The cost of earning respect

I speculated about Stetson Bennett yesterday.

All of which makes me wonder if we’re on the cusp of seeing a change in tactics from opposing defensive coordinators. The old approach was to load up the box to stop the run and make Bennett beat you throwing the ball. Will the new one be to pressure Bennett relentlessly and take your chances with Georgia’s run game?

It sounds like Seth Emerson ($$) may be singing from the same hymnbook.

… Especially if Oregon head coach Dan Lanning, who went against Bennett in practice the past three years, dials up the right approach to containing and rattling him Saturday. It could happen. So many defenses the past few years were stacking the line and geared toward stopping Georgia’s run, and Bennett was able to burn that. Lanning may not make that mistake.

Nor may other opposing coaches. Football coaches, as part of their job, know football, and the good ones take preconceived notions out of their thought process. They’ll look at last year’s film and see that Bennett has the skill set to beat them. They’ll respect Bennett and game plan accordingly.

We shall see.  But Monken’s pretty good with that game plan accordingly stuff, too.

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