Your move, Mr. Spock.

An artistic recreation of Will Muschamp and Charlie Weis preparing the Georgia gameplan

The Gainesville Sun’s Gator beat writer thinks Will Muschamp is up to something.

Is Brantley really going to play Saturday in Jacksonville? Or does Muschamp just want Richt and the Bulldogs to think he is?

I have a feeling Muschamp is playing mind games here. I think he wants the Georgia defense spending the week preparing for the Florida offense that Brantley runs, which is far different than the offense Driskel and fellow true freshman Jacoby Brissett have run.

If the Bulldogs knew Brantley was out, the game plan would be pretty simple and easy to follow: load the box with eight and nine defenders to shut down the run, then bring heat on the inexperienced quarterbacks in obvious passing situations.

Alabama did it  (in the second half.). LSU did it. Auburn did it.

Of course, if the Bulldogs think Brantley is playing, they’ll have to come up with a more complex plan to defend an offense with much better balance and an experienced quarterback who knows how to check in and out of plays at the line of scrimmage.

Ooh, what to do, what to do…

Two things here, as we ponder Andreu’s stab at eleventh-dimensional chess.  First off, does anyone really think it’s going to take Todd Grantham more than fifteen seconds to dial up a suitable defensive alignment once it’s obvious that Brantley isn’t in the game?

Second, this is Georgia-Florida.  Since when does Florida have to resort to mental gimmickry to win?

40 Comments

Filed under Gators, Gators..., Georgia Football

40 responses to “Your move, Mr. Spock.

  1. TennesseeDawg

    Brantley will be out there unless his ankle falls off. The last thing Mush would want to do is lose to Georgia after taking 3 straight SEC arse whippings.

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  2. BCDawg97

    Man that’ll suck if we get snookered by the gators like that. If only we had been reading for two weeks how UGA was preparing for all 3 quarterbacks… wait, what?

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  3. Hogbody Spradlin

    Don’t forget that Spock was playing against himself, so he won and lost.

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  4. Ray

    I kinda wonder if we are doing the same with Mitchell.

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  5. Nate

    Yeah, I’m with you Senator. It seems like our options are:

    1. Prepare for Brantley
    2. If Brantley doesn’t play, just sort of tackle people and whatnot

    I prefer option 2, but I like our chances against a rusty Brantley as well. Of course, this being the WLOCP, disregard all that shit and assume we lose by 30.

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  6. BeardDawg

    “Since when does Florida have to resort to mental gimmickry to win?”

    Hopefully, since now.

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  7. paul

    Since when does Florida have to resort to mental gimmickry to win? Sad, so sad and yet so true. As one who matriculated during the Dooley years when we routinely beat Florida without giving it much thought, this is a difficult reality.

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  8. fuelk2

    Granted this is a new coaching staff, but the chips being down + a bye week has always equaled a wrinkle from the Gators. In 2005, it was the I formation/power game. Last year it was the hurry up. I expect the Gators’ best game on offense – we just have to be able to execute our defense.

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    • Russ

      Agree 100%. The key for us is our defense. As long as we stop Florida, our offense will eventually settle down and score. I think we win by 10 or more, shutting the Gators down in the second half.

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  9. Go Dawgs!

    The flaw in this guy’s logic is this: how hard would it be for Georgia to see that Brantley’s not in the game and just walk down into the box? It would be hard to plan to just stuff the run and then all of a sudden be confronted with a passing offense. Having it the other way around seems much easier.

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    • Go Dawgs!

      Also, Robbie Andreu’s lucky that he doesn’t have to watch the game from Seat 31F, considering he’s coming perilously close to revealing secrets!

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    • hailtogeorgia

      Exactly. It’s like my Dad used to tell me before we went dove hunting on a below-freezing morning…you can always take clothes off, but you can’t put on an extra coat you don’t have.

      Prepare for Brantley, if he’s not in, stack the box and pin your ears back. Big deal.

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  10. Mike

    Indeed Senator. If Brisset or Driskel trots out there to take the first Gator snap, the task of the UGA defense just became a lot easier.

    I have mentioned several time in this venue, the chances of a Florida win Saturday without a reasonably healthy Brantley become very small. Even with two weeks to prepare.

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  11. charlottedawg

    Game plan for saturday A) if brantley does not start. stack the box then bring the heat on driskel or brisset in passing downs B) if brantley starts. hit him, hit him again, then hit him some more. rinse and repeat until he leaves the game (see “sugar bowl” – hawai’i) once he leaves commence A. Being a DC: so easy i could do it.

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    • Russ

      Since you’re the DC, you left out the part about screaming at Muschamp after the game.

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      • Dog in Fla

        Greg and Jeremy received a directive from The Commissar in B’ham that, for the good of the league, both Todd and Will have to wear this headgear at the Cocktail Party because it’s a nationally televised match

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    • Go Dawgs!

      Game plan for Saturday: Get drunk enough at the tailgate that whatever bizarre twist of fate happens makes sense in the moment so I can avoid jumping off the upper deck at the Gator Bowl.

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  12. Macallanlover

    Yes, I have a hard time believing our defense, or our DC, will have troubling with a Plan B, should Brantley not play. If we are that limited in making adjustments with an off-week, how in the hell does anyone expect CTG to make adjustments with a 20 minute half-time.

    We have no excuses for our defense regardless of which QB is on the field. We have seen all their QBs play so no last minute surprises, we had an extra week to prepare, and we are the healthiest we have been all year so after the first 30 minutes we should have our whole arsenal at our disposal.

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  13. UGAfoo (formerly JBJ)

    We have had two week to prepare for the UF offense with Brantley and without him. If he is not in there, load up the line. It’s not Kal-toh.

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  14. Joe Moore

    Sad reality is that when UF came to Jville and ran what amounted to a Pop Warner version of the 3 stooges at QB we lost. Much of last years outcome was on Murray playing like he drank 3 Red bulls before kick off. I feel the need to point out after our game when other teams could game plan against that Pop Warner Offense, they got worked! Look at what Carolina and what FSU did against them with film in hand. Bottom line I live here in Jville and it has been a very quiet October lets keep it that way. I hate UF with the heat of a thousand Suns. The only thing I dislike more than UF fans are Tech nerds.

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  15. No One Knows You're a Dawg

    Anyone else love that 9 man front Grantham threw out there against Vandy? Vandy got a pass completion out of it but it took a great play to do so.

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  16. I really hope Brantley plays…
    We sorta nail him a few times, maybe put a little extra stress on that gimp-ankle of his?
    Pretty soon, he doesn’t like to plant and step into his throws (it’s all subconscious, no real choice to limp/not limp) and starts sorta arming-the ball down the field?
    Next thing you know, we’re cutting underneath a 12-yd out and taking it for 6 points…
    My only worry: which crew is officiating? If it’s Penn Wagers and his guys, we’ll be screwed all over again… anybody know where to find out?

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  17. William

    Isn’t the better question, how does our Big Uglies compare to theirs? I heard they are in the same boat we are as far as O-Lineman. Imagine Big John working over a couple of guys whoe have had a terrible time all season. Then Big Kwame comes in fresh to start the second half and continues the demolition. If our O-Line shows up like it did in Starkville, we might have a fun day!

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  18. Cojones

    Usually I’m as giddy as the next Dawg, but has anyone considered the following. Stacking or unstacking the box for each QB might not be a surprise, but instead is a diversion. With two weeks to prepare, your starting QB who is coming back to practice for only one week, problems with the backup’s experience and your best runners depending on these guys to get in space to allow them to run, I would train for two weeks in a wildcat formation to alleviate the disadvantages of taking the Dawgs headon. It gets Rainey and Demps into the QB slurry and is hard to prepare for especially if you have two weeks to prepare plays that no one has ever seen.

    I’ll bet money that most plays will be from those formations where you can snap to a running back and/or to a QB who can toss a little pass over the center to those fast backs and into a confused D.

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    • Cojones

      Checkmate.

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      • William

        Not so fast my friend! It’s not as easy to get an offense with no identity to pull something that tricky off. You’re asking alot from a shaky line and running backs who are not used to taking many snaps (and one who had fumble problems in his last game at that). All it takes is a few bad snaps and UGA could jump out big on you. I think Barnhart is right, this UF team is limping in here. I think they may have a few wrinkles for sure, but nothing to that degree. I project a lot of wheel routes and toss sweeps. They’ll lean heavily on the RBs and the kid who can’t make up his mind whether he is a QB, TE, or WR.

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        • Cojones

          You may be correct, but we(UGA and FU) know those plays along witha few bubble screens will be what our D will prepare for…and FU can be drilled by a few players who are itching to see them. FU has had two weeks to commit to training for the wild kitty to counter the prep against the plays we have mentioned. I think they will act like a cornered animal and pull every trick play out of a wild kitty formation more than a few times a qtr. Hope I’m wrong.

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  19. W Cobb Dawg

    If our front 4 or 5 brings the heat, it won’t matter who the QB is. None of the uf QB’s impress me anyway. Considering our QB’s have had 10 INT’s in 3 games we should be critiquing CMB’s offense, not the D.

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  20. Keese

    I’ve said it three times now, first time was over a week ago….and will be surprised if I’m wrong. Brantley will dress and warm up but will not go in the game. I’m expecting Trey Burton to get a lot of snaps in this game.

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  21. Cojones

    I think that we all are saying that Brantley in or out of the game will not be the “surprise” mentioned by the OS.

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