special teams guy, and Commings was a redshirt who was originally slotted at safety. You would love to RS one of the freshmen, but I don't think we can afford to when we're this thin. Losing Asher unexpectedly has really hurt us, and the sad part is that Asher is probably not even going to get drafted on the first day of the draft.

There is a lot of athletic talent here, but virtually all of it is unproven. These guys are going to be tested early and often, starting week 1 at Oklahoma State, and their ability to handle it is going to go a long way towards determining what this defense is going to be.

GRADE: C-

Safety:
Reshad Jones, Bryan Evans, Quentin Banks, John Knox, Makiri Pugh, Bacarri Rambo, Shawn Williams*

OUTLOOK: This position is an enigma wrapped in a mystery. There is enough talent here that it should be a strength of the team...so why does this position make me so nervous? Probably because Reshad Jones seems to be (at best) not making any improvement or (at worst) REGRESSING since entering the program as the #1 player in the state. His tackling has become a punchline with no punch, and he seems to have an attitude problem as well. Also, Bryan Evans was converted to safety after not playing very well at corner in the early part of last year. Like Jones, he has tremendous physical ability...unlike Jones, he actually improved as the year went on last year.

Both of these guys will be pushed by talented youngsters...Evans, in particular will have to hold off Quentin Banks at FS, after Quentin struggled with injuries most of last year.

GRADE: B-

This group overall has a lot to prove, so they should be going into the season with a chip on their shoulder...we'll see how it pays off. A repeat of last year is not acceptable, and would really ratchet up the heat on both Martinez and Richt.

GO DAWGS!!!

Token football post

- I haven't really posted anything about the non-stop thrill ride that is the Lane Kiffen administration, but that doesn't mean I haven't been enjoying it thoroughly...if you want to catch up on all that has been going on, there is no better place to start than right here. I would say the good Senator has done as good a job as anybody keeping up with the almost daily shenanigans.

However, probably my favorite quote regarding the whole situation to date was David Hale's:

My guess is that by Thursday of this week we'll have a story of Kiffin standing
atop Neyland Stadium, stoned to bejeezus on acid, screaming, "I am a golden
god!" while Ed Orgeron tries to talk him back down. That'll be fun.

Almost Famous reference, FTW!

- And, in Bulldawg news...Groo makes a good point regarding all of the "we're so much more motivated, we're working harder than ever" talk we are hearing out of the team the last few weeks. Can anybody remember an offseason where players were ever quoted saying "You know, I think we as a team have just decided to take it easy this year, and we'll just let the chips fall where they may"? Not that I don't think the players are being honest, but the true test of all of this will come in a few months, both in the offseason (no more stupid arrests, please), and of course the 1st weekend in September in Stillwater.

- I will finish up the series I started a few weeks ago on the Dawgs signees, I promise. As for why I stopped it, well, the next position on the list is WR/TE, and we're still waiting on Orson Charles, and I wanted the list to be complete. It's certainly not that the whole thing got dropped due to my writing volumes and volumes about GeekTV, no way.

- And to wrap up...Rennie Curran is a BEAST.

How long till kickoff?

This is not good...I'm already jonesing for football again, and we are still roughly 7 months from the 2009 kickoff.

This is from David Hale's interview with Rennie Curran:

On playing a bigger leadership role this year with Asher, Dannell and Corvey gone...
"Oh yeah. Whether Asher would have stayed or left, I felt like going into this season I wanted to be a better leader. It's time for me to step up. I'm not a young guy anymore. I'm not a freshman anymore. I feel like it's my time. It's my defense. It's time to just take control of things." (Emphasis added by me)

If leadership was in fact a factor in some of the disappointments last year, as we have now actually heard from players and not just fans, then I think we may be in better shape next year. On offense, the obvious leader is Joe Cox, and on defense you have guys like Rennie and Jeff Owens. I would say the leadership is in good hands for '09.