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Monday, August 25, 2008
Will UGA take care of business against Ga. Southern?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Okay. It is FINALLY game week. It seems like we’ve said it all and written it all more than once this summer. But here are five things we STILL don’t know about the SEC as we head into Thursday’s opening night:
1. Will Georgia take care of business against Georgia Southern? When a team begins a season with great expectations, like No. 1 Georgia, it sometimes takes the players a while to really get out of the gate. But understand this: With all due respect to Georgia Southern, this ain’t Appalachian State coming to Sanford Stadium on Saturday.
The Eagles are a rebuilding team. Chris Hatcher is going to turn Georgia Southern into a national I-AA power again, but it won’t be this season. Georgia Southern has a new quarterback now that the splendid Jayson Foster, the Walter Payton Award winner, has gone on to the NFL. And it doesn’t help Georgia Southern’s cause that Hatcher had to suspend eight players for this game.
The point is that a very important trip to South Carolina is coming up on Sept. 13. Georgia needs to use this game and the tougher contest with Central Michigan on Sept. 6 to get ready to meet the Head Ball Coach in Columbia. There really isn’t time to be sloppy on Saturday.
It’s a 12:30 game. It will be hot. The game should be over at halftime. UGA VII will be making his debut and he doesn’t need to go through more than one bag of ice in this one.
2. How will Julio Jones and the Alabama freshmen perform when the stadium is full and the world is watching?:
A former coach used to tell me that he never completely trusted how a player looked in practice. “He’s got to prove it to me when the stadium is full and the band’s playing,” he would say.
Alabama has what some are saying is the best freshman class in the land. It would be hard to come up a more high profile debut than Saturday night’s Chick-fil-A Kickoff at the Georgia Dome against Clemson.
When Tom Arnold goes to Alabama’s practice and calls Julio Jones is the best receiver he’s ever seen, well, that just gets my attention. I’ve heard this kid compared to everybody from Michael Irvin to Randy Moss to Jerry Rice. He does look good in a practice uniform.
Here is my question. Nick Saban is known for throwing talented freshmen into the fire to see how they perform. Will new OC Jim McElwain try to hit a big play early and get Clemson, the ACC favorite, back on its heels? If I’m Alabama I’ve got nothing to lose in this game. I’m going to come out smokin’.
Besides, I’m a defense guy so I want to see JUCO transfer Terrence Cody, the big guy in the middle of the line and OLB Jerrell Harris. If both those guys play well, Alabama has a real shot in this game.
3. How many offensive plays will Auburn run? Louisiana-Monroe is picking up a check for $625,000 to visit Auburn on Saturday. The Tigers need to make the most of this opportunity with the first SEC game coming up on Sept. 13 at Mississippi State.
New OC Tony Franklin told me that Auburn has yet to run the spread offense as fast as he would like. The players simply didn’t know the offense well enough in the Chick-fil-A Bowl last December for Franklin to really turn it loose.
That is about to change. Franklin has two quarterbacks (Kodi Burns, Chris Todd) who are now very familiar with this scheme. Franklin insists that both quarterbacks will play a lot because both, quite frankly, are pretty good.
Let’s see how many plays the Tigers run on Saturday. Division I-A Teams averaged just about 72 offensive plays per game last season. Thanks to an overtime Auburn ran 90 against Clemson with the offense being run at about 60 percent, Franklin said.
I say Auburn runs 80-85 plays against ULM.
4. Who’s going to start at QB for LSU? I think Andrew Hatch, the transfer from Harvard, will take the first snap against Appalachian State on Saturday (5 p.m., ESPN). Coach Les Miles has gone to great pains to keep red-shirt freshman Jarrett Lee and true freshman Jordan Jefferson in the discussion. But understand this. LSU is so good on the offensive line that I could probably play quarterback for the Tigers. (Okay, slight exaggeration).
I wrote a story for the print side this morning that talks about Hatch being in the mold of Matt Mauck and Matt Flynn-smart athletes who made good decisions and relatively few mistakes. Hatch, who is a 22-year old sophomore, is the guy to play that role this season.
I think LSU will use more than one quarterback, particularly early in the season in order to provide a change of pace. But as LSU gets into the conference schedule at Auburn on Sept. 20, look for Miles to pull in the reins and be more conservative on offense. Why? Simple. The LSU defensive line may have lost Glenn Dorsey, the Outland Trophy winner, but it will still be the best in America this season.
5. Is Tommy Beecher ready for prime time? We’ll find out Thursday night when Beecher starts at QB for South Carolina against N. C. State (8 p.m., ESPN). In high school Beecher, from Concord, N.C., was one of those guys who just knew how to win.
The best thing I’ve read about Beecher was written on Sunday by my good friend Ron Morris of The State newspaper in Columbia. If you want understand what makes Beecher tick, click here and check out the story.
In my last meeting with Steve Spurrier this summer he expressed a lot of confidence in Beecher, who will be making his first college start in the nationally televised game on ESPN. Spurrier told me he has scaled back the offense a little bit in an effort to get Beecher off to a good start against the Wolfpack. We’ll be watching.
