Georgia-South Carolina hit and run

I don’t really have the heart to do a formal preview and prediction of tomorrow’s game – mainly because I can’t think of a way to better last year’s preview – so I’m afraid that you’ll have to settle for a series of random observations from which to hope some larger truth emerges.  Good luck with that.

• Even the most rabid Gamecock partisan infected with the worst case of PH™ known to man has to admit that nobody suiting up for Ellis Johnson tomorrow is as good as Eric Norwood was.  He’s gone, and I won’t miss him a bit.  Dial this bad boy up to the 0:23 mark and you’ll see what I’m talking about:

• The quarterback delivering the ball in that play reminds me that Georgia was minus-2 in turnover margin in last year’s game, ran a whopping total of two plays on offense in the first ten minutes of the game and still won, largely because of a monster night from the special teams.  I suspect that the ‘Cocks will be wary of kicking off to Brandon Boykin tomorrow.

• The quarterbacking on display by Mississippi State last night should be a sobering reminder to us all that there’s a rather big difference between a Conference USA defense and an SEC one, even if it’s coached by Ted Roof.  So while I love reading about x-factors like Aaron Murray’s “speed”, it’s probably better to wait and see what Ellis Johnson has up his sleeve in response before going off the deep end.  That being said, it can only be a good thing that Murray makes Johnson game plan for something which he could completely ignore last year.
• Speaking of game planning, while everyone likes to focus on Grantham’s preparation for the Evil Genius – and there’s no question that Spurrier tossed all kinds of stuff from the playbook out there in the opener for Georgia’s defensive coordinator to ponder – the OBC doesn’t exactly have a huge body of work to go by in preparing for Georgia’s defense.
• Also, how much do you think Belin, who’s coached against Spurrier’s offense for a few years, and Lakatos, who spent a month preparing his secondary to take on South Carolina’s passing attack in his last game at Connecticut, have been able to help Grantham in his preparation?
• Weatherwise, Columbia tomorrow is going to be what Columbia tends to be in early September:  a more humid version of Hell.  You can accuse me of wearing my red and black glasses when I write this, but I think that helps Georgia a little, because I don’t think South Carolina can match Georgia’s depth on the lines or at linebacker.
• Every time I watch Stephen Garcia take off on one of those runs of his – that patented slow spin move of his in particular – I’m reminded of how little he’s been made to pay by SEC defenses for the risks he takes.  That’s something that’s got to change tomorrow.
• In the opener, Marcus Lattimore displayed a Moreno-esque ability to turn what looked like a sure run for negative yardage into no loss or a small gain.  While he averaged a pedestrian 3.9 ypc rushing, he never lost yardage running the ball.  That worries me.
• A.J. Green’s absence tomorrow hurts, no question.  The big issue there is whether Mike Bobo can be creative enough with his sets and formations to offset the increased comfort level of the USC defense.  Aron White and Orson Charles, it’s time to step up.
• Of all the things we may hear from Aaron Murray after the game, nothing better be similar to this:  “I kind of saw Norwood and was like, hmmm, but I decided to throw it anyway…”