Georgia-Arkansas: random, tasty bits

Again, I’m going to dispense with a formal preview here, as you can find plenty of them throughout the Dawgosphere.  I’ll settle for tossing out a few things and letting you figure out what sticks.

• If Vegas is any judge, nobody has a really good handle on what’s going to happen tomorrow.  Arkansas comes in as the 12th ranked team in the country, tenth in total offense, fourth in total defense… and is a two-point underdog to an unranked Georgia squad.
• One reason for that is that it’s hard to figure out how much of the Hogs’ gaudy stats are a mirage.  Put it this way:  TCU played Tennessee Tech the week after Arkansas did, scored eighteen more points, gave up 30 less yards on defense and had their coach apologize to Watson Brown after the game for the lopsided result.
• It sounds like Caleb King’s ankle is still an issue.
• Speaking of which, is Carlton Thomas an agoraphobe?  Because otherwise, I don’t understand why the coaches don’t scheme to get him the ball out in space.
• Another reason to wonder about Arkansas’ chances is that, as Jody points out, Arkansas under Petrino has won exactly one game in an opponent’s stadium.
• I know there’s a certain element that doesn’t want to hear this, but the season won’t end with a Georgia loss tomorrow.  South Carolina has a tough row left to hoe schedulewise and Florida has to go on the road to play Alabama.  Jax could still be the scene where the SEC East gets decided.  As John Pennington notes, “(n)o one wants to start in an 0-2 hole, but one out of every three teams to have reached the SEC title game has had two league losses or more.”
• That being said, a win tomorrow would be huge from a momentum standpoint:  “If the Bulldogs can win Saturday at home, it’s very possible that they could be 7-1 heading into that game against Florida. Their next five opponents are Mississippi State, Colorado, Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Kentucky, all games in which Georgia figures to be the favorite.”
• Regression to the mean watch:  Georgia, last in the conference in 2009 in turnover margin, now stands fourth at +1 per game, while Arkansas, second in the conference last season in that, currently ranks twelfth at minus-2 pg.  That could be important tomorrow.  (Georgia’s turnover margin was minus-2 in last year’s Arkansas game.)
• If Arkansas comes out and plays a bunch in a three-wide, one-back set, it’ll be interesting to see what Georgia’s nickel package looks like – particularly as it pertains to how much Kwame Geathers sees the field.