I can see one area where Mike Bobo’s got his work cut out with Hutson Mason getting his first start this week.
“Hutson’s a little more uptempo than Murray,” Andrews said. “We kind of joke about it a little bit. I think they’re two different players. I’m excited to see what Hutson can do. It’s fun out there. He’s a passionate guy, a fiery guy who has a lot of emotion. I play with a lot of emotion, too, so I think it’s kind of fun.”
Andrews said he and Mason “butted heads on a few things” during the game and they talked about it.
“He’s wanting to go, and they’re changing the defense, and I’m trying to change something and I think KG (Kenarious Gates) got called for a false start,” Andrews said. “I was trying to change something too and got caught off guard. He’s just uptempo about stuff and sometimes we’re trying to get him to slow down so we can communicate stuff. You get used to it. We’re going to have to get used to it this week.”
That kind of puts me in mind of Aaron Murray’s first game against Florida. It took Bobo about half the game to settle his quarterback down, but once he did, Murray kicked some ass. (Too bad his offensive line didn’t in overtime.)
So it may be worth keeping an eye on how Mike Bobo, the position coach, does, as well as Mike Bobo, the coordinator. As far as the latter goes, it sounds like he’s got some pretty definite ideas on how to work the offense around his new starter.
Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo has called the plays for all of Murray’s four seasons and will make any adjustments in game plans to suit Mason.
“We were really spread the whole night,” Bobo said of Georgia’s 59-17 win against Kentucky. “We felt spreading them out was the way to go. We tried to get a one (linebacker) box and make their safeties tackle. When Hutson’s in there, he’s a little bit more of a spread guy and we did a little bit more of what he could do. He did a nice job.”
As I mentioned yesterday, it seems like Bobo’s gotten his second wind scheming around an offense lacking a consistent deep pass threat to keep opposing safeties honest. That may be some truly fortuitous timing on Mason’s behalf.
Get The Picture 
Much like your absurdity of the AJC reference to HM not having ever won a big game yesterday, perhaps we can wait until he actually starts and finished a single game before we diagnose him with “amped up” syndrome.
Honestly, I have no idea what to expect in our game plan this week. It is foolish to assume that you can simply remove Aaron and insert a guy who has never started a single game and has different skills (largely inferior to Aaron) and attributes and expect there won’t be some differences. While I think the basic tenets of our offense are not going to change, I would imagine there are plays and calls that will get cut as a result of the change. On the other hand, there are plays that perhaps might be used more often that play to Mason’s strengths (whatever those are). I am reasonably confident that he can do the job, but quite honestly, I don’t draw much from the time he has played against App St. and UK other than the fact that he looked accurate and confident (as opposed to say LeMay who in his FAU mop up duty promptly threw a pick 6).
Given Tech’s relatively better performance against the run, my guess is we will pass to set up the run. Both Gurley and the WRs are total mismatches for Tech. the question is how we use both. Do we use Gurley in the passing game to set up the run like we have the past two weeks OR does our OL have another “impose their will” on the opponent game in them and run play action off of that? i do know this…exploiting the athletic gap between our WRs and Tech’s DBs requires Mason to make some intermediate and long throws. hopefully, if we protect him, he will make them
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Mdcgtp, think about it this way. You have no idea what to expect in our game plan this week. Neither does Paul Johnson. It’s not what anybody wanted, but it could work to our advantage in a way. Call me a cockeyed optimist, but I feel damn good about Saturday’s game.
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Careful. Don’t go reading too many Billy Mumphrey stories this week.
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So how would you characterize Andrews’ comments? You think Mason’s going to be one cool customer in his first start in a road rivalry game?
One thing I’m really not worried about this week is Bobo’s offensive game plan. He’s done well against Tech and Roof for the past few seasons.
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I am sure he will be pumped. I hope that he is pumped all week long…preparation meets opportunity this week. This kid has been dreaming about this moment for years, maybe his whole life. Everything he has ever done has lead him to this week…I for one hope he is jacked out of his mind and I trust our coaches to be able to focus that into a solid ass beating.
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Mason is from Georgia. He’s not from Tampa of Texas. Having his first start against Tech is going to be big.
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The nativism of UGA fans will never cease to amaze me.
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You have a point – Murray played quite well against Tech. I have to think that he definitely understood the rivalry.
Though Mason is from Marietta, so this will be a big game for him for many reasons as well. I’m sure he will have a ton of family and friends at the game.
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He might have a slim body of in game experience, BUT he has been in the mix of Game planning for these Princess Leia’s for a long- long time. I think the reason he does get really CRUNKED is not newness, it is just his first chance to run it up on these nerds. I also think he audibles them to death and scores 224 points.
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I’m also thinking he was in that last drive in 2011. Didn’t throw a pass, but was out there.
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I have no idea if he will be a “cool customer” or “overly amped”. Knowing dangerously little and speculating much, here is my interpretation of things…
Andrews was simply saying that Mason probably calls out the play quicker thank Murray such that the OL don’t always have enough time to make their line calls.
I think that is different from being “amped” up. I think it simply means he operates more quickly than Aaron, and I would guess that it is due to relative lack of knowledge relative to Aaron….
let’s assume for a moment that there are two philosophies in football….complexity and simplicity. Those with complex schemes are constantly innovating and tinkering in the hopes of giving their players a schematic advantage by showing things the opposing unit has not seen before. At the other end, are guys who have simple schemes that have been repped to perfection. Virtually ALL of the air raid and run based spread gurus are of the latter group. if they can execute the same basic plays over and over, they believe they will be tough to stop. further, if they can dress those plays up with different personnel packages and formations all the better. it is why the proponents of those offenses can run at ultra fast paced and why you often read that “they installed the offense in two days” and QBs can learn the offense very quickly. essentially, these offenses basically don’t care what the defense is doing, as most of their reads are after the snap.
my guess is that our scheme trends toward the complex side. Aaron’s preparation and skill at being able to set his own protection makes adding complexity easy. thus, a lot of what we do is based upon what the defense shows to us presnap and if its confirmed after the snap, Aaron knows exactly where to go in his progressions.
Obviously, complex offenses have some plays with quick reads and vice versa, but you get my fundamental point.
towards that end, Mason operated an Air Raid-like offense in high school, and my guess is he is perfectly happy getting to the line and making quick decisions rather than take Aaron’s more methodical approach. When Aaron takes his time at the line of scrimmage, he is basically trying to figure out what the defense is doing presnap so he knows where his best matchup is. (the TD to Gurley against UF was a PERFECT example of such). My guess is that Mason is more comfortable with quick reads, owing to his high school experience as well as his lack of experience playing in our scheme in actual games. thus, he is simply playing to his strength at this time in his career (which I think is very smart on he and Bobo’s part).
again, this has no bearing on whether or not I think he will be calm and cool or amped up……
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Maybe I’m misunderstanding Andrews.
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being intense and emotional does not have to mean overly “amped up” like Aaron in Jax in 2010 (or 2011 or 2012 for that matter). and yes, i think it is very clear that Mason intends to be more vocal than Aaron. Again, that does not have to translate to more amped up play. I just don’t know why we would assume Aaron’s jitters in Jax in 2010 would somehow affect Mason any more than we would expect Aaron’s great qualities would impact him. BTW, if we are really being accurate, Aaron was perhaps the most poised Dawg on the field in Columbia in 2010 which was his first road game.
the latter part of Andrews’ quote was far more instructive. I translated andrews comments to mean that we have to figure out how to get our timing straight. either Mason has to slow down or the OL has to speed up, and that was the largest point.
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Who said anything about AM’s emotions “affecting” Mason?
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So you’re saying there’s a chance (to blame Bobo)….
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Hutson is going to need No. 3, 22 and 15 to play well early Saturday. He’s going to be jacked up for sure, so expect some throw to sail on him.
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He’s going to need a functional offensive line, too. Ted Roof’s answer to everything is more
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Well, him needing a functional OL is a given. Murray needs those, too. Though I’d feel better about Murray back there with a shaky line than Mason. I think the first comment nailed it. Expecting UGA to lose Murray and not skip a beat is simply absurd. So I would expect lots of screens and short, quick routes in the first quarter or so to let Mason get into the game early.
Now, as I say that, the first play will probably be a bomb to 81.
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This makes me so nervous. We all know that CMB loves to “1st and Bomb.” Hutson seems to have the arm for the long ball….
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What makes you think so? His arm isn’t as strong as AM’s.
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I saw a lot of positive comments about his arm strength and I was confused because he clearly doesn’t have the velocity that Murray has.
It looks like it’s ok, but nothing special. He is pretty accurate though.
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Yes to this. AM might be 5-2, but that ball sings. HM, seems to me, to have that soft touch that can mean the difference in dropped passes, I just did not like him trying to zip it into double and triple coverage last week, ALTHOUGH he did it effectively.
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If Buck Belue could throw bombs against Tech, I would assume Mason can as well. Still, I would hope for short, quick stuff to open the game and get him into the flow of the offense immediately.
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His “victory” in G-Day a couple of years ago, or course.
Bobo calling for screens and quick slants to start the game? I don’t think so. Oh how I wish, but it’s not been his MO. Maybe that 1st & bomb…Dooley did it against Tech in Herschel’s 2nd or 3rd season, but expect Gurley middle, Gurley left, Gurley right, rinse, repeat. We may score early and often, then take our foot off the gas (ala Florida). Or the nats may stack the box with 9 to stop Gurley and dare HM to throw. I kind of hope so, as long as the OL decides to show-up, because then we’ll torch’em.
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I honestly have never and will never understand this “1st and bomb” gripe. 1) I haven’t noticed it as a common enough call to think of it as a failing. 2) 1st down is a good time to go deep, and Georgia has been successful enough when they’ve done it. 3) You have to take shots downfield to loosen up defenses when you run the style of offense Georgia does. See: Vandy, 2013.
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What I do NOT want to hear postgame, win or lose, is for any of our OLine to make “we didn’t think he’d be that fast” comments about Attachou, a la Dee Ford. His speed rush was the only reason the NATS were in the game at halftime vs. Auburn with a Lake.
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I think we should feel comfortable with HM against this opponent, he knows the offense well enough and is capable of making the throws needed to keep the GT defense off their rhythm. If he can’t figure out how to delay his pace to allow for OL calls to be made, he will get his jock rocked and will get the message soon enough. Starting for the first time on the road isn’t preferable, but at least it is at a stadium that doesn’t have much of a following to disrupt plays, how loud can 25K pimple-faced nerds interacting on social media be, even when you add 5K elderly Bobby Dodd disciples playing with their slide rulers and protractors? Could not have choosen a better road environment, imo.
The bigger concern for me will be the timing issues with receivers; most of us take for granted that experience AM had with the receivers and adjustments made as the defense presented itself. Expect several throws where the QB and receivers are on different pages, a few of which will be missed 1st down opportunities. Still, you expect our passing game to be good enough to open up some rush opportunities for Gurley and make the Tech defense defend the full field. Based on what I have seen, offense should not be our concern, it all comes down to how disciplined our defense plays. This is not an exceptional group of GT players on either side of the ball. If our players want this game, it should be ours, and it shouldn’t be that close, 10+ points. UGA 34-41 GT 13-24
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More of a neutral field 1st game for HM 😉 …Bobo did a great job with the playcalling when HM walked into a 2 min. drill situation, I think he’ll keep him on a short leash until his adrenaline level drops a lil… Those TE slants he threw against KY were pretty impressive. Kid has a quick release & if Roof blitzes too much I think we’ll see Lynch with a coupla TD’s Sat…
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One advantage that Hutson has over Murray is his height. I think that helps him see the middle of the field better, particularly on those quick slants, and will likely lead to fewer deflections at the line of scrimmage.
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Do you think # 22 will be pumped just a little for this game?
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I hope he jacks three GT defenders with his shoulder the first time he touches the ball.
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Not hard to imagine.
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…And rolls out of bounds busting Fish-fry’s ACL which flies across the field and hits buzz in the stinger.
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Throw a lot of timing routes. Not sure how Roof will try to close passing lanes at LOS and LB depth in coverage. Roof is a savvy coach. False starts or holds can put you behind the chains, and a new QB on the road against a rival who will be really up this year could be very tough. We saw how AM handled AU’ start.
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AM is “known” to GT. Had a week for him. Now comes HM, and he is “unknown” to GT. Will Bobo roll in some plays for him. HM played in a spread offense with a very good HS OC. Let’s see how much Bobo does spread the field [depth and width]. Think the GT will come at HM hard in first seriies or two.
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I think I would like to see more of Bauta running as well. I hope our coaches develop some of that part of the offense.
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Wait, was that our first call for the backup of our backup?
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Oh no, not at all. I just thought he looked like a decent enough runner and making teams account for as many different possibilities on offense as we can seems like a good idea. And I’m just kind of intrigued by Bauta. I don’t really know what we’re going to do with him.
Hutson looks more than capable of handling Tech, though.
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Have to agree with your intrigue about Bauta. Glad we got to see a few snaps with him. Definitely seems like he can move but never got to see him throw it.
Just out of curiosity anyone worried about HM Joe Coxing it up?
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I believe Cox threw for 109 in his one start against Tech. Hopefully Mason is better than that.
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Let Bauta return punts.
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We can only hope that doesn’t jar Mason
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Nice!
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Most important phases of game for Dawgs…defense and ST. No long runs, moving chains on 3rd downs. Must keep GT off the field. Have to make stops. Will be hard for this young defense…but they saw Mizzou and Auburn ground game. Hopefully, they can handle it.
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AM has been huge for Dawgs, but I want to give a shout-out and kudos to Garrison Smith. He has played very well. You have to admire him for not leaving last year with Jones and Ogletree. Drew saw this kind of offense while at Thomas County Central HS. Defense will be challenged. GT has a ton of experience on their Oline.
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+1. I think he might be THE key to this game.
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I’m less worried about Mason than sealing the edges on defense. Our middle run defense has been pretty good, but our outside guys sometimes get too far upfield which could spell disaster vs Tech. I’m also worried about the secondary if Tech gets the ground game going early and we bring those guys up. Freshmen have to show a lot of discipline to not bite on all that optioning trickery.
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Leonard Floyd needs to play the most disciplined game of his young career.
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Yep. I’m worried about Mauger too.
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They also have a tendency to dive inside rather than setting the edge. I’m not optimistic about the defense. I just hope they make enough plays for an offense that should be able to score (provided Gurley can go all game) to win it.
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Maybe it’s just me, but I would not underestimate HM if I were the Nerds.
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