Every time I see a picture from the Georgia-Florida game, I keep forgetting to post something about how terrific the red and blue jerseys looked together out there.
DONN RODENROTH — For The Telegraph
I know the trend is to trot out trendy new jerseys every other week, but, damn, there’s something to be said for the classic look. Hope they make that an annual ritual, if for no other reason than so we’ll never have to see anything like 2009’s fake juice again.
Filed under Gators, Gators..., Georgia Football, Stylin'
Winston’s done that all by his lonesome.
There’s probably nothing to the story, even if it’s not as if he hasn’t done equally stupid things before, but as a Georgia fan, all TMZ stories about college football players make me nervous.
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UPDATE: Shit’s gettin’ more real at UAB, where Winston’s buddy plays.
Filed under Crime and Punishment
I usually don’t spend time posting about Georgia’s verbal commitments, because… well, because they’re verbal commitments. But there’s always an exception to the rule, and today’s is Augusta safety Rashad Roundtree, who was rocking these pants today when he announced his intent to play in Athens.
Here’s a close up.
I think I want some of those.
Filed under Georgia Football, Recruiting, Stylin'
Can Georgia run on Kentucky? The short and sweet answer from a UK beat writer:
Defensively, Kentucky has been really vulnerable to the run (94th nationally), but much better against the pass (14th nationally). That lines up with Georgia, which is outstanding running the ball but not very prolific passing it. If Georgia decides it’s going to just hand the ball to Nick Chubb and make Kentucky stop him, can the Wildcats do that enough to make the Bulldogs go to the air?
Tucker: Nope.
Okay, then.
Filed under Georgia Football
… check out something Cory notes.
Kentucky has 16 offensive plays this season of 40+ yards, which is tied for ninth most in the nation. The Wildcat offense has 10 plays of 50+ yards, which ranks tied for sixth nationally, five plays of 60+ yards, which ranks tied for 18th nationally, three plays of 70+ yards, which ranks tied for 12th nationally and one play of 80+ yards, which ranks tied for 20th nationally. UK has 48 offensive plays this season of 20+ yards, which ranks tied for 25th nationally.
I probably don’t need to remind you that Florida’s anemic offense gashed Georgia for five plays of 20+ yards, with three of those going for more than 40. But I will, anyway.
Filed under Georgia Football
I have to thank Seth Emerson for this timely article, because it hits on my second big concern for the Kentucky game. The run defense sucked most of the oxygen out of the attention room, because it was indeed epically bad, but Georgia lost last week because it didn’t play the game it had played well throughout the season: controlling field position and turnover margin. Those are areas where the Dawgs need to get back on track to win in Lexington.
And, honestly, I don’t know how sure I should be of success in either area. With regard to turnover margin, it’s not that Georgia is suddenly lousy – the team is still first in the conference at plus-13 – as much as it is that the ‘Cats are no slouch themselves. Kentucky is third in the SEC, with a t/o margin of plus-eight. Ranked second in the conference, UK’s been pretty good at forcing turnovers.
As for the rest of the field position story, judging from what I saw unfold in EverBank Field, there’s a lot to fix and not a lot of time to do it. Return game blocking flat-out stunk, as Georgia’s return men rarely had much of the field to run without facing Florida’s coverage personnel. Coverage teams were somewhat better, although Debose was able to convert one punt return into a huge gain. Morgan may disagree with the call, but he missed his only field goal attempt, which has been a common factor in both of Georgia’s losses.
And then there is the hot mess that is punting.
Coaches this week are again evaluating Collin Barber and Adam Erickson to determine the one they will call on first Saturday at Kentucky.
Neither has provided the type of answer the No. 17 Bulldogs were hoping for up until this point.
“They’ve both certainly not had the years that you would expect and certainly that they want to have,” said assistant coach John Lilly, Georgia’s co-special teams coordinator who oversees the punters. “Really, you go over the last three or four ball games and it’s been that way.”
Georgia is last in the SEC in net punting at 35.8 yards after ranking fourth last season at 39.2.
Barber is 14th in the SEC with a 39.4 punting average. He’s handled 28 of Georgia’s 37 punts this season.
Erickson, however, started at punter in the loss to Florida Saturday, punting four times in the first half for a 31.8 average and is averaging 32.7 this season while serving as a pooch punter.
In the first half against Florida, Georgia was swapping twenty yards of field position with every punt exchange. That’s unacceptable in general, but for a team that’s built on maintaining a field position advantage, it was disastrous. Kentucky isn’t as good as Florida in punting or in net punting, but in either case, it’s a damned sight better than Georgia.
Again, I don’t see how that’s something that gets fixed quickly, especially when the coaches sound like they’re running out of hope about Barber stepping up his game.
“You’re always looking for guys to compete,” Lilly said. “You’d love to have somebody in — wherever its is — somebody that’s already on campus or somebody that’s not here yet to compete because that’s just going to bring out the best in Collin or anybody else who’s here.”
If there’s one gleam of hope about this, it’s that Kentucky is last in the conference in opponent punt return yardage and mediocre in opponent kickoff return yardage. Then again, Florida is worse than UK in both categories and we saw how that worked out last weekend.
The bottom line here is nothing earth shattering. Georgia has to get back to wanting it more than the other team in every phase of the game. It remains to be seen how much of a motivator shame is.
Filed under Georgia Football
Get The Picture 