Today’s dose of Preseason Homerism

Let’s say you’re an offensive backfield in 2013.  Your quarterback is a returning starter who finished with the tenth best passer rating in the conference.  Last season’s starting tailback graduated.  Your fullback can block, which is good, because he was only trusted with six touches all of 2012.  As for depth…

They have four scholarship players, but none have played at the collegiate level at the position. Tyler Murphy emerged as the No. 2 QB in the spring after competing with redshirt freshman Skyler Mornhinweg. Both, however, struggled with consistency and do not appear ready to take over if something happens to Driskel. The wild card here is Chris Wilkes, a former pitcher in the San Diego Padres’ farm system who left pro baseball and will be a 23-year-old freshman. He’s got good size and a strong arm, but he hasn’t played football in more than five years. Depth is also a concern at tailback.

Where would you stick that bunch in a list ranking all fourteen SEC schools?  Well, if you’re the beat writer in Gainesville analyzing the Gators’ backfield, you’d place ’em fifth.

Next Sunday, he looks at the receivers.  I can’t wait to see where he puts them.

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Is Tray Matthews Georgia’s most important player for 2013?

I know I’m being a little provocative with the header, and in an absolute sense Matthews isn’t as important to Georgia’s success as, say, Murray and Gurley are.  But here’s the quote that got me thinking about Matthews in the first place:

Swann knows he will be counted on heavily in the secondary, where three new starters must emerge before the team opens up against Clemson on Aug. 31. And when asked about the players around him who must step up, he mentioned a name we’ve heard about a lot since he arrived on campus — projected starting free safety Tray Matthews, an incoming freshman from Newnan.

“He’s going to be a big key to our secondary, playing back there where (Bacarri) Rambo played at last year,” Swann said. “Tray is going to be one of those guys that we’re going into week one not expecting him to be a true freshman. They’ll call him a true freshman, but we’re going to be looking at him like a guy who has been there for a while.”

They need a lot out of Matthews this season, both because of scheme requirements and because of what’s gone at the safety position.  And Matthews showed enough in the spring to send expectations skyrocketing.  Ask yourself where Georgia is likely to be if he can’t play at a level above that of a true freshman out of the box against Clemson.